She looked at him curiously. “What”
He chuckled ruefully, “I’m afraid that I’m at a loss myself. I know that Abdallah is here, Gwen.I can feel that.but I’m no closer to finding him then I was when I arrived.”
She snorted in amusement, “Glad I’m not the only one flying blind here.”
Anselm smiled and clapped her lightly on the shoulder, “Welcome to Counter Terrorism work, Gwen. We almost never know where we’re going, because the bad guys are all nuts and don’t bother to watch where they are going.”
“Oh joy,” she replied dryly as they walked out of the loading dock and back into the station. “I suddenly have this lovely feeling of dread balled up in the pit of my stomach.”
Anselm chuckled, “That’s just hunger. You want lunch”
Gwen shot him a dirty look, then sighed, “There’s a good place about a quarter turn around the city.”
“Sounds good,” Anselm said more cheerfully than he was, “I’ll buy. You get it the next time.”
Adrienne Somer shifted slightly in her sleep, the chair she was sitting in being no prize for comfort. She’d been offered a bed, and had used it the night before, but had gotten little enough sleep anyway and she wanted to be closer to Ronald if.when he woke up.
She didn’t hear the light buzz of her portable when it sounded because the noise was cut off too quickly when a hand blindly came down on it, wrapping around the intuitive grip and keyed the answer button.
The device flipped open, snapping into place as it was designed to do, and a weak voice rasped. “Hello”
“Inspector Somer”
“No. She’s asleep.” The pained voice replied softly, “I don’t want to wake her.”
“Ronald”
“That’s me,” Ronald Somer tried to smile, but would up grimacing.
The morphine he was currently on had him in and out of consciousness more often than he’d like, but it held most of the pain securely in the background of his mind.
“Good lord.I wasn’t told that you were awake.”
“Who is this”
The woman on the screen blinking, noting the pads still covering the man’s eyes. “Oh my, I’m sorry, Mr. Somer. My name is Alice Jordan, I’m.”
“Adrienne’s boss,” he smiled again, this time managing it relatively well.
“Please, Mr. Somer, just rest. I’ll call a little while later to speak with Inspector Somer.”
Ron started to nod, but was interrupted by a quiet and tired voice.
“Ron Who are you talking too”
He smiled unconsciously at the sleepy quality of his wife’s voice, “it’s your boss, hon.”
That snapped her awake quickly, causing Adrienne too look around in distress for a moment as she remembered where she was and what had happened, then in shock at him as she realized that he was awake.
“Ron! You’re awake.”
“Yes, well, I think that’s obvious,” he said, his voice still slurring slightly from the drugs. “You better take this, Hon.”
He gestured blindly with the portable until she took it.
Adrienne patted down her hair self-consciously, turning the device around. “Oh! Director Jordan.I was just.”
“It’s alright, Inspector. I’m quite aware of how it is when someone you love is in the hospital. I was just calling because Agent Gunnar delivered his full report some time earlier when we spoke, and I just had time to read the details. I’m very sorry for what happened to your husband.”
Adrienne swallowed and nodded, “Thank you, Director.”
“Interpol will be arranging to have you both flown out to Sydney as soon as it’s advisable to move him,” the Director told her. “We feel that it’s advisable to remove him from the area, just in case it wasn’t an isolated event.”
Adrienne nodded, “the local police have provided deputies to guard the room, but they really don’t have many resources.”
“I see,” the Director frowned. “Well then that may well provide us with a solution to one of our dilemmas.”
“Pardon”
“Don’t worry about it, Adrienne,” the Director said reassuringly, using her first name for the first time. “I’ll take care of things from this end. Just look after that boy.it looks like he’s been used rather roughly, I’d say.”
Adrienne giggled slightly, a sign of her own fatigue, and nodded as she stole a look to where Ron was laying back again. “It has been quite a honeymoon, Ma’am.”
“Quite,” the Director said dryly, smiling again. “Rest easy, Adrienne. I’ll speak with you later.”
Thank you, Ma’am,” Adrienne Somer said, closing the connection.
She looked over to where her husband was laying, wondering if he’d drifted off again.
“Is she gone” Ron asked, his lips tightening into a slight smile.
Adrienne smiled, ducking her head in relief. “I’ve been so worried.”
“I know,” he said. “I’ve been listening to you breathe.”
“Under other circumstances that would either be romantic or creepy,” she informed her husband, “for now, though, I’ll accept it at face value.”
“Good,” he chuckled, then groaned slightly.
“Ron! Are you.”
“I’m okay.I’m okay,” he lifted a hand, presumably to assure her that he was, in fact, okay, but made the mistake of trying to lift the one in the large cast and it banged down on the edge of the bed when it slipped off its brace.
Adrienne caught it up again, holding it as Ron groaned another time, then gingerly slid it back into the brace. “Carefully. carefully.”
Ronald Somer nodded, “Yeah.I guess I’ll have to take that advice from now on.”
They were about halfway through their meal when Anselm’s portable went off, and he had to catch it in mid buzz.
“You know it’s normally polite to shut one of those off when you eat,” Gwen said dryly.
“Is yours off” Anselm responded pointedly.
Gwen had the decency to look chagrined, and he just smiled as he checked the number.
“Don’t throw stones if you’re living in a glass house,” he advised her, “even if it is a twenty-five thousand acre glass house.I have to take this, I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, watching as he walked a distance away and flipped open his portable. She continued eating while Anselm talked, almost finishing up her lunch before he returned and slid back into his seat.
“Important”
“Could be,” He nodded, taking up his fork and knife again and slicing into his steak. “The Director has decided to send a security team down here to watch Ronald Somer’s room.give your deputies a break.”
She nodded, it made sense. “That’s good to know, the Chief will be glad he doesn’t have to sign off on that much overtime.”
Anselm smiled, “yeah. The Director’s good people.”
Chapter 5
The rented Honda CRV-EV bounced and jostled as it drove along the old secondary road that followed alongside the new highway that had been constructed, to service the Tower Project and its burgeoning city, only ten years earlier.
Inside, Joshua Corvine, G2 Field Agent for the Central Intelligence Agency watched the scenery with mild interest, though his eyes continued to come back to the kilometer high tower that rose from behind the crest of land just ahead.
He’d been assigned to the Australian office as an attach, a plum position for any operative, despite the general unrest to the North, between Mainland China and Taiwan, and so had been available, when the Flash traffic had come from the NRO intercepts office, a day earlier.
It wasn’t the sort of job that Joshua wanted anything to do with at this point in his career, but when the order comes down from above, one can only straighten up and bull on through.