Siege of Stone (34 page)

"No, I . . . I don't know."

"And it really doesn't matter," said Skye. "Get her in the basement. If there are no windows and nothing she can use to escape, there's no point in tying her up, as long as the door's secure."

The operatives removed their supplies from the basement, leaving it empty. While Tony pulled Molly's car into the small storage barn behind the cottage, Joseph and Laika tried to make the cellar as comfortable as possible for Molly. Then they locked her in, and, at Skye's direction, met in one of the bedrooms so that Molly would not hear them.

"I think," Skye began, in a voice even icier than usual, "that there's an awful lot that you haven't been telling me, Agent Harris. We'll deal with that later." He turned to Joseph. "Agent Stein, are you certain that this Mulcifer is in the castle?"

"Yes sir. At least, I believe he was when I left last night."

"I want to contact him. Do they have a telephone?"

"Yeah," Tony said. "Unlisted, but we got the number a few days ago."

Laika cleared her throat. "Sir, believe me, you don't want to meet with him face to face. His powers are . . . well, there's just no knowing what he might do."

"You seem to know a lot about Mulcifer, Agent Harris. Have your paths crossed before?"

"I know that if he can make Agent Stein try and kill us, he can do just about anything to anybody."

"It's very doubtful that Agent Stein and I," said Skye, "come from the same genetic stock. My family has been Nordic. There are no traces of any Mediterranean or Jewish influence that I know of."

Joseph's lips tightened. "When Mulcifer raped women, he didn't ask about their background. Agent Harris could be a relation, for all we know."

"A distant one, I assume," said Skye. "I've heard your concerns, Agent Harris, and I assure you I'll be cautious. But as I said, I know a great deal about this person, and I feel confident that our meeting will be productive." Then he held out his hand for the phone. "The phone number, Agent Luciano?"

Tony told him, and he dialed the castle. "Hello," they heard him say when someone answered. "I wish to speak to someone there at the castle . . . my name isn't important. This person is a former prisoner who was recently released from years of captivity. Many
long
years. I believe he goes by the name of Mulcifer. Yes, I will." Two minutes passed before Skye spoke again.

"Hello, Mr. Mulcifer, I wonder if it . . . all right, Mulcifer, then. I wonder if it would be possible to schedule a meeting with you. . . . Well, I have a proposition that I think you may be interested in. It concerns recent activities that have taken place in London. . . . Let me just say that I represent certain parties who have a great deal of interest in your rather special gifts, and that a meeting might prove beneficial to all of us. I'm delighted to hear it. . . . Wherever you like . . . where precisely would that be? . . . Very well. And when? . . . Yes, that would be fine. Tell me, would it be all right if I brought along a few associates? . . . Excellent. Thank you . . . I'll see you then." Skye hung up.

"So how long do we have to keep Inspector Fraser locked up?" Joseph asked.

"I'll be meeting the gentleman tomorrow evening," Skye replied, "so she'll have to be our guest until then."

"You'll be taking us along?"

Skye shook his head. "Agents Finch and Weyrman will accompany me." He didn't give any explanation, and Laika knew that to ask for one would only anger him further. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there are some other private calls I need to make. Would the three of you mind going outside for a moment." It wasn't a question, and the operatives went out through the back door.

"Damn, I'd give a lot to hear that call," Joseph said.

"You will," said Laika. "Tony hooked up a recorder. We'll get the other side of the call to Mulcifer, too." She put an affectionate hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're back. And I mean, I'm glad
you're
back."

Joseph shook his head. "I am so sorry. God, I would have killed you all if . . ." He looked at Tony.

"I'm sorry, too," Tony said. "It was the only way to stop you. It's a miracle that it worked out the way it did."

"This time I'll buy that miracle story," Joseph said. "But that doesn't mean I'm converted." They laughed softly together. "I don't know how to tell you what it was like." Laika could barely hear him. "I didn't want to, but I didn't have any choice. I couldn't fight it. I just wasn't strong enough."

"From what we know," Tony said, "if he can touch you, if you . . . share his blood, like you said, I don't think anyone is strong enough."

"Somebody's got to be," Joseph said. "I don't think we've got much of a chance otherwise."

T
wo hours later, when Finch and Weyrman picked up Skye and drove him to Gairloch, Laika, Tony, and Joseph listened to the tape. The first conversation was with Mulcifer, and Joseph closed his eyes when he heard the voice.

It sent a chill through Laika, too. It was a voice that seemed totally in control, yet also twisted, as though its owner was about to start cackling at any moment over his imaginary—or, in this case, all too real—power. Mulcifer and Skye were going to meet on the beach at the foot of Castle Dirk the following evening at sunset. When Skye had asked if Mulcifer would mind if he brought associates, he had replied, "The more the merrier."

"I wonder what kind of merriment Mulcifer has in mind," Laika said. "I don't envy Skye, and I certainly don't envy Finch and Weyrman. What's the next call, the private one?"

They didn't recognize either of the voices on the following call:

Unknown woman: Yes?

Skye: This is Skye.

Woman: Hold on.

Unknown man: Yes?

Skye: I've found him.

Man: Where?

Skye: Scotland. The Gairloch peninsula on the northwest coast. I've spoken to him, set up a meeting for tomorrow at sunset.

Man: Tell me where exactly. I'll be there.

Skye: I don't know if that's wise. He can be violent. It may not be safe for you to enter the picture yet.

