Elevator to the Unknown
958 คำ
23
Elevator to the Unknown
Inside The 40/40 Club, Jana watched the bartender like a hawk. She was mostly concerned with keeping tabs on Jeffrey to ensure he did not slip a powdered Rohypnol into her wine glass, but it occurred to her that she should be wary of the bartender as well. After all, if he was working for Jeffrey, Jana could end up drugged and sexually assaulted before she even knew what had happened. No, her goal was vigilance—she would not be a victim. In fact, she had every intention of finding evidence that would lead the FBI to whatever the Dima terrorists had planned. She placed a tiny strip of the test paper between her fingers, and dipped it into the wine just as Jeffrey nodded to the bartender. The paper came back blank.
For some reason, Jana felt more alive than she could ever remember. Her life up to this moment had been one of such predictability. But now, in the most dangerous situation she had ever imagined, her pulse raced. It was an exhilaration she had not counted on.
Adrenaline pulsed as her goal came front and center in her mind. The data, I must get the data. I am the only one who can stop them. She smiled at Jeffrey, allowing herself to go deeper into the undercover role. To Jana, the acting was also exciting. She’d never role-played before, and now that it was happening with the stakes so high, she wondered why she’d never thought of a career in law enforcement before.
Jeffrey grinned and his pearly white teeth gleamed back at Jana.
He’s not a bad-looking guy, Jana thought. A slimeball, certainly, but in different circumstances, she wondered if she’d have been attracted to him. Jana allowed her eyes to wander to Jeffrey’s chest as he shed his business jacket and loosened his two-hundred-dollar Armani tie. Her gaze did not go unnoticed.
“There’s something different about you,” Jeffrey said. “I don’t know what it is.”
“Is that your best line?” Jana giggled as she tapped the top of his thigh. “Does that work on the other ladies?”
“You’re a tough one, aren’t you?”
“I’m just messing with you,” she said. “Something different about me? Are you sure it’s just that you haven’t ever slept with me, so that’s what’s different?”
“Ouch,” Jeffrey laughed. “I’m not that bad.”
“That’s not what I hear. I hear you’re a bad boy.” Her coyness was disarming.
“You think I’m a bad boy, do you? But you’re still here.”
“Maybe I like bad boys.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of girl that likes bad boys.”
I do not like bad boys, Jana thought. Keep stringing him along.
Jana took a sip of wine. “And yet here I am.”
“Yes, here you are.” Jeffrey ran his eyes across her figure again. “And I’m glad you are, Miss Baker. You’re a beautiful woman.”
“Would you call me Jana, already?” She took another sip of wine but noticed the slight shaking of her hand and the sight startled her.
***
“Tell me again why she wanted to go for a drink with him before going to his apartment,” Agent Fry said to Stone as the two took up position in a cafe across the street.
“She didn’t want to give him a chance to get back to his penthouse first. She wanted to keep an eye on him so he didn’t have time to set anything up, like adding a dose of Rohypnol into a glass without her knowing.”
“And she’s got the paper test strips? The ones that detect the drug?”
“Yeah, I gave them to her this morning. Every young woman in America should have those things. She knows to not put anything in her mouth without secretly touching a test strip to it first.”
“And you’re sure she can pull off her plan once she’s inside?”
“Hell no I’m not sure,” Stone barked. “I’m scared. She’s the one who’s so damn sure.”
“You’re grumpy,” Fry said. “You didn’t sleep last night, did you?”
“How was I supposed to sleep with this about to go down? It didn’t help that Uncle Bill at NSA calls me at all hours of the night.”
***
About an hour later, Jeffrey stood from the plush leather-covered barstool. “You getting hungry? I’m a hell of a cook.”
Yeah, I bet you are, Jana thought. “Starved,” she said. “Is this how you get all the women? You’re a gourmet cook?”
“You know what they say.”
“The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.” She glanced Jeffrey up and down then said, “But I doubt it’s my heart you’re after.”
“You’re bad,” Jeffrey said as he put his arm around her and walked toward the lobby.
***
A whispered call came across the radio. “Six, six, this is mobile two. Subjects just came into the lobby. Heading onto the elevator now.”
“Here we go,” Stone said as he passed a hand across his balding forehead. “Roger that, mobile two,” he said into the radio. He turned to Agent Fry. “Heading up the elevator. Dammit, this is going to kill me, this blindness.” He raised the radio again. “Mobile one? From your vantage point across the street, you have the best view. You are our eyes now. I want you to call out anything you can see in that penthouse.”
“Roger that, six,” came the chirped reply.
Agent Fry put a hand on Stone’s shoulder to calm him. “All units, all units,” he said into the radio. “Be on full alert. We could call at any moment to raid the penthouse.”
The leaders from each SWAT team replied in turn.
“Relax, Stone. We’ve got her covered. She’s going to be okay.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself,” Stone said, but then shook his head. “I’ve got to be closer to this thing. I’m going across the street. I’ll talk my way past the doorman and get upstairs, somewhere.”
- ผู้เขียน
