Chapter Twenty-Four

Thursday

Valerie grabbed the phone on the first ring and slipped from bed.

“Yes?” She moved to the window and peered out into a starless black night. She was barely silhouetted, but Diane could still make out the shimmering outline of her body.

“I’m ready…I had to be sure. Yes. Yes, but I don’t trust her.” She lowered her voice and Diane strained to hear. “Look, I can’t talk… Where?…No, somewhere I can be sure you’re alone. Trust?” She laughed harshly. “You might be followed…Look, forget it. I’ll just… Yes, that will work. All right, if that’s what you want…No, that’s too soon. Because I don’t want to alert anyone here to what I’m doing… Yes. Fine. The usual.”

After breaking the connection, Valerie remained still in the silent room, listening to the echo of his voice and the breathing of the woman in the bed. Between those two people lay the boundaries of her world— past and future—bordered by truth and lies. Quietly, she made her way across the room and slipped back into bed. She drew Diane into her arms. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

“How did you know?” Diane asked.

“I could tell from the way you’re breathing.”

“You’re very perceptive.”

Valerie grimaced. “It’s funny, I was trained to do two opposite things equally well. To avoid intimacy with anyone, while at the same time being sensitive to every nuance of expression and movement. It seems I’ve spent my life watching, but never living.”

Diane took Valerie’s hand and drew it to her breast. “I’m alive and I’m very real. So is my love for you.”

“Why?” Valerie murmured, cradling Diane’s breast and brushing her lips over the nipple. “I can’t imagine this is what you want.”

“This? You mean being with you?”

“Everything that being with me means.” Valerie sighed and rested her cheek between Diane’s breasts, still softly caressing her nipple.

“Your phone call. That was the person you report to, right?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to meet with him.”

“Yes.”

“You lied to him, about not trusting someone here. Cam, I guess.”

“Yes, I lied to him,” Valerie said, holding very still.

“Did he believe you?”

“I don’t know. Probably not. One of the basic rules of our training is not to trust what people say, or sometimes even what they do, until they’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they’re trustworthy.”

“The two of you have known each other for a long time. Doesn’t that count?”

Valerie gently kissed the curve of Diane’s breast. “You’d think it would, wouldn’t you? But it really doesn’t. It’s possible that he was telling me the truth at the beginning, and somewhere along the line his priorities or his orders changed. It’s nearly impossible to tell.”

“But you don’t trust him any longer, do you?”

“No,” Valerie said.

“Do you trust me?”

Valerie kissed Diane’s throat, then her mouth. “Yes. Completely.”

“Will you tell me what you’re going to do?”

Valerie hesitated and the silence that closed in around them was more frightening than anything she’d ever known. “When I know, I’ll tell you.”

“Thank you.”

“I know I’m asking a lot of you, but—”

“I have no idea why people fall in love,” Diane said. “Or why we need to. But I do know this about you—you’re strong but you’re lonely, and you can survive without love, but you long for it. You need me, and I need you. None of the rest matters.”

“You’re the only person I’ve ever let myself truly need,” Valerie said so softly Diane could barely hear her. “If I lost you now—”

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” Diane lifted Valerie’s face between her hands and kissed her, softly at first, then more deeply. She guided Valerie on top of her until their legs entwined and their bodies melded. Her kisses grew insistent as she urged Valerie’s hips to move with hers, calling to her without words, marrying their bodies and hearts with the force of her passion and desire.

“I love you,” Valerie murmured.

Diane’s breath quickened as Valerie groaned and thrust harder. Wanting more, wanting everything, Diane twisted onto her side and forced Valerie onto her back. Still kissing her, Diane cupped Valerie’s sex and found her already wet and open. With a soft groan she pushed inside her, rejoicing silently as Valerie arched and cried out in pleasure and surprise.

“Oh yes, that’s how…there…I need you hard, please, harder,” Valerie gasped.

Distantly, Diane was aware of her own building arousal, but all she wanted was to have Valerie with nothing between them—no secrets, no fears, no regrets. “I love being inside you. I love feeling your heartbeat under my fingertips. I love to please you.”

With every word Diane thrust a little harder. Her teeth skated over Valerie’s neck, and when Valerie tightened around her fingers, she sucked on the delicate skin of her throat.

