“Seeing him at work on his chalkboard. It’s about the only memory.”
“There’s some yogurt in the fridge and some marion-berry jam.”
“Sure, why not? Might as well get fat now that I don’t get naked for a living.”
“Don’t ever let El Numero Uno hear that. We’ll be running to New York.”
It was a roomy kitchen with a breakfast table in an alcove. For some reason Jill loved Early American decor, and the place looked like the inside of an upscale farmhouse.
“Grady?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you think you should wait until you meet your father before you finally decide about him?”
“He’s an asshole. He had to be. Think about it.”
“You’re not sure.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’re still fighting yourself about it.”
“Yeah, well, the Dad part of me is losing. I promise.”
“I would like to meet your father.”
“Good luck. He’s a paranoid creep.”
“Uh-huh,” Jill said.
“I have a guy I like,” Grady began. “I was worried about treating him like shit. I promised to call him. Anyway, I broke the rules and called him a few times to let him know I was okay.”
“What do you mean? When?”
“Four times. Twice at the beach house, once when I registered at the junior college, and once tonight. But tonight I said good-bye for a few days until we get the rules about phone calls worked out.”
“We’ve got to tell Sam. Don’t you understand this is not about deportment? It’s about security. This changes everything about the alarm, about everything. And Sam is going to kick my ass. I’m responsible for you. Don’t you get it?”
“Look, it was nothing. I told him nothing. I just said I was all right.”
“You should have told us. Tell me word for word everything you said.”
“The first call was when we were at the cabin when I couldn’t call. Then at the phone booth.”
“I knew it. The day you came running.”
“Well, that too. But I did it again with a guy named Clint from next door. He and his friend drove me.”
“Clint is a distant cousin of Sam’s. He was a plant. The call at the phone booth was bugged.”
“Wow. Should have figured it. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Now what about the last two times?”
Grady recounted it, afraid of what Sam would say. More afraid than she would have thought possible.
“So all you did was tell him that you are in college, you have a job, and you’re okay?”
“I told him I did research because I wanted to impress him.”
“You said nothing about where you were, who you worked for, or what you did except research?”
“That’s right. Way back when, I said the beach house was near Carmel.”
“I’m telling Sam right now. He just got here. The Chellis people could find you with what you told them. Especially about college. We would nail your ass with that info. If your boyfriend is on their payroll, they will probably find you.”
“He’s not selling me out. That’s ridiculous.”
“Still, you screwed this up big time. You and I are going to have to move out of the house. You’ll need a new name. New school. Do you realize that?”
“Why?”
“I’m too upset to explain right now, Grady. Let me talk to Sam and I’ll call you back.”
“Do you have to?”
“You know, it’s a real problem that you have to ask.” Jill hung up.
“Hello, kid.”
Grady jumped as if scalded. A strange bearded man stood in the corner. He held a silenced pistol.
“Who are you?”
“Afraid I can’t say. On the other hand, since you’re going to die, maybe it doesn’t matter.”
“I feel funny,” Grady said, suddenly dizzy.
“I hope you enjoyed the soup.”
“What was it?”
“What you’re feeling is an alkaloid extracted from
Chondodendron tomentosum, Strychnos toxifera,
and a few other ingredients. Then there was something to cause it to quickly enter your bloodstream through the stomach lining. That’s the brilliant part.”
Grady stood and grabbed the table for support. A terrible weakness was overtaking her.
“My leg is shaking.”
“Yes, I can tell you liked my recipe. You may have heard of the active ingredients referred to as curare. That’s a native term for a group of organic molecules that come from certain plant species, and are mixed by the natives of South America with poison from bugs and spiders. I rely on the primary plant alkaloid mixed with various pharmaceuticals. Without purification and treatment the stuff is too bitter to disguise even with barbecue sauce and herbs. I’m actually very proud of the recipe.”
Grady’s face sank near the tabletop; her whole body was shaking now.
“I will pick you up.”
He threw her over his shoulder.
“Bastard,” Grady gasped.
“Soon you’ll long for my kisses—it’s the only way you’ll be able to breathe.”
