Okay, Shannon thought, you know some things. And that fits with what Gary was thinking.
I also know that Rafe Santorini works for Allison Gracelyn.
Suddenly Shannon was halfway across the United States in principal Christine Evans’s office as Marion Gracelyn passed judgment on her and banned her from the academy.
Allison? Allison is behind this? Shannon calmed herself, but it was hard. All that old anger and the feelings of betrayal surfaced within her. She knew she didn’t trust Allison. Especially not after the way she’d acted like Little Miss Innocence after Tory Patton had caught Shannon red-handed.
Allison had let Shannon hang by herself fifteen years ago. If she was involved with what was going on now, there was no way Shannon wanted to trust her.
Can you prove that?
There was no answer for a moment, then an image floated to the top of the screen. It was an identification card. Even though she hadn’t seen her in years, Shannon recognized Allison at once.
Don’t believe the first thing you’re shown, Shannon reminded herself. That was one of the rules given to her by her first supervisor. Anything that was shown freely the first time out was only the tip of the iceberg for what could be gotten.
Almost immediately a Web link floated onto the screen. Shannon clicked on it.
Pictures and files filled the screen. All of them focused on Allison Gracelyn at a nondescript office building. Military guys managed the security gates. It was exactly the kind of place where a clandestine government agency might set up operations.
The Web page vanished.
I can show you more at a later time if you’d like. We don’t have much time.
Shannon knew that was true.
Did you bug the hotel room?
Is the room under electronic surveillance?
That’s what I was told.
Then you’re in more danger than I believed.
What danger?
Allison Gracelyn isn’t the only enemy we face.
And isn’t that just perfectly mysterious? Shannon stared at the statement and tried to figure out the implications behind it.
Hello?
I’m here.
You need to decide what you’re going to do. If you don’t trust me, I can’t help you. And you’re not going to be able to help yourself at this point.
Shannon stared at the blinking cursor. Given what had happened with Vincent Drago, she was inclined to agree with the blunt assessment. Of course, she still didn’t care for it.
She took a deep breath and let it out. Okay, so which was it? Did she trust or did she sit still and hope everything worked out? And if she sat still, wasn’t she trusting Rafe Santorini and Allison—who had, by the way, already betrayed her.
Not a big fan of waiting for everything to work out, she told herself. Very few things in her life ever had.
Okay. I’m in.
Good!
Then we need to get you out of there.
I don’t know if I can get past Rafe. He’s good, and he acts quickly.
Go to the desk. Pull out the middle drawer. There, taped underneath, is a small envelope containing a pre-measured amount of powder. Put it in something he’s eating or drinking.
You should have told me before now, Shannon thought, remembering all the pizza and water he’d inhaled.
She went to the desk and found the packet exactly where she’d been told to look. The packet was glassine. The white powder was clearly visible.
Then a sobering thought hit her. She retreated to the iPhone.
What does the powder do? I don’t want him hurt.
It’ll only make him sleep for a short time. Nothing more. You’ll have to make the most of the time the drug gives you. The D.C. police are only searching for you as a person of interest. If Raphael Santorini turns up dead in a hotel room where only you were known to have been with him, they will search even harder for you.
Allison is tapped into this room somehow.
Shannon was certain of that. Otherwise Rafe wouldn’t have stayed there with her.
She’s inside the hotel’s security system. So am I. When the time comes, she’ll never see you leaving.
The announcement impressed Shannon. It was kind of intimidating trusting people who had that kind of power. She knew systems could be hacked. They were all the time. She’d talked to people who did that. However, her life had never been hanging in the balance.
Who are you?
I can’t tell you any more at this time. But you’ve got to move soon. Our other enemy is probably closing in on your location right now.
Right. The other enemy. Shannon took a deep breath and calmed herself. Mentally she went through the clothes that Allison had provided for her and picked out the evening’s attire. It was important to be organized.
I’ll be here waiting when you need me.
Shannon stared at the words, then turned the screen off. Through the gap in the bathroom doorway, she watched Rafe Santorini push up from the tub. He looked just as interesting coming out as he did going in.
Then she remembered she had an escape to arrange. She picked up the glassine packet and emptied it into one of the water bottles. Quietly, feeling as if her nerves were crawling inside her, she watched Rafe dress.
The soak helped Rafe’s knee. By the time he clambered out of the tub, with more difficulty than he’d had in months, it felt looser. It was markedly swollen, though. There was even a hint of bruising.
He dressed a little awkwardly, but he pulled on the Dockers over the knee brace. Normally at night he didn’t wear the brace and allowed his leg time to air out. With him acting as the cheese in a trap tonight, though, that wasn’t going to happen.
He ran the belt through the Dockers and the holster, then slid the pistol into place. He slid into a beige collarless pullover, used deodorant and cologne and walked into the room.
