David Dun - Unacceptable Risk

"What do you think we should do?"

"Check every delivery system for the vector that you can think of. Check everybody coming into the country. Especially Mexico and Canada. Look for mercenaries, not terrorists. These people are not likely to be Arab or French. This is a money deal."

"How in the hell do you profile people like that?" Ernie was exasperated.

"You're the expert on that. Not to mention that you have the invaluable assistance of customs and the border patrol. While you're at it, you might consider shutting down all private aviation until we sort this out. Also look for phony gov ernment aircraft that could be used as a delivery mechanism. Lastly, if you'd like more good news, I'm guessing that the people who will deliver Cordyceps are already in the coun try."

"You know we don't have enough evidence to shut down private aviation. People will go nuts if we don't find anything."

"You are exactly right. If we don't find anything, hun dreds of thousands of people are going to go nuts and start killing people. So let me get back to what I'm doing. If we find out anything, I'm sure we'll need all the manpower of the federal government. Until then… I've made my suggestions."

"They want you at a meeting."

"Put some Tilok war paint on your face and go in my place. Either that or arrest me. I'm busy."

"Sam… the government pays you…"

"So put a stop payment on my check." Sam sighed. "We can video-conference if you must."

"Fine. One more thing. I ran this antivirus thing up the flagpole, and even though they are paying to build it, they think releasing gazillions of antiviruses on the Internet is way too risky. The cure could be worse than the disease. It's never been done. It's not tested. Off the record, they are going to say no. And whatever you do, don't release it without permission from Homeland Security. I think they have their own ideas."

"Hey, look at it this way, Ernie. We're on orange alert. What could go wrong with such vigilance?" Sam didn't bother commenting on the fact that the government was now apparently paying for an Internet antivirus that they were certain they would never use. It didn't matter, because Sam figured he might use it anyway.

"Our government does a good job," Ernie said.

"For a government it does. But it is a government."

"I've heard enough."

"No, no, Ernie, don't go away. I need your help."

"Sam needs the government?"

"Uh-huh."

"What for?"

"I want to go talk to Benoit Moreau and you could be of assistance."

Jill's mouth dropped at that one.

"And how might you do that if neither you nor the U.S. government has the faintest clue where she is? Somewhere in the U.S., I believe you said?"

"Well, actually, I've narrowed it down a little. Let me off the line for just a second." Sam put Ernie on hold. "Jill, I know you like to hear things first."

Even on the video monitor Jill looked like an egg would fry nicely on her forehead.

"I also had a team following Benoit."

"I was in charge of that," Jill responded.

"You were. And you did an excellent job. But I had a radio locator device."

"You said that was too dangerous."

"It was. That's why she had to drop it shortly after she left the train. But we had her long enough. I wanted both teams to be completely independent. This way, because they didn't know about each other, they were. Can I do something to win back your goodwill?"

"I'll give it some thought."

"Now that I've told you, I guess we better tell Ernie because we're a little tight on time." They conferenced Ernie back on the line: "Ernie, I believe I've narrowed it down a little, but you have to promise this is off the record."

"There's no such thing anymore."

"Okay. I'll call a rent-a-cop."

"You can't do that."

"Where in the Constitution does it deny me my right of free association and free speech?"

"All right, all right. It's not off the record, I just didn't hear it."

"I need you to call the St. Regis Hotel, the housekeeping department, and tell them I'm a government contractor and whatever else you have to tell them to get their full and silent cooperation."

"Just tell me one thing and, of course, I never heard it."

"And how's that different than off the record?"

"Quit being a wiseass. What room?"

"2004."

"Is that a joke?"

"Coincidence."

"Damn," Ernie said, and hung up.

Jill still looked pissed.

"Grogg thought of dropping the transmitter."

"Don't blame Grogg, you dirty rat bastard," Jill said. "I knew there was a reason I never married you."

"There was. It was my stupidity."

"So, tell me what happened!"

"We knew she went behind some small shops. They took her out of Grand Central in a crate. Once we knew about where she was… Well… how many huge crates come out of small shops in Grand Central? The crate was one of several suspicious activities that we checked on. We followed it to the hotel and used off-duty cops to check it out. They nar rowed it down to a particular floor from staff who saw a crate, and then we got a match for Benoit with a description of a woman in one of the rooms from one of the maids."

"And that's it? Why were we trying to trace the e-mail?"

"Confirmation never hurts."

"He could be torturing her, Sam. Millions could die. Why confirmation? Why not storm the place and see what she knows?"

"Because she doesn't want to come out until she knows enough about Cordyceps to stop it. She signed up to be a hero. You take her out too soon and we may lose the whole war."

The gray mist hung in the trees and lay over the water, just fitting in the channel as if cotton placed by loving hands. The mountains were steep and sprinkled with oak and mixed conifers. Michael had read about them but had not seen them since childhood, and his fascination was keen.

Although it had been only three days since the meeting in Central Park he was disappointed that he had heard nothing about any capture of Gaudet.

Frederick, a mule on loan from a local hunting outfitter, seemed bored with the mountain and clearly wanted the oats that were his due every time he made the bottom or the top. It was a bit of mule psychology that Michael had learned from the owner.

Yodo was in a good mood this morning and had actually made a little conversation on the way down.

"A very good place," he had said, followed by a few com parisons with the Hokkaido Forest in Japan. It was a speech for Yodo. Yodo's succinct approach to communication suited Michael fine. The best thing about Yodo was not what he said but the way he occasionally smiled. It carried a hint of irony that Michael found appealing.

This morning it helped in only a small way with the melancholy inside him. The disappointment of losing Grady would linger and he was still affected by Marita's death and the loss of Eden, his wife. Things could come together in the mind like ocean waves that mount one upon the other.

He had seen the desert in summer and it seemed a very tired place and he thought of it now. When his father had taken him, it was parched and had become like an old face, the deep lines in the clay running out everywhere and nowhere, for good reasons, but not according to any predetermination that a man could explain; the moisture of it was blown away, leaving only grit and subtle shadings of warm colors that blended easily with no line between the brown, the tan, and the gold. His soul had become like the desert, and Grady had become the white cloud forming against the incessant blue-she made him see promise of an end and a beginning; new rain that turned the soil alive and the air sweet, the restoring of the arid terrain.