Protocol One_A Thriller
Page 8
23
Elevator to the Unknown
Inside The 40/40 Club, Jana watched the bartender like a hawk. She was mostly concerned with keeping tabs on Jeffrey to ensure he did not slip a powdered Rohypnol into her wine glass, but it occurred to her that she should be wary of the bartender as well. After all, if he was working for Jeffrey, Jana could end up drugged and sexually assaulted before she even knew what had happened. No, her goal was vigilance—she would not be a victim. In fact, she had every intention of finding evidence that would lead the FBI to whatever the Dima terrorists had planned. She placed a tiny strip of the test paper between her fingers, and dipped it into the wine just as Jeffrey nodded to the bartender. The paper came back blank.
For some reason, Jana felt more alive than she could ever remember. Her life up to this moment had been one of such predictability. But now, in the most dangerous situation she had ever imagined, her pulse raced. It was an exhilaration she had not counted on.
Adrenaline pulsed as her goal came front and center in her mind. The data, I must get the data. I am the only one who can stop them. She smiled at Jeffrey, allowing herself to go deeper into the undercover role. To Jana, the acting was also exciting. She’d never role-played before, and now that it was happening with the stakes so high, she wondered why she’d never thought of a career in law enforcement before.
Jeffrey grinned and his pearly white teeth gleamed back at Jana.
He’s not a bad-looking guy, Jana thought. A slimeball, certainly, but in different circumstances, she wondered if she’d have been attracted to him. Jana allowed her eyes to wander to Jeffrey’s chest as he shed his business jacket and loosened his two-hundred-dollar Armani tie. Her gaze did not go unnoticed.
“There’s something different about you,” Jeffrey said. “I don’t know what it is.”
“Is that your best line?” Jana giggled as she tapped the top of his thigh. “Does that work on the other ladies?”
“You’re a tough one, aren’t you?”
“I’m just messing with you,” she said. “Something different about me? Are you sure it’s just that you haven’t ever slept with me, so that’s what’s different?”
“Ouch,” Jeffrey laughed. “I’m not that bad.”
“That’s not what I hear. I hear you’re a bad boy.” Her coyness was disarming.
“You think I’m a bad boy, do you? But you’re still here.”
“Maybe I like bad boys.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of girl that likes bad boys.”
I do not like bad boys, Jana thought. Keep stringing him along.
Jana took a sip of wine. “And yet here I am.”
“Yes, here you are.” Jeffrey ran his eyes across her figure again. “And I’m glad you are, Miss Baker. You’re a beautiful woman.”
“Would you call me Jana, already?” She took another sip of wine but noticed the slight shaking of her hand and the sight startled her.
***
“Tell me again why she wanted to go for a drink with him before going to his apartment,” Agent Fry said to Stone as the two took up position in a cafe across the street.
“She didn’t want to give him a chance to get back to his penthouse first. She wanted to keep an eye on him so he didn’t have time to set anything up, like adding a dose of Rohypnol into a glass without her knowing.”
“And she’s got the paper test strips? The ones that detect the drug?”
“Yeah, I gave them to her this morning. Every young woman in America should have those things. She knows to not put anything in her mouth without secretly touching a test strip to it first.”
“And you’re sure she can pull off her plan once she’s inside?”
“Hell no I’m not sure,” Stone barked. “I’m scared. She’s the one who’s so damn sure.”
“You’re grumpy,” Fry said. “You didn’t sleep last night, did you?”
“How was I supposed to sleep with this about to go down? It didn’t help that Uncle Bill at NSA calls me at all hours of the night.”
***
About an hour later, Jeffrey stood from the plush leather-covered barstool. “You getting hungry? I’m a hell of a cook.”
Yeah, I bet you are, Jana thought. “Starved,” she said. “Is this how you get all the women? You’re a gourmet cook?”
“You know what they say.”
“The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.” She glanced Jeffrey up and down then said, “But I doubt it’s my heart you’re after.”
“You’re bad,” Jeffrey said as he put his arm around her and walked toward the lobby.
***
A whispered call came across the radio. “Six, six, this is mobile two. Subjects just came into the lobby. Heading onto the elevator now.”
“Here we go,” Stone said as he passed a hand across his balding forehead. “Roger that, mobile two,” he said into the radio. He turned to Agent Fry. “Heading up the elevator. Dammit, this is going to kill me, this blindness.” He raised the radio again. “Mobile one? From your vantage point across the street, you have the best view. You are our eyes now. I want you to call out anything you can see in that penthouse.”
“Roger that, six,” came the chirped reply.
Agent Fry put a hand on Stone’s shoulder to calm him. “All units, all units,” he said into the radio. “Be on full alert. We could call at any moment to raid the penthouse.”
The leaders from each SWAT team replied in turn.
“Relax, Stone. We’ve got her covered. She’s going to be okay.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself,” Stone said, but then shook his head. “I’ve got to be closer to this thing. I’m going across the street. I’ll talk my way past the doorman and get upstairs, somewhere.”
24
In the Penthouse
I’ve got to find his stash of roofies, Jana thought.
