PART SEVEN. Threat Elimination

1

"Take off your shirt. Put this on." Cavanaugh reached under the cover on the Taurus's backseat and pulled out the bullet-resistant vest he'd hidden beneath it. "Your shirt's loose enough that it won't be obvious you're wearing the vest. Then put on your jacket to conceal your pistol."

The Taurus was parked in a shadowy area at the back of the motel's parking lot. Using the car for concealment, Prescott did what he was told. The brief glimpse that Cavanaugh got of Prescott's reduced stomach and developed chest muscles surprised him.

When Prescott put on his jacket, Cavanaugh grabbed a roll of duct tape from the rear floor. "Now get in front. While I drive, wrap this around your ankles."

Prescott looked suspicious.

"Make it appear secure," Cavanaugh said. "Then use this." Cavanaugh opened the driver's door and picked up the Emerson knife from where Prescott had insisted he put it, along with his pistol, near the car's pedals. With his thumb against the tab on the back of the blade, Cavanaugh flicked the knife open and gave it to Prescott. "Cut the tape on the inside so the force of your legs can break it if you need to."

Prescott continued looking suspicious.

"This close to you, don't you think I could have taken that pistol from you and killed you?" Cavanaugh asked. "While you're with me, you're safe. Wrap the tape around your ankles; then use this knife. Be careful. The blade's sharp."

Cavanaugh got into the car, picked up the pistol on the floor, holstered it, and waited for Prescott to join him. Prescott had to muster more resolve before he got in.

Immediately, Cavanaugh drove two blocks to a brightly lit grocery store he'd noticed when he and Prescott had gone to the motel. open 'til midnight, its neon sign read. He ran in and came back five minutes later with a paper bag, which he emptied on the seat.

As Cavanaugh drove away, Prescott peered down at four objects: a bottle of colorless corn syrup, a bottle of red food dye, a plastic bowl, and a large plastic spoon. "What are these for?"

"Stir some of the corn syrup and food dye together in the bowl." Cavanaugh steered toward Highway 1. "For God's sake, why?"

"Without a professional makeup kit, that's the best way to imitate scabs and drying blood."

They joined headlights moving south on Highway 1. Despite his impatience, Cavanaugh stayed exactly at the speed limit. The dashboard clock showed 10:40. Needing to be at the rendezvous site as quickly as possible, they'd already lost twenty minutes.

Prescott finished stirring the mixture and reached into his jacket, pulling out a gray metal tube. Cavanaugh tensed. "Is that…"

"The hormone?" Prescott nodded. "You were right. I didn't use it on you at the beach because the breeze would have blown it away from you. If I twist the cap, there's a safety delay of twenty seconds. Then the pressurized contents are released." "You plan to use it at the rendezvous?"

"Position us so the wind's at our backs."

"Suppose that's not possible. If I get a whiff of that stuff, I won't be able to help you. Or what if Grace and her partner react the way the Rangers did in Florida? Instead of running, they might fire in panic. Jamie might get shot."

Prescott didn't respond.

"No," Cavanaugh said.

"But-"

"Put it on the seat."

Prescott stared at him.

"Do it," Cavanaugh said. "Leave it there."

Prescott put the tube on the seat.

"Because of that stuff, for the first time I understand what fear is," Cavanaugh said. "Is there a neutralizer?" He hoped the question seemed casual.

"Of course. Otherwise, even with the safety delay, the weapon might affect whoever triggers it."

"The antidote doesn't take away fear?"

"Only the fear the hormone causes."

"I want you to give it to me," Cavanaugh said.

"I can't."

"Why?"

"I don't have the antidote with me," Prescott said. "But even if I could give it to you, it wouldn't make a difference right now."

"What are you talking about?"

"You'd still be afraid for your wife. Once you love somebody, you start fearing something might happen to that person. Fortunately, that's one fear I've managed to avoid. Now you'll get to find out."

"Find out?"

"What it takes to be brave."

2

They passed Carmel, moving farther south, the headlights of traffic dwindling until there were only occasional vehicles as they reached the mostly unpopulated area around Point Lobos.

Soon, through the shadows of trees, Cavanaugh saw the lights of isolated houses. "What's this place?"

"Carmel Highlands. It's a small community of houses on a bluff above the ocean."

Cavanaugh saw a road on the right leading into it. Headlights piercing the shadows, he steered onto the road and parked among the trees.

He shut off the headlights. "I couldn't do this earlier because there was too much traffic. A policeman might have seen your face and stopped us."

Cavanaugh took the plastic spoon, dug it into the mixture in the bowl, and smeared the red-tinted corn syrup across the left side of Prescott's mouth, onto his left cheek and temple, and like a gash across his shaved skull. Exposed to the air, the mixture had started to coagulate, making Prescott look as if blood had thickened on his face.

When Cavanaugh switched the headlights back on, the glow from the dashboard allowed him to study the effect. "It looks like you belong in the emergency ward."

"But I can smell the corn syrup."

"By the time you're close enough to Grace for her to smell it, she'll be dead."

"I have to be sure."

"What do you mean?"

"Do it for real."

"I don't know what you're-"

"Cut me," Prescott said.

"What?"

"My scalp. Scalp wounds are terrific bleeders. The coppery smell will disguise the corn syrup."

"Jesus," Cavanaugh said.

"Do it." Prescott flinched as Cavanaugh raised the Emerson knife.

Cavanaugh could only imagine the control Prescott needed in order to remain still while he cut a two-inch slit across the top of Prescott's forehead.

Blood streamed.

Cavanaugh wiped the side of the knife over Prescott's face and the drying mixture.

Prescott now looked like the living dead.

"Hold out your hands," Cavanaugh said.

The hands shook as Cavanaugh twisted duct tape around Prescott's wrists. Inserting the Emerson knife between Prescott's wrists, Cavanaugh carefully cut the inside of the tape in front and back. He made the tape look intact from a distance but weakened it so that Prescott would have no trouble snapping it.

"Okay?" Cavanaugh asked.

Prescott tested the tape on his wrists, almost pulling it apart. His breathing trembled when he inhaled. "Okay."

Cavanaugh reversed direction and returned to Highway 1, continuing south. On the right, the moon cast a glow over the ocean. On the left, there were only occasional lights in the mountains. Except for the Taurus, the road was deserted.

"Around the next turn," Prescott said, his voice strained.

"You know this area fairly well."

"When I started losing weight, I avoided crowds until my appearance was sufficiently changed. I spent a lot of time hiking around here."

As Cavanaugh rounded the curve, the Taurus's headlights revealed the historic site marker. He steered to the left onto a bumpy dirt lane that went up through murky trees.

The lane reached a moonlit meadow, then zigzagged up through more trees. A few times, furrows in the lane caused the Taurus's underside to bump across stones and dirt. Overhead, branches blocked the moonlit sky. Bushes scraped the car.