Eve

by Iris Johansen

  “My God.”

  “Horrified?” His lip curled. “Why? You know how it works. You do what you have to do to get the job done.”

  Yes, Catherine knew, but this was nasty beyond belief. “But he escaped. Did you at least help?”

  He didn’t answer. “I have the map here.” He pulled out a folded paper and pushed it across the desk. “And a few possible scenarios that we thought might work to take him down.”

  “Did you help him escape?” she repeated.

  “It would have been too risky.” He scowled. “He made out all right. After he reached the coast, he was picked up and taken to Tokyo. He had good medical attention.”

  “What kind of shape was he in?”

  “Why are you asking? Why do you care? He’s your target.”

  “You said he was crazy. If he’s crazy, he’s a threat to Eve. I have to know how crazy … and why. What will trigger him?”

  “He was half-starved. He was in solitary for the first two years. He was tortured. No permanent physical damage that the doctors could tell.”

  “Physical. Mental?”

  “Hallucinations. Periods of total withdrawal. Nightmares. Episodes of uncontrollable rage. After six months, we convinced the doctors that he was well enough to be released into our custody.”

  “Why would you want to do that? Why not leave him in the hospital?”

  “It wouldn’t have been smart.”

  “Why not?”

  “When he was delusional, he was … indiscreet. He raved like a lunatic. We couldn’t afford for the Koreans to know about his mission. Washington would have been embarrassed.”

  “So you took him away from medical care. What did you do with him?”

  “We put him back doing the work he’d been trained to do. He was a Ranger.”

  “As ill and irrational as you say he was?”

  “He performed very well. We were surprised.”

  She was studying his expression. “You sent him out to get killed,” she said softly. “He was an inconvenience, and you wanted him out of your path. Suicide missions.”

  “Ridiculous. He survived them, didn’t he?”

  She just looked at him.

  “See how sympathetic you are when he has his knife to your throat,” Queen said bitterly. “Or when you find Eve Duncan in a gully in those mountains.”

  “I’m not sympathetic.” She crossed the room and stuffed the map in her pocket. “I just get sick to my stomach with all of us sometimes.”

  “Do you have it?” Joe was standing behind her.

  “Yes. I was about to get rid of him.”

  Queen stiffened.

  “No, I’m not going to kill you.” Catherine came around the desk. “As you said, it wouldn’t be smart. We’ve all got to be practical and smart, don’t we? Though I’d love to take you out. I have a hunch you caved too easily and are using us to do your dirty work. But I’ll resist the temptation. Just can’t let you cause us any trouble.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a hypodermic. “Fight me, and you’ll end up with air in your bloodstream and a possible embolism. Otherwise, it’s fourteen hours of sleep.”

  “Don’t do this.”

  “Take your choice.” She plunged the needle into his neck.

  Two seconds later, Queen collapsed on the desk.

  “You came prepared,” Joe said.

  “I usually am. My teacher, Hu Chang, always preferred potions to brute force.” She looked down at Queen. “Though I might have preferred to use pain instead. Queen is a slimeball. What they did to Gallo was very ugly.”

  “Ask me if I care. Gallo has Eve.”

  She nodded. “And we have fourteen hours before we have to worry about Army Intelligence.” She turned toward the door. “And a few hours will be taken up just getting to Utah. We’d better get moving. On the way to meet you, I contacted the pilot I used when we flew to Russia. I thought we might need him. You remember Dorsey?”

  He nodded. “How quick can he get here?”

  “He was in Miami. He should be at Reagan National Airport by the time we drive there. Once we’re on the plane, we’ll look over Queen’s map and suggested plans of entry and see which one we think will work.”

  “He caved quicker than I thought he would.” Joe’s tone was disappointed. “Too bad.”

  “He wanted to get away from dealing with Gallo.” She moved toward the door. “And he was willing to get in hot water with his superiors to do it. They’re handling Gallo with kid gloves. He’s definitely got the upper hand. They’re not about to help us.”

