AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hawkins said, at one point, “Not like Oxford. On the train to London, you could see maybe a half mile. This…” He waved at the passing landscape. “I believe some of those mountains could be fifty miles away.”
“The exact opposite of Oxford,” Letty said. “Dry as an iron, brown, rough, in places you can believe that you’re in an abandoned country. A lot prettier than West Texas, though. Where I spent some time.”
“And here, largely poor,” Hawkins said, looking out at a collapsing shack.
“With some very rich spots, especially in Santa Fe. I just left a house that I was told sold for three-point-one million,” Letty said. “Maybe it’ll sell for less now, if there’s been a murder there.”
“It would in England,” Hawkins said. “Although ghosts can sometimes be monetized.”
—
They were stillwell south of Taos when Lucas called. He told her about the body and note and said, “We’re trying to get a fix on thehouse where they were going. Rae and I will be at least an hour behind you, maybe more. I’ll get you an address if I can, but donotgo into it on your own. You can scout it, but donotgo in. The dead woman is probably named Jane Shepard, and she was probably murdered by her partner or by Scott. That’s a nice little pistol in your pocket, but don’t jump into a shoot-out. That won’t work against an AR. Rae has got a bag full of heavy stuff if we need it.”
“We’ll wait for you,” Letty said. “Get us the address.”
“Is the MI5 guy with you?”
“Right here, listening,” Letty said.
Lucas asked, “MI5 guy—are you armed?”
“No, I’m not. I’ve been in the military, Afghanistan, and have carried weapons but not used them against active targets. I’m afraid I’ll have to rely on you Americans for fire support.”
“Good to know,” Lucas said. “We’ve got a few things to do here with Santa Fe police, and then we’ll be on our way.”
Letty hung up, and Hawkins said, “An AR is one of your famous black rifles.”
“Yes. Except they’re not all black. They’re not supposed to be full-auto, either, but some of them are converted. Then we have a thing called the bump stock, which essentially makes them full-auto. Either way, they can seriously mess you up, so try not to stand in front of one.”
“I will try to avoid doing that.” Hawkins fished his briefcase off the floor, and said, “The information I have is, for the time being, mostly useless, in terms of actually finding Scott. We tried to discover the current locations of his classmates and other friends from Oxford and from his work with the Doctors Without Borders group. There are a number of potential contacts, but they are scattered all over the country. A few of his medical school classmates, meaning people in his yearand the years above and below his, are now practicing medicine in the States. As far as we know, none in New Mexico. They’re mostly in New York, Florida, or California. The London group is continuing to reach out to known friends and acquaintances for telephone numbers.”
“He hasn’t used his credit cards?”
“No. Not since he disappeared. It makes me wonder if he is still alive.”
“He’s alive—I believe he is,” Letty said.
“So do I, actually, because of one more piece of information we came up with—it’s possible that Scott was infected with either Marburg or Ebola when he was working in Uganda. A nurse who was briefly at the hospital where the patients were being treated, said he was there, first as a doctor and later as a patient, and of course, he survived. Marburg and Ebola are closely related. And if you have one, and possibly if you have had either, you may have some level of immunity to one or both. Like if you had a previous case of Covid, you’d have some immunity, even to later strains.”
“If he has had Marburg, and that’s what he’s trying to spread, then he might not be one of the people who dies from it,” Letty suggested.
“Exactly.”
They were mulling that over when Greet called. “I’ve got that Taos address for you—I already talked to Lucas, and he’ll be on his way with Rae as soon as they can get away from the Santa Fe house. The Secretary called from the White House for an update. I told him about the body in Santa Fe and it looks like he’s going in to see the Big Guy.”
“Whatever,” Letty said. “I have another piece of information…” Meaning Scott’s possible immunity to Marburg.
Greet had already heard it: “We got that from the MI5 workinggroup, which mirrors ours. That was the next thing I was going to tell you.”
“I wonder if he’s tried to make some kind of vaccine to immunize these women he’s traveling with? Clarice Catton and Rose Turney,” Letty said. “The letter that Rae found said that they were going to Taos to do some experiment.”
“I’m counting on you to find that out,” Greet said.
—
On the outskirtsof Taos, they passed an adobe church set well back from the road, surrounded with what looked like a primitive shopping mall. As they passed, Letty said, “I’ve seen pictures of that church. I think that’s the one. If it is, it’s one of the most famous churches in America. Photographers, painters…back in the thirties and forties, they were all making pictures of it.”
“Really. What’s it called?”
