“No, you’re dodging. Keep him out of it entirely.”
He didn’t answer.
Her hand tightened on the phone. “Hu Chang.”
“I must get the Pondera back. Luke understands that’s a priority.”
“How could he? Luke is eleven years old.”
“He understands.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “Don’t you dare hypnotize him again.”
“No, that’s all over.” He added quickly, “I will make do with changing my plans and having you involved, but you must do exactly as I say.”
“The hell I will. What do you—”
“I’ll call you back,” Hu Chang interrupted her. “Townberg’s phone is ringing. It’s probably Nardik calling him trying to arrange for you to talk to Luke. I’ll have to monitor what he says to him.” He hung up.
“Dammit,” Catherine said in frustration as she pressed the disconnect. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to Luke. And I had to tell him how—” She reached up to rub the back of her neck. “It’s all crazy, Gallo. Only Hu Chang would be able to pull off something this bizarre.” Her lips tightened. “And without consulting me. He left me out in the cold.”
“I wish that meant you were going to break with him,” Gallo said. “But the anger only goes so far, doesn’t it?”
“What should I feel? He saved Luke, dammit.”
Gallo’s lips twisted. “And who can trump that?”
“No one.” She got to her feet and went to the window and looked out into the darkness. “I thought I’d lost Luke again. It was killing me, Gallo.”
“I know. I could feel it.” He was silent. “So what happens now? Hu Chang seems to be in the driver’s seat, but I can’t see you letting him stay there.”
“Hell, no. He was going to find a way to use Luke to get his damn drug back. Who knows what he’d be having him do?” She shook her head to try to clear it. “But it’s hard to think right now.”
“What’s your objective?” Gallo asked. “I suppose you could take your son and hide out until all this is over. But that’s not going to happen, is it? You’re already thinking and fuming, now that you know he’s safe.”
He was right: the terror had turned into pure rage at Nardik. “That bastard, Nardik, tried to take my son. He told me he was going to torture and kill him. If Hu Chang hadn’t moved first, he might have done it. And if he slips away, he’ll try again.”
“That’s true. So you have an objective. Now all we have to do is get a plan together.”
She turned to look at him. “What are you doing, Gallo? I’m sensing manipulation.”
“Perhaps a little.” He met her gaze. “Because I have an objective, too. You’re upset, bewildered, and vulnerable, and I don’t want Hu Chang to take advantage of that condition to stay in the driver’s seat. When he calls you back, I want you to have the reins firmly in your hands.”
She smiled faintly. “Not yours?”
“Not this time.” He shrugged. “Though I admit it’s beginning to chafe me.” He prompted softly, “Now tell me what you’re going to do about Nardik.”
“I’m going to take him down. He’s not going to touch Luke. He’s not going to kill Andrews. And Hu Chang is not going to run the show.” She added, “Did you really expect anything else, Gallo?”
He smiled with satisfaction. “Not a damn thing. I just wanted to make sure that you were your usual self, and Hu Chang hadn’t thrown you off base by his shenanigans. When Luke is involved I—” He stopped as her phone rang and gestured mockingly. “Pick up. That’s probably your Houdini dangling magic and your Luke to lure you back into his fold.”
CHAPTER
18
THE PHONE CALL PROVED TO BE FROM Hu Chang, just as Gallo thought.
“Townberg behaved magnificently,” he said as soon as she answered. “With my equally magnificent coaching. Nardik gave him orders to have Luke call you.”
“Did you find out anything else? Do we know where he is?”
“I found out previously from Townberg that Nardik is staying at some ranch in Texas with a number of bodyguards and probably a way to exit efficiently after Andrews is killed. He didn’t know exactly where the ranch is located. But if you find it, I’m sure that you’ll be able to prevent his departure and gather him into the net.”
“Really? How?”
“That’s your problem. I can’t do everything, Catherine.”
“I don’t want you to do anything,” she said through set teeth. “No, that’s not true. But you could have stopped after you saved Luke.”
