Extrasensory (32 page)

“Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, man. You just have no idea.
No idea.
Jesus, Dan, it’s a gold mine.”

Dan had to exert every ounce of self-control not to shout at Andy over the connection. “Andrew. Will you get your act together and tell me what you’ve got? And how you got it?”

Across the connection he heard Andy draw in a breath and let it out. “You can thank the wonderful Dragon. And a guy I’ve been exchanging programming with for years.”

Andy paused and Dan could almost see him vibrating with suppressed energy.

“Okay,” he told him. “Pull yourself together. Start from the beginning.” But Dan was having a hard time slowing down himself.

“First, I put out a call to people who work with paranormal stuff and got some help from them.”

“Andy. Please tell me you didn’t tell them what you were working on.” Dan felt his heart freeze in his chest.
Jesus! If word of this gets out…

“No. Dan. Do you think I’m that stupid? These people don’t even know where I work. No one does. Ask anyone who ever emailed with me. They still think I work in some closet and all my clients are on Planet Cyberspace.”

“Fine. I’m sorry. Go on.”

“I just asked if anyone out there had written programs for paranormal interpretations. That I had a special project for myself. Please, please, please. Please believe me.”

“Andy. Yes. All right. Calm down.” Dan made his voice steady. “I believe you. Just tell me what you found out.”

“Anyway, what I’m going to tell you is so wild. Do you know there’s this whole worldwide network of people with psychic abilities? They have their own website and everything. These people live everywhere. They communicate all the time and assist each other in interpreting and using their psychic gifts. There’s like hundreds of thousands of people involved. It all goes back to something called The Lotus Circle.” Dan’s body tensed. “Yes, as a matter of fact I have heard of it. And I’m becoming more and more familiar with it. Why?”

“See, this guy in Wisconsin? His aunt’s involved in this. So is he. They’re both precognitive, like Mia. So he wrote a program to help them when they can’t interpret their visions. He also created a database that people all over the world use to list visions they’ve already interpreted. For comparisons, you know?”

Holy shit! This has to be the mother of all coincidences.

“Andy, did he tell you where his aunt lives, by any chance?”

“Yeah. Somewhere in Texas. But Texas is such a big state I didn’t think anything of it. Why?”

“I think your friend’s aunt is one of the women helping Mia. Faith introduced them through
her
aunt.”

“Oh, my God. You’re kidding, right? This is too unbelievable. Just freaking unbelievable.”

Dan waited but when all he heard was silence, he said, “Andy? Are you still there?”

“Oh, sorry. Just trying to digest this cosmic event. So. Okay. He sent me his program, I tweaked it some, attacked the database and voilà! Results!” Dan swallowed his impatience. “We don’t have unlimited time here. Are you ever going to tell me what you found out?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry. Okay. It’s a boat. She’s dreaming about a boat.”

“A boat?” Dan felt his eyebrows shoot up. “Why is she dreaming about a boat?”

“Because that’s where your robot is. It’s already been stolen and it’s on a boat.” Dan shook his head, then stopped, realizing Andy couldn’t see him. “That’s absurd.

I saw a demonstration myself after Stan Forbush’s murder. The real thing is under lock and key. With two sets of our folks guarding it and a failsafe biometric ID system for the actual chamber where Oscar is.”

“I don’t care what you saw. Somehow you’ve been fooled. And not only that, I know where the boat is!”

“What?”

“What did he say?” Rick asked, unable to keep quiet any longer.

Dan held up his hand and mouthed, “One minute.” Then he said into the phone,

“Okay Andy. I’m taking it you’ve saved the best for the last. Where is it? What’s the location of this boat?”

“Slip one five seven, Blockhouse Marina, Galveston, Texas.”

“Holy shit.” He glanced at Rick. “You won’t believe this when I tell you.” Then he turned his attention to Andy again. “When I get back to Baltimore you can tell me exactly how you did this. For now, I don’t suppose you can email me a map or anything.”

“Already on its way. Check your laptop
and
your BlackBerry.”

“One more question. Do you happen to know who owns the boat?” Andy’s sigh carried over the connection. “Working on it. I’m tracing the slip rental but I have to wade through a bunch of shell corporations. Someone’s really covering their tracks. I didn’t want to call the marina manager and say something I shouldn’t. I figure you could handle it much better than me.”

