The Serpent's Kiss

81

Simona Toreanno sat slumped in the interview room in FBI Headquarters, staring at her cell phone, which was now officially without charge. She was isolated and didn’t know what to think any longer. Her anger had burned itself out and what she now felt seemed a lot like despair.

The door opened. Matt Gray stood there, head cocked, looking at her. He said, “I’ve received a couple interesting telephone calls in the last half hour, Simona. One was from the Director.” He shook his head. “Going over my head like that—”

”You are so full of shit, Matt! You had your stooge lock me up, for God sakes!”

“And then I received a phone call from my father-in-law.” Clearly he was more angry about this than the call from the FBI Director.

“And you’ll listen to him?”

Matt’s eyes glittered. “Here’s the latest news, Simona. Jill Church and Derek Stillwater were last seen fleeing a crime scene in Ferndale. A house explosion. The house was being rented by a man named Kevin Matsumoto. Matsumoto is missing. Matsumoto, as it so happens, is on your list of people who created scenarios for that university think tank. I made a few calls and managed to get some background information on Matsumoto. You see, Simona, I am doing my job here. I am conducting my due diligence. But I’ve got a couple rogue agents undermining my chain of command. You do understand that, right?”

“What did you find out about Matsumoto?”

He met her angry gaze. “What I found out is pretty damned scary. Honors Student in Chemistry from Waseda University, Tokyo. He was in the doctoral program in Biochemistry at Wayne State University, but dropped out. He is reported to be a genius. I ran him through INS. It gets interesting. His mother’s name was Julie Hawkins. She’s in our files as well as INS. Julie Hawkins spent time in Japan as a college student in the ‘80s, dropped out and disappeared. Then in the late ‘80s she shows up as a member of Aum Shinrikyo. Her parents freaked out — justifiably, in my opinion — and hired a deprogrammer who dealt with cults. This guy and his team go to Japan and kidnap her and her son and return them to the U.S. Julie Hawkins doesn’t handle it and has a nervous breakdown and her parents institutionalized her. She committed suicide in 2000. The kid was raised by his grandparents, but from a few calls I made it wasn’t a happy situation. The kid’s had a history of mental problems, but considering his parents, maybe he came by it naturally. Anyway, he went to college in Japan on scholarship. At least, we think so. It’s possible it was funded by a group called Aleph, which is Aum Shinrikyo’s new name.”

Simona swallowed hard, trying to digest all that information. “What’s he doing now? What did he do after he quit Wayne?”

Gray shrugged. “I’ve got people on it. Now here’s the plan, Simona. You have one chance to hold on to your career. No matter what happens after tonight, I will request that you be transferred elsewhere. Whether you are merely reprimanded and transferred or fired from the Bureau is entirely up to you. Do you understand?”

He was offering her some sort of a deal and she was willing to take it if it got him off his ass. “What do you want me to do?”

“You, me and Kandling are going to go after Matsumoto. We have forty-five minutes before a possible attack. If there’s going to be one. If we…”

She was on her feet. “Deal. Give me your phone.”

Gray looked startled. “Why?”

“I’ll call Jill.”

“She’s not—”

”Oh, grow up, Matt. You want to save your own ass? Then find out what she and Stillwater know. It’s the smartest thing you could do, no matter what you’re trying to accomplish. Don’t you realize they’re on the right track and we’re not?”

Anger flashed across his face, then he shrugged. “Perhaps you’re right. Here.” He handed her his phone, waiting.

Simona tapped in Jill’s number and waited. “Jill? Simona. Matt’s willing to listen. What’s…” She went still. Muscles in her throat tightened and she closed her eyes. “Okay. I… I don’t know what we’ll do, but we’ll… yes. I understand. I’ll be in touch.”

She clicked off the phone and handed it back to Gray. “Is the HMRU still around?”

Gray nodded. “They’ve gone back to Scott Hall to work on cleanup and decon.”

Jill was already on the move. “This is going to be tricky. Come on, Matt. Let’s get everybody moving.”

“Where?”

“The Palace of Auburn Hills.”