And Then You Die (14 page)

She stared at him, sick. “Everyone?”

He nodded. “The bacteria entered the central air-conditioning system of the complex that serviced both the laboratories and private quarters of the scientists who worked there. Forty-three men, women, and children.”

“And Esteban had something to do with it?”

“Oh, yes. We didn't know who was responsible at the time but we found out later that Esteban had one of the scientists on the island in his pay. Jennings smuggled out various bacteria to Esteban, who then sold them to Saddam Hussein. But Ramsey started sniffing out what was going on, so Esteban needed to destroy evidence and stop the investigation in its tracks. Jennings planted the bacteria before he took off and went into hiding. It was too dangerous for Ramsey to send anyone to the island to continue the investigation. Nakoa will be a wasteland for the next fifty years.”

Men, women, children––they all died because of Esteban. “Why didn't I ever hear about it?”

“We covered it up. It wasn't too difficult. It was a top secret installation and nobody wanted to admit it existed anyway.”

“A cover-up?”

“You're horrified? I know how you hate them. But I'd do it again. We didn't know who was responsible and we had to find out. It took me three years to make the connection to Esteban. I tracked Jennings until I found him in Libya. Before he died he led me to Esteban and Habin.”

“Were you one of those scientists who worked on Nakoa?”

“Yes.”

“But you lived.”

“I was in Washington, giving a report. It was all over by the time I got back. Ramsey met me in Tahiti to break the news.”

His voice was level, without emotion. He might have been talking about the stock report, but the indifference was a lie. She knew him better than that now. “I'm sorry.”

“You don't have to be sorry. It was a long time ago. I was a different man.”

“Bullshit.”

He smiled faintly. “You don't believe me?”

“I believe you protect yourself by denial just like the rest of us.”

“Maybe you're right,” he said wearily. “I know it's getting harder all the time to know what's right and what's wrong. It used to be much simpler. Getting Esteban was right. Everything else was wrong.” He looked into her eyes. “And that's the way you feel now, isn't it?”

“Yes, that's the way I feel.”

“Let me give you a hypothetical question. If, in order to kill Esteban, Josie has to die too, would you let it happen?”

“Don't be crazy. You know I wouldn't.”

“Then you're not nearly as bad as I was. At one time I would have let anyone on earth die to make sure I got Esteban.”

She shook her head. “No, you wouldn't.”

“Your faith is touching but misplaced. First, I was the devil incarnate and now––”

“Good God, I'm not saying you're an angel. You're just not a monster. And neither am I. Esteban is the monster.”

“I hope you're right.”

“Count on it.”

She strode to her bedroom and shut the door behind her. She needed to shower and go to bed and close out everything. She hadn't needed Kaldak's story to cap off this horror of a day. But she had asked for it. No, she had demanded it. She had needed to know. Why had it been so important to her?

Probably simple curiosity. Kaldak was an important and integral part of her life just then. He was helping to keep her alive. Surely it was natural for her to want to know what made him tick.

Kaldak spread the photographs out on the table.

It was like trying to identify somebody at a masquerade ball.

A clown in full makeup, the musician with the wig and fiddle, the old bag lady with the thick veil. Even one of the teenagers was wearing a Darth Vader mask.

It could be one of them or none of them. How the hell was he to know?

Study them. A body position, an expression might trigger a fleeting memory.

He sat down at the table and began to study the pictures.

CDC, Atlanta

“Go take a nap, Ed.”

Ed Katz looked up to see Donovan standing beside him. “I will. I just want to run one more test. I don't know what the hell is wrong. The anthrax should be overwhelmed by those antibodies, but it's not.”

“You said the first test was promising.”

He nodded. “But the second showed mega resistance.”

“Let me run the test for you. You haven't had any sleep for the last twenty-four hours. What good's a team if you don't use the teammates?”

“Soon.”

“Marta called and told me to make you eat and rest. Do you want to get me in her bad graces?” Donovan glanced down at Ed's microscope. “And I have to admit I want to get my hands on this baby. It's interesting that they used cash to deliver the bacteria.”

Interesting.
Donovan was always objective. Ed had been like that once. Science for science's sake. It was a comfortable way to work. That comfort had gone down the drain when he'd been sent out in the field during those first years of HIV research. He had learned to put faces and voices to the death statistics. HIV had seemed to be everywhere. Those babies infected by an untested blood supply had nearly destroyed him. He and Marta had been trying to have a child for the last nine years and he had felt the pain of the parents of those babies. “Yeah, very interesting. How would you like a few of those twenties stuffed in your pay envelope?”

