J.A. Konrath / Jack Kilborn Trilogy - Three Scary Thriller Novels (Origin, The List, Haunted House) Read Free Page B

because you met all of the criteria on a very long list. We need a translator, one with experience in ancient languages. You’ve always had a gift for language. My sources say you were fluent in Spanish by age three, and by six years old you could also speak French, German, and some Russian. In grade school you were studying the eastern tongues, and you could speak Chinese by junior high.”
    Only Mandarin
, Andy thought. He couldn’t speak Cantonese until a few years later.
    “You graduated high school in three years and were accepted to Harvard on scholarship. You spent four years at Harvard, and wrote and published your thesis on giving enunciation to cuneiform, at age nineteen.
    “When you left school in 1986 you lived on money left to you by your parents, who died in a fire three years before. After the money ran out you got a job at the United Nations in New York. You were there less than a year before being fired. During a Middle East peace talk you insulted the Iraqi ambassador.”
    “He was a pervert who liked little girls.”
    “Iraq was our ally at the time.”
    “What does that have to do with—”
    The President held up a hand, as he was so accustomed to doing with reporters.
    “I’m not sitting in a seat of judgment, Andy. But you’re entitled to know why you were chosen. After the UN fired you, you started your own freelance translation service, WTS. You’ve been making an average living, one that allows you to be your own boss. But business has been slow lately, I assume because of the Internet.”
    Andy frowned. In the beginning, the World Wide Web had opened up a wealth of information for a translator, giving him instant access to the greatest libraries in the world. But, of course, it gave everyone else access to those libraries too. Along with computer programs that could translate both the written and the spoken word.
    “So you know I’m good at my job, and you know I could use the money.”
    “More than that, Andy. You’re single, and you aren’t currently seeing anyone. You don’t have any relatives. Business is going poorly and you’re behind on your Visa and your Discover Card payments, and you’ve just gotten your second warning from the electric company. Your unique mind, so active and curious years ago, hasn’t had a challenge since college.
    “You didn’t talk to the media after the incident at the UN, even though reporters offered you money for the story. That’s important, because it shows you can keep your mouth shut. In short, by bringing you in on this project, you don’t have anything to lose, but everything to gain.”
    “Why aren’t I comforted that the government knows so much about me?”
    “Not the government, Andy. Me. No one else in Washington is aware of you, or of Project Samhain. Only the incumbent President knows what goes on there in New Mexico. It was passed on to me by my predecessor, and I’ll pass it on to my successor when I leave office. This is the way it’s been since President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned construction of this facility in 1906.”
    Andy didn’t like this at all. His curiosity was being overtaken by a creepy feeling.
    “This is all very interesting, but I don’t think I’m your man.”
    “I also know about Myra Thackett and Chris Simmons.”
    Andy’s mouth became a thin line. Thackett and Simmons were two fictitious employees that Andy pretended to have under salary at WTS. Having phantom people on the payroll reduced income tax, and was the only way he’d been able to keep his business afloat.
    “So this is a tax thing after all.”
    “Again, only I know about it Andy. Not the IRS. Not the FBI. Just me. And I can promise you that Ms. Thackett and Mr. Simmons will never come back to haunt you if you help us here.”
    “What exactly,” Andy chose his words carefully, “do you want from me?”
    “First you must swear, as a citizen of the United States, to never divulge anything you see, hear, or learn at Project