pour it inside herself before inserting a tampon. When she removed the tampon in her charade with Gaudet, she lost all the blood. If Gaudet discovered she was lying, he might kill her. The French might or might not require her release before they closed the escrow in forty-eight hours.
'I am going to use the restroom.'
'That's not necessary. I like what you have on, having selected it myself.'
'No, I mean I really have to go to the bathroom.'
'Hurry up.'
She went in the bathroom and closed the door. She was shaking. They were on the twentieth floor and escaping out the window was not possible. Besides which, she didn't yet have enough information. She turned and looked, not knowing what she was looking for; then something struck her- the makeup in the drawer provided by Gaudet. She pulled it out. There was red fingernail polish. Mixing it with water, she created a solution that looked like menstrual blood. She turned on the water and began filling the tub. It took her only seconds to strip and climb in as it slowly filled. She poured the fingernail solution between her legs creating tendrils of red in the water. Then she lay back with her eyes closed.
'What's going on?' Gaudet opened the door without knocking and came and sat on the edge of the tub.
'The presentation isn't bad. I always loved you nude.'
'Have you seen the Loire Valley?'
'Of course.'
'In the summer, when I was a girl, I went there to my grandfather's place. The flowers were amazing in their variety with marvelous colors and so many translucent, delicate petals. I remember particularly the beautiful blues. There were trees a thousand years old, and there were creeks and the river, and grass as green as Ireland, and butterflies. Even the snakes were beautiful and it was so peaceful in the buzz of the hot afternoons, everything seemed at rest and in its place, and there was no discord. Can you think of a place like that for you?'
'It's pure illusion. The frogs eat the bugs, and the birds eat the frogs, and the foxes eat the birds, and the men hunt the foxes down with hounds, and the dogs tear them to pieces while their hearts still beat, and the men laugh and feel strong. I don't live in illusions.' 'But the flowers are beautiful.'
'They are deceptions. Flowers persuade bees to fuck and men use them to persuade women to spread their legs and incur the misery of childbirth. That is all they are good for.' 'Tell me about your mother.'
'My mother and father died when I was young and probably never gave a shit about me anyway. I think my mother was an adulterous bitch and my father well on his way to being a drunk. I have no soft memories. I am a realist. As a young man I drove away my boss's competitors in the laundry business with my fists. Then I killed my boss and took his business. That was about as good as anything I ever felt.' 'I have some good memories and I want at least a few people to be grateful that I lived.'
'I want to make bad days for others before they make bad days for me. Now how can I take you in a bathtub?'
Unable to think of anything else, she slipped away into her we pac maw, and after sometime she heard him say 'shit' and leave.
Gaudet had left the hotel by the time she dressed. Trotsky and the guards had replaced him in her room.
'He wants you when he gets back,' Trotsky said. 'If I were you, I'd stop toying with him.'
Later, when the maid came, Trotsky disappeared into Gaudet's room. The two guards remained while the woman cleaned. All of a sudden, Benoit was shocked to see a hand emerge from under a linen drape covering the side of the cart. It waved. Glancing at the guards, she could tell that one was absorbed with his sporting magazine and another with pornography. She rose and walked to the desk, picked up a pad of message paper and a pen. One of the guards looked at her and at the paper. She ignored him. Promptly she wrote the following:
Escrow closes at 4:00 P.M.. Cordyceps in three days. French believe five. Gaudet's men to release vec tor with fake police helicopters. NY, Chicago, Wash., LA. Computer virus at same time.
Then she walked past the cart back to the desk, dropping the paper on the floor. The cart stood between the paper and the two guards. In a flash the hand snatched the paper and dropped another on the floor. When she went to the desk, she picked up the TV remote, turned, and dropped it by the cart, scooping up the paper when she knelt.
Do you want out? it read.
Trotsky walked into the room. 'Gaudet wants you now.'
'You're just in time. We should be getting the e-mailed closing statement any moment.'
'Never mind that. We're leaving.' He shooed the maid and her cart out into the hall. 'The escrow closed. You think we would sit around waiting for an e-mail? Devan has been on the phone with Credit Suisse. We're out of here. Now.'
Trotsky grabbed her arm and rushed her into Gaudet's room. They put her in a trunk and two big men wheeled her out.
Baptiste was sweating as he stared at the screen. Escrow was to close in minutes. The admiral had retired to his office to await Baptiste's call. Apparently he couldn't wait because Gaudet's phone buzzed and the electronic readout indicated it was the admiral.
'Just about to close,' Baptiste said.
'The scientists are screaming that they didn't have ade quate time to verify Chaperone. Raval's lab notes don't reveal the source of the Chaperone molecule. Apparently, Northern Lights kept that a secret. Bowden's journal shows a salamander discovery of all things and Gaudet says the Chaperone molecule came from this salamander. I'm sure he's relying on Benoit. Apparently, Raval told Bowden and Benoit which of his submissions yielded the molecule, but we have nothing in writing from Bowden. There is a lot of puzzlement among the scientists,' the admiral concluded.
'Well, it's too late to worry about it now. E-mail just arrived this second; it's closed.'
'It's done then.'
'Yes. Our money is gone and we have the goods.'
'But verification of Chaperone's nowhere in sight. It could take days, or if we have shitty luck, it could take weeks! This thing is like a runaway train. We just better be right' The admiral slammed a fist into his open hand.
'Benoit is betting her pardon on it,' Baptiste insisted.
'We've got to inform the Americans in enough time,' the admiral said.
'It's five days. Let's warn them in four or sooner if we can verify that we have Chaperone. By that time we may know for sure.'
'What if we find out tomorrow that we don't have it?
Then what?'
'We still have a card to play with Gaudet and Benoit. We tell the U.S. about Cordyceps immediately if Gaudet and Benoit don't get us Chaperone.'
'But then maybe Gaudet pulls the trigger early anyway,' the admiral said.
'Maybe he does. But we lose all of our leverage with Gaudet once we tell the U.S. All hell will break loose and he'll know we've told them.'
'So, it's really a matter of French national security that we verify Chaperone before sharing our theories with the Americans, and that's all they are… theories… about Cordyceps.'
'Exactly,' Baptiste agreed.
'When, ah… the financial arrangements… Gaudet's, I mean-'
'Of course if the Americans stop Cordyceps as they surely will, there won't be much of a drop in the market. I guess maybe just a small drop because of the scare,' Baptiste said.
'Maybe no drop if the Americans stop it completely.'
'Absolutely. No question. We're working hard to verify that Cordyceps is real and to determine how the plan would be carried out. So far, I must admit, we have been unable to gather any information on that aspect'
Chapter 21
