Trifecta (50 page)

S
abrina had parked at the Beverly Shopping Mall because
the parking rates were outrageous at Cedars Sinai Hospital.  As they went to her
car, Eve said.  "I've spotted two teams of men following us."

"No shit?"  Sabrina said, alarmed.

"No shit,"  Eve repeated, smiling.  "One
team is probably government agents.  The other is Japanese." 

The women rode the escalators up into the mall. 

"This is frightening,"  Sabrina whispered. 

"I've caught glimpses of the Japanese before, but
they seem more adept than the Americans.  They've already disappeared."

"What can we do?"  Sabrina asked.

"Deactivate one.  Just to see if we can.  And we can
keep the other one as a known agent.  Divide and conquer,"  Eve said.

Sabrina rolled her eyes.

They decided to deactivate the short stocky bulldog, and
keep the other one, a medium guy with medium brown hair, as a known agent.  Eve
and Sabrina parted, each walking in a different direction to split up the agents. 
Divide and conquer, Sabrina thought.  She shook her head.  There was an almost uncontrollable
desire to laugh.  Having Eve around was so much fun.  It was also scary as hell.

The bulldog went after Eve.  She walked quickly until she
got to Brentano's Books and went inside the store.  Convex mirrors stood in the
corners of the store to monitor for shop lifters and Eve stood behind a wall of
books, watching the mirror.  The store was very crowded, which was an advantage. 
With all the foot traffic the man would wonder if he had somehow missed her as time
went by.

It took five minutes for the agent to come inside.  He
moved slowly and seemed to browse, but Eve saw him glance quickly down each of the
aisles.  She stayed at the back of the store and watched him finally start to circle
the perimeter.  He was moving faster now, maybe believing he had lost her. 

Eve jumped out so she was in plain view for a moment and
then hurried through several rows to hide again.  She stayed ahead of the man, guessing
exactly where he was going and occasionally letting him get a glimpse of her. 

It was like playing lethal jungle warfare or hide and seek. 
Almost as exciting as hunting for wild animals.  She had an impulse to smile and
wink at the agent, as she led him inexorably towards the front of the store, where
he would have to follow her to see if she left.

Enough fun and games, Eve thought finally.  Time to make
contact.  The hairs on the back of her neck rose and goose bumps grew on her arms. 
Eve knew she was not in danger and wondered at the body's anticipatory response.
 Her hackles were rising.

As the bulky investigator walked past Eve, she pulled a
book off of a shelf, turned around and stepped into his path, bumping him.  She
stepped on his toes, and elbowed him high in the rib cage.  She was careful not
to hurt him. 

As it was, the man was disabled enough by his injuries
to grab the hurt foot with both hands and make a loud, strangled gasping sound,
while hopping in a tiny circle on the uninjured foot.

Eve turned around.  She tried to look surprised.

"I'm sorry.  I didn't see you.  Are you all right?" 
She took hold of the man's shoulder to help prop him up. 

"I'll be fine."  His voice was strained and his
mean little eyes glared at her with angry suspicion.

"Perhaps you should sit down?"

The man repeated he would be fine.  Eve watched him leave
the store, trying to appear apologetic and appropriately concerned.

Eve found Sabrina waiting for her on the top floor of the
mall where the restaurants and movie theaters were located.  She was sitting with
a cup of coffee.  Eve noticed the 'medium' agent sitting across the mall from Sabrina.

Eve's eyes sparkled and she smiled radiantly as he leaned
forward to whisper.  "The agent is deactivated.  He will be easy to recognize
from now on."

"What happened?"

"I bumped him.  He now moves with a pronounced limp." 

Sabrina had a sudden disquieting premonition that Eve was
going to get them into a lot of trouble.

T
ony Hernandez was an expert in audio and visual taping
equipment.  He waited until Ferd was wheeled out of his hospital room for an electrocardiogram. 
The nurses in ICU watched him close the curtains in the room and wondered what he
was up to.  Rumors were flying; Ferd was a famous celebrity and his real identity
was being hidden.

