“Tell Joe … I need him. Something’s … bad.”
Cara turned and flew up the hill.
Fear. Anger. Rejection.
We’ll take care of it, Michael. Just give us a chance. It will be—
A text. Her phone was pinging a text …
Not now.
Now. Now. Now.
She accessed the text.
Some news story …
“What’s wrong?” Joe was kneeling beside her, taking her in his arms. “God, you’re shaking.”
“It was crazy.” She held on to him with all her strength. “Michael…”
“What about Michael?”
“I don’t know. I was sitting here and thinking about Cira and her Marcus, and all of a sudden—Michael didn’t like it. He was angry. Then this stupid text came in, and I—”
“What text?” He looked down at her phone. “Oh, shit.” He buried her head in his chest as he stared down at the text. “Dammit to hell.”
“It’s some news story…”
“Yes, it is. A bulletin from a TV station in Glasgow. It’s set to repeat over and over.”
“What?” She pushed him away and looked down at the phone. “What bulletin?”
Then she saw the face on the screen. “Dr. Rampfel?” Only it wasn’t the face of the doctor she’d seen this morning. The remaining features on the lower section of his face were the same, but the top of his head was blown off. “No,” she whispered. “Dear God, what happened?”
“He was shot and killed an hour after we left the office,” Joe said curtly. “He had an appointment to go out to lunch, and he was killed as he left the building.”
“Dead.” She moistened her lips. “Why?” She shook her head as she remembered how warmly human she’d thought the doctor. “Why, Joe?”
“That’s what I want to know.” He looked over his shoulder. “Cara, go tell Jock I need him to take a trip back to Glasgow. I don’t want to leave Eve right now.”
Eve hadn’t even realized that Cara had come back with Joe and had been standing in the background. Cara nodded and turned and ran back to the tents.
“You don’t have to stay.” Eve tried to straighten away from him. “I just needed … you. I was confused. I’m still confused.”
“Do you think I’m not?” he said harshly. “I checked out that doctor the minute I knew you were going to go to him. Pristine-clean medical reputation. A regular Boy Scout as far as his moral character is concerned. Why would he have been killed the same day you showed up for an exam?”
“Maybe it had nothing to do with me.”
“I hope not. I just don’t believe in coincidences.” He looked down at the text that was still repeating. “And this is definitely no coincidence.”
She had been so upset she had not even made the connection, but, of course, this bold attack could never be a coincidence. “Natalie.”
“We were wondering why she was so silent.”
“But why my doctor? Is it some kind of warning? She couldn’t get to me or Cara, so she killed an innocent man?”
“I imagine we’ll know soon. Now that Natalie has put a plan in motion I don’t believe she’ll let much time pass before she lets us know what she’s up to.” He got to his feet. “That’s why I don’t want to leave you right now. You don’t need to face her by yourself. I’m just going to go up to talk to Jock. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Okay?”
She nodded jerkily. “I’ll be fine. It wasn’t the news story that was scaring me. It was Michael. I can handle Natalie. Michael is something else. He was … strange.”
Joe tilted his head. “All right now?”
“Yes. No. Better. I think he wanted me to have support.”
“And you will. In just a few minutes.” He was striding up the slope. “I’ll send Jane.”
He was calling out all the troops, she thought ruefully. She shouldn’t have panicked and sent Cara running to get him. She should have handled it herself. But Michael was his son, too, and she had been confused and needing someone who loved him to help her understand. So she had to bite the bullet and accept the consequences of that moment of weakness.
“Eve?” It was Cara again. “I told Jock to watch that news story. He thought it was bad … stuff. He’s talking to Joe for just a minute, then he’s going to see what happened.”
“Good luck to him. I’m having trouble getting anything clear.” She was looking down at the text again. It was ugly and brutal and meant to shock. If she hadn’t been already shocked by Michael, it would have had a maximum effect. “What’s clear is that a man I liked and respected was killed today. We’ll have to find out all the rest.”