“I’m on it. But keep doing what you’re doing. And call me anytime you get anything.”

“Where will you be?” Andy asked.

“Rick and I will be on the way to Galveston together. But first I’m going to the hospital again.”

He clicked off and related everything to Rick, whose jaw dropped as he listened.

“But that’s incredible. Jesus, the kid is a fucking genius.”

“Yeah. I can imagine the raise he’ll hit us up for after this.” Dan opened his email on the laptop, found the message from Andy and printed out the map and directions. “I don’t want to say anything to Chase yet, just in case we’re wrong He’ll freak out and that’s the last thing we need.”

“He’ll be looking for you,” Rick pointed out. “How will you explain your absence?”

“I’ll call him and set up a meeting for late tomorrow afternoon. Tell him we have some leads we want to run down but we’ll be back in time to be sure everything’s set security-wise for Friday.”

“All right. And I’ll keep going over the rest of the stuff Andy sent until you get back from the hospital.”

“Oh and call Mark. Bring him up to speed but I think tell him to keep this strictly to himself until we have something concrete.”

“Got it.” He paused. “I’ll say prayers for you and Mia.”

Dan swallowed the lump in his throat. “Thanks, buddy.” Then he called Faith to tell her he was on his way.

* * * * *

“Everything still quiet?” Dan asked the two guards stationed at Mia’s door.

“Still the same, boss,” one of them answered. “One of us always goes in whenever a nurse or doctor is in there, after we check them out first. And of course, Mrs. Halloran never leaves her alone.” He laughed. “I think we make them nervous. She’s getting the royal treatment.”

“Good,” Dan bit off. “They’d better be on their toes.”

Faith, still in her guard dog position, smiled at him when he walked in. “You got here just in time. I was afraid you’d be too late.”

“Too late for what?” Dan tensed.

“We have a little surprise for you.” She glanced over at Mia.

“Hi.”

The voice was so raw he almost didn’t recognize it but when he looked at the bed Mia’s eyes were open and she was trying to smile. He was at her side at once, carefully taking the hand on her uninjured side. He had to blink back the tears threatening to leak from his eyes.

“Hi, honey.” He kissed her knuckles. “You gave us a big scare here.” She wet her lips. “Sorry.”

“No. I’m sorry. I’m the one who let you get shot.”

She shook her head once, wincing at the pain the movement caused. “Not…your fault.”

“She woke up on her own about half an hour ago,” Faith told him. “She’s had some ice chips and swallowed them with no problem.”

Dan felt his heart kick into triple time, then settle back to a reasonable beat.

Thank you, God.

“The doctor’s been in several times to check on her,” Faith went on. “He was very pleased when she woke up. He says her vital signs are good and he’s satisfied with her condition, all things considered.”

“She’s tough,” Dan said, pride in his voice. “But I was afraid it would take more than toughness to pull her out of this.”

“She’ll only be awake for a little bit. They just upped the morphine drip. I wasn’t sure when you’d be back and hoped she’d still be awake when you got here.”

“Wanted…see you.”

Mia’s voice was so weak but it was sweet music to his ears.

“Listen.” Faith rose and picked up her purse. “While you’re here I’m going downstairs to get something to eat. I spoke to Mark a while ago and he’s still tied up with the task force, so I’m just going to hang out here.”

“Did he call you?”

She smiled. “In a manner of speaking.”

Of course, he chided himself. With mental telepathy these two didn’t need normal means of communication.

“I can’t thank you enough,” he said. “I know hospital sitting can be pretty tiring.” She smiled at Mia. “Not for this terrific lady. I’m happy to do it. Besides, if it weren’t for you guys, Mark might never have made it out of Peru alive. I owe you big-time.”

Impulsively Dan, a man not given to expressions of emotion, reached out and hugged her. “Thanks, anyway.”

When Faith left, Dan leaned down and kissed Mia very gently. “I have very good news for you.”

“Good. Could…use some.”

“Andy deciphered your visions.”

Her eyes widened.

Dan grinned at her. “The last one handed us the final clue, although I don’t think I’d want another scare like the one you gave us trying to communicate it.” He explained to her in detail what Andy had discovered and what he was still working on.

