Suspects(39)

“She’s been drugged, or drugged herself, an overdose of some kind. I’m calling an ambulance now.” He took something out of his pocket then that appeared to be a wallet, and Daniel hoped it wasn’t a gun, since he wasn’t armed himself. The gardener flipped it open and it was a badge.

“I’m DGSE, assigned to Mrs. Pasquier. We need to get her to a hospital fast.” He took out a cellphone and walked away to make the call for an ambulance, and as Daniel turned to check on Theo, she had her cellphone in her hand. She was calling Mike in New York. It was almost nine in the morning for him. She couldn’t figure out the time difference, but she knew that something was wrong. She was groggy and dizzy, and felt confused. She was nauseous and her head was pounding and spinning. Mike had been doing his morning exercises and answered when he saw her name come up on his phone.

“Good morning, sunshine,” he said in his deep morning voice that she knew now.

“Mike,” she said, sounding breathless, “I think I’m sick.”

“What kind of sick?”

“I’m sick to my stomach, and my head is pounding. I’m dizzy. And I keep forgetting what I was going to do. I’m at the chateau. I came to get something, but I can’t remember what.”

“Are you upset about being there?” His own heart was beating fast now too.

“Yes. No. It’s sad, but I knew they wouldn’t be here. I thought Axel was here, but he’s not.” She did remember that. “I think I came to get a coat,” she said, sounding vague again.

“Who’s with you?” he said, trying to sound calmer than he felt.

“Daniel and the gardener. They’ve been very nice, but I don’t think I’m all right. That’s why I called you. I keep getting mixed up like I’m half asleep. And Pierre de Vaumont was here, I think, but I’m not sure. I think he wants to buy the house or something.”

“Theo, let me talk to Daniel,” he said quietly. She didn’t answer but handed him the phone. Mike had his official voice on the moment he spoke to the bodyguard. “Daniel, there should be someone in plainclothes in the vicinity. Look around and see if you notice anyone.”

The bodyguard turned away so Theo couldn’t hear him. “There’s a gardener who says he’s DGSE and a paramedic. I saw his badge. He called an ambulance.”

“That’s the one. How does she look?”

“Not well. She says she doesn’t feel well, she’s perspiring, and the gardener, the paramedic, says her pupils are constricted and her pulse is slow. He thinks she may have had an overdose of something, a medication maybe.”

“Get her to a hospital as fast as you can. She may have been poisoned. I’m going to call his boss and see what we do now. Tell the ambulance when they arrive that it may be poison. I’ll call you back.”

Mike hung up, and called Guy Thomas on his personal cellphone. He picked up immediately when he recognized Mike’s number.

“She’s at the chateau and I think she may have been poisoned. De Vaumont was there with her.”

“Christ, this is all we need. Is my guy with her?”

“Yes, he called an ambulance and identified himself. He was posing as a gardener,” Mike told him rapidly.

“He has medical training. I’ll call him right away. I want her taken to the nearest hospital, and if they let her, I’d like to have her at a hospital in the city, so our people can keep an eye on her if she’s been poisoned. And I want all her lab work sent to one of our facilities. They know what to look for.” As he said it, he was praying that no one had administered one of the Russian nerve agents, which would be disastrous. Even the chateau would have to be decontaminated, if that was the case. “I’ll send someone to get the keys to the chateau from her,” Guy said to Mike. “I want a forensics team out there immediately to comb the place and see what they find. How bad is she?”

“I can’t tell. She doesn’t sound good, and she knows something’s wrong, but she knew enough to call me. She says she’s confused, and she sounds it.”

“Let’s hope it’s not too bad. I’m on it, Mike. I’ll get things moving.”

“Thanks, Guy,” he said, then hung up and called Robert.

“I think Theo’s been poisoned. I could be wrong, but it sounds like it could be. And I have no idea why, but de Vaumont was with her. Something about buying her house.”

“Is he still there?”

“No, I think he left.”

“If you’re right, have them tell the hospital to give her atropine immediately. It won’t cure her, but it will stop the action of the poison and restore her functions to normal. And they have to give her oximes. They’re the only antidote, if it’s a nerve agent. The fucking Russians love them and use them on each other all the time. Some are stronger than others. Let’s hope this is a mild one. This is serious, Mike. It could be fatal.”

“Why on her?” Mike said through clenched teeth.

“For a lot of reasons we can figure out later. Let’s make sure she’s going to be okay first. They don’t want to kill her, they want to scare her. We’ve been hearing echoes in Russia this week that they want their other fifty million. They’re finally coming out of the woodwork, and if they kill her, they won’t get it. They’re smart enough to know that. Where are you, by the way?”