Smokescreen Read online

  “Yet Zahra Kiyani was in my hospital room this afternoon expressing her sympathy and her opinion that I should get the hell out of Dodge. Diplomatically, of course. Well, as diplomatically as she was capable of. But I was having trouble appreciating anything but the fact that she’d come running when there was a chance to get rid of me.” Now Eve was having trouble suppressing her anger. “I was so sick, and I was told I could have died. When I woke up, the entire world seemed only to want to get rid of me. It pissed me off, and I didn’t even know then that it had been a deliberate attempt. Then I got Gideon’s ‘distractions’ laid on me and his irritation that you weren’t behaving as everyone wanted you to.” She glared at Jill. “That about topped off my day. If you hadn’t come tonight, I was going to go after you. I’m mad as hell. I want answers, Jill.”

  “That’s why I’m here.” She looked for a place to sit down, saw only the cot across the room. She shrugged, dropped to the floor, and crossed her legs tailor-fashion. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. There are still things I don’t know, but you’ll know what I know.”

  “How refreshing. You’re not denying that someone tried to kill me?”

  “I’m not denying it could have happened. But Novak said that the poisoning was done by an expert, and you weren’t meant to die. The mushrooms were blended with an additive from Egypt that altered the toxicity. They just meant to discourage you, just like they did me. It was meant to make you a little ill to encourage you to leave. That’s the only reason why I think there was even a possibility that Zahra might have anything to do with it. This was more of a threat than an attempt on your life. She’d use every threat before she’d endanger her position.”

  “That threat was very painful. I thought I was dying. I couldn’t tell the difference at the time.” Eve went on to the next item on her agenda. “Novak. Jed Novak is the name of the CIA operative you gave me to reassure Joe. Gideon said he didn’t think Novak would let you talk to me. Do you work for the CIA?”

  “No.” She grimaced. “Though Novak did do his best to keep me from coming here tonight. I told him I couldn’t do anything else, and we’d have to make other plans if you blew up. I’ve only known Novak since I came here to Maldara, but I’d heard enough about him to reach out when I needed him.”

  “One of your friends in high places?”

  “Novak operates on both levels. That’s why he’s so valuable.” She added wearily, “He’s gone to a lot of trouble and expense to set up the switch. He’s got a right to be angry with me. But I’m not like him, and I can’t go by his rules. Please believe me. I knew there might be some danger to you, but I thought we could get you out of here before it—”

  “Became fatal?” Eve interrupted. “You’re not making your position any more sympathetic. And you’re certainly not making this situation less muddled. Now, I’m going to ask you questions, and you’re going to answer me clearly and concisely.”

  “Whatever you say,” Jill said quietly.

  “You said that doing these reconstructions was important to you, but that’s not the real reason why you put all your time and effort into luring me here. What was that reason?”

  “I needed the best forensic sculptor in the world to come here to Maldara. I had a job that had to be done by the very best.”

  “What job? Not the children?”

  She shook her head. “But I knew that would bring you. I hoped that once you were here, I could persuade you to do the other reconstruction.”

  “The honorable thing to do when offering a job is to give terms and let me decide.”

  “I couldn’t take a chance. It was too important. We didn’t even have the skull, and to get it might have made you—” She stopped.

  “Made me what?” Eve said impatiently.

  “An accomplice.” Jill didn’t let her absorb that but went on quickly: “We wanted to switch a skull that’s being held in the vault at the U.N. headquarters in Jokan for a counterfeit so that you could do a reconstruction to verify the identity.”

  Eve stared at her, openmouthed. “What?”

  “I know. It’s not the kind of…You would never have done it.”

  “That’s quite correct.”

  “That’s why I wanted you to be here. I wanted you to see that schoolroom.” Her voice was shaking. “I wanted you to see what he’d done to this village. I wanted you to see what he’d done to this country.”

  She stiffened. “He? Who are you talking about?”

