Hot Pursuit by Christina Skye Page B

explained, and after one look at Izzy’s face, no one dared to ask. Was this his story? “Sounds like unfair numbers to me.”
    â€œNot when the man I’m telling you about was done. He hosed down the scene by himself.” Izzy’s voice hardened. “But they got to him later. He was minding his business then, too. But he ended up buried in a box cut into a hill somewhere in Thailand, and he stayed there while they tortured him.”
    Jack felt the stab again. So this is what made Ishmael Teague hard and calm and the most dangerous civilian operative in the field, bar none. “A friend of yours?”
    Both of them knew the question wasn’t casual. Izzy looked at his coffee for a long time, as if remembering things he’d rather not. “Yeah. The best. He did the right thing, too, and it got him four years in hell. Sometimes it works out that way.” He drained his cup. “From where I’m standing, you did the right thing.”
    â€œThanks.” The anger in Jack’s stomach slowly began to uncoil. “But if I say I’m going into a convenience store anytime soon, do me a favor. Just shoot me.”
    Izzy smiled faintly. “My pleasure. Right now, you’re wanted at the lab for a ricin briefing. And I just heard that Rains is on the move again.” He looked as if he were going to say more.
    â€œSomething else on your mind?”
    â€œWhat about Taylor O’Toole? How is she taking all this?”
    Jack shrugged. “Badly, the way any civilian would. I’ll say this, she was one amazing sight, even in torn leather. Hell,
especially
in torn leather.” Jack shook his head. “One of the SWAT officers told me she picked up a brick and sucker-punched the driver. He was flat on the ground by the time the cops got to him. She even kicked his gun across the parking lot so he couldn’t reach it. San Francisco’s finest didn’t have to waste a single bullet.”
    Izzy didn’t smile back. “The woman has a definite talent for trouble.”
    â€œYou know her pretty well?”
    â€œLet’s say we have mutual friends.” Izzy pulled out his cell phone, his face unreadable. “See you after you finish up in Toxicology.” He was already dialing as he started down the hall.
    Jack wondered about those mutual friends, but when he took another look at Izzy’s shuttered face, he knew there was no point in asking for details.

Chapter Nine

    FROM TAYLOR’S BOOK OF RULES:

Most of the really interesting people are dead.
    Harris Rains needed a drink bad.
    He rubbed his jaw, staring at the pink phone messages on his desk. More reporters asking for interviews. What had possessed him to shoot off his mouth after the robbery? Why hadn’t he just walked away, merging into the crowd? Publicity was the last thing he needed, especially now.
    Two more stations were pleading for interviews. At any other time he would have wallowed in his new hero status—even though it seemed odd that the reporters hadn’t gone after the hotshot with the gun instead of him.
    And right now he needed to lie low, with interviews the lowest thing on his agenda.
    His story to the press hadn’t been a complete fabrication. He’d come close to protecting that woman from one of the thugs. At least he’d
thought
about protecting her. If it had been necessary, he probably would have intervened. That still made him a hero of sorts, even if the hothead had acted first.
    Frowning, Rains glanced through the lab results on his desk. Right now he had more important things to worry about than news interviews. He pulled out the file that had arrived only ten minutes before. His eyes narrowed as he skimmed the lines of batch numbers.
    When he was done, he skimmed the numbers again, then checked them against a different file.
    The last lab results checked out perfectly. No loose ends. He’d planned damned carefully this time.
    Too