The ransom was these guns. But Zaid only delivers the guns, not the chips that make them work.”
Lucy looked up at me. “Yeah, he screwed over Edward.”
“And Edward realized he had items of huge value in these guns. So he wanted them for himself. I’m thinking this whole operation was funded by the Money Czar. Edward wanted him out of the picture, so he had Yasmin kill the guy to make her look like she’d willingly joined her captors and to assure silence from her dad.
“But no one in the Amsterdam gang knew the Money Czar. Only Edward did. Edward’s gang helped kill him and none of them knew that wasn’t a bombing to show possible buyers that the technology they were smuggling worked, that it was simply a murder. And when they were done being useful to him as a cover, he killed all of them.”
I raised Lucy’s jaw with my fingertip. “Novem Soles. Nine Suns. Who are they? Is it Edward alone?”
“They’re the ones who said I had to come work for them.”
“You didn’t have a baby to be used against you.”
“No. I had you.”
I shook my head. “Wrong. You didn’t do this to protect me.”
“Yet there’s that troublesome fact that I got you out of the building. No matter what I’ve done, Sam, I did that. You’re welcome.”
I turned my hand into a fist and put it back in my lap.
“The bomb in Amsterdam. The police couldn’t figure out how it was triggered. But it had some sort of scanning grid on it, the same as that gun, the same as the bullet. The bomb goes off if the person with the right DNA gets close enough.”
She nodded.
“Our office wasn’t bombed because of the Money Czar. The bigger threat was one of the guys who’d pointed us toward the Money Czar-the scientist who was working on nanotech research. We were targeted because we were investigating that connection to a researcher in DNA technology, in nanotechnology. When he had to silence the scientist in Budapest, the next target who could help him use the technology was Yasmin. Did that scientist used to work with Yasmin?”
She nodded.
“These guns, these bullets, that bomb, it’s all using nanotechnology to tie the weapon to a person’s DNA, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“The Money Czar gives Edward money to bomb London, to wipe out my investigation. Then he uses the money to set up the group in Amsterdam. He pays off Piet and Nic to run a criminal smuggling operation for him so they could get the guns away from Zaid and to the United States.”
Lucy wiped at her face. “Yes. A bullet encoded with DNA won’t miss. Snipers can fire into crowds and know they will hit whoever they want to hit, unerringly.”
“So. Who are these fifty people they’re targeting? Who are these kids?”
“I honestly do not know. I don’t know what he’s doing. Edward tried to kill me. Did you forget that? I can help you, Sam-I can help you.”
Deal with the devil, I thought, part two.
93
Moonlight broke through the clouds above Brooklyn, like a smile in the night.
Time was scarce. The burglar had to assume that there were hidden camera feeds in the empty apartment, scrolling data onto a hard drive. There might only be minutes for the burglar to find what was needed.
The burglar headed straight for the bathroom. A comb, a brush, and a toothbrush lay on the shelf under the mirror. The burglar held up the hairbrush and examined it. Sam Capra had a full head of brownish-blond hair. Several strands lay entwined in the stiff bristles of the brush.
The burglar hoped some held surviving follicles. The brush went into a plastic bag, to be joined by the comb and the toothbrush. A slide of the gloved fingers along the bag and the job was done.
Then out the door, down the stairs, back into the moonlight-dappled night. The burglar slid up the dark heavy balaclava that hid his face and walked off into the black. The key to dealing properly with Sam Capra lay rustling like a whisper in the plastic bag.
94
I called Howell back three hours later.
“What did you find?”
His voice sounded grim. “The photos match a set of prototypical weapons being developed by the Company.”
By the Company? Oh, my God. “Being developed for you by Bahjat Zaid.”
God or nature or biological accident gives us these awesome brains and this is what we do with them. We think of better ways to kill. Ways that make murder as easy as taking a breath.
These guns could change history. Kill a CEO, kill a president, kill a pope, kill a good guy, kill a bad guy, with total confidence that the bullet will find its mark.
Howell said, “Sam, do you know what the goal is? Of this man having these guns? Why’s he doing this?”
“Profit, I’m sure-he must be selling the guns to someone who has an agenda. He has the DNA of fifty people. One of my contacts, Piet, said there were fifty packages Edward was smuggling. Fifty. Fifty means something, but the fifty people aren’t famous.”
“Would you recognize them if you saw them again?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” My head pounded.
The guns were a ticket back to having my life back. If the Company forgave me my sins, then I had a chance of getting back and keeping my son without looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.
“New York,” I said. “He’s shipping the guns to New York.” Piet had told me that.
“Why? To who?”
“I don’t know.”
Silence. Then: “You listen to me. If you’re setting me up for another fall, then you will seriously regret it.”
“I have bigger problems than you, Howell. I know you’re just doing a thankless job. I’m sorry I’m your headache. I really am.”
“Sam-”
“When I find out more I’ll call you.”
“You are still a Company officer.”
“I am not.”
“You are-and I am ordering you to come in.”
I hung up. I went downstairs and found Kenneth, the manager of Adrenaline. He came back up to the office with me. He sucked in his breath when he saw Yasmin’s body.
“I didn’t kill her,” I said.
“All right,” Kenneth said.
I explained what had happened, without telling him about the specific nature of the weapons. Best to keep that to myself. When I told him Mila had been captured, he said, “How can I help?”
“Kenneth, who runs this? Who do you work for?”
“I work for Mila.”
“Who does Mila work for? This technology, this level of resources-you folks have serious clout.”
Kenneth said, “Mila should have told you.”
