Andy was crashed out on the floor in front of the holo, his hands folded behind his head. He snored gently. He and Mark had been out late and had been a little mysterious about what they’d been doing, but Mark had assured her that what they were bringing in would help. Mark was either at home or on the Net.
Catie and Megan had given up only a little while ago, returning to their rooms to grab a shower and a few hours’ sleep. Matt slept facedown on her bed, totally beat. The right side of his face had purpled up dramatically overnight. He’d refused to leave last night, insisting on staying there to guard her.
Some bodyguard. Even though she’d only thought it in jest, Maj felt guilty. It was a further sign of how tired she was because she knew she had nothing to feel guilty about.
Leif Anderson had wandered off, presumably to bed.
And the mysterious Agent Jon Roarke hadn’t bothered to reappear after last night’s disappearance.
Maj underlined the two ER incidents she’d isolated from all the lists they’d generated. She answered the vidphone automatically, punching the connect button.
Captain Winters’s face appeared on the screen. A heavy five o’clock shadow tanned his cheeks, but the knot in his tie looked fresh. “Good morning, Maj. I took a chance that I’d find you still up.”
“I’m not sure how good it is,” Maj replied.
“I don’t know if I’m going to make it any better. Do you mind if I stop by? A holo transmission through the Net will be much easier to encrypt than the phone.”
Maj nodded.
A moment later Captain Winters stepped into her room. He gazed around at Andy and Matt. “Attrition in the ranks?”
“More like exhaustion.”
Winters nodded. “I won’t take up much time. You need to get some sleep as soon as we finish here.”
Maj recognized his words as an order, not a suggestion. “Yes, sir.”
“Intelligence turned up a file on Heavener,” Winters said. “If it’s the same person.” He gestured and another holo formed beside him. This one was of a slender brunette.
At first Maj didn’t key in on the similarities between the brunette and the blonde she’d encountered last night. The shape of her chin and jawline had been altered. And the blonde’s lips were more full. But there was something about the eyes — even though they were blue on the holo instead of the tiger’s-eye amber — which made the identification unmistakable.
“She looks a lot different now,” Maj said, “but it’s her.”
Winters waved a hand through the holo, and it shattered into millions of pixels and disappeared. “Heavener is only one of the aliases she uses. She’s a very dangerous woman.”
“I gathered that from last night.”
“I’ve got a full report I’ll send,” Winters said, “but I’ll give you the highlights now. Her real name — our intelligence division believes — is Katrina Mahler. She’s in her late twenties. She’s worked for the German terrorists, became a specialist in demolitions and close-in assassinations.”
Remembering the cold lights in the woman’s eyes, Maj believed it.
“When the German counterterrorist organization, GSG9, turned up the heat on Heavener, she fled to the Balkan countries and set up shop there for a while. Three years ago she apparently gave up political terrorism for the corporate world. There’s no real proof of that, but that’s been the speculation of the GSG9 people.”
“Do they have any idea of who she’s working for?” Maj asked.
“I’m checking around,” Winters replied. “So far the answer is no.”
“Her working for Eisenhower Productions seems unlikely — a gaming company and some kind of industrial espionage or security work?”
“Our profilers agree,” Winters said. “Heavener is addicted to danger. Her assignments in the past have always been a step over the edge. Whoever she’s working for, it’s someone big. Someone with a huge agenda.”
“But it must tie into the gaming world.”
“She’s here,” Winters agreed. “We have to acknowledge that. Figuring out who she’s working for would be a big help, but I want you and the other Net Force Explorers to stay away from her. She won’t think twice about harming any of you.”
“Yes, sir,” Maj replied, dreading hearing Winters order them off the firing line. But she didn’t want to wait. “Are we going to stay involved in this?”
Winters hesitated. “At this point I don’t have enough authority to get a team from Net Force down there. And if I did, Jay Gridley and I feel showing up in force prematurely would make Heavener and her employers shut down. Whatever they’ve got planned, it’s been underway for a long time. There’s no guarantee that if they backed away from the operation here that we’d have nullified it. And whatever they’re planning may even be in play now.”
“Yes, sir.” Enthusiasm at this point, Maj told herself, would be sooo out of place. She restrained herself.
“The convention lasts another three days,” Winters went on. “For now, I want you and the rest of your team to keep your eyes and ears open and to stay away from Heavener and her group.”
Maj nodded.
“And keep me apprised of any changes in the situation immediately.”
“Of course. Could I ask a question?”
“Certainly.”
“I need to know about Agent Roarke.” Maj felt guilty for bringing it up. Winters stood firmly behind anyone he put into the field.
“Jon Roarke,” Winters said, “has a lot of abrasive qualities, but he’s a good man. Before he got this assignment, he was on administrative leave.”
Uh-oh, Maj thought. Read that as bucking the chain of command.
“He achieves his assignments,” Winters said, “but his manner of achieving them has sometimes left muddied waters. Even so, I feel lucky to get him.”
“Thank you,” Maj said. “That’s what I needed to know.”
Winters said good-bye and faded from the room.
Maj peered out the hotel windows at the early morning sunshine breaking over downtown Los Angeles’s skyline. Despite the promise of sunlight, a cold feeling of dread seeped into her.
20
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Andy Moore said, jerking a thumb at Leif Anderson.
“I protest,” Leif said, dropping into a cross-legged position on the carpet in Maj’s hotel room. “There was no dragging of cats or other creatures in any of the gaiety I involved myself in.”
“It’s eleven o’clock in the morning,” Andy said, pointing to the tuxedo Leif wore. “Isn’t it premature to go out partying again?”
“Again?” Leif squared up the wilted carnation in the jacket’s boutonniere. “Actually, anyone who wimped out after the banquet last night missed the real parties where business was done. I was scouting the terrain.” He glanced up at the huge breakfast cart room service had brought up at Maj’s request. “Are those muffins?”
Maj scooped a muffin up from the tray. “Blueberry.”
“My favorite.” Leif took the small saucer with the muffin Maj passed to him. He sighed contentedly.
“You’ve been out partying till now?” Catie asked in disbelief.
“Yes.” Leif broke the muffin into halves and munched, then swallowed. “I had a few glasses of champagne and lots of coffee, but nothing to eat. Crumbs on a tux are just too tacky, especially when you’re trying to impress corporate execs who don’t admit to human frailties.”
Maj sat in one of the room’s chairs, her knees pulled up beneath her chin and her feet resting on the chair seat. All of the Net Force Explorers were gathered in her room, getting ready to descend on the convention center. “Were any of the meetings productive?”