Weitz muttered a curse as his gaze searched the waters. Kilcher would tear his ass if any of Tavak’s people got away. The old man was already pissed about the casualties in St. Petersburg, and that bastard Dawson didn’t seem as if he was one to tolerate failure.

  “I don’t see anyone. I think we got them,” Hannigan said.

  Weitz tried to hide his disgust. Why had Kilcher teamed him with this moron? The kid loaded himself with weapons and thought they took the place of brains. “Use your eyes, dammit. Look!”

  A woman’s head, hair plastered flat, broke the surface about thirty yards away.

  Weitz and Hannigan opened fire.

  Damn. She was gone again.

  “Stay here.” Weitz started down the bank at a trot. “Watch the area and see if any of them break the surface. I’ll head downstream and see if they pop up there.”

  Shit. How could this happen? As Weitz ran through the tall grass along the bank, he could imagine what the response to his report to Kilcher would be like. Screaming expletives, humiliation, and possible discharge in front of the team. And maybe, just maybe, after half a bottle of bourbon, Kilcher would give him one more chance.

  That kid, Hannigan, wouldn’t be so lucky. He’d be out on his ass.

  A muffled shout behind him!

  Weitz ducked low and whirled with his rifle ready.

  Silence.

  He retraced his steps, trying his best to move silently in the tall brush.

  He stopped just before he reached the clearing that he’d left only seconds before.

  Hannigan was lying on his back, beside the cab, eyes open, staring blindly at the sky.

  Dead.

  Pain.

  The gun dropped from Weitz’s hands, and an icy shiver shuddered through him.

  More pain.

  He looked down and saw the kid’s black-handled bowie knife sticking out of his own chest.

  John Tavak stood beside him, water dripping from his clothes.

  Tavak gripped the handle and shoved the knife deeper.

  _____

  Tavak jumped onto the cab of the truck and waved an all-clear sign to Rachel, Allie, and Demanski. Satisfied that they had seen him and were swimming back, he leaped into the cab and fished through the canvas bag in which Kilcher had thrown their belongings.

  He found his phone and frantically punched Ben’s number.

  Maybe Dawson was bluffing. He had no reason to go after Ben.

  But the tightness in Tavak’s stomach told him that the son of a bitch wasn’t bluffing. It wasn’t his style.

  No answer.

  Five minutes.

  Dawson had said that he’d call to give the order to kill Ben in fifteen minutes. Tavak still had five minutes left.

  Demanski was wading out of the water and Tavak called, “Grab your phone out of the cab. This must be a private lake. It’s totally deserted. But we don’t want to stick around here and wait for Kilcher to come back. Get that security team you mentioned out here double quick and tell them to pick us up at the highway.”

  Demanski nodded and moved toward the cab.

  Three minutes.

  He hung up and dialed again.

  “Come on, Ben,” he muttered. “Pick up. Answer your damned phone.”

  CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND

  9:16 P.M.

  Ben felt the vibrating phone in his pocket, but he decided to let it go to voice mail. He and Nuri were standing in the shadows of a large oak tree, watching a pair of headlights coming toward them on a campus auxiliary road.

  “Is that it?” Ben asked.

  “The timing is right.” Nuri checked his notes. “Dr. Collier left a drive-on pass for a large delivery truck at approximately 10 P.M.”

  “How did you find that out?”

  “I saw the list. I went to the security office and pretended to be an instructor who needed to arrange my own after-hours delivery. They pulled out the list, and they made no attempt to hide it from me.”

  “And why would they?”

  The truck drew closer.

  Ben handed Nuri a ballcap and a blue Windbreaker. “Here. These are a pretty good match for the campus security getups. And remember, we’re still just fact-finding. Once we determine that the mastaba wall is here on campus, then we’ll figure out how to take it.”

  “As you wish. But there’s no way of knowing how long it will be here.”

  The phone vibrated again. The truck was almost upon them. Ben reached into his pocket and turned off the phone. “Okay, let’s move.”

