Vendetta

by Iris Johansen

  “I don’t want you to be alone,” he said thickly. “You don’t have to be strong all the time, Rachel.”

  “Yes I do,” she said unevenly. “The best I can be. Though I wasn’t very strong when I first looked at those photos.” She opened the French doors. “I’m going for a walk; and then I’ll come back and we’ll talk. If you can think of anything to do that will help Maria … or Blanca, by all means put it into motion.”

  She closed the doors behind her and walked across the veranda and down to the beach.

  The wind was blowing, picking up the sand and moving it from the dunes to swirl at her feet.

  Look at the swirling sand. Look at the sea. Don’t think of Maria for the next few minutes.

  She would just look at the nature and the beauty surrounding her until she was able to forget those photos and remember Maria and Blanca the way she’d last seen them at the hospital. After that, she’d be able to work through the pain and think coherently, and then find a way to help them.

  Just look at the swirling sand.

  CHAPTER

  14

  Brandon was waiting when Rachel left the beach and came back to the veranda two hours later.

  “All right?” he asked without expression. “As all right as you can be right now?”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry I lost it,” she said quietly. “It hit me hard. It took me a little time.”

  “Imagine that. And as usual, I couldn’t help. All I could do was stand here and watch you down there on the beach.” He smiled crookedly. “Well, maybe I helped a bit. Monty sent those photos to an expert at the Pixel Studio, and they verified that it was unlikely they had been doctored. Then we contacted the hospital in Georgetown and found out that Maria had been released from the hospital three days ago. She was in good health, but they placed her in a nursing home for observation at the CDC’s request because they wanted to observe how fast she’d complete her recovery on the medication. As far as they know, she’s still there.”

  “She’s not there,” Rachel said.

  “I don’t think so either. We’re checking it out now. Your friend, Phillip, is still at the hospital, and he’s going to the nursing home to see what he can find out. He said he’d call you as soon as he knew.” He took her arm and pushed her gently toward the kitchen door. “Come in and have a cup of hot tea. You said we’d talk, we’re going to talk.” He gestured to a chair at the kitchen table. “Sit down. I’ll have the tea ready in a minute. As I said, I’ve been waiting.” He was getting cups and saucers down. “Nate and Monty wanted to come in to see you, but I told them that it would be better if they didn’t. They wanted to let you know how sorry they are about Maria.”

  “I know they are. They’re very kind.”

  “They like you, they want to help, dammit.”

  “They are helping. You told me that Monty—”

  “Forget it.” He put her tea down before her. “You still act as if you’re walking around in a fog. I can’t expect anything else, but I want to shake you and wake you up. Or break Huber into tiny pieces and cremate the bastard, so that he doesn’t exist anywhere on the planet.”

  “I’m not in a fog any longer.” She had to be clear because she knew she wasn’t behaving normally. “This is … bad for me.” She spoke slowly, trying to choose her words. “I learned a long time ago that when things became this bad, it’s better if I draw into myself until I can get through it.”

  “Like you did at Sazkar Prison?” he asked jerkily.

  “I suppose it started then. It’s not that I don’t appreciate that you and Monty and Nate want to help.” She moistened her lips. “I’m just trying to hold on because I know there’s more to come. You read that email. You know I’m right.”

  “Hell, yes.” He dropped down in the chair opposite her. “Huber picked the perfect weapon, didn’t he? He knows you’re not going to let Maria be tortured or killed. He thinks he’s got you in a corner.”

  “It feels like that to me as well.” She lifted the cup to her lips. “I told Catherine that I thought we might be getting somewhere, that there might be reason for hope. That was right before I got the email. There doesn’t seem as if there’s much hope now.” Her hand tightened on the cup. “But I can’t think like that. If I do, I’ll give up, and Maria will die. Because no matter what Huber says or does, no matter what bargain he strikes with me, he’ll eventually kill her anyway. Unless I find a way to get her away from him.”

  “And you’ve just said that he’ll lie,” he said roughly. “So I’m sure that plan you’ve been hatching mentally for a trade won’t do any good.”

  “Not unless I have someone to help get her out after the trade takes place.”

  “No,” he said violently. “I’m supposed to snatch the kid and leave you with Huber? That’s not going to happen, Rachel. We’ll think of something else.”

  “We both knew that I might eventually have to be the game piece that allows us to stop Huber.” She met his eyes. “He just upped the stakes. The ideal situation is to destroy Red Star, kill Huber, and save Maria without sacrificing me. That’s a big order. We may not be able to have it all. But I will have Maria. She will live, Brandon.” She looked down into the amber depths of her tea. “And I’ll promise you Huber if we can manage to get me anywhere close to him. You might have to take care of the rest yourself.” Her lips twisted. “Such a small task, destroying a terrorist organization we haven’t been able to touch for decades. Piece of cake, Brandon.”

  “Yeah, piece of cake,” he said roughly. “Particularly since I’m not going to let you go get Maria by yourself. I might be a little busy.”