Grady tried to scream and failed. She watched, fully alert, as he carried her into the bedroom. She could feel everything down to the hair on his arms and the warmth of the bedclothes under her back. But she couldn’t move, not even to roll over.
The room was dark, lit only by a night-light in the wall socket. She saw a match strike and watched him light a candle. Her abductor stepped away, and she heard the sound of the shower in her bathroom. He returned to her side.
“The beauty of this drug is that you remain fully conscious. I don’t have to listen to you scream because you can’t.”
He turned her head so that she could see him. Then it occurred to her that he wanted to see the terror in her eyes.
“Soon you will not be able to respirate.”
He pulled his chair very close, pressed his lips to hers, and she could feel the monster’s breath expand her lungs.
“Breath from heaven.” He actually smiled. “Or is it from hell?”
Again he pressed his lips to hers and filled her lungs. Her vision was as if down a tunnel but he was there, his face in the flickering candlelight. He pulled off his beard. Again he pressed his lips to hers and breathed for her.
“I want you to see me as I am. I want you to see the man who is breathing the breath of life into you and the man who will snuff it out.”
Even as her body became dead, her mind became more alive. It was all she had.
“I can’t let the relaxant kill you because you may not be able to see me at the last. And that is not good enough. So I’m going to put you in the bathtub and give you a cardiac glycoside that is derived from
Acokanthera apocynaceae.
The principal chemical is ouabain—two-thousandths of a gram will be completely lethal. The second I give it to you I will drop in your electric razor. If the authorities are brilliant they will probably conclude that you were poisoned by the operatives of DuShane Chellis. If they are only marginally competent, they will decide that you were electrocuted.” His eyes grew distant. “You won’t see me again.”
With her mind sharp and undiluted by any hysteria, she felt his foul mouth on hers, then his tongue, and his breath hot and sweet pouring into her. And he was right She craved the next breath. She did not want to die at twenty.
“We’re going to need all the firepower we can get,” Sam said.
“Aye. As long as it shoots rubber bullets, right?” Aussie was his guy in Fiji.
“I know it sounds strange, but it will actually give us an advantage.”
“I’ve got to live here after you leave, you know.”
“I understand. I want to move on this thing. What if we come in three days?”
“No way. Huge mistake. It’s going to take me more time than that unless you want to throw rocks. I can see them settling in, but I’ve got to get the boat in place. Half the heat I have is still coming. It’ll be a bloody miracle if it’s in place in a week and a half.”
“Then do it in a week. It’s important. Anna Wade is bouncing off the floor.”
“Do you think she’d bounce off my floor?”
“Very funny.”
“We’ll try, but
do not
arrive before we can move. The longer you’re in this backwater, the more attention you draw.”
“Okay. A week. Precise arrival time by e-mail.”
“You got it.”
“Keep your phone on.”
Jill was tapping him on the shoulder. “I’m worried. Grady has a boyfriend of sorts. She’s been talking to him.”
“And?”
“It isn’t good. She said she was going to school.”
“Oh, no.”
“You know the alarm went off this afternoon and we never really found out why.”
“Come on.” Sam grabbed his cell phone and punched Jill’s home number as he ran to the heavy steel door, shoving it open as fast as it would move. They sprinted through the waiting room into the parking lot and jumped into Blue Hades. “No answer.”
“Jack,” Jill said on her cell. “You’ve gotta move. Something’s wrong inside.” A pause. “Break her door down, shower or no shower.”
“Good move,” Sam said.
“Jack said she’s been in her bedroom for a while. The shower’s been running.”
Sam figured he could dodge traffic at eighty miles an hour; they were in front of the house in eight minutes. There was an ambulance siren sounding in the distance. Sam hit the door with a flying kick, knocking it off its hinges. They burst through into the living room and ran to the bedroom. Grady was on the bed, white and dry like chalk. Jack was hunched over her, breathing into her lungs. An ambulance pulled up, and Sam took over the breathing while Jill checked her pulse.
“She has a heartbeat. Feels strong and normal. Maybe a little slow.”
Sam breathed in her lungs and stared at eyes that were strange with something he’d never seen. She was utterly still; no part of her moved.
“A drug.”
Jack ran out the door, and came back with four guys and one woman, all in blue suits. Immediately they were on her with a stethoscope. Sam kept pushing air into her lungs.