“Hey, don't give me a hard time just because you're beat. I didn't mutate this anthrax.”

“Sorry.”

“You should be. Call me if you need me.” Donovan walked away.

Ed shouldn't have barked like that. Donovan was a good guy. He couldn't help being what he was. Ed was just frustrated because of the lack of progress.

No, because he was scared. What if the antibodies didn't work and this mutated strain had no cure? What if this was the Big One? Ever since HIV had appeared, he'd had nightmares about the Big One, the virus or bacteria that couldn't be stopped. Someday it would rear its ugly head in some rain forest or genetics lab. It was only a matter of time. It was out there somewhere.

He just hoped to hell it wasn't on this slide in front of him.

Thirteen

“Esteban went to Cheyenne. Perez said he got a call from Morrisey before he took off,” Ramsey told Kaldak on the phone the next morning. “I've sent two extra agents to Cheyenne to see if they can track him down.”

Morrisey again. “I doubt if Esteban's still there. He would never have left a loose thread like Perez hanging if he'd thought Perez could hurt him. Have you found out anything new about Morrisey?”

“We traced one of the calls he made five days ago to a motel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We sent an agent to see what we could find out and we got lucky. Morrisey charged the room to a credit card. We may be able to monitor his future actions.”

“You weren't able to trace that last call?”

“No, it was on the portable.”

Brick wall. Esteban was moving and they couldn't even find Morrisey.

“What do you hear from the CDC?” Ramsey asked.

“Progress.”

“That's not enough. The only thing that may save our ass is an antidote. She should be made available to them.”

“She is available to them. I'm sending them a sample every day.”

“Which will stop if you get her killed. She was out on the street yesterday, for God's sake.”

“And she'll be out today.”

“How long do you think I'll permit this, Kaldak? She's too valuable for you to––”

“Call me when you hear about Morrisey.” Kaldak hung up the phone.

“Morrisey?” Bess was standing in the doorway.

“Esteban took off after receiving a call from him. The last report we have is that he went to Cheyenne.”

“Then what are we doing here?”

“He won't be there any longer. Our best bet is finding Morrisey and squeezing the information out of him.”

“If he knows anything. You said Esteban seldom confided anything to anyone.”

“Morrisey knows the job he was given. That's a start.”

“Did you recognize anyone in those photos?”

He shook his head.

“Then I'm going to go out and take more.”

“It may not do any good.”

“And it may.” She grimaced. “At least, I'll feel like I'm doing something. I hate just marking time.”

“You don't find being bait entertaining? Ramsey's very interested in the entire process. He wants to put you in a nice sterile cell and throw away the key.”

“Screw Ramsey.”

“My thought exactly.” He stood up. “Twenty minutes. You show yourself, you take a few photos, and then we come back.”

“And I make sure that no one brushes against me.”

“I'm not as worried about close quarters now that I know it's De Salmo. He prefers a knife or a gun, and a gun isn't subtle enough in these circumstances. I'd bet on the knife.”

“How reassuring.” She moved toward the darkroom. “I'm glad
you're
not worried. I'll be right back. I need to get more film.”

Oh, no, he wasn't worried. He was terrified and had been every second of that trip to the camera store the previous day. He didn't know how much longer he could go on with this.

The streetlight cast shadows on the brick wall, shadows that looked vaguely like hunched gargoyles.

Interesting, Bess thought. She must have stared out this window across the street a hundred times. Why had she never noticed that effect before? Maybe she hadn't wanted to see gargoyles that close by.

She held the camera up to her eye and focused.

“What are you doing?” Kaldak asked from behind her. “Do you see someone?”

“A gargoyle.”

“What?”

“Only a shadow across the street. But it's too good to miss.”

“I told you never to stand directly in front of a window.”

“I forgot.” She stepped to one side.

“I would have thought you'd taken enough photos for one day. You were in the darkroom all afternoon.”

“I have to do something or I'll go crazy.”

“I can sympathize. I'm close to that point myself. You really missed that camera.”

“Yes.” She turned to look at Kaldak sitting in the easy chair across the room. He was in shirtsleeves, his long legs stretched before him. He should have looked relaxed, but he didn't. The edge was still there. She had never seen him really relaxed. “But no more than I would my eyes.”

