Shadow of Eden (33 page)

“Ahh, so that’s why I can never forget Valerie. Why so important here?”

“The damage from the prions caused by Eden initially occurs where the olfactory nerves take them—the memory and emotional centers and that means the symptoms will occur there first.”

“Like what?”

“Initially, loss of taste and smell. Then your memory and reasoning decline along with your judgment and emotional control. Later, you begin to get delusions and nightmares; mostly old memories you thought had long been forgotten. Then muscular twitching.”

“I don’t like the sound of that; especially the old memories. There are some things I’d rather forget.”

“All three cases I know about have all shown the same pattern. The Captain of the jet that almost crashed in Washington had Vietnam flashbacks. Another re-lived being attacked by wasps when she was a young girl.”

“Why only bad memories? Why not recall all the good things that happened?”

“How many good dreams do you remember compared to how many nightmares?”

Valenti thought a minute. “You’re right. I mostly remember the bad ones.”

“Again it’s because of the way the brain is organized. Danger is key to our survival and it is over-represented in the memory so that we can survive. It’s the same with diseases that disturb the memories. It’s never pleasant.”

“And is this contagious or are these just isolated cases?”

“We have the three patients I mentioned, but we think there are at least a hundred more.”

“Really! How do you know that?”

“We sent out an E-mail survey with MRI pictures. A bunch of radiologists responded positively and most of the cases were known to have taken Eden.”

“That’s really scary. How come no one has heard of this before? A hundred of anything is an epidemic.”

“I think it’s because the cases are all isolated. I probably see one puzzling and undiagnosed illness every three years or so. I ask for my colleagues to look in on it, but typically we decide it is due to a viral encephalitis or an auto-immune disease and that’s it.”

“And you don’t report them to some central CDC like place?”

“If I think it is isolated, I don’t usually bother. That’s why this thing has stayed under the radar for so long. By itself, it is very unusual, but if you only see one, you chalk it up to the mysteries of medicine. If you see more, like I did, you look for the common thread. In this case, it’s Eden.”

“But someone must have found cases like you did. You know, at the teaching hospitals.”

“I would imagine so,” Steve agreed. “Now, I’m wondering if they met the same fate I was supposed to.”

Valenti whistled. “I see what you’re thinking, Doc. So they all die, you know, the patients? There’s no cure?”

“That’s it. Prion diseases are the deadliest in the world. No cure and no remission. It literally turns your brain into a spongy mush like you saw in the cell cultures.” Steve sat down into a chair. “I know it sounds like science fiction, but it happened to England with Mad Cow.”

“I wondered why everyone was so worked up about it.”

“You should have known her before this happened. Nice normal girl. Now, she’s got prions all over her brain and there’s nothing I can do for her.”

“Who?”

Steve turned around and nodded at Shirley who was still screaming.

Valenti stared at her for a long moment. “My God,” he said quietly. “So this is Christmas future.”

Even now, seeing Shirley like that got to Steve. He recalled Edith’s words of this morning.
Dr. James, there are other daughters out there who may be getting this terrible illness. They have hopes and dreams just like my Shirley did, and their families will suffer like me.

Steve’s anger and resolve now had direction and focus.
I can’t do anything about this, but you can. At least I think you can.

“So Eden kills people,” Valenti thought aloud still staring at Shirley, “and you think Vicktor Morloch kills doctors to protect his ass and his money?”

Steve watched Valenti closely. For him, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

“Maybe you’re onto something, Doc.”

Steve let out his breath. Valenti had just—almost—validated his theory, but still, the way Valenti had initially treated him grated. In the end, however, it came down to Detective Harmon’s endorsement and the fact that Steve desperately needed help. “Then, will you take the case?”

Valenti looked at Steve with some surprise and then at the ground for a long time. “I’ll regret this, I’m sure.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Yeah, I’m on it.”

“Well, then, I owe you lunch.” Steve said, relieved to have made the decision and happy to have an ally. He hoped Valenti would be a good one.

“Why, yes you do,” Valenti agreed, “but you’ve completely ruined my appetite.” He eyed Steve thoughtfully. “Right now, though, you need to perform a magical disappearing act.”

“A what?”

Chapter 70

P
residential aides scurried around the Oval Office attending to last minute details before the meeting. Bell and Resnick flanked the President as they walked through the parting staffers and official White House photographers to his desk. He sat on its edge with his arms crossed and faced Resnick and Bell.

“Okay, Mr. President,” Resnick said, “we’ve got two minutes before President Quin comes. I want you to remember one thing. We cannot back Taiwan’s bid for independence.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Stop lecturing me.” His clothes and hair were immaculate and his shoulders square. Resnick thought he looked good, sturdy and clear-headed.

“Mr. President,” Bell added, “if you feel the need to take a break, just signal and we’ll get you out of here.”

“Take a break? I don’t need your mothering. I’m fully capable of handling this without your—” The President’s right cheek jerked several times like it was connected to a marionette string. With a look of confusion, Dixon’s hand flew up to his face.

“What was that?” Resnick asked.

