Free Lazar's Intrigue (The Jack Lazar Series) by Kevin Sterling

“There has to be something else you can do.”
    “I
can let you talk to the duty officer.”
    Jack
paused to think. God knows, things were already too complicated. Involving
another person would just make things worse. “No. That’s all right. Just ask
her to call me as soon as possible. Tell her I have some important information
about...Antonucci.”
    “Very
well, sir. I’ll give her the message as soon as possible. Bye now.”
    The
line disconnected, and Jack took the cell phone away from his ear to scowl at
it before slipping it back in his pocket.
    Maybe
Sarina really was avoiding him. But why? Was she trying to distance herself
from him like she intimated the other night, determined to avoid any further
temptation on either front? Or could it be that her investigation as far as he
was concerned had simply finished?
    Nevertheless,
Jack simply couldn’t sit around and wait any longer. It was conceivable she
would never call, so it made the most sense to go it alone for now and do his
best to stay out of trouble.
    Jack
thought about where he should start and concluded that the only reasonable
option was to find a way back into the offices of Benson Kohler to personally
examine the Antonucci file Hesterling had protected so spitefully. He required
a way inside the company’s offices at a time when the staff was gone in order
to search the place in secrecy. And just in case he would need some protection
since the intangible dangers were too plentiful to even comprehend.
    Jack
rose from his bedside and walked toward the weighty rosewood armoire left to
him by his late grandmother. The piece commanded much of the bedroom’s east
wall, and while the ornate design didn’t really fit with the rest of his
furniture, its presence was mostly about sentimentality. He reached for the old-fashioned
key he kept on top to unlock a small compartment behind the chest’s left door,
and he extracted the Beretta 9 millimeter he had bought in Italy several years
ago.
    He
probably never would have purchased the gun if he had known how much red tape it
would entail to bring it back into the States, but he had always wanted an
authentic, Italian-made Beretta. Besides, his best friend Zach was traveling
with him at the time and bought the gun’s twin sister, so Jack felt motivated
to follow through. Of course, Zach didn’t have to deal with US Customs
afterwards since he lived in the EU and easily took the gun back to his home in
Paris.
    Since
he was not a violent man, Jack had only used the pistol for target practice and
never found the need to carry such a thing on his person. But times had
changed.
    The
gun’s clip was empty, and only five, stray 9-millimeter rounds lay on the
compartment’s felt bottom. Jack smiled as he realized he was grossly unprepared
for the spy business. But his mode of defense should nevertheless be adequate
for tonight, and he made a mental note to buy more ammunition as soon as
possible. He loaded the bullets into the clip, trying his best to perform the
task with a mastered skill he had not yet developed, but he fumbled with them
and clumsily scraped his finger against the top of the clip. He chuckled at
himself as he sucked on the minor wound and realized he had no margin for
overconfidence.
    He
slowly finished loading the bullets and slid the clip into the butt of the gun
before pulling back the slide to load the first round into the chamber. He
rested the hammer to its closed position, engaged the safety, and slipped the
Beretta into the back of his pants.
    It
was now eleven thirty in the evening, and Jack considered it unlikely that
anyone would be at Benson Kohler so late on a Friday. This would be a perfect
opportunity to get his mission over with. He grabbed a tweed blazer from his
closet to wear over his half-faded jeans and slipped it on, the length of it
covering the weapon he had placed at his waist.
     
    The
old commute felt strange after the long hiatus, and there was something eerie