by Desiree Holt
“I’ll call you if anything changes,” Faith assured him, seeing the look of conflict on his face. “I promise. But Mia nearly killed herself to give you a message. Don’t let it go to waste. Go back and get to work on it.”
Only twenty years of Marine discipline gave him the strength to do what he had to do next. He kissed Mia once more, then strode from the room, his mind already shifting gears.
In his car he called Andy and gave him the latest clues on the puzzle of Mia’s visions.
“Have the Dragon run every combination. Blocks. The numbers. Tumbling. Water. Someone steering. Somewhere in there is the key and we’re missing it.”
“If it can be found,” Andy told him, “the Dragon will find it. He and I hold all the mysteries of the universe. I’m also doing a random search for sites that record precognitive visions. Maybe we can find something that matches closely enough to take it from there.”
“Well saddle the old guy up and get going. This is urgent.”
Like everything else right now, Dan thought grimly.
In his suite he found Rick alone going through more computer printouts.
“Mark’s gone down to the police station to sit in with Holcomb’s task force. What’s that all about?”
Dan gave him a brief report on it. “Either he wants our help or he wants to keep track of us. Either way, it’s better to be working with him than against him. I think Mia getting shot rattled him.” He shucked his jacket, took off his tie and rolled up his sleeves before pulling a chair up to the table. “All right, where’s the notepad with Mia’s doodles on it?”
Rick fished under the scattered papers and handed it to him. “How is she?”
“She’s…”He stopped took a breath and began again. “She’s…holding her own.”
“Something happened,” Rick guessed, noting the pain in his partner’s eyes.
Dan’s fists clenched around the pad. “I nearly lost her while I was there. She about killed herself trying to wake up and tell me something. I called Andy so he could feed it into the Dragon but we need to take a look at it too.”
“My God. I’m sorry, Dan. I… She’ll be fine. She seems like a fighter.”
“She’d better be.” His voice broke and he stopped to pull himself together again. “All right. This must be damn important, so let’s see if we can make any sense out of it.”
Talking back and forth so they didn’t leave anything out, they listed every one of her visions and the actual events they’d honed in on, then added in the new information. But at the end of an hour they were still no place.
“Andy’s doing another search with the Dragon for precognitive sites that list other visions and trying to match these up. Maybe we’ll come up with something there.”
Rick tossed his pen onto the table. “Let’s give it a break a little and see what the Dragon comes up with. If Chase is so uptight about his guest list, maybe we should go over it again, only in greater detail. Andy sent us everything he found and then some.”
They were both aware that time was running away from them. They had forty-two hours and the clock was ticking. Before they knew it Friday would arrive and they’d be out of options. Neither of them thought there was a way to steal Oscar at the demonstration but at this point they weren’t eliminating anything. They split the list, which contained intimate details of everyone attending on Friday. Andy had quickly learned exactly what they meant at Phoenix when one of the partners said, “Get me everything.”
“Mostly corporate CEOs and high-level military personnel.” Dan made tick marks next to some of the names on the list, ones he thought were key players. “I can’t see any red flags here but I can certainly understand why Chase is nervous. The success of this demonstration could bring in billions to Carpenter Techtronics. They could end up being a world leader in this field.”
Rick got up to get a soft drink from the mini-fridge, popped the top and took a long swallow. “How much do you figure Oscar could bring on the open market?”
Dan shrugged. “You mean if someone wanted to keep it away from all other competition? Other countries, even? Probably untold billions. More than Chase could get legitimately. Because whoever got Oscar would be in the catbird seat. They could manufacture it themselves and sell it, if they wanted. If the head of a country buys it, he could use it to detect any covert operations. Or they could just use it to protect themselves.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Think about an organization like a drug cartel. Oscar could always let them know when someone’s coming, how many there were, record conversations, take pictures. No one could ever get near them without being blown away. Or if it goes to an arms dealer, he’d never be able to spend all the money he’d make with it.”
“On the other hand,” Dan pointed out, “it would be worth billions to the government if they could contract Carpenter to manufacture it. Think how it could be used to protect both our troops and black ops units in any number of situations.”
“So if someone from Carpenter is involved in this, they get to keep every dime for themselves and screw the company, right?”
“That’s about it. But I’ll be damned if I can figure out which one it would be. Shit.” He shoved all the paper aside. “Call Andy and see if he’s done the in-depth on the key people yet. You can also check if the Dragon’s come up with anything on Mia’s numbers vision, especially the latest one with the water. Although I don’t think he’s had enough time to really run it yet.”
“Enough time.” Rick snorted. “Boy, don’t I wish we had that.”
But at that moment Dan’s cell phone rang. He pressed the Talk button with a sense of dread, as he’d been doing with every call since Mia was shot. But this one was from Mark.
“Just wanted to let you know that the slugs they dug out of Nate Wilson, the bomber, were from a .22 caliber.”
“Small gun.” Dan was surprised. “Whoever shot him had to be right next to him to be that effective with a gun that small.”
