Unacceptable Risk (24 page)

"Why would you do this?"

"I'm getting to that. One more thing: did you know that one of your agents, a Rene, accidentally killed Michael Bowden's girlfriend when he tried to take a gun from her? A gun that she was using to protect herself against Gaudet and his men?"

"This is true?"

"All of it. Baptiste is planning a meeting with Gaudet to make that deal. And he is going to allow Cordyceps to go forward. If you put that together with the money ..." She allowed Larive to make his own deduction.

"That makes the French government an accomplice. Fucking Baptiste is out of control!"

"That's why you should let me go to the States when Baptiste asks. You will know everything that is going on. You will then, on behalf of the French government, be seeking to thwart the plot of a renegade agent."

"It's not that simple. I should turn him in and replace him."

"Keep in mind, first and foremost, that you want the technology. Diplomatically, you need only a fig leaf. You need complete success and not another horrible scandal in your agency. And most important of all, you may need someone to blame. Baptiste has done this on his own, but if you replace him, then suddenly you become solely responsible for whatever happens. Or am I incorrect about that?" Benoit had built a tower of irrefutable facts.

The admiral sighed—as she knew he would. "Tell me exactly what you will do."

"First I will go to Gaudet. I will be present when Gaudet meets Baptiste, but Baptiste will be unaware of this. That way the French government is spying on its own and is not acting in concert with the renegade Baptiste. I will tell you exactly what goes on. Then, in New York, I will broker deals with Bowden, Raval, and Gaudet. I will ensure that Gaudet offers all of his vector technology as part of the bargain. I know about it and am the best one to judge. We will open a Swiss escrow. The formula, notes, and so on will be deposited in escrow, along with contact numbers for ex-Grace employees and their job functions, et cetera. France will deposit two hundred million; ten million will be deposited for kickbacks, leaving a net one hundred ninety million."

"Wait, I thought you said Baptiste was getting five million, not ten million."

"I'm coming to that. There will be a period of examination to authenticate the materials. If I'm able to bring Bowden into the deal, the Chaperone molecule will be part of the escrow. Finally Raval will deliver that actual, authentic Grace record of invention for Chaperone, along with everything he knows about Chaperone. I will do everything in my power to learn the date when Cordyceps will be unleashed—how Gaudet's going to do it and what exactly he is going to do. I will deliver that information to the French government before it happens. You will notify the Americans. That will avoid any scandal. The French did their part. If for some reason it is too late to stop Cordyceps, then you, Admiral, can invest the five million I'll earmark for you."

The admiral slammed his fist in his hand. "I would do no such thing. I will not take money. Do you think I am a dog like Baptiste?"

"Calm down. You can tell the Americans the details of Cordyceps once escrow with Gaudet closes and not before. If you tell them before, then the whole deal could come apart and you will not get Chaperone or the rest of the vector technology. Once the Americans know of Cordyceps, they will go crazy. Gaudet will know that you have told them. He will cancel the escrow with immediate document destruction as provided in the escrow. And then he will unleash Cordyceps anyway."

"But we must tell the Americans."

"And you will. After escrow."

"I will tell them and that is all there is to it. And I cannot take this money."

"You need to calm yourself and think this through. Your money will be in a numbered account. You will have the number. In truth, if discovered, it will be part of what Baptiste expected to get. That will be the story. He'll get arrested for five million. The other five million will be missing. Yours. Leave it in the anonymous account if you don't want it. You can always turn it in to the French government. Say you tricked Gaudet and it would be a feather in your cap. I am putting it there in any case, and only you and I will know. The point is, you don't have to decide now. The key, remember, is making the deal for the French with Gaudet before telling the Americans about Cordyceps. Understand?"

"Benoit, I have one simple question: why would you risk telling me all this?"

"I want a pardon. Don't underestimate me, Admiral. I can do this. Not only that, I'm the
only
person who can do all of this. Without me, Chaperone will be lost to France for at least your lifetime, and you can take that to the bank. Without this deal another country or entity will get the functioning vector technology first."

"Why do you wish to involve me?"

"Because you can send me to the States. And because you are almost a minister. I need the promise of a pardon from the French government from someone who counts."

She had shifted on the bed, revealing a firm thigh.

"Would you like me to take off this blouse?"

"You know I would." His heart was beating hard as she teased off the blouse to reveal a sheer bra and a firm, high set of breasts with dark rose nipples. His throat constricted and he became fully erect.

"Where do you get such lingerie in prison?"

"My cousin in
le Senat
staff. But your staff are not complete morons. They have to stretch the rules to let me wear it—I think that had something to do with the fact that I would be with you this afternoon."

She leaned forward and pulled him toward her, running his hand across her upper leg.

Larive swallowed. "You say this Raval is the only hope to understanding Chaperone?"

"Yes."

"And Bowden the only man to find the source of the Chaperone molecule."

"Yes."

"What does Bowden get?"

"France will have to pay him a royalty. You and I will negotiate it."

"Were you Raval's lover?"

"No. But we enjoyed each other's company. We flirted, but it never went anywhere. I was in charge of coordinating with Malaysia from an administrative standpoint, but not the science. Boudreaux, the chief scientist, kept the Chaperone research very much compartmentalized. It was even at another facility a few miles from the main lab. Boudreaux kept a double set of books for the employees there and they were lumped in the budget under R and D Immunological Pathogens and Disease Processes. Those books are long gone, of course. But Raval knew everything. It was essentially his project."