“Oh my God,” Valerie moaned, pushing against Diane’s hand. “I’m coming. Oh God, it’s so good.”

Diane closed her eyes tightly, concentrating on Valerie’s labored breathing, her soft cries, the pounding pulse that beat around her fingers. She carried her smoothly to a peak, and then again, until Valerie buried her face in Diane’s neck and cried silent tears. Diane rocked her and caressed her face.

“It’s all right, darling. Everything is just exactly as it should be.”

“I’m not used to anyone touching me that way,” Valerie whispered. “Sorry, I can’t…my control…”

Diane laughed. “Oh, I hope you’re not apologizing. You’re beautiful when you come. I never want to stop making love to you.”

Valerie laughed weakly. “That’s one thing I’ll never ask.”

When Cam walked into the kitchen at 5 a.m., she found Valerie seated at the table, her hands inert around a mug of coffee. “You’re up early.” Cam helped herself from the fresh pot on the counter. “What’s on your mind?”

“Henry called.”

“Are you ready?”

“More than ready.”

“But?” Cam watched a litany of emotions flit across her face. Anger, unease, resolve.

“I know things are going to move quickly once we start planning the operation,” Valerie said. “So I wanted to talk to you before the briefing, What I am going to say is just between you and me.”

“I’m listening.” Cam could guess what was coming. Valerie was used to working alone, being alone. She had never learned to lean on others—so like Blair that way.

“If something goes wrong, we both know it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to extract me,” Valerie continued. “I don’t want you to try. Collateral damage would be high, and…” She glanced down at her hands, which she’d folded on the tabletop, and then into Cam’s eyes, “My life isn’t worth yours or one of the others’.”

A gasp cut across her words. “It is to me.” Diane stood in the doorway. “Damn you, it is to me!”

“Diane!” Valerie jumped to her feet and caught Diane as she turned to flee. “Diane, wait, you don’t understand—”

Diane whirled back, her cheeks pale and her eyes blazing. She knocked Valerie’s hands away. “What do I not understand? I just heard you tell Cam she should let you die rather than risk someone else’s life. Every single one of them risks their life every day protecting Blair. Is she so much more important—” She broke off and covered her face with her hands. “Oh God, I can’t believe I’m saying this.”

“That’s enough,” Cam said steadily, rising to her feet. “No one is going to die. And no one,” she said, her eyes fixed on Valerie, “is going to be left behind. That’s the last conversation I intend to have about this.” She pointed to the clock. “We have a briefing in twenty minutes and we have a lot of planning to do. I expect you to be on time, Agent Lawrence.”

Cam walked out without waiting for an answer.

“I’m sorry,” Diane whispered, turning away.

Valerie gently caught her shoulders and embraced her. “No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to hear that. I never should have talked to Cam about this here.”

“But you’re not sorry for asking her to leave you behind, are you. I thought you said you loved me.”

“Oh God, I do,” Valerie said desperately. “But can’t you see, my whole life has been leading to this point, and I couldn’t live with myself if Cam or one of the others suffered for the mistakes that I made.”

Diane caressed Valerie’s cheek. “You don’t get it, do you? Loving someone means forgiving yourself for the past and living for the present. And the future. We all have regrets, darling.”

“I’ve always operated with the knowledge that my life is expendable.”

“Well, it isn’t anymore.” Diane kissed her softly. “Please try not to forget that.”

Valerie took a deep breath. “All right. I’d better go.”

“You won’t… do anything without telling me, will you?”

“No. We’ve still got time.”

“Of course we do,” Diane said fervently. “Of course we do.”

“Yes?” Matheson said when his phone rang.

“We’ve arranged to meet.”

Matheson smiled. “Run it down for me.”

He listened, making a few notes on a notepad with the motel’s name and logo stamped at the top. After a moment he said, “Nice work.”

“There’s still a chance we could bring her over. And she’s got an inside channel to several targets.”

“You might be right. Let’s weigh the options.”

“Okay, let’s get started.” Cam walked briskly to the table, making eye contact with the agents already assembled. Stark and Valerie sat side by side across from Felicia and Savard. “Agent Lawrence, why don’t you fill us in on your conversation with your handler.”

If Valerie noted the formality, she didn’t show it. “Henry and I made contact at 0330 and spoke for less than five minutes. We agreed to a rendezvous at 2300 tomorrow.”

