THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Eden nudged Deakin awake as she pulled into a truck stop on the outskirts of Medford, Oregon. The morning sun flashed on the huge tractor trailer rigs parked all over the huge parking lot. Diesel smoke hit Eden’s lungs like a hammer and she leaned against the side of the small car and coughed. Deakin stretched and stared at the cars parked around the restaurant. They had taken turns driving since they’d crossed into Nevada and headed north to Reno. After breakfast Deakin could drive the next leg of the journey towards Salem where Mala, Ian, and Martin waited for them. Deakin reached back into the car and grabbed the children’s books. Eden grabbed a bag of clean clothes and they homed in on food.
As they climbed back into the car, Deakin pulled out the map he’d just bought and spread it out across the dashboard of the car. He quickly found Medford near the northern border of California. With his finger he traced the highway through Eugene to Salem. As his finger moved up the map, he noticed tiny red numbers at the very left edge of the map. 42 marked the line of the border between California and Oregon. Farther north he found 43, 44, and 45. 46 ran along part of the border between Oregon and Washington. He looked along the other sides of the map and found other numbers along the top. 124, 122, 120, and so on corresponded to lines drawn straight north and south on the map. None of their other maps had shown latitude and longitude lines. Deakin folded up the map and started the car. Eden took the passenger seat and immediately flipped it back so she could get some sleep. Somewhere along the highway north through Oregon, Deakin’s mind made a connection. He pulled off the road at the first chance which happened to be a scenic lookout just off the side of the road. He joined several other cars and shook Eden to wake her up.
“Hey, cut it out, Deakin. It can’t be time for me to drive. I feel like I just got to sleep. Keep driving and leave me alone.”
Deakin shook her harder and said, “Wake up, Eden. I just figured out something very important.”
Eden reluctantly shook herself awake and pulled her seat upright. Deakin rattled open the map and spread it across in front of Eden. She pushed the hair out of her eyes and stared mutinously as Deakin’s face. He laughed at her and pulled her into a hard hug.
“Just look, Eden. I think I figured out the numbers from the book. Look at this map and tell me what you see.”
“I see a map of Oregon, that’s what I see. Uh, we should be along here somewhere and there’s Salem where we’ll meet the others. I don’t get it.”
“Look at these lines across the state here and here. Latitude, right? And here are the longitudes. Now, guess what the latitude and longitude for Salem is. Go ahead, guess.”
Eden put her finger on the city of Salem and then checked the lines closest to that point. “Uh, I’d say it’s about 45 degrees North and 123 degrees West. What’s so important about that?”
“The numbers from the book. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. 45 and 123. My mother drove straight through Salem on her way back to California after she left me in Seattle with her sister. Maybe that’s where she hid the laser project information.”
Eden looked at the glow on Deakin’s face and wished he looked like that all the time. After what had happened to him, it was amazing he could smile at all. She hated to burst his bubble but she really couldn’t see how the information could help them very much. Instead of telling that to Deakin, she said,
“I would never have thought of that. It’s certainly a better explanation than anything else we’ve come up with. Get back on the road and drive, man. I’ll look at the map and see if I can match up those letters we found in the other book with some place in or around Salem. Let’s go.”
Eden folded the map into a more manageable size and pored over it. After about an hour she finally gave up and closed her tired eyes. The next thing she knew, Deakin was shaking her shoulder again and speaking loudly.
“Eden, wake up. C’mon, open those eyes, girl. I just talked to Mala and they have rooms at a motel in Salem. We’re meeting them for breakfast at a restaurant nearby. That should give us four hours max to get some sleep. I think you’d better drive us through town, okay?”

Deakin and Eden hauled their tired bodies up one flight of stairs and fell on the bed, fully-clothed. The phone rang just as the light of the sun lightened the sky outside. Eden groaned and pulled a pillow over her head to drown out the sound of the phone. The ringing morphed into her dream and turned into a fire alarm. She leaped off the bed and stared frantically around for the smoke and flames. She finally reached for the phone and mumbled into the receiver. The cheery tones of the operator lifted the corner of her mouth into a snarl and she threw the phone onto the bed. Then she contemplated the sleeping form of her partner-in-crime. Sometime during the night Deakin had cornered the blanket market and wrapped himself up like a burrito. Eden stood on the bed and began jumping on the mattress. The blanket-wrapped bundle bounced higher and higher. Garbled sounds and muffled screams filtered out. Finally two hands appeared and reached for her legs. She nimbly hopped off the bed and bounced into the bathroom in a much better mood. A muffled thud followed by a body bouncing off the locked door of the bathroom squeezed a laugh out of her. She almost tripped over Deakin on her way out the door after her shower. He’d fallen asleep on the carpet right outside the bathroom door. She shook drops of water from her wet hair on his face and then quickly got out of his way. He threw a snarl over his shoulder and disappeared from sight. Eden hung clean clothes on the doorknob for him and finished dressing.

Eden and Deakin both were in better moods when they pushed through the door in to the restaurant. Eden quickly scanned the room and sized up the inhabitants. No one looked up at their entrance and no one matched her inner picture of Dr. Allen and the others. Deakin pushed her toward a large corner booth and ordered coffee for two as they sat down. He kept the front door in view and signaled Eden when the right group walked in. He stood up and waved to them. Mala Allen hurried up and slipped her arms around his waist in a warm hug. Deakin looked down at the smooth dark hair shot through with silver and put his arm tentatively around her small shoulders. She smiled up into his face and reached up to pat his cheek softly.
“How wonderful to meet you, Deakin Kimbrough. You are a beautiful boy and greatly favor your father. These are my friends, Ian Nelms and Martin Graham, Marianne Wolfe’s son. Sit down, sit down, everyone and we will talk.”
Deakin slid into the booth next to Eden and watched the others dither around before Mala slid next to Eden’s right side. The two men stared appreciatively at Eden. Martin held his hand out across the table and introduced himself to her. Then he pumped Deakin’s hand once and leaned back to let Mala tell their story.
The waitress moved smoothly in and out of their vision as she filled coffee cups, delivered plates of eggs and pancakes, and finally cleared the table. Deakin listened intently to Mala’s story and her description of the man who’d tried to question Martin’s mother. He passed on the bare bones of his search, leaving out any reference to Alden and the bandits. His sources were not anyone else’s business.
At the end of his recital, Martin asked,
“May we see the books you got in Arizona? I’d like to see them. Mala has the letter from your aunt. I’d advise her not to bring it out here. We can go to my room if that’s okay. I’ll get the check.”
Deakin pulled Eden to his side and let the others move off first. He put his hands on her shoulders and spoke softly in her ear.
“What do you think? Do we get the books and meet them or do we slip away right now?”
“We have to meet them. They have the letter from your mother. If we disappear, Martin will talk Mala into reading it. We have to get our hands on that letter, if only because it was written by your mother. I don’t much care for Martin but Mala is wonderful. Ian doesn’t care much about the people. He just wants us to find the laser information. Scientific knowledge is what’s most important to him.”
“What’s Martin’s angle in this?”
“Oh, I’d say he just wants to keep his mother from being hurt again. He’ll pass on the information to anyone who’ll promise to leave his mother alone. She may not realize it but that’s my best guess. You want to get the books now? They’re waiting for us. It’s your call, Deakin.”
Deakin kneaded her shoulders as he considered his decision. “We get the letter. The books are still in the room. You go with Martin and I’ll meet you at his room.”
Eden tipped her head backwards and looked up at her friend. “No, I’ll go with you and watch your back.”
She smiled upside down at Deakin and started to walk away. Deakin slid his arm across her chest and pulled her back. He dropped his head onto her shoulder and kissed the corner of her mouth. She stared sideways in surprise and then relaxed against his chest. Finally, he gave her a very slight push and the two of them walked out of the restaurant.

