“Can they operate? Can’t they just cut the damn thing out?”
“Not without risking the capsule’s breaking open. Joe called MI-6 and they said they’d tried to do that with a prisoner they’d rescued, and he was dead in two minutes. We have to have the antidote to first neutralize the poison.”
“Shit.”
“Joe’s sentiments exactly.”
“And yours.”
“Oh, yes, I was hoping for a simpler fix to this particular disaster.” Her hand tightened on Jane’s. “But there’s not a simple fix. We have to deal with Natalie. You’re going to have to help me, Jane.”
“Anything.”
She shook her head. “You won’t like it. Joe is going to want me to stay in this hospital and have them wrap me in cotton wool while they try desperately to perform a miracle.”
“I’d second that motion.”
“I know you would. But I can’t do that. There’s going to come a time when Natalie is going to pull the strings, and I’m going to have to dance to them.” Her lips twisted. “Or at least pretend to dance. I can’t take a chance of missing an opportunity to confront her by being too careful.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” she said warily.
“I told you that you wouldn’t.”
“You can’t go running around and risk breaking open that capsule.”
“The doctors said that I could leave the hospital and conceivably do anything I would normally do without doing that.”
“Conceivably. There’s still a danger. They wouldn’t want you to do it.”
“Of course they wouldn’t. They don’t know very much about this damn capsule.”
“Joe would never permit you to take a chance like that.”
She smiled faintly. “I know. And that’s when I call you and tell you I need you and that you have to come and spring me from this place.”
“Eve, don’t ask me to do this.”
Eve hated asking her, but she had no choice. She had thought long and hard and knew it was the only solution. “I will ask you,” she said steadily. “I’ll stay here as long as I can and let them look for their miracle, but I know there will come a time when Natalie is going to want to confront me and rub my face in her victory. She hates me.”
“Jock will go after her. So will Joe. Maybe they’ll get to her before—”
“She hates me. In the end, I’ll have to face her.” Her expression hardened. “I want to face her. She’s trying to kill my son.” Her hand tightened on Jane’s. “And that’s why you’ll do as I ask, Jane. Because you understand about family, and Michael is the beginning of something very special in our family. She can’t be allowed to destroy him. Can she?”
Jane was silent. “No.” She leaned forward and held Eve close. “But Joe may never forgive me. I may never forgive myself.” Her eyes were glittering with moisture as she straightened. “You’ll keep your word? You’ll give those miracle workers their chance?”
“As long as I can.” She cleared her throat. “Now get out of here and get back to Cara. She needs you more than I do.”
“But we all need you,” Jane said. “Don’t you forget it.” She gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Let me know as soon as Natalie sees fit to call you.”
Eve nodded. “It should be soon. She’s just letting me see how hopeless my situation is turning out to be. But Natalie will start to be impatient to actually see me suffer.”
“I think I might kill her,” Jane said fiercely, “I know I will if she hurts you.”
“Jane.” Eve braced herself. Now she had to say the words she’d been dreading since Jane had walked into the room. But they had to be said. “One of the possibilities the doctors are considering is trying to delay that capsule from breaking until Michael is developed enough to survive without me. To keep me alive for the next few months until he has a chance.” She held up her hand as Jane started to speak. “If, by some miracle they manage to save Michael and not me, I know you’ll care for him as if he were your own. He will be your own. And I’ll try my best to be there … looking over you.”
“Eve.” Jane’s tears were suddenly overflowing. “Nothing is going to—”
“And Joe. It will be so hard for Joe.” She blinked her own tears back. “Big job, Jane. I wouldn’t trust anyone but you with it.”
“No job at all. A privilege.” Her voice broke. “A gift.” She headed for the door. “But one I pray I won’t … have to accept.”
The next moment she was gone.
Eve wiped her eyes. She had been hard on Jane. But she didn’t know what was going to happen yet, and if hope and determination weren’t enough, she had to face the worst that could happen.
Okay, all tears over. Turn down the lights so that Joe wouldn’t notice the traces when he came into the room. He was going through enough without seeing her like that. They would talk and she would hold him and for a little while, they’d try to forget that computer on the bedside table.
Skype.
Natalie had wanted Skype so that she could fully enjoy Eve’s pain.
Eve wished that the damn computer would ping so that she could know what Natalie had in store for her.
Patience. Natalie was using Skype as she was using that capsule, to try to torture Eve. To make Eve desperate enough to give her the treasure she wanted.
Block it.
It won’t work, Natalie.
I have Joe. I have Michael. You don’t even know the meaning of treasure.
LOCH GAELKAR
Jock was busy. Cara shouldn’t bother him. He was trying to help Eve. They were all trying to help Eve.
Everyone but her.
She had to bother him.
Cara stopped outside his tent where he was sitting, dialing his phone. “Could I speak to you, Jock? I won’t be long.”