“Obviously not someone he expected to kill him. They don’t have any leads here, although they’re going to canvass the workers at the airport again. And see if any of the remote cameras caught anything. How about calling Andy and asking him to see if anyone at Carpenter bought a gun like that recently?”
“Okay. Rick and I were discussing the fact that we think someone there is either leading the charge or involved in it. I just asked Rick to give Andy a call. He’ll do it right now.”
“We’d better come up with something soon. The demonstration’s the day after tomorrow. Right now we have less than forty-eight hours to find the answers.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jesus Obregon was a man who led a simple life, living with his family in a plain but nice adobe house in Galveston. He had often wondered why Maria, his wife, a registered nurse, had chosen to marry him, a man with barely a high school education. But there was no questioning the love between them and he thanked God for her every day.
He was also blessed by the fact that their children—two daughters and a son—gave them no trouble at all. While other parents battled gang influence or the creeping influence of the drug cartels, his children excelled in school, worked after-school jobs and showed their parents much love and respect.
If Jesus wished for anything, it was to be able to reward all of them for being the people they were and for enriching his life. This job, which he’d had now for a year, had been a step upward from construction work. The salary was twice what he made before and he really didn’t have much to do at all. Keep the boat maintained and be sure it was ready whenever the owners wanted to take it out.
And there were always handsome tips for his work.
But this, now. This latest thing had to be something of great importance. The senor had brought a small wooden crate to him, sealed on all sides. He told him to sleep on the boat and not let the crate out of his sight. And best of all, he’d given Jesus a large sum of money and told him he would double it if nothing
happened to the crate when he came back on the weekend.
So for two days he’d lived on the boat, eating good food and watching satellite television. And staring at the crate. Surely something that warranted so much extra pay was worth a fortune. Jesus readily admitted he wasn’t the smartest man in the world but surely he could figure out a way to cut himself in on whatever the action was.
Maybe at last he could have the money he wanted for his family. Maybe at last he would be the hero he’d always longed to be.
And so he sat and stared at the crate, wondering if there was a way to open it without leaving a trace.
* * * * *
“I got it!”
Andy was never excited. Very little rattled the cage of this super-geek who could make computers sing like opera stars and find the most obscure scrap of information. But two hours after the last call, the high pitch of his voice was Dan’s clue that this was something beyond normal results.
“Okay, Sherlock. What have you got?”
“The dreams! Oh, man.” Andy’s voice almost vibrated over the phone. “I got it.”
“You mean Mia’s dreams? Her visions?”
“Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, man. You just have no idea. No idea. Jesus, Dan, it’s a gold mine.”
Dan had to exert every ounce of self-control not to shout at Andy over the connection. “Andrew. Will you get your act together and tell me what you’ve got? And how you got it?”
Across the connection he heard Andy draw in a breath and let it out. “You can thank the wonderful Dragon. And a guy I’ve been exchanging programming with for years.”
Andy paused and Dan could almost see him vibrating with suppressed energy.
“Okay,” he told him. “Pull yourself together. Start from the beginning.” But Dan was having a hard time slowing down himself.
“First, I put out a call to people who work with paranormal stuff and got some help from them.”
“Andy. Please tell me you didn’t tell them what you were working on.” Dan felt his heart freeze in his chest. Jesus! If word of this gets out…
“No. Dan. Do you think I’m that stupid? These people don’t even know where I work. No one does. Ask anyone who ever emailed with me. They still think I work in some closet and all my clients are on Planet Cyberspace.”
“Fine. I’m sorry. Go on.”
“I just asked if anyone out there had written programs for paranormal interpretations. That I had a special project for myself. Please, please, please. Please believe me.”
“Andy. Yes. All right. Calm down.” Dan made his voice steady. “I believe you. Just tell me what you found out.”
“Anyway, what I’m going to tell you is so wild. Do you know there’s this whole worldwide network of people with psychic abilities? They have their own website and everything. These people live everywhere. They communicate all the time and assist each other in interpreting and using their psychic gifts. There’s like hundreds of thousands of people involved. It all goes back to something called The Lotus Circle.”
Dan’s body tensed. “Yes, as a matter of fact I have heard of it. And I’m becoming more and more familiar with it. Why?”
“See, this guy in Wisconsin? His aunt’s involved in this. So is he. They’re both precognitive, like Mia. So he wrote a program to help them when they can’t interpret their visions. He also created a database that people all over the world use to list visions they’ve already interpreted. For comparisons, you know?”
Holy shit! This has to be the mother of all coincidences.
“Andy, did he tell you where his aunt lives, by any chance?”
“Yeah. Somewhere in Texas. But Texas is such a big state I didn’t think anything of it. Why?”
“I think your friend’s aunt is one of the women helping Mia. Faith introduced them through her aunt.”
“Oh, my God. You’re kidding, right? This is too unbelievable. Just freaking unbelievable.”
Dan waited but when all he heard was silence, he said, “Andy? Are you still there?”
“Oh, sorry. Just trying to digest this cosmic event. So. Okay. He sent me his program, I tweaked it some, attacked the database and voilà! Results!”
