The Code Read Online Free

an AXE operative. "All right, Meredith. But I'd be more careful if I were you. Don't forget that the cause of this whole business is the loss of a damn good agent." I didn't press the matter further. It wasn't my place to chew him out "What's the latest on our girl Sheila?"
    "She's still here, playing it cool. I've tried to avoid getting too close so I wouldn't arouse her suspicion. I took this job because I was afraid the townspeople would begin to wonder why I was sticking around. I'm staying at the hotel. I'll see you there tonight and we'll talk some more." He hesitated. "I understand I'm to be the backstop on this assignment and I'm looking forward to working with you. Don't judge me by what just happened. I'm usually not so casual."
    "I hope not," I said.
    I drove slowly along the town's main street, noting the location of the two-room police station, the post office, and the economy size city hall. You could have packed the whole town in a shoebox, I thought. Tucked between two larger buildings was a cubbyhole bar with a sign reading "Cold Beer" propped in the window. Four storefronts down I found the hotel, a relic of days when Bonham had been a railroad stop and had been larger and more prosperous. Now the two-story building needed paint and I saw that screens were missing from some of the upper windows.
    As I got out of my car, I took a good look at the restaurant across the street from the hotel. Sheila Brant did not come on duty until 4 p.m. and if business didn't pick up, she wouldn't be needed even then. The place appeared to be empty of customers.
    I entered the dim lobby of the hotel, where the furniture bore a quarter-inch of dust and the wear and tear of advanced age. There was no elevator, only a flight of stairs, and the potted plants I walked past needed water as much as Bonham needed a breath of new life.
    The desk clerk greeted me as if he was a politician greeting the deciding vote. He said they had long since closed down their dining room, but I could get a good meal at the restaurant across the street "Try it, you'll like it," he said.
    In my room, I peeled off my clothing and gear and took a shower. Although my features didn't show it, my insides were coiled like a spring. Turning in my mind was the thought that I was near the girl who could give me some answers about David Kirby's death.
    From my second-floor window I had a good view of the restaurant. As I buttoned my shirt and put on my trousers, I thought about Sheila Brant. I wondered if she had managed to escape from that cottage in the Keys on her own or if the killers for some reason had permitted -her to leave alive.
    Meredith had given me the number of his room, which was a few doors from mine. I walked down the corridor to it. Meredith appeared to be the genuine article, but I was the suspicious type and I was going to check him out.
    What with my AXE training and a great deal of practical experience as well, I had become an expert at picking locks. The door to the hotel room proved no challenge at all. A twelve-year-old could have sprung the lock with a penknife.
    I turned the knob, and stepped quietly inside the room. A man was seated in a chair near the window. He gave me a broad smile. "It would have been just as easy to knock."
    I couldn't think of a clever opening line. All I managed was, "Who are you?"
    "Meredith, of course. And you must be Nick Carter."
    If he wasn't Meredith, he was a hell of a good liar. He seemed completely at ease. "I've been waiting for you. I guess you just got in," he said. "Have you seen the girl yet?"
    "Not yet."
    If he had known he was the second Meredith I'd met in the past hour and a half, he wouldn't have been so relaxed, I thought. I produced a cigarette. "Got a light?"
    "Sure." He felt around in the pocket of his wrinkled brown coat. He was a round-faced man, beginning to bald and go to fat, but appearances don't tell anything. AXE agents come in all sizes, shapes, and ages. "Here you are,