All the rave

by LaHaye, Tim F

  "But, Phil, the police have been, like, paid off. Reverend Bud said so himself—" Jodi felt the sweat dampening her forehead.

  "Not this man. I'd bet my life on it," Phil said with conviction. "He's an ex-Seal. Different platoon. But we've worked together. I've known him for years. You'll be in good hands. And, I'll get there as soon as I can, okay?"

  "That'd be awesome!"

  "With a little luck," Phil said, "you won't run out of gas."

  Luck? It'd he a miracle, Jodi thought.

  Chapter 26 ^ Saturday, 2:36 p.m.

  This had better be good," Dr. Blackstone said, dressed in green scrubs, his cell phone flattened against his ear. He stood five feet away from the operating table in the basement level of the Pet Vet Wellness Center. Disposable yellow-paper booties covered his three-hundred-dollar loafers. He'd had to dispose of his blood-soaked rubber gloves before answering.

  "Say me this. Comrade," Illya said. "Why think blonde girl goes with longhaired friend?"

  Dr. Blackstone scratched the back of his head. "I'm in the middle of a procedure," he said. "I've got three donors to do before tonight. I don't have time for your riddles. Try speaking English—"

  Dr. Blackstone heard Illya spit. "Me thinks good doctor should careful with words be," Illya said.

  "And I think you," Dr. Blackstone snapped back, "should get to the point of this interruption." He crossed his arms as he waited for a response, and his jaw ground his teeth. From the background noise in the cell phone, he assumed Illya and Zhenya were in traffic. "Where are you?"

  After a prolonged pause, Illya said, "We follow blonde girl. Close now to Philmont Street."

  Dr. Blackstone's jaw stopped grinding. His brow tensed.

  Illya continued. "She thinks smart to hiding longhaired man in trunk. You know this girl?"

  Dr. Blackstone pictured her face. "Jodi," he said with contempt. His eyes narrowed as the pieces of a puzzle refused to fit together.

  ALL THE RAVE ^ 141

  When his secretary returned from the InstyFoto Mart empty-handed, she figured Reverend Bud must have taken the photos. Especially in light of the clerk's comment that a longhaired man already picked them up. But what interest would Reverend Bud have in them? Dr. Blackstone wasn t sure.

  What was Reverend Bud up to?

  The question had haunted Dr. Blackstone all afternoon. Maybe this had to do with his last conversation with Reverend Bud, who seemed dead serious about walking away from their arrangement. And, what was Jodi doing with Reverend Bud? If that little Crusader Rabbit do-gooder didn't get the hint to back off after the spider treatment, then Dr. Blackstone would see to it that she got the message this time.

  "Say me what you want," Illya said.

  "I want her out of the picture," Dr. Blackstone barked. "Do you understand me? Smash her car. Push her off the road." He waved his arms like a wild man as he spoke. "Then, bring the reverend to me, got it?"

  "J-yes. How you say, swell idea? We kill two birds with one rock," Illya said with a wicked chuckle.

  Dr. Blackstone gritted his teeth. "You mean, with one stone."

  * * *

  It was the not knowing that created the most anxiety for Jodi. At the moment, she had been driven crazy not knowing why the ugly, testosterone-charged black beast still followed her every move. Never too close, and never too far. While it wasn't exactly a highspeed car chase, the truck stuck to her like a bad cold.

  She'd turn. They'd turn.

  She'd slow. They'd slow.

  She'd run a light. They'd do the same.

  After the first time she ran a red light and they followed, it erased any question in her mind that they were on her tail.

  1 42 ^ LaHaye and DeMdss

  But why? What did they want with her? And what were they waiting for? What kind of cat-and-mouse game was this?

  Oddly, her cat, Houdini, came to mind. Houdini, she recalled, liked to trap a mouse and then play with it for an hour before going in for the final kill. Was that the deaU she wondered.

  Jodi checked her watch. Based on the time, and on the fact that she had just turned onto Philmont Avenue, she figured she was less than five or six minutes from the parking lot where she hoped Phil and a hundred storm troopers were waiting.

  Her heart leaped.

  The end really was in sight.