“It was Natalie.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Yes, we do.” She paused. “I told you that she hated you. Maybe she thought this would hurt you.”
“There’s no use speculating. Joe said we should know soon.” Eve saw that Cara was looking at that repeating text, and she instinctively moved to distract her. “Could you get me a cup of coffee? I’m a little shaky.”
“Sure.” Cara immediately turned away. “I’ll have to heat it, but I’ll be right back.”
“That will be fine. Thank you.” She watched her go toward the fire.
I’m getting all the support you could possibly want for me, Michael. I just wish that I knew what you’re trying to protect me from.
Her cell phone rang.
She stared down at it.
Natalie.
She didn’t want to answer it. That call had come too close to that last thought she’d sent to Michael. She felt if she answered the call, she’d know what other horrors Natalie might have in store for her. Don’t be a coward. She’d told Joe she wasn’t afraid of Natalie.
She answered the call. “Why, Natalie? That poor man had nothing to do with what’s between the two of us.”
“That just goes to show that you have no idea how I feel about you, Eve. Everyone that touches your life has something to do with what’s between us.” Natalie laughed. “I told you that I’d investigated everything about you. Do you think that I wouldn’t know about your visit to Dr. Rampfel and what it meant? It didn’t really interest me at the time, but when you managed to win our first battle, I went back to my notes and took another look.”
“And decided to hurt me by destroying him.”
“He was just a piece of the whole. I had to protect myself from his talking after he’d done his job.”
Eve stiffened. “His job?”
“Of course. He was the center of the plan. I had to make sure you’d immediately get the message, but not all the details connected to Rampfel. I wanted to share some of those with you myself. In fact, I believe I’ll set up a Skype computer link so I can actually see your face when it’s time to have our principal discussion. I’ve been anticipating that.”
“And anticipating killing an innocent man.”
“No one is really innocent. Your fine doctor certainly wasn’t. Oh, he tried to pretend he was one of the good guys, but Ivan only had to dig deep beneath all that bullshit, and he found a way to get to him. He’s very fond of his family, and he had a younger brother who likes his cocaine and the casinos. All Ivan had to do was squeeze him. We gave him a choice whether he wanted his brother to die or to cooperate with us.”
Eve’s heart was beating hard. She felt sick to her stomach. “Cooperate how?”
“But that’s part of the surprise. Did Cara tell you how much I like surprises?”
“She told me what a monster you are. What did you ask the doctor to do?”
“I suggest you send your lover, Quinn, to the crime scene and get him to do a little squeezing of his own. Rampfel has a notebook in his jacket pocket with a name and the person who might be able to fill you in on what you’re up against. I’ll be in touch again after you manage to absorb just what a big mistake you made to try to make a fool of me.”
“And what are you going to ask of me?”
?
??Everything. My father insists Cara has to be part of the deal.” Natalie’s voice was laden with malice. “And I want Cira’s gold that you cheated me out of. I know you must have it, or you wouldn’t have been able to give me that coin that was worth over two million dollars. We know you’re still down at that lake, but security is so tight that MacDuff must be making sure no one else knows about that gold.”
“Or that we’re still looking for it.”
“Two million dollars. You found it, all right. You just couldn’t convince MacDuff to give it up just to keep a kid alive. So you decided to go after Cara and try to take everything for yourself. It’s what I would have done.”
“We’re not the same.”
“No, you have this weird thing about kids. It’s already cost you two million. It’s going to cost you a hell of a lot more.” Her voice lowered to soft malevolence. “And, when I was trying to think of the way to hurt you the most, I naturally came up with your greatest weakness. Oh, yes, it was worth waiting a little longer than I wanted to make sure that I did it this way.”
Eve was no longer just afraid, she was terrified. She had trouble getting the next words out. “What did—you—do?”
“I taught you a lesson. I’m going to enjoy watching you try to wriggle your way out of it. I’ll be thinking about it all the time until I call you back.” She hung up.
