reason why there was only one sniper waiting here for the rats to run out of the trap. We’ve got to have time to put everything together.”
“You’re calling me a rat?” Gideon jerked Sebak to his feet and pushed him toward the car. “Most unkind and inaccurate, Quinn. I’ve been more a beast of burden tonight…”
* * *
Joe glanced at his phone the moment they were a few miles away from Asarti.
Eve.
He muttered a curse as he punched in the return. “What’s wrong?”
“That’s what I was about to ask you. Why didn’t you answer me?”
“I was involved. Things didn’t go as expected. Are you all right?”
“No.” She went on quickly: “I’m okay. It just doesn’t seem as if anything is all right at the moment. I just finished the reconstruction. I thought it was going to be fine, that we’d gotten lucky.” She paused, then said shakily, “I was wrong. It isn’t Varak.”
“No, it isn’t,” Joe said. “Look, I have to get off the line, you stay where you are until I get back there. We’ll be boarding Gideon’s plane in another fifteen minutes. Let me talk to Jill.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to relay a message through you. I have a few orders to give, and you might phrase them as requests. They are not requests.”
Silence.
“You weren’t surprised about Varak, were you? Why not?”
“Not now. You’ll know everything I do as soon as I get back there. Until then, all I want is to make certain you’re safe. Let me talk to Jill.”
Silence.
Then Jill’s voice on the line. “What’s happening? Eve is upset enough without having you worry her.”
“Does Novak know about the reconstruction yet?”
“No, Eve wanted you to know first. I’ll call him when she hangs up from you.”
“No, you will not. Novak doesn’t know until I’m there to control him.”
“Control? Novak? And he deserves to know. He’s been in this from the beginning.”
“The only one who deserves to know is Eve. But I’ll probably need the two of you to get her out of this nightmare, so you’ll both know as much as I do once I’m certain that I can trust Novak. He’s entirely too accustomed to running the entire show, and I won’t risk Eve because he has some plan I don’t know about.”
“He wouldn’t risk her.”
“And I don’t trust either of you, so how would I know? We’ll discuss it when I get back. Until then, no one finds out that the reconstruction is done. Eve is still working on it. As long as no one knows there’s a weapon to be wielded, then no choices will be made that might put a bull’s-eye on her chest.”
“I won’t lie to him.”
“That’s up to you, but if you ever want me to trust you as Eve appears to do, you’ll handle it so that only you will have the responsibility. You will do this, Jill.”
Silence. “I’ll consider it.”
“No, you’ll keep her safe, and when I get there, we’ll let Novak join the party. I’ll see you in a couple hours, Jill.” He cut the connection.
He glanced at Gideon. “Any comment?”
He shrugged. “Not unless you expect a vote of approval. I’m playing this straight down the middle. From your point of view, you might even be right about Novak. He does have an obsession about Varak that might lead him to be a little impetuous.” Gideon looked him in the eye. “But then so do I. That doesn’t mean I’d do anything that would hurt Eve. I don’t believe he would either. But you’ll have to make up your own mind. I won’t get in your way as long as you don’t put obstacles in my path.” He smiled faintly. “It was an interesting evening. You do keep things moving, Quinn…”
* * *
“He knew that it wasn’t Varak,” Eve said, as Jill handed her phone back to her. “Something happened there tonight.”
“Well, we obviously won’t know what it was until he gets here,” Jill said sharply. “He could have spent the time he used trying to intimidate me on telling us. But evidently he didn’t want to do that. And something pretty important happened tonight with us, too.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m a little annoyed with him.”
“He told you that you couldn’t tell Novak,” Eve said.
“Novak has a right to know. He’s not going to run out and start some kind of bizarre offensive just because we’re certain.”
“We might be certain, but proving it is a different matter. We always knew that would be true,