Death Echo

If you can’t reach me, call the Canadians. Mac needs help now. ”
    â€œKeep on your course. We’re closer than any Canadian boat. You’ll hear a helicopter real soon. Stay on the phone. Someone will give you instructions.”
    â€œSend a medic down the rope first. Mac needs…needs…”
    â€œWe’re coming, Emma. We have you on radar. Hang on.”
    Emma wrapped her hands more tightly around the wheel.
    And hung on.

79
    THREE DAYS LATER
ROSARIO
1:08 P.M.
    E mma put her hand on Mac’s forehead as though reassuring herself that he was still alive. He put his good hand over hers and gently squeezed. She was sitting on a long couch in his small home. He was stretched out, his head in her lap. Her hand went back to stroking his hair, soothing both of them.
    A gun was stuck muzzle down between her hip and the couch.
    A knock came from the front door. Emma lifted her hand and reached for the gun.
    â€œHeads up mice,” Faroe called, “the cat is back.”
    â€œIt’s open,” Mac called.
    â€œI have company,” Faroe warned.
    Emma flipped the safety off. “And I have my Glock. Come in soft.”
    Alara entered first, her hands visible. Empty.
    Faroe followed and closed the door behind him, shooting the deadbolt from habit.
    Emma put the safety on and shoved the gun back in the sofa.
    Alara’s dark eyes went from Emma’s vividly bruised face to the splint on Mac’s wrist. His stitches were hidden beneath his loose pants, his bruises largely concealed by his beard.
    Neither agent looked good.
    â€œEven though you were cleared for any radiation problems, you should have stayed in the hospital,” she said to Mac.
    â€œDon’t like them.”
    Alara nodded. “So I’ve heard.” She looked at Emma. “You were as smart as your mouth. You have my gratitude.”
    Emma’s lips tightened. “I’d rather have answers.”
    â€œAsk.”
    â€œIs Demidov alive?”
    â€œHis body was recovered this morning,” Alara said. “He died in a boating accident caused by stupidity—he shouldn’t have been out on the water in bad conditions.”
    â€œWas he driving the boat that flipped?” Mac asked.
    â€œLina Fredric, born Galina Federova, was the captain. Thanks to the survival gear she wore, she lives,” Alara said. “She is being debriefed by Canadian and American interrogators. She claims that she was forced by threat of death to help Demidov. I believe her.”
    â€œLovich and Amanar?” Mac asked.
    â€œBack in the U.S. We are still debriefing the man who was holding the families hostage.” She looked at Faroe. “St. Kilda barely left enough of him intact to question.”
    Faroe smiled thinly. “Don’t terrorize children on my watch.”
    â€œWhere is Blackbird ?” Emma asked.
    â€œI don’t know,” Alara said.
    â€œBullshit,” Mac said.
    â€œI do know that the experts quickly dismantled the standard explosive part of the bomb,” she continued as though he hadn’t spoken. “Mac was correct. The initiator was wired through the fake fuel hose to very powerful conventional explosives, which would have in turn scattered the fissionable materials. It was crude, effective, dirty, and would have detonated.”
    â€œI’d rather have been wrong,” Mac said.
    She looked at him for a long moment, nodded, and said, “Theradioactive part of the bomb is taking longer to deal with. Our people did find the locator bugs that were installed within the very hull at the time the ship was built.”
    â€œBugs? Plural?” Emma asked.
    â€œIdentical, too,” Faroe said. “Russian. Bulky, tough, and long lived. They only transmitted every twelve hours.”
    â€œMy head hurts,” Emma said. “Make it easy on me.”
    Alara laughed. “Ah, if only. Like most covert disasters, the postmortems on the Blackbird affair have barely begun. I do know that the op was old. It began years ago when we doubled an agent. The man was well connected with the Russian government as well as the mafiya . Originally it was a currency sting.”
    â€œStill hurting, here,” Emma said.
    Mac took her hand from his hair and kissed her palm. “So Harrow was telling a form of the truth.”
    â€œâ€˜A form of the truth.’” Alara smiled. “I will remember that. The currency in question