Long After Midnight (2 page)

Tony shook his head. “Hey, I’m a lawyer, not a fortune-teller. Do you?”

“Maybe. Raymond Ogden called me yesterday.”

Tony gave a low whistle. “Big stuff. He owns one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, doesn’t he?”

Noah nodded. “And a bag of dirty tricks to go along with it.”

“How do you know?”

“He tried to take over my company six years ago.” Noah smiled crookedly. “He tried everything from seduction of stockholders to launching an ad campaign that hinted that our production line was careless.”

“But he didn’t succeed in taking you over.”

“No. He changed his mind.”

Tony didn’t ask what methods Noah had used to change his mind. Noah was one tough bastard and almost feudal in his possessive attitude toward his company. “So he can’t be much danger to you.”

“He barely flexed his muscles on the takeover attempt. J. and S. was too small to be worth his personal attention.”

“But this will be different?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll definitely have his full attention. Which means you’re out of it, Tony.”

“What?”

“You heard me. It could get nasty from now on.”

“You’re overreacting. I haven’t made the Washington trip yet. Ogden may not know anything. He’s probably grasping at straws.”

“God, I hope so.”

Tony looked at him in surprise. Hope wasn’t Noah Smith’s usual modus operandi. He preferred to make his own luck, mold circumstances to suit himself like the modern-day buccaneer Tony knew him to be. The weary heaviness and uncertainty in his tone were uncharacteristic of him. But then, Noah’s entire handling of RU2 had been unusual. He had kept his reckless streak firmly in check. He had been careful, painstaking, and relentlessly protective. “You’re really worried.” He paused before asking the question he’d kept himself from asking for the last ten months. “What the hell is RU2?”

Noah shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

“If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked. I’ve been your friend for sixteen years and your lawyer for eight. I think I deserve your trust, Noah.”

“My lawyer shouldn’t ask me questions I don’t want to answer.” He met his gaze. “And my friend should believe me when I tell him he doesn’t want to know more than he has to know. It’s not safe.”

“Professionally?”

“It’s not safe,” Noah repeated. “Back off, Tony.”

“I doubt if Ogden’s going to blackjack me in some dark alley.”

“Not personally. Why should he? He can hire someone to do it.”

Tony shook his head. “I can’t see Ogden regarding your RU2 as that much of a threat. He’s a major player.”

“Then think of Ogden Pharmaceuticals as Hiroshima and RU2 as the first atomic bomb. That should make it clearer.”

Tony started to smile. “You’re joking. You can’t be—” Then he realized Noah was dead serious, and for the first time he was shaken. “You’re not being paranoid?”

“I’m being careful. For God’s sake, I’m trying to keep you out of this.” Noah’s voice roughened. “I let you help me because you’re the only one I could trust, but now I want you out. I knew that someone like Ogden was bound to surface as soon as the sharks found out about RU2.”

“Found out what?”

Noah was silent.

It was no use. “You always were a selfish bastard,” he said lightly. “We haven’t done any shark fishing since Grenada and now you want to keep them all to yourself.”

Noah relaxed. “With any luck I’ll swim away before they know I’m in the water.”

“Not likely. You usually make a pretty big splash.”

“Well, go away to the mountains for a week or so until I see what’s happening with Ogden.” He opened the desk, pulled out a key ring, and tossed it to Tony. “I’ve rented a lodge in the Sierra Madres for you. The address is on the ring. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going, not even your secretary. Okay?”

“Whatever you say.” He got up to leave. “I could use a little vacation. I have to bring by those Amsterdam contracts for you to sign. They should be ready by Monday and I’ll leave by the end of the week.”

“Leave Tuesday.”

“Okay. Okay. You’ll call me if you need me?”

“Loud and clear.”

Tony moved toward the door.

“And Tony.” Noah’s brow was knitted in thought. “Get in touch with Seth. Ask him to come.”

“He won’t do it.”

“Ask him.”

“For God’s sake, Noah, you don’t need a mercenary. This isn’t a war.”

