Chapter Fifteen

The three men sat around the table in Dan’s hotel suite, computer printouts stacked around them with more spitting out of the printer Dan had set up with his laptop. More paper sat on the floor around them, discarded. Andy had been as good as his word. Better, even, digging through databases Dan and the others had never even heard of and probably didn’t want to.

“So what have we got?” Dan pulled his pad of paper closer to him to look at the list he’d been making. “One: Mia’s visions of Oscar disappearing, of a knife being wielded to kill someone, of the bombing, and of numbers and blocks. Two: her car gets bombed, the bomber gets killed, and she gets shot by a sniper after a demonstration at her house. Which we all agree someone was paid to stage.”

“And using a woman who has real grief to do it,” Mark put in. “So someone with no conscience.”

“Three: Stan Forbush’s death and the killer making off with his eye and finger. But that’s a puzzle because the killer never had a chance to use them to get at Oscar, although someone knocked out the guards. They wanted us to think the theft had occurred. Why? What did they hope to accomplish?”

“Four,” Rick put in. “A sniper using a Longbow T-76 rifle, not necessarily a common choice. And who in our little party would know someone like that? Be able to convince them to do this?”

“Andy’s digging into everyone involved with this,” Dan went on, “including the entire list of Carpenter employees. Plus companies that might want to sabotage Carpenter. But basically, after three days, we real smart guys have no leads whatsoever. What a pile of garbage.”

“Okay.” Rick leaned back in his chair, stretching his cramped muscles. “I concentrated on the States first, although the shooter could have come from anywhere. But more than fifty Longbow T-76 sniper rifles have been sold in the past six months. That’s a shitload of people to track down.”

Dan looked at the sheet with the list of names and addresses. “Well, they’re certainly all over the place. We’d need an army to go after them. I think we need to give this list to Holcomb and let him use his resources for this.”

Mark nodded. “I’ll give him a call and fax it to him. He’ll be pissed at us if we don’t follow procedure on it, anyway.”

But when he reached Holcomb’s office, all he could do was leave a message. “He’s out,” he reported to Dan and Rick. “They said he’d be back in about half an hour, but then he’s got some kind of meeting going on.”

“I hope it has to do with finding out who shot Mia,” Dan said, his voice tight.

“Holcomb knows his job,” Rick reminded them. “He won’t let anything slip through the cracks, regardless of his personal feelings.”

“Andy’s done a yeoman job, digging into things,” Rick commented, studying another sheet of paper. “I never realized exactly how many companies are working on the same kinds of things as Carpenter. Or that they’d stoop to whatever means to steal or sabotage a project. There are at least ten cases listed here where people have gone to prison for just that kind of thing.”

“Makes it hard for the government to decide who they can trust when they open up for bids.” Dan drew a red line beneath five different company names on the list he was working on. “These are the most likely ones to check into first. They’re hurting for big projects, they have contracts on the line, and they aren’t above playing dirty.” He slid the paper over to Mark. “Call Andy and tell him we want to know if he and the Dragon can find any connection between the people at these companies and anyone at Carpenter.”

“Isn’t that kind of a long shot?”

“Right now everything’s a long shot.” Dan rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “The next thing we’ve got to do is plow through all the data he sent on the key people at Carpenter. By the way, how are they doing over there?”

“I left our people in place and told them to report to me every two hours. Chase happened to flip on the television, and there was the report of Mia’s shooting. That’s what happens when you have media camped out everywhere.”

“What was his reaction?”

“He’s worried how all of this is going to effect his big event on Friday. If people will still show up if they think a killer’s running around loose. And Joy, of course, hanging onto Chase like a prize in a cereal box, asked if we had this many people killed on all our cases.”

“Nice. Such a sweet person.” Dan’s mouth twisted in a grimace. “Although I guess I know how she feels.”

“Otherwise I managed to get them focused on the details for Friday. Plus I reminded Chase he needs to supervise the other projects they have in process, since Stan isn’t available any longer.” He picked up his cell phone and punched a speed-dial number.

