Free Vaccine Nation by David Lender Page B

continued chatting while the woman waved to the concierge. They got into the elevator. When she saw he pushed the button for the 24 th floor himself, she asked him to deposit her bags outside the elevator on the 21 st floor and continue on his way. Stark got off on 24, then took the elevator back down to17, McCloskey’s floor. He put on his gloves and knocked on the door of 17D.
    “I need to speak with you about David Maguire,” Stark said when McCloskey opened the door. Stark flashed a fake police badge.
    McCloskey’s eyes were wide, his jaw slack with alarm. “No one called.”
    Stark reached into his jacket and pulled out the Ruger. “Inside. Now,” Stark said. McCloskey backed up, his mouth open and his eyes glassy. “Anyone else here?”
    McCloskey shook his head.
    Stark motioned with his head toward the center of the apartment. McCloskey stumbled over the coffee table and collapsed on his back in front of the sofa. He scrambled up and sat. Stark picked the chair across from him, the gun still pointed at McCloskey’s chest. “Yell, do anything stupid and you’re dead.”
    McCloskey nodded.
    “What did Maguire tell you he was gonna give the girl?”
    “Nothing. I didn’t even know he was meeting with her.” McCloskey licked his lips; his mouth had obviously gone dry. He was right where Stark wanted him to be. Stark took a moment. Then he got up and walked over to McCloskey, the gun pointed at his face.
    McCloskey started to shake. “I’m not lying,” he said in a whisper. Stark slapped him across the forehead with the Ruger. The guy went down sideways on the sofa and started sobbing like a scared kid.
    “We’ll see,” Stark said, standing over him. “Open your eyes.” Stark slid the Ruger back into his shoulder holster and pulled out his knife. “Sit up and quit blubbering.” McCloskey stayed where he was, but put his hands out to protect his face. Stark grabbedhim by his wrist and slashed the inside of his forearm. The guy let out a scream of pain and grabbed the cut with his other hand. “That’s right. Apply pressure. It’s just a surface wound. You’re not gonna bleed to death. Unless you don’t cooperate.” He stabbed the knife into McCloskey’s other forearm. Another scream, and then the guy pulled his feet up underneath him and curled up sideways in a ball. He’s ready. Let’s see what he really knows.
    “Okay. Open your eyes. Look at me.”
    The guy did.
    “What else do you have to tell me?”
    “Dani,” he stammered. “Dani North was here.”
    “And?”
    “She had a computer USB flash memory drive.” He winced, panting. “Maguire gave it her. She wanted me to help her look at it. See what was on it.”
    “Does she still have it?”
    McCloskey nodded again, trembling.
    “Did you see what was on it? Did you copy it?”
    “No!” he insisted. “I told her I didn’t even want to see it. After she showed it to me I told her I couldn’t help her. I told her to leave, I swear!”
    Stark lunged forward and jabbed the knife deep into McCloskey’s thigh. He howled.
    “I said don’t lie to me.”
    “For God’s sake, I’m not!”
    “So that’s it? She left?”
    “Yes. I think she may have been going to Washington.”
    “Why there?”
    “I told her I didn’t think it was a coincidence that Maguire gave her what was on the flash drive just after she won the Tribeca Film Festival.” He’d closed his eyes again. “And immediatelybefore the Senate vaccine hearings. I don’t think she saw any other way to figure out what was on that flash drive.”
    Stark waited for him to go on. When he didn’t, he said, “Is that it?”
    McCloskey opened his eyes, nodded, then closed his eyes again. Stark picked up a pillow from the sofa, held it over the muzzle of the Ruger and shot McCloskey three times in the chest. The pillow didn’t muffle the Ruger much, so he got the hell out of the apartment and ran down the stairway.
    When he got to the street he pulled out the cell