by Lynn Ames
“Humph.”
“I know it’s tough, now. Growing up is hard work. Growing up different is harder. But I promise, there will come a time when your gift will help save the world. I have seen it. That’s why it’s so important for me to teach you everything I know.”
Sedona shook her head and water droplets dotted the mirror. She looked to the Heavens. “I love you, Mama. I miss you, even though I know you’re here with me, always. Are you watching now? You were right, Mama. Thank you for showing me the way.”
In the end, Sedona couldn’t bring herself to chop off her own hair. She reasoned that she’d bought herself some time by selling the car and paying for the bus with cash. Besides, certainly she’d blend in better with a chic, stylish cut than with a butcher job. So she picked a busy, upscale salon and listened to the stylist prattle on about how his boyfriend was so far in the closet it would take an archeologist months to dig him out.
He looked at her in the mirror. “I bet you don’t have boyfriend troubles, now do you?”
Sedona tuned back into the conversation and smiled mischievously. “Can’t say that I do.” She winked at his reflection and watched as comprehension dawned.
“Seriously, sweetheart? No way!” His scissors stopped mid-clip. “You don’t even register on my lesbi-o-meter, and I always know!”
“Not always, apparently.”
“Oh, honey, I want to live vicariously. Please tell me you have a gorgeous lover and the two of you jet off to some fantastically private getaway in the Caribbean every weekend.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“Well, as spectacular as you are, I can understand why you’d want to keep your options open.”
Sedona watched her reflection in the mirror as her expression turned cool and guarded. “Stay close to the truth,” she heard Dom say in her head. “Easier to keep your story straight.”
“I’m on the move a lot. No time for attachments, I guess.”
“Well, when you’re ready to settle down, somebody’s going to get a helluva catch.” He fluffed her hair, removed the cape protecting her outfit, and spun her in the chair, admiring his handiwork. “A shame to cut that beautiful mane, but Wigs for Cancer will love you forever, and you look fabulous, if I do say so myself. Short, sexy, and easy to care for, just like you asked.”
“I’m glad it’s for a good cause.” Sedona meant it. She stood, reached in her pocket, and pulled out several bills, which she handed him.
“And you’re a good tipper. Thanks, doll.” He air-kissed her and busied himself sweeping up her hair.
Sedona looked away. It wouldn’t do to dwell on it.
Outside on the street, she stepped into the middle of a large group of passersby, blending into the crowd, just another busy New Yorker on the way from one appointment to the next.
Back in the hotel room, Sedona pulled out her laptop and booted it up. She opened her Internet connection, grateful for the hotel’s Wi-Fi access, and typed in www.whitehouse.gov. Two clicks later, she was staring at the president’s public schedule for the week. “Thank God for openness and transparency,” she mumbled.
Fortuitously, the president was on a barnstorming tour of the country. Tomorrow, he was scheduled to make stops at a series of colleges and universities across the Northeast and Midwest.
Sedona ran her finger down the screen, until it rested on a planned stop at the State University of New York at Albany. Then she opened a new browser window and pulled up Google Maps. “Handy. One hundred fifty miles and on a train route. Thanks, Mr. President,” she said, around a yawn. She’d been on the move for almost twenty-four hours and worked a full day before that. By her calculation, she hadn’t slept in a prone position for almost two days.
She could catch an Amtrak train out of Pennsylvania Station tonight, get a hotel room in Albany, and be in position in plenty of time for the president’s arrival sometime early in the afternoon. Or she could try to get a good night’s sleep here and get on a train first thing. At least that way she’d be alert and not out on her feet.
Would she be safer here or there? Could they already have tracked her to New York? And who the hell were “they”? Sedona set the laptop aside and walked to the windows to gaze out at the city lights twinkling against the evening sky. If only she knew who was after her, and what Tuwaitha had to do with it, maybe she could make some sense of all of this.
She rubbed her eyes, her decision made. She would order something from room service, draft a letter to the president and store it on the flash drive, sleep for a few hours, look at the satellite images with fresh eyes, and head to Albany to see the president.
CHAPTER TWO
Dawn broke, spilling shafts of weak sunshine across the bed. Sedona tilted the laptop screen away from the glare. She pounded the keys in frustration. Despite her best efforts, she could not enhance the satellite images without losing the already-shadowy figures altogether. The best she could do was to confirm that there were people and vehicles in once-restricted places in the Tuwaitha compound—a facility that she and her team secured and, supposedly, permanently sealed years ago.
If Tuwaitha was back in play, it could destabilize the entire region and dramatically shift the balance of power. Sedona could think of many different factions that might benefit from such an outcome—too many, in fact, to narrow down without a lot more information than she had in hand. Well, if all went according to plan, it would be the president’s problem soon enough, and all that would be left for Sedona to worry about would be staying alive.
