Iris Johansen - Deadlock

"Really?" Garrett's eyes narrowed. "That sounds… permanent."

"What did you expect? I'm not a fool. This Staunton wants to hurt you. He blew up my hospital. I'm much more valuable than brick and mortar. I'm sure he would like to blow me up, too. I will have to go away somewhere safe to keep you safe."

"I'm relieved that you're being reasonable."

"I'm usually reasonable. My patients will receive good care. They aren't in danger. You're the one I have to worry about. I have to make sure you're safe. There must be a reason why God linked us together." She gazed at Emily. "You are well?"

"Yes."

"Would you come with me if I ask you? I'll find good work for you to do."

Emily shook her head.

"I didn't think so." She reached out and gave her a quick hug. "Take care of yourself. If you need me, I'll come to you." She glanced at Gar¬rett. "And take care of Garrett, too. He thinks he doesn't need it, but don't pay any attention to him." "Like you?" Garrett asked.

She smiled. "Exactly like me." She turned to Dardon. "Garrett will ask you to stash me someplace. Right? I will tell you what I require. I don't care where it is, but I want to be able to work. I was thinking of per¬haps a medical facility in Africa or South America for the next month or so. They always need help. I'll look into possibilities, and we'll discuss it."

"You'll have to leave right away," Garrett said. "Discuss it while you're getting away from here."

She nodded. "After I give my notes on the patients to the Sisters." She turned away. "I've already sent my nurses back to their homes and told them to keep a low profile." She smiled back over her shoulder. "I told them I'd put them back to work when you build me a bigger and better hospital. I'll probably have to hire a larger staff for the diagnos¬tic clinic."

"I'm sure you will," Garrett said dryly. "And the clinic will proba¬bly rival the one at Johns Hopkins."

"Possibly. It's good for your soul to spend your money on such worthwhile things. It only follows that the more you spend, the better I'm treating you." She strode down the corridor toward the nurses' station.

Dardon chuckled. "What a philosophy. I hope she doesn't better your soul to the point of bankruptcy." He started after Irana. "I'll keep an eye on her and see if I can borrow the nurses' printer for your printout."

"Be quick. We'll wait at the elevator."

Emily frowned as she saw Irana smiling at the Sister behind the desk. That radiant smile that had drawn Emily to her from the mo¬ment she had met her. "She will be safe?"

"From Staunton," Garrett said as he took her elbow. "I can't prom¬ise anything else. Particularly if she decides to go to the wilds of Africa.

She'll have to handle AIDS, lions, and tigers herself. She wouldn't have it any other way."

"THE PATIENTS WERE TAKEN to St. Cecelia," Borg said to Staunton as he came back to the rental car at the dock. "Do you want to go there?"

"Of course I want to go," Staunton said impatiently. "Though I doubt if Garrett and Emily will be there. He'd know I'd check it out." "Irana Povak?"

"She's a possibility." And he needed a lead, dammit. He'd hoped that he'd be able to gather Emily up during the raid on the island. The attack had been a bit too public. It had been made clear to him when he was hired that Staunton had to be both thorough and discreet. The explosion at the hospital could not be termed discreet. He'd made sure that he hadn't left any loose ends. The mercenaries he'd hired wouldn't talk, but he might have been seen. It was annoying to have to worry about trivial¬ities like this. Though he hoped Garrett wouldn't regard it as a triviality. He'd wanted to anger and send a challenge. He'd had to strike at him in some way. Garrett had taken Emily from him, and that couldn't be tol¬erated. "Yes, we'll try for Irana Povak. But there are other ways."

"What?"

"First, you make sure that you remove anyone who might know too much."

"And then?"

He smiled. "Then you throw out a lure and let the fish come to the shark."

"HERE IT IS." DARDON T H R U S T the folder at Garrett. "You'd bet¬ter get going. The man I left at the dock called and said there was someone asking about the patients. You probably have less than forty-five minutes. I'll get Irana out as soon as I pry her away from those nurses."

"Right." Garrett punched the elevator button. "We'll go directly to the helicopter, then on to Rome. Call me if there's a problem."

"Not Rome." Dardon said as he hurried back toward Irana. "After you read that report, I think you might decide on the U.S."

"We'll worry about that once we're airborne and far away from here." Garrett handed the folder to Emily as he nudged her into the el¬evator. "Hold on to this. Skim it while we're in the car on our way to the helicopter."

"Okay." She gazed down at the folder. She was feeling an odd re¬luctance to look at the information inside when she should be eager. Over and over she had told Staunton she knew nothing about Zelov's hammer. Now she was going to find out about it.

No, it wasn't odd at all. Because she hadn't known it had triggered horror, and that horror refused to leave her.

"Why the U.S.?" she murmured, as they got into the car a few min¬utes later.

"You tell me." He started the car. "In fact, as soon as we get to somewhere that we can talk with any semblance of quiet, I'll want you to tell me everything you remember connected with Staunton. I can't care if it disturbs you."

"I'm not arguing." She looked away from him. "You're the one who sent me to stay with Irana. I wanted to go after Staunton right away. You should have asked me before this. I would have told you."

"I was being kind." His lips curved in a sardonic smile. "God knows why. I'm not kind. It would have been better for everyone if I'd just stuck to my usual modus operandi."

"Irana thinks you're kind."

"Sometimes." He pulled onto the road. "And that may get her killed, too."

"You tried to protect-"

"I don't want you to defend anything I do," he interrupted. "Just scan those pages and see if we can find out anything we need to know."

"Fine." His sharp abruptness stung her. She didn't know what had possessed her to try to offer Garrett comfort anyway. She didn't know anyone who needed it less. She opened the folder. "This will take some time. I can barely read by these dash lights. Should I turn on the overhead?"

"No. The overhead would light us like a spotlight."

And if Staunton was on his way here, that spotlight would make them targets, she realized

She leaned closer to the dash lights. "I'll do the best I can." She shook her head. "No, the print is too faded. The nurse's printer must have needed a new ink cartridge." She tilted the page. "This is crazy. It must be a mistake. I don't even see Zelov mentioned yet. There's only one name that jumps out at me." She bent nearer. "Crazy…"

"What name?"

She frowned. "Rasputin."

EMILY WAS ONLY ABLE TO READ bits and pieces of the report on the short drive to the helicopter. She finally shook her head and put it aside as she got out of the car. "I'll have to have more time. Maybe when we get airborne, I can concentrate."

Garrett nodded. "It's all Rasputin? No mention of Zelov?"

"There was a reference on the third page. Something about Zelov and an organization called Christalis. Then it goes back to Rasputin. So far it's essentially a biography of the life of Rasputin, the mad monk." She grimaced. "Who was apparently as mad and ugly as that nickname implies. Thief, charlatan, debaucher. I'd read about him in history courses but nothing in depth. Only that he lived back at the turn of the nineteenth century and had enormous influence over the Tsar and Tsarina before the Russian Revolution." She got into the helicopter as he held the door open for her. "So far this report is only concerning his early life. He was of peasant stock, and when he was eighteen, he be¬came involved with a bizarre religious group, the Khlysty sect, where he met Mikhail Zelov." She glanced at him as he got into the helicopter and started the engine. "He evidently looked upon Zelov as a teacher and role model and mentions a Book of Living written by the master."