Tony found that the audio transceiver had been placed too
close to the television set.  Stupid fucking amateurs, he muttered as he took out
the tape.

The video equipment looked like a smoke detector attached
to the ceiling.  He climbed like an agile monkey on top of the bed's side railing
to remove the video tape.  He was quite gung-ho about getting the tapes to Whitcomb. 
He thought that some kind of important meeting had taken place, but he was worried. 
The old guy had turned the television on so loud that Tony didn't believe the audio
tape could have picked up much. 

When he arrived Burgess Whitcomb's office, the chronically
exhausted Willard Modert, told Tony that one of the agents had been deactivated
because he had made contact and was injured.  Tony was panting for more information,
but Ivar and Malcolm came out of Whitcomb's office and he was summoned inside. 
He reluctantly went into Old Hood Eyes' office, without learning any more of the
details.

Tony presented his material.  Whitcomb asked if the noise
from the television could be screened out of the audio tape.  Tony said he would
try. 

While watching the three people in the hospital room on
the miniature video equipment that projected an image on the wall, the only thing
remarkable to Burgess Whitcomb was that when Dr. Steinbrenner introduced the women
to his doctor, he indicated that the redhead was Sabrina.  Maybe they were trading
wigs.  The only sure thing was that the women would have to be brought in for questioning
soon. 

Burgess had instructed his agents to see if they could
figure a pretext to bring the two in.  The proverbial spitting on the sidewalk. 
He had agents checking for criminal activities, even tax evasion, but so far there
was nothing he could use in the past history of Sabrina Miller. 

Whitcomb could always bring in Eve Miller for questioning
because there were no records for her existence.  The FASTFIND Computer network
which integrated data from the IRS, police, social security administration, passport
office, immigration, credit bureaus, unemployment and motor vehicle licensing had
come up with nothing.  That alone would be justification to question her. 

Earlier in the day Burgess Whitcomb had two investigators
covering Ferd's Tanning Salon.  Malcolm's recording, taken the night before, alluded
to a meeting there at noon to destroy some machinery in Dr. Steinbrenner's lab. 
Only Alexander had arrived.  He went into the place briefly, which seemed to signify
Alexander had not known that the whole lab had been demolished the previous night. 

Burgess Whitcomb didn't think the two women could have
done it.  They didn't appear strong enough, even with the help of Mark Ponti. 

One thing was clear.  The destruction at the lab was not
random violence.  There had been no fingerprints found anywhere, which suggested
that professionals had done the job and then wiped it clean.  He wondered if it
had been the Japanese, who had been observed following the women.

F
erd Steinbrenner was drowsing after his electrocardiogram. 
Even sedentary activity left him extraordinarily fatigued.  When he opened his eyes
he saw five Japanese men standing before him in impeccable dark business suites,
alike in appearance as blackbirds.  For a moment he thought he was dreaming the
improbable scene.  They stood there, staring and impassive.

"I see you are awake, Dr. Steinbrenner."

The man speaking had short greying hair, a sharp vertical
line between close set eyes, a large tan mole on his cheek, and ghastly uneven dull
yellow teeth.  He seemed the head of the unlikely contingent. 

The man gave an abbreviated bow.  "My name is Sato
Hashimoto.  I have recently come from Japan to meet you."

All the Japanese nodded and smiled.

"I brought my computer expert with me.  As the head
of Hashimoto International, I do not understand all the technicalities of advanced
computer usage.  Mitsuto is very pleased to meet you."

The youngest of the men smiled and bowed quickly.  Ferd
wondered what this was all about.

Hashimoto continued, "We have learned from your honorable
sons about your breakthrough in computer usage and would like to acquire the components. 
We will look forward to working with you in the future."

Ferd could feel his heart leap and start to pound.  Now
his sons, meaning Alexander of course, had spoken to a Japanese corporation.  Ferd
had a great sense of foreboding, as though a great weight had been added to his
body, pushing him with force into the mattress.  He decided to find out what these
men knew.  He nodded pleasantly.