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 21 continued

The guard escorted the nurse to the elevator and held the car for the rest of the parade. They followed a maze of corridors and eventually entered the security office. Walls of television monitors filled three of the four walls and constantly changed views. Marina stared interestedly at the monitors and tried to identify each door and corridor she saw. She was amazed at the number of cameras that were mounted all over the building. Even the administrator’s offices were monitored. She made a mental promise that she would never adjust her bra or pick her nose outside the relative safety of the women’s bathroom.
Marina turned quickly and smiled shyly at the man who’d just joined them in the office. He showed them into an empty break room and gestured toward the coffee pot in the corner. Walt brusquely shook his head and dropped into a chair at one of the tables. Captain Garrison pulled out a chair for Marina and settled her carefully. Then he held out his hand for Walt’s identification. Walt reluctantly pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open. Just as he started to flip it closed, the captain took it from his hand and read it with interest.
“Okay, Mr. Rogers, ask your questions. Ma’am, I’ll be right back here if you need me.”
He patted Marina on her shoulder and sat in a chair behind her. Walt frowned in his direction and reached for his identification wallet on the table. Marina turned it around and read the name on it. Then she folded her hands on the table and waited patiently for the man to begin.
“Are you Marina Kirk? Formerly from the Soviet Union? Sister of Helena Rimchova?”
Marina nodded her head in reply to each of his questions and then waited for more. There always were more questions. At least, that was her experience.
“Now, did someone visit you yesterday? Who was it and what did they want?”
“Why are you asking? This is all about things that were over long ago and people who died long ago. Why do you care? My sister and her husband died at the hands of your people. Will I die now? What about my husband and my children? Will they die also? Will they die no matter what I say? If I tell you the truth, will they die? If I lie to you, will they also die?”
Walt looked at her in bewilderment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady. I just want to know about the people who came to see you yesterday and what they wanted from you. Then I want to know where they’re going next. That’s all I want. I don’t know anything about any dead people.”
Marina gulped a little and then said, “Three people came to see me yesterday but I didn’t know who they were. They claimed to be old friends of my sister but they had no proof. I asked them questions but they couldn’t answer them. I gave them tea and we talked but about nothing of importance. They wanted to know about my sister’s work but I never knew anything about it. So they left and didn’t tell me where they would go next. That’s all I know.”
Marina tried to stand up but Walt grabbed her hands and held them down on the table. “Now, look, lady, you have to tell me everything they said. If you don’t, we’ll take you down to our office here and really talk to you. If you still won’t tell us anything, then we’ll just have to deport you back to Russia.”
Marina sat carefully back in her chair and clenched her hands tightly. She took a deep breath and said, “You can’t do that. I am a citizen now. My husband and my children are citizens. You can’t make me go back. Your people took my sister and her husband to your offices and they died. The only reason you didn’t kill their baby was because he was with me. When your men came to my house and took the baby away from me, I knew I would never see him again either. Did you kill the baby also? Where is he now? I was too afraid to ask questions back then. Now, I am a grown woman and I will ask the questions. What happened to my sister and her husband? Where did you take their baby and what happened to him? Why don’t you answer my questions? Is it not fair? I am supposed to answer your questions but you won’t answer mine. I don’t want to talk about this any more. My beautiful brilliant sister is dead. Who knows what she would have done if she hadn’t been killed? And her beautiful baby too. I am his family. Why did you take him away from me?”
A phone rang in the stillness and Marina pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She answered it and then listened for a minute.
“You have to excuse me. My patients need me. Unless you plan on killing more children, I must go back to work.”
Marina smiled tightly at the security guard sitting behind her and walked sedately out of the room without a backward glance. Only the people she passed in the hallway could see the tears coursing down her face. She wiped them angrily away and hurried to the small patients who depended on her.
Walt had leaped out of his chair and reached for her arm, but Marina was too fast for him. By the time he got his legs untangled from his chair, the security captain was standing in the doorway watching Marina hurry away. Walt kicked the chair in exasperation and gestured curtly for Sven and Harris to follow him out.
The three men landed back at the office around noon. Dennis Lofton met them at the door with a smile. “Well, well, just the men I was waiting for. I have some news for you and a brand new phone. One of our names rented a car and headed south toward Oregon. Martin Graham was the name. He lives in Chicago and works at Argonne Lab. Care to guess who his mother is? No, well, Dr. Marianne Wolfe. So, he definitely is one of the fugitives. Although, I’m still not clear why you’re chasing these people. They all seem to be upstanding members of their respective communities.”
Walt glared at the agent and barked, “Need to know basis. What road did they take out of this place? We need a car to follow them. We’ll be ready to leave in twenty minutes or so.”
Dennis raised his index finger and spoke slowly so Walt would catch every word.
“I’ve been instructed to tell you to rent a car if you have to follow these people. We’re running low on vehicles and don’t loan them out. They never seem to come back.”
Walt’s mouth opened and closed but no sound escaped. He looked at Sven and Harris and then back at Dennis. “B-b-b-but I always borrow vehicles wherever I am. What do you mean, I can’t have one of yours? That’s ridiculous! Just let me make a call or two and then we’ll see what you have to say.”
Walt reached for the phone on the nearest desk, but Dennis caught his arm and handed him the new cell phone.
“Call on your own account number. We’re on quite a strict budget here in Seattle. I’ll be back from lunch in an hour if you need me for anything else.”
Walt stared at the agent’s retreating back and shook his head to clear it of some unwelcome thought. He smiled a slightly superior smile and said to his two men, “Things are really different out here in the boondocks. Glad we work for the big boys and don’t have to count pennies.”
Then he punched in a long series of numbers and tapped his foot until the call was answered. “Walt Rogers, here. Tom Adams, please. Well, where the hell is he? . . . Okay, you set up a car for me then. I’m in Seattle and I need to drive to California. I also want you to put out a call for a rental vehicle heading south from here and probably driving through Portland. Don’t stop the vehicle – just have someone sit on it till I get there. That should do it for now.”
“Yes, sir. I have recorded your instructions and I will pass them on to Mr. Adams as soon as he contacts me. Have a nice day, sir.”
“Whoa, hold it right there. I don’t want you to wait at all. You do it right now and tell Tom about it later. I can’t wait until Tom gets back from wherever the hell he is. Get on this now!”
The calm pedantic voice droned on in Walt’s ear. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not tasked to make these arrangements. I can and will put out the call for that rental vehicle heading for Portland but Agent Adams is the only one who can authorize the expenditure of a rental vehicle for you. I’ll be sure to tell him it’s urgent.”
“That’s not good enough. Let me talk to your superior. Right now!”
Sven and Harris eyed each other behind Walt’s back and pantomimed smoke coming out his ears.
“Agent Adams is my superior and he is not available right now. Be assured that I will pass on your requests ASAP. Good day, sir.”
A determined look settled on Walt’s face as he stared at the phone in his hand. Then he pulled out the wallet holding his identification and slipped a small piece of paper from behind the card. He punched in the number and waited impatiently for the call to be answered. His right foot tapped on the floor as he listened to the rings. Finally, a polite voice answered the call and promised to transfer the call to the correct extension. Walt’s foot tapped faster and faster and he hummed a tuneless drone under his breath. A few minutes later, he had his chance to speak.
“Listen, Mr. Duncan, this is Walt Rogers. I’m in Seattle and I’m getting the runaround out here. I need a car to chase down some people and the assholes here won’t give me one. Some guy named Dennis wouldn’t even let me use their phone. How the hell am I supposed to get this job done if I can’t get any help?”
“Excuse me, Walt, but why are you calling me? Your contact is Tom Adams. Call him, not me.”
“Wait just a minute. I’ve just tried to call him but I can’t get him and he hasn’t returned my calls. What the hell is going on? Don’t you want me to succeed?”
“I don’t have anything to do with the details of your assignment. Tom is the expert and that is why I rely on him. I’m sure he’ll get to you as soon as he can. There is a big crisis right now and he may be involved in another investigation at the same time. Be assured he will talk to you at the first possible moment.”
“Am I supposed to stand here with my finger up my nose and wait until he happens to remember to call me? I was given an assignment and without help, I can’t complete it. At least authorize me to take a car. That will get us on the road after these people.”
“I’d advise you to wait until you hear from Tom. I just can’t break into his business, you know. He’s already made his decisions and we can’t second-guess him. If I hear from him, I’ll tell him you’re waiting for a call. Good-bye, Walt.”
Walt flipped his phone shut angrily and gestured for his two shadows to follow him out the door. He stopped just outside the front door of the office building and stared around for an idea. A taxi splashed to a stop ten feet away from them and two men jumped out. Walt moved quickly and grabbed the door before it slammed shut. He would just rent a car on his own if those idiots wouldn’t give him one. They could fight over the bill later.

Clark Duncan swiftly cut off the connection with Walt Rogers and set his phone down on the wide desk. He smiled grimly at the four men scattered around his office.
“Well, what do we do about Walt? He seems to be on the trail of someone who could lead him to the boy. Do we stop the investigation right now? Or do we let him run? Do we really want to catch this boy? I’m not too sure we want this whole story out in public. It doesn’t paint a very pretty picture of the way the agency works. Public sympathy will definitely be on the side of the poor orphan boy whose parents were killed by the government.”
The oldest man in the room leaned against the edge of the window and stared at the cars driving in and out the security gate. He turned slowly back to the room and ran his tired eyes over the other men. His gray hair was brushed back from his face and his hands shook slightly as he slipped them into his pockets. He rocked back and forth on his toes. Only one man met his eyes and nodded reluctantly to his unspoken inquiry. Then his low, gravelly voice filled the room.
“Well, it looks as though Todd and I are in agreement. We vote for abandoning the whole project. I’m too old to think killing a boy will solve the problem. There are too many people involved, too many people who will be missed if they all disappear. We just can’t keep this under wraps any more. If the boy had never surfaced, we wouldn’t have to make any decisions. But he did and now we either have to kill him and everyone around him or back off and let the whole thing drift away.”
A middle-sized bulldog of a man with the thick neck and heavy shoulders of a weightlifter straightened up from his post against the opposite wall and shook his head vigorously.
“We can’t let this get out right now. We have had way too much negative press over the last six months. We can’t add this on top. Sure, the original scenario played out years ago but the public doesn’t care about that. They love to hear about our mistakes, not our successes. I, for one, don’t want to be the one who has to explain this to the director. He doesn’t understand how we work. That’s the trouble with going outside the agency to pick the director. Someone who worked his way up through the ranks would at least understand how this all happened. I vote to continue the investigation and shut down all avenues that would lead back to us.”
Clark Duncan leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of his face.
“Donald, in some ways I agree with you. I also don’t relish explaining the workings of the agency to people who know nothing about guaranteeing the security of the nation. Then again, I also agree with Bill and Todd. This boy certainly doesn’t deserve to disappear just because of something that happened when he was a baby. The longer he stays on the run, the longer the list of people involved grows. If we’d caught the boy and the girl back at the beginning before they talked to anyone else, we wouldn’t be facing this problem. Now, we have no idea how far the ripples have spread. That’s very ambivalent of me, I know, but that’s one of the reasons I sit in this chair. I can see both sides of the problem. Tom, you’ve been in on this since we heard about the boy. Where do you stand?”
Tom Adams leaned forward in his chair and stared at the nameplate on the desk for a minute. Then he let out a large sigh and said,
“I think we’d be a hell of a lot better off if we got rid of Walt Rogers and let the boy alone. You know, I just don’t have the stomach to work with someone like Rogers any more. The world has changed greatly since I started working here. Now, I have a son about the age of this boy and I certainly would never want Walt Rogers chasing him down. The ‘Walts’ of our business should not be sent after innocent boys. Send them after hardened drug traffickers or crazed bombers or serial killers. But not after children. I vote with Clark.”
“Now, wait a minute, guys. Just how do you really know this boy is as innocent as you think he is? What if he really does know all about what happened to his parents? What do we do then?”
Clark Duncan waved the bulldog back into his corner. “Get real, Donald. How would this boy ever find out about it? He was only a baby when it all went down. Just how much do you remember from when you were still in diapers?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know that but he could have gotten information from some of these other people. What if they told him something?”
“Something they didn’t tell us years ago? Not possible, Donald. Give it up. Tom, pull Walt off the case and bring him back here. We’ll get a report written and it’ll be over with. The boy will give up when he realizes there is nothing to find out and that’ll be the end of it all. Reassign the two men Walt has with him. They could be sent to Wyoming to help in the investigation of the sheriff with the stash of illegal weapons. Anything else we need to discuss?”