“That wasn’t an option. I still have important tasks to perform.” He paused. “And so do you. Now that you’re no longer frightened for Luke, I think I’m sensing a … change.”
“Of course, there’s a change. I’m as angry with Nardik as I am with you, and I’m going to do something about it.” She added crisply, “There should be some way we can use the fact that Nardik doesn’t know that you have Luke. It could be an ace in the hole. He’ll think I’m vulnerable, which means he’ll feel safer.” She was reaching for a way to do it. “Nardik asked me about Andrews’s medical records. You’ve had time to go over them. Will the drug work on him, or will he need an additional dose?”
“No, it’s sufficient.”
“And Nardik would walk away with a fortune and more power than even he could hope for and looking for his next score. We don’t even know how or when Nardik has arranged to administer the drug. But I’d bet that some plan is in place no matter what happens. Dammit, Andrews is a good man. I don’t like the idea of a good man dying. Too many dreams are dying these days.” She was frowning with frustration. “Everything is too loose and uncertain. We have to find a way of luring Nardik away from the safety of that cozy little ranch. It could prove to be a fortress for him and make everything too difficult. And we have to get some idea of how they’re going to use that dose of Pondera.”
“Ah, a double challenge. How are you going to meet it?”
“The extra dose.” Gallo spoke for the first time. “Use the extra dose.”
“What do you—” She stopped as she made the connection. “Your precious Pondera, Hu Chang. That’s what Nardik is principally concerned with at this particular moment. I’m only a bonus. He even asked if you’d told me if the drug would work on Andrews. He said he was uneasy and wanted an extra dose for insurance. What if I tell him that I’d contacted you, and you’d told me that it wouldn’t work without that additional dose?”
“And?”
“I’ll say that you wouldn’t exchange yourself for either me or Luke, but you offered me the extra dose instead. I think that would make sense to Nardik.” She paused, searching for the next move. “But I’ll tell him that you can’t prepare the Pondera and get it to me before tomorrow evening. He’ll have to meet me somewhere near enough to the Andrews ranch so that I can give it to him in time for him to get it to the man at the debate who is going to administer it.”
“Even if you can set him up, he’s not going to let you choose the place, Catherine,” Gallo said.
“We’ll work with what we can get. Let him choose the place. I’ll only demand it be out in the open, so that I can be sure that I won’t be ambushed. He’ll probably insist on a least one of his men being present. I show up, they search me, he makes the call to release Luke, I hand him the drug.” She grimaced. “And after I hand him the Pondera, the trap snaps shut.”
“The hell it does,” Gallo said. “No way, Catherine.”
“That’s the way I feel.” She met his gaze. “So you find a way to keep the trap from shutting and give me enough time to take Nardik down.”
He muttered a curse. “You don’t ask much.”
Hu Chang chuckled. “But we have confidence in you, Gallo. Look how clever you were at extricating us from that island.”
“Can you get me a vial of liquid that appears identical to the Pondera that Nardik will be using, Hu Chang?” she asked.
?
??Of course.” He paused. “But I’d better try to create a small dose of the real drug instead. Nardik wouldn’t have been able to duplicate Pondera, but he probably had his lab find a quick way to test the drug for authenticity.”
“Can you do that on this short notice?”
“Yes, with some difficulty, but it can be done. May I get you anything else that you might find useful?”
“Mamba venom?” Gallo asked mockingly. “I remember you once told me about that. He does meet all your needs, doesn’t he?”
“I do my best,” Hu Chang said. “Catherine?”
“No.” She thought about it. “Yes, the heat polish you made for me for that job in Iran. I’ll check with Venable, but we may need it. Deliver both of them to the Andrews ranch when you bring Luke. I’ll find a secure place for you to land. Helicopter?”
“That seems the most practical.”
“I’ll call Sam O’Neill and ask him to hop on a plane and get here in time to take custody of Luke.” She added with sudden fierceness, “You’re being very cooperative, Hu Chang. But if anything goes wrong with our getting Nardik because you’re holding out to snatch that blasted Pondera, I’m going to strangle you.”
