“So they are poisoning me or playing with my mind.”
“Yes. But it isn’t what you think. I have the oil on me, and on my fingers, and it does nothing to me.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Just that the oil by itself doesn’t seem to do anything.”
“What did they tell you?”
“Nothing, except that I was to use a different oil today.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t deceive you.”
“You like me?”
“I know in some respects that you are cruel, but you were kind to me. You are powerful, very powerful, and maybe I need someone like that.”
“I could split you like a chicken for conspiring with Chellis.”
“I know that.”
“Why did you think I wouldn’t kill you?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No.” Samir chuckled. “You are not wrong, but what does a man like me know of love or loyalty? I buy women.”
“Even your wife?”
“Especially my wife. Her price is diamonds. I knew you came by way of Chellis somehow because I knew the oil in the laboratory was a stronger version of what you used. No massage could make me feel that good.”
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
“To be honest, you intrigued both my head and my loins. Few women do that. You were desperate. Equally important, I simply cannot live without the effects of the oil you brought. And I like how you use it. Now where is this oil you were supposed to use today?”
“I have it in my bag.”
“Get it.”
In moments she returned to the workroom with a white canvas bag. “Here it is.” She held a small bottle.
“Put a dab on my back. Let us see what it does.”
“What if it is deadly?”
“They do not want to kill me now. They need me for the business. They want only to control me. It is not poison. I suspect that where the other oil lessens the jitters and diminishes the torture, this one does the opposite and would make me mad with fear. So just a dab. Then get the other oil.”
“It comes in portions, remember. If I use a portion of the regular oil now, that will be a few drops I don’t have for another day.”
“I stole some from the Chellis lab but I use so much for those damn doctors who still can’t figure it out. The reason I am normal some days is that I get not only what you have but also I get extra from the other supply.”
“I am so sorry,” she said.
“Unless they can figure out what is in it, we are going to run out. Well, we will risk it. Just use a dab of the other and get ready with the usual stuff.”
Dipping her finger in the untried oil, she reached under his shirt, smeared it over his back, and held him close. They waited for a few minutes, talking quietly.
“That works fast,” he said. “It is as if someone loosed the hounds of hell in my head. Quick, give me the other.”
She smeared a little more of the regular oil and after a time it calmed him.
“So we have solved another small part of the riddle.” He patted her head and growled, “I will kill the bastard.”
Benoit rang Gaudet as he drove through Los Angeles.
“I would have said that the stuff from your snitch,” he said, “this Guy fellow, was nothing. But I’ve traced a private flight from BC to Fiji. I’d been examining many international flights on that day, but this one is suddenly more interesting. Tell Chellis to try a bluff with Samir. Act like we know where he has Jason. I have my people going to Taveuni tonight. If he’s there they will find him by tomorrow night, unless they’ve made very careful arrangements. By the way, our little angel has gone off to heaven.”
“Are you serious?”
“When do I joke about stuff like that?”
It was a relief to have Grady Wade out of the picture. Benoit found Chellis down the hall from his office, leaning in the treasurer’s doorway. He waved good-bye to the treasurer. “Did you tell Michelle to use the other oil today?”
“Yes. He’ll be paranoid as hell when you call.” As they walked she told him about her conversation with Guy and her most recent conversation with Gaudet.
“Perhaps you’d like to go get some things done,” Chellis said. “I’m liable to be a while with Samir.”
“I’m fascinated to see how you handle him.” She put her hand under his arm and leaned close.
“And if I kick you out you’ll be hard to find.”
“I’m never hard to find. I just go to the labs sometimes in the course of doing my job. I do have a job.”
“You can stay.”
They sat on the couch, where he picked up the phone and she threw her leg over his, making sure that he could feel the warmth of her body on the meaty part of his thigh.
Samir’s assistant answered.
“Samir and I need to talk,” Chellis said.
“He is very sick. But he will try you in twenty minutes.”
“Maybe if we’re going to find him in Fiji anyway, we shouldn’t bother with a deal,” said Benoit.
“Finding Jason and bringing him out without them killing him are two different things,” Chellis replied.
“I suppose you’re right. We just need his work. It doesn’t matter who guards him for the next little while.”
Benoit knew that Samir would make his way to another phone line at a relative’s used only for occasional important calls. It had a scrambler and would not be tapped. She would receive the call through a router from another number outside the building taken in the name of a dead person. It would ring into the office from a relay to a special private line. It had all been swept for interception in the last twenty-four hours. Even if a government tapped the satellite link, the scrambler would disguise voices beyond electronic decoding so that voice-recognition sweeps aimed at either man would not sort the call from the millions of other calls going on between millions of other people. No doubt the government could develop software to detect scramblers, if it hadn’t already done so. But there were so many scramblers that it left a large number of transmissions to be decoded, and no one knew exactly the level of government success in unscrambling these signals.
“I have a feeling the Fiji thing is a good lead,” Chellis said while they waited. “It’s out of the way. Politically I recall it’s controlled by chiefs in fiefdoms. There is no intelligence agency, and like all third-world countries they love foreign money. There’s no dictator to undertake kidnaps and other crap.”
“Maybe. It wouldn’t have been my choice, but maybe.” The call rang through.
“Samir, old friend,” Chellis began. “I understand you’re nervous. I don’t really blame you for taking my scientist. But we both desperately need him to continue his work and he can’t do that without Grace Technologies.”
“What has that to do with me?”
“Listen, I know you have him in Fiji. In an hour I’ll know exactly where he is. Let’s not fight. I’m willing to give you the security you want, but we need a joint team down there protecting Jason. A very powerful man is after him. He is aligned with Anna Wade, the American actress and Jason’s sister. They have the American police and the Canadian Mounties on this. We need to work together, not fight each other to the death. Because unless we work together, that is what it will be.”