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

Walt Rogers abruptly turned away from the closed faces of his two colleagues. He realized he was teetering on the edge of insane rage. He’d just chewed Sven and Harris out for not reading his mind. He pasted a blatantly false smile on his red face and turned slowly back to the two men.
“Hey, guys, I’m sorry I jumped your asses about letting these people get away. I’m a little tense and something else is bothering me right now. Give me a phone. I think something’s wrong with mine.”
Walt punched in the number of his cell phone and listened to the sound of ringing. The phone in his other hand neither rang nor vibrated. Walt leaned back to throw the phone out into the middle of the parking lot but Harris snatched it just before Walt threw it. He slid it into his pocket and said,
“Maybe it can be traced. I’ll turn it in soon. When was it switched? That’s the place to start looking.”
Walt nodded grimly and thought hard about his last day. Then he slapped the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small white business card.
“Lady in the bar at LAX. Drinking wine right next to me. We talked while we waited for our flights. After I landed here, my speed dial wouldn’t work. I just thought the phone was screwed up. It never occurred to me that she’d switched phones on me. I’ll keep your phone for now.”
Walt clapped both men on the shoulder and walked them to their car. Evening was closing in over the city of Chicago and the street lamps left big pools of yellow light along the street. Cars flashed in and out of the bright circles. One of the men shivered in the wind blowing straight off Lake Michigan.
Sven turned up the collar of his coat and asked, “What do we do next, Walt? Check out Dr. Wolfe’s apartment or check out the airports?”
Walt contemplated the shivering men and decided. “Harris, drop that phone off and then try the good doctor’s apartment. If she answers the door, ask her if she’s heard from any of her old friends from the laser project. She’ll probably slam the door in your face, but we’ll know where she is. Sven, you follow me to the office of that scientific journal, okay? I swear that van had something to do with Dr. Wolfe’s disappearance.”
Sven and Harris sketched quick salutes and wheeled around in unison. They drove quickly away from the campus. Walt dropped into the driver’s seat of his car and pulled out the borrowed phone.
“Tom, this is Walt. First, get me a new phone with a new number. Don’t leave any more messages on the other number. Somebody switched phones on me at the LA airport. I took Harris’s phone for now. Second, I need an address for the Journal of Applied Physics, the name of whoever runs it, and his home address. I think he helped the Wolfe woman get away from us. Call Sven and give him the addresses too. Thanks.”
An hour later, Walt studied the front door of a small three-story office building. The lights in the tiny lobby shone out into the darkness. Walt looked down at the floor and walked inside. He raised his eyes fleetingly to read the building directory. Then he took the stairs up to the third floor. Only one office seemed to be occupied at this time of the evening. Walt slipped silently past the door of Lamprey and Morey, Attorneys-at-Law. No lights shone through the frosted glass in the Journal’s door. Walt knocked softly and then pulled a small leather wallet out of his pocket. He selected a thin strip of metal and slid it between the door and the jamb. His fingers worked quickly and the door popped open with a small sigh of escaping air. Walt slid around the door and carefully closed it behind him. He pulled out a penlight and flashed it around. Untidy stacks of bound magazines lined the walls. An old metal desk sat in one corner of the front office next to the door to another room.
With two long strides, Walt grabbed the doorknob. Loud voices and slamming doors sent him swiftly into the relative safety of the back office. He turned off his light and watched several shadows pass the outer door on the way to the elevator. Walt waited for the car to grind its way to the top floor and then start its journey back down before he continued his search of the office.
Within an hour, Walt had gone through two desks and one file cabinet. He was trying to get into the computer files when the knob on the front door slowly turned. The cell phone in his pocket vibrated its signal for an incoming call at the same time. Walt quickly raised it to his ear. A thready whisper drifted out of the phone.
“I’m outside the door. Do I come in?” Walt immediately relaxed and flipped the phone closed. He slipped through the dark office and opened the door just enough for Sven to eel his way inside. Walt plucked at the sleeve of his coat and led him into the back office. Sven dropped into the chair in front of the humming computer monitor and placed his fingers on the keyboard.
Fifteen minutes later, he shut down the system and admitted defeat.
“This guy’s too good, Walt. Without his password, I’m up shit creek. Do we take the whole damn thing with us?” “It depends. Was Dr. Wolfe at her apartment?”
“She yelled at us through the door. I left Harris sitting in the car and came over here. How about this guy’s apartment?”
Walt shook his head. “I called his home phone from here and got his machine. I have the feeling he’s skipped. Tom’s checking the airlines for me. He should have something soon. Let’s get the hell out of here before we get caught.”
Walt and Sven met up with Harris just in time for the message from Tom Adams. They now knew Ian Nelms had just flown to Seattle. They were behind in the chase but maybe not too far behind. Next stop for them, Seattle.

Walt stepped out of the Seattle terminal into a bone-chilling rain. The wind from offshore blew the icy drops directly into his face. He ducked his chin into the upturned collar of his coat and peered at the taxis parked in front of him. Sven and Harris cannoned into his back and pushed him under the freezing waterfall running off the building’s roof. Walt threw them a venomous glare and then marched through the downpour to a black SUV with darkly tinted windows. The other two men slid into the back seat while Walt took the front. The driver resignedly watched them shake water all over the interior. With a stony look on his face, he asked,
“Where to, gentlemen? The office or somewhere else?”
Walt deliberately brushed water off his coat toward the driver and said, “Office, son. We need to get this job done quickly. Pick up speed. We’re playing ‘catch-up’ with these people. We’re a day behind them already.”
The driver slowly joined the long ribbon of traffic leaving the airport. He drove sedately through the heavy traffic and refused to exceed the speed limit.
“No, sir, I will not speed through traffic. Weather conditions require a slower speed to ensure our own safety as well as the safety of those other drivers on the road with us.”
“Who the hell taught you to talk like you’re reading from a manual?”
Walt fussed and fumed and threatened without any visible results. The young man at the wheel readily supplied Walt with his name and badge number, but he refused to drive recklessly through the worsening storm. The cold intensified as night closed in around them and ice crept across the bridges and elevated roadways.
When the vehicle slowed below the mandated speed limit, Walt erupted from his forced silence and shouted into the quiet interior of the car.
“Goddammit, man! Now, you’re going below the speed limit. I could walk faster than you’re driving. What the hell kind of agent are you anyway?”
“A live one, sir. We’ll be at the office in about ten or fifteen minutes.”
Walt jumped out the door of the SUV before it came to a halt and both his feet slid out from under him. His eyes widened as he clutched the door to keep from hitting the icy sidewalk with his butt. Sven and Harris carefully stepped out into the night and stood waiting for Walt to shut his door. Just as he reached in to grab his bag, the driver said,
“Have a nice day!”
Walt slammed the door so hard the car rocked a little before it slipped away from the curb, throwing a spray of icy slush on the legs of the three men. If the water hadn’t been so cold, Walt might have surprised a smile on the faces of the other two men. As it was, he brushed past them roughly and pushed angrily through the building doors. Sven and Harris followed in his wake.
Only one man met them in the after hours gloom of the office. Sven and Harris automatically stepped back as Walt swung off his coat and shook water drops all around the room. A tired-looking man of forty-five looked steadily at Walt and brushed the cold water from his suit without looking away. Then he picked up his cup of coffee with his right hand and glanced at the suspiciously blank faces of Sven and Harris.
“Dennis Lofton, here. And you must be Agent Rogers.”
Walt held out his hand but Agent Lofton raised his coffee cup in greeting instead. A grim look passed over Walt’s face when he realized his hand was shaking air. He covered quickly by running his hand through his damp hair. Then he smiled and said,
“That coffee sure looks good. Can you spare us a cup?”
“Uh, actually, this was the last cup in the pot. We’ll get you some when we get dinner. Now , exactly what do you need from us? I’m in the dark about your little job.”
Walt’s eyebrows snapped down into a thick line across his face. He had never been treated so shabbily in all his years with the government. Most people were frightened of his power and were more than happy to help him in any way, especially if it would get rid of him quickly. Something was happening behind the scenes. He shook off his suspicions and asked,
“What information do you have for us? Were you able to meet Ian Nelms’ plane and follow him? Where did he go? Who else was with him? Where is he now?”
Agent Lofton lifted his cup and drank half his coffee before he set the cup on the desk behind him.
“Why don’t you come to my office and I’ll fill you in with what we have.”
He led them down a short hallway and into a small office with only enough room for a desk and a few chairs. Dennis slid easily into the chair behind the desk while Walt dropped into the chair in front of the desk. Sven and Harris leaned in the doorway, distancing themselves even further from Walt.
“Okay, now we can get down to business. One of our men covered the flight from Chicago. He was just a wee bit late getting there, what with the weather and the traffic, you know. Most of the passengers had already left but he did question the flight attendants. Your man was on board. There may also have been two other people accompanying him or he may just have met them on the plane. Another man – younger, very athletic, thick dark hair, lots of energy. There was a woman also – mid-forties, dark, foreign-looking, very calm. They left the plane in a group. According to the airline, the others were M. G. Allen and Martin Graham. Ah, this seems to mean something to you.
“Now, don’t get too excited. We think your man took a taxi and we’ve had men out inquiring into all the fares picked up at the airport around the time the flight landed. We don’t have anything concrete but we will soon. Maybe by morning we’ll have covered all the cab companies. What are your plans until then?”
Walt jerked out of his chair and paced to the door. He turned back to the man behind the desk and asked,
“Just when exactly will we know about the cabs? Okay, find us a room to sleep in then. This is a goddamned waste of time. We’ll need a driver in the morning. Uh, thanks, uh, Dennis for your help.”