“Is that all?” She chuckled mirthlessly as she double-checked to make sure she had properly copied the contents of the flash drive onto her hard drive before ejecting it and hiding it in an unlabeled prescription pill bottle in her toilet kit. She powered down the laptop, set it on the bed, and headed into the bathroom for a quick shower. By the time rush hour hit its peak in Penn Station, she would be right in the middle of the bustle, just another commuter on her way upstate for a business meeting.
“What have you found out? Where is she?”
The man rubbed his temple and tightly gripped the phone. “We’ve got eyes out searching everywhere for her, sir.”
“Which means you’ve got nothing.”
“We found her car at a used-car lot in Baltimore an hour ago. It was clean. We immediately covered the airport, the train station, and the bus station. We wrapped the city in a blanket, but she had a head start.”
“Because you failed to secure her at Fort Meade.”
“I don’t know how she could’ve known we were coming for her, sir.”
“Obviously, she’s smarter than you are.”
The man ground his teeth but outwardly ignored the dig. “She hasn’t used a credit card and her cell phone is turned off. We’ve investigated every place she was likely to go. But she has no living relatives and, as far as we can determine, no visible ties to anyone. No dependents, no husband or lover, no regular routine.”
“Next time we talk, you’d better have her in hand.”
“Yes, sir,” the man said, though he knew the line already had gone dead.
“I thought the audience was engaged and receptive, what did you think?” The president of the United States glanced over at his press secretary, a diminutive woman who was struggling to match his pace. He shortened his stride.
“I agree. The off-script comment about the successful leaders of tomorrow understanding the intersection of humanity and technology was a nice touch. Wish I’d written it.”
“Sometimes, I just get carried away in the moment. Glad you approve. Let’s add it at every collegiate stop.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, I’m going to make my Secret Service detail crazy.” The president quickened his step and plunged into the crowd of surging bodies waiting behind wooden barriers just outside the auditorium.
The faces mostly blurred together as a sea of gloved hands reached out to touch him. He envied them their warm coats and gloves. It w
as freezing. But, like so many presidents before him, he chose to forgo an overcoat and gloves in an effort to appear more vigorous and youthful.
The president understood the risk inherent in diving into the rope line, but he prided himself on being an accessible leader, a man of the people. His wife hated that he took chances like this, and the head of his Secret Service team lectured him regularly about the potential for disaster and the fact that they simply couldn’t adequately protect him in such situations.
As the president reached to his left, his right arm fully extended, he became unbalanced and stumbled forward. A woman appeared out of the throng directly in his path and steadied him, stopping his forward momentum with a hand on his left shoulder and the other hand on the right side of his chest.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said, smiling at her as he got his feet back under him. “That could’ve been embarrassing.” She had arresting chocolate-brown eyes and a stylish haircut. He thought she was too old to be a student, but perhaps she was a member of the faculty.
“You’re very welcome, Mr. President,” she replied with a grin of her own, which revealed a deep dimple just to the left of her mouth. With the hand that still rested on his chest, she straightened the kerchief in his breast pocket.
Before the president could say another word, members of his Secret Service detail surrounded him on all sides, and the moment was over.
“Mr. President, we need to go now,” the lead agent said in his ear.
Sedona turned up the collar on her overcoat and donned the pair of cheap sunglasses she had purchased that morning in Penn Station. Although she was on hyper-alert, she saw nothing and no one that raised alarm bells. More importantly, she didn’t feel anything dangerous around her.
She allowed herself to be swept along with the crowd as it meandered toward a series of buses that would take them to outer parking areas or public transportation. It was cold out, and she contemplated the luxury of taking a cab over waiting for a public bus to take her back to the room she’d secured at the Marriott when she arrived in Albany.
“Cabbies remember faces. Stick to the bus. Overworked drivers, tired passengers caught up in their own stuff.”
Sedona heard Dom’s voice clear as a bell in her head, and she frowned. Damn him for being so practical, and so right. She sat down at the bus stop that would take her to Wolf Road.
She had no idea how long it would take the president to find the flash drive she’d dropped into the breast pocket of his suit jacket. “Hope you find it before you send the jacket to the cleaners,” she mumbled.
It was the one thing she hadn’t been able to plan with certainty. Positioning herself so that she could unbalance the president and then be in the right spot to catch him was as easy as bending over ostensibly to tie her shoe and then standing up again. Ensuring that he would be the one to take his kerchief out of the breast pocket, well, that was another matter. She briefly closed her eyes to ask for the only help she knew she could count on.
Archangels, angels, ascended masters, guides, please help me get this vital information to the president. Michael, since you’re in charge of electronics, please ensure that the president is the one that finds the flash drive and that he reviews the contents. This I ask of you with your blessing, amen.
Sedona opened her eyes, satisfied, for the moment, that she’d done all she could. Now, all that was left was to wait. And shop. She’d noticed a large mall just down the street from the hotel. It would be wise to pick up a few more outfits and undergarments, since it didn’t seem likely that she’d be going home anytime soon.
