And he truly was. Dr. Polk’s death, while a tragic necessity, was still a profound loss. On his own, the professor had accomplished so much, even coming close to exposing what the Russians had been keeping secret from the Americans. Ultimately both sides had underestimated Dr. Polk’s resourcefulness.
Both prior to kidnapping him and afterward.
Yuri continued. “In regards to the missing girl—”
McBride interrupted. “I presume she is one of your Omega subjects.”
He nodded. “Tested at the ninety-seven percentile range. She’s vital to our project. To both our work. I fear Mapplethorpe doesn’t understand the delicate balance needed to keep an Omega subject alive and functioning.”
McBride rubbed the bridge of his nose. “During my phone conversation with him, Mapplethorpe did happen to suggest that we might want to acquire the child ourselves.”
“I suspected he would try something like that.”
Behind Yuri, the door to the outer office opened. He heard Dr. Chen greet someone, stiff and formal.
Yuri swung around, shocked to see the subject of their discussion appear at the door. Mapplethorpe’s sagging features looked even more dour than usual. A chill of misgiving spiked through Yuri.
McBride stood. “John, we were just talking about you. Did your team have any luck acquiring the augmented skull?”
“No. We’ve scoured both museums.”
“Odd,” McBride said with a worried frown. “And what word on the girl?”
“We have helicopters sweeping the entire city grid, section by section, radiating out from the zoo. Still no hits on the tracking device.”
Yuri fixed upon this last bit of information. “Tracking…what tracking device?”
McBride stepped around the desk. He held out a closed fist toward Yuri—then opened his fingers and exposed a tiny object resting on his palm.
Barely larger than the head of a pin.
Yuri had to lean closer to even see it.
“Wonders of nanotechnology,” McBride said. “A passive microtransmitter with burst-pulse attenuator, all housed in a sterile polymer sleeve. While on my last visit to the Warren, I had all the children injected with them.”
Yuri knew nothing about such implantations; then again, he wasn’t kept abreast of everything. “Did Savina approve such trackers?”
He glanced up to see McBride lift one eyebrow at him. Surely you’re smarter than that, Dr. Raev, he seemed to imply.
Yuri realized what the American was insinuating. Savina knew nothing about the matter. It was McBride who had injected the children—in secret, without anyone’s knowledge. He’d had plenty of access to the children, but always while being monitored. Yuri studied the size of the microtransmitter. It was small enough to have been delivered in a hundred different ways.
Why would McBride—?
Yuri’s mind quickly cascaded through the possibilities, implications, and consequences. McBride must have placed trackers in all the children. Once he had the children implanted, all he had to do was set up the proper scenario that would require one or more of the children to leave the nest.
Yuri pictured Archibald Polk’s face. The realization struck him like a blow to the solar plexus.
“It was a ruse all along,” Yuri gasped out. “Dr. Polk’s escape…”
McBride smiled his agreement. “Very good.”
Mapplethorpe’s shadow fell upon him like a physical weight.
Yuri had been played the fool. He glared over at McBride. “You were at the Warren when Archibald escaped. You helped him escape.”
A nod. “We needed some way to lure one of your Omega subjects out into the open.”
“You used Dr. Polk like bait. Your own friend and colleague.”
“A necessity, I’m afraid.”
“Did he…did Archibald know he was being used?”
McBride sighed with a tired ache in his voice. “I think he might have suspected…though he didn’t have much choice. Die or run the gauntlet. Sometimes you have to be a patriot whether you want to or not. And I must say he did well. He almost crossed the goal line.”
“All this, to kidnap one child?”
McBride rubbed the bridge of his nose. “We suspected you Russians were hiding something, yes?”
Yuri kept his face passive. McBride was right, but he had no idea of the breadth of what was hidden.
“We will use this child,” he continued, “to start our own program here in the United States. To study in greater detail what you’ve done to the child. Despite our repeated inquiries, your group has not been forthcoming with a full account. You’ve been holding back key data from the start.”
And they had—not just data, but also future plans.
Yuri asked out loud, “What about Sasha’s medications?”
“We’ll manage. With your cooperation.”
Yuri shook his head. “Never.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
A flick of McBride’s eye drew Yuri’s attention over his shoulder.
Mapplethorpe held a gun in his hand.
He fired at point-blank range.
9:45 P.M.
Gray was not one to stomach coincidences. Two scientists on the same project go missing at the same time—then one turns up in Washington, irradiated and on death’s door.
Gray massaged an ache behind his temples. “Elizabeth, all this has to somehow tie back to your father’s original research.”
Painter nodded. “But the question is how? If we knew more details…perhaps something not in your father’s records.”
The question hung in the air.
Elizabeth glanced down to her lap. Her hands were clutched tightly together. She seemed to finally note the tension there and unlatched her fingers, stretching them a bit.
She mumbled dully. “I don’t know. These last years…we weren’t talking much. He wasn’t happy I was going into anthropology. He wanted me to follow in his…” She shook her head. “Never mind.”
Gray reached out, poured a mug of hot coffee, and passed it to her. She accepted it with a nod. She didn’t drink it, just held it between her palms, warming them.
“Your father must not have been too unhappy with your career choice,” Gray offered. “He obtained that research position for you with the museum in Greece.”
She shook her head. “His assistance wasn’t as altruistic as it sounds. My father had always been interested in the Delphic Oracle. Such prophetic women tied into his studies about intuition and instinct. My father came to believe there was something inherent in these women, something they shared. A genetic commonality. Or a shared neurological abnormality. So you see, my father got me that position in Delphi only so I could help with his research.”