Returning to the cockpit, I’m doing just fine without gravity, even sucking oatmeal from a bag while I’m at it, and I pull myself back into the carbon fiber seat, and am fastening the lap belt to hold me in when ART lets me know audibly that a voice mail was just left.
“I’m sorry,” I reply, puzzling as I eat. “I don’t have a phone up here.”
I look out the porthole at the blue-and-white Earth vivid against pitch darkness, grateful it’s not flying past anymore, that I’m no longer spinning.
“The VM was left on your mobile phone in your room at crew quarters,” and ART takes it upon himself to play the videophone message, Neva Rong’s face appearing in my heads-up display as if it’s a crystal ball.
“Hello, Calli,” her cold smile and colder stare.
Dressed richly, smartly, and for warm weather, she’s sitting at a desk, a blood-red kerchief spilling from the breast pocket of her ivory suit. On the wall behind her is Pandora’s logo, depicting a winged female warrior, reminding me of the tattoo on her devoted hitman’s dead neck.
“. . . Such a nice surprise running into you at the White House yesterday . . .”
“Where was she calling from?” I ask ART.
“. . . Your first time can be overwhelming but I’m glad you got to see it. Such a treat for you, I’m sure . . . ,” she says as if I fell off the potato truck.
“The call was made from the Pandora Space Systems assembly facility at Kennedy Space Center,” ART informs me in my earpiece while I hear Neva over speakerphone.
“. . . And I was very sorry to hear about the incident on your farm,” she outrageously goes on. “How terrifying to have a murderous duo show up with guns and gasoline . . .”
“Does Dick know she’s at Kennedy, that she’s in his own backyard this very minute?” and why bother asking, because of course Dick knows.
“. . . And I hear a child was present for all of it. Poor Lex . . . ,” Neva’s dry-ice smile and unwavering dead stare.
“Affirmative,” ART answers that yes, Dick and the powers that be are aware that since we saw Neva at the White House, she’s flown one of her private jets to Cape Canaveral, Florida.
And how weird to think she may have been a stone’s throw away while I was getting ready to launch.
“. . . Ta-ta, Calli. Until next time!” she promises cheerily, and if looks could kill, I wouldn’t be here anymore. “Don’t forget to give my very best to your mom.”
About the Author
Photo © Patrick Ecclesine
In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Adventure prize—the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.
Today, Cornwell’s novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper’s identity, cookbooks, a children’s book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and two other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano and Andy Brazil. While writing Quantum, the first book in the Captain Chase series, Cornwell spent two years researching space, technology, and robotics at Captain Calli Chase’s home base, NASA’s Langley Research Center, and studied cutting-edge law enforcement and security techniques with the Secret Service, the US Air Force, Space Force, NASA Protective Services, Scotland Yard, and Interpol.
Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston and Los Angeles.
Captain Chase Series
Quantum
The Scarpetta Series
Postmortem
Body of Evidence
All That Remains
Cruel and Unusual
The Body Farm
From Potter’s Field
Cause of Death
Unnatural Exposure
Point of Origin
Black Notice
The Last Precinct
Blow Fly
Trace
Predator
Book of the Dead
Scarpetta
The Scarpetta Factor
Red Mist
The Bone Bed
Dust
Flesh and Blood
Depraved Heart
Chaos
Nonfiction
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed
Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert
Andy Brazil Series
Hornet’s Nest
Southern Cross
Isle of Dogs
Win Garano Series
At Risk
The Front
Biography
Ruth, a Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham
Other Works
Scarpetta’s Winter Table
Food to Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any inadvertent resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text
copyright © 2021 by Cornwell Entertainment, Incorporated
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No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
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ISBN-13: 9781542044783 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1542044782 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781542019538 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 1542019532 (paperback)
Cover design by Kaitlin Kall
Printed in the United States of America
First edition