“Because you are the spy in the vacant office next to Ron’s.”
“No, because I know where the disk is and you don’t have it.”
“I don’t?”
“How do you know about the chemical lab?”
“The same way I knew that you could be trusted only you don’t believe me.”
“Carl told you.”
“That’s hard for you, isn’t it? You want me to believe you had no hand in the violence that’s followed my son’s death. Why do you think I don’t have the disk?”
“It can only be in one place and, for the moment, it’s safe there. If the bad guys knew you didn’t have the bloody thing they’d eliminate you. My job isn’t to find the disk, Sara.”
“What is it then?”
“It’s to keep you safe. As long as the other side thinks you will uncover the disk,” and the prototype, “you’re safe, for now. But, time is running out.”
“That’s what Carl said.”
He rolled his eyes to the vaulted ceiling and shook his head. The door to the fitness center opened and he pulled her into his arms. “Pretend you want this,” he whispered before his kiss. In another moment, the attendant entered the men’s locker room.
He continued quietly, “The point is the other side is getting desperate. I have a feeling I know who the leak in the department is so I’m going to ask you not to talk about this to anyone, not even Jonathon.”
“Why?”
“Because he still thinks you, or Ron, have the disk.”
“After this afternoon, I don’t even want to talk to Jonathon about finance. He acted like an ass. He’s an agent working undercover for the government, too. Isn’t he? God! How do you guys do this?”
“Until I find the leak, don’t trust him. Okay?”
“All right.”
“I’m sorry about your lack of trust in me; I don’t know what to do to change that. I’ll protect you with my life, Sara. That hasn’t changed.”
“If you know where the disk is, why can’t we end this?”
“The chase for the disk will be over soon, I promise.”
“You broke the code, didn’t you?”
He nodded in response. “With a bit of patience and a little luck we’ll snare the traitor in the department and shut down the Nazi alliance with the terrorist cell.” He watched skepticism drift briefly into her eyes and hated the ground he’d lost.
“Sara, I’m the man who cares about you; I need your trust.”
He pulled her back in his arms for another kiss and heard the attendant return to the poolroom. Spinning her around, he pinned her between the far side of the pool and his body.
There was something suspicious about that guy.
CHAPTER 26
Tuesday morning at the conference, Lorna introduced Jonathon as if he was the second coming. The applause died down and he cleared his throat to begin. Tucked into the curtains at the back, Pam and Sara sat at a small table close enough to provide logistical support. “What are you scribbling, Pam?”
“I’m doodling. If he gives the same speech this year as he did last, he’s going to lose the entire gathering in five minutes. I’m amazed he can stand up there with a smile on his hung-over face.”
“You don’t like him much, do you?”
“He made a pass at me last year on the second night. He was in the same condition as yesterday. Damn near got to the point of rape before I managed to bruise his family jewels. Next morning he acted like nothing had happened.”
“Some day I’ll tell you about the disaster after a cocktail party at his place. But, I had no idea he had a drinking problem until last night.”
“He asked me a few months ago to join the staff in Portland. No way was I going to work that close to the bastard. I usually make myself scarce when he flies out; he probably thinks I live at the dentist office. You have my complete sympathy, Sara.”
“He hasn’t been all that bad to work with. The first couple of weeks of employment he was in my face in what he called mentoring. Then things got crazy and...for the most part, he’s been off chasing problems in California and Washington.”
“You probably end up doing his job and he takes credit for it.”
“Robert Starr knows the work I do. That’s the important thing.”
“I thought the big boss was going to lead the conference,” Pam said.
“He had to explain to the senate oversight committee why we’re behind schedule on production of the new chip. He’ll be here on Wednesday. Jonathon Pierce is next on their interrogation list and will be out of here tonight.”
“In that case, I just might applaud his speech.”
“You better, I wrote the damn thing. He’s just added a few Texas ranch jokes.”
“No wonder everyone’s paying attention this morning. How long have you known Matthew Farrell?”
“We’ve been tossed into the same projects the last couple months. He grows on you.”
“I wouldn’t mind if he grew a little on me. But a blind man can see, even without Pierce’s crude innuendos, the government man is tethered to you.”
“You think so?” Sara looked past approximately two hundred and fifty people to the front entrance of the conference room. Matthew was standing in the back, scanning the room. He nodded when he saw Sara, and slipped into a seat at a back table.
Sara looked down at her copy of the conference program and noticed for the first time, the spelling on the name of the second conference sponsor, PaxTel Wireless. Circling the name in pencil with a question mark, she tucked the paper into her folder. “I’ll be right back, Pam.”
***
Matthew Farrell watched from across the room as Sara stood, picked up a black folder, and disappeared behind a curtain. Laughter broke out after another calf joke. He had to admit Jonathon was nothing if he wasn’t consistent.
He scanned the room for problems and looked back to the table at the end of the stage. She wasn’t back yet. Pam Lawson seemed to have a tic in her neck. Is that a...? Bloody hell! He excused himself from his table partners and slipped out the front.
