Blind (14 page)

“What danger?” said Gaia. “If those bozos are watching me every minute, I'm already in about as much danger as I can get. Anyway, the e-mail was part of the plan.”

George looked like he was about to issue another warning, but he stopped. “What plan??” he asked. “What is this idea of yours?”

“I want to arrange a meeting with my uncle. Drag him out in the open and trap him.”

“Trap him how?” asked George.

“I don't know that part yet.” Gaia pushed her hair back from her face and looked out at the people passing by on the sidewalk. “He must be wanted for something….”

“Yes…,” George said slowly. “I think you could say that the intelligence community would like to have a very long discussion with Mr. Loki.”

Gaia nodded. “Then that's it. I arrange for a meeting
with my uncle. You arrange to have the CIA standing by.” With that, Gaia put her hand on the door handle and started to get out of the car.

George leaned across the seat and grabbed her left arm. “Wait!” he said. “There's something else I need to talk to you about.”

Gaia eased back into her seat. “What?”

“Remember when I told you that someone your father trusts is passing his information on to Loki?”

“That doesn't worry me,” Gaia said. “My father doesn't trust anybody.”

George pressed his lips into a thin line. “He trusts Natasha enough to watch his only daughter.”

Gaia stared at him. “You think Natasha is a spy for Loki?”

“We're not sure,” George said with a shrug. “However, she seems to be the most likely candidate.” His expression softened. “Gaia, come back with me. I'll keep you safe until we can think of the next move.”

“No.” Gaia put her hand to the door again, and this time she climbed out before George could make any move to stop her. She leaned back through the door. “You get ready to take down Loki. I have to keep an eye on Natasha. If she really is a spy, I'll find out.” She closed the door of the sedan and walked quickly away.

JOSH TAPPED THE GLASS AND SCOWLED at the unmoving mouse. “This thing's really okay?”

“So far, all indications are that the treated mouse is fine,” replied Dr. Glenn. “It's only fearless. That much was completely true.”

Josh worked to make sure his voice stayed level. Uninterested. “And it will be the same with the girl, right? She'll be fearless but unharmed.”

“That's what we're hoping for. Why? Are you concerned for this Heather person?”

“I …” Josh shook his head. “Of course not. I'm just curious.” He tapped the glass again. “And bored. Does His Bossiness always have to be late?”

Dr. Glenn stood behind him with his hands shoved down into the pockets of his white lab coat and his glasses pushed back on his forehead. “I'm sure that he would tell you that he's never late. Whenever he arrives is the correct time.”

Josh snorted. “Yeah, I'm sure he would.” He gave the glass tank another loud flick with his finger. “That's because he doesn't have to wait around all damn night for someone to show up.”

“Feel free to complain when he gets here,” said Dr. Glenn. “You won't mind if I stand over here and watch? It should be interesting.”

“No, thanks. I'm kind of fond of breathing.”

A door opened at the far end of the room. Josh straightened and turned to face the door as a tall man with short-cropped hair and broad shoulders under a khaki trench coat strolled into the room. “Good evening, sir.”

Loki advanced across the room in four long strides. “I understand that our new subject paid a visit tonight.” He shrugged out of his coat and let it fall. Dr. Glenn darted forward and grabbed the coat before it could touch the ground.

“She was here,” said Josh. “We've showed her the effects and given her the preliminary information. Just as you ordered, sir.”

“That's good. Excellent. And did she immediately agree to participate?”

Josh hesitated. “Uh, no.”

Loki looked at him and raised one eyebrow. “No?”

“Heather … the subject … she wanted some time to think about it. You told me not to press her. To let her think it was her own decision.”

“I did. However, I'd hoped you would be a more effective salesman.” The big man strolled around the room with his hands clasped behind his back. “How would you read her mood? Do you think she's in?”

Josh nodded quickly. “Yes. Absolutely. She's so jealous of the first subject that she'll never be able to resist our offer. By tomorrow she'll be begging to participate.” He gave a nervous smile. “And she's taken the two oral treatments. That's making her a lot
more open to suggestion as well as lowering her normal barriers.”

