Silencing Eve

  “Kevin wouldn’t allow that to happen.”

  “Look, why not let the Iranians ship in another bomb or two. Why set these antiques off?”

  “You’re blind. Can’t you see the value of those devices of Kevin’s? I assure you that when I contacted Cartland after we arrived here that he knew what a treasure I was offering.”

  “And what is the value? It’s five years old and outdated technology.”

  “It’s in place.” He repeated, “In place. Do you know how incredibly difficult it would be to smuggle two nukes into two different cities? It was hard back when Kevin and the cell managed to do it. Homeland Security is a thousand times more sophisticated and well connected than they were five years ago. These devices are in place and only waiting for someone to press the switch.”

  “If they still work. If your Kevin didn’t screw up.”

  “You’re making me angry. If Kevin had lived, everyone would have known how brilliant he was. They’ll still know it when those devices go off. Everyone will fear him and respect him.”

  “Bullshit. They’ll know him as the monster he is and probably laugh when the bombs fizzle out.”

  “Bitch.” She could feel the waves of rage he was emitting. “I’ll show you what—” He stopped, then said, “That’s right, I will show you. You and Zander. It’s the perfect ending for you, Eve. I think we’ll pay a visit to one of the cities where Kevin hid a device. I’ll use you to draw Zander there, too. You’ll probably be dead before it goes off, but you’ll never know, will you? The suspense could be excruciating.”

  “You’ll never draw Zander anywhere by using me.”

  “He came to the ghost town. I was very encouraged when he showed up.”

  She was silent. “Which city?”

  “Does it matter?”

  She had been afraid to pry into the names of the cities, but this question had seemed personal and natural. She tried to make her answer offhand. “I guess not.”

  “Let’s see. Maybe somewhere close to Vancouver. We wouldn’t want Zander to travel too far. I wouldn’t want to discourage him.” He thought for a moment. “Seattle. Yes, I think that would be just right. Have you ever been to Seattle?”

  “No, and you’ll forgive me if I’m not looking forward to it.”

  “I forgive you nothing. You’ve given Kevin and me a hellish time. But I’ll always remember you, Eve.”

  “And I’ll forget you as soon as you go join your beast of a son.”

  “I’m not going anytime soon. Kevin says that we’re stronger because I’m on this side.”

  “Maybe he just wants to try to take you over. I’m not saying I believe that Kevin is the spirit you say he is. But if that’s true, he’s a demon who cares nothing about you except to use you.”

  “He loves me. You have no idea how close we are. And we’re getting closer every minute.”

  “Because you’re losing your soul to make room for him to come back. It’s all for nothing, Doane.”

  “Liar.” He didn’t speak for a moment, then whispered, “But that wouldn’t be terrible, would it? The son is supposed to be better than the father. All the books say so. And Kevin was always special. He’s so much more brilliant than I ever could be. He has such power. I wonder what it would be like to have that power.”

  Eve felt a chill. It was the first time she realized that Doane actually wanted to be his son. Not like Kevin, be Kevin. Kevin was evil incarnate; therefore, that was Doane’s ambition. “I’m sick of talking to you. I’m going to sleep. Your son is dead. He has no power.”

  “You’ll see,” Doane whispered. “Seattle, Eve. Seattle…”

  Seattle.

  She had learned a great deal tonight. She might learn more later, but she had to concentrate on what she had already gleaned from this talk with Doane. Not about Kevin and his gradual merging with Doane. That was something that was drifting phantomlike in the darkness.

  The two cities.

  Cartland, the cell member Doane had mentioned.

  Seattle, one of the cities that were to be targeted.

  And the city that Doane had chosen as the place Eve was to die.

  How could she make use of it?

  They would be leaving tomorrow as soon as she put the final touches on Kevin’s reconstruction.

  She could only hope that Joe and Venable were tracking them and would show up soon. She couldn’t believe that Joe’s efforts of the last few days would be limited to that memorial service. Venable was an unknown quantity at present. Doane had thought he might be betraying him, but Venable had not been either truthful or open during these last five years.

