“They could have gone better.” She reached in her knapsack and pulled out Montez’s book and handed it to Hu Chang. “But maybe this will start to set things right. Montez was very nervous about my taking this from him. He said no one would understand it but him, but he didn’t like it out of his hands.”
“Another challenge,” Hu Chang murmured, as his fingers moved over the rough, well-thumbed cover. “Unless Montez is of Einstein caliber, I refuse to believe he is correct. But his words hint of a certain originality, which may be intriguing.” He turned and moved toward the library. “I will get to work on this immediately.”
“Because you can hardly wait,” Catherine said. “You’re practically salivating.”
“That’s very crude,” Hu Chang said. “And makes intellectual curiosity appear to be deceptively uncomplicated.” He glanced at Luke as he stopped at the library door. “You will be courteous?”
Luke nodded. “I wasn’t discourteous. I was just asking—” He nodded jerkily. “Okay. Maybe I seemed discourteous. I’ll be careful not to do it again.”
“Good.” Hu Chang opened the library door. “Then you might make recompense by taking her up to your room and showing her the work you and Kelly have been doing while she’s been gone.”
“I’ve done most of the research. It’s up to Kelly now.”
“Then let’s let Catherine go up and ask her for a report,” Cameron said. “I need to tour the perimeter and check out security, Luke. I know Hu Chang and Sam have it well in hand, but I always feel better if I feel the reins in my hands. You can go with me.” He smiled. “If you wish. Entirely up to you.”
There was little doubt that Luke would do whatever Cameron wanted him to do, Catherine thought, as she watched Cameron exert that magnetism and charisma that was such a part of his character. She had seen it work before on his men, on strangers, sometimes on her. Usually he didn’t even have to tap that psychic ability he possessed.
Luke hesitated. “I’ll go.” He came down the rest of the stairs. “Sam moved a few of the sentries around to different parts of the grounds and street. I’ll introduce you to them.” His eyes were suddenly bright, eager. “But I know Sam would think it was okay if you decided something different.” He smiled at Catherine as he passed her. “Kelly doesn’t need me now. She thinks she’s beginning to see something in Dorgal’s chart. She’ll probably chase you out, too.” He fell into step with Cameron as he opened the front door. “I asked Sam to let me check on the sentries by myself, but he wouldn’t do it. He said that Catherine wouldn’t like—” His last words were cut off as the door closed behind them.
Catherine stood there, gazing at the door. Stupid to feel this sense of loss.
“What do you expect?” Hu Chang asked quietly. “Cameron is a Pied Piper whose job it is to move hearts and minds. He’s been trained to the task, and his natural abilities are enormous. Luke is very easy for him.”
“I know that.” She lifted her chin. “I’m surrounded by Pied Pipers. You’re one, too, Hu Chang. Occasionally, I just feel a little shut out to be the only one who can’t seem to reach Luke.”
“You reach him. That’s why he’s fighting so hard to keep you safe. But you’re in control, and he finds that … difficult.” Hu Chang turned away. “Now forget about how easily Cameron lured the boy away. You know he did it to distract him and let you have a little time to adjust. By the time he comes back into the house, I’d judge that Luke will have a different mind-set … at least temporarily.”
She frowned. “He’d better damn well leave Luke’s mind alone.”
“Only temporary. Go see Kelly.” He smiled. “I have no more time for you.” He lifted Montez’s book. “I have Maggi to decipher.” He closed the door.
She seemed to be having doors closed on her right and left, Catherine thought ruefully. All done for the best and most helpful of reasons. It shouldn’t have bothered her. It was totally immature.
It bothered her.
So forget it, get busy. Open doors of her own.
Go up and talk to Kelly.
* * *
“You’re back.” Kelly was sitting at her desk and looked up from her yellow pad as Catherine came into the bedroom. “You look exhausted.” She made a face. “And as if you’d gone through a war.”
“Just a rain forest. I’m getting very tired of trekking through the wilds trying to save Santos’s prey.” She dropped down in a chair across the room. “I tried to clean up on the plane while we were flying back to Louisville, but I definitely need a shower. You’ll notice I’m staying downwind of you.”
“Yes, I noticed.” Kelly smiled faintly. “But I also noticed you didn’t bother to shower first before you ran in to see me. Does that mean the trip was not a success?”
“You could say that. Contact, but no information. I told Hu Chang to call Venable and add Eduardo Montez to your list. Have you got any information concerning him yet?”
“Just the bare bones. I haven’t had time to study him.” She frowned. “But there may be something odd about Montez. I can see … gaps.”
“Gaps?”
“Spaces in his pattern as he was growing up in Argentina. Other spaces, when he was at the university in Rio de Janeiro.” She shook her head. “And there would be long periods when he’d go to visit his uncle in the hills outside Buenos Aires.”
“And that was unusual?”
“Some of those periods were when he should have been in school. Both in secondary school and the university. He was able to make the time up because he was a brilliant student, but it was still strange that his parents allowed him to miss school just to visit an uncle.”
“What was his uncle’s name?”
“Francisco Montez. I e-mailed Venable and asked for more information about him. He hasn’t gotten back to me yet.”
“I took a book from Montez’s backpack that he evidently wrote himself. Lots of chemical and mathematical equations. I gave it to Hu Chang to study.”
“I’ll ask to see it after he finishes with it.” She smiled. “Not that I think I’d be able to detect anything that he didn’t. Luke would look at me with infinite scorn.”
“Who knows? Maybe you’d see an answer to the break in the pattern.” She changed the subject. “What about Santos? Anything that you noticed about him?”
“Besides the fact that he’s a monster with no conscience? He enjoys torture and thinks of himself as being above any law. He was deserted by his father, raised by a prostitute mother, involved in gangs from the time he was eight. He hooked up with Delores Janvier when she was sixteen, and she appears to have become the center of his existence.”
“I know that.”
“I thought you would. She was fabulously beautiful and spent a fortune on clothes and makeup to stay that way. She clearly knew that was one of her prime weapons to keep Santos interested. But what I found very interesting about Delores was that he actually listened to her. His pattern seems to have been merged with hers.” She paused, then said hesitantly, “I believe she may have been in control of the relationship.”
“What?”
“I found that kind of weird, too, considering what a powerhouse Santos appeared to be to everyone around him. But as I went over the material, I noticed that several decisions and opinions that Santos stated were later changed to those that Delores advocated. And when questioned, he acted as if he’d never meant anything else. They went on quite a few vacation trips together, and it was always places that Delores chose. He not only loved her, he evidently respected her and wanted to please her above anything.”
Catherine pounced. “What places?”
“Several islands in the South Seas, twice to Egypt, once to Moscow, Trinidad, Grand Cayman, Jamaica.” She paused. “Buenos Aires.”
“Montez. Was Montez still in Argentina at that time?”
“Yes.” She added, “I checked that after I read the report on Montez. Though I don’t know if they made contact with him or for what purpose. But as far as I could tell, neither Santos nor Delores ever went there again.”