“I’m still bothered by that.” Rich had finished his calls and returned to the table.

Dan raised an eyebrow. “By Stan’s death?”

“Yeah. Whoever did it had to know we’d immediately shut down the biometric system and reprogram it. They had too small a window of opportunity to be able to do anything.”

“I wish Mia was here. This would be a good time for one of her visions.” His face tightened at the thought of Mia’s situation.

“How is she?” Rick asked.

“I just called her room half an hour ago and talked to Faith. So far she’s holding her own.” He pounded his fist on the table. “Damn it. Has Andy come up with anything regarding those numbers and toys?”

“Working on it,” Rick said. “Fortunately the Dragon can run several programs simultaneously.”

“Check with him again.” He pushed back from the table. “Sorry, guys, but I’ve got to go to the hospital. I won’t be long. I just want to . . . check on her myself.”

“No problem. We’ve got things covered here.”

* * * * *

On the way to the hospital, Dan called Captain Holcomb. He tracked him down in a meeting in his conference room.”

“Your ears must be burning,” Holcomb said in his gruff voice.

“Oh? Is that good or bad?”

“I was just about to call you, so you saved me the trouble. I got Mark’s message. I’ve put together a task force to concentrate on the three cases that are tied together—Nate Wilson, Stan Forbush, and your girl.” He paused. “How is she doing?”

“Hanging in there. Thanks for asking.”

Holcomb cleared his throat. “Mark left a message that he had some information on the sniper rifle used, and your guys have been a help to us. So I was wondering if you’d like to have Mark come sit in on this meeting. We’re just getting started, and we’ll be at it for a while.”

“I appreciate it. And yes, I’ll get him down there.”

“Listen, you folks helped us corral everyone at that demonstration before they scattered, so I wanted to mention this to you. We’ve got the feeling that someone paid to have the Denoyer woman do her thing yesterday. Not that she needed much urging.”

Dan gripped the wheel. “I said exactly the same thing to Mark and Rick. Like someone called her and said this might be a good time to confront Mia again?”

“Uh-huh. Anyway, what do you say? About Mark?”

“I say thank you very much. I’ll call Mark and tell him to get going right now. And he’ll bring the list of rifle owners with him that our office pulled up. It’s pretty long, and we confined it just to sales in the last six months. Whoever this is could have owned it for quite a while.”

“Let’s see what we get on a first cast with this,” Holcomb said. “If nothing turns up we’ll go back further. Also, we checked with Walmart. Nate’s phone came from there, but it was obviously a cash deal. No credit card receipt. And no records on disposables.”

“Well, hell. Did we really expect anything more?” Dan sighed. “Thanks very much.”

“No problem. That’s what the city pays us for. So I’ll look for Mark.” He cleared his throat. “Hope your girl’s okay.”

* * * * *

“You have to disappear.”

John Butler listened to the voice on the other end of the phone connection and smiled. “That’s what I do best.”

“I mean really disappear. They’ll be hunting everyone who owns one of those fancy rifles you use, and you can be sure your name will come up.”

Grant laughed, an unpleasant sound. “Amateurs. They’ll never be able to find me.”

“Do not mistake these men for amateurs,” the voice snapped. “They’re all former military, and they can track a gnat through a jungle. Write them off and it could be the last thing you do.”

“Calm down. They won’t find me, that’s all I’m telling you. They never have before, have they? I’m on my way to my destination right now. And the way I’m traveling, even my own mother wouldn’t recognize me. If she wanted to, that is.”

”Just be sure your ass is covered.”

“My ass is always covered.” A hint of laughter entered his voice. “Except, of course, in Argentina . . .”

“Shut up. This is important. We can’t afford a screw-up now.”

“What about my money?”

“Oh, you want to get paid for a job you didn’t do?”

“Do not pull that shit on me. She turned at the last second, or she’d be spread all over her porch right now. I got the next best thing out of it. She won’t be having any visions or whatever she calls them for a long time. I get paid, or you’ll be my next job. And I’ll be doing it for free.”

