Good thing that his regular contact with his handler from the Bureau was today. He had too much on his mind and arranging to be away for special meets was a challenge. He needed the contact with a world that sometimes felt too unreal.Hafner thought Drake was meeting a hooker on these outings. Drake grinned; Frank Campbell might resent being thought of in those terms. It was a good cover, though—Hafner took delight in chiding him for not bringing women to the compound, offering to provide him with all the free company he could ever want. He sneered at what he called monkish restraint, considering it a weakness that Drake would keep that part of his life so private, since, as he said, “It’s only women.” But Hafner’s smug complacency served his own purposes, so Drake didn’t object.The high regard of a slimeball like Klaus was a dubious honor, anyway.Drake rubbed the bridge of his nose. Soon. It would all be over soon. Then he could start washing away the years of filth staining his soul from close contact with vermin like Hafner.Pulling around the seed motel, he parked the car and headed for the ground-floor room which the clerk would have checked in a half-hour ago to a stunning blonde who would soon be watching television in one room while he met with Campbell in the connecting room.The door swung open before he could knock.
