“Exactly.” Gideon nodded. “And this sort of thing is the only way I can do it. Suppose you’d called Bill Reis instead of Sharon. Reis is the man we’re going after.”
“I don’t even know him.”
“You will.”
“I... see.” Cassie looked thoughtful.
“So I hope.”
“We’ll become friends. Reis and I. Is that your idea? But all the time I’ll be feeding information to you, maybe even setting him up for a neat little murder.”
Gideon touched the brake pedal. “No. I don’t do murders.”
“Comforting.”
“Bill Reis does, however. Haven’t you noticed that I haven’t objected to your gun?”
“Yeah. Did you mess with it? Take out the bullets or the firing pin?”
“No. Why should I?”
“Darned if I know.”
The black car slowed again and swung off onto a side road.
“Where are we going, Dr. Chase?”
“To a certain mountain. There’s a road for most of the way up. Beyond that, we’ll have to hike to the summit. When we reach the summit, you’ll become a star. That will take another hour or two, I’m afraid. After that, we’ll return. It’s important that you make the final performance of that play.”
“I’m going to name a price.”
“Are you?” His teeth shone in the dark.
“I am. A firm, hard price, the amount I want for going along with this from this point on.”
“If you want cash now, it had better not exceed five hundred dollars. I don’t have much more than that with me.”
“I want your word that I’ll get this much if I play ball. Your word of honor.”
“You’d trust me to that extent? I — well, Miss Casey, it’s flattering.”
“Yes, I would. Besides, I have to.” For a second or more, Cassie wrestled with her thoughts. “I would anyway. I don’t know why, but I would. You’re a wizard. Sharon said that, and she was right. But you’re a good wizard.”
“Famous,” Gideon remarked dryly, “for saying there is no good.”
Cassie nodded. “I think I understand that now. You mean it’s extinct. I never did before. When I saw you on vid, I mean. Now I’ve got it. Or I think I do. Is this supposed to bring my price down?”
“I suppose not.”
“You suppose right.” Cassie drew breath. “Have I said this is firm? It is. One hundred thousand. I’ll keep on with this — be your Rose O’Neal — for one hundred thousand dollars. Payable on demand, in cash.”
Gideon chuckled. “I asked the president for fifty million. I haven’t told you about that.”
“The president?”
Gideon braked, swinging his strange black car around a sharp curve. “Yes.”
“You saw him? Face-to-face?”
“Right.”
“I don’t like him. Did you?”
“More than I expected to, yes.” The black car slowed again. “I don’t believe he can have many friends, but he’s probably loyal to those he has. In general, I think he’s as honest as he can afford to be.”
“Which isn’t very,” Cassie said.
“Is it ever?”
“And you?”
Gideon grinned. “A man of shining integrity wherever there’s a dollar to be made. Or an honor to be gained, for that matter. They offered a full professorship at Harvard. Or Yale. Princeton. Wherever I wanted to go.”
“To hell with that. Did you get the fifty million?”
“No. I didn’t expect to, either. Though I’d have taken it if they had surprised me. I wanted to see how they reacted.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“The president and an advisor of his. He’s a federal agent named John Ferguson. I’m not supposed to know that, but I’ve researched him since.”
“How much did you get? Will you tell me, honestly?”
“Yes. I got nothing. My shining honesty is very much in evidence in that statement. No professorship, no money. Nothing.”
“If you can’t afford a hundred thou — but you can. I know you can.”
“You’re right. I can.”
The road angled up sharply. Cassie could sense no downshift of the transmission.
“Since I’m being honest,” Gideon said, “I should tell you that John’s called me twice since. Seventeen million the first time. Fifty the second time, but with strings. I refused both offers.”
“No wonder you researched him.”
Gideon nodded. “There’s a great deal of money to be had. I don’t know how much, and it may be that no one does. Still, it’s very large indeed. Billions, almost certainly.”
“This Bill Reis will be my assignment?”
Gideon nodded again.
“Tell me about him.”
Gideon handed her two photographs. “Put these in your purse, and have a good look at them when you’ve a better light.”
“This is him?” Cassie was peering at the photographs.
“Supposedly, yes. My guess is that they’re good. We don’t have much time, so I’ll just cover the most important points. The first is that he’s terribly dangerous. You’d have asked for more than a hundred thousand dollars if you’d known how dangerous. The second is that I suggested the obvious course — that they pick up Reis and sweat the information they wanted out of him. My suggestion was ignored. It wasn’t rejected. It wasn’t even discussed. What does that tell you?”
Cassie thought. “That they don’t think they could make him talk? Like maybe he’d kill himself instead?”
“I don’t believe so. I have the advantage, obviously, of having been there — of having sensed the atmosphere. It means that it’s been tried and failed. That they can’t pick him up, although they seemed to know something about his past movements.”
“Huh!”
“Indeed.” Gideon’s hand touched hers. “It’s just possible that they have picked him up, only to have him escape before they could learn anything. Possible, but unlikely. I believe my first supposition is correct. He’s as slippery as an eel, either way.”
“They can’t hold on to him?”
“Exactly.”
A yellow sign loomed in their headlights. Gideon stopped the car. “Leave those shoes behind.”
“All right, but you may have to carry me.”
“I will if I must.” He opened his door and stepped out into the moonlight. “Come along. We’ve got to walk from here, and walk fast.” He opened a rear door and pulled out a small canvas carryall.
“This is where you’re going to magnify my star quality?”
“I can’t. It’s innate. Most people have little or none. You have a lot, but it’s not active. This is where I energize it.”
“If you can do that, I don’t understand why you didn’t do it back in the city. Why bring me here?”
“Do you ask why your surgeon wants to operate in a hospital? If he can do it, he could do it in your flat, couldn’t he?”
“So this is better.”
“It is. There are mountains, and then there are mountains. Have you been to Africa?”
“No.” She was hurrying after him.
“I have. To Egypt and the Sahara, and to the semidesert edges of the Sahara. Once I looked across a wide, dry landscape and saw bushes.”
“And?”
“Some of those bushes were bushes and some were ostriches. All mountains are stone. Most have no life. This one is alive. You won’t believe that, and I’m not going to prove it to you. But it is.”
“Wait up! Just a minute. Please!”
He did. “It is alive and sentient. It can speak, though it rarely does. It has a wife who lives in one of its many caves. She is — a laundress. Let’s leave it at that. She isn’t important, but he is. Important to us, here, tonight.”
“I’m starting to think you’re crazy, Dr. Chase. I — ”
“What is it?”
“I’m barefoot, and you’re not.”
“Yes. What are you getting at?” He had set down his canvas bag; as he spoke, he picked it up again.