so angry or so helpless. “Stop it!” His muscles nearly burst through his skin in rage.
Irene laughed. “You shouldn’t wish for it to stop, Mr. Pitt, for that’s when you’ll see the real power of suggestion.”
She stepped to the workstation, eyed the monitor, then returned carrying the stun gun. “Your wife is done submitting to your violence—and is about ready to partake in her own.”
Loren lay on the table, quietly shaking.
Irene released her arm and leg restraints and removed the earphones. Finally, she pulled off the virtual reality headset.
Pitt could now see his wife’s eyes. They were hardly recognizable. Normally violet, bright, and vibrant, they were dark, barren, and sullen. She looked at Irene, smiling weakly.
Then she glanced at Pitt and recoiled with a gasp.
Irene leaned close. She clasped Loren’s shoulders and whispered in her ear. “You must kill him. You must kill him now.”
Loren nodded faintly as Irene helped her rise. She stood for a moment, leaning on Irene for support until she gained her balance. All the while she stared at Pitt with a look of revulsion.
“Loren,” Pitt said.
The word sent her trembling.
Irene again leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “Do it.”
Irene picked up the antique flintlock, cocked the hammer, and placed it in Loren’s hand.
Loren looked at the pistol, then at Pitt, then back to the pistol.
“Loren.”
She ignored him and lowered the pistol to her side. Loren walked in a trance around Pitt’s table, approaching from the far side while eyeing him warily. When she stopped for a moment, her eyes taking in Abigail Brown, the workstation, and the table full of needles, she showed no emotion. Her focus returned to Pitt as she inched nervously toward him.
Irene approached from the opposite side of the table, nodding in encouragement, stun gun still in her palm.
“Loren.”
Her face wrinkled at the sound until it was supplanted by the voice of Irene.
“You must do it.”
Pitt looked up at Loren, who returned his gaze with a cold, robotic stare. He searched for a glimmer of recognition somewhere in her vacant eyes. For an instant, he thought he saw a flicker of acknowledgment, but he couldn’t be sure.
Certainty came when she raised the pistol and pulled the trigger.
56
At first light, Riki checked to make sure Dirk was still asleep. She took his cell phone off the coffee table, grabbed her travel bag, and went into the bathroom. She locked the door and turned on the shower, but had no immediate intention of getting wet.
She riffled through her bag, pulled out a slim laptop, and accessed the hotel’s WiFi. Pulling up the website to a company that sold phone monitoring software, she accessed an established account. Following the site’s guidance, she picked up Dirk’s phone and downloaded a stealth monitoring application.
After grilling him on the Meritaten grave search the night before, she had borrowed his phone under the guise that hers was dead and had made a note of his passcode. Disabling its antivirus software, she downloaded a tracking program and added a secret cell number. With that, she could silently call Dirk’s phone at any time and tap into its microphone, to listen in on nearby conversations.
After completing the download and covering her access tracks, she showered and dressed.
Dirk heard the shower and was up and dressed by the time she reentered the room. “I didn’t hear you get up.”
“I didn’t want to wake you.” She concealed his phone behind her travel bag. “I’m afraid I have a morning meeting with the secretary-general of the environment department in Dublin.”
“Can you come back tonight?”
“Doubtful. There’s a trade dinner I’m scheduled to attend. Tomorrow night looks free.”
“It’s a date, then.”
As they kissed, she reached behind him and set his phone on the dresser. When she got to the door Riki stopped, turned, and looked into Dirk’s eyes, then quickly turned again and disappeared down the hall.
She took her travel bag to the parking lot and climbed into the silver Audi. Motoring a few blocks across town, she stopped in front of a small hotel where Gavin and Ainsley stood on the sidewalk.
“We didn’t see you in the lobby this morning,” Gavin said as he slid into the passenger seat.
Riki ignored the comment. “Did you find us a boat?”
“Yes, but not at Portmagee,” Gavin replied. “We found a suitable rental in Cahersiveen.” He held up his phone, displaying a photo of a stout workboat. “Best we could find after receiving your early-morning text. Lucky for that, at this hour of the day.”