“Or an old friend.”

She nodded.

“Don't you ever look at anything without seeing it through the lens of a camera?”

“Sometimes. Not often, I guess. Even when I don't have my camera, it's not unusual for me to see things as if I were taking the shot. Emily said––” She stopped. So many things in her life led back to Emily. “She used to laugh and say I was obsessed.”

“Are you?”

“Maybe. Okay, I guess I am. There are times when it's worse than others.” The gargoyles seemed taller now, more Gothic. Had the light changed? She took another shot. “I know I felt naked when I didn't have it.”

“No armor?”

She looked at him. “What?”

“Doesn't taking the photos distance you from the situation? Keep the pain away?”

“Distance me?”

His gaze was fixed intently on her face. “When do you do it most often, Bess? When do you distance yourself?”

“I don't know.”

“The bad times? Danzar? Tenajo?”

“Maybe.” She frowned. “Back off, Kaldak. I don't need you to psychoanalyze me.”

“Sorry, it's just habit. You're right, it's none of my business. And I didn't mean to intimate there was anything wrong with putting up barriers. We all do. I just found it interesting that you use a camera.”

“And what do you use?”

“Anything I can. I improvise.”

“It's not just a barrier. I
like
what I do.”

“I know. Forget what I said. Actually, I envy you.”

But she wouldn't forget what he had said. He was sharp and perceptive and annoyingly right too often. She had the sudden desire to disconcert him. She lifted the camera. “Smile, Kaldak.”

She smiled herself as she caught the look of surprise on his face. It was deliciously satisfying to catch Kaldak off guard.

“Again.”

Focus.

Shoot.

“May I ask what you're doing?”

“Taking your picture. You're a very interesting subject.”

It was true. Through the lens of the camera his face was a fascinating mixture of boldness and subtlety. She wished she had the proper lighting to shadow those cheekbones.

“Because I'm so pretty? Or do you feel the need to compare gargoyles?” He smiled sardonically and waved his hand. “Be my guest, if you want to risk that new camera. I've been known to break them.”

He was relaxing just a little; the tenseness flowed out of his muscles as she watched. It was odd. She had never been able to look at Kaldak with any objectivity before. From their first meeting, every moment had been colored with a wild range of emotion––anger, fear, frustration . . .

The hand he'd waved was big, well formed, she thought absently. Like the rest of him. Muscular thighs, narrow waist, broad shoulders.

Power and grace and sexuality.

She almost dropped the camera.

Sexuality? Where had that come from?

“Something wrong?” Kaldak's gaze had narrowed on her face.

“Nothing.” She hurriedly lowered the camera, turned away, and headed for the darkroom.

She was feeling safe. So safe that she was even going out on the street, Esteban thought.

And De Salmo was doing nothing about it. He was only giving excuses.

She was trying to show him that her sister's death meant nothing to her. He knew it had affected her. She had collapsed at the funeral home. Yet there she was, going out, taking pictures, when she should be hiding, terrified. She was taunting him. The thought enraged him.

It wasn't to be tolerated.

The phone was ringing when Bess and Kaldak walked into the apartment the next day.

“Did you enjoy the funeral, Bess?”

Shock rippled through her. “Esteban.”

Kaldak moved swiftly toward the kitchen.

“I'm sorry I missed it, but I was represented by one of my employees. He said you held up very well at the crypt.”

“You son of a bitch.” Her voice was shaking. “You killed her.”

“I told you I did. You should have believed me. But then I'd have been cheated of the pleasure of presenting you with such an exquisite gift. Unfortunately she was a little worse for wear, wasn't she? What did you think when you saw––”

“Shut up.”

“You're upset. But then, what can you expect from Mother Nature? It was hot. We know about that heat, don't we? You must have gotten very hot running through those hills.”

“But we got away from you. You lost, you bastard.”

“Not because of you. You're only a woman. I would have gotten you if it hadn't been for that helicopter. Are you listening in, Kaldak?”

“Yes,” Kaldak said.

“I thought you would be. You're taking very good care of her. But it's not going to do you any good. I'll still get her. The bitch isn't going to stop me, but she has annoyed me. However, to show my forgiving nature I've sent her another present.”

Bess's hand tightened on the receiver. “Why don't you come and give it to me yourself?”

“I'm otherwise occupied, and you're not that important.”

“The hell I'm not. You wouldn't be calling if you weren't scared shitless.”

