Iris Johansen - Chasing the Night

But it was dangerous to wait any longer. He knew that Venable had an inkling of what was going on and he had been deliberately feeding him false information. The possibility that Venable might stumble onto something that would blow Ali Dabala’s plans was not to be tolerated.

He gazed at Catherine’s photo. He was going to miss looking at her beautiful witch’s face. She had become part of his life.

“I believe I’ve given you enough time for your Eve to find out that skeleton isn’t Luke,” he murmured. “Did it make you happy? Yes, I’m sure it did. Relief from agony can be very heady. But I put you through torment while she was working on it, didn’t I? I had some pleasant moments thinking of how you were being torn apart by my little deception.” He glanced at the bulletin board. He’d cleaned it up and eliminated all but the positive targets. “I’d let you worry a bit longer, but it’s not possible. Sadly, I’m having to deal with a few things that are interfering with our game. We’re going to have to proceed with all due speed…”

Eve called Joe at seven that evening. “I finished the reconstruction early this morning. I meant to call you earlier, but I went to bed and passed out.”

“What a surprise. After only working the better part of two days without sleep. Well?”

“It’s not Luke.”

“Catherine must be over the moon.”

“So am I.” She paused. “We’ve got to find him quickly, Joe. If he’s alive, he’s not going to stay that way. And Catherine will go crazy if she actually sees him in danger. Hell, so would I.” If she had been in the same position as Catherine when Bonnie had disappeared, she would have done anything to get her back. She knew exactly the torment Catherine was going through.

No, she didn’t. She’d had no real hope that her Bonnie was safe. From the beginning, everyone had thought that Bonnie was a victim who would never return. Catherine still had the possibility of getting Luke back. “Is Venable just spinning his wheels trying to get Rakovac?”

“He can’t locate him. But we’re working on a way to get around that. Venable’s been pulling strings and offering bribes to the NSA to get them to let him use their satellite to track the phone calls that Rakovac is making to Catherine. If they can latch onto his signal, they can trace the call. But the NSA is dragging their feet, and it’s driving Venable crazy. They say that they can’t focus their satellite beam indefinitely on Catherine’s phone on the chance that he’ll call. That satellite is used on thousands of other projects. They’re telling us that if we can give them a small window of certainty, then they’ll go for it.”

“Are they crazy? Those other projects aren’t as important as preventing Ali Dabala from attacking.”

“We’re running into the same problem as we did with Homeland Security. There’s doubt that there will be an attack from Dabala since Red Darkness supposedly did the Lima bombing, and they’re on the run. I want to knock their asses into-” He stopped. “Venable’s still talking, but I don’t think that it’s going to do any good.”

She could feel his frustration. “Why do we have to go through the NSA? The CIA has their own satellites.”

“Not as sophisticated as the NSA’s. Even the military doesn’t have one that’s as powerful a tool for identifying and tracking. The NSA can get us the information within a few minutes. It would take any other satellite hours to process the information.”

“That’s kind of scary. I don’t like the idea of a spy in the sky having that much power to be intrusive with private citizens.”

“It’s the world we live in. And, in this case, be grateful they have the technology.”

“If they’ll use it. Rakovac is bound to call Catherine soon.

Can’t they-”

“A small window of opportunity,” he repeated. “We have to give them a time, and they won’t give us more than fifteen minutes either way, then they’re gone.”

“Which means we’re supposed to dictate to Rakovac when he’s to call? How can we do that?”

“Work it out. We won’t be able to catch Rakovac’s next call, but set him up to call back for some reason.”

“At the exact time that you want him to do it?” she said in despair. “Do you know how hard it will be for her to-” She broke off. Stop whining. If it was their only chance, then they’d find a way to do it. “Catherine will only push him so far. She’s walking a fine line.”

“It has to be done, Eve.”

“I said Catherine wouldn’t push him. If I have to take over, I’ll do it. But I’ll tell her what’s happening and see if I can persuade her to cooperate, if only on a minimal level.” She hoped Catherine could be swayed. It was going to be difficult enough for them to fight Rakovac without having to battle Catherine. Rakovac regarded Catherine as the primary foe, and he might pay no attention to Eve. “See if you can make those idiots in the NSA get a little sense.”

“I will.” He added roughly, “Be careful how you handle this, Eve. Dammit, the last thing I want is for you to switch Rakovac’s focus to you.”

“It would be a lot easier if we could just snatch Luke from him and get him out of the equation.”

“What about the progress on the surveillance reports?”

“Kelly says that she may have found something promising. But it sounds pretty tentative to me. Of course, all of this pattern business sounds a little far-fetched to me. I don’t understand how it works.”

Joe chuckled. “And your own work is absolutely clear and not at all far-fetched or hard to understand.”

“That’s different…to me.” She suddenly grinned. “You’re right, of course. We always doubt what we don’t understand. Maybe Kelly is on the right track. I’ll talk to her and see if she’s come up with anything else.”

“Get back to me as soon as you hear from Rakovac.”

“I will.” She paused. She didn’t want to let him go yet, but she had to do it. He was busy. Now that the reconstruction was finished, she was feeling without purpose. That was very bad for her. Purpose guided her life.

But Joe made that life worth living.

“Eve?”

“Good-bye, Joe. Take care.”

“I love you.” He hung up.

And she loved him. She didn’t want him in Moscow wheeling and dealing with all those agencies. She wanted him here with her.

It didn’t matter what she wanted. They both had a job to do, and she should stop wishing for the moon.

She got to her feet and headed for the door to try to find Catherine.

I should be there with her, Joe thought, as he hung up the phone.

Yes, he thought she was safe, but who knew how the situation would change.

Everyone around Catherine was in danger. Rakovac had already threatened Eve.

Nine-eleven.

How the hell could he leave here until they had a fix on Rakovac?

Joe turned to Venable, who was sitting across the room, papers spread all over the desk in front of him. “Who directs that NSA satellite?”

“The man in charge of the program?”

“The man who pushes the buttons at the tech center.”

“That’s George Helder. Why?”

“I want to know everything about him.” He paused. “And when we set up the phone trace, I want to be in charge.”

“What? That’s my job.”

“I want to do it.” He met Venable’s eyes. “You want to save those thousands of people. I’m with you on that. But I have a hell of a lot more personal investment. Do you doubt that I’m the best man for the job?”

Venable studied him. “No.”

“Then let me do it.”

Venable shook his head. “You’re not even government. They won’t recognize that you have any authority. They wouldn’t listen to you.”