She wasn’t in the hallway, maybe the restroom? At the end of the hall he knocked on the ladies room door, no answer. He stuck his head inside; the room appeared to be empty. Down on his haunches he scanned the stalls for feet, a pair of black geriatric oxfords in the third stall, no one else. Back in the hall he worked his way around to the back exit of the conference room and slid into the room behind the curtain.
“Pam,” he whispered. No answer. “Pam,” he called out just a little louder. Still no answer. He pulled the curtain back just as another round of laughter erupted. Their table was empty.
Back out in the hall he headed for the railing and looked down from the mezzanine to the lobby below. A woman in black with dark auburn hair was heading toward the Michigan Avenue entrance. He raced down the stairs and threaded his way around several hotel guests and a woman in a hotel blazer. On the lobby floor, he turned right toward the exit doors and stopped when a sharp point was pushed into the middle of his back. On reflex he spun to deflect the knife and disarm his opponent.
An elderly man in a gabardine jacket was sprawled on the tile floor. His thick-rimmed glasses and pointed umbrella lay several feet beyond him. “Sir, are you all right?” Matthew knelt down to assist him. “Can you move all your limbs? Do you have pain anywhere?”
“I’m all right, young man. Did you get the number of that bus?” The elderly man with the English accent looked up at him, confused.
“I’m afraid that bus was me and my clumsiness. I was rushing to catch up with a beautiful woman and plowed into you.”
A crowd was gathering and the woman in the hotel blazer talked into a walkie-talkie as she trotted toward Matthew and the elderly gent. “Give us some space, please. The situation is under control,” she said with authority. “What happened here?”
“I’m afraid I backed into this poor gentleman and knocked him flat. It was an accident.
” Matthew looked through the glass entrance doors as the auburn haired woman in black climbed into the back of a city cab. She wasn’t Sara.
“Do you need a doctor, sir?” The hotel employee asked the man trying to rise from the floor.
“I don’t think so. Just a helping hand to right myself will do.”
Matthew reached down to give him a hand and the hotel security officer said, “I wouldn’t move just yet, sir. The ambulance is on the way, we have to fill out an incident report.”
“Oh bother, there’s nothing wrong with me, young lady, and this floor is quite drafty. You should cancel that ambulance as I do not need its services nor will I pay for the expense.”
He grabbed Matthew’s hand and tugged to get his assistance getting up. “Are you sure, sir?” Matthew asked. With a nod from the victim Matthew pulled him to a sitting position and stooped to look into his eyes. “This was a bit of surprise this morning, wasn’t it?” he added holding the older man’s fragile hand.
“It certainly was, young man. It’s nice to run into a fellow countryman. I wouldn’t mind if we hadn’t been so literal on our impact. The lady you were chasing must be very special to you.”
“Yes sir, she is.”
“Do you think we can find my glasses?” He patted his face in search. “They appear to have fallen off.”
“Are these your glasses, sir?” The hotel security handed them back to him.
“Yes madam. Thank you for retrieving them. I should be getting up now. I’ve caused enough commotion.” Matthew pulled him to a standing position with an anchoring arm beneath the old gent’s elbow.
“Matthew?”
He turned toward the lobby and there she stood.
“Hello, Sara.” A smile beamed across his face. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Is this the lovely lady you were chasing, young man?” the elderly gentleman asked as he peered through his thick glass lenses.
“Yes, sir, she is. Sara, I ran this gentleman down when I was trying to catch up with you.” He turned back to the man in the gabardine jacket. “Are you sure you’re all right, sir?”
“Name’s Alfred Carmody, young man.”
“I’m Matthew Farrell.” He pulled a card out of his suit jacket pocket and handed it to his unintended victim. “This is my card if I can be of further assistance.” Then Matthew reached down for the umbrella and handed it over with the gallantry of a knight surrendering his sword to the enemy.
“I wondered where that had gotten off to.”
With a smile, Matthew added, “Be careful of the pointed end. I believe it might be perceived as a weapon.”
“Oh my, I bet it would.”
Matthew ushered Sara back into the lobby as the hotel security officer lead Mr. Carmody into an office adjacent to the front desk.
“What’s going on Matthew?”
“That’s what I was going to ask you. Where did you go when you left the conference room?”
“I was looking for you, but I turned the wrong way and ended up in the hotel staff area. I wanted to ask you about something.” She pulled a green piece of paper from the black folder under her arm. “What do you know about the other sponsor organizations, specifically this one?” she pointed to the name she circled with the penciled question mark. “Do you think it might have a link to the code we’re working on? Or am I chasing shadows?”
“I’ll look into it, but I don’t think it’s connected.”
“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t either, but lately I don’t believe in coincidence. Do you know who I found in the staff corridor when I went to look for you?”
He shook his head.
“Remember the fitness club attendant yesterday when we were in the pool? He came through in the afternoon with a load of towels for the men’s locker room just before you arrived, then again late last night. Only last night, he didn’t have any towels. He was in the utility hall this morning when I went to look for you. Don’t you think that’s a little odd?”
