Melting the Ice (18 page)

Rex heard a muffled explosion. He saw Scott scramble up and head for the doctor.

Rex turned and sprinted for the gray concrete building, making for the door he’d seen the Plague Doctor come out of.

Thin fingers of smoke seeped and curled under the door into their windowless prison. Hannah could smell fire. Mitchell no longer had any pulse. Her son was still sleeping.

She covered Danny’s head with the blanket, rushed over to the door and pulled. She kicked at it. It was solid, unyielding. She screamed. She banged with both hands. She was banging them into a pulp. She knew they would soon be overcome with smoke. This airless room would be their coffin.

He ran low through the smoke-filled corridors. He could hear her screaming, muffled by walls. He saw the biohazard signs. So this was where the Plague Doctor was doing his work. Small but efficient. He heard the banging.

“Hannah!”

“Over here! In here! Help!”

“Hannah, can you hear me?”

“Rex! Yes. Oh, God, Rex. Yes, I can hear you.”

“Stand well back from the door, all of you. I’m going to fire at the lock. Got it?”

“Yes. Got it.”

“I’m going to count to five, then fire…one, two, three, four, five…”

The bullet hit the lock square. He had to fire twice more before he could crash the door open.

He burst into the room.

She crouched there, huddled over her son. His son. Mitchell lay lifeless on the floor.

The smoke was growing dense. He had to hurry. He felt Mitchell’s pulse.

“He’s dead, Rex. Shot. Vasilev did it.”

He shifted his attention to the bundle in the gray blanket. “Hannah, I’m going to take Daniel. You follow me. Stay close. Real low. Hold on to me. We’re going up the stairs.”

He scooped the small boy in the blanket up into his arms. He was light. Limp. The sensation overwhelmed him. He cradled his son to his chest. Hunkering over him, he ran, Hannah at his heels.

They burst coughing and choking into the cold damp night air. It was still spitting rain. Sirens. Alarms. Fire crews from the village were responding. The clinic building situated at the low end of the property was being evacuated. He saw Scott with a RCMP officer. The wounded doctor was in handcuffs.

Rex ran toward Scott, his bundle still limp in his arms. “I need to get him to a hospital. Now.”

“Take my truck. Here’re the keys.”

Hannah held Daniel in the passenger seat as they bumped over the rough track to the low end of the property where dirt gave way to paved road and wild brush and trees gave way to the manicured grounds of the spa. They drove out through the spa gates against a wave of incoming emergency personnel responding to the fire. Red and blue police lights pulsed against the night sky.

Chapter 16

H
e could see why she hadn’t wanted him inside her home. There were photographs of her and Daniel everywhere. Next to her bed, where she lay now, sleeping with their son, was a picture of Hannah and Danny in the snow with a snowman twice Danny’s size.

The little boy was laughing out at the photographer, baby white teeth against olive skin, his eyes a crystal blue, thrown into stark relief against dark hair and thick dark lashes.

Rex picked up the gold frame. He had seen another boy like that once, in photographs his mother had left him. Except, that little boy had not laughed at the photographer like this one did. He traced the lines of him with his finger. “You’ve done a fine job, Hannah,” he whispered to the woman sleeping next to his boy. “You have raised our son so that he finds joy and love in the world.”

He looked down at her where she lay. Her hair was spun gold, fanned out on the pillow, her face in repose, beautiful, pale. She still had dark smudges under her eyes. She’d been sleeping since early that morning.

“And you’ve touched me so that I, too, can see the joy, the love.” He gently replaced the frame on the bedside table and bent to brush his lips over hers. “I’m not going to let you go this time. Whatever it takes. We
will
work through it. All three of us.”

Daniel stirred in the bed beside her. There had been minimal traces of GHB in his system, but otherwise he was fine. The doctors at the White River Health Care Center had given Hannah a sedative to help her sleep. She was in a state of exhaustion and shock. Rex had brought them here, back to her house, in the early hours of the dark morning to make room for casualties coming into the small health care center from the spa fire.

He stroked Daniel’s head. He couldn’t get over the wonder of it. This child. His.

Rex could hear Hannah’s mother knocking about in the kitchen downstairs. He’d told her to relax, but she said she needed to keep busy. The poor woman felt responsible for Daniel’s kidnapping.

Rex tucked Danny’s yellow teddy bear under the covers with him and kissed his son on the forehead. Then he went downstairs to see if he could help Hannah’s mom.

“Smells good. What is it?”

Startled, Sheila McGuire turned to face Rex standing in the kitchen doorway. She nervously rubbed her hands on the white bib apron she had found in one of the drawers. “It’s pot roast. That other agent, Scott Armstrong, called to say he’d be stopping by. I thought he might want to stay for dinner. I’ve asked Al, too. But, oh, dear, I think I’ve overdone things again. Maybe Hannah wants some quiet. Maybe I shouldn’t have invited anyone.”

Rex stepped forward, took her hands in his. They were warm and soft. “Pot roast. My favorite. I haven’t had a good pot roast since before I went to boarding school. My mom used to make a killer roast.”

