Eight Days to Live

by Iris Johansen

  “Yes, you could say that,” she said grimly. “Judas.”

  RUN FAST, CALEB TOLD HIMSELF.

  Keep the hunger at bay.

  His blood was pounding in his veins as he ran down the hill into the small glade beside the road.

  Find a reason.

  Not that Jane would forgive him for being what he was no matter what reason he’d give her. But he would forgive himself, and that was enough.

  No time for regret. He had jettisoned that emotion decades ago when he had realized that he could not change. He couldn’t live with regret. That was the way of hollowness and instability.

  Yet he had felt a tingle of regret after he had met Jane MacGuire. Even though he had known that it would end as it had tonight.

  She had looked away from him. She had not wanted him to see the dread and fear in her eyes. Fear that she refused to admit even to herself.

  He had seen it, felt it.

  And again, he had known regret.

  Stop it. Crush it. There were ways to play the game with his own rules. He didn’t have to obey hers.

  He could see Weismann’s car where he had left it in the glade. He ran toward it, the heat rising in him.

  Search and find a reason.

  If not a reason, an excuse, to take back the kill.

  “JUDAS?” JOCK REPEATED. “The whole thing is totally bizarre.”

  “I agree,” Jane said. “And we don’t know enough to make any sense of it. But we have to find out. Did you mention Alan Roland to Venable?”

  He nodded. “Only that I wanted him to check into Roland. Nothing else.”

  “Good. If the CIA is suspecting leaks, we don’t want to be too upfront with Venable.”

  He smiled. “That’s what I thought. By the way, where is Caleb?”

  “I have no idea. He stalked off without a word.” She frowned. “That’s not quite true. He wanted to question Weismann again, and I wouldn’t listen to him. He said he was going to find a good reason to do it.”

  “Why?”

  “How should I know? Because he’s a damn sadist? I can’t see any—”

  A scream! Long. Shrill. Agonized.

  From inside the toolshed!

  “What the hell!” Jock turned and threw open the door.

  Weismann was crumpled on the floor, his eyes bulging from their sockets, staring straight at them but not seeing them. His face twisted with unbearable pain.

  “What happened to—”

  “I found a good reason.”

  Jane whirled to face Caleb, who was only a few paces away, walking toward them across the garden. “You did this?”

  “Yes.”

  Her hands clenched at her sides. “What you did to him before wasn’t enough? You had to torture him?”

  “No, it wasn’t enough. He’s stronger than I thought. He didn’t tell us everything.” He looked down at Weismann. “I had to go in and see if I could move him to tell me more.”

  “How do you know he didn’t tell us everything? You hurt him, dammit.”

  “He’s greedy. Sometimes greed overcomes everything.” He turned to Jock. “We’ve got to get out of here. We may have company anytime.”

  “Who?” Jock asked. “You told us that you’d checked Weismann’s past cell calls and there had been none made to anyone tonight. That he was probably acting alone.”

  “He didn’t make any calls on his cell.” He added grimly, “But he had a laptop computer in his car, and he had a remote setup there. He made a call an hour and thirty minutes ago to a number in London.”

  “Roland?”

  “Yes, that’s why I had to go into the slime in Weismann’s head and verify. He wasn’t only on Venable’s payroll; Roland had him in his pocket. He was paying him to bypass Millet and give him information about Adah. Weismann had to call Roland and tell him where we were and get instructions. Roland told him that he’d tell Millet that Jane was here and to grab the tablet and get out before Millet got here.” He glanced at Jane. “And maybe he wasn’t going to kill all of us if he wasn’t totally on his own. Roland probably told him to save you for the big show. You’re a very special key piece in this scenario.” He turned to face her. “You’re angry with me. Get over it. We don’t have time to do anything but damage control.”

  She wanted to sock him. But if he was right, then she couldn’t afford to indulge in personal feelings. But there was one thing she had to know. “What about him?” She gestured to Weismann. She shuddered as she studied his pain-filled expression. “Is what you did to him permanent?”