“In a minute,” he said absently. “I just have to check with Palik about someone he—” He broke off as he saw her face. He hung up the phone. “Be as long as you like. I tried to stop by to see you this morning, but then I had to go talk to MacDuff about—”
“I know you’re busy,” she interrupted. “I want you to be busy. You’re trying to help Eve. I just wanted to tell you something.”
“So tell me,” he said gently. “I realize this is hard for you, Cara. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to really talk to you. I had to leave it up to Jane.”
“That was okay. You told me what you had to tell me. What else could you say? I couldn’t expect you to treat me—I have to stop being such a kid.”
“Jane said you weren’t talking. She was a little worried.”
“She shouldn’t have been—No one should worry about me. Only about Eve.” She took a step closer. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. It has to be about Eve. You can’t think about me. No one can think about me. You said that Natalie told Eve that Kaskov wanted me back. If that’s part of what will help get her to save Eve, then you can’t—”
“You’re giving me too many can’ts,” he said roughly. “We’ll do whatever we can to get Eve safe and sound through this, but you’re not going to be a bargaining chip. Eve wouldn’t want that, and I sure as hell don’t.”
“It doesn’t matter what you want. What anyone wants. All that matters is Eve’s getting what she needs.” She moistened her lips. “Natalie wants the treasure, but there is no treasure yet. But I’m here, maybe you could use me.”
“And I’m supposed to send you right back into those claws of hers?” His hands were knotted into fists. “We just got you away from them, dammit.”
He was getting angry. She wanted to back away, or to come closer. Anything to stop him from being upset with her in this world where everything else was dark and bewildering. But she couldn’t let anything matter but what she had come to say. “You can’t just turn me over to her, that wouldn’t do any good. I’ve been thinking about it. Natalie is using me. You’ve got to do that, too.”
“I’m not listening to you, Cara.”
; “You have to listen.” Her voice was suddenly passionate. “Because I won’t let this go on. All my life, people have given their lives so that I could live. My sister, Jenny, Elena … Do you think I’ll let Eve do that, too? Only this time it would be Eve and Michael. And I promised to take care of both of them. It has to stop. I have to stop it.”
“By taking a risk with Natalie? No way.”
“Use me. I just wanted you to be prepared, to be able to make plans. Because if you don’t do it, I will.”
“Are you trying to bluff me, Cara?”
“Oh, no. That would be a lie, and I would never lie to you. You’re my dearest friend, and I love you. Friends don’t lie to each other. I’d like you to help me, but, if you don’t, I want you to know that I’ll have to do it by myself.”
His jaw tautened. “Cara, Natalie would kill you.”
She nodded. “I know that. It doesn’t hurt anymore. I believed you when you told me about souls and that she wasn’t really my mother. Well, maybe it hurts a little, but only because I don’t understand people like her.”
“No one could,” he said hoarsely. “Except maybe Satan.”
“She hates Eve. She hates me. That’s why we have to go around her.”
“Around her?”
“Kaskov doesn’t hate me. I’m not sure exactly what he feels, but it’s not hate. When you use me, it should be with Kaskov.”
“No one’s going to use you.”
“Yes they will.” She looked him in the eye. “You’re so clever, Jock. You told me that this is what you do. I hate it, it hurts me, but you’re doing it right now. Only you’re trying to keep me out of it.”
“I will keep you out of it, Cara.”
She shook her head. “You’ll just make me do it alone. Remember when we were on that plateau, and you were so angry and frustrated because you said that you could see me standing in your way over and over and not letting you help me? Well, I’m letting you help.” She straightened. “Otherwise, I have Kaskov’s telephone number. I can call him and set up a meeting. He’d come for me.”
“And I’d kill him.”
“He’s not stupid. Neither am I. I’ve been running for a long time. I don’t want to run toward Kaskov, but I will if I have to do it.” She turned away. “Use me. I know you’re not going to do it until you think that there’s nothing else to do. But I can’t wait long, Jock. I’ll be thinking and going over everything I learned about Kaskov while I was with him. You do that, too. And make a plan that will give both me and Eve a chance.”
“Cara, this is crazy.”
She looked over her shoulder. “Yes, it is. And it’s crazy that a child that Eve loves and needs almost more than life could be a pawn in Natalie’s game. It’s crazy that Eve could die.” Her eyes were glittering with tears. “We have to stop it, Jock.”
She walked away from him.
* * *
She had meant every word.
Jock muttered a curse as he watched her disappear into her tent. He had known she was upset, and he should have spent more time with her and not let her work out everything for herself. Now she’d had time to think and come to conclusions. Knowing Cara, those conclusions would now be translated into determination.
He had two solutions to the problem.
Tie her up in that tent until this was all over.
Or get Eve to talk to her and hopefully persuade her to keep out of it and let them do their jobs to save Eve.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and dialed Eve.
“I can’t talk long, Jock,” Eve said when she picked up the phone. “I’m waiting for Natalie to get in touch with me.”
“This will be short,” he said curtly. “I just want you to call Cara when you get a chance. I need some backup. She’s had too much time to think, and she’s about to spiral out of control. I think if anyone you can bring her down to earth.”
