“Thanks for coming over, Cam. I’ve got some incredible news. Let’s go out on the balcony. The view’s pretty incredible too.”
“I know,” she said, following his lead, sitting down on one of the two chairs and placing her purse on the small patio table between them. “You said you wanted to talk. So talk.”
“I just got a phone call.”
“A phone call?”
“Yeah.”
“At this time of night? Who?” Cammy asked.
“It was pretty wild.”
“Wild? Why?”
“Some guy called, trying to cut a deal with me to steal Q-3.”
Cammy didn’t know what to say. Why was he telling her this? She paused and tried to sound surprised. “Somebody was trying to pay you?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you say?”
“Why?” she asked cautiously.
“Why? For God’s sake, Cam. Don’t you see? If I can figure out a way to meet this guy, or his people, whoever they are, we’ve got ourselves another espionage agent. But I need to find out who he’s working for.”
“Who he’s working for?” she echoed, her mind racing.
“Well sure. We don’t just want the messenger, like that Jambaz character. We got him. Well, you’re the one that got him. What we really wanted was his whole cell. And with Raj, it wasn’t just him, it was the Indian minister and a whole bunch of other guys in the Defense Ministry. And now this. With that show you put on this morning, there could be any number of governments . . . competitors . . . bad guys . . . who the hell knows how many . . . who will want Q-3.”
“But . . .”
“No buts. You’re big news now. You and your technology.”
“So what did you tell him?” Cammy pressed.
“I said I might be able to get some information for him tonight, and I said that there was going to be a field test in a week or two. I thought I could buy a little time with that. He already knew about the test though.”
“Hmmm.”
“Hmmm? That’s all you can say? Cam, this could be big. As big as the whole Lashkar thing. Or the Raj thing. How can you be so cool all the time? Come to think of it, you’ve been cool, cold really, ever since you got over here. What’s the matter?”
She shifted uncomfortably in her chair and wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“Hey, I know this has been pretty rough,” he continued. “I mean, the missiles, the warheads, everything. I saw the pressure. Hell, I felt it too. But you’ve hardly talked to me. After all the time we spent together in D.C. I thought we were a team. And now with this new group, whoever they are, we need to work together.”
He reached over and took her hand. She didn’t move. She just stared out at the night sky. So maybe he wasn’t going to cooperate with the caller. But what about the calendar? What about the reference to Sterling Dynamics? She pulled her hand away and folded her arms across her chest. Why not confront him? Let’s see how he gets out of this one? “Okay, yes. I have had something on my mind.”
“Like what?”
“Remember when you left, you said I should use your computer?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“So I had it up and running, and I wanted to know when you’d be back.”
“I told you I wasn’t sure. Could be a week. Maybe two. You knew that.”
“That’s what you said. But I thought maybe you had made some contingency flight plans and, at the time, I was worried about you and how long you’d be away.”
“So?”
She hesitated for a moment. “So, I thought I could just check your calendar to see your schedule.”
“I have a password for that.”
“I know. I used it.”
“What? You hacked into my computer?” he asked, raising his eyebrows and studying her face.
She looked up and replied in a firm voice, “Yes. I saw you key it in, and I just memorized it. It’s automatic with me.”
“It’s automatic?” he mimicked.
“More or less.”
“So you got into my calendar. So what? There’s nothing special or classified in there.”
“That’s what I figured. I was just looking for a flight schedule.” “Well, you didn’t find one, because there isn’t one,” he said in an annoyed tone.
“I know that.”
“So? So what’s the big deal?”
“I found something else.”
“What?”
“I found an entry for less than two weeks from now.”
“It was strange,” she said.
“Lots of my entries would look strange to anybody else. That’s why they’re just my entries,” he said. “What looked so strange? To you?”
“Get NK BA FLD TS,” she ticked off the letters ingrained in her mind.
“What’s the matter with that?”
“It was entered on a day right around the time of our big field test.”
“Cam, I don’t get it. What does getting baseball tickets have to do with your field test?”
She exclaimed, “Baseball tickets?”
