The Chemist Part 32

Well, that had gone better than she'd hoped. She handed the phone back to Daniel. His expression was blank with surprise. The gas in the house would long since have dissipated, so she didn't bother with the mask. Daniel followed her inside, but she made Einstein keep watch at the door.

"Get some clothes out of Kevin's room," she instructed. She could have sent him upstairs for the first set he'd borrowed, but that would take more time, and she didn't know how he would react to the bodies. She could see his eyes cutting away to the sofa that obscured Arnie, and then back to her. They both had to keep it together. They still had a long night ahead of them if they were going to be alive tomorrow. "When you have enough for a few days, get to the kitchen and grab anything that's nonperishable. Water, too, as much as we've got."

He nodded and headed down the hall to Kevin's room. She darted up the stairs.

"Do you want these guns?" he called up after her.

She dodged around the bodies, careful not to slip in the blood slick. "No, those've killed people. If we get caught, I don't want to be linked to anything. Kevin's guns will be clean."

In her room, she stripped off her blood-spattered clothes and pulled on clean jeans and a T-shirt. She gathered up her sleeping bag, wrapping the rest of her clothes in it, then grabbed her lab kit in her open hand and kicked the b.l.o.o.d.y clothes into the hallway. She hurried back down the stairs and out to the car with her awkward load. While Daniel foraged in the kitchen, she located the kerosene. Kevin had three five-gallon gas cans stashed together. He could only have intended them for lighting up the house. She was glad that he was so prepared and businesslike. It meant his reaction-once Daniel was safe-was likely to be more pragmatic than violent. She hoped.

She started upstairs, making sure her clothes and the bodies were well saturated with the kerosene. The wooden floors wouldn't need as much help. She splashed the baseboards in all three rooms, then trailed the rest down the stairs. She grabbed another can and hurried through the ground floor. It was the first time she'd seen the other bedrooms. They were both large and well appointed with luxurious attached baths. She was glad Arnie had had a comfortable life here. She wished she could have done something to spare him this. But even if she and Daniel had left the first day the missing-person trap had run on the news, Arnie would still have ended up like this. It was a depressing thought.

Daniel's fingerprints were in the dogs' outbuilding, but there was no way to fool Carston's counterpart at the CIA into thinking Daniel-or Kevin-had died here, so it didn't really matter. They would know Daniel was on the run. She didn't want to torch the outbuilding and endanger the animals. It didn't have a wide gravel skirt like the house did, which would hopefully prevent a wildfire. No doubt Kevin had laid the gravel for exactly this reason.

Daniel was waiting for her in front of the Humvee.

"Back this up," she said, waving toward the Humvee. "See if you can get the dogs to move, too."

He got to work. She had the pack of matches from her first-aid kit. She'd left a nice thick trail of kerosene down the middle of the porch steps, so it was easy to set that trail alight and then get out of the way before the blaze really got going. When she turned, the dogs were automatically backing away from the flames. That was good.

Alex opened the driver-side door and called for Einstein. He jumped over the seat in one bound and then positioned himself next to Lola. His ears were up and his tongue out. He still looked eager; Alex envied his energy and positivity.

Daniel was walking through the crowd of surviving animals, giving each one an emphatic "At ease." She hoped that would help when the fire trucks started rolling up. The noise of the shootout wouldn't have carried to any of the distant neighbors, but the orange light of the fire against the black night sky was another matter. They had to run now. She couldn't think of anything else she could do for the dogs. It felt like failure-these animals had saved her and Daniel's lives.

A rumble just behind her head startled Alex. She spun and found herself face to face with Khan. He was staring at her in what seemed like an impatient way, as if he were waiting for her to move. His nose pointed over her shoulder toward Einstein.

"Oh," she said as she realized he was trying to get into the car. "Sorry, Khan, I need you to stay."

She'd never seen an animal look so offended in her life. He didn't move, just stared into her face as if demanding an explanation. She was the more surprised of the two of them when she suddenly threw her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, big guy," she whispered into his fur. "I wish I could take you with me. I owe you huge. Take care of the others for me. You're in charge, okay?"

She leaned away, stroking the sides of his thick neck. He looked slightly mollified and took an unwilling step back.

"At ease," she said quietly; she patted him once more, then turned to the Humvee. Daniel was already belted into the pa.s.senger's seat.

"Are you all right?" Daniel asked quietly as she climbed in. It was obvious he wasn't talking about physical injuries.

"Not really." She laughed once, and there was an edge of the hysteria she was fighting in the sound. Khan was still watching as she pulled away from the house.

Once through the gate, she donned the goggles and turned the headlights off. It was safer to drive the Humvee across the open plains rather than stay on the only road that led to the ranch. Eventually, they reached another road-it was even paved. She ditched the goggles and put the headlights on as she turned northwest. She didn't have a destination in mind, only distance. She needed to get as far away from Kevin's ranch as possible before the sun rose.

CHAPTER 20.

Kevin picked up on the first ring.

"Okay, Oleander, where do we stand?" was his greeting.

"We're headed north in the Humvee. I've got Daniel, Einstein, and Lola with me. We managed to scavenge some of what we need, but not much."

She heard him blow out a relieved breath when she said Einstein's name, but the edge was still there in his voice when he asked, "The Humvee? The truck is blown?"

"Yes."

He thought for a second. "So, only night driving until you can find something new."

"Easier said than done. We've both got major face problems."

"Yeah, I saw Daniel on the news. But yours can't be that bad anymore. Throw some makeup on."

"It's gotten slightly worse over the course of the evening."

"Ah." He clicked his tongue a few times. "Danny?" he asked, and she could hear the tension he was trying to hide.

"Not a scratch." The hands didn't count; they'd done that to themselves.

