Black Harvest (The PROJECT) Read online

  "That was just my finger." He picked up the scalpel. The edge gleamed. He held it up in front of her eyes. He moved it back and forth. Her eyes followed the shining blade. He smiled.

  "Tell me how you found out about Demeter."

  Steph tried to control her fear. "I don't know anything about Demeter. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just a secretary."

  "Oh, very good. I can see you will be entertaining."

  He took the dull handle end of the scalpel and pushed it against her arm. The pain was intense, as if someone had stabbed her. She screamed and tried to pull away. The straps around her arms and legs were like bands of fire.

  He set the scalpel down, reached over to the box and took out two wire leads with large metal alligator clips on the end. He turned the dial.

  "Watch." He brought the clips close. A blue-white electric arc sparked between them. He took the clips and briefly touched them to her, one on each leg.

  The pain was total, instant, overwhelming. Her bladder let go. When she opened her eyes he was watching her. He lit another cigarette.

  "That was at the lowest voltage. The battery is only twelve volts. It won't kill you. The next time I use this I will clip one lead to your nipple. Guess where the other one goes?" He giggled. "Can you imagine what that will feel like?"

  He took a deep drag on the cigarette and blew smoke at the ceiling.

  "There is an interesting effect I haven't shared with you. As your body is overloaded with sensation, it will begin to shut down the response. That is when I increase the voltage."

  "Fuck you, you creepy prick."

  "Will you tell me what I want to know?"

  She shook her head. He sighed, the sound of a disappointed parent.

  "Why don't you think about it for a bit?" He glanced at his watch. "I am going to come back in exactly two hours. I will inject a new dose. Then you will tell me everything."

  He put out the cigarette on her naked thigh. By the time she stopped screaming he had left the room.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  They hadn't come up with anything. Harker wondered out loud where Stephanie had got to when her phone rang. She listened for a moment. She tensed. She put the phone down.

  "Someone's grabbed Steph. They found her keys and her purse by her car. In the garage of her building."

  "Lodge." Nick's ear itched. "It has to be Lodge."

  She nodded. "If Lodge took her, she's in one of his safe houses. We need to find it."

  "How?"

  Elizabeth clasped her hands together. "Hood would know where they all are."

  "But will he tell us?"

  "You know him, ask him. Call him now. Lodge will do anything to find out what Steph knows. Do I need to paint a picture?"

  "Don't call Hood." It was Selena. "Call Lucas. Steph says he's in love with her."

  Harker raised her eyebrows.

  Selena said, "Lucas has a personal investment, Hood doesn't. He doesn't know Stephanie or have any reason to care about her. Lucas might know where the safe house is, or get Hood to cooperate."

  He punched in Lucas' number. Monroe picked up on the second ring.

  "Monroe."

  "Lucas, Nick Carter."

  "Hey, Nick, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

  "We on a secure line?"

  "I'll call you back." He hung up.

  Nick waited. The phone rang.

  "What's up?"

  "Lucas, Steph's in trouble. Someone grabbed her."

  Nick heard Monroe suck in his breath. "What do you mean, someone grabbed her?"

  "In her parking garage. Her keys and purse were found by her car. We think it was Lodge."

  "Lodge? Why?"

  "It's complicated. I need you to trust me and I need your help."

  "What do you need?"

  "We think Lodge took her somewhere to interrogate her. He'd have to get rough to get anything. We need the location of CIA safe houses in the immediate area."

  "Are you saying she's going to be tortured? That Lodge is behind it?"

  "That's what we think."

  "Christ, Nick."

  "Yeah."

  "Those locations are classified."

  "Yeah, that's why I called you."

  "You couldn't get in without ID."

  "You can come with us."

  "Christ, Nick, let me think for a minute."

  Carter waited.

  "There are three possibilities. Two are in D.C., an apartment and a town house. There are neighbors. There's a house and grounds by itself near Alexandria. If I wanted to interrogate someone, that's where I'd take them. We've used it in the past."

