Then Malavida opened his eyes and looked up at her. They locked gazes for a long time.
"Hi," she said to him softly.
"Hi," he said back, his voice just a whisper.
She was about to say more when he closed his eyes. She thought he would open them again, but in seconds he was back asleep. She stood there for several more moments, trying to decide what to do.
Karen was suddenly bone-weary. She had eaten nothing since yesterday but two bites of stone crab. She knew that with Lockwood gone it was up to her to protect Malavida. She also knew that would be next to impossible in the hospital. There were too many systems The Rat could penetrate. Too many people, too many ways he could slip through electronic defenses and attack. She had to get Malavida healthy enough to move him. She had to find a way to sneak him past the Federal agent who, she suspected, was not there to protect his life so much as to keep him from escaping. She had walked right in, flashing civilian ID, while he read the paper. She had been giving the problem some thought and had the beginnings of an idea, but her head was so thick from lack of sleep, she needed to get a few hours to clear the cobwebs. She moved away from Malavida and back out into the hall…
Karen slept for four hours on the hard vinyl sofa in the visitors' area.
She opened her eyes when she heard Lockwood's voice. She looked around and finally saw him on the TV screen over the nurses' station. It was the five o'clock news. They were running file footage taken three months ago after the shootout on Operation Girlfriend.
The shot then switched to Trisha Rains in front of the Dade County Sheriff's Office: "That footage, many of you will remember, was taken last January when U. S. Customs Agent Lockwood was involved in a shootout at Miami International Airport… Agent Lockwood was arrested today by members of his own Internal Affairs Division. The arresting agent was Victor Kulack, also a participant in last January's gunfight. Apparently, Lockwood had been suspended a few days ago and was in Miami working on a murder case after having illegally freed a Federal prner named Malavida Chacone. As reported earlier, Chacone is now in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital."
Karen sat up, went to the ladies' room, washed her face, and put on fresh makeup. She combed out her auburn hair and straightened her clothing.
Malavida was still sleeping, so she went searching in the huge hospital for Lockwood's old friend Ray Gonzales.
She found Gonzales in the Renal Care facility. He looked terrible. His skin was papery and so thin that the bones in his shoulder seemed to protrude sharply. He was in a hospital bed, hooked up to a dialysis machine and reading a Cuban tract called La Revolution, when Karen walked in.
"Senor Gonzales?" she asked.
"Si."
"Soy una amiga de Juan Lockwood."
"Then you don't have the sense God gave a goose," he said without an accent as he smiled at her.
"Probably not." She smiled back.
"How's my Anglo brother?"
"He's under arrest and on his way back to Washington, so I guess you could say he's pretty shitty."
"I know. He was by here yesterday. He looked tired and confused. Claire's death hit him hard. But he didn't say nothing about that killer, or busting Chacone outta Federal prn. I got that offa TV this evening."
"Vic Kulack from Internal Affairs came down with a warrant for pursuing an investigation against orders."
Gonzales laid down the magazine, and his face formed into a scowl. "Kulack is a low-life. He's the reason I'm hooked up to this damn machine. Kulack's been working overtime on Johnny. He doesn't like the fact that Lockwood gets results, that he gets newspaper ink, that the agency brass loves him. All these years Lockwood gets invited to the ball and gets to eat off lace doilies. Kulack gets invited to the outhouse, eats off toilet seat covers. Now, I guess he figures he's even."
A nurse came in to check the levels on the dialysis machine. After a minute, she left. Ray Gonzales studied Karen openly. "It was too bad about Claire," he said. "John was still carrying a big torch for her. Don't often see a man pining over his ex-wife with that much sincere energy.
All through Operation Girlfriend he was talking about getting together with her again."
Karen nodded. Her eyes showed him nothing, but she felt a tinge of sadness at that remark.
"You didn't come down here 'cause you wanted to watch my blood get cleaned," Gonzales said, bringing her back, "or because you wanted to catch up on John Lockwood's past. You got another reason?"
"You're pretty perceptive, Ray," she said.
"Cut the bullshit let's hear what's really on your mind."
So she sat in the chair facing the bed and told him her plan.
Chapter 28
His nipples were on fire. He faced the computer in his barge and endured his stinging flesh. The TV news said that Lockwood had been transported to Washington for a Friday morning nine-o'clock hearing at the Department of Justice. The Rat had cracked the DOJ computer and obtained a valid username/password by fone-phreaking a DOJ agent's modem call into work. He brought the DOJ Administration Building's menu of Building Services up on the screen.
2300 Constitution Avenue
Washington, D. C.
Central Computer Menu
H)VACPhysical Plant, Misc
HeatingDWP
VentilationGas
Air ConditioningEnergy Mgmt. Systems
Energy StarMaintenance Sched.
S)ecurityB)uilding Services
Access Control amp; AccountingPA/Music
VicCam MonitoringElevator Sched/Control
LockdownCommon Area Lighting
AlarmsEnergy Star
C)ommunicationsE)mergency Services
PhonePublic Safety
DataAutoAlert
RadioHelipad
PagingPower Backup
He selected the "Security" sub-menu. The DOJ in Washington was housed in a "smart" building, and everybody in the Justice Department had a "smart card" which they inserted in a slot when they entered. He chose "Access Control amp; Accounting," which showed the names and times of everyone entering and exiting the building, as well as certain high-security areas. Lockwood had entered the building at eight A. M. It was now quarter to nine. The Rat exited the security access log and chose "Emergency Services" from the main menu. A sub-menu appeared, and he chose "Public Safety." Up onto the screen came a list of sub-headings:
Police F)Ire
Medical
S)eismic
He selected the "Fire" option, then scanned the map of the fire suppression systems of the DOJ Building on Constitution Avenue. Most of the old buildings had CO2 or water sprinkler fire systems, but The Rat had found something interesting when he'd gone hunting in the system yesterday. On the bottom floor of the building, he had discovered a room labeled "Paper Files." It took up half the sub-basement, and it was where correspondence and memos that had not been transferred onto diskettes were stored. The room had become the center of his plan.
The hearing was in a small conference room on the ninth floor of the Department of Justice Administration Building. It was beautifully decorated: deep-green carpet, silk wallpaper, hunting prints in lacquered frames. The nine o'clock hearing started ten minutes late.
Laurence Heath had walked over from Customs two blocks away, and now sat at the oak conference table next to Bob Tilly and across from Vic Kulack. They were all waiting for the U. S. Prosecutor, a narrow-shouldered man named Carter Van Lendt.