by Debra Webb
As tiny and insignificant as the icon, a miniature keyhole, looked, it spoke volumes about the letter. The icon represented DNA-dependent access. In this case two different kinds of DNA were needed. The writer’s, Joseph Marsh, and the receiver’s, Dr. Daniel Archer. Marsh, a former head of department at Center was nothing but a traitor, one who was now dead. Dr. Daniel Archer, the scientist who’d brought the Enforcers to fruition, was also dead. He had died because Marsh had been a fool.
Dupree passed the small black box that served as a cooling device to the technician. The box contained a tube that held a sample of Joseph Marsh’s blood. His DNA was the first half of the key. The tech had already retrieved a stored sample of Daniel Archer’s DNA.
O’Riley, Dupree peering over his shoulder, watched as a single drop of each man’s blood was allowed to touch the icon on the page. Five seconds later handwritten words magically appeared on the white sheet of paper.
Not authorized to view the contents, the lab tech immediately moved away from the table.
Taking his time, O’Riley read the letter twice. Marsh had recognized his mistake…too late. He had tried to warn Archer. Marsh had been double-crossed by…
The name, even after reading it the second time, stunned O’Riley.
“I can’t believe it…” Dupree murmured, echoing O’Riley’s very thought.
He carefully placed the letter into a plastic sleeve the tech had provided. The document would be placed in his personal safe inside his office.
Silence reigned as O’Riley, accompanied by Dupree, moved down the corridor and back through the double doors. O’Riley didn’t speak until they had boarded the elevator and were moving upward.
“Get me an appointment with Redmond,” he told Dupree. “I don’t want this going through anyone else, not even my secretary. I’ll meet him in D.C., someplace private.”
Dupree swallowed hard. “You are talking about Vice President Redmond?” he asked for clarification.
“That’s the one.”
Dupree nodded. “All right.” He paused, licked his lips nervously. “Sir, does this mean—?”
The doors slid open on O’Riley’s floor.
“Just get me the appointment. Today.” He stopped outside the car and held the door to prevent it from closing as he looked directly into Dupree’s eyes. “We’re running out of time. This train wreck is going to happen. We just have to be sure we’re on the right side of the tracks when it does.”
White House
Oval Office
CAROLINE WAITED as patiently as she could for Agent Copeland’s analysis. She’d played the tape of what was supposed to be Justin’s voice. As guilty as it made her feel where Rupert was concerned, she had told no one else. She had to keep this to herself this time. Had to get to the bottom of who was behind these taunting calls. Justin’s sources had not gotten back to him yet. He’d insisted he would get to the bottom of the calls, but Caroline didn’t want to wait. Putting the old-fashioned answering machine she’d borrowed from her father’s study on her private line had felt like a surrender to the anxiety all these strange things going on in her life had prompted. Now she was glad she had.
Agent Copeland studied the answering machine a moment longer before he spoke. “Madam President.” His gaze met Caroline’s. “I have a friend in forensics over at Quantico. They’ve got every imaginable device for analyzing data of all sorts. Let me take this to him. Maybe he can determine if the voice has been somehow fabricated.” He shrugged. “You know, pieced together using snippets of Mr. Winters’ voice from interviews and what have you.”
That sounded logical to Caroline. “I’d like that very much, Agent Copeland.”
When he had placed the small machine in his briefcase she added, “It’s not that I don’t trust the regular channels. I simply want to keep this quiet until I have a better handle on what’s going on.”
He nodded. “I understand, Madam President. No one will know.”
“Thank you, Agent Copeland.”
Caroline watched him go. Her stomach knotted with anxiety. It was the right thing to do. She didn’t know who she could trust anymore. If she told Rupert, he would insist that others be told. He simply didn’t understand that she couldn’t let any of them know until she had some answers.
Was the voice on the tape really her husband’s?
If so, how had the perpetrators of this taunting nightmare accomplished their feat? She wanted answers. If she discovered that Redmond was somehow behind this…
Caroline took a deep breath and forced herself to calm. She wasn’t sure what she would do. A full-blown White House scandal was the last thing she needed. But there were ways to handle the situation discreetly, she felt certain. Once she had her evidence she would seek out such a way. Redmond would lose in the end, one way or another.
But first she had to be sure.
She checked the time and then her calendar. Lunch with Supreme Court Justice Turner was next. Caroline had a feeling the elderly man intended to warn her that he planned to retire. Nominations for a replacement would need to be made and confirmation hearings set in motion. She’d asked Rupert to look into possible candidates.
Justin intended to spend the morning reviewing the plans he and his partners had instituted before his disappearance. She hoped that meant he looked forward to going back to advising part-time. He needed to put his professional life back together. There had to be a life after the White House. Caroline smiled when she thought of the way he’d walked her to her office after breakfast this morning and kissed her at the door. He’d promised to pop in before she met with her luncheon appointment.