“There's a trash can one block away. Your present is on top.”

He hung up.

Kaldak was already out of the kitchen and heading for the front door. “Stay here. I'll get it.”

“I'm going with you.”

“He may be setting you up.”

“Then you keep me safe, dammit. I'm going with you.”

“You put one foot out that door and I swear I'll knock you down. I'll send an agent to get the damn thing.”

He ran down the stairs, and the street door slammed behind him. He was back in seconds. “He'll be here in a couple of minutes. He's going to set the box inside and then go back to his post. Now, you stay put.”

It was a long two minutes before the agent set the cardboard box inside the door.

She stared down at it.

“Don't touch it. Back away. I'll call the bomb squad,” Kaldak said.

“It's not a bomb. He'd know that would be your first thought.” She moistened her lips. “I made him angry. This isn't meant to kill me.” She reached down for the box. “He wants to hurt me.”

He knocked her hand aside. “I'll do it.” He carefully lifted the lid.

Inside was a white cotton shirt, a child's shirt with a school insignia on the pocket. Julie's school. Bess had seen her wear that shirt many times.There was a dark red stain beneath the pocket.

Blood. Fear rocked through her. “Julie.”

“Steady.” Kaldak's hand was on her arm. “This is what he wants.”

“That's Julie's shirt.”

“But Julie wouldn't have taken a uniform shirt on a camping trip, would she?”

The relief that flooded her was so intense, her knees felt weak. “No. She never wore it except to school.”

“Then he had someone go in and get it from Emily's house. He doesn't have her, Bess. He didn't hurt her.”

Yet. Esteban's threat lay between them like a burning brand. First Emily, and now her daughter.

“She's out of his reach. And we have a man waiting at the ranger station. Esteban won't be able to get at her.”

But how long would she remain out of his reach?

Kaldak was urging her gently away from the box. “I'll send the shirt out and get the stain analyzed. It's probably animal blood.”

“No, it's human blood. He wouldn't make it that easy for me.”

“It's not Julie, Bess. He just wanted to show you that you aren't out of his reach here. You could let me take you to that safe house and we'd––”

“I know what he wanted to do,” she said. And he had succeeded. This latest obscenity had frightened and hurt her. “His damn ego is hurt because he can't manage to kill a ‘mere' woman.” Anger ripped at her. “Well, screw him.”

“You won't go?”

“And let him win? Let him know that he scared me enough to make me run away? I'm glad I'm making him angry. Maybe if he gets annoyed enough, he'll come himself. You find out why that agent who's supposed to be guarding Emily's house let that shirt be taken. And make sure there's more than one of Ramsey's men at that ranger station.”

“You didn't have to tell me that.”

“Yes, I did. Nothing's going to happen to Julie and Tom.” Oh, God, the blood on that shirt . . . “Do you hear me?”

“I hear you,” he said quietly. “I'll call Ramsey and chew him out for letting this happen.”

She nodded jerkily. “Be sure to tell him––”

“I know what to tell him.”

Of course he did. “I'm sorry, it's just––”

“It's just that you're so damn stubborn, you won't let me take you away from this town even though you're scared to death,” he said roughly.

She was scared. Until a few minutes before, anger and numbness had shielded her like armor. But Esteban had pierced that armor and let the fear come in.

“It's not Julie's blood,” Yael said when he called the next morning. “We got her blood type from her doctor and it doesn't match.”

She felt a burst of relief. “Thanks, Yael.”

“It must have been an ugly surprise. Are you okay?”

“Just mad.” And frightened. She was still frightened. “As you say, it was ugly.” She hung up the phone and turned to Kaldak. “No match.” She put on her jacket and reached for her camera. “Let's go.”

“You're going back out there?”

“Nothing's changed.”

He looked at her.

“He's not going to know that he upset me.” She headed for the door. “I'm not going to give him that victory.”

More pictures.

She hadn't singled him out, but she must have five or six photographs of him now.

It shouldn't matter. Who was going to recognize him?

It did matter. He had made sure no pictures had been taken of him since he had become Marco De Salmo. Photographs were dangerous. People remembered a face when they couldn't remember anything else, and all kinds of technical things could be done to photographs these days.

Would she ever stop taking those fucking pictures! He'd thought he'd be able to take her out sooner, but Kaldak was always there, watching. He hadn't been able to get near her, and Esteban was getting impatient. He should probably go back to his first plan and hit the apartment.