Authors: Scott Britz-Cunningham
“Isn’t that dangerous? Didn’t the ransom message warn us not to evacuate?”
“We’ll try to keep it under the radar, but we have to do something. If the big bomb does go off, I don’t want it said that we did nothing. We’ll start with the sickest patients in the Goldmann Towers, moving them out one by one. I’ve worked out a deal with the ambulance companies to maintain radio silence while they transport the patients to Stroger Hospital.”
“Any progress with the big bomb?”
“Not much so far. There’s one primary bomb in Tower C. It’s bolted to the wall of a narrow utility shaft, just wide enough for one slim man to squeeze through. It’s in between the first and second basement levels, so we have to do some climbing to get to it. I’m told there aren’t any external features or wires to give us any clue as to how it operates. One peculiar thing has been noted, though. The bomb is guarded by a small video camera, which has been patched in to the Cerberus security network. I can actually get feed from it in my office. Wherever he is, the perpetrator is using it to watch the activity of the bomb squad.”
“What about the prisoner—this Rahman Al-Sharawi? Did you learn anything from him?”
“Nothing.”
“The FBI is extremely upset, you know. Some very highly placed people have telephoned me in the past half hour. They want you dismissed. Immediately.”
“That’s your prerogative, Dr. Gosling.”
“Yes, well, there will have to be an investigation, I suppose. But in general, I think it’s a bad idea to change leadership in a crisis.”
There was a knock at the big oak door, and Dr. Gosling’s executive assistant entered, her feet gliding noiselessly across the carpet.
“There’s a nurse here named Ginnie Ryan, who is asking to speak to Mr. Lewton. She says it’s urgent.”
Harry was puzzled, but Dr. Gosling promptly stood up and extended his hand across the desk. “Thank you for the update, Mr. Lewton. I know you have a lot to attend to right now. I don’t want to interfere with your efforts.”
Harry shook Dr. Gosling’s hand. There was no telling what the old man thought of him now. The bomb was a hell of a thing to come up after three months on the job, and the elevator explosion must have made him seem like a bush leaguer. But he was doing everything anybody could do. You had to keep it from getting personal, so you could just carry out your job and not worry about what was going to happen to you tomorrow—if you lived that long and didn’t get sacked because some asshole with a Federal badge couldn’t see past the end of his nose. So far, he was alive, and he hadn’t been sacked. That was enough for now. So he gave Gosling a firm handshake, and walked out without making any excuses.
In the waiting room, Harry was met by a short, dark-haired woman in scrubs.
“Mr. Lewton? Dr. O’Day sent me. She said she needs to speak to you right away.”
“Ali O’Day? Why didn’t she come herself?”
“She’s afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
The woman shook her head.
“What does she want?”
“She says to meet her in the women’s changing room in Neurosurgery I.”
“Women’s changing room? You sure you got it right?”
“Yes.” She tensed her fingers emphatically. “And please hurry. I don’t know what it’s about, but she looked really scared, and it’s making me scared, too.”
“There’s no need to be scared, Ms. Ryan. We have everything under control.”
* * *
Harry stood by the door impatiently as the two female OR techs scuttled out of the changing room. He had barged in while one was in her underwear and the other doing her makeup over the sink, forcing him to retreat back into the hallway under a screen of apologies. Now, as the two women exited, he poked his head inside and shouted out, “Anyone else in there?”
He heard the showers running, but no one spoke up. Ali was sitting in plain sight on a bench beside the lockers, but she did not answer. She was hunched over, holding her head in her hands. Her hair and the shoulders of her scrub top were wet.
“This is some meeting place, Ali,” said Harry as he approached.
“Richard Helvelius is dead.”
“I know. I’m sorry. You must have been close to him.”
“I should have warned him.” Her voice sounded wet and nasal, as if she had a cold. But Harry knew it wasn’t a cold.
“Warned him of what?”
“Kevin lied to me. He said if you people left him alone no one would get hurt. But he hated Richard. He couldn’t resist the chance to kill him. He’s playing God now, and he has to be stopped.”
“You mean Kevin, your husband?”
“He’s the bomber. Not Rahman.”
Harry froze. “How do you know this?”