  “Nils Varak. You know it was his men who butchered those children.”

  “Of course I do. He was a monster. What does that have to do with anything? Varak was killed right after the U.N. forces invaded Maldara. Some kind of helicopter explosion.”

  Jill was shaking her head. “That’s what I thought.” Her voice was unsteady. “And, after what I’d seen while I traveled around the country writing my stories, I wanted to send up fireworks when I heard it had happened. I’d interviewed people who told hideous stories about him that I couldn’t write about, that I didn’t even want to remember.” Her voice was jerky. “Robaku wasn’t the first school he’d destroyed. He liked to kill the children. He told his men that it made their parents more likely to cave when they saw the remains of their children. Besides, it brought him a particular pleasure to take their lives before they’d barely started to live. And he didn’t want to make it quick…he liked the machetes…”

  “Stop,” Eve said. Jill’s face was tense, pale, her words hoarse and feverish. Eve could see that she was reliving those stories, and she suddenly couldn’t stand for it to go on. “Okay, so he was a monster. Monsters should be destroyed, and that’s what they did. The French forces said there was absolute proof that they’d cut the head off the snake.”

  Jill nodded. “Absolute. That’s what they said.”

  Eve’s eyes narrowed on her face. “You’re saying it’s not true?”

  “I’m saying that I hope it’s true. But I’m afraid it’s not.” She moistened her lips. “And what if it’s not true, Eve? What if he’s out there somewhere, waiting until all the smoke clears so that he can come out and start all over again? If not here, then somewhere else. Six hundred thousand people dead, and he killed a hell of a lot of them. And he’d do it again, he wouldn’t stop. He liked it too much.”

  “I can’t believe this. Why do you think Varak might still be alive?” She was trying to remember all the details of the account she’d read on Google. “He was killed in a helicopter explosion in the mountains in the south Botzan area. The French blew him out of the sky as he was trying to escape. But they immediately retrieved his skull from the wreckage, and he’d been positively identified by DNA.” She went still, her eyes widening. “The skull? I can’t believe you’d want me to do a reconstruction on Varak. Are you crazy? Absolute DNA ID. Everyone knows it.”

  “That doesn’t mean it’s true.”

  “It means that it will be accepted in any court in the world. And any reconstruction I do would not have a chance over DNA results. Even if I showed the skull didn’t resemble Varak, it wouldn’t make a difference. DNA rules.”

  “But it would insert an element of doubt with people who would go after Varak full throttle if they thought he was still alive.” She paused. “One of them is Novak. The director of the CIA accepted the proof that Varak was dead. Novak would have to have some credible reason for them to reopen the investigation. But regardless, he’d never stop if he was sure that Varak was still alive. He almost caught him twice while he was on the hunt for him in the mountains. He was the one who notified the French he’d be on that helicopter.”

  “And he thinks that Varak slipped away?”

  “He doesn’t know, but he wouldn’t put it past Varak. But he has to be sure. When I came to him, he promised me he wouldn’t stop until he was certain Varak hadn’t played him and everyone else for fools.”

  “You came to him? And he believed you with no proof?”

  “No. Novak is a cynica
l bastard who doesn’t believe in much of anything but himself. But I had a shred of information that caught his attention…as it caught mine.”

  “What information?”

  “I had an informant with the Botzan faction, Ralph Hadfeld, a mercenary. After the war ended, he wanted to get out of Maldara with enough money to start again in another country before he ended up being caught and tried. He called me and tried to sell me the story of the century. He said that he had been in the hills with Varak that last day, and Varak didn’t get on that helicopter. The last Hadfeld had seen of him he was in a jeep heading north.”

  “How reliable was this informant?”

  “He’d never steered me wrong.” She paused. “He said he’d taken a photo of Varak in the jeep when the helicopter was taking off. And the price he asked for the story and the photo was over a million dollars. I think he knew I’d put that info under a microscope. He said he’d give me two weeks but no longer. He wasn’t sure if any of Varak’s men had seen him take that photo, and he wanted out of the country.”