A door to the Oval Office opened and an aide announced, “Mr. President, I present the honorable Mr. Quin Shi Lai, President of Taiwan.”

A handsome, erect man strode in followed by his aides. President Dixon put on his best welcoming smile and formally shook hands with President Quin amid the flashing camera strobes.

“I am honored by your visit,” Dixon said graciously, dipping his head in a shallow bow.

President Quin bowed deeply and replied. “I am equally honored by your hospitality and comforted by your country’s commitment to freedom and self-determination.”

And so it starts
, thought Resnick.

Chapter 71

“H
iding from anyone, especially someone with the resources and capabilities of your perps, requires leaving absolutely no trace of your location.” Valenti lectured Steve who sat slumped low in the passenger seat of Valenti’s Grand Cherokee. As instructed, he held his hand up against his forehead to shield his face from casual identification.

“It’s the cardinal law of disappearing. Anyone in the witness protection program knows it. No visiting any of your old hangouts, never calling family, an acquaintance, no one.”

Valenti gestured with his hands and looked at Steve while he drove, making Steve nervous. Steve, in turn, watched the road like a hawk.

“We always took them out of their home town, and usually out of the state, if not the region.” Valenti flashed a grin, “You’d be surprised how many Chicagoans and New Yorkers we relocated to Phoenix.”

Once Valenti agreed to take on the case, he had immediately begun making arrangements. This included draining all of Steve’s bank accounts and contacting his broker with instructions to liquidate a substantial sum of money for Steve and Valenti to use. Valenti had also confiscated Steve’s wallet and emptied it of all his identification and credit cards.

“Cash is the gas that powers our search and your survival. Get all you need now,” Valenti explained. “The minute you need more, you start leaving a trail for someone to follow.”

Valenti arranged with Steve’s new attorney to handle Steve’s financial arrangements and the insurance claims for his house and cars. She would mail Valenti a power of attorney form for Steve to sign. As a precaution, Valenti made arrangements for a daily bug sweep of the attorney’s office and home.

Valenti pulled into a service station and up to a pay phone. “Call Sheridan. Have him make copies of all his data and mail them to me, his attorney, your attorney, and a copy for his safe deposit box. That’s damning evidence against Eden and I’ll wager Trident knows about it.”

“How?” Steve asked, amazed that anyone would know that kind of detail. Steve’s cell phone, the one Anne had somehow saved from the burning bathroom, began buzzing, “Just a sec.” He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it. “Dr. James.”

A familiar voice spoke in his ear. “Hi, baby, we just got to the house.”

“Anne!” Steve’s heart leaped. “Are you okay?”

Valenti’s face went white and he snatched the phone from Steve and hit the end button.

“Hey, that was my wife!” Steve shouted.

Valenti shook the phone at Steve. “Do you know what this is?”

“A cell phone. Of course I know.”

“It’s a radio. A radio! Do you know what that means?”

Steve made the connection. “Anybody can listen.”

“No shit, Sherlock. And I’d bet big money Trident’s listening to every word you say on this thing.”

“I thought only the government could do that.”

Valenti rolled his eyes. “Look, Doc. I won’t practice neurosurgery—”

“Neurology.”

“Okay, whatever. I won’t practice neurology if you don’t try and second-guess me in my specialty. Understood?”

Steve gritted his teeth with frustration. Anne’s voice had sounded so good. But it also answered a nagging question that had lingered in his mind. How had the truck been able to find him on the dark side street? They must have been listening to his cell phone instructions to the operator.
Damn!

“You want them to trace where your wife is?” Valenti pressed.

“I get it now. You’re right.” Steve said irritably.

The phone rang again as Valenti held it. Steve stared at the phone knowing his anxious wife was wondering what had happened to him. “Can’t I talk to her on a different phone?”

“Not now.” Valenti was unyielding. “I’ve seen too many people killed because they did the predictable thing. Remember what I told you about not calling family and friends.”

“But—”

“It’s called survival, Doc. Otherwise you’re wasting my time and yours. Just get out here and play on the freeway. You’re going to get yourself killed anyway and that way I don’t get caught in the crossfire.”

Steve stared at Valenti’s stony face. The phone still rang in Valenti’s hand and Steve’s deep desire to talk to his wife nearly made him grab it back—but it would put them in danger.

Steve nodded. “Okay. Your rules.”

Valenti relaxed a little and let a sympathetic look cross his face. “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.”

Steve slid lower in his seat, missing his Anne and Johnnie. But the reason they were in Oregon came back to him and the energizing anger seeped back into his bones. He would do whatever it took to get those assholes. Valenti was right. His stupid sentimentality could fuck up everything.

“Right. I’ll call Sheridan and tell him to protect his ass.”

“Correct. And tell him to take a long vacation without telling anyone where he’s going. Impress on the ‘not tell anyone’ part, even his travel agent—and tell him to pay in cash.”

“He needs a vacation.” Steve smiled without humor. “This is just the thing to get him to go.”

Valenti stopped at a service station pay phone and Steve opened the door to get out of the car. “You’re one paranoid bastard.”

“I’m still alive.” Valenti shot him a humorless grin.

Steve made his call.