She stared at her wedding ring and considered how thankful she was not only to have Justin back safe and sound but also for this complete turnaround in his attitude about their marriage. She was so happy. The one thing that would make her life utterly perfect was if she’d gotten pregnant last night.
It wasn’t impossible, she realized as she quickly counted off the days since her last cycle. A wide smile tilted her lips upward. She could be the first president to bear a child while in office. Certainly none of her male counterparts could top that, she thought with a devilish grin.
She had no way of knowing how it would affect her popularity in the polls and she didn’t care. She wanted children. She wanted to do what was right for the people of this country, the polls be damned. No matter what her advisors whined about, she would never be led by mere popularity polls. Re-election might go down the toilet but at least she would be able to sleep at night. Her only worry woulde whether or not she could count on her vice president during her down time. At this point she definitely could not.
She couldn’t help wondering how many former presidents could say the same.
CAIN WATCHED Caroline via remote-controlled cameras he’d placed at strategic points in her office. Since he couldn’t sit around her office, this was the next best thing. The office he’d chosen to use for now wasn’t far from hers. He had memorized the location of all hidden doors and passages for the swiftest access. He also monitored the hall outside her office. If anyone he deemed suspicious even got close he was there in a heartbeat.
As he watched, the smile on her face told him she was remembering last night. Heat flooded him instantly and every muscle went rigid. Last night had changed him in some way that greatly disadvantaged his objectivity.
The joining of their bodies had completed him in a way he hadn’t realized existed. Throughout his entire life, he had not realized that a part of him had been missing. Until last night.
He had no basis from which to form an assessment of how he would endure life at Center without her. Even after they had debriefed him and reverted his facial features to the way they once were, he wasn’t sure he could forget. Perhaps he would need a memory wipe. Though he wasn’t certain even that would do the job. She was a part of him now on levels he couldn’t comprehend. She might just prove impossible to erase. She existed in his blood…in his very
cells. Death might be the only way to forget…
Cain thought about that for a time and decided that death would likely be better than a lifetime without her. He felt certain Center would consider him damaged beyond repair at this point anyway. The decision probably would not be his to make.
He would hear from O’Riley today. This operation would end as soon as the identity of the traitor had been uncovered and the threat neutralized. Cain understood that the enemy would consider the situation out of control at this point. The assassin’s every attempt had failed. New strategy would be put into place and the time frame escalated. Changes of this nature always ended in mistakes. Mistakes left crucial clues.
The enemy had lost already.
His secure cellular phone vibrated, drawing his attention away from Caroline. Cain quickly removed the pen from his pocket and gave it a twist. He set it on the desk in front of him and answered the call. The pen would emit a jamming signal that would prevent his conversation from being recorded in any way for three minutes.
“Yes.”
When his voice had been analyzed and identified on the other end of the line, O’Riley said, “We have the letter.”
Cain’s pulse quickened. “How does that affect my mission?”
“For now, it remains the same. I have a meeting in D.C. this afternoon that may indicate otherwise.”
Cain didn’t ask for details about the appointment. If he needed to know, O’Riley would tell him. Still, since it would take place in D.C. he had to wonder if it involved someone close to Caroline. His instincts warned him that it did.
“I’ll contact you with any change. Be advised that the enemy is someone who knows you well.”
Cain frowned. No one outside Center knew him well. “Your warning is unclear.”
“It’s Waylon Galen,” O’Riley said at last. “He’s the one who orchestrated all of this.”
For a moment that felt like an eternity Cain couldn’t get past the name. Dr. Waylon Galen was the scientist who’d engineered Cain’s genetic code. He was, in a manner of speaking, his creator.
But he was also the enemy.
“I understand,” he said to the man he knew waited for assurance that further clarification was not in order.
Cain closed his phone and put it away. He disengaged the jamming device and tucked it into his pocket as he assessed the intelligence O’Riley had just provided.
Waylon Galen was the original scientist who had perfected the technique for manipulating genes. His methods had allowed for superior gene structuring during the crucial stages of development, thus allowing a genetically superior embryo to reach maturity.
Cain had been the first. Until Cain’s twentieth year Galen had overseen his instruction. Dr. Daniel Archer had found fault with Galen’s work and Center had agreed with his findings. Galen had been furious, refusing to acknowledge the error. He had walked away and had supposedly died. Cain had always wondered if Center had terminated him. Now, considering his sudden reappearance, Cain could only guess that he had expected just that and had disappeared to prevent Center from such an action.
Archer had revised the program to include emotional conditioning. The other Enforcers, far younger than Cain, had responded well to the change. Cain had not. His aggression and single-minded determination had limited his use. This mission had come to him only because there was no other alternative.
Now, at age thirty-nine, he fully understood the concept of emotion. Not only did he understand it, but he also felt it. Felt a deep sense of regret that his and Caroline’s time together would soon end. Felt immensely pained at even the thought of never seeing her again. But he had no choice. Even if he had, she would be horrified when she learned the truth. He knew the way other humans reacted to what they considered to be different.