"Why would Gaudet tell you his secrets, and if he did, why would you then tell me?"

"He may, he may not. We were lovers for years, as I told you. Also, I can make it part of the deal. After he launches Cordyceps, the technology no longer has much value to him. Making a deal with France first is his best choice. He'll want that two hundred million, have no doubt. And why tell
you?
Isn't it obvious? France is my whole life. I want to live here and be free. I supposed that if I obtained for France the secret of Chaperone, I could obtain a full pardon. To me, my darling, you are freedom."

He looked at the young woman. Tactically, she was brilliant. And she might be right. She might pull it off. There would be no quick pardon, but she need not know that now. He might get her house arrest and rules, then a minimum security with work release in a couple of years.

"You will have a pardon," he said, his hand still on her leg. "If you pull off the whole thing. All of it."

"It is a deal, then? You will let me go to the U.S.?"

"Baptiste must come to me. It must be his idea that he shoves at me. That he guarantees. It cannot be my idea that I assign him."

"I understand."

"And he, of course, will know nothing of our talks. If there is a reason I will do this, it is because your fantastic ideas have very little downside and are the stuff of which great triumphs are made."

Even as he heard himself speak, he felt in a fog, all of his instincts warning him away, and yet when she rose and slipped off the bra and lay on the bed, it drew him like a mouse to the cheese. Playing with her thong, she teased him as he undressed, hurrying so fast he nearly fell over, fouled in his half-removed pants. When he was nude, she removed her thong and used her hands to pleasure him while putting a condom on. Then she sat astride him. The sight of her dried his throat. She grasped him and played with him, using her body and her hands until he thought that he had reached the outer limits of desire. Then she used her tongue. She made him feel young and, yes, powerful because she chose to have him. Even as he felt himself falling into Benoit Moreau, he knew he must be a chump. Wanting a young woman this badly was a classic flaw. In a fleeting second he wondered if this bizarre breach of ethics and good sense had undone all that was good in him. And then he was in her, and she was moving on him. The sensations of her moving against him, her butt on his thighs, her flesh engulfing his, sent him into a daze. He felt her touch his shoulder and he understood that she wanted him to roll. In a flash he was on top and she pulled her legs up and put them along his flanks and she reached and clenched his balls in her hand as he was thrusting, and he looked down in her eyes and they were gleaming and he felt as if he had conquered all.

* * *

Grady lay on the bed, procrastinating. It wasn't until her thoughts moved to Gaudet and his attack in Rio that she got up and changed her clothes and showered, ready to start the evening. Tonight was dinner with Michael's editor. The next day would be a larger lunch with the editor and various bigwigs from the publishing house.

It struck her that Michael Bowden was getting dressed in the next room. As she thought about him, she tried to convince herself that she was being ridiculous, that if he knew about her past he wouldn't want her. A straight-up guy like this—with one of the few pairs of innocent blue eyes in North America—how would he ever comprehend stripping? How could she even explain it? She knew that if she explained it and saw his face, his eyes, the expression of bewilderment and maybe even pain, this fascination that seemed to grip her mind would depart and she could become normal again and forget about him.

Even more significant, Michael would one day return to the Amazon and she doubted she could live in a place like that. She rose and stripped off her clothes. She headed to the shower when there was a knock on the door between her room and Michael's. Something clicked in her brain and she knew she should get dressed before she opened it. Instead, she wrapped herself in a towel, wearing only her thong panties beneath. When she got to the door, she thought about calling out to Michael and explaining that she needed a minute. Her hand rested on the knob for a full thirty seconds. Once again there was a quiet knock.

"Michael?"

"Yes?"

"What do you need?"

"You thought I should wear a tie, but I haven't ever tied one."

She laughed and opened the door.

"Pardon my towel, Michael. I was going to shower."

"I could step out while you put on something."

"Not necessary. Here, I'll show you how to tie a tie, for future reference."

Then she began tying the tie. It felt exciting, standing so near him, as if she were enfolded in his energy. His new growth beard was slightly rough and she liked the look of it and she felt his imposing size, the heft of his shoulders and chest. She felt an urge to spread her hands over his shirt, to touch him. As she completed the double wrap on the tie and was sliding the end down through the loops, she stood on her toes and somehow the towel began to slip. She caught it at the same time he did. His big hands were fast. Slowly he wrapped it around her and, as he did so, his fingers grazed her and she could never recall wanting a man's hands on her body as badly as she wanted the touch of Michael Bowden. Aware that he had seen something of her breasts, ex-stripper or not, she was embarrassed. His eyes now focused on hers and she could see the desire so strong in him that she thought it would come out in words. It was as if his whole body were full of sexual energy.

Her throat felt tight. So she cleared it, but it did nothing to break the tension.

"Michael, we shouldn't... because ..." She found herself stepping even closer to him and looking up, and she couldn't move as his lips came down toward hers a millimeter at a time. And when his hands took her towel, she did nothing but quiver, and then his lips were on hers and his large thumbs were on her nipples, coaxing them. Suddenly she was kissing him as hard as she could and she had his face in her hands. It felt good and very natural as they kissed—like it had happened before. A large hand slid down her belly and she opened her legs, wanting him. She felt her-

self moisten under the ministrations of his fingers and she groaned when he pulled her panties to half-mast.

Suddenly there was a loud knock on her door and the phone rang at the same time. It was as if she had been caught at something and it was terribly wrong. She looked in his eyes, pleading for understanding.