White Mountain

by Dinah McCall

  Jack slipped into the dining room through the terrace doors. The room was empty of guests. Only a few of the wait staff were in the area, straightening up chairs and sweeping up for the night. They were startled by his sudden appearance, as well as the rifle on his back.

  “Have you seen Isabella?” he asked.

  “Not since dinner,” a waitress said.

  He moved through the room into the lobby. Delia was not at the desk. He slipped past the stairs toward the family quarters and knocked on her door. No one answered, and the door was locked. Quietly, he picked the lock and slipped inside. The rooms were empty and quiet. Too quiet.

  Exiting quickly, he made for the stairs, taking them two at a time. When he reached the third floor landing, he plastered himself against the wall, listening for sound of trouble, but he heard nothing.

  He started down the hall, pausing at every door to listen for sounds of life inside, but everything was quiet. Then, just as he was about to call out her name, he heard someone shout.

  Grabbing his handgun, he started down the hall, moving quietly but with haste. Again he heard voices, this time all talking at once. He frowned. Then he heard Isabella shout and someone telling her to shut up, and he knew he’d found Victor Ross.

  His heart sank. Ross had done the unthinkable. He’d come back to the scene of the crime—something none of them had expected. He glanced at his watch. It was past time to call in. Travis would already be heading down the mountain. But from the sounds inside the room, he couldn’t afford to wait for the men to arrive. The only thing he could do was go in before someone got hurt. Maybe he could stall Ross long enough for the search team to arrive, but Travis needed to know where they would be.

  Reluctantly, Jack ran all the way to the end of the hall, then ducked into an alcove and keyed up the mike.

  “Travis, this is Jack, come in. Over.”

  A short burst of static sounded, and then Jack heard Travis’s voice.

  “This is Travis. What did you find?”

  “He’s here,” Jack said. “On the third floor, last room on the right. He’s taken hostages. I can’t tell how many, but I know Isabella is there. I heard her voice.”

  “We’re on our way,” Travis said.

  “I can’t wait,” Jack said. “I’m going in now. Maybe I can stall him before he does something we can’t fix.”

  “You need to wait,” Travis said. “There’s no telling—“

  “I’m not taking the radio,” Jack said. I’ don’t want him to know you’re on the way. Just get here as fast and as silently as you can.”

  “I’ll radio the copper to drop some men.”

  “No!” Jack said abruptly. “He’ll hear it. If he starts shooting, I won’t be ablt to control the damage, and I wan’t risk their lives.”

  “Damn it, Dolan, you and I both know that the last thing a good agent does is give himself up as another hotage. You’re playing into his hands if you do.”

  “Just shut up and hurry,” Jack said, then turned off the radio and laid it on the floor.

  Then he took out his handgun, slipped it in the top of his boot, pulled his pants down over it and dropped the holster on the floor. Maybe Ross would think the only weapon he was carrying was the rifle, so when he was disarmed, he would still have a chance.

  He moved toward the room again, this time taking no measures to disguise his footsteps. He didn’t want Ross to know he’d already been made.

  Stunned by Ross’s demand, Isabella shook her head in disbelief.

  “Why on earth do you think we could come up with an amount of money like that? Look around you. This is an old hotel. The only guests we have are the ones who come to the clinic. The restaurant barely pays for itself. We are not wealthy people. Your demands are ridiculous.”

  Rostov glared at her. “You lie. You live like a queen in this place. Your father and these old men are doctors….American doctors have money.”

  “Only two are doctors,” Isabella argued. “And they’ve been retired for years.”

  Rostov laughed. “So much you still don’t know,” he said, then pointed the gun at David’s face. “Why don’t you tell her? Why keep the little girl in the dark any longer?”

  She looked at the men, waiting for them to deny what Ross was saying. They only gave her long looks of pity.

  Suddenly she burst out in anger. “I can’t stand this! No, I won’t stand this! Not any longer! You’re talking riddles. All of you.” Then she got to her feet and pointed at Ross. “There is no money, so shoot us now and leave us to die in peace.”

  Before Rostov could answer, there was a knock at the door.

  “Isabella? Honey? Are you in there?”

  Hope sprang and then sank within the same seconds. Jack! And Rostov would kill him.

  “Jack, run! Ross is holding us hostage! You—“

  Rostov hit her with his fist. She went down in a heap just as Jack came through the door, his rifle aimed at Victor Ross. He took one look at the woman on the floor and the man standing above her. His voice was low, completely devoid of emotion, but the look in his eyes gave away his rage

  “You son of a bitch.”

  Rostov grinned. “So, we meet again,” he said. “Something told me you are not the writer you claimed to be. Now put down your gun before I kill your woman.

  Jack hesitated.

  “Do it!” Rostov snapped. “I’m losing my patience with all of you.”

  Jack laid the rifle against the wall.

  “Let me tend to her,” he asked, pointing to Isabella.

  “you don’t touch her,” Rostov said. “Not until I say that you can. Now get over there with the rest of them. I have much to do before this night is over.”

  Jack cursed himself for waiting too long to come in. If he hadn’t, Isabella wouldn’t be lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

  “Now, where were we?” Rostov asked, as Jack stopped beside the fireplace, only inches from Isabella’s head. “Ah yes, the money. You were going to get me the money.”

