Labyrinth Read Online Free

and at present he’s an English professor at Georgetown.”
    â€œâ€˜At present’?”
    â€œFlunked his final tenure hearing. This is his last semester.”
    â€œYou checked.”
    â€œI checked.”
    â€œI suppose this is all leadin’ us somewhere.”
    Charney’s expression looked pained. “Locke was responsible for Lubeck losing his hand. It was an accident. Happened at the Academy six months into our training; we all joined up together, you see. The Three Musketeers,” Charney added cynically. “Anyway, the details of the accident don’t matter now.”
    Roy wet his lips. “Then this Locke’s not an amateur, after all… .”
    â€œHe dropped out of the Academy a week after it happened. The ironic thing was that he was the best in our class. As far as skills went, there were none better. But something was missing even before the … accident. Locke had the stomach; he didn’t have the heart.”
    â€œYou think that’s changed now?”
    â€œOne thing hasn’t: his guilt. Locke ran away from the Academy into academia and he’s been running ever since. Georgetown isn’t the first school he’s quit or been released from. The accident with Lubeck seemed to set a tone for his entire life, a string of failures and incompletions. I guess he never got over it. Whoever said that time heals all wounds was full of crap. It didn’t heal this one.” Charney paused. “We can offer to help him heal it now.”
    â€œBy sending him into the field?”
    â€œBy sending him after the men who killed Lubeck.”
    Roy hedged. “He’s still an amateur, son.”
    â€œAnd the only thing that stopped him from becoming a pro and a damn good one was that he lacked motivation, a clear sense of why. He’ll have that now. Flushing out Lubeck’s killers will more than provide it. Locke could never face the Luber because those damn steel pincers wouldn’t let him. That’s not a problem anymore. Lubeck’s dead. Finding out who did it will give Locke a chance to finally finish something, maybe the most important thing he never completed and ran away from: his friendship with the Luber … and me. The guilt’s been bottled up in him long enough. We can give him a vent for it.”
    â€œHow generous of us… .”
    â€œLocke’s the human option,” Charney continued. “In this case, infinitely preferable to any other that presents itself given the time frame.”
    â€œAnd how much do we tell this human option of yours?”
    â€œAs much as he needs to know.” Charney paused. “That includes nothing about the massacre.”
    â€œSo we just drop him blindly in the field and tell him to run.”
    â€œI’ll be his contact, his eyes,” Charney said softly. “I’ll shadow him everywhere he goes. The relays, the codes, the contacts—he drilled with similar ones before. All in an afternoon’s work. When the time comes, Langley’s only a phone call away.”
    â€œYou’ve thought this thing out.”
    Charney nodded.
    Calvin Roy’s eyes wandered briefly. “I come from farm country, son, and still I didn’t understand why you needed shit to make things grow until I got to Washington. This hasn’t been easy for you, has it, Brian?”
    Charney just looked at him.
    â€œOne of your buddies is dead, son. You could leave it at that. You could turn the whole mess over to Langley.”
    â€œYou want me to do that?”
    Calvin Roy sighed. “Nah, I suppose I don’t. But Lubeck was a pro and what he found out there ate him up alive. And I don’t care ’bout Locke shinin’ brighter than a baby’s backside at the Academy twenty years ago, none of that’s gonna get him very far against what Lubeck came up against.”
    â€œIt’ll get him far enough.”
    Roy nodded deliberately.