Edge of Tomorrow (78 page)

He laughed, “I think you are pulling my leg,
Sara. I know you are licensed to carry a weapon while you’re here!
I’m sure you don’t need me to scare away any bloody bogeymen!”

She pulled him to her and kissed him.

“You’re right, Charlie. I wanted to show you
what you missed by not taking me to the nude beach!”

She turned her back to him and said, “Unzip
me, please.”

His fingers trembled as he reached for her
zipper.

• • •

In Karen’s suite, Bruno locked them in and
then took her in his arms and kissed her, their tongues
dueling.

“Damn, I’ve wanted to do that all day,
Karen!” he exclaimed.

“Me, too!” she gasped. “I don’t like being
part of your duty! I’m going to tell Syd that I’m sleeping with
you! Fuck ’em! Syd’s getting laid, and I bet Sara’s got ‘Charlie’
in a leg lock as we speak! Why do we have to hide it? In a few
days, I’ll be back in San Francisco and you’ll be in Florida. Why
can’t we enjoy each other while we can without guilt?”

“Karen, it’s complicated, but I agree with
you. I have something to do now,” said Bruno as he opened his case
of gadgets. He took out two long, metal tubes and fastened them
together to make a longer one, then angled the device so one end
was under the doorknob and the other was firmly anchored in the
carpet. He adjusted a knob in the middle of the tube, then took a
small device from his case and walked to the bedroom. Karen
followed him to the bedroom and began to undress.

She asked, “What in hell are you doing?”

“A little extra security. If anybody picks
the lock, and intends to cut the chain, any pressure on that piston
when they try and open the door will send a signal to this device,
which I’m connecting to this lamp. The signal will reverse the
state of the lamp—on to off, off to on. If that doesn’t wake me up,
after 5 seconds, an alarm goes off.”

Karen finished undressing and went to the
bathroom. When she came back, Bruno was stripped, and ready for
her.

“When are you going to tell me what’s really
going on? Why do I need all this security?” asked Karen as she went
into his arms and luxuriated in the feel of his muscular, naked
body.

“Maybe later. My mind is elsewhere now.”

He lifted her easily, and her legs locked
around him as he entered her.

Monte Cristo, Monterra

Sunday, August 26, 2001

5:00 P.M.

By 5:00 P.M. the next day, at least 14
people who worked at
Casino Barone
had disappeared—at least, they did not show up for work. Not
quite as obvious, but nonetheless true, was the disappearance of
several gamblers—those who actually laundered the dirty money
through the crooked dealers.

A large black helicopter landed on a deserted
beach on the northwest coast of Monterra on Sunday morning at 4
A.M., and several cars came and went, dropping off people with
their hands tied behind their backs and gags in their mouths. Some
were delivered already dead. These bodies and people would never be
seen again. They would get a watery grave. Anyone who escaped the
initial deadly and thorough sweep would be tracked down and
terminated when found.

Casino Barone
was able to operate only half of their tables, and the
manager—who never knew his casino was being used for illegal
purposes—scrambled to try and hire more people.

• • •

At 8:00 A.M. on Sunday morning, James
Gramble, in his Langley office, met with his Senior Agent In Charge
of operations in Monterra. Doug Cannon was a career agent, and at
54 years old, had been in the Company longer than Gramble. He had
no political aspirations, so did not envy Gramble’s faster climb
through the ranks. He was a field man and wanted to keep it that
way until he retired next year.

Cannon briefed Gramble on agent Beecher’s
progress in the hospital, then gave him the results of the punitive
action taken against the Mafia in Monterra.

When Cannon finished, Gramble asked, “What
about our surveillance of Van Lincoln?”

Cannon hesitated, then said, “I asked Wilson
about that when he reported in and he said Beecher called it off
yesterday. He assumed the order came from me, but it didn’t.
Beecher is still in the ICU, so we can’t get near her yet and ask
her.”

“Shit!” blurted Gramble. “What the fuck is
going on?”

I would have had Lincoln disappear in that
sweep if I could have gotten away with it! Why did Beecher call off
the fucking surveillance? If she lives, she had better have a good
answer!

