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lengthy feature about an Indian soccer player who had overcome childhood hard-
ships to become a standout goalie. Then there was another string of commercials.
Matt reached for his second slice of the nearly-consumed pizza, and reflected they
would never, ever have such a feature about Darcy not unless he produced it!
Now, there was an idea!
The main announcer was back on the screen, talking about Darcy. Interest-
ingly, Coach Pérez and both athletes stopped chatting and turned to the screen.
The announcer reviewed her four gold medals and ran clips of each performance.
Then he mentioned athletes from history who had medaled in different sports
there weren t that many, and they seemed to generally perform in no more than
two different types of events. The announcer noted that they hadn t been able to
get Darcy to sit for an interview she must be exhausted, he surmised but their
woman on the field, Donna Biagio, had been able to talk to her after the medal
ceremony for the long jump.
He cut to Donna, who was towering over Darcy in her blue windbreaker with
a yellow trident embroidered on the left breast. The gold medal hanging from her
neck dangled nearly to her waist. Donna was shouting over the crowd behind the
camera.  Ana, how did you feel when you knew you had won your fourth gold
medal? Matt groaned inwardly. How long had Donna spent planning her ques-
tions?
Al Past
137
 OK, Darcy said.
 You have the middle round of diving tomorrow, Ana, and the medal round
the next morning. That same afternoon, you re scheduled to run in the mara-
thon! How do you think you ll do in those events?
 I don t know. All right, I hope.
 Tell us, Ana, how you happened to choose the particular events you did.
Why not the 400 meter race, for instance, or the springboard?
 It was the schedule.
 Excuse me? The schedule?
 Yes. Coach Haskin couldn t put me in events that had overlapping heats.
Donna was evidently trying to think on her feet.  You mean, your coach
entered you in whatever events the Olympic schedule allowed? It didn t matter
what the events were? You mean you could have been in totally different events
had the schedule been different?
Donna never got her answer. A large, ruddy man in a blue blazer with a yellow
trident on it stepped into the picture, wrapped an arm over Darcy s shoulder, and
said,  I m sorry, ma am. The bus is leaving. We have to go. Thank you! and led
Darcy off.
Donna recovered as best she could, turning things over to the man at the
anchor desk, who thanked her and cut to yet another run of commercials.
The pitcher shook his head over the empty pizza box.   Didn t matter! Well,
I ll be.
C H A P T E R 35
Special Agent Aldridge was back in his Washington office, deep into a thorny
personnel matter. The bureau couldn t justify the continued expense of three
dozen agents wandering around west Texas looking for some frightened runt of a
girl, even if they did have some burning questions for her. There were still a
dozen people on site, but Aldridge wasn t hopeful. It had been nearly three
months without a sign of her. It was aggravating, but then they had looked for
that Unibomber guy for years finally found him, too.
He was juggling duty assignments in what felt like his twenty-seventh try at
achieving a workable arrangement when his secretary buzzed him on the inter-
com.
 Yes?
 Mr. Aldridge, there s a Special Agent Malek here to see you.
 Malek? Does he have an appointment?
 No, sir. He said something s just come up. It s important, he says.
 All right. Send him in. He tossed down his pencil and covered the personnel
files with interoffice routing envelopes. The door opened, and a soft-looking, fif-
tyish man with glasses and a burr haircut walked in.
 Hi. Daniel, isn t it?
 Yessir. That s right. I wasn t sure you d remember me. I work in the Pershing
Avenue lab.
 Right. I haven t seen you in quite a while, not since we worked that neo-Nazi
case out in Nevada.
 Yessir.
- 138 -
Al Past
139
 What s up, Daniel?
 Well, sir, have you by chance been watching any of the Olympics?
 The Olympics? Yeah, sure. Nearly everybody I know has. What about the
Olympics?
 Then I guess you ve seen that girl who s been winning nearly every medal in
sight?
 You bet I have. Darcy, Ana Darcy it s almost unbelievable what she s done,
isn t it? No one s ever seen anything like her before. Aldridge was beginning to
get a funny feeling.  Why do you mention her, Daniel?
 Well, sir, I ve seen her in nearly every event she s been in. She fascinated me
from the start just like she did everybody else, but the more I looked at her, the
more something bothered me.
 Yeah? What?
 I didn t know, at first. It was just a feeling, you know? But it kept nagging
me, and finally, yesterday, it clicked.
 What clicked?
He pulled a manila envelope from under his arm, opened it, and slid out an 8
x 10 photograph and laid it on top of the folders on Aldridge s desk.
 See this? This is a photo of that Ana Darcy girl that I printed from video. She
was getting ready to do a dive. The picture showed Darcy s head, close up, look-
ing intently straight into the camera. The video scan lines were perceptible, but it
was otherwise a clear picture. Her face was totally focused in concentration, like
an eagle looking at a mouse.
 Right. I recognize her, said Aldridge, feeling something tingle in a back cor-
ner of his brain.
 Now look at this. Malek pulled another photo out of the envelope and laid
it next to the other one. It was the one from the wanted poster they had put up
by the hundreds in west Texas.
 I studied this photo a lot when we first got it from the Army, Malek said.  I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]