Part 9 (2/2)

”Merrittville?” she asked Frank.

He nodded. ”The airport is on the north side. A little terminal, a control tower, and just two runways. The runways are large enough to land a 737. They've become a low-ha.s.sle backup for planes that might've otherwise touched down at Dulles or National or even Baltimore. Discreet, too.”

She said nothing, understanding. Movie stars, political celebrities, and well-known scoundrels would find the airport useful when dodging the press, divorcing spouses, or even the law.

”Nap well?” he asked.

”I did. And you?”

”No rest for the wicked.” He lifted his head and smiled.

She admired his ability to appear serene while her insides were quivering.

The plane made a wide loop, and the landing strip appeared ahead. Touching down, the craft taxied to a fenced-off area marked for private planes. After the engines turned off, the pilot emerged again from the c.o.c.kpit. He was carrying his phone again.

Eva straightened in her seat. ”Has Tucker called?”

He shook his head and touched the speakerphone b.u.t.ton.

”This is Jane Squires.” It was the same woman's voice. ”Tucker sends his apologies that he can't personally talk to you. He has a message for you, Frank. He had me arrange a rental car for you. It's waiting at Peebles Air and Land Transportation. You should be able to see the place from your plane. Your orders are to drive to Martin Chapman's house.”

She related the address.

Frank wrote it down.

Puzzled why she was not included, Eva memorized it.

”Tucker will call while you're en route to discuss exactly where you're to go and what he wants you to do, Frank,” the voice continued. ”As for you, Ms. Blake, Tucker sends his regrets. He says you're to wait on the plane. He knows you have a personal interest in this matter, but as it turns out, he doesn't need your special skills at this time.”

”But I-” Eva tried.

”He said you'd argue. Have you graduated from the Farm yet?” the woman demanded.

”Of course not, but-”

”That's Tucker's point. He's ordering you to stay put. This could be more dangerous than he antic.i.p.ated, and you're not fully trained.”

Suddenly there was a vacuum of sound. Squires had hung up. Eva stared down at her knotted hands, wanting for a moment to strangle Tucker for getting her hopes up.

”Well, well.” Frank shot her a sympathetic look. ”Sorry about that, Eva, but you know how Tucker is. The thing to do is to remember you're at the beginning of your career. There are a lot of operations in your future, more than you'll ever be able to remember. Take it from an antique like myself-missing this one will pale against the number you'll be sent on.”

She gave a stoic nod. She felt raw with disappointment. She wanted Chapman.

She watched Frank put on his coat and hurry out the door and across the tarmac to the long metal building that housed Peebles Transportation. Soon he was out again and trotting past a row of what looked like rental cars to a Chevrolet sedan parked in a dark spot between overhead lights. He climbed inside. As he drove away, he pa.s.sed beneath pole lights and she could see the car was black. Before the red taillights could disappear into the night, she memorized the license plate.

26.

Merrittville, Maryland Growing bored, Eva gazed out her window, watching the few taxiing planes and the occasional pilot, pa.s.senger, or airport staff person cross the tarmac. A Da.s.sault Falcon 7X docked a distance away. It was the only trijet in the private section. That was as exciting as it got.

As she leaned back and closed her eyes, she heard in her mind, You're not fully trained. She still was bothered by what was going on. It was not only that she had worked closely with Tucker in the past, but also that she had done so well, Tucker had personally recommended her to Langley. The more she thought about it, the more difficult it was to believe he would bring her this far then decide she did not have the chops for the job.

What was going on?

In surveillance training, the one mistake guaranteed to get you booted out of the Farm was missing a surveillance tail. Was she missing something here? You're not fully trained ... it was the word trained that was important. Training.

Her eyes snapped open as she remembered the whispered rumors that there would be two particularly difficult exercises at the Farm. In one, the trainees were ”captured” and thrown into a sham POW camp as terrorists. They underwent hours of interrogation, sleep deprivation, and isolation, first to coerce, and if that did not work, to force them to give up the name of one of the other terrorists-one of their fellow students-because it was vital the students learn the limits of their endurance. In the second exercise, the Farm ran a surprise operation on each trainee: Staff and sometimes retired or active officers created a situation that looked real from every aspect. It would be so well executed any normal person would believe it. In spookspeak, the operation was called a movie. The trainee's job was to detect and give evidence of the truth.

If it was illogical for Tucker to sideline her, then this whole situation could be a movie. Her frustration about not being able to make Chapman accountable was well known, and Langley had an entire department dedicated to creating ident.i.ties-”Frank Smith” could easily be an alias.

Eva drummed her fingers on her armrest. Langley demanded its spies follow orders, but it also prized entrepreneurs.h.i.+p. The line between the two was hair-thin, and what was left unsaid was that undercover officers were expected to know when to break the rules. If this really were a training exercise, she needed to reveal it.

She heard the c.o.c.kpit door open.

It was the pilot-Jack-b.u.t.toning his black pilot's jacket. ”I'm going out.” He reached into the forward closet and grabbed a down jacket.

”Where are you headed?” she asked.

”Next door. The owner's an old friend.”

She nodded. ”I think the intent of Tucker's orders was for me to stay here at the airport within hailing distance, don't you?” Without waiting for him to respond, she went on, ”I'm starving. I saw a pizza sign next to the Peebles building. How about I get us some?”

”Sorry, Ms. Blake, but you've got to stay here. You don't want to get kicked out of the Farm for disobeying orders.” Jack added kindly, ”I'll swing past for pizza. What can I bring for you?”

She made up an answer then watched as he turned the wheel on the door, lifted a lever, and pushed outside. Cold air gusted in, and the door shut.

Standing up, she paced the aisle and mulled the problem. The thing was she had heard nothing directly from Tucker himself-just from some woman named Jane Squires who claimed to work for him. Since Tucker had brought her all the way out here to the middle of nowhere, the least he could do was tell her what the mission was about. On the other hand, if this were a movie, he might know nothing about it-and she would be able to unmask it as a training exercise.

Hurrying back to her seat, she dug her Farm-issued cell from her shoulder bag and dialed Tucker's new number, the one Frank had given her. Soon the recording of Tucker's voice sounded in her ear. Disappointed, she ended the connection without leaving a message.

She considered a moment then tapped onto the keypad Tucker's old number, the one he had given her months ago. The phone rang three times. Eagerly she listened to the connection being made, but then to another recording of Tucker's voice. Jabbing the OFF b.u.t.ton, she stared at the cell. The messages were identical. Quickly she again dialed one number then the other. Recordings answered both times. She listened carefully. Not only were the words the same, so were the inflections, the emphases, the rhythms.

Pacing the aisle, she hugged herself. It was possible Tucker had made a tape of his message and used it for the new number. But it was equally possible the Farm had made a copy of Tucker's recording and put it on Tucker's supposedly new phone number for Frank Smith to give to her-and she was in the middle of a movie.

She stooped to peer out the window. The door to the trijet was open, and Jack was stepping inside. As Eva watched the door close, she decided she would rather go down for being enterprising than for being an idiot.

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