  She had been expecting this, but it wasn’t time for arguments. “We’ll see how things work out. I guess I’ll have to wait for the next call from Huber or Nemesis.” And that knowledge was causing every nerve to clench. “I don’t think he’d reply to me this time if I tried to initiate. He’s taking Red Star orders now.”

  “Unless he thought you had something better to offer.”

  She shook her head. “You know we can’t trust him.”

  “We could if he has a knife to his throat,” he said grimly. “It’s amazing what that incentive does to a slimeball. One of the orders I gave Monty was to hop on Sam Zackoff to get me that IP, then the trace.”

  She remembered that Monty had said that Sam was close to finding the IP, but she was afraid to count on anything. “For a hacker as brilliant as Monty claims this Zackoff to be, it’s taking a long time to—”

  Her cell phone rang.

  Phillip Sanford.

  Her finger punched the access on the speaker. “Phillip, what did you find out?”

  “Nothing good, Rachel,” Phillip said gently. “Maria and her mother disappeared from their rooms at the nursing home sometime last night. There was a note on the nightstand this morning, supposedly from Blanca, saying that they were homesick and were going back to their village.”

  “Not true. Blanca wouldn’t do that if Maria was still being treated.”

  “I know, I saw her before she left the hospital for the nursing home. When I got there today, I asked them to search the property.” He paused. “They found Blanca in the woods behind the home.”

  Her heart lurched. “Dead?”

  “No. But she’d been pistol-whipped, and she’s still unconscious. It looked as if she’d tried to crawl out of the woods back toward the nursing home but couldn’t make it.”

  Not dead. That was better than she’d feared. “Is she going to live?”

  “She has a chance. Exposure. Severe concussion. She’s lucky we found her when we did.”

  “But no Maria?”

  “No Maria. I gather you weren’t expecting us to find her.”

  “It would have been a miracle.”

  “But we talked about miracles. Sometimes they happen. Particularly with you, Rachel.”

  “This one would have been difficult to do. I’d appreciate it if you’d do your best to pull one off with
Blanca. Will you do that, Phillip?”

  “You know I will.” He hesitated. “Would you like to tell me what you’ve gotten yourself into? I’d like to help.”

  “You’ll help by letting me tell Maria that she has a mother to come back to. That’s pretty big stuff. I’ll check on her later. Thanks, Phillip.” She pressed the disconnect and looked at Brandon. “He’s the best. If anyone can save Blanca, he can.” She drew a deep breath. “Severe concussion. She was probably fighting for her Maria. Her daughter was the most important thing in her—”

  Her phone was ringing.

  It was Phillip again. “It might not mean anything. There was something scrawled in the mud where we found Blanca. They might not even be letters, she might have just been digging her fingers in the mud to keep herself going.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t know what I’m talking about. But they looked a little like letters, and Blanca might have been trying to tell us something. She would have been in pretty bad pain at the time, and I didn’t just want to dismiss them.”

  “What letters?”

  “It looked like a U and an A, and maybe an N and a C. As I said, it might be nothing.”

  “We’ll look at it and see if we can make anything out of it. Thanks, Phillip.”

  As she hung up she saw that Brandon had taken out a pen and his pad and had written down the four letters … if they were letters. “He’s right, it could be nothing,” she said. “She could have been disoriented as well as in pain. Or struggling to crawl through the mud.”

  “Or telling us something she’d overheard from the men who’d taken them,” he said. “You’ve just been saying how much she loved Maria. Wouldn’t she do anything to let us know something that might help us to find her?”

  “Yes.” She took his pad and copied the letters on a sheet and tore it out of the pad. “Long shot, Brandon. A name?”

  “Or a destination. A name wouldn’t be nearly as important to Blanca as where they were taking her little girl.”

  “They’d be taking her to Max Huber.”

  “But where is Huber located right now? He operates all over the world. Presumably he’s in Canada because that’s where he was when Venable was supposed to meet with Nemesis. But he changes his compounds all the time, and we don’t even know where all of them are located.” He was staring down at his notepad. “Not much to go on.”

  “Long shot,” Rachel repeated. “But sometimes long shots pay off and we have to try everything.” She put her cup back in the saucer and pushed her chair back. “I think I’ll go back to my room and look at maps and see if it sparks anything.”

  “And then sit and wait for Huber or Nemesis to attack you again?” Brandon said savagely. His eyes were blazing in his taut face. “How long do you think it will be this time?”

  “I have no idea. It depends how long it will take Maria to be delivered to Huber. Why are you so angry?”

  “Because I want to kill someone, and I can’t do it. Because if I take you somewhere and lock you away until this is all over, you’ll hate my guts.” He got to his feet and headed for the door. “It might be worth it.” He stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Are you going to call Catherine?”

  “No, she’d only worry, and what could she do? She’s busy trying to find a way to locate Fasrain and keep him from blowing up that supertanker.”

  “What could she do? You’re hurting. She’s your best friend, and she might give you the comfort you won’t take from me.” His lips twisted. “Or you could call Hu Chang. He who dispenses all knowledge and wisdom.”

  “You’re mocking him, but he does, you know. Or close to it.”

  “I’m not really mocking him.” The savagery was suddenly replaced with weariness. “I’m just jealous as hell of him. But not too jealous not to ask you to call him and let him help you.”