“Not yet.”

“He may not even be alive. He hasn’t surfaced in the last five years.”

“He was alive eight months ago. He spent a week with me on the
Cadro
sailing in the Caribbean.”

Tony’s eyes widened in surprise. “You didn’t tell me.”

“I don’t tell you everything, Tony.”

“It seems you tell me precious little.”

Noah smiled. “Are you disgruntled because I didn’t invite you along? You and Seth are hardly bosom buddies.”

“The bastard has always needled the hell out of me.”

“True. I think your newfound respectability annoys him. He doesn’t like lawyers.”

“No, he prefers smugglers, killers, and sundry riffraff,” Tony said sourly.

“Riffraff.” Noah savored the phrase. “Where the hell did you come up with that word?”

“It comes to mind every time I think of Seth.”

“You must try it on him next time you see him.”

“I don’t want to see him. Hell, I don’t even know where to contact him.”

“South America.”

“Thanks for narrowing it down.”

“Pedro Estaban’s hotel in Venga, Colombia. Leave a message with Manuel Carrerra. Tell him it’s time. Get Seth for me, Tony. Right away.”

“I’ll try,” he said grudgingly. “You won’t let me help, but, dammit, you don’t mind putting his neck on the line.”

“It’s his area of expertise. He has an edge.” He smiled slyly. “He’s not a lawyer.”

“You bastard.” Tony paused at the door and glanced back at the dossier on Noah’s desk. “You’re so concerned about keeping my ass safe. What about Kate Denby’s?”

Noah’s expression became shuttered. “I can’t allow myself to worry about her. She’ll have to take her chances.”

“Why?”

“I need her,” Noah said simply.

After the door closed behind Tony, Noah flipped shut the Kate Denby dossier. He didn’t want her face gazing up at him. Over the last few weeks he had become too familiar with that face. He had become familiar with
her.

And that was a mistake.

When he finally persuaded her to join his camp, he’d have to distance himself. Not an easy task since they’d have to work closely together, but he knew himself too well. He couldn’t let her close, couldn’t let her become a friend. If he started to worry about Kate Denby, RU2 would be endangered, and that mustn’t happen. He had to be able to use her and not worry about the consequences.

And the consequences were beginning to loom on the horizon. He could put off Ogden for a little while, but he was like a tribe of Indians circling the wagon train. Sooner or later he’d swoop in and attack.

And Noah had to sit on his butt and watch it coming. Wait, instead of attack. Evade, instead of rushing in and grappling toe to toe.

He stood up and moved restlessly to the window and gazed down at the factory yard. It was almost deserted this Saturday afternoon. Only a skeleton crew was working in the east wing of the plant, where most of the production took place. J. and S. Pharmaceuticals was small but very prosperous for its size, a family business started by his grandfather and built upon by his father. A good many of the employees who worked in that building had been here while he was growing up. As a kid, he’d taken his lunch bucket and eaten down there in that yard with Pauly McGregor, who now headed production. In a changing world, this plant was a bedrock.

His bedrock. His people.

But RU2 might change that too. It could twist and transform everything that was important to him.

Why was he second-guessing now? he wondered impatiently. He had made the agonizing decision two years ago when he’d realized RU2’s potential.

There was no way he could back down now.

RU2 must survive.

South America
Sunday, March 25

Seth knew that smell.

It was a smell you never forgot.

Goddamn Namirez.

He moved quickly through the rain forest toward the village. No need to be silent now. Not when the smell was this strong.

The village was silent.

Bodies lay everywhere. Men, women, children, babies.

Death. Mud. Stinking decay.

Christ, even the babies.

Namirez, you lying son of a bitch.

A yellow-brown mongrel pup crept out of a hut, wagging its tail. It came closer, sniffing at Seth’s combat boots.

He was surprised Namirez hadn’t butchered the animals as well.

Son of a bitch.

Venga, Colombia

“You have acquired a pet, senor?” Manuel shook his head as Seth came into the lobby of the hotel a day later. “Very scrawny. I can get you a much finer animal.”

