“Flash, I don’t know nothing from nothing about this CHEGAN thing. First I heard about it was from your ol’ man—”
The gun came up reflexively. “Where’s my father?”
“Holed up in my condo with that pathologist, Wilson.”
“What?”
“Protective custody — it’s one of Sammy’s specialties. I took ’em outta the battle zone. Had to cuff ’em to a bedroom door to keep them away from the phone. They seemed a little doubtful of Sammy’s intentions, but they’re safe.”
“Back up. Start at the beginning and tell me what the hell is going on.”
“I can only tell ya what I know. Zenavax hired my company to do electronic surveillance on Kate Tartaglia. She’d come up with this theory that their vaccines weren’t safe. The head of the company told me she was wrong, but he said that she wouldn’t let go of it. Management was worried that Tartaglia was going to spoil their big payday. They’re going public in an IPO this month and—”
“Hurry it up. I don’t have time for the long version.” Luke glanced out a porthole as they flew over the L.A. Coliseum.
“The e-mail Tartaglia sent you? I’m the one who erased it from your computer. When she turned up dead the next day, I thought that Zenavax had had her killed. It looked to Sammy like someone was using me, and making me an accessory to murder.”
“So you figured you’d use me.”
Sammy shook his head. “Not at first. For all I knew, you coulda been involved. I followed you for a coupla days. But after the Erickson shooting, it was obvious to Sammy that someone was setting you up.”
“It was you who left Kate’s e-mail at my front door.”
“Had to keep you in the game, Flash. I wanted to know who killed Tartaglia, and why. You knew the woman, and you understand ‘bout vaccines and shit. You were the perfect man for the mission.”
“You threw me out there like a piece of bait.”
“No. You did that when you wouldn’t let go of the kid’s death. Sammy just accommodated your natural tendencies.”
Luke felt the helicopter lean into a turn. Stevens and his copilot were maneuvering the aircraft onto a direct path toward the hospital.
Luke switched to channel one and told Stevens, “Go past the hospital and fly toward Griffith Park.”
“What?” the pilot said. “Where the hell are you taking us?”
Luke reached forward and placed his pistol against the copilot’s neck. “You’re going to do whatever I tell you to do, and your copilot is going to convince ground controllers to go along with our little deviation from the flight plan.”
The copilot seemed to wait for Stevens to make a decision.
“Do what he says,” Stevens said finally.
The copilot’s voice was convincingly dry when he radioed air traffic control and reported a rattle in the fuselage that they wanted to investigate before landing at the hospital. They’d do a few angled turns and rapid decelerations over the unpopulated park to investigate the noise, he said. When controllers didn’t respond immediately, he added, “Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”
After a long pause in the transmission, ground controllers gave them clearance.
Luke switched back to channel two and said, “My father — what did you mean about taking him out of the battle zone?”
Sammy nodded, as if being brought back to a thought. “When this whole thing began, I wired Barnesdale’s office. He was connected to Zenavax, somehow. I don’t know exactly how and it probably doesn’t matter anymore since he’s dead. Anyway, the CEO thought the guy was acting a little squirrelly and wanted me to monitor things.”
“So?”
“Those bugs are still in place, but now a fella named Caleb Fagan is sitting in that office. One of my people was listening to a tape and heard one side of a cell phone conversation where Fagan was talking about sending your ol’ man and Wilson back to Abraham’s bosom once they, as he put it, ‘finished their work.’ Calderon’s name was mentioned.”
Luke’s mind called back an image of the mosquitoes. “Did my father destroy his mosquitoes?”
“Negative. Wilson and your dad weren’t exactly chatty when I first snatched ’em from the hospital. They didn’t tell me how the mosquitoes figured into this until a few hours ago.”
Luke pounded his fist against a strut.
“They told me ‘bout you coming after Caleb,” Sammy continued, “so I was waiting when you showed up at the hospital. Following you to Long Beach wasn’t too hard after you stole that puke-green jalopy.”
The pilot’s voice suddenly came through on their channel. “We’re coming up on Griffith Park. Where you taking us next, Captain Nemo?”
Stevens probably didn’t think his mood could worsen, but it did when Luke instructed him to land the Sikorsky on the front lawn of the Griffith Park Observatory.
Luke ignored the pilot’s shouted curses and held up three fingers to Sammy, signaling him to switch to channel three.
“Why’d you disconnect the cell phone number I was using to contact you?” Luke asked.
“The truth?” Sammy said. “I figured you were dead. When I didn’t hear from you after your meeting at that castle, I called and a Latino guy answered. He was saying something in Spanish about a park bench. You’re not the type to get sloppy and lose a phone. “
“That doesn’t explain disconnecting your cell phone.”
“If you were dead, sooner or later the LAPD would hear about it. They’d go sniffing around to tie up loose ends. Your phone had my number stored in memory. I didn’t know who that guy was that had your phone, and I didn’t want a trail that led back to Sammy. So I cancelled service on that number. I got a guy at the phone company that purges my records as soon as I pay the final bill on a discontinued number.”
“I appreciate your concern for my well-being.”
“When your daddy told Sammy that you were still alive, Sammy cried like a little itty-bitty baby.” Sammy’s head bobbed up and down. “No lie.”
The helicopter’s airspeed slowed as they approached The Observatory.
Luke glanced out the porthole, then back at Sammy. “Why are you here?”
Sammy shrugged. “I figured I owe you one.”
As soon as they touched down at The Observatory, Luke took the communications cord from Stevens’s helmet and herded the copilot, crew chief, and paramedics outside at gunpoint. Sammy used a roll of plastic handcuffs from one of the helicopter’s supply drawers to tie them to a heavy cast-iron fence. Luke took the male paramedic’s coveralls and put them over his street clothes.
Sammy did likewise with the copilot’s uniform before climbing into the cockpit.
When Luke jumped back into the aircraft, he said to Megan, “This is where you and Frankie get off.” He pointed outside, to his right. “You can make your way down that road, over there.”
At first her eyes showed confusion — that is, until her temper had time to come to a boil. “After everything we’ve been through,” she shouted, “how can you even think of doing this?”
“I don’t have time to argue. This isn’t your fight anymore.”
He turned, but she moved with him. “You think I’m here because I want to be part of this? Sometimes, you are so dense.” She shook her head. “Why do you think I’m here, Luke? Have you even stopped to think about that?”
“Megan, listen to me. I have no idea what I’m up against, and there’s a good chance that anyone who comes with me will die. You’ve done enough. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”