  “They don’t have to help us.” He opened the door of the car. “They just have to stay out of our way.”

  * * *

  SOMEONE WAS IN THE ROOM.

  Eve woke, her heart pounding, her gaze wildly searching the darkness.

  “It’s okay,” John Gallo said. “You’re safe. It’s just me.”

  She could see him, only a dark shadow, sitting on the big chair by the window.

  She drew a long breath and sat up in bed. “And that’s supposed to give me a sense of security? What are you doing here?”

  “Nothing carnal. Though it’s natural that you should think of that. It was the bedrock of what we were together.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “I’m not as sure as you are. I still feel a stirring when I look at you. I don’t know if it’s memory or imagining how it would be now. But that’s not why I’m here.”

  “I’m going to turn on the lamp.”

  “No, don’t. The darkness is easier for me.” He paused. “I’m naturally defensive, and I need to close everything out but what I’m going to say. Or I won’t say it. Ask me about Bonnie.”

  Her every muscle stiffened. “Did you kill her?”

  “I did not.”

  “Then what were you doing in Atlanta that month?”

  “I wanted to see her.”

  “You knew about her? Your uncle Ted told you about Bonnie?”

  “No, he died while I was in prison. If he wrote me, I never got the letters. I wish I could have been with him at the end. I loved him.”

  “There wouldn’t have been letters. The Army reported you dead.”

  “I know. It was an exaggeration, but not much of one.”

  “How did you know about Bonnie?” she repeated. “How did you know I’d had your child?”

  “I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure.” He leaned back in the chair. “God, I’m sorry, Eve. I promised I’d protect you.”

  “I didn’t let you. I was too full of my own independence and made a stupid mistake.” She paused. “But it wasn’t a mistake. Bonnie was … If I hadn’t given life to her, that would have been the mistake. She was the happiest, most loving little girl I’ve ever known.”

  “But it wasn’t easy for you.”

  “What difference does that make? She was here. I had her with me for seven years. Do you know what a miracle that is?”

  “Shit.” He was suddenly across the room and kneeling on the floor by the bed. “No, I don’t know anything about miracles. Or maybe I do.” His voice was muffled against the bed. “Maybe you were a miracle, Eve. I was lost and you gave me … something. Yeah, it was sex, but I think maybe it was leading somewhere else. We were just afraid to follow it. So we lost it.”

  “And now it’s too late.”

  “Is it? I guess it is. But it’s not finished. I don’t know if it will ever be finished. Not now. Not after Bonnie.”

  “John, you didn’t even know Bonnie.”

  “Didn’t I?” He laid his cheek on her hand lying on the bed. “After I was caught and thrown into that prison, it was like being smothered alive. I reached out and tried to think of anything that would take me out of there. I thought of my uncle and the good times we had. And I thought of you, Eve. Sexual daydreams? Sure, some of them. But not all of them. Sometimes it was like being in a cool, clean lake. Everything around me was hot and dirty and full of pain. But you were none of those things.�
� He was silent for a long moment. “But as time passed, it got worse. They did things to me that made me—I couldn’t hold on to Uncle Ted or you. I think I knew I was dying.”

  “John…”

  “I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me. I just have to tell you this. And you have to know it all. It was about three years after I was captured that I started to dream about Bonnie.”

  She froze in shock.

  “You don’t believe me. How could you? Okay, I dreamed about a little girl, red curly hair, hazel eyes. She was a toddler in the first dream. Happy, smiling … It made me feel … I don’t know. But I could hold on to her. I didn’t drift away. She saved me.”

  “How … often did you have that dream?” she asked unevenly.

  “Every night, I think. Sometimes I didn’t know whether it was night or day. I’d just close my eyes, and she’d be there. She seemed to get older … and she’d talk to me.”

  “About what?”

  He shook his head. “Just things. Once she was starting school and was excited. Sometimes she’d sing me songs that she’d learned. One song she liked a lot. Something about all the pretty little horses. Other times she’d just sit and smile at me. I think she knew when I was too bad off to talk to her.”

