Clear and Present Danger

'You just brought a woman in,' he told the nearest doctor. 'Moira Wolfe.'

'Oh, she's the OD.'

She's a person, not a goddamned OD! Murray didn't say. Instead he nodded. 'Where?'

'You can't -'

Murray cut him off cold. 'She's part of a major case. I want to see what's happening.'

The doctor led him to a treatment cubicle. It wasn't pretty. Already there was a respirator tube down her throat, and IV lines in each arm - on second inspection, one of the tubes seemed to be taking her blood out and running it through something before returning it to the same arm. Her clothing was off, and EKG sensors were taped to her chest. Murray hated himself for looking at her. Hospitals robbed everyone of dignity, but life was more important than dignity, wasn't it?

Why didn't Moira know that?

Why didn't you catch the signal, Dan? Murray demanded of himself. You should have thought to have somebody keep an eye on her. Hell, if you 'd put her in custody, she couldn't have done this!

Maybe we should have yelled at her instead of going so easy. Maybe she took it the wrong way. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe .

Cortez, you are fucking dead. I just haven't figured out when yet .

'Is she going to make it?' Murray asked.

'Who the hell are you?' a doctor asked without turning.

'FBI, and I need to know.'

The doctor still didn't look around. 'So do I, sport. She took Placidyl. That's a pretty potent sleeping pill, not too many docs prescribe it anymore, 'cause it's too easy to OD on. LD-50 is anywhere from five to ten caps. LD-50 means the dose that'll kill half the people that take it. I don't know how much she took. At least she isn't completely gone, but her vitals are too goddamned low for comfort. We're dialyzing her blood to keep any more from getting into her, hope it's not a waste of time. We've put her on hundred-percent oxygen, then we'll zap her full of IV fluids and wait it out. She'll be out for at least another day. Maybe two, maybe three. Can't tell yet. I can't tell you what the odds are either. Now you know as much as I do. Get out of here, I got work to do.'

'There are three kids in the waiting room, Doctor.'

That turned his head around for about two seconds. 'Tell 'em we got a pretty good chance, but it's going to be tough for a while. Hey, I'm sorry, but I just don't know. The good news is, if she comes back, she'll come all the way back. This stuff doesn't usually do permanent damage. Unless it kills you,' the doctor added.

'Thanks.'

Murray left to tell the kids what he could. Within an hour, some neighbors showed up to take their place with the Wolfe children. Dan left quietly after an agent arrived to keep his own vigil in the waiting room. Moira was probably their only link with Cortez, and that meant that her life was potentially in danger from hands other than her own. Murray got to the office just after nine, his mood still quiet and angry when he arrived. There were three agents waiting for him, and he waved them to follow.

'Okay, what have you found out?'

' 'Mr. 'D az' used an American Express card at The Hideaway. We've identified the number at two airline ticket counters - thank God for those credit - checking computers. Right after he dropped Mrs. Wolfe off, he caught a flight out of Dulles to Atlanta, and from there to Panama. That's where he disappeared. He must have paid cash for the next ticket, 'cause there's no record of a Juan D az on any flight that evening. The counter clerk at Dulles remembers him - he was in a hurry to catch the Atlanta flight. The description matches the one we already have. However he got into the country last week, it wasn't Dulles. We're running computer records now, ought to have an answer later this morning - call it an even-money chance to figure his route in. I'm betting on one of the big hubs, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Chicago, one of them. But that's not the interesting thing we've discovered.

'American Express just discovered that it has a bunch of cards for Juan D az. Several have been generated recently, and they don't know how.'

'Oh?' Murray poured some coffee. 'How come they weren't noticed?'

'For one thing, the statements are paid on time and in full, so that dog didn't bark. The addresses are all slightly different, and the name itself isn't terribly unusual, so a casual look at the records won't tip anyone off. What it looks like is that somebody has a way to tap into their computer system - all the way into the executive programming, and that might be another lead for us to run down. He's probably been staying with the name in case Moira gets a look at the card. But what it has told us is that he's made five trips to the D.C. area in the past four months. Somebody is playing with the AmEx computer system, somebody good. Somebody,' the agent went on, 'good enough to tap into a lot of computers. This guy can generate complete credit lines for Cortez or anyone else. There ought to be a way to check that out, but I wouldn't be real hopeful about running him down fast.'

There was a knock at the door, and another young agent came in. 'Dallas-Fort Worth,' he said handing over a fax sheet. 'The signatures match. He came in there and took a late flight to New York-La Guardia, got in after midnight local time on Friday. Probably caught the Shuttle down to D.C. to meet Moira. They're still checking.'

'Beautiful,' Murray said. 'He's got all the moves. Where'd he come in from?'

'Still checking, sir. He got the New York ticket at the counter. We're talking with Immigration to see when he passed through customs control.'

'Okay, next?'

'We have prints on him now. We have what looks like a left forefinger on the note paper he left Mrs. Wolfe, and we've matched that with the credit receipt from the airline counter at Dulles. It was tough, but the lab guys used their lasers to bring 'em out. We sent a team to The Hideaway, but nothing yet. The cleanup crew there is pretty good - too damned good for our purposes, but our guys are still working on it.'

'Everything but a picture on the bastard. Everything but a picture,' Murray repeated. 'What about after Atlanta?'

'Oh, thought I said that. He caught a flight to Panama after a short layover.'

'Where's the AmEx card addressed to?'

'It's in Caracas, probably just a letterdrop. They all are.'

'How come Immigration doesn't - oh.' Murray grimaced. 'Of course his passport is under a different name or he has a collection of them to go with his cards.'

'We're dealing with a real pro. We're lucky to have gotten this much so fast.'

'What's new in Colombia?' he asked the next agent.

'Not much. The lab work is going nicely, but we're not developing anything we didn't already know. The Colombians now have names on about half of the subjects - the prisoner says he didn't know all of them, and that's probably the truth. They've launched a major operation to try an' find 'em, but Morales isn't real hopeful. They're all names of people the Colombian government's been after for quite a while. All M-19 types. It was a contract job, just as we thought.'

Murray checked his watch. Today was the funeral for the two agents on Emil's protection detail. It would be held at the National Cathedral, and the President would be speaking there, too. His phone rang.

'Murray.'

'This is Mark Bright down at Mobile. We have some additional developments.'

'Okay.'

'A cop got himself blown away Saturday. It was a contract job, Ingrams at close range, but a local kid popped a subject with his trusty.22, right in the back of the head. Killed him; they found the body and the vehicle yesterday. The shooter was positively ID'd as a druggie. The local cops searched the victim's - Detective Sergeant Braden - house and found a camera that belonged to the victim in the Pirates Case. The new victim is a burglary sergeant. I am speculating that he was working for the druggies and probably checked out the victim's place prior to the killings, looking for the records that we ultimately found.'

Murray nodded thoughtfully. That added something to their knowledge. So they'd wanted to make sure that the victim hadn't left any records behind before they'd taken him and his family out, but their guy wasn't good enough, and they killed him for it. It was also part of the murder of Director Jacobs, additional fallout from Operation TARPON. Those bastards are really flexing their muscles, aren't they? 'Anything else?'