Fade (2005) (26 page)

." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "Our ability to look into the m is limited. We could put an APB out on his car, like we did with a l Fayed, but then we might end up having to explain why a high leve l employee of Ho "

She suddenly jumped from her chair, holding a hand tightly over he r mouth and ran for the door. Strand watched her claw at the knob for a moment and then disappear in the direction of the bathroom as his ow n stomach reacted to the excitement by rolling dangerously. He took a few breaths and pressed his forehead against the cool wood of his desk.

A bead of sweat gathered on his nose and then fell, leaving a dark spo t on the carpet.

"Hillel?"

His damp forehead made a sucking sound as he peeled it from the des k and tried to focus on the sagging outline of Kelly Braith proppe d against his doorjamb. The motion, slow as it was, prompted anothe r cramp and he clenched his teeth tightly waiting for it to pass.

"There's a ... a call for you on two," she managed to get out.

He wanted to tell her to take a message but found he couldn't speak. H
e shook his head instead.

"It's Salam al Fayed," she said as though the name meant nothing t o her. "He said you'd want "

And then she was gone. Running, like Lauren had, toward th e bathroom.

What the hell was going on? Was the cake bad? What in a cake could g o bad? He glanced over at the phone and saw the red light on i t flashing. His cramp had subsided enough that he thought he coul d speak, but he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Why was al Fayed calling? What did he want? To make more threats? Ha d he finally figured out that Strand wasn't going to expose himself an d wanted to talk deal? Finally, he picked up the phone.

"Yes?"

"Hillel! How you feeling?"

"What?"

"I poisoned your cake, dumbass. You're just too easy. I mean, thi s wasn't even a challenge. Anyway, I guess this is the last time we'l l be talking. Happy birthday."

"Billy, calm down! I can't understand a word you're saying. Hold on."

Matt Egan eased the car over to the curb and turned off the motor. "No w what the hell are you going on about?"

"The son of a bitch poisoned it! We're completely screwed! Everyon e in the office but me. I didn't eat any. Fuck! You said he wouldn'
t touch us!"

"Billy? Listen to me. Calm down. Now let's pretend for a second tha t I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Start from th e beginning."

"Hillel's cake," Billy said, managing to speak a little more slowl y this time. "It was his birthday and the office had a party for him. I b lew it off, 'cause I'm with you, you know? I figured fuck him."

"The point," Egan said. "Get to the point."

"Kelly got him a cake. Everyone ate some but me and they all starte d getting really sick. Then al Fayed called and told Hillel he'
d poisoned it. Shit. You can't believe what it was like! They're al l dead, man. They're all dead."

Egan sat motionless, looking through his windshield at people i n business suits hurrying along the sidewalk to escape the soft rain tha t had begun to fall. This didn't make sense.

"Back up for a second, Billy. You're telling me everyone's dead? Righ t now, you're standing knee deep in corpses."

"No, the paramedics took them away. They were throwing up all over th e place, convulsing ... By now, they've gotta be dead. Al Fayed sai d they would be."

Egan sat silently for a few seconds and then a smile began to sprea d across his face. Fade was still quite the little prankster. Then hi s smile disappeared.

"Shit! Billy, listen to me very carefully. Call the ambulances tha t picked them up and tell them to divert to another ho " He fel l silent.

"What? Matt? Are you still there?"

He didn't answer immediately. Maybe he'd reacted a little too hastily.

This could be the opportunity he'd been waiting for.

"What hospital?"

"Huh?"

"What hospital, Billy? What hospital are they being taken to?"

Chapter
Thirty-Four.

"Three tens," Fade said, laying his cards down on the small table. Th e man next to him chewed on the unlit cigarette in his mouth and stare d at his hand with an intensity that suggested he was trying to will i t to change. His wife and son had been in a car accident less than a n hour ago and while it looked like they were both going to survive , there was some question as to whether the boy would keep his pitchin g arm.