“I like this one.” He handed Manuel the rope with which he’d haltered the mongrel. “Feed him, will you? Is Namirez in town?”

Manuel nodded. “In the back room. Sergeant Rimilon is here too. He’s in his room.” He handed Seth a folded slip of paper. “That’s a message for you. Mr. Lynski wishes you to call him right away.”

“Later.” He stuffed the message into his shirt pocket. “Call the
policía
and then tell Sergeant Rimilon to meet me in the lobby. Get the helicopter gassed up.”

“You are going somewhere?”

“Yes.” He went around the desk and opened the door to the back room.

Namirez was sitting at the desk. He looked up and smiled. “Ah, Drakin, all is going well for us. You’ve done what you promised.”

“You haven’t.” He drew his pistol from its holster. “I told you. No reprisals.”

He shot him squarely in the center of the forehead.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Rimilon shouted, trying to keep pace as Seth ran toward the helicopter behind the hotel. “Did you have to kill him?”

“Yes.” Seth jumped into the helicopter and set the pup on the floor beside him. “Disband the men and get the hell out of here. Namirez’s partners aren’t going to like losing him at this point. Everything’s going to fall apart.”

Rimilon swore long and emphatically. “All you had to do was ignore what happened in the village. Now how are we going to get paid? I saw the
policía
rifling through his safe.”

“But I got there first.” Seth tossed him a bundle. “Pay the men off and scat. I’d leave S.A. for a while. I’ll be in touch.” He closed the door and the helicopter lifted off.

He didn’t unfold the slip of paper he’d put in his pocket until he was out of Colombia and heading for the Caracas airport. It was only one line and a telephone number.

Noah says it’s time.

It was what he expected to see. Noah had told him everything would be coming to a head soon. Another war. Another place.

God, he was tired of it.

But this would be different. It was Noah’s war and Noah was one of the good guys, the white hats. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

The pup at his feet whimpered.

He glanced down and saw the pup had peed on the floor. Great. The noise and vibration of the helicopter had scared him. Seth understood fear. You got used to it, but it never went away.

He reached down and patted the pup on the head. “Take it easy. We’ll be down soon.” He shouldn’t have brought the dog. What the hell was he going to do with him? He could have trusted Manuel to take care of him.

But he wasn’t long on trust, and the pup had survived the massacre and deserved to live. So he was stuck with a mongrel who was going to prove inconvenient as hell.

Which might be the least of his worries. Noah was smart and he thought he was prepared, but he hadn’t gone to war since Grenada. He didn’t think like a soldier anymore.

But it was Noah’s war, Noah’s call. Seth didn’t have to run the show on this one. It would be good to relax and take a backseat for a while.

If he could do it. He was having a harder time unwinding lately. Every year the edge got sharper, the tightness got—

The pup was trying to climb into his lap, and Seth pushed him back to the floor. “Sorry, you’ll get in my way. You wouldn’t want to see this bird go down in the jungle. You’ve been there.”

And so had he. Jungle, desert, islands . . . they all became a blur after a while. Nothing was different but the people, and they tended to fade too.

Except for sons of bitches like Namirez and Noah of the white hat.

The white hat and RU2 that could send them all to hell.

TWO

Dandridge, Oklahoma
Monday, March 26
10:35
A.M.

M
urderess!”

“Filthy butcher!”

“Get the demon!”

Kate flung open the glass door at GeneChem’s front entrance, watching grimly as Benita Chavez bolted from the parking lot and down the walk followed by the howling mob.

“Do you think she’ll make it?” Charlie Dodd murmured in Kate’s ear.

“If she does, I’ll murder her myself,” Kate said. “Where the hell is Security?”

“I don’t know. We were all supposed to be in the building before eight. It’s almost eleven.”

“Well, ring the buzzer for them.”

“I already did. As soon as I saw Benny get out of her car.”

Benny Chavez waved cheerfully as she saw Kate. Her jean-clad legs took the stone steps two at a time; her long black hair streamed behind her.

