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 cynical 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.”