The Pacific Conspiracy (8 page)

"What now?" Joe asked.

"We don't have much choice, do we?" Frank knelt down beside his brother to examine Forrester's body. It was cold. The man must have been dead since the night before. There were bruises around his neck, as if he'd been strangled. "We have got to contact the police - and the Network."

"The Gray Man's just going to put us on another plane back to the States," Joe said. "And we're never going to get a chance to clean this mess up."

There was a knock at the door. "Housekeeping," a woman's voice called out.

Frank shook his head violently.

Joe nodded and cleaned his throat. "Come back later," he said, in a voice as deep as he could made it.

He was rewarded with a burst of Indonesian from the woman outside, followed again by the announcement "Housekeeping."

"Go away!" he shouted, hoping that the maid would get the message from the tone of his voice, even if she couldn't understand the actual words.

"Housekeeping!" the woman repeated even louder, banging on the door again.

Great, Joe thought. He strode over to the door and swung it open. "Listen, come back in a while, would you?" he began even before the door was halfway open. "Fifteen minutes - "

He looked down, and his jaw dropped open.

Endang was standing in the doorway, wearing a maid's uniform and an expression of shock that probably mirrored his own.

"I might have known," she said. Before Joe could close the door she pushed the maid's cart inside and walked past him. "What are you two doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing," Joe said, shutting the door.

"One of our agents spotted Forrester leaving the airport at Denpasar yesterday morning. We were hoping that he would lead us to the others. Unfortunately, he hasn't left the room since then."

"There's a good reason for that," Frank said. He nodded in the direction of the bedroom.

Endang brushed past him and returned a moment later.

"You didn't move the body, did you?"

"What do you think we are?" Joe asked indignantly. "Amateurs?"

"Have you learned anything from the Assassins? Any sign of them at Krakatau?" Frank asked.

She shook her head. "The Gray Man's been interrogating Bob for hours, but he hasn't said a word. As for the others, it's almost as if they disappeared off the face of the earth."

"So what's our next step?" Joe asked.

"Your next step?" Endang said incredulously. "Your next step is either a jail cell or a ticket back to the U.S. For real this time."

"Now wait a minute - " Joe began.

"Here's something interesting," Frank interrupted. He picked up a sheaf of papers from the floor next to Forrester's body and spread them out on the bed. Joe and Endang peered over his shoulder as he examined them.

"These are architect's blueprints," Endang said. "What would Forrester be doing with them?"

"Maybe he was planning to start a new career," Joe said.

"Maybe you - " Endang broke off speaking and pointed to the TV. On the screen was a picture of a smoking volcano.

"What's that?" she asked, her voice strained.

Frank walked over and turned the volume up so she could hear.

"Experts are calling last night's tragic eruption of Gunang Api scientifically inexplicable," she translated almost simultaneously to the boys.

The camera pulled back. Everywhere people were crying, picking their way through the ruins of a small village.

"The devastation is complete. The historic island of Bandanaira, one of the fabled Spice Islands, has been almost completely destroyed by the eruption."

A sudden chill ran down Frank's spine. It couldn't be.

Endang sat down on the couch heavily and reached for the phone. She punched in a series of numbers, then hung up.

Ten seconds later the phone rang. She picked it up and whispered into it. Frank did hear her mention Forrester's name, though. Then she handed the phone to him.

"You've seen the news, I gather." It was the Gray Man.

"Yes, sir," Frank said. He motioned to Joe to pick up the extension in the bedroom. "We're both on the line now."

"I suppose I should be angry at you for slipping away from Rivers and Drake, but I can't really summon up much emotion for that kind of thing right now." He sighed heavily. "The Assassins' demands have just been delivered by courier. They claim responsibility for this eruption, saying that it was an example of what they can do without a hydrogen bomb. They want the U.N. General Assembly to come up with ten billion dollars by nine o'clock tomorrow morning, our time, or they promise that the next explosion will do a lot more damage."

"Can the U.N. raise that much money?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," the Gray Man said simply.

Frank remembered the simulation he'd seen on Krinski's computer, the new world that had been pictured after the destruction of the old. They couldn't be serious, could they? Would the Assassins really destroy the world if their demands weren't met?