  “And you went to Novak for the money?”

  She nodded. “I knew the CIA would authorize any amount to Novak. He’s their golden boy.” She drew a deep breath. “But he wouldn’t give it to me. He listened, then he said that Hadfeld could be playing me. He said he’d go after him himself, and he even had an idea how the info could be verified. He said that I should keep out of it.”

  “And you didn’t do it.”

  “It was my story, my informant, and I had to know if it was the truth. But if Novak wouldn’t give me the money, I had to go somewhere else. So I called Sam Gideon. I knew I had a chance with him. There was no way he’d want Varak to slip away after what he’d done here. Gideon agreed to make the buy, and I called Hadfeld.”

  “You got the story and the photo?”

  “No, he said he’d call me later with arrangements. And he did call me one night a few weeks ago and set up a place in the jungle to meet him.” She looked away. “Emphasis on set up. It was a trap. When I got there, Hadfeld was dead, a very bloody death. He’d been tortured. Evidently, Varak’s men had been tracking him and forced him to make the call. They wanted to make sure that I saw what they’d done to him.”

  “But you got away?”

  There was the faintest hesitation. “Yes, I got away.” She looked back at Eve. “But if they did that to Hadfeld, I didn’t need much more to convince me that what he was going to sell me was the real McCoy and that Varak was still out there. Wouldn’t you feel the same?”

  Varak alive? Eve felt a ripple of shock. She had been so involved with listening to the horrific details of Jill’s story that the idea that Varak had not been killed in that helicopter crash had not actually gotten through to her. But as she stared at Jill, a chill went through her. How could she not consider it? Because Jill Cassidy thought it was true and had gone to this extreme to prove it. “I might feel there was a chance except for the DNA.”

  “Novak says that DNA can be faked if you know the right experts. Particularly in an explosion, when only minute amounts can be extracted.”

  “I’ve never heard of its being done with complete success. Particularly not in a circumstance where the scrutiny is so intense.”

  “Novak says it can be done. I believe him. But he wants to be sure that skull isn’t Varak’s before he goes to the people who matter. It’s a scenario that will have everyone from politicians, to noted scientists, to Novak’s own CIA director, ready to tear it apart. And in the furor, Varak could disappear.”

  “And you want me to be caught in the middle.”

  “No. But you might be anyway,” Jill said. “I don’t know what’s happening. No one should have targeted you just for doing these children’s reconstructions. I could see it if they thought you were working on trying to prove Varak is still alive.”

  “Which you want me to do at the earliest possible opportunity.” Eve shook her head. “I can almost see why you decided to set up this elaborate charade. You needed to hold all the cards possible to even think I might do it.”

  “And even then I knew you might tell me to go to hell,” she said soberly. “I only hoped that you’d remember that Varak had created all this carnage. He should pay for it, Eve. And he shouldn’t get a chance to do it again.” She looked at the reconstruction of Amari. “Those villages were helpless before his militia. They were savage. Varak even hung some of the body parts in the trees…”

  Eve flinched. “Shock value, Jill?”

  “Anything I can do.” She got to her feet. “I’m sorry I wasn’t completely honest with you. You know everything now. I’m praying that you won’t let my duplicity affect your decision. Let me know what you’re going to do, and I’ll make it easy for you.” She grimaced. “Unless a miracle happens, and you decide to help us. Then I can’t promise it will be easy, only that we’ll try to keep you safe.” She headed for the door, then stopped before she opened it. “No, I still wasn’t totally honest. I’d better tell you all of it. Even though it’s going to make you even angrier. After I decided it had to be you who did Varak’s reconstruction, I told Novak what he had to do. We had to get rid of Joe Quinn, so Novak pulled strings with some bigwigs in London and got the Scotland Yard seminar pushed up so that it would fit in with our plans.”

