Page 63 of Circle of Death
“I don’t get it.”
“That’s the sign.”
“What sign?”
“If one of our hearts stops, Burbank gets a message to Tapper, and Tapper comes to extract the survivor. That’s how we set it up. It’s crude, but it’s clear.”
Margo rubs her head. “Good God, Lamont. Any cruder and we’d be using smoke signals.”
I hear a bell jangle. I whip around to see a young boy on a bike heading straight for me. He’s scrawny, no more than ten. He skids to a stop two inches from my knee. I slam my hands down on his handlebar. “Hey! Watch where you’re going!”
He just looks at me. Doesn’t say a thing. He reaches into his pocket and hands me a folded note. Then he jerks the bike out of my grip, turns around, and rides away, standing on the pedals to build up speed. Margo calls after him.“Attendre! Arrêt!”But he doesn’t even look back.
I open the note. It’s in English. I recognize the penmanship.
My dear Lamont—
No need to investigate what happened this evening. It was me. I sent the assassins. Your wife was the target, not you. She’s in the way, Lamont. You must know that.
I hand the note to Margo. She reads it, then tears it up.
“Do me a favor,” she says. “Try to be a little less irresistible.”
CHAPTER 75
“THAT’S IT. GOOD boy!”
Maddy averts her eyes while Bando does his business at the edge of a flower bed—his favorite spot. The routine has been set since the family moved into the mansion a year ago. Jessica handles the morning walk. Maddy takes the after-dinner shift. The sun is already setting over the front of the building, casting long shadows over the garden.
Bando does a cursory cover-up of his mess with his back paws, then takes off to chase a squirrel around the base of a tree. Maddy smiles. Thanks to Dache, she couldbethat squirrel.
She hasn’t seen her teacher in three days—not since she threw the fireball at him. If that was really him. Now that she could really use his help in finding a killer, he’s nowhere to be found. Is he trying to teach her a lesson? Maybe he’s done with her for good. Considering her past attitude, Maddy realizes that she really couldn’t blame him.
She sits on the garden wall while Bando takes a few more laps around the garden, then claps her hands to call him back. “Let’s go, Bando!” As they head for the rear entrance, she gives him a vigorous scratch behind the ears. Then she looks up to see Jessica standing in the doorway.
Something in her grandmother’s expression makes Maddy tremble. When she reaches the back entrance, Jessica wraps her arms around her.
“Grandma. What is it?” She feels Jessica’s grip tighten around her shoulders.
“Go upstairs,” she says. “It’s Margo.”
CHAPTER 76
FRANTIC, MADDY RUNS up the back staircase to the third floor. She bursts into the tiny comms room. “What happened! What went wrong?”
The whole team is there. Hawkeye and Jericho step back to give her room. Burbank shrinks in his chair as Maddy steps up and pounds her fist on the console. She scans the screens and readouts. The biosensors! Lamont’s needle is bouncing in the green zone. Margo’s indicator is all the way to the left, in the black. Not moving.
Maddy feels Jericho beside her. “They were in Paris,” he says. “About eleven p.m. their time. Both pulses shot into the red for a few minutes. Then hers just stopped.”
“It’s a malfunction!” says Maddy, kicking the base of the console. “Goddamn this second-hand patchwork piece ofshit!”
“The sensor leads are pretty simple,” says Burbank softly. “On or off.”
Maddy turns on Hawkeye. “Find another plane!Do it!I need to get there!” Hawkeye doesn’t move. Maddy pounds her fists against his chest. “Now! I mean it!” Hawkeye absorbs the blows without blinking, then grabs her wrists.
“Maddy,stop! Even if I could find another plane, there’s nobody to fly it. Tapper’s the only jet pilot we’ve got. We’re trying to reach him right now.”
Maddy’s mind is reeling.Planes. Wings. Flight.