“My, my, Jeffrey. You certainly have decorated well.”
The sprawling penthouse was an open floor plan, decorated in young, New York style. Walls of glass spanned the entire expanse—the view of Manhattan was stunning.
“I can’t take credit for it,” Jeffrey said as he walked toward the built-in Sub-Zero refrigerator. “I cheated and hired a decorator.”
Jana watched him. Unless he took a capsule of Rohypnol to work with him this morning, he doesn’t have any on his person. Most likely place he’d keep them is in his bathroom.
***
“Six, this is mobile two. Subjects are inside the apartment.”
“Roger that, mobile two. Keep your optics trained on the suspect. If you see him dump anything into her drink or food, you call it out.”
“Roger that, six.”
***
“Can I use the ladies room?” Jana said with a little grin.
“Just down the hall on the left.”
Jana walked down the carpeted hallway but when she found the bathroom she realized it was a guest bath, not the one Jeffrey would normally use. She looked back toward the main living area to make sure he couldn’t see her, then tiptoed until she entered what was certainly Jeffrey’s master bedroom. The bed was massive and sat low to the ground, a black leather-covered comforter lay across it.
Leather? A leather comforter? What a prick, she thought. She walked further around to the left until she found his master bath, a sprawling collaboration of black marble and mirrors. She started to walk in but feared her heels would clack against the marble floor, so she removed them. She walked in and began pulling open drawers in a frantic attempt to locate Jeffrey’s supply of Rohypnol before he could use it on her. If she could locate his supply, her plan stood a good chance of working. But even when she opened the medicine cabinet, she could see nothing out of the ordinary. Just typical over-the-counter items, toilet paper, and extra towels. Where the hell is it? How am I going to find it? I’ve got to think like him. Where would he put it? Where would a raping thug put his stash of roofies? But then she saw the door
to his walk-in closet and a thought struck her. His closet. What about his closet? Maybe it’s in there. She looked over her shoulder again and walked in. If he catches me in here . . .
***
“Six, this is mobile two. I’ve lost her. I don’t have eyes on her anymore.”
“Dammit!” Stone barked into the radio from his new position in the building, a stairwell on the opposite end, just two floors below the penthouse.
“I’ve got Dima in play, but she walked down a hallway. Hold on, six. Hold on . . . he’s walking down the hallway in her direction!”
“I’ve had enough of this!” Stone said. “I’m going in.”
“No, wait,” Agent Fry called across the radio. “He hasn’t had time to drug her. She’s not in danger yet. And remember, we have no evidence against him.”
“We’ve got him in communication with a known terrorist network.”
“If you go in there before we have the evidence, it’ll never stick. And, they’ll cancel whatever terror attack they’ve got planned and do it later, without our knowing. We’ve got to give her more time.”
A vein in Stone’s temple pulsed. He paused, but finally raised the radio and spoke into the mic. “I hate it when you’re right.”
***
In the middle of the closet sat a center island filled with drawers. But what astounded Jana was the number of business suits, casual slacks, and dress shirts. Each was hung on a long rack that ran the circumference of the room, separated by the exact same amount of space. The man was a perfectionist, and a real clothes hog. These must be two-thousand-dollar suits, she thought. Look at all those shoes. There’s got to be one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of clothes in here. What a jackass. She began opening drawer after drawer on the center island only to find perfectly folded socks in one, unopened dress shirts in another, and an electric shoe polisher in a third. Where the hell is it? She began to perspire as the pressure of finding the drugs before she got caught increased.
It was then she saw a single dress shirt hanging on the wall with a pair of slacks, right next to the full-length mirror. They had been separated from all the other clothing. It was as if he had set these items aside to put on later. She quickstepped to the full-length mirror and felt the pocket on the dress shirt but found it empty. When she felt a lump in the pants pocket, however, her hand darted inside it. Her fingers landed on a tiny Ziploc baggie that contained two capsules. Found them, you asshole. Upon closer examination, Jana could see that the capsules were an exact match to the ones Agent Stone had given her. Each capsule was blue and white, imprinted with the words Flunitrazepam, 1 mg, Roche.
She fished in her handbag and withdrew two identical capsules from her prescription bottle and carefully replaced them with the two from Jeffrey’s pant pocket. Jana had previously emptied the powdered contents of her Rohypnol and replaced it with confectioner’s sugar. If Jeffrey tried to drug her, nothing would happen; she would simply detect the sweet taste of sugar.
“What are you doing in here?” Jeffrey’s voice said from behind.
Jana’s pulse rate exploded.
25
Making the Switch
The minutes ticked by. Stone wiped the blush of sweat from his upper lip. “Mobile two, give me an update. What’s going on up there?”
“Six, this is mobile two. I’ve got nothing. They haven’t come back into view. I’m blind.”
“I can’t take this anymore,” Stone said as he began to stand up.
***
Oh my god, he saw me. “Uh, I guess you’re wondering what I’m doing in your closet. Well, I just . . .” Think, dammit, think. “I just wanted to see it, that’s all. Um, I kind of have a problem with that, you know?”
Jeffrey scowled at her while Jana’s hand trembled behind her back. “What kind of a problem?” he said.
