He was in shock. She stepped right up to his face, shook his shoulders a little to get his attention.

“Maureen Heedles. I need to know her background. You said she’s your head of R and D. What does she research for you?”

“The best places to put in pipelines, terminals, offshore drilling. She’s a geologist. She’s a fucking geologist. Not a killer.”

“James,” Sam said, softer now. “There are two men dead in the kitchen to refute your claim. She’s on the run. She lit out of here with a knife, and God knows what other weapons she has. Xander and Chalk and Daniels are after her. She’s betrayed you. She’s killed your people. She must be the leak. She must be the one who is funneling the money into the development of this medicine. Think, man. When did she come to you? How did she get hired?”

And thought to herself, Xander, where are you? Please tell me that was Mo Heedles we saw tearing out of here, and not Robin Souleyret.

She saw Denon starting to come back to himself, just as Fletcher came back into the hall. “We’re clear. She must have gone out the front door after she killed the two men. I—”

Denon raised the rifle, and suddenly Sam was standing between two well-armed men on alert and pointing guns at each other.

Denon’s voice cracked. “He wasn’t in the room. The lieutenant had stepped away. He could have done this.”

Fletcher didn’t move an inch. “You’re imagining things, Denon. I was behind you the whole time. It was your woman who did this. Now, put the weapon down, slowly, and no one will get hurt.”

Sam faced Denon, her own gun casual in her hands. “James? We’re all friends here. We’re all just trying to help you. Please lower the weapon. Lieutenant Fletcher is on our side. I swear to you.”

Denon took a ragged breath and the nose of the gun began drifting down. Sam gently relieved the man of the weapon. “I think I’ll hold on to this, if you don’t mind.”

Denon nodded, slumping back against the wall, pale and sweating. “Forgive me. I was hasty.”

Fletcher nodded. “Sam, my people are converging on the neighborhood.”

“Warn them that Xander and Chalk and Daniels are out there with Thor.”

“Already did. Why don’t we go into the living room, and we can talk some more.”

Fletcher jerked his head, and Denon started moving. He stuck his head into the guest bath, pulled out a towel and tossed it to Sam. “You’re covered in blood.”

“Seems to be a pattern,” she said, wiping her face. Sam saw Mouse crouched on the floor in the corner of the living room, fingers going wild over her laptop.

“Sorry, Mouse. We’re clear, you can come out.”

“It’s okay. I’ve tapped into the CCTV cameras. They have her cornered near the university entrance.”

Sam hurried over and stared at the screen. It was black-and-white, but she could see clearly enough to make out what was happening. Thor had Heedles backed against the steps. Xander and Chalk had drawn down on her. Daniels had both a handgun and a phone. The only light came from the soda vapors lining the street. It appeared Heedles was taunting them, shouting something, and Sam saw Xander’s hand flex on the gun.

“This is it. They’re going to take her.”

Heedles dropped to the pavement.

Chapter 47

XANDER WAS BREATHING hard, more from anger than anything else. His night vision was messed up; he’d run in front of an SUV and the driver had flashed the brights at him in annoyance. He was following Thor’s barks—the dog was at least fifty yards ahead of them. He went frantic, and Xander knew he’d cornered the woman.

He called to Chalk. “Thor’s got her. Turn around forty-five degrees, come down from the north. We’ll take her from the street. Daniels, to me.”

Daniels was right behind him.

“Where do you want me?”

“Loose box, coming up the southern perimeter, your back to Key Bridge. Make sure she doesn’t dart down there. We might lose her if she manages to hit the bridge. Clear the civilians as you can, and be quiet about it.”

“Yeah, we might lose her over the edge, when I toss her off,” he muttered, jogging into the darkness.

Xander moved carefully toward Heedles. He wanted to take her alive, that’s why he’d set Thor on her. He regulated his breathing, shut his eyes to help them readjust, then jogged the last half block to her location.

Heedles was stuck at the base of the main entrance steps to Georgetown University. Thor was dancing near her, snapping and growling. She caught Xander’s gaze, watched him come into view. He saw fright on her face, but defiance, and that certain sense of inevitability he’d seen on the face of every terrorist he’d cut down. She knew she was going to die, and she wasn’t afraid. It was a foregone conclusion.

There was a siren behind him, but he didn’t break eye contact.

“Thor, achtung!”

Thor stopped barking immediately, but still had his teeth bared, a rumbling growl emanating from his belly. Xander had seen huge men cower in front of a dog, but Heedles decided to stand her ground. She was trapped, and she knew it, but she wasn’t going to be backed down.

“Call him off. Call him off now,” she yelled at Xander.

Daniels appeared to Xander’s left. Chalk was inching in from the right. They had her, and she knew it.

“I’m not kidding. Call him off or I’ll shoot him dead.” From the folds of her jacket, she produced a Glock with a lightning draw. She was practiced with the weapon; she didn’t hesitate or allow it to waver in her hand.

“Don’t even think about it, Heedles.” All three men had their guns trained on her in a flash. She hadn’t stopped staring at Xander. She began moving the weapon toward Thor, and Xander called, “Fuss.” Thor whined once, then came to his master’s side and sat heavily, still on alert, his hair bristling along his back. Xander touched the dog once on the back in reassurance. “Braver hund,” he whispered, low. “Bleib.”

Heedles relaxed when the dog stopped growling at her. Considering she had three highly trained men with guns on her, she became almost conversational. Still defiant, she tossed her hair and gave Xander a manic grin. “It’s too late, you know. We’ve already launched. There’s no way to stop things now. We’ve won.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Pyramid was activated last week. We’ve eliminated everyone who could stop us. You’re the only ones left who know about us, and trust me, you won’t see another dawn before your throats are slit and you’re left mewling in the gutters.”

Her bitter words, delivered in a polite, upper-crust British accent, were completely incongruous.

“Who, or what, is the Pyramid, Maureen? Tell me. If I’m going to die, anyway, what’s to stop you?”

“I’m not stupid. I’m not falling for that. I won’t tell you anything more. You can torture me, you can rape me, you can tear me limb from limb. I know that’s what you do, that’s what you enjoy. But I’ve done my job, and done it well, and I will not give up my people.”

Daniels called out to her. “We don’t torture and rape, Ms. Heedles. But we will put you in a four-by-six room for the rest of your natural life if you don’t cooperate.”

She laughed, a high-pitched shriek. Xander was reminded of a woman he’d seen in Afghanistan, keening and wailing over the body of her dead child, killed while playing after he ran over a neglected roadside bomb. An unfortunate mistake with everlasting consequences.

Xander knew there was no reasoning with Heedles. She was mad, and she’d done enough damage.

“What was your job in this plot? At least you can tell us that. We know you’re the one who was stealing the money. Was that all you were asked to do?”

Heedles shook her head, her strangely asymmetrical eyes flashing in the streetlamps. “I killed the girl and the doctor. Juliet. She’s had Denon by the cock from the first. He’d do anything she said, anything she wanted. She was his perfect little toy, and he had no idea she had double-crossed him. She had to be eliminated. She was going to expose us all.”