The Burning Wire

presence of vinblastine and prednisone in significant quantities, traces of etoposide. Leukemia.

Chapter 43
    LINCOLN RHYME’S MAIN phone trilled.
    The caller ID registered a number he’d been hoping to see, though not at this particular moment. Still he immediately clicked ANSWER .
    “Kathryn, what do you have?”
    No time for pleasantries at the moment. But Dance would understand. She was the same way when it came to a case.
    “The DEA guys in Mexico City got the worker to talk—the man who gave the package to Logan just after he slipped into the country. He did take a look at what was inside, like we thought. I’m not sure it’s helpful but here it is: a dark blue booklet with lettering on it. He didn’t remember the words. Two letter C ’s, he thought. A logo of a company maybe. Then a sheet of paper that had a capital letter I followed by five or six lines. Like blanks to be filled in.”
    “He have any idea what they were?”
    “No . . . Then a slip of paper containing some numbers. All he remembers is five hundred seventy and three hundred seventy-nine.”
    “ The Da Vinci Code ,” Rhyme said, discouraged.
    “Exactly. I like puzzles but not on the job.”
    “True.”
    I _ _ _ _ _ _
    Fill in the blanks.
    And: Five hundred seventy and three hundred seventy-nine . .  .
    Dance added, “Then he found something else. A circuit board. A small one.”
    “For a computer?”
    “He didn’t know. He was disappointed. He said he would have stolen it if it’d been something he could sell more easily.”
    “And he’d be dead now if he had.”
    “I think he’s relieved to be in jail. For that very reason . . . I’ve had a talk with Rodolfo. He’d like you to call.”
    “Of course.”
    Rhyme thanked Dance and disconnected. He then called the Commander Rodolfo Luna in Mexico City.
    “Ah, Captain RET Rhyme, yes. I just spoke to Agent Dance. The mystery . . . the numbers.”
    “An address?”
    “Perhaps it is. But . . .” His fading voice meant, of course, that in a city of 8 million people, one would need more than a few numbers to find a specific location.
    “And maybe related, maybe not.”
    “Two separate meanings.”
    “Yes,” Rhyme said. “Do they have any significance at all regarding the places he’s been spotted?”
    “No.”
    “And those buildings? The tenants?”
    “Arturo Diaz and his officers are speaking with them now, explaining the situation. The ones there who are legitimate businesspeople are mystified because they cannot believe they are in danger. The ones who are themselves criminals are mystified because they are better armed than my troops and believe no one would dare attack them.”
    Five hundred seventy and three hundred seventy-nine. . .  .
    Phone numbers? Coordinates? Parts of an address?
    Luna continued, “We’ve reconstructed the route the truck took from the airport to the capital. They were pulled over once. But you may have heard about our traffic police? A ‘fine’ was paid immediately and no questions were asked. Arturo tells me those officers—who are, by the way, now looking for new jobs—identified your Mr. Watchmaker. There was no one else in the truck other than the driver, and, of course, they didn’t bother to look over his license. And there was, in the back, no equipment or contraband that would lead us in one direction or another. So we are left to focus on the buildings he seems to be focusing on. And hope—”
    “—that he isn’t sneaking up behind his real victim, five miles away.”
    “Very much what I was going to say.”
    “Do you have any thoughts about the circuit board that Logan was given?”
    “I’m a soldier, Detective Rhyme, not a hacker. And so naturally I thought it was not a piece of computer hardware but a remote detonator for explosives. The booklet was perhaps an instruction manual.”
    “Yes, I was thinking that too.”
    “He would not want to travel with such a device. It would make sense to acquire it here. And I understand, from our news, that you have your hands full there. Some terrorist group?”
    “We don’t know.”
    “I wish I could help you .”
    “Appreciated. But keep your attention focused on the Watchmaker, Commander.”
    “Good advice.” Luna gave a sound between agrowl and a laugh. “Cases are so much easier to run when you start with a corpse or two. I hate it when the bodies are still alive and being elusive.”
    Rhyme smiled at that. And couldn’t disagree.

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