Cannon replied, “I don’t know. Until I can
talk to Judy Beecher, I won’t know what was in her mind.”

“Well, put the surveillance back on. Do we
know where Lincoln was when Beecher got shot?”

“That we do know. He was playing Baccarat.
Judy Beecher was outside smoking a cigarette with Lincoln’s
girlfriend, Sydney Steppe, when she was shot. Wilson said Steppe
shot one of the shooters with Beecher’s gun, then wiped it clean
and threw it in the ocean,” replied Cannon.

“You mean she helped Beecher? What did we
ever find out about Steppe?” growled Gramble.

“Nothing of note. We checked her entire
life—birth to today. She’s clean. A college prof. She’s scheduled
to teach a class at the University of Miami next month.”

“But she can shoot a gun in a pressure
situation, then be smart enough to get rid of it? Something doesn’t
sound right. Check her out again! Dig deeper!”

“Right. Let me call Wilson and put the
surveillance back on Lincoln,
and
his woman,” replied Cannon.

• • •

At 5:00 P.M. on Sunday in Sicily, Evio
Tessitore summoned his father to an emergency meeting and told him
that he was unable to reach any of his people in Monterra. The last
he had heard was two days ago when his man in charge at the
Casino Barone
had reported his
suspicions about a Lady Morley snooping around. They were afraid
she might have caught on to the scam. Evio ordered her terminated,
just in case.

The Don said, “Better send somebody over
there and see what’s going on. I don’t like the smell of this.”

“That man Lincoln is in Monterra, we know
that. Could he be involved in whatever is going on?” asked
Evio.

“Trouble seems to follow him,” mused the Don.
“Can we terminate him in a manner so we would never be suspected?
He is a high profile man. I wouldn’t want his organization and his
infinite amounts of money unleashed against us.”

“Let me give that some thought. In the
meantime, I’ll send Joey over there to find out where all of our
people are.”

• • •

The Royal Ball was scheduled to start
at 8:00 P.M. Sunday night, and Syd, Sara, and Karen were all in
Syd’s suite at 5 o’clock with their costumes. The three of them had
spent over two hours in the hotel’s salon having manicures,
pedicures, facials, and had even had their makeup applied by
professionals. All that was left to do was the donning of their
19
^th
-century gowns—and, of
course, their wigs. Captain Rossini had promised to send one of the
Royal costumers over at 6 o’clock to help them dress and to put on
their wigs. The women were very excited about the fact that they
were attending their first Royal Ball. Karen was chain smoking, and
all three were drinking white wine, trying not to get too plastered
before the ball, but they had to do something to calm their nerves.
They were as giggly and excited as teenagers going to their first
prom.

They had an hour to kill before Isabella, the
Royal costumer, arrived to assist them with their long-line pushup
bras, and the myriad layers of crinoline underskirts that would
hold out the skirts of their gowns. They also needed instructions
on how to walk and dance in the gowns—and especially, to sit.

• • •

Bruno and Hatch had not yet dressed in their
costumes, but Hatch figured it would take less than an hour to get
ready, so he told Bruno that the two of them should go to the
hospital and check on Lady Morley. He did not trust Dave Wilson
very much.

• • •

The hospital was only six minutes away from
the hotel by taxi. The Charge Nurse at the ICU told them that Lady
Morley was awake now, but was very weak from loss of blood. Her
visitors were limited to family. Hatch had anticipated this, so he
had used a British accent when he asked about her. He told the
nurse that Lady Morley had no family with her on Monterra, and he
was from the British Embassy to check on her for her family in
London. The nurse hesitated, but finally allowed a short visit.

Outside Lady Morley’s door, Hatch used his
Blue Phone to change the satellite communications routing system to
send a signal to Bruno’s pager when he pushed the SOS button on his
watch.

“Here’s the plan, Bruno,” he whispered. “I’ll
go in and see if she can talk, see if she needs to tell me
anything. I want to know if she needs our help. You go over there
behind that curtain and watch the door to her room. If anyone
suspicious comes snooping around, watch them closely. If I page
you, come into the room—carefully, and armed!”

