Why the hell she had dropped her career as one of the best damn foreign correspondents this country had known was beyond him. She was at the peak of her profession. And now, here she was, in a photo on his desk that had caught her looking out over a body on a mountain in White River.
White River, where the International Toxicology Conference was due to start in one week.
His contacts in Cairo had indicated that several rogue nations were planning to send agents to that conference. The list of participants was already starting to read like a whos who in the world of biological warfare. Red flags were going up all over the place. Something was going down. And the Bellona Channel board members wanted him there. Only trouble was, Rex didnt want to go.
He didnt want to run into Hannah McGuire.
Rex pulled open his desk drawer and fished out a magnifying glass. He hungered to see her more clearly.
Useless. It just made things bigger, blurrier, grainier. He put the magnifying glass back into his drawer and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets before reading the story.
There was no reference to Hannah. The article noted that the body was presumed to be that of Amy Barnes, a young reporter whod gone missing last fall.
He looked at the photograph again. Then something new caught his eye and, for a second time, his heart beat faster.
It couldnt be.
In his preoccupation with Hannah he hadnt noticed the man standing near her.
It had been six years since hed last seen him. If it wasnt him, the likeness was incredible.
Rex needed to know more.
This was more than coincidence. Two people on Powder Mountain, both linked to a tumultuous period in his life six years ago. Hannah and this man. The last time he had laid eyes on either of them was in Marumba.
He leaned forward and pushed the phone intercom button to ring his secretary. Margaret, did you tape the news last night? She usually recorded the CNA news. It aired at six oclock, before she returned from work. She liked to watch it when she got home.
I always tape the CNA, Rex. Margarets voice came back through the intercom. It comes on again later at night, but way past my bedtime. Even an old-timer like me needs beauty rest.
Youre beautiful to me, Margaret. I need that tape. There would be something on the CNA news, he was sure. The missing girls parents were high profile, and the search for Amy Barnes had been one of the biggest search-and-rescue missions mounted in recent years.
Rex took his pizza slice out of the microwave and cracked open an ice-cold cola. He had to do something about his eating habits. Always on the run. He settled in front of his television set, inserted Margarets tape, took a bite of pizza and pushed the play button.
It had been a long time since hed watched Hannah on TV. The last hed seen of her work was her acclaimed CNA documentary on conflict diamonds in Africa. That was what shed been working on when she had first caught his eye and held his libido hostage in Penaka, the capital of Marumba.
Rex leaned forward as the camera cut to a TV reporter on Powder Mountain. The reporter was saying there would be an autopsy. Then, as the camera moved to pan the faces in the crowd, it caught the gold of her hair and lingered on the profile of a woman made for television. Hannah McGuires lambent image sprang to life, invading his living room.
She stole his attention from the rest of the news report.
Rex slowly swallowed his mouthful of food, fixated with her image. She was in khaki hiking shorts and a green jacket. She was lightly bronzed from a summer of sun, the way she had been in Marumba, her limbs long and strong.
And then she was gone.
Rex quickly rewound the clip, took a swig of his cold drink and focused on the other faces in the crowd.
There was no doubt. It was him in the suit, standing near her on that mountain. Mitchell. The CIA agent Rex blamed for botching the Marumba laboratory raid.
If it hadnt been for Mitchells preemptive strike on the secret biological weapons research lab in Marumba six years ago, they would have in custody the man the world had dubbed the Plague Doctor.
Mitchell had called in the Marumba government troops too early. And he had made too much noise about it. Dr. Ivan Rostov, the Plague Doctor, had been forewarned. He had slithered back into the murk of the underworld, taking his lethal secrets with him.
The question now, thought Rex as he remembered the pizza cooling on his plate, is why U.S. Central Intelligence was interested in the death of this young Canadian reporter. And why Agent Mitchell in particular? His specialty was biological warfare intelligence. Perhaps he was in White River early for the toxicology conference. The CIA always kept tabs on get-togethers like these. Yet, the conference wasnt due to be held for at least another week.
There was no way Rex could avoid going to White River now. And if he knew the Bellona Channel board of directors, they would want him on a plane yesterday.
He reached for his secure phone and punched in the number of the Bellona Channel board chair, Dr. William J. Killian.