Dr. O (9 page)

"Joe —can I call you, Joe?"

"Make it Swish."

"All right, Swish, this is all hush-hush; a leak in the wrong dike and we all drown, you understand?"

She wheeled at the door, staring back at him, her eyes boring into his. "Swish, let's try to put the past behind us."

"You're just trying to play me for a fool, Donna."

"I only have one aim in all this, Joe."

He smirked. "Yeah, to get me into bed."

"To get Ovierto in the neck."

He rushed at her, his eyes blazing. "No matter how you do it? No matter who gets killed, like your pal, Sykes? Or me?"

"You've got all the answers, or so you think. Get your head out of that bottle long enough to smell the blood! This guy's a psycho and he will leave a trail of bodies in your city that—"

"Really?"

"Yes, damnit."

"Is that right?"

"Bank on it. Anyone who gets in his way, anyone he must use hell kill. Hell, he'll kill for the use of a ballpoint pen if it helps him achieve his ends. You may think you are ruthless in your desire to see an end to these two men you've hounded through the years, Swisher, but beside Maurice Ovierto you're a charitable and good citizen of the realm."

"Compliments?"

"Get to Oliguerri as soon as you can."

"Is he on the run?"

"No. He's shaken, but he doesn't know the extent of the danger he is in. Oliguerri, like the other American scientist on Ovierto's hit list, believes it has to do with the Major Government, or possibly the KGB, and that it will not cross the ocean."

He stared, sizing her up. "But it has, hasn't it?"

"The two others—"

"Two others?"

"—met with accidental deaths in the States, but they were Canadian citizens on holiday. Good friends, they were traveling together when they got botulism —or so the death certificates read."

"What did they die of?"

"Rare poison extracted from a mushroom. Very painful death. Seems their waiter was an imposter."

Swisher considered this for a moment. "Maybe it is just coincidence. How do you know otherwise?"

"They were fed poisonous mushrooms. Found on autopsy."

Swisher paced about the room in a small circle, thinking. "So, 111 be as much a surprise to this guy, Oliguerri, as this doctor character?"

"Not quite, but close. We've contacted Oliguerri discreetly to tell him we were talking precautions, just in case."

"I'm to approach him as a Fed?"

"Any way you like. It's Ovierto we're after. Any way that ensures we get Ovierto."

"Hold on. Are you asking me to distance myself and wait for Ovierto to strike this Nigerian guy before I should step in?"

"Your prerogative entirely, Swish."

"Christ, and I thought I was a cold bastard."

"I'd trade six Oliguerris for Ovierto's fuckin' head, you'd-"

"How many Swishers would you trade?"

She slowed down. "All I'm saying is that if you spook Ovierto, we've lost him. Simple as that. And if we lose him, his killing spree will continue."

"Better choice of words, huh?"

She had a look on her face that said slap, but she was too strong for that. She took a deep breath and matched his stare with her own. "Ovierto will smell you, and he will kill you along with Oliguerri if you go near Oliguerri."

"So, bait him with the scientist, bring the bird out in the open, and after Oliguerri is dead, get Ovierto, a nice slug for his brain?"

"However you can get Ovierto, get him."

"Christ, lady, are you as cold as you act?"

"I can be very warm."

"I’ll bet you can."

He went to her, unashamedly attracted to her despite his words, attracted to her callous exterior, wishing to scrape it down, find out what was beneath. He embraced her and she returned his passion with passion, but suddenly she put him off. "Get Ovierto for me, and then... and then I'll come to you."

He smiled wide at this. "It's a deal... a solid deal."

"No one but you and I know about this operation until I can make it stick as official, Joe ...

"Sounds fine to me."

Despite herself, she became angry with him. "Damnit, you don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?"

"Anything happens to you, and we never heard of you." She closed the door on him.

"Standard operating procedure," he had said through the door.

Now here he was, in what amounted to a sterile environment surrounded by pencil-toting, white- coated people with enough optical wear to open a booming franchise. He had learned as subtly as possible where Oliguerri operated, since the building was enormous, going up and up as far as the eye could see. He had stood in the brightly lit lobby, looking up to the pinnacle of the building, a sleek, tall, pyramid. Each floor was littered with greenery in the form of live trees and shrubs which required watering. He had been put to this task as well.

He was looking forward to a break. He was beginning to wonder if Thorpe's information on Ovierto was accurate or not. He had been told that a Sergeant Muro had been trying to get in touch with him, but he wasn't ready to deal with Robyn just yet.

A couple of cleaned floors later, Joe Swisher was beginning to wonder if it hadn't all been a wild goose chase. Thorpe had been known to be wrong in the past. Then someone's footfalls began to approach in the quiet, upper corridors here, where the serious lab work was done and where Ibi Oliguerri and Elena Hogarth were working on something to do with macro-strings and curls in space, which meant absolutely nothing to Swisher. He thought it sounded something like Chef Boyardee microwave- able spaghetti.

He had met Oliguerri only briefly, telling the self- assured black man who he was and why he was here, mainly because it was exactly what Thorpe didn't want him to do. Oliguerri wasn't in the least concerned, but Hogarth had become jumpy at the notion the police were in the building. Oliguerri said they had too much work to concern themselves with such nonsense. Dr. Elena Hogarth reminded him of the deaths of their colleagues in Atlanta. Swisher had wondered why Ovierto had targeted these people and asked them if they knew.

"We can tell you nothing of what goes on in a madman's head," said the African. "It is like the villager who has all good shiny teeth, another villager will want the same teeth, even if he cannot possibly fit them into his head."

Swisher frowned at the little parable, wondering if that was all there was to it, that Ovierto was simply jealous. "Men seem to be killing one another for less and less these days," he had said.