“Yeah. I told you we sometimes catch a game when I can get tickets. That was a reminder to get some infield tickets for Nancy Kennedy.”
“Who’s Nancy Kennedy?”
“The head of our Legislative Affairs office. She’s the one who spearheaded the efforts on the Hill. Efforts for your project, by the way. I went around Austin and got her to point out to some of the members how important Q-3 would be for the president’s missile defense program. I thought it would be a nice gesture if I could get her some special tickets as a thank you. See? Get NK, Nancy Kennedy, Baseball Field Tickets, BA FLD TS.”
“Oh God!” Cammy exclaimed.
“What did you think it meant?”
She looked up, took a deep breath and explained in a halting voice, “You had said you wanted to come to our field test. And you also told me you knew the head of Sterling.”
He nodded. “But what has that got to do with . . .”
“And when I saw those letters, I figured it meant ‘Get Nettar Kooner Bandaq’s Field Test’.”
Hunt stared at her and shook his head. “Jesus Christ! I’d never do that. How could you even think . . .”
“I don’t know. . . I just. . . It all made sense. The timing. The words. The past.”
“What past?”
He softened his tone. “Tell me.”
“It’s a long story. Let’s just say that there was a guy in our industry that I used to go out with. For a while anyway. Until I found out that he was just trying to get information on how Q-3 worked. And when I wouldn’t tell him, he . . . left . . . and went to work for Sterling.”
“Oh Christ Almighty!” Hunt jumped up from his chair, walked to the railing and turned to face her. “And you thought I was doing the same thing?”
“I didn’t want to think that. But all the pieces fit.”
“Seemed to fit,” he countered.
He raked his fingers through his hair as she’d seen him do many times when he was upset or worried. “Look, I can see,” he continued, “well, I really can’t see. But, oh to hell with it. There was a lot going on, so let’s just drop it.”
“Yes, we should.”
“Because, as I said, we’ve got to work together now.”
“Work together?”
“To find this new group, whoever they are. I’m going to meet with my team tomorrow. We’ll figure out a sting op. And I may need you.”
“No you won’t,” she said.
“No I won’t what?”
“You won’t need me.”
“Well, I might.”
“No. Because there isn’t any group,” she said, staring down at the intricate stone on the balcony floor.
“What do you mean there isn’t any group?”
“Just what I said. There isn’t any group. It was a set-up.”
“A set-up?” he thundered. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Cammy leaned back in her chair, stalling for time. “I set you up.”
Hunt pulled her out of the chair and shook her by the shoulders. “You set me up? What are you saying?” he demanded, his eyes flaring.
She met his gaze and felt herself wilting under his harsh scrutiny.
“Tell me!” he said, pushing her away.
“When I figured out that calendar entry,” she began.
“When you thought you figured it out,” he interrupted.
“I went to Jack because I was afraid of what you were planning to do.”
“And?”
“And we decided that our first order of business was dealing with the missiles. But then we had to protect the company.”
“And?”
“And so we had Sam . . .”
“Who’s Sam?”
“He’s one of our scientists. He’s here with us. He took Raj’s place on the satellite system.”
“You had Sam do what? Place a call to try and entrap me?” he probed, his voice rising.
“We had to know.”
“You had to know?”
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t it enough for you to know that I work in the White House? That I have a security clearance? That I came to help you after the break-in, the car crash, the shooting? That I arranged FBI protection for you? That I took you into my home? My home? Who the hell do you think I am?”
Silence.
“I wasn’t sure,” she whispered.
“Well, that’s pretty clear now, isn’t it?”
“You had this fancy house in Georgetown. You drive a Jaguar. You’re a lieutenant colonel. My dad was in the Air Force. I know what officers make.”
He rolled his eyes and took another deep breath. “Fancy house? My wife and I bought that, with a little help from our families. When she left, she didn’t want it. Didn’t need it. I kept it. The Jag? Yeah, I like Jags. Got that one from a buddy at State who got assigned to our Embassy in Nigeria. Got it for a damn good price too. Satisfied?”