Walt Rogers slept very little and woke up feeling tired and heavy-headed. Three cups of coffee did little to dispel the fuzzy feeling in his head. He felt like he’d lost the whole focus of his search. Everywhere he turned, he ran smack into a brick wall. No one seemed to be on his side. God damn it, he was the good guy. Why did everyone just assume the kid was right and he was wrong? Well, he’d just have to change their minds, wouldn’t he? He looked across the table at the men shoveling eggs down their throats. They obviously didn’t have any trouble sleeping. He irritable waved away the waitress when she swooped by with the coffee pot.
“When the hell are we going to get that information from the cab companies?”
Walt stared blearily through the plate glass window at the slate-gray fog covering the town.
“I hope we don’t have to stay here long. I hate this dreary weather!”
Sven and Harris looked at him in surprise. After a quick look out the window and an almost hidden smile at his partner, Sven said,
“Oh, I kinda like the fog. Everything’s so quiet. It’s like being in your own personal world, you know.”
“Bullshit. That mist out there is just messy. Traffic’ll be all screwed up and nobody’ll be where they’re supposed to be, including our driver.”

Rain began to fall just as their driver pulled up in front of the café. It quickly turned into a cloudburst. The driver drove slowly through town until he pulled up in front of the neat small house belonging to a family named Kirk. No lights shone in the windows so Walt sent Harris through the pouring rain to knock on the door. He also checked the houses on both sides before he dashed back to the car and jumped into the back seat.
“Lady at the house next door says the Kirks both work. She works at a hospital somewhere and he works for some car dealer. She just moved in so she doesn’t know them.”
“Call that prick at the office and get him to check them out. We should already have that information. That stupid shit is going to wish he’d never run into me. Before he knows it, he’s going to be sitting in some hut on the Arctic Circle monitoring weather satellites or maybe even something worse.”
The next time Walt stopped the car, a large hospital loomed through the slashing rain. This time all three men rushed into the building and headed for the administrative offices hidden away behind closed doors. Here he ran into another stumbling block. Nobody really cared who he was or what he wanted. They were all too busy to listen. He finally pinned down a woman who decided the quickest way to get rid of him was to give him what he wanted. She ran the name he gave her through her computer and found his quarry. Marina Kirk was a nurse on the pediatric floor of the hospital and she was actually at work, according to the computer. The woman gave Walt sketchy directions to the correct floor and immediately forgot him.
Walt and his two shadows walked out of the elevator on the correct floor and stopped the first person they ran into. The man waved them down the hall to a counter manned by a busy clerk. There, after a close scrutiny of his identification, the clerk pointed out a small woman with dark hair. She wore brightly patterned scrubs with a matching scarf tied on her hair. She pushed a small wheelchair with a young girl in it along the hall. The girl couldn’t have been more than seven years old. She had wildly curling red hair and the freckles on her face stood out in stark contrast to the pallor of her skin. In spite of her illness, she viewed the world with great humor through large bright brown eyes. These eyes focused on the Walt’s shoes and worked their way up his body to his face. Walt held his identification to the woman behind the wheelchair and smiled knowingly at her gasp of surprise. The child glanced quickly at the other two men and then narrowed her concentration on the man in front of her. He leaned over her head and let loose a quick burst of words into the horrified face of the nurse. The child immediately took the side of her nurse and kicked the man in the shins. Then she screamed loudly while the man grabbed his shin and cursed at her. She almost laughed when the man hopped on one leg and knocked his friend into the wall. The man almost fell down but he recovered his balance and glared at the tiny child. The nurse, Marina Kirk, had time to gather her wits and present a controlled face to the three men.
“What are you doing to the child? She is very ill. You can’t just come in here and bump into her wheelchair. Go away while I take care of her. I don’t know who you are or what you want but you shouldn’t be on this floor. Go away.”
Marina turned the chair around but the man grabbed her arm. She tried to shake him off but he held on and whispered into her ear.
“You’re going to have to talk to me sometime, Ms. Kirk. Do we do it here or do we take you down to our office and talk to you there?”
The nurse cast a frightened look up into the implacable face looming over her and shook her head.
“I have to put Emily back to bed. I can’t leave her in the middle of the hall. Wait by the desk and I’ll join you there in a few minutes.”
Walt released her arm and watched her walk shakily down the hallway. She turned into a door and disappeared from sight. After ten minutes he headed down the hall with Sven and Harris in pursuit. At the door of the child’s room, he heard two voices laughing softly. He glanced quickly inside and saw the nurse holding the child’s hand and smoothing her covers. The tension left his shoulders and he leaned against the wall outside the door. Sven touched his arm and pointed to the elevator. The doors had just opened and two security guards marched purposefully toward the three men. Walt muttered under his breath and stood up as the two guards stopped in front of him.
“Excuse me, sir, but do you have business here in the hospital?”
The two guards held their hands on the guns holstered on their hips and stared straight into his eyes. They tensed up and crouched a little when he made a move toward the inside pocket of his jacket. Walt stopped the movement and said,
“Identification in my pocket.”
One of the guards patted the front of his jacket and then gestured for him to pull out the identification. Walt handed it over and tersely explained his mission. He gestured toward the woman who’d appeared in the doorway. The second guard radioed the information in and waited for a response from his boss. He clicked off the radio and said, calmly,
“Ma’am, if you’ll just come with us down to the security office. You gentlemen can follow us and talk to the captain. We have a room you can use to talk with Ms. Kirk. You know, you should have come to us in the first place.”

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

Deakin and Eden found themselves driving toward the setting sun on their way back to Los Angeles. Deakin was too keyed up to sleep so Eden flipped her seat back and willed herself to sleep while he drove. She woke an hour or so later when Deakin stopped for coffee. She twisted in her seat and jerked when she felt a hard object in the pocket of the jacket Neal had given her. She stepped out of the car and slipped her hand carefully in the pocket. There she found a small wooden lizard she’d seen in Neal’s workshop. It was a close match to the ones she wore in her ears. She grinned in remembrance and slid it carefully back in her pocket.
This time she drove on through the twilight while Deakin pretended to sleep in the seat next to her. After twenty or thirty minutes, Deakin gave up and pulled out the small books Neal had given him. He slowly read each page and searched for any clues his mother might have left. Then he closed his eyes and ran his fingers lightly across each page. He looked to see if the books had been taken apart and put back together again. He found nothing. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and asked Eden,
“Where are we? And where exactly are we going? On top of that, why are we going anywhere? If we’re only going to find more questions, why don’t we just stay still and see what happens? We just keep running into one dead end after another. What’s left for us to do?”

Eden looked over at the large boy hunched in the seat next to her and smiled at him. “Well, you could get out your cell phone and call Alden. That scientist from Stanford could have left a message with Sam by now. It’s worth a try.”
Deakin pulled out his phone and placed the call. He hung up without leaving a message. He shook his head at Eden and said,
“I think I’ll try Sam. Maybe he’ll answer.”
This time Deakin made contact and listened for several minutes. “Dr. Allen called Sam yesterday to say she was on her way to Seattle to visit my aunt. Damn, I wish we’d known that. I’d like to see her. I could at least talk to her about my mother. There are some other people with her. Sam didn’t quite know who they were or where they fit into the puzzle. She left him a phone number but I’m kind of afraid to call it. It’s too easy to trace phone calls.”
Eden waved away his objections and said, “Don’t worry about that. Even if they find which antenna the call was routed through, we won’t be there any longer. We’re on the move, remember? If ‘they’, whoever ‘they’ are, come to this particular stretch of highway, they won’t find us. Call her. Find out what she’s doing and what’s she’s found out.”
Deakin stared at the numbers on his cell phone for a few minutes before he punched in the numbers. A lovely voice with just a hint of India left in it answered his call. He glanced wildly at Eden and almost flipped his phone off. Then he took a deep breath and asked,
“Is this Dr. Allen? This is Deakin Kimbrough. I just got your message. Uh, did you find my aunt? How was she? Does she want to see me?”
“Deakin, how nice to hear your voice. It’s been so very many years and we’ve all changed so much. Yes, we visited your Aunt Marina. She is doing well in Seattle. She has married and she has three children but she has never forgotten you. She will definitely welcome a visit from you when this situation is over. She remembers many things about your mother and she even has some pictures for you. But, first, we have to get rid of our pursuers. Is there anyone following you right now?”
“No, ma’am, we haven’t seen anyone since we left Sedona. We didn’t talk with Dr. Falk but her brother gave us some children’s books. We’re heading back to California right now. Where are you?”
“We are on our way out of Seattle. We thought we’d drive south from here. Maybe we’ll catch a flight out of Portland.”
Deakin unfolded a map and found Seattle on it. With his finger, he followed the road south through Oregon.
“If you drive down to Oregon, we can try to meet you. That way we’ll all stay out of the airports. Who don’t I call you in four hours or so? Maybe we can meet in Portland or Salem or even somewhere in northern California?”
“Good idea, Deakin. Until then.”
Eden pointed their car in the direction of Bakersfield and the junction with I-5. Deakin flipped restlessly through the books Neal had given him, looking for anything out of the ordinary. This time, in the dim light of dusk, he half-saw, half-imagined slight differences in the thickness of some of the letters. He started over at the beginning of one of the books. He held the pages at an angle and looked across the page instead of directly at it.
“Pull over, Eden. I think I’ve found something and I need your help.”
Eden glanced at the boy and then out at the gathering darkness. The lights of a tiny desert town beckoned in the distance.
“Side of the road or ten minutes to the next town?”
Deakin raised his head and stared blindly in her direction. Then he darted a look out at the vast stretch of open country on both sides of the highway.
“Uh, town is fine, I guess.”
Eden nodded briskly and kept her eyes on the road unwinding in front of them. She soon pulled into the small town. The highway ran down the main street between rows of half-empty stores. A combination gas station/convenience store glittered at the far edge of town. Five or six pickup trucks were parked to the side of the building and teenagers milled around with sodas and cigarettes in their hands. Several boys leaned against the side of one truck and showed off in front of a couple of girls sitting on the open tailgate of another pickup. The girls swung their legs back and forth and smiled brightly at the boys. Seven pairs of eyes watched Eden drive up to the gas pump. The four boys stared out from under the brims of their cowboy hats and elbowed each other as Eden stepped out of the car. She smiled slightly in their direction and nodded as she slid the nozzle into her gas tank. The girls laughed and talked even louder after Deakin unfolded from the front seat and stretched before he headed into the store. Eden quickly followed to pick out snacks and drinks. The girls followed Deakin with their eyes and the boys watched each of Eden’s steps.
Eden then drove the car up next to the building and parked it under a bright floodlight. She and Deakin both forgot about their surroundings as he held the book up to the light. Deakin worked his way slowly through the pages, calling out letters for Eden to write down. When he’d finished the first book, he checked out the second one. This time he found several page numbers had been marked. Eden handed over her page of writing and he looked at the list of numbers first. 4 5 1 2 3 The numbers totaled up to eighteen which meant nothing to Deakin. They could be part of a phone number or an address. How about a birthday? 1/23/45 or 12/3/45. No light bulbs flashed above his head. He mutely held the paper out to Eden. She stared at the numbers blankly and shook her head.
“They could be anything, Deakin. The combination to a safe, the address of their lab, the license plate of their car, part of a Social Security number, a zip code, anything like that. Try the letters while I drive. We need to keep moving, you know.”
Deakin stared into the black desert behind the gas station. What he saw or felt caused a shiver to run through his body. He ran his hand over his face and looked again at the teenagers still leaning against the sides of the trucks. In another life, he would have been one of those boys, laughing and talking and trying to impress the girls. He smiled sadly at them, first feeling sorry for himself, for the childhood he’d missed. Then he looked into the clear eyes of the girl behind the wheel of the car and decided he really had the better deal out of life. Those boys and girls had no idea what the real world was like. They also didn’t know how they’d fare when it was time for them to take care of themselves. Deakin already knew he could fend for himself. He was living proof of it. He smiled slightly as he looked down at the page in his hand and stared at the line of letters Eden had written. They certainly didn’t form any words he could recognize. Several R’s and C’s and a K and some vowels. This was going to be difficult to unravel. Oh, well, as long as Eden was driving, he certainly had time to work on the puzzle in front of him.