  "Where is it?"

  "Give me fifteen minutes. Meet me in your parking lot. I'll pick you up." Lucas hung up.

  "He's on his way." Nick repeated what Lucas had told him.

  Harker picked up her pen. "Nick. You, Korov and Selena." She paused. "This could go bad. Try not to kill anyone. I don't think Lodge will be there, but if he is, for God's sake don't shoot him."

  "If he hurt Steph, you might want to tell that to Lucas," Nick said.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Nick ran it down for Lucas on the drive. When he told him about Korov, Lucas gave the Russian a hard look in the mirror. As he talked about Lodge, Monroe's face tightened.

  Lucas Monroe had made it from the mean streets of Washington to the sixth floor at Langley. He was one of the most successful field agents in CIA history. For a black man in a culture rooted in the old WASP Ivy League, it was a hell of an achievement. He'd earned it, every hard step of the way.

  "That bastard. You should have told us before. Hood could have helped." His tone was accusing.

  "I couldn't, Lucas. We didn't know if Hood was part of it. We couldn't be sure. Stephanie couldn't tell you. You know how it is."

  "Yeah. Need to know." He focused on the road. "If Lodge has hurt her..." He didn't finish.

  The safe house was a two story colonial set behind a high brick wall. A heavy steel gate blocked the entrance to a blacktop drive. A small guard shack stood outside the gate. A man wearing a sport jacket and sunglasses came out of the shack as they pulled up. He didn't wear a tie and his shirt was open at the collar. There was a bulge under his jacket.

  "Can I help you," he said.

  Lucas showed his ID. With Alpha clearance he had access to any CIA facility anywhere in the world.

  "Sir, I don't have you on my list. I need to call it in."

  "Do you recognize my clearance?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Then you know I don't need to be on your list. Open the gate."

  "Sir, Director Lodge..."

  "You like guard duty?"

  "It's okay, sir."

  "Open the damned gate, or you're going to be doing it in Afghanistan."

  "I'm sorry, sir. I have orders from the DCI himself. I need to call it in."

  The movement was casual. Korov opened the rear door and got out of the car. He stretched.

  "Beautiful day," he said.

  He moved so fast Nick barely saw it happen. Korov drove stiffened fingers into the man's solar plexus and slammed his elbow into the side of his head. The guard collapsed. Korov dragged him into the shack. He pressed a switch. The gate slid open. Korov ripped wires from the wall. He came out of the shack and got back in the car.

  "What was that?"

  "Feeds to the cameras." Korov nodded at a camera by the gate. "Perhaps they know we are coming, perhaps not."

  "You kill him?"

  "No."

  Lucas shook his head. "I hope you're right about this."

  They drove up to the entrance and got out of the car.

  Lucas took out his pistol. "I know the house. There's a foyer and then a long hall down the middle. Front to back, you pass a living room, dining room and kitchen on the right. Music room, library, den on the left. Doors to each opening on the hall. Four bedrooms upstairs. The interrogation rooms are in the basement. If they have her, that's where she'l
l be. The entrance is past the kitchen, on the right. One flight of steps."

  They drew their weapons. Lucas went in front. Carter, Selena and Korov stood to the side. Lucas pulled open the front door, using it as a partial shield. Nothing happened. They entered the house and fanned out across the foyer. Korov left the door open behind them.

  Nick signaled with his hand, pointing fingers. Korov, Selena to the left. Lucas and himself to the right.

  Selena was about to enter the music room when a man came out.

  "Who..."

  Selena moved in a blur, three strikes, the last to the base of the skull. The man fell unconscious to the floor. Korov followed her in. They cleared the music room and entered the library. The room was a window into past centuries, floor to ceiling shelves filled with hundreds of volumes. A large world globe rested in a cradle on a polished mahogany table. Prints of English country scenes hung on the walls. A sliding ladder ran on tracks along the shelves. Sunlight streamed through French doors opening onto a patio and garden. An oriental rug covered the floor. The room would have pleased Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson.

