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"What are you doing in that thing? It's a deathtrap."

"Uh, I'm new," Barrie said, laughing nervously, which under the circumstances wasn't hard to fake. "Next time, I'll take the express.

Dolly Madison," she said, sticking out her hand. "Please, no jokes about my name. Believe me, I've heard them all."

"Linda Arnold."

"Pleased to meet you."

Barrie caught a peripheral glimpse of Gray as he reached the top of the staircase. Taking advantage of the diversion she'd created, he slipped behind the charge nurse's desk. There was no one else in sight.

"When did you start working here?" the nurse asked.

"This is my first night. I'm assisting Dr. Hadley," she said, recalling one of the names she'd seen on the telephone roster in the commissary.

"I thought Dr. Hadley was on a six-month sabbatical."

"Yes, he is."

"You mean she."

"I said she." Barrie placed her hand on Linda Arnold's arm and leaned in close. "Between you and me, it's not going as the doctor planned. She's supposed to be working on a book, although I doubt she'll ever pull it together."

"Really? That's surprising. She's already so widely published."

"True, true," Barrie said, wishing writer's block upon Dr. Hadley, whoever the hell she was. "But this time, she's struggling."

"I'm sorry to hear that. She has so much to share, and she's such a gifted doctor."

"She is a dear, isn't she?" Barrie gushed. She had a EXCLUSIVE 393

view of Gray's back. He was hunched over a desk. Had he found a computer terminal?

"What's all that?" The nurse indicated Barrie's heavy shoulder bag.

"Research materials I'm gathering for Dr. Hadley."

"All that?"

"Uh, yeah, and, well, I can't go anywhere without my, uh, Slim-Fast. I never leave the house with less than two cans, just in case. Always an extra pair of shoes. I have awful bunions. Magazines. You know, stuff. My husband teases me about my stuff all the time."

"Weren't you assigned a locker downstairs?"

"Yeah, but the gizmo thing . . ." She pantomimed working a combination lock. "I couldn't get it to work. Until I get the hang of it, I thought I'd better cart this crap around with me."

Nurse Linda Arnold tilted her head. "You look familiar to me, but I can't quite place you."

She recognizes me from TV!

"Where did you work before you became Dr. Hadley's assistant?"

"Oh, a zillion places. I get bored with the same old job, so I sort of, you know, go with the flow." Behind the nurse, Gray was giving her a thumbs-up. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to meander around and try to get my bearings."

"Can I help you-"

"No, no, I do better when I learn my way alone." She laughed. "I already know not to take that creaky old elevator again."

"Excuse me?"

Gray had approached them and tapped Linda Arnold on the shoulder. She turned to him. "Are you the one who called for the light bulb to be changed?"

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"No. It wasn't me."

"Must've been the third floor. I thought she said second. Sorry." He doffed his cap and headed back to the staircase.

By the time Nurse Linda Arnold turned back around, Barrie had slipped out of sight.

"They're not there."

The report came back to the main man via one of his dour sidekicks, the one who'd so viciously ended Dolly's brief life. It had taken them an hour and a half to "find" the motel.

"This is it," Daily said, wheezing hard. "I'm sure of it. The Washington Inn. Room one-twenty-two."

"There's a teamster in there, mad as hell 'cause I woke him up," the agent said, glaring at Daily.

"I don't get it," he said, looking helplessly from one to the other. "She said she was meeting Bondurant here tonight."

"You dropped her in a parking garage, didn't you?"

"How'd you guys know that?"

"Where was she going?"

"Here! That's what she told me, anyway. Swear to God. I was supposed to drive around with the dummy and be her decoy."

"This is bullshit," one of them said. "He's been jerking us around all this time."

To make his act more convincing, Daily began to beg. "Don't hurt me.

Please. I had to do it. I'm scared shitless of him."

"Who?"

"Bondurant. He told me that if I fucked up, he'd kill me. And he will, too. Have you ever looked into his eyes? They're spooky as hell. The man's a natural born killer. If he finds out I brought you here, he'll kill me."