“My, my, such violence. But I know something that will soothe you. Would you like to talk to Luke?”
“What else have I been asking to do?”
“Catherine?” Luke came on the line. “Hu Chang told me you’d be angry, but you shouldn’t be. What else could he do? Jordack was dead, and we had to get out of there.”
“You could have gone to Sam and told him. Why did you just go along with Hu Chang as if he was some kind of Pied Piper?”
“Because I trusted him,” he said simply. “It seemed to be the thing to do.”
“Kelly told me about that book on hypnosis.”
“Hu Chang explained. He said he wouldn’t have made me do anything I didn’t want to do. And now that I know it happened once, he said he couldn’t hypnotize me again.”
He was defending Hu Chang. It was too familiar. Like mother, like son. No matter what Hu Chang did, she had always defended him, even when she had known he was wrong. Now Luke was caught in that same net.
“I’m sorry I got you into this, Luke,” she said unevenly. “I thought I could keep you safe.”
“It wasn’t your fault. Hu Chang said it was the nature of your relationship that you would try to save him. And that nature must always be accepted.”
“Bull, you don’t have to accept that I’d sacrifice you for Hu Chang. That’s not happening.”
“But it somehow made sense to me that you have to take chances if you don’t want to lose somebody.”
“Maybe. But Hu Chang can make black look white.”
“But he tells the truth, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, but sometimes it gets a little twisted.”
He chuckled. “But that’s interesting. It’s like reading a mystery and not knowing until the last page how it’s going to turn out.”
She sighed. “He’s got you.” Again, it was almost like listening to herself. “Listen, I’ve told him that you’re the one who is important. You’re the one who has to be safe. Don’t let him tell you anything else, okay?”
He was silent a moment. “I know what you’re saying. I don’t believe … I’ll have to think about it. I’m a little confused right now. Some things feel right. Some things feel wrong.”
“What feels right?”
“Hu Chang. The moment he walked into the library, I knew that it was right he was there.” He paused. “And I think it’s wrong that I worry about myself and not you.”
“Luke, I’m not the one who—”
“I think it’s wrong.” Before she could answer, he said, “Good-bye. I’m handing the phone back to Hu Chang now.”
“Wait. We should talk about—”
“It seems he doesn’t want to talk any longer,” Hu Chang said. “So I believe we should hang up now and get to the business at hand. After you’ve supposedly received the call from Townberg and Luke, you’ll get another call from Nardik, wanting to set up the deal. You must be very convincing, Catherine. He’s no fool. Everything must seem reasonable.”
“As reasonable as anything else about this nightmare,” she said. “You take care of my son, Hu Chang.”
“As if he were my own,” he said gently.
“That’s what scares me. If he were your own, you’d probably be dragging him all over the world and teaching him how to make poisons like Pondera.”
He chuckled. “It would not be a bad life for him if he had the aptitude. Not with me to shoulder the—”
“Take care of him.”
“Will it make you feel better to know that in my heart of hearts, I feel as if he could be my own? I didn’t feel like that at our first meeting in Hong Kong, but there has been something growing…”
She didn’t know whether those words reassured her or not. She knew from experience how demanding Hu Chang could be, particularly from those he cared about. “I’ll call you as soon as the deal is set.”
She hung up and looked at Gallo. “Well, what do you think?”
“Why ask me?” There was a distinct edge to his voice. “You and Hu Chang seem to have set up everything to your satisfaction.”
“It’s not to my satisfaction. I want this over and my son home.” Her lips tightened. “But he won’t be safe, even if he’s home, as long as Nardik is alive. Thanks to Hu Chang’s sleight of hand with Luke, we have a chance of reeling that bastard in, and I’m going to take it.” She frowned. “And you’re not being reasonable. This is the direction you were goading me toward, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and I don’t have to be reasonable. I didn’t want you to be under Hu Chang’s thumb, but I forgot how reckless and single-minded you could be.” He smiled sardonically. “I guess I was hoping that you’d just walk away from Hu Chang and rely on me.”
