Free Sympathy For the Devil by Terrence McCauley

just tell it like it is.”
    Jason sipped his latte as he watched New Yorkers of all ages toddling through the heavy snow. The city had closed the schools thanks to the blizzard and it seemed like every kid in the world was out on the street; letting themselves fall into the snow banks while their fathers or mothers or nannies told them to stop.
    Hicks noticed the manicured nails on Jason’s right hand and the wedding ring on his left. He wondered if the ring was real or just cover. He wondered if Jason had children and what kind of father he’d be. Was he an asshole in every aspect of his life or only with him?
    Jason took another sip of his latte and licked his lips clean. “You’re right. We don’t have to like each other. We don’t even have to respect each other, but we do have to work together. Under other circumstances, I’d probably ask the Dean for another posting because I don’t enjoy working with people I despise and, believe it or not, I despise you.”
    Hicks toasted him with his coffee. “Feeling’s mutual, Ace.”
    “I despise you so much, that I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of transferring to another office. And I’m staying not just because I enjoy making your life miserable, but because I think you’ve lost your objectivity. I think you’re putting the University—and the Dean—at risk and I owe him too much to let that happen.”
    “So making my life miserable is just a bonus for you?”
    “Yes,” Jason admitted. “Yes it is.”
    “Marvelous. Are you going to release the search results on the three men or not?”
    “I’ll agree to give you the identities of the two men you killed, but not the image you retrieved from the camera.”
    Hicks knew he’d given in too easily. “Why not?”
    “Because that image was embargoed by another government when OMNI ran the search.”
    “Embargoed?” Hicks hadn’t heard that term in years. “By who?”
    “We’re working to figure that out,” Jason said. “It looks like one of our European cousins did it when OMNI searched Interpol’s database. We still have the image, but Interpol shut down the search and embargoed the information. The Dean is going to look into it personally, and we hope to know much more later today. Needless to say, that image is of someone who’s being protected for a good reason.”
    Hicks knew this was how it was in the Life. Two steps up and one step back. “Fine. Any word on Colin’s autopsy?”
    Jason referred to his handheld. “It came in a few minutes before you got here. Our doctors say his system was pumped full of a combination of heroin and cocaine. Chances are he probably would’ve died from cardiac arrest if Omar’s man hadn’t shot him. Given his known fear of needles and avoidance of alcohol and drugs, we surmise that he was drugged in an attempt to get him to talk. So, for all intents and purposes, he was already dead by the time you got there.” Jason looked away. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to be so… clinical about it. I know he was your friend. For what it’s worth, the injection site on his arm was bruised, implying that he didn’t let them stick him easily.”
    That was the Colin that Hicks had known. “What about the two men who were with him?”
    “I’ll see to it that the identities of the two men you killed are sent to your handheld as soon as we’re done here. I’m afraid you’ll find it pedestrian reading. No red flags and no known ties to extremists except that they’re both Somali.”
    Hicks had figured as much. “I checked our passive surveillance of the cab stand and the whole place has been dark since yesterday. No sign of Omar, the drivers, or any of the cars, either. It’s seems they all scattered just before Colin went to meet me at the park.”
    Hicks didn’t like where any of this was leading, but it only seemed to be leading one place. He had no choice but to state the obvious. “I think Omar’s network was a hell of a lot