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“When’s the next meeting?”
Dwier closed his eyes. “Tonight, eight. The downtown church.”
“Where’s Dukes?”
He shook his head. “Safe house, Upstate. Albany. I’m supposed to help work out a relocation. He’s still working on the program. Him and Burns and the other techs. They’ll have it perfected in a few days. They’re sure of it. Nobody anticipated that girl being in Greene’s place. How the hell can you anticipate something like that? But it comes down to it, she wasn’t any different than Greene. Got what she deserved, same as him. Just a little whore—”
She bitch-slapped him. Her hand was up and swinging before she realized the fury had taken over, before he could see it in her eyes and evade. The sharp crack of flesh on flesh slashed through the club. A few people turned their heads, then quickly looked away again.
Eve got to her feet. “Stay where you are. Peabody! You’re going in. You can tell your story to the P.A. Price is being picked up right now.”
“Just a fucking minute.”
“Shut up, you pulsating piece of shit. You’ll get your immunity. You’re going in now, and staying in until the rest of your self-proclaimed heroes are picked up. There’s a black-and-white outside, and a representative of the prosecutor’s office. Thomas Dwier, you are now in custody. Surrender your shield and your weapon. Now,” she said, laying a hand on his arm. “Or I’ll take you down the way I want to instead of by the book you’ve shown such contempt for.”
“People know we were right.” He laid his weapon on the table, tossed his badge down beside it. “There are four monsters off the streets thanks to us.”
She took his weapon, took his badge. Then hauled him to his feet. “There are all kinds of monsters, Dwier. You don’t quite qualify. You’re just a weasel. And an embarrassment to the job.”
When he was secured in the black-and-white, Eve got into her own vehicle. Then just laid her forehead on the wheel.
“You all right, Dallas?”
“No. No, I’m not all right.” She yanked Dwier’s badge and weapon from her pocket. “Seal these. I don’t want my hands on them again. I got him immunity. I got him a ride. Maybe, maybe I pull him in, hammer at him in Interview, I get him to roll without the deal. But I made the deal, because maybe he doesn’t roll, and I can’t spare the time to find out.”
“The prosecutor wouldn’t have dealt immunity if he didn’t figure it was the way to go.”
“When you want the whole pie, sacrificing one little slice is a reasonable trade. That’s how the P.A. figured it. That’s how Dwier knew he’d figure it. I wish I could. Get me an address on a Dru Geller. She’ll be in the system.”
She pulled out her communicator to run the next steps with the commander.
It took an hour to set it up to her satisfaction. Precious time, but she wasn’t losing another cop. Not today.
“We can’t be sure what kind of shape she’s in,” Eve reminded the crisis team she’d handpicked. “We will assume she is violent and armed. Three men on the door, three for the windows. We go in fast. We subdue, secure, and transport. The subject cannot be shocked with standard weapons, even on low setting. The probability is high that the infection has spread to the extent that this would result in termination. We use tranqs, and tranqs only.”
She gestured to the apartment blueprint on-screen. “You’ve familiarized yourselves with the setup. We know the subject is in this location. We don’t know where she is within its perimeter, but the highest probability is for the main bedroom, here. Communications are to remain open throughout the op. When the subject is secured, she will be transferred, immediately, to the medical techs, accompanied by two team members during transpo to designated health center where a medical team is waiting.”
Maybe they’d save her, Eve thought as she approached the door to Dru Geller’s apartment. And maybe they wouldn’t. If Dwier’s information was accurate, she had under eight hours left. Morris had called the infection irreversible after the initial spread.
She was risking six cops, her aide, and herself over a woman who was in all likelihood already dead.
She drew her tranq-shooter, nodded for the crisis team cop to uncode the locks. “Uncoding,” she said quietly into her communicator. “Locks disengaged. Wait for my signal.”
She eased the door open. She caught a whiff of spoiled food, of stale urine. The lights were off, the sun shields tight at the windows. The room looked and smelled like a cave.
She gestured, pointing Peabody and the second officer left. She went in fast, low, and right. “Living area clear.”
She heard it then, a kind of growling. The sound a rabid dog might make when cornered. “Moving to main bedroom. Hold at the windows.”
She took flank at the door, nodded again, then kicked it in.
Dru Geller had her back to the wall. She wore nothing but panties. There was blood on her breasts, breasts scored from her own fingernails. Her nose had bled as well, and the red ran down over her snarling lips, stained her teeth, dripped off her chin.
Eve saw it all in the space of a heartbeat and saw the long-bladed scissors in her hand.
The scissor flew, like an arrow from a bow. Eve pivoted, deployed the tranq. It caught Geller in the left breast. “Now! Go! Hit her again,” she ordered as Geller lunged forward.
A second tranq hit her midbody, and still she leaped on Eve like a wildcat, all teeth and nails. She saw the red eyes wheeling, felt the blood drip on her face. Geller howled as a third tranq took her in the right shoulder.
