The limousine pulled up the long drive, easing to a stop behind the long line of cars dropping off the crème de la crème of Washington society. Lee turned to look at Amanda, marvelling again at the transformation from her usual look. The glamour makeup and the blown-out hair style was almost enough to make her unrecognizable, and then she'd turned to meet his gaze and even in the dim light of the backseat, he could see the dark depths of her eyes light up.
"Checking out the armor?" she asked with a low laugh.
"The armor?" he repeated in confusion.
"All this," she swept her hand down her body at the vivid blue dress and glittering jewellery. "Francine called this my armor." She could see he was still looking bewildered and went on. "She knew I was nervous about tonight, that's why she came over to do my makeup and hair for me and give me a pep talk. She says she does the same thing when she has to play a cover like a hook-… like this one… because nobody looks past the image."
"She did a good job," Lee admitted. "But you're still in there, right?"
"Of course I am!" Amanda's husky chuckle bubbled out reassuringly. "Just counting the minutes until I can scrub this all off and go back to being myself in my regular life."
Lee looked at her searchingly for a moment and said "You know this isn't like one of Francine's fake hooker covers right? You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Hell, if you want to pretend to have a fight with me in the driveway and storm off home, no one would blame you."
"Don't be silly, we're already here. And it's not going to be so bad – the most he can do in a crowded room is leer and pinch my bottom – and heaven knows, that can happen in the grocery store on a bad day!"
"What kind of grocery stores are you hanging out in?" Lee laughed, relieved that this creature in front of him sounded like Amanda at least.
"Why do you want to know? Planning on testing it out as a pick-up technique?" Her eyes were twinkling at him and he could tell their banter had relaxed her a bit.
"Don't be ridiculous – billionaires don't do their own shopping!" he shot back and watched her head rock back with a full-throated burst of laughter. If anything could reassure him that the real Amanda was behind that armor, it was that sound - that completely uninhibited sound of pure enjoyment of the moment.
The car inched forward and stopped again, and their agent chauffeur hopped out to open the door. "Have a lovely evening, Mrs. Cassidy," he intoned, helping Amanda out of the backseat.
"You're going to wait here?" asked Lee, gesturing to the other parked limos, and tapping his tie pin significantly.
The chauffeur rubbed his ear where the earpiece was barely visible. "Yes Sir, I'll be available immediately if required."
"Excellent." Lee turned to look at Amanda who was staring up at the brightly lit portico like a deer in headlights. "You ready, Sunny-Honey?"
Amanda glanced at him with a worried look. "Don't I look ready?"
"You look… fabulous," he answered, remembering telling Harry she was beautiful the other night and thought how much truer it had been then, when she'd just been herself than it was now. He watched her take a deep breath and force herself to relax. He held out the crook of his arm. "Come on, let's go catch the bad guys."
"Sunny! I'm delighted to see you here at last! Do come and let me set you up like a queen in the middle of everything where you don't have to be on that foot!" Delano was oozing all over her the second they walked in the door. "Let's leave Leland here to all the movers and shakers, and I'll come and amuse you." His voice dropped to a stage whisper as he led her away from Lee. "And maybe later we can find somewhere to be alone and I can really get you off your feet. I have a lot to celebrate tonight."
"Oh goody!" Amanda gushed. "I can hardly wait!" She looked back over her shoulder at Lee who was scowling after them. She gave him an encouraging smile until his agent face returned, then turned her attention back to Delano. "Well you know, once Lee starts talking money with people, I'm sure I won't see him again for the whole night!"
"Well, that sounds simply perfect," leered Delano. "I'm so glad to hear that!"
Lee watched until he saw Delano set Amanda up on a seat at the bar – which actually couldn't be better for their purposes since it gave her a full view of the room and everyone in the place would probably wander up there at some point. He hoped she was good at taking mental notes – knowing Amanda, she'd probably overhear twenty other schemes just in the course of the evening. Maybe we should have wired her up after all.
He spun slowly on the spot until he spotted Hollander, then carefully moved toward a waiter with a tray of drinks, collecting one and then starting to make his way around the room, chatting with all the women, all the while watching to see who Hollander interacted with. The room was sprinkled with mostly Washington cognoscenti and a few men he recognized from his research as East German 'businessmen' – hard to say if they really were or if they were just Stasi fronts – not that those two things were mutually exclusive, of course. After all, only powerful Party members would be allowed to run successful businesses on that side of the Wall.