Shannon sat cross-legged on the bed. That surprised him.
“I figured you’d be asleep by now,” he said.
“Can’t,” she said. “I tried.”
Rafe studied her. Her casual, almost friendly tone surprised him, too. His warning radar came up and started sweeping.
“Look,” she said, “I want to apologize for throwing water on you.”
Rafe didn’t say anything. He tried to figure out where she was coming from.
“I shouldn’t have had the earbuds in,” she went on. “I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to relax. When I bathe, I listen to music. Evidently your friend knew that. She’s the one who sent the bath oil beads and the iPod. Loaded with some of my favorite music, I might add.”
At that, Rafe grinned. That was typical Allison. Always super thorough and detail-oriented.
“Your friend is very nosy,” Shannon said.
“She prefers to think of herself as well-informed.”
“I’m not going to be happy thinking about her raiding my home.”
Rafe had to admit that he wouldn’t be either. In fact, he wasn’t any too happy about being manipulated into the present situation.
“I’ve been thinking,” Shannon said.
Rafe waited.
“I’ve realized that I haven’t been trained to keep myself alive the way you have,” she said. “With that being the case, as long as it’s known that I don’t agree with what’s going on, I think we should declare a truce.”
“What kind of truce?”
“I’m not going to interfere with how you handle things anymore.”
Rafe didn’t know if he believed that and he supposed his reticence showed on his face.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to have questions,” Shannon said. “Or reservations.” She shook her head. “Especially reservations. And I’m not going to let the being-spied-on thing just fade away.”
“Catching my friend is like reaching out for a fistful of smoke,” Rafe said.
“Maybe you just haven’t managed to catch her.”
Rafe grinned. “Som
e of the best people in the world have tried to catch her. They haven’t.”
“I’ll concede that she’s a challenge.” Shannon got up from the bed and walked to the table. “In the meantime, I’m willing to declare a truce. If you are.” She took two bottles of water from the ice bucket.
Rafe crossed his arms and leaned against the wall to ease the weight off his knee. “I could live with a truce.” Because as soon as morning comes, I’m out of here.
Shannon loosened the cap on one of the water bottles and handed it to him. “Good. Then a truce it is.” She smiled as she opened her own bottle, then toasted him. “What is it you military types say? Hydrate or die?”
A grin pulled at Rafe’s lips. “Something like that.” He touched her bottle with his and drank deeply.
“There’s still some pizza,” she offered.
Rafe shook his head. The hot water from the bath had left him parched. “I couldn’t eat any more.” He nodded at the television. “Anything new?”
“They’re retreading the story.” Shannon resumed her seat on the bed. “Folding in extra details. They’ve got a better bio of me, but a lot of the pictures are still weak. They don’t have my good side.”
Personally, Rafe didn’t think she could take a bad picture. He took another pull on the bottle. “You stood up to Vincent Drago tonight. That was pretty intense.”
Shannon pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. “I haven’t been that scared in a long time.”
“Me, neither.”
She looked at him. “You weren’t scared.”
“I was. After things got crazy in the bar, I didn’t think I was going to find you in time.”
“But you did.”
He nodded. “I did.”
“He could have killed you when he shot into the car.”
“It was a close thing. It wasn’t from lack of trying.” Rafe drank more water. A wave of weakness rattled through him. His head suddenly felt heavy, and he thought it was going to tip him over.
“Are you okay?” Shannon’s voice sounded as if it was coming from the bottom of a cave.
Rafe knew something was wrong, but by that time his face was closing in on the carpeted floor like an out-of-control express train.
Chapter 13
W hen Shannon saw how fast the drug took Rafe under its control, she was afraid it had done more than put him to sleep. She hurried over to him and put two fingers against the carotid artery in his throat.
His pulse was slow and faint, but it was there.
Thank God.
Relief flooded through her. She looked at his lips and saw they held their normal coloration. If they’d been blue, it would have meant he was cyanotic and not getting enough oxygen.
His breathing was shallow but regular. It also looked deep enough to clear the carbon dioxide from his lungs. That was one of the problems postoperative patients faced after coming back from heavy sedation. People breathing too shallowly while anesthetized could actually “drown” in carbon dioxide.
She rolled him over onto his back, which wasn’t easy because he was big and dead weight. Then she took a pillow from the bed and put it under his neck to tilt his head back and open his breathing passages normally. In that position he’d be able to breathe more easily.
Then she went to the closet and pulled out the jeans, light sweater and shoes she’d chosen. She skimmed into panty hose while she opened her iPhone.
One-handed she typed,
HELLO?
I’m here.
He’s asleep.
Good. When you get out into the hallway, call me. Texting isn’t going to be beneficial at this point.
Okay.
Shannon finished dressing, decided she could live without makeup for the moment, ran a brush through her hair, then swiped all the cash in Rafe’s wallet. He had a lot of it. A quick count revealed almost three thousand dollars.
