She seemed to weigh her next words carefully. 'You told the White House you didn't want the other Trinity principals informed of your call.'
My blood pressure dropped like a stone. How did they know what I'd said during that pay phone conversation? It had to be wiretapping surveillance, and not the local police or FBI variety. The NSA recorded millions of private tele¬phone calls every day, the disk drives in the basements of Fort Meade triggered by key words like plastique, Al Qaeda, strong encryption, RDX, or even Trinity. I recalled that I'd said 'Trinity' as soon as the White House opera¬tor answered, to make her switch me to the proper contact. The NSA probably had a recording of my conversation from that point forward.
I drew myself up and looked Geli hard in the eyes. 'I was personally appointed to this project by the president. Not by the NSA or John Skow or even Peter Godin. I'm here to evaluate ethical problems. If I determine that a problem exists, I report directly to the president. No or here has any say in the matter.'
The gloves were off. I had just drawn a line between myself and everyone else in the Trinity building.
Geli leaned forward, her blue eyes challenging me. 'How many cell phones do you own, Dr. Tennant?'
'One.'
'Do you have others in your possession?'
Clarity settled in my mind like a resolving chord. They knew I'd called the White House, but they didn't know whether or not the president had gotten back to me. They had my phones covered-the ones they knew about-but they were worried about channels of communication they didn't know about. If they were wor¬ried about that, they had no inside line to the presi¬dent, and I still stood a chance of convincing him of my suspicions.
'Rachel Weiss owns a cell phone,' Bauer said, her eyes alert for the slightest reaction on my part.
I took a slow breath and kept my voice even. 'I don't know a doctor who doesn't.'
'But you know Dr. Weiss rather better than you know almost anyone else.'
'She's my psychiatrist, if that's what you mean.'
'She's the only person other than Trinity personnel to whom you've spoken more than fifty words over the past two months.'
I wondered if this was true.
'The same is true for Dr. Weiss,' Geli said.
'What do you mean?'
'She sees no one. She lost her son to cancer last year. After the boy died, her husband left her and returned to New York. Six months ago, Dr. Weiss began accepting occasional dates with male colleagues. Dinner, a movie, like that. She never saw anyone more than twice. Two months ago, she stopped seeing men altogether.'
Of course, this didn't surprise me. Rachel was an intense woman, and I couldn't imagine many men meeting her expectations. 'Yeah, so?' I said.
'I think you're the reason for that, Doctor. I think Dr. Weiss is in love with you.'
I laughed, really laughed, for the first time since I'd seen Fielding's body. 'Dr. Weiss thinks I'm delusional, Ms. Bauer. Possibly schizophrenic.'
This didn't faze Geli. 'She kissed you last night. At the Fielding house.'
'That was a sympathy kiss. I was upset about Fielding.'
Geli ignored this. 'What have you told Dr. Weiss about Project Trinity?'
'Nothing, as you well know. I'm sure you've found some way to record every one of my sessions.'
She surprised me by conceding this with a slight nod. 'But lovers are resourceful. You may have managed unauthorized contact. Like last night.'
'Last night was the first time I ever saw Rachel Weiss outside her office.' I folded my arms across my chest. 'And I refuse to discuss her further. She has nothing to do with this project. You're invading the privacy of an American citizen who has signed no agreement waiving her rights.'
This time when Geli smiled, a little flash of cruelty burned through. 'Where Project Trinity is concerned, privacy means nothing. Under National Security Directive 173, we can detain Dr. Weiss for forty-eight hours without even a phone call.''
My frustration boiled over. 'Geli, do you know what Project Trinity is?'
My use of her first name wiped away her smile, but my question put her squarely on the defensive. It would kill her to admit that she didn't know the inmost details of Trinity, but to say otherwise might cost her job. She glowered but said nothing.
I took a step toward her. 'Well, I do know. And until you do-and you fully understand its implications- don't be so damn eager to follow orders like a good little German.'
The insult struck home. Geli tensed in the chair as though about to spring at me. I took a step back, instantly regretting my words. There was nothing to be gained by earning the personal enmity of Geli Bauer. In fact, it was a singularly bad idea. She had probably killed Fielding herself. And that's why I'm baiting her, I realized.
'We're done,' I said, taking my car keys from my pocket. 'I'll be back on Tuesday morning. Keep your human Dobermans away from me until then.'
I turned my back on her.
'Dr. Tennant?'
I kept walking.
'Tennant!'
I pressed the elevator button. When the door opened, I got in, then stepped out again. Geli could probably turn the tiny cubicle into a cell with the push of a but¬ton. She could seal the entire building just as easily, but I took the stairs anyway.
As I hit the fourth-floor landing, an image of Fielding sitting in a cloud of smoke filled my mind. The Englishman smoked like a chimney, but smoking was forbidden everywhere in the Trinity complex, even for the top scientists. This wasn't due to federal regulations; Peter Godin couldn't stand a hint of smoke in the air.
Ever resourceful, Fielding had found a place where he could indulge his habit. In the materials lab on the second floor was a large vacuum chamber that had been used during the project's early stages, for testing the properties of carbon nanotubes. There were smoke detectors in the lab, but none in the vacuum chamber. Fielding had managed to pile enough boxes around the chamber that most people had forgotten its existence. When I couldn't locate him anywhere else, I'd always known I could find him there.
If Fielding were in the Trinity building and afraid for his life, I reasoned, wouldn't he have tried to distance the crystal watch fob from himself? He wouldn't hide it in his office, which would certainly be searched. But the vacuum chamber was only one floor away, and he could be fairly sure that I would eventually search his informal sanctum sanctorum.
I exited the Stairwell and made my way down the hall to the materials lab. Two engineers recruited from Sun Microsystems walked out of the lab and separated to pass me, heading toward the elevators. I forced a smile, then slowed my walk so that I would reach the materials lab after they rounded the corner behind me.
The lab was empty. I moved swiftly to the pile of boxes that obscured the steel vacuum chamber and began uncovering the door. The forbidding machine was like a large decompression chamber for scuba divers, with a porthole window and a large iron wheel set in its hatchlike door. I turned the wheel that unlocked that hatch. The lights came on automatically.
My heart thudded when I stepped inside. I remem¬bered wide shelves cluttered with tools, clamps, and old scraps of carbon. There was nothing in the chamber now. Even the shelves were gone. The entire floor looked as though it had been steam cleaned.
'Geli Bauer,” I breathed.
If Fielding's pocket watch had been hidden here, she had it now. I hurried out of the chamber, half-expecting her to confront me in the lab. But the lab was still, as was the hall. Slipping back into the stairwell, I descended to the third floor and walked toward the secu¬rity desk, where Henry awaited me.
Upon exiting Trinity, staff had to submit to a body search to prove they weren't trying to remove computer disks or papers from the building. How Fielding must have laughed inside every time Henry ignored his crystal watch fob. As I approached the desk, I realized that Henry was speaking into his collar radio.
'What's up, Henry?' I said, pausing to wait for his pat-down.
'Just a minute, Doc.'
My heartbeat accelerated. I imagined Geli Bauer giv¬ing him orders: Don't let Tennant out of the building…
