Page 72 of Poison Evidence

“Repeatedly. I’m locked in but good. For the record, my sister doesn’t even know where she and Yulian are being held.”

“I might be able to extract that information. If you were able to get online with her again.”

“The dark web—which is how we were able to chat—really doesn’t work that way.”

“I’m familiar with the dark web. There is always a way to force computers to give up secrets. All you need is time.”

“Time is one thing we don’t have. It’s a moot point anyway—Sophia was given access to a computer so she could tell me what happened, but she hasn’t been in touch with me since. I have no way of contacting her. This time, I have to play by my puppet master’s rules.”

She frowned. “Is he here? In Palau? Keeping tabs?”

He shrugged. “I assume so. I wouldn’t know, though. As I said, I don’t know who is running things now.”

“Because the man who raped your sister is dead. You don’t know who took his place.”

“That man was killed years ago. I knew his replacement and was in direct—albeit coded—communication with him until last November. It appears he paid a steep price for my apparent defection. What I don’t know is who replaced him.”

“So it could be anyone.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t suppose he could have been onLibertythe other night?”

“No way. I’m already doing his dirty work. He wouldn’t risk himself that way.”

“Who do you think the Russian was, then?”

He shrugged. “Probably one of the mafiosi who sold old Soviet weapons to your ex.”

“He said ‘underestimate the Hammer, and you’re dead.’ Who—or what—is the Hammer? Could that be your new boss?”

“It’s possible. It also could be a reference to the old Soviet Union, or a code name for someone in his organization. The Russian wanted to takeLiberty. Maybe he had orders from someone higher up—the Hammer—to take the boat.”

“I suppose we’ll never know.”

It was a good reminder that Patrick’s former allies were still searching for her and CAM, and she was exposed away from their safe haven. She cleared her throat. “Let’s go. I need botanical samples for teaching CAM the signatures, and I want to see if there’s a cave in the northwest quadrant.”

Now he’d out-and-out lied when he could have told her the truth, but he’d long since passed the point of no return. They had to work together to find the magic elixir so she could click her heels and go back to DC. The truth about his other work for the GRU would only turn her against him.

Jesus, why couldn’t the Russians have held on to their damn high-tech toy? He suspected his mysterious new boss was the dumbass who let the AUUV slip from his fingers, hence the high pressure on Dimitri to recover it at all costs.

He followed Ivy through the thick vegetation that covered the limestone island, watching the sway of her ass as she climbed the steep hillside.

“Careful,” she said, pointing to a nearby tree. “That’s poison tree, and the trunk is coated with sap.”

He paused and studied the tree. He’d heard of poison tree but hadn’t come across one until now—at least not knowingly. He’d never suffered a rash and so assumed he’d been lucky, but now he realized he had come into contact with a few—but they hadn’t been weeping sap like this tree.

“The problem is the sap?” he asked.

She nodded. “The leaves can trigger a rash—like poison oak or ivy—I hear you don’t want to stand under one in the rain. But the sap is much worse. Contact with the sap can lead to blisters. Bad ones. Often like a second-degree burn.”

All at once, his body flooded with adrenaline. “The sap causesburns? Real, actual, second-degree burns?”

“So I hear.”

“Sonofabitch,” he muttered.

“What’s wrong?”