“I kind of have a thing for well-dressed men. I like to see the clothes a guy has. Kind of a sickness, I guess. It’s just that . . . I can tell a lot about a man by the way he dresses, that’s all.”
“Oh. Well that’s not so bad. Why didn’t you just ask me?”
“I didn’t want to be so forward.” Jana felt a drop of perspiration roll from under her right arm and drip against the side of her tight shirt.
Jeffrey’s smile returned. “And I wasn’t checking on you. I was just coming back here to change out of these work clothes.”
“I’ll just wait out there on the couch.”
“You sure you don’t want to stay while I change?” he said as his grin again exposed his teeth.
“I’m not that easy,” she said as she breezed past him and let her fingers run across his chest.
***
“Hold on, six,” the radio barked. “I’ve got her now. She’s come back to the living area.”
Stone breathed a sigh of relief. He had almost run up the two flights of stairs on his way to pull Jana out, investigation be damned. “Roger that, mobile two,” he said, wiping sweat from his forehead. “What’s happening now? Do you see Dima?”
“Negative, six. The subject is not in play. She just walked into the kitchen though. She’s looking down the hallway and pulling something from her purse. What the hell is she doing?”
There was a protracted silence.
Stone could wait no longer. “Don’t make me come up there and thump your skull,” Stone said into the radio. “What do you see?”
“She’s pulling the cork out of a bottle of wine.”
Stone said, “Here she goes. She’s going to do it now. Damn that girl has guts.”
“She just poured two glasses of wine . . . and . . . shit, she just emptied a capsule of powder into one of them. What the hell is going on?”
“Mobile two, this is six,” Agent Stone said. “All part of the plan. Is Dima in sight?”
“Negative, six. She’s still looking down the hallway. She’s stirring the powdered substance into the wine now. Is she drugging him or something?”
***
Jana separated the capsule and dumped a full dose of Rohypnol into the wine glass she intended for Dima to drink. Her heart felt like it might leap from her chest and she tried to steady her hand. I’ve got to calm down or he’s going to see my hand shaking. She placed the drugged wine glass on the top of the counter and took her own to the couch. She sat down, slipped her heels off, and pulled her legs up to curl them beneath her. Does this look enticing enough? she wondered. Calm down, just calm down. She drew in three deep breaths and blew them out in tandem. He’s got to believe you are here for him. You can’t let him suspect anything or the investigation will be blown. She took a sip of wine then glanced down at her blouse. With the flick of a finger she unbuttoned the top two buttons to expose just enough of her chest to look enticing, but not slutty.
Jeffrey emerged from the back, wearing the clothes that were hanging by the full-length mirror. Jana looked him up and down.
“Very nice,” she said.
“I was hoping you would like it.”
“I poured us some wine. I hope you don’t mind.”
He walked into the kitchen but stopped abruptly at the counter, then picked up the bottle. The label read: 2009 Opus One. Cabernet, California.
“My, my,” he said. “You do have good taste in wine. This is a seven-hundred-dollar bottle.”
“Oh, crap,” Jana said as she held a hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. Was looking forward to drinking this.” Jeffrey grabbed his wine glass, took a sip and smiled. He walked to the couch and sat next to her. “The wine’s incredible, isn’t it? So whatever are we to talk about?”
“Whatever comes to mind. Like you, where are you from?”
“Me? Oh that’s boring. My parents were from Syria but I grew up here.”
“You know,” Jana said, “this might be the best wine I’ve ever had.”
Jeffrey took another sip and let his eyes roll down to the lowest point of exposed skin on her chest.
***
“They’re on the couch together,” mobile one said. “Glass of wine in hand.”
“Is he thirsty?” Stone said into the mic.
“Roger that, six. He’s drinking his.”
“And what’s Jana doing?” Stone said. He was in a struggle to vacuum up enough information to know whether she was safe or not.
“Well, she’s having some wine too. And from the looks of it, I’d say she’s trying to . . .”
“Trying to what?”
“Trying to seduce him,” mobile one said. “She unbuttoned a couple of buttons on her blouse. Sorry, sir. It’s just that she’s either interested in the guy, or putting on a pretty powerful act.”
Stone thought to himself, This is unlike any witness I’ve ever worked with. She’s a natural.
Mobile one said, “Is this part of the plan? To seduce the guy?”
“No, nimrod. She’s trying to play along on the date so he thinks she’s interested. We’re trying to avoid him becoming suspicious of why she’s there.”
***
Jeffrey took a large sip and slid closer to Jana.
She put a hand on his chest to slow his advance. “Hold on there, smooth talker. I’m not that drunk.”
“Well, maybe we should get you there then.” Jeffrey tilted Jana’s wine glass to her mouth as she finished the last of it.
“That wine . . .”
“Yeah, I know,” Jeffrey said. “An incredible thing, isn’t it?”
“And what about you?” Jana said, nodding to Jeffrey’s wine glass.
He tilted it to his mouth until it was empty. He then stood and took both glasses to the kitchen and placed them in front of the bottle and began to fish in his pant pocket.
***