"She made me stay in the car," Daniel yelled loud enough for his brother to hear.

"Good job," Kevin responded. "How many were there?"

"Six."

He sucked a breath in. "Agents?"

"No, actually. Get this-they put a hit out with the Mob."

"What?"

"It was mostly muscle, but they had at least one authentic professional in the group."

"You took out all of them?"

"The dogs did most of the work. They were magnificent, by the way."

He grunted in acknowledgment. "Why'd you bring Lola?"

"Shot in the leg. I was afraid that if someone found her, they would put her down. Speaking of, should I call Animal Control?" she asked. "I worry that when the firemen get there..."

"I'll take care of it. I've got a contingency plan in place for them."

"Good." She would never think of herself as the most prepared again. Kevin was the king of prepared.

"What's your plan now?"

She laughed-and there was the sound of hysteria again. "No idea, actually. I'm thinking we camp out of the Humvee for a few days. After that..." She trailed off.

"You don't have a place?"

"Not one where I can park this beast or hide two large dogs. I've never felt so conspicuous in my life."

"I'll think of something."

"What took you so long to call?" she asked. "I thought you were dead."

Daniel gasped. He stared at her, shocked.

"Getting set up. These things take time. I can't be everywhere at once-I had to plant a lot of cameras."

"A call would have been nice."

"I didn't know you guys were going to blow everything." His voice got suddenly much lower. "What did the idiot do? No, don't answer. I don't want him to hear. Just yes or no. Did he call someone?"

"No," she snapped, irritated.

"Wait-the truck is blown... he didn't leave the house, did he?"

She wanted to say, No one told him not to, but Daniel would know they were discussing him. She didn't respond, keeping her eyes straight ahead, though she wanted to sneak a look at Daniel to see if he'd heard any of it.

Kevin sighed. "Not an ounce of common sense."

So many things she wanted to say to that, but she couldn't think of a discreet way to phrase any of them.

He changed the subject. "Arnie... Was it bad?"

"No. He didn't see it coming. He wouldn't have felt anything."

"His real name was Ernesto," Kevin said, but it felt like he was saying it to himself rather than to her. "He was a good partner. We had a good run. A short run, but a good one." He cleared his throat. "Okay, now tell me everything that happened." Then lower: "Except whatever he did to set it off. He's probably traumatized enough."

Alex ran through the events of the evening, keeping it clinical and glossing over the gruesome parts. When she said simply, "I questioned him," Kevin would have a pretty clear picture of what that meant.

"So what happened to your face?"

"He was very flexible. And he had some kind of throwing blade in the lining of his sleeve."

"Hm, that's rough," he said gloomily, and she knew what he was thinking. Facial scars were bad news when you wanted to keep a low profile. They were too easy to remember and recognize. Suddenly the search changed from Have you seen a short, nondescript female, unknown hair length or color, or a man fitting that same description? to Have you seen a person with this scar?

"Well," she concluded, "it appears the people in charge pegged you for the win. I won't pretend I'm not insulted. We'll have to tweak the plan. The bait has to come from you, and it needs to go to the right person. Do you have any idea who that would be yet?"

Kevin was quiet for a minute. "When word gets back to my guy about what happened tonight... well, we might not need the e-mail. He's going to have to talk to your guy about this. I'm ready-I'll see them do it. Then we can decide if we need more."

"Sounds good."

"By the way," he said in his covert voice, "I know you sanitized the story for the kid. I want the whole thing when I see you again."

She rolled her eyes. "Right."

"Look, Ollie, don't let this go to your head, but... you did good. Real good. You saved Danny's life. Thank you."

She was so surprised, it took her a minute to respond. "I think we're quits. Without your dogs or your Batcave, we wouldn't have made it out. So... thank you."

"You could have taken off as soon as you saw that first newscast. You knew they thought you were dead, but you stayed to keep a virtual stranger safe, though I'm sure you'd love nothing better than to be rid of both of us. That's honor, right there. I owe you."

"Mmm," she said noncommittally. They didn't need to discuss everything tonight.

"Let me talk to him before you hang up," Daniel whispered.

"Daniel wants to talk."

"Put him on."

She handed the phone over.

"Kev-"

"Don't beat yourself up, Danny," she heard Kevin tell him. She wondered if Daniel had been able to hear just as clearly.

"Yeah," Daniel responded, morose, "I'm only responsible for getting Arnie murdered tonight, not to mention the dogs. Why should I suffer?"

"Look, what's done is done-"

"Funny, Alex said that, too."

"Poison girl knows the score. This is a new world, kid. It's got a higher body count. Now, I'm not saying that things like this won't affect you. You just can't let them cloud your vision."

Kevin's voice dropped into a lower register, and Alex was glad to know that Daniel probably hadn't been able to make out the quieter part of their conversation. But she also wanted to know what Kevin didn't want her to hear.

"I think so," Daniel said. A pause. "Maybe not... I will. Yes. Okay. What are you going to do about the dogs? We had to leave Khan."

"Yeah." Kevin's voice was back to normal volume. "I love that monster, but he's not exactly travel-size, is he? There's a breeder not too far away that Arnie's worked with in the past. He's more a compet.i.tor than a friend, but he knows the value of my dogs. Arnie made a deal with him that if we ever wanted out, we'd sell him our stock. Arnie also sort of implied that we might decide to do that suddenly, without any warning and in the middle of the night. I'll call him and he'll meet up with Animal Control before they do anything stupid."

"Won't the cops wonder-"

"I'll coach him. He'll say Arnie called when he heard shots or something. Don't worry, the dogs will be okay."

Daniel sighed, relieved.

"It does p.i.s.s me off that he's getting his hands on Khan, free of charge. He's been trying to buy him for years."

"I'm sorry-"