Страница 38 из 97
CHAPTER 19
Geli was ru
Her latest headache was Jutta Klein, the German MRI expert. Klein had apparently taken advantage of her reduced surveillance and driven to Atlanta, where she'd boarded a Lufthansa flight for Germany. The German government had pledged to "assist in any way possible," but Geli knew they would welcome Klein and her newfound expertise with open arms.
Geli spun in her chair. Someone with the day's access code had buzzed through the door of the control center. John Skow stepped out of the shadows, clad in his unvarying Brooks Brothers suit, his eyes glinting with fear or excitement.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. "What's hap¬pened?"
Skow straddled a chair opposite Geli and folded his almost feminine hands on its back.
"Te
Geli felt as though she'd opened the door of a hot oven. No wonder Skow hadn't wanted to talk on the air. "What did they say?"
"The president tried to arrange for the Secret Service to pick up Te
"Did Matthews buy our story? Or does he believe Te
Skow bit one side of his lower lip, like a man weigh¬ing odds. "I'd say he's leaning toward us. But he told Te
"And how will that happen?"
"Ewan McCaskell and the Secret Service will meet Ten¬nant and pick him up when the president gets back. Ten¬nant trusts McCaskell."
"When does the president get back?"
"Four days."
"Are we talking D.C.?"
"Yes."
"Perfect."
"Why?"
Geli had already foreseen that Te
"And?"
"Now he's threatened the president's life."
Skow's eyes narrowed. "But he just talked to Matthews. And he didn't make any threats."
Geli rolled her eyes. "Te
"That's an elegant strategy. What do we use for evi¬dence?"
"We have hundreds of hours of recordings from Te
"I didn't notice. Why?"
"With the right programs from the NSA-and our Godin Four-you could piece together a verbal threat against the president that no one could prove was fake."
Skow smiled with appreciation. "That's good, Geli. Very good."
"That's why I'm here. The question is, will Te
"My source says no," said Skow. "I've got a short list of places Te
Anger tightened Geli's jaw muscles. "Who is this source, damn it?"
"I can't give you that. I'm sorry."
"But he says Te
"Yes. Isn't it just common sense? Why should Te
"Because he knows people there who have access to POTUS. The surgeon general. The director of the National Institutes of Health. The politicians from his home state. Senator Barrett Jackson heads the Select Committee on Intelligence, for God's sake. He can get access to the Oval Office with a phone call. And if Te
"I see. All right. But we can't be sure where he'll run. And our assassin story will allow us to bring in other federal assets to cover the other locations."
"Good. You take care of the media. You also need to hit everyone Te
Skow's thin lips flattened into something like a smile. "That's why I'm here."
Geli nodded, feeling better than she had in hours. "You'd better get upstairs and make sure they keep the Godin Four fired up. Or get it moved back here quick."
Skow had never touched Geli before, but he reached out and laid his hand on her wrist. "You have four days to kill Te
"That's why you're going to make sure nothing he says will be believed."
Skow nodded. "Right."
"Don't worry," Geli assured him. "The president will never see Te
CHAPTER 20
It was dark by the time we reached Raleigh. Highway 64 turned to I-40, and then we were rolling back through Research Triangle Park, moving west toward Te
"Look at that," Rachel said, watching the familiar lights drift by. "When it's dark like this, I can almost believe you could drop me off at my house in Durham, and I could go inside and make a cup of tea."
"You know better now."
She looked at me for a long time, then sighed in the dark.
"I'm sorry I got you into this," I said. "I haven't really apologized yet."
"I got myself into it."
"No. I did that when I chose you as my analyst."
The weariness in Rachel's face told me she was accus¬tomed to dealing with other people's guilt. "Don't start trying to figure out the vagaries of fate. If a butterfly had flapped its wings in Malaysia before you called, you would have found someone else. That's the way life is."
I'd said that kind of thing to myself before, but in this case I didn't believe it. "No. I sought you out because you're the best at what you do. And Jungian analysts aren't like psychologists, one on every corner. I know it sounds juvenile, but I have this feeling I was meant to find you."
She looked at me with infinitely perceptive eyes, but beneath her perception I saw pain. Somehow, I had prodded a deep nerve. When she spoke, it was in a voice devoid of emotion.
"It's easy to tell ourselves that whatever happens to us was meant to be. It's comforting. It gives us a sense that there's some larger plan. I thought my husband and I were meant to be together. But we weren't. It was just a bad choice that I rationalized as fate. It's pathetic, really."
"Pathetic? That marriage gave you your son."
"Who died frightened and in pain at the age of five."
Her tone had a warning edge to it. I'd seen many chil¬dren die during my years practicing medicine, and I knew how it could affect parents. They could be shat¬tered beyond recovery. Even hospital staff weren't immune. The exoskeleton of professionalism melts easily in the presence of a suffering child. For me that suffer¬ing-the agony of i
"You and your son gave each other five years of unconditional love. Would you rather he'd never lived, to spare you both the pain at the end?"
She fixed me with an indignant glare. "You'll say any¬thing, won't you? You don't observe any boundaries."
"Not when I've earned the right to cross them." I was speaking of the loss of my own child, and she knew it.