“He told me so. Not more than thirty minutes ago.”
“Why didn’t you come to me immediately?”
“Why? Because … because I’m stupid and gullible!” She hit her forehead several times with the heel of her hand. From the sound, Harry knew they were hard blows. “I needed to think. I mean, it’s only Kevin, for God’s sake! Or is it? I shared my bed with this man for years, and I have no idea who he is. He … he … Oh, Richard! Richard! God, what have I done?” Her head shook as she tried to smother a burst of sobs. “There was an emergency … Jamie dying … I had to … I’m a doctor, goddamn it! What was I supposed to do? I had to trust Kevin. For five minutes, I did trust him. Five lousy minutes! And then he murdered …
murdered
Richard. Cold-bloodedly, as if he were euthanizing a dog at the end of an experiment.” She looked up into Harry’s face for the first time. “He threatened to blow up the hospital if I told you, Harry. He’s dangerous. I still can’t believe it, but he’s capable of killing us all.”
“Where is Kevin now?”
“In his lab. But you can’t go there. Odin is watching.”
“Odin? That computer of his? The one he was talking about on TV?”
“No! No! Odin’s more than a computer. Much more. He’s an intelligence, living and moving about through all the electronic systems of this hospital. He’s taken over your own security surveillance system. That’s why I had you meet me here. It’s the only place I could think of that doesn’t have a security camera. If there are microphones nearby, the showers will mask our voices. I’m not crazy, Harry. Odin’s already been watching us together. I saw it. Kevin showed me a video clip.”
Harry thought about that phony CIA letter and the e-mail he had gotten about the ambulance diversions.
“I believe you,” he said. “Actually, it would explain a lot. Whoever’s behind this bomb knows an awful lot about what we’ve been doing. I was beginning to wonder if he had a plant inside Security or in the FBI.”
Ali’s eyes and nostrils were red as she looked up at him. “I’m frightened, Harry. All of the bombs that Kevin placed are under the control of Odin. Odin’s colossally smart, but he has no compassion, no remorse, not even a survival instinct. All it would take is one word from Kevin, and this hospital would be turned into a dust heap. We have to stop him, but how can we do that without setting off the very catastrophe we’re trying to prevent?”
Harry sat down on the bench beside her. “We need to separate Kevin from Odin.”
Ali nodded. “But Odin is capable of acting on his own. Odin is like a lapdog insanely devoted to his master, only think of a lapdog that can critique the latest model of subatomic particle theory, or translate Shakespeare into ancient Aramaic, or calculate the position and trajectory of every blood cell in the human body. You and I are nothing to him, only data. He answers only to Kevin, and will do anything—anything at all, without limits, without hesitation—to protect him. You cannot negotiate. He wants nothing from you. He will give you no warnings, no ultimatums. Once his decision analysis reaches its conclusion, he will simply act.”
“Can Kevin shut him down?”
“He’s the only person who can. Unhinged as he is, getting through to him is our only hope.”
“We could get one of the SWAT team hostage negotiators to come down and talk to him.”
“If you do that, he’ll know that I talked to you. He’s threatened to set off the bomb if I do. Besides, there isn’t time. I think he’s about to leave the hospital. Once he does, there’s nothing to keep him from killing us all.”
“The textbook procedure would be to shut off power to the lab, knock out his computers and leave him in the dark. Power management is usually handled on-line—which would presumably be under Odin’s control—but there are some old-fashioned manual circuit breakers where the main generators are.”
“It won’t work. There’s a backup power system to keep Kevin’s mainframe from losing volatile memory in a blackout. You would have to shut off both systems simultaneously. An interval of even a millisecond would give Odin enough time to react. Besides, I’m sure Kevin has thought of this. You don’t realize how his mind works. He develops hundreds of scenarios, and sets up a countermeasure for each. It’s what made SIPNI possible. If there were truly some way for you to shut off power to Odin or to the primary bomb, then Kevin would have designed the bomb to detonate when the power is cut. It could depend on a signal from Odin
not
to detonate.”
“So what do you suggest?”
Ali slapped her forehead again with the palm of her hand. Her voice was strained. “I’m going crazy sitting here, trying to think of a way. I don’t know what to do. All I’m sure of is that the weak link is Kevin himself. You have to do something that he can’t anticipate. Something that sidesteps his precious scenarios. But before that you have to get him away from Odin.”