So much ugliness, and the nastiest part of it all was that Natalie had been able to instill this panic and fear in Eve. Everything that she had said was leading down a path that was her worst nightmare.
And that was what Natalie had wanted.
She couldn’t sit here, frozen, sick, she had to do something. They had to start fighting Natalie. Or at least trying to find out the weapons Natalie was using to fight them.
Joe.
She had to get to Joe.
She jumped to her feet and started to run toward the tents.
CHAPTER
14
“What was in his pocket?” Eve asked jerkily as Joe came out of the magistrate’s office four hours later. “Was it the notebook?”
“It was a notebook,” Joe said as he got in the car. “That’s all that they’d tell me. They didn’t let me know what was written in it. They only told me that much as a professional courtesy.”
“We’ve got to find out.”
“I know. I’ve let Jock loose on them. He can usually carry the day. He’s a Scot, and between that charisma and MacDuff’s influence looming in the background, he almost always gets what he wants.”
“If he doesn’t lose his temper.” Her hands clenched. “Remember, Cara’s involved in this, too.”
“From what you said, Natalie was treating her almost as an afterthought. It was all about you.”
“Everything. Natalie said she wanted everything.” She drew a shaky breath. “I have to find out what she’s done that she’d think I’d give it to her.”
“It could be a bluff,” Joe said.
“It wasn’t. If you could have heard her voice. She thinks she has me.”
“You’re shaking.” Joe pulled her jacket closer around her. “You should have waited back at the camp.”
She shook her head. “No way. It would have driven me crazy.”
“I can see it.” He kissed her temple. “But it’s hell watching you go through this.” He was silent a moment. “That son of a bitch, Rampfel, must have done something to you while you were in that office.”
“I know,” she whispered. “It’s the only explanation for everything Natalie has done today. I went over everything he did to me, and it had to be when he was giving me that B-12 shot. I was thinking that I’d have you take me directly to the hospital instead of coming with you here. Natalie might want to kill me, but she has to have something else in mind if she thinks she can use this to get what she wants. We have to know what that is first, Joe.”
“Fifteen minutes,” he said grimly. “Then I take you to that hospital.”
“No, this isn’t only me, it’s Michael. We have to know what we’re dealing with. I won’t have anyone blundering around in my body and make a mistake. Natalie would enjoy that enormously if she saw me let that happen.”
“Eve…”
She could see his pain, but she couldn’t let it move her. She had to think of Michael. He had to have his chance. “Michael is fighting, Joe. He has to know what she did to us. That’s what first frightened me. We’re going to do everything we can to do this thing right.”
“Even if it kills you,” he said thickly.
“We won’t think about that.” Except if it came close, she had to prepare him in some way. “We have to keep him alive. Hey, he has your DNA. We’re halfway there, Joe.”
“Yeah.” He held her close. “Halfway…”
* * *
“It’s Iranian,” Jock said curtly as he came toward the car an hour later. “Something called Zaphondan. Natalie evidently spelled it out in detail in that doctor’s notebook. She wanted it very clear. There was even a reference number at the headquarters of MI-6 we could go to for verification.”
“And what is Zaphondan?” Eve asked.
“One of the ugly little capsules the Iranians created to interrogate prisoners. A ticking clock that keeps them in an agony of suspense. Very innovative, in its way.” He gazed at Eve. “And deadly. We should get you to a hospital right away.”
“We’ve already gone down that road,” Eve said unsteadily. She had to keep from shaking. Something monstrous and ugly was buried inside her. Dear God … Michael. “It can hurt my baby, can’t it? It can hurt Michael?”
“Only the doctors can tell you that,” Jock said. “We have to get you to—”
“Tell me about this … capsule. Is there an antidote?”
“Possibly. There have been cases where a few prisoners survived. But no one but the Iranians have it.”
“And maybe Natalie,” she said numbly. “How does it work, Jock?”
