7:25 p.m.
With his television tuned to Channel 11 news, Victor Drake watched Building B-14 crumble to the ground.
Hunter. It had to be Hunter.
But how did he know which building to torch?
Maybe Hunter had followed Geoff and the doctor last night, after they left the fire site and were returning the device to the base.
Victor could feel a migraine coming on. Not just any migraine either, a big one. Half an hour ago he’d gotten a message from Biscayne’s cronies that the Project Rukh Oversight Committee meeting was moved from Thursday at 2:00 p.m. to tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. A major league migraine.
His cell phone rang.
He answered it. “Yeah?”
Geoff’s voice. “Hunter’s dead.”
A glint of hope. “What?”
“I’m afraid he was killed in a tragic shoot-out. Suicide by cop.
Always hate to see that.”
Oh, this could be good. This could be very good. “Okay. Listen.
Make sure there’s nothing on his body that could tie him to the project. I’ll contact you later. We’ll need to meet again to clean up this mess.”
“I’m on my way to your place now.”
“What?”
“As a cop. They want someone to interview you. I volunteered.
So let’s practice: You don’t have any connection to this man Hunter, do you, Mr. Drake?”
A slight pause. “No, of course not, Officer.”
“Good. When my partner and I get there, just remember that.”
“Good work, Geoff. Thanks.”
A pause. “I’m putting in a lot of overtime for you this week.”
“I’ll give you an extra fifty grand.”
“One hundred.”
“What?” How did this underling dare to make demands of Victor Drake? “No.”
“I’m not doing this for humanitarian reasons, Drake. I only care about one thing: money. You give me a hundred grand in cash tomorrow and I’ll spend tonight making sure this little problem goes away. Otherwise, I bail.”
Victor felt his teeth grind, his head spin, his heart rate shoot through the roof. He hated himself for saying it, for doing it, for giving in, but at last he said, “All right. A hundred. But only if you can get this cleaned up before the general arrives in the morning.”
“Done.”
Lien-hua and I tried to back-trace any calls that might have been received on or dialed from Austin’s phone, but found that it was brand new. Never been used. The kidnappers must have left it somewhere for Austin. “Let’s hope he was still waiting for their call,” I said. Then a moment later I was startled when my own phone throbbed. I took a quick glance to see a text message from Tessa canceling supper. I was a little disappointed but also a little thankful since I couldn’t really get away right now anyway.
“OK,” I said. “Let’s forget the phone for a minute. It’s no good to us unless they call. What else do we have?”
“Some officers are going to talk to Drake, otherwise…” Lien-hua thought for a moment. “Ralph had an agent checking to see if the tank had been shipped to this part of the country. Did we ever hear anything from him?”
I shook my head. “Not that I know of.”
Then the alarm on my watch went off.
“What’s that for?” Lien-hua asked.
“Thirty minutes,” I said. “We only have thirty minutes left until Cassandra dies.”
“I’ll call Ralph.” She stepped away to make the call and while she did, I tried to think of any clues, any clues at all, that I was missing.
Anything that could lead us to Cassandra’s location.
Nothing.
Nothing came to mind.
Seconds, minutes passed by.
Nothing, nothing, nothing except the thought of Rickman’s shoe print. The impression patterns-
And that’s when Austin’s phone rang.
I flipped it open, held it to my ear. Waited, waited for whoever was on the other end to speak first. The silence was unsettling; maybe Austin was supposed to initiate the conversation.
Nothing.
I began to fear that the caller might hang up. “It’s done,” I said.
I spoke in a low voice and hoped he wouldn’t notice I wasn’t Austin.
“So, Austin.” An electronically altered voice. “You did find the phone.”
The kidnapper… and he doesn’t know Austin Hunter is dead.
“Yeah.”
“We weren’t sure you made it. You were supposed to check in over an hour ago.”
He said “we”… how many are there?
“Cops all over the place.”
A brief pause. “My name is Shade, and I have some instructions for you.” Shade? A code name… Why is he introducing himself now?…
He must not have spoken with Austin before. Test it. Find out.
“Let me talk to the guy from before. I don’t know you.”
“He’s busy with Cassandra. I want to thank you for what you did. But now, it’s time for you to deliver the device.”
So, there are at least two of them… This one doesn’t know Hunter’s voice, hasn’t spoken with him before… And there’s a device… What device? I tried to think of something, anything to say in response, but there was too much at stake, and too little information. Too many wrong things I might say.
“Are you there?” Shade said.
“Yeah.”
“The deal was: the building and the device for the girl. So, do you have it?”
What device is he talking about?
“Yeah, I have it.” I had to say something. “Where do you want to make the exchange?”
“Same place you were told before. Be there in ten minutes.”
Oh no. Oh no.
“Can’t. Too many cops around there.”
A pause. Shade must have been considering what I’d said. Maybe he was on to me. For Cassandra’s sake I hoped not.
“I’m there right now,” said the person calling himself Shade. “There aren’t any cops. You just killed Cassandra Lillo, Dr. Bowers.”