  Ben and Nuri stepped into the middle of the roadway and waved down the truck. It stopped.

  Ben walked around to the driver’s side window.

  “Open up the back, will you?” Ben spoke in an accent he learned from watching Alec Guinness movies.

  The driver glanced at the man in the seat beside him, then turned back. “We’ve already been cleared up front, mate.”

  “Sorry. We can’t let any trucks through without inspecting them first. Give us a peek inside, and you’ll be on your way.”

  “No problem.”

  Both men climbed out of the cab and moved around to the back. The driver pulled up the large garage-style cargo door.

  Ben turned on his flashlight. “Okay, if there’s a crate or packaging, I may have to ask you to . . .”

  Ben shined his flashlight into the truck’s storage bed.

  It was empty.

  Empty, except for the two men with guns aimed at him.

  Ben felt the hot, searing pain in his chest and head.

  He felt the numbing coldness in his legs and arms.

  Then he felt nothing.

  The sun was setting when Demanski’s security team dropped them off at the hotel. Allie, Tavak, and Rachel went inside while Demanski stayed behind to settle with the team leader.

  Only one day, Rachel thought. Only a matter of hours, and yet it seemed as if a century had passed.

  She glanced at Tavak as they got in the elevator. He’d been on the phone frantically trying to reach Ben Leonard or Nuri all the way back from the lake. “You’ll let us know as soon as you hear?”

  He nodded jerkily. “As soon as I know something.” The door opened on his floor, and he got off and headed down the hall.

  “What a hell of a day,” Allie murmured.

  Rachel nodded numbly. “I shouldn’t have let you come with me to Russia. I should have made you stay at home. You almost died in that car.”

  “Knock it off, Rachel. This isn’t about me. We all came close to dying.” Allie wearily pushed her damp hair back from her face. “If anyone should run the risk, it should be me. I’m the one who has the most to gain.”

  The hand Allie had used to push back her hair was shaking, Rachel noticed, agonized. The tremors again, more violent than she had recently seen them. “You’re not well. I’m coming to your room with you.”

  “You are not,” Allie said. “I don’t want you hovering over me. I’ll rest, then I’ll be okay.”

  “And what if you’re not?”

  “I’ll be okay,” she repeated. “I’ll call you when I get over this little bout. You know I’m used to handling it, Rachel.”

  It wasn’t a little bout, and Allie shouldn’t have been forced to handle this damn disease. “Let me come.”

  “No way. You try, and I’ll lock you out.”

  “I’m sending you home.”

  “No, you aren’t. I’m going on until the end. Make up your mind to it. It doesn’t matter that I’m sick and sometimes have to take a few minutes’ time out to be able to keep going. I helped keep us alive today. I had value.” She got off the elevator as the doors opened. “But if you want to stop all this madness, I’ll understand.”

  Rachel shook her head.

  “I didn’t think so.” Allie started down the corridor. “Then we’ll just have to work through this.”

  Work through keeping Allie alive until they found the cure.

  Work through death and malice and Dawson, who seemed to be everywhere.

  Dear God, she hoped that malice and death hadn’t spread to touch Ben Leonard.

  Allie called Rachel a little over an hour later. “The tremors have stopped. I’m much better. I’m going to take a hot shower, then order dinner.”

  “Do you want company?”

  “No, I’m going to give you time to forget about my attack. I’ll be much more relaxed eating alone tonight.”

  “You’re sure there aren’t any—”

  “See? I’m fine, Rachel. Any news from Tavak?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Let me know. Bye.”

  “Bye.” Rachel hung up. Allie had sounded tired but steady, thank heaven. And Allie never lied to her. Rachel knew that she sometimes hid the symptoms of the disease, but she always told her the truth when confronted.

  How many times had Allie masked the pain and exhaustion since she had started this journey?

  And how much stress could she stand before she ended up in the hospital again?