  But she had to have faith that they were moving forward, and that somehow Venable had been forced to reveal the same story to Joe as Doane had told her.

  And find a way to let them know where Doane was taking her. Not an easy task when Doane watched her every move whenever she was in the same room.

  The bathroom?

  Some way of writing on the mirror?

  Steam? She had no lipstick.

  No, that was strictly B-movie stuff.

  Besides, Doane would undoubtedly check the bathroom before they left.

  Think about it. Figure out a way.

  Because now it wasn’t only her and Zander’s lives that were at stake.

  Millions, Doane had said. Men, women, children caught in a deadly web through no fault of their own.

  Innocents.

  Find a way to save the innocents.

  Lake Cottage

  Atlanta, Georgia

  VENABLE SAW CATHERINE coming toward him, and he must have read the expression on her face. He smiled at the man to whom he’d been talking. “Excuse me. Business.” He took Catherine’s arm and started across the grounds toward the parking area. “Though he probably doesn’t believe me. You’re not a woman to bring to mind the thought of business.”

  “Oh, it’s business all right,” she said grimly. “Believe me, I’m not in the mood for social conversation. Where are we going?”

  “My car. It’s private. You’re practically sending out sparks, and you’ll attract too much attention.”

  “You’re right, I don’t give a damn how much attention I attract at the moment. You’ve been dodging me since I arrived here, and I decided to put an end to it.”

  “You’ve been more patient than I imagined you’d be.” He opened the passenger door of the Lexus for her. “You’ve probably been talking to people and assessing the situation.” He got in the driver’s seat. “And now you’re ready to pounce.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me when Eve was taken? You know I would have wanted to be there for her.”

  “You were on a mission. Which you completed very successfully, by the way.”

  “Screw it. I could have arranged to leave Colombia. You could have sent someone else to replace me.”

  “But not as efficiently. You’re remarkable, Catherine.”

  “Eve helped me when I needed her. She deserved the same from me.”

  He was silent for a long moment. “I know she did. But I couldn’t let that matter. Not this time, Catherine. I couldn’t bring you home.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “For the same reason I didn’t want to send anyone to replace you in Colombia. You’re remarkable.” His lips twisted. “A little too remarkable. You would have dug deep. Turned the world upside down searching for Doane and Eve. I couldn’t afford to have you do that.”

  She stiffened. “Dirty business, Venable?”

  “Needful business, Catherine.”

  “Kendra said that she didn’t trust the way you behaved at that ghost town. She wasn’t sure it was in Eve’s best interests.”

  “She was probably right. Kendra’s very smart. I guess you found that out.”

  “Why the hell would you do something that wasn’t in Eve’s best interest? Did you want to get her killed?”

  “God, no. That’s the last thing I wanted to happen. I like Eve. I did
everything within the boundaries that I was permitted to save her.”

  “What boundaries?”

  “I had to make my first priority to kill or capture James Doane. I had no choice.”

  “There’s always a choice.”

  “You see? That’s why I didn’t bring you back to hunt for Eve. I wouldn’t have been able to control you.”

  “Not if it meant letting her die because you wanted Doane’s scalp. Company business isn’t that important to me.” She added grimly, “I should have known that it would be to you. You’ve spent most of your life playing their games.”

  “Yes, I have. Because it’s worth doing. You believe that yourself, or you wouldn’t have become an agent or stayed with it this long. Does it get dirty? Hell, yes. But we’re lily-white compared to the other side.” He paused. “And this time it was so nasty that I had to make decisions I didn’t want to make.”

  “Eve’s life for Doane’s head?”

  He didn’t answer for a moment. “If necessary.”

  “You son of a bitch.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why? What was so important about getting Doane?”

  “I had to shut him down. One way or the other.”

  “It was that urgent? It was worth Eve’s life?”