“She said there was soup on the table,” Jack said. “Jill, did you leave soup?”
“No soup. None.”
“A drug,” Sam said. “Must be.”
“BVM,” the lead man said. “We’ll take it,” he said, putting an airway down her throat with a squeeze bag fitted atop. “She looks like somebody gave her sux,” the woman said. “Let’s go with Versed as soon as we get the IV in her.”
“Pump every last ounce out of her stomach and ask questions later,” Jill said.
They had her on a gurney and out the door in seconds. The bedroom window had been broken out and the torn curtains moved in the gentle breeze; the sheer white shreds and the blackness behind were a grim prop for someone’s death feast.
Sam pulled Jack aside. “What happened?”
“I went to the door and knocked. There was this huge crash. I went in and somebody had gone through the window. She looked dead but her heart was beating. So I did the CPR with the mouth-to-mouth thing. It seemed to help, but she didn’t breathe on her own. I called an ambulance in between breaths, which was tough, and I knew you’d be along any minute.”
“Any idea who went out the window?”
“Not a clue.”
“Didn’t the other guys see?”
“No way. They heard something and came around, but they didn’t know what they were looking for and it was dark.”
“You would think they’d have seen something.”
“Yeah. You would.”
Samir summoned Michelle into his workroom, pondering the complications in his life.
“Leona will come back next month. I have never had an office as such but I will get an office in Beirut and a spacious apartment nearby. It will be yours if that pleases you.”
“It does. I know I cannot be here when your wife is here.”
“If I were Muslim I might have more than one wife, but I am supposedly Christian Maronite. On the subject of having one wife, Leona is very religious.” Samir chuckled.
“You are looking so well, but you know we’re running out of oil.”
“I know. And life is hell without it. There is a difference between what we took from the lab and what you get in the mail. If only we knew what it was.”
“There is something I must tell you.”
“Yes?”
“Please believe me that I am growing attached to you.”
“Yes?” Samir suddenly had a bad feeling.
“I was not in Quatram when I came to the Middle East. I couldn’t get in. I was seeing lawyers in France about my boy and working as a masseuse when I was summoned to the offices of Grace Technologies. I gave a massage to DuShane Chellis. It was a good job and I came regularly.”
“So did he, I should think. Go on.”
“You do not have to be crass.”
Samir chuckled before she continued.
“I think it was a very odd relationship he had with his assistant Benoit. She is the sister of his wife. Very odd. Anyway, I told them about my son and that I was seeing lawyers. To tell you the short version, they got me into Quatram through the general and they promised I could get my son out of the country if I could entice you to hire me.”
“You are working for Chellis?”
“I am telling you what I am not supposed to tell you, so I guess I am working for you. But my son’s life is at stake.”
Samir nodded, keeping his face neutral. “Go on.”
“They said it would be easy to win your favor if I did exactly as they said. For massage I was to use the blue-tinged oil that I now use on you.”
“So they are poisoning me or playing with my mind.”
“Yes. But it isn’t what you think. I have the oil on me, and on my fingers, and it does nothing to me.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Just that the oil by itself doesn’t seem to do anything.”
“What did they tell you?”
“Nothing, except that I was to use a different oil today.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t deceive you.”
“You like me?”
“I know in some respects that you are cruel, but you were kind to me. You are powerful, very powerful, and maybe I need someone like that.”
“I could split you like a chicken for conspiring with Chellis.”
“I know that.”
“Why did you think I wouldn’t kill you?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No.” Samir chuckled. “You are not wrong, but what does a man like me know of love or loyalty? I buy women.”
“Even your wife?”
“Especially my wife. Her price is diamonds. I knew you came by way of Chellis somehow because I knew the oil in the laboratory was a stronger version of what you used. No massage could make me feel that good.”
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
“To be honest, you intrigued both my head and my loins. Few women do that. You were desperate. Equally important, I simply cannot live without the effects of the oil you brought. And I like how you use it. Now where is this oil you were supposed to use today?”
“I have it in my bag.”
“Get it.”
In moments she returned to the workroom with a white canvas bag. “Here it is.” She held a small bottle.