  He shrugged. “Sometimes. The brain is very delicate, and I wasn’t gentle.” He added, “Don’t feel too sorry for him. I came across all kinds of filth when I went in to see what else he knew. Besides murder, he had a passion for little boys. He tortured and killed a twelve-year-old he picked up in Genoa last year.” He turned away. “If he does survive, it will take him months to recover enough to cause us any trouble. It’s safe for us to leave him for Millet. Not safe for him. He’s just got to hope Venable gets here before Millet.” He walked out of the toolshed.

  Caleb had already dismissed Weismann from his mind, Jane realized in astonishment. He had done what he had chosen to do and was going on his way. How hard did you have to be to destroy a man’s mind and just ignore the consequences? Even though she was disgusted and appalled by the evil Weismann generated, she would have found it impossible to be that cold. But he had said that it wasn’t coldness, she remembered. Hot blood, he had told her. If it was hot, the flames were enveloped in ice. Yes, that image definitely came to mind when she thought of Caleb.

  “We have to move, Jane,” Jock said quietly. “Lina may be isolated here, but there’s no such thing as total isolation in this day of supercommunication and helicopters. All we can hope is to see them coming.”

  “Lina.” She turned on her heel. “We can’t leave her here. They’ll kill her as they did Celine.”

  “My thought exactly,” Jock said as he followed her from the toolshed. “Let’s see what we can do about it.”

  “WE’RE TWENTY MINUTES AWAY FROM the Alsouk cottage, Roland.” Millet raised his voice to be heard above the rotors of the helicopter. “I’ve checked out the info, and there should be no one in the vicinity to cause us any trouble. Lina Alsouk lives alone, and we should be able to zero in on Gavin and Jane MacGuire within a few minutes after we land.”

  “But I understand there’s a man, Seth Caleb, who has joined the party,” Roland said. “My informant with the CIA had no information on him. If I were you, I’d proceed with caution.”

  “You’re not me. I run my own job, Roland. You did as I asked and tracked Weismann down. Now butt out.”

  “Don’t be rude. I’m handing you Jane MacGuire and Weismann. But I have a few requirements. When you gather Weismann up, I want him eliminated at once. He obviously knows too much about your business, and I can’t be sure that he hasn’t picked up any hints about our relationship.”

  “I was careful.”

  “I want him dead on the spot,” Roland said flatly. “Don’t even let him open his mouth.”

  “No problem. But not because you want it. The son of a bitch betrayed me.”

  “Remember that when you see him.” It was time to get off the phone and let Millet concentrate his venom on his prey. Roland wanted him to be primed for the kill by the time he reached that cottage. “Remember I expect my turn with the MacGuire woman. Let me know when you’ve secured her.” He hung up the phone.

  Everything was falling neatly into place. When Weismann had reported in that he had located Jane MacGuire and that she might have picked up the tablet at the bank, he had known it could be a bonanza. If Weismann managed to do as Roland ordered, then Millet would find nothing but a live Jane MacGuire and a few other dead bodies. Then Roland would be able to meet with Weismann and get the tablet.

  But things didn’t always go as they should, and a wise man always had to have insurance. If Weismann had failed, then he c
ouldn’t afford to have him use that lying viper’s tongue to try to make a deal with Millet to save his neck.

  He would have to die quickly . . . and in silence.

  “I’M NOT GOING,” LINA SAID FLATLY. “This is my home. Do you know how hard I’ve worked to say those words? My home. Not my father’s, not my husband’s. My home. I’m not giving it up.”

  “And I’m not letting you stay here and be butchered,” Jane said fiercely. “I won’t be responsible. You can come back when this is all over, but you can’t stay now.”

  “You insult me. You’re not responsible. I’m responsible for my life. No one else.” Lina glared at her. “Now get out. Maybe these people will follow you and leave me alone.”

  “It’s not likely, Lina,” Jock said. “First, they’d torture you to find out if you know where we’re going. Then they’d kill you because you translated Adah’s ledger, and you know too much.”

