Savich pulled a chair up close, took her hand in his. “I know you very nearly died, Agent Grace. I know it’s a miracle you’re still with us. All of us are very pleased that you are. Your uncle is right, if you can’t go on, you simply tell us, and we’ll let you rest.” He paused for a moment, gauging how cogent she was. Enough, he thought. “Thank you for agreeing to answer our questions.” Savich then stood and backed away.
Nicholas came a bit closer, looked down at the woman who should by rights be dead twice over, what with the bullet to the chest and the fall from the burning building.
“Agent Grace told us you’ve been undercover in COE for the past four months. Can you tell us exactly what your mission was?”
“It all started with the chatter about a special new bomb under development, said to be undetectable by any of our scanners. The genius making this bomb, we found out, is Matthew Spenser, also known as the Bishop. He was operating out of Belfast at that time.
“I posed as a bomb expert, which I am, and an IRA bomber I worked with, Ian McGuire, introduced me to Spenser and I joined his group, COE. My mission was to steal the specs once Matthew perfected the bomb. He showed it to me, told me how it would be undetectable, and so small, you can’t believe how small they are. Gold coins, the size of a fifty-cent piece.
“But Matthew was very secretive, very careful, with everyone. He only told each person in the group what they needed to know to pull off the next bombing.”
“Undetectable bombs,” Mike repeated quietly. “I can’t imagine how that’s even possible.”
“I know they’re made of gold and tungsten, with carbon-fiber hulls, which wouldn’t ever set off the scanners. You could walk onto a plane with one in your pocket, leave it in the magazine pocket, and walk away, and bring the whole thing down, or you could leave it in a coffee shop, or a police station or a stadium. But they were theoretical only, until now. There are, of course, other components I couldn’t find out about. And then he perfected it.”
Savich leaned forward. “Bayway was a test?”
“Yes. I’d built a bomb as well, and that was the second blast, designed to destroy, not kill.” Her breathing hitched. “I didn’t know, didn’t know. How many workers were killed?”
Mike said, “Fifteen people, and the blast destroyed the refinery. I’d say Spenser’s bomb is ready for market.”
Savich asked, “How did Matthew Spenser find out you were an undercover agent?”
Vanessa whispered, “When we got back to the apartment in Brooklyn, I knew I had to tell Uncle Carl immediately what was happening. I was in the bathroom, sending him a text, and Matthew came in to bully me. When Uncle Carl’s message came back, he heard the ding on my phone. I tried to talk my way out of it—the message was ambiguous—but it didn’t work. Ian tried to protect me, and Matthew killed him, then he killed me, or he thought he had. Then he set the apartment on fire with Andy’s special gasoline mixes. I managed to get out but fell off the fire escape. And that’s all I remember until I woke up here.”
She lay pale and silent now, staring up at Savich. She licked her dry lips, drank a bit more water. Finally, she whispered, “When he looked at me, I knew it was the end. His eyes were dead. I guess it was the only way he could deal with the ultimate betrayal, both Ian and me.”
Vanessa couldn’t get spit in her mouth. She nodded again toward the water carafe. Why did her mouth feel like a desert?
Grace immediately placed the straw against her lips.