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and arrest me on the spot.’ Lew’s chuckle became the phlegmy rumble of a smoker. ‘Funny work for an old guy. But fifteen thousand in cash would send me to Costa Brava.’
    Adam felt the encroaching night envelop him. ‘I’ll have it for you by tomorrow.’
    ‘Deal.’ Lew’s speech slowed again. ‘This kind of service doesn’t come with warranties. You could hit the switch and find yourself on candid camera, with a shriek alarm for a laugh track. Instead of back in Afghanistan, you’d wind up in jail.’
    How had he gotten here? Adam wondered again. ‘If you’d screwed up on the job,’ he replied, ‘the guys relying on you could have been killed. They tell me no one was.’
    ‘Different times,’ Lew said. ‘The technical obstacles are greater now. We’ll see if I still have it. Otherwise, you’re fucked.’
    *
    In the next three days, Adam had flown to Washington, met with his superiors, transferred money to Lew through two separate bank accounts, then returned to the Vineyard. On the day following, Lew called him to report. ‘I got by with it,’ he said. ‘I don’t think the security guys suspected me. If you’re feeling reckless, you can find out if my technical gifts survive.’
    That evening, at twilight, Adam told his mother he was going fly-fishing and drove to Dogfish Bar.
    Several men with fly rods were already there, spread like sentries along the surf. Adam stopped to chat, then took his place among the others. For several hours he tried to clear his mind of tensions, focused on his casting. Only as the restbegan drifting away did Adam’s thoughts turn from the water.
    Shortly after midnight, he found himself alone.
    Edgier now, he made himself remain for one more hour. Then he returned to the dirt patch where he had parked his truck, changed into jeans and a dark sweater, and made the forty-minute drive to Edgartown.
    He parked on a residential lane two blocks from Main Street. The town was dark and quiet, the last of the drunken college kids cleared from the sidewalks. Sliding out of the truck, he walked near the shade trees lining the road.
    Headlights pierced the darkness, coming toward him. Swiftly, he slipped behind the cover of a privacy hedge, kneeling on the lawn of a darkened house. Peering through its branches, he saw that the lights belonged to a patrol car from the Edgartown police. This much he had expected; what he could not know was whether the cop at the wheel would continue on his rounds.
    Standing, Adam looked in both directions, then continued past more white frame houses in a circuitous route toward Main Street. Then he veered again, quietly but quickly crossing a yard before concealing himself behind a tree next to the courthouse.
    Its parking lot was empty, the rear entrance lit by a single spotlight. Putting on his father’s old ski mask and gloves, he took Lew’s device from his pocket. It was no larger than a car fob, with a simple switch that would disarm the security system – unless the device was defective, in which case arrest was the least of Adam’s worries.
    He paused, envisioning the challenge ahead. A sheriff’s deputy would monitor the surveillance screen in the roomnear the main entrance, watching images sent by cameras in the hallway and just above the rear door. Assuming that the shriek alarm did not go off when he opened the door, any one of the cameras could reveal his presence inside the courthouse, bringing a troop of cops and deputies. His choice was to back out, or trust in Lew’s skill.
    For a moment, recalling the young man he had been, who once imagined himself a lawyer, Adam was paralysed by disbelief. But in the ten years since then he had learned to ignore boundaries, and to mould events to his purposes. Stepping from behind the tree, he felt the coldness come over him, his heartbeat lowering, his breathing becoming deep and even. His footsteps as he crossed the parking lot were silent.
    Nerveless, he pushed the button.
    The first