'Of course I will be with you, but I will not forsake the pardon. That was our agreement.'
'You'll stay with me. I will protect you.'
By force of will she did not argue with him. In fact, with the power resting in his hands, it was the perfect moment to ask: 'How will you bring down the United States?'
Gaudet's eyes were shining. Her heart beat in her ears as she stood on the threshold. She was looking at a man energized by intrigue, a man who got high on risk.
'Cordyceps is a perfect analogy. We will first eat away at their innards and then take the brain.'
'The U.S. is such a large place, though…'
'I have men already in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington. They have enough of the vector to transform a million people in each city. Imagine a total of maybe four million people, all driven to kill, all for no reason. At the same time, imagine fifty million computers dying during the crisis. Police, fire, transportation, FBI, CIA-all crip pled, sodomized with a baseball bat.'
'But how will so few men spread the vector?'
'Helicopters that have been made to look like police helicopters.' Then Gaudet's eyes seemed to regain their focus. 'Now you'll have to sleep handcuffed to my wrist.'
She studied Gaudet. Even through his disguise she could see the energy in his body.
With no preliminaries he stepped back behind her chair and lifted her hips so that she was bent over the computer. He put his hand under her dress. She put her mind in the faraway place of her meditation and then straightened herself up. Deliberately she turned in his hands until she faced him and looked in his eyes.
'You have changed,' he said. 'Not nearly as much fun as you used to be.'
'Maybe I've changed my ideas about fun.'
'I haven't changed mine.'
He ran his hands up under her shirt. When she grabbed them, anger flashed in his eyes and she struggled to put her mind at rest and to draw strength from her we pac maw. Any moment he would pull out his knife and that would be the end of resistance. For a second he looked like he might really hurt her. Gradually she loosened her grip on his hands so that he was free to continue while she held his gaze. He said nothing while he pondered what must have seemed like a new Benoit Moreau.
The computer made an audible tone and broke the ten sion. She turned away from his hands, sitting back down to the computer.
'Baptiste is responding,' she said.
We will do the deal with only a 24-hour review win dow, but only if you first send us Benoit so that we can receive appropriate reassurances.
It was an unexpected shock.
'I've got to think.' Gaudet stepped away and paced across the room. 'I wonder what I can offer them?'
'I have to go back,' she said.
'Now that you know about Cordyceps? Out of the question. So now what?'
Benoit wrote a message.
You may have 24 hours for your review of the vec tor and Chaperone documents, but you must view them in escrow. No documents may be removed from the offices of the escrow holder until closing, no copies made while you are determining their authenticity. I cannot come immediately. Gaudet wants the same assurance that France wants. For him, proof of straight dealing means holding his knife to my throat. Close the deal and release the funds in 24 hours. Or I cannot consummate a transaction at this end.
Gaudet read it.
'Tell them five days until Cordyceps. Tell them four P.M. EST, on the fifth day.' She wrote it.
'They will never give me a pardon.' 'You idiot. They won't give you a pardon anyway.' They waited for Baptiste's reply.
'How are we doing with the scan? It should be a simple matter to trace the IP addresses on Benoit's last e- mail.' Jill stood over Grogg while he typed with amazing speed, running through all manner of queries on Big Brain. Sam was watching as well over the video monitor in New York. They were working on two vital puzzles at once. One was the whereabouts of Benoit Moreau.
'I can't believe I have to ask a computer where Gaudet has taken Benoit,' Sam said.
'Oh, come on, Sam, give me a break. We did the best we could. Besides, the idea was to get her in with Gaudet, not keep her out.' Jill was unusually tense because, like everyone else, she was afraid for Benoit and she knew the stakes.
'I'm sure we did that. She's in him, he's in her… in out, in out.'
'Grogg, don't be such a prick,' Jill snapped.
Grogg smiled wickedly, and Sam shook his head.
'You two have almost achieved domestic bliss,' Sam said. 'Next you start marriage counseling.'
'Forgive a guy a little levity, huh,' said Grogg. 'You know if this goes bad, it's gonna be hell. You think your port folio sucked after the last attack…'
'People are gonna die,' Jill said.
'I know that, damn it. Shit.'
There was silence for a while as they waited. No one was saying a word about the second item on their minds. Sam and Jill were waiting to see if Grogg's latest attempt to break into Gaudet's Cordyceps Windows folder would succeed.
'Damn, it disappeared again.'
'Oh crap,' Jill said.
'I gotta try the next idea,' Grogg said.
'How's the work on the antivirus coming?' Sam asked.
'I've got twenty people in a contractor's shop working on it, along with four of our own. It's based on the assumption that they get in through Windows SMB/CIFS. I have made a lot of other assumptions. Like what I would do if I were an evil genius.'
'Instead of just Grogg?' Jill patted his head.
A phone rang in LA.
'It's the FBI,' Jill said, putting the call through to Sam in New York.
'This is Ernie.'
'The director isn't into this yet?' Sam said.
'I'm the designated Sam expert. Around here they think you're a little crazy. They do take the threat seriously, on the one hand, but on the other, there isn't any evidence that anything is going to happen. Obviously, Gaudet is selling out to the French government, but maybe the Cordyceps thing is a hoax to hold the price up.'
'Maybe. Let's hope so.'
'But you don't think so.'
'I think it's real.'
'Our scientists don't think this can be delivered as easily as anthrax and the DNA in the vector would be damaged in the irradiation of the mail.'
'Nobody says he has to send it through the mail.'
'The CIA is considering destroying Gaudet's entire facil ity in Quatram. Defense, of course, would love to lend a mis sile or two,' Ernie commented.
'Good idea. That way you can destroy Gaudet's main server, thereby making it impossible for Grogg to break in and read the Cordyceps files.' It was a rare moment of sarcasm for Sam, but he was losing patience with the government's nonsense.
'Yeah, well, the State Department will like that argument. They aren't as fond of blowing things up. Arab countries tend to take issue.'
'Tell them to wait until after we hack into the computer.'
'When I tell them this, they'll want the CIA to try hacking in.'
'That'll be good. They hire us to do that sort of thing, but now with millions of lives at stake, they want to learn. Tell them to do their hacking and rocketing after we access the computer.'
'You gotta understand, Sam, this Cordyceps is like a bogey man that's everywhere and nowhere. We have no
