"We had an incident last night at the house." Ivan Marais was even harder to understand than normal. On top of his normal, thick Eastern European accent, he seemed tense and nervous.
Lawrence stared through the plexiglass at Ivan before glancing at the guards in the visitors room. Neither of the guards were on Lawrence's payroll, so they both had to be particularly circumspect. Not that they would ever speak freely here; not with Donovan probably bugging this conversation.
"What kind of incident?" Lawrence finally asked.
"Something of the three-letter kind," Ivan replied. "But that was only after security detected an intruder, several of the house smoke detectors went off, and the Salem Fire Department evacuated the house."
So a carefully orchestrated infiltration operation, Lawrence thought. "Did our friendly local Captain take part?"
"Not openly," Ivan said.
Perhaps not, Lawrence thought, but he assumed Donovan was behind everything. Lawrence sat back in his chair. "So tell me more."
Ivan seemed to think a little. "A few hours after the fire department departed, we received more visitors. They seemed very keen to see your wine cellar."
Did they? Lawrence leaned forward. Nobody in the ISA could possibly have known how he had circumvented customs inspectors. The wine cellar contained bottles containing the virus and its antidote. If the authorities found those bottles, they could link Lawrence to the virus. "Tell me they did not find any of my bottles to their linking. I doubt our friends care much for old vintages."
"Not at all, sir." Ivan lowered his voice. "I took the liberty of ensuring that a few of our special vintages were protected. We would not have wanted them damaged." As Lawrence breathed a little easier, Ivan added, "I also had the exterminators come through afterwards. They found quite an infestation."
What? Lawrence tried to stop his eyes from widening. How could the ISA have planted bugs in his house? He forced himself to remain calm. "Are you confident the exterminators did their job?"
"Very," said Ivan. "But to be certain, sir, I intend to have them return later."
"And our friends. . . . They did not find anything?"
"Of that, I am equally certain." Ivan shook his head. "I must admit that the incident seemed quite clumsy."
"Clumsy?" Lawrence wanted an explanation.
"As I said, just before the smoke alarms, our regular security sweep detected something in a particularly notable room off the west corridor."
The west corridor housed Lawrence's office, which also housed the entrance to the basement. Lawrence got the point. Someone had infiltrated Lawrence's office. "I assume the 'fire' caused little damage."
"Very limited."
Lawrence translated. The smoke detectors were a ruse to protect whoever was about to be caught in Lawrence's office. It was a decent plan. Just as an agent would be caught, send in other agents masquerading as firefighters to clear the path to the exit. But if the house was so well bugged, why didn't the ISA know where the security guards were?
"The firefighters claimed one of their men was overcome by smoke," Ivan said. "However, he seemed quite reluctant to leave the house." There was a pause before Ivan added, "One of the guards was certain that the man had. . . ." He did not say the words, but cupped one hand over an eye.
Lawrence could not stop a sly grin. "Did he now?" Well, well, well. So Mr. Johnson was not going to go away quietly. "You should have mentioned that before, Ivan. Why do you invariably keep the most interesting information until the end?" Now the big question was whether Johnson was working with the ISA or if he was pursuing his own course of action.
Maybe it did not matter. If Ivan removed the virus and antidote, there was nothing at the house that could implicate Lawrence in any criminal activity. Ivan would have already alerted the research staff in Monserrat to devise a new way to transport the toxin. That was a shame. Jacaranda Winery was a rather effective front, but Lawrence's people could devise other ways to smuggle in the toxin when it was perfected.
Unfortunately, that was not something he could discuss with Ivan unless Lawrence wanted Donovan to heard his plans. Lawrence would need to use his conduits to carry information about the toxin. That or Lawrence needed to get out of prison soon. Speaking of which.
Lawrence leaned close to the plexiglass. "I would hate for the terribly unfortunate incident regarding Mr. Marchand to delay my parole hearing." Lawrence had seen the reports on Marchand's murder in the morning newspaper, which meant that Ivan had taken care of matters perfectly. "I hope you can find someone appropriate to take his place."
"Of course, sir." Ivan smiled slightly.
"Yes. . . ." Lawrence chuckled as he thought about what he would say next. "You know, Ivan. I think once I am done here, perhaps we should consider a little vacation. I think we could use a small break from Salem."
He could almost picture the ISA agents listening to that little tidbit and scrambling to try to guess where in the world Lawrence might go. But that was part of the fun, wasn't it? Besides, leaving Salem for a little while did make sense considering the questionable security at the house.
Of course, Lawrence had every intention of returning. He had already left far too many loose ends in Salem. But he would take care of them - once his new project was perfected.