“Be quiet, Natalie,” Kelly said. “She doesn’t have to hear that.”
Kelly was being protective, Catherine realized. She had come to a sorry pass when a fourteen-year-old felt she had to protect her. “Maybe I did. If it’s the truth.”
Natalie met her gaze. “It’s the truth.” She turned away. “I’m making chicken soup for Kelsov. I’ll make enough for all of you. He says I make good soup.”
“I’m sure you do,” Catherine said gently. “That stew you made the night we came was excellent.”
“Your turn, Catherine.” Eve came out of the bathroom dressed in a terry robe, her hair wrapped in a towel. “It felt wonderful. You’ll enjoy it much more than the creek.”
Was there a hint of hidden meaning in that last sentence? Catherine’s gaze flew to Eve’s face. No, Eve was smiling and met her eyes with nothing but friendliness. “That wouldn’t take much.” She got to her feet. “But Kelly and Natalie will be glad to get me out of here and in that shower. Natalie is ready to purify the room.”
Natalie nodded gravely. “It may be necessary.”
“I was joking,” Catherine said. “Kelsov has to work on your sense of humor.” She started toward the bathroom. “Remind me to talk—”
Her cell phone rang.
She stopped in midstride as she saw the ID.
She inhaled sharply. “Rakovac.”
Eve went still, her eyes widening.
Catherine pressed the volume and answered. “What do you want, Rakovac?”
“Why, I just wanted to congratulate you, Catherine. You’re proving to be a worthy opponent. Our little duel is turning out to be everything I hoped. Quinn and Kelsov must be extraordinary. Those three men I left to guard the grave were very competent.”
“Not that competent. You had to send a carload of more scum-bags after us when they didn’t do their job.”
“I really didn’t want to have to do it, but that’s the way the game is played. I didn’t know they had a missile. That was a little more fire-power than I expected. I must have come very close to losing you.”
“Not that close. As you said, I have extraordinary friends.”
“And you managed to tear the skull from that poor child’s skeleton. Did that hurt you, Catherine?”
Her hand tightened on the phone. “A little.”
“I knew it would. It almost makes losing those men worthwhile. I knew I would win either way. And Eve Duncan is going to do the reconstruction. Is she there with you now?”
“Yes.”
“Tell her to do her usual fine job. I want you to be able to recognize Luke with no problem. I imagine the period while you’re waiting to know is going to be excruciating.”
“He’s not Luke.”
“Of course he is. Look at the bone structure of his face. It’s just like yours. Can’t you see the resemblance?”
She was beginning to feel the panic rising. “Children change a lot in those first years.”
“Duncan taught you that. How annoying. It modifies my efforts in increasing your pain. I’m going to remember that when I have her at my disposal.” He paused. “I’ll be thinking about you while Duncan is doing her wizardry. I’ll be imagining every expression on your face, every bit of agony that you’re feeling. Is it really your little Luke? Did the bullet hurt him before he died? I wish I could devote more time and concentration, but I’ve had to initiate the prologue to my farewell party, and it’s requiring my attention.”
“Prologue?”
“It was an opening foray worthy of what’s to come. I was very pleased. But there are ends to tie up and congratulations to extract from doubting Thomases. It all takes time. But I’ll be back on the phone with you as soon as possible. It adds a certain zest to realize how close you are to me. I can’t tell you how I’m enjoying our being together at last. Remoteness does have its disadvantages.” He hung up.
“Bastard.” Catherine pressed the disconnect. “All he wanted to do was taunt me. No real threats. Except to you, Eve.”
“It didn’t bother me.” She added thoughtfully, “He’s looking at this as a supreme cat-and-mouse game. He wants this reconstruction to hurt you. He’s going to enjoy every minute of it.” Her lips tightened. “I’ve got to hurry it along so that I can cheat him of as much pleasure as possible.”
“Unless it is my Luke.”
“And you’ve got to try to block out what he said.”
“I can’t. He knows I can’t.” She moistened her lips. “But I’ll try to keep busy so that he doesn’t dominate my whole world.” She shook her head. “What am I saying? He’s dominated my world since the day he took my son.” She stuffed her phone into her pocket. “When are you going to start to work?”
“Right after supper.” She turned to Natalie. “I’ll need a table set up by the window, clean damp cloths, and enough lanterns to cast a strong light on the reconstruction. Can you help me?”
Natalie nodded. “There’s some old furniture in the barn in the back, and I think I saw a table.”
Eve turned to Catherine. “And I don’t want you hanging around watching me.”
“It bothers you?”
“No, nothing bothers me when I’m absorbed. But it will bother you. At some points in the reconstruction, the skull looks like a voodoo doll or something from a horror film. You don’t need to go through that. Go out and walk or help Kelly with her patterns.”
“I don’t need her,” Kelly said. “She can’t help me with—”
“Kelly, that’s the first time I’ve noticed you acting fourteen instead of thirty,” Eve said. “I’m sure it’s healthy, but you picked the wrong time for it. I was trying for a diversion. Now keep Catherine busy and out of my way.”
Kelly nodded. “But I can’t let her—”
“It’s okay, Kelly.” Catherine headed for the shower. “I’m not interfering in your business. You don’t have to be so protective of your blessed patterns.”