  For an instant, she considered listening to the message Reverend Bud had recorded. She'd want to provide the police with all the details. Just as quickly as the idea popped into her mind, she dismissed it. She was all thumbs when it came to electronic gadgets. I'd prohahly erase it, she thought.

  It had been a long minute since Jodi last checked her mirror.

  She glanced back and gasped.

  The Suburban's massive, black steel winch, like a can opener, was poised to rip the lid off her trunk. She gritted her teeth and braced for the impact. Her right foot jammed the accelerator into the floor mat as far as it would go.

  Jodi thought she heard the Suburban snort like an angry bull. The first hit knocked the wind out of her. Her shoulder harness strained against the force of her body, almost displacing her left shoulder. Her head snapped back against the headrest.

  "Oh, Jesus!"

  She wrestled with the steering wheel, trying to keep from careening off" the narrow, two-lane road. She overcompensated in the process. The Mazda swerved left across the double yellow line— then right—then left again as she struggled to regain control; the tires burned their fingerprints into the pavement.

  "Oh, my Jesus . . . help!"

  ALL THE RAVE ^ 1 43

  She managed to straighten out the car and then stole a look in her rearview mirror. The truck was gone. At the same time that she realized she was no longer being followed, she felt the sunlight on her left disappear.

  Jodi snapped her head around. Blackness filled her view. The Suburban's four-inch, side-mounted exhaust pipes snarled like a rabid dog at her side. She couldn't believe they were driving in the lane reserved for oncoming traffic.

  Those guys are crazy, she thought. We're all gonna die!

  The oversize tires from the SUV clutched the asphalt road with such intensity, Jodi could hear the pavement roar in protest. The Russians swerved to sideswipe her car. Jodi, hands drenched with sweat, yanked the wheel to avoid contact.

  The Russians swerved again, this time taking a larger bite out of the space between them. The sick sound of metal against metal filled the air. Jodi was knocked sharply to her right ft"om the impact on the left. A knifelike blast of pain pierced her side as her seat belt dug into her rib cage.

  Jodi's Mazda 626, no longer able to maintain its spot, straddled the road and the unpaved shoulder three inches below it. Gravel kicked up against the bottom of her car. Dust billowed out from underneath, leaving a cloud of dirt in her wake.

  Jodi's tears rolled down her face, mixing with her perspiration. "I can't hold on, Jesus," she said. "Help me!" It was then that she noticed a small circus of red-and-blue lights whirling in the distance. Police! Jodi thought.

  She felt a rush of joy at the sight.

  They were the length of a couple of football fields away

  The Russians mtist have seen them, too, she guessed when the Suburban suddenly dropped back in line behind her. She was going to let them have a piece of her mind once they were surrounded by the police. "And I'll have Bruce, like, do the bodywork on my car," she said aloud with a tear-stained smile.

  1 44 ^ LaHaye and DeMdss

  Her smile quickly faded. They're gonna slam me again!

  The instant she finished her thought, the Suburban plowed into the back left end of her car. They pushed her off the road toward an embankment of tall trees.

  Jodi leaped on the brakes with both feet. She had been doing fifty on the road. The brakes shuddered and quaked as the antilock feature kicked in. Rock ft-agments, pebbles, and pieces of trash flew in every direction.

  Three seconds later, she felt the rear end of the car lift in the air as the jaw
s from the Suburban worked against her braking effort. Instinctively, Jodi released the brakes, pounced on the gas, and turned away from the tree line.

  The maneuver almost worked.

  She braced herself as her right front bumper clipped an oak tree. The impact didn't stop her forward motion. She wasn't prepared for the simultaneous blast from the Mazda's passive restraint system. The light brown air bag detonated on impact and, with a blast, prevented her face from hitting the dash.

  It deflated almost as fast as it had deployed. Only now, the air bag draped over the steering wheel, making her driving all but impossible. She was driving on nothing more than pure adrenaline.

  She managed to get half of the car back onto the road. With a yank of the wheel, she swerved the other end into place. As she did, her right front tire hit a pothole. With a thunk, Jodi felt the rim of the wheel bash against the jagged edge of the gaping cavity.

