“But they want to know if you’ll also address the issue of drug decriminalization.”
“Yikes.” He rubbed his jaw. Like it or not, he too was caught in the spotlight. “All right,” he said. “Sort them out and set up the dates.”
“And about drug decriminalization?”
“Be as vague as you can. Just set the dates.” He’d duck those. He was no expert on drugs or drug laws. He had no business talking about the issue. What he did want to talk about was the crying need for primary-care physicians, and to do that he’d shoehorn himself into these medical schools anyway he could.
John dropped into his desk chair and found his monitor on and waiting for him. Good old Phyllis—the soul of efficiency. The e-mail envelope was blinking in the lower right corner of the screen. That was the one thing Phyllis couldn’t check for him.
He punched in his password and found thirteen letters waiting. Let me see if I can guess what they’re all about. He ran quickly through the queue: no surprises. They all had one thing on their minds…
Except the last. This wasn’t internal. It came off the Internet…
Item 4321334 10:31
From: DAEMON@ANON.NONET.UK Internet Gateway
To: J.VANDUYNE01 John Vanduyne
Sub: Katie
From daemon@anon.nonet.uk
Received from: anon.nonet.uk by relayl with SMTP (1.37.109.11/15.6) id AA0803 80591; 16:13:11 GMT
Return-Path: Received: by anon.nonet.uk (5.67/1.35) id AA 26085; 10:31:16 +0200
From: daemon@anon.nonet.uk
Message-Id: <9502271831AA26085@anon.nonet.uk>
To: vanduyne01@hhs.com
Subject: katie
We have Katie. She is being well cared for. We do not want money. We merely wish you to perform a service. If you perform that service, Katie will be returned unharmed.
!!!BUT!!! You will be unable to perform this service if anyone knows that you are under duress. Therefore, no one must know that Katie is missing.
!!!NO-ONE!!!
Is this clear??? We sincerely hope so. If you inform any local or federal authorities of your plight, you will no longer be of value to us. And, subsequently, neither will your daughter. And we will dispose of her like any other useless object.
***ARE WE MAKING OURSELVES CLEAR?***
Please do not doubt our determination or resolve. Your daughter’s life depends on it. Don’t do anything stupid. We’ll know.
You will be contacted again soon.
Snake
END
John sat staring at the screen. If this was someone’s idea of a joke, it was not funny. Who the hell—?
He checked the return address and noted the UK suffix.
It had been sent from England. Who did he know in England with a sick sense of humor?
And then he realized that the message had come through one of those anonymous remailers he’d read about. E-mail routed through the remailer server was stripped of its origin data and forwarded anonymously.
A chill washed through his arteries. He grabbed his phone and hit the speed dial for Katie’s school. When the receptionist answered, John said he wanted to check on his daughter.
“Oh, she was picked up a while ago,” she told him.
His office tilted. He had to clutch at his desk to keep from toppling backward. He tried to speak but could not find a sound that even approximated the horror that filled him. Every vowel and consonant had deserted him.
“Dr. Vanduyne?” the receptionist said. “Is anything wrong?” When he still couldn’t answer, she said, “I’ll get Sister Louise.”
On hold, he sat and trembled, gasping for breath. His heart seemed to have quadrupled in size and threatened to burst from his chest.
One thought raced through the circuits of his brain in an endless loop: Not my Katie! Please, God. Not my Katie!
His darting eyes found his monitor and locked on the e-mail message still on his screen… one particular paragraph seemed to expand in size:
You will be unable to perform this service if anyone knows that you are under duress. Therefore, no one must know that Katie is missing.
!!!NO-ONE!!!
Sister Louise came on the line. Concern was etched in her voice.
“Dr. Vanduyne? Is something the matter? Isn’t Katie home yet? It’s been more than half an hour since your driver left with her.” John swallowed quickly, trying to find a little moisture.
He had to be very careful, but he had to say something.
“My driver…”
“Yes. That Anderson fellow from Reliance Limousine.
I called you about him just before he left. That was you I spoke to, wasn’t it? Great heavens, don’t tell me—“
He wanted to scream at her: How could you let her go?
“No-no!” he said quickly. “Everything’s fine. My… my allergies are just kicking up.”
“Thank the Lord. For a moment there… but she should be home by now, shouldn’t she? If you want I can call the police and ask them—”
Oh, Christ don’t do that!
He forced a laugh that must have sounded ghastly.
“Well, what do you know… here she is now… just pulling in the driveway. Must have got stuck in traffic. Thank you. Sister. Sorry to bother you.”
“No trouble. I’m just glad she’s safe. And have a safe trip to Atlanta.”
“Yes… thank you.” John fumbled the receiver back into its cradle and leaned on his desk.
Atlanta… Atlanta?
He stared at his monitor screen. Despite the e-mail, despite what Sister Louise had said, he still couldn’t believe it. This whole thing had an unreal feel about it. He had to be dreaming. That had to be it. Soon he’d wake up and— He jumped as his phone rang. He snatched it up.
“What?”
“Secretary Grahmann is on twenty-two. He wants—”
“Tell him I’ll call him back.”
“Yes, but—”
“I’ll call him back, Phyllis.” He wanted to scream at her. How could she disturb him now? “And hold all my calls. I’m not speaking to anyone right now.”
“Are you all right?”
“No calls!”
“Yes, sir.”
John lurched from his chair and staggered around his desk. He had a strange, floating sensation. His office seemed to have shrunk. The walls pressed in on him.
Katie. Oh, God, Katie. Where was she? What were they doing to her? What did they want with her? What did they want from him?
He rushed back to the screen and reread the message.
We do not want money. We merely wish you to perform a service. If you perform that service, Katie will be returned unharmed.
A service. What kind of service? What did that mean? He didn’t have any special skills. What could they want?
But he couldn’t think about that. All he could think of was Katie, alone, surrounded by strangers, terrified…
Christ, if he lost her…
He stopped at his window, looking up at the overcast sky. Hasn’t she already been through enough, God?
He needed help. He had to call the FBI. They were headquartered right down on Pennsylvania Avenue. Hell, he could call Tom and Tom would call the director and the whole goddamn agency would be combing the country for this Snake creep.
But then another section of the message burned into his retinas.
If you inform any local or federal authorities of your plight, you will no longer be of value to us. And subsequently, neither will your daughter. And, we will dispose of her like any other useless object.
But he couldn’t handle this alone. What did he know about dealing with kidnapers? Maybe with Tom’s help he could keep the FBI’s involvement ultrasecret.
Don’t do anything stupid. We’ll know…
And that was the really chilling part. We’ll know. Obviously this Snake already knew plenty about Katie’s schedule, and about his own. He knew John’s e-mail address and—what had Sister Louise said? “I called you about him just before he left.” That meant this Snake had been able to intercept a call to him from Holy Family.