“She’s leading Dox by the nose again, isn’t she? So all of us will be dragged in as a result.”
He closed the laptop. “It’s not that simple. Livia didn’t ask for Dox’s help. She didn’t even know about whatever this is until after the fact. It’s coming from Kanezaki.” Earlier, he’d tried to brief her on what Larison had told him. This time, she let him.
“It’s a distinction without a difference,” she said when he was done. “That Dox, always having to protect the damsel in distress.”
“I wouldn’t call Livia a damsel.”
“Tell that to your friend. He’s the one who needs to hear it.”
“He’s your friend, too.”
“He doesn’t come to me. He comes to you.”
Rain tried to control his exasperation. “He didn’t come to me. He tried to keep me out of it.”
“Another distinction without a difference. He brought in Larison. Larison called you.”
“He called you. You’re the one who insists on carrying a phone.”
The moment it came out, he regretted it. When Delilah was pissed, there was no winning move. Your only option was to try to find a way not to play.
“Don’t you see how impossible this is?” she said. “It doesn’t matter who it starts with. In the end it’s the Three Musketeers, or four, or however many. One for all and all for one. How many rounds of this game are we going to play before someone gets killed or winds up in prison? I don’t want to save the world anymore. I want to be normal. I want some peace. Don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“No, I mean it. Do you really?”
“Yes.”
But it was obviously a rhetorical question, because she continued. “There’s a part of you that doesn’t want to let it go. The danger, the edge, whatever it is you’re afraid to lose. Everyone recognizes it but you.”
“Who’s everyone?” he said, the realization that she’d succeeded in drawing him in coming an instant too late to stop the words.
“Dox, for one. He once told me a stupid joke he says is a parable about you. A hunter in the woods—”
“Yes, and the bear. He’s shared it with me. Along with a bunch of others.”
“And you don’t think there’s anything to it? You don’t see that the hunter is you?”
“I try not to think of myself that way. Look, you know if you were in trouble, Dox would help you.”
“I don’t get myself in trouble the way he does.”
“He wouldn’t care.”
“I wouldn’t ask.”
“You wouldn’t have to. And you wouldn’t be able to stop him.”
On cue, her phone buzzed from where she’d left it on the couch. She stalked over, snatched it up, and brought it to her ear.
“Allo.” She turned and looked murderously at Rain. “Hello, Tom, what a nice surprise.” A pause. “No, I wouldn’t want you to have to go through the secure site, it’s more efficient to use his secretary.” She walked over and handed Rain the phone.
“Everything okay?” Rain said, watching Delilah.
“They’re all fine,” Kanezaki said. “And, uh, sorry if I’ve caused a problem over there.”
“It’s okay.”
“I know Larison already called. Already asked you to come to the States. That was smart. I should have thought to do it myself.”