  A man came into the room from the den. He saw them, pulled a gun and fired at Selena. Korov shot him, the sound an unexpected offense in that elegant room. Footsteps pounded on the ceiling above.

  A second man came out of the den firing. Something plucked at her sleeve. She dove to the side. Korov went the other way. She rolled to her feet and brought her Glock dead center on the man's chest and squeezed off three quick rounds. The shots drove him backward into the table with the globe, sending it tumbling across the rug. She got up and ran to the den. It was empty. She went back into the library.

  Korov went to the door of the library and ducked back as bullets splintered the enameled frame over his head. Selena heard Nick's heavy .45. She heard shots from upstairs. Two, maybe three shooters.

  She pictured the house, the stairs, the hall. She was directly across from the open dining room door. She dropped low, breathed and somersaulted across the hall, firing at a shape on the stairs. A body tumbled down the wooden steps. She rolled into the dining room and ended up at Nick's feet.

  "Nice move. Where'd you learn that one?"

  "Aikido." She reached around the corner, fired blind up the staircase. "How many?"

  "Three. You got one, I think."

  A sudden tearing sound ripped the air, followed by a yell and heavy thumping as another body rolled down the stairs.

  "What was that?" Lucas said.

  "Our Russian buddy. He's got a neat toy."

  They heard the tearing sound again, then silence. The acrid scent of the guns was strong in the air.

  Korov walked into the dining room. "Safe, I think."

  "Still the basement."

  They stepped into the hall. Blood trailed down the steps in thin red waterfalls from two bodies sprawled on the stairs. A third was draped over a balcony railing on the second floor. The top of his head was missing. Blood dripped in a steady stream from the wound, splashing on the parquet floor below.

  "They were kind of determined," Lucas said. "Something's not right." He looked at one of the bodies. "I recognize this guy. He was kicked out of the Agency two years ago."

  "Someone came out of the den shooting," Selena said. "We didn't have a choice."

  "Don't worry about it." Nick moved to the door leading to the basement. He put his hand on the knob.

  "Ready?"

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  Bob Elroy stood in the bed of a red Ford pickup, looking out over his wasted fields. Two other men stood next to him. Jack Wemberly was the local Farm Bureau man and USDA's man on the spot. He and Bob went back a long ways. Wemberly wore Levis and a light yellow checked shirt open at the collar. His sandy hair was covered by a brown Bailey felt hat, well worn, the brim curled like a Stetson.

  The second man was as out of place as an elephant in a pigsty, or so Bob told Mae later over supper. The second man had introduced himself as Agent Brown. He didn't say what agency and Bob didn't ask. What difference did it make? Brown wore a black suit, a white shirt and a dark tie. His sunglasses were smoky, almost black. His shoes were shiny black, or had been, before he'd trudged through the fields with Elroy and Wemberly. Now the shine was covered with dust and debris. The debris came from dead, black plants stretching away as far as any of the men could see.

  Men in white hazmat suits walked through the field taking samples. Government experts. As if hazmat suits made a damn bit of difference.

  "This is awful." Wemberly shook his head.

  "Yep." Bob couldn't take his eyes away from the blight. "It's gone way past my property. Showing up miles away from here. Everywhere the wind blows, seems to me."

  "And everything is dead?"

  "Everything that grows, anyway. Doesn't seem to bother the animals. Doesn't do anything to the feed corn we got stockpiled, or the hay. Just the live crops." His voice was bitter. "I'm finished. All of us around here are."

  "Those are experts, Bob. They'll figure this out."

  "They will? That going to put food on the table, Jack? Pay my loans?"

  "I'll talk to the bank. The government will help."

  Bob snorted. "Sure it will. Whyn't you have a nice talk with Agent Brown, here. He's from the government. I gotta feed the pigs."

