A small sob leaked from Denon’s mouth. The screen went black, and everyone froze, then began speaking at once.

“Hold on a minute, there’s more,” Daniels shouted.

A few seconds later, Amanda came back onto the screen. She was in a different place, a hotel room, from the looks of it, and it was full daylight out. She looked disheveled and scared.

“Robin, I screwed up. I’m pretty sure Kruger discovered what I’ve been up to, and has warned his people I’m coming to the States. Kruger opened a dialogue with me out of the blue, asking for my help on a case they were working in Sierra Leone. He began emailing me, asking for information, said they had word there was a terrorist attack in motion. I know he works for Gina, but this has been close hold—she hasn’t told anyone what I’m doing.

“I played along, but I’ve found a money trail that leads directly to his accounts. Right after that, my house was tossed, my passports stolen, my phones were tapped. I knew I was being followed, despite my precautions, so I cleared out of France immediately, but it’s probably too late. I’m in London right now, and will be taking a flight tonight to New York with James. We leave in a few hours, and I pray I make the flight. I’ll have the samples with me. I have to get them to Cattafi. That’s the only thing that can save us now.

“My enemies are in the shadows. I’ve taken precautions to make sure the information I have is making it to the people who need it. I’ve mailed this to my house in D.C., and to you. Gina will also receive this, and I’m bringing in more information on my person, in the way you told me about a couple of years ago.

“I know you can pick up where I left off. But, Robin, I have to warn you, I think everyone who knows about this is in great danger. Something I saw before the trail disappeared scared the hell out of me. I believe the bad medications have been sold to the highest bidder. The terrorist organizations in Africa have been in the market for anything and everything they can use to attack the United States, and this is the perfect weapon. If they’ve already gotten their hands on the medicine, it may be too late for us to stop their infiltration into our health system. It’s as easy as infecting several of their people and putting them on a plane to the US. We won’t even see it coming.

“I’ve already warned Gina of the possibility we’re going to be attacked, and that her life is in danger. She needs eyes on Kruger immediately. He will lead us to the rest of the people involved.

“Please, for the sake of all the people we serve, catch the person behind this, and do it now. I’ve failed our country, our people, James, Gina and you. Worse, I’ve failed myself. I should have come forward with this information sooner, but I had no idea how far things had progressed.”

Amanda was openly crying now. Through the tears, she put her fingers to her lips, then blew a kiss toward the screen.

“I love you, sis. I have faith in you. I’ll see you again someday.”

And the video ended.

TUESDAY: EVENING

Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.

—Herodotus

Chapter 45

Riley’s houseboat

Tuesday evening

REGINA GIRABALDI HAD been in the catbird seat and out of the field for too long. Robin almost laughed at the look on her face as she marched the woman’s bodyguard toward her, the gun still nestled against his temple.

Girabaldi’s hand went to her side for a moment, in search of the cool weight of a gun holster on her hip she’d become accustomed to after years in the field, but, finding no weapon, raised both hands slightly in a defensive gesture.

“Robin. Don’t hurt him. We’re just here to talk.”

“Gina, do you really think I’d be stupid enough to shoot a Secret Service agent?”

“No. But you might shoot me. I’d rather we talk like civilized adults.”

Robin bared her teeth at her mentor in an approximation of a smile. “Then you’ll understand why I don’t put my weapon away. The door’s unlocked, just pull the latch.”

Girabaldi stared at the barrel of the gun for a few moments, took a deep breath, swallowed and turned around with her shoulder blades tensed as if expecting the firing to commence immediately. When Robin didn’t shoot her in the back, the proud shoulders dropped an inch, and she slid open the doors and entered. The Secret Service agent followed her, looking like a dog that had just been kicked.

Robin walked after them, pulled the sliding glass door shut behind her. She knocked the guard in the shoulder good-naturedly.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty good at sneaking up on people. I was taught by the best, remember.” She used the gun to gesture toward a chair. “Sit.”

He stiffened.

“Please,” she added, and he acquiesced, taking a seat at the table and muttering the words “I’m sorry” to Girabaldi. Regina shook her head as if to say, Don’t worry, it was my fault, and he looked even more unhappy.

Robin sat down, as well, leaned back in the chair. Girabaldi’s eyes were wide, but she, too, sat, running her hands along her arms as if she were cold.

“Do you want to do this in front of him?” Robin asked.

“Do we have a choice?”

Robin shrugged. “I’m not comfortable letting him loose into the wild just yet. I can tie him up and gag him, stash him in the trunk of your car, but I have nothing to hide. I’ve done nothing wrong, and I want you to tell me what in the hell is going on. So if you need him to disappear, just say the word.”

“Witnesses can be handy. He stays.” Girabaldi smiled then, and set her hands on the table. Robin was shocked by how aged they’d become. Seeing those capable hands, ones she’d emulated so many times, wrinkled and spotted and heavily veined, hit her hard. She dropped the nose of the weapon, let it dangle casually toward the floor.

“What the hell, Gina? Who killed Mandy?”

“I don’t know. And I’m being honest with you. She’d been working on a case deep undercover. I’m talking off the grid entirely. A long game, which put her in an unbelievable amount of danger.”

“Were you running her?”

“Yes.”

“So no matter who wielded the knife, you’re responsible for her death.” Her fingers caressed the gun gently, raising it slightly. Girabaldi’s chin rose to match it. “How could you let it get this far?”

“Amanda went offline two weeks ago. All she had to do was call me and I would have moved heaven and earth to save her. Instead, she got too cute by half, and someone caught on.”

“What was the job, Gina? Quit beating around the bush and tell me. I know it has something to do with James Denon, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.”

“First, I need to ask you a question. Did Amanda say anything to you about what she was working on?”

Robin caught the anxious tone in Girabaldi’s voice, the lavender words spilling out of her mouth. It put her even more on alert.

“She sent me a note a month ago. Asked for a spot. I couldn’t break away.” Couldn’t, because you’d just fucked up your own world and you were too busy trying to bail yourself out, and where did that get you? Sidelined. Well done, you.

She told the voices to shut the fuck up, and felt better.

“I heard about that. I’m sorry. If I were still your boss, I wouldn’t have shuffled you off. You’re too good for that.”

“Quit trying to make this all okay. It won’t be. Ever. Tell me about Amanda. Now.”

“We have the beginnings of another pandemic in Africa. Worse than the terrible Ebola outbreak of 2014. We have a generalized viral hemorrhagic fever that mimics Ebola, but the time from exposure to death is less than forty-eight hours. It developed by accident, and we still aren’t one hundred percent sure how it was spread. A pseudovaccine was engineered and used. Unfortunately, the new vaccine kills half the people who contract the illness, and heals the other half. There’s no way to know which will happen. But if they aren’t treated, the mortality rate is one hundred percent. We think this outbreak is simply a testing ground. Some very undesirable people want to use the sickness as a weapon, since its efficacy in killing people is so high.”