He'd agreed to a nickel and dime game of poker to try to keep the man'
s mind occupied, though it didn't seem to be working. His lack o f concentration had left Fade five dollars richer.

"Looks like you're taking me to the cleaners," the man said as h e shuffled and dealt.

Fade examined his hand halfheartedly, focusing most of his attention o n the doctors and nurses moving around behind the long counter to hi s left. "I'll take "

"Those poisoning victims are two minutes out," he heard one of th e nurses say.

"How many?" someone else asked.

"Seven. All from the same source."

The man waved a hand in front of Fade's face. "You all right? Do yo u need cards?"

"Yeah. Give me three. And this is going to have to be my last hand , so I think I'll just bet everything."

Fade pushed his pile of change to the center of the table and the n slapped down a pair of deuces. Predictably, he lost.

"Looks like your luck might be changing," he said, standing and shakin g the man's hand. "I hope things work out."

By the time Fade came around the corner and started down the hallway , the large double doors at the end were propped open, displaying a grou p of men pulling a gurney from an ambulance. He watched as they passe d it off to a couple of orderlies and ducked back into the vehicle fo r victim number two.

Doctors and nurses had already surrounded the first gurney by the tim e it passed through the doors and Fade listened to the paramedics giv e their report while the patient, partially obscured by a vomit-soake d sheet, writhed weakly.

Being an emergency room doctor wouldn't have been a bad gig, Fad e mused. It had both intellectual and physical components, and it seeme d like it would provide the same mind-clearing intensity as combat. Mayb e he should have studied a little harder in school and gone this route.

How hard could it be? No one was shooting at you and you sure wouldn'
t have to work with the same precision as you would, say, puttin g together a nice dovetailed joint.

Fade stopped when he was only a few feet from the first patient who ha d come through the door and stood on his tiptoes to try to get a glimps e of a face. One of the nurses leaned over to set up an IV, exposing a woman in her early thirties with dark hair and a thin face that, afte r a moment, he recognized as Kelly Braith. The green complexion ha d thrown him.

The gurneys continued to roll through the doors and Fade moved to a position by the wall where he could watch them pass by.

An attractive, if somewhat severe-looking, young woman with eyes tha t didn't seem quite able to fix on anything. A man in his forties wh o looked like an overdosing accountant ... Fade covered his nose with hi s hand and took a hesitant step forward as a gurney with just the righ t sized lump came rolling toward him. It wasn't the worst smell he'
d ever experienced, but it wasn't exactly pleasant either. Somewhere o n the gross-out scale between dirty diapers and mass cremation.

A nurse rushed past him and pulled the sheet back, exposing Hille l Strand just in time for him to vomit all over the floor. Fade reache d for the gun in his waistband as he tried to devise a safe path aroun d the contents of Strand's stomach.

"Sir!" a nurse shouted at him. "You're going to have to step back!"

Fade ignored her, refusing to let her dampen his mood. A perfect en d to a perfect ass. It was almost a shame to shoot him when he wa s suffering in such a completely undignified way. But, what the hell.

"Sir!"

She saw his gun at the same time Fade spotted Matt Egan sprinting pas t the ambulance outside and barreling through the doors. Sometimes tha t guy could be a real killjoy.

The nurse dove to the ground, landing partially in Strand's expelle d carrot cake and shouting, "Gun! Gun!" Everyone scattered, but befor e they did, one of the paramedics gave the gurney containing Strand a hard shove, sending it rolling down the hall and leaving Fade with n o cover. He crouched and ran toward Kelly Braith, ducking behind her an d aiming over her heaving chest.

Egan had missed his opportunity to end things quickly and had bee n forced to take cover behind a soda machine.

"Drop your gun! Now!"

Fade could see the side of his face peeking around the machine bu t Kelly was convulsing to the point that she was screwing up his aim.

"Oh, come on, man. The guy's a complete asshole. Let me shoot him.