“She’s laughing,” Kate said between her teeth. “The idiot thinks this is a big joke.”

“It won’t be so funny if they catch—Damn.”

One of the signs carried by the protesters had descended on Benita’s head. She staggered, stopped, and caught her balance. It was too late. She was engulfed in the screaming horde.

“Hold the door open.” Kate flew down the steps toward the knot of humanity surrounding Benny. She grabbed a sign away from a gray-haired harridan on the edge of the crowd, turned it around, and started wielding the wooden pole like a staff, clearing the way before her until she caught sight of Benita.

Benny’s shirttail was out of her jeans, her hair covered her eyes, and she was no longer smiling.

“Run for the building.” Kate jabbed a potbellied man in the abdomen, forcing him to back away from Benny. “Now.”

“I can’t leave you. I won’t go until you—Ouch.”

Kate had jabbed her with the pole. “Now, damn you. I’ll be right behind you.”

Benny hurried up the steps.

“Bitch.” The snarl came from the gray-haired woman from whom Kate had taken the sign. “Murderess.”

Blinding pain struck her temple.

She was going down. . . .

The hell she was. They’d be on her like a pack of hyenas. She fought back the darkness, striking blindly to the right and left with the pole.

She heard wood strike flesh, a shrill scream, a pained grunt.

Someone grabbed her hair from behind and tried to pull her down the steps.

Her head snapped back as agony jarred through her. She swiveled and swung the pole.

A scream and the grip on her hair was suddenly gone.

Good. She hoped she’d knocked the—

“Hurry, Dr. Denby.” A man in a gray uniform with
GeneChem
embossed on the pocket was beside her. She recognized Cary from Security. “Get inside.” He was pushing her up the stairs while two other security men battled the crowd. “You know you shouldn’t be out here.”

Her relief turned to annoyance. “I didn’t have much choice, since you weren’t. Why the devil did you have to—” She broke off. She wasn’t being fair. The building was secure, and everyone had been warned to come in early to avoid contact with those idiots out front until Administration could find a way to reason with them. “Sorry. Events just escalated.”

“You should have waited. Why did you go out there?”

Kate glanced at Benny standing in the doorway beside Charlie Dodd. Evidently Security had arrived after Benny had reached safety and had no idea of her involvement. Charlie shrugged and raised his eyebrows, leaving it up to Kate. That scene outside might well escalate into a major public relations nightmare. As head of her project, Kate could survive the bureaucratic fallout, but Benny was only a lab assistant and would be considered expendable. “It was a mistake. I should have known better.” She saw the relief in Benny’s expression and added deliberately, “It’s always foolish to try to stop idiots from making asses of themselves.”

“Right.” Benny stepped forward and took Kate solicitously by the arm. “You look like you’ve been through a hurricane. Come on along to the washroom and I’ll get you cleaned up.”

Cary was uncertain. “Maybe she should go to the infirmary. Her temple’s bleeding.”

“It’s nothing,” Kate said. “I’ll be fine, Cary.”

“Sure you will.” Benny was guiding her down the hall. “Tell them at the lab that I’ll be there as soon as I finish helping Kate, will you, Charlie?”

“And of course they can’t expect you to be on time when you’re playing Florence Nightingale,” Charlie said dryly.

She winked at him over her shoulder. “It would be totally inhumane of them.”

Kate heard Charlie chuckle and she knew he would cover for Benny just as she had done. Why did they do it? she wondered in exasperation. Benny was always late, recklessly impulsive, sometimes manipulative.

She was also the most thorough technician in the lab, generous and boundlessly good-humored.

And Joshua adored her. He would be heartbroken if anything happened to Benny. So, for Joshua’s sake as well as her own, Benny must be protected.

“Sit down.” Benny pushed her into the chrome seat in front of the long mirror, turned to the basin, and dampened a paper towel. “You look like hell.”

“I wonder why.”

“Because you’re a pushover.” Benny grinned as she began to dab at Kate’s temple. “And you rush in where angels fear to tread.”

