While Justice Sleeps(40)

    Complicated? Rigging a Supreme Court verdict to allow a merger was more than complicated, Avery thought edgily. It was grounds for impeachment and damned near impossible. As was telling anyone about the status of a Supreme Court decision. “He told you he planned to vote in favor of the merger?”

“At first, he didn’t tell me much at all. But we’ve stayed in touch. Turns out he’d followed my career from the minute I enlisted. He wanted me to understand the course of the disease. Then, over the past few weeks, he started hinting at more, rambling on about international problems and ‘the tiny minds of tiny men.’ I did do intelligence work, and I’m not bad with research. A few searches and the right questions, and finally, I confronted him. Asked if his solution had anything to do with the president’s block on the GenWorks merger.”

“He told you about the case?”

“Not fully. He still played coy. All he’d say was that he was working on a solution. But he dropped enough hints to know I’d go looking. I found the cases, and I know about GenWorks’ biogenetics work, but not much else. I’m guessing that’s where you come in.”

“I’m not sure what you want. What he thinks I can do.”

“I don’t know either.” He lifted his tea. “This court decision about GenWorks. Is it final?”

The fact that it wasn’t was the source of gossip in the Court. Rumor had it that Justice Wynn held the deciding vote, but he’d refused to sign on to the Chief’s opinion yet. No one knew why not, and Avery knew better than to ask. Instead, she shook her head. “The Court will continue to issue rulings until the end of the month. But I can’t reveal the status of court proceedings. Don’t ask me.”

His jaw tightened. “I have to ask you. We’re talking about my life. About my father’s life.”

“You said he can’t be helped.”

“He can’t, but he thinks you can help me.”

“How can I? The workings of the Court are confidential until the justices issue a final decision. I couldn’t tell you anything, even if I thought I knew it.” But the GenWorks case was a black box, and if Justice Wynn could have resolved it, why hadn’t he? Instead of putting himself into a coma, like his doctors suspected. Avery’s mind swirled with possibilities, but none of them made sense. If all it would take to save his son was one vote on the Court, surely Justice Wynn would have done that himself. No reason to bring her into this.

    “Avery? Where’d you go?”

“What? I’m sorry, Jared. I really don’t know how I can help you.”

Impatient, he leaned across the table. “You have to, Avery. The judge said you’d know how to put the pieces together. What pieces?”

Jamie’s warning played shrilly in her head. Save us. Forgive me. Why would saving their lives require forgiveness? And who was she to be in the middle of this?

Avery shoved her chair back and stood. “I’m not sure what your father thought I knew or told you I could do, Jared, but I don’t know anything. I’m sorry about your illness, but I can’t fix this for you. For either of you.”





SIXTEEN


Jared quickly rose, stepping toward Avery and placing his hand on her arm. The gravelly voice lost its anger in a plea. “Avery, you know something. I saw it.”

“You’re imagining things,” she whispered, unwilling to attract attention.

“I’m sorry.” Jared dropped his hand. “Please, don’t leave. Look, my father has asked me for one thing in the last twenty years. To come to you if he got too sick to do it himself.”

“This isn’t about him,” she argued, sitting again. Jared sat again as well. “It’s about you. Justice Wynn isn’t coming out of his coma. Anything I do saves your life, not his.”

Jared lowered his voice and locked eyes with Avery. “You’re right. But I’m not sure that’s all there is to this.”

Save us. “What do you mean? Why?”

“Because I don’t think the judge loved me that much.” He exhaled sharply. “He was anxious when he talked to me. Frightened. Kept looking over his shoulder as we talked. There’s more to it. This is about more than me and some disease that’s killing us both.”

“The doctors said he might have shown signs of paranoia.”

“Paranoia—or knowledge? He kept telling me that it was too dangerous to tell me the truth, but that this was a matter of national security.”

“Jared, he could have been having delusions. And he knew what you did in the Navy. Maybe guilt was creating a fantasy scenario where he could save your life.”

“Perhaps. I don’t know. He never gave me details, but he would rant about the president. He truly hated President Stokes, and he didn’t like his doctors. But he said that if he ran out of time, he had a backup plan.”

    “Which is?”

“You.” Jared held her gaze. “That’s why he told me to come to you if anything happened to him. That the fate of the world would be at stake. It sounds like hyperbole, but he was dead serious.”

“And you don’t think he was delusional and paranoid?” she protested.

“I don’t know what to think. He broke a twenty-year silence to come and warn me. That has to mean something. His mind was crystal clear on that, Avery.”