“I see the autonomous part of it, but why temporary?”

“These places only exist as long as they stay under the global radar,” Faroe said. “Once the structured world of governments and corporations stumble across a TAZ, they set to work taming it or trying to turn a profit from it. Then the game is over. Any surviving misfits move on to the next TAZ and hope it lasts as long as they do.”

A Mexican customs officer wearing Ray-Bans and a brown uniform waved them through without inspection. They crossed the line into Mexico.

“Still Don Quixote,” Grace said softly, “the ever-hopeful romantic, looking for the next windmill, the one that he will defeat.”

Faroe smiled thinly. “You need romance more on this side of the line than you do back there in the sunshine world.”

Grace thought about what her life had been even a year ago. She’d been sad about the coming divorce, but safe.

Now I lay me down to sleep…

But she hadn’t said that childhood prayer in years, because she’d known she would awaken safe in her bed. Alone, but safe. If she ever spent the night in Mexico, she’d be awake praying.

That’s foolish. Most of Mexico is safer than the California barrio I grew up in.

At least it had been, before Ted slid down whatever slippery slope he had.

I can’t trash him for that. I’ve started down my own morally greasy slide.

Ted had been furious when he found out he wasn’t Lane’s father. He didn’t believe she hadn’t known when they were married. He didn’t want to believe her. It gave him the perfect excuse for ignoring the boy who called him Dad, just as he’d ignored Lane from the moment of his birth. It also gave Ted an alibi for all his affairs, which had started years before he knew about Lane. Ted was perfect, she was a deceitful slut, and that was that.

Grace didn’t want to think about how Faroe would react when she told him that he had a son. He’d look at her as a liar, a cheat, a thief who had stolen his son’s life.

Sooner or later, she’d destroy the fragile, necessary romantic illusions of the man who sat beside her in the car.

Maybe I won’t have to.

Maybe pigs sing soprano.

“What’s wrong?” Faroe asked. “You look pale.”

“Just worried.”

It was the truth, if not the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God.

Faroe glanced in the rearview mirror. “You can stop worrying about our tail. The Jeep peeled off at the line. That pretty well confirms that they’re cops. FBI, maybe. Or DEA driving a vehicle they seized during a drug bust.”

“Why did they stop at the border?”

“Feds don’t like coming south. The Mexican government makes them leave their guns on the other side of the line. Not a healthy way to live.”

She frowned. “Doesn’t it bother you? Going unarmed?”

“I’m not a purist. In some situations I’ll carry. But guns have limited uses. Unless you’re willing and able to kill, a gun is just iron, lead, and smokeless powder.”

Grace drew a deep breath and let it out. “And you’re willing. And able.”

Faroe gave her a look out of cold green eyes, then went back to staring at the traffic ahead. Silence filled the car.

And filled it.

Pressing against the two people inside.

Faroe lifted one hand, then the other, from the wheel, flexing his fingers.

“There was a guy, a pretty good guy,” he said finally. “I thought he was a friend. I would have died thinking it except that I was wearing Kevlar underwear. Body armor.”

Grace’s breath broke. “Where were you?”

“In a filthy alley behind the Lisboa Casino in Macao. It started out as a drunken fistfight. At least I thought he was drunk.”

Faroe looked at his right hand.

Grace’s glance followed his. She saw a thin, livid scar that began on the back of his thumb and ran across to the base of his knuckles to his little finger. There were other scars, too, but this one was new.

“After he got me in a clinch, he pulled a knife out of an ankle sheath and said, ‘Sorry, Joe.’ That’s when I understood he wasn’t drunk. He was trying to slit my belly and dump my guts on the ground with the fish heads and the prawn fondue.”

“A friend,” she said, her voice raw.

“We were working an investigation for a major multinational electronics firm. Somebody was tipping off Malay pirates about shipments of high-definition color televisions. Turns out the snitch was my pal, and he thought I was about to figure it out. So I strangled him while he tried to cut off my hand. Then I went back and told Steele I was done.”

“That’s…” She swallowed hard and shook her head.

“Shit happens.”

“But you can’t blame yourself, not for that,” she said. “You were fighting for your life!”

