High Treason (Noah Wolf Book 18) Page 14

  She put her hands on his chest and felt his muscles, realizing he was a man who worked out regularly. While this had no effect on her directly, she knew it was something most women tended to like, so she affected an expression of appreciation. When he didn’t object, she began to unbutton his own shirt and a moment later he helped her to get it off of him.

  He turned her to the bed and pushed her down onto it, then slowly removed the rest of her clothing. Esmeralda carefully analyzed every sensation, from the feel of her pants sliding off her legs to the gentle touches he gave to other parts of her body. Within only a moment, they were both naked on the bed, and Esmeralda followed his lead as he brought them to his ultimate goal.

  When it was over, she was somewhat amazed at how well the programming had interpreted all of the sensations. The pleasure response she was programmed for had built up to a crescendo that had finally crashed over her, like a wave crashing over the beach, and she knew that this was her own approximation of an orgasm. She had appreciated it immensely, and realized it was something she hoped to enjoy again.

  For the moment, however, she had a mission to complete. She had slipped the poison pill out of her pocket while Clark had been busy with her breasts, and had slid it under the pillow when he pushed her down onto the bed. Now, as he lay beside her panting, she reached out and grabbed it, squeezing it and applying its contents to her lips. She swallowed the capsule so there would be no evidence of it in the room.

  “That was wonderful,” she said. “Even better than I had imagined.”

  Clark chuckled. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “Give me a moment to rest, and we can do it again.”

  She smiled as she looked at him. “I’d like that,” she said. “And you, sir, are a wonderful kisser.”

  He chuckled again, then leaned close and pressed his lips to hers once more. The kiss was long and slow, and when he finally broke from it he lay beside her with his head propped on his arm and just looked at her.

  “You’re not so bad yourself,” he said. “I could do this all day long.”

  Esmeralda rolled over and put a hand on his chest. He tousled her hair, not realizing that she was actually feeling his heart rate as she waited for the increased heart rhythm to begin.

  It was only a moment later when she felt the beating of his heart grow stronger and faster. Within seconds, his heart was racing and he was gasping for breath.

  “I don’t—I don’t know what’s happening,” he said. “I think maybe you were a bit too much for me.”

  “It’ll be over soon,” she said. “Don’t worry about it.”

  The tachycardia grew even faster, and it was only because of her computer brain that she could count the beats so well. When they reached over two hundred and forty beats per minute, his face turned bright red and his eyes began to roll up in his head.

  “I think—I think—I think you need to call…”

  His heart stopped, suddenly and without warning. It had peaked out at more than two hundred and eighty beats per minute, and a rattling sound came from his throat as death claimed him.

  Esmeralda looked calmly at his face for another moment, then got up and found her clothing. She dressed herself quickly and then made certain changes to her appearance, including shifting the color of her clothing the way she had shown Cody earlier. When she put on her jacket, she turned it inside out so that it was black, now, instead of green.

  After making sure there was nothing that could lead back to her, she stepped out of the room and walked toward the elevator, once again editing the security video as she went. If Clark had been under any kind of surveillance, his bodyguards had not been doing their jobs very well. She rode the elevator down to the main lobby and walked out the front door without any interference, then hailed a taxi.

  She told the driver to take her to a nightclub, and he pulled away from the curb. As he did so, she activated the subcom software.

  “Esmeralda to Marco,” she said without an audible word. “Mission accomplished. Meet me at the rendezvous point for pickup.”

  “Marco to Esmeralda, understood. Any problems?”

  “None at all,” she said. “No sign of any protection for him.”

  “Yeah, well, there’s a story behind that. We’ll fill you in when we see you.”

  The taxi dropped her off a few minutes later and she went inside, preferring not to stand out in the parking lot. She spotted the sign for the restrooms and went directly to the ladies’ room, then went into a stall and got rid of the food and drink she had consumed. While she did so, she connected to Noah once again.

  “Cinderella to Camelot,” she sent.

  “This is Camelot,” Noah said again. “Cinderella, report.”

  “My mission is complete. My target has been eliminated in the manner we discussed. Do you have any further orders?”

  “Yes. Remain in place and keep contact with Pegasus, in case he needs your help. Try to avoid being seen any more than necessary, and be careful about where you go in the city. Stay away from any of the major government institutions.”

  “Understood. I will report again when I have more information to give you.”

  “Hold on,” Noah said. “You can also tell Marco and everyone else that Sarah is in the hospital. She is giving birth to the baby tonight.”

  “Congratulations, Noah. I’ll be happy to relay that information.”

  “Very good. Keep your subcom software active in case I need to reach you. Noah out.”

  The nightclub had been prearranged as the rendezvous point, and Cody drove them toward it at a leisurely pace. When they pulled in, there was no sign of Esmeralda in the parking lot, so Marco called to her through the subcoms.

  “Marco to Esmeralda,” he said. “We are here, where are you?”

  “I’ll be right out,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how long you would be and I wanted to be as inconspicuous as I could, so I came inside and went to the ladies’ room. I’m coming out now.”

