Insolers nodded. 'Blake and Wing knew the chain of people Chant had used to get into the program, but they didn't know how much any of these people might know.'
Jan said, 'Assassins were programmed to kill everyone who'd had any contact with Chant as Neil Alter, including me. Chant was to be framed for all of the murders-except, of course, his own. But he escaped from the trap they'd set up for him, and then he risked recapture and certain death to come and rescue me. I stayed with him, because that was the safest place to be; if I'd stayed in New York, Blake would only have sent another assassin after me.'
Insolers walked around behind Jan, reached out as if to touch her shoulder, but apparently thought better of it and dropped his hand back to his side. 'By this time I'd figured out who Neil Alter really was,' the CIA operative with the medicinal smell said. 'When I informed my superiors, I was told in no uncertain terms that my primary task was now to track down John Sinclair. While Chant, with Jan, was hunting down Blake, I was to close in on and kill him. Unfortunately, I was the one who ended up being captured by Blake's men, along with Jan. We both wound up in a laboratory at R.E.B. Pharmaceuticals in Texas with gluteathin dripping into our veins.'
'Chant came for both of us,' Jan said quietly. 'Alone, he infiltrated a secure facility guarded by at least a dozen highly trained men.' She paused, glanced over her shoulder at Insolers. 'He knew by then that you had orders to kill him, but he saved your life along with mine anyway.'
Insolers stiffened slightly, nodded. 'That he did. We had to reach a truce, an accommodation, to work together to shoot our way out of there. Afterward, we decided to continue the truce until-and only until-Blake's operation was completely put out of business. We had to trust each other for a limited period of time, but our understanding was clear: when our business with Blake was finished, he would be fair game again-I would be too, for that matter, but he'd never shown the slightest interest in killing me.'
'He faked me right out of my shorts in the endgame. He dumped me, infiltrated this castle alone, and engineered the neat trick of getting Hammerhead to bite his boss to death. By the time I got there-in fact, he'd summoned both Jan and me-he was in charge of the whole damn place. He'd struck a deal with Blake's overall chief of security, he had control of the computers and all the damning information in Blake's records, and he had me cold.' He paused, smiled wryly. 'Typical of Chant, he then suggested that he and I cut a deal. He pointed out that we'd learned to trust and work with each other while we were shutting down Blake, and he would take my word on the proposed bargain, if I chose to give it. If, on the other hand, I felt duty bound to decline his offer, he could arrange for me to be shot then and there by the six security guards who were holding guns on me. I decided to accept.'
Garth, who had been sitting perfectly still and very attentive across from me on the end of the semicircular sofa, now crossed his legs and spoke for the first time. 'What was the deal?'
'I was to get all of the credit for unmasking Blake's assassin program and destroying it. As far as John Sinclair was concerned, he'd simply escaped one more time, and his whereabouts were unknown. However, I was now to act as a kind of super-broker between unnamed-and fictitious-members of Blake's family and various intelligence agencies, including the CIA, around the world. Like I told you in the car, they took care of all the forged documents and legal work that had to be done in order to transfer everything that Blake owned over to Jan. In exchange, they would have access to all of Blake's files in order to remove any items of information they might be uncomfortable with; only minor items of an embarrassing nature would be kept by Miss Rawlings, as a gesture of good faith.'
'But Sinclair had copies of everything.'
'Sure, but only Jan and I knew that. It made me the guarantor, the watchdog, of the bargain; they got what they wanted, and Jan's inheritance was never to be successfully contested by anyone, anywhere, at any time. And she was to be completely left alone. Needless to say, everyone went for it; as a matter of fact, all of the other parties were ecstatic. They were really anxious to clean out those files.'
Garth cocked his head to one side, narrowed his eyelids slightly as he studied Insolers. 'And you never mentioned Sinclair to any of these people?'
Insolers laughed. 'Are you kidding me? Talk about a deal-breaker! Any one of the parties involved would have bombed the place before they turned it over to anyone at the request of John Sinclair. No. They got what they wanted, and this castle is a free zone as far as all those agencies are concerned. They're not interested in Jan, or the money. That attitude would change very rapidly, to say the least, if they even suspected that this was John Sinclair's principal place of residence. But they don't suspect it- yet. I have to assume that they monitor what Jan does with her power and money, but she's astute; she's done nothing to threaten them, and she's a prime mover behind all sorts of good causes. She is what Cornucopia only pretended to be.'
Harper turned to the woman sitting beside her. 'How he must love you, Jan,' she said quietly.
'And Jan him,' Veil said thoughtfully. 'Sometimes it takes as much love and courage to accept a great gift as it does to give it.'
Jan's only response was to lower her eyes. Harper glanced at me sharply, and I felt my face grow warm. I looked away.
'Obviously,' Veil continued, looking at Insolers, then at Jan, 'the deal has held up for years. Jan, I have to tell you that Insolers came about as close to dying as a man can get in an effort to try to stop us from coming here. He seems to be a man of his word.'
'Which brings us,' I said, turning my attention to the CIA operative, 'to the question of just why Mr. Insolers is in Switzerland in the first place.'
Jan made an impatient gesture with her hand. 'It was always clearly understood that Duane had the right to continue hunting Chant. It's his job.' She paused to fix her gaze on the rodent-faced man, and when she continued, there was more than a hint of anger in her voice. 'But not here; not in our home. Like you said, Duane, it was also clearly understood that this castle is a free zone. You had no right to lead people here, Duane. You have no right to be here yourself.'
'I didn't come here to hunt him, Jan,' Insolers said evenly. 'I came to warn him.'
Jan frowned uncertainly, shook her head. 'Warn him?'
'I don't have any interest in hunting or killing Chant, Jan, even if it is supposed to be part of my job. You may not know it, but he's been feeding me bits of information over the years, just as he did with Bo Wahlstrom and others. Those bits have proved invaluable, and I might even daresay that the good guys have won a couple of battles because of information he's provided. On paper, if you will, we're enemies, but we're also bound together by the agreement we made. That's all well and good, but the fact of the matter is that I owe the man my life and more, and I know it. Just keeping my part of the bargain isn't enough. Pardon me if I sound less cynical than you've come to expect, Jan, but I came to Switzerland to pay off my debt. I don't want him killed, and I don't want him captured. So I came to warn him.'
Jan Rawlings looked decidedly unconvinced. 'Of what, Duane?'
'It's an assassin, Jan. The CIA has an assassin in place.'
The tall woman's response was to smile thinly, set down her teacup. 'Duane, I can't believe you're serious. During the past two decades, when has there ever been a time when Chant
'This time it's different,' Insolers said in a low, tense voice. 'This assassin is different.'
Jan looked up at him. 'How different?'
'I'm not sure. I don't even know if it's a man or a woman. I do know that I've never seen the top people in the company so confident about their chances of finally bringing him down. They know something. It may be a very special assassin with certain information about Chant, but from hints that have been dropped I'm afraid it's someone in the inner circle, someone he trusts, and may even go to for help-or someone who knows how to reach him. I think the agency is forcing, or paying, a friend to betray him.'
Jan stiffened and turned her face away. 'I don't believe it, Duane. Chant has never been wrong about the people with whom he's chosen to share his secrets. In more than twenty years, you're the first person who's ever put him at risk.'
'I didn't come here to betray Chant, Jan. I came to help him.'
I asked, 'Why didn't you just call Jan and deliver your message, Insolers? She'd have relayed your warning, and you'd have accomplished your goal.'
'Because that would have posed an unacceptable risk. If I'm right about this assassin being an insider, it could mean the person is a servant. I know Jan and Chant have dozens of people working for them, at different