The voice was bitter. “Don’t worry. It’s being taken care of. We have to move the money through a lot of places so it can’t be traced, but you’ll have it tomorrow. I’ll call you as soon as it’s done.”

“Use one of the other numbers I gave you. I’m ditching this phone as soon as we’re through talking.”

“Fine. Meanwhile, just get the hell out of Texas.”

Grant snapped the phone shut and banged it on the steering wheel. He’d begun to hate doing business with these people. If the money they offered wasn’t so good he’d have walked away from them a long time ago. Regardless of any former relationships.

He separated the battery from the phone, pulled into a rest area, and tossed it into a trash can. The phone itself he’d get rid of in the next state.

Let them try to put that together, he thought smugly.

* * * * *

Mia didn’t know where she was, except it was very dark and cold and she was floating in space. She thought everything should feel soft but instead there was enormous pain. When she tried to breathe the pain grew worse.

I must be dying. Dan, I’m so sorry.

She felt tears streaking her cheeks. Dan. She wanted him so badly.

Baby blocks suddenly came tumbling at her and she tried to duck, to get out of their way. But moving hurt, and then the blocks crashed into her, sharp edges piercing her skin. She wanted to scream from the pain, but no sound came out of her mouth.

Here came the blocks again, only this time they were floating on water and babies were steering them. They came close to her, but the babies laughed and laughed and steered away from her.

I have to tell Dan. There’s something here. Oh, Dan. I’ll never see you again.

She tried desperately to push her way out of the thick blackness surrounding, her but the pain was too intense. All she could do was lie in its cocoon and cry silent tears.

* * * * *

Faith looked up as Dan came into the room.

“I think she’s doing better. The nurses seem pleased with her vitals, and the readings on the machines apparently are pleasing everyone.”

Dan moved to the side of the bed. Faith pushed her chair back to give him room.

“Has the doctor been in?” he asked.

“Four or five times.” She swallowed a smile. “I think you put the fear of God into him.”

“Good. Anything to make sure he keeps on top of this.” His voice was taut and grim. He picked up Mia’s hand, still as cold as the rest of her, and tried to warm it with his own.

“She seems restless,” Faith told him. “As if she’s trying to wake up. But they’re keeping her heavily sedated because of the pain. Dr. Cardoza said it will be at least two days before they’ll even think of cutting back on the meds.”

“Did she wake up at all?” Dan felt a thread of fear weaving through him.

“Oh, yes. They wouldn’t have moved her from recovery if she hadn’t. But then she was right back out again.”

“She looks agitated,” he commented, smoothing the hair back from her forehead. “Like she’s struggling with something. Is that good for her?”

“She just started doing that. Let me go tell the nurse and give you some time alone with her.”

Mia was dwarfed by the bed, by the massive amount of bandages, by the machines that sent out messages, letting people know she was still alive. Lines creased her forehead, and her head moved slightly back and forth, as if she was in some distress.

Dan kept stroking her, as if his touch could settle her. “I love you, Mia. You are my life, do you know that? You walked right in when I least expected it, and now I don’t know how I’d live without you.”

He bent down and pressed his mouth to hers, careful not to touch any of the bandages or jostle her at all. He could have sworn he felt an answering pressure, and for a moment his heat skipped a beat. He tried again, and this time her mouth moved under his.

“Dan?”

The word was a breath, so soft he barely heard it. He leaned closer, wondering whether he imagined it. “Mia? Sweetheart, it’s me. What is it?”

He saw her lips move but no sound came out. The lines in her forehead deepened, and she tried to thrash her head back and forth again. Dan panicked and pressed the call button for the nurse. But she was already there, Faith right behind her.

“I think she’s trying to say something,” Dan said. “She’s moving around. I’m afraid she’ll hurt herself.”

“Let’s see what’s going on here,” the nurse said, gently moving him out of the way. She checked all the machines, then opened Mia’s eyelids and checked them with a tiny penlight. Felt her pulsed and timed it.

“Well?” Dan couldn’t contain his impatience. “What’s happening? Is she all right?”