“It’s a microcapsule given generally by a special hypodermic into the muscle tissue. Tiny. It’s smaller than a grain of sand. It’s set to time-release at a specific time. I believe the Iranians set up a ticking clock so that the prisoners would know exactly how long they had left. It tended to be very effective. But the antidote has to be administered before the release of the capsule, or it won’t do any good. The poison works too fast.”
“But then the antidote does work?” Joe asked.
“Sometimes. It works in the lab. But it depends if any of the poison gets in the bloodstream while the antidote is dissolving it.” He added grimly, “The Iranians didn’t really give a damn about keeping their promises.”
Eve swallowed. “So I have this capsule inside me that’s set to go off like a time bomb.”
“Presumably,” Jock said. “So let’s go and find a way to disarm the damn thing.”
She nodded. “No more arguments.” She was trying to keep calm. “I just had to get a handle on what I was facing.” What Michael was facing, she thought in agony. “Take me to the hospital, Joe. I want to know where that damn capsule is located and if there’s any chance of a leak to Michael right now. I need to know everything that Natalie knows before she gets in touch with me again.”
“You should stay there in that hospital. I’ll get specialists over here from the U.S.”
“You’d do better to get me one from Iran,” she said. “Or at least find one that Natalie imported to Moscow to create that poison. That could be a package deal.”
“I’ll work on it,” Joe said unevenly as he pulled the car away from the curb. “It’s going to be okay, Eve. I promise you.”
She didn’t answer as she leaned back in the seat. It had to be okay. Not for her, because she’d become accustomed to the thought of that other life to come. But Michael had an entire wonderful life on the horizon. She wouldn’t let it be taken away from him.
Did you hear him, Michael? We’ll find a way …
Strength. Warmth. Comfort. Love.
&nbs
p; No longer that anger and rejection. That had been for her, a warning. Now Michael was back to what he had been before. All love. Special. Caring.
And Natalie had wanted to kill this wonder?
SOUTH GLASGOW UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
TWO DAYS LATER
“What is going on?” Jane’s voice was shaking as she came into Eve’s hospital room. “This isn’t supposed to happen to you.” She came over to the bed and took her hand. “Not you, Eve. The universe is turning upside down.”
“She’s not going to beat us,” Eve said. “We just have to get past this first patch and get some sort of plan together.” She paused. “How is Cara?”
“What do you think? In shock.”
“Is Jock with her?”
“No, he came back to the camp and gave us the news, then for the last two days, he’s been talking to Palik and other contacts he made in Moscow trying to get information.” She shook her head. “And I’m not sure he could have helped Cara anyway until she gets through this first trauma. I haven’t been able to break through to her.”
“I should talk to her.”
“Eve, you can’t handle everything yourself. Give us a chance. Joe said that those doctors were exploring every possibility about how to save you and Michael.” She paused. “How to save you or Michael if it comes down to choice. How to delay the time release to give you more time.” Her voice was becoming uneven. “Pretty heavy stuff.”
“Cara would want to talk to me.”
“Okay, she wanted to come, but I told her that they wouldn’t allow too many visitors while they were giving you all these tests.” She swallowed hard. “It was the truth. I had trouble getting in myself. It’s quite a hospital … all those robots and supermodern gadgets. I think I’d prefer a nice, knowledgeable nurse. Someone who would just say that, of course, you were going to be fine.”
“I will be fine.” She looked her in the eye. “Those robots you’re scorning have located the capsule, it’s fixed itself to the muscles of my right hip. Rampfel didn’t give me a shot, he inserted the capsule instead in that special hypodermic he was given by Natalie’s people. It’s a microcapsule and incredibly tiny.” She used Jock’s description. “Smaller than a grain of sand.” How could something that tiny be the means to kill her Michael? She swallowed hard as she remembered how she and Rampfel had joked as he had done that to her. Why hadn’t she seen, sensed, what he was doing? He had been so damn plausible. “Conveniently, I couldn’t see what he was doing at the time. He must have blocked it from the nurse standing by the door, too. The capsule’s contained in a sleeve that’s superstrong, and it appears that it’s not going to budge or dissolve until it’s time for it to do its thing.”