He continued to drift through the crowd, making amiable conversation until he got closer to Hollander and greeted him in his best booming jocular tones. "Curt! Glad to see you! When are you going to introduce me to your friends?"
Hollander winced at Lee's overly loud conversation, but quickly turned to do the introductions, dropping a few choice words in German to the businessmen about Cassidy's addictions and general stupidity, probably thinking Lee wouldn't understand. Lee, in fact, understood every word, but continued to smile like an idiot and shake hands enthusiastically with each man in turn.
"So, Leland, I am supposed to leave America tomorrow but you have intrigued me with the possibilities we discussed the other evening. If I were to stay another few days, do you think we could find time to discuss mutually beneficial things?" Hollander asked bluntly.
"I'm certain you and I could find something to talk about for hours, Curt," said Lee with absolute truth. He did, after all, have plans to keep Hollander in an interrogation room for days after this. "How does Monday morning work for you?" He leaned in confidentially and added "Because I'm pretty sure the party I'm going to after this one will keep me laid out all day tomorrow, if you know what I mean!"
"Oh, will your lovely wife be joining you at the next party?" asked Hollander with a speaking look across the room where Amanda and Delano were sitting close together.
Lee gritted his teeth and swallowed hard. "Oh, from the looks of it, this party suits her just fine. She'll probably be staying on with her new friend."
"Ah. I see a few people I must talk to, do you mind? I will find you later, Leland, and we can discuss out get together."
"Sure thing, Curt," Lee waved him off and turned to the other Germans. "So you fellas gonna be at that meeting too? Excellent – well in that case, I can now tell my accountant this counted as a business meeting and go enjoy the rest of this shindig!" He toasted the bemused Germans theatrically with his glass of Scotch and ambled off toward the blondest girl in the room - who conveniently just happened to be standing near Hollander.
As he managed to maintain a flirtation with the girl from sheer muscle memory, he watched Hollander pressing the flesh with at least three men that were on Lee's list of people with access to the missile information.
Damnit, this town could leak like a sieve under the right circumstances he thought. Who the hell is our mark?
Amanda had almost reached the end of her tether and her imagination for inane conversation as far as it went with James Delano. She'd thought that eventually he'd have to go do whatever he had to do with Hollander and she'd get a break but instead he'd stuck to her like glue – and so had his hands. She could only thank God and Francine for deciding to wear this dress which at least kept him from being able to touch much of her skin, certain she wouldn't be able to disguise how he was making it crawl.
She lifted her glass to her lips and looked around the room anxiously, hoping she could spot Lee. In the middle of the room, her gaze stopped as she met the eyes of a tall gangly red-haired man who was staring at her so intently that she actually turned to look behind her to see if he was really looking at someone else. And then to her complete confusion, his face lit up with recognition and he strode toward her through the crowd.
"Mrs. Cassidy? It's you, right? I saw your picture in the paper! You're even prettier in person!"
"I, uh, yes, that was me," she started to say, but it was swept away in the enthusiasm of the man's conversation.
"I'm actually a reporter with the Post myself – with the Finance section. Is your husband here?" He smiled hopefully. "I would absolutely kill for an interview with Leland Cassidy!"
She was just getting ready to answer him when he turned abruptly to look around the room and in doing so, hit Delano's elbow, upending his glass of red wine all over him.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry! Oh my God!" he repeated in tones of deep horror as he took in who he'd just bumped into. "Mr. Delano! I am SO sorry! I am such a klutz!" He began dabbing at Delano's shirt with a handful of cocktail napkins as if it could make the slightest difference to a man who now looked like he'd had a run-in with Jack the Ripper.
"Stop! Stop!" yelled Delano, batting his hands away. "For God's sake, you're making it worse!"
The embarrassed man stepped back, blushing furiously in that way particular to redheads. "I'm really sorry," he mumbled again.
Delano appeared to get his temper under control with some difficulty as heads turned around the room. "No real harm done," he said through gritted teeth. He turned to Amanda and went on, "I'll just pop upstairs and change shirts. The benefits of being the host when this sort of thing happens."
"I'll be waiting right here for you," she cooed back at him, silently wondering if she could make it to the powder room and hide out there for the rest of the evening before he got back. No you can't – Lee needs you to keep eyes on the room she scolded herself.
