by Liz Wolfe
“What now?” Zoe asked when Drake paused to look around.
“Now we have to convince the Secret Service to let us into the building.”
“Is that going to be hard?”
“Probably. They take the job pretty seriously.” Drake walked over to a man in a gray suit. He wore dark glasses and had an earpiece with a curly cord running down his neck and disappearing under his jacket.
“Can I help you?” the man asked.
Drake showed him the ID. “We need to get into the building. It’s a matter of national security.”
“Sorry, no can do. No one goes in that isn’t on the list.”
“I realize that, but like I said. It’s national security.”
The man was shaking his head again when another
Secret Service approached him. Drake grinned when he recognized the agent. He’d been CIA before he went to the Secret Service. Drake had saved his life on an op. If anyone would let them into the building, it would be Antoine Stewart. “Antoine. I really need to get into the building.”
“So do a lot of people. What’s up, Drake?”
“It’s a matter of national security.”
“Seriously?” Antoine asked.
“Yeah, I need to get to the president’s room.”
Antoine’s eyebrows lifted. “That’s where Chief Justice Jacobs and Justice Greene are.”
“Exactly.”
“I can’t do that, Drake.”
“National security. I’m not kidding about this.”
“Tell you what. I’ll let you in, but it’s gotta be quick. The ceremony starts in half an hour.”
“Thanks. When this is all over, I’ll tell you what a hero you are.” Drake grabbed Zoe’s hand and they hurried into the building. At the top of the stairs, Drake stopped and ducked into an alcove.
“What’s the plan?” Zoe asked.
“Excellent question. I thought I’d just go in there and take the damn pen away from him.”
“That could work,” Zoe agreed. “But we don’t know what it’s going to detonate or where it is. What if he’s able to detonate it before you get the pen?”
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take.”
“I could take it away without him knowing,” she suggested.
“No.” He shook his head. “Too dangerous.”
“Then we could get it far enough away that it won’t detonate anything,” she continued.
The problem was he didn’t have any better ideas. “What are you going to do, just walk up and ask him for it?”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “I’m a thief, remember? I could take his underwear without him knowing.”
“He’ll know when he reaches for the pen.”
“So?”
“He’s been touching that pen every time we’ve seen him. If he realizes it’s missing soon enough, they might have a backup plan.”
Zoe held up the pen Drake had tossed on Robyn’s desk. “Then I’ll replace it with this one.”
Drake considered the situation. It might work. If she could really switch out the pens without him knowing.
“Drake, we have to do something. It’s almost time for it to start.”
“Okay. Let’s go. What do you want me to do?”
“Just stand back and watch.” Zoe turned and walked to the double doors of the president’s room.
Justice Greene was settled in a burgundy leatherchair next to the fireplace watching a television that had obviously been brought in for the occasion. She looked up when they entered, set her coffee cup down, and stood.
“Time for me to swear in the new vice president. I’ll see you in a bit, I suppose.” She smiled at the phony Jacobs, and nodded to Drake and Zoe on her way out. Zoe nodded and walked over to the imposter.
“Chief Justice Jacobs?” She held her hand out. “I’m Zoe Alexander. I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to meet you. I’m a law student and you’re just like my hero, you know? I follow all your decisions and everything and I just wanted to meet you.”
He glanced around, catching Drake’s eye for a moment. Drake smiled and shrugged. Zoe smiled broadly at him and jumped up and down on her toes.
“I graduate this year and I’m so totally nervous about taking the bar, you know?” Zoe leaned in from the side, hovering over him. Predictably, he rose to take a step away from her. As soon as he stood, Zoe stumbled and put her hands up against his chest. The startled man automatically put his hands under her elbows to steady her.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m just so excited to meet you and everything. I must sound like an idiot.”
His eyes flickered to the clock and he nodded. Zoe followed his gaze, then gasped. “Oh, my God! I’mholding you up, aren’t I? I’m so sorry.” She grabbed his hand and pumped it with hers. “This has been such an honor. Really.”
Drake watched the man pull his hand away from Zoe’s and move it to his breast pocket. He patted the white pen and smiled at Zoe, then stepped around her. Drake nodded when the man passed him to open the door and step out into the hallway.
“Did you do it?” Drake asked after the door closed.
“You didn’t see it?” Zoe asked.
“I saw you stumble against him. Is that when you switched the pens?”
“Of course. I thought I was a little slow. Worried me for a minute.” She held the pen out to Drake. “What do we do with this?”
Drake took the pen from her hands gingerly. “Robyn? You still there?”
“I’m here. You have the pen?”
“In my hand.”
“Don’t open it. Removing the cap activates the detonator.”
“What’s the range?”
“Ten meters. Maybe a little more.”
“We’re heading back. I want this thing as far from here as I can get it.”
“Wait. I’ve got Ethan on the other line. I’ll patch him through.”
“Ethan?”
“Robyn filled me in. You have the pen?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it, but I don’t know what it’s supposed to detonate or where it might be.”