  Or before it killed her?

  Allie had been under the ticking clock for years, but today it seemed to be going into overdrive.

  She wouldn’t quit, and the only thing Rachel could do was to keep racing and try to make that clock stop.

  She could do it. She would do it. She just had to smother the fear and forget what a disaster it had been today.

  As Allie had said, they could work through this.

  It was over two hours later that Tavak knocked on Rachel’s door.

  He looked like hell. He had obviously showered and changed, but his face was drawn and tired. “May I come in?”

  She opened the door wide for him to enter. “Of course. You’ve heard something?”

  “Ben’s dead.”

  She had been hoping against hope, but she had known the news wouldn’t be good from the moment she had seen his expression. “I’m so sorry.”

  Tavak nodded. “I just talked to Nuri. It was a total setup. Ben and Nuri intercepted a truck that was supposed to deliver a large item to the museum director on campus. As it turns out, the only thing in the truck was Dawson’s hit squad.”

  “How is Nuri?”

  “He wasn’t hurt, but he’s not good. He and Ben had become pretty close. He managed to wing one of them before making his escape.” His lips twisted. “He wants my permission to track down the entire squad and take care of them himself.”

  “And what did you tell him?”

  “I told him to go home. This isn’t his battle. And Dawson is the one I want.”

  Rachel watched Tavak as he stared out the window. He was hurting. When she had seen the bodies of the men Tavak had killed at the lake, she had been shocked. It had seemed to come too easily to him. She had known he was a dangerous man, but she had never been brought face-to-face with that cool disregard of life and death.

  But he was not disregarding Ben Leonard’s death. It was obviously tearing him apart.

  “Did Ben have a family?”

  Tavak shook his head. “Only a brother who lives in Florida. They were never close. Two ex-wives, neither of whom wanted anything to do with him. He was a Vietnam vet, and I don’t think he ever made any strong attachments since the time he was there.”

  “Except for you.”

  Tavak shook his head. “Yeah, and all I did was get him killed.”

  “He knew what he was doing. Even after what happened to him in the tomb in Egypt, he didn’t hesitate to do another job for you.”

  “I paid him well.”

  “It was more than that, and you know it. You probably helped make him feel alive. I’m sure he felt like he was part of something special.”

  Tavak managed a smile. “Maybe. He complained a lot, but no one enjoyed the thrill of the chase more than Ben.”

  “And he wanted to do this.”

  “I should have made Nuri send him back to that hospital. He would have been safe there.” Tavak turned to face her. “Instead, I used him. Just as I used you.”

  “Bullshit. It was my choice. I insisted on joining you. I practically threatened you.”

  “Practically?”

  “Okay, I doomed you to life in a federal penitentiary if you didn’t make me a part of this. The point is, I took my own chances.”

  He was silent, staring at her. “I can’t stop, Rachel. I have to go on. Dawson killed Ben, and I can’t let him get away with it.”

  “I didn’t think you’d react any other way.”

  “But I want you to back off. Leave it to me. A good man died today. We almost died today. I don’t want anything to happen to you or your sister.”

  “Or Demanski?”

  “Okay, sure. Even Demanski. I’d have a hard time living with myself.”

  “Then that’s your problem. This isn’t a game for Allie or for me. For us, this has always been a matter of life and death. Healthwise, I know Allie’s on an up cycle right now.”

  “I’ll say.”

  “She’s not as strong as she seems. She’s in her room resting right now. Sometimes she gets sick. Really sick. And every time she hits a rough patch, I never know if it’s the one that will finally kill her. I’ve been feeling that way for years.” She shook her head. “So bite the bullet, Tavak. We’re in this for the long haul.”

  He nodded. “I was afraid that you wouldn’t let me get away with it.” He turned toward the door. “I had to try.”

  Because he was bleeding inside, Rachel thought.

  And she was bleeding for him, she realized. She wanted to touch him, heal him.

  “Tavak.”

  He turned to look at her.