"Mrs. Cassidy? Are you ok? I didn't get anything spilled on you, did I?" The clumsy guy was staring at her earnestly.
A thought struck her, even though she knew Lee had said otherwise. "Are you an agent?" she asked him quietly, wondering if her rescue had been intentional after all.
"I'm sorry – did you just ask if I was an angel?" he asked, looking completely taken aback.
"Uh yes, I did," she stammered, backtracking quickly. "I really wanted to go to the powder room and I just couldn't get him to stop talking."
"Oh well, then, glad I could help," her hero grinned at her. "So could you point me toward your husband as a reward for my good deed? I really could use that interview."
Amanda looked around the room and found Lee, who had allowed himself to be pinned to the wall by the blonde. He looked interested in what she was saying but even from here, Amanda could see the way his eyes were actually tracking across the room, watching Hollander and a few other suspects.
"He's over there," she pointed him out, before realizing Lee wouldn't want any distractions right now. She rushed on, "But honestly, he'll be pretty drunk by this time and any interview would be useless. You should probably just give me your card and I'll have him call you. What was your name?"
"James Cook," said the journalist, starting to go through his pockets. "Darn, I can't find my business cards. Tell you what-" He grabbed a cocktail napkin off the bar and scribbled on it. "That should do it," he said triumphantly.
"As long as I don't have to clean up any messes again," quipped Amanda.
"Indeed not," he beamed back at her. "Thanks again!" He turned and disappeared into the crowd.
Maybe I do have a guardian angel thought Amanda, as she absent-mindedly tucked the napkin in her clutch. And he's a carrot-topped klutz.
She eased herself off the bar stool and made her way toward the powder room, aware as she did so that they were setting up one of the rooms for a musical performance. Hopefully, Delano will have to keep his hands to himself during that, she thought.
One of the waiters pointed her toward the small room under the stairs but just as she was about to go in, she noticed Hollander disappear around the corner, following someone carrying a large briefcase. She looked behind her for Lee but couldn't see him. She knew she couldn't get back over there fast enough on her ankle to find him and for him to catch up and follow them.
I'll just see what room they go into and then come back for him, she said to herself. He can't get mad at me for that.
She began to limp down the hall, grateful that she'd been able to trade her air cast for a pair of flat pumps that made no sound in the plush carpet. She arrived just in time to see them disappear through one of the wood-panelled doors and paused to count down the hall.
"Third door on the left", she muttered and turned to go back to the main room, only to find herself staring into the chest of the burly waiter who'd given her the directions in the first place.
"Lost, ma'am?" he asked.
Amanda locked down at the small pistol he had pointing at her and sighed. "Oh my gosh."
"Let's go," he grunted and began pushing her down the hall.
"I don't know why you're doing this," she began to protest and trying to move as slowly as possible. "I was just looking for another bathroom because someone was in that one. "I'm sure your boss, Mr. Delano would be very upset if he knew you were treating a guest like this!"
"Guess we'll find out, won't we?" sneered the waiter, pushing her into the room just after the one Hollander had gone into. He pointed at a chair. "Sit."
He backed away from her toward a connecting door and opened it halfway. Through the doorway, Amanda could see Hollander and a man she finally recognized from Lee's stacks of research as Senator Jake Commoran. A slide projector had been set up and she could see it was projecting a large satellite photo of what she could only assume was the missile site against the far wall.
"What is it?" snapped Hollander as the waiter coughed to get their attention.
"You had some company in the hallway," the waiter explained. "Thought I should bring her to you."
Hollander's gaze shifted to Amanda and turned ugly. He turned his head and spoke to someone out of Amanda's sight. "I should have known you'd screw this up somehow. She can't be working alone. Now we'll have to find that husband of hers as well."
James Delano stepped out from behind the wall and glanced in, blenching when he saw who was sitting there.
"Jimmy, I don't understand what's going on," Amanda tried again to talk her way out of this. "I was just looking for the bathroom."
"I'll deal with her – you go make yourself visible in front of your guests again, Delano. And try not to look so suspicious for God's sake." Hollander gestured for him to leave and with one last pained look at Amanda, Delano did as he asked.
With a sinking heart, Amanda watched her best hope of convincing anyone she was just an innocent bystander walk out of the room.