“And when the child is born, I shall bring it to the halls of Congress and display it to the leaders of our nation. And then the scales shall fall from their eyes and they will see that they have allowed an abomination to move into their house; and the shackles shall loosen from their limbs and they will act, casting SinGen into the outer darkness whence it came, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
“Go now, my brothers and sisters. Fill the streets. Waste not another moment. Find—”
The screen went blank. Another touch on the desktop and the lights came up.
Luca blinked, momentarily mute with shock. He opened his mouth to speak but Sinclair voiced his thoughts.
“He knows! How thehell did he find out?”
“A leak,” Luca said. “I’ve suspected one for some time now.”
“You think the room is bugged? By someone other than you, I mean.”
Luca was taken aback by the casualness of the remark.
“What?” Sinclair said, a tiny smile twisting his lips. “You think I don’t know your people have this office bugged? Probably the whole campus as well, am I right?”
He was. Offices, labs, even rest rooms—all bugged. Luca shrugged it off.
“We sweep this office regularly. No listening devices of any sort.” Other than ours.
“Ifound out yesterday,” Sinclair said, then pointed to the blank TV screen. “Heknows today. How else but a bug?”
“A person. I’ve long suspected your brother. This confirms it.”
“It confirms nothing of the sort. Ellis? Ridiculous!”
“Really? Until yesterday, only a select few of our people knew. Even the men I’ve had combing the city don’t know; they think we want this sim because she’s got a rare immune globulin in her blood. Weeks of searching without a hint of a leak. But yesterday afternoon I tell you and your brother, and today, just twenty-four hours later, the Reverend Eckert is telling the world. If it’s not your brother, then it’s you.”
Sinclair sat down and drummed his fingers on the desk. “Well, it’s not me. And I can’t believe it’s Ellis, not after the way your people threatened his children.”
“I’m not aware of any threat.”
“No? Well, I guess it was before your time.”
That part was true. But Luca knew perfectly well what the CEO was talking about. A brilliant little op, involving nothing overt, but it had kept Ellis Sinclair in line ever since.
Sinclair looked at him. “Maybe Eckert did have a revelation.”
“You don’t really expect—”
“I don’t mean from God.”
“Then—”
“Hear me out. Here’s this guy who’s got a hard-on for SimGen. He hears we’re offering five million to find this lost sim, so he figures out the worstcase scenario for us, and broadcasts it. It’s just a coincidence that he happens to hit on the truth.”
Luca snorted. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”
Sinclair sighed. “No. No, I don’t.”
“However Eckert came to it, we can count on a lot of his people on the streets looking for that sim, trying to find her first.”
“Does that worry you, Mr. Portero? Don’t let it. The more the merrier. Eckert’s people merely increase our chances. They may believe in God, but when it comes down to five million dollars’ worth of cold hard cash, they’ll believe in that even more.”
“We’ll see.” Luca wasn’t so sure about that, but saw no point in arguing. He had another point to press. “In the meantime, my people will expect you to do something about your brother.”
“Very well. From now on, any meetings concerning matters of a sensitive nature will be conducted without him.” His eyes narrowed. “But you don’t have any hard evidence against Ellis, do you. Otherwise you wouldn’t have looked so shocked when I played you that tape. I’d be surprised if you weren’t monitoring his calls. Have you been following him as well?”
“No. But we will.”
Truth was, he’d set tails on Sinclair-2 a number of times but they always lost him. Looked like he’d have to tail him personally.
I can spread myself only so thin, damn it.
“Starting when? Tonight?”
“No, not tonight. But soon.”
He had a more pressing matter to attend to. He and Lister had spent much of the day setting up an op for tonight. The target, Romy Cadman, knew Luca’s face so he could not be directly involved, but he’d be on standby, eagerly awaiting the results. By the end of the night he’d have established a solid link of money and information between Cadman and Ellis Sinclair.
And then there’d be no need to follow anyone anywhere.
3
MANHATTAN
“Really,” Romy said as their cab climbed the on-ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge, “this is unnecessary. I’m more than capable of finding my own way home.”
“You heard what our friend said this afternoon,” Patrick replied. “‘Be careful.’ And that’s what we’re doing.”
Beside him, in the darkness of the rear seat, he saw her shake her head. “An awfully long trip.”
“Not if I’m with you.”
Light from a passing car reflected off her smile. “What a nice thing to say. But perhaps I should have phrased it a little differently: This is going to be an awfully longround trip.”
As the bejeweled towers of Lower Manhattan dwindled behind them, Patrick thought about the day. A good day. Any day with more ups than downs was a good day. After the shock of learning who was behind the SLA and the globulin farm murders had worn off, and Patrick had settled down from his initial elation over the news of the pregnant sim, they’d brainstormed ways to find Meerm. Reverend Eckert’s exhortation to his followers to track her down for him instead of for SimGen—a message he’d be hammering into his viewers day after day—would help, but they still hadn’t figured out a way to fit Tome into the equation.
As darkness fell they’d called it a day, Zero taking off in the van, and Romy accepting Patrick’s invitation to dinner. They’d walked downtown and found a bistro in Chelsea that looked inviting. A pair of Rob Roys before and a shared bottle of pinot noir during a meal of various pastas and sauces had left Patrick in a genial mood. He figured Romy, who’d matched his Rob Roys with Cosmopolitans, had to be feeling mellow herself.
“Am I that bad?”
“No,” she said. “Not bad at all.” He felt her take his hand, interlace her fingers with his, and give it a little squeeze. “In fact, you’re good. Taking Tome in like you did is, well, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone doing that for a sim.”
She rested her head on his shoulder. The scent of her hair and the wave of warmth seeping up from where their hands coupled enveloped Patrick, making him feel as if he were riding a cloud.
What is it with this woman? he wondered. We’re only holding hands but it feels like we’re having sex.
He rode that cloud all the way to Brooklyn, and too soon they were stopped in front of a neat, four-story brick-faced building.
“I’ll walk you to your door,” he said.
Romy shook her head. “No, you won’t.”
“We’ve got to be careful, Romy…”
She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips. “You’re not walking me to my door. You’re coming up.”
“For a nightcap?”
“A drink, coffee, anything you want.”
Patrick couldn’t see Romy’s face in the dimness, couldn’t read her eyes. His first impulse was to ask her to repeat her last statement, but he feared she might take it as a wisecrack. Some sort of spell had been woven here tonight and he wasn’t about to risk breaking it.
“Let’s go,” he said, and fumbled his wallet out of his pocket to pay the cabby.
The stairway within was too narrow to ascend abreast so he had to follow Romy, which positioned her hips at eye level before him. Their rhythmic sway within her cleathre coat only exacerbated the electric ache in his groin.