“There’s nothing blessed about Rakovac’s patterns,” Kelly said gravely. “I can already see hints of what he is just from reading this report. It’s all cut-and-dried, with no comments from the people who were shadowing him. But every now and then, they put in a result of what he did the day before.” She sat back down at the table and opened her computer. “And I’m beginning to get…anxious. His pattern is leading him…I don’t know. Somewhere…dark.”
“You can tell that by analyzing these patterns? Sounds like hocus-pocus to me.”
“An astronomer studying black holes isn’t into hocus-pocus, but the darkness is there.”
“Whatever. By all means continue. I didn’t like it when he was talking about his prologue. Prologue to what? I don’t think it had anything to do with Luke.”
“I don’t either,” Eve said as she moved toward the bedroom. “But I’m not going to dwell on it. I have to concentrate on that reconstruction.”
Kelly nodded, her gaze on the computer screen. “But I know I’m right. He’s heading somewhere…dark.”
Venable phoned Catherine while they were having dinner that night. She put it on speaker.
“How close are you?” he asked curtly.
“You shouldn’t have sent Kelly here,” Catherine said. “You don’t have a great deal of conscience, but I’d think a fourteen-year-old girl would be off-limits.”
“No one is off-limits now. How close are you to finding Rakovac?” he asked curtly. “For God’s sake, that’s why I sent her. Is she helping?”
She had never heard Venable sound so tense. She could almost feel the vibrations crackle over the cell. “She’s doing the best she can. It takes time.”
“We don’t have time.” He drew a deep breath. “I think time’s running out.”
She could see Eve straighten in her chair across the table from her. Catherine knew how she felt. Venable’s tension was contagious.
“What are you talking about?”
“Have you been watching the news?”
“No, we’ve
been busy.”
“Pull it up on your computer. And then get back to me.”
“What am I supposed to be looking for?”
“Nine-eleven.” He hung up.
She sat there for an instant, stunned. “Nine-eleven?”
“I’ll do it.” Kelly had jumped to her feet and grabbed her computer. She was quickly surfing the Internet for news. She didn’t have to look long. It was the lead story. “Vantaro Airlines. Lima, Peru. Terrorist attack. A suicide bomber took over the cockpit and killed the pilot and forced the copilot to fly low into the heart of the city. He radioed the tower at the airport that he was doing this for the glory of Islam and the Red Darkness, a terrorist group based in Libya.” She paused, reading the next page. “He set off his explosion when he was near the capitol building. The death count may have reached over twenty-two hundred people.”
“Two thousand…” Eve said. “Peru’s 9/11.” She shook her head as if to clear it. She couldn’t clear it. The horror was too overwhelming. “I remember our 9/11. Watching those planes dive into the two towers. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t imagine the evil that could spawn something like that.”
“Neither could I,” Joe said. “I went up to New York as a volunteer and helped dig out survivors…and bodies.”
“Maybe it’s not Peru’s 9/11,” Kelly said slowly. Her gaze was fixed on the wreckage of the plane in the news story. “Maybe not.”
Catherine’s gaze flew to her face. “What?”
“Prologue,” Kelly said. “Rakovac said prologue.”
Eve inhaled sharply. “My God. Call Venable, Catherine. Call him now.”
Catherine was already dialing the number.
“What does that suicide bomber have to do with Rakovac?” she asked as soon as he picked up. “What actually happened in Lima?”
“It has everything to do with Rakovac. But we don’t know all the details about that suicide bombing yet. We’re still piecing the story together. We weren’t expecting Lima.”
“What do you know?”
“We know what the media tells you about the actual suicide bombing. The bomber was Manuel Camarez. He was an office-supply salesman and lived in southern Peru. No known affiliations to any Islamic group though he did spend a summer in Istanbul a few years ago. He could have been recruited at that time.”
“Recruited? He had to be a fanatic if he blew himself up.”
“Yes, and clever enough so that no one in his immediate circle even realized he was a prime candidate to do it.”
“How did this happen? What happened to all the airport security?”
“It’s only as strong as the weakest link.”
“So he was able to just walk onto that plane with enough explosives to kill that many people?”
“The weakest link,” Venable repeated. “In this case we’re almost sure the link was Pedro Gonzalez, the gate agent who worked the flight.”
“What did he do? Was he an Islamic recruit, too?”
“No, we think he was a victim and forced to cooperate with the terrorists.”
“How?”
“He was seen giving the bomber a black briefcase before he got on the plane. There was a mention that security had sent it up to the gate.”
“And that never happened?”
“Security didn’t know anything about it. Gonzalez probably smuggled it into the gate area the day before.”
“Wasn’t he checked by security before he was hired?”
“He was checked and came out smelling like the proverbial rose. Patriotic, steady family man, religious, took care of his aged father. He was everything he should have been.”
“You said he was a victim. What happened?”
“We don’t have the details yet. We may never have them. We can only make suppositions. When we went to Gonzalez’s home to question him, we found a slaughter house. His wife, son, two daughters, and his father had been shot and killed execution style in the upstairs bedrooms. Gonzalez himself was killed in the downstairs foyer as he came in the front door.”