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"Knock it off!" the leader snapped.

"Please, take me home," Daily pleaded. "If they're not here, I don't know where they are. Bondurant probably lied to me. Maybe he lied to Barrie, too. He could've been setting a trap for her. Have you thought of that? But what do I know? I'm just an old man. I don't know anything."

"He's lying," one of the agents said.

"Hell, yes, he's lying," said the leader. "Let's go."

In the car, the leader used his cellular telephone. "Welsh was lying about the motel. They weren't there." He listened for a moment, then said, "Yes, sir. I'm sure you can get more out of him than we've been able to." Daily didn't like the sound of that. He liked even less what the gauge on his oxygen tank indicated. "I haven't got much air left," he said as soon as the man was off the phone.

"Sounds like a personal problem to me."

The other two didn't even bother to respond. From the floorboard, Dolly stared up at him with wide, dead eyes.

It was a long drive back to the city. Their destination turned out to be an innocuous-looking office building. As they escorted Daily to an emergency exit door at the rear of the building, he looked up at the sky.

No stars could be seen, of course, because of the city lights. But there was a pretty moon.

That was nice.

They took a service elevator to the seventh floor. Their heels echoed along the deserted corridor as they marched Daily to the door at the end of it. The wheel on his oxygen trolley was squeaking. He never had gotten around to oiling the damn thing.

One of the men moved out in front and knocked on the door. A voice ordered him to come in. He opened the door, then stood aside. As Daily crossed the threshold into the

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room, he had a fleeting thought as to what form his torture and death might take.

His ominous host was backlit by the single lamp in the room, but Daily recognized him by his silhouette. "Mr. Welsh," he said in a voice that was almost friendly. "You've been awfully busy tonight. Aren't you almost out of oxygen by now?"

And Daily thought, Oh, shit.

Chapter

-7he broken water pipe in the storage room on the thi:d floor of Tabor House produced the desired effect. Nurses and aides congregated as near as they could get to the door of the flooding closet. For as many staff as were involved, there were that many suggestions on how best to solve the problem. A nurse said she'd seen a janitor working in the storage room a few minutes before the geyser erupted, but he couldn't be found to assist in the containment and cleanup.

Barrie hadn't known what Gray intended when he left her in the stairwell, telling her to wait for him there and to "look busy" if anyone came by.

When he returned several minutes later, his overalls and cap had been discarded, and he was once again in suit and tie. A water pipe had mysteriously burst. It wasn't too difficult to figure out what he'd been doing.

"Come on," was all he said. She followed his lead through the door to the third floor.

Because of the commotion in the south wing, nobody noticed them as they headed for the north wing. But when

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they rounded a corner, they saw two Secret Service agents standing guard outside room 300.

This is when we get shot, Barrie thought.

But Gray was cool. "Evening, gentlemen," he said crisply, walking right up to them.

They recognized him immediately. "Mr. Bondurant?" one said.

"How are you?" Gray flashed his grim smile.

"I thought you had retired. When did you-"

"I'll be glad to tell you all about it later. But we've got to move Mrs.

Merritt immediately. There's been a small accident in the other wing. I don't think it's serious. This is strictly a precautionary measure. The President doesn't want to take any chances."

He held up his hand as though for silence, and pressed his fingers against the portable earpiece he was wearing. "They're ready downstairs," he said.

"Nurse?" He nodded Barrie toward the door of the room.

"Yes, sir." She slipped past the two agents.

"Excuse me, sir, but nobody except Dr. Allan-"

The edge of Gray's hand connected solidly with the guy's larynx. Another swift blow, and he was down. The other had turned to detain Barrie. Gray gave him a karate chop on the back of the neck. He went down. Barrie held the door open while Gray dragged them inside.

It had taken no more than a few seconds. Gray hastily switched his phony earpiece for the Secret Service agent's.