  He jumped down from the truck and stalked toward the barn. Brown watched him go.

  "What's his politics?"

  Wemberly stared at him. "His politics? What the hell has that got to do with anything? Bob's a farmer, for Christ's sake. He votes for the land."

  "This started on his land."

  "You think he did this on purpose? Poisoned his land?"

  "Maybe not, but someone did. His land and a hundred and thirty thousand acres."

  "What?" Jack tried to comprehend the figure. He couldn't get his mind around it.

  "A hundred and thirty thousand and spreading. It'll be public by tomorrow. No harm in telling you now."

  "You think this is some kind of terrorist thing? Who did you say you worked for?"

  "I didn't say. And yes, it could be a terrorist attack. Bio war. Maybe the beginning of something bigger."

  "Agent Brown," Jack said, "if that's really your name. Look at that." He swept his arm out at the blackened fields. "It doesn't get bigger than that."

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  The steps going down into the basement were part of the old house. At the bottom everything turned to new concrete. A lighted corridor ten feet wide and ten feet high ran the length of the house above. The stairs came out by a furnace and utility room set at one end. At the other end of the corridor were two metal doors with view plates. The doors were closed. The view plates were closed. It was cool in the basement.

  They moved silent as cats down the corridor and paused. Nick listened. He heard nothing. He signaled. Right door first. He opened it onto an empty room. He took in the cot, the toilet, the camera on the ceiling.

  He shook his head at the others. One room left. What if she wasn't in there?

  He gestured for the others to stand out of sight and opened the door, pistol ready. He saw Stephanie.

  She was strapped naked into a chair. Her eyes were wide. An odd little man stood behind her, holding a syringe filled with a dark fluid next to her throat in one hand. The point of the needle was next to her jugular. Nick could see the vein throbbing. He could smell Stephanie's fear. There was a puddle of liquid under her chair. In his other hand the man held a 9mm pistol aimed at Nick's chest.

  "Stop."

  Nick froze where he was.

  "Put down your weapon."

  "Not yet. Who are you?"

  "This syringe is filled with an especially nasty poison. There is no antidote. She will die in terrible pain. It takes several minutes. Put down your weapon. I will not ask again."

  He leaned close to Stephanie. "Tell him I mean what I say."

  "He means it, Nick. He does."

  "Okay. I'm putting it down." Nic
k bent and put the .45 on the floor. He straightened.

  "Kick the gun over here. Easy."

  The gun rasped across the floor and stopped a foot from the chair.

  "What do you want?"

  "This is not a discussion. Raise your hands. Move to the side." The little man gestured with his head. He kept the gun pointed at Nick's chest. "That way."

  Nick raised his hands and stepped to the side.

  "Now tell the others to come inside and put their weapons on the floor."

  "Others?"

  "Don't play games. I've got nothing to lose. She does. You do. Tell them to come in, one by one. Weapons on the floor and kick them toward me or she dies."

  "Korov," Nick called out. "He's got her strapped to a chair and a needle at her neck. He'll kill her. Come in and do as he says."

  The man sighed. "The woman too. I know she's there, Carter. Quick."

  Knows my name.

  Korov came in and then Selena. They put their guns on the floor, kicked them toward the chair and moved over to Nick. In the hall, Lucas waited unseen. He thought about Stephanie. He felt the cool anger descend, the killer angel.

  "Now lie down, except the woman."

  They lay down. Selena stood waiting, hands raised.

  "You. Get on your hands and knees and crawl to the front of the chair."

  Selena got down on the floor. The surface was rough against her skin. She focused on Stephanie's eyes as she crawled to the chair, trying to send a message. A subtle change came into Steph's face.

  Selena reached the chair.

  "Unbuckle the leg straps. If you do anything else, if this one moves, she dies."

  Steph sat rigid in the chair. Selena undid the straps, one by one. "Now the arms. Right one first. Be very careful."

  Selena unbuckled the straps. Stephanie sat still.