Rules of Vengeance

That was three hours ago.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“Someplace quiet and out of the way,” said Graves. “Someplace where we can have a heart-to-heart discussion about this morning’s events without too many prying eyes and ears.”

“We need to make sure that this is getting through to you,” said Detective Chief Inspector Ford.

“Oh, it’s getting through,” said Graves, stepping closer. “Dr. Ransom is a clever man. No doubting that. Well, then, Dr. Ransom, let me begin by saying that there’s very little you can tell us that we do not already know. Namely, that you arrived yesterday morning on a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi, that you’ve come to attend a medical conference and are staying at the Dorchester Hotel, and that you’re pla

“We have a tape of the bomb going off,” said Detective Chief Inspector Ford. “In fact, we have three or four views of it going off from a variety of angles.”

Graves propped a portable DVD player on Jonathan’s bedside table. He hit the play button and the screen filled with a long shot of Storey’s Gate. Directly in the center of the picture was the gray BMW Jonathan had followed from North London. A few seconds passed and the driver’s door opened. Emma stepped out and walked toward the intersection of Victoria Street. Jonathan watched as she took up position at the crosswalk and stayed there as the light changed and the pedestrians around her left her side. The motorcycle police escorts arrived and blocked traffic. The first SUV came into the picture and zoomed around the corner. Then the second, followed by the pack of Mercedeses. Suddenly there was a flash. When the screen came back into focus, it showed smoke and flames billowing from the BMW. One of the Mercedeses lay on its side; another had crashed into a lamppost. But Jonathan didn’t spend time studying the wreckage. He was too busy staring at the intersection, looking for Emma, wanting to be sure it was really she whom he’d seen.

“She’s gone,” said Graves, as if privy to his thoughts. “Your wife, I mean. Emma Rose Ransom. That is who you were looking for, isn’t it?”

Here it was, then, thought Jonathan. Truth or fiction. Confess or deny. The moment he had to decide whose team he was really on. Tell them everything, Emma had instructed, twelve hours and a thousand years ago. They know it anyway. If only it was that easy. He weighed the facts as he knew them. Emma had knowingly pla

“My wife’s dead,” said Jonathan. “She died in a climbing accident in the Alps six months ago.”

“So we’ve heard. When we were checking you out, we found a warrant for your arrest issued by the Swiss Federal Police in February. They sent over your file. It contained a photograph of your wife, presumed dead in a climbing accident, February the eighth of this year. Which makes her turning up in London a few days ago doubly strange.”

Days ago? Jonathan was unable to keep himself from reacting to the news. “That’s impossible,” he managed woodenly. “She’s dead.”

“Is that right? Why don’t we see about that? These pictures were taken in London thirty-six hours ago.” From a folder, Detective Chief Inspector Ford spread a series of photographs across the blanket covering his lap. They showed an elegantly dressed woman with auburn hair standing inside an elevator. In all of them, the woman’s face was lowered and it was hard to get a good read on her features. Still, it was glaringly obvious to Jonathan that the woman was Emma.

The police officer picked up one of the photographs and compared it to a picture blown up from one of the outdoor CCTV cameras on Victoria Street. “Is that or is that not your wife?”

“I’m not certain,” said Jonathan.

Ford set the pictures taken in London next to Emma’s passport picture, which had been provided by the Swiss authorities. There was no denying that it was the same woman. “And now?”

“It looks like her,” said Jonathan. His head throbbed. He was too fatigued to keep up the pretense.

“So we may assume that she is alive?”

Jonathan said nothing.

Ford picked up the photographs. “Does the name Robert Russell mean anything to you?”

“No,” said Jonathan. “Should it?”

“He was murdered yesterday morning. The first picture we showed you of your wife came from a surveillance camera in his building. We have evidence implicating her in Russell’s killing.”

The DVD was still playing, showing the BMW exploding from a different position up the street.

“One second she’s there,” said Graves, pointing a finger at the screen. “Bang goes the car, and the next, she’s gone. A bit spooky, actually. Where’d she go? She was too far away to get vaporized by the blast. Look closely. DCI Ford is just across the intersection. You can see her before and after. But your wife’s disappeared. We still can’t figure it.” He turned off the machine. “So what were you trying to do, Dr. Ransom, ru

Jonathan didn’t answer.

“What?” demanded Graves.

“I was trying to stop her.”

“So you knew there was a bomb?”

“No, I just-”

“Admit it,” said Graves. “You just said that you were trying to stop her. What happened? Have a last-second change of heart? That it? New to this kind of thing, are we?”

Jonathan stared at Graves. “I didn’t know anything about the bomb,” he said.

Graves came closer. “We have reports that you were extremely anxious upon your arrival at Heathrow. Set off all kinds of bells and whistles. Sounds to me as if you knew exactly what she had pla

“That’s not true,” said Jonathan. “I only found out Emma was in London last night.”

“Come on,” said Graves, suddenly assuming a comradely ma

Jonathan recalled the white, red, and blue flag flying from the car’s ante

“Then what were you doing at the exact location where the attack took place?”

“I already told you. I was trying to stop her.”

“Stop a dead woman from carrying out an attack you didn’t know was going to take place?” Graves continued relentlessly. “Please, Dr. Ransom, listen to yourself. Don’t insult our intelligence.”

Just then Jonathan heard a boom far in the distance and its echo drifting over the countryside. He was familiar with the sound of heavy artillery. He fingered the rough wool blanket. They had him tucked away at an army base. He was outside the system, and he knew all too well the kinds of things that happened there. If he ever wanted to get out of here, he was going to have to cooperate. Emma had been right. He must tell them everything.

“Emma worked for the U.S. government,” he said. “She was an operative for an organization called Division. It’s part of the Defense Department, but don’t bother looking it up. It doesn’t exist. At least, not officially. Something happened in Switzerland last February. A mission that went wrong… Actually, Emma made it go wrong. Several of Division’s men were killed, including its leader. It was better that we pretended she was dead.”