Lady, please, indeed! She struck one and lit the others and threw the whole flaming book. Instantly, fire roared up everywhere. The men began to shriek. They leaped and jerked in the flames, as her mother had leaped and twisted in her pyre.

Miriam pressed the stone that would open their route into the sewers of Paris.

Nothing happened.

SEVEN: Deathtrap

SEVEN

Deathtrap

Paul called Becky’s cell phone for the fifth time in an hour. Her recording came back for the fifth time in an hour. He’d already requested that Communications in Langley track both officers, but their cell phones were off or the signals were blocked, so the GPS system could not find them. Just for the hell of it, he tried Charlie again, also. Same shit.

It was now ten A.M. By his estimation they were two hours overdue, maybe more. He thrust another stick of gum in his mouth and chomped on it. Thank God he hated French cigarettes.

The cell phone rang. He grabbed for it. “Ward here.”

“Paul, this is Justin.”

What in hell was Justin Turk calling him for now? It was five A.M. in Virginia. “Yeah?”

“I’m getting back to you.”

“Look, man, I gotta have more support personnel.”

“Shit.”

“One of the damn creatures escaped from my net. I’ve followed it to Paris and lost it. I need more people and more equipment real fast.”

“How fast is real fast?”

“Yesterday would’ve been good. I need at least five more field ops.”

“I can’t just put people in this thing. You know the kind of problems we’re having. The discussions.”

“I’m losing a vampire. One that travels, for Chrissakes!”

“It takes weeks to clear people for you. A whole new background check, all kinds of shit. Even when I don’t have the director on my ass. Which I obviously do.”

“At least authorize the people I’ve still got in Kuala to follow me.”

“That’s a no-go.”

“Come on, man, help me, here.”

“This whole operation is under study. Until I have fresh orders, you’re all frozen in place.”

That sure was shitty news. “I need those people, man. This thing is going south fast.”

“I’ll work on it.”

“Don’t sound so convincing.”

The conversation ended there, with muttered good-byes. Justin was a sort of a friend. That is to say, he’d be there for Paul as long as Paul wasn’t a liability.

One thing was quite clear: There would be no new people, not with international human rights questions beginning to hang over the operation.

He saw somebody getting dropped down a shaft, and that somebody was him.

He hammered Becky’s number into his cell phone, then Charlie’s. Same results as before. “I’m in trouble,” he muttered to himself.

Still, it was possible that the kids were okay. He just wished that they’d followed procedure with this break-in. There would be a hell of a stink if the French found out that CIA personnel had invaded the records office of their security service. He’d be recalled, of course. He’d have to explain what he was doing in France, and why he’d gotten here by commandeering an Air Force general’s private jet.