Read Extreme Denial for Free Online Page A

eyes feeling scratchy, his forehead aching. He felt pressure behind his ears.
    Amazingly, especially given his age, McKittrick showed no signs of jet lag at all, his tall frame erect. He pointed. “What are those large buildings ahead?”
    “City University.” After pausing to check a map, Decker took a side street, then another, each more gloomy and narrow, trying to see the numbers on buildings squeezed together. He stopped before a doorway. “This is the address.”
    McKittrick stared through the window. “Everything’s quiet. No lights on. No police.”
    “Looks like he hasn’t been here.” A noise in the car made Decker whirl.
    McKittrick had his hand on the door latch. He was getting out, standing on the curb, only partially visible in the night and the rain.
    “What are you—”
    “It’s been quite a few years,” McKittrick said with dignity. “But I still remember how to conduct surveillance. Leave me here. Go to the next address.”
    “But—”
    “Perhaps my son is already here, or perhaps he’s on his way. Perhaps we’ll pass him without knowing it if we go to the next address. But this way, if I remain, at least this address is secure.”
    “I don’t think splitting up is a good idea,” Decker said.
    “If I were a man your age, would you argue about what I’m doing?”
    “... No.”
    “Then there you have it.” McKittrick started to close the door.
    “Wait,” Decker said.
    “I won’t let you talk me out of this.”
    “That’s not what I wanted. Here. You’d better take this. When I heard you were flying in, I had a package delivered to the office. I’ve been waiting to see if it was necessary to give it to you.”
    “A pistol?” McKittrick reacted with astonishment. “Do you honestly think I need a pistol to confront my son?”
    “I have a very bad feeling about what’s happening tonight.”
    “I refuse to—”
    “Take it, or I’m not leaving you here.”
    McKittrick studied him. His dark eyes intense, he accepted the weapon.
    “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Decker said. “How will I find you?”
    “Drive slowly through this area. I’ll find you” McKittrick shut the door, shoved the pistol beneath his suit coat, and walked away into the darkness. Only when the elderly man’s rain-haloed figure was no longer visible in the Fiat’s headlights did Decker drive onward.
    15
    It took Decker eight minutes to reach the next-to-last address on the list. Along the way, he debated what to do if there was no indication that Brian had been there. Stay, or go on to another address?
    What happened next settled the matter. Even from blocks away, Decker heard sirens wailing in the darkness. He saw a crimson glow above rain-obscured buildings. His stomach hard with apprehension, he steered the Fiat onto the street he wanted and braked immediately before the glaring lights of rumbling fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. Flames licked from the windows of an apartment building. Smoke billowed. As firemen aimed hoses toward the blaze, ambulance attendants ministered to survivors, draping blankets around them, giving them oxygen.
    Appalled, Decker got out of the Fiat, came close enough to determine that the fiery building was in fact the one he had come to check, then hurried through a gathering crowd back to the car, reversed direction, and sped away into the rain.
    His heart pounded. What the hell is happening? he thought. Was Brian trying to get even by setting fire to the buildings, hoping to trap the terrorists inside? Surely even someone so out of control as Brian would have realized that other people besides the terrorists would be injured—if the terrorists were injured at all, if they had been foolish enough to remain at the addresses they had given Brian.
    He has only one more address to go, Decker thought. Where I left his father. Driving urgently through the rain-filled night, Decker skidded and regained control of the Fiat. Near the university, he again took a