Chapter 8
Amanda sighed softly, once again resisting William's attempts to draw her more closely into his arms. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his grin widen fractionally as he felt her resistance. Then, tightening his hold on her waist and hand once more, he spun her into a broad, sweeping circle in perfect time to the strains of the Strauss waltz. They'd been playing this cat and mouse game of seduction ever since they left the van. Upon their arrival at the party, they had sought out and greeted their hosts. Amanda and Veronica exchanged light pleasantries, and then Amanda presented William to her. After a few comments and a promise of a more lengthy discussion later, the two had moved out into the ballroom and the dance had begun in earnest . . . William regularly trying to find ways to get closer to her while she carefully found ways to prevent him from accomplishing it. More than once, she had regretted her decision not to lay it out plainly for him at dinner. And now, with Leatherneck and Francine listening in on every word they said, she no longer had the option. How was she going to make it clear to him that no matter how sexy he was or how intent on her, she just wasn't interested?
Why not? a small voice inside her suddenly asked. For the first time, she seriously thought about that question. It wasn't that the games they were playing were putting her off. She'd been down this road before . . . certainly more times than Lee Stetson was ready to give her credit for. And she knew that anything she might feel for her partner was probably wasted effort. So why wasn't she taking advantage of William's interest to have a good time? He danced as well as Lee did, and was equally as good looking in his own way. He was also a lot more romantic and definitely more attentive. So why . . . Her eyes widened suddenly. What am I doing? She felt the color flood her face as she thought in horror, I'm comparing him to Lee! Have I gone crazy??? Lee Stetson is my partner! Not . . . not . . .
"Are you all right?" William asked suddenly, looking at her closely. "You're all flushed."
"Oh . . . oh, yes . . . yes, I'm fine," she stuttered, desperately searching for a way to explain her sudden embarrassment. "I-I just got a little warm all of a sudden, that's all."
"Perhaps we should get you something to drink."
She smiled at him apologetically. "No, really. I'm just . . . " She jumped noticeably in his arms as a sudden soundless vibration seemed to penetrate the bones of her right ear. Reaching up, she pressed her forefinger into the hollow at the base of her earlobe and rotated her head, trying to ease the sudden sharp pain. And then, just as quickly as it started, it was gone again.
"Amanda?" William asked quietly, beginning to sound concerned. "What is it?"
"I – I'm not sure," she said in a low voice. "It was like . . . Oh!" Once again the soundless vibration stabbed at her, sending the sharp pain through her ear and radiating up into her temple. This time, however, the vibration seemed to stutter a bit before it died away, only to start again almost immediately. The intensity of the pain caused her to shake slightly as it radiated through her entire frame. It took a minute after it faded away for Amanda to realize that the third vibration had the exact same rhythm as the second. She felt William slow as he prepared to lead her off of the dance floor, and she grabbed at him, pulling him close and holding him where they were. "No!" she whispered at him frantically. "Keep dancing!" Taking a deep breath, she leaned against him intimately, her lips a scant two inches from his lapel. "Leatherneck, is that you?" she breathed.
William drew her close, cupping her right ear with his hand just in time to feel the supersonic vibration that sent another sharp wave of pain through her ear. He felt her knees start to buckle as she sagged against him. "Good Lord!" Windsor cursed softly. "Stop it, you bloody idiot. You're going to rupture her eardrum!"
"No, it's all right," Amanda gasped faintly. "He's trying to tell us something. Yes or no questions, Leatherneck. Once for yes, twice for no. Is there a problem?" A single sharp pain stabbed at her. "Here?" The staccato that echoed through her head caused her to clench her teeth and she leaned her forehead against William's chest with a stifled sob.
"A recall," William muttered. "Priority?" He didn't need to feel the vibration from the mike in Amanda's earring to know the answer. The small jerk that shook her frame telegraphed the response clearly. "All right," he breathed. "We'll make our excuses and be on the way as quickly as we can."
The swift staccato response caused Amanda to whimper softly and he saw a single tear overflow and slip down her cheek. William's jaw knotted and he drew her even more closely against him, curling his head down and nuzzling her hair comfortingly. "All right!" he snarled in a muted, angry tone. "No more! I understand. We're to stick with this, but you've got to go. We're losing our backup. Just go and leave her alone!"