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

Ray and Wendy soaked their bruised and cut feet in the privacy of their motel room. Neither one of them had made the inevitable call to announce the failure of their little foray into the wilderness. Darkness fell quickly in the valleys between the mountains and they’d stumbled up to the cabin just before the light disappeared. They’d dropped into the seats of their SUV with great sighs of relief and settled in to wait for Deakin and Eden to return for their car. Ray started the engine and turned on the heater to warm them up. The headlights automatically turned on and shone on the rocks and trees behind the cabin. It took them several minutes to realize that Deakin’s car was no longer parked in front of theirs. They jumped out and circled the cabin without any luck. Somehow, those two kids had beaten them back and driven away. Now they really had to confess their failure, but neither of them was in any hurry to do so.


Walt Rogers stood outside the large building on the campus of the University of Chicago. Two large men flanked him. Hefty blonde Sven Douglas and dark Albert Harris were menacing enough to scare 99% of the people they questioned. The other 1% were either too stupid to be scared or too tough to be scared of anything human. One doctor named Marianne Wolfe would surely fall in with the 99%. Walt brushed a few creases from his suit and entered the building with his escort. To his surprise, three security guards met them inside the front door and demanded to see their identification. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Walt handed over his identification and waited impatiently while his name was entered on some sign-in sheet. He then signed his name and started to walk away. The guards stopped him and made him wait while the other two men went through the same procedure. Then two of the guards patted the men down and ushered all three of them into a large conference room.
A heavyset woman with flecks of gray in her short black hair sat on the far side of the table with her hands held tensely in her lap. Her eyes darted from one man to the next until she’d decided she didn’t know them. Her voice carried easily in the room and she asked,
“Who are you and why are you here?”
Walt Rogers introduced himself and pulled out the chair directly across the table from the woman. “I assume you are Dr. Marianne Wolfe. I’ve been sent to ask you a few questions about the past. I hope you’ll answer them as truthfully as you can.” He smiled ingratiatingly at her.
Dr. Wolfe stared at the two men standing behind Walt’s chair and then at the security guards flanking the closed door. She nodded her head and pulled out a small voice-activated recorder.
“Would you please repeat your name and the number from your identification? And then the other two gentlemen can do the same. Then you can ask your questions and I will decide whether they can be answered or not.”
Walt stared at the tiny machine on the table in disbelief and said forcefully, “No recording. Uh-uh, no-no, not at all. My agency doesn’t allow the outside taping of any interrogation. You’ll just have to turn off that machine right now and then we can get on with business.”
Dr. Wolfe folded her hands in her lap and stared at the man across the table from her. The silence stretched to a breaking point. Walt’s two backup men broke first and shuffled their feet. They fidgeted with their jackets and jingled the change in their pockets. Walt shifted his position in his chair several times and tried to stare down the woman. The security guards shared tiny smiles over the discomfort of the men. They knew Dr. Wolfe very well and figured she could keep silent for a long time.
After just about the longest ten minutes of his life, Walt Rogers slammed his hand down on the table with a loud smack and said,
“Goddammit, what the hell is going on here? Turn off that damned machine so I can ask you some questions.”
Marianne Wolfe sat silently in her chair and contemplated Walt’s agitation. She’d made a mental bet with herself that he wouldn’t last fifteen minutes without speaking. He’d only lasted ten minutes. One point to her side. Next he’d probably damage her recorder and expect her to give in. He certainly hadn’t done his homework. Her last interrogation had left her with multiple fractures in both legs. What made this pathetic little man think he could make her talk if she chose not to?
Walt slowly stood up and leaned menacingly across the table. He stared into Dr. Wolfe’s calm eyes. What he read there made him angrier than before. He raised his hand to smash the recorder but the slither of guns being pulled from holsters stopped him in midair. Like some stupid beginner, he’d forgotten about the guards behind him. They must have thought he was about to hit the woman instead of the recorder. Walt slowly straightened up and walked stiffly to the door. His two satellites drifted in his wake. The guards kept their guns drawn while escorting the men from the building. Marianne Wolfe waited until they had left the room before she shook the tension from her neck and reached for her metal crutches. She slowly pulled herself to her feet and inched her way to the door. Maybe those men really would leave her alone this time, but she wasn’t going to hold her breath.
Marianne waited until she was seated behind the desk in her own office before she popped the cassette from the recorder and dropped it into her briefcase. Then she pulled out her cell phone and punched in a long series of numbers.
“Mala, dear, this is Marianne. Some dreadful little man came to see me but he never got around to asking me any questions. There was some sort of disagreement with the security guards. He will probably follow me when I leave here so pick somewhere safe for us to meet. I will wait in my office to hear from you.”


Walt Rogers smacked his hand on the roof of his car until the palm turned red and stung like crazy. Then he sent Sven and Harris to stake out different campus exits. He planned to wait here for Dr. Wolfe to leave her office. His plan changed when a security car pulled up beside him and asked him to move his car to another parking lot. He swallowed his anger and meekly drove off the campus, turned around, and returned to his original position. Surely the good doctor would leave before the guards drove past again. This time he slid down in the driver’s seat and kept one eye on the front door of the building and one eye on the rear view mirror. After an hour, he started his car and drove around the campus looking for the Mercedes-Benz registered to Dr. Wolfe. He finally found it parked next to a van with a Press card on the dashboard. A sign on the door said it belonged to The Journal of Applied Physics. As he watched, a man walked out of the building and unlocked the van. He pulled out a stack of glossy magazines and carried them into the building. He returned for another load about ten minutes later. The man brushed his thick brown hair out of his eyes and looked around the parking lot before locking his van and disappearing into the building.
More security guards showed up and this time they escorted Walt off the campus and asked him not to return. He sent Sven in to watch the doctor’s car while he waited outside the main entrance to the campus. Sven watched the Mercedes for thirty minutes before Walt thought to ask him if the van was still parked next to it.
“God damn it, why didn’t you tell me it was gone?”
“What the hell do you mean, Walt? I called you when I got into position but you never answered. So I’ve been watching the Mercedes every since. Anyway, how could I tell you it was gone if I never knew it was there in the first place? Why didn’t you ask about it before now?”
Walt narrowed his eyes and stared fixedly at the small phone in his hand. He finally shook off his thoughts and said, “Oh, just forget it, Sven. Let’s get out of here. We have to find the office of that journal.”


Ian Nelms and Marianne Wolfe had waited until Walt had been shepherded away before they walked slowly to the van. Mala Allen helped Marianne into the back of the van with her and they drove away.
Mala held Marianne’s hand tightly and turned her head away so her old friend wouldn’t see the tears sliding down her cheeks. Ian Nelms glanced at the two women and asked,
“Where are we going? My office and my apartment are out.”
Mala looked questioningly at Marianne and waited for her to speak. “I’d say a change of car is the first order of business. I’m sure that man saw the sign on the door. Park the van in its regular place and we’ll take the train to a friend’s house out by Argonne. He’s been searching for Marina since I first heard from you. Hopefully, he’ll have some news for us.”
Mala fidgeted in her seat and then asked, “Can we trust him? Are you sure he’ll keep our secrets?”
Marianne Wolfe patted the small hand clasped tightly in her own. “Don’t worry, little one. He hasn’t given anything away yet. His name is Martin and he’s my son.”
“I didn’t know you had children. How old is he and where has he been all this time?”
“Don’t be so credulous, Mala. Evan and I were the eldest of the group. It wasn’t anyone’s business but my own, so I never told anyone about Martin. He lived with his father until I recovered enough to take up teaching again. Now he works at Argonne and has been borrowing their computers to search for Helena’s sister.”

