Radclyffe - Oath of Honor

mother thought she should put a plant. Evyn was a dark shadow

disappearing down the street. Now she knew. Being alone with Evyn

Daniels was dangerous. She understood just how dangerous now and

wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

v

Lucinda answered her phone on the first ring. “Washburn.”

“I thought you might still be in your office,” Cam said.

“We’re two days from Christmas Eve—busy time around here.”

“I know. You got a minute?”

“Where are you?”

“Outside the door.”

“Come in.” Lucinda replaced the phone and got up. A muscle in

her back reminded her she’d been sitting too long. She rubbed it quickly.

Cam walked in, closed the door. She wore jeans and a black crew neck

sweater—unusually casual for her. Cam looked tired—her eyes were

clear, but dark circles shadowed her cheeks. Her always carved features

looked sharper, knife edged, and Lucinda realized she was seeing Cam

on the hunt.

“Sorry to show up unannounced, but I didn’t think this could

wait,” Cam said.

“You have something?” Lucinda asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

Lucinda’s breath caught on a wave of excitement. They’d all

been casting in the dark for weeks, too many bits and pieces, too many

fragments of facts and non-facts to shape into a coherent pattern.

Directionless in the face of unseen enemies, she was left impotent and,

deep inside, afraid. She couldn’t afford to be afraid. Andrew refused to

be intimidated, to be deterred, and she needed a clear head and clearer

vision to see that he was safe. “Tell me.”

“I’ve requested field reports on anything that might remotely

be connected to a potential attack and run probability algorithms on

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everything I can think of,” Cam said. “Another aerial assault, dirty

bombs, a lone gunman, a group attack.”

The matter-of-fact tone in her voice chilled Lucinda to the core.

“As has Averill, I’m sure.”

“Right. And neither of us hit on anything with greater than random

probability.” Cam paced to the windows overlooking the gardens. Her

face in the cast-off glow of the walkway lights was marble smooth

and stone hard. “So I started looking at everyone who surfaced in

connection to suspicious events. I’ve got a flimsy…” She laughed and

shook her head. “Whatever is flimsier than flimsy, that’s the connection

I’ve got.”

“Any connection is something more solid than what we have

now.” Lucinda joined Cam by the windows, squeezed her arm. “You

are the best there is. I trust your instincts—I trust you with Blair and

Andrew. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

Cam rolled her shoulders, blew out a breath. “One of the

technicians with regular access to a missing biocontagion at a Level

Four lab outside Atlanta is from Idaho. Went to a Christian college

there. So did Lieutenant Jennifer Pattee.”

“So you think they might know each other?” Lucinda struggled to

see a connection.

“On the surface—no. There’s a six-year age difference, which

means they weren’t in college at the same time.”

“Hometowns?”

“According to records, not the same.”

“What do you mean, according to the records? You don’t believe

the records?”

“Here’s the thing that made me look harder at the two of them—

they were both homeschooled before college.”

Lucinda paced around her desk. “Not so unusual in Idaho.”

“No—but another point of intersection and another point of

commonality. So I looked a little bit deeper—parents, siblings, other

possible connectors. And I didn’t find anything.”

“You’re right, that’s not much,” Lucinda said, disappointment

sitting like a hard weight on her chest.

“No, what I mean is, I didn’t find anything . Their families are off

the grid.”

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“No record of their parents or sibs?”

“None. For homeschooled kids to go to college, they have to show

GED or equivalent scores, SAT scores, and a personal affidavit.” Cam

slid her hands into her pockets, rocked on her heels. “That’s the starting

point for colleges, the beginning of a paper trail. But there’s no road

leading back to any place I can find.”

“Are you postulating we’re dealing with a domestic sleeper cell?

Americans raised to carry out some long-range act of terrorism?”

Cam sighed. “I think so—yes.”

“It’s pretty coincidental, but I agree, there might be something

there.” Lucinda shook her head. “What do you advise?”

“We need to put someone on her. We need to know more about

her, and we may not have a lot of time.”

“Put agents on her.”

“That’s my plan.”

“One of Blair’s?”

“I was thinking we could pair one from PPD and one from Blair’s

detail. An insider who won’t be obvious to the lieutenant, and one she

doesn’t know.” Cam grinned, a chilling, predatory grin. “One might be

a distraction and she’ll miss the other.”

“Fine, do that.”

Cam regarded Lucinda steadily. “I wouldn’t ordinarily suggest

this, but I don’t know what kind of timetable we’re working with

here. If there is any potential for a bioterrorist attack using the missing

specimen, it’s likely to be soon. We need as many eyes on this as we

can get.”

“What else?” Lucinda asked.

“Captain Masters seems to think Jennifer Pattee expressed more

than a professional interest in her. Masters might be the best person to

give us early warning.”