He could feel Amanda's head loll on his shoulder as she lost consciousness and turned to dead weight in his arms. Looking around, he found himself on the edge of the crowd. Supporting her carefully, he swept her neatly off the dance floor and then quickly ducked through a nearby doorway and out of the noise and flurry of the ballroom. He found the corridor deserted. Sweeping his unconscious companion up into his arms, he carried her down the long hallway and quickly mounted the stairs he found at the end of it. Emerging onto the second floor, he looked around swiftly. It appeared deserted. Choosing the room closest to him, he tried the door. It opened silently to reveal a nicely appointed but somewhat sterile bedroom. Slipping in, William closed the door behind them and then crossed the room to lay Amanda gently on the bed. Sitting down beside her, he caught her chin and rolled her head carefully toward him so he could inspect her ear. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found no trace of blood.
Rising, he moved to sit in the chair next to the bed and waited for her to regain consciousness. Sometime later, she moaned softly and turned her head on the pillow. Windsor rose quickly and went to sit next to her on the bed again.
"Amanda?" He caressed the side of her face gently and then massaged the bone behind her ear soothingly. "Can you hear me?"
She sighed softly and a smile touched her face at the sound of his voice. Then, her eyelids fluttered and she murmured, "Lee?"
William looked at her with sudden understanding and regret. "I'm afraid not," he replied with a touch of sadness. He watched as she turned her head toward him and struggled to focus.
"W-William?"
"Yes. Are you feeling better?"
"Ohhhh, what happened?" She started to sit up, but William caught her shoulder and pressed her back against the bed.
"No, don't sit up. Just lie there and rest for a few minutes. Your two friends decided to communicate with us using supersonic frequencies broadcast through the mike in your earring. The sound set up a sympathetic vibration through the bones in your inner ear, putting pressure on your eardrum." Grudgingly, he added, "I'll give the man credit . . . he knew how far he could push it without doing real damage."
Amanda winced, massaging behind her ear gingerly. "So did you figure out what he was trying to tell us? I think I lost it before the end of the conversation."
"As close as I can tell, the Agency's put out a priority recall; however, we are to stay put and continue what we're doing. We've lost our backup, though."
"Oh. Well, okay." Amanda sat up, rolling her head carefully. After a minute, she smiled at him. "I think I'm okay, now."
"Then we probably should . . ."
Out in the corridor, the sudden sound of voices caused them to pause. A woman's voice, pitched too low to hear, murmured something. From the tone, she sounded distressed.
"No, I don't think so, sweet cheeks," a harsh male voice answered. "You're gonna stay with us." Again, they could hear that distressed murmur, and then the man replied, "Oh, he'll do what we want, one way or the other. You're just an added insurance policy."
Amanda and William rose and crossed quickly to the door. Cautiously, William turned the doorknob and eased it open. They both watched as two men pushed Veronica Van Houssin up the hallway toward a door on the opposite side of the corridor. The woman was obviously terrified.
"Please . . ." she whimpered in a shaking voice, but the man who gripped her by the arm simply snarled and slammed her body into the door with such force that swung it open behind her. An instant later, both William and Amanda heard the sound of breaking glass, followed by a loud thud. The silence that followed was deafening.
William pulled Amanda back and closed the door silently as the woman's assailant turned back in their direction. Even through the closed door, both could hear the man swear at his companion.
"Listen, Abernathy, somethin's gone wrong. Nate was due here an hour ago and you know he wouldn't miss this party."
"Of course he wouldn't," his thin, somewhat prissy companion replied with distaste. "He's gotten to be too much like our friend downstairs. I agree . . . something's gone wrong."
"Then we gotta find 'im!"
"Your brother is your problem, Perkins. My problem is to find a way to get those papers and get them copied. We went to a lot of trouble to put General Morgan's aide into the position of needing a safe place outside of the Pentagon to store them temporarily and I don't intend to lose this chance. When they decide to move the United States' store of weapons grade plutonium, we'll be able to name our price for the route that will be used for the transport."
"I don't get it," Kyle Perkins complained. "How can you be so sure they're gonna move it? If we sell those plans and then it turns sour, we're gonna be dead men."