“Her pulse is a little rapid, and her heart rate is slightly elevated. I think she’s trying to wake up.” She studied his face. “If she does wake up, the pain will be enormous, but I’ll be ready to up the morphine drip. However, there seems to be some inner urgency, so maybe we should try to help her and see what happens. Are you staying?”

“You bet I am,” Dan told her.

The nurse stepped aside so he could move next to Mia again.

“It’s way early for her to be fully conscious, but she’s struggling with something. Try talking to her. See what happens. And touch her. Maybe that will soothe her.”

He placed one hand against her cheek, stroking it lightly, his other hand holding hers lying on the covers. “Sweetheart, I’m here. Do you want to talk to me? I’ll stay right here until we get it right, okay? Just take it easy.”

He kept caressing her and placing light kisses on her lips and cheeks. He felt her breath against his skin, so light he was afraid at first she wasn’t breathing at all. But the machines whirred and beeped, and she continued her attempt to move.

He pressed his mouth to hers again and said, “I’m here, sweetheart. I’m right here.”

Again he felt her lips move against his, her mouth forming his name.

“Tell me, honey. Whatever it is, I’m here listening.”

* * * * *

Mia was frustrated. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t find her way out of the blackness. It wrapped around her like thick material, yet when she touched it, it disintegrated beneath her fingers. She would reach out to push it away and another wave of blackness would grab her.

A tiny pinprick of light disturbed her, like a spark at the end of a tunnel. The spark turned into Dan’s face, then faded again, and the blocks with the numbers, bouncing on the water, began coming at her in waves.

Dan. She concentrated on finding his face again. She had something important to tell him. Why couldn’t she get rid of this blackness? Was she dead already? She concentrated as hard as she could, trying to move, but pain knifed through her, stealing her breath.

Was that really Dan or was she imagining it?

Dan! Don’t leave me! Stay with me!

She had something important to tell him, if she could just figure it out. She had to get to Dan. She reached up, pulling on the blackness, grasping it in her hand. Gathering every bit of strength she could, gritting her teeth against the pain, she opened her mouth to scream.

Dan!

* * * * *

“She said my name.” Dan put his face next to Mia’s again, his fingertips on her mouth. “I heard her say it.”

With what must have been superhuman effort, she reached her right hand up to grab his lapel.

“Look. Look at this.” His voice was filled with hope. “She must be waking up. She’s grabbing onto me.”

“Dan.” Mia’s voice was barely audible but what they heard sounded like a rusty saw dragging across metal.

“See, I told you.” He kissed her mouth. “I’m here, sweetheart. I’m right here.”

“Blocks,” she rasped. “Water. Moving.”

Dan slid a glance at Faith. “Could she be having a vision under all that medication?”

“It’s possible. It’s not unheard of, although I don’t know as much about it as some of the other women in the Circle.” She had a look of amazement on her face. “I can’t imagine the strength it took for her to do this.”

Mia wouldn’t release her death grip on his jacket. Her lips moved although her face was contorted with pain. “Blocks,” she repeated. “Water. Floating. Numbers.”

”Should I call Aunt Vivi and have her get someone over here?” Faith wanted to know.

“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t want any more people here except us right now. I heard what she said.” He kissed Mia and uncurled her fingers from his jacket. “I hear you, sweetheart. The numbers. That’s what you mean, right? The baby blocks and the numbers. You saw water and the numbers moving over it.”

She lay back exhausted, her face covered with perspiration. “Hurts,” she managed to get out.

Then the machines began to go crazy, and her eyes rolled back in her head.

“Faith!” Dan hollered.

“I’ll get the nurse again,” Faith said, already on her feet.

But the nurses were already there, along with two men Dan assumed were a resident and an intern. When he saw them rolling in a crash cart, Dan nearly stopped breathing.

“You’ll have to move,” one of the nurses told him.