He listened for a moment, then bent down and spoke into the tiny microphone the unconscious agent was wearing under his lapel. "Some excitement in the other wing, that's all." He paused to cough and clear his throat. "Leaking water pipe."

He listened again.

"No, we're under control."

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He clicked off the transmitter. To Barrie he said, "There's another agent on the roof."

"Won't he notice the voice change?"

"I hope not."

Working quickly, Gray divested one of the agents of his two-way radio kit, so that he would be clued to the actions of the agent on the roof, and any others who might be in the area. Then he taped shut the agents' mouths and trussed them like turkeys, binding their hands and feet behind their backs with duct tape. For the time being, they were out of commission. But how long would it be before someone noticed they weren't at their post and came to check?

Barrie had no time to entertain that concern. Gray had already moved across the dim room where Vanessa lay motionless on a hospital bed. Her slight form created barely any valleys and hills beneath the covers.

Barrie moved to the opposite side of the bed. "Mrs.

Merritt' *

"Vanessa? Can you hear us?" Gray said with more force, shaking her shoulder. "Vanessa?"

Her eyes fluttered open. When she saw Gray, there was a catch in her thready breath. "You've come?"

"I'm going to get you out of here."

"Gray." When her eyes drifted closed again, she was smiling faintly, assured that now she was safe. She was so sedated that she didn't even flinch when he ripped the tape off her arm and slipped the IV catheter from her vein.

Barrie didn't have to look very closely to see that Vanessa was seriously ill. Her eye sockets looked like dark craters in her skull. Her lips were colorless. Gray slid his arms beneath her, catching her behind her knees and shoulders, and lifted her from the bed. She looked like a child in his arms.

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"Barrie," he ordered, "take the pistol."

He'd laid it on the bed when he picked up Vanessa. Barrie stared at the weapon, loath to touch it. The long silencer attached to the barrel made it look even more menacing. But Gray's expression looked more dangerous and deadly than the gun, so she did as he'd instructed. The weapon felt heavy and awkward in her hand.

"Careful with it," he said. "It's ready to fire. The service elevator is at the end of the hall. We'll use that to get to the ground floor." He glanced toward the two unconscious agents. "If you're legit, I'm sorry,"

he muttered. "If you're Spence's men, fuck you."

As they moved toward the door, Barrie asked, "What about security cameras?"

"I haven't seen any, have you?"

She shook her head. "What if somebody tries to stop us?"

"Shoot them," he said matter-of-factly. He motioned her with his head.

"Check the hall."

She opened the door and looked around. The corridor was empty, although from around the corner she heard laughing and chatter about the flooded storage room. Apparently the absence of the Secret Service agents had not yet been noticed.

"Clear," she told Gray.

"Get the elevator."

She stepped out into the hallway and punched the button on the wall.

Lighted numbers on the panel indicated that it was on the first floor.

Barrie was sure it had never taken it longer to rise those two floors. She kept her eye on the corner, but no one appeared.

At last the elevator arrived, and it was empty. She stepped into it and pushed the Open Door button. Gray carried Vanessa across the hall in two long strides. Barrie pushed the Close Door button.

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Nothing happened.

Not for several interminable moments.

Finally the door slid closed and they began their descent.

Barrie stared at the crack where the two doors met. When they reached the first floor and those doors opened, and someone was standing there demanding to know just what the hell they thought they were doing, could she shoot that person?

She was thankful that her mettle wasn't tested. There was no one waiting for the elevator when it reached the ground floor. She stepped out and checked the corridor. "A lot of people are in the commissary," she told Gray. There were sounds of conversation coming from that area. "It must be break time."

"Go the other way," he said. "That can't be the only exit. We'll go out through another door and circle around."

"I noticed French doors in the solarium."

They threaded their way back through the first-floor corridors. The French doors in the solarium were locked, but the latch was on the inside. She hesitated. "It could be wired to a security system."

"We'll take our chances."

She undid the latch and pushed open the door. The ensuring screech was earsplitting. Barrie turned in the direction from which it came and reflexively fired the pistol.