The Eden Prophecy

CHAPTER 13

As she sat there Danielle realized how plainly Hawker had telegraphed his feelings. Add to that his reckless chase of the man on the boat and it was easy to see that he was already more vested in this incident than he should be.

Clearly Lavril had sensed this as well. “Tell me what this is all about and I’ll tell you what I know. As it turns out we may want the same thing.”

“You first,” Hawker said.

Lavril smiled. Of course he wouldn’t go first, Danielle knew that, but now Lavril knew he had Hawker on the hook. He would play it as a trump card, using Hawker’s desire for revenge to reel him in. Possibly driving a wedge between Hawker and her in the process.

She didn’t want him to answer, silently prayed that he wouldn’t answer, but she knew that he would. And the only way she could think to counter the pain it would bring was to take the hit for Hawker. Before he took it himself.

“You want to talk,” she said. “Let’s talk. Ranga Milan was murdered for something he was working on. And we were sent to find the people who did it.”

Lavril looked eminently pleased with himself. “What did you find in the house on rue des Jardins?”

“A lab filled with equipment,” she said. “Rigged to explosives. Since the men who attacked us blew themselves up trying to get whatever was inside, I can only assume it was Ranga’s.”

She kept going. “It looked like Ranga was working on something viral and connected with cellular decay. Shortening cellular life spans. I don’t know why or for what.”

“A weapon,” Lavril asked.

“Probably. Or a drug, or something that could be turned into either.”

Lavril stood still, calculating. “Is Paris at risk?”

Danielle shook her head. “As far as I could tell, whatever stock had been present was already gone, moved or destroyed. And that explosion was extremely hot.”

“Over a thousand degrees,” Lavril said. “Thermite mixed with C-4 according to our bomb squad. Three other buildings burned and the fire melted the steel railings across the street.”

Danielle nodded. “I’d guess he rigged it that way on purpose,” she said. “To destroy any evidence or any pathogens, or both, should something like this occur.”

“So a plague is not imminent?”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Danielle said, realizing he was focused particularly on that subject. “Do you have reason to think Paris is a target?”

Lavril had been caught in his own trap, asking one too many questions. “We received a letter,” he said. “The writers claim responsibility for the incident at the tower. And they promise to wreak a plague far worse than any that has gone before upon the rest of us.”

Danielle’s eyes widened. “Is it authentic?”

“It relayed the details of each man’s kidnapping and murder as proof of its authenticity. And then it followed with a list of threats.

“It promises a plague that will wash away ‘all false evidence of a false god.’ It then says: ‘All shall fall, Canterbury, Notre Dame, the Dome of the Rock, and the Wall at its feet. Mecca, Jerusalem, and the Holy See: All will be powerless to the truth revealed.’ ”

Danielle listened intently. Canterbury Cathedral was home of the Church of England. The Dome of the Rock was the second most holy site in Islam, Mecca being the first. The Wailing Wall was the last remnant of the Jewish Temple. And the Holy See was of course the home of the Vatican. Could some madman really be declaring war on every major Western religion at once?

Lavril continued reading. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “It goes on to promise the power of life and death will lie in the cult’s grasp. ‘You will lay all of them down and worship us,’ it says.

“The letter is signed ‘Draco — the serpent.’ ”

It sounded like madness, like the deranged ramblings of a hundred other groups, but if this group had what Ranga had been working on, and if the notes she’d seen in his lab were accurate, they might just wield some great power over life and death.

“Do you know who they are?” Hawker asked.

“Murderers,” Lavril said. “Beyond that …” He shook his head.

It certainly sounded like some type of cult. Perhaps that explained the torture and burning Ranga had endured; perhaps it had been some ceremonial punishment. Perhaps that explained the brand seared into his chest. The French policemen were not killed in the same way.

As Lavril spoke, she saw Hawker’s eyes narrow, saw his jaw clench, and she wished she could speak to him alone, warn him of what she feared.

“What do you know?” she asked Lavril.

The commandant pursed his lips as if thinking hard about what he was about to say.

She would say nothing further, not without something from him. “Quid pro quo,” she said. Something for something.

“Your scientist had been tortured; you know this,” Lavril said. “But he also had old wounds. Healed wounds. Perhaps it was not the first time.”

Danielle took that in.

“And he had stingers in his skin,” Lavril added.

“Stingers?” Hawker asked.

“From a jellyfish,” Lavril said. “On his hands and arms and neck. Does it mean anything to you?”

“No,” she said. “What else?”

“Asbestos and heavy oil under his fingernails.”

It sounded like a random list of things. Almost as if Lavril had made it up on the fly, yet Danielle sensed honesty from the commandant and guessed that these facts would help in some way at some time. For now she racked her brain and came up empty.

Lavril looked on expectantly. “Does it mean anything to you?”

She looked at Hawker, who shook his head. “I wish it did.”

Lavril looked down at the floor, as if disappointed. He scratched at a spot beneath his ear in an almost subconscious way, then looked back up.

It seemed he’d decided something.

He went back behind the desk, sat down, and began scribbling on several sheets of paper.

“Your job is to seek these men, yes?”

Danielle nodded. Hawker did the same.

“Then you will be released,” he said, glancing briefly at Danielle and then focusing on Hawker once again.

“They killed one friend of yours,” he said. “They’ve murdered four of mine. This is not America. Rarely is anyone shot here. And the police … we have not lost an officer in almost twelve years.” He shook his head. “Those men had families. To us this is a tragedy. It will haunt us for an age. But no matter how angry I am, I cannot chase these men out of Paris; I cannot hunt them to the ends of the earth. But you can.”

Hawker nodded.

“What will you do when you find them?” Lavril asked.

“After what you’ve shown me,” Hawker said. He shook his head.

Lavril nodded knowingly. He slid two sheets of paper across the desk toward them: signed release forms, with the key to the cuffs sitting on top.

“If you find them …,” he began, then stopped. “When you find them, please give them our regards along with your own.”

Danielle hesitated. With all the talk of Adam and Eve she felt as if they were making a deal with the devil themselves. She stared at the key as if touching it would bring dark consequences. Beside her Hawker stretched forward and snatched it. Apparently he had no such qualms.

He unlocked his cuffs, dropped them onto the desk, and then handed the key to her.

“Where do you suggest we start?” he asked.

“The man who was with Ranga on the tower has been identified as an exiled Iranian named Ahmad Bashir. He had a ticket to Beirut on Air France 917 for tonight. A similar ticket was issued to another passenger using the address at rue des Jardins.”

“For what?” Hawker asked.

“I don’t know,” Lavril said. “But it must matter.”

Danielle unlocked her own cuffs, stunned at the turn of events and the deal that had just been made. She feared the ground they now stood upon, but after all they’d been through, she wouldn’t let Hawker stand alone.

She tossed her cuffs to Lavril a little quicker than might have been necessary.

“There is a car waiting for you,” Lavril said.

She turned and made her way toward the door without responding.

Hawker lingered.

“Your friend does not approve,” she heard Lavril say.

“I don’t need her for this,” Hawker said calmly.

The words stung, but Danielle kept walking as if she hadn’t heard.

For Lavril, Hawker’s connection to Ranga made him the perfect choice to go after the killers, but it also made him the worst possible choice of all.

Danielle tried to think of a way to reach Hawker, to convince him that he was going down the wrong path, but she feared confrontation might just push him so far away that she would never be able to bring him back.