“I’m sorry. I didn’t see a wedding ring, and the way we were talking I sort of assumed that—”
“I’m just kidding. There’s no wife,” I said. “And I’d love to have dinner with you.”
BOOK FOUR
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
CHAPTER 67
“I CAN think of a dozen foreign governments that would give their collective left nut to blow up this table,” said my father.
Julian chuckled. “Maybe we should move tables.”
“Maybe I should call Foxx again,” I said. “Where is he?”
“He’ll be here,” said Julian. “And don’t ask me what you’re about to ask me for the hundredth time.”
For the hundredth time, I asked him anyway. “Julian, why are you here?”
“Because Foxx wanted me here,” he said. “Last I checked, he was still the New York section chief.”
As usual, Julian had a point. There were only a few people on the planet who could force him to leave his proverbial bat cave against his will. Landon Foxx was one of them.
Now, if only Foxx would show up.
No sooner had I booked my dinner date with Sadira than Foxx called and asked me to meet him at O’Sullivan’s Bar on the Lower East Side, the back booth. Word had already gotten to him that my father was in town. Foxx wanted him there, too. “Tell Eagle I look forward to seeing him,” he said.
Lo and behold, there was Julian in the booth with a glass of whiskey when my father and I arrived. I’d spoken to him only an hour before to ask a favor. He hadn’t mentioned the meeting. Why not, I wondered. Once again, Julian wasn’t saying.
I let it lie and focused on the favor.
“So how many pages did you have to scrub?” I asked while we waited for Foxx.
O’Sullivan’s had been around since Prohibition and smelled like it, too. It was the perfect Irish dive bar where everyone had their own problems.
“Not as many pages as you might have thought,” answered Julian. “There was that story in New York magazine and a piece in the Provincetown Banner that referred to you as being rumored to be gay. All other mentions were in blogs.”
“Are you sure you got them all?” I asked.
Julian looked at me as if I’d just asked Annie Leibovitz if she was sure there was film in her camera. “Yes, I got them all,” he said. “When Sadira Yavari googles you, there will be nothing to dispel the notion that you’re straight.”
I glanced across the table at my father, who looked to be holding his tongue on a couple of punch lines to the point of dizziness. Or maybe it was the fatigue catching up to him. He still hadn’t slept. If Foxx hadn’t explicitly asked for him to join us, I would’ve insisted he crash at Elizabeth’s apartment, as she’d offered. For the record, she was less than pleased that she couldn’t come along to O’Sullivan’s. She’d mumbled something about an all-boys club, but she understood the real reason. She didn’t work for Foxx. She wasn’t CIA.
That didn’t mean she had to be happy about it. Whatever the purpose of the meeting, she knew it had to be important. I knew it, too.
For the hundred and first time, “Just give me a hint,” I said to Julian. “Amuse me. Why does Foxx want all of us here? What’s it about?”
Julian tilted his glass of whiskey, motioning over my shoulder. “You can ask him yourself,” he said. “Here he comes.”
CHAPTER 68
FOXX SAT down in the booth. He nodded to me and Julian and then promptly forgot we existed for a couple of minutes while he caught up with my father, reminiscing about a couple of missions. “Company hasn’t been the same without you, Eagle,” Foxx eventually said, shaking his head. “Like it or not, you’re a legend.”
“Careful or I might just believe you,” said my father. “Now go ahead and ask me what you really want to know.”
Foxx wasn’t one to play coy. Called out by my father, he normally would’ve been more than happy to cut to the chase. But he was also no dummy. When a man already knows your next move, you’ll never get what you want from him.
“I was going to ask what brings you to New York,” said Foxx, “but we both know you have no intention of telling me the real reason because you’re not ready yet. So we’ll leave it at that.”
My father smiled, impressed. For a second, I thought he might actually tell Foxx about our early morning encounter with Eli,