Behind them, a growled bark echoed up from the first floor. Workers shouted in surprise.
What now? Kowalski asked.
From the Mall entrance, a bullhorn blasted. HOMELAND SECURITY! THE BUILDING IS
TO BE EVACUATED IMMEDIATELY! EVERYONE TO THE MAIN EXIT!
This way, Gray said.
He led them off to the side, toward the largest piece of art on this floor's gallery. The installation was an abstract flag, made up of fifteen ribbons of mirrored polycarbonate.
We can't keep running, Elizabeth said.
We're not.
So we're hiding? Kowalski asked. What about their dogs?
We're not running or hiding, Gray assured them.
He passed the shimmering flag. Its mirrored surface reflected a prismatic view of the museum. In bits and pieces, Gray saw the armed detail take up an impenetrable cordon across the only exit.
Passing one of the scaffoldings stacked with supplies and spare coveralls, Gray grabbed what he needed. He passed a few bundles to Kowalski. He kept what he needed himself: a can of paint and a plastic gallon of paint thinner. He headed into the hallway under the abstract flag. Kowalski read the gallery sign at the entrance and whistled under his breath.
Pierce, what are you planning on doing?
Gray led the way into the heart of the museum's most treasured exhibits. It was the main reason for the entire renovation. They entered a long darkened hall.
Seats lined one side opposite a wall of paneled glass on the other. Even the chaos behind them seemed to muffle under the weight of the historical treasure preserved behind the glass, one of the nation's most important icons. It lay unfurled on a sloped display, a tatter of cotton and wool a quarter the size of a football field. Its dyes had faded, but it remained a dramatic piece of
American history, the flag that inspired the national anthem.
Pierce ? Kowalski moaned, beginning to comprehend. That's the Star-Spangled
Banner.
Gray placed the can of paint on the floor and began to twist open the cap on the gallon of highly flammable paint thinner.
Pierce you can't mean to not even as a distraction.
Ignoring him, Gray turned to Elizabeth. Do you still have your lighter?
8:32 P. M.
Sitting in the security office of the National Zoo, Yuri felt the weight of his seventy-seven years. All the androgens, stimulants, and surgeries could not mask the heaviness of his heart. A numbing fear had turned his limbs to aching lead; worry etched deeper lines in his face.
We'll find your granddaughter, the head of security had promised him. We have the park closed down. Everyone is looking for her.
Yuri had been left in the office with a blond young woman who could be no older than twenty-five. She wore the khaki safari uniform of a zoo employee. Her name tag read TABITHA. She seemed nervous in his presence, unsure how to cope with his despair. She stood, coming out from behind the desk.
Is there anyone you'd like to call? Another relative?
Yuri lifted his head. He studied her for a breath. Her apple-cheeked youth the years ahead of her. He realized he'd been little older than the girl when he'd stumbled out of the rattling truck into the highlands of the Carpathian mountains. He wished he had never found that Gypsy camp.
Would you like to use the phone? she asked.
He slowly nodded. Da. He could not put it off any longer. He'd already alerted
Mapplethorpe, not so much to report to him, as to gain the cooperation of the
D. C. policing authorities. But the man had been distracted, busy hunting down what had been stolen. Mapplethorpe had mentioned something about Dr. Polk's daughter. But Yuri no longer cared. Still, Mapplethorpe had promised to raise an
Amber Alert for the missing child. All D. C. resources and outlying counties would be alerted. She had to be found.
Sasha
Her round face and bright blue eyes filled his vision. He should never have left her side. He prayed she had just wandered off. But among a park full of wild animals, even that best scenario was not without its dangers. Worse yet, had someone taken her, abducted her? In her current state, she would be pliable, easily suggestible. Yuri was well familiar with the number of pedophiles out there. They'd even had trouble at the Warren with some of their early employees.
There had been so many children, too many. Mistakes had happened.
But not all of the abuses had been mistakes.
He shied from this last thought.
Tabitha carried over a portable telephone.
Yuri shook his head and took out his own cell phone. Thank you, but it is a long-distance call, he explained. To Russia. To her grandmother. I'll use my own phone.
Tabitha nodded and backed away. I'll give you your privacy. She stepped into a neighboring office.
Alone, Yuri dialed the number into his international cell phone. A small chip developed by Russian intelligence would bounce the signal off several cell towers, making it untraceable, along with scrambling the communication.
He had dreaded making this call, but he could wait no longer. The Warren had to be alerted, but it was very early in the morning back there. Not even four o'clock. Still, the phone was answered promptly, the voice curt and sharp.
What is it?
Yuri pictured the woman at the other end of the line, his immediate superior,
Dr. Savina Martov. The two had discovered the children together, begun the
Warren as a team, but Martov's ties to the former KGB had pulled her above Yuri in command. There was a saying in Russia: No one left the KGB. And despite what
Western leaders might think, that did not exclude the current Russian president.
The man still surrounded himself with ex-members of Soviet intelligence. Major contracts were still placed in the hands of former operatives.
And Dr. Savina Martov was no exception.
Savina, we have a major problem here, he said in Russian.
He imagined her face frosting over. Like Yuri, she had also undergone hormonal, surgical, and cosmetic treatments, but she had fared even better than Yuri. Her hair was still dark, her features hardly blemished. She could pass for forty years old. Yuri suspected why. She did not battle that same knot of guilt that soured his gut. The sureness of her vision and purpose shone out of her face.
Only when one looked in her eyes was the deception ruined. No amount of treatments would mask the cold calculation found there.
You've still not found what was stolen from us? she asked in harsh tones.
I've already heard that Polk has been eliminated. So then why ?
It's Sasha. She's gone missing.
A long silence stretched.
Savina, did you hear me?
Yes. I just had a report in from one of the dormitory workers. It's why I'm up so early. They discovered three empty beds.
Who? Which children?
Konstantin, his sister Kiska, and Pyotr.
Savina continued her report, how a search was under way across the Warren, but her voice grew hollow, echoing as if out of a deep well as Yuri had fixated on the last name.
Pyotr. Peter.