There was a knock on the door. Hunt barked at her, “Be right back. I think we need a time-out anyway.”
A waiter walked into the room carrying a tray with a silver bucket, two glasses and a bottle of champagne. “Would you like this on the balcony, sir?”
“Yes, thank you,” Hunt said, pulling out his wallet and handing the man a tip.
“What’s this?” Cammy asked, eyeing the bucket.
“Would you like me to open this for you, sir?” the waiter asked.
“Yes. Please,” Hunt replied. The waiter pulled the cork, poured the shimmering liquid into the champagne flutes and quietly left the room.
Hunt looked like he was regaining his composure. “After I called you, I ordered some champagne. I thought we’d toast your success and talk about working as a team again.”
She slowly raised her eyes and stared as he picked up his glass.
His gaze met hers. “So where do we go from here, Cam?”
She paused and said quietly, “I was wrong. So wrong. I put a lot of pieces together and thought they fit. I was scared. I was upset.” She paused, stared at him and added, “I was absolutely off base. I should have trusted you. I apologize. Profusely. Do you think you can possibly forgive me?” She reached for her glass and took a sip. When he didn’t reply, she added in a plaintive voice, “Truce? Please?”
Hunt studied her, slowly took a drink and finally nodded. “Now that you explain it all, I can see, well I think I can see how you could have gotten confused. After all, we haven’t known each other very long. I guess it’s time we started over.”
They sat down and stared at the marble building bathed in moonlight. Sipping champagne for several minutes and avoiding each other’s eyes, finally, Cammy whispered, “The Taj Mahal really is a masterpiece.”
“Yes, it is,” he replied.
She wanted to keep talking about something. Anything. “There was a brochure in my room,” she ventured. “It said the building has dozens of precious stones. Diamonds, sapphires, jade, mother-of-pearl.”
“Sounds like a Tiffany outlet,” he suggested.
“Tiffany’s doesn’t have outlets,” she said, anxious to lighten their mood.
“Our driver said it took a thousand elephants and twenty-thousand men to build that place,” he offered.
“You know, I read somewhere that there’s a lot of controversy about who really built it.”
“Does it make any difference?”
“Not really. From my standpoint, it’s the most beautiful building in the world.”
“And from my standpoint,” he said, setting his glass down, getting up from his chair and pulling her into his arms, “you are the most beautiful, but also the most maddening woman in the world.”
He kissed her forehead, then her eyelids and finally crushed her mouth with his. Her lips opened as he deepened the kiss and encircled her with his arms.
Her head was spinning. She had felt so angry, so hurt. Then so guilty and chagrined. Now she was feeling heady and relieved. Was it the effect of the champagne? The enchantment of the Taj Mahal? The embrace of this man? She wanted him. And she knew he wanted her. Was it just the range of emotions? When he picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom, she realized she really didn’t care.
For a brief moment she remembered the little audio device in her purse recording their entire conversation. At this point she didn’t care about that either. She could let the general listen later and realize that Hunt was the good guy in this scenario. Now she would leave it on the terrace. Since they were now in the bedroom, surely it couldn’t record what might happen in here.
As the moon rose higher in the sky, they lay entwined, their breath evening out, their heartbeats settling down. She couldn’t move. She was floating from a great height slowly down through an energy-charged atmosphere. It felt like tiny electrodes were dancing on her skin, all over her body. Every pore felt alive and sated at the same time. It was an eerie feeling. Eerie, because she had never felt quite like this before. She felt erotic and ethereal, enchanted and ecstatic.
“E-words,” she murmured as she fluttered her eyes open and saw him gazing at her.
“E-words,” he repeated. “What are E-words?”
“The way you make me feel. Erotic. Ethereal.”
“That’s the way you’re supposed to feel,” he said, gently caressing her face.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek, then settled down into his arms. She tried to stifle a yawn. He stroked her hair and whispered, “Better get some sleep now.”
“MmmHmmm.” She had another fleeting thought about the device on the balcony and the black silk negligee hanging in her closet. She could delete the recording. At least the last hour if need be. As for the gown, there was always tomorrow.