Hogarth was shaken by the talk. "If we're going to work, doctor," she said to Oliguerri, "then let's have at it."

"Is there any other exit from your" lab?" he asked.

"There is a freight elevator at the back for samples," she said.

Swisher thought she was pretty, in a pale, fragile way, but not at all his type. She realized he was staring, pushed her glasses up and dropped her own eyes. "Are you alone, or do you have help, officer?"

"I've got the FBI behind me," he told her as much to reassure himself as her.

"Then he is coming, isn't he?"

"Like a train, ma'am, ahh, Doctor."

"Thank you for your honesty. Until now, no one would answer my calls."

"What about Donna Thorpe?"

"I've been unable to get through to her."

"In Nebraska, you know."

"No, they said she was here, in Chicago. I thought you knew."

"Sonofa —sorry, Dr. Hogarth. No, I didn't know." He had had to admit. They then closed their door on him, looking like a pair of animals hiding in a cave.

And now footsteps were coming toward him, while he pretended to mop the floor, just below the lab where Hogarth and Oliguerri had remained for hours. He looked up, giving his broadest, dumbest smile to the guy in the Commonwealth Edison uniform. The badge said James Early, Electrical Engineer, CEC, but it could just as well be the man of a thousand disguises, Ovierto.

He watched Early's eyes as he opened his mouth to speak. "You Joe Swisher?"

"Who wants to know?"

"Special Agent Jack Harris, FBI—"

"Jesus."

"—Chicago Bureau."

"You guys crawling around the building now, too?"

"I got a call earlier from a friend of yours."

"Is that right? Thorpe send you?"

"No, Thorpe did not send us."

"Who called you then?"

"Your partner."

"Robyn Muro?"

"That's right. Seems Thorpe isn't telling you everything she knows about Ovierto."

"Hell, I knew that from the beginning."

"I mean about the airport incident earlier today."

"Airport incident?"

"O'Hara, one security guard killed and a package left in a locker for Thorpe."

"A package?"

"Another agent, guy named Bateman. It was his head."

"Christ. So, we know for sure he's here, in Chicago."

"Now, I don't think Thorpe's thinking clearly anymore about this maniac, and she's not exactly being... ahhh..."

"Straight with either of us?" Swisher was trying to determine if this guy was interested in moving up a peg on the old FBI ladder, or if he was for real.

"That's it as I see it. She thinks this creep's some kinda superman or something, that he can smell us before he sees us. Anyway, there're four of us in the building and we're using these. Take one." He held out a two-way radio. "Just to keep in touch. Big place we have to cover here."

"You've got to know that he's watching the place, if he's not already inside. He see you come in?"

"Me and another guy came in a Comm Ed truck; two others came in a Coca-Cola truck, uniforms and all."

"Well, thanks for filling me in, and thanks for the backup. What about Inspector Thorpe? Where's she?"

"So far as I know she's back at HQ catching some sleep."

"Sleeps like a baby, I'm sure."

"Cold one, that's for sure."

"Maybe she has to be."

Harris bit his cheek and nodded, "Yeah, maybe. But I was a cop before I was FBI, and in my book, you don't keep secrets from your partners."

Bucking for a promotion, Swisher decided, realizing the "partners" speech was bullshit with this guy. If he were involved in taking Dr. Maurice Ovierto out, Harris would get some gold stars stuck to his forehead. "Look, Swisher, I brought you up some coffee, too." He handed him a small coffee thermos, the remnants of the label still clinging to it.

"Fresh, huh?" he asked.

"I'm covering the East entranceway and the back stairways there. My other guys have the lower floors and the docks. You need anything, just buzz me, pal."

"Sure, sure..."

Swisher watched the tall, good-looking Jack Harris disappear. "Robyn, why am I blessed with you?" he asked the empty corridor, opening the coffee and pouring the hot liquid into the lid. From across the causeway, through the open space that would be a sheer fall of near fifty feet to the lobby, Harris waved from the elevator that took him away.

Swisher was more grateful for the elevator than the coffee.

CHAPTER TEN

Argonne National Laboratories, Eola, Illinois

Dr. Maurice Ovierto entered the front door of Fermilab with the guided tour, doing so for the second time, dressed now as a woman. He had taken great pains to locate Oliguerri and Hogarth, his two intended targets for this evening. The last tour began at five-thirty and ended at six-fifteen. He had taken great caution in putting his plan into effect. In the tour also was Deter Fomichs. Deter was a former asylum patient and a friend. He made eye contact with Deter to register how the other man was doing. He seemed calm and capable, but who knew for sure with a man like Deter. Ovierto had worked hard on the other man all day long, explaining to him how he could become a national hero if he could stop the infiltration of the giant Fermilab by an agent of a foreign government, a spy.

The tour guide's voice droned on about how the space program at NASA had given Americans far- reaching, important discoveries about the atom and atom smashing.

"If you would care to sit here, there will be a short film, explaining what exactly our scientists do here," said the guide.

Ovierto had earlier taken note of all key exits, stairwells, and elevators, as well as doors closed to the public; he had watched the approach and entry of the trucks and deliveries made, and he had noted their schedules. On his previous visit he had remained for hours, just watching. He had particularly liked the timing of the Coca-Cola truck and had since learned that it arrived promptly at six o'clock and was gone by six-thirty-five. It might be useful.

As the others viewed the film, Ovierto quietly left the little movie theater, leaving Deter on his own with orders to shoot anyone who came at him in any threatening way. He would be fine for at least the length of the film, Ovierto believed, some ten minutes, enough time to get to Oliguerri.