  A few seconds later they saw her leave the nightclub and Cody pulled up toward the entryway. She slid into the backseat beside Renée and Cody drove away.

  “So, no problems?” Marco asked.

  “Not at all,” she said. “Everything went exactly according to plan.”

  “Very good. You check in with Noah yet?”

  “Yes, I did,” Esmeralda said. “And I’m supposed to let you all know that Sarah is at the hospital, and in labor. The baby will be born sometime tonight.”

  Renée’s eyes went wide and Marco spun around to look at her. “Tonight? Damn, that’s not fair. We wanted to be there for that.”

  “Noah says we are to wait for Pegasus to finish their part of the mission. If he has any problems, he may need us for backup. We are also to avoid going near any government institutions, and avoid being seen as much as possible.”

  “That makes sense,” Marco said. “And speaking of which, I’m going to let Ralph know that you’ve already completed your end.” He took out his phone and dialed Ralph’s number.

  “Hello?” Ralph said as he answered the phone.

  “Hey, kid,” Marco said. “It’s the Cajun. Wanted to let you know that, uh, our girl already got her cake baked. How’s yours coming along?”

  “We haven’t even gotten started,” Ralph said. “I’m going to start shopping for the ingredients in the morning, try to pick the best deals I can get. No worry, I’ll be done in a few days.”

  “Yeah, no problem. Just wanted to let you know. It’s possible you might have a little trouble getting everything you need for a day or two, but then things ought to go back to normal.”

  “Yeah, I can imagine. Some of the ingredients might be a little hard to get to right now. I take it her cake looks pretty normal?”

  “About as normal as you can get. It all came together without a hitch, and we’ve already cleaned up the kitchen.”

  “Sounds good,” Ralph said. “I’ll let you know when ours comes out of the oven.”


  They said goodbye and ended the call, and Marco turned back to Esmeralda. “Now, I’ve got a little news for you,” he said. “Team Aladdin is here, doing some undercover stuff for Allison. They were actually transferred over to DHS to be the security for Senator Clark. They saw you going in with him, and decided to just let you do your thing, of course.”

  Esmeralda looked at him for a moment, and Marco got the impression she was thinking about how to process that information, but he knew it wouldn’t take her that long.

  “Okay,” she said at last. “Do we have a way to contact them?”

  “Yeah, Mark gave me his current phone number. Any reason we need them?”

  “Not that I’m aware of at the moment, but we never know what might change. If anything goes wrong for Pegasus, it might take all of us to fix the situation.”

  Marco nodded deferentially. “Okay,” he said. “You’re the boss on this one. However, we do have one more thing. Mark said Allison has a special assignment for us, and you’re supposed to call a number he gave me. Are we ready for that?”

  “Allison Peterson has a mission for us? Give me the number, and let me call.”

  Marco read it off to her and Esmeralda processed the call through her computer brain. It rang three times before it was answered, and she heard Allison’s voice.

  “This is Madame Draco,” she said. “Who is calling?”

  “This is Esmeralda. We were given this number and told to call for further orders.”

  “Excellent,” Allison said. “This line is extremely secure on my end, and I’m certain yours is. The orders I’m about to give you will seem pretty strange, but I need you to carry them out as soon as possible. Are you ready?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Esmeralda said. “Please go ahead.”

  “I will be leaving my office in thirty-five minutes,” Allison said. “I need you to arrange for me to be run off the road, and leave all possible signs of an abduction. I’ve decided running the CIA isn’t for me, so the president and I have come up with something new. Do you think you can handle it?”

  “Yes,” Esmeralda said. “Please send me information regarding how you will be leaving and how you want the abduction to appear.”

  “That’s easy enough,” Allison said. “I’m driving away in my car, which is a new Lincoln Continental. If you get to the parking lot before I leave, you’ll be able to spot me as I pull out. Follow me out toward Annandale and be ready when I crash the car. Any questions?”

  “No questions. From our location, it will take us about twenty-two minutes to get there. We’ll be ready when you come out the door.”

  The line went dead, and Esmeralda looked at Marco. “Change in plans,” she said. “We are going to kidnap the director of the CIA.”

  THIRTEEN

  Allison left the building right on schedule and got into her car, backing out of her parking space and cruising to the security gate. The security guard confirmed that she was leaving and opened the gate, and she turned onto the road and headed south.

  She hadn’t gone more than a quarter mile when she spotted the tail. There was no doubt in her mind that it was Esmeralda and her team, and she liked the way they were staying back just far enough to not be conspicuous.

  She turned onto another road that would take her by a more scenic route, one that was basically rural with lots of trees and fields. She had picked the spot for her accident carefully, and made sure that she didn’t lose the car behind her as she whipped through the curvy road. When she was coming up on her chosen location, she suddenly floored the accelerator and drove directly off the road into a stand of trees.

  Most of the trees were fairly small and snapped out of the way, but with enough impact to set off her airbag. When the car came to a stop a few yards later, she shook off the dazed feeling quickly and got out of the car.

  Marco and Cody were running toward her.

  “Ma’am?” Marco asked. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Might have a sore nose and a bit of a headache for a few days, but I’ll be okay.”