She would look at him and see a monster. Especially considering the lengths Center had gone to in order to fool her. She would hate Center and Cain.
That was precisely why she could never know.
The vast majority of Center’s funding depended upon the president. Having her angered at their methods would be totally unacceptable. She could never know. If she did and she got in the way, she would have to be eliminated.
Cain would do anything to prevent that. Even if it meant never touching her again after this mission was complete. And that was precisely what would happen. Her husband would die yet again. She would be left to mourn his loss…only this time it would be more devastating.
She loved him in a different way than before.
Cain couldn’t draw in a deep enough breath. It was true. She loved the man she thought he was. Loved him more deeply than she had her real husband. The damage would be much greater this time. Yet, it was a small price to pay for life, Cain considered.
Caroline Winters could never know that her continued approval of Center was all that kept her in office…all that guaranteed her continued good health.
Center didn’t have to execute anyone publicly. Therein lay the beauty of their discreet methods. They had many other ways that would never be seen as anything other than the pitfalls of this imperfect existence.
One way or another, Cain had to see that Caroline did not fall victim to their needs.
The voice emanating from the telephone answering machine puzzled him. Galen’s doing, he imagined, but he could not fathom the reasoning behind it unless it was to make Caroline look unstable, as, indeed, it had done before Cain’s emergence as her lost husband. But why the continued taunting? There was no legitimate reason to continue.
Unless there was another agenda that no one had uncovered as of yet.
The voice was right. He had watched videos and listened to conversations involving Justin Winters enough to know the original when he heard it. But Justin was dead. Though his entire body had not been found, enough remains had been gathered by Center’s recovery team to ascertain that he was indeed dead. He had been involved on some level with the threat against his wife. They simply had not determined the nature and extent just yet.
Poor Caroline. Cain watched her via his handheld monitor. She had no idea of the enemies that surrounded her or that she walked among them each day. She looked up from the papers on her desk and stared across the room, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She was thinking of him again. Of him and last night.
Justin had betrayed her and so had he. Whatever pleasure he could give her during their short time together was all she would have from the man she called her husband.
Moisture stung Cain’s eyes. He blinked to dispel the burning. Frowning he reached up, touched his face and was startled to find tears on his cheeks.
So this was what it felt like to cry…to mourn the loss of something that had never really been his.
Georgetown
Final Confirmation
THE RESTAURANT was off the beaten path by anyone’s standards. There would be no chance of running into Capitol Hill cronies or any other federal employees on this side of town. That the interior was dark and leaning toward the sleazy side was all the better.
O’Riley made his way to the very back table where Redmond, definitely in disguise in jeans, T-shirt and baseball cap, waited.
“How did you ditch your faithful followers?” O’Riley asked out of genuine curiosity as he took a seat. Dupree had scanned a twenty-block radius around the rendezvous point using the latest in satellite thermal imaging and not a federal agent of any sort had followed Redmond to the restaurant. O’Riley had waited in the van until he had been assured he wasn’t walking into a setup.
“They think I’m in a meeting. An aide is covering for me.” He shrugged. “Besides, I have one or two on my security detail I can trust and who trust me.”
“How nice,” O’Riley offered dryly.
“Get to the point, O’Riley. Time is limited.”
“I wanted you to be the first to know that we’ve officially cleared you of any involvement in the crash that almost killed Justin Winters.”
O’Riley smiled. Unfortunately the vice president had no idea who he actually was. He knew only that he represented another of those shadowy organizations that kept their finger on the nation’s political pulse.
“Actually, sir, you were our primary suspect when the president first started to encounter problems with her daily calendar as well as those annoying calls.”
“Look.” Redmond leaned closer, fury hardening the lines of his face. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but I had nothing to do with any of that. Hell, I thought she was trying to drag me into her dementia. That’s why I denied seeing that frigging letter. I’m just trying to cope with an unhappy House and Senate. That’s all.”
O’Riley looked at him knowingly. “And you would be doing that by stirring trouble among the old school who don’t believe a woman should ever have been elected.”
Redmond’s gaze narrowed. “I do what I have to do to survive. You’d do the same.”
O’Riley shrugged. “Maybe. In any event, our main concern is a special project the president is getting ready to fund for the next fiscal year. We felt your involvement might have meant you intended to work against us. You do anything to slow that down and we would have a major problem.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What special project?”
Redmond would never know that he’d just been a party to a fishing expedition. O’Riley had to confirm what he’d discovered in the letter before he acted. He had to be absolutely certain it was no trick by Galen. There was only one way to do that…this way. Redmond, however, did know a threat when he heard one. And that was a good thing. O’Riley wanted him to know that he meant business. Redmond had had his fingers in just enough dirty business to know better than to play the offended card by walking away without hearing the rest.
“Special Project Eugenics.”
Redmond choked back a laugh. “You mean that genetic research project a group of scientists somewhere in Colorado are whining about?”