  She could see that her withdrawal was hurting him, but she couldn’t let go of the control she’d managed to retrieve during those hours on the beach. “I’m not going to be just sitting waiting for Huber. I have a few things to do.” She looked down at the page she’d torn from his notebook. “Besides this bewildering scrap of nothing. I’ll be fine, Brandon.”

  “Sure.” He shrugged as he opened the door. “I’ll be working with Monty and Sam to get that damn IP address. I’m definitely motivated to get my hands on that son of a bitch. Let me know if you decide that you’re not fine.”

  She stared helplessly after him as the door shut. She knew he wanted to help, but she couldn’t let him come closer. She had to be strong, and when he was here, she wanted to lean.

  She straightened and headed down the hall toward her bedroom. She had not lied when she’d told him she had things to do. She glanced at the computer when she entered the bedroom. No red light.

  Then she went to her closet and pulled out the small plastic container that she’d stored there. She sat down on the bed and opened the container. She gazed down at the six vials glittering in the dimness of the bag.

  Glittering … and deadly.

  It was time to make the choice.

  * * *

  No answer again, Catherine realized with annoyance.

  She had called Claire Warren three times in the last hour. Every call went directly to voice mail. It was clear Claire wasn’t accepting her calls, she thought grimly. She had made her thoughts and opinions about Claire’s reluctance to move forward with any speed a little too plain, and Claire obviously didn’t want to deal with Catherine if she could avoid it.

  Well, she could not avoid it. She might be able to ignore Catherine’s calls, but that only meant she’d have to confront her in person as she’d intended anyway.

  Her phone rang. No ID.

  “I believe my friend, Harry, probably told you to get some rest when he examined you at the hospital,” Cameron said when she answered. “Yet I’ll wager you’re doing no such thing and probably about to cause me infinite trouble.”

  “How could I do that when you’re not even answering my calls?” she asked curtly. “I called you twice today. You’re as bad as Claire Warren.”

  “Oh, you’re having problems with her again? Please don’t compare us. It would be totally unfair, you know. I’ll answer whenever you call, swim the deepest ocean, jump over high buildings with—”

  “Except when it’s inconvenient for you.”

  “As it happens, it was a little inconvenient. But all in your service. I was getting the current address of Lawrence Fasrain from a contact. Then, of course, I had to verify it. I wouldn’t allow myself to ever give you incorrect information.”

  Her heart jumped. “You have his address? What is it?”

  “I’ll take care of it. I just wished you to know it was in process.”

  “No, I’ll take care of it. I told you all I wanted was for you to find him. You’re not supposed to do anything else. Why are you?”

  “I suppose because I wanted to make you feel … treasured. I didn’t like the idea that you were almost blown up last night.” He went on immediately, “But speaking of explosives, I’ll ignore your lack of understanding and tell you that I’ve also located the van that you’re looking for.”

  “Oakland?”

  “Yes.”

  “The docks?”

  “Close. Six blocks from the main gate.” He paused. “You were expecting this. You might have told me and saved us work.”

  “I’m sure your bloodhounds needed the practice. But I didn’t expect it before I talked to Jude Brandon a couple hours ago. He and Rachel tracked down Fasrain’s connection with a union inspector and a potential scenario.” She briefly outlined what she’d been told. “I was going to let you know … if you’d answered your phone.”

  “That did sting, didn’t it? I’ll try to do penance in the near future. I’d hate to discourage you. I can’t tell you how much your reaching out to me in any way pleases me.”

  “I’m not one of your fans, Cameron. I have no intenti
on of trying to please you.”

  “But that’s totally impractical and unacceptable. Please me, and I’ll forgive you anything, do anything to you, for you … Don’t you remember?”

  She did remember, and it was causing the heat to sear through her. Damn him. She changed the subject. “Is this address you have for Fasrain in Oakland?”

  “Yes. And the location makes perfect sense now that I have the background.” He was silent a moment. “This Jude Brandon is competent, and you trust him?”

  “I think I do. Venable definitely trusted him.”

  “And you trusted Venable.” Another silence. “You’re at the hotel trying to manipulate your friend, Claire Warren?”

  “Not my friend. But, yes, I have to make sure that she—”

  “You don’t want to have to herd her in the direction you want her to go. It’s annoying you. You told me that Brandon said that he’d start working on stopping or diverting the Katrina and that you trust him. Between him and this CIA person with whom you’re so annoyed surely that’s handled. You’ve always been an overachiever, but you can’t do everything, Catherine. So let’s cross her out of the equation and concentrate on Fasrain. He’s obviously the current danger. Agreed?”

  “Yes, fanatics are always a danger. Give me his address.”

  “I have to finish what I started. I have to think of my reputation, after all.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “It’s not as if I’m closing you out. I’ll happily take you to Fasrain. I’m just … treasuring you.” He added softly, “Let’s go get him, Catherine.”

  It was tempting. Meaningful action instead of arguing with Claire. Providing she could even get in to see the damn woman. Claire wouldn’t even talk to her on the phone. “Stopping that supertanker is important, too.”