“I already did.”
“What’s that?” He took a step toward her.
“Trusting you — and don’t come any closer or I inject this, do you understand?”
Derek paused. “What do you want?”
“What do I want?” she scoffed. “To stay young! I already told you that! But you, you’re trying to cheat death.” Sarcasm shot through the last two words.
“I’m not trying to cheat death; death is trying to cheat me. It’s trying to take away all that I’ve ever accomplished, all that I’ve learned, all the memories and dreams and joys I’ve experienced in my life. You can understand that, can’t you, Calista? Death is trying to cheat me. And it’s trying to cheat you too, take your youth, your beauty—”
“Stop! Quiet!” She repositioned the needle. “You don’t care about anyone else. Just yourself. It’s all about you. You don’t care that death is cheating anyone but you. You kill and you don’t care as long as you get what you want.”
He held up his hands, palms toward her as if to show her that he was not a threat.
“So,” she said, “you need these codes for tonight? Or else you won’t be able to send them to your people?”
“That’s right.”
“Well then, this time I guess you’re not gonna get what you want.”
And then she injected the contents of the syringe into Dr. Jeremy Turnisen’s neck.
Derek sprang toward her, snatched at the needle, and pried it from Jeremy’s neck as the engineer began slumping in his chair, then turned to Calista. “What was it?” he roared. “What did you give him?”
“Wouldn’t you like to—”
He backhanded her violently and sent her spinning around, slamming face-first against the wall.
He grabbed her by the throat, heaved her to her feet. “I asked what you gave him.”
She spit in his face and tried to kick him in the crotch, but he was able to deflect her leg.
He slammed her to the floor and went to check Jeremy’s pulse.
The man was still alive.
Good, yes, good.
But what did she give him?
And where did she get it?
A knock at the door.
Dr. Malhotra had arrived.
The Escort
Charlene drove up to the guard station at the entrance to Dr. Schatzing’s gated community in Summerlin.
“May I help you?” The man in a security uniform who was standing there paused flipping through his Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition just long enough to gaze over his glasses at her.
“I’m here to see Dr. Schatzing.”
“And your name?”
“Just tell him I’m the girl from the agency.”
“Ah.” He appraised her. Based on Dr. Schatzing’s phone records, Charlene expected him to call the doctor to announce that she was there, but the guy didn’t even bother. Instead, he just raised the bar for her, Charlene thanked him and drove through.
While Dr. Malhotra tried to awaken Turnisen, Derek Byrne mixed a saline solution in with the gray powder that he carried with him for his coffee.
Then he filled a syringe with it.
“Now, Calista.” He bent over her and brushed a strand of hair away from her bruised and swollen face. She lay bound on the floor. He’d wound the suture thread tightly around her wrists and ankles; she wasn’t going anywhere.
He held the hypodermic needle close to her face. “Do you know what’s in here? Dust from a mummy. The chemicals in it make it fatal if it’s injected into someone. And I can almost guarantee you that it would not be an enviable way to die.”
“You’re sick, you know that? You are one sick son of a—”
“None of us are well, Calista. That’s part of the problem.”
“I know you won’t kill me. You need me to tell you what I gave him. If he doesn’t wake up, you don’t get your precious little launch codes. So how does it feel to be the one who’s helpless?”
What drug could she have gotten on short notice? What did she inject him with?
It wasn’t like she was planning any of this. And he didn’t have a lot of medications or drugs around, in fact—
Oh.
Yes.
“You used the drug that was there on the counter, didn’t you?”
She gave him a satisfied grin. “The same one you used on me. Oh yeah. He’ll be out for at least six or seven hours. Remember? That’s what you—”
He hit her in the face again, this time with a closed fist. She cried out, but then he was tired of hearing her talk and he used duct tape to gag her.
They could try an injection of adrenaline on Turnisen, but the syringe she’d given him had been full, and it wasn’t going to be easy to revive the engineer. And even if they did manage to, he’d be so groggy and incoherent he might not be able to help them at all.
You need those launch codes!
Where could he get them? Where could—
Banks.
He’s at Area 51, or at least he was.
He has the USB drive.
Garcia’s people were investigating Banks’s relationship with Antioch. There might be something there they could leverage to their advantage.
He pressed the side of Calista’s face hard against the carpet. “You told me you were more afraid of growing old than of dying. So in that case, this is going to be my way of showing you mercy.”
Her eyes grew large with terror.
“I’m not going to make you face your greatest fear.”
He jabbed the syringe into her neck and injected the mummy dust into her jugular vein.
Calista felt a terrible fire burst apart inside of her.
She screamed into her gag, but it was clear even to her that no one outside the room would ever be able to hear her calling for help.
“So,” Oriana Williamson said to Clive Fridell, “you’re saying that this man, Thad Becker, was working for you?”
“Not exactly, but he was under the employ of some people I know. I’m afraid that’s all I can really say at this time.”
“And he disappeared?”
“He did.”
And then Clive told her everything that Becker had told him before he went to visit Plyotech last month.
“You’re Lonnie?” Agent Ratchford said.
“Yes.”
“You’re… but you — you’re…”
“I’m seventeen.”
Fionna’s other children were all standing in line to order their fudge, truffles, and chocolate cake, watching the restaurant’s giant chocolate fountain flow down as they did.
“Ah, well, I wasn’t implying that you weren’t good at what you do, it’s just… Well, all I can say is, I’m impressed. So now, can you two tell me what you found out when you managed to open the DoD files?”
“We can show you if you have your laptop,” Fionna said.
He lifted his briefcase. “I do.”
“Good.” She pulled the USB drive out of her purse. “Let’s get started.”
Charlene walked up the path to Dr. Schatzing’s house, repositioned the strap on her dress, then knocked and waited for him to answer.
She could hear movement on the other side of the door. At last it swung open and a man faced her. Early fifties, a little overweight. An overly serious face. “Hello?”
“Hi.” She smiled flirtatiously. “I’m the girl you called for.”
He let his gaze slide all the way down her body and then slowly make its way back up until he was looking her in the eye again.