White Mountain (40 page)

“You son of a bitch.”

Rostov grinned.
 
“So, we meet again,” he said.
 
“Something told me you are not the writer you claimed to be.
 
Now put down your gun before I kill your woman.

Jack hesitated.

“Do it!” Rostov snapped.
 
“I’m losing my patience with all of you.”

Jack laid the rifle against the wall.

“Let me tend to her,” he asked, pointing to Isabella.

“you don’t touch her,” Rostov said.
 
“Not until I say that you can.
 
Now get over there with the rest of them.
 
I have much to do before this night is over.”

Jack cursed himself for waiting too long to come in.
 
If he hadn’t, Isabella wouldn’t be lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

“Now, where were we?” Rostov asked, as Jack stopped beside the fireplace, only inches from Isabella’s head.
 
“Ah yes, the money.
 
You were going to get me the money.”

“Why should we?” David asked.
 
“you’re going to kill us anyway.”

Rostov’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
 
The man had a point.
 
Then he glanced at the diary still lying on the floor.
 
Maybe there was still something to be gained.
 
He pointed his gun at the diary.

“I think you will pay me a lot to make sure no one ever reads this book.”

Jack’s gaze immediately slid to the old, leather-bound volume on the floor near Isabella’s feet.

David shook his head.
 
“If we’re dead, what does it matter?”

Rostov sneered.
 
“It matters to her, doesn’t it?” he asked.

The old men were caught, and they knew it.
 
They looked at each other, then, one by one, silently nodded.

“So…do we have a deal?” Rostov asked.

“You have a deal,” David said.
 
“But on one condition.”

“And that is?’

“You let these two live,” David said, pointing to Jack and Isabella.
 
“you let them live, or kill us all now and leave with nothing.”

“Of course,” Rostov said.
 
“I promise.”

They all knew what his promises were worth, but nothing more was said.

Rostov’s gaze swept the room, trying to guess where a wall safe might be.
 
Behind that painting?
 
Beside the fireplace?

“Now the money, please.”

Isabella groaned and then slowly opened her eyes.
 
He head ached, and it hurt to swallow.
 
When she started to speak, a pain shot up he jaw and into her temple.
 
She grabbed her face and moaned.

Jack dropped to his knees and cradled her in his arms.

“I[‘m here, sweetheart.
 
Just lie still.”

“I told you not to touch her!” Rostov shouted.

David stepped between them.

“You promised,” he said.

Rostov cursed.
 
“Get the money now!
 
My patience leaves me.”

“It’s not here,” David said.
 
“But it’s close by.”

Rostov aimed the gun at Isabella’s head.

“You lie!” he shouted.
 
“I will wait no longer.”

“he’s not lying,” Jasper suddenly said.

“No, it’s true,” Thomas chimed in.

“We can get to it from my apartment,” David said.
 
“But you have to come with me.”

Rostov frowned.
 
“What are you trying to pull?
 
There is nothing beyond this room but a fire escape.”

David smiled.
 
“Oh, but you’re wrong,” he said softly.
 
“Do you think we conducted our experiments in public laboratories?”

Jack felt Isabella flinch, but he squeezed her arm, hoping she got the message to stay quiet.
 
He suspected they were about to learn why Frank Walton had been killed.

“Where?” Rostov asked, looking around the room.
 
“Where do we go?”

“Down,” David said.
 
“We go down.
 
But we leave them behind or there will be no money.”

“No deal, Rostov said.
 
“I see the money first or they dir.”

David relented, but only because he had no choice.
 
He knew Ross was serious.
 
He’d been the one to identify Frank’s body in the Brighton Beach morgue.

“Get up,” Rostov orderd, and waved the gun at Jack.
 
“Get her up, too.
 
WE all go, and if you’re lucky, we all come back.”

Jack stood, then helped Isabella to her feet.
 
She staggered, and he put his arm around her.

“Lean on me,” he said softly.

Isabella went limp against his chest, steadying herself until she could walk.

“I am leaning on you, Jack.
 
I think I have been since the day you arrived.”

“Move,” Rostov ordered.

David nodded to the other men, who followed him toward the bedroom.

“Where are you going?’ Rostov shouted.

“You want the money?” David said.
 
“You follow me.”

David opened the door to his closet and walked inside.
 
The other uncles followed behind him.

“What the hell?” Rostov muttered.

Jack was wondering the same thing but refrained from saying so.

Isabella was still disoriented enough not to realize that they’d walked into a closet until she saw David shove aside a stack of clothes and press down on a shelf.
 
When the wall in front of them suddenly slid out of sight, she gasped.

An elevator car was open and waiting.

“Get in,” David said.

“After you,” Rostov snarled, realizing, as they all got in, that he would be in very close contact with all of them and could easily be overpowered.
 
To insure his safety, he grabbed Isabella out of Jack Dolan’s arms and put his gun in her ear.
 