Mala, Ian and Martin hurried from the warm terminal at the Seattle airport and jumped into the taxi at the curb. They huddled in separate corners as the taxi slowly churned its way through the icy slush to the address Martin had found in the State Department files. Marina Rimchova had never left the Seattle area. She had married, changed her name, and moved to a new address. Marina Kirk supposedly lived with her husband Wilson and their three children on a quiet street in Seattle. Mala had left a message on her voice mail but had received no reply.
Martin jumped out of the taxi and carefully navigated the slushy sidewalk up to the neat brick house with lights shining out into the grayness of late afternoon. A child answered the door and held the door open in invitation. Martin waved to the other two in the taxi. The three of them stamped their feet on the mat inside the door and waited in silence for someone else to speak. A small dark woman stood in the doorway to the kitchen. She wore the brightly patterned scrubs of a nurse and glanced fearfully around at the three school-age children watching TV in the living room. Finally, she motioned the three people into her kitchen and busied herself making hot tea for them. Without a word she set cups on the kitchen table along with a plate of moist dark spice bread.
Marina nervously twisted her wedding ring around and around her finger as she asked, “What are you doing here? My children don’t know anything about what happened so long ago and my husband doesn’t want to remember it. We have a good life. Please go away and forget about me.”
Mala reached out and placed her hand over Marina’s and said, “We had to come. Things are starting to happen again and we want to stop it all. Dr. Phillips has already been contacted and so have I. This young man is Marianne Wolfe’s son, Martin. Three men visited her just yesterday but found out nothing from her. This other man is Ian Nelms and he has been helping me hunt for you. We’re hoping you know some little something that could help us find what Helena and Alex hid away.”
Tears formed in Marina’s eyes and slowly slid down her cheeks. “But I never knew anything about their work. The only thing of theirs I ever had was their son and those horrible men took him away from me. Why is this starting all over again? Fifteen years is a very long time. Surely their work is of no interest to any one anymore.”
Ian Nelms cleared his throat and said, pedantically, “Well, it’s true that a lot of new ideas have been introduced during those years, but their research could still be the pivotal point for a great many new applications. One of the original group of scientists still works at Los Alamos trying to duplicate Helena’s process, but he hasn’t been successful. But that’s all beside the point. They’re not the ones who’ve rekindled the interest. It’s the boy who’s started it all over again.”
Marina looked at the three people in bewilderment. “What boy? What do you mean?”
Mala said softly, “Why, Alex and Helena’s son, of course. Deakin has come back to life and seems to be asking a lot of questions. We have no idea where he’s been or how he found out about his parents. None of us have even seen him. Evan Phillips heard from him in a roundabout way and told him to get in touch with me. After Evan called me, I immediately left for Chicago to consult with Ian and Marianne. A strange boy, who swore he was only a friend of Deakin’s, got a message through to me and I faxed a letter to Deakin telling him I was looking for you, dear. I don’t think he would have followed me to Chicago. Shall I call the number I was given and leave a message for Deakin? Should he call me or meet us or what?”
Into the silence that followed, Martin Wolfe spoke for the first time. “I’m just a little confused. Just exactly how old is this Deakin? And what does he think he can actually find after all these years?”
Marina raised her head and said with amazement, “Deakin must be almost eighteen years old. Where has he been all this time? Who did he live with? What kind of person is he?”
“Slow down, Marina. We don’t know the answers and it really doesn’t matter either. The only thing that matters is that someone out there wants to stop him. They either don’t want him to find out anything or they want to control his search. They obviously think he might find some of the records Helena hid away. Our next question is: do we help the boy with his search or do we disassociate ourselves from the whole situation?”
The two women stared at Ian and both spoke at once.
“Of course, we have to help the boy.”
Martin broke into the conversation. “There is no ‘of course’ about it at all. My mother was involved in the first investigation and she has never gotten over it. Mrs. Kirk has a husband and three children. She can’t actively risk their lives for this. What we need from Mrs. Kirk is her memories of the last time she saw her sister, what they talked about, what Helena brought with her, that sort of thing. Then, we walk out of her life as if we never existed. If this whole deal ends well and we find Deakin, we’ll bring him for a visit. But, for right now, we need facts.”
Martin pulled a small recorder out of his jacket pocket and set it on the table. “Shall I ask you questions to begin with?”
Marina shook her head decisively. She brushed the cake crumbs on the table into a small pile and then said, in a hollow voice,
“Helena came to my apartment one night. I lived by myself then. Alex was not with her but she brought the baby. She only stayed one night. Late the next afternoon she drove back to Los Angeles by herself. Deakin was almost a year old by then and crawling all over the floor. Helena brought clothes, bottles, toys, and a few books. Mostly she told me about the baby and what he liked and didn’t like. Just before she left, she said she was afraid to keep him with her. Her work was getting very serious and she was spending more and more time away from home. Then she said, ‘Just like father.’ I didn’t ask her any questions after that.”
Martin looked at her quizzically, and asked, “Why not?”
Marina waved her hand in the air. “Oh, that was a very bad time in our childhood. Our father was a scientist in the Soviet Union. I never even knew what he was working on. I just remember that he rarely came home and when he did show up, he was sick and worried. He would just sit in a chair and stare at us while he struggled to breathe. He must have been asthmatic or had emphysema but he never stopped working. One day I realized I hadn’t seen him in quite a long time and I understood he was gone. I didn’t really know ‘death’ but I knew people disappeared and never came back. Mother took care of the three of us. My other sister Leah still lives in Russia. I haven’t seen her in over twenty years. Mother was very frightened of Helena’s intelligence. She didn’t want her to disappear also so she made her hide her abilities but it was too hard for Helena. All Helena wanted to do was to come to the United States to study and work. Mother made me come with her so she wouldn’t be so alone. I stayed with her until she met Alex. I went to Seattle to get away from what she was doing. It frightened me terribly and I was afraid she would disappear too. And she did. I don’t know anything about what she was working on so I can’t help you at all. I don’t want to know what you’re doing either. I just want to know one thing. How is Deakin? I would like to see him sometime. He was such a beautiful baby and so smart too. He learned to talk very quickly and I taught him little rhymes. I was starting to teach him some Russian words when they took him away. Horrible, horrible men just smashed down my door and grabbed up the baby and took him away. They wouldn’t even let me pack up all his toys and clothes. Later on, a woman and a man came to get the baby’s things but I lied to them and said I’d already thrown them away. I kept them for a while until I came to understand that Deakin was never coming back, just like my father and my sister. I packed up everything and gave it all away. Why? What good would those old things be to you?”
Mala looked tiredly across the table and shook her head. “I don’t know what help any of that would be but we have to look. Do you have anything at all that belonged to your sister or to her son? Anything. A picture, a piece of paper, a memory of some favorite place or time.”
Marina pushed herself away from the table and stood up. She left the room for a few minutes and returned carrying a small shoebox. She set it on the table and untied the string looped around it. Then she carefully lifted the lid and looked inside. She slid the box across to Mala and busied herself at the stove, making another pot of hot tea. Mala reached inside the box and pulled out a small pile of papers. She spread them out on the table and carefully read each one. Yellowed newspaper cuttings told the bald tale of the accident that killed Helena and Alex. There were several dark photographs of a lovely woman with long dark hair in a single heavy braid playing on the floor with a happy baby. Martin quickly took the pictures from Mala and held them under the light. He checked the backs and read the date written in tiny figures.
“Was this the last time you saw your sister? Is this when she brought you the baby?”
Marina nodded her head sadly. “Yes, I sent her copies of those pictures and some others. Oh, not of the baby but ones from when we were children. I took those pictures because I was afraid Helena would go away and I’d never see her again. I wanted to make sure her son would know what his mother looked like. I didn’t say all this to Helena but she knew why I did it. She knew because there was no other reason for her to bring me her baby.”
Mala held up another picture of a laughing young couple. On the back was written “Alex and Helena.” Then she unfolded a birth certificate for Deakin Alex Kimbrough complete with footprint.
Marina looked up from pouring hot water into the teapot and said, “We will need that to make sure the boy really is my sister’s son.”
Mala folded it carefully and then replaced it in the box. One more memento lay in the bottom of the box and she pulled it out. She stared at the envelope with the signature scrawled over the sealed flap on the back. A piece of clear tape covered the edge of the flap and crossed the signature. Helena had left this envelope for someone. Mala turned it over and read the name written on the front. Alex, you’ll need this some day. I love you, Helena. Then in parentheses underneath her name, Helena had written For Deakin if Alex is gone.
Mala looked at her friends in confusion. “Do we open this or do we leave it here? Do we take it with us to give to Deakin when he finds us? Marina, what do you wish?”
“I wish it were all over. Since it isn’t over, I will keep the photographs and the birth certificate. You are three very strong people so you take the envelope and give it to the boy who says he is Deakin. If you are uncertain about him, then we will use the birth certificate for proof. Now, would you please go away? My husband will be home soon and he will be very angry if he finds you here.”
Mala slipped the envelope into her bag and walked out of the room with Ian and Martin, leaving the small dark-haired woman sitting at the table and staring at the steam rising from her teacup. One hand rested on the small shoebox but her mind was years in the past. None of them spoke until they were blocks away from Marina’s home and then it was only a question about where to go next.
Martin answered the question by asking the cab driver to take them to a car rental office. Los Angeles was their next destination but he didn’t want to fly there. He also desperately wanted to open the envelope. Maybe it would say where Helena had hidden the computer disks. Then they would have something to deal with and Martin could make those men leave his mother alone forever.

