Blood Money (21 page)

“I wasn’t convinced, at first,” Jessica
said. “But he produced copies of the real test results, which—”

“Could have been faked just as easily as the
ones that your handlers showed you,” Nicholas said.

Jessica shook her head. “No. Well, yes, I
guess they could have been, but they weren’t.” She looked at
Kelton, her eyes pleading him to take over.

“Her point is, why would Walter lie?” Kelton
said.

Nicholas’s gaze lingered on Jessica for an
extra beat before he turned towards Kelton. “For the same reason
everyone does. Because there was something for him to be gained by
doing so.”

“And what did he have to gain?”

“Money.”

Kelton scoffed, shook his head.

“What?” Nicholas said. “Oh, that is right.
You think your friend is nothing but a Good Samaritan. Someone who
is looking out for the masses.”

“Not think,” Kelton said. “Know.”

“Really? And how do you know this? Because
that is what he tells you?”

Kelton nodded.

“Then let me ask you something,” Nicholas
said. “Have you ever seen any direct evidence of his good
deeds?”

“Well, not exactly, but—”

“But what?” Nicholas said. “He talks about
them all the time?”

Kelton stared across the table at the
little, balding man. “What are you trying to tell me?”

“That this man you know as Walter is not
even remotely what you think him to be,” Nicholas said. “He is a
con man. He tells people what they want to hear in order to
convince them to get him what he wants, plain and simple.”

Kelton said, “Bullshit.”

Jessica narrowed her eyes and shook her head
from side to side.

“The fact that you both doubt this so
vehemently simply proves that he is very, very good at what he
does,” Nicholas said.

He turned his attention to Jessica. “In your
case, my dear, he told you what you already believed in your heart
to be true: That your vaccine actually worked. All you needed was a
little nudge, a little shred of pseudo-proof, and you bought his
lie, hook, line, and sinker. And who could blame you? Certainly not
me. If I would have spent six years of my life on a labor of
love—especially one with such far-reaching implications as
yours—only to have it fail at the last possible moment, I would
have done the same.”

Before Jessica had a chance to respond,
Nicholas shifted his gaze to Kelton. “And you, Kelton. The loss of
your family at the hands of someone you loved has left you so
utterly alone in the world that you desperately wanted to believe
that there was someone else out there, someone who thought like
you, who shared the same goals as you, someone who was only
concerned with serving the greater good. Walter simply played upon
your hopes and desires, just as he did with Jessica. You were both
pre-inclined to believe him, based on your situations. He used you
to get what he wanted, just as he has used countless others.”

Kelton crossed his arms and sat back in his
chair. “I must admit, you certainly provide a compelling argument,”
he said. “But tell me; why should we believe a word you just
said?”

“Because you know I speak the truth,”
Nicholas said. “You came to us, remember?
After
you had
removed the transmitter, no less. Which means that you were not
comfortable with the way things were progressing, which really
means that you were not comfortable with Walter. Somewhere, deep
down, you doubted the veracity of his claims, or else you would not
have turned yourselves in.”

Kelton considered Nicholas. The small,
bespectacled man had a point. But still, some lingering doubts
needed to be addressed. “Suppose I believe you,” he said. “Suppose
Walter is, as you say, simply a con man. Why then, are you so
desperate to capture him that you would go so far as to plant a
transmitter inside someone’s body. Or allow an operation to proceed
even though you know the targets were aware of the situation?”

“Do you think this is the first time Walter
has stolen something from the government?”

Kelton knew for a fact that it wasn’t. But
he simply shrugged and said, “I guess I haven’t thought about it
too much.”

“Well, let me assure you, it is not,”
Nicholas said. “The man you know as Walter has been stealing
secrets from the government for nearly fifteen years. He is not
only a con man, but he is also a thief and a traitor, and he has
cost the government billions of dollars. But more importantly, on
at least two separate occasions, the information he stole lead
directly to the death of American operatives.”

“Holy shit,” Jessica said.