“Odd about what? He works here.”
“On all three shifts? In the same twenty-four hour period? Something’s not kosher here, Matthew.”
“You’re sure he’s the same guy?”
“Yes, can you have him checked out?”
“I don’t have a name, Sara. What am I going to say to the hotel manager?”
“That’s another thing. He wasn’t wearing a name badge.”
“You stay by me for the rest of the day. If you see him again, point him out. We better get back before Jonathon winds down.”
They climbed the spiral stairs to the mezzanine level just as the doors to the first conference room opened. People spilled out onto the railed hallway. “I would suppose Jonathon has wound down; either that or someone yelled fire. The herd is heading this way.”
“Oh please, Matthew, no more references to cows. I get enough of that with Jonathon.”
“There you two are, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Hi Pam, did we miss much?” Sara asked.
“It was a great speech, Sara.”
“Thanks.”
“He changed the cow jokes around. It got him bigger laughs than last year.”
“Why is she thanking you for the speech?”
“I wrote it except for the ranch humor.”
“Pam,” he asked, “I got to your table shortly after you signaled me. Where did you go?”
“Someone forgot to fill the water pitcher by the podium. FYI he’s looking for you, Sara.”
“I better go connect. Save us a couple places in the ballroom for lunch.”
Back in the conference room they could see a swarm of people around Jonathon and scanned the room for hotel employees. She shook her head at Matthew’s questioning look. The crowd thinned out and they made their way toward the podium. Jonathon looked up with a smile plastered on his face.
“The speech went over well, Sara. It’s a shame you weren’t here to enjoy it. I would appreciate it if you save the love fest for your own time.”
“Back off, Pierce.”
“A little sensitive are we, Farrell?”
“That’s enough, Jonathon. I’m here now, what do you want?”
The cowboy stared at him for another minute like a bull with testosterone overload. “After lunch, Sara, I want you to meet me in my room to go over the workshop you’ll be presenting in the morning. It’s pretty straight forward, Financial Implications of Government Contracts.”
“I know the topic, Jonathon. I put the package together for you. But I thought Pam was going to lead it.”
“She doesn’t have the presence to carry it off. I’m counting on you, Sara. Don’t let me down.”
“You knew for an entire week you had to leave tonight. It would have been nice to get more lead time to prepare.”
“You just said it. You put the package together, it’s your baby. Take the helm.” Jonathon looked down at his Rolex. “I have to make a phone call. I’ll see you at 1:30 in my room. Be there.” Jonathon stepped around them and out the front door of the conference room.
“Sara, do you think Pam already knows you’re taking over?”
“I’m not sure she even knows she was supposed to cover for him, Matthew. She said nothing this morning.”
“Show me the hall you turned down when you went looking for me.”
Within minutes they were scanning a space swarming with hotel employees. Eventually the novelty of having guests roaming the service area wore thin and a man with shift supervisor on his nametag approached.
“We’re trying to find the waiter who was so kind to us this morning,” Matthew said. “We want to thank him personally, but he doesn’t appear to be here at the moment.”
“Did you notice his first name from his name tag?” the supervisor asked.
“I didn’t see his name tag, sir. But he was in here this morning and in the fitness club last night and yesterday afternoon resupplying the locker rooms with towels.”
“That’s n
ot possible, madam. No one works three shifts in a row.”
“We’re sorry to have disturbed you. Excuse us.” Matthew steered her back the way they came.
Out in the main corridor, he added, “Are you sure it was the same man all three times. I only saw him once late last night.”
“Why would hotel staff be loading towels or even checking on an empty locker room at one in the morning?”
***
At lunch, Sara said, “Pam, Jonathon changed his plans for tomorrow morning’s lecture on government finance. Did he mention it to you?”
“I thought he was leaving tonight.” Pam stabbed a ring of purple onion and placed it on her bread plate.
“He’s leaving this afternoon,” Sara added. “I was under the impression you were covering his morning talk.”
“No way!” Pam looked up with panic in her eyes. “He never said anything to me. The only info I have on it is what’s listed on the program.”
“That’s what we thought, Pam,” Matthew said. “Not to worry, the three of us can present as a team. Sara pulled the information together for Pierce, she’s familiar with it. He wants to go over the plan this afternoon in his suite. What I thought we might do is have you introduce the piece; then introduce Sara. She’ll cover the mechanics of corporate financial involvement. Then you can introduce me for the government end of things and I’ll carry it from there. You can finish up with an introduction to the Q and A session at the end.”
“No matter what Jonathon says this afternoon,” Sara added, “this is the way we’ll handle it. We can hammer out the final details tonight over dinner. We can do this together.”
“I can’t, Sara. My son is getting an award this evening at his soccer banquet. I have to be there.”
“Are you committed to any of the workshops this afternoon?”
“I’m logistical support for the NASA talk.”
“We can get someone else to cover that,” Matthew said.
“I’m going to need a written bio for both of you so I don’t look like an idiot at the podium,” Pam said. “As long as you two are doing the informational part, I can do the intros.”
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