Deadlock

'I want you to take me to Athens and-'

'Let you go after Staunton on your own,' he finished for her. 'No way.'

'You have Irana and your own life to protect. Look what happened here.'

'I almost got you killed. Staunton wouldn't even have known you were on this island if I'd done what I should have done when he phoned me.

She frowned in puzzlement. 'What you should have done?' 'Hung up. I had a hunch he was tracking me. I took a chance be¬cause I wanted a few more minutes to try to negotiate.' 'Negotiate what?' He didn't answer.

'Answer me.' She was staring at his closed expression. 'I know about Staunton's negotiations.' She was thinking, trying to put it to¬gether. 'How did Staunton find out that you were the one who helped me? How did he get the phone number to call you?' But he didn't have to reply. She was remembering that moment outside the camp. The young man with the warm, comforting smile. 'Your friend. The man who helped you to find me. His name is… Karif?'

'His name was Karif Barouk.'

Past tense. She felt sick. 'He's dead?'

'Yes.'

'Staunton?' 'Yes.'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Why should I? I knew you'd react the way you are now. You're feeling guilty as hell about the hospital and my house being destroyed. It was Staunton who should feel guilty, not you. As for Karif…' He paused. 'I'm the one who asked him to help. I thought if he kept his mouth shut, he'd be safe. Karif was sometimes careless. But a good friend, the best friend.'

He was hurting. She could sense the pain behind that tough facade. He and this Karif had been close, and his friend had been taken from him. 'Staunton tortured him?'

'Oh, yes. And he wouldn't have broken unless it had gotten- Staunton evidently is exceptionally talented in that direction.'

'Yes, he is.' She drew a deep, shaky breath. 'Joel…'

'I don't want to talk about your Joel. I don't want to talk about Karif. I want to talk about Staunton. I've been trying to be consider¬ate, trying to let the memories dull, trying to keep you from going off the deep end. I thought we had time to let you heal.' He gazed di¬rectly in her eyes. 'That's over. Time's up. Start thinking. Start re¬membering. If it hurts, it hurts. I want details. I want clues. Staunton never expected you to get out of those mountains alive, so he probably wasn't as discreet as he might have been. Did he talk to you?'

'Sometimes. But it was usually… He talked about what he was doing to Joel.'

'Bastard. But he could have interspersed other information. Sift through it.'

Hard. Sharp. Merciless. This was the Garrett she had seen those first moments in that tent, when he had killed Ali. All darkness, all lethal skill.

It shouldn't disturb her like this. It was that darkness and skill that she had wanted, what she had embraced. 'I'll try to do what you want me to do.'

'If you need help, I'll give it to you. I'll probe, I'll ask questions.'

She gazed at him in shock.

'Gloves are off,' he repeated. 'You help me, I help you. None of it will be pretty.'

'But in the end, we'll find Staunton.' 'That's not good enough.' 'What?'

'We'll find Staunton. We'll find the man who hired Staunton. And I'll kill them both.' He added softly. 'I'm hungry. I want it all.'

Emily had not thought beyond Staunton. He had completely filled her horizon for so long that everything else connected to him was blurred. Yet wicked as Staunton was, that evil had been bought and paid for by someone just as evil.

'And you want it all, too,' Garrett said. 'You've just been so wounded that you've refused to think about it. I'd bet that within two days of ridding the world of Staunton you'd be going after the man who hired him.' He smiled faintly. 'But you'd be much better going after the lure that would gather them both in at once.'

'Zelov's hammer.'

He nodded. 'You were ready to go after it to find Staunton. It's still the best game in town.' It s no game.

His smile faded. 'No, it's not. But you'll find sometimes it's better to pretend it is. Too much intensity can cause you to make mistakes.' His gaze shifted to the window. 'We'll be in Athens soon. It's not safe to stay there. We'll take care of Irana, then take off.'

'Where?'

'That's up to Dardon. He came up with a few answers tonight be¬fore I got the call from Staunton. It's pretty weird, but it's all we've got. We'll see if he can pull anything else from his sources.'

'About Staunton?'

'No, about Zelov.' He shook his head. 'Later. I don't know enough myself right now. We'll talk about it after we reach Athens.'

GARRETT'S PHONE RANG THREE minutes after he set the heli¬copter down at a small airport just outside of Athens.

'Where are you?' Dardon asked. 'Irana's on the rampage. One of her friends on the island called her and asked her if she was all right. An explosion?'

'Staunton blew up the hospital. We're in Athens. Are you still at the dock?'

'No, Irana called the Mother Superior of St. Cecelia's Hospital where she used to work, and the patients are on their way there now. We're in an ambulance.' He spoke to someone in the background. 'She wants to talk to you.'

'We should not have left you,' Irana said when she came on the line. 'Are you hurt?'

'No, and neither is Emily. You did exactly what you should have done.' He paused. 'The hospital is gone. I'll build you another one, Irana.'

'If God wills. He might have had a reason for taking this one away.'

'I don't think God had anything to do with it.'

'You don't know. Maybe he wanted you to have a reason to build me another one with a better diagnostic unit. I've been thinking per¬haps I needed one.' She paused. 'There's nothing left?'

'I didn't get a close look. But I'd bet Staunton was very thorough.'

'Sad.' She was silent. 'I want to see Emily. I'm not sure what this will do to her.'

'Neither am I. She'll just have to survive it. She seems to be coping.' 'I want to see her. I'm going to St. Cecelia. Will you meet me there?'

'Yes, but not for long. It's not going to be safe for you or us, Irana.'

'We'll talk when you get there.' She hung up.

Garrett looked at Emily as he pressed the disconnect. 'She's wor¬ried about you. She's regarding the destroying of the hospital as an act of God, but she wants to make sure you're okay.'

'Cosset,' Emily said. 'She wants to cosset me.' The words brought back the memory of that day on the beach. The sun on the water, Irana's radiant smile. For the first time that night she felt an easing, a lessening of the darkness. 'And she's not forgiven you for giving her those old Jane Austen books.'

He smiled. 'It was really funny until she caught on. It was like lis¬tening to someone out of Pride and Prejudice.'

'I would have found a way to pay you back.'

'Oh, she did. I'll tell you about it sometime.' His smile faded. 'But in the meantime you can concentrate on convincing Irana she can't stay here with her patients. She wasn't about to commit.'

EIGHT

'I'LL BE WITH YOU IN A MINUTE,' Irana said as she strode down the hospital hall beside an old man on a gurney. She was hold¬ing his hand and smiling down at him. 'As soon as I get Andros set¬tled. Strange places are always a little scary, aren't they, Andros?'