  “Why should we?” David asked. “you’re going to kill us anyway.”

  Rostov’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. The man had a point. Then he glanced at the diary still lying on the floor. Maybe there was still something to be gained. He pointed his gun at the diary.

  “I think you will pay me a lot to make sure no one ever reads this book.”

  Jack’s gaze immediately slid to the old, leather-bound volume on the floor near Isabella’s feet.

  David shook his head. “If we’re dead, what does it matter?”

  Rostov sneered. “It matters to her, doesn’t it?” he asked.

  The old men were caught, and they knew it. They looked at each other, then, one by one, silently nodded.

  “So…do we have a deal?” Rostov asked.

  “You have a deal,” David said. “But on one condition.”

  “And that is?’

  “You let these two live,” David said, pointing to Jack and Isabella. “you let them live, or kill us all now and leave with nothing.”

  “Of course,” Rostov said. “I promise.”

  They all knew what his promises were worth, but nothing more was said.

  Rostov’s gaze swept the room, trying to guess where a wall safe might be. Behind that painting? Beside the fireplace?

  “Now the money, please.”

  Isabella groaned and then slowly opened her eyes. He head ached, and it hurt to swallow. When she started to speak, a pain shot up he jaw and into her temple. She grabbed her face and moaned.

  Jack dropped to his knees and cradled her in his arms.

  “I[‘m here, sweetheart. Just lie still.”

  “I told you not to touch her!” Rostov shouted.

  David stepped between them.

  “You promised,” he said.

  Rostov cursed. “Get the money now! My patience leaves me.”

  “It’s not here,” David said. “But it’s close by.”

  Rostov aimed
the gun at Isabella’s head.

  “You lie!” he shouted. “I will wait no longer.”

  “he’s not lying,” Jasper suddenly said.

  “No, it’s true,” Thomas chimed in.

  “We can get to it from my apartment,” David said. “But you have to come with me.”

  Rostov frowned. “What are you trying to pull? There is nothing beyond this room but a fire escape.”

  David smiled. “Oh, but you’re wrong,” he said softly. “Do you think we conducted our experiments in public laboratories?”

  Jack felt Isabella flinch, but he squeezed her arm, hoping she got the message to stay quiet. He suspected they were about to learn why Frank Walton had been killed.

  “Where?” Rostov asked, looking around the room. “Where do we go?”

  “Down,” David said. “We go down. But we leave them behind or there will be no money.”

  “No deal, Rostov said. “I see the money first or they dir.”

  David relented, but only because he had no choice. He knew Ross was serious. He’d been the one to identify Frank’s body in the Brighton Beach morgue.

  “Get up,” Rostov orderd, and waved the gun at Jack. “Get her up, too. WE all go, and if you’re lucky, we all come back.”

  Jack stood, then helped Isabella to her feet. She staggered, and he put his arm around her.

  “Lean on me,” he said softly.

  Isabella went limp against his chest, steadying herself until she could walk.

  “I am leaning on you, Jack. I think I have been since the day you arrived.”

  “Move,” Rostov ordered.

  David nodded to the other men, who followed him toward the bedroom.

  “Where are you going?’ Rostov shouted.

  “You want the money?” David said. “You follow me.”

  17

  David opened the door to his closet and walked inside. The other uncles followed behind him.

  “What the hell?” Rostov muttered.

  Jack was wondering the same thing but refrained from saying so.

  Isabella was still disoriented enough not to realize that they’d walked into a closet until she saw David shove aside a stack of clothes and press down on a shelf. When the wall in front of them suddenly slid out of sight, she gasped.

  An elevator car was open and waiting.

  “Get in,” David said.

  “After you,” Rostov snarled, realizing, as they all got in, that he would be in very close contact with all of them and could easily be overpowered. To insure his safety, he grabbed Isabella out of Jack Dolan’s arms and put his gun in her ear. “She’s with me,” he said. “If anyone makes a wrong move, her brains are going to be on your face.”

  Isabella moaned and swayed where she stood.

  “Don’t hurt her,” Jack said. “We’re doing this your way, I swear. Right, men?”

  The uncles nodded anxiously.

  Satisfied that he still had the upper hand. Rostov boarded the elevator, and down they went.

  Jack marveled silently at the lengths to which these old men had gone to keep their secrets. But even he was surprised when the car stopped and the door opened. Instead of being in some kind of laboratory, they had exited into a lighted tunnel.

  “What’s this?” Rostov asked. “I thought we were going to your laboratory?”

  “We are,” David said, pointing to the array of electric carts parked against the wall. “Pick a ride. I’ll lead the way.”

  The old men piled into the carts, leaving Rostov with no options but to follow.

  He shoved Isabella toward the last cart.

  “You drive,” he told Jack. “We’re behind you. And remember…”

  “We got the message,” Jack snapped. “Just take the goddamned gun out her ear before you trip and fall. Because I warn you, anything happens to her and you’ll have no need for money or anything else.”

  Rostov pushed Isabella into the back seat and then slid in beside her as Jack took off down the tunnel, following the other three carts, which were already some distance ahead.