The smell of the food on the stove, the potatoes, the steaming pots, assailed him. He wished he could go back in time and hug his own mother. She had worked on her own to raise him. He wished he could go back and say thank you.

He lifted Sheila McGuire’s hand to his lips. “Thank you.”

She looked up into his eyes. “He looks so much like you, Rex.”

“Danny?”

“Yes.”

“You know? Hannah told you?”

“She didn’t have to. He looks just like you. Welcome home, Rex. I hope you’re going to stay.”

Hannah found them like that. Rex and her mother in the kitchen, surrounded by the scents of hearth and home.

“Rex…Mom?”

They turned to face her. He towered over her small mother. She was flushed pink from cooking.

“How are you feeling, Hannah?” He stepped toward her.

“Rex, I need to talk to you, to tell you about Daniel. I—”

“I know. I know about Daniel.”

She was knocked off balance. She had summoned all her courage to come downstairs and tell him immediately, afraid of how he might react.

“You know?” She turned to her mother. “Mom?” She hadn’t even told her mother who Daniel’s father was. For all these years she’d kept it locked deep in her heart. Her mother stood there now, in the middle of the kitchen, in her dear old apron, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Mommy.” The little voice came from behind her. She whirled around. “Danny. You shouldn’t be up. How are you feeling, my boy?” She scooped him into her arms, squeezing tight. “Why don’t we all go into the living room and sit down. There’s someone I want you to meet, Danny.” Looking at Rex, she said, “We need to have a group talk.”

Rex saw the wariness as the sharp little blue eyes homed in on him. The likeness between himself and Danny was uncanny. It would take time for Daniel to adjust to the concept of having a father, Rex knew. But he ached to hold him, squeeze him to bits. He wanted to take him fishing, teach him to ski, teach him to fly one of those kites he’d seen…all those things he himself had wanted to do with the colonel. Something melted inside him, and a river of possibility flowed out before him as he watched the small boy, sitting on the sofa beside his mother at the other end of the room.

But he knew he needed to give that little boy space and time. He would overwhelm him otherwise. Daniel was silent, small hand tight in Hannah’s, eyes fixed on Rex.

Then he stood up and faced Rex, unclasping Hannah’s hand. In his clear little voice, with a strength Rex recognized as his own, he spoke.

“So, you’re my dad?” His words were solemn.

“Yes, Daniel. I am.”

“I always knew you’d come.” He turned to look at his mother. “See, Mommy? He did come. I just knew he would.”

Rex did something he didn’t know was still possible—he cried. Tears crept out of the corners of his eyes. He hadn’t felt that salty wetness, that kind of cathartic release, since before he’d joined the army as a young man. He held out his arms wide, welcoming his son.

Daniel walked slowly over the carpet. He stopped and stood, facing Rex, assessing him. Then he leaped, with force, into the arms of his father. Rex could feel the little arms and hands around his neck. There was no stopping his tears now. Daniel’s breath was warm in his neck. He heard the whisper. “You
are
going to stay, aren’t you?”

“Yes, son,” he whispered in return, drinking in the scent of his hair. “I’ll stay. If your mother will let me.”

He looked over Daniel’s head at Hannah, who came to their side. “I know about the death threat in Ralundi, Rex. Ken Mitchell told me. He knew about it.”

“Hannah—”

“Shh.” She put two fingers to his lips. “I understand. I know why you left me. I just don’t know what happens now.”

“I’ve always loved you, Hannah. More than you’ll ever know. I need you. You, and now Danny, make me whole. I didn’t believe this could be possible in my life. You’ve shown me it is.”

He could see her eyes glisten.

“What about Bellona?”

“I don’t need it anymore—I have you.” He reached out and took a handful of her hair, playing it softly through his fingers.

He’d done a lot of thinking as he’d watched them sleep upstairs. He believed in the Bellona Channel but he needed to be with his family now. That was more important than anything. If he gave it up, if he quit, he would probably have to forfeit his position with Bio Can Pharmaceutical. But that was all right. He was a doctor, he could find something else. He was prepared to give it all up to hold on to what he had never dreamed possible, what he had never had in his life. Love. A real family of his own.

He closed his eyes, savoring the presence of them both around him, Daniel snuggled against his chest, Hannah at his side. God, it would have been tragic if history had gone ahead and repeated itself. He’d come so close. Like his dad, Colonel Logan, Rex would have sired a child who’d grown up lonely and rejected by his father. Oh, the irony.

He understood it all now—why Hannah had left her job and come to White River. She’d wanted to give time to her son, to raise him in these timeless mountains. She had sacrificed her career for Danny. He loved her and he respected her for what she had done.

He opened his eyes and turned to face her. “Why didn’t you tell me, Hannah? Why didn’t you give me a chance to be there for you and Daniel?”

“You rejected me, Rex.” She looked down at her hands. “Perhaps I was wrong to make the choices I made. But you wounded me. I didn’t want the possibility of Danny facing that same hurt. I didn’t want you bound to us by some notion of duty. I saw what that did to Mac, to my mom, to me.”

“Mac?”

“My father. He died on assignment in the Congo, a man torn by a sense of duty to his family and his need for freedom.”