Abernathy shook his head. "You have no faith. Of course they'll move it. We simply insure it by seeing to it that everyone out there knows where it's currently stored. They'll have no choice."
Perkins grunted. "Sounds like a lotta ifs and maybes ta me. And what if Stockton can't get them plans of Van Houssin?"
"I have every faith that our friend can extract the information we need. And if he won't talk, I'm sure your lady friend in there will. We need to speed this project up. I'm going to go find Stockton. You stay here and keep an eye on the lady. We don't want her going any place."
The sound of footsteps retreating down the hall was followed a second later by the squeak of hinges and the click of a door latch. Then the hallway was silent once again.
Amanda looked at her companion with wide eyes. "Oh my gosh. I – I think we found them . . ."
"Bloody hell!" William swore in a low voice. "We can't let them get those plans!"
"And we can't leave Veron . . ."
"Now listen to me, Amanda," William said, obviously not paying attention to her. "I'm going to follow that Abernathy fellow."
"But what about . . ."
"I want you to find a telephone and contact the Agency. They need to know what's going on here. There are too many people at risk and we're outnumbered. We need help."
"Okay. I can do that. But what do we do about . . ."
"Once you've called in, I want you to find a safe place and stay out of sight. If anything goes wrong, things could turn into a bloody mess, and I want you out of harm's way."
Amanda stared at him in disbelief. "You want me to . . . to wait in the car?"
William returned her outraged stare somewhat blankly, his mind obviously not on what she was saying at all. "The car? It's too far away and you'd make too good of a target if you tried to reach it. Just find somewhere quiet and stay there. I'll find you once this is all over."
Swiftly, he eased the door open, checked the hall, and then slipped out into the corridor. With a final soft, "There's a good girl," he was gone, leaving Amanda standing alone with her fury.
Breathing deeply, she fought to get her anger under control. She'd had just about enough of this. When the time comes, I'm going to give a few choice people a piece of my mind, she promised herself fiercely. But now definitely was not the time. Taking another deep breath, she eased the door open and checked the corridor. She needed to find that phone. Seeing that the coast was clear, she slipped out, closed the door and moved down the hallway. She hesitated briefly in front of the room that Veronica was being held in, but then continued past the door reluctantly. William was right. If they didn't get backup, they were going to be in real trouble. The phone first, and then she'd think about what to do about Veronica.
Choosing the room as far from Perkins as she could get, Amanda opened the door and looked in. Another guest bedroom. A cursory glance showed her no sign of a phone. Closing the door, she went on to the next one. This one turned out to be a linen closet. She wondered briefly what it was about rich people that caused them to want to keep all the doors in their house shut all of the time. It took her four tries before she located what was obviously the master bedroom. With a quiet sigh of relief, she slipped in and closed the door behind her, knowing that somewhere here she would find what she was looking for.
She spotted the desired item almost immediately and crossed to it without hesitation. Picking up the receiver, she breathed a word of thanks as she heard the comforting sound of the dial tone. Pressing buttons quickly, she waited until a calm, uninflected voice answered.
"Department 553."
Searching her mind for the words she'd heard Scarecrow use in the past, she replied, "This is Phoenix. Priority Red. Operation Rimrunner. I need a flash priority scramble to the Van Houssin estate in Chevy Chase. We have ignition. Risk of casualties high. Repeat, Priority Red . . . Operation Rimrunner . . . flash priority scramble. Agents need assistance."
"Confirmed, Phoenix. Operation Rimrunner to flash priority scramble, condition red, at the Van Houssin estate. Current status?"
"Contact with partner lost. Civilians known to be targeted. National security documents at risk."
"Acknowledged, Phoenix. Backup will be en route. Hold your position for further instructions."
"Can't do it. Just tell that backup to hurry."
"Phoenix, wait . . ."
"Tell them there are at least three of the opposition here. Their names are Perkins, Abernathy and Stockton. There may be others, but I don't know for sure. Windsor's gone after Abernathy and Stockton. I'm on Perkins."
"Phoenix, you're not authorized . . ."
"Too bad. Tell Mr. Melrose . . . Well, tell him I won't wait in the car anymore!" Dropping the receiver back into the cradle, she crossed back to the door, eased it open, and peered out into the hallway. Now to see what she could do to help Veronica Van Houssin.