  “Do you think this is the first time this has happened to me? People come to me when they want confidentiality. I give it to them. I run the risk.”

  “You’ve never run this high a risk,” Jane said. “I won’t have you join the body count.” She added desperately, “Come with us. We can’t leave without you.”

  “Then stay. I don’t care. That’s your prerogative,” she said grimly. “But get your own AK-47. You can’t have mine.”

  “I couldn’t have gotten you a more desired present, could I?” Caleb had come into the cottage. “But you shouldn’t be so selfish.”

  “It wasn’t a present, it was payment,” Lina said.

  “And now you’re causing me to rue the day. If you didn’t have the weapon, this discussion wouldn’t be taking place.” He was walking toward her. “Because you’re not stupid. You wouldn’t try to defend your castle without that gun. So I guess all I can do is try to persuade you not to do it.”

  Jane stiffened. Persuade. She had a vision of Weismann lying in the toolshed, face contorted with pain.

  “No, Caleb.”

  “Be quiet, Jane. This is between Lina and me. We’ve worked together for a long time.” He stopped only two feet away from Lina. “I brought you and Gavin here. I took the chance of leading Weismann here so that I could gather him in. I’m the one who has to take care of the fallout.” He stared into Lina’s eyes. “What can I say to persuade you to go with us, Lina?”

  “Nothing.”

  He sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  He was turning away, Jane saw with relief. Thank God. She had been so afraid that he would—

  “Forgive me,” he said softly.

  No!

  Jane took a step forward.

  Too late.

  Caleb had turned in one catlike motion and leaped toward Lina.

  She had barely time to lift her arm before the edge of Caleb’s hand came down on her neck.

  Her eyes turned glassy, her knees gave way, and she started to slump.

  He caught her as she started to fall to the floor. He glanced at Jock, who had leaped across the room toward him and was in attack mode. “She’s okay. It was the quickest way to solve the problem.”

  Jock stopped, and said grimly, “You almost had a bigger problem.”

  “I took that into account. Grab the AK-47. Let’s get her out of here. I want her in the car and out of the valley before she regains consciousness.”

  “Excellent idea.” He turned and picked up the weapon. “I’ll go start the car.”

  Jane was at the door, opening it for them. Gavin ran past her toward the road. “I thought you were—”

  “I know what you thought.” He passed her and carried Lina across the garden down the road. “I hate to be predictable. Come on.”

  “I’ll be there in a minute.” She turned back to the room. “I have to get Lina’s computer and all the printouts.”

  “Hurry.”

  She grabbed the computer, pulled a garbage bag from beneath the sink and started throwing the ledger and printouts into it. She added the box with the tablet and even scraps of paper from her wastebasket.

  What else? Dammit, they were taking away Lina’s life. She didn’t know what was important to her.

  She opened the desk drawer and scooped the contents into the bag. Passport, some official-looking documents.

  “Jane!”

  “Coming!”

  No photo albums in this room. That was what Jane would take first in the event of an emergency. She ran to the closet in the bedroom and threw clothes haphazardly into the bag.

  She was out of time to search any longer.

  She picked up the garbage bag and ran out of the cottage.

  Caleb was in the backseat with Lina slumped against him.

  She jumped into the passenger seat beside Jock. “Is she okay?”

  “At the moment,” Caleb said. “If we can get the hell out of here. Drive, Gavin.”

  “I believe that’s what I’m doing.” The car was skidding on the rutted dirt road as Jock pressed hard on the accelerator. “Maybe we’ll get lucky. It could be that we have a time margin that’s not as—”

  Rotors.

  A roar of sound coming in fast from the south.

  “Helicopter,” Jock said. “On second thought, I don’t think that we should count on luck.”

  The helicopter is almost on top of us, Jane thought in panic. The blue spears of light coming down from the aircraft were blindingly bright as it descended toward them.

  “They’ve seen us. Turn off the headlights.”

  “It’s a little late.” He increased speed. ‘Why don’t you take care of turning off their headlights, Caleb? That AK-47 is on the floor back there. A well-placed shot should—”

  A bullet splintered the corner of the windshield!