Nicholas looked at her and nodded. “The past
decade has seen a severe increase in significant security breaches
within the government. And no matter who looked into them—CIA, FBI,
DHS—no progress was made. So, sixteen months ago, the case was
handed to us. After extensive research, we eventually recognized a
set of variables that were consistent with each intrusion, a
specific methodology that linked every single one of these unsolved
breaches to each other. So we sat back, and waited for this set of
variables to pop up again. And when they did, we pounced.”

Nicholas drank from his glass of water
before continuing. “Unfortunately, we were not able to put all the
clues together until
after
Jessica had already fled her post
and been picked up. Because of this, we were forced to deviate from
our original course of action. Needless to say, we were quite
disappointed at this missed opportunity. But we came up with an
alternative plan.”

Kelton nodded, seeing the specifics come
together in his own head. “So after you picked her up, you planted
the bug on her, dropped her off at an easy to penetrate safe house,
and leaked the location through official channels, knowing that
Walter would hear the information from his sources and set up an
operation to rescue her.”

“Exactly.”

“But what if he had just let you guys have
me?” Jessica said.

“Then we would have dealt with you and
waited for another opportunity to arise,” Nicholas said. “As you
can imagine, not every trap that is set gets sprung.”

Kelton took a deep breath, leaned back in
his chair. “I must admit, everything fits pretty tightly.”

“As well it should,” Nicholas said.
“Considering that it is the truth.”

“There’s just one thing bothering me,”
Kelton said.

“What is that?”

“You said earlier that Walter only wanted
Jessica’s AIDS vaccine so he could sell it on the open market,
right?”

“That is correct,” Nicholas said.

“But you also said that Walter is the one
that falsified the data, not Jessica’s handlers.”

Nicholas offered a tight, humorless smile,
as though he had hoped this would slip by unnoticed. “That is also
correct.”

“But both of those claims can’t be true,”
Kelton said.

“What do you mean?” Jessica said, turning
towards him.

Kelton met her gaze. “Well, if Walter
falsified the data, as Nicholas claims, then that means your
vaccine didn’t work.”

Jessica considered this for a moment. Then
it registered. She bolted up in her chair. “And how the hell is he
going to make money off a vaccine that
doesn’t work
?” She
spun towards Nicholas. “Care to explain that one?”

“Certainly,” Nicholas said, his demeanor as
composed as ever. “While it is true that your experiment failed as
an AIDS vaccine, it had potential in other areas.”

“Like what?” Jessica said.

“Unfortunately, I do not have enough
expertise to cite specific examples, even though they were
explained to me by your handlers. Suffice it to say that your
experiment showed significant promise in regards to a wide spectrum
of diseases.”

Jessica’s lips were pressed together so
tightly that the blood was drained from them. “Why didn’t my
handlers tell me any of this?”

“At the time, their hands were tied by red
tape,” Nicholas said. “They were in touch with their superiors, in
the process of deciding how to handle the situation when you
disappeared. Your handlers were going to tell you eventually, but
they wanted to make sure they did it correctly. They did not want
to get your hopes up until there was a reason to. By the time they
were ready to act, you had already made other plans.”

Jessica shook her head and laughed
humorlessly. “Un-freaking-believable.”

“In a way, it almost is,” Nicholas said,
taking her utterance literally. “But I assure you, it is the
truth.” He turned his attention back to Kelton. “So, is there
anything else you want to know?”

Kelton thought about it for a moment, then
shook his head.

“Good,” Nicholas said. “Now suppose you
decide that you are going to deliver Walter to us. Tell me; what do
you want out of the deal?”

“I just want to walk away,” Kelton said.
“Start over somewhere, free from any part of this hanging over my
head. I want you guys to forget this ever happened.”

“What else?”

“Nothing.”

Nicholas gave him a curious look. “No
relocation assistance? No help with your problems with local law
enforcement, or perhaps with the Preston family?”

Kelton shook his head. “Nope. I don’t want
anything from you except a free pass.”

