Jarred awake by his hand at her shoulder, she cranked open her eyes, fuzzy and confused. Why was he waking her? It wasn’t even daylight yet. From the bathroom light, she saw his finger pressed over his lips. Grasping his motion for silence, she nodded.
He pointed to the bathroom door and stepped back to let her get out of bed. “Hurry,” he mouthed, clenching a blue shirt in his hand.
Tracy grabbed her slippers, snagged a change of clothes he had put on the dresser for her, and then joined him in the bath, giving him a what’s-going—on look he’d have to be dead to miss.
“We’ve got company,” he whispered, sliding his arm into the sleeve of his blue shirt.
“You want to run?” Appalled, she clutched the bundle of clothes to her chest.
He fitted on a shoulder holster and gun. “Consider it a strategic retreat to regroup.” He shoved the door shut. Under his thumb, the lock snapped into place.
Tracy dropped a slipper on the floor. Fretting, resigning herself to running, she snatched it up and stuffed it back into the bundle. “How are we supposed to get out of here?” There was only one exit-the door where company was trying to enter. Adam looked up.
“The skylight?” Her eyes stretched wide and she whispered a shout. “You’ve got to be kidding. I’m not athletic at all, Adam. How am I supposed to-”
Before she finished her question, Adam had the skylight open, the bubble punched out, resting against the roof, and Tracy suspended midair. “Drop those damn slippers and stretch.”
“No.” She needed them. Oh, how she needed them. “Oh, God. I can’t do this. I haven’t worked out since OTS.” Officer Training School had been five years ago.
“This is no time to digress or debate, counselor. Stretch.”
A muffled scrape sounded in the bedroom. Tracy sucked in a sharp breath.
“One more and they’ll pop the deadbolt and be in the room,” Adam warned her. “Hurry!”
“I’m trying, damn it,” she whispered, exasperated at the effort of lifting herself through the opening. She tossed the slippers and clothes out through the hole, then heaved.
Suffering a flailing kick to the chin, Adam grimaced. He planted her foot on his shoulder, then cupped her backside, and shoved.
Cursing a blue streak between gasps, doing her damnedest not to scream, she catapulted up, then rolled onto the roof.
Adam turned on the shower, hooked the skylight’s opening edge, twisted his shoulders to diagonal corners, and then hoisted himself up, scraping his back and banging an elbow on the lip of the frame. On the roof with Tracy, he crouched and closed the bubble over the opening, then swiped at the roof grit clinging to his hands. “Come on.”
Tracy didn’t budge; just sat there with her fingers splayed on the rough shingles, certain any movement would send her tumbling to the ground. For the first time, she understood exactly the terror Phelps had felt on the rooftop patio when he’d thought they’d have to scale the wall.
“Tracy, we’ve got to go. Now.”
“I’m a lawyer, for God’s sake. My sense of adventure consists of writing a dynamic brief. The idea of running across a roof appeals to me about as much-”
“As a bullet between your eyes?” Adam suggested with a scathing glare. “That’s your choice, counselor.”
He grabbed her arm and tugged. “Move it.”
Sweating she would not faint, she would not heave, she would not whimper, Tracy crawled. She couldn’t stand up on the roof, the pitch was too steep and her legs were too wobbly. The gritty shingles scraped at her knees, her palms, and her heart roared, threatening to explode. The coward in her wished it would, and she could die Without having to suffer. But Adam, damn him, wouldn’t let her die. He grasped her hand, yanked her to her feet, then pushed her toward the edge of the roof. Tracy looked down. It was only a one-story building but, dear God, the grass looked miles away.
“See that car?” Adam whispered, pointing through the dark toward a security light. “The red one, over there three rows out, fourth car from the end?”
She nodded, too paralyzed by fear to talk. Men’s voices sounded inside their room below. Whoever had been trying to get in had done it. In minutes, they’d find the bath empty and come out after them.
“Get to it,” Adam said. “Go. Go. Go.”
He had to be joking. Had to be. “How?”
“Jump.”
“Jump?” The man had lost his mind.
Adam pushed her.
Tracy hit the ground with a hard thump that knocked the wind out of her. Before she recovered, Adam landed beside her on his feet, dropped to a roll, and then stood up. He rushed over to her, still a motionless heap on the ground. “Tracy, let’s go.”
Aching like the dead, she pulled herself to her feet, gathered her slippers and clothes, and then dogged his heels to the red car, swearing she’d murder him as soon as they were safe. He’d actually, by God, pushed her off the roof.
