Kai looked unhappy, yet Donovan could see that he was still in awe of Parrish.
“What’s going to happen?” Kai asked warily.
“We’re going to need to let someone else take care of her for a while.”
“Irene?”
“No, Irene will be coming with us.”
“Donovan?”
“He’ll be with us, too.”
“Then who?”
“Kai. Do you think I’ve failed to plan for any possibility? That I don’t know how much you want Violet to be… available to you?”
“I’ll get her back?”
“Yes, of course. I promise you’ll be together again.”
“So what is the plan?”
“One of the Moths is already on the way up here.”
“But they have to know how to take care of her!”
“Of course. Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Kai was unconvinced, and Donovan knew that if he could see it, Parrish could see it. But Parrish seemed to believe Kai could be brought round his thumb.
“Donovan,” Parrish said, “we’ll need to leave as soon as it’s dark. Bring the Escape-”
“I don’t have it. I didn’t want to leave it around where it might be spotted by police. I switched vehicles.”
“Excellent,” Parrish approved. “What do you have instead?”
“A Subaru Forester.”
After a pause, Parrish said, “I know Quinn gave you the money for the purchase of the vehicles. Is it his sense of humor that results in these model names, or yours?”
“Quinn will tell you I have no sense of humor.”
“Hmm. Neither vehicle has real off-road ability, but if that’s needed, I suppose we’ll acquire something else.”
“If Kai needs to be seen by a doctor, you’ll want to be near roads.”
“If you want him to be seen by police, you mean.”
“Hey!” Kai protested.
“I don’t,” Donovan said to him. “I just don’t think that being killed by an infection will do you any good, either.”
“It’s not going to come to that,” Parrish said. “Is the Forester here?”
“No. I didn’t want to attract attention to this place with a lot of traffic. Bad enough that I had to drive up here and away last night.”
Parrish approved of this as well. “We’ll need it now, though. Bring it around to the front of the lodge.”
Donovan nodded and left immediately. He did not ask to see Irene Kelly-knowing that his interest in her well-being would be of no help to her.
When he was a mile away from the lodge, and certain that he was not being observed by anyone, he took out a disposable cell phone.
He was not, by nature, an emotional man, but neither were the possible repercussions of what he was about to do lost on him. He quieted his mind, closing his eyes, breathing deep and slow.
He composed a text message addressed to Frank Harriman’s personal cell phone:
Re: Irene
He pressed Send, then quickly composed and sent three more messages:
Third step down on beach stairs, underneath.
Jacaranda Street.
Previous destinations.
He cleared the phone’s memory of the messages, broke it into pieces-crushing the SIM card-and hid the fragments in one of the compartments of the Forester.
He picked up the dark green parka he had chosen for Irene Kelly. If it was not too carefully searched-if no one opened seams or checked certain lining hems too closely-he could explain why he had placed certain items in its pockets. Ideally, there would not be any search. Everyone would be busy with other tasks.
He took another moment to slow thoughts that wanted to race, to remind himself to stay focused. But one part of his unruly mind insisted on noting a certain exhilaration. One he had not felt since the end of his last tour of duty.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Ifed Violet and finished doing what I could to make her more comfortable, talking to her, without any response on her side, about exploring the possibility of getting some of the adaptive technologies now available. I had seen wheel-chairs that could be operated by blowing into a strawlike device or by the movement of a person’s tongue. I kept thinking that if I had been in her place, cut off from everyone but Kai and a set of doctors I didn’t like, I would have been yapping away at first contact. Apparently, though, she was out of the habit of social interaction or wasn’t interested in what I had to say. I gave up after a few minutes of the silent treatment from her.
I was considering going back to my room when the door to hers suddenly opened.
Parrish with the gun again, and he had someone with him, but this time it wasn’t Kai Loudon. I felt pure rage course through me as I beheld Donovan Cotter for the first time since he had placed me under Parrish’s control.
I was on the verge of venting some of that anger when I saw how much Parrish was enjoying it. Hell if I was going to satisfy his puppet mastery.
“Hello, Donovan,” I said, then hesitated. “That really is your name?”
“Yes. Hello, Irene.”
“How very civil,” Parrish said, choosing to be amused. “Especially for a man who was just searching her closet. Tie her up.”
I felt panic set in.
“She needs to change into warmer clothes,” Donovan said. “I was going to bring those items in here.”
Parrish smiled. “We’ll go to her room instead.”
They took me there. I thought they would leave, but Parrish said, “Go ahead and change. We’ll watch you do that.”
The panic heightened. I decided not to strip past my underwear and just to put the longer underwear on over my panties and bra. It was humiliating even to strip to that extent in front of them, with Parrish making comments on my body and what he’d like to do to me all the while, and mocking Donovan for not taking advantage of my state of undress.
“I told you. I don’t want or need an audience,” he said.
Parrish told me to go back into Violet’s room. Once we were there, he again ordered Donovan to tie me up.
“That will make it more difficult to put her into the vehicle. I don’t want to carry her, do you?”
Parrish clearly didn’t like being contradicted, but he said, “All right, just her hands, then.”
Donovan moved toward me with a roll of duct tape. I decided I wasn’t about to go along with that without a fight, gun or no gun. I used a move from Kenpo, avoiding his hold and getting in an initial blow-hitting Donovan’s brow rather than the eye I was aiming for-when he quickly reacted. I wasn’t close to being a match for his skills. He soon had me pinned to the floor and bound my wrists.
Parrish started laughing, so hard that he doubled over with a hacking cough.
Donovan turned his head away from him, and under the cover of that laughter whispered into my ear, “Don’t attack. Wait.” He then lifted me to my feet, far more gently than I had expected.
I was strongly tempted to ignore that advice, especially when Parrish tucked the gun into his waistband and sauntered within range of a kick. I watched him warily, all the time wondering if I was crazy to listen to a man who had drugged me, bound my hands, and was clearly a confederate of Parrish’s to some degree. Violet was sure he was somehow being compelled to participate in Parrish’s plans, but that wouldn’t make me any less dead if those plans succeeded.
In the end what kept me from lashing out was Parrish himself. Looking into his eyes, I could see anticipation. He wanted me to give him an excuse.
My next thought was that he had never needed an excuse for anything he did before, so why hold back now?
Donovan.
The answer came to me with a certainty that surprised me. I had no doubt that Kai, whose unpleasant acquaintance I had made a few hours earlier, would have been egging Parrish on, providing an audience eager to see him inflict pain and humiliation on me.
As if to confirm my guess, Parrish glanced at Donovan, who had taken a step away from me, so that he was within view-and reach-but not threatening. It was as if Parrish wanted to impress him but was not quite sure how to do that. For his part, Donovan was standing still and calm, yet radiating power-it was as if nothing Parrish might do would disturb or intimidate him.