“Gotcha! You’re expecting trouble, I take
it,” murmured Bruno.

“Just cautious.”

Hatch pushed open the door and entered the
ICU room of Lady Morley. She had an IV tube running into her right
arm. She opened her eyes when she heard the swish of the door
closing.

“Just checking to see if you need anything,
Lady Morley,” smiled Hatch.

She coughed, then said, “At least I’m alive,
they assure me. Thank Syd for me. I saw what she did before I
blacked out.”

She coughed again.

“I will. Can I do anything for you?”

“Get me out of here!” she coughed. “I have a
funny feeling about things.”

She went silent, and after several labored
breaths, continued, “Dave Wilson was here earlier. They’ve put the
surveillance back on you, and included Syd this time. Langley is
wondering why I called it off without authorization. After they
have time to think, they may decide that it would be better if I
died of my wounds, if you get my drift.”

“I would like to say that was ridiculous, but
I can’t. I know them too well. They tried the same thing on me,”
mused Hatch.

“Dave was asked a lot of questions about why
I was hanging around you, and why was Syd with me when I was
shot.”

“You don’t look well enough to travel,”
observed Hatch.

Then he saw her eyes open wide, so he slipped
behind the curtain by her bed just as the door silently opened. A
female nurse entered and approached the bed. She was too focused to
notice Hatch watching her from the shadows around the small opening
between the two curtains. The nurse took a hypodermic syringe out
of her pocket and took the plastic sheath off the needle. Hatch
pushed the button on his watch to alert Bruno.

Outside the room in his alcove, Bruno felt
his pager vibrate and checked it. It was Hatch’s emergency
code.

Oh, shit! That nurse must have been a
fake!

Bruno looked up and down the hall, saw no
one, then drew his weapon. He reached in the left pocket of his
jacket and produced a silencer, which he screwed in place as he
neared the door to Lady Morley’s room.

• • •

Inside the room, the nurse was about to stick
the needle into the plastic bag which held the fluid that was
feeding into Lady Morley’s arm.

“Who are you?” asked Lady Morley.

“Night nurse. It’s shift change time,” said
the nurse.

“What are you doing?”

“A new medicine the doctor ordered.”

“How come your English is so bloody good? The
other nurses barely speak it.”

As the door opened slowly behind the nurse,
Hatch pulled the curtain back and stepped forward.

“What’s the medicine for?” he asked in his
British accent.

The nurse jumped back, startled.

“Who are you?” she gasped.

“I’m from the British Embassy. Didn’t the
Charge Nurse tell you I was visiting Lady Morley? Now, the
medicine?”

She stammered, “It’s a vitamin complex to
give her strength.”

The plastic name tag on the nurse’s breast
read “R. Jones, RN.”

“Well, Nurse Jones, I think I’ll check with
the doctor, just to make sure,” said Hatch as he reached for the
phone on the bedside table.

Nurse Jones got a panicked look on her face
and started to back up. She ran into the silencer on Bruno’s
gun.

“I think—instead of checking with the
doctor—that if that is only vitamins in that syringe, maybe you
should inject yourself. You look tired and run down.”

“No! You’re crazy!” exclaimed the nurse.

Hatch grabbed her right wrist and carefully
took the syringe from her. He stuck it her arm at the crook of her
elbow and pushed the plunger. The nurse’s eyes became as large as
saucers.

“Oh, no!” she gasped. Her eyes rolled up, she
clasped her chest, and then fell to the floor.

Hatch retrieved the syringe and put it in the
slot on the biohazard box, then said to Bruno, “Throw her on that
other bed and cover her up, then we’ll close this curtain. We need
to buy some time.”

Then Hatch turned to a wide-eyed Judy Beecher
and said, “Did you recognize her?”

Judy said, “No. She probably came in with the
sweep team. Get me out of here, Hatcher. When they miss her,
they’ll send someone else over here.”

Hatch said, “Bruno, is the nurse dead?”

“Yes. To go that fast, it must have
been something that causes a heart attack. If she had got that into
Lady Morley’s drip bag,
her
heart attack wouldn’t have been questioned.”