Chapter Nineteen
Down, hurt, dazed, she still reached for her weapon. As the blow she never saw coming slapped down, as her wrist exploded with pain, it skidded out of her hand.
“Don’t,” he said. “Don’t. Stay down. I don’t want to hurt you again. I want you to listen.”
She swung out; he knocked her fist aside with a force that radiated through her whole body. She managed an elbow strike, which seemed to surprise him enough to give her room to aim the next fist.
When it connected, pain rushed up her arm, but she reached toward her ankle and her clutch piece.
Once again, she didn’t see it coming. It came too fast, a blur of movement.
But she felt it, the short-armed jab to the face that blew through her in a shock wave. She tasted blood; her vision grayed even before her head bounced against the elevator wall.
She felt him rip her ankle holster away like it was made of paper.
“You need to stop.”
She came up, head ducked, leading with both fists.
He moved like lightning. Her body flew up, slammed against the elevator wall. Her left shoulder screamed from the impact.
And she dropped like a stone.
“Stay down! You can’t win here. I’m faster, I’m stronger. I don’t want to hurt you, you’re doing your duty. But I will because I’m doing mine. I want you to listen.”
“I know who you are, what you’ve done, why you’ve done it.” The stunner, she saw, though her vision hadn’t quite cleared, was just out of reach.
Distract him, get to it. Push through the pain and get to your weapon.
“If you want me to listen, come with me into Central.”
“You know that’s not going to happen. I’m not finished.”
“Steve.” Use his name, use his name, she told herself as she swiped at the blood on her face.
She had to take a moment, just a moment, because even breathing hurt.
“I know what they did to your family, to all those other people who were just living their lives. We’re shutting them down, Steve. The whole company. We’re taking it down.”
“You really think you can?”
“I think we have. We came here to arrest Jacob Wyst. We have arrested Calvin Banner. We will extradite Jack O’Brian.”
“I heard. I was listening. I’d just gotten off the top of the elevator when it started down. It surprised me. I wanted to see who was coming. Maybe Banner.
“Then I listened. My hearing is very acute while I’m on the serum. I needed to be strong, be fast to do what needed to be done. I was so weak, weak and thin and frail after all those years. I could barely walk half a mile.”
He’d aged, Eve saw now. White, pure white, dominated his hair, with only a few dark streaks mixed in. His face, lined with time and trouble, his eyes shadowed by fatigue.
“If you listened, you know Banner-Wyst is done. Banner and O’Brian, and anyone else we find is or was complicit, they’ll spend the rest of their lives in prison.”
“Banner owns politicians, judges, more.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck who he thinks he owns. We have the goods. The restricted lab. They were in the process of making bioweapons. Airborne. Violating international law.”
She saw it surprised him, and when his gaze went from sharp to thoughtful, she tried for her weapon.
Her body rammed the elevator wall; more pain erupted.
“Stop.” He said it absently, remained thoughtful. “I wasn’t sure what they’d done in there now. I couldn’t access those files. So they gave up on Rainmaker.”
If she couldn’t fight him, she could stall him. And learn more. “Rainmaker?”
“My project, my work. For the good, and I learned they meant to use it to destroy, to manipulate for their own profit. People would die, hundreds of thousands could die, that was the plan. Then they would step in, the saviors. My work, and they’d distort it into a weapon.
Rainmaker. Not to control but to influence weather patterns, climate trends.
Bring the rain to revive the land in a drought.
Stop the rain to decrease a flood. And more. ”
She shifted onto her knees, though both objected. Closer, a little closer to the stunner.
“They’re working on something to do with climatology. We need an expert to figure out what.”
He smiled a little. “I don’t think they can do it.
It was mine, and I destroyed my own work, put a virus in the system.
After I copied proof of what they’d done, and what they planned to do.
I brought it home. Ari and I had decided I’d go to the FBI.
We couldn’t be sure who they could bribe or had bribed, but we decided we had to trust the authorities. ”
His eyes never left hers, but now they clouded with sadness. “Destroyed, the proof gone. My beautiful wife and our daughter, who’d have come into the world in a matter of weeks. My sweet boy. They were everything to me. Do you understand? My heart and soul died with them.”
“We’re going to get them justice, Steve.”
“Your police didn’t before.”
“Banner-Wyst had more and better technology than the NYPSD, and they hired Cruz, through Delgato—understand we know this now, will use it now. Cruz, an expert at making an explosion look like an accident. I know the lead investigator on that explosion, Steve. He’s the best I know.”