Nobody innocent carried that kind of money.
Cash ensured no paper trail.
She paused at the door and looked back at Rafe, comatose and helpless on the floor. If she hadn’t known he worked for Allison, she might have felt guilty. And maybe—just a little—she still did.
She walked through the door and left the guilt behind. She had no choice if she wanted to get to the bottom of the story that had been building for years.
And maybe, just maybe, she was going to find out what was being hidden at Athena Academy.
In the hallway Shannon dialed the number that showed on her iPhone’s screen.
The area code was three-one-oh, which should have made it a Los Angeles number. However, since phone customers could now take their phone numbers with them, that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
She plugged her earbuds in as she listened to the phone ring.
Once.
“Hello,” a mellow woman’s voice answered in a proper British accent.
“Hi.”
“Go to the elevators.”
Shannon hesitated as she looked at the security cameras in the hallway. “If Allison is tapped into the building’s security systems, she’s seen me by now.”
“I’ve guaranteed that she hasn’t. What she’s looking at now is a loop of an image that I’ve prepared for just this instance. But we must hurry. In my dealings with her I’ve discovered that she’s very competent.”
That hasn’t changed, Shannon thought.
“Take an elevator down to the second floor. I’ll walk you through the rest of your escape.”
Shannon did as she was told, but the whole time she was afraid she was going to get caught.
“Allison has a sentry on duty in the lobby,” Kwan-Sook said.
“We’ll dodge him.”
“How did you get the powder into my room?”
“I employ various agents in a number of countries.”
“‘Agents’? Are you part of the Chinese government?” The possibility that she was doing something potentially treasonous hadn’t occurred to Shannon until that moment.
“It’s just an expression. You would call them employees. I’m not a member of the Chinese government, nor do I represent them. I do, however, act on behalf of several businessmen whose interests are presently being menaced by American involvement.”
When the elevator doors dinged, Shannon got out on the second floor.
“Walk to the end of the hallway. There’s a fire hose station hanging on the wall.”
Shannon walked to the end of the hall and found the glass case containing the neatly folded fire hose.
“Leave your iPhone here and use the one inside the case.”
Further inspection revealed an iPhone that was identical to the one Shannon carried.
“Why am I changing phones?”
“Yours has a GPS transponder in it. Allison would be able to follow you.”
We definitely wouldn’t want that. Shannon lifted out the other iPhone.
“Do you know how to change SIM cards? If you don’t, I can provide instruction.”
“No, thanks. I know how.” Shannon made it a habit to manipulate her own SIM card anytime she bought a new phone. She had too many private phone numbers and information on hers to risk anyone getting access to it.
“I’ll call you in a few minutes,” Kwan-Sook said. “While you’re waiting, make your way to the emergency escape at this end of the hotel. It lets out onto a side street.”
The phone went dead.
Shannon quickly changed out the SIM card. When she turned the phone on, she saw the battery was fully charged. She hooked the earbuds in and clipped the iPhone to her waistband to leave her hands free.
She headed for the fire escape.
Minutes later, Shannon stepped from the hotel. Streetlights lit the back area parking lot. She gazed around, but the few people making their way through the parking lot didn’t seem interested in her.
Her phone rang and she answered.
“Yes.”
“Good. You�
�re in the parking lot.”
Shannon glanced around. “You can see me?”
“Through the security cameras outside the hotel, yes. Three rows up, on your left, four spaces over, you’ll find a gray Honda Civic.”
Shannon strode across the silent parking lot and found the vehicle exactly where she’d been told it would be. She tried the door.
“It’s locked,” she said.
“One moment, please.”
Only a moment later, the door lock lifted with a snick.
Calmly, as if she had every right to be there, Shannon opened the door and slid behind the wheel. She looked around for keys but didn’t find any. She was about to say something when the car started all by itself.
“Ah,” Kwan-Sook said, “you have to appreciate the car manufacturers’ way of making everything electronic. So many things are easier these days through the telematics systems they build into the cars.”
“I suppose,” Shannon said. She wasn’t all that enamored of car services, not even ones that seemed as if they came right out of Blade Runner. New York wasn’t a driver-friendly city.
But she knew how to drive. She put the car into gear and rolled through the parking lot.
“Where am I going?”
“To Dulles International Airport.”
“I don’t know how to drive there.” Shannon had always taken taxis.
Abruptly the navigation system on the dash came to life. A city map spread across the screen. A heartbeat later, a driving route limned in red snaked through the streets.
“You do now,” Kwan-Sook said.
Shannon had to smile at the sound of exultation in the woman’s voice. At the insistence of the soothing baritone voice provided by the navigator system, she turned right onto the street beside the parking lot and pulled into the early-morning traffic.
Beneath the Surface Page 11