Steven James - The Rook

Then she asked for another sip of water, and after I’d given it to her, I realized there was one more thing I needed to say, but I wasn’t quite sure how to do it. Finally, I decided to just be straight with her and get it out in the open. “Listen, I need to tell you something.

For a short time I thought you might be Shade.” I held her hand lightly. “I’m sorry.”

I wondered if she would be upset or disappointed with me, and when she was slow to respond, I realized she probably was, but at last she whispered, “Don’t be sorry. You were only looking for the truth.”

“I know, but-”

“It’s OK. It’s who you are. It’s what you do.”

Hey, wait a minute. “Do you know, that’s almost exactly the same thing Tessa told me the other night? Have you two been sharing notes?”

She smiled slyly. “Maybe we just think alike.”

“That’s a scary thought.” I liked that she was still holding my hand. “So, still friends?”

She signed “yes” to me with the hand that held mine. And I signed back “thank you.”

“OK,” I said. “Now, you need to rest.”

“Wait. One more thing. In the room… the hotel room… when I taught you the alphabet, you remembered the letters, didn’t you?

The first time through?”

“Yes.” “But you stopped at Q, then M. Why?”

“Honestly?” I asked.

“Honestly.”

“I wanted the lesson to last as long as possible.”

“Hmm,” she said softly as she closed her eyes and relaxed back into her pillow. “Ulterior motives.”

“Guilty as charged.”

I held her hand and watched her drift back to sleep and wished I could do the same. Rest. Sleep. Relax. But as tired as I was, as much as the gunshot wound on my leg was bothering me, something else was at the forefront of my mind. Terry’s words: “I was just sent in to confirm it was there.”

Who sent you to the evidence room, Terry?

If only he weren’t in a coma I could’ve asked him.

But he was in a coma. And according to the doctors, he wouldn’t be coming out of it any time soon.

A few minutes after Lien-hua fell asleep Ralph and Tessa arrived.

Tessa went in to sit with Lien-hua, and I tottered into the hallway to talk with Ralph about the case.

After we were alone I asked him about the Project Rukh researchers. “Are they all OK?”

“Yeah, I just talked to Margaret. They’re all safe. Being debriefed as we speak. Except this one guy, Kurvetek. Osbourne mentioned him. We haven’t been able to track him down yet.”

I let that sink in.

“And, by the way, Margaret told me why it’s called Project Rukh.”

I didn’t even want to think about Margaret, but I was curious about the name so I took the bait. “Why is that?”

“Turns out rukh is a Persian word. Back when chess was invented, it was the name of the piece we call a rook. It used to mean either ‘war chariot’ or ‘hero,’ and later, when chess made it to Europe, the piece morphed to look like a siege tower. The idea was the same, though-by using your rukh, you could slip past your enemy’s defenses and then take him out before he even knew what hit him.”

“And that’s exactly what the device does.”

“Right.”

“Slipping past their defenses, taking them out unaware,” I said.

“Maybe they should have called it a Ralph.”

“Kind of you to say so.” He drained the last few drops of his extra-large breakfast Mountain Dew. “Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Graysmith and Dunn are looking into another homicide-General Cole Biscayne was shot in the head last night. No leads yet, last I heard. One bit of good news though. That girl, Randi, she was just hiding out at a friend’s place, afraid of the ‘terrorists.’ She’s all right.”

“Good. What about the device?”

“You’re a good shot, Pat. It’s destroyed. And, although most of the files are gone, Margaret is going over the ones Drake didn’t have a chance to shred.”

“I’m sure she is. And Cassandra?”

“She’s fine. Spent last night and this morning in a safe house. I guess she’s gonna take some time off work to recover. Last I heard, they were dropping her off at the aquarium so she could say good-bye to her friends and some guy named Warren Leant.”

I began to press out the last few wrinkles of the case. And I didn’t like where they pointed. “She’s at the aquarium? With Leant?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“Ralph, have those agents stay with her.”

“Why? Melice is dead, Terry’s in a coma-”

“No. Trust me. Don’t let them leave her alone with him.”

“Why not?”

“A blind spot. Let’s go.”

He put the call through to the agents, I ducked into Lien-hua’s room and told Tessa I’d be back in an hour or so, and then Ralph and I headed for the car.

Warren Leant met us at the door of the Sherrod Aquarium, and I politely requested that he lead us to the animal husbandry area.

“Is everything all right?”

“We’ll see,” I said.

A few moments later we entered the husbandry area, and he asked if we wouldn’t mind to please hurry. “I have a board of directors meeting. A man was eaten by sharks here last night and it’s a public relations nightmare. I’m sure you understand. We meet in half an hour.”

“You might be late.” I eyed the pool where Lien-hua had drowned staring at the surface, straining toward freedom. “I’d like to look around for a minute. Ralph, can you wait with Mr.

Leant?”

“Sure thing.”

I whispered something to Ralph and then the two of them left together as I scanned the room. The criminalists had spent the night processing the site, and the only person they’d allowed back here was Cassandra, who I noticed was clearing out her office. On the ride to the aquarium Ralph had told me that the two field agents guarding her were still with her, but I didn’t see them in the room.

Cassandra recognized me and set down the box she was carrying.

“I need some time away,” she explained. “Some space. This whole thing, it’s too much for me.”

I nodded. I understood.

“You OK?” she asked, eyeing the crutches. “I will be. What about you?”

“I think so. Once this is all behind me.”

“That may take awhile,” I said. “Because you made one mistake.

Or maybe two.”

Just a glint of bewilderment in her eyes. Just a glint. “What are you talking about?”

“You looked at the camera, Cassandra. None of the other women did.”

Her right index finger became restless against her leg. “What camera?”

“Cassandra, please.” I leaned unsteadily on my crutches. “From where you stood in the tank, it wasn’t possible to see the camcorders. I know, I checked. All the other women stared toward freedom, but you stared at the back wall of the warehouse. You told me yesterday you didn’t know what Melice was doing while you were in the tank. But you did know. You made it easier for him to make the video by staring at one camera and then the other. You knew where they were because you put them there.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But her eyes betrayed her.

“I’d assumed Shade was one person instead of two. That’s what threw me off, but now I get it. You, or maybe Terry, switched the chains. It was that simple. I counted the links. The other women had a shorter chain. You’re nearly six feet tall, and the chain on your ankle was long enough for you to reach the surface, even when the tank was full. You put on a good show though, gasping for breath like that, but I’m guessing that after all your years of scuba diving and running triathlons, you can hold your breath pretty well too.