The Cassandra Complex

“Abduction?” Lisa echoed, still fixated on the first sentence of Ke

“I very much doubt that they intend to hold him for ransom,” the younger woman replied insouciantly. “I think it’s far more likely that they want him to tell them something before they kill him, don’t you? I don’t suppose that by any chance you have any idea of what it is they want to know?”

“No,” said Lisa shortly, then realized she’d been wrong-footed again.

“Well,” Ke

“Who’s Mr. Smith?” was the only counter Lisa could improvise.

“Peter Grimmett Smith is the MOD man who’ll be taking charge of the investigation. He’ll be working closely with us, of course. I daresay he’ll find plenty for DI Grundy to do. I’m not so sure that we’ll need much more from youonce you’ve been debriefed, though—unless you can exercise your memory sufficiently to remember some little secret you and Dr. Miller might have kept between you. One that might help to explain four firebombs, two burglaries, two cases of malicious wounding, and an abduction.” The professional smile had vanished now.

It hadn’t occurred to Lisa until the conversation reached that pitch of sarcasm that Judith Ke

Twenty years ago, Judith Ke

Knowing that she had to say something, Lisa eventually said: “If there was any secret, it was between Morgan and Ed Burdillon. Are you surehe’s been abducted?”

“Of course not,” the chief inspector replied. “There are signs of a struggle, but that would be easy enough to fake. Are yousuggesting that Morgan Miller might be the man behind all this—the one who sent bombers to the university and burglars to raid your flat?”

“Don’t be absurd,” Lisa retorted. “I was wondering if he might have been away when the burglars came to call. Have you got the abduction on tape?”

“Probably not,” Ke

“This is crazy,” Lisa said helplessly. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“It certainly doesn’t,” agreed the chief inspector. “But whoever did this had reason enough to send at least seven people to formulate a plan of extraordinary complexity. Theythink it makes sense—and we have to figure out what sense they think it makes. Continue your inquiries, Dr. Friema

Having given these instructions, Judith Ke

“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t realize quite how much shit had hit the fan—the news about Miller’s house being turned over only just came through. What the hell’s going on, Lisa?”

“I don’t know,” Lisa said, wishing that she did. You’ll work it out, the man—or woman—who’d shot her had said. If we don’t have what we need, we’ll be back, and next time.… Now Lisa wished that she’d heard the end of that sentence. There was another that seemed even more ominous in present retrospect. Nobody cares about you, you stupid bitch!the distorted voice had informed her. Miller never cared, and no matter what he promised you, you’ll be dead soon enough.

But Morgan had never promised her anything: not love, not marriage, not partnership, not wealth, not even a substantial share of his meager wisdom.

Whatever information she was supposed to have must still be safe and secure in Morgan Miller’s mind—but if his captors thought they were going to beat it out of him, they had another think coming. Lisa was convinced that if there was one man in the world who would never give in to pressure or temptation, it was Morgan Miller.

“I suppose it isn’t likely to be personal,” Mike mused, carefully leaving out the inflection that would have made it into a question. “Whoever did this was attacking Applied Genetics, not Burdillon. Why else take the trouble to drag him clear of the fire? If their reason’s political, they’ll probably want to brag about it, but if not…” He trailed off temptingly, but Lisa had no other suggestion ready.

She wondered if it was possible that the bombers had gone after Mouseworld simply because it was a classic experiment, a living legend. Extreme Gaeans, way out on the green end of the spectrum, might conceivably believe that hitting Mouseworld might help them make a point about the realLondon, Paris, New York, and Rome and their plight within the context of the otherwar that dare not speak its name: the war for the salvation of the ecosphere. But what, if so, was the motive for Morgan’s abduction?

She recalled then that Thomas Sweet had told her that Chan Kwai Keung wasn’t answering his phone, and that he hadn’t been able to get a hold of Stella Filisetti either. It was possible that the register of crimes patiently listed by Judith Ke

Mike was still waiting for a comment.

“If their target really was the cities, and they’re doing it to make a point,” Lisa said hesitantly, “they’ll have to ram the point home somehow. Maybe Ke

Mike immediately picked up the thread of the argument. “We have to be looking at some kind of organization with an inside co