  The two men each took hold of one arm and helped her back to their car. Allison got into the back with Esmeralda moving to the middle of the backseat, and she grinned when she saw Renée.

  “How’s everybody?” she asked.

  “We’re doing fine,” Esmeralda said. “May I ask the reason for this ruse?”

  “Yeah, and it’s simple,” Allison said. “With all the fuss going on about E & E, I’ve suddenly become a liability to the president. He and I talked it over and decided that I need to go back to doing what I do best, which is running the assassins. We’re going to go back into business, but based out of your place in England. The president wants me there running it personally, so we had to create a situation that allowed him to get rid of me without it looking too obvious.”

  “So, the story will be that you were abducted, right?”

  “Yes, but only temporarily. Since I was obviously kidnapped by terrorists, and the US does not negotiate with terrorists, they will write me off and in a few days a story will be released showing that I have been killed. Somebody new takes over at the CIA, and I’m free to rejoin my family.”

  “Your family?” Esmeralda asked.

  “You bet,” Allison said. “Noah and his team, those are my family. Did you honestly think I was going to have a grandbaby I would never get to see?”

  “But, how do we get you out of the US?” Renée asked.

  “Already arranged,” Allison said. “There’s a diplomatic flight leaving from Camp David in about two hours, and I have to be on it. That’ll take me to Heathrow, and I’m sure we can figure out something from there.”

  Marco groaned. “That only leaves the question of how we get you onto Camp David,” he said. “That’s an awful lot of security to get through, and we don’t exactly have that kind of clearance.”

  Allison reached into a pocket and produced a stack of laminated ID cards. Three of them had photos of Marco, Renée and Cody on them, and the fourth had a photo that resembled Esmeralda but with red hair. A fifth one had a photo of Allison herself wearing a blonde wig, which she pulled from inside her shirt and began putting onto her head.

  “Esmeralda?” Allison asked. “Can you do that shade of red?”

  Esmeralda looked at the photo ID for a moment, and then her hair began to change color. Within seconds, it matched the photo both in length and color, and Renée muttered something under her breath about it being unfair. A few seconds later, using a compact mirror to be sure she was getting the results she wanted, the coloring on Esmeralda’s face also changed to match the makeup patterns on the photo.

  “Those IDs will get us onto Camp David,” Allison said. “Mine says that I am Lieutenant Colonel Janet Hogan from the US Army, and there are orders waiting at Camp David that say I’m being assigned to the US Embassy in London as an assistant to the military attaché. As far as you guys, you are simply my escort. Your job is to get me there and drop me off, that’s all.”

  “But what’s going on? You said the president has authorized this?”

  “Yes, Marco,” Allison said. “Government Watch has put too much pressure on the president for giving me the CIA assignment in the first place, especially since they’ve come up with plenty of evidence that I was running E & E. We thought about simply reassigning me somewhere else, but we both agree that I need to get back to doing what I do best, which is managing the teams. We know that Noah has been setting up an entirely new operation in Guildford, and the president decided that’s where I need to be working. By having me abducted, we accomplish three things at once. First, I’m out of the way and he can appoint somebody new to the CIA; second, since I’ll never be rescued or found, it brings an end to my Allison Peterson identity so that it’s not such a liability anymore; and third, Government Watch is going to catch all the flak over my abduction, because they are the ones who put my name out there. It should do some damage to their reputation as whistleblowers,
and might even give the Justice Department a chance to shut them down.”

  Marco was silent for a moment, then he nodded. “That’s bold, and kind of slick. But won’t the people at Camp David realize it’s you that got on that plane?”

  Allison began stripping out of her clothes, and that’s when they realized she was wearing a flight jumpsuit underneath. She used her shirt to wipe off the makeup from her face, then tossed it over the back of the seat.

  “All they are going to see is a short colonel with a bad temper,” she said. “They aren’t going to pay much attention other than that.”

  Marco shook his head. “Does Noah know that you’re coming?”

  “He should be aware of it by now,” Allison said. “And if not, he will be soon.”

  “Should I notify him?” Esmeralda asked.

  “I already sent word, and he’s got a lot more on his plate to worry about right now. You all heard that the baby is coming tonight, right?”

  “Yes, we did,” Renée said. “I’m pissed off that we aren’t there.”

  Allison nodded. “Join the club,” she said. “I was counting on getting to play grandma, but now I have to ditch my whole life to accomplish it.” She broke into a smile. “On the other hand, I bet it’ll be worth it.”

  Cody called up directions to Camp David on the GPS and got moving. The map said it was fifty-eight miles, but estimated almost an hour and forty minutes to get there, counting dealing with several traffic lights along the way. Since he was supposed to keep a low profile, Cody kept the speedometer hovering just a little over the speed limit, and made the trip in just barely over ninety minutes.

  The guards on the gate looked their IDs over closely, then waved them on inside. Another guard jumped into a Jeep to show them where to go and Cody followed. He was expecting the guard to lead them to an airport or runway, but instead they pulled up at a clearing where a large helicopter sat idling.

  “That doesn’t look like a jet,” he said.