"Ah, so Alexander has informed you that we would be
coming.  Good.  Then you know that for this new and wonderful scientific breakthrough,
we are willing to invest several hundred million dollars into research and development. 
Of course, you would receive a salary commiserate with your crowning achievement
in science."

A salary? Ferd thought, amused and indignant.

The Japanese men were all tittering and nodding, except
for Sato Hashimoto.  He was looking steadily at Ferd.  His flat eyes resembled those
of a venomous snake.

Ferd stopped smiling.  The tittering ended.

"We are extremely pleased and wish to reach an amiable
agreement.  So we will discuss this very carefully, when you are better.  We do
not want to cause you any exertion at this time.  You may be assured your achievements
will be highly praised and you will receive abundant recompense."

A salary? Ferd wondered just what Alexander had promised
these men.  Maybe he had told them all about his computer.

Ferd felt his heart go into a fast uneven rhythm.  Atrial
fibrillation, he thought, but it was not life threatening.  The numbness he suddenly
felt was in his right arm, which was good, because he knew he wasn't having a heart
attack.  Just fibrillation.  Unfortunately his condition had been progressing so
well that the monitors had been removed.  The ICU staff would not know that he needed
immediate help.  An injection of digoxin to restore his normal heart rhythm, the
doctor inside Ferd prescribed.

"We would like to take the Miller women back to Japan
with us.  To study them."

Alexander had told them everything.

"And, of course, you would be the head of the research
team.  Our corporation will buy the rights to your computer components.  Would it
not be edifying to have a young and brilliant work force to do research with you?"

A peculiar numbness was spreading over Ferd's face.  He
could feel that the right side of his face did not respond when he tried to smile. 
He was not smiling at the men in the room, just experimenting, but they evidently
thought he was, and they all smiled and bobbed nods.  All except Hashimoto.

"Ah, then we have the beginnings of an understanding. 
This has been a most enlightening conversation.  I will have my staff start working
out the details of a contract so that we will be in total agreement."

Ferd wondered about Sato Hashimoto's use of the word conversation. 
He himself had not spoken a word.  And now he was afraid he couldn't.  He was having
a stroke.  Ferd knew it in a detached way, as a medical doctor.  Emotionally, this
was what he had dreaded most in his life.  One of the delicate capillaries in his
brain had burst.  Ferd hoped it would not cause serious brain damage. 

Ferd was also in fibrillation, which was making him short
of breath, but no one in the room seemed to notice.

Ferd had not agreed with anything Hashimoto had said, so
he shook his head.  Surely the man knew the meaning of No.

Evidently he did because Hashimoto subtly changed tactics. 
"Since we have learned about Eve and Sabrina Miller we have been keeping tabs
on the women.  We are also aware that your government is interested.  The American
government would surely want the computer for their own usage and would take it
away from you.  The Soviet Union also would like to acquire it.  I have read the
report stating it is to be a new, special type of weapon."

When Ferd tried to reach for the bell that would summon
a nurse he found he could not move his right arm.  Then suddenly he lost sight in
his right eye.  He couldn't tell if the lid had dropped, or if he had actually become
blind in that eye.  Ferd was suddenly terrified, both by the deadly calm man before
him and his own deteriorating condition.

"We have many pictures of the women."  One of
the men in the room held up the obligatory camera, complete with telephoto lens.

Ferd felt the numbness creeping down his right leg.  It
was a prickly, tingling sensation.  He started panting to gain their attention,
so they would realize he needed help.  Then he slumped sideways off his pillow,
as if he had passed out. 

He saw the computer expert, Mitsuto, rush toward him and
could feel the man checking his carotid artery.  Then Mitsuto rang the emergency
bell at Ferd's bedside.

Hashimoto and his contingent were pulled roughly out of
the hospital room by orderlies, doctors and some very disturbed nurses.  The halls
echoed with the sound of the emergency team bringing medical equipment for the code-blue
signal.

As Hashimoto left the hospital with his staff, he hoped
Dr. Steinbrenner would not die.  If he did, Hashimoto would have the distasteful
chore of negotiating with Dr. Steinbrenner's disagreeable sons.