"She's a serious woman. She wants asylum in the United
States."
"Asylum from whom?"
"France. She doesn't like the butter sauce and says it's hell over there."
"I thought she wanted a pardon from the French government."
"Woman is full of surprises. Actually, she thinks that Larive and agent Baptiste are eliciting her cooperation by lying about a possible pardon. At the same time they're stonewalling us and investing in the markets to take advantage of the coming disaster. I'd call that being accessories to attempted mass murder," Sam pronounced.
"Let's pray it remains 'attempted.' "
"Amen. Now it's Ernie's turn. I promised to put this right in your lap, Ernie. Are you ready? I want you to ask the pres ident of the United States if Benoit Moreau can have protective asylum, if she is a major factor in successfully stopping Cordyceps."
"Are you mad? I've met him once for two seconds."
"Maybe, but the question is uncomplicated. Will you ask?"
"The president?"
"You can start with the vice president. He has a lot of suck. And I suppose you can go through your boss's boss, or whatever."
"I don't know the law."
"Damn the law. The president can pardon any U.S. crime; he can refuse to extradite. We could give her asylum."
"We'd be flying blind. We don't know all of what she's done."
"It's better than losing a few million Americans. If that happens and you don't prevent it, when you might have, you'll be having a reduced pension-goes with disgrace and early retirement."
"Don't be an asshole."
"Dennis, now it's your turn for some glory. Actually, the entire administration. Call Dr. Carl Fielding at Harvard Uni versity. Ask him how badly he wants Chaperone to be owned by a United States foundation, with Harvard on the board of directors?"
"I can well imagine. But it's moot. Grace Technologies was the proper owner; now the technology belongs to France. The French are all over it."
"You're not listening to me. Think about it. Would I be saying it if it wasn't possible?"
"For me, 'possible' means 'legal.' What you're saying is contrary-"
"To everything you thought. But it's only what you thought and it's only what the French government thought. You ask the vice president of the United States if hypotheti cally Benoit Moreau could deliver Chaperone… and be completely legal under international law
… to a U.S. foundation and deliver us from Cordyceps; then could she have asylum and a complete pardon?"
"She can do all that?"
"I'm betting the farm on it."
"So, this is really about the redemption of Benoit Moreau."
"And the beatification of the careers of Dennis and Ernie. Don't forget that."
Benoit Moreau was losing her faith. We pac maw would not save her from an enraged Gaudet. Once the French discovered the truth, it would take Gaudet only minutes on the e-mail to find out that the French were after his ass and as sume that she was up to something. Trotsky's suggestion that she be killed sounded appealing in comparison to what Gaudet was capable of.
This bathroom had a window that was latched with rubber- handled, L-shaped locks. Quickly she experimented-they opened enough for her to crawl out and jump, but it was twenty stories down and there were no ledges. She pressed her face to the glass and looked up for a ledge of some sort. What she saw shocked her. A rope led upward to a horizontal surface, apparently the aluminum carriage of a window cleaner's platform.
"Is anybody up there?" she called.
"Yeah. Sam's window washers."
Oh, thank god, she thought. "Hurry!"
After the video conference Sam walked out the door of the FBI building and took a cab. In the cab he placed three calls. One was to the vice president's staff to grease the skids and to get them reaching down the chain of command, even as Ernie and Dennis were crawling up. The second was to Dr. Carl Fielding. Although he was a Harvard applied mathematician whose expertise was modeling brain func tion, he was familiar with the technology in question and was Sam's go-between with the internal medicine people interested in Chaperone. Never in Sam's career had he so seriously risked his reputation. If this didn't work, he would be finished with big government contracts. And the world would have even greater concerns, he reminded himself.
The third was to Jill.
"Benoit and Gaudet have now moved to a Trump condominium complex. I had probably twenty men around the St. Regis."
"Sam, you-"
"In three minutes, call Whalen for all the details. He knows more than I do." He hung up.
Sam dialed Whalen.
"The guys were hanging just above the bathroom window like you said, about to put a mike on the window, and Benoit Moreau called to us. Then somebody grabbed her and that was that."
"What do you mean somebody grabbed her?"
"Someone inside the apartment. We couldn't get in touch with you, so we just took a chance and sent everybody out in the open and one team right through the front door."
"What happened?"
"They were gone."
"Did you check for laundry chutes, under the floor, the walls? They gotta be there."
"We're checking. I'll call and mention laundry chutes and the rest. Shall we rip up the floor and the walls?"
"Tear the place apart."
"Who the heck is that?" Chandler, one of the guards, asked Michael on a handheld radio.
Michael was looking through the binoculars.
"A tourist?"
"Who goes sightseeing in November?"
"The way he moves, I'd say we're looking at a she," Michael observed.
"Yeah, she looks like a kitten in a toilet. Never seen anything so miserable in my life."
"How long you think she's been there?"
"Not long, maybe ten minutes."
"We'd better send the car over."
"It would be a dumb-ass kind of trap, but just don't forget Mr. Gaudet."
"How could I forget him?"
"I'll see if I can make the satellite phone work," Yodo spoke up. "Before you move, we need to tell Sam."
Yodo went out the door to a small fortification, where an other man sat hidden, caressing a BAR. 30-caliber machine gun. In seconds he had Sam on the phone. Sam advised that Grady was due to arrive, but they should trust nothing and take all due security measures in bringing her across.
There were eight guards at the compound, all armed and trained. They had four outposts fortified with sandbags and rock, and each bunker contained handheld rockets, grenade launchers, and a BAR machine gun. They created a square around the cabins and they were the first line of defense. But they were not always occupied. The men moved around the perimeter and watched, keeping in mind the location of the nearest fortification. There was always one man within twenty yards of each outpost. Although the houses were used during the day, at night they were quietly abandoned for camouflage tents hidden in the dense forest against the mountain. Welcome to paradise.
Chapter 22
When the bear leaves its cave, the village hides its food.
Trotsky nearly dislocated Benoit's shoulder when he dragged her out of the bathroom.
"You've probably killed me," Gaudet said in an even tone that chilled her more than the most hysterical cry. "The French have held up fifty million dollars. Now they'll hunt you and me both, you fucking bitch."
"We've got to go," said Trotsky. His pragmatism immedi ately affected Gaudet, who turned away without another word.
Trotsky pushed a hidden button in the library and a panel opened. They entered a sizable room with vanity photos of the apartment's owner and all manner of memorabilia: books, wine, signed baseballs, various sabers, as well as cigar humidors by the dozen, each carefully labeled. Trotsky closed the panel just as they heard a crash at the front door of the apartment. In one corner of the room there was a solid wood panel. Trotsky pushed another hidden button and a spiral staircase appeared. On the floor below was a large wine cellar with wine in glass cases and adjoining the wine a large room full of old books. Obviously, the man who owned the place was a wealthy collector. Quickly the two put on white hazmat uniforms. There was a very large cart labeled hazardous materials. When they opened the bin, it was full of white material that had the appearance of old ban dages. However, when they lifted up a wooden piece, the bin was actually empty, the bandagelike material having been affixed to the wood. Inside the small compartment Benoit recognized a scuba tank and regulator. They handcuffed her hands in front of her.