  Jodi felt the car lean to the right, hobbled by a flat tire. She wasn't about to let that prevent her from reaching the oasis of help, now fifty yards ahead. She had to straighten her rearview mirror before she could see what was going on behind her. She looked and, to her amazement, all she could make out was the back door of the Suburban disappearing in the opposite direction.

  Thankful she was out of danger and, with the parking lot in view, Jodi stepped on the brakes.

  I

  Her heart almost burst when nothing happened.

  She mashed the brake pedal repeatedly. Still nothing.

  Jodi looked up. She was heading directly for the side of the flower shop building.

  "Dearjesus!"

  She reached for the parking brake between the seats and pulled up with all her might. The rear brakes locked, sending the car into a half-spin. It slid forty feet until the right side of the car slammed into the wall of the flower shop.

  On impact, Jodi banged her head against the window on her left.

  She blacked out.

  Chapter 27 ^ Saturday, 2:54 p.m.

  Jodi's eyes opened with a series of repeated blinks. She was alive, that much registered. But she couldn't find answers fast enough for the deluge of questions flooding her mind. What had happened? Why was her air bag draped across the steering wheel and into her lap? Why did everything hurt so much?

  Slowly, everything came back into focus.

  Reverend Bud. The Russians. The car chase. The crash.

  Jodi tried to wiggle her toes. They worked. She attempted to move her hands and found them to be numb, yet functioning. When she struggled to sit upright, her body yelled at her. Her muscles felt as stiff as they had after the first day of hockey camp.

  She didn't know how long she'd been sitting behind the wheel, but she figured it couldn't have been too long. Several police officers were just steps away from reaching her door.

  The cavalry had arrived.

  She inhaled a full breath of air. "Ouch!" A sharp pain in her right side warned her to go easy.

  "Are you all right, miss?" The first policeman to reach the car carefully opened her door.

  Jodi offered a weak smile. "Um, so far, so good, I think."

  A taller, older man, in his midforties she guessed, came alongside the first cop. "You must be Jodi Adams." His eyes had a soft warmth to them, although his face appeared to be rough like weathered rawhide. "I'm Lieutenant Jim Johnson, Phil Meyer's friend."

  "Is he here?" Jodi asked, her eyes scanning the parking lot.

  ALL THE RAVE ^ 1 47

  "He's on the way," Lieutenant Johnson said. "Listen, I know you want to get out of there. But Td suggest you sit tight. The paramedics will make sure everything checks out before you move. How do you feel?"

  "Like a crash-test dummy." She smiled. What she wanted most was a hot soak in the tub for about three weeks. "My right side hurts some when I breathe."

  "Understood. Jodi, you are one remarkable girl," Lieutenant Johnson said. "You have no idea how many lives youVe saved today with your tip." His sport coat hung open as he stood beside the car. His left arm rested on the roof to shade her ft-om the sun. She observed the end of his gun in his shoulder holster.

  "How's that?" Jodi said.

  "You've helped us bust Blackstone's operation," Lieutenant Johnson said. "I'm a detective on the force and we've been aware of his little enterprise for several months. Just didn't have the proof to bring him down."

  Jodi nodded. "I can't believe a vet, of all people, would, like, mass-produce drugs and sell them to kids."

  Lieutenant Johnson's eyebrow shot up at that piece of information. "Drugs? He was manufacturing drugs? We weren't aware of—"

  "Excuse me, coming through," said the shorter of two paramedics who nudged their way past Lieutenant Johnson and his side officer. "Name's Bill. This is my assistant, Tom. Let's have a look here." Bill placed a medium-size first-aid kit on the ground, and then squatted by Jodi.

  "I really feel okay," Jodi said. "My right side is kinda sore. Other than that I'm—"

  "Did you black out at any time, ma'am?" Bill examined her eyes.

  "Yeah, for like a second, I think."

  "How many fingers am I holding up?" Bill said.

  "Three. Really, I feel fine," Jodi said.

  1 -48 ^ LaHaye and DeMoss

  "Can you feel this?" He pricked her ankles with a pointy object.

  "Yes." In the distance, Jodi caught a glimpse of the flurry of activity across the street at the Pet Vet clinic. Police and medics were crawling all over the place.

  "Where did you say it was sore?" Bill asked.

