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The drive to Livingston took ninety minutes, the last fifteen h the interrass spangled with blue-bonnets It was just noon; with luck, Wolgast thought, they could be done by dinner, enough tiet on a plane to Colorado It was better when these trips were quick like that; when he lingered too long, if the guy was he it out-never mind that they always took the deal eventually-he’d start to get a queasy feeling in his sto It always h school, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and how he, Wolgast, was the devil in this deal Doyle was different; he was younger, for starters, not even thirty, a cherry-cheeked farast’s Bat him "chief" and "boss," with a streak of old-fashioned ast had actually seen hiaast hadn’t known they still made people like Phil Doyle And there was no question Doyle was sood future ahead of him Fresh out of Purdue, his law school applications already in the works, Doyle had joined the Bureau right after the Mall of Aunned down by Iranian jihadists, all the horror captured by security caruesome detail on CNN; it see, anything that day-and after finishing his training at Quantico, he had been posted to the Denver field office, assigned to counterterrorisents, Doyle had been the first in line to volunteer Wolgast couldn’t quite figure that; on paper, what they were calling "Project NOAH" had looked like a dead end, and Wolgast had taken the assignh-his e to Lila hadn’t ended so much as evaporated, so it had taken him by surprise, how blue the actual decree hadto clear his otten a small settlement in the divorce-his share of the equity in their house in Cherry Creek, plus a piece of Lila’s retireht about quitting the Bureau entirely, going back to Oregon and using the money to open up a soods, not that he knew anything about either one Guys who quit the Bureau always ended up in security, but to Wolgast the idea of a s siloves or hammers, objects with a purpose you could identify just by looking at the had seemed like a cakewalk, not a bad way to spend his last year in the Bureau if it came to that

Of course, it had turned out to be , a lot more, and he wondered if Doyle had somehon this

At Polunsky they were ID’d and asked to check their weapons, then went to the warden’s office Polunsky was a griast used his handheld to check for evening flights out of Houston-there was one at 8:30, so if they hustled they could h a copy of Sports Illustrated, like he aiting at the dentist It was just after one when the secretary led them in

The warden was a black man, about fifty, with salt-and-pepper hair and the chest of a weight lifter compressed under his suit vest He neither rose nor offered to shake their hands as they entered Wolgast gave hi and looked up "Agent, this is the godda I’ve ever seen What in the hell would you want Anthony Carter for?"

"I’m afraid I can’t tell you that We’re just here to make the transfer"

The warden put the papers aside and folded his hands on his desk "I see And what if I said no?"

"Then I would give you a number to call, and the person on the other end of the line would do his best to explain that this is a matter of national security"

"A number"

"That’s correct"

The warden sighed irritably, spun in his chair, and gestured out the s behind him "Gentlemen, do you knohat that is out there?"

"I’ain He didn’t see his way "It’s Texas Two hundred sixty seven thousand square ent, that’s who I work for Not for anybody in Washington, or Langley, or whoever the hell is on the other end of that number Anthony Carter is an ined by the citizens of this state to carry out his sentence Short of a phone call fro to do exactly that"

Godda to take all day "That can be arranged, Warden"

He held up the papers for Wolgast to take "Well then, Agent You better arrange it"

At the visitors’ entrance they collected their weapons and returned to the car Wolgast got on the phone to Denver, which patched hiast told him what had happened; Sykes was irritated but said he’daround and wait for the call, then get Anthony Carter to sign the papers

"Just so you know, thereyour way," Sykes told hie?"

Sykes hesitated "I’ll let you know Just get Carter to sign"

They drove to Huntsville and checked into anew-it had happened before The delay was aggravating, but that was all it was A few days from noeek at most, Carter would be in the system, and all evidence that he’d ever existed would be wiped from the face of the earth Even the warden would swear he’d never heard of the guy Somebody would have to talk to the deceased’s husband, of course, the River Oaks laith the two little girls he now had to raise hiast’s job There would be a death certificate involved, and probably a story about a heart attack and a quick cremation, and how justice had, in the end, been served It didn’t et done

By five they hadn’t heard anything, so they changed out of their suits into jeans and walked up the street to find a place for dinner, choosing a steak joint on a commercial strip between a Costco and a Best Buy It was part of a chain, which was good-they were supposed to travel lightly, to leave as little an impression on the world around theast antsy, but Doyle seee town, courtesy of the federal governe porterhouse, thick as a two-by-four, while Wolgast picked at a plate of ribs, and when they’d paid the check-in cash, pulled off a wad of fresh bills Wolgast kept in his pocket-they took a pair of stools at the bar

"Think he’ll sign?" Doyle asked

Wolgast rattled the ice in his Scotch "They always do"

"I suppose it’s not lass "The needle, or whatever’s behind curtain nu: whatever was behind the curtain, it was nothing good Why else would they need death row inreed

A basketball ga on the television above the bar, the Rockets and Golden State, and for a while they watched in silence It was early in the ga the ball around without doingfroast paused "She’s getting uy? The doctor?"

Wolgast nodded

"That was fast Why didn’t you say so?"

"Not exactly She sent ht I should know about it"

"What did you say?"

Wolgast shrugged "I didn’t"

"You didn’t say anything?"