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

Deakin pulled off the highway near the outskirts of Phoenix and handed the reins over to Eden. He might feel comfortable driving on the open road but the crowded highways of the huge city in front of them still frightened him. Eden threaded her way through the heavy traffic in the city and turned north on the highway to Sedona. Deakin had already searched the Internet for any information about their quarry, Dr. Gretchen Falk. He’d found an address for the woman and then visited a travel site for directions to her house. The sun slipped behind a large hill as they drove north. The red rocks and dirt reflected the dying rays of the sun. Eden rolled down her window and sniffed the air as they drove higher into the mountains of northern Arizona. The cool smell of pine trees brought a smile to her face and she remembered other visits to the mountains when she’d been a child. Why hadn’t she been living in the mountains for the last two years of her life? She could have gone to college anywhere in the United States, so why had she chosen to stay in her own city? Was she that attached to her family? Obviously not. She hadn’t called them in days and days. When she and Deakin had finished their quest for information, she thought she’d try living somewhere else for a change. Maybe Boulder or Seattle or even back East somewhere. She glanced through the deepening dusk at the boy sitting next to her. The reflection from the computer screen turned his face an unhealthy gray and drained the life from his eyes. Then he sensed her gaze and smiled into her eyes. She nodded at him and reinforced her decision with one addition. She would take Deakin with her wherever she went. That was now a ‘given.’
Eden drove carefully in the thick traffic heading along the two-lane highway into the resort town of Sedona. She followed the directions past the center of town and off through a canyon between two large peaks. Small patches of snow lay in the shadowed areas under the trees and at the sides of the road. Narrow unpaved roads ran off into the woods and rustic cabins appeared in clearings as she crept along the two-lane road. Deakin called out directions and Eden watched the tenths click off on the odometer. She gestured for Deakin to keep an eye out for a small road to their left. Deakin waved quickly toward a break in the brush but Eden didn’t have time to turn. She slowed down and turned into the next road. She backed up and turned around just as another car whipped around the curve and headed straight for the front of their car. She gunned the car back into the driveway she’d just left and watched in stunned amazement as the car slid around the next curve and whisked out of sight. She turned her head toward Deakin and all he saw was a collection of circles. Her eyes were as wide open in amazement as her mouth, but no sound emerged. Eden closed her mouth with a snap and drove quickly away. She turned her head to look at the smooth expanse of snow covering the road they should take. Then she shook her head and drove carefully back into town to look for a motel. Deakin started to protest and then gave in without a word. Maybe they did need a better plan of attack. Their enemies had been waiting for them every time and he had no reason to think this one would be any different. They’d probably been very rash to drive directly out to Dr. Falk’s house in the first place.
After a decent night’s sleep, Eden stared out at the bright winter sunshine. Before long the snow they’d seen would have melted and they wouldn’t leave a clear trail right up to Dr. Falk’s front door. Eden picked up the phone and called the number Alden had given them. Soon the brusque clipped voice of their quarry demanded a message but gave no indication that she’d return any calls. Eden recorded a short message on the machine but no phone number, only a promise to call back. She then shook Deakin awake and pushed him toward the shower while she pored over the maps she’d picked up in the motel lobby.
Deakin begged and pleaded and whined until Eden grudgingly pulled into the only McDonald’s in the world without bright yellow arches. The Sedona city government had stuck to its guns and refused permits for anything other than teal arches. If they’d had a camera, Deakin would have forced Eden to take his picture next to them.
After breakfast they drove back out the mountain highway and turned into the unplowed dirt road that disappeared into a stand of tall straight evergreen trees. Eden drove carefully into the grove of trees and reluctantly stopped in front of a padlocked metal gate. A large red sign on the gate read: NO TRESPASSING. Eden leaned her chin on the steering wheel and stared at the sign in disgust. Deakin jumped out his door and surveyed the padlock. His head jerked around at the sound of an approaching car and he stared intently at the road behind them. A vehicle had turned into the road but had stopped in the trees where he couldn’t see it. He gestured for Eden to turn their car around and to drive slowly toward the highway while he watched from the side of the road. He moved from tree trunk to tree trunk as Eden inched along the road. Deakin held up his hand to stop her when he caught sight of a black SUV parked sideways across the entrance to the road. Eden gunned her car in reverse and nailed the sign on the gate with her back bumper. The gate crumpled and pulled the hinges away from the gatepost. Deakin dragged the gate out of the way until Eden drove inside the fence. Then he dragged it back into the middle of the road and jumped in with Eden.
“I hope someone is home, Eden, ‘cos we sure can’t go back this way. Do you think she might have a back road?”
Eden waved away his question and concentrated on the rutted path in front of her. It led them around the base of a large mountain and into a small valley surrounded by huge rocks and tall slender trees. Deakin peered between the tree trunks and whooped when he spotted a well-camouflaged cabin in the distance. Eden followed the deep ruts around the back of the cabin and pulled up next to a locked garage. The windows were shuttered and the only human sounds they heard came from the SUV following them along the dirt road. Deakin jumped out of the car and climbed nimbly onto the wide porch encircling the cabin. He methodically checked every door and window until he’d completed the entire circuit of the cabin. Eden tried to break into the garage but that was a bust too. Deakin dropped noiselessly from the porch and grabbed Eden’s hand. He pulled her into the woods cloaking the side of the mountain behind the cabin. They walked quickly but carefully through the trees, making sure they left no footprints in the drifts of snow that still covered the shaded ground under the trees and in the shadows of the rocks.
Deakin pulled Eden behind a huge boulder and climbed to the top of the rock. He shaded his eyes against the bright sun and scanned the area around the cabin. The truck was now parked behind their car and two people moved in and out of Deakin’s view as they too tried to enter the cabin. The woman was muffled in a puffy down jacket with a scarf wrapped around her neck and head. She stood on the front steps and stamped her feet to keep them warm. Her mouth moved constantly but Deakin heard no sound but the wind rustling through the tops of the trees. The man stopped in front of her and yelled in her face. He shook his fist at her. She stood her ground and slapped his fist away. The fist dropped away but was immediately replaced by his left hand. Deakin heard the slap of the man’s palm against the woman’s cheek and saw her reel back against the stair railing. The man stalked off and assaulted the front door of the cabin. Eden hissed at Deakin and waved him down from the rock. She pointed across the small valley at a thin streak of smoke drifting out of a circle of huge boulders. Deakin immediately headed along the side of the mountain. He didn’t want to cross the center of the valley unless there was no other choice. Eden grabbed the tail of his jacket and pointed out a small game trail that angled off in their general direction. A loud clanging alarm from the cabin behind them brought both their heads up in astonishment and they dived swiftly down the game trail. Eden kept her hold on Deakin’s jacket and used his back to screen her face from the onslaught of thin slashing branches from the trees they rushed past. They passed several other game trails that branched off up and down the mountain but they stayed on the largest one. A tiny seasonal creek crossed the path and Eden saw the mingled prints of many small animals who’d dropped in for happy hour. Now the trail angled to their right and the ground flattened out as they slipped through the bushes and trees that covered the far end of the small valley.
Deakin pulled Eden into the shadow of another large rock that had rolled off the mountain in ages past. She dropped to the bare ground and rubbed her calves. She loudly sucked in the thin mountain air as Deakin clambered up on the rock but could see nothing. After a few minutes, he pulled Eden to her feet and they took off jogging along the trail. Deakin stopped at the treeline and stared out across a meadow of tall brown grass and low bare bushes. Eden walked into his back and rested against him as he scanned the area. Their trail ran across the open end of the meadow. Eden finally stepped up next to Deakin and checked out their options. They could now smell the smoke that drifted up out of the rocks and trees about half a mile across the valley floor from where they stood. Eden looked back down the valley toward the cabin but the side of the mountain obscured her view. She looked down at the blinding yellow parka she wore and shivered as she took it off. She stuffed it under a rock with small twigs and branches covering it. Her pond green sweater and dark jeans blended in with the brush around her. She stepped around Deakin and walked to the left along the treeline at the edge of the meadow. Deakin followed her into the dappled shadows of the trees. His black windbreaker and jeans mimicked the long thin lines of the trees. They walked all around the edge of the meadow until they stood against the slope of the next mountain. Eden clambered up the rough ground until she had a view of the whole valley. She could even see the cabin. The SUV had either driven away or had been parked out of sight behind the cabin. Nothing and no one moved through the grass of the meadow. Someone could be following their trail between the rocks but Eden couldn’t see through the trees. The thin spiral of smoke lay ahead of them in a small clearing in a grove of trees. Eden could barely see the roof of a tiny cabin. She pointed it out to Deakin and then studied the area for the best path. Finally, she slid off the rock and just walked off in the right direction. The closer they got to the clearing, the harder their task was. Large boulders covered the area and impenetrable thorn bushes filled in the gaps between the rocks. Deakin finally took the point position and dragged Eden around the thorn bushes, through a small frigid swampy area, and into the snarling jaws of a large unfriendly dog.
Deakin froze in mid-step and Eden cannoned into his back. She peered around at the bared teeth of the large German shepherd and then huddled behind Deakin. Deakin carefully set his foot down on the ground and spoke softly to the dog. Nonsense syllables slipped easily from his mouth. The dog finally stood down from attention and warily backed up a step or two. Deakin held out his hand with his palm down and held still until the dog inched forward to check him out. The snap of breaking twigs instantly brought the dog into his stiff-legged guard mode. His lips lifted to showcase an impressive set of sharp yellow teeth and a growl started low in his throat. Deakin slowly straightened up and scanned the brush behind the dog. Eden caught the first glimpse of the dog’s owner. The brush to the right of the dog rustled slightly and two large hiking boots appeared beneath the lowest branch. Eden followed the line of legs until she could make out the shadowed form of a man. A muffled shout and the slither of rocks down the side the mountain behind them brought four heads up to listen. Eden and Deakin looked quickly behind them and then turned to face the dog. A tall thin man with a long silver ponytail now stood with his hand resting on the dog’s head.