“Agreed. But how?”
“I don’t know. Maybe catch him when he makes his escape.”
“Thieves usually put a lot of thought into their escape. If he plans as carefully as you say, that’s where his countermeasures are likely to be strongest. I’d rather aim for his weak point.”
“Where is that?”
“Is there something we could do to lure him out of the lab?”
“I don’t think so. He’s being very cagey.”
“Could we use these friends of his—the Al-Quds Brigade, or Meteb and Mossalam?”
“No, they’re just pawns. He despises all of them.”
“There must be some way to get to him. Something he needs or wants.”
Ali shook her head. “Money. Just money … and revenge … and…”
And me,
she thought. She dared not finish the sentence aloud. Harry would never let her enter the lab if he knew what Kevin really had in mind.
“Maybe the best approach is the direct one. I’ll just go and knock on his door, see if he answers. That may be unpredictable enough to fall outside of his set of scenarios.”
Ali got up and paced in front of the lockers. She held her hands out, palms downward, fingers extended, as though she were pushing something down and away from her. “No. Not you. Me. He’ll open the door for me. If I can get inside, I can, I don’t know, do something. Threaten him, get him angry, make him come after me. Do anything to get him to leave the lab. You could be waiting for him right outside.”
“Ali, he’s already killed one person.”
“I’ll accept that risk.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Look, I’m the only one who can approach him without sending him into a panic. He wants to see me. He wants to rub my nose in this mess he’s made. He wants to see how much it frightens me.”
“Okay, let’s say you’re right. But—” Harry had a hundred objections to the idea. It was naïve and reckless. It depended on the reactions of a certified nut case. Most of all, he couldn’t stomach sending a civilian—and a woman—to do
his
job. But with two hours left until all hell broke loose, something had to be done and done quickly. Against his better judgment, Harry found himself getting drawn in. “His lab is on the first basement level, isn’t it? In the service core area between the three towers? There’s a big multi-stall men’s room there. It won’t have any security surveillance. If you could lead him there, I could be waiting to surprise him.”
“Yes.”
“But whatever you do, don’t anger him. I don’t know the particulars, but I get the impression that between you two, as husband and wife, you have serious issues. That could be dangerous. Try to focus on something positive you share. Some common ground for trust.”
“Common ground? That would be work.”
“Okay, talk about work. Then be subtle. Maybe warn him all of a sudden. You heard a strange sound outside the door. Or better yet, bring him a
grande
cup of coffee. He’s got to have to use the men’s room sometime.”
“Yes, I could do that. He lives on caffeine. We used to joke about hooking him up to an IV full of it.”
“All right, I’ll get into position. Then make your move. But be careful. If you can’t get him out safely, just drop it and leave. There’s always a plan B. But for God’s sake, be very, very sure that you have a way of getting out of that lab.”
“Yes, yes, of course.”
Harry took a silvery, pen-shaped object from his inside coat pocket, and placed it in her hand.
“What’s this?”
“It’s an alarm pen. The psych staff always carries these when they’re dealing with potentially dangerous patients. Push the button at the top and a silent alarm goes off. I’ll carry a receiver with me that can pick up the signal. If … if anything gets out of hand, I can be there in under ten seconds. Understand?”
Ali nodded.
Harry gently brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”
Her response startled him. As if awakened out of a trance, she suddenly turned to him with an almost savage expression, her eyes smoldering with fury. “He killed Richard,” she said. “He killed him like a coward, without warning and without a moment’s thought. I don’t care what I have to do. I’m going to make him pay.”
4:02
P.M.
Kevin was standing in front of the bank of computers in his lab, scanning monitor after monitor for any trace of Ali.
“Where is she? Damn it, how could she just drop off the radar screen like this?”
“HER ID BADGE WAS LAST DETECTED AT CERBERUS PORTAL GA-14 AT 15:32, THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES AGO. MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS HAS FAILED TO IDENTIFY HER PRESENCE ON ANY VIDEO CAMERA FEED SINCE THAT TIME.”
“Is she still in the hospital?”