A Heartbeat Away

CHAPTER 35

“You wish something drink or you like order?” Sylvia Chen said in a heavy accent.

She was rail-thin, with dark eyes that were nearly lost in shadow, but Angie had no doubt whatsoever that it was she. Her uniform, a black dress shirt and black slacks, was a size too large. The nametag above her breast pocket read simply BAO.

“Sylvia,” Angie whispered, “please don’t react. I know who you are and I know why you are here. I need to speak with you. I came from Kalvesta to find you.”

The steel pitcher in the waitress’s hand began to shake. Dollops of brown tea splashed out from the spout and stained the white tablecloth.

“No understand,” Chen said, avoiding any eye contact.

“Stop it,” Angie said harshly. “This is urgent.”

The color drained from Chen’s face. Her body stiffened.

“No … please…”

Her eyes were wild with fear as she made a furtive scan of the restaurant. Either she was searching for an exit, or perhaps, even more terrifying to her, Angie’s accomplice.

“Easy,” Angie said. “Please don’t call attention to yourself. I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Are you police? Military?”

The words were said softly. The accent was gone.

“No, I’m not. Trust me.”

“Are you them? Are you Genesis?”

The woman kept trembling.

“I’m a reporter with The Washington Post. The Capitol has been quarantined. Griffin Rhodes has been asked by the president to develop a treatment for WRX3883. I’m helping him keep a record of everything that he does. We know about how he was set up before, and we know you were involved. The president has gotten him out of prison and reopened your lab. There is little time. People are dying from the virus.”

Chen’s knees buckled, as though mention of the past had placed too much stress on her joints. Angie reached up, supported the woman by her arm, and encouraged her to sit down. Chen refused, straightened up, and pointed to the menu on the table.

“Is there any chance that you were followed?” she asked.

“I don’t see how,” Angie said. “I flew in from Kansas earlier today via Denver.”

“Genesis is very resourceful. I should never have agreed to cooperate with them, but they knew all about my work, and they knew that their financing was the last chance I had to keep my research going. They are also very dangerous. I am a loose end for them now. All they want is the virus. They don’t care about controlling it. They tried to kill me, but I escaped and came here. If they find me, I assure you, both my mother and I are dead.”

“I can help you, Sylvia. That’s why I came to New York—to help you and to see if there is any way to control the virus. I’m working with Griffin Rhodes at your lab.”

“He’s out of prison, you said?”

“Yes, he’s been out for just a few days.”

“That is wonderful news. Listen, stay here. Study your menu.”

Angie did as she was asked, but went on red alert in case Chen bolted.

The Ph.D. scientist went to service a table of four, then returned.

“I’m going to ask you again. Is it possible you were followed?”

“I know the people who are after you are resourceful,” Angie replied, “so I suppose anything’s possible. But I really don’t see how.”

Chen looked unconvinced.

“How did you find me?”

“The brochure in the peach cookbook,” was all Angie needed to say.

“Did my mother tell you I was here in the restaurant?”

“I didn’t find your mother. Where does she live?”

“Riverside. I thought you knew that.”

“On close inspection, the woman I thought was your mother—a woman named Li—didn’t look like her.”

Angie’s puzzled expression seemed to clarify the mystery for Chen.

“Ah. Li is the name I made up for her. Her real name is Chen, same as mine. Chen Su. You went looking for the woman in the picture on my desk, yes?”

Angie nodded. “I checked every patient in Riverside.”

“Do you know how Alzheimer’s disease can ravage the body? Alter the appearance?”

“I do. How long has your mother had Alzheimer’s?”

“It’s been progressing for several years. She still floats in and out, and is sometimes quite lucid, but it is getting worse. The woman in the photograph in my office is the woman I want to remember. This is what my mother looks like now.”

Chen fished out a picture from her pocket and handed it to Angie. Then she went off again to take orders. When she returned, she set a steaming bowl of some sort of seafood soup in front of Angie.

“This is the best thing on the menu,” she said, “especially on a cold winter’s day like today. I hope you like it. You just came in here by chance, then?”

“I was starved and this was the closest place to the Riverside. Mei, the nurse there, said the daughter who visits Mrs. Li was badly scarred by a fire.”

“When I go there I am wearing a hat. My face is covered by a scarf. My hands are hidden by gloves. I lie to protect my mother and myself.”

“You have to help us,” Angie said.

Chen paused for a time.

“I know,” she said finally.

She took another nervous look about the restaurant, and even glanced several times out the front windows. Droplets of perspiration had appeared like condensation on her brow.

“So you will help us?”

“I’ve done terrible things,” the virologist said in a shaky voice. “I did not know they would do this. The attack on the Capitol. How could I have known?”

“What were you told would happen? Do you know who these people are? Do you have any idea how we can stop this?”

Chen shut Angie off.

“Eleven o’clock the restaurant will be closed,” she said. “It is too busy here for the rest of the evening. Too dangerous to talk now. Come into the alley at the back of the restaurant. Red door with Chinese lettering on it. Knock three times so I know it is you. I have some papers that might help. I’ll tell you everything that I know then.”

“Eleven o’clock,” Angie said.

Chen nodded grimly, turned, and vanished through the swinging kitchen doors.