The man shifted his cool gray gaze to the mountainside behind them. Then, without a word, he gestured for the two young people to follow him. He led them along a faint path through the brush and then on a twisty path through a natural boulder fence. He walked straight into the door of a small handmade cabin and disappeared inside. The dog posted himself by the side of the door. Deakin and Eden stared at each other and then, with visible shrugs of their shoulders, walked slowly and silently through the cabin door. One large cluttered room unfolded in front of them. One corner of the room contained a handmade wooden bed covered with a brightly patterned quilt. A small kitchen with a woodburning stove filled another corner. A third corner held a chair, a footstool, a hanging kerosene lamp, and a braided rug on the smooth wood floor. The rest of the cabin was filled to the brim with woodworking tools and various works in progress. The larger of the works had spilled out the far door into a large clearing paved with flagstones from the surrounding mountains. Sunlight spilled crazily in through windows set at different angles in every wall. Eden counted eight windows in the wall directly in front of her. Each one of them was a different shape and size and set at different heights. As Eden turned in a complete circle, she realized the man had just recycled every window he could find. There were windows from old wooden houses, fixed windows from office buildings, several small church windows, windows that slid up and down, windows that cranked open and shut, windows set at floor level, windows set above eye-level, windows set at odd angles, and tiny one-foot square windows up to four foot by six foot plate glass windows. Eden smiled widely and walked to the center of the room to stand in a large pool of light. She reached out to her right and ran her finger lightly along the back of a carved statue of a hawk sitting on a branch. The wood felt almost liquid under her finger. She spied more statues in the clutter of the workroom. Tiny carved field mice sat in nests of wood shavings and wooden lizards peered from behind tools. A large tree trunk with rudimentary carvings on it stood outside on the flagstones. Some day it would be shaped into an amazing totem pole.
The room darkened behind Eden and she turned to see the tall thin man closing the door. Then he unrolled heavy canvas shades down the wall of windows shutting out the light. He continued around the room covering the windows and latching the other door. In the sudden gloom, he said,
“Insulation to keep out the cold. Maybe it’ll keep out those other people if they make it this far. Why do they want you?”
Deakin stepped forward and said, “Bad guys have been following me all my life. I lost them for a few years but they’re back now. I’m Deakin and this is Eden. Who are you? We came to talk to Dr. Falk and they followed us. Do you know Dr. Falk? Do you know where she is? There wasn’t anyone at her cabin.”
A small amount of light flowed from the wood-burning stove and Eden could almost see the tall man in the darkness. He crossed his arms across his chest and contemplated his two visitors.
“I’m Neal. Why on earth are you looking for Gretchen? She doesn’t ever have any visitors. She doesn’t want any.”
A small sigh escaped from Deakin and he smiled slightly. “At least we’re in the right area. You do know her. Can you tell us where she is right now? It’s kinda important.”
The man turned his back on them and fiddled with a kerosene lamp on his kitchen table. After he had lit the lamp and trimmed the wick, he said,
“I didn’t say I knew her. Maybe I just know of her.”
Deakin shook his head decisively. “Uh-uh, Neal, you called her by her first name and you know something about her private life and you live close to her. You must be her friend.”
The man stared at them with his cool gray eyes and finally said, “Gretchen has no real friends. She’s too frightened of people. She’s my stepsister but I lost track of her for a long time. I don’t know what happened to her years ago and I don’t think I want to know. The only thing I do know is that she could never go through it again. She’s way too damaged inside. She’d probably kill herself first. Why do you want to talk to her?”
Deakin drooped against the workbench and shook his head. “It’s a long story and you just said you didn’t want to know about the past. She used to work with my parents and we only want to ask for her help. If she doesn’t want to help us, then we leave. That’s it.”
Eden watched the man’s work-roughened hands pick up a small piece of wood and begin to rub it. Neal then stepped around her and moved to the door. The dog’s growling escalated into sharp loud barks. Eden grabbed Deakin’s hand and pulled him to the far side of the workbench. Neal opened the door and laid his hand on the dog’s head. His mouth quirked into a slightly off-center smile as he listened to the breaking of branches and the slither of rocks out beyond his line of boulders. Angry voices rose above the bushes and reverberated off the rocks.
“Goddammit, Wendy, where the hell are you? I can’t see one damned thing. Are you sure this is the way they came? We’re never going to find our way back to that cabin.”
“Shut up, you asshole. It sure isn’t my fault we lost those kids.”
“Are you saying it’s my fault? Who said we should follow them? Who said they couldn’t go far? Who said we’d catch them in a few minutes? You did, that’s who! So, you goddamned genius, where the hell are they? Oh, and by the way, where the hell are we?”
Just then the man literally fell into the clearing in front of Neal’s cabin. The dog bounced on stiff legs toward the man crumpled in the dirt and growled loudly in his face. The man yelled and clawed in his pocket for his gun. A rifle had appeared in Neal’s hands and he jacked the slide to load it. That sound reached the man’s ears over and above the growling of the dog and he stared up into the grim face of the man standing behind the dog.
“Drop that gun, mister, and I might tell you where the hell you are right now. That’s good, now slide it under the dog’s belly. Good, good. Now, you can sit right there on the ground and tell me what you’re doing in my front yard, other than trying to kill my dog.”
Neal held the rifle on the man while he slowly squatted down to pick up the handgun. Then he listened to the frantic cries of the woman as she struggled through the brush. Neal called to her in a loud voice,
“Go to your left, lady, around that tall red rock. Then you’ll see a path through the rest of the rocks. Don’t forget to raise your hands above your head too. I’ve already taken your buddy’s gun and I’ll be happy to take yours too. Now, don’t stop or I’ll have to send the dog in after you.”
The woman finally clattered through the rocks and stepped into the clearing with her hands raised. She threw a murderous look at her partner and quickly joined him on the ground while the dog bared his teeth at her.
“Slip your gun out onto the ground, please, and slide it over to me.”
The woman smiled brightly at Neal and held her hands palm up. “But I don’t have a gun. I’ve never carried a gun in my life.”
A half-smile tugged at the corner of Neal’s mouth as he said, “Yeah, and I don’t have one either. Reach in with one hand and slide it out. I won’t even threaten to kill your friend here if you don’t do it. I’ll just shoot you and let the dog take care of him.”
The woman shook her blonde hair away from her face and said again, “But I already told you I don’t have a gun.”
Neal considered her for a minute and then said sharply, “Stand up, right now.”
The woman scrambled to her feet and began lowering her hands.
Neal gestured with the barrel of the rifle. “Strip, then. All the way down to nothing. Then I’ll be sure you aren’t armed.”
The woman’s mouth dropped open and she stared around in bewilderment. “What … what do you mean?”
“Lady, I’m getting real tired of this conversation. Start taking off your clothes, all of them, right now.”
A dark, sullen look clamped down on her face and she glared at him. Her right hand dug into the pocket of her parka and jerked out a small revolver. She tossed it petulantly into the dirt about five feet left of his foot. Neal never took his eyes off the pair of them as he kicked the gun backward toward the doorway to the cabin.
This time he smiled at the two intruders and said, “Now, take off your boots. Yes, that’s exactly what I said. Okay, you can stand up and walk out of here. I keep your guns and your boots and you get to leave. It’s a good trade. I don’t know why you tried to break into my cabin and I don’t really want to know why. Tell it to someone who cares. Just, get out of here now and don’t come back. This is private property and you’re trespassing. Hey, look on the bright side. I didn’t take your socks too.”
The man took two steps across the weeds and the rocks and turned back to glare at Neal. “You won’t get away with this. You can’t do this to us. We’re federal agents and I’ll have your ass thrown in jail so fast and so far you won’t see the light of day for years and years.”
Wendy shoved him along the path through the rocks and gingerly picked her way behind him. Neal stood guard until the sound of their voices receded into the murmur of the wind in the trees. Then he locked the door of the cabin behind him and dropped the handguns into a wooden toolbox under the workbench.
“Are those the people who have been following you around?”
Deakin and Eden stepped out of the shadows into the welcoming light of the lamp. Eden smiled at Neal and said,
“Thank you very much. Actually, we’ve never seen those two ever before. How many others have seen by now, Deakin? Twenty, thirty, forty?”
Deakin threw his arm around Eden’s shoulders and shook her lightly. “Don't exaggerate, Eden. Neal will quit believing what we tell him. My best guess would be around ten different people that I’ve seen.” The animation and laughter left his face for a fraction and he hugged Eden hard as he whispered. “I wonder how many others there are out there, waiting for us.”
Eden picked up his despair and leaned slackly against his chest for a minute or two. Then she took a deep breath and turned a calm face toward Neal. “If you can’t point us toward Dr. Falk, can you at least get us back to our car? It’s parked behind Dr. Falk’s cabin.”
Neal stared seriously at the young woman in front of him and then into the eyes of the young man. He shook his head angrily and said,
“I can’t give Gretchen up to you. She gave me this land and I watch out for her in return. All I know is that someone called her a few days ago and upset her totally. She was almost incoherent with fright. She mentioned a few names, uh, something with an M. Maybe Molly and Marian and Alex. Do those mean anything to you?”
Deakin and Eden nodded to each other and then to Neal. “Is that everything she said?”
Neal shook his head. “She gave me something to hold for her. She said I should give it to some preacher boy. I’m guessing you’re the one, son. Look on that shelf behind you. It’s wrapped in brown paper.”
Deakin felt along the shelf until his fingers touched the package. He brushed the dust from it and carried it into the light. He ripped the brown paper and two children’s books dropped onto the table. Deakin opened one and saw his own name written neatly inside the cover. He turned the page and realized he held an alphabet book. A is for Apple. The other was a book of nursery rhymes. There he found The Itsy-Bitsy Spider and Four and Twenty Blackbirds and One, Two, Buckle my Shoe. He clutched the two books and turned away from Eden and Neal. Eden caught sight of a small tear sliding down his cheek but she made no move to touch him. Deakin had finally made tangible contact with his parents and she had no place in his memories.
Neal tugged on her arm and pulled her into the kitchen. He quickly made a pot of hot tea and handed Eden a box of cookies. The two of them sat down at the table and waited for Deakin to join them. When he dropped into the chair beside Eden, he still clutched the two children’s books to his chest.
“Why did your sister have these books? Who gave them to her?”
Neal pushed a cup of tea across the table and said, with a sigh, “I don’t know the answer to any of your questions, boy. Gretchen had that package hidden in the attic of her cabin. She just said she was afraid and she couldn’t talk to anyone about it. She gave it to me because she thought I was stronger than she was now. She’s right too. At one time, she was the stronger one and I followed the lifestyle known as ‘better living through chemistry.’ Drugs, you innocent children, drugs conceived in laboratories. Now, I live out here by myself and watch over the sister who helped me change. Those little books made her cry too. Take them away from here. Later on, I’ll head out into the mountains and find my sister and bring her back home. She’ll be safe until then. Tuck those books under your sweater and let’s go. I’ll take you back to your car and get you safely away too. Then we can forget all about each other, okay?”