“Talk,” she said briefly.
Jock told her swiftly and succinctly of his conversation with Cara. “She’ll do it, Eve. No question. Of course I could knock her out and keep her chloroformed like Natalie did. That would mean she’d hate me for the rest of her life, but at least she’d have a life.”
“Easy, Jock. I know you’re upset, but there has to be a way to handle this that—” She stopped and was silent a moment. “You do know that Cara is right, don’t you? Natalie does hate me, and it will be difficult to deal with her because of that hatred. We do have a better chance with Kaskov.”
“Of course I know Cara is right. She’s smart as a whip, and, naturally, she came up with the right answer. I’ve been probing possibilities in that direction myself. Kaskov is intelligent and cool as a cucumber. We might be able to negotiate with him about the antidote. But there’s a massive difficulty to find a way to take off his blinders about Natalie.”
“Which have been firmly in place since she’s been a teenager,” Eve murmured. “But, if he’s intelligent, there must have been signals that he detected.”
“I don’t know how much time we’ll have to try to persuade him that she’s trying to kill his granddaughter.” He paused. “On another note, I just heard from Palik that he might have located the Iranian doctor who sold the poison capsule to Natalie. His name is Nasim Feroz and the word is that he was brought to Moscow several days ago and has been put up in a house in the city. We’re trying to find out more about him now.”
She felt a leap of hope. “That’s good news for a change.”
“Palik isn’t certain. But he has a name, and we didn’t have that before. I’ll find out more as soon as I can.” Jock brought the conversation back to the original subject. “Cara. Will you call her?”
“Yes. And I’ll ask Jane to bring her to the hospital tomorrow and talk to her in person … If I’m still here.”
Jock was silent for a moment. “How are you, Eve?”
“I feel fine. Perfectly normal. The doctors said I would.”
“You will be fine,” Jock said. “We’re all working hard. We’re going to get you out of this, Eve.”
“I know. I’ve got quite a team. I have to go now, Jock. I’ll call Cara when I can.” She hung up.
Eve had sounded a bit absentminded, Jock thought as he hung up. Well, why not? With everything hanging over her head from a death threat to Cara’s threatening to run to Kaskov?
Jock’s gaze went to Cara’s tent. Go and try to talk to her again?
No, she’d been too determined. Better to apply himself to the job at hand and finish the call to Palik he’d been making when Cara had come to him.
Leave it to Eve.
* * *
Eve sat there in bed, thinking, after she’d hung up from Jock.
Cara …
It was like her to try to persuade Jock that she should be used as a chess piece in this struggle against Natalie. And also like her to come up with what she thought was a way to do it.
Kaskov.
Eve’s gaze went to the computer on the bedside table. Natalie was still taking her time. Eve had better brace herself. When she did call, the fact that she’d chosen to make the call Skype was a clear indication she was going to let loose all the venom she’d been storing up.
Just as she’d done when she’d talked to her on the phone …
Wait. Why had she …
Eve’s mind was suddenly racing. Did you make a mistake, Natalie? We’re you so angry and outraged that you gave me an out?
She inhaled sharply as a thought came to her. She sat up straighter in the bed. Oh, my God.
Don’t call yet, Natalie.
Give me just a little more time.
She quickly reached for her phone.
Hurry.
She had to call Joe.
There was just a chance if it was in time …
* * *
The signal for the Skype pinged at three thirty the next morning.
Eve was not sleeping. She had known that Natalie wouldn’t be able to wait much longer. She
was just grateful that she had waited this long. Joe was straightening in his chair across the room, and Eve motioned that she’d get the call. She took a deep breath, swung her feet to the floor, and flipped open the computer.
Natalie’s beautiful face smiled at her from the screen. “Did I wake you? I’m certain that all those doctors and nurses haven’t let you sleep very much. You look quite haggard.”
“I feel fine. I’m getting more rest than usual. You did wake me.”
“Liar.” Her smile was catlike. “You’ve been lying there, scared to death, waiting for my call.”
“I’m not scared. I’m angry and planning what I’m going to do down the road to punish you for putting my son through this.”
“Always the children.” She wrinkled her nose distastefully. “That’s what’s brought you to this point. My daughter Jenny’s skull that you meddled with and caused so much trouble. Cara. Now your own child. They’ve made you weak. So very weak, Eve.”
“No, they’ve made me strong. You’re the one who had to come to me, Natalie.”
Natalie’s complacent smile ebbed slightly. “You’re such a fool. I’ve killed you, Eve. You just don’t realize it yet.”
“No, you haven’t. You’ve threatened me. But you must be willing to offer me a lifeline, or you wouldn’t have set up this little ‘surprise’ as you called it.” She paused. “How long do I have before this capsule inside me releases its poison?”
“My. My. All those fancy doctors who have been studying you like a bug couldn’t tell you?”
“Not without removing it, but that would have been too risky. They believe I may have another four or five days.”
“That’s optimistic. You have three days.”
Night and Day Page 26
