The Stone Monkey

the successes with the technique had occurred with patients whose injuries were far less severe than Rhyme’s, those with the damage much lower on the spinal cord, at the lumbar or thoracic level. The surgery, as she’d told him, would probably produce no discernible benefit and was risky—it might even make him worse. And, given his lung impairment, it was possible that he could die on the table. But Sachs understood how important it was to him and was going to support him.
    “So,” she finally said, a stoic smile on her face, “we’ll make sure we nail the Ghost before next Friday.”
    Rhyme noticed that Thom had been studying him closely.
    “What?” the criminalist snapped.
    The aide took Rhyme’s blood pressure. “Too high. And you don’t look good.”
    “Well, thank you very much,” he snapped back, “but I don’t think my appearance has anything to do—”
    “It’s quitting time,” the aide said firmly. And he wasn’t speaking to his boss.
    Sellitto and Cooper also voted to call it a night.
    “Mutiny,” Rhyme muttered.
    “No,” Thom retorted. “Common sense.”
    Sellitto made a call to check on the Wus and John Sung. The family was now in the NYPD safehouse in the MurrayHill section of New York. John Sung had declined Sachs’s invitation to join them, afraid that it would remind him too much of the many Chinese security bureau facilities he’d been detained in as a dissident. Instead, Sellitto added another cop to the team guarding him. All of the protective officers reported that the immigrants were safe.
    Rhyme said to Sachs, “You taking those herbs with you? I hope you are. They stink.”
    “I was going to leave them as air freshener but if you don’t like them . . . ” She leaned close. “How are you feeling? You look pale.”
    “Just tired,” he said. Which was the truth. Oddly tired. He supposed he should be concerned about it but he believed his exhaustion was nothing more than the demands of the case, which had been consuming him for days. But the fatigue was something that he knew he should pay attention to—did it indicate anything more serious? One of the major problems plaguing SCI patients, of course, isn’t just paralysis. There are related problems because the nerves aren’t responding—lung impairment and resulting infections—but perhaps the worst problem is the absence of pain. You have no early warning system of pain from cancer, say, which Rhyme’s own father had died of—as had Sachs’s. He remembered that his dad had first learned of the disease after he’d gone to the doctor complaining about stomach pain.
    “Good night,” Mel Cooper called.
    “Wan an,” Li called.
    “Whatever,” Sellitto grumbled and walked into the corridor.
    “Sonny,” Rhyme said. “You’ll stay here tonight.”
    “Not got other place to go, Loaban. Sure.”
    “Thom’ll make up a room. I’ll be upstairs, taking care ofa few things. Come up and visit if you feel like it. Give me twenty minutes.”
    Li nodded then turned back to the whiteboard.
    “I’ll take you up,” Sachs said. Rhyme wheeled into the tiny elevator that ran between the first and second floors, formerly a closet. She joined him and closed the door. Rhyme glanced at her face. It was thoughtful but in a way that didn’t have to do with the case, he sensed.
    “Anything you want to talk about, Sachs?”
    Without answering, she closed the elevator door and pressed the UP button.

GHOSTKILL
----
    Easton, Long Island, Crime Scene
    • Two immigrants killed on beach; shot in back.
    • One immigrant wounded—Dr. John Sung.
    • “Bangshou” (assistant) on board; identity unknown.
         • Assistant confirmed as drowned body found near site where Dragon sank.
    • Ten immigrants escape: seven adults (one elderly, one injured woman), two children, one infant. Steal church van.
    • Blood samples sent to lab for typing.
         • Injured woman is AB negative. Requesting more information about her blood.
    • Vehicle awaiting Ghost on beach left without him. One shot believed fired by Ghost at vehicle. Request for vehicle make and model sent out, based on tread marks and wheelbase.
         • Vehicle is a BMW X5.
            • Driver—Jerry Tang.
    • No vehicles to pick up immigrants located.
    • Cell phone, presumably Ghost’s, sent for analysis to FBI.
         • Untraceable satellite secure phone. Hacked Chinese gov’t system to use