“Wait,” Monk said.
Carlucci turned back. He was surprised to see Monk smiling, though it was a strange and twisted smile. “I’m waiting,” he said.
“I didn’t know you had the balls to do something like this,” Monk said. “I would have bet against it.”
Carlucci just shook his head. “It has nothing to do with balls.”
He turned back to the door and pulled himself out of the van and onto the tarmac. He half expected Monk to call him back again, but the slug didn’t speak. Reynoso was waiting about ten yards away.
The chopping sound of a helicopter came from the north, growing louder, and Carlucci looked up to see a dark blue private helicopter approaching Hunter’s Point. He watched the copter come in, pass overhead, then slowly descend in the middle of the empty parking lot. No one emerged from the cabin until the blades had come to a complete stop and the helicopter was silent. Carlucci was not surprised to see Yoshi Katsuda step out onto the pavement.
Katsuda was accompanied by two large men who flanked him close on either side. Carlucci wondered if those were the same two men who had been with him when he had killed his daughter. Katsuda and the two men walked steadily toward him and the van, but stopped when they were still twenty or thirty feet away. Carlucci had the sinking feeling he was not going to be able to get close enough to him.
“Good morning, Lieutenant,” Katsuda said, smiling. He was wearing one of his business suits, which meant they hadn’t come directly from the courthouse.
“I see you took the time to change out of your prison clothes.”
“They were not my style.”
“What were the conditions of your release on bail?” Carlucci asked.
Katsuda shrugged, but didn’t answer.
“Even McAdamas would not have released you without any conditions. You were certainly ordered not to leave the court’s jurisdiction.”
“That’s true,” Katsuda said, “but you have no jurisdiction here whatsoever.”
“You’re attempting to leave San Francisco illegally.”
“I already have.” He smiled again. “I am a fugitive from justice. But it doesn’t matter. You can’t do anything about it. My two assistants will not allow it, nor will Security here. I’m surprised they allowed you onto the grounds.”
“It was a favor,” Carlucci said. “Cooperation between security agencies. And I promised not to cause trouble.” As he spoke, he tried to take a couple of casual steps closer, but he saw the two men tense. It was going to be impossible to get within reach of Katsuda.
“Then I assume you will honor your promise.”
“The way you honor yours?”
“I am not an honorable man, Lieutenant. You are.” And with that he started walking toward the Security building, the two of her men sticking close and watching Carlucci. “Will you be returning for your trial?” Carlucci asked. Katsuda chuckled, and Carlucci watched as he walked the rest of the way to the building and then went inside.
“Lieutenant!” It was Monk’s voice from inside the van.
“What?”
“Come here. I have a proposition for you.”
He turned wearily toward the van, walked up to it, and put his head in through the side doorway. “What, Monk?”
“You’ve got another syringe in that case, yes? Loaded with active Core Fever virus? Meant for Yoshi Katsuda?”
“Yes,” he answered. He saw no point in lying about it. “You will never get close enough to him.”
“I know that.”
“But I will.” Monk was grinning that twisted grin of his again.
“What are you saying?”
“Leave it with me. I can get it aboard with all the rest of my medical stuff. And I’ll make sure Katsuda gets it. Maybe not right away, but sometime in the next few days, I’ll have the opportunity. I will make the opportunity.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I don’t like the man,” Monk said. “I never have.” His face took on something like a grim expression. “I’ve never had a daughter,” he went on. “And it is now physically impossible for me to have one. But I know this. A father does not kill his own daughter, not for any reason. You are a good father, Lieutenant, and you are one hell of a good cop. You’ve earned it.” He paused. “I may be a dead man, and it may be at your hands, but you’ve earned it. That’s why I would do it.”
He didn’t have to think about it long. As had happened every time they’d met, Monk once again surprised him. He took the case out of his coat pocket, crawled into the van and toward the back, and handed it to Monk. They looked at each other for a few moments, then Carlucci worked his way back to the side door and got out.
He stood by the side of the van for a minute, watching Katsuda inside the Security building, then started walking toward the gate and the mob pressing against the fence. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to go home.
CHAPTER 50
He stood with Caroline and Cage at the edge of the roof, six stories above the street, and looked out on the deserted ruins of the Core. It had been three days since his encounters with Monk and Katsuda out at Hunter’s Point. Not much had changed in the city. It was close to midnight, and a full moon shone brightly on the broken stone and concrete, flashing reflections from shattered glass and twisted metal. Nothing moved inside the Core.
“Whole neighborhoods of this city will look like this within a couple of years,” Cage said. “Whole neighborhoods of other cities, too.”
Carlucci shook his head. “You mean new ones. We’ve got a few areas like this right now, and L.A. already has entire neighborhoods that aren’t any better. Not to mention New York, Chicago, Detroit, East St. Louis—”
“All right, all right,” Cage said. “I take your point. New ones, more of them. Neighborhoods that right now seem alive and normal.”
Normal. Carlucci wasn’t sure that anything constituted a normal life anymore.
“Maybe they’ll be able to improve the vaccine,” Caroline said. There seemed to be real hope in her voice.
“It might take years,” Cage replied. “It’s foolish to hope too much.”
“But sometimes that’s all we’ve got,” she said.