He backed up against the wall, next to Faith, who quietly slipped her hand into his and squeezed. His eyes followed the organized chaos around Mia’s bed, heard the orders being barked out, saw them ready the defibrillator, then yell, “Clear!” Other orders were called out, and people moved swiftly to obey them. They worked like a well-oiled machine, each person doing a specific job.

During the next few minutes Dan felt as if time had stopped. Not a man given much to religion anymore, he found himself uttering fervent prayers, promising God anything if only Mia could be spared.

At the moment he was sure he would lose his mind, he heard someone say, “She’s stable. Let’s keep her this way. Good work, everyone.”

The crash cart was rolled out of the room, and all but one of the nurses left, carrying various pieces of equipment. The one Dan had met who was assigned to Mia was checking the IV fluids and injecting medication into one of the lines.

One of the men who’d worked on Mia walked back in the room and over to Dan, an angry look on his face. “Have you any idea of the serious nature of this patient’s condition? What did you do to her? And why isn’t she in ICU?”

Faith hung onto Dan’s hand to keep him from punching the man and to remind him to reign in his temper.

“And you are?” Dan asked, every muscle in his body tense.

“Dr. Richards. I’m on Dr. Cardoza’s team, and the resident charged with the care of this patient. Who the hell are you?”

“I’m her fiancé, and I can assure you I know just how serious her condition is. She’s not in ICU because there’s a killer after her. That’s why we have two guards on the door. And you can believe I did not aggravate her condition in any way. She seemed to be trying to force herself awake and was agitated. I was just calling the nurse when this happened.”

The doctor took a long, hard look at Dan’s face and apparently decided arguing with him was not a good option to choose. “We’re just lucky we brought her back. But I’m going to increase her sedation and talk to Dr. Cardoza about changing some of her meds. If you’re going to be in here with her, you have to make sure she doesn‘t get agitated again.”

“Let me tell you,” Dan said, a muscle jumping in his cheek, “that young woman means everything in the world to me. I have no intention of jeopardizing her in any way at all.”

He realized the doctor was just doing his job and didn’t know him from Adam, but Dan had to restrain himself from punching his lights out.

When everyone had left the room he moved back to his place beside Mia. Faith pushed one of the chairs behind him, and he collapsed into it, leaning his arms on the side rails of the bed. Then he dropped his head to his forearms and did something he hadn’t done since he was ten years old. He cried.

* * * * *

By the time he returned to the hotel, Dan had managed to get his emotions under control, thanks in large part to Faith Halloran. He had stood in the hospital room, torn between wanting to glue himself to Mia’s side and knowing he had a job to get done. If only he could be in two places at the same time.

“I’ll call you if anything changes,” Faith assured him, seeing the look of conflict on his face. “I promise. But Mia nearly killed herself to give you a message. Don’t let it go to waste. Go back and get to work on it.”

Only twenty years of marine discipline gave him the strength to do what he had to do next. He kissed Mia once more, then strode from the room, his mind already shifting gears.

In his car he called Andy and gave him the latest clues on the puzzle of Mia’s visions.

“Have the Dragon run every combination. Blocks. The numbers. Tumbling. Water. Someone steering. Somewhere in there is the key, and we’re missing it.”

“If it can be found,” Andy told him, “the Dragon will find it. He and I hold all the mysteries of the universe. I’m also doing a random search for sites that record precognitive visions. Maybe we can find something that matches closely enough to take it from there.”

“Well, saddle the old guy up and get going. This is urgent.”

Like everything else right now, Dan thought grimly.

In his suite he found Rick alone, going through more computer printouts.

“Mark’s gone down to the police station to sit in with Holcomb’s task force. What’s that all about?”

Dan gave him a brief report on it. “Either he wants our help, or he wants to keep track of us. Either way, it’s better to be working with him than against him. I think Mia getting shot rattled him.” He shucked his jacket, took off his tie, and rolled up his sleeves before pulling a chair up to the table. “All right, where’s the notepad with Mia’s doodles on it?”

Rick fished under the scattered papers and handed it to him. “How is she?”

“She’s . . .” He stopped took a breath and began again. “She’s . . . holding her own.”