  "Right here." Jodi pointed to the right side of her rib cage.

  Bill turned to Tom. "She may have a light concussion," Bill said. "Probably nothing serious. But we'll need to take her to Abington to have a look at that side. She might have a fractured rib." Tom turned and headed for the ambulance.

  "Hold on. I've got to talk to her right now," Lieutenant Johnson said. "Got to have her identify a body. Then she's all yours. Just give me five minutes to wrap this up, okay?"

  The medic nodded. "Five minutes it is." Bill unbuckled her seat belt and then helped her out of the car. Tom returned with a gur-ney a minute later. Bill and Tom lifted her onto a stretcher, placing her head into a brace. They strapped her in place and then secured the stretcher on the gurney, which, with its wheeled legs, was elevated about four feet above ground.

  Lieutenant Johnson came to her side. "Jodi, you mentioned something about Dr. Blackstone's involvement with drugs. What more can you tell me?"

  Jodi wasn't sure where to begin. So much had happened so quickly. "Well... Dr. Blackstone would, like, fill syringes with keta-mine," Jodi said. 'Actually, the people who worked for him did that part. Anyway, his partner, Reverend Bud, would sell the stuff at these, um, dance parties that they sponsored." Jodi paused when the paramedic appeared at her side.

  "Excuse the interruption," Bill said to Lieutenant Johnson. "I'd like to get an IV in her."

  Jodi closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as he stuck her arm with the needle. When he was finished, she said, "I only found out about all this because my friend Kat and this guy Todd Rice got some

  ALL THE RAVE ^ 1 49

  at a party last night. She's in the hospital and Todd died. I figured Dr. Blackstone's, like, trying to cover up Todd's death, so he took the body. Isn't that what this is all about?"

  "Actually, no," Lieutenant Johnson said. He hesitated. He appeared to be deep in thought.

  "Well, then, what's up?" Jodi asked. "I thought you said you've been tracking his business or whatever for months."

  Lieutenant Johnson leaned his head to one side. "I guess since this will hit the papers in a day or so, I'll fill you in." He placed his arm on his hip. "Blackstone devised what I'm sure he considered to be the brilliant scheme of providing the black market with vital organs—human organs."

  He let that sink in.

  Jodi gasped. "You mean . . . body parts? . . . but why? How?"

  "There's a world shortage of hea
rts, livers, kidneys, corneas— even genitals," Lieutenant Johnson began. "If you needed a liver or a heart, you'd have to place a request with the government-contracted United Network for Organ Sharing agency and then wait. Sometimes for months or years. They're the only authorized outlet for organs in the U.S."

  "Gee, I had no idea Dr. Blackstone was, like, into all that," Jodi said, still stunned at the revelation of his secret activity. "I knew the guy was a creep!"

  Lieutenant Johnson nodded. "People with big bucks are willing to pay anything, especially if their lives depend on it. A single heart brings upward of $60,000, a liver $40,000, a kidney $3,000 to $8,000. The money was too juicy for Blackstone to pass up."

  "But isn't that illegal?"

  "Absolutely" Lieutenant Johnson nodded. "Harvesting human organs is illegal, not to mention unethical. But it's done in other countries, like China, for example. From what we can tell, Dr. Blackstone saw himself as a pioneer—as a modern-day Robin Hood. He took from the poor and gave to the needy highest bidder."

  1 5D ^ LaHaye and DeMdss

  "That's so sick." Jodi would have shook her head, but the brace held fast. "So, what's all this got to do with the rave parties?"

  "Simple," Lieutenant Johnson said. "See, his raves provided the perfect cover. They were hosted in unregulated sites."

  Jodi's mind drifted back to what she'd seen the night before. She wondered what would have happened if she and Bruce hadn't taken Kat out of there. Would Kat have become one of Dr. Blackstone's donors? And what if the Russians had caught her, Jodi wondered. Her stomach gurgled.

  Lieutenant Johnson turned his head and looked across the street. He looked back at Jodi. "By the time the authorities were requested to investigate a missing person at a rave, such as this Todd Rice you alerted us to, the raves would be, like the circus, gone. The chance of tracing a victim's disappearance was nil."