  “What?” Eve’s eyes widened. “You went to those lengths?”

  “You love Quinn,” she said soberly. “You were right when you said I’d probed every facet of your life. That was a very big part. The chances were very slim that you’d leave him unless the circumstances were right.”

  “You’re damn right.”

  “Your Michael was easier. Novak just had to find a conveniently located dig in the U.K. and send Jane MacGuire folders that described it with glowing references to how healthy and fun it was for children. Jane doesn’t see your son that often. She grabbed at the chance to give him a treat like that.”

  “And you did your research and knew that Jane had gone on digs before.”

  She nodded jerkily. “I had to make sure that if I took you away, it would be worthwhile for them. You had to be certain they were safe and happy.”

  “How very kind,” Eve said sarcastically.

  “No, completely selfish. I interfered in your life. I had to do it in the most painless way possible. You have a right to be furious about that, too.” She paused. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t thought that it was necessary. We can’t let a Robaku happen ever again.”

  Then she was gone.

  Leaving Eve alone with her confusion and anger…and terror. She didn’t know how long she sat there just trying to comprehend all that she had been told. At least ten, fifteen minutes passed while she struggled to understand both the horror of the possibility Jill had shown her and this feeling of betrayal and being used.

  She closed her eyes and let the emotions flow over her, not trying to sort them out yet. She could still see Jill’s face before her. She’d looked like a little girl sitting on the floor at Eve’s feet, her blue eyes big and so full of fear yet terribly earnest as she tried to do what she’d thought was honorable and right.

  She would not feel sorry for her, Eve thought fiercely. Jill had been totally manipulative and moved them all around like chess pieces to get what she wanted. It didn’t matter that she’d thought she was doing it to keep that monster from getting away to strike again.

  But how could it not matter? It was what Eve did every day of her life. Bring the children home so that monsters would be punished and not be free to kill again.

  But she did not lie or cheat or use anyone else to do what had to be done. There was no question what she should do now that she knew why Jill had brought her here.

  “Are you okay?”

  Her eyes flew open, and she saw a tall man wearing a black-leather jacket standing in the doorway. She had never seen him before. “Who are you?”

  “Jed Novak.” He held up his hand. “Sorry to
startle you. I’m no threat.”

  That was a lie. Novak might not be a threat to her at this moment, but she had been around dangerous men for most of her life. She was married to one. She knew she was facing one now. “You’re CIA. Jill told me about you. Did she send you to try to convince me that everything she did was fine and for the greater good? Go away, Novak.”

  “No, she didn’t send me. She told me not to come.” He smiled faintly. “She was afraid I might attempt to intimidate you. She wanted to be sure to be fair to you. She’s having a major guilt trip. She was scared to death when she thought you might die this morning.”

  “She should feel guilty. I can see you’re not similarly prone to it. What a surprise.”

  “I have my moments. But I’ve learned that guilt has no place once I’ve made a decision. I’d end up in a psych ward with all the blame that can be laid at my door. Jill, on the other hand, has a conscience that constantly gets in her way.”

  “Not so I’d notice.”

  “You should have noticed. Jill fought me and Gideon and herself to come to you tonight. She knew it was the wrong thing to do.”

  “Then why are you here, too?”

  “Because I need to try to save the mission.” His lips tightened. “If you won’t help us, Jill will go off in another direction and might get herself killed. She’s vulnerable, they know her name, they know her face.” He paused. “And they know she’ll never stop. So that’s why I’m here to repair the damage and ask you to forget everything but why she did it. I know that it was a shock, but you’re tough. I can see you’re okay.”

  “No, I’m not okay.” Her voice was cold. “I’m angry, and I feel as if I’ve been treated like a marionette in a puppet show. How did you think I’d feel?”

  “Just like that.” He walked toward her. “That’s why Gideon and I both tried to talk her out of it. She knew it was a risk, too. She told you everything?”