  “Move.” Caleb was rolling down the window. “It will take a couple minutes for them to turn around and come back, but they’ll line up for a clear shot at us.” He had the AK-47. “Line me up for a shot at them, Gavin. I can’t be accurate with this car moving like a bucking bronco. We’re not going to have much time. If I don’t get the gas tank the first shot, we’re going to have to get out of this car before they blow us to kingdom come. Their firepower is probably a hell of a lot more sophisticated than this automatic weapon.”

  “Here they come,” Jock murmured, his gaze on the sky. “Low and fast. Tell me when I should slow down.”

  “Not slow, stop.” Caleb was sighting. “On three. One . . . two . . .”

  The copter was so close the roar was drowning out Caleb’s voice, Jane realized. But she could see his lips move.

  “Three!”

  Jock put on the brakes.

  An instant later Caleb fired.

  He must have missed, Jane thought. The copter was over them, passing them.

  No, it was listing drunkenly to one side and dipping!

  “I couldn’t get the gas tank. I was in the wrong position. But I got the rotor engine. That should bring them down.”

  “Which means they’ll be after us in a heartbeat,” Jock said dryly. “Lina’s car is parked at the cottage. They’ll have transport. We have another thirty miles before we get out of this valley.”

  Jane’s grip tightened on the plastic bag. “Then let’s get through that pass and on a decent highway before they catch up to us.”

  MILLET CURSED AS he jumped out of the helicopter. “Medford, take the men up to that cottage and see if one of you can find a car.”

  “Right.” Medford gestured to the four men jumping out of the aircraft. “Fan out and look sharp.”

  Look sharp for what? Millet thought bitterly. He gazed at the taillights of the BMW, and his fingers clenched into fists. He had been so close. “Son of a bitch!”

  He still had a chance if they could get their hands on a decent car.

  His phone rang two minutes later. Medford.

  “We found a Volvo parked in back of the cottage. We’re jumpstarting it now.”

  “Hurry. Is the place deserted?�
�

  “Almost.” Medford paused. “We found Weismann in the toolshed. He’s tied up and he’s . . . I don’t know. Something.”

  “Bastard.”

  “What do you want us to do?”

  “What do you think? I want you to get down here with that damn car.”

  “What about Weismann? Should I bring him along?”

  Shoot him on sight, Roland had said.

  But Millet didn’t take orders from anyone. He’d do whatever he liked with Weismann.

  But what he didn’t like was having to drag a wounded man along with him while he went after Jane MacGuire. What he didn’t like was leaving him to be picked up by his buddy, Venable. Roland was worried about his own ass, but the chances of Weismann’s incriminating Millet were much greater. He should have known that Weismann would try to double-cross him when he sent him to get that tablet from Adah.

  Two-faced prick. A bullet in the brain was too good for him.

  “Hell, no,” he said harshly. “Burn the bastard. Torch that toolshed. Torch the whole damn place.”

  TWELVE

  “LINA’S STIRRING,” CALEB SAID. “Maybe you’d better take the AK-47 up there. It might be too accessible when she comes out of it.”

  “Take your chances,” Jane said. “You’re the one who knocked her out.”

  “You were being too polite. It wasn’t going to work with Lina. She wasn’t going anywhere.”

  “So you gave her a karate chop.”

  “It ended the discussion.” He met her gaze. “And admit it, you were glad I didn’t use more ‘unusual’ methods. You were ready to jump me.”

  “Hell yes. I’d just seen what your persuasion did to Weismann.”

  “I was in a hurry, and I didn’t give a damn. I would have been careful with Lina. If I’d chosen to do it.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  “Because I didn’t want to tamper with her. I know Lina. I like her. It wasn’t fair to take the advantage. I don’t intrude with personal relationships unless I can’t do anything else.”

  “Your code again?”

  He shrugged. “When I can go along with it. As you saw tonight, it’s a very loose code.”

  “Exceptionally,” Jock said. “Almost nonexistent.”