“Interesting,” Max remarked.
“It gets more interesting, Lieutenant Bernstein.”
“How so?”
“I have an American named Frank Reed sitting beside me. Mr. Reed is a patron of the Eager Beaver Bar.”
“Oh?”
“Let me preface this by mentioning that Mr. Reed admits to being drunk at the time he was in the bar.”
“Go on.”
“It seems that Mr. Reed was engaging in sexual activities with a prostitute in the upstairs section of the Eager Beaver. He accidentally opened the wrong door and saw a man chained at the ankle.”
“I see,” Max said. His fingers plucked at his hair and mustache. “Isn’t that fairly normal? Whips and chains at a whorehouse?”
“Oh, yes, quite normal,” the colonel agreed. “Mr. Reed, however, swears that the man he saw was Michael Silverman.”
The words slammed into Max’s solar plexus. “What?”
“He claims Michael Silverman is being held captive at the Eager Beaver Bar.”
“Have you checked out his story?”
“That might not be as easy as you might think,” the colonel explained. “George Camron is more than a dangerous hit man, Lieutenant Bernstein—he is very clever and careful. If Michael Silverman is being held in the Eager Beaver—and it would not be the first time Camron has kept someone there—it will be nearly impossible to get him out. Camron probably has the place wired with explosives, and if he gets even slightly suspicious, he will blow the place up.”
“Can’t you take him out by surprise?”
“It is too risky, Lieutenant Bernstein. If we failed to kill Camron immediately or if he is working with an accomplice, I assure you that Mr. Silverman’s life would be forfeited. Because Mr. Silverman is something of an international celebrity, our government would frown upon such actions. That is why I am calling you. I am not saying that the place is definitely wired. I am just giving you Camron’s past history.”
“I appreciate it. Willie, are you listening in?”
“Yeah, Twitch, I’m here.”
“Get me booked on the next plane to Bangkok.”
“Already did it. I have you booked on Japan Airlines flight 006, which leaves Kennedy in about two hours. You connect in Tokyo with JAL flight 491 that’ll bring you into Bangkok in the evening. Problem is, I don’t think the department will pay for it.”
“I’ll worry about that when I get back. Colonel, do you mind my coming over?”
“Not at all, Lieutenant, as long as you understand that we are in charge of the situation.”
“Understood.”
“Then we have no problem. In the meantime we will do our best to monitor the Eager Beaver as inconspicuously as possible.”
Max rifled through his drawers until he found his passport underneath a jar of mayonnaise. He wiped it clean with an old napkin.
“Then I’m on my way.”
THEY were all seated in the study.
John Lowell sat behind his large oak desk with Senator Jenkins on his right and a few feet behind him. Facing them on the other side of the desk were Sara and Cassandra. For a moment they all just studied one another. Then Sara broke the silence:
“Is Michael still alive?”
John glanced at the senator and then back toward his daughter. “We don’t know, honey.”
“But you know something about his kidnapping?”
“We may know something about it,” Senator Jenkins corrected. “We can’t say for sure.”
Sara shook her head. “Dad, what’s going on?”
“I’m not sure where to begin, actually.” Dr. John Lowell rose and moved toward a bookshelf filled with large medical volumes. His eyes passed over the titles, but they read nothing. “You know how I feel about the Cancer Center, don’t you?”
“Of course we do,” Sara replied, “but what does that have to do with—”
“Everything, Sara,” John said simply. He pulled out a book, glanced at the binding, and put it back on the shelf. “You see, focus can be a dangerous thing. Your view of the world narrows. You grow obsessed. Blinded. You see everything in terms of your obsession and nothing else. You cannot accept defeat. You cannot understand why everyone else does not share your passion. Don’t get me wrong. Concentration and focus are good and necessary. But when they slide unchecked, they can distort your perspective. In the ultimate pursuit of knowledge, you can easily become ignorant.”
Sara and Cassandra shared a confused glance. “I still don’t understand.”
John smiled sadly. “You will. This is not easy for me to say, so just give me a little time. I’ll get to the heart of the matter eventually.”
The sisters nodded.
“I wanted that new wing at the Cancer Center so badly I ached physically,” he continued. “It could help so many people—people suffering the worst medical curse known to mankind. Diseases and plagues come and go, but cancer is a constant. I thought the new wing and the additional finances would be a gigantic step toward unlocking the secrets of cancer and, ultimately, to curing it. I would have done anything to get that new wing. Anything.”
He paused here, letting his meaning sink into the still surroundings. “When the additional finances for the new wing were rejected, it was like a spear through my heart. Those damn fools, I raged. How could they be so stupid? I tried to save the idea. I threw all the money I could into it, and tried to raise more privately. But it was not enough. We had needed the grant, and now that was gone. The new wing was dead. And why? Where had the money gone? To AIDS. To Harvey and Bruce’s clinic. To a gay disease. To a drug addict’s disease. To a disease I still believe will never run rampant in the normal heterosexual community.”
Sara opened her mouth, but John stopped her by raising his hand. “I don’t want to argue with you, Sara. I know you feel differently. Suffice to say that this is how I see it. Yes, some non-intravenous-drug-abusing heterosexuals have come down with AIDS, but the number is small, especially relative to the number of people who die from cancer. This is how I see it—right or wrong, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
He caught Sara’s eyes then. A small smile appeared on his face. “You remember when we watched Damn Yankees on the video? Remember how the guy sells his soul to the devil in order to get what he wants? That’s what I did. I didn’t realize it at the time—or maybe I did but I didn’t care. Who knows anymore? I only know that I signed on with the devil and there was no looking back.”