Part 7 (1/2)
The less she knew, the better, and yet he was anxious to tell her because the plan was complex. Its complexity added to his sense of power, of superiority. He was anxious to tell anyone. The loneliness of the past month his weeks in hiding prior to the operation nearly fell prey to the comfort of her company. ”It's better you don't know everything. What I can tell you is this: The plane we are dropping today is carrying key ingredients in the manufacturing of pesticides that can't be sold in the U.S. because of Food and Drug regulations. So, to get around the law, an EisherWorks American subsidiary makes the ingredients here and flies them to Mexico where they are combined to make the exact same pesticide that is outlawed. That pesticide is then used on Mexican food crops that are later harvested and eventually s.h.i.+pped back for consumption in the U.S. Around and around it goes. It stops today, this hypocrisy. And this is only the prelude.”
”Meaning?”
He hadn't meant to explain this much, but he was started now, and it felt good. ”There's to be a meeting in Was.h.i.+ngton. Heavies. Mosner will be at this meeting, William Sandhurst of BiGeneer, Matthew Grady of ChemTronics, Douglas Fitzmaurice, Elizabeth Savile, Howard Goldenbaum. The heads of the biggest companies. I'm sick of cutting off fingers and limbs. It's time we cut off the head.”
Her voice filled with excitement. She recognized all the names, just as he knew she would. ”Kill them all? What .. . they are all going to be on the same plane or something?”
”Or something. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Didn't your parents ever tell you that? You'll see.” He had the third b.u.t.ton undone. Anything possible indeed. She hardly noticed. He reached in and cupped her breast. She filled his hand fully with a warmth that he felt in his groin. ”With something like this, you take your time.”
”You are making fun of me. I hate you.”
”I'm making love with you.”
”Not until you tell me what it is we are going to do.”
”I can't. I've already told you more than I should.”
”No you haven't.” She looked him over and her eyes reconsidered. ”Then again, there are other ways to make you talk.” She smiled. He skimmed his fingers lightly over her breast and felt her respond.
He wondered if his erection was the result of touching her, or the enormous sense of power he now experienced.
He pointed to the television. ”The television is the only thing that talks to the people. The only thing they listen to. So we're going to fill their screens with a little truth for a change. A few flames on the runway is always good for prime time. CNN is going to love us.”
She was grinning. She had a beautiful smile, alluring and cunning; a woman filled with s.e.xual secrets. One of these secrets he already knew from personal experience: All you needed to do was tease her lips and it was like lighting her fuse. He had never met a woman so s.e.xually charged so addicted to it.
”I've missed you.”
”You are a liar.”
”It comes with the territory,” he said, his finger circling her creamy red lips until she kissed it and then drew it into her mouth and sucked on it, wrapping it in her tongue.
The talking was over. He slipped his wet finger out of her mouth and, working down her body, found her nipples now fully erect. He felt triumphant like setting the timer on a detonator. His next ch.o.r.e after this. Forty-seven seconds, he recalled.
She tugged at his belt buckle. But this was not to be her show. He teased her legs open slightly with his slick fingertip, and spun tiny circles there until she willingly surrendered to her own pleasure.
Everything was in its place now. Despite the drumming in his heart, the pain in his jaw, he felt himself relax. Things were going just fine. Actually, much better than he had hoped.
Thirty minutes later, the bed sheets lay in a heap, and the air smelled of her. It had been the frantic lovemaking of two people in a bomb shelter, the lovemaking of no tomorrow. They were bonded. They were a team again.
”How is it you can remember those things?” she asked, her voice dreamy. ”Are women so much the same?”
Did he dare to tell her that between Frankfurt and now there had been only one woman, and that it had been a complete disaster? Did he dare give her that kind of power over him? He thought not. Once you've gained the higher ground, you don't voluntarily surrender it.
”You wouldn't kiss me,” she said, touching his swollen cheek.
”Be glad I didn't. I need a dentist. Badly. It's infected. But it will have to wait. There isn't time.”
”It must hurt.”
”I will live.”
”You don't know that,” she said. And they fell silent for a time.
”We survived Frankfurt,” he reminded.
”That was different,” she contended.
”Not really so different.”
”We were but two of a team in Frankfurt. We had the support of the entire team. Now ... It is not the same at all.”
”Not so different as all that.” He felt good. She had put him in a good mood.
”Where will you go after this?”
”Arrangements have been made for both of us, if need be.”
”I like it where I am,” she said. ”Will I have to leave?”
”Maybe not,” he lied. ”We'll see.”
There wasn't time for him to shower. He toweled off and reapplied some deodorant.
”You had better dress,” he said, checking his watch. He dabbed some Anbesol into the hole left by the pulled tooth, cringed and waited for it to take effect. When the open sore began to numb, he said, ”It's time we get started.”
The Los Angeles suburban sprawl swallowed them in blocks of matching three-bedroom homes with attached garages. Many of the lawns had gone brown, the result of the prolonged drought. Two young blond boys, s.h.i.+rtless and tanned, raced by on roller blades. Kort was pleased to be in the comfort of the air-conditioned van. ”It was a good choice for a rental,” he said.
”You said it should be big.”
He nodded. He hated small cars.
”Are you going to tell me what it is we're doing, or am I expected to be clairvoyant? Who is this Dougherty?”
”A mechanic for AmAirXpress. Being part of the cargo group, the AmAirXpress flights use a different runway. That's important to me.”
”But I can get you onto the field, Anthony. It's all been arranged for weeks. You've hired us as consultants. Why did we bother establis.h.i.+ng all that if we're not going to use it?”
”We are going to use it.”
”But why Dougherty then? I don't understand.”
”The new security measures they've enacted.”
”The head-counting?” she asked.
”Exactly. You can get me onto the field, but I still need a properly coded ID badge to enter the AmAirXpress maintenance yard from the field side. I could never get into AmAirXpress through their worker entrance. Not carrying what I'm carrying. Besides, the AmAirXpress security guards must know Dougherty by face. So it has to be from the field side. It's only machines on the field side. Computerized entrances. With his ID card they can be tricked into thinking I'm Dougherty.”
”We're going to steal his ID badge?”
”Providing the Greek's information is correct and it was in Seattle then Dougherty is a drinker. Recently widowed. So we're going to borrow his ID badge and leave him with a hangover.”