J. Robb - Vengeance in Death

"I will. I want a one-on-one with the mother tonight."

"Keep believing in miracles, Nadine. It's real sweet."

"Dallas – "

Eve ended transmission and smiled into the dark. If Nadine was up to par, the broadcast would play within thirty minutes.

By the time she pulled through the gates and headed toward home her eyes were burning with fatigue, but her system was wired. She could put in another couple of hours on hard data, she decided. Just needed some food, maybe a quick shower, at most a power nap.

She left her car in front and, rolling the kinks out of her neck and shoulders, walked up the steps. In the foyer, she shrugged out of her jacket, tossed it over the newel post. And sighed. She'd have preferred avoiding Summerset, but he deserved to know that he was completely off the hook. Normally he would have simply materialized, scowl first. "Sulking somewhere," Eve muttered and turned to the house screener. "Locate Summerset."

Summerset is in the main parlor.

"Sulking all right." She blew out a breath. "You heard me come in, bone ass. Much as I prefer the cold shoulder to your usual raft of complaints…" she began as she strode toward the parlor.

Then she stopped. The hand that itched for her weapon rose slowly up, until she held both in plain sight, palms out.

"A self-starter. I appreciate that." Liam smiled from behind the chair where Summerset was secured with cord. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, moving the thin silver tool he held a hairbreadth from Summerset's right eye.

"No, but it looks efficient."

"Laser scalpel. One of the finest medical tools currently in use. I've only to engage it to destroy his eye. And with him, a whoremonger, I'd keep going until I'd sliced right through the brain."

"I don't know, Liam, his brain's pretty small. You might miss it."

"You don't even like him." His grin widened as Summerset simply closed his eyes. For an instant, he was a young, attractive man with sparkling eyes and a smile full of charm and promise. "That was part of the fun I enjoyed the most. You worked so hard on his behalf, and you must hate him as much as I do."

"Nah. I'm more ambivalent, really. Why don't you ease back on the laser? Unless you're into droids, good help's really hard to find these days."

"I need you to take out your weapon, Lieutenant, using your thumb and index finger. Put it on the floor, moving very carefully, then kick it over here. I can see you hesitate," he added. "I should tell you I've adjusted this particular instrument. Its range is extended." Amused, he turned it, aimed it at her head. "It'll reach you, I promise, and go through your brain instead."

"I hate doctors." She took out her weapon. But as she crouched down as if to lay it on the floor, she flipped it into her hand. A beam shot out from the scalpel, sending a line of fire burning across her biceps. Her fingers went numb, and the stunner clattered to the floor.

"I'm afraid I anticipated that. I do know you well." He crossed the room as he spoke, picking up her weapon as Eve fought to rise over the pain and focus. "I'm told the pain from a laser incision is excruciating. We recommend anesthesia." He laughed and stepped back. "But you'll live. You may want to bind up that arm. You're getting blood all over the floor." Willing to oblige, he leaned over and ripped the sleeve off her shirt, dropped it into her lap. "Try that."

He watched her fumble to wrap it around the wound. Listened to her labored breathing as she fought to tie it with one hand and her teeth. "You're a tenacious opponent, Lieutenant, and fairly clever. But you've failed. You were doomed to fail from the beginning. Only the righteous triumph."

"Spare me the religious crap, Liam. Under all that holy talk, it's all just a game to you."

"Make a joyful noise, Lieutenant. Enjoying God's work is a tribute to His powers, not a sin."

"And you've enjoyed this."

"Very much. Every step you took, every move you made brought us here, tonight, where it was always meant for me to be. God's will."

"Your god's an asshole."

He struck her across the face, backhanded. "Don't dare blaspheme. Don't ever deride God in my presence, you whore." He left her curled on the floor and picked up the glass of wine he'd poured while waiting for her. "Jesus drank the fruit of the grape while sitting among his enemies." He sipped, calmed. "When Roarke arrives, the circle will be complete. I have the power of the Lord in my hands." He grinned down at the two weapons. "And the technology of the ages."

"He isn't coming." Summerset's voice was slurred from the drugs Liam had pumped into him. "I told you he isn't coming."

"He'll be here. He can't keep away from his harlot."

Eve clamped down on the pain and managed to get to her knees. When she looked into Liam's face, she knew it was far too late for him. The madness his mother had planted in the child had rooted deep in the man.

"How the hell did you let this Bible-thumping fuckhead into our house?''

"Do you want me to hurt you again?" Liam demanded. "Do you want more pain?"

"I wasn't talking to you."

"I thought he was the police," Summerset said wearily. "He was driving a cruiser, wearing a uniform. He said you'd sent him."

"Couldn't break the security field here, could you, Liam. Just a little over your head."

"With time I would have." His face went sulky, like a child's denied a favored treat. "There's nothing I can't do. But I'm tired of waiting."

"You missed the last two times, didn't you?" Eve forced herself to her feet, clamped her teeth together as the pain sang through her. "You didn't get Brian, and you didn't finish Pat Murray. He's going to make a full recovery, and he'll point across the courtroom at you at your trial."

"They were simply tests of my commitment. God always tests His disciples." But he pressed his fingers to his lips, rubbed them there. "It's almost over now. It's the last round, and you lose." Eyes bright as a bird's, he cocked his head. "You might want to sit down, Lieutenant. You lost some blood, and you're looking very pale."

"I'll stand. Aren't you going to tell me your game plan? That's how it works. What's the point in ending it if you don't brag first?"

"I don't consider it bragging. I'm honoring my father, avenging his death. Point by bloody point. When I'm done here, I'll go back for Kelly and Murray and one more. Suffocation, drowning, then poison. Six sinners for the six martyred, and three to make nine for the novena. After that, he'll rest in peace."

He set the laser down to run a finger down the folds of the veil of the Virgin Mother he'd placed on a table. "The order's changed, but God understands. Tonight, Roarke will walk into his own private hell. His longtime companion, his trusted friend, dead. His whore, his slut cop, dead. It will look as if they did away with each other. A terrible fight right here in his own home, a fight for life, for death. For a moment, just for a moment, he'll believe that."

He smiled at Eve. "Then I'll step out and he'll know the truth. The pain will be worse then, unbearable, excruciating. He'll know what it is to lose, to have all that matters stolen from him. He'll know that by his own evil he brought the angel of death into this house. The avenging sword."

"Angel. Avenging Angel." She had to risk it, play on his madness. "A. A.? Is that where you got your cover? We know all about you. Everything. How you infiltrated Roarke's company, worked on his equipment. Stole from him." She stepped closer, keeping her eyes steady on his. "We know where you came from, where you've been. We found your hole. Your picture's on the news right now. Right next to your mother's."

"You're lying. Lying whore."

"How do I know who you are? How do I know about A. A.? And the dinky little room in your mother's apartment where you kept your equipment. And the other place, downtown." It has to be downtown, she told herself. "The bugs your mother planted in Summerset's quarters. We played the game, Liam, and we beat you. What we didn't find out, Audrey filled in. Right before I locked her in a cage."