That's when the lights went out.
It took everything she had inside her to not scream. When she felt the first brush of fur against her face she automatically jerked away. She gasped and gulped for air before making herself stationary again.
Quiet. Be still. Don't show your fear.
She was dripping wet with sweat and fear. How could they not sense that? But something told her they wouldn't attack unless threatened. That's when she felt the second swipe across her cheek. Only this time it was claws, not fur.
CHAPTER
81
University of Virginia
Tully had been to Sloane's office only once before, but it was easy to remember where it was. He bragged about being in the basement of the Old Medical School Building, where no one bothered him. Leave it to Sloane to brag about a basement office and make it sound like a privilege.
Tully noticed a parking sign for George Sloane right out front. One of those anniversary signs the university rewarded professors after so many years of service. An SUV was parked in the slot. An SUV with government plates. Tully shook his head. The guy had his own parking space, a government-issue vehicle. He had tenure at a reputable university and he still wasn't happy.
Tully didn't waste time with the elevator. He found the stairs.
Sloane's office was closed. The door locked. Tully pounded anyway. He pulled out his Glock and started checking doors left and right despite the key-card security pads. All the while monkeys screeched at the other end of the hall.
He stopped and stared at the door that held behind it screaming monkeys and he hoped to God he was wrong about what the monkeys were screaming at.
"It took you long enough," George Sloane said from behind him.
Tully turned slowly to find Sloane in the hallway, several syringes in his hand.
"I saved some of the virus just for you." He held up one of the syringes as he slid the others into his jacket pocket.
"Where's Agent O'Dell?"
"She's smarter than you…" Sloane smiled. "She found all my refer-ences.You didn't get any of them, did you?"
"Does it matter? Or are you still trying to compete with me?" Getting under George Sloane's skin might be the only way to set him off. Did he really want to set him off?
"You were never competition. Now, Razzy, I could understand when Caroline slept with him. But I knew she'd never marry him."
Tully kept his finger on the trigger. The monkeys kept screeching at his back. Sloane wasn't unnerved by them at all.
"I spent years planning this, months rehearsing and finding the perfect patsy. Every step was deliberate, an intricate piece of a total puzzle. I outwitted everyone, just like I did twenty-five years ago."
"The Tylenol murders. That was you?"
"I had to get rid of my fucking family. They were in the way. They kept after me to come home and run the family business. Nagging me. Never understanding why I wanted to be an FBI agent. Caroline was the best thing that ever happened to me.I was clearing a way for us to be together and she was off fucking you in Cleveland." His face turned red at the memory.
"And yet you still wanted her."
He stared at Tully, a blank stare, surprised that Tully knew.
"You still wanted her and you lost her again," Tully said. "But not to Razzy or me. She had a chance to choose you again, after all these years, and she chose someone else."
Sloane shrugged, pretending it didn't matter. Tully watched him jerk his head from side to side. His eyes darted around as if to shake the memory. When he finally looked back up at Tully he was George Sloane again and not that boy Indy who'd had so many idealistic hopes and dreams.
"Seems it's you who has a choice now," he said with a grin. And he pointed to the door behind Tully. The door the monkeys were screeching behind and now thumping around.
"Saving Agent O'Dell or taking me down."
Tully's stomach slid to his feet. He was right. Maggie was trapped behind that door.
"You can't shoot me," Sloane told him, waving his arms up and down as if giving Tully a free shot. "You don't have the guts."
Tully raised his Glock. "You forget. I was always a better shot than you."
"Yeah," Sloane said, holding up the syringe with one hand while his other hand reached for the wall, flipping a light switch Tully hadn't seen. The entire hallway went black. "Are you as good a shot in the dark?"
Tully swiped at the walls on both sides of him. No switches. He couldn't see anything, The basement hallway was pitch-black. There were no red lights that marked smoke detectors. There were no exit signs. Not even a slice of light beneath any of the doors. Doors that Tully already knew were all locked and required key cards.
He tried to stay calm. He tried to focus, to keep his breathing slow and his heart from pounding in his ears. He needed to listen. How could he hear over the monkeys screaming behind him?
He thought he heard a squeak on the floor directly in front of him. Was that possible? How far away? A foot? Maybe two?
He took a deep breath. Didn't Sloane use an aftershave? Or was he smelling monkey urine?
Tully braced his back against the wall, staying in one place. Sloane would expect him to move away, back away. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark, closing them tight and opening them again. He still couldn't see anything but total black.
One thing was certain. Tully knew he was coming.
Sloane had probably memorized how many paces it took to get down this hallway. Maybe he'd even made sure all the exit signs would not light up. He said he'd rehearsed everything. Did he have time to rehearse this, too? If so, he'd be able to stab the needle in before Tully could get off a shot.
Their training taught them to aim for the heart. Sloane would remember that. In fact, he'd count on Tully doing just that. Tully had to think quickly. He had to act fast.
He slid down the wall so that he was crouching. And despite the pitch-black, Tully tried to imagine Sloane crawling toward him. He raised his Glock and started firing. He fired low, shot after shot, left to right, a steady stream of bullets. He heard a yell, maybe a thump. He stopped.
Silence.
Even the monkeys had gone silent.
Tully stood up, put his hand on the wall and walked the length of it, swiping at the wall until he found the light switch.
He was right.
George Sloane had been on his hands and knees only ten feet away. How else could Tully explain the head shot that left his old friend dead in the middle of the hallway?
He turned back toward the door. The monkeys had started screeching again. He could hear them rattling against their cages. The door was locked. Key-card pass only. His Glock would have to do, one more time. The monkeys were silent a second time.
It was completely quiet when he eased into the doorway. Out of the dark corner he heard Maggie repeat Sloane's welcome,"It took you long enough."
CHAPTER
82
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Newburgh Heights, Virginia
It was too beautiful a day for a funeral.
Maggie sat out on her patio and watched Benjamin Platt in her backyard, throwing a Frisbee to Harvey. He had taken off his cap and dress blue uniform jacket and rolled up his white shirtsleeves. Still, he looked so official with spit-and-polish black shoes and his necktie still in place.
She slipped off her leather pumps and leaned back in the wicker chair, closing her eyes and wishing she could numb the emotions still churning inside her. The entire time she had watched the casket make its way from the church to the plot at Arlington she kept hearing a voice in the back of her head saying, "I can't believe he's gone."
When she opened her eyes again, Platt and Harvey were joining her. Platt dropped in the chair beside her and Harvey dropped on the floor at her feet.