“So we’re starting from scratch, huh? You and me both. No shining examples of fatherhood. We’ll just have to forge our own way.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “Marry me, Hannah McGuire.”

Her breath hitched, catching in her throat as she spoke. “What are you going to do about Bellona?” Her eyes were wide pools of liquid gold.

“There are more important things in my life now. Things I treasure. I’ll give it up if you’ll have me. I can move out West.”

“You’re sure?”

“Never been more sure of anything in my life.”

“Yes, Rex.” She whispered the words. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Danny jerked upright. “Does that mean you’ll stay?” He had been quiet against his chest. Listening, waiting in anticipation.

Rex threw back his head and laughed a great loud laugh. It burbled out from his belly, reverberated up through his chest and into the air. He had never felt so good. So fine.

The sound of his laughter sparked Daniel into a little chuckle. With relief, Hannah laughed and wept, too.

“What’s with all this merriment?” Scott stood at the top of the stairs leading down into the sunken living room.

“Ah, Scott, you’re just in time to agree to be my best man.”

He started down the steps. “Hey, I
am
your best man.”

“No, no, I mean for our wedding.”

Scott stopped in his tracks, a large smile slowly spread across his face, setting his green eyes twinkling. He stepped forward to take Rex’s hand. “Congratulations, buddy. It’s about time you saw the light.”

He took Hannah’s hand, kissed it. “Congratulations, Mrs. Logan-to-be. And you, young man—”

“I’m already a Logan.”

“So I hear.” Scott took a seat on the sofa. “So I hear.”

Hannah helped her mother serve the roast, and Rex poured the cabernet.

“Grape juice for you, my man.” He set a glass in front of Danny.

“Thanks, sir.”

“If you want, when you’re really good and ready, you can call me dad.”

“I’m ready…Dad.”

Everyone laughed. Scott raised his glass in a toast. “To the Logans.” Hannah had never felt so complete as she raised hers in response.

Al lifted his glass. “To the Logans. And…to my Amy.”

They raised glasses in a soft chorus of solemn murmurs. “To Amy.”

Scott set his glass down and started to tuck into his potatoes. “You know, Al, if it hadn’t been for Amy and what she set in motion, the world could have looked like a different place today.”

“That’s quite a statement.”

“No,” answered Rex. “Scott’s right. This weekend would have seen evil biological weapons technology pass into the hands of countries who oppose all that the Western world stands for. Amy stopped that. She set in motion a chain of events that ultimately stopped the Plague Doctor from delivering the goods to renegade scientists attending the toxicology conference.”

Al shook his head. “I can’t believe Gunter turned out to be one of the world’s most wanted men. I thought he was my friend, Hannah’s friend. He deceived us all here in White River.”

“He was hiding in plain sight, working on his research. Thanks to Amy, he was finally flushed out. And Amy brought me together with my family.”

He was right, thought Hannah. If it hadn’t been for Amy, she wouldn’t have been forced into Rex’s company. They wouldn’t be here now, together, enjoying a family dinner.

Al nodded his head slowly. Contemplative. “So what was the Plague Doctor actually working on?”

Rex caught Scott’s eye. Scott nodded. Rex continued.

“Well, the Plague Doctor was trying to complete something he first started in his Marumba lab. It’s what we refer to as ethnic bullets. These bullets are biological agents, lethal bugs, that can be genetically engineered to target only certain types of people with common genetic makeup.”

Sheila joined the discussion. “You mean a virus or bacteria can be genetically altered so that it only attacks a certain ethnic group?”

“Exactly. The mapping of human genes has made this technology possible. It’s the frightening future of biological weapons.”

Hannah could hardly believe what she was hearing. The Plague Doctor was doing
that
in White River. “This is crazy, Rex. It sounds like science fiction, like potential genocide.”

“It is. What was science fiction is now fact.”

Rex forked up a couple of baby carrots, popping them into his mouth. “Good carrots. You tried these, Danny?”

“Uh, not yet…Dad.” He was relishing the word playing it over his tongue.

Rex sneaked a carrot off Danny’s plate and continued. “After the Plague Doctor escaped the Marumba fire, he was taken by the consortium, Die Waffenbruder, to Odessa, where Vasilev apparently worked his plastic surgery magic on him. He then took on the identity of Dr. Gunter Schmidt. The real Dr. Schmidt rather coincidentally disappeared in Switzerland. It appears his identity was stolen, which is why Gunter’s records checked out.”

“Yeah.” Scott picked up the conversation. “And, Rex, I haven’t told you yet, it turns out Vasilev was doing all the surgery at the White River Spa himself. The Plague Doctor is brilliant in his evil genius but apparently he is not a plastic surgeon. They needed to bring Vasilev in to help him.”

“What happens to the doctor now?” It was an uncomfortable juxtaposition, thought Hannah, a doctor, trained to heal yet working to deliver death. But then, everything as she knew it had been turned on its head in the last few days.

“He will eventually end up being tried at the Hague by an international tribunal.” Rex sneaked the last carrot off Danny’s plate. The boy smiled in gleeful conspiracy as his mother threw them a dark look.