Greg Iles - The Footprints of God

Geli Bauer rubbed her eyes with one hand and poured strong coffee into her mug with the other. She was wait¬ing for John Skow's wife to bring him to the phone. She had slept three hours on the cot where she and Ritter had made love last night. She almost never dreamed these days, but an old recurring nightmare of pursuit by sol¬diers had returned. In the dream she always killed herself before they reached her. The terror before that act of release was nearly unbearable.

"Geli?" Skow said in her headset, his voice exhausted.

He had spent all night with the Godin Four super¬computer, piecing together a threat to the president from digital recordings of Tennant's voice. Geli had already awakened him once, to tell him she'd received a report of a man missing from one of their SWAT details. At that point there had been no proof that Tennant had been there, but now…

"The SWAT team at Frozen Head found their missing man," she said. "He'd been dumped into a creek bed from a highway bridge. He had an arrow in his throat."

"Did Tennant do it?"

"I think so. I've been reviewing his background. He did a lot of hunting when he was a kid. Probably bow-hunted in the early season."

"Where the hell would he get a bow and arrows?"

"We're checking the security tapes of stores along the routes between the ferry and Oak Ridge. He was obvi¬ously planning to hole up for a while on that mountain. What I want to know is this. How did you know where he would be?"

"I told you, I can't give you that."

"Your secret source is Dr. Weiss, isn't it?"

"Geli- "

"Who else could it be? How else could you know about Frozen Head Park?"

"If it was Dr. Weiss, you'd know it already."

Geli knew better. "That's why you were so skittish about a shoot-to-kill order. You knew your informer might be killed. What I don't get is why you didn't tell me she was helping us. I could have protected her."

"You have a habit of asking questions above your pay grade."

"I don't have a fucking pay grade! I make ten times what you do."

"But you still take orders from me."

She wanted to reach through the phone and crush his windpipe, but self-discipline slowly reasserted itself. "When did you last talk to Godin?"

"It's been longer than I'd like," Skow admitted. The NSA man sounded nervous, and he wasn't trying to hide it.

"What are the extended trips Godin and Nara have been taking for the past few weeks? They fly west and disappear for three and four days at a time. Where are they going?"

"You must have dug deeper than that."

She would not be drawn in so easily. "Whoever's han¬dling security on that end is very good."

A dry chuckle from Skow. "You have no idea."

"Why aren't you with them?"

No answer.

"How is all this related to Fielding's pocket watch?"

"I'm sorry, Geli."

Things she had noticed over the past few weeks began to push themselves to the forefront of her thoughts. "Zach Levin and his Interface Team were laid off five weeks ago. They seem to have dropped off the face of the earth. Why would a whole technical team be dropped?"

Skow didn't reply.

She searched for a question he could answer. "Does the person handling security wherever Godin is control your ultrasecret source?"

In the ensuing silence, she realized that Skow's reti¬cence was not meant to offend her. He had the paralysis of a man trapped between duty and fear.

"Has this secret source told you where Tennant is going next?"

"You'll get another list of destinations soon. I'll get it to you as soon as I have it."

"You do that." She tried to push the mystery of Peter Godin's location from her mind. "How public is our deranged-assassin story now?"

"It's still inside the Beltway, but it'll spread fast. The D.C. police will get it this morning. I didn't want to go wide with it until I finished last night's project."

"I listened to the recording again a few minutes ago. It's rock solid."

"It better be. What are you going to do now?"

"Wait here for something. Anything. A whisper of where Tennant might be."

"And then?"

"I'm going to go there myself. I don't trust anyone else at this point."

"Go there how?"

"Godin's JetRanger is still on the helipad. You have any problem with me taking it?"

"No. I'll keep the pilot on standby for you." After a pause, Skow said, "Getting Tennant is personal for you, isn't it?"

Geli took a sip of hot coffee and held it in her mouth.

"I think you cared more for Ritter than anyone knew," Skow added.

She swallowed. "You're a shrink now?"

"Something just hit me. If you're so sure that Weiss is my secret source, Tennant may conclude the same thing. I mean, as you said… how else could that SWAT have been waiting at Frozen Head?"

"Go on."

"If Tennant decides Weiss is informing on him, he'll dump her. We should put out an APB on her and cover the phones and homes of everyone she's close to."

"I've already covered everybody she might call, but not for that reason. Tennant won't leave Dr. Weiss anywhere."

"Why not?"

"He's in love with her."

"He can't ignore logic that obvious."

Geli laughed softly. "Of course he can. People do it all the time."

I snapped awake with a rush of terror. Rachel was behind the wheel of the pickup truck, and we were moving. I lay crumpled on the floor on the passenger side. Pulling myself onto the seat, I saw that we were racing down a deserted rural highway. There was nothing behind us but empty road.

"How did you get in?" I asked. "Did I not lock the door?"

She didn't look at me. "You locked it. There was a piece of heavy wire in the truck bed. I made a hook and pulled the lock from inside the doorframe."

"Where are we?"

"Almost to Caryville. From the signs, it looks like I-75 runs through there."

I shook the remnants of the Jerusalem dream from my head. How long had I been unconscious? "Where's the SWAT team?"

"Looking for us, I'm sure."

I was certain that Rachel had betrayed our destination to the NSA. So why was she driving me down a deserted road? Maybe she was driving back toward Frozen Head.

"I know what you're thinking," she said. "But you're wrong. Someone else had to know about Frozen Head Park. Maybe you told someone at Trinity about it. Ravi Nara? Before you started hating each other?"

"No. You're the only person alive who knew about that cave. At least about its connection to me."

I rolled down the window, leaned out, and scanned the sky. I saw nothing, at least in the space visible between the trees that lined the narrow blacktop. Was there any reason Geli Bauer's people wouldn't move in if they knew where I was? I couldn't think of one. Anything Geli wanted from me she would get quicker by torturing me than by following me.

"If you're not helping them, why are you still with me?"

Rachel looked at me then, her eyes filled with sad¬ness. "I'm not even going to answer that."

I wanted to believe in her, but I'd be a fool to do so. "Look… if you didn't tell them about Frozen Head, they could not have been waiting there."

"You're missing something," she insisted. "You have to be."

"No. My father and brother are dead. The NSA would have to be able to read my mind to know-"

I froze with my mouth open. Revelation had stunned me like a blow to the head.

"David? What's the matter?"

"They've done it," I whispered. "Good God."

"Done what?"

"Trinity. They've got a prototype up and running."

"How do you know?"

I put a shaking hand to my forehead. Somewhere in America, the Super-MRI scan of my brain had been loaded into a Trinity computer. And that neuromodel now existed-at least to some degree-as David Tennant. I felt as if the people hunting me had discov¬ered I had a twin brother, an evil twin who shared all my memories and would betray me on demand. The feeling of violation was absolute. My mind was my most sacred refuge from the world. I felt raped in some incomprehen¬sible way, robbed of my individuality.