"Yeah, well, I'd manage. It's coming up," she said as the AutoChef gave a coughing hum. "The rest of the team is working in their areas. We're meeting in an hour. I want to be able to take them something."
"I wish I had more to give you." Mira sat back, accepting the mug of coffee Eve offered. It was barely seven a.m., yet Mira looked as elegant and polished as fine glass. Her sable-toned hair waved gently back from her serene face. She wore one of her trim suits, this one in a quiet sage green she'd accented with a single strand of pearls.
In her tired jeans and bulky sweater, Eve felt scruffy, gritty-eyed, and unkempt.
She sat, thinking Roarke had said basically the same thing to her in the early hours of the morning. He'd continued to search, but he was up against equipment and minds as clever and complex as his own. It could be hours, he'd explained, or days before he broke through the tangled blocks and reached the core of Cassandra.
"Give me what you've got," Eve said shortly to Mira. "And it'll be more than I have now."
"This organization is exactly that," Mira began. "Organized. It would be my supposition that whatever they intend to do has been planned out meticulously. They wanted your attention, and they have it. They wanted the attention of the powers of the city, and have that as well. Their politics, however, elude me. The four people they're demanding be released are from variable points on the political compass. Therefore, this is a test. Will their demands be met? I don't believe they think they will."
"But they've given us no mechanism to negotiate."
"Negotiation isn't their goal. Capitulation is. The destruction of the building yesterday was merely a show. No one was hurt, they can say. We're giving you a chance to keep it that way. Then, they ask for the impossible."
"I can't link any of the four on the list together." Eve rested a booted ankle on her knee when she sat. She'd spent hours the night before trying to find the connection while Roarke had worked on Cassandra. "No political tenet, as you said. No associations, no memberships. Ages, personal and criminal histories. Nothing connects them. I say they picked those four names out of a hat, for the hell of it. They couldn't care less if those people are back on the street or not. It's smoke."
"I agree. Knowing that, however, doesn't ease the threat of what they'll do next. This group calls itself Cassandra, links itself to Mount Olympus, so the symbolism is clear. Power and prophecy, of course, but more a distance between them and mere mortals. A belief, an arrogance, that they, or whoever heads them, has the superior knowledge and ability to direct us. Perhaps even to care for us in the ruthlessly cold directives of gods. They'll use us – as they did Howard Bassi – when we have the potential to be useful. And when they are done, we are rewarded or punished as they see fit."
"This new republic, new realm?"
"Theirs, of course." Mira sampled the coffee, delighted to discover it was Roarke's marvelous blend. "With their tenets, their rules, their people. It's the tone that troubles me more than the content, Eve. Underlying what is said is a glee in saying it. 'We are Cassandra,'" she added. "Is that the group, or one person who believes himself to be many? If the latter is partially true, you're dealing with a clever and damaged mind. 'We are loyal.' Loyal, we can assume, to the organization, the mission. And to the terrorist group Apollo from which Cassandra was given its prophetic powers."
"'Our memory is long,'" Eve murmured. "It would have to be. Apollo was broken more than thirty years ago."
"You'll note the constant use of the plural pronoun, the short declarative sentences followed by political jargon, propaganda, accusations. There's nothing new in that part of it, nothing original. It's recycled, and a great deal older than three decades. But don't take this to mean they're not advanced in the ways and means in which they operate. Their foundation may be tired and trite, but I believe their intentions and capabilities are vital.
"They came to you," she continued, "because they respect you. Possibly admire you – soldier to soldier. Because when they win, as they believe they will, victory will have a more satisfying taste if their opponent was worthy."
"I need their target."
"Yes, I know you do." Mira closed her eyes a moment. "A symbol. Again, it would be something worthy. A place of excess, they said, and foolishness. Where mortals gawk at mortals. Perhaps a theater."
"Or a club, an arena. It could be anything from Madison Square to a sex joint on Avenue C."
"More likely the first than the second." Mira set her coffee aside. "A symbol, Eve, a landmark. Something that would have impact."
"The first hit was an empty warehouse. Not much impact."
"It was Roarke's," Mira pointed out and watched Eve's eyes flicker. "It got your attention. They mean to keep your attention."
"You think they'll target one of his properties again." Eve pushed to her feet. "Well, that narrows it down. The man owns most of the damn city."
"Does that bother you?" Mira began, then caught herself and nearly chuckled. "Sorry, knee-jerk psychologist's question. I think it's a good possibility since they've targeted you that they may focus on Roarke's properties. It's certainly not conclusive, no more, really, than what you'd term a hunch. But you have to look somewhere."
"All right, I'll contact him."
"Concentrate on important buildings, something with tradition."
"Okay, I'll get started."
Mira got to her feet. "I haven't given you much help."
"I didn't give you much to work with." Then Eve jammed her hands in her pockets. "I'm not really in my area here. I'm used to dealing with straight murder, not the threat of wholesale annihilation."
"Are the steps that different?"
"I don't know. I'm still feeling my way around. And while I am, somebody's got their finger on the button."
She tried Roarke in his home office first, and got lucky. "Do me a favor," she said immediately. "Work at home today."
"For any particular reason?"
Who was to say, she thought, that the sumptuous lobby, the theaters and lounges in his midtown office building didn't make it the target?
And, if she told him that, he'd be down there in a heartbeat, doing a search and scan personally. She wouldn't risk it.
"I don't like asking, but if you could keep on that project we were dealing with last night, it would help a lot."
He studied her face. "All right. I can shift some things around. I've got an auto-search going in any case."
"Yeah, but you get things done faster when you're working them yourself."
He lifted a brow. "I believe that was very nearly a compliment."
"Don't get puffed up about it." She leaned back, tried to look casual. "Look, I'm kind of pressed right now, but can you shoot me some data here?"
"Of what kind?"
"Your properties in New York?"
Now both eyebrows winged up. "All?"
"I said I was pressed for time," she said dryly. "I don't have a decade or so to deal with this. Just the really jazzy ones. Jazzy old stuff."
"Why?"
Why? Shit. "I'm just doing a cross-check. Loose ends. Routine."
"Darling Eve." He didn't smile when he said it, and she began to drum her fingers on the desk.
"What?"
"You're lying to me."
"I am not. Jesus, ask a guy for some basic data, data which as his wife I'm entitled to, and he calls you a liar."
"Now I know you're lying. You don't give two damns about my properties, and you hate when I call you my wife."
"No, I don't. It's this certain tone you use that I object to. Forget it," she said with a shrug. "It's not important anyway."
"Which one of my properties do you believe is the target?"
She hissed out a breath. "If I knew, don't you think I'd tell you? Just send me the goddamn data, will you, and let me do my job."
"You'll have it." His eyes were as cool as his voice now. "And if you find the target, let me know. You can reach me at my midtown office."