“You’re no angel and you were in the middle of that mess.”

“You should have let me battle my way out. I’m better equipped for the job. I’m a strapping five foot ten and you’re five foot nothing.”

“Five foot two,” Kate corrected. “And you’ll notice I was more successful than you were.”

“They caught me by surprise.” She wiped the smudges off Kate’s cheeks. “I couldn’t believe they’d actually go for me. For God’s sake, it doesn’t make any sense. Do they think we’re performing abortions here?”

“They’re fanatics. They believe what they want to believe. They get bored with attacking abortion clinics so they target genetic research.”

“But GeneChem isn’t even involved in fetal research. We’re searching for a single vaccine for all the influenza strains.”

“We’re all monsters as far as they’re concerned.” Kate took the towel from Benny. “I can do that. Clean yourself up.”

“I thought you’d be taking over pretty soon.” Benny made a face. “No one’s allowed to take care of you for very long, are they?”

Kate looked at her in surprise. “Why should I let you do what I can do myself?”

“No reason. I just thought you might relax for a change. You don’t have to be Wonder Woman every minute of the day. Brilliant Scientist meets Super Mom. It must be exhausting.”

Kate smiled. “Not nearly as exhausting as playing Little John with that makeshift staff. If you want me to relax, get here tomorrow morning at eight like you’re supposed to. Okay?”

“Okay. So I overslept. I had a date last night.” She raised a brow. “You should try it sometime.”

“It would get in the way of my being Super Mom.” She added flippantly, “I don’t need a man. I’ve been there, done that.”

“Some things bear repeating.” Benny hesitated. “But maybe you’d rather really do a repeat. Are you still seeing Michael?”

“Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon.” She held up her hand as Benny opened her lips. “When Josh plays in Little League games.”

“So that your son will see a united front. It’s nice seeing a happy, civilized divorce.”

“No divorce is happy.” Kate stood up and straightened her white lab coat. It had survived miraculously unscathed. She looked almost normal. “But it doesn’t have to destroy everyone around it.”

“No danger. You wouldn’t allow it. You always have everything under control.” Benny washed her face. “Do you still sleep with him?”

Kate made a face at her. “That’s none of your business.”

“Well, actually it is.” Benny looked a little sheepish. “I kind of . . . like him.”

Kate went still. “Michael?”

“He dropped in at the house a few weeks ago when I was babysitting Joshua. Remember the night you worked in the lab until after midnight and Phyliss was at her accounting class?” Benny was talking fast, avoiding Kate’s eyes. “What can I say? I’ve always liked cops. Authority figures. It must come from having a father flit out when I was a kid. But if you still have a—”

“How does he feel about you?”

“He likes me.” Benny turned to face her and added baldly, “We’ve been out a few times. I won’t go again if you don’t want me to.”

Why did she feel so betrayed? Kate wondered. Michael had a right to form new attachments. They had been divorced two years, and the only bond between them now was Joshua. “Was it Michael you were with last night?”

Benny nodded.

No, it wasn’t betrayal. It was loneliness . . . and plain dog-in-the-manger envy. “Do what you like. We don’t sleep together. It’s over.” She straightened her hair. “It should never have begun. You’d suit Michael much better than I did.”

“I think so too,” Benny said with a sigh of relief. “I know I’m not as smart as you, and I don’t look like an angel on the top of a Christmas tree, but I have my points.”

Yes, Bennie had her points. She was twenty-two years old to Kate’s twenty-nine, and in the mirror she appeared even taller and more vivacious standing next to fair and delicate-looking Kate. Kate automatically squared her shoulders. She had been fighting and compensating for that fragile image for most of her adult life. “You’re not dumb and you have to know you’re attractive, Benny.”

“I’m not so bad.” Benny rushed on, “And Michael’s an old-fashioned guy. It must have been hard for him being married to a workaholic.”

Benny was already aligning herself with Michael, Kate realized with a pang. “Yes, it was very hard for him. But being married to a police detective working Narcotics wasn’t a piece of cake for me either.”

