[Quinn 03] - Shadow of Betrayal

wasn’t telling. The only ones she had given up were her two colleagues at the UN, people who had been easy to trace through other means so were no real revelation. Neither of them had lasted as long as Marion when Tucker had interrogated them.

It was the people in Montreal. If she did know who they were, Mr. Rose would find out. And if she didn’t, it wouldn’t matter anyway. Either result would end in her death. That was the only given here.

“You want me to wake her?” Tucker asked.

Mr. Rose looked at his watch. “Take her back to her room.”

Tucker nodded at Linden and his partner, Petersen. Both men stepped forward and picked the woman up.

As soon as they were gone, Mr. Rose said, “I need to get down to the lab to supervise the final preparations.”

“All right,” Tucker said. “When do you want her back here?”

“Walk with me.”

“Of course,” Tucker said.

Mr. Rose was one of those people who got annoyed if you didn’t read his mind, and got even more upset if he changed his mind about a task and you hadn’t anticipated it. Tucker didn’t like it, but he’d grown used to it. It was the pay that kept him around. Nothing else.

Tucker followed Mr. Rose out of the interrogation room, through a short maze of hallways, then back into the main corridor. The lab of the underground facility was one level below, so Mr. Rose turned left toward the elevator.

“These people you saw in Montreal, do you think there is any chance they might have followed you here?” Mr. Rose asked.

Tucker felt a little like the woman. It wasn’t the first time Mr. Rose had asked him the question. It wasn’t even the second or the third.

“No way.”

“They concern me.”

“We searched her. Everything she had, everything she was wearing. We even ran her through the scanner. Nothing. No tracking device. No hidden radio transmitter. Nothing.”

Mr. Rose thought about this for a moment. “You’re sure?”

“One hundred percent.”

When they reached the elevator, Tucker pressed the down button to call for a car.

“And the child?” Mr. Rose asked.

“What about her?”

“You did the same with her? Check her clothes? Scanned her?”

This was a new question, but the answer was the same.

“Yes.”

The elevator door opened and Mr. Rose stepped inside. As Tucker stepped in to join him, Mr. Rose said, “I can’t have a loose end like this.”

“I understand.”

Tucker reached out and pushed the button marked R3, the lab level.

“Do you? Do you really understand?” Mr. Rose’s laser eyes kept Tucker from answering. “It’s a loose end. A distraction. We don’t want or need distractions at this point.” He paused. “There are people who want to stop me. Your job is to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

“That woman,” Mr. Rose said, more to himself than to Tucker. “She could ruin everything. That… that bitch!”

Tucker tried to contain his surprise. He’d never seen Mr. Rose react like that before.

“I think I’ll use the woman’s brat as the trigger.” As Mr. Rose said this, a smile grew on his face. “Yes, I think that will be an excellent idea.”

The elevator door opened, and Mr. Rose stepped out. Tucker knew to stay where he was.

“Find out who those people in Montreal are,” Mr. Rose said, looking back. “And make sure they won’t be a problem.”

“Yes, sir,” Tucker said.

Mr. Rose turned and walked away.

Alone in the elevator on the ride back up, Tucker wondered if the people in Montreal had let Marion Dupuis run so she could act as bait. It was something he would do.

But even if they had, they wouldn’t have been able to find her now. They would have lost her the minute Tucker’s plane left Toronto. Had they kept looking? Or had they just given up?

That’s what Tucker needed to find out.