On the far side of the parking lot, two men in military uniforms examined the car Adam had driven here. Were they MPS? She strained to see the patches on their uniforms, but couldn’t. The shadows were too deep. , Clutching her bundle of clothes, she slid into the car, scared and angry, her scraped knee throbbing. She rubbed at it, and roof grit rolled off her shin and pattered on the vinyl floor mat. “Jesus, Adam. Now you’re adding grand theft auto to the list of charges against you?”
“It’s not stolen.” He locked the doors.
:“Why didn’t the dome light come on?”
“I disabled it.” He shoved at her shoulder, forcing her to fold over. “Get down.”
Her face slapped flat against the seat. “You planted this car here. Like you did the other one on the dirt road.”
:“For God’s sake, Tracy, be quiet.”
“Why? No one can hear us in here.” Lord, she was nervous. Babbling again.
He hunched over her, shielding her body with his. “Stay down.”
“Why would someone break in on us?” Still babbling, but whispering. That would have to do. No way could she stay silent through this. And why was the parking lot so busy at three in the morning? Ah, the bars had just closed. The activity would help, but at any moment they could be seen and recognized. “I don’t get it. Can’t they decide if they want you dead or alive?”
“Identify ‘they.” Adam scanned the parking lot sweat beading on his brow. He eased a key into the ignition, removed his gun from the shoulder holster and put it on the seat beside him. “It’s obvious now that we’re dealing with more than one group of adversaries, counselor.
“It is?” She wasn’t a mental slouch, but she certainly wasn’t following his line of thought.
Adam nodded. “We’re alive. The attackers left us a way out. Hackett and O’Dell are professionals. They wouldn’t have done that.”
Peeking up over the door, she looked out the window. The security light shone down on a white Lincoln parked three slots away from them, and a second car moved slowly down the row behind them. When it braked under the light, she saw the driver clearly. “Adam,” she said in a barely discernible whisper. “It’s Lieutenant Carver.”
Carver motioned through his window to the two men making mincemeat of Adam’s abandoned car. “Let’s go,” he called to them out the window, and then raised the glass. The men rushed over, got in, and Carver sped out of the lot. ‘
” Hackett,” Adam suggested. “Carver would do anything for him.”
“He wouldn’t let you go,” Tracy said. “Hackett doesn’t want the truth out, Adam, and he knows now you’re going to expose it. No, Hackett isn’t behind this. Not if he’s responsible for the incident with your men.”
A blue sedan circled the lot, then passed by their car. In the light, Tracy saw Major Gus O’Dell driving it, and in her mind, more puzzle pieces shifted into place and interlocked. “Adam, what if someone close to Hackett and O’Dell discovered the conspiracy and opposed it?
Could the opposer be running interference for us?”
“Possibly.” Adam kept his gaze firmly fixed on O’Dell.
So did Tracy. O’Dell parked then headed directly for the abandoned car. -He looked in through the windows, then pulled something out of his coat pocket, and walked to the motel entrance. Shiny metal glinted in the light. He was going to their room. With a gun. She had no illusions about what he intended to do once he arrived there. O’Dell meant to kill them both. Her and Adam. It’s arranged. Burke and you die.
Had Carver known O’Dell was coming for them and protected them?
Tracy gasped. “Adam, I’m sure I’m right about this. Either Carver has found out about the conspiracy and opposes it, or he’s been recruited to help expose the truth. I I Adam cranked the engine and shot out of the Parking lot, leaving half the tires on the asphalt. “If so, who recruited him?”
Tracy didn’t hesitate. “General Nestler.”
“Logical-if Nestler isn’t working with Hackett and O’Dell. But he has to be. Hackett needs Nestler’s support to get that Pacific assignment.”
“Maybe Hackett has a compelling reason to cross Nestler. Maybe one more compelling than the Pacific assignment.” Tracy tugged on her Pooh slippers.
“Maybe. But if Nestler knew, opposed or not, he’d have to order a formal investigation.” Adam frowned at her feet. “And for the record, no shoes can give you the power to do what you need to do. It comes from inside. You’ve got the tools, Tracy. Trust your gut, and use them.”
Maybe one day, she would believe that and she wouldn’t need the slippers anymore. But that day, by God, wasn’t today. “Right now, I need all the attitude I can get-from any source. So back off about my slippers.
