She stiffened. “Thousands of children?”

“You see, you focused on the children immediately.” His tone was filled with delight. “I knew you would. Think about it, Eve, you’ve spent your entire adult life trying to bring children back to their grieving parents. How would you feel, if in the flash of a second, a greater number of children than the total you sent back to their parents were vaporized? No bodies to retrieve, no children for you to bring home to their parents. But, then, there might not be any parents grieving for their little ones. One has to consider that probability.”

Probability, not possibility. The choice of words terrified Eve. “You’re talking crazy, Doane. Vaporized? What the hell are you planning?”

“You know, I thought that the bodies of Blick and the whore he brought to the ghost town might be vaporized. Maybe I should have used more explosives. Kevin would know better than I what kind of effect a blast would have. I’m an amateur compared to him.” He added, “But I believe the blasts that Kevin and his friends planned would cause vaporization. I hear that’s what happened in Hiroshima. Come to think of it, the numbers might climb to millions.”

She couldn’t breathe. “Nuclear. You’re talking nuclear.”

“Of course. What else? Kevin wouldn’t deal with anything that was penny-ante. I told you once how much he admired Hitler. If Hitler had gotten the atomic bomb first, he would have been a god. Naturally, Kevin would follow in his footsteps. Only his plans were much more brilliant than Hitler’s, and he was right on track to bring them to completion.”

“How?”

“Your voice is weak. I’m frightening you, aren’t I?”

Don’t deny it. She was frightened, and he was more likely to keep talking if he felt that heady sense of power. “How can I help it?” she asked shakily. “It’s a horror story. He’s a horror story.”

“Kevin was magnificent. Horror is in the eye of the beholder. Horror can be power. It can twist the heart and bring a man to his knees.” He added maliciously, “Or her knees. I think that you’ll bow down before him before this is over, Eve.”

“Those children…” she said hoarsely. “How?”

“It’s really hurting you, isn’t it?” He paused. “And I’m not afraid you’ll ever be a threat. Kevin is getting stronger, and you’re getting weaker.”

“How?”

“And I’d really like you to be dreading it during the next few days. I’d enjoy that very much.”

“How?”

“A very sophisticated device that can be triggered from a great distance. It was state-of-the-art five years ago, but nowadays it’s a little behind the times. But it will work.” He murmured. “Oh, my, how it will work. Boom! There go ten blocks of prime real estate in two American cities.” He chuckled. “And the possibility of the rest of the city being unfit for habitation for the next three decades. It’s a very dirty device. If Kevin does something, he does it right.”

“Two cities.”

“It was estimated that the destruction of two large cities would definitely destroy the U.S. economy. What’s left of it after the last years of recession. Of course, back when the plan went into place, the recession wasn’t as rocky, and they were considering adding—”

“Who would do this? And don’t say Kevin. He wouldn’t have had the power to initiate a plot like that.”

“Well, he didn’t actually initiate it. It was funded by Iran. They were having trouble getting their nuclear program off the ground, but a small device is much simpler. There were cells set up in the target cities, but Kevin immediately became involved once he found out about it. He became responsible for acquiring key parts and distributing the uranium to the two cities. He was so trusted, he was even allowed to transfer the devices from place to place to avoid their being discovered. He might just as well have initiated the plan.”

“So trusted he was going to turn over the names of the members of the cell to save his neck.”

“It was necessary. He had to be free to have a new start. That bastard, Fred Juskow, in the counterterrorist team promised him that they’d set him up somewhere with money and a new identity if he’d talk to them.” His voice hardened. “And then they let Tarther hire Zander to kill him just because he’d killed his little girl. They told me General Tarther was disobeying Homeland Security orders. But Kevin was dead, my boy was dead. What difference did that make?”

“Then the Pakistan disk had nothing to do with the deal you made with Venable, did it?”

“It was a good, acceptable substitution. Everyone wanted to get Bin Laden, and Pakistan was far away. It would have been another matter if it had gotten out that the counterterrorist guys had botched a job that concerned the deaths of millions of Americans on home turf.”

“And did they botch it? It never happened.”

“They botched it. When Kevin was murdered, the Iranians thought their operation had been discovered. The cell members in the two cities scattered to the four winds.”

“Then how did they botch it?”

“They never found the nuclear devices. Kevin flew in from the Middle East and moved them to a hidden location before he went back to Pakistan. He made sure no one but him knew where they were hidden. That was going to be part of the deal he made with Homeland Security.”

“But then Zander killed Kevin.” She paused, trying to piece it together. “And you took over the negotiations. You wouldn’t tell them where the devices were located, but as long as Venable had his hands on you, they thought that you wouldn’t reveal where the devices were to the terrorists.”

“I had Venable fooled. I had all of them fooled. They got careless.”

“How do you know those nuclear devices are still operational? It’s been five years. Wouldn’t they disintegrate or something?”

“Kevin wouldn’t allow that to happen.”

“Look, why not let the Iranians ship in another bomb or two. Why set these antiques off?”

“You’re blind. Can’t you see the value of those devices of Kevin’s? I assure you that when I contacted Cartland after we arrived here that he knew what a treasure I was offering.”

“And what is the value? It’s five years old and outdated technology.”

“It’s in place.” He repeated, “In place. Do you know how incredibly difficult it would be to smuggle two nukes into two different cities? It was hard back when Kevin and the cell managed to do it. Homeland Security is a thousand times more sophisticated and well connected than they were five years ago. These devices are in place and only waiting for someone to press the switch.”

“If they still work. If your Kevin didn’t screw up.”

“You’re making me angry. If Kevin had lived, everyone would have known how brilliant he was. They’ll still know it when those devices go off. Everyone will fear him and respect him.”

“Bullshit. They’ll know him as the monster he is and probably laugh when the bombs fizzle out.”

“Bitch.” She could feel the waves of rage he was emitting. “I’ll show you what—” He stopped, then said, “That’s right, I will show you. You and Zander. It’s the perfect ending for you, Eve. I think we’ll pay a visit to one of the cities where Kevin hid a device. I’ll use you to draw Zander there, too. You’ll probably be dead before it goes off, but you’ll never know, will you? The suspense could be excruciating.”

“You’ll never draw Zander anywhere by using me.”

“He came to the ghost town. I was very encouraged when he showed up.”

She was silent. “Which city?”

“Does it matter?”

She had been afraid to pry into the names of the cities, but this question had seemed personal and natural. She tried to make her answer offhand. “I guess not.”

“Let’s see. Maybe somewhere close to Vancouver. We wouldn’t want Zander to travel too far. I wouldn’t want to discourage him.” He thought for a moment. “Seattle. Yes, I think that would be just right. Have you ever been to Seattle?”