“I have a team on the way and I’ve alerted the Secret Service. Just stay put and don’t let anyone touch that pen. Let’s hope there’s no backup device.”
“That’s a comforting thought.”
The doors opened and Antoine walked in. “Drake, you want to tell me what the hell this is all about?”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Drake gave him a brief version of what had happened.
“So, there’s still something that might be detonated, but we don’t know what it is or where it is?”
“Pretty much.”
“Fuck! You couldn’t tell me this earlier?”
“I wanted to get the detonation device before we started with the general pandemonium.”
“Is the president-elect in any danger?”
“In my opinion, no.” Drake didn’t really care if the president-elect was in any danger because he didn’t particularly care for the president-elect, but he wasn’t about to tell Antoine that.
“Look! They’re starting the swearing-in.” Zoe pointed to the television set. Drake and Antoine both turned. Hemings was standing before the podiumwith his wife and what appeared to be Chief Justice Jacobs. Drake held his breath.
The imposter coughed, then reached into his breast pocket. He pulled out the pen and smiled.
The television showed the reporter in a small frame inset into the picture. “Chief Justice Jacobs is preparing to swear Jefferson Hemings in as the next president of the United States. Earlier we learned that Justice Jacobs has been suffering from the flu and has had problems with a raspy throat.”
Drake clutched the pen tighter as he watched the imposter twist the top off his pen. Zoe sidled closer and held his arm. The imposter pulled the top off the pen and looked at the podium.
Seconds passed before the reporter spoke again. “There appears to be a problem. I’m not sure what it is, but the Chief Justice see
ms to be delaying the swearing in. The future First Lady is holding the Bible and President-elect Hemings appears to be ready. As we reported earlier, Chief Justice Jacobs has been ill with the flu.”
The camera zoomed in on the imposter and Drake saw the man’s jaw working. He looked at the two pieces of the pen, then put the cap back on and twisted it off again.
The reporter’s voice started again. “We don’t know what the problem is. Chief Justice Jacobs appears to behaving a problem with his pen. Of course, everyone knows that Jacobs uses that pen to sign all his decisions and has for years. There’s no reason he needs the pen at this time, but there still seems to be a problem. The swearing in still hasn’t begun.” The reporter looked nervous, touching his earpiece and glancing at the camera and then away.
Tears started to flow down the imposter’s cheeks as he repeatedly capped and uncapped the pen. He reached into his pants pocket, then put something into his mouth. Within seconds he was gasping for air. His eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped down to the floor.
“What happened?” Zoe asked. “What’s he doing?”
“My guess is that he just ate a bullet,” Drake said.
22
January 22, CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia
“ANYTHING ON THE IMPOSTER?” Drake asked.
Ethan nodded. “We traced him to Ziyad Al-Din. The plan was to kill everyone in the vicinity at the Inauguration. The podium contained a device that would have emitted a deadly neurotoxin if the imposter had been able to detonate it.”
“How did they get the device past security?” Drake asked.
“We’re still checking on that. One of the regular maintenance workers in the Capitol Building has disappeared. We suspect he was involved. It’ll take a while to trace everything. But we will.”
“So, everyone would have been killed?” Zoe asked.
Ethan nodded. “Everyone within a fifty-meter range would most assuredly have died. Beyond that, we aren’t sure yet, but it would have been devastating.”
“That would have been almost everyone in line for the presidency.” Zoe shook her head.
“Actually, it would have been everyone in line. The country would have been literally without a leader.”
“How did he die?” Zoe asked.
“Cyanide,” Ethan said. “Most likely a capsule he’d been given just in case everything fell apart, which, thanks to you two, it did.”
“What about the team in Switzerland?” Drake asked. “Any more news from them?”
Ethan shook his head. “I’m afraid not. It looks like everyone in the facility was destroyed at the time of the explosion.”
“There was no sign of Logan anywhere?” Zoe asked.
Ethan shook his head. “The team scoured the area, but there were a lot of body parts that can’t be identified. There’s just no way of knowing if anyone survived, although indications are that everyone perished.”
“How awful,” Zoe said. “Logan sacrificed himself for his country, for everything he believed in and there’s not even anything left to bury.”
“We believe that his efforts were key in taking down the Order. He’ll be remembered for what he did,” Ethan said.
“But there are thousands of people out there who are still part of it. What about them?” Zoe asked.
Ethan shrugged. “It’s not illegal to believe a certain way. A man—or a woman—has a right to rear their children to believe anything they want.” The phone on Ethan’s desk rang. “Excuse me.”
Like her father had raised her to be a thief. She’d willingly followed him most of her life. Just like these children would follow their parents. Damn, she needed a vacation.
“What?” Drake looked at Zoe.
“I was just thinking I need a vacation. Maybe a nice, almost deserted island with sun and sea and not much else.”
“Yeah? That sounds nice. Would you like some company?”
“I wouldn’t mind some company.”
Ethan hung up the phone. “I have to go. Director Bolton wants to see me.”
“Oh,” Zoe said. “Are you in trouble?”
