Page 17 of Nobody's Hero

‘There’s been a shooting,’ Smerconish said. ‘In London. It triggered a chain of events, the culmination of which was a safe being opened that had never before been opened. That safe was in a serious building and belonged to a serious man. Even he didn’t know what was inside until he opened it.That’swhy I’m here.’

‘What was inside the safe?’

‘Four names and a sentence: “The Acacia Avenue Protocol has been initiated.”’

‘That’s it?’

Smerconish nodded.

‘I was one of the names?’ Koenig asked.

‘You were.’

‘Who else?’

‘I’m not saying.’

‘But you’ve asked them what the Acacia Avenue Protocol is?’

‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because they’re dead,’ Smerconish said. Before Koenig could say anything, he held up his hand and added, ‘And it’s not a conspiracy. It was an old list and they all died of natural causes.’

‘I’m the only one left.’

‘You can see why I want to talk to you.’

‘I have some bad news then.’

‘I don’t like bad news, Mr Koenig.’

‘Do you know anyone who does?’

‘Fair point. What’s the bad news?’

‘I’ve never heard of the Acacia Avenue Protocol,’ Koenig said. ‘I have no idea what it is.’

Chapter 15

Smerconish made a series of phone calls. Each one contained a variation of ‘But he says hedoesn’tknow.’ The last call ended with ‘Fine, I’ll ask him.’

‘Ask me what?’ Koenig said.

‘You have a condition the US government has no problem exploiting.’

‘So?’

‘But you don’t like being handled. You don’t respond well to authority. You’ll say something is black even when you know it’s white. You’ll say you’re in Montana when you’re in Wyoming. That you’re in good health when in fact you’ve been stabbed in the arm during an altercation with a meth-dealing biker gang.’

‘You knew about that?’

‘We knoweverything, Mr Koenig.’

Koenig frowned. He didn’t like that. Not one bit. ‘I really haven’t heard of the Acacia Avenue Protocol, though.’ He paused. ‘But if you let me, Iwillhelp you figure it out.’

‘We’ve had experts on this for days. How can you help?’