Several hours passed without incident, and Tracy unsnapped her seat belt. She normally would have considered unbuckling crazy while barreling down the highway at seventy miles per hour. But their circumstances weren’t normal, it was daylight, they were on a straight stretch of road, and she was sick of feeling like a nut case for riding around in just a T-shirt.
She hitched her jeans up over her hips and then zipped them, bumping her elbow on the door. Her arm stung up to her shoulder, and she rubbed it. Adam hadn’t spared her, or her panties, so much as a glance, and that pricked at the woman in her-until she followed his line of vision Up the four-lane highway leading back to Laurel and saw what had his full attention. Carver drove in the left lane just two cars in front of them. Goose pimples peppered her flesh. “Adam.”
“I see him.” Adam eased his foot off the gas pedal, and the car slowed down.
When Carver didn’t follow suit, Adam relaxed. “What you said about Hackett and Nestler holds merit, -counselor.” She had said a lot. Actually, she’d babbled like an idiot ever since they’d driven hell-bent-for-leather out of the Lucky Pines, complaining about the scrapes on her hands and knees, the grass stains on her T-shirt. She’d vented her anger at him for pushing her off the damn roof, and for his insisting it had been necessary or they’d still be standing there: an assessment probably true, but which she’d denied-emphatically. And she’d speculated on everything from O’Dell’s intent to murder them to Nestler’s involvement. What specifically was Adam referring to? Having no idea, she waited for him to enlighten her.
“Project Duplicity is Nestler’s pet. He wouldn’t want it corrupted,” Adam said. “But he does want it funded.”
Tracy fished a bag of potato chips off the backseat, opened it, then pulled out a -palmful of salty chips. “Okay, Nestler wants his project funded, and he needs clinical studies to get it.”
Adam snitched a chip, then crunched down. on it. “Hackett gets those studies and he solidifies Nestler’s support for his promotion, to head the Pacific theater mission. That’s the wild card. Hackett runs the readiness exercise and ruins the project’s odds for funding and he knows Nestler is going to ship his ass to Iceland or some other outpost. He’s not going to the Pacific. That’s a given. So why would Hackett risk ruining Nestler’s project’s odds?”
“Maybe he didn’t expect what happened to happen.”
“or maybe he did. He’s ambitious, counselor, and Nestler writes his OERS. Nestler would play out every eventuality, which means Hackett would, too.”
Tracy followed Adam’s line of thought. Nestler writes Hackett’s Officer Effective Reports, therefore he largely governs Hackett’s next promotion and assignment. Hackett screws Nestler and ends up in no-man’s-land.”
Its hard to imagine Hackett crossing Nestler, then. Unless he stands to gain more than he’d lose by crossing him.”
“What could he gain?” Adam lifted a hand from the wheel. “Hackett blows the promotion and he’s subject to RIF orders.”
A mandatory exit from the Air Force. “With those risks, I don’t know what would motivate him. But I think our finding out will prove significant.” Tracy bit down on another chip. She was missing something very basic in all of this. What, exactly, eluded her. But it was there.
The road became bumpy; expansion joints reacting to the heat. Adam switched lanes, now trailing far behind Carver. The back end of the lieutenant’s car was barely visible.
Easing his grip on the steering wheel, Adam snatched another chip from Tracy. “Hackett is in this up to his eagles.
“I’d bet my bars on it,” Tracy mumbled. “The puzzling part is General Nestler. Which side of the fence is he on?”
“I’m not sure. I think he’s on the right side, until I weigh in Hackett and his promotion. Then, it only makes sense that Nestler’s also corrupt.”
“Not if he recruited Carver to run interference.” Her mouth dry from the salty chips, Tracy longed for a drink. “Unless Nestler’s gotten what he wants from Hackett and now he’s hanging him out to dry.”
“Could be.” Adam blinked, then blinked again. “There’s one way to find out.”
Tracy rolled her eyes back in her head. “Why do I have the feeling this means more of your covert stuff and you’re including me in it?”
“Because it does, and I am.” He spared her a glance, then returned his focus to the road. “Changed your mind about me being innocent?”
“No, I haven’t.” She frowned. “But I’m your lawyer, damn it, not your Intel partner. I know diddly about covert operations, especially about ones involving conspiracy against our own. I could do more damage than good, and I hate all of this … this …” Words failed her.
“Fear, counselor,” he said. “It’s called fear. That’s what you hate. But like it or not, You are part of the program, remember? You took an oath. It’s not convenient right now, but you can’t only keep that oath when it is convenient and you know it. Otherwise you wouldn’t have done any of what you’ve already do’ the.