“Something happened,” Rick guessed, noting the pain in his partner’s eyes.”

Dan’s fists clenched around the pad. “I nearly lost her while I was there. She about killed herself trying to wake up and tell me something. I called Andy so he could feed it into the Dragon, but we need to take a look at it, too.”

“My God. I’m sorry, Dan. I . . . She’ll be fine. She seems like a fighter.”

“She’d better be.” His voice broke, and he stopped to pull himself together again. “All right. This must be damned important, so let’s see if we can make any sense out of it.”

Talking back and forth so they didn’t leave anything out, they listed every one of her visions and the actual events they’d honed in on, then added in the new information. But at the end of an hour they were still nowhere.

“Andy’s doing another search with the Dragon for precognitive sites that list other visions and trying to match these up. Maybe we’ll come up with something there.

Rick tossed his pen onto the table. “Let’s give it a break for a little while and see what the Dragon comes up with. If Chase is so uptight about his guest list, maybe we should go over it again, only in greater detail. Andy sent us everything he found and then some.”

They were both aware that time was running away from them. They had forty-two hours, and the clock was ticking. Before they knew it Friday would arrive, and they’d be out of options. Neither of them thought there was a way to steal Oscar at the demonstration, but at this point they weren’t eliminating anything. They split the list, which contained intimate details of everyone attending on Friday. Andy had quickly learned exactly what they meant at Phoenix when one of the partners said, “Get me everything.”

“Mostly corporate CEOs and high-level military personnel.” Dan made tick marks next to some of the names on the list, ones he thought were key players. “I can’t see any red flags here, but I can certainly understand why Chase is nervous. The success of this demonstration could bring in billions to Carpenter Techtronics. They could end up being a world leader in this field.”

Rick got up to get a soft drink from the mini-fridge, popped the top, and took a long swallow. “How much do you figure Oscar could bring on the open market?”

Dan shrugged. “You mean if someone wanted to keep it away from all other competition? Other countries, even? Probably untold billions. More than Chase could get legitimately. Because whoever got Oscar would be in the catbird seat. They could manufacture it themselves and sell it, if they wanted. If the head of a country buys it, he could use it to detect any covert operations. Or they could just use it to protect themselves.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Think about an organization like a drug cartel. Oscar could always let them know when someone’s coming, how many there were, record conversations, take pictures. No one could ever get near them without being blown away. Or if it goes to an arms dealer, he’d never be able to spend all the money he’d make with it.”

“On the other hand,” Dan pointed out, “it would be worth billions to the government if they could contract Carpenter to manufacture it. Think how it could be used to protect both our troops and black ops units in any number of situations.”

“So if someone from Carpenter is involved in this, they get to keep every dime for themselves and screw the company, right?”

“That’s about it. But I’ll be damned if I can figure out which one it would be. Shit.” He shoved all the paper aside. “Call Andy and see if he’s done the in-depth on the key people yet. You can also check if the Dragon’s come up with anything on Mia’s numbers vision, especially the latest one with the water. Although I don’t think he’s had enough time to really run it yet.”

“Enough time.” Rick snorted. “Boy, don’t I wish we had that.”

But at that moment Dan’s cell phone rang. He pressed the Talk button with a sense of dread, as he’d been doing with every call since Mia was shot. But this one was from Mark.

“Just wanted to let you know that the slugs they dug out of Nate Wilson, the bomber, were from a .22-caliber handgun.”

“Small gun.” Dan was surprised. “Whoever shot him had to be right next to him to be that effective with a gun that small.”

“Obviously not someone he expected to kill him. They don’t have any leads here, although they’re going to canvass the workers at the airport again. And see if any of the remote cameras caught anything. How about calling Andy and asking him to see if anyone at Carpenter bought gun like that recently?”

“Okay. Rick and I were discussing the fact that we think someone there is either leading the charge or involved in it. I just asked Rick to give Andy a call. He’ll do it right now.”

“We better come up with something soon. The demonstration’s the day after tomorrow. Right now we have less than forty-eight hours to find the answers.”