"When Machado and I had dinner last night," she said, "he told me that in all his years of investigations, he was never afraid. That I shouldn't be afraid either."
Ben didn't know how to reply. He couldn't shake the horror of seeing Machado's incinerated body. The hand clutching the cell phone. Some say the world will end in fire. Shuddering, he flashed on Chardin's faceless countenance, the man's testimony that the horrors of surviving could be far greater than those of perishing. Sigma seemed to have a fondness for incendiary solutions. As gently as he could, he said, "Anna, maybe I should do this alone."
"We, Ben," she said sharply. Ben saw her steely resolve. She was staring straight ahead, her face tense, her jaw clenched.
It was as if what they'd just witnessed had fueled her determination instead of deterring her. She was intent on visiting Strasser, no matter what, and getting to the bottom of the conspiracy that was Sigma. Maybe it was crazy-maybe they were both crazy-but he knew he wasn't going to turn back either. "Do you think either of us can just go back to our lives after what we've learned? Do you think we'd be allowed to?"
Another long silence elapsed.
"We'll make a circuit," she said. "Make sure no one's staking out the house, waiting for us. Maybe they assume that since they've eliminated Machado, there's no more threat." There seemed to be relief in her voice, but he couldn't be sure.
The cab barreled through the crowded streets of Buenos Aires toward the wealthy barrio of Belgrano. It occurred to Ben what a strange and terrible irony it was that a good man had just died so that they could try to save the life of an evil one. He wondered whether the same notion had occurred to her. Now we're about to risk our lives to save the life of a world-historic villain, he reflected.
And the true scope of his villainy? Was there any way of knowing?
The harrowing words returned to him.
Wheels within wheels-that was the way we worked.... It never crossed anyone's mind that the West had fallen under the administration of a hidden consortium. The notion would be inconceivable. Because if true, it would mean that over half of the planet was effectively a subsidiary of a single mega corporation-Sigma.
In recent years, one very special project of Sigma's had come to the fore. The prospect of its success would revolutionize the nature of world control. No longer would it be about the allocation of funds, the directing of resources. It became, instead, a simple matter of who the "chosen" would be.
Was Strasser himself one of the "chosen"? Or maybe he, too, was dead.
Ben said, "I talked to Fergus, in the Caymans. He's traced the wire transfers all the way back to Vienna."
"Vienna," she repeated without inflection.
She said nothing further. He wondered what she was thinking, but before he could ask, the cab pulled to a stop in front of a red-brick villa with white shutters. A white station wagon was parked in the small driveway.
Anna said something to the driver in Spanish, then turned to Ben. "I told him to circle the block. I want to look for parked cars, loiterers, anything suspicious."
Ben knew it was time, once again, to defer to her. He'd simply have to trust that she knew what she was doing. "What's our approach going to be?" he asked.
"All we have to do is get in the door. Warn him. Tell him his life's in danger. I've got my DOJ credentials, which should be enough to make us legitimate in his eyes."
"We've got to assume that he's been warned-by the Kamaradenwerk thugs, by Vera Lenz, by whatever other sort of early-warning systems he has in place. And then what if his life isn't in danger? What if he's the one behind the killings? Have you considered that?"
After a beat of silence, she conceded, "It's a real risk."
A real risk. That was a colossal understatement.
"You don't have a weapon," Ben reminded her.
"We only need his attention for a moment. Then if he chooses to listen further, he can."
And if he was the one behind the killings? But it was useless to argue.
When they had made a complete circuit, the cab stopped, and they got out.
Although it was a warm, sunny day, Ben felt a chill, no doubt from fear. He was sure Anna was frightened, too, but she didn't show it. He admired her strength.