High Alert

CHAPTER 10

Elizabeth Harker opened her eyes. Everything was blurred. She blinked, blinked again. The ceiling overhead was white. She was lying down, her upper body partly raised in a bed. Her throat was dry.

"Elizabeth. It's Stephanie. Can you hear me?"

She turned her head toward the sound of Stephanie's voice and tried to speak. It came out as a rasping sound. Water. She needed water.

"Thirsty…" She croaked out.

Stephanie's face appeared, bending over her. She was holding a glass with a flexible straw in it. She placed the end of the straw between Elizabeth's lips.

"Here. Go easy."

Elizabeth took a sip. The water was cool nectar, soothing the burning in her throat. She took another sip.

"Where…?"

"Walter Reed," Stephanie said. "We were in an accident. You've been in a coma."

"Accident?"

"We were on our way to the hospital. Do you remember?"

"No."

Stephanie watched Elizabeth searching her memory.

"I remember getting in the car." Her voice was quiet. "You were having contractions."

"That's right."

"I don't…remember anything after that."

"It's all right, it will come back. Thank God you're okay."

"The baby. What about the baby?"

"The baby is fine. We named him Matthew, after Lucas' grandfather."

"Lucas? Who is he?"

Oh, oh, Stephanie thought.

In Virginia, Nick was on the phone with Clarence Hood, talking about the assassination of the Chinese ambassador.

"For once, the FBI is cooperating with us," Hood said. "They found a Korean connection to the assassin. Once they discovered that, they brought us into it. They're not up to speed on Korea."

"It's not their turf," Nick said. "What did they find?"

"Their forensics lab is good, it's one of the things they do really well. They found a laundry mark on what was left of the killer's clothing. That led them to a dry cleaner. From there they got an address. They found bomb materials, a passport and some pictures in his apartment. The assassin was a South Korean national named Chun Gok. He'd been here less than a month, on a tourist visa."

"What was in the pictures?"

"One showed Chun when he was younger with an older couple, probably his parents. The other showed him standing with a woman and two children in front of a temple somewhere in Korea."

"Nothing else?"

"No. We're working the Korean end while the Bureau tries to track down the materials he used to assemble the bomb. Everything is generic, the kind of stuff you can buy at Radio Shack. Something might turn up. There's no indication of where he got the explosive. Before you ask, it was C-4."

"Where would he get C-4?" Nick asked.

"Good question."

"Can you send over everything you've got? I'll get Stephanie on it."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

"What do you think he was trying to accomplish by killing the ambassador?"

"That's hard to say, but it will make for problems when Beijing finds out the assassin was a South Korean."

"It could be political. Li was an advocate for better relations between China and the U.S."

"That's possible. Some powerful people don't want that to happen. He was perfect for his position. Li was one of the few voices for reform that President Zhang listened to. One of his political enemies could have staged this, but I doubt it."

"There's something we're not seeing," Nick said. "You don't make a public show of knocking off an important government official because you don't like him. There are easier ways. So, who benefits? What happens with Li out of the way that wouldn't happen otherwise?"

"Too bad we don't have that dog," Hood said.

"What dog?"

"You mentioned it, once. The one that didn't bark," Hood said. "In the Sherlock Holmes story. It was the clue that solved the mystery."

"There may not be a dog, but there has to be a reason. Once we know what it is, we'll have the clue we need."

"I'll send everything over by courier. You'll have it within the hour."

"Thanks."

The phone rang as soon as Nick put it down.

"Yes."

"Nick, it's Steph. Elizabeth is awake."

"That's great news. How's she doing?"

"Good, but there's a problem. She has some memory loss. Some of it is short-term, but she didn't remember who Lucas was. I don't know what else she may have forgotten."

"It's not unusual after getting hit in the head like that," Nick said. "Have you talked with her doctor?"

"Not yet. He's in there with her now. I'm waiting for him to get finished."

"Let me know as soon as you have more information. Find out if she can have visitors. Hood is going to want to know. I'll call him."

"She looked pretty rough," Stephanie said. "I don't think she's going to be back anytime soon."

"We got through it once before, Steph. She just needs a little time to recover."

"Sure," Steph said. "A little time."

"I just talked with Hood. They tracked down the bomber who blew up Li's car. I want to see what you can turn up on him."

"I've got something new downstairs to show you," Steph said. "This is a good opportunity to demonstrate it."

"Get back as soon as you can. It may be nothing, but my gut tells me this could turn into a can of worms. The sooner we put a lid on it, the better."

"The doctor just came out of Elizabeth's room," Steph said. "I'll leave as soon as I've talked to him."

Nick set the phone down.

Harker's memory is screwed up. Better get used to sitting at this desk.

The thought gave him no joy.