Kiss Me While I sleep (38 page)

It was that way throughout the tour; whenever they “inspected” an area that Swain deemed on their hit list, he would reel off a set of instructions designed to get either himself or Lily back in that area. Not once did he repeat himself, probably because he couldn’t remember all the numbers and initials he’d used before. Dr. Giordano was obviously impressed by Swain’s comprehensive knowledge, though Damone’s expression was more enigmatic. Lily suspected Damone would be a hard sell on anything, which further underscored how much he must have trusted Georges Blanc, in order for him to have accepted Blanc’s recommendation.

At last they were finished, and Swain gave a brief smile. “That will do, I think. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse us, we’ll check those items I mentioned to Charles, and then we’ll sneak around hiding our little surprise packages. This will probably take… an hour, perhaps a little longer. Then we’ll have some fun with your employees that I hope will impress on them how vigilant they should be, and then we’ll have that evacuation drill.”

“Of course,” Damone said, and gave a very Continental little bow. “Thank you both for coming. If you don’t mind, I won’t remain here. Dr. Giordano knows far more about the facility than I, and he is the heart of all the research here. It has been very good to meet you.” He shook hands with Swain, then extended his hand to Lily and she had no choice but to accept his handshake. She tried to grip his hand firmly, and gave it one brisk shake before letting go and slipping her hands into her pockets.

Damone gave her a long, unreadable look, but said nothing and took his leave. Something in her relaxed a little in his absence. He’d been nothing but polite, but she had often felt his gaze boring into her as if he sensed something odd about her but couldn’t quite decide what it was.

After Damone had left, Lily and Swain returned to the van and began dividing the charges between them. Her notes told them where the charges needed to go. Swain had shown her how to use the detonators; there was nothing to it. Destruction was always a lot easier than construction.

“Almost finished,” Swain said. “You okay? You almost lost it there at the beginning.”

So he’d noticed that her emotions were getting the best of her. “Yes,” she said, her eyes dry and her hands steady. “I’m ready.”

“Here we go, then. I’d kiss you for good luck, but your upper lip is hairy.”

“Just for that, I’m going to wear the mustache to bed tonight.” Joking felt strange, given what they were about to do, but in a way the humor anchored her. She just hoped that, come night, they both would be still alive and together.

“That’s a scary thought.” He shrugged his shoulders, as if working out the tension. His blue eyes were deadly serious as he surveyed her. “Be careful. Don’t let anything happen to you.”

“Same here.”

He looked at his watch. “Okay, let’s hustle. I want all of these planted within half an hour.”

They reentered the building and, after one long look, went in opposite directions. Neither of them looked back.

Because Swain had numbered the rooms on the blueprint and marked the charges accordingly, Lily knew which charges went where. He’d shown her where to place them for maximum effect, but hidden well enough that they were likely to stay hidden until they could get the buildings evacuated.

It’s almost over.
The thought kept running through her mind as she walked the hallways of the complex, not making any attempt to avoid detection. Almost no one paid her any attention, and no one questioned her. It was as if, just by being inside the complex, she’d proved her right to be there. The Nervis and Dr. Giordano had become acutely aware of security after the first incident, but for everyone else it seemed to be business as usual. The workforce was light, anyway, since it was the weekend. Those who were there were probably dedicated to the point of being blind to everything else, or tired and resentful that they were working when most others weren’t The end of the workday was growing near, and a lot of people were just killing time.

It’s almost over.
For four long months she’d had one aim: vengeance. But this had grown into something larger than her personal vendetta against the Nervis, something more important. What Averill and Tina had started, she was about to finish, in honor of a young girl who had died while she was still trembling on the cusp between childhood and adolescence.

Lily’s own life had taken a bizarre turn when she was eighteen, but she’d hoped to see Zia live a normal, happy life: marry, have children, be in step with most of the world’s population. Those who went with the flow, who fit in with the crowd, often had no idea how very lucky they were. They belonged. She had wanted Zia to belong, to have the things she herself either had never had or had been forced to give up.

What a special child Zia had been! As if she had somehow known her life would be short, she had spent it in a fizz of effervescence. Everything had been a source of wonder and joy to her. And she’d been a chatterbox, trying to get everything said that could be said, talking at a mad pace until they’d had to laugh and tell her to slow down.

It was almost over, Lily’s quest. She placed a charge against the wall behind the filing cabinets that held Dr. Giordano’s documentation of his experiments and results, and stuck a detonator in the mound of Semtex. Soon all of this would be nothing but ashes.

Almost over,
she thought as she placed the explosives in the office where all the records were put on computer disk and stored. A small charge under each computer, and another big-ger charge where the disks were stored. Everything had to go. There could be nothing left of Dr. Giordano’s research.

Swain was taking care of the doctor’s office, and the two laboratories in which the live virus was kept Unfortunately, that was also the area where the vaccine was being developed.

Lily wished there were some way the vaccine process could be saved, because in a year or so there could very well be a desperate need for it. There was nothing they could do, no way they could protect that part of Dr. Giordano’s research. She just hoped that when the time came, some other lab had been working on the same thing and would be able to step up to the plate.

She went down a long, steep flight of stairs to the basement and set the largest charges under critical walls, to make certain the destruction was complete. By the time she climbed back to the top, she was out of breath and her heart was pounding.

She could no longer tell herself she was still recovering her strength. There was no doubt about it: any exertion made her short of breath. She couldn’t tell if the breathlessness was getting any worse, but she faced the truth: when she was able she would have to find a good cardiac specialist somewhere and see about getting that pesky valve fixed.