Loki looked at him for several seconds. Josh had a hard time standing still under the steady gaze of Loki's pale blue eyes. “Then why didn't she agree tonight?”

“Tomorrow,” said Josh. “I'm positive.”

“Good,” Loki said. “I like people who are positive.” He put a hand on Josh's shoulder and applied a pressure that was just one stop away from painful. “Tomorrow will be fine. So long as we have the second subject in the program within forty-eight hours, everything will be fine.”

Dr. Glenn cleared his throat. “We can inject the girl at any time. The phobosan can be even delivered by dart if need be.”

“No,” Loki said sharply. “The subject has to think it's her own idea. That's critical.” Loki released his grip on Josh's shoulder and returned to his restless pacing around the room. “She has to think that she already contained the seeds of fearlessness before she took the treatment.”

Josh shook his head. “I don't understand why it's so important what everybody thinks.”

“Hearts and minds,” said Loki. “Hearts and minds.” He tapped a finger against the side of his head. “If you really want to control people, you have to control how they
think.
We convince Heather that we can make her fearless through drugs. We plant information that convinces Gaia that she is fearless because of genetics.
It doesn't matter what they believe as long as they stay away from the truth.”

“And what is the truth?” asked Josh.

Loki stopped in front of the tank where the cat and the mouse still waited on opposite sides of the glass plane. “The truth isn't important. What's important is keeping Gaia and your little friend in doubt. Doubt is the enemy of power.”

Loki's even white teeth showed through in a thin smile. “Trust me.” He pointed at the mouse and turned his head to look at Josh. “This is one of ours?”

Josh nodded. “Full treatment,” he said. “That's the one we used in our demonstration to the new subject.”

“Oh, really?” Loki looked at the mouse for a moment longer, then he grabbed the top of the glass barrier and pulled it from the cage.

The mouse didn't react. It stood where it had been all evening, its fine whiskers twitching in the air. Fearless. The cat stood for only a second, then it crouched down and leaped. There was a short squeal and a crunch as the mouse was caught in the cat's sharp incisors.

Loki laughed. “Perfect,” he said. “Perfect.” He let the glass barrier clatter on the countertop and spun to face Josh once again. “Never forget: fear is and always has been a survival instinct.”

Everything had changed, only not really. The goals were still same: Stop Loki, get a life.

GAIA SLID HER KEY INTO THE LOCK as softly as possible, eased open the door, and slipped into the apartment. She'd already come to terms with the fact that her little escape fantasy would have to be postponed. In the meantime she had some information to gather.

The entranceway was dark and quiet. A soft gleam of light came from the kitchen, and a table lamp lent a pool of light to the top of the stairs. All the other rooms, including the bedrooms, were dark.

She did a quick, quiet circuit through the rooms on the first floor. No annoying Tatiana in the living room. No traitor Natasha in the kitchen. Only nice, empty, quiet rooms.

Upstairs was more of the same. Gaia poked her head into each bedroom and bathroom. No one. She leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs.
If this place was like this all the time, I might actually like it here.

An overly ornate clock on the wall began a series of soft musical chimes. Eleven. How could it only be eleven? Considering everything that had happened, she thought eleven seemed awfully early. Still, what were Tatiana and Natasha doing out so late? Natasha was probably still working. Or if George was right, maybe she was out meeting with Loki. There was little
doubt about what Tatiana was doing. Tatiana was out with Ed.

Most of the blame for the Ed and Tatiana connection was solidly in the bony lap of a little Russian girl. All those big-eyed looks and the bumbled English. Little touches on the arm. Laughing at jokes that were way short of funny. Gaia had never seen anyone deliver such a full-court flirt. But that didn't mean Ed got off with zero blame. How could he mean the things he had said to Gaia, then turn around and spend his nights with Tatiana? True, Gaia had pushed him away, but that didn't make it right. He should have waited.

