“All those things are classified, and you know it. You’re playing with me,” she said.
“Just establishing some ground rules. All right. Let’s try another one. Are you going to be waiting for me when I land in New York?” Chapel asked. “Surely you can answer that, since I’ll find out one way or another in an hour.”
“Captain, I’ll always be with you. But this is as physical as I get. The sweet little voice in your ear, making helpful comments and keeping you company. I’ve already been briefed on your operation, and I’m looking for ways right now to help.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
The voice sighed, just a little. “Let’s put it this way. While you’re in the field you’re not going to have a lot of time to check your voice mail or look things up on Wikipedia. I’ll do all that for you. If you need a map to your next target, I’ll send it straight to your phone. I guess, if you really wanted to get on my bad side, you could call me your secretary. I’ll keep you up to date, I’ll file your reports with the DIA, and I’ll make any phone calls you don’t have time to make. But I can be so much more to you. I can coordinate with law enforcement and the National Guard. I can make sure people know you’re coming and stay out of your way. I can get into any computer system and make it purr for you.”
“Any computer? You’re a hacker?”
“What an ugly little word that is. But yes. Any computer, any microchip that’s hooked up to the Internet. For instance, I can do this.”
She went silent for a moment and Chapel wondered what it was she thought she was doing — breaking into his bank account? Changing his e-mail password?
Then he saw his own hand come up in front of his face. His left hand. The hand rotated to face him and then the fingers wiggled. His hand was waving at him.
Sweat broke out on his forehead. He hadn’t told the arm to do that — he couldn’t even feel what it was doing. He grabbed the wrist of his artificial arm and forced it down into his lap. It tried to fight him, to break out of his grip, but he held on as hard as he could.
Apparently this guardian angel could take control of his arm. Any time she wanted. It had a wireless Internet connection built in, he knew that — the microcomputer built into its circuitry had to get firmware updates from time to time — but he had never considered for a moment before that that might be a security flaw.
If she could do it — anybody could.
Adrenaline surged through his body, and he fought down an urge to tear the arm off his shoulder and throw it out the helicopter’s window.
Slowly he fought to regain control of himself. He glanced over at the pilot. The kid was looking at him out of the corner of his eye. He was frowning. He must have seen the whole thing.
The embarrassment helped Chapel slow his heart rate and start breathing again.
“Angel,” he said, because she still hadn’t told him her name.
“Ooh, I like that,” she said. “From now on, that’s what you’ll call me.”
“Angel,” he said, almost growling, “don’t ever do that again. Seriously.”
“I know that was a little naughty of me—”
“Angel!” he interrupted. “I’m an amputee. I lost a part of myself once, do you understand? Can you understand why I would be a little sensitive about losing it again?”
She said nothing. Hopefully she was feeling terribly guilty and was too embarrassed to say anything.
“Let me show you what that was like,” he told her, because he was very close to getting furious. Nobody messed with his arm. “I’m not supposed to know anything about you. But I know you aren’t military. You’re a civilian.”
“That’s — that’s strictly NTK,” she gasped. “Who told you that?”
“You did.”
She didn’t sound so playful anymore. “Damn it, Captain. If I have a breach, I need to know about it right now. This is national security tech I’m working with here — if it’s been compromised—”
“Relax,” he told her. “Nobody’s hacked your system. I just used my amazing powers of deduction. You referred to our mutual boss as Director Hollingshead. That’s probably his official job title. But anyone who’d ever served in the armed forces would know better — they would call him Admiral Hollingshead.”
That long, uneasy silence again. Maybe she was thinking that if he could figure that out he was dangerous to her. Maybe she was about to tell his arm to strangle him.
When she came back on the line, though, her voice was as sweet and sexy as it had ever been. “I think I’m going to like you,” she said. “You’re going to keep me on my toes. Well, we have just tons of work to do, don’t we? Where do you want to get started?”
Chapel shook his head. This was not exactly what he’d expected when Hollingshead told him he was going to get a partner.
IN TRANSIT: APRIL 12, T+7:32
“First things first. I’ll be in New York soon. The address I’m headed for is in southern Brooklyn. Is there a helipad nearby?”
“Very near by. The address you’re thinking of,” Angel said, “is in Brighton Beach, and there’s a heliport less than a mile away, just the other side of Marine Park.” Chapel’s BlackBerry turned itself on and vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and looked at the map shown on the screen. Angel highlighted both the address he wanted and the location of the heliport. “You caught a break there — it’s about to turn into rush hour in New York. If you had to touch down in Manhattan, you could have been looking at an hour ride on the subway.”
“Considering my mission I don’t think the subway would have been appropriate,” Chapel pointed out.
“Sweetie, in New York, during a workday? The subway is the only way to get around. But seeing how close you’ll be, I’ll have a car waiting for you when you arrive. See how useful I can be? I’ll get you a visual reference on the address as well, so you know when you get there and don’t have to go hunting for house numbers.”
“Good,” Chapel said. “How long until I land?” He glanced out the window and saw urban sprawl beneath him, but that meant nothing — most of the land between D.C. and New York was built up to one degree or another.
“Not for another half an hour yet.”
“Okay. You have my list of addresses.” He didn’t want to call it a kill list, not when the pilot might be listening. “Can you get phone numbers for each of those names? I want to call them all now and make sure they know they’re in trouble.”
“That’s just a piece of cake, sugar. But are you sure you want to do that?”
“Why not?” Chapel asked.
“Not to be a pill, but part of your job is making sure this doesn’t get any public attention. If you tell these people that crazed lunatics are coming for them, what’s to stop them from going to the media?”
Chapel frowned. “If I talk to them the right way, make sure they know that’s not in their best interests, I think we can minimize that. The last thing these people want to do is advertise their locations. I just want to make sure they get somewhere safe, like a police station or an army base. Somewhere we can protect them.”
“Director Banks isn’t going to like that,” Angel chided.
“We don’t work for him. I’ll handle any blowback. But I won’t have these people made into sitting ducks. I’ll do anything in my power to keep them alive.”
Angel clucked her tongue. The sound was annoyingly loud in Chapel’s headphones. “I should really run this past Director — Admiral — Hollingshead.”
“Do what you have to do, Angel, but get me those phone numbers. These are human beings. They’re American citizens. They have a right to protect themselves. That’s not something the intelligence community gets to take away when it’s convenient.”