“And the subject? What about him?”
“KIA at the site.”
“Killed?” Gault asked, giving the word the kind of dubious inflection it now deserved. It wasn’t lost on the American, who hesitated before continuing with his report.
“One of the Baltimore cops took him down. He was taken to a local hospital as a DOA and I’m told that he’s on ice somewhere.”
Gault considered this. If the subject was in a morgue storage drawer then the plan was going off the rails. He had been infected with Generation Three of the Seif al Din, the Sword of the Faithful. He should not have been lying idly about. However, Gault seriously doubted that this was the case. “Find out for sure.”
“I’ve put a top guy on it and should be able to lock it down soonest.”
“What about the other two shipments?”
“They left by truck the day before the place was hit.”
“Did everything go as planned?”
“Sure. They successfully tailed the one we wanted and lost the other. It all went fine. Right now they’re surveilling the big plant and doing satellite flybys and thermal scans with helos. But no one has gone in because of a general sit-and-wait order.”
“Issued by whom?”
The American cleared his throat. “The Geek Squad.”
“Geek Squad” was their personal code for the DMS.
“Perfect.”
“Glad you think so,” said the American, “but I think you’re playing with goddamn fire here.”
“Have a little faith,” chided Gault.
“Faith, my ass. How are we going to evacuate the plant, that’s my question? The Geeks may only be watching now but a go order can come down any second, and I don’t think I can stop them from-”
Gault cut him off. “I’m not asking you to. Just sit tight and keep your eyes and ears open. I’ll be reachable for the next three or four days. In the meantime, download everything including the official warehouse assault report to my PDA.” He parted the tent flaps and looked out at the rocks and sand, at the sparse bunchgrass and withered scrub date palms. This part of Afghanistan always looked like a wasteland. Then a flash of movement caught his eye and he saw three people coming toward him from the mouth of a small cave halfway up the valley-a woman with two heavily armed guards flanking her. Amirah, coming to take him to the lab. He let out the held breath that had started to burn stale in his chest.
“But it’s too late to evacuate the staff ” the American said.
“Are you that concerned for their well-being?”
The American laughed. “Yeah, right. I’m thinking of what the Geek Squad could do with what they find in there.”
“They’ll do exactly what we want them to do.” He meant to say “what I want them to do,” but decided to throw the American a bone. “Keep me posted. If you can’t reach me then make sure my assistant has regular updates.”
The American made a rude noise. There was no love lost between him and Toys.
“You sure this bullshit is going to work?”
“Work?” Gault echoed softly as he watched Amirah walk toward him and saw that her step was lively, filled with excitement. He knew what kinds of things excited this woman. “It already has worked.”
He closed the phone and put it in his pocket.
Chapter Ten
Baltimore, Maryland / Saturday, June 27; 6:19 P.M.
“DR. SANCHEZ’S OFFICE.”
“Kittie? It’s Joe. Rudy free?”
“Oh, he’s gone for the day. I think he went to the gym-”
“Thanks.” I cleared the call and then thumb-dialed the number for Gold’s on Pratt Street. They got Rudy to the phone.
“Joe,” he said. Rudy sounds like Raul Julia from The Addams Family years. “I thought you were in Ocean City. Something about a tan, an endless stream of bikinis, and a sixer of Corona. Wasn’t that the great master plan?”
“Plans change. Look, you free?”
“When?”
“Now.”
A slight pause as he shifted gears. “Are you okay?”
“Not entirely.”
Another shift, this time from concern to caution. “Is this about what happened at the warehouse?”
“In a way.”
“Are you feeling depressed or-”
“Cut the shit, Rudy, this is off the clock.” He got that. Since long before Helen’s first suicide attempt Rudy had been my shrink some of the time and my friend all of the time. Now I needed my friend, but I wanted his brain, too. “Get dressed and come outside. I’ll be there in five.”
I MET RUDY Sanchez ten years ago during his residency at Sinai. He’d worked with Helen since the first time she’d been checked in after the spiders started coming out of the walls. Now we were both dealing with Helen’s suicide in different ways. I needed him for my part of it, and he needed me for his. None of Rudy’s patients had ever killed themselves before, and he took it pretty hard. There’s professional detachment and then there’s basic humanity. Rudy’s a great shrink. He was born for the profession, I think. He listens with every molecule of his body and he has insight.
He came out of Gold’s wearing electric-blue bike shorts and a black tank top, carrying an Under-Armour gym bag.
“You have a bike?” I asked, looking around.
“No, I drove.”
“What’s with the shorts?”
“There’s a new fitness trainer. Jamaican gal tall, gorgeous.”
“And ”
“Bike shorts show off my package.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Jealousy is an ugly thing, Joe.”
“Get in the fucking car.”
We drove to Bellevue State Park, bought some bottled water, and walked off into the forest. I hadn’t said much of anything in the car and Rudy let it be, waiting for me to open up, but after we’d been walking for five minutes he cleared his throat. “This is getting pretty remote for a therapy session, cowboy.”
“Not what it is.”
“Then what? Does the FBI want you to get your forestry merit badge?”
“Need privacy.”
“Your car won’t do it?”
“Not sure about that.”
He smiled. “You ought to consider seeing a therapist about that paranoia.”
I ignored him. The park trail brought us into a small clearing by a brook. I led the way down to the scattering of rocks. For a small brook it had a nice steady burble. Useful. Not that I really expected long-range mics, but safe is better than careless.
“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way, Rudy, but I’m going to take off all my clothes. You can turn around. I wouldn’t want you to lose confidence in your package.”
He sat down on a rock and picked up some small stones to toss. I stripped down to the skin and first