Nicholas shifted his gaze towards Jessica.
“And you?”

“The same thing,” Jessica said, flashing a
brief glance in Kelton’s direction.

“Exactly the same?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to start over together?”

“Why the hell do you care?” Kelton said.

“I do not,” Nicholas said. “Not really. I
just find it curious.”

“And why is that?” Jessica said.

“No reason,” the small man said, waving his
hand. “Let us just move on. Forget I ever said anything.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Kelton said.
“So what do you think about our terms?”

“They seem like reasonable enough
requests.”

“Is that a yes?” Kelton said.

Nicholas nodded. “That is a yes. You two can
both walk away from this without any repercussions. Provided, of
course, you are able to deliver Walter to us.”

“Of course,” Kelton said. “Now, if you’ll
excuse us, we have a few things to talk about.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Well, what do you think?” Kelton said after
Nicholas had left the room. He knew that the agent leaving them
alone was nothing more than a symbolic gesture, as the small man
was undoubtedly listening to them talk right now via several hidden
microphones, but it was a necessary one nonetheless.

Jessica shrugged. “That all depends on
whether or not you believe what Nicholas told you.”

“I think I do,” Kelton said. “Granted, I’m
not one hundred percent sure, but he certainly made a number of
valid points.”

“It all sounded legit to me.”

“What about your end?” Kelton said. “Could
it really have gone down the way he said?”

“It easily could have,” she said. “The drug
I invented was initially created to cover a wide set of diseases.
It wasn’t until later that I began to specifically tailor it to
HIV. So for it to show promise in other areas isn’t a stretch at
all.”

“So if we both believe Nicholas—”

“It’s a no-brainer,” Jessica said. “We take
the deal.”

“I agree.”

“But how do we know they’re going to hold up
their end of the bargain?”

“We don’t,” Kelton said. “Not for sure, at
least. But we don’t have much of a choice. We have to trust
them.”

Jessica nodded but Kelton could still see
the presence of doubt reflected in her eyes.

“What is it?” he said.

She shrugged, averted her gaze. “I just want
to make sure that you can do this to Walter.”

“Do what?” Kelton said. “He hired me to
rescue you from the safe house and deliver him to you, and that’s
what I’m going to do. What happens after that is out of my
hands.”

“If you say so,” Jessica said. “But—”

“There are no buts. He’s the one who got
himself into this mess in the first place. All this crap about
wanting to help the world, and all he was doing was stealing
information so he could profit from it. Fuck him. He’s getting what
he deserves.”

Jessica held his stare but didn’t say
anything.

“What?” he said.

“I just don’t want you to have any regrets
about the way it went down.”

“How could I have any regrets when I’d have
you?”

Jessica punched him in the shoulder. “I’m
serious here, Kelton.”

He locked eyes with her. “So am I.”

Jessica’s mouth turned up in a tentative
smile. “And you’re sure you’ll be able to live with this on your
conscience?”

“I’ve lived with much worse than this,”
Kelton said. “I think I can find a way to manage.”

Her smile growing wider, Jessica stepped
closer to Kelton. She put her arms around him and gave him a kiss.
“Then let’s do it.”

They kissed again, then broke off the
embrace. Kelton walked towards the door, knocked on it, and stepped
back.

A few seconds later, Nicholas opened the
door and strode into the room. “I assume you have come to a
decision?”

“Don’t give me that crap, Nick. We know
you’ve been watching and listening to this entire
conversation.”

Nicholas offered a half-smile.

“But just to make things official,” Kelton
said. “Yes, we will help you bring Walter into custody.”

“In return for a free pass,” Jessica
added.

“Of course,” Nicholas said. “And despite the
doubt you expressed earlier, I assure you, if you hold up your end
of the bargain, we will hold up ours.”

“Yeah, well I guess we’ll just have to trust
you on that part.”

Nicholas nodded his head once. “Now, if you
do not mind, we have a few more specifics to go over.”

“Like what?” Kelton said.