THIRTY-EIGHT

Sofia was having second thoughts about attending Carson’s s fundraiser. Though the idea of being at the event now that he knew the truth about his father did hold some appeal. The senator acted overconfidently and cocky when he sent the invitation, certain he had nothing to fear from her presence. Divulging the horrible secret she had been carrying around for so long, tilted the tables back into her favor. She would enjoy watching him squirm.

Unfortunately, the FBI was closing in. They were circulating her photo as Candace Rogers and Janice Green. And, depending on how convincing Senator Grant was with the authorities who were inquiring about Aaron’s college admission recommendation, there was a very real possibility her former mentee could lead the authorities directly to her.

As always, there would be a lot of security at the fundraiser, but none she hadn’t encountered as Sofia Wilks while working in D.C. Everyone, including her, who enjoyed nearly unrestricted contact with those in the House and the Senate went through background checks. Clearly, nothing had drawn suspicion, or her access would have been questioned or revoked by now.

As long as security continued to rely on human screening at functions such as the upcoming fundraiser, she would likely remain undetected, but if facial recognition software were to be utilized, there could be trouble. Clearly this software had been used to locate Candace Rogers at the airport from photographs of Janice Green, so her disguises could not always fool the most advanced technology.

To make the decision even more complex, J.R. asked her to go and keep an eye on Terrance Yeager. Terrance was a member of Coterie, but lately his drinking and insubordination to J.R. had increased to an alarming level. J.R. was concerned that the combination of the two might loosen his tongue around the wrong people.

Like all members of Coterie, Terrance had benefitted tremendously from the organization, and more specifically, Sofia. Not only did he control a huge percentage of the exercise and weight loss CD, DVD, and print media market, she had directed a great deal of political campaign media and propaganda instigated by lobbying firms in his direction. And Coterie ensured that the market for exercise and weight loss media remained strong.

Sofia considered her options. She could refuse to go. J.R. would be disappointed, but she didn’t think he would push her since Max would also be in attendance. She wasn’t sure if Max and Terrance were friendly enough for Max to cover for Terrance, but that wasn’t her problem. She doubted Urban would be in attendance now that Margaret was out of the picture, but if he was, that was an even bigger reason to skip the event.

Every time she convinced herself to bail, her mind returned to Carson. She wanted to observe his reaction to her presence. His response would confirm whether or not he was once again under her control or if he thought he had figured out a way to extract his family from the potential fallout that her disclosure could unleash. She hoped he would be visibly uncomfortable with her presence. She wanted him to suffer. She wanted him firmly under her thumb.

The more she thought about it the more she believed she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to confirm her level of success in containing the senator and to hopefully watch him squirm. Conducting J.R.’s surveillance project couldn’t hurt in order to remain in his favor should his recently pronounced love for her fade.

If she was tied to one of her former aliases, she had two ways to disappear. She could take J.R. up on his offer and go to Brazil, effectively avoiding the possibility of extradition should someone discover her whereabouts. Or if she wanted to cut her ties to J.R., she could use her recently procured identification and disguise.

Sofia stowed a go-bag with her new documents, disguise, and thirty thousand in one-hundred-dollar bills in her storage unit outside the city. If a situation ever prevented her from returning home or to the office she had an exit strategy. She would need very little time to disappear if things went wrong.