“How was your day?”
The president pulled his wife into his arms. “Much better now.” After all these years, he still thought she was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen. “Have I told you yet today how much I love you?”
“You have.” She patted him on the chest. “But you can tell me again.” She patted his chest again, a perplexed look on her face as her fingers closed over a slight bulge in his breast pocket. “What’s this?”
“What’s what?”
“This.” Her brow furrowed as she reached into the pocket and pulled out a flash drive along with his kerchief. “Since when do you store data in here?”
“I don’t.” He took the drive from his wife’s fingers and examined it. “I have no idea how that got in there.” He walked over to a small, old-fashioned roll-top desk and opened it to reveal a state-of-the-art computer station.
“Oh, no you don’t. You’ve been on the road all day. Now is our time.”
“This’ll just take a second, sweetheart.” The president knew his wife wasn’t buying it, but his curiosity was aroused.
“Of course it will. I’ll just be over here—in the bed—when you’re ready.”
He hesitated for a second but couldn’t resist the pull of the mystery. He sat down at the desk, powered on the computer, and plugged in the drive.
Sedona snapped up the burn phone on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Sedona Ramos, I presume? This is the President of the United States. I’m sorry to be calling so late.”
Sedona immediately recognized his voice and thought he sounded a bit bemused. She took that as a good sign. “Hello, Mr. President. It’s not a problem, sir. Thank you for calling.”
“Seems to me like you went to a heckuva lot of trouble to get this information to me. Want to tell me exactly how you managed that?”
“Do you really want to know, sir?”
“Actually, I am curious.”
“We met in Albany, New York, this afternoon, sir. You were falling in my direction.” Sedona waited for the president to sort through his recollections.
“Ah. The woman who stopped my fall. With your hand on my breast pocket.”
“Yes, sir. That was me.”
“Ingenious. I’m impressed.” The president chuckled. “Although you’re lucky the Secret Service didn’t take you to the ground for touching me.”
“It was a calculated and necessary risk, sir.”
“You’re very brave.”
“Just doing my job, sir.”
“I’d say this goes above and beyond.” The president cleared his throat. “Tell me, Ms. Ramos, why bring this directly to me?”
“I have reason to believe security and the chain of command may be compromised in the agency.”
“So you said in your letter. What makes you think so?”
“Sir, only analysts and operatives with the highest level clearance could access that system. To input that data and those images, someone would’ve had to have inside information. The fact that there were no names attached to the file tells me that it had to be someone who had the ability to override standard required protocols. The fact that my merely opening the file garnered the attention of a goon squad within minutes, armed to the teeth with the latest weaponry and technology, means that whoever is behind this is well organized, a seasoned professional with field experience and ample resources.”
“Makes sense. So you know, I’ve had someone review all of the security footage from last night at Fort Meade. There’s a curious blank spot between ten o’clock and ten thirty.”
Sedona tried to keep the panic from welling up. The president had gone to the NSA after all. So concerned was she that she almost missed what he was saying.
“Before you worry too much, let me assure you that I used an outside expert I keep on my payroll for just such purposes. I have not contacted anyone from the NSA or any of my National Security advisors, and my man left no fingerprints in the system. No one but you and I know that he was in there.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“He also corroborates your account. He followed your keystrokes and verified everything you’ve said. For the record, like you, even he was unable to find a trace of the report in the system, although he was able to see that something had been erased.”
“Yes, sir.” Sedona chewed something over in her mind. “Sir, did your man also look up my p
ersonnel files?”
“Of course. I don’t return just any phone call, you know.”
Sedona could hear in the president’s voice that he was smiling.
“I assume there was a picture of me in my files, which means you already knew where you’d seen me.”
“Indeed, I did. But I wanted to hear you say it. Let’s call it a little extra insurance. It’s not every day that a beautiful woman saves my butt and manages to outwit my Secret Service agents at the same time.”
Sedona knew she shouldn’t be surprised that the president had investigated her, but she was a little taken aback by the lengths to which he had gone. “I’m glad I passed muster, sir.”
“I’m glad you’re on my side, Ms. Ramos.”
“Always, Mr. President.”
“I’d like you to come in, Ms. Ramos. I don’t like that you’re in danger.”
“I’ll be fine, sir. It’s more important that you find out what’s going on at Tuwaitha. If they think I’ve shared the information, they’ll likely disappear underground, and we can’t have that, sir. We need to catch them.”
“I promise you, we will. Where are you now?”
Sedona hesitated. After all, this was the president. “Respectfully, it’s better if you don’t know, sir. I’m safe for the moment.”
“I don’t like it, Ms. Ramos.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“I won’t issue you a direct order to come in, provided you make me a promise.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“Don’t lose this phone. I’d like to know that I have a way to contact you.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Stay safe.”
“That’s my plan, sir. Goodbye.”
“Vaughn Elliott, is that you?”