Doll felt his focus tighten until it blurred. “Why?”
“Get a location on him. I’ll explain the rest later. Crane?”
“Yes, sir.” The gray man scratched two fingers against the finish on the table.
“There’s a package of information on the secure link. Let me know once you’ve reviewed the options. Any questions?”
No one spoke.
“Good. Mr. Doll, we have a conference call with the mayor in an hour. You can update me then.” The man from DC cut the call.
“It’s a mistake,” Doll said.
“Wouldn’t be the first.”
“You ever heard anything about this Dweller?”
“I find it’s easier if I don’t hear anything at all.” Crane stood up. “Let me know when you get a fix on Kelly.”
The door opened and Crane limped off. Doll hit a few buttons on his computer and listened to a recording of the conversation. He made a copy to a flash drive and deleted the original from his desktop. After that he took a cell phone from his pocket. Rachel Swenson picked up on the other end.
“There’s been a change of plans,” Doll said.
CHAPTER 44
Rachel Swenson clicked off her cell and ventured a cautious smile. I was sitting in the passenger seat, tugging at a bandage they’d put on my arm.
“Who was that?” I said.
“Just my clerk.”
“You have to get back?”
“Yes.”
A guard checked her tag number and waved us through the last set of gates marking off the quarantine zone.
“How did you get in here?” I said.
“Your friend, Ellen, called and told me you needed to get out. I know some people at the DOD. Explained I had someone who got stuck behind the fence.”
“Did they ask for a name?”
“They wanted one.”
“Thanks for getting me.”
“You can thank me by explaining Danielson.”
“He had a gun. Shot himself.”
“Was he in your apartment when I went in to get Mags?”
“He was.”
“So he could have taken me if he wanted. With the gun. A knife. Whatever.”
“If I knew he was there… ”
“You never would have let me go in. But you didn’t know. And I did go in.”
I’d put her in danger. And I swore I never would again. “I’m sorry, Rach.”
“Forget it.”
We drove in silence.
“Where are we headed?” she said.
I gestured vaguely. “Just drive north.”
She swung a left off Ogden onto Ashland. “The government doesn’t think you murdered him, Michael.”
“So they’re not looking for me anymore?”
“From what I understand, no.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I think they’d rather have you under their control but are too busy to worry about it.”
More silence.
“Who was on the phone just now?” I said.
“I told you. My clerk.”
There was a flaw in her voice-a cold, hard malignancy that found a home in my stomach.
“You sure about that?” I said.
“What does that mean?”
I pointed to an Osco parking lot. “Pull in.”
She turned into the empty lot. The drugstore was locked up tight. An increasing number of drugstores and grocery stores had threatened to shut down across the city. Either because they’d run low on inventory or didn’t want to deal with the panic buying.
“This place is closed,” Rachel said. “You need something?”
“No.”
“Then why did we stop?”
“Tell me about it.”
“About what?”
“Whatever’s bothering you.”
“Nothing’s bothering me.”
“That’s another lie.”
Her phone buzzed again. She reached, but I beat her to it. The caller ID window flashed RESTRICTED.
“Go ahead and answer,” she said. I tossed the phone into her lap, where it went silent.
“They knew you were down at Cook, Michael.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“Homeland.”
I nodded, as if the moment of her betrayal was one I’d expected.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Why didn’t they just throw me in a cell?”
“I told you. They wanted you out.”
“But on a string. With you at the other end.”
Her phone buzzed a third time. Like a goddamn toothache knocking inside my jaw. She turned the thing off.
“What do they have on you?” I said.
She shook her head. I waited.
“CDA Labs.”
“What about them?” I said.
“I’m an investor. Got involved when it was just a start-up. Jon Stoddard was a friend. I believed in his work.”
“What do you know about CDA’s work?”
“I know they do genetic research.”
“They create bioweapons for the government.”
“If you’re asking if I knew that I had to divest when I came onto the bench, the answer is yes. The potential conflicts of interest were obvious.”
“But you didn’t?”
“Not really, no.”
“How much?”
“Jon talked about going public. Even my small stake would have meant millions. So I told the Justice Department I’d liquidated my holdings, but I hid them.”