  “You come back here.”

  He didn’t move. “Why?”

  She went to him instead. “Because you need someone.” She put her arms around him. “And maybe I need someone, too.”

  He still didn’t reach out for her. “Is this an invitation?”

  “Do you mean sex?” She shook her head. “Sex is about joy. If I have sex with you, I’m going to want skyrockets, not comfort. Now I want to hold you all night and we’ll talk about Ben and Allie and all the things that hurt us and give us hope. Skyrockets are wonderful.” She looked up at him. “But comfort is good, too.”

  He slowly reached out and cupped her face in his two hands with incredible tenderness. “Yes, comfort can be very good.”

  HOUSTON, TEXAS

  Finley winced at the shit-kicking country music blaring from the speakers at Saddles, a bar known for its cheap beer, chicken wings, and almost daily fistfights. He glanced around until he spotted Carlos Dobal waving at him from a booth.

  Finley walked over and sat down. “This doesn’t seem like your kind of place.”

  “It’s not.” Dobal had exuded ease and confidence on the golf course a few days before, but he now appeared troubled. “I thought it would be best to go someplace nobody knew either of us. And where it would be relatively easy to spot someone else who didn’t belong.”

  “What’s the problem?”

  “The problem is yours, my friend.” He paused. “I did as you asked and checked with my contacts in the intelligence community. Your campus shooter was a professional.”

  Finley tilted his head. “A professional?”

  “An assassin. Not much is known about him personally.” Dobal slid a folded sheaf of papers across the table. “What little I know is here. Gaius Pelham is the name he uses most often, but nothing is known about his true identity or where he came from. But several government intelligence agencies had hired him on occasion.”

  “What governments?”

  Dobal just stared at him.

  “Mine?”

  “You may wish to adjust the parameters of your investigation.”

  “You’re telling me to back off?”

  “If someone wanted to kill Rachel Kirby so much that they would engage Mr. Pelham’s services, then wanted to cover their tracks so completely that they would take the risk to murder this professional killer, it seems to me that they would be capable of almost anything.”

  “Whose payroll had he been on? CIA? NSA?”

  “It’s not likely he kept a résumé. Probably everybody’s.”

  “Shit.”

  “I debated with myself whether or not I should even tell you. But you have been good to me and my family, and I thought you should decide how you use the information. My recommendation is that you disregard what I have told you.”

  “I don’t think I can do that.”

  Dobal nodded. “I thought that might be your response. For the moment, then, I ask that you do not attempt to contact me. I really don’t want to be a part of your world right now.” He smiled sadly. “Good luck to you.”

  Dobal slid from the booth and walked out of the bar.

  MILLENNIUM HOTEL

  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

  Lord, she was tired.

  Allie grimaced as she gazed at her reflection in the bathroom mirror after her shower. She looked as pale and weary as she felt. What could she expect? It wasn’t because she was ill. Anyone who had been through what they had today at the lake would be as sapped as she appeared.

  Or maybe the illness had added to it, but she had learned to ignore those signs of weakness. As she would do now. She grabbed a towel and started to dry her hair.

  “Allie.” Demanski was knocking on the door of the suite.

  “Coming.” She wrapped her hair in the towel and quickly crossed the suite to open the door. “Is there something wrong?” Please, no more deaths. She could still see those two men lying on the bank of the lake. “Have we heard anything more about Ben Leonard and Nuri?”

  “No, Tavak said he’d let us know. But I need to talk to you.” Demanski strode into the hotel room and slammed the door. “Sit down.”

  She warily perched on the edge of a chair. “What’s wrong?”

  “Do you want the short list or the long list?”

  “I want you to tell me why you’re looking at me as if I was a criminal.”

  “I don’t know how else to look at you. I have to walk a fine line whenever I’m near you.”

  “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or not?”

  His hands clenched into fists. “I was scared shitless when I couldn’t find you in the water. I don’t like to be scared.”

 

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