“She’s not a trained agent.”

“No, but she’s a navy captain. She’s smart, she’s steady. We use

what we have.”

“Individuals like this—extremists, fanatics—their goal is to make

a point, no matter the cost. If we thwart their operation, they may opt to

make an even bigger statement.”

“I know. And that’s a risk—and if what I suspect about Pattee

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is right, and she realizes we suspect her, she could become volatile,

unstable. That’s a recipe for disaster, but I think we have to take the

chance.”

Lucinda nodded. “It has to be voluntary. The captain has to

agree—I won’t order her to do this.”

“Do you think you’d have to?”

“No, I don’t think we need to order her. Will you see to it?”

Cam nodded sharply. “I’ll do that. Thank you.”

“And, Cam, I know this will be difficult, but don’t bring Blair in

on this right now. We need to keep her at a safe distance.”

Cam’s jaw tightened. “She might not forgive us for that.”

“Let me worry about that.”

“She’s mine to worry about.” Cam walked to the door. “And mine

to protect. Good night.”

“Good night, Cam.” Once the door closed, Lucinda sagged behind

her desk and pressed her fingertips to her eyes. She picked up her phone

and made a call. “I’m sorry, were you sleeping? I need to see you. No,

I’ll come there.”

Lucinda turned out the lights and stepped outside through the

French doors and started for the residence. She thought of all those

who would sacrifice everything to serve and protect, and of how many

times she had asked for that sacrifice. More times than she could count,

and probably many more to come.

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Oath Of hOnOr

chapter twenty-eight

At 0430, Evyn got the text from Cameron Roberts telling her

she needed to be at a briefing at 0600. She’d been asleep an

hour. When she got home from Wes’s, she was still wired, her body

still humming. She’d come out of her mind with Wes barely touching

her, but the orgasm was already a distant memory and her body craved

more. More of Wes. Adrenaline, that’s all it was. When she got amped

up during a tense training exercise or something heated up out in the

field, she always got a sexual buzz. That’s all it was. Adrenaline.

Whatever she called it, the burn in her blood was enough to keep

her up channel surfing, with Ricochet sitting nearby, watching her

warily. He didn’t seem to trust her mood, because he wasn’t in her lap

or draped around her shoulders, where he usually perched while she

chilled out. He was probably smart not to get too close because she

wasn’t chilling out. She was too uncomfortable in her skin to unwind.

She finished the one beer she allowed herself, but it didn’t settle her

enough to sleep. Finally, exhaustion won out and she stretched out

where she was on the couch and fell asleep in her clothes. She dreamed

of running through a tangled forest, breathless, lost, pursued by a

faceless menace coming ever closer. Roberts’s text had awakened her,

saving her from what she feared she might find—the pursuer was her

and she was running from herself.

Now, after a quick shower and two shots of espresso, she was

walking through the West Wing in her least wrinkled pair of black

trousers and her last pressed white shirt. Staffers hurried by, already

looking harried. She settled in the briefing room. There wasn’t any

coffee—must have been a very hastily assembled meeting. A minute

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later the door opened and Paula Stark walked in followed by a young

agent she recognized from Blair Powell’s detail, but didn’t know

personally.

“Hey,” Evyn said, nodding to Paula. Their details often overlapped

when the first daughter was traveling with POTUS. She liked Stark—

she was on top of things without being super territorial.

“Hi, Evyn. This is Randy Block.”

Evyn leaned over the table to shake hands with the new guy. “How

you doing.”

“Fine. Good to meet you.” Block looked like a typical college

jock—fair-haired, blue-eyed, strong jaw, good shoulders. A lot like

Gary, a wholesome, all-American guy. She wondered what was going

on and if Stark knew something she didn’t. But she wasn’t about to

ask. The door opened again and she expected Tom to walk in. She

barely managed to keep quiet when Wes sat down across the table from

her. “Morning,” Wes said, glancing around the table. She was wearing

charcoal pants, a crisp pale blue shirt open at the throat, and a matte

silver bracelet on her right wrist with some kind of intertwining pattern,

subtle, understated. Sexy. Her gaze passed over Evyn’s face in the same

friendly but distant fashion in which she regarded everyone else in the

room.At precisely 0600, Cameron Roberts walked in. “Morning,

everyone. Thanks for getting here on such short notice. I think the only

one needing introductions is Captain Masters, the new chief of the

White House Medical Unit.”

Stark and Block introduced themselves to Wes and they all shook

hands. Evyn wondered why Tom wasn’t there.

“This is need-to-know,” Roberts said as if reading her mind, “and

I won’t be giving you much in the way of details.”

Evyn sat still, keeping her shoulders relaxed, preventing the