present ineffective.”
“And?”
“I want you to go down with her team and provide security.”
“Security from what? You said the subway was shut down.”
“There will be a significant amount of valuable technology in that tunnel. A lot of proprietary equipment used by Dr. Brazile and her staff. I want someone down there with some training. Someone to watch their back.”
“What’s wrong with the feds or the Chicago PD?”
Danielson shook his head. “I told you-this is nothing more than a fire drill. You let a Chicago cop down there, and it winds up on the front page of tomorrow’s Trib. Unfortunately, the same concern applies to the federal agencies in town.”
“And you trust me to keep my mouth shut?”
Danielson thinned his lips. “Actually, I do. Mr. Mayor, we’ll call you as soon as we have confirmation that the subway is clean and work out a schedule to reopen closed portions of the system. If everything goes smoothly, I would expect trains to be up and running by rush hour at the latest.”
Danielson cast a final look around the room. “Last thing. No one, outside of the people at this table and Dr. Brazile’s team in the tunnel, knows the details on this. So if there’s a leak, we’ll track it quickly, quietly, and ruthlessly. Am I clear?”
Brazile and Carrolton nodded. Wilson waved off the threat and stood up. I took another sip of coffee and wondered. Everyone in the meeting knew more than I did. Probably a lot more. Still, they wanted me to tag along, play a part in their game. So I would. Just in case the geniuses got it wrong and really did need a man with a gun.
CHAPTER 6
“Are we going to have issues, Mr. Kelly?”
Ellen Brazile eyed me like I was some sort of fungus she might find between her toes. I bet she didn’t like fungus between her toes. And I bet she knew how to kill it.
“I’m hoping not, Dr. Brazile. What with Armageddon running loose on the Blue Line, I’m pretty sure you’ll have your hands full.”
Brazile sniffed and watched the floors tick off as our elevator descended. Molly Carrolton stood beside her, spine stiff, ears open. A bell chimed, and the elevator doors peeled back. Brazile got off first.
“This way.” She walked down an empty corridor, around a corner, and stopped. Mayor Wilson, accompanied by his chief of staff, was already there, waiting.
“Dr. Brazile. I know you’re busy, so I won’t hold you up. I just need a minute with Kelly.”
Brazile moved past the mayor and opened a door to what I could only guess was her lab. Carrolton followed. And then it was just me, the mayor, and his ghostly gray apparition. Alone at last.
“Mark, give us five.”
Rissman nodded, and the mayor led me into an empty conference room.
“Sit down, Kelly.”
“No thanks, Mr. Mayor.”
Wilson shrugged and threw himself into a seat. “Pissed, huh?”
“Seems like there’s a few blanks that need filling in.”
“You mean from Danielson?”
“You tell me.”
“Sit down.”
I sat. Wilson hunched his shoulders together and pushed his hound’s face close. “He killed the FBI agent. Lawson. Did you know that?”
I didn’t respond.
“No wire.” Wilson stood and held his arms out. “Take a look if you want.”
“Your flunky outside was taping this morning’s meeting.”
“You noticed. Very good.” The mayor took his seat again. “Think Danielson figured that out?”
“Probably not.”
“Doesn’t matter. Danielson thought Lawson was about to go to the press with the story about the lightbulbs. He thought people would panic, be afraid to go into the subway, blame the federal government, et cetera, et cetera. So, he popped her.”
“That wasn’t the only reason.”
“No?” The mayor’s eyes flickered inside thick creases of flesh.
“The lightbulbs we’re talking about were stolen from the bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick. Danielson was worried that story might start to percolate. Maybe the press begins to dig, asks questions about what else walked out of there.”
Wilson rocked his head from side to side. “Maybe, maybe. Thing is, I had nothing to do with Lawson. You don’t have to believe me. I don’t give a fuck. But if you think about it, why would I have been involved? It was a federal mess from the beginning.”
“Is that what you dragged me in here for? So you could clear your conscience?”
“The thing today, the bulbs falling in the subway.”
“What about them?”
“You’re wondering why there’s no urgency, no panic. All that shit.”
“The thought crossed my mind.”
“Danielson told me about Fort Detrick. Told me he went down there himself a couple of weeks ago. Talked to the folks on-site. Accessed their inventory logs.”
“And?”
“All the bulbs used in their experiments contained anthrax that had been irradiated and rendered harmless. No exceptions.”
“You believe that?”
“I do.”
“If Danielson knew the stuff was harmless, why did he have the Canaries installed in the first place?”
Wilson snorted. “Who knows? Play around with a new toy. Do a favor to some lab that wants to show off a new product. It’s all ‘you suck me, I suck you’ kind of stuff. Thing is, Danielson wasn’t expecting a reading to pop up. Even a false positive. And he’s determined to keep it from the brass back in DC.”
“That’s why he’s using me, instead of his own men, for security?”
“Probably thinks you can do the job, and keep your mouth shut.”
“Why would I keep my mouth shut?”
“That’s between you and Danielson. Unless you want to clue me in?”
“I gotta run, Mr. Mayor.”
Wilson fingered the lapel of his coat. “One more thing.”
“What?”
“I need to come out of this looking a certain way.”
“Let me guess. If this somehow blows up in Danielson’s face, you want to be clean?”
“All I ask is you keep me apprised as things develop.”
“So you can stay ahead of the curve.”
“So we both can.” Wilson took out a business card and pushed it across the table. “These are some numbers where you can reach Rissman. He’ll be plugged in to me. Like I said, this thing should be over by this afternoon, and no one will be any wiser.”
“And if it isn’t… ”
“Keep us in the loop.”
I slipped the card into my pocket. The mayor got up and left.
