47

We exited the Capitol and got a car. Ben instructed it to take us to his residence. En route, I filled them in on what I had learned from Cleary’s memory streams. Abby gripped my hand the entire ride, but didn’t say much.

The vehicle stopped in front of an older, modest-sized house in DC’s Virginia suburbs. We walked inside. Ben checked his monitoring system. Abby walked around the living room, looking at photos.

“Who’s this?” Abby was pointing to a picture of a young woman standing on a dirt airstrip next to a prop plane.

Ben glanced over. “That’s my daughter, Chelle.”

“Where does she live?”

“She died nine years ago. She’d have been thirty-eight next month.”

“Oh.” She looked pained. “I’m sorry, Ben.”

“No, that’s okay. I enjoy talking about her. She was the delight of my life.” He walked over and stood next to Abby. “You remind me of her a lot, Abby.”

She smiled. “Where was this picture taken?”

“Tanzania.”

She examined the photo more closely. “Is that a Bible she’s carrying?”

He nodded.

Abby didn’t hide her surprise. “She was a Christian?”

“Yes. One of the few her age.”

“What was she doing in Tanzania?”

“She was on a mission trip. Literacy work.”

Abby turned back to the picture and ran a finger along the edge of the frame. “Ben, do you mind if I ask how she died?”

Ben rubbed his eyes and sighed. “She was taken hostage by religious extremists. They held her for several months. We paid a ransom, but they killed her anyway.”

“Oh, Ben.” Abby hesitated, then put her arms around him. After a moment she stepped back, keeping a hand on his arm.

“I’ve always regretted I didn’t go there and try to rescue her.”

Abby hugged him again. This time he squeezed her tight. We were all silent for a moment.

“Well,” Ben finally said, clearing his throat, “let’s get a bite to eat and get going, shall we?”

He dished up some chili, and we sat at the kitchen table. He looked at me. “So Cleary and Pape are planning to infect the water supplies of DC, Annapolis, and Richmond. I imagine they want to make it look like a natural disease that’s spreading north and south from DC.”

I nodded.

Ben thought for a moment. “Do you know exactly where Pape has planted the nanite bombs?”

“No. Cleary’s stream doesn’t indicate that. Maybe he left it up to Pape.”

“Why don’t we just have the water system people find the nanite bombs?” Abby asked.

“The bombs could be microscopic,” I replied.

Ben leaned back in his chair. “Even if they were visible, those water systems have hundreds of miles of pipe. Finding them would be almost impossible.”