Working Together

Chapter 884: Working Together

With Hell's Kitchen under lockdown, the place that had always been a den of chaos fell quiet.

Early that morning, Robert hung a large sign outside his supermarket. A huge countdown display showed the number 28.

Beneath the countdown was a table piled with college brochures. Robert had collected them through some old friends and bound them into a guide for parents who knew nothing about college.

"Ghostface" John was always the first to arrive each day. He helped Robert tidy up the "bookstall" outside the store, then picked up a clearly custom-made guide to U.S. universities and flipped through it.

Robert took two coffees and handed one to John with a smile. "Well? Any problems?

"You graduated from a prestigious university yourself. Do you think this admissions guide will be useful to those kids and their parents?"

John put down the guide, took the coffee Robert handed him in both hands, and instinctively licked his frightening lips. Then, holding the coffee in one hand, he leafed through the guide on the table with the other.

A few minutes later, John looked at Robert in amazement. "How did you get this? If it can be updated regularly, this book should outsell the Bible every May.

"Enrollment numbers, majors, grade requirements, scholarships, tuition, faculty candidates, the makeup and interests of interview panels...

"What is this supposed to be? A college application guide?

"It even has advice on what to wear for interviews at each school. My God, you could sell this to high schools for a thousand dollars a copy."

Robert smiled, showing all eight of his teeth. He tapped his coffee cup against John's, then said with a grin, "The CIA has been pretty quiet lately. As a retired, decorated employee, it wasn't hard to ask