Thursday, February 19
9:30 a.m.
Lien-hua’s hospital room.
I was amazed at how well she was doing for someone who’d just died the night before. Weak, tired, but recovering.
Now she slept and I sat by her side.
Ralph and Tessa had left to get some breakfast and run a few errands twenty minutes earlier, leaving me alone with Lien-hua. Before they took off, Tessa and I had agreed to wait until we returned to Denver to talk about her ditching the flight. We both knew she shouldn’t have done it, but after what she’d been through last night, punishing her wasn’t at the top of my to-do list.
Earlier in the day we’d also found out Ralph’s luggage had arrived late last night-in twice as many pieces as it should have. Most of his clothes were shredded or missing, so he’d bought a Hawaiian shirt from the hotel gift shop and was wearing it proudly when he arrived at the hospital. “I like this style,” he announced, rolling his shoulders back and forth. “Gives me an island mentality.”
“It kinda looks like a rainbow threw up on you,” Tessa said.
“Great,” he mumbled, deflated. “Now I’ll think of vomit every time I wear this shirt. Thanks for that.”
“You’re welcome.”
I decided to intervene. “Maybe you can help Ralph pick out a suit,” I said. “For the funeral this afternoon.”
Tessa looked at his shirt again. “Well, it’s evident he could use some fashion advice.” “You just don’t appreciate good taste,” Ralph muttered.
Then they left and Lien-hua slept and I let my thoughts meander back to the case.
Terry had been one of my best friends over the last three years.
He was one of the few people I really trusted, one of the few people who knew just how much Richard Basque bothered me, haunted me. In fact, Terry knew me better than almost anyone. But now I realized I’d never known him. Not really.
I heard Lien-hua stir. “Pat.” It was a relief to hear her speak.
“Shh,” I said. “The docs tell me you’re supposed to rest.”
“Some water.” Her voice was course but resolute. “Please.”
I brought a glass to her lips, and after a small swallow, she reached for my hand. As she took it, she spoke again, her words intense and urgent, but also tender, “Thank you for last night. For all you did.”
She was amazingly coherent for having just woken up. Maybe she’d been awake for a while but I hadn’t noticed. “You’re welcome,” I said.
A faint grin. “I always wanted two broken ribs.”
Well, at least her wit was on its way to recovery. “Don’t mention it.”
She took a thin breath. “Really, I wish I could find a way…” She swallowed some air. “To thank you. I don’t know what to say.”
“Maybe we can find a way that doesn’t require words,” I said.
And I wasn’t necessarily thinking of sign language.
That brought a smile. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. Anytime you need someone to give you mouth-to-mouth again, just let me know.”
Another smile, beautiful in its gentleness. “OK, I’ll do that.” She paused. “Margaret stopped by earlier.”
“Margaret Wellington? I don’t believe it.”
“She brought me a card-”
“Incredible.”
“And then told me I’m still suspended.” “What! No. I’m not going to let this happen.” I went for my cell phone but Lien-hua stopped me with a squeeze of her hand and a shake of her head. “Leave it for now. It’s OK. It’ll give me a chance to visit Redmond.”
Lien-hua had been born in Redmond, Washington. I wondered if that’s where her sister was buried. “Chu-hua?”
She nodded. “I think I’m finally ready. I need to set a new flower arrangement on her grave. One that catches a little more light.”
Then she asked for another sip of water, and after I’d given it to her, I realized there was one more thing I needed to say, but I wasn’t quite sure how to do it. Finally, I decided to just be straight with her and get it out in the open. “Listen, I need to tell you something.
For a short time I thought you might be Shade.” I held her hand lightly. “I’m sorry.”
I wondered if she would be upset or disappointed with me, and when she was slow to respond, I realized she probably was, but at last she whispered, “Don’t be sorry. You were only looking for the truth.”
“I know, but-”
“It’s OK. It’s who you are. It’s what you do.”
Hey, wait a minute. “Do you know, that’s almost exactly the same thing Tessa told me the other night? Have you two been sharing notes?”
She smiled slyly. “Maybe we just think alike.”
“That’s a scary thought.” I liked that she was still holding my hand. “So, still friends?”
She signed “yes” to me with the hand that held mine. And I signed back “thank you.”
“OK,” I said. “Now, you need to rest.”
“Wait. One more thing. In the room… the hotel room… when I taught you the alphabet, you remembered the letters, didn’t you?
The first time through?”
“Yes.” “But you stopped at Q, then M. Why?”
“Honestly?” I asked.
“Honestly.”
“I wanted the lesson to last as long as possible.”
“Hmm,” she said softly as she closed her eyes and relaxed back into her pillow. “Ulterior motives.”
“Guilty as charged.”
I held her hand and watched her drift back to sleep and wished I could do the same. Rest. Sleep. Relax. But as tired as I was, as much as the gunshot wound on my leg was bothering me, something else was at the forefront of my mind. Terry’s words: “I was just sent in to confirm it was there.”
Who sent you to the evidence room, Terry?
If only he weren’t in a coma I could’ve asked him.
But he was in a coma. And according to the doctors, he wouldn’t be coming out of it any time soon.
A few minutes after Lien-hua fell asleep Ralph and Tessa arrived.
Tessa went in to sit with Lien-hua, and I tottered into the hallway to talk with Ralph about the case.
After we were alone I asked him about the Project Rukh researchers. “Are they all OK?”
“Yeah, I just talked to Margaret. They’re all safe. Being debriefed as we speak. Except this one guy, Kurvetek. Osbourne mentioned him. We haven’t been able to track him down yet.”
I let that sink in.
“And, by the way, Margaret told me why it’s called Project Rukh.”
I didn’t even want to think about Margaret, but I was curious about the name so I took the bait. “Why is that?”
“Turns out rukh is a Persian word. Back when chess was invented, it was the name of the piece we call a rook. It used to mean either ‘war chariot’ or ‘hero,’ and later, when chess made it to Europe, the piece morphed to look like a siege tower. The idea was the same, though-by using your rukh, you could slip past your enemy’s defenses and then take him out before he even knew what hit him.”
“And that’s exactly what the device does.”
“Right.”
“Slipping past their defenses, taking them out unaware,” I said.
“Maybe they should have called it a Ralph.”
“Kind of you to say so.” He drained the last few drops of his extra-large breakfast Mountain Dew. “Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Graysmith and Dunn are looking into another homicide-General Cole Biscayne was shot in the head last night. No leads yet, last I heard. One bit of good news though. That girl, Randi, she was just hiding out at a friend’s place, afraid of the ‘terrorists.’ She’s all right.”
“Good. What about the device?”
“You’re a good shot, Pat. It’s destroyed. And, although most of the files are gone, Margaret is going over the ones Drake didn’t have a chance to shred.”
“I’m sure she is. And Cassandra?”
“She’s fine. Spent last night and this morning in a safe house. I guess she’s gonna take some time off work to recover. Last I heard, they were dropping her off at the aquarium so she could say good-bye to her friends and some guy named Warren Leant.”
I began to press out the last few wrinkles of the case. And I didn’t like where they pointed. “She’s at the aquarium? With Leant?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
“Ralph, have those agents stay with her.”
“Why? Melice is dead, Terry’s in a coma-”
“No. Trust me. Don’t let them leave her alone with him.”
“Why not?”
“A blind spot. Let’s go.”
He put the call through to the agents, I ducked into Lien-hua’s room and told Tessa I’d be back in an hour or so, and then Ralph and I headed for the car.