Silencing Eve

as soon as we reach the airport.”
    “You don’t ask much,” Venable said dryly. “And why should I do it when I don’t know what the hell is going on?”
    “I’m only asking for what we have to have. We can’t let her get away.” She paused. “She’s in control, Venable. We all thought it was Doane, but she’s calling the shots, and she’s calling them now.” She heard him muttering an oath. “I’m going to hang up so that you can phone this Junot. I know you want answers, and I’ll give them to you. But not now. Not until you get that done.”
    “I’ll call you back,” he said tersely.
    She pressed the disconnect as he hung up. “God, I hope he can get his man out there fast.” She looked at the GPS. “Is she still heading for the airport?”
    Caleb nodded. “But she’s not reached the exit yet. She could still change direction.”
    But Jane had the chilling feeling that Harriet was not going to change direction. Whatever had caused her to bolt from the hotel, she had a purpose and a focus.
    “She just got off the airport exit,” Caleb said. “She’s committed.”
    Committed. It was a frightening word when applied to Harriet’s plans. No longer a holding pattern. She was going forward.”
    “She’s not heading for the main terminal.” Trevor’s eyes were on the GPS. “She’s going to the private-and executive-plane area.”
    “Which means she could hop on a chartered flight and be off within minutes after she gets there,” Jane said. “We could lose her.”
    “Easy,” Trevor said. “This is Chicago. Things seldom happen that fast.”
    “Venable better be that fast,” she said grimly. “I don’t know what he can do about tracking her once she leaves, but he’ll have to do it. “Her phone rang. “Venable, I was just going to call you. We just found out that she’s heading for the private area at O’Hare. We’ll be able to zero in on exactly what hangar within a few minutes. Do you have Junot out there yet?”
    “No, but he has someone he trusts at the airport who can start the ball rolling until he gets out there. He e-mailed him a photo of Harriet Weber and told him to find her.” She heard him relay the info she’d given him to someone in the background, and then he was back on the phone. “He’s Don Breital. Paul says he’s good.”
    “I hope he’s very good. She can’t know she’s being followed.”
    “I know, you told me. No panic.” His tone was hard. “Why are you so adamant about that?”
    “I told you, she’s in control.” He wasn’t going to be satisfied with that answer, and she didn’t blame him. If she had to use him, then he shouldn’t have to go at this blind. “And we can’t be sure that she doesn’t have the detonator for those nuclear devices.”
    “What?”
    “She told Doane she knew where it was, and we can’t be certain that she doesn’t have it in her possession. She wouldn’t necessarily tell Doane the truth. We weren’t able to monitor every minute of her time since we’ve been following her. We don’t know what happened when she went to a bank here in town.” She added wearily, “Hell, it’s possible she stopped and picked it up tonight on the way to the airport. Though I don’t believe that could have happened. We were on her tail almost immediately.”
    “You believe?” Venable said sarcastically. “You suspected all this, and you didn’t call me?”
    “Things were moving very fast, and we had to move with them. Most of it was guesswork, and we were trying to piece it together.”
    “And you didn’t trust me.”
    “How could I trust you after Colorado? I only realized tonight that I had no choice. I just knew I had to find a way to keep you from moving too fast and cause Harriet and Doane to kill Eve.” She added, “We think we know where those nukes are located. There’s no question that we’ll share that with you.”
    “Thank you,” he said sourly.
    “But we want something in return. Give us just two hours once we reach Seattle to follow her to where Doane is holding Eve. You can use your super-duper spy gimmicks to monitor her from a distance. Don’t do anything fancy. Don’t scramble F-18s and try to take down her plane. Don’t rush her when she lands and surround her with SWAT teams to do a precision kill and get that detonator. If she has it, she will press the button if she believes she’s losing control. And, if she finds out it’s me following her, she’s arrogant enough to