Waited for hell to freeze over or Gaia Moore's life to make sense, whichever came first.

Gaia pushed herself away from the wall. All right, the Russian royalty was out making time with the serfs. How best to take advantage of this breach in Kremlin security?

The first target was Natasha's closet. She found a collection of business clothes, a couple of formal gowns, and a surprising number of shoes—weren't they supposed to be short on stuff in Russia? But there was nothing that would tie Natasha to Loki.

Next Gaia went through the dresser. The first two drawers there held no surprises. The third held a gun.

Gaia lifted the weapon and studied it in the light.
Revolver. Thirty-eight caliber. The pistol was small but heavier than she would have thought. Gaia's father had taught her to handle weapons when she was eight. She wielded a gun capably. It had been a while, but Gaia was sure that she could still put five rounds in a three-inch pattern, or reload a spent shell, or fieldstrip an M-16 if the situation came up. That didn't mean she liked guns.

Gaia fingered the release and flipped open the side of the revolver. It was loaded. Five shells and an empty chamber under the hammer. That was a sensible precaution to cut down on accidents. Not that keeping a loaded revolver in your dresser could be described as anything like sensible.

There were some additional bullets in a small cardboard box in the same drawer where Gaia had found the gun—another good sign that Natasha hadn't been thinking of safety when she'd stashed the gun here. She'd wanted access to a weapon, and she'd wanted it quickly. Both the gun and the ammo were American made. Neither of them proved that Natasha was working with Loki. But they were definitely suspicious. As far as Gaia knew, a loaded revolver wasn't exactly standard equipment for a UN translator.

She flipped the gun closed and put it carefully back into its nest of lace underwear and woolen
socks. There was nothing so interesting in the next drawer or in the bottom drawer. Gaia went on to the table beside the bed. She found a couple of fat novels waiting there in the table drawer. One English. One Russian. You couldn't fault Natasha for staying in practice.

Gaia put the novels back into the drawer and started to close it, but it was reluctant to shut. She pulled open the drawer, rearranged the books, and tried again. Still no luck. Something was blocking the drawer. Gaia flattened out her hand and stuck her fingers far back into the drawer, reaching around the edges. Something was back there, all right, but she could only brush it with her fingertips. She knelt down and looked inside. Metal. A metal box.

Another thirty seconds of fiddling with the drawer got Gaia no closer to reaching the box. So she changed her approach. One sharp pull popped the drawer from its mounting and left it dangling in Gaia's hands. Novels, paper clips, and a worn nail file went thumping to the floor. Gaia tossed the drawer onto the bed and reached her hand into the opening. This time the metal box came out easily. It was small, no more than an inch thick and maybe eight inches long. Gaia opened the hinged lid and looked inside.

Bingo.

Envelopes. The box was full of envelopes. Gaia gave them a quick flip through with her thumb. There had to be a dozen of them here, and something was inside each of them. From the way they were hidden, Gaia could guess that she had found Natasha's secret orders.

Gaia opened the first envelope and pulled out the page inside.

Natasha,

I want to thank you again for the time you spent showing me around your city. Though I had visited Moscow many times in the past, I cannot remember any visit nearly so pleasant.

I'd also like to thank you for sharing your memories of Katia. I never knew her as a child, and even as adults our time together seemed far too short. Listening to your stories opened up decades that I knew very little about.

I hope that in time we'll be able to meet again and I'll learn more about Katia's family. These will be wonderful stories to pass on to my daughter.

Sincerely,

Tom Moore

Gaia read through the note again. Not from Loki at all, but from her father. She wondered what kind of
stories Natasha had told about her mother. Natasha had never told any of these stories to Gaia. Neither had her father.

There was no date on the note, but it had obviously been written several months ago. Maybe even years. At the time, Natasha had still been living in Russia, and there was no mention of meeting her in New York. It irritated Gaia to see her father being so friendly with Natasha, but it seemed like a pretty ordinary letter.