“She’s with me,” he said.
 
“If anyone makes a wrong move, her brains are going to be on your face.”

Isabella moaned and swayed where she stood.

“Don’t hurt her,” Jack said.
 
“We’re doing this your way, I swear.
 
Right, men?”

The uncles nodded anxiously.

Satisfied that he still had the upper hand.
 
Rostov boarded the elevator, and down they went.

Jack marveled silently at the lengths to which these old men had gone to keep their secrets.
 
But even he was surprised when the car stopped and the door opened.
 
Instead of being in some kind of laboratory, they had exited into a lighted tunnel.

“What’s this?” Rostov asked.
 
“I thought we were going to your laboratory?”

“We are,” David said, pointing to the array of electric carts parked against the wall.
 
“Pick a ride.
 
I’ll lead the way.”

The old men piled into the carts, leaving Rostov with no options but to follow.

He shoved Isabella toward the last cart.

“You drive,” he told Jack.
 
“We’re behind you.
 
And remember…”

“We got the message,” Jack snapped.
 
“Just take the goddamned gun out her ear before you trip and fall.
 
Because I warn you, anything happens to her and you’ll have no need for money or anything else.”

Rostov pushed Isabella into the back seat and then slid in beside her as Jack took off down the tunnel, following the other three carts, which were already some distance ahead.

David’s mind was set on destruction.
 
It was the only thing left that they could do.
 
But getting Isabella and Jack out without harm was going to take finesse.

“Jasper…you know what we have to do,” David said.

“Yes.”

“Rufus…are you in agreement?”

Rufus sighed and rubbed his ample paunch.

“Yes, and had I known tonight was the end, I would have had that second helping of peach cobbler.”

They laughed because, for a moment, it made everything seem normal and right.
 
But then they heard Ross shout out behind them to shut up and slow down, and the moment of humor passed.

All too soon the mile had been traversed, and they were at the laboratory doors.

Jack go out, then turned toward Isabella, but Rostov wasn’t ready to give up his hostage.
 
Not when they’d come so far and so deep.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“Beneath White Mountain,” David said.

“I’ll be damned,” Jack muttered.
 
“No wonder you were never found.”

“Oh, we didn’t hide ourselves down here,” David said.
 
“We hid in plain sight by going about our business like anyone else.
 
We just did our experiments down here.”

Rostov was getting nervous.
 
He had never liked tight places, and knowing there was an entire mountain sitting on top of them made his flesh crawl.

“Stop talking and get inside,” he ordered.

David keyed in the code, and the door swung open.

As the lights in the ceiling of the massive room began to come on, they entered.

Isabella stared in disbelief, first at the uncles, who moved among the lab tables and computers with such familiarity, then at the room itself.
 
It was all stainless steel and glass, spotless and gleaming, with lights so bright overhead that it seemed to be lit by pure sunlight.

“The money!” Rostov yelled.
 
“Where is the money?”

“Jasper will get it,” David said.

Jasper moved toward what appeared to be a large metal floor safe near the door.
 
Instinctively, Ross’s attention was diverted, and he moved with him, Isabella still under his gun.
 
When Jack started to follow, David grabbed him by the arm instead.

“Wait,” he whispered.
 
“I don’t have much time, and there are things you need to know.”

“Some of it I already do,” Jack said.
 
“you were all working on similar projects when your respective governments pulled the plugs, right?”

David smiled.
 
“I knew you were smart.”
 
Then his smile shifted.
 
“You love our Isabella, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“In spite of us?”

“In spite of everything,” Jack said.
 
“Just help me get her out of this alive.”

“It will be done,” David said.
 
“But listen to me now, because her life could still be in danger, and only you will know.”

They glanced toward the wall, where Jasper was on his knees.

“Our research was stopped, yes,” David said.
 
“But we believed in what we were doing.
 
It was John Rhodes…I should say Samuel Abbott, who first suggested that we fake our deaths.
 
Some of us were hesitant, but given the prospects of what awaited us, we quickly agreed.
 
Yes, we took other identities, but we hurt no one.
 
We have not profited in any monetary way from the names we assume.
 
We have not drawn any money from your government, nor taken any outside donations for our clinic.
 
We have done good for the women who wanted babies.
 
We have given back to the world what was taken from us.”

“What was the big secret?” Jack asked.
 
“There are hundreds of fertility clinics.
 
Why lie about who you were?
 
Except for Walton, uh…Waller, any of you could have just quit your government work.
 
Why not take up private practice under your own identities?”

David glanced at the others.
 
Jasper was almost into the safe.
 
He had to hurry.

“Because it wasn’t just about infertility.”

Jack frowned.
 
“So what was it about?
 
You were researching DNA…the human genome…gene therapy.
 
What are you saying?”

“We applied our research to a select few of the women at the clinic without their knowledge.”

“Jesus Christ!” Jack muttered.
 
“Do you know what—“