“He was working for the paycheck, same as I was. But after that I didn’t want to work anymore for other people or politicians or corporations that could write off lives and black millions as a business expense. I took my winnings off the table and started rigging out the TAZ.”

“And now I’m dragging you back into it.” Her fingers laced together, squeezed. “I’m sorry.”

“Consider it a charity gig. We international hired guns do them all the time.”

“So you’re doing this as a special favor for me?”

He glanced at her for an instant, then back at the jumbled, free-form traffic in front of them. “I don’t have a hidden agenda, if that’s what you mean.”

Avoiding his sideways glance, Grace looked down at her hands clenched in her lap and thought again of what would happen when Faroe found out about Lane.

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she said.

“Then what?”

“I can’t-don’t-won’t-”

The dashboard cell phone rang.

Grace could have kissed it.

19

TIJUANA

EARLY SUNDAY AFTERNOON


“GOOD MORNING, GRACE, THIS is James Steele.” The speaker gave Steele’s voice a hollow ring.

Grace glanced sideways, looking for advice.

Faroe nodded.

“Ambassador, I’m here with Joe,” she said. “We’re just inside Mexico.”

“Ah,” Steele said, failing to keep the satisfaction from his voice. “From what Dwayne told me, I take it you’ve signed on.”

“Don’t take it too far,” Faroe said. “While St. Kilda searches under rocks and in cesspools for Theodore Franklin, I’ve agreed to take a look at the school and give Grace my thoughts about breaking her son out. But all three of us know that it would be better if I bowed out.”

“I’m disappointed to hear that,” Steele said, “particularly as I’ve turned up some interesting and pertinent background on the matter.”

“Background? If it’s one of those cut-and-paste jobs that the research department pulls off Google, dump it in my e-mail. I’ll look at it later. Right now we’re heading for hip deep in alligators at the school.”

“I know you think the research department is of limited usefulness.”

“All the clippings in the world didn’t warn me about Macao,” Faroe said. “And I’m betting they won’t tell me what I already know-Grace is caught in a three-corner game.”

“Explain.” Steele’s voice was icy, all irony gone.

“Just before we came south, we did a drive-by peep of Ted Franklin’s office. The place is under tight surveillance, probably a task force led by feds. They certainly had all the moves.”

For a time the only sound was that of the road and Steele’s finger tapping gently on his headset mike. “And the third corner?”

“He looked like a Mexican federale to me,” Faroe said. “He must have put Grace on his radar earlier this morning, at her home. She led him right to me. We’ve covered ourselves for the moment, but I’m burned. You better get busy on Plan B.”

Steele was silent, then sighed. “That is unfortunate. I’ll prepare to move Barlow into position.”

“Barlow? Are you kidding?”

“I assumed you would want someone who spoke good Spanish.”

“Yeah, right, but Barlow lisps like Philip I. He’s what baja californios call a chilango. Border Mexicans treat chilangos just about as well as your average Texan treats Yankees like you.”

“Who did you have in mind?”

“I don’t have a roster in front of me,” Faroe said impatiently. “You’re the brains of the outfit.”

There was a chilly silence on the line. Then Steele cleared his throat. “Judge Silva, you have more experience dealing with adolescent males than I do, so help me out. Joseph won’t formally commit to the job but he wants to control how the job is done. It’s a classic example of what diplomats and game theoreticians call a no-win situation.”

Grace smiled slightly. “Ambassador, I’m not in a position to give advice. I’m alone in a car with said sulky male.”

“Well, when he makes up his mind, please do let me know,” Steele said, biting off each word.

Faroe was just pigheaded enough not to admit that his mind was already made up. He really disliked being so easily read by his boss.

Ex-boss.

Almost.

“Until then,” Steele said, “I’ll just continue to perform my administrative and support duties, including the collection of very pertinent intelligence.”

Faroe glared at the speaker. “Okay. Fine. I give up. Tell me what you have.”

“I was struck by something Judge Silva told me yesterday about the school where her son is being held. All Saints. She said it’s run by the Roman Catholic Church, and that the school is very highly regarded.”

“So?” Faroe said.