“That doesn’t leave us a lot of time,” Cam commented.

“I realize that, but he initially wanted to schedule the meet for tonight, and it would not have been unusual for us to rendezvous with such little lead time. Twenty-four hours was as much delay as I thought I could manage without rousing his suspicions.”

“We’ll work with it,” Cam said. “Location?”

“The extraction point we used when I left the island the last time.”

“The beach here?” Stark said sharply. “No way. We’re not letting hostiles onto the island while Egret is on site.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear,” Valerie said quickly. “Not on the beach, but where the extraction vessel was anchored.”

“On the water,” Savard said, making it a statement. “You’re going to meet him at sea.”

“Yes. I’ll take my boat and we’ll rendezvous approximately a mile out.”

“So he knows you’re at Whitley Point,” Felicia said.

“He does. He asked if I had contacted Cameron. I said I had and confirmed my location when he asked.” She glanced briefly at Cam. “I had to assume that he already knew. A lot of small planes pass over here every day, and he could easily have aerial surveillance photos. If he knows I’m here, or that you are, I didn’t want to be caught lying to him.”

“Whose idea was it to rendezvous at sea?” Cam asked.

“His.”

“It’s a trap,” Felicia said. “He can sink you out there and make it look like weather or a mechanical problem.”

Valerie shook her head. “Not before he meets with me. I told him I didn’t trust Cameron. He’ll want all the intelligence he can gather on Cameron’s operation before he burns his connection with me.”

“Smart,” Cam observed. “He’ll want to talk to you. He’ll want to know what we might suspect about him or Matheson.”

“That’s what I think, yes,” Valerie said. “That would be typical for this kind of situation. A brief verbal information exchange.”

“What about putting me below deck on Valerie’s boat, Commander?” Savard asked.

Cam shook her head. “He’s going to search.”

“Can you at least get him onto your boat?” Savard asked Valerie. “We can rig cameras and microphones to monitor you there, but if you have to board his, we’ll be lucky to get audio.”

“Will he search you for a mic?” Felicia asked.

Valerie shrugged. “I don’t know. He never has before, but the rules have obviously changed.”

Cam held up her hand. “We can’t depend on him coming aboard Valerie’s vessel. We’ll need long-range satellite tracking. Mac can coordinate that from here.” She looked at Stark. “You’ll need to pull people from Tanner’s day crew to augment your night shift. We can’t be certain they won’t try a dual assault, and you and Mac will be tied up coordinating communications.”

Stark stiffened. “Mac doesn’t need me to assist. I can go with the ground detail, Commander.”

Cam shook her head. “Not with Egret on site. You need to be here. If something goes wrong, you’ll have to evac her quickly. I’d suggest you make contingency plans to get her back to the White House, but that’s your call.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“We’ll have to go without visual if Valerie boards Henry’s vessel,” Cam said with a nod to Savard, “but I want audio surveillance that Henry won’t catch even if he looks. Wires are too risky if he does a body search.”

“He’s not going to have the equipment to look for an implantable,” Valerie said. “If we get it in by tomorrow morning, the puncture site should be very difficult to spot as little as twelve hours later.”

“A transdermal receiver?” Savard said, her eyes brightening with anticipation. “How are we going to get it? That’s the kind of stuff only the DOD has, and even that’s just a rumor.”

“It’s not a rumor,” Valerie said.

“What’s the range?” Felicia asked.

“1000 yards.” Valerie glanced at Cam. “He may see you at that range.”

“Possibly,” Cam said. “But we’re close enough to fishing and shipping routes that there will be plenty of water traffic, even at night. We’ll run without lights as much as we can.”

“That’s quite a distance if we have to extract quickly,” Savard said.

“Once Valerie and Henry rendezvous, he’ll be occupied and we’ll be able to drift in closer.” Cam cut her eyes to Valerie. “A minute. That’s likely to be how much time we’ll need to get aboard if you signal. Two, tops.”

“Understood,” Valerie replied with a faint smile. “That’s a very acceptable margin.”

“With respect, Commander,” Savard said, “that’s a long window.”

Cam didn’t disagree. Even sixty seconds could be a death sentence if the operation went bad. “We’ve got thirty-six hours to cut the margin. Let’s get working.”

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 583