  David’s mind was set on destruction. It was the only thing left that they could do. But getting Isabella and Jack out without harm was going to take finesse.

  “Jasper…you know what we have to do,” David said.

  “Yes.”

  “Rufus…are you in agreement?”

  Rufus sighed and rubbed his ample paunch.

  “Yes, and had I known tonight was the end, I would have had that second helping of peach cobbler.”

  They laughed because, for a moment, it made everything seem normal and right. But then they heard Ross shout out behind them to shut up and slow down, and the moment of humor passed.

  All too soon the mile had been traversed, and they were at the laboratory doors.

  Jack go out, then turned toward Isabella, but Rostov wasn’t ready to give up his hostage. Not when they’d come so far and so deep.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  “Beneath White Mountain,” David said.

  “I’ll be damned,” Jack muttered. “No wonder you were never found.”

  “Oh, we didn’t hide ourselves down here,” David said. “We hid in plain sight by going about our business like anyone else. We just did our experiments down here.”

  Rostov was getting nervous. He had never liked tight places, and knowing there was an entire mountain sitting on top of them made his flesh crawl.

  “Stop talking and get inside,” he ordered.

  David keyed in the code, and the door swung open.

  As the lights in the ceiling of the massive room began to come on, they entered.

  Isabella stared in disbelief, first at the uncles, who moved among the lab tables and computers with such familiarity, then at the room itself. It was all stainless steel and glass, spotless and gleaming, with lights so bright overhead that it seemed to be lit by pure sunlight.

  “The money!” Rostov yelled. “Where is the money?”

  “Jasper will get it,” David said.

  Jasper moved toward what appeared to be a large metal floor safe near the door. Instinctively, Ross’s attention was diverted, and he moved with him, Isabella still under his gun. When Jack started to follow, David grabbed him by the arm instead.

  “Wait,” he whispered. “I don’t have much time, and there are things you need to know.”

  “Some of it I already do,” Jack said. “you were all working on similar projects when your respective governments pulled the plugs, right?”

  David smiled. “I knew you were smart.” Then his smile shifted. “You love our Isabella, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “In spite of us?”

  “In spite of everything,” Jack said. “Just help me get her out of this alive.”

  “It will be done,” David said. “But listen to me now, because her life could still be in danger, and only you will know.”

  They glanced toward the wall, where Jasper was on his knees.

  “Our research was stopped, yes,” David said. “But we believed in what we were doing. It was John Rhodes…I should say Samuel Abbott, who first suggested that we fake our deaths. Some of us were hesitant, but given the prospects of what awaited us, we quickly agreed. Yes, we took other identities, but we hurt no one. We have not profited in any monetary way from the names we assume. We have not drawn any money from your government, nor taken any outside donations for our clinic. We have done good for the women who wanted babies. We have given back to the world what was taken from us.”

  “What was the big secret?” Jack asked. “There are hundreds of fertility clinics. Why lie about who you were? Except for Walton, uh…Waller, any of you could have just quit your government work. Why not take up private practice under your own identities?”

  David glanced at the others. Jasper was almost into the safe. He had to hurry.

  “Because it wasn’t just about infertility.”

  Jack frowned. “So what was it abou
t? You were researching DNA…the human genome…gene therapy. What are you saying?”

  “We applied our research to a select few of the women at the clinic without their knowledge.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Jack muttered. “Do you know what—“

  David’s shoulders slumped. “oh, we know all too well,” he said softly.

  “How many?” Jack snapped.

  David thought about the Silvia woman and decided not to reveal their most recent project.

  “Over the past thirty odd years, twenty in all.”

  “What did you do to them, old man? And don’t tell me you created a bunch of monsters, because I was starting to like you.”

  “They were perfect babies,” David said. “Beautiful, whole, healthy babies.”

  “Then why the long face?” Jack asked. “Why not tell the world that—“

  “They’re all dead now…except for one.”

  All the air went out of Jack in one swoop.

  “How?”

  “Mostly self-destructs. I think one died of a heart attack, and another from anorexia and a couple from accidents.”

  “By self-destruct, are you implying they killed themselves?”

  “Yes, said to say, that is true.”

  “Good God! Why? How?”

  “It isn’t the how of it that mattered,” David said. “It was the why. Reports were that they claimed to hear voices. Most of them just went mad.”

  Jack grabbed David’s arm. “What the hell did you do to those babies?”

  “Nothing but give them life again.”

  Jack heard, but it took a moment for the significance of what David had said to sink in. Then it hit him.

  “Say that again.”

  “I said…we did nothing but give them a second chance at life.”

  Jack stared at the state-of-the-art equipment, then at the faces of the five old men.

  “I don’t want to say what I’m thinking,” he muttered.

  “Then don’t,” David said. “I’ll say it for you. We cloned twenty people. And not just any people, but people who had a lot to offer the world. Mathematicians, doctors, scientists, politicians, leaders of our country…even a couple of rather famous entertainers that the world truly loved.” Then he took Jack’s arm, pleading with him. “Don’t you understand? They had given the world so much the first time around, it only stood to reason that they could do it again.”