A lot of what she would do next depended on Rodrigo Nervi. She would have to leave France; there was no question of that. Leave Europe, in fact. Swain hadn’t said anything about afterward, and neither had she. First they would see if there
was
an afterward. She tried to imagine a future by herself, and couldn’t. Whenever she saw herself now, she was with Swain.

Where would it be safe for him to go? Not back to South America, and neither of them would be safe going back to the United States. Mexico, perhaps, or Canada. That would get them close to home. Jamaica was a possibility. Swain didn’t like cold weather, so she didn’t think he would choose Canada, though that would have been her first choice. Perhaps they could summer in Canada and spend the winter farther south.

A harried-looking man wearing a lab coat and carrying a thick notebook went past her with only a nod. Glancing out through a window, she saw that the sun was setting; the short December day was almost over. Their timing was good; at this time of day, everyone was thinking of home.

The charges had all been placed, with no problems or interference from anyone. It had been so easy it was almost frightening.

She made her way back to Dr. Giordano’s office. Swain was already there, sitting on the comfortable sofa in the office and drinking a cup of coffee. Dr. Giordano indicated the carafe. “Please, help yourself,” he said. “The coffee will be good for your throat.”

“Merci,”
she said. She had coughed so much she had definitely irritated her throat. The first sip of hot coffee soothed the membranes and she almost sighed with pleasure.

“You have a definite problem,” Swain was telling the doctor. “We planted the charges without anyone asking us what we were doing, or becoming alarmed. Awareness is your first defense, and your people are so absorbed in their work they are thinking of nothing else.”

“But scientists are like that,” Dr. Giordano protested, lifting his hands in a very Italian gesture. “What can I do? Tell them not to think about their work?”

Swain shook his head. “The obvious solution is to have peo-ple inside who
aren’t
scientists-trained security personnel-rather than relying so completely on electronics. You should have both. I’m surprised your security company didn’t suggest that”

“But they did. Our work here is so sensitive I elected not to have people in the complex who didn’t understand the safety measures we must take with these viruses.”

“Then that’s a trade-off you have decided to make. It does leave a big hole in your security, but if you are aware of it-” Swain shrugged, as if to say there was nothing he could do. “I’ll have my recommendations put in a report to you. Implement the ones you want. Now, are you ready to have your people see if they can spot the charges?”

Dr. Giordano looked at his watch. “Their time is short. I am afraid this must be a brief lesson.”

“Of course.”

They went to the intercom system, and Dr. Giordano pressed the switch that opened the loudspeakers. He cleared his throat, then began an explanation of what had been going on that afternoon. Lily imagined that all over the complex workers were looking at each other, then uneasily examining their surroundings.

Dr. Giordano checked the time again. “You have five minutes in which to see if you can spot any of these mock explosives. Don’t touch them, just call me and report.”

He clicked off the loudspeaker and asked Swain, “How many of these charges are there?”

“Fifteen.”

They waited, watching the time. Four calls came in during the allotted five minutes. Dr. Giordano sighed, looking sad, and announced the results over the loudspeaker. He turned back to Swain with a “what can I do?” expression on his face.

Lily sat down and rubbed her right leg as if it were aching. She felt an unaccountable sadness, now that the time was here. Considering her earlier rage and hatred, why should she feel sad now? But she did.

She was so tired of killing. She wondered if there would ever be an end to it. Rodrigo Nervi would search for her until the end of his days; she would have to look at every stranger as a possible threat, never relaxing in public.

Swain got up. “You didn’t tell them about the bomb threat drill. That’s good, I think. Your people have been remarkably unaware, so let’s see if I can perhaps stir them to a little more action. May I?” He indicated the intercom system, and Dr. Giordano waved a hand in permission, smiling. Swain turned on the loudspeaker again and in his rough French said urgently, “The explosives are real! There has been a mistake! Get out, get out,
get out!”

He turned and began swiftly ushering Dr. Giordano out the door. Behind them, Lily started to retrieve her pistol from her boot, but Swain looked over his shoulder and gave a sharp shake of his head.
“Move the van,
” he mouthed.

She couldn’t believe they hadn’t thought of that before. The van was parked too close to the building. If she didn’t move it to a safer distance, they wouldn’t have transportation. Swain couldn’t do it because she had the keys, and he was already busy taking the batteries for the remote control from his pocket, trying to insert them while he was moving at a fast clip-People were hurrying out of various rooms and laboratories, confusion on their faces. “What is it?” one woman asked. “This is a joke?”

“No,” Lily said briefly. “Hurry!”

As they went out the door, for Dr. Giordano’s benefit she said, “I have to get something from the van,” and ran for the vehicle.

Evidently taking her action as something they themselves were supposed to do, those lab workers who drove instead of taking the train began running for their own vehicles. The guards at the gate, seeing this unusual activity, stepped out of their little building with their hands on the butts of their weapons, leaving them still holstered but ready to draw on a second’s notice.

Lily started the van and rapidly backed it out of the parking space. Dr. Giordano gave her a startled look, but Swain said something and distracted him by pointing at what the workers were doing, at the same time walking at a fast clip to a safer distance and urging Dr. Giordano along with him.

She pulled the van between Swain and the guards, blocking their view but also positioned in such a way that it gave them some protection from the coming blast. As she got out, she heard Swain say, “Is that everyone, do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Dr. Giordano replied. “Not many were working today, but as to how many-?” He shrugged.

“You should always know, otherwise how can you get a head count?” Swain asked reasonably, and, to Lily’s surprise, turned and handed the remote control to her.