Dan swallowed his impatience. “We don’t have unlimited time here. Are you ever going to tell me what you found out?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry. Okay. It’s a boat. She’s dreaming about a boat.”
“A boat?” Dan felt his eyebrows shoot up. “Why is she dreaming about a boat?”
“Because that’s where your robot is. It’s already been stolen and it’s on a boat.”
Dan shook his head, then stopped, realizing Andy couldn’t see him. “That’s absurd. I saw a demonstration myself after Stan Forbush’s murder. The real thing is under lock and key. With two sets of our folks guarding it and a failsafe biometric ID system for the actual chamber where Oscar is.”
“I don’t care what you saw. Somehow you’ve been fooled. And not only that, I know where the boat is!”
“What?”
“What did he say?” Rick asked, unable to keep quiet any longer.
Dan held up his hand and mouthed, “One minute.” Then he said into the phone, “Okay Andy. I’m taking it you’ve saved the best for the last. Where is it? What’s the location of this boat?”
“Slip one five seven, Blockhouse Marina, Galveston, Texas.”
“Holy shit.” He glanced at Rick. “You won’t believe this when I tell you.” Then he turned his attention to Andy again. “When I get back to Baltimore you can tell me exactly how you did this. For now, I don’t suppose you can email me a map or anything.”
“Already on its way. Check your laptop and your BlackBerry.”
“One more question. Do you happen to know who owns the boat?”
Andy’s sigh carried over the connection. “Working on it. I’m tracing the slip rental but I have to wade through a bunch of shell corporations. Someone’s really covering their tracks. I didn’t want to call the marina manager and say something I shouldn’t. I figure you could handle it much better than me.”
“I’m on it. But keep doing what you’re doing. And call me anytime you get anything.”
“Where will you be?” Andy asked.
“Rick and I will be on the way to Galveston together. But first I’m going to the hospital again.”
He clicked off and related everything to Rick, whose jaw dropped as he listened.
“But that’s incredible. Jesus, the kid is a fucking genius.”
“Yeah. I can imagine the raise he’ll hit us up for after this.” Dan opened his email on the laptop, found the message from Andy and printed out the map and directions. “I don’t want to say anything to Chase yet, just in case we’re wrong He’ll freak out and that’s the last thing we need.”
“He’ll be looking for you,” Rick pointed out. “How will you explain your absence?”
“I’ll call him and set up a meeting for late tomorrow afternoon. Tell him we have some leads we want to run down but we’ll be back in time to be sure everything’s set security-wise for Friday.”
“All right. And I’ll keep going over the rest of the stuff Andy sent until you get back from the hospital.”
“Oh and call Mark. Bring him up to speed but I think tell him to keep this strictly to himself until we have something concrete.”
“Got it.” He paused. “I’ll say prayers for you and Mia.”
Dan swallowed the lump in his throat. “Thanks, buddy.” Then he called Faith to tell her he was on his way.
* * * * *
“Everything still quiet?” Dan asked the two guards stationed at Mia’s door.
“Still the same, boss,” one of them answered. “One of us always goes in whenever a nurse or doctor is in there, after we check them out first. And of course, Mrs. Halloran never leaves her alone.” He laughed. “I think we make them nervous. She’s getting the royal treatment.”
“Good,” Dan bit off. “They’d better be on their toes.”
Faith, still in her guard dog position, smiled at him when he walked in. “You got here just in time. I was afraid you’d be too late.”
“Too late for what?” Dan tensed.
“We have a little surprise for you.” She glanced over at Mia.
“Hi.”
The voice was so raw he almost didn’t recognize it but when he looked at the bed Mia’s eyes were open and she was trying to smile. He was at her side at once, carefully taking the hand on her uninjured side. He had to blink back the tears threatening to leak from his eyes.
“Hi, honey.” He kissed her knuckles. “You gave us a big scare here.”
She wet her lips. “Sorry.”
“No. I’m sorry. I’m the one who let you get shot.”
She shook her head once, wincing at the pain the movement caused. “Not…your fault.”
“She woke up on her own about half an hour ago,” Faith told him. “She’s had some ice chips and swallowed them with no problem.”
Dan felt his heart kick into triple time, then settle back to a reasonable beat.
Thank you, God.
“The doctor’s been in several times to check on her,” Faith went on. “He was very pleased when she woke up. He says her vital signs are good and he’s satisfied with her condition, all things considered.”
“She’s tough,” Dan said, pride in his voice. “But I was afraid it would take more than toughness to pull her out of this.”
“She’ll only be awake for a little bit. They just upped the morphine drip. I wasn’t sure when you’d be back and hoped she’d still be awake when you got here.”
“Wanted…see you.”
Mia’s voice was so weak but it was sweet music to his ears.
“Listen.” Faith rose and picked up her purse. “While you’re here I’m going downstairs to get something to eat. I spoke to Mark a while ago and he’s still tied up with the task force, so I’m just going to hang out here.”