“We couldn‘t have done it without you, Mia.”

“Maybe…give me…job when…better.” She tried to smile again.

“We might just do that.” He brushed his fingers against her cheek. “You have no idea how much I love you.”

“Love…you too.”

He had to force himself to be content with that as the medication they’d given her just before his arrival began to kick in. Her eyes closed, her eyelashes lying softly on her pale skin. He comforted himself with the knowledge that her breathing was better than the last time he’d been there. He had to trust the doctors when they said she’d passed the crisis.

She just looked so fragile lying there, dwarfed by her bandages and surrounded by all the machinery. Somewhere in the back of his mind he’d thought someday he’d fall in love and create a personal life for himself. But a someday that had always been far off in the future. He hadn’t expected it to hit him like a bolt out of the blue. First there had been his long commitment to the Marines. Then building Phoenix with his partners and trolling for private and government contracts.

There was always something, with short side trips for R&R—sex with no commitments. Now he wanted that commitment, wanted it for the rest of his life. He realized suddenly at forty-three if he turned his back on it now it might never come to him again. God or the Fates or the cosmic universe had handed him this chance and he was grabbing it as tightly as he could.

He sat holding Mia’s hand until Faith returned. Then he knew it was time to leave.

“I’ll have Mark get hold of you,” he told her.

She nodded. “Good luck.”

He kissed Mia one last time.

* * * * *

Dan called Rick on his way out of the hospital to give him a heads-up. The other man was waiting for him at the back entrance to their hotel when he got there, carrying a briefcase stuffed with papers.

“I can fill you in on the way,” he said, getting into the SUV. “Mark just called again.”

“And?”

“Someone who’s a friend of Nate Wilson’s—God, I didn’t think people like him had friends—anyway, whoever it was called the police station and got routed to the task force. He said the night before he was killed, Nate was bragging about coming into a whole lot of money. More than he’d ever seen.”

“I don’t suppose he told the cops who he might be getting it from,” Dan said, a wry note in his voice.

“Yeah, right. But he did say it was a couple. That Nate kept referring to ‘he’ and

‘she’.”

“If we’re convinced someone at the top at Carpenter is doing this, that means the lovely, angelic Joy is in it up to her rotten neck.”

“If,” Rick repeated. “We still have to prove it. And who do you think the guy would be?”

Dan snorted. “Obviously not Stan Forbush. He was a sacrificial lamb. Although they needed him for something. But what?”

“We’ll get to that. So that leaves Lucas or Ladd and Lucas is the one she has a history with.”

Dan frowned. “But why screw his own company? I mean, sure he gets a bundle free and clear but think how much more he could make through the contracts they’ll get.”

“Who knows what tempts people? We see it all the time. There’s probably a lot we still don’t know. Anyway, Adam and Holcomb are both searching records to see if any of the three owns a twenty-two. The guy with the sniper rifle might be a little harder but we’re still working on it.”

“What about the companies we targeted as most likely to make this kind of a move?”

“Three popped up with the requisite characters. Each of them has a female executive pretty high up the chain. And each is hurting for a big splash.”

“Let’s cross our fingers and hope a trace shows up somewhere. Remember, whoever owns it could very easily have acquired it illegally. Or ‘lost’ it. Or whatever.

Right now we’re just digging in a very large haystack.”

“Jesus. This just gets better and better.” Dan shook his head. “Much as I hate to admit it, my gut still tells me it’s the folks at Carpenter. Too hard for someone on the outside to get in and kill Stan, dope our guys and do some of the other stuff. On the other hand, someone really, really smart could figure it out too.” He wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel. Proof. They needed proof. With any luck, that’s what they’d find in Galveston.

* * * * *

Located three hours from San Antonio, about forty minutes south of Houston, the city of Galveston was like a diorama of a small Southern town. It had also been the site of the worst natural disaster in the country when a hurricane swept through it 1900.

More than seven thousand people were killed.

But the city had picked itself up and rebuilt itself. Loaded with excellent restaurants and a variety of entertainment choices, it was one of the prime tourist attractions in a state with an abundance of them. Its thirty-two miles of beaches had sprouted marinas like a chicken laying eggs. Whether at a yacht basin, a sailing school, or just a private home for luxury boats, hundreds of vessels bobbed in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.