“Maybe he took a bribe. So many did. So many do.”
“No. He would never betray his badge, his duty. I’d swear it on my life.”
“I’ve studied him, his record, and I believe you. If I thought he or the arson investigator had been part of it, they’d be dead.”
“Is this what Ari would want, Steve? Would she want you to kill to avenge her death?”
“I can’t know, can I?” The fatigue vanished in rage. “They took her from me, took her, took our children. And you didn’t know her!”
“No, but I’ve read about her. I have her face on my case board. I’ve talked to people who knew her, loved her. I stand for the dead, Steve. It’s my life’s work. I stand for Ari, for Luke, for the baby.”
“Chloe,” he murmured. “She was Chloe.”
Eve shifted, just a little. When his eyes flickered, she cradled a hand on her jaw as if it ached.
It didn’t ache, it throbbed and screamed. As she did, she saw something in him. A hint, just a hint of regret.
She gasped, let the pain show on her face. And went for the stunner.
The punch brought blood to her throat, slapped her head against the elevator wall.
“I said don’t! I can’t always control the anger. I’m trying. You’ve done nothing to earn my anger.”
She coughed up blood, spat it out. “What the fuck are you on?”
“I call it Fury. It took me years to perfect it. It keeps me alive, and it’s killing me. I don’t have much longer, much less without it. I’ll destroy any left when I’m done, all the records so no one can duplicate it. Like Rainmaker. I need to finish, so listen.
“Larry, my good friend, he betrayed me. He came to the hospital the day after . . . The day after. I couldn’t speak. The words were in my head, screaming to get out, but I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. It was like being trapped inside the shell of my body.
“But I could hear. I could understand. He was sorry, he told me. He didn’t know they were going to do what they did. He shouldn’t have told them I knew, but he was afraid. He wanted to work things out. He was sorry, so very sorry.”
Steve’s gloved hands balled into fists. “He cried. Tears fell, but he took their money, he kept working for them. He told no one what they’d done. They killed my family, and he knew, but he told no one.
“Ezra? He said he hated to see me like this, but I should’ve stuck with the company. They’d have made me rich. I could’ve given my kids the best of the best. I should’ve thought of my family and given them the best of the best.”
“They were wrong, Steve. They were cowards. They were complicit.”
Unballing his fists, he looked down at his hands.
“I wanted to kill them, both of them, with my bare hands, but I couldn’t break out of it.
I couldn’t move at first. I was aware, but I couldn’t do anything.
Not when Jacob came in. He said I was lucky to be alive, and he hoped I stayed alive, like a vegetable, for years and years.
I deserved all I got for trying to betray the company.
‘Your family’s dead, Steve,’ he said. ‘It should’ve been you. They’re dead because of you.’ ”
He let out a sigh. “I wanted someone to know all of this. I didn’t know it would be you. I didn’t know I’d trust you to be sure everyone knows.”
“Everyone will know. I promise you that. You need help, Steve. I can help you.”
He smiled again, and the smile only held sorrow. “Oh, it’s way too late for that. You need medical attention. I can call MTs for you after I leave.”
“No, no MTs. Listen to me now.”
“No, there’s really no more time, and you’re hurt. I’m sorry I hurt you. I’ll release the elevator when I’m gone. You can go up or down. Your choice.”
He rose. “I’m grateful for what you’re doing. I didn’t believe anyone could or would. Thank you.”
With that he sprang up and went through the open grate before she could blink.
She slid a hand for her weapon, and though it sent throbbing shock waves through her body, shifted to aim up.
Useless, she knew, he was too fast.
She gave herself a few seconds, just a few seconds to breathe, then ordered the elevator back to the penthouse.
She managed to get to her knees again, breathe there when the doors opened. And saw Peabody arguing with Nadine.
Just what she needed.
“A little help here.”
Both women turned. Peabody let out a squawking sound, then beat Nadine to the elevator by two steps.
“Help me up. Watch the left shoulder. Dislocated.”
“Nadine, call for the MTs.”
“No!” Eve countermanded Peabody’s order with a snap. “Help me the hell up. And I want this building locked down. Nobody in, nobody out. Block this elevator. It needs to be processed. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she added as between them, Nadine and Peabody got Eve to her feet.
“You’re a mess, and you need medical attention.”
“Thanks, Dr. Furst, but it’s mostly bangs and bruises. Big bangs. Shoulder first. Peabody, let’s get it back where it belongs.”
“What? Me? No.”