Part 9 (1/2)
”Sure.” Dan rattled them off.
”But there were supposed to be six! Roberto told Senator Kilpatrick there were six!”
”You probably just heard wrong,” Dan said kindly.
”We didn't! Dan, I beg you, call the lab! Ask if a name could have been taken off the list!” Dan shook his head, but he picked up the phone anyway.
When he turned back to Nancy, his face had changed. ”You were right. There are indications that something was deleted. Probably some kind of accident when the dot was brought through a radar check. They're putting a crew to work again right now.”
Already the gray in the sky was growing paler. Nancy looked at her watch. There wasn't enough time!
What could the sixth name on the list have been? Suppose it hadn't been taken off by accident or by mistake?
Who was the most prominent person in the United States working for the peaceful overthrow of the San Carlos dictator?
The realization struck Nancy like a blow. Senator Marilyn Kilpatrick-the person Roberto had been trying to smuggle information to! Senator Kilpatrick, who in a few more hours would be announcing the dictator's flight and the transition of power!
Roberto must have been planning to let Senator Kilpatrick be murdered. Maybe he figured that with her out of the way there'd be no one to finger him. Certainly his San Carlos a.s.sociates would have killed him if they discovered he'd sold out.
It was the only thing Nancy could come up with to explain the missing name. But the main thing was to save the senator. What Roberto had brought to the U.S. was a photo photo of the hit list. The killer had the of the hit list. The killer had the original original list-and the senator's name was still on it! list-and the senator's name was still on it!
”We've got to warn the senator!” Nancy shouted to Dan. ”She's the sixth person, I'm sure of it. Call her, quick!”
Dan's jaw dropped. ”I don't know where she is! n.o.body seems to. She doesn't think she's in any danger, so she slipped her guards and went out for an early breakfast somewhere with your father.”
Chapter Seventeen.
THE WORLD SEEMED to turn upside down in front of Nancy's eyes. Then it righted itself. Just as at that moment on the tennis court, she saw the danger and knew the only thing to do.
”George! Call the senator's office. Tell them she's on the hit list. Dan, come on!” Nancy dashed for the door.
George was already on the phone.
”Where are we going?” Dan demanded as he and Nancy ran down the corridor.
”To find my dad. I know the places he likes to eat in D.C.” Not waiting for the elevator, Nancy lunged for the emergency stairs and went down them two at a time.
Dan reached his car and unlocked the doors. ”I'm driving,” Nancy announced. ”You get on the phone with the feds,” she ordered Dan.
Dan tossed over the keys and jumped into the pa.s.senger seat. The phone beeped as Nancy jerked the car out of its parking s.p.a.ce and catapulted it up the runway.
She was barely conscious of Dan's voice speaking tersely into the phone receiver. Nancy's eyes were on the road, which was already gilded with sunlight. Her mind clicked along like a computer.
She knew that Senator Kilpatrick had scheduled an eight o'clock video press conference in her office. That meant Carson Drew must have taken her to eat somewhere nearby. Someplace he liked near the Capitol and the Senate Office Building. Someplace he knew would be very quiet and private.
”Tell the feds to check the Monocle! And the American Cafe!” Nancy shouted.
She floored the gas pedal as she roared north on Was.h.i.+ngton Street. Horns honked. Somewhere behind them a siren sounded.
Dan broke his phone connection and beeped his own police station. He identified himself and his car license number crisply. ”Requesting black-and-white on our tail. Repeat, request escort immediately.” Dan gave a code number that Nancy guessed meant urgent security business.
Almost at once the police car fell into place behind them, its siren magically clearing the way in front. ”Heading into D.C.,” Dan said into the telephone as Nancy shot onto the road leading to the Arlington Memorial Bridge. And then, ”Where to?”
”I don't know.” All Nancy knew was that something something was driving was driving her her, as if the car and her subconscious had one common will. ”The Watergate, I guess. Just in case. It's closest-”
Golden sun sparkled on the Potomac and on the white marble of the statues as they tore across the bridge. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts s.h.i.+mmered peacefully in the sunlight. The curved lines of the Watergate's many balconies glistened.
They careened to a stop at the hotel entrance, and Dan leaned out. ”Seen Senator Kilpatrick this morning?” he called to a uniformed doorman.
”Negative. n.o.body important stirring around here yet. I just checked.” The doorman indicated a tiny radio concealed in his hand.
Dan waved to him and pulled his head in again. ”Government security, undercover, on account of the San Carlos crowd in town,” he told Nancy.
The phone beeped. Dan flipped the loudspeaker b.u.t.ton, so the voice echoed tinnily through the car. ”Negative on American Cafe and Monocle. Lady's own guards can't find her. She pulled a cute stunt and shook them. Don't know who she's with, but they must have wanted to be real private.”
Privacy was one thing, but Nancy had a feeling El Morro was not as easy to elude as the senator's own security people.
Suddenly Nancy let out a cry. Her right hand found the emergency brake and jerked it free as her right foot slammed down again on the gas pedal.
The car leaped forward.
”Where?” Dan yelled. Dan yelled.
”The Hay-Adams Hotel! Dad was there last trip-the first time he'd seen it since it was restored. He said something about how beautiful it was, and convenient-and what a good place to have a conference, because you couldn't be overheard by other tables-”
”Got that?” Dan shouted into the phone. ”Left at the next corner, then right at the next light,” he ordered Nancy.
Nancy followed his instructions. Out of nowhere, another police car appeared and fell in before them, clearing their way. Nancy's hands were frozen on the steering wheel. She took the right turn on two tires.