Carlucci looked at his daughter and smiled. He wasn’t sure he could have held himself together if she had not lived through all this. He didn’t know what he and Andrea would have done, how they would ever have managed to go on. They would have gone on, somehow, but he suspected it would have been awful, and that it would never have become any better over the years. As it was, they were still going to have some rough times ahead.
The city was unusually quiet. They could hear music playing somewhere nearby, Greek cantina, accompanied by drunken shouting and singing; a cat yowled, and a dog barked; a siren wailed in the distance, and then two cracking sounds probably gunfire. Generalized traffic noise provided an almost soothing background to it all.
“Did anyone ever come to you for the disks the Cancer Cell woman gave you?” he asked.
Caroline shook her head. “No.” Her disappointment was obvious. “But it hasn’t been that long. Probably they’re just being cautious after what happened. I would be.” This time there wasn’t much hope in her voice.
“Are you really going to move here, into the Tenderloin?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding.
“Why?”
“That’s not so easy to answer. Lots of reasons.”
“Is Cage one of them?” he asked. He looked back and forth between them. “No one’s said anything, but are you two…?” He didn’t know what words to use, what words wouldn’t sound ridiculous.
Cage didn’t say anything, but Carlucci thought the man was actually blushing. Caroline shrugged, half smiling.
“Yes,” she said. “Something.”
He let it go. They obviously felt awkward talking to him about it, though he wished they wouldn’t. He very much hoped they could find some love and happiness with each other. There wasn’t goi
ng to be a lot of either around this city for a long while.
“Look!” Caroline pointed at one of the buildings inside the Core. “Did you see that?”
“What?”
“Something moved. An animal, maybe. Or a person. Could somebody still be in there?”
“Not still,” Cage said. “Nothing was left alive in there after the military sterilizers went through, not even the rats. Only the cockroaches and ants. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see people moving back in already. When you think about it, it’s not much worse now than it was before, and all kinds of people lived there then.” He paused. “It’s what we do, I guess. We just go on. The story of so-called civilization.”
Carlucci thought about what Cage had said, and decided there was some truth to it. But he wasn’t sure if it was good or bad.
“I feel tired and old.” He wasn’t sure why he said it; it just came out.
“You’re not old, Papa.”
“Maybe not, but I sure feel like it.” He shook his head. “I’ve aged a lot these past few months.”
“You just need a break from things,” Cage said. “We could all use a break. Take a vacation, get out of this goddamn city for a few weeks. I’d bet you’ve got all kinds of vacation leave coming to you.”
He nodded. “Maybe I’ll take a permanent vacation.”
“Retire, Papa?”
He nodded again. “I’ve been thinking about it.”
“Mom says you’ll never retire until they force you out.”
“Maybe I’ll surprise your mother.” He smiled. “Surprise myself.”
No one spoke for a long time. He scanned the ruined buildings, the empty rooms and broken walls. For the first time, he thought he understood a little why someone would want to go live inside the Core.
“Papa?”
“Yes?”
“Papa…” She couldn’t finish.
He looked at her. She seemed upset. “What is it, Caroline?”
“Papa, do you wish it had been Tina who had lived instead of me?”
Carlucci felt his heart collapsing inside him. “How can you ask that?”
“Because I have Gould’s, and I’m going to die in a few years anyway. If Tina had lived instead of me, she would have had a long life ahead of her.”
“Oh, Caroline.” He turned and took her into his arms and pulled her tight, so tight against him. “We’re so grateful you lived through it, you just can’t understand what it’s meant to us. We wish you both had lived, but never, never would we even think about the two of you that way.” He held her even more tightly, trying to hold himself together. “Never.”
He could feel her squeezing him in return, and he hoped desperately that it was okay, that he’d managed to say the right things the true things. He looked at Cage, who was watching them uncomfortably.
“Take care of her,” he said to Cage. He finally eased his hold of Caroline, and looked into her face, the tears smeared down her cheek. “And you,” he said to Caroline. “You take care of Cage.”
She nodded, trying to smile. “I will, Papa.”
Then he pulled her to him and hugged her tightly again, afraid to let her go.
ISABEL
Isabel watched the three figures on the rooftop. She had come out into a patch of moonlight, had seen them outlined against the night sky, then had ducked back into the shadows, afraid she had been seen. Now she watched from darkness, through broken glass.
She was lonely. She had come to be very afraid of people, but now that they all were gone, and there were none of her own kind here, she missed them. Many had treated her badly, but a few had been kind.
The one called Donya, in her first home. Donya had taken such good care of them, would let them out of their cages when they weren’t allowed, gave them special treats. And Donya had cried when Lisa got sick and was taken away and never returned.
And then, the one who had found her in the passage in the middle of all the craziness. She, too, had seemed kind, and had left the door open for her so she hadn’t been trapped.
The rats weren’t much company.
Isabel pulled back from the window and worked her way deeper into the building, staying in the shadows. Yes, she would welcome people back into the Core, and she was certain they would come.
But she would still be very, very careful.
Ace Books by Richard Paul Russo
DESTROYING ANGEL
CARLUCCI’S EDGE
CARLUCCI’S HEART
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CARLUCCI’S HEART
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