“You think his family was being held hostage to force Gonzalez to cooperate?”
“That’s my guess. And then, after Gonzalez had done his job, they murdered everyone so that there would be no one to tell the tale.” He paused. “And to make sure that there was no evidence that the bomber’s story wasn’t as factual as it should be.”
“Hideous,” Eve said shakily. “And you’re saying the bomber lied when he gave credit to Red Darkness?”
“We can’t prove it. The spokesman for that terrorist group is claiming it was their work, and the group has scattered and gone under cover.”
“Then why don’t you think it’s their work?”
“It’s too coincidental.”
“Coincidental. What are you talking about?” Joe said. “Spit it out, Venable.”
“We think that the bombing was done by a member of Warriors of Paradise, a group headed by Ali Dabala. The entire operation was too slick and obviously well funded. Red Darkness operates on a shoestring.”
“Then why would they claim this atrocity when it meant they’d know every country in the world would make it hot for them?”
“Not every country. And they’d gain prestige among their own kind. Also they might have been given enough money to make it worth their while.” He paused. “As I said, Ali Dabala is well funded. He has friends in very high and lucrative places in the Middle East. He obviously didn’t want to draw attention to his group at this time.” He paused. “Which scares the hell out of me.”
“Why?” Joe asked.
“Rakovac’s surveillance reported a confirmed visit from Ali Dabala several months ago,” Kelly said. “And another possible meeting between them just before Rakovac went undercover.”
“You’ve obviously been working, Kelly,” Venable added harshly, “but not hard enough. We made a deal. Find me something, anything to nail down where the bastard is.”
“You haven’t given her time,” Catherine said. “And what does Rakovac have to do with Ali Dabala?”
“We’ve been getting information for the past three years that the Warriors of Paradise have been planning a massive 9/11-type attack on the U.S. But Ali Dabala regarded that attack as clumsy and lacking in scope to show the world how weak and ineffectual the U.S. was against the power of Islam. He wanted an attack to stun the world. He had the suicide bombers who he could send to paradise and the money to fund the attack. The only thing he lacked was someone to set up the individual airport personnel and arrange for the explosives to be put in the hands of his men at the correct time.” He added, “So he went to Rakovac and obviously made him a deal he couldn’t refuse. He was to locate the vulnerable and the greedy and set up ways to override airport security.”
“Like Gonzalez,” Catherine said. “But why Peru?”
“A test? It would make sense. Too far away from the U.S. to arouse real panic. I can talk myself blue in the face and still not get Homeland Security to do more than raise the security code level.”
“Prologue,” Catherine said softly. “Rakovac said he was involved in a prologue and didn’t have time to give me the concentration I deserved.”
Venable muttered a curse. “And how long before they delve into the main selection?”
“You tell us,” Joe said. “You obviously have informants. When and how many cities are going to be affected?”
“I don’t know. I’m just getting dribbles of information, and some of that could be red herrings. Do you think I’d be relying on a fourteen-year-old kid if I could get reliable intelligence?”
“Thank you,” Kelly said dryly.
“How many cities?” Joe persisted. “You have to have some idea.”
He was silent a moment. “I’ve got a map with nineteen red flags on it.”
“My God.”
“It could be less. It probably is less. I told you, red herrings. But even if it’s only half that number, it’s a disaster.”
; “One city would be a disaster,” Eve said. “Two thousand people in Lima…”
“New York, Washington, Chicago,” Catherine said. “Those cities are prime targets. Where else?”
“You name it. L.A., Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis. Large population centers and areas that have patriotic or sentimental value to the American people. Strikes to the wallet and the emotions.”
“Those sons of bitches,” Joe said.
“Yes. And Rakovac is making it all possible. That’s why we have to find him. He has to have all the information about the airport personnel who are going to help the terrorists. His people have to be on-site and ready to roll when Rakovac gives the orders. He has to have records, disks…something. You can’t touch him until I have those records, Catherine.”
Catherine was silent. “If he’s dead, then he couldn’t give any orders.”
“And what if Ali Dabala knows the names and contacts Rakovac is using and tries to initiate the attack without Rakovac’s go-ahead?”
“Listen to me.” She drew a deep breath, her hand tightening on the phone. “When I find Rakovac, his first act is going to be to try to kill Luke in front of me. He’d consider that the ultimate revenge. I’ve got to find some way to save Luke and you’re trying to take away one of the only ways I can do it. You want me to risk Luke to keep Rakovac alive until you get those records? How can I promise to—”
“Catherine, think. I know what you’re going through. But this is—”
“You don’t know what I’m going through,” she said harshly. “You’ve never known. Now you’re saying I should give up Luke on the chance that—” She drew a deep breath. “I can’t talk to you any longer. I’m not thinking straight. All I can do is feel.”
“It has to be done, Catherine,” Venable said quietly. “I have to have those records, and soon.”
“We’re not even close to finding Luke yet. We’ve just started.”
“But there’s a promise if Rakovac’s gone to the trouble of luring you into his world. Act on that promise.”
“You don’t think we are? We’re doing everything we can.”