“Most likely.” Ethan gathered up the papers on his desk and stacked them into a neat pile. “But my team saved the world. How pissed can he be?”
Drake grinned at Zoe. “You have any particular island in mind?”
“Hawaii is too crowded. Fiji, maybe?”
“Sorry, Zoe, you don’t have time to go to Fiji.”
Zoe turned toward the familiar voice. “What are you—”
“I know you deserve a vacation, but I need you on this job.”
Zoe gave Drake an apologetic shrug. “Okay, but what’s with the platinum blond hair, Shelby?”
Liz Wolfe
SOMEONE IS BREEDING SUPERHUMANS …
… beings who possess extreme psychic abilities. Now they have implanted the ultimate seed in the perfect womb. They are a heartbeat away from successfully breeding a species of meta-humans, who will be raised in laboratories and conditioned to obey the orders of their owners, governments and large multi-national corporations.
Then Shelby Parker, a former black ops agent for the government, is asked to locate a missing woman. Her quest takes her to The Center for Bio-Psychological Research. Masquerading as a computer programmer, she gets inside the Center’s inner workings. What she discovers is almost too horrible to comprehend.
Dr. Mac McRae, working for The Center, administers a lie-detector test to the perspective employee for his very cautious employers. Although she passes, the handsome Australian suspects Shelby is not what she appears. But then, neither is he. Caught up in a nightmare of unspeakable malevolence, the unlikely duo is forced to team up to save a young woman and her very special child. And destroy a program that could change the face of nations.
But first they must unmask the mole that has infiltrated Shelby’s agency and stalks their every move. They must stay alive and keep one step ahead of the pernicious forces who are intent on …
BREEDING EVIL
ISBN#9781932815054
Mass Market Paperback / Suspense
US $6.99 / CDN $9.99
Available Now
www.lizwolfe.net
TWENTY-TWO YEARS OF MARRIAGE HAVE GIVEN SKYE ÖONOVAN a life of structure and predictability. When she discovers some women’s underwear—not hers—however, she begins to suspect her husband is fooling around. And she’s right, he is. But she’s wrong about who the underwear belongs to. Not her husband’s girlfriend, but her husband. And then she walks in on her husband … and his boyfriend.
Skye finds herself confronting another new reality. She needs to start life over. She needs to find a job, a place to live, break the news to her teenaged daughter and—yikes—start dating again. At least she has her best friend to help her through it all.
Not.
Corpses are turning up. And her best friend is the prime suspect.
As Skye tries to prove her friend’s innocence, her own life is further complicated by a handsome detective, a sexy writer, a pagan wedding, her friend’s unexpected pregnancy, and a new career. Could it get any crazier? In a word, yes. She not only must exonerate her friend, but do so before the murderer strikes even closer to home …
ISBN#9781933836393
Mass Market Paperback / Mystery
US $7.95 / CDN $9.95
Available Now
www.lizwolfe.net
A Liz Wolfe Novel
Paige Blackwell needs a vacation. She’s been working hard as a partner in Shelby Parker’s PI agency. When she’s offered a chance to be on a survival type reality television show that takes place on a tropical island, she jumps at the opportunity.
On the island Paige meets her fellow competitors, including one it might be fun to share a sleeping bag with, should things work out. It looks like the week is going to be even more enjoyable than she had thought. And then the first shots are fired. At them.
There’s no reality TV show. Just reality. They
’re being hunted. Survival takes on a whole new meaning. But Paige and her companions are not the only ones in jeopardy.
Back home, Shelby and new associate Zoe are racing against the clock to stop a plot by the shadowy and sinister Dominion Order to control the U.S. guided missile system.
Who wants the carefully selected contestants on the island dead? What do they all have in common? And why are Shelby and Zoe now targets, too?
Clearly, only the fittest will survive.
ISBN#9781932815221
Mass Market Paperback / Suspense
US $6.99 / CDN $9.99
Available Now
www.lizwolfe.net
Blood Ties. What do they mean?
How far would someone go to sever … or protect them?
Julie Collins is stuck in a dead-end secretarial job with the Bear Butte County Sheriff’s office, and still grieving over the unsolved murder of her Lakota half-brother. Lack of public interest in finding his murderer, or the killer of several other transient Native American men, has left Julie with a bone-deep cynicism she counters with tequila, cigarettes, and dangerous men. The one bright spot in her mundane life is the time she spends working part-time as a PI with her childhood friend, Kevin Wells.
When the body of a sixteen-year old white girl is discovered in nearby Rapid Creek, Julie believes this victim will receive the attention others were denied. Then she learns Kevin has been hired, mysteriously, to find out where the murdered girl spent her last few days. Julie finds herself drawn into the case against her better judgment, and discovers not only the ugly reality of the young girl’s tragic life and brutal death, but ties to her and Kevin’s past that she is increasingly reluctant to revisit.
On the surface the situation is eerily familiar. But the parallels end when Julie realizes some family secrets are best kept buried deep. Especially those serious enough to kill for.
ISBN#9781932815320
Mass Market Paperback / Mystery
US $6.99 / CDN $9.99