She shook her head. “I rely on myself, Gallo. I’m grateful for your help, but I’m not going to depend on you.”
“But you’re willing to trust Hu Chang even when it comes to protecting your son.”
“We’ve been together a long time. Yes, I’m angry with him, but I trust Hu Chang when he said he’d protect Luke. I guess you don’t understand my doing that.”
He didn’t answer for a moment. “Oddly enough, I do understand it. I don’t know what makes him tick, and he probably has a dozen reasons for every agenda, but he did save Luke. I believe the principal reason he did it was that he wouldn’t allow anything to hurt someone connected to you. It’s taken me a long time, but I’m beginning to see what holds the two of you together. Do I resent it? Yes, but that’s purely personal, and it’s not going to change anything. As long as he doesn’t do anything to hurt you, I’ll play the game.” He shrugged. “But I’ll play it my way. You want your son to be safe and Nardik to be taken out, Hu Chang wants his drug, I want Andrews to live and you to survive. We’ve just got to hope that one of us won’t be disappointed.” He turned toward the door. “I’m going to go down and look around and learn every inch of this place. Then I’m going to Google all the area around here for a hundred miles and see if I can guess where Nardik will choose to meet you. Then I’ll call Venable and arrange to have a Special Ops team available if we need them.” He glanced at her. “I don’t suppose I can talk you out of walking into the lion’s den?”
“No. If I let Venable handle it when all hell broke loose, what would stop Nardik from making a call to tell his men not to wait to kill Andrews? He’d do it. You know he would. He wouldn’t accept being beaten.”
“And if you’re there, you’d be close enough to stop him?”
“He wouldn’t make that call,” she said flatly. “I’ll do my part. You just get busy doing yours.”
“It will be my pleasure. I’ll get right on it.” He smiled crookedly over his shoulder. “You’ll notice, I’m not arguing about your decision? It’s taking great restraint, but I’m working on keeping mysel
f from being protective and on leaving you on your own.”
“Thank you.”
But the door had already closed behind him.
Loneliness.
Push it away. She couldn’t have it all ways. Gallo had been comforting, and she had taken from his strength, but in the end she was always alone. Even Hu Chang moved in and out of her life like a shadow.
Luke.
He was no shadow. He might not love her, but as long as she loved him, and he lived, there would never really be loneliness.
She sat down on the couch to wait for the call from Nardik and the time to set the plan in motion.
* * *
“YOU WERE NOT COURTEOUS TO CATHERINE,” Hu Chang said as he hung up the phone and turned to Luke. “That is not a good thing. She wishes only the best for you.”
“I know.” Luke frowned. “But there’s something wrong…”
Hu Chang’s gaze narrowed on his face. “You will work it out. I believe you’re coming close. Perhaps I should help a little.” He shrugged. “Though Catherine would object if I damage your tender feelings. Do you have tender feelings, Luke? I think not. I believe you’re like my Catherine. Strong and bold, and your feelings are as strong as your heart.”
“You talk like one of my books.”
“But you like and enjoy books. I am flattered.”
Luke looked at the adjoining door. “Why wouldn’t you let me stay in the room when you were forcing Townberg to do what you wanted?”
“I knew Catherine wouldn’t approve.”
“What did you do?” he asked curiously. “He didn’t scream or anything, and it didn’t take long.”
“I’m a physician. I know how to accomplish what I need to do without clumsiness. Next time, he won’t even argue with me.”
“What are you going to do with Townberg when you’re done with him? Will you kill him?”
“Would it bother you if I did?”
He shook his head. “He killed Jordack. He probably would have killed Sam, too. He doesn’t matter to me.” He made a face. “But it would matter to Catherine if you did it. Not because of him but because of me. She’d worry about its being too much like what I went through before she came to get me in Russia. She worries a lot about that.”