She looked down and then rubbed each nipple seductively between her fingers. “The question is,” she said with a soft voice, “are you at attention yet?”
He looked under the sheets, and happy with what he found, revealed himself to her.
“Now that’s something I wanna get straight between us,” she said, moving to the bed. “Again.”
She crawled in next to him and immediately took him in her hand. “I hope you don’t mind deferring command for a while.”
He wasn’t sure what she meant until she got on top and set herself down onto him. “No problem,” barely came from his lips as she rose up and down on him.
35
A light snow fell onto the quiet Georgetown street, the iron lamps that lined the cobblestone sidewalk still lit in the early dawn. At five a.m. there was little activity in the expensive row houses; the only sign of life came from the homes of high-ranking government officials like White House Chief of Staff Karl Oestreich, who had been making a million dollars a year before trading his job as a communications lobbyist for his considerably smaller federal paycheck.
Sitting out front of Oestreich’s three-story brick brownstone house was a black Mercedes sedan with white government plates, the driver peering up from time to time to see if Oestreich was coming. A half a block down the road was a Chevy Suburban with two security agents, drinking coffee, and trying their best to stay awake.
Across the street, hesitant, General Boles unbuckled his seat belt and got out of his dark blue BMW, waited with his door open as he glanced at Oestreich’s driver, and then silently closed the door and crossed the street. His Oxfords made the trek difficult, his feet slipping and almost toppling him a couple of times. Once he got to the cobblestones, the footing was much better.
Boles pulled his trench coat tighter against the falling snow, and then waved at the Chief of Staff’s driver with his leather-gloved hand before heading up the steps to the front door. The driver, a former FBI special agent, lifted his strong chin with recognition, and then pointed to his watch, as if to say they would be late. Tell the old man to get his butt in gear.
Boles smiled at the man and then continued to the thick wooden outer door. He rang the bell and waited, glancing back once toward the security SUV.
It was the first time General Boles had been there, but he immediately noticed that Oestreich must have made a few modifications to the original building. All of the glass was security grade. The inner door, which would have been wood and glass, was solid wood and probably reinforced internally with bulletproof steel. The locks were top-notch. And the security camera, barely visible, which he looked into now, sat securely in a corner behind tinted glass. Boles smiled.
Just as Boles was about to ring again, he saw the inner door open, with Karl Oestreich standing there in his dress pants and white T-shirt. Seconds later, Oestreich, a confused expression, opened the outer door for him.
“Wayne. What’s up?”
“I think your driver’s getting impatient.”
“Screw him. Come on in.”
The general lowered his head and followed his friend into his house, the doors closing securely behind them.
The place was wood, stone and tile. Everything of the finest quality.
“What’s going on?” Oestreich asked him. “Pardon me. You want a cup of coffee?”
“No, thanks. I won’t keep you long.”
The two of them stood staring at each other.
Finally, General Boles said, “We lost Armstrong in China.”
“What?” The chief of staff’s expression changed from settled to concerned. “How?”
“He was shot retrieving Jake Adams.”
“Is Adams all right?”
“Yes.”
“And his information?”
“He wasn’t able to transfer it to Armstrong,” Boles said. “We were using a contract pilot. We couldn’t expect Adams to turn it over to him.”
The chief of staff rubbed his left temple. “Where’s Adams now?”
“That’s the problem,” Boles said. “He was supposed to fly to Beijing and transfer what he had to our folks there.”
“And?”
“And he never showed. He and the Chinese agent are gone.”
“Gone?”
“Missing.”
Oestreich said, “Great.”
“He was supposed to transfer the images by cell phone, but that didn’t work. We don’t know why.”
“You were depending on Chinese cell service?”
“We couldn’t give him a satellite phone. If caught, he’d be pegged as a spy in a heartbeat. The phone we gave him was secure, and the number would relay through one of our satellites to our embassy in Beijing.”
“Do you know what he has?”
The general shook his head. “No. There’s no way of knowing how far along they might be.”
“They stole the hardware for our laser system under the last administration,” Oestreich said, “and I won’t let them get the software under my watch.”
“What about the breach at Brightstar?” the general asked, and immediately regretted having done so. Yet, judging from the surprised expression on the chief of staff’s face, his intel had been correct.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Karl. How long have we known each other?”
Disgusted, Oestreich said, “Jesus H. Christ. Where the hell do you get your information?”
Boles shrugged. “We all have our little agency.”
“Yeah, well, I think we need you in the big Agency.”
Laughing, Boles said, “And take a huge pay cut like you? I don’t think so. So, the breach…”
“Our Agency is working it. It looks like the Chinese, though.”
“I heard a transfer has been made and they’re on the run. Will that impact our test in Alaska?”
The chief of staff pointed his finger at the general’s chest. “See. You’re already talking like you work for us.”
Boles waited somewhat impatiently for an answer, his eyes intense and watching the other man’s eyes for the truth.
Oestreich reluctantly said, “The test is delayed.”
“Why? We want the Chinese to know our laser system works. Why else did we shoot down the Russian missile?”
“It’s complicated. We want them to know about the airborne laser, with its more limited capability.”
“But not the Alaskan system that’ll knock down anything they could ever develop.”
Oestreich was silent, his eyes shifting toward the floor.
“Well?” Boles said. “We could stop all missile development in the world if all of our laser systems work.”
Maybe that was the problem, Boles thought. America sold a lot of weapons to our friends around the world. If they thought those weapons were useless, they would stop buying.
Finally, Oestreich said, “The laser works as advertised. It’s the software we need to worry about. If the Chinese get that…”
“They’ll have what we have,” Boles said. “Taiwan falls in a week, scooped back up into a true One China.”
“That’s one concern. Think beyond that, though. China becomes a Superpower without having to spend a shitload of money developing nukes. They don’t have to worry about missiles from Russia, missiles from India, or missiles from rogue states. With the largest market in the world, the entire world economy shifts from America to China. We’ll become a footnote in history.”
Boles thought hard about that, not even seriously considering that possibility.
“We can’t let that happen,” the chief of staff said emphatically.
36
Jake’s first understanding that all was not all right came with a quiet click at the door latch. Had he not gotten up from bed to go to the bathroom for a glass of water, he would have been sound asleep.