The King of Fear: A Garrett Reilly Thriller by Drew Chapman

reason for us to meet each other in person. You could see how young I really am.”
    Garrett laughed. He liked her already. “When I look you up online in five minutes, I’ll know exactly how young or old you are. And where you were born, your grades in high school, and what you bought last weekend at the mall. I’ve never dated an Indian girl before. You single?”
    “Is that why you called? To ask me out?”
    “I had nothing to do with the shooting of Phillip Steinkamp. I have nothing against the Fed, and I’ve never met Steinkamp. I’m a frigging bond trader.”
    “If you are so innocent, why did you run from your office before our agents could question you?”
    “I have a deep-seated suspicion of law enforcement, with multiple bad experiences with people in authority, and a pathological hatred of government power.”
    “But you worked for the Defense Department, the ultimate in government power. Something called the Ascendant program. That seems like a contradiction.”
    “I’m complicated.”
    “Tell me about Ascendant,” Chaudry said.
    “No. Find out for yourself. Look, here’s what I know. Steinkamp’s murder is part of a pattern. A pattern of economic destabilization. Someone is aiming to attack the American economy. They want me out of the way, so they’re trying to blame me for the killing.”
    “And who is behind it, Garrett?”
    “I don’t know. I’m out here on my own. But you better believe I’m trying to find out. Who shoots someone and then tells the world who made them do it? Makes no sense, Agent Chaudry, and you know it as well as I do. ”
    “Good point. But I still need you to come in to one of our field offices and make a statement. We’ll treat you right. VIP, all the way. Just answer some questions. You and I can start a relationship.”
    Again, Garrett laughed. Chaudry was his kind of FBI agent. “With you?Awesome. But if we go out on a date, it’ll have to be your treat, because I’ll be in handcuffs, stripped of all constitutional rights.”
    This time Chaudry laughed. In the sudden silence on the line, Garrett could hear police sirens in the distance. Growing louder.
    “Aw, you sent the cops, and I told you not to. Way to make a bad first impression. I’m going to go now, but I just want to say, for the record—I didn’t know the woman who killed Steinkamp. Never met her. Never met Steinkamp, or anyone who works at the Fed. I had nothing to do with any of it. And if you’re smart, you’ll begin to understand that something much larger is happening. You’re hunting for the wrong person. And when the shit starts flying, you’ll understand why.”
    Garrett didn’t wait for a response. He hit end on his cell phone, then quickly popped the battery out of the back. Mitty chuckled as she drove. “She really say she wanted to date you? An FBI agent?”
    “I have animal magnetism.”
    “I bet guy FBI agents are hot,” Mitty said with a wistful sigh. “With the guns and the suits. If I robbed a bank, you think they’d strip-search me?”
    “Turn left here. The street’s going to be swarming with cops in a minute.” With that, Garrett lay down in the back of the Explorer and waited until they got out of Philadelphia.
    • • •
    At the FBI field office on the twenty-third floor of the Federal Building in lower Manhattan, Agent Chaudry pulled the headset from her ears and let out a long, angry breath.
    “Philly PD are going to cut off the arterial streets,” an older agent—Murray, a transfer from DC—said, hanging up a phone.
    “He knows that. They’re not going to catch him.”
    Murray parked himself at a desk. “So why’d he call?”
    Chaudry thought about this. Why did he call? To figure out who was heading up the case on the federal side? What difference would that make? No, there had to be a reason.
    “Maybe he’s just an arrogant idiot,” Murray said. “He kinda sounded like one.”
    Chaudry walked to the window and looked out over lower