Man: It'll be safe. And I'll make those decisions. Now where?

Skye gave the man a detailed description of how to get to the beach below Castle Dirk, and the man hung up without another word. Skye continued to breathe into the phone, then muttered, "Shit," and hung up.

"Either of you recognize the other voice?" Laika asked Tony and Joseph.

Tony shook his head and started to try and trace the call, but Joseph looked quizzical. "It sounded familiar to me, but I can't place it. I don't even have an idea of
where
I might have heard it."

"What's Skye trying to do in the first place?" Tony asked. "Talk Mulcifer into surrendering, or something?"

"I'm not sure," Laika said. "But I
am
sure that he knows more about Mulcifer than he's telling us, and he knows
less
than he needs to. It seems to me that he isn't as hot to capture Mulcifer as he is just to
contact
him. Skye's not an emotional man, but he seemed almost anxious to get an audience from the thing. He may have something totally different up his sleeve."

"Maybe he thinks he can use him somehow," Joseph said. "Mulcifer's power is unbelievable. Colin Mackay already tried to harness it and failed. Skye may be next."

"Or the person behind Skye," Laika added. "Whoever he talked to wasn't taking any crap."

"Make that '
le
crap,'" Tony said, looking up from his computer. "The call went to the Hotel d'Avignon in Paris."

"Don't suppose you can get a room number?"

"No. Hotel switchboard, that's all."

"He sounded American, though," said Laika. "What's in Paris right now?"

"International Commerce Expo," Joseph said. "A few government types would be there, but mostly businessmen. All the movers and shakers . . ." He paused for a moment, then whispered, "Oh, sweet Jesus . . ."

"What is it?" Laika asked.

"The voice on the phone. I think I know where I heard it. Put yourself back a few years, and try and hear it saying, 'It takes a good man to help a good country.'"

"Political ad," said Tony. "What was it, the Republican primaries . . ."

"David Allan Stanley," Laika said. "Oh, my God."

They all knew who David Allan Stanley was. His father had been a billionaire, and by channeling the family fortunes into the computer industry at just the right time, the son had become worth $30 billion.

In 1996 he had gone after the Republican presidential nomination to the tune of $20 million, running on a one-issue platform of a simplified tax code. His lack of any political experience, along with his doughy appearance and absence of any personality that could be captured by video cameras, had doomed his effort. He had won in only one state, early in the campaign, and finished as high as second in only four others. Some said that his loss had embittered him, and though it was true that he had kept a much lower profile since his defeat, no one believed that his hatred of big government and taxes would remain private for long.

Tony rewound the tape and played it again. "That's him," said Laika. "You're right, Joseph."

"I hated those damn ads," said Tony. "I should've recognized his voice. First LaPierre, and now Stanley. What is it about money, anyway? You get a certain amount and suddenly you want to take over the world?"

"I wouldn't know," said Joseph. "I've never had that much. And if this kind of shit is any indication of what you become, I'll gladly do without it."

Laika bit her lower lip, thinking it through. "I hardly think that Stanley would have been recruited by the CIA. That seems to indicate that Skye's working for him now, and not the Company." She hissed out an angry breath. "If Stanley can't buy the leadership of the free world in one way, maybe he figures he can in another."

"But how did Skye get involved with Stanley?" Tony asked.

"For that matter," said Laika, "how did Skye or Stanley find out about the Prisoner? It doesn't matter. What does matter is that we get a record of this meeting tomorrow night. If Skye's acting outside the Company, then so are we. And that means we'd better have some bargaining chips. There's a bluff overlooking that beach. Tonight we'll set up a video camera with a telephoto lens. Have you got a shotgun mike that'll pick up that far away, Tony?"

He nodded. "The water sound might intrude, but I should be able to filter it out afterward. There's brush all along there, so we can hide the camera pretty well."

"All right," Joseph said. "When do we go?"

"You don't," Laika said. "I don't want you anywhere near that castle. Mulcifer probably thinks we're all dead, and there's no reason to enlighten him otherwise, so we're not going to take any chance on his picking up your thoughts, or whatever it is he does."

"Maybe we ought to put your head inside a lead mask," said Tony with a grin.

"Then Leonardo DiCaprio and I would have something in common other than looks," Joseph replied.

T
he following morning Brian and Henry Baird drove into the town of Stirling, forty miles west of Edinburgh. The two brothers, following Mulcifer's orders, had driven south and stopped for the night. Then they had proceeded to Stirling, the site of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, where William Wallace's band of Scots had defeated the English in 1297.

The Victorians had erected a monument to Wallace high on the Abbey Craig, and it was to this national shrine that the Bairds now went. When the monument opened at ten in the morning, the parking lot at the base of the Craig was already half full.

One could either take the shuttle bus up the winding road to the tower itself, or walk up its steep incline. The Bairds decided the bus would be better. Otherwise they would have had to carry the hundred-pound canister of VX up to the tower, and might be too tired to haul it the rest of the way up the 264 steps of the narrow spiral staircase to the top.

They each had an automatic, and when the bus arrived at the bottom of the hill, Brian waited for everyone to get off, and then stepped inside and showed his gun to the driver, telling him that he would shoot him if he did not keep everyone else off the bus. Then Brian sat right behind the driver and held the pistol around the right side of the driver's seat, so that it pressed into his side.