"Frank? Are you there?" the Gray Man called.

"I'm here."

"Now, listen," the Gray Man said. "You boys were the last ones to have seen Krinski and Nwali. I want you to work with Endang. Try to remember what they said. Try to remember anything that could help us figure out where they are. Anything at all to help us stop them."

There was a sharp click and then a dial tone.

"Wow," Joe said, hanging up the phone. "I guess he's not worried about us getting hurt anymore."

"Why should he be worried about you now?" Endang asked, her voice soft and distant. "If we don't stop the Assassins, we're all going to die, anyway."

"That's a happy thought," Joe said.

"Well, I'm sorry." Endang got up and crossed to the window. "Cheer me up. Tell me something that will help us locate Nwali and his gang."

Joe shook his head. "I wish I could."

Frank took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The Assassins had been so careful about not letting him and Joe in on their plans that he couldn't think of a thing that might give them a clue to their whereabouts.

"Maybe Forrester left something important here," Joe suggested.

"That whoever killed him didn't take." Frank shook his head. It didn't seem likely.

He picked up the blueprints again and studied them. They were preliminary drawings with no writing on them anywhere, other than construction specifications. He couldn't figure out what they were for, either. It looked like a series of small huts arranged vertically, one on top of the other, along a large wall. The sheds were connected by a series of ventilation shafts and an elevator. That made no sense.

Frank flipped the papers over in disgust. In the upper left-hand corner, on the back, there was some writing. It was so small he had to squint before he could read what it said.

SMCS. Those were the same letters that had been stenciled on all those crates they'd moved.

"I found something!" Joe came out of the bedroom carrying a paperback book in one hand and a business card in the other. "He must have been using this as a bookmark."

He handed the card to Frank. It was for a company called Soeder-Masto Construction Supplies.

He smiled at Joe. "SMCS," he said.

For a second Joe didn't get it. Then his face lit up. "The crates we unloaded from the freighter and at Krinski's house!"

"Exactly," Frank said. "Let's contact the hotel staff and tell them about Forrester. Then we'll pay Soeder-Masto Construction Supplies a visit."

Frank found out that the company was located in Denpasar. According to Endang, it was about a fifteen-minute drive. Five minutes later she'd changed back into street clothes, and they were on their way. It was an hour before they reached the SMCS offices, which were located in a white two-story concrete building in the center of town.

"I can't believe all that traffic," Joe said, climbing out of the car.

"It's usually bad but not like this," Endang said. "Denpasar was a small town that became large almost overnight because of the tourist boom. The roads haven't caught up to the traffic yet. It's a lot worse right now because of the Eka Dasa Rudra ritual."

"The bellboy at the hotel was talking about that, too," Frank recalled. "It must be pretty important."

"It usually takes place only once a century," Endang said. "Religious groups from all over the island go to Temple Besakih for it. The ceremony's supposed to restore harmony in the universe and exorcise evil from this world. These are the last few days, too, so it's even more crowded. And considering what happened the last time they held it - "

"Let's do the history lesson later," Joe interrupted. "Here's SMCS."

"Let me handle this," Endang said, stepping forward. She gave a quick rap on the door.

Frank hung back in case there was trouble.

"Silakan masuk!" a man's voice called out.

Endang pushed the door open.

A short, stocky man sat at a desk, his head down as he concentrated on his work. Papers littered his desk and covered almost every flat surface in the room as well.

Frank exchanged a glance with Joe. This guy certainly didn't seem like the Assassin type.

"Selamat pagi," Endang said.

The man finished writing and raised his head. "Ah, Americans." He came around the desk and shook their hands. "Very pleased to meet you. My name is Batal Kouri. Kouri to my friends. I am president and chief operating officer of Soeder-Masto Construction Supplies. Also vice-president and chief financial officer." He smiled. "What can I help you with?"

"I'm Endang Merdeka." Then she introduced Frank and Joe. "I'm with the Indonesian government, Mr. Kouri. These young men are with the U.S. State Department, and we're investigating some illegal smuggling of construction supplies out of this country."