“I didn’t mean it was all your fault.” Benny looked stricken. “It’s just you expect a man to—” She shrugged. “I was brought up in a Latino household. I guess I’m old-fashioned too.”

“How nice for Michael.”

“You
do
mind.”

Kate wearily shook her head. “I don’t have the right to mind anything Michael does. I suppose I should feel lucky he chose someone Joshua likes.”

“It’s not as if we’re an item,” Benny said quickly. “But if you really don’t care about—”

“It’s okay,” Kate interrupted. “Thanks for telling me.”

She walked quickly out of the washroom. It was stupid to feel this hurtful sense of loss. Benny and she were friends, but Kate’s work had prevented them from becoming really close.

It must have been hard for him being married to a workaholic.

She blocked the words out as she opened the door of the lab. All right, she wasn’t a fifties sitcom mom. She and Michael had realized the marriage was a disaster from the beginning, and only Joshua’s birth had made it last as long as it did. She was no more a failure than Michael.

Failure? She had Joshua, respect in her field, and work she loved. Not bad for a woman of twenty-nine. Many women had far less.

She sat down at her desk and eagerly reached for the results of yesterday’s tests.

“Noah Smith called again.” Charlie tore off the number on his notepad and tossed it on her desk. “He wants you to call him back.”

“Thanks.” She absently pushed aside the message and went back to the DNA pairing on the chart. She felt a leap of excitement. Eighty-seven percent. Close. My God, she was close.

“It’s the fourth time,” Charlie said. “Didn’t you return his call?”

“Once.”

“The great man’s nose must be out of joint.”

“Maybe.”

“If you don’t want the job, you might recommend me.” Charlie sat on the edge of her desk. “I’ve no prejudice against working with a Nobel Prize contender.”

“Talk to him. You’ve a better background in cancer research than I have.”

“That’s what I told him just now when he called.” He sighed. “He says you have certain credentials that I lack.”

“Bull.”

“Have you ever met him?”

She shook her head. “We were at the same conference a year ago, but I saw him only at a distance. The reporters were clustered around him like flies.” She had a sudden memory of Noah Smith cleaving his way through the crowds like a scimitar: forceful, totally assured, dynamic. “He was there for only one day. I guess he found us lacking in inspiration.”

“Ouch,” Charlie said. “I take it you don’t care for him.”

She shrugged. “I suppose he’s okay. I just think he’s a bit of a hot dog.”

“Well, he’s a colorful character. Special Forces, yachtsman in the America’s Cup . . . Newspapers love to write about scientists who don’t wear horn-rimmed glasses and tote microscopes in their back pocket. So he likes to have a good time. Give him a break.”

Kate knew that Charlie was right. Noah Smith was a reporter’s dream—a war hero, sportsman, and scientist who had carved a brilliant career. And he had yet to turn forty. Her antagonism was completely unreasonable. No, it wasn’t. He was making himself a major pain in the ass to her. “You give him a break.”

“He won’t give me the chance,” Charlie said mournfully. “If you won’t put in a word for me, you could at least take the job he’s offering so I could take over yours.”

“Sorry. I’m not going anywhere. I like it here.” She smiled. “Now get off my desk and let me get back to work.”

Charlie’s gaze fell on the chart. “I bet that’s not an influenza statistic. Your private project?”

She said evasively, “Just a few comparisons.”

“Rudy?”

“Yes.”

“You lit up like the Fourth of July when you saw them.”

“Did I?”

“My God, you’re cautious.” He looked hurt. “Don’t you trust me?”

“You’re impossible.” She shook her head in amusement. “You just tried to bounce me out of my job.”

“Well, I guess I can see where that might give you pause.”

She chuckled and waved a dismissing hand. “Get out of here.”

The phone on her desk rang.

“Opportunity calling,” Charlie murmured. “Smith’s not a man who gives up.”

“It’s probably Public Relations reading me the riot act for causing an ‘incident.’ ” She picked up the phone. “Kate Denby.”