Alan closed the cockpit door and walked a few paces to the bar. He added several ice cubes to a cocktail glass and then calmly, deliberately, filled it with equal parts Scotch and club soda as though he didn’t have a care in the world. Finally he sat across from his sister and Desh and took a sip of his drink, closing his eyes to savor it.
“Now, that’s more like it,” he said. “No reason not to be civilized,” he added smugly.
He reached out and rapped on the cabin door twice, and moments later the helicopter lifted off.
“Finally,” said Alan Miller, “we can have a private conversation. The pilots can’t hear anything being said in this compartment.”
The all-enclosed cabin was carefully designed to keep the din of the helicopter blades from encroaching, and Kira realized they would be able to converse without shouting. Executives demanded a quiet ride and had the money to ensure they got it.
Kira was wounded to the depths of her soul. The pain in her eyes was profound. “It was you all along,” she said numbly to her brother.
He nodded. “For someone so brilliant, you don’t catch on very fast,” he commented.
“My teachers,” she said weakly. “Mom and Dad. Uncle Kevin. It was you?”
Alan grinned. “Who else?” he said proudly. “But don’t beat yourself up. I was the model big brother around you. A perfect angel. Otherwise, I’m sure you’d have at least considered a possibility so obvious it could have bit you in the ass.”
Kira trembled and for a moment thought she might vomit. “Did anyone suspect?” she croaked.
“Of course,” he said. “How could they not? But I was clever. I did most of my killing away from home. And I knew enough to cultivate a saintly image around you. You had the potential to be my Achilles’ heel. I couldn’t kill you, that would arouse too much suspicion after the other deaths. Yet if I let you glimpse my true nature, I was sure you would put two and two together and turn me in.” He paused. “Look at the Unabomber. Brought down by his own brother.” He shook his head in mock disgust. “Whatever happened to sibling loyalty?”
A tear ran down Kira Miller’s face. She had thought that nothing could hurt her more than she had already been hurt. But she was wrong. This was the older brother she had adored. But he had been a psychopath all the while. His had been the ultimate betrayal, and he had made a fool of her. How could she have been so blind!
“What’s wrong, Kira?” he said, sneering. “Thought you were a better judge of human nature?” His lip curled up in contempt. “You were so easy to fool. So needy.”
“You’re a monster,” she whispered, now loathing the creature in front of her and loathing herself even more for having cared for him so deeply.
Alan laughed. “Someone had to balance out your nauseating self-righteousness,” he replied. “But you know how it is. Us psychopaths don’t really see anything wrong with our behavior. And if it makes you feel any better, Mom and Dad’s life insurance policy was a great leg up for a struggling college student.”
She glared at him hatefully. “So you murdered Mom and Dad and then pretended to come to my rescue. So I would adore you even more.”
Alan smiled serenely.
“And then you framed me in a way that would lead people to believe that I was a psychopath and responsible for these murders. Murders that you had committed.”
“Nice touch, don’t you think?”
“The worst part of it all,” she said in disgust, “is that you made me care about you. I loved you!” She turned her eyes away. “And you made me think I had caused your death,” she added in outrage.
“Well, now you know better,” he replied smoothly. “So cheer up.”
Thin shades made of cherry-wood, which could be raised or lowered with the touch of a button, were completely covering the chopper’s large windows, giving the prisoners no indication as to their heading. The helicopter’s ride was so smooth and the noise so unobtrusive it was easy to forget they were flying.
“So how do you fit into all of this?” asked Desh.
“Fascinating story,” said Alan, amused. “I was visiting my dear little sister in her condo in La Jolla while she was working for NeuroCure. Naturally, she insisted I stay at her place. She always did. After all, she truly adored me.”
Kira’s eyes blazed in fury at this but she remained silent.
“She had to go into work a few times,” continued Alan. “So, as is my nature, I thought I would explore her place. See what I could find. Didn’t take me long to find her false bottomed drawer with her lab notebook and gellcaps inside.” He paused. “So I tried one,” he said simply. “It didn’t take a super-genius, which I soon became, to grasp the possibilities.”
Desh frowned. “So you decided to stage a break-in and steal them all.”
“Not right away,” replied Alan with an air of superiority. “I waited until a few months after my visit so my sister would never suspect I was responsible. And I didn’t just take the gellcaps. I took a sample of Kira’s hair as well, in case I ever needed it to frame her.” He looked quite pleased with himself. “I like to plan ahead.”
Desh shook his head in disgust. He had used a strand of the hair he had taken to frame her for his own murder.
“Then I waited a few days and killed Kira’s boss to throw her a head fake,” said Alan. “When you’re under the influence of her treatment, things become crystal clear. I was certain that if I killed Morgan, she would jump to the conclusion that he had stolen the pills and was double-crossed by a powerful partner.”
Desh knew this was the exact conclusion Kira had reached. “And then you hired Lusetti to watch her.”
“I thought it best to leave her alone to make other ah … mind-blowing … discoveries, and then swoop in and steal these as well. Meanwhile, I was using her pills judiciously to set up my empire.”
“Where does Putnam fit in?” asked Desh.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, with intelligence this great fortunes can be amassed in any number of ways,” he replied, swirling his drink around absently. “But if power is your drug, pulling strings at the most powerful intelligence gathering organization in the history of mankind has certain advantages.”
“But why Putnam? Did you know him?”
Alan shook his head. “While using Kira’s therapy, I broke into the personal computers of a number of mid-level NSA operatives. Putnam was one of them. We were like-minded and he was particularly savage. I was able to dig up enough dirt on him to guarantee him the death sentence several times over. So I recruited him and masterminded his climb up the ladder. We made a great team.”
“Did you give him any gellcaps?” asked Kira.
“Of course not,” he snapped disdainfully. “Do I look like an idiot. Putnam was far too ruthless and ambitious to be trusted. If he ever became transformed, I was certain he would find a way to turn the tables on me.” He paused. “The only person I ever allowed to become transformed, other than myself, was a molecular biologist Putnam was blackmailing. And this was done under extraordinarily secure conditions, and only to ensure I would have an unlimited supply of your treatment.”
“So when Putnam was boasting about his activities, he was really describing what you had done,” said Desh.
“That’s right,” he replied. “We rehearsed everything he said to you. I even instructed him to kill the man you know as Smith in front of you. Putnam had no idea why I wanted him to pretend to be me.” Alan sneered. “But he knew better than to question me,” he added icily.