‘I said you would go, and that you would meet her in the breakfast room of the Algonquin tomorrow morning. That’s why I was trying to call you, to tell you to get on a plane.’
‘You said I would go to New York to see your ex-mistress! You must be suffering from shock.’
‘Well,’ he said, his eyes brimming with mischief, ‘I imagined you might have thought you owed me. It was cheap of me, I know.’
‘And you think what she’s got to say is serious?’
‘Yes. And I’ve been thinking about something else. Loz is utterly obsessed with the Empire State building. He goes on about it like it was his second love.’
‘His first love being a contest between Khan and himself?’
‘I’m serious, he’s got a thing about it, and about the meaning of those tall buildings in New York. He picked up a quote from Benjamin Jaidi. After Loz mentioned it I got a copy of E.B. White’s Here is New York, where it comes from.’
Herrick looked blank.
Harland turned to the window. ‘ “A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy.” ’
‘Well remembered,’ she said.
‘There’s more. “This race – this race between the destroying planes and the struggling Parliament of Man – it sticks in all heads. The city at last perfectly illustrates the universal dilemma and the general solution; this riddle in steel and stone is at once the perfect target and the demonstration of non-violence, of racial brotherhood; this lofty target scraping the skies and meeting the destroying planes halfway, home of all people and all nations, capital of everything, housing the deliberations by which the planes are to be stayed and their errand forestalled.” ’
Herrick had sat down on the bed. ‘That’s some prescience. But surely it’s about the United Nations building, not the Empire State?’
‘True, but this has some meaning for him in a general sense. Look, I don’t know if the little bastard is still alive. But if Eva called me, I know it’s important. She’s agreed to pass on everything she has to you. I told her you were trustworthy and that you were the most natural talent I’d seen since I met your father. That intrigued her.’
‘Thanks. But you’re forgetting I’m washed up. Besides, I am not that good. I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the last month.’
‘Self pity doesn’t suit you.’ His tone softened. ‘You’re not yourself. Who would be, after finding a pair of armed thugs in their house, being on the end of a brace of missiles and watching their friends being shot up? The Chief is only concerned not to lose you. Let’s face it, he took the right decision sending you home.’ He paused. ‘I think you should go to New York. It would be good for you. You can catch the last flight. It’s always half-empty.’
‘I’ve never been to New York.’
‘Time to lose your virginity then. Hand me my bag.’
He took out the address book. ‘That was very thoughtful of you,’ he said, waving it at her. ‘Look up the number for Frank Ollins. He’s with the FBI – an awkward sod, but straight and reliable. He was in charge of the Sammi Loz inquiries.’ She found the number and copied it down.
He asked her to get his wallet out of the bedside cabinet and then offered her ten hundred-dollar bills. ‘You’ll need it, and it will save you time. There’s a flight at midnight.’
‘I can’t take it.’
‘Why not? You’re working for me now, you’re my agent, and you’re going to be dealing with Eva. That certainly requires payment of some kind.’
‘That reminds me of something in Shakespeare. I forget where it’s from. My father made me memorise it for obvious reasons. “Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love. Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues. Let every eye negotiate for itself, and trust no agent.” ’ She took the money and put it in her pocket. ‘Don’t trust me to say what you should be saying yourself.’
‘Okay, okay. Now, go catch that plane. You have my mobile number and here’s Eva’s.’ He pulled a card from his wallet and handed it to her. ‘Stay in touch. If there’s anything important I’ll let the Chief know.’
She bent down, kissed his cheek and let her head hang by his so that she looked myopically into his eyes. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I do owe you.’ Then she straightened, a hand still lingering on his forearm. ‘I’ll call you first thing tomorrow.’
She walked from the room without a backward glance.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The last plane from Heathrow landed at JFK at 2.30 a.m. Herrick slept most of the way, having been given an upgrade by a kindly man on the check-in desk. By the time the cab dropped her at the Algonquin Hotel on 44th Street she was beginning to feel herself again. She slept a further six hours in her modest single room, then got up and hurried to the Rose Room to meet Eva Rath. She ate breakfast, read the New York Times and watched agitated New York professionals pick at bowls of fruit and granola. After forty-five minutes she dialled Harland in hospital.
‘Your girlfriend’s a no-show.’
‘Wait a little longer. She may’ve been delayed.’
‘She did know I was coming? I mean, you are certain you told her?’
‘Have you tried the number I gave you?’
‘I will. I hope she bloody well answers. Speak to you later.’
She signed the bill and went upstairs to make the call, and consider what she should do if Eva Rath didn’t make an appearance. As she sat by a window looking out on an already steamy Midtown, her cell phone rang.
‘Hey, Isis, it’s Nathan. How’re you doing?’
‘Fine, really. Totally recovered. Just got up.’
‘The big sleep. It’s way past three.’
‘How can I help you?’ she said tartly.
‘We know what the four other suspects were doing, or at least we think we do. A vial of mysterious fluid was found in a fridge in Copenhagen, and an empty one in Sarajevo. We think the four may have infected themselves with some kind of disease. None of them has track marks, so we believe they’ve inhaled it or simply administered it orally.’
‘Has it been analysed?’
‘The Danes think it’s some kind of cold virus. That set off alarms because genetic engineers have used a modified adenovirus as a vehicle to carry messages into the body.’
‘What?’
‘Sorry, going too fast for you, Isis? Basically, the cold virus is killed by the immune system, leaving whatever is inside the virus to do its work.’
‘Another virus?’
‘Who knows? We don’t really have a handle on that right now, but if these guys are using it we can assume they’re treating it as a suicide bomb. So they’re all in isolation until we know what the hell they’re carrying.’
‘And the people who arrested them, are they in quarantine? ’
‘Sure, all the members of the relevant helper cells, too. The apartments where they lived have been hosed down with every kind of anti-bacterial and anti-viral agent known to man.’
‘Tell me about the Haj switch. How many men have you come up with?’
‘It’s still five, over and above those accounted for.’
‘So how many in the picture from Bosnia?’
‘Isis, should I be telling you this?’
‘Whose desk are you sitting at, Nathan? I want everything you’ve got. How many people from Bosnia?’
‘The French lady is here with Philip Sarre. I talked to her last night. She’s hot stuff…’
‘What about the photograph?’
‘So, we’ve got the two Rahes and Sammi Loz. Plus there’s the American named Larry. We think his second