  “One life, Catherine. I had to put it in the balance. There wasn’t any choice when I did that.”

  “What are you telling me, Venable?”

  “Two cities, two nuclear devices, Doane with the knowledge of where they are and how to activate them. Is that clear enough? I had to take him out one way or the other. I had a chance at that ghost town in Colorado. I didn’t do it. He got away and took Eve with him. The crazy bastard’s out there somewhere, probably trying to make contacts to destroy those cities.”

  “Which cities?”

  “Homeland Security wasn’t able to find out both the target cities. They determined that one was Chicago, but we have no idea about the other one.”

  Chicago was a huge population center, Catherine thought. If the second city was equally populated, it could hardly be worse. “How bad is this device?”

  “Powerful enough to take down a quarter of the city. And dirty. Our information isn’t good enough to judge how dirty. They were planted over five years ago.”

  “And Homeland Security hasn’t been able to locate them in all that time?”

  “No. Doane’s son supposedly hid them before he was murdered and evidently did a stellar job. But now we’re sure that Doane knows where those bombs were placed. All he has to do is get in touch with Kevin’s old al-Qaeda buddies who were in the cell in charge of setting those devices off and tell them where they are.”

  “Do we have any leads about who was in that cell?”

  “We have a few names. The investigation was going pretty well until the general hired Zander to kill Doane’s son. Then the panic started, and they all went underground. There was a Paul Berlitz, a George Cartland, who appeared to be in charge, and a Mohammed Nali. We were gathering other names, but—”

  “You haven’t been able to find any of those men you ID’d?”

  He shook his head. “Believe me, we’ve tried. For a while, we thought that they’d returned to Tehran. They might have done that, but we can’t take a chance. The minute Doane took off from the safe house where we placed him, the game changed.”

  “New jobs, new identity papers? I suppose you checked out the usual sources in Chicago?” He gave her a sour look, and she shrugged. “I had to ask. I understand you haven’t been following your usual modus operandi. Where do you go from here?”

  “Locate Doane. Hopefully, capture him and make him tell us where those damn devices are located. Otherwise, kill him and hope he hasn’t already told Cartland where Kevin hid the nukes.”

  “Either way, Eve could get caught in the cross fire.”

  Venable made no reply.

  Catherine’s eyes narrowed on his face. “Why are you being this open with me? You didn’t even make me dig. Yet you’ve evidently been deceptive as hell with Joe Quinn and Jane MacGuire.”

  “I hoped I was going to be able to get rid of Doane without everything toxic coming bubbling to the surface. There are a few Homeland Security people whose jobs are on the line if that happens. And if you think I was reckless when we cornered Doane with Eve in the ghost town, you’d be stunned to know what those antiterrorist guys from Homeland Security would have done. Did you know there are drone bases on standby at the border? I got a call the next day from Major Eroldon asking why I hadn’t called him to initiate a drone strike.” He added grimly, “He was partially pacified when the word came out that Doane and Eve were dead. But he was still pissed off that I hadn’t kept him in the loop.”

  “A drone strike,” Catherine repeated. “He would have authorized a strike that would have killed Eve without even trying to get her out?”

  “National security,” Venable said sourly. “And also job security. A dangerous combination in the hands of bureaucrats.”

  “And if Doane was dead, how were they to make sure that no one had access to those bombs?”

  “They prefer to think positive and get rid of the initial problem. Haven’t you noticed that’s been the standard operating procedure for the drone program?”

  “You didn’t keep them in the loop.” Her gaze was searching his face. “Would you now?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Dammit, would you do it?”

  “What do you want me to say? The problem still exists. My first reaction is to handle it myself to the best of my ability. Too many cooks in the kitchen are not good. Particularly when the head chef is an arrogant bastard like Eroldon.” He met her gaze. “But if it comes down to needing extra firepower, you can bet I’ll call for help.”

  “Great. Just great.”