  “All the Pretty Little Horses”? How often had Eve sung that song to Bonnie? Dear God, she had sung it to her the night before Bonnie was taken. She asked unsteadily, “And she told you her name was Bonnie?”

  “No, after a while I just knew.” He paused. “Just as I knew she was a part of you. And of me.”

  “Are you lying to me, John?” Her voice was shaking. “If you are, may you burn in hell.”

  “I was burning in hell. I knew I was going crazy. The only thing that kept me sane was that little kid who sang and smiled and never once asked me one question about where I was or what was happening to me. Because she knew that I could never answer her.”

  She closed her eyes to keep back the tears. “When did the dreams stop?”

  “About a month after I reached Tokyo. I was still in the hospital fighting fever and raving with delusions. Then she wasn’t there any longer. I tried to tell myself that she was just part of the craziness. But I knew she was real. I’d heard of weird stuff happening in wartime. Wives visiting husbands at the front, telling them things … stuff like that. Astral projection they call it. But it wasn’t like that. She was there, she was real. She was … mine. I got scared. I had to make sure that she wasn’t a delusion, too. Because that would mean that I was truly insane. After they released me, I went back to Atlanta. You’d moved from the old housing development to a house on Morningside.”

  “Yes, I wanted Bonnie out of the projects.”

  “It was a pretty house, old, but pink geraniums were hanging from the front porch. I stayed across the street and watched until she came home from school. She was wearing a gold plaid top and jeans and some kind of sparkly fairy barrette to hold back her hair. You came out to the bus stop to meet her, and you took her hand. You smiled down at her, and I knew that you both were going to be all right. You were going to college, your mother was straightened out, and you loved that kid. You were going to have everything you ever wanted. You certainly didn’t need me. I was sick and half-crazy, and I’d have been more of a burden than the child I’d given you.”

  “No, I didn’t need you,” she said unevenly. “But I wouldn’t have sent you away.”

  “Pity?” He shook his head. “I couldn’t have taken it. Besides, I had a place to go. Queen and his buddies had a dozen jobs waiting for me overseas.” He added bitterly, “I was in demand. So I left Atlanta and didn’t come back to the U.S. for over three years. You know what happened during those three years. She was kidnapped about a month after I saw her and I didn’t even know until I’d returned to the country. Do you know how often I’ve wished that I’d gone up to you that day at Morningside? Maybe I could have done something, stopped it.”

  Eve could feel his pain, deep, ragged, vibrating in the darkness. “She disappeared right before our eyes,” Eve said unsteadily. “One minute she was there, the next she was gone. Lost in the crowd at that park. Could you have done more than Sandra or me?”

  “I don’t know. Life’s funny. Sometimes you move a piece, and everything changes. It’s a question that has haunted me.”

  “It haunts all of us. It took me a long time, but now I accept that it’s the man who killed her who is to blame, not me.” Her hand reached out and gently touched his hair. “And not you, John.”

  “I haven’t reached that point yet. I didn’t protect you. I didn’t protect her. That leaves me zero for two.” He caught her hand and held it tightly. “When I came back and found out about Bonnie, it blew me away. I was still balanced on the edge and it threw me down into the pit. When I fought my way out, it still took me a long time to come back.” His hand tightened. “I wanted to kill someone, but there wasn’t anyone to kill. So I went looking.”

  “So did I.”

  “I know. You’d think one of us would have been able to find him in all these years.” He paused. “But I think I’m coming close, Eve. I promise I’ll get him for you.”

  She tensed. “Who? Tell me who.”

  “So that I can get you killed, too?” He shook his head. “I’m a great destroyer, Eve. But I’m not going to destroy you. I’ve done enough to you.”

  “Who is it? Black?”

  His lips were warm as he brushed them against her palm, then gently put her hand back on the bed. “You took care of our Bonnie all those years.” He got to his feet. “Let me do this for her now.”

  “The hell I will.”