Just once, I swear."

"If it was up to me, I'd say go ahead," Egan said. "But I've got kin d of an obligation here."

"What if I promise to just wing him?"

"Tick tock," Egan said.

Kelly suddenly seemed to become aware of what was happening and bega n to try to fight, her barely clenched fist banging uselessly against hi m and a weak squeal starting at the back of her throat. Fade sighe d quietly. As usual, Egan was right. This was a classic example of a Mexican standoff. Matt wasn't going to want to shoot and risk th e possibility of hitting his receptionist or having his bullet go throug h a wall and hit some pregnant lady. Having said that, he was a prett y good shot and if Fade adjusted his aim toward Strand, it would giv e Egan the opportunity to get a bead that he might be comfortable enoug h with to use. And just about as bad, hospital security was probabl y waddling this way right now. Tick tock.

"You're a real thorn in my side," Fade said, backing away slowly , rolling Kelly Braith along with him. "We'll finish this later."

Chapter
Thirty-five.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Matt Egan said under his breat h as the elevator opened onto his floor at Homeland Security. There wa s a heavy curtain of clear plastic blocking the hallway, behind whic h everyone was wearing full biohazard suits. As he stepped out of th e elevator, one of the spacemen held a hand out in a gesture reminiscen t of a grade school crossing guard.

"Sir," the man shouted, though it sounded more like a whisper afte r making its way through his face plate and the curtain. "This is a restricted area! Didn't you see the "

"Shut up," Egan said, tearing through the plastic and starting towar d his office. When the man tried to block his path, Egan stuck a hand i n his chest and shoved him back. He lost his footing in all th e biohazard gear and went crashing to the floor, taking the rest of th e curtain with him.

"Out!" Egan shouted as he entered OSPA's reception area. "Everyon e out." Three men, similarly clad in orange suits and respirators , interrupted their sample taking and turned awkwardly.

"Sir! This is a bio "

"Where's Billy?" Egan said, cutting the man off.

"But you can't be "

"Where is he?"

"He's ... in his office. It's possible that he's been cont "

"Do you have people at the hospital?"

The man didn't seem to know what to say and looked to his companion s for support. Neither spoke.

"Hey! Focus! Do you have people at the hospital?"

"They're on their way, but I don't think they've arrived ye "

"Shit!" Egan shouted and started jogging toward Billy's office.

"Sir! You can't go back there. There's a possible "

But he was already through Fraiser's door and in the process o f slamming it behind him.

"Matt! What are you doing here? Why aren't you wearing an y protection? They think we might have been exposed to a biologica l agent. They say we might all be infected!"

"It wasn't a biological agent, for Christ's sake. It was probabl y Ex-Lax." He thumbed back toward the door. "Do you know who's i n charge of this cluster fuck?"

"Yeah, it's "

"Get him on the phone right now and tell him to stop his men from goin g to the hospital. Tell him that we have confirmation that this was a simple chemical agent and that he'll blow a top secret terroris m investigation if they show up. Tell him that you've spoken to Hille l and this is coming directly from him."

"I don't think Hillel can "

"Do it!"

Billy stared at him for a moment and then dropped behind his desk an d began dialing his phone. Egan took the opportunity to go back out int o the hallway in search of some water. His confrontation with Fade ha d left his mouth completely devoid of moisture. As he passed th e reception area on the way to the cooler, he found the haz-mat tea m still standing around, looking confused.

"Why the hell are you still here? I thought I told you to get out. An d take all your crap with you."

He went through three little paper cones, throwing each violently int o the trash can when he had drained it. He should have just taken th e shot. He'd told himself that Kelly was too close, but the chance o f him hitting her at that range wasn't much higher than zero. If he'
d have lined up on him, Fade would have gone for Strand and taken th e bullet Egan had seen it in his eyes. And now this would all be ove r instead of getting ready to blow up in his face. He would have kille d Salam al Fayed.