  “Just as I’m asking help from you, Catherine. I kept you out of it before because I needed the chance to keep everything confidential, but I can’t do that any longer. I need all the help I can get. We have to get Doane and get him fast.”

  “Screw Doane. We need to get Eve.”

  “Catherine.”

  “Okay, we have to stop Doane. But I will get Eve away from him before you turn loose those damn drones. What are you doing to track him?”

  “Kendra identified the tire prints of the truck Doane used after he landed on the bank of the stream after leaving the cavern. They’re commonly used on off-road vehicles. SSR series.”

  “Yes, she told me about it.”

  “We’ve begun checking all the cameras in the nearby areas to see if we can spot a vehicle that generally uses that type of tires.”

  “Any luck?”

  “A sighting on the night of the fire of a tan Toyota 4-Runner with a dented left fender at the Wyoming border. It appeared that the driver was alone, but if Eve was unconscious, she would have been slumped down anyway. We’re checking the cameras in both Colorado and Wyoming.”

  “No other reports?”

  “No, the Toyota disappeared. We zeroed in on the state borders, but that came up zilch. But we’re still searching.”

  “The smart thing would have been for him to get off the road and hole up.”

  Venable nodded. “We’re checking every hotel, motel, and bed-and-breakfast in every town in both states. The state troopers have been cooperative.”

  “Good. We need them. It’s a pretty flimsy lead to go on.” Catherine opened the door and jumped out. “You can count on me to help find that bastard as long as you don’t close me out on any information you get concerning him or those devices. One might lead to another.”

  “I’d be stupid to not let you have ammunition when I want you to take Doane down.”

  “Really?” She said gently, “I think you’re already holding back on Quinn. But I want answers, Venable.”

  “You’ve had answers.”

  “No, you were playing footsie with Lee Zander for five years when you stuck Doane in a damn safe house. Everyone t
hinks Zander disappeared into the sunset after he was told Doane and Eve were still alive. But it would be unreasonable for you not to have tried to keep him in your pocket when you knew he could be a key player. I think you probably told him everything you told me, then arranged to stay in contact with him. I’d bet you’re sharing information with him about what you’re learning about the search. And Zander might have been lost to everyone else, but not to you. You can pick up your phone and contact him, and I’ll bet you know where he is right now.”

  He was silent, then he said, “I can pick up my phone, but that’s no guarantee he’ll answer. Though he might since I’ve been feeding him what little information I have about the movement of any vehicles I’ve been able to find that use those tires. He’s probably not been equally open with me, but I take what I can get.”

  “And you told him about that tan Toyota? I don’t think so.”

  “Well, I was going to tell him … if I couldn’t locate the car on my own.” He chuckled. “And that’s why I had to keep you a thousand miles distant when Eve disappeared. You’re too sharp, Catherine.”

  “I know you. I watched you grow and change from the time you hired me when I was a kid on the streets of Hong Kong. Some of the changes I liked, some made me wary.”

  “I feel the same about you.” He smiled. “But you’re always interesting, Catherine.”

  “I want you to e-mail me the Zander info. Where he is, what he’s working on.” She started to turn away. “And the file on the cell members who might be contacted by Doane.”

  “Okay. No problem. Though there’s not much on record and most of it is undoubtedly phony.”

  “Whatever you’ve got.”

  “Catherine.”

  She looked over her shoulder.

  “I believe Kendra found something in Doane’s house in Goldfork. She doesn’t trust me, but she might trust you. Did she say anything about it to you before she left?”

  “That mysterious disk that you told everyone Doane was holding?”

  “Did she say anything?”

  “You’re right, she said she didn’t trust you.”

  “Did she find anything?”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me. But after the way you practically served Eve up as a sacrifice, I don’t think you’ll get it from her unless you can convince her that you’d never do it again.” She looked him directly in the eye. “And, since you haven’t convinced me, I doubt if you could convince her.” She turned away. “Of course, you could come clean about what you expect to find on that ‘disk,’ and you might have a breakthrough. Think about it, Venable.”