  “Now that’s the Eve I remember.” He turned and moved toward the door. “The burn…”

  He wasn’t going to tell her. He was just going to leave her in turmoil and bewilderment. But there was one thing she had to know. “John.”

  He stopped as he opened the door, a dark shadow outlined by the lights from the hall.

  “Did you…” She stopped, then went on. “I know you said that your dreams of Bonnie stopped in that Tokyo hospital. But later…” She had to get it out. “Did you ever … dream of Bonnie after she was taken?”

  Silence. He stood there, his head bent.

  “John.”

  “Yes,” he said hoarsely.

  The door shut behind him.

  She closed her eyes as the tears slowly started to run down her cheeks.

  Magical, the nurse had told Eve when she’d brought Bonnie to her at the hospital. And Eve had always known that Bonnie was special. She had not known how special until that moment. So many questions. How had Bonnie managed to reach out to save the father she had never known? She had never mentioned any dreams to Eve. Was that contact with him on a separate level? Had Bonnie even realized it herself in her daily life with Eve?

  And Bonnie was still a presence in his life, still standing guard over John Gallo as she did with Eve.

  She had reached out, comforting, loving, saving.

  And Eve had never known it was happening.

  “Bonnie,” she whispered. “Why, baby?”

  She huddled there, remembering John’s words, his voice, the pain that had surrounded him and reached out and enveloped her. In the darkness, she had not been able to see a single expression, but she had known every emotion he was feeling and believed every word he spoke was true. It had created a bond with him enormously stronger than any she had known when she was that sixteen-year-old fighting her way out of the projects.

  And that bond was Bonnie.

  * * *

  CATHERINE AND JOE GOT OUT OF their rental car in the foothills halfway up the mountain and Catherine spread the map on the hood of the vehicle.

  “We can bypass this checkpoint.” Catherine pointed to the square box drawn on the map. “If we go around the mountain route above the house. We’ll still have to chance the guard just inside the gate, but it’s better than having to do both.” She traced the box to the si
de entrance. “Then we can get in here if we can disable the alarm.”

  Joe looked up at the huge redwood-and-glass house perched on the side of the mountain. “What time is it?”

  “Four thirty-five. Queen won’t wake up and be in a position to bother us for another three hours.” She added, “Unless someone goes to his place looking for him. That’s always a possibility.” She was frowning down at the map. “I can take out the video cameras indicated on the map. But Queen wasn’t sure the map was entirely accurate. If Gallo is as smart as they think he is, then he’d have some cameras well hidden. I wish we had time to do our own search.” She held up her hand. “I know we don’t. We have to get in and find Eve.”

  “If she’s there. If Queen guessed right about Gallo’s bringing her here.” Joe was looking at the upper floor of the house. “Two bedrooms on the main floor near the garage area. They’re small, maybe servants’ quarters. Four bedrooms on the top level. Eve will probably be in one of them.” I hope, Joe thought desperately. Who knew what the crazy son of a bitch would do with her? The clock was ticking, and he needed to find her. “Once we get inside, I’ll take the bedrooms on the upper level. You check out the ones near the garage.”

  Catherine nodded. “And keep cool, Joe. I know you’re mad as hell. But Eve won’t thank us if we kill Gallo when she thinks she can get information out of him.”

  “Ask me if I care.” He was moving up the mountain. “I’ll be careful because I want to keep Eve alive, but there’s no way I’ll stay cool. Gallo is going down.”

  * * *

  THE BUZZER WENT OFF ON THE security pad on the nightstand in Gallo’s bedroom.

  South slope.

  He reached over and activated the video camera. No picture.

  His phone rang.

  “I’ve got it, Hanks,” he said when he picked up. “Any other alarms?”

  “Not yet. Two cameras on the south slope have been disabled. They missed this one. We should have a visual when the courtyard C2 picks them up. They’re pretty good, and I figure that they’ll get C1 and take it out. But C2 is impossible to detect unless you know where to look. Shall I get a team to head up the slope and intercept?”