Although the Taurus PT-111 Millennium was not registered — having been provided to him, as were all his weapons, by the good folks at the institute — he couldn’t use it again. Now that it could be linked to the murders of two men, it was a hot piece; it would have to be broken down and disposed of with maximum discretion.
From his gun safe, concealed behind bookshelves in the master-suite sitting room, he selected a.380 Beretta model 85F, an elegant twenty-two-ounce pistol with an eight-round magazine. This, too, was an unregistered handgun with no traceable history.
He packed a compartmentalized, hand-tooled Mark Cross briefcase with the blue bag, the Green Acres bag, and the tape recorder that he used for dictation. While he waited for the Keanuphobe to call, he would do some game planning and compose a chapter of
In his study, he checked his E-mail and was surprised to find that he had still not received a confirmation of the double hit in New Mexico. Puzzled but not worried, he composed a short encrypted query and shot it off to the institute.
He drove his antique Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.
The car inspired several haiku during the short trip to the office.
Blue day, Silver Cloud. Conveyance of kings, of queens. And blue bag of poop.
The doctor was in fine form, and his bubbly mood resulted in another playful verse only two blocks from his office:
Silver Cloud, blacktop. Blind man in crosswalk, cane taps. Compassion or fun?
He chose compassion and allowed the blind man to cross without incident. Besides, the Silver Cloud was pristine, and the doctor shuddered at the thought of the magnificent motorcar sustaining even minor body damage.
Coming fast down to California at a precipitous angle, Dusty suspected that he and Martie had a long descent ahead of them even after the wheels of the airliner were safely on the tarmac. Past this sunny day lay dark places yet unvisited.
Weaponless but armed with knowledge, he believed they had no choice but to confront Ahriman. He suffered under no illusions that the psychiatrist would confess or even explain himself. The best they could hope for was that Mark Ahriman would inadvertently reveal something that would give them a slight edge or at least deepen their understanding of him and of the institute in New Mexico.
“Besides, I don’t think Ahriman has ever faced much in the way of adversity. He’s had a smooth ride through life. Judging by what I’ve read of his stupid book, he’s every bit the classic narcissist Dr. Closterman accused him of being.”
“And damn smug,” Martie added, because Dusty had read her some passages from
“He’s powerful, he’s connected, he’s smart, but at the core he might be soft. If we can rattle him, intimidate him, get in his face and shake him up, he probably won’t come apart significantly, but he might do something stupid, reveal something he shouldn’t. And right now, we need every tiny advantage we can get.”
After they ransomed the Saturn from the airport parking garage, they drove to Fashion Island in Newport Beach, to the high-rise where Ahriman had his office. The Tower of Cirith Ungol, Martie called it, which was a place of evil in
On the elevator ride to the fourteenth floor, Dusty experienced a sinking sensation in his chest and stomach, as though the cab were descending rather than ascending. He almost decided not to get off the elevator, to ride it back downstairs again. Then…an idea.
The doctor was seated at his desk, taking a cookie break, when his computer — which was always running — issued a soft
He checked his Rolex and saw that they were only six minutes late for their appointment.
Evidently, something had gone badly wrong in New Mexico.
Various security-system icons had appeared along the bottom of the screen. The doctor used his mouse to click on an image of a gun.
A highly refined metal detector indicated that both subjects were carrying small amounts of metal on their persons — coins, keys, and the like — but that neither of them was concealing a metal mass of sufficient size to be a firearm.
To another icon: a miniature skeleton.
As the pair stood at the reception window, talking to Jennifer, they were aligned with roentgen tubes concealed between the louvers in an air-return grille in the wall to their left. Fluoroscopic images were relayed to Ahriman’s screen.
They had good skeletons, these two. Solid bone structure, well-articulated joints, excellent posture. If they possessed the talent to match their physical gifts, they would be fine ballroom dancers.
As though floating in zero gravity, other objects were revealed by fluoroscopy, suspended around the well- poised bones. Coins, keys, buttons, metal zippers, but no knives in arm or leg sheaths, nothing lethal.
A jumble of small items in Martie’s purse couldn’t be easily identified. Among them might be a folded switchblade. Impossible to be sure.
The third icon was a drawing of a nose. As the doctor finished his cookie, he clicked the nose.
This activated a trace-scent analyzer that sampled air drawn from the reception lounge. The device, programmed to recognize the chemical profiles of thirty-two different explosive compounds, was sensitive enough to detect as few as three signature molecules per cubic centimeter of air. Negative. Neither of his visitors was carrying a bomb.
He had not really expected Dusty or Martie to have either the expertise with explosives or the sheer gumption to come calling with bombs strapped to their bodies. This extraordinary level of security had been installed because from time to time the doctor dealt with patients who were far less stable than these two.
Some might have looked at these elaborate precautions and called them indications of paranoia. To the doctor, however, this was simply paying attention to detail.
His dad had often counseled him on the importance of security. The great director’s production offices were equipped with state-of-the-art (for that time) security to protect him from jilted starlets, volatile actors furious with the way he’d edited their performances, and any critic who might have discovered who had paid to have his mother’s legs broken.
Now, confident that neither Dusty nor Martie could harm him faster than he could access them, Ahriman buzzed Jennifer and told her that he was ready for his appointment. Without rising from his desk, he triggered the electronic lock on the door to the reception lounge, and it swung slowly inward on powered hinges.
The doctor clicked an icon that showed a pair of headphones.
Martie and Dusty entered, appearing angry but more subdued than he expected. When he directed them to the two smaller chairs that faced his desk, they sat as instructed.
The door closed behind them.
“Doctor,” Martie said, “we don’t know what the hell’s going on, but we know it’s rotten, it stinks, it’s sick, and we want answers.”
Ahriman had been consulting his computer screen as she talked. Judging by the absence of the low-level electronic field associated with a voice-activated transmitter, she was not wired.
“A moment, please,” he said, clicking a microphone icon.
“Listen,” Dusty said angrily, “we’re not going to just sit here while you—”
“Ssshhh,” the doctor admonished, finger to his lips. “Only for a moment, please, absolute silence. Absolute.”
They glanced at each other while Ahriman studied the report on the screen.
The doctor said, “Martie, there are highly sensitive microphones in this room that detect the precise, characteristic sound pattern of the rhythmically turning hubs in a cassette tape recorder. I see that you have left your purse open and are holding it tipped slightly toward me. Do you have such a device in your purse?”