“Put a dab on my back. Let us see what it does.”
“What if it is deadly?”
“They do not want to kill me now. They need me for the business. They want only to control me. It is not poison. I suspect that where the other oil lessens the jitters and diminishes the torture, this one does the opposite and would make me mad with fear. So just a dab. Then get the other oil.”
“It comes in portions, remember. If I use a portion of the regular oil now, that will be a few drops I don’t have for another day.”
“I stole some from the Chellis lab but I use so much for those damn doctors who still can’t figure it out. The reason I am normal some days is that I get not only what you have but also I get extra from the other supply.”
“I am so sorry,” she said.
“Unless they can figure out what is in it, we are going to run out. Well, we will risk it. Just use a dab of the other and get ready with the usual stuff.”
Dipping her finger in the untried oil, she reached under his shirt, smeared it over his back, and held him close. They waited for a few minutes, talking quietly.
“That works fast,” he said. “It is as if someone loosed the hounds of hell in my head. Quick, give me the other.”
She smeared a little more of the regular oil and after a time it calmed him.
“So we have solved another small part of the riddle.” He patted her head and growled, “I will kill the bastard.”
Benoit rang Gaudet as he drove through Los Angeles.
“I would have said that the stuff from your snitch,” he said, “this Guy fellow, was nothing. But I’ve traced a private flight from BC to Fiji. I’d been examining many international flights on that day, but this one is suddenly more interesting. Tell Chellis to try a bluff with Samir. Act like we know where he has Jason. I have my people going to Taveuni tonight. If he’s there they will find him by tomorrow night, unless they’ve made very careful arrangements. By the way, our little angel has gone off to heaven.”
“Are you serious?”
“When do I joke about stuff like that?”
It was a relief to have Grady Wade out of the picture. Benoit found Chellis down the hall from his office, leaning in the treasurer’s doorway. He waved good-bye to the treasurer. “Did you tell Michelle to use the other oil today?”
“Yes. He’ll be paranoid as hell when you call.” As they walked she told him about her conversation with Guy and her most recent conversation with Gaudet.
“Perhaps you’d like to go get some things done,” Chellis said. “I’m liable to be a while with Samir.”
“I’m fascinated to see how you handle him.” She put her hand under his arm and leaned close.
“And if I kick you out you’ll be hard to find.”
“I’m never hard to find. I just go to the labs sometimes in the course of doing my job. I do have a job.”
“You can stay.”
They sat on the couch, where he picked up the phone and she threw her leg over his, making sure that he could feel the warmth of her body on the meaty part of his thigh.
Samir’s assistant answered.
“Samir and I need to talk,” Chellis said.
“He is very sick. But he will try you in twenty minutes.”
“Maybe if we’re going to find him in Fiji anyway, we shouldn’t bother with a deal,” said Benoit.
“Finding Jason and bringing him out without them killing him are two different things,” Chellis replied.
“I suppose you’re right. We just need his work. It doesn’t matter who guards him for the next little while.”
Benoit knew that Samir would make his way to another phone line at a relative’s used only for occasional important calls. It had a scrambler and would not be tapped. She would receive the call through a router from another number outside the building taken in the name of a dead person. It would ring into the office from a relay to a special private line. It had all been swept for interception in the last twenty-four hours. Even if a government tapped the satellite link, the scrambler would disguise voices beyond electronic decoding so that voice-recognition sweeps aimed at either man would not sort the call from the millions of other calls going on between millions of other people. No doubt the government could develop software to detect scramblers, if it hadn’t already done so. But there were so many scramblers that it left a large number of transmissions to be decoded, and no one knew exactly the level of government success in unscrambling these signals.
“I have a feeling the Fiji thing is a good lead,” Chellis said while they waited. “It’s out of the way. Politically I recall it’s controlled by chiefs in fiefdoms. There is no intelligence agency, and like all third-world countries they love foreign money. There’s no dictator to undertake kidnaps and other crap.”
“Maybe. It wouldn’t have been my choice, but maybe.” The call rang through.
“Samir, old friend,” Chellis began. “I understand you’re nervous. I don’t really blame you for taking my scientist. But we both desperately need him to continue his work and he can’t do that without Grace Technologies.”