The three men laughed.
“Who are you then?”
The man next to Ryan exchanged amused glances with the other two men. “Just good friends and supporters of the president.”
The elevator doors slid open and he ushered Ryan across the empty hall to the door of one of two suites on the floor. The door was open a crack, and he pushed it wider, waving Ryan and Tess in ahead of him.
“How nice of you to join us, Dr. Donovan,” a familiar voice greeted him.
Across the room, Ryan saw Flynn sitting in a comfortable leather chair. He didn’t look terribly pleased to see him, but he didn’t appear surprised, either.
Ryan stiffened when he noticed who stood directly behind the general. Ian McCaffrey. The big man nodded in Ryan’s direction, the cold blue of his eyes slightly mocking.
Both men were dressed in formal dinner wear, McCaffrey in a tux and Flynn in a dress uniform. The two agents with Tess guided her to a chair off to the side. Ryan watched as she sat down and folded her hands in her lap. She stared calmly straight ahead, her eyes unfocused, dreamy.
Flynn motioned to a chair directly in front of him. “Please join us, Doctor. We’ve been expecting you. We have a bit of unfinished business to wrap up.” He glanced in the direction of the men who had accompanied them to the suite. “You have the invitation?”
The man nodded and stepped forward to hand the general the pristine white envelope. Flynn took it and then waved the man off. “Wait outside until I need you.”
The men let themselves out. They didn’t appear in the least put off by the general’s seemingly abrupt dismissal.
Flynn nodded again in the direction of the chair. “Sit down. We have things to discuss.”
“Thanks, but I prefer to stand.”
Flynn shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He passed the envelope over his shoulder to McCaffrey. “I think it’s time you and Tess joined the celebration.”
McCaffrey accepted the envelope and nodded in Ryan’s direction. “Thanks for making sure my date arrived on time.”
He strolled across the room to Tess and bent down, offering his arm to her. She barely glanced at him, but obediently accepted his offer, wrapping her arm around his and standing up.
“Tess,” Ryan said urgently. “Tess, look at me.”
She turned slowly as if in a dream and stared across the room at him. It was as if she was frozen.
“Tess, please, baby, don’t go with him. Fight it.”
She stared at him blankly.
“Listen to me, Tess. Don’t go. Don’t listen to anything they’re saying.”
Nothing touched her face. No reaction. No flicker of recognition.
Ryan turned to Flynn. “What’s wrong with her?”
Flynn raised an eyebrow. “You’re a doctor, why don’t you tell me?”
“If you’ve harmed her in some way, I’ll-”
“You’ll what, Doctor? I don’t think you’re in a position to do anything. Besides, does she look harmed?” Flynn waved a hand at Tess. “Personally, I think she looks like her stunning self. A little stiff, perhaps, but maybe that’s her nervousness. Her anticipation of what’s to come.”
“What’s to come? What did you do to her?”
Flynn steepled his hands, his expression amused. “I simply prepared her for her destiny.” He nodded at McCaffrey. “Go ahead. I’ll keep Donovan company. Give my regards to Starling.”
Ryan took a step in Tess’s direction, but Flynn stopped him. “Don’t be foolish, Doctor. You’ll be dead before you get halfway to her.”
Ryan glanced back, not in the least surprised to see a gun trained on him. The muzzle of the gun waved slightly as Flynn motioned him toward the chair. “Now sit down and behave.”
McCaffrey gave him a jaunty salute and then slipped out the door, Tess following compliantly.
“What destiny are you sending her to?” Ryan asked, not sure he really wanted to know, a terrible feeling of trepidation creeping through his system.
“As the daughter of Senator William Ross, the Don Quixote of leftist causes, it is only fitting that she be the one to take care of her father’s crown prince, Jacob Starling. That she be the one to teach him the ultimate lesson in what happens to traitorous turncoats.”
Dread crawled up Ryan’s spine and he dropped into the chair across from Flynn. “You can’t be serious?”
“Oh, but I am, Doctor,” Flynn assured him. “Tonight, our darling Tess will calmly and purposefully assassinate the vice president of the United States as he announces his intention to resign from the Republican Party and run for president.”
“Are you really so crazy that you’d believe that you can get away with assassinating the vice president of the United States?”
“Oh, not in the least crazy, Doctor, I assure you. In fact, I have every intention of succeeding.” Flynn picked up the cigar burning in the ashtray next to him and took a long, leisurely puff. “This operation has been meticulously planned, down to every last detail. Even the timing of Tess’s arrival was carefully monitored.”
He grinned smugly as he continued to boast. “The two of you gave us a few moments of concern, but in the end, everything fell into place.” He tapped the cigar on the edge of the ashtray, and the white ash dropped into the bottom. “It would seem that our diligence has paid off. Your good friend Dr. Bloom’s programming has been successful. Tess will carry out her assignment.”
“And if she fails?”
Flynn raised an eyebrow. “Did she look as though she might fail? Did she even glance at you with any degree of recognition or understanding of what you were trying to tell her?”
Ryan didn’t answer. How could he, when deep in his heart he suspected that Flynn was right. Tess hadn’t known who he was. She’d been totally taken over by whatever brainwashing techniques had been used on her. All the time that he had tried to help her, the seeds had already been sown, the deadly intentions simply waiting to be activated. Neither of them had suspected the truth behind her capture at the center.
“If for some reason she fails, then McCaffrey will take over and do the deed. Tess will still be implicated, and McCaffrey will see that she is wiped out in the chaos that ensues. Starling will be dead before the evening is out.”
“And what happens then? You step forward to take his place as Rone’s running mate.”
Flynn pulled the cigar out of his mouth and threw back his head, laughing with genuine appreciation. “How flattering that you think I’d even qualify for the position, Doctor.”
“Hardly. I just can’t understand any other reason for your involvement.”
“We’ve had a much more suitable candidate ready to take over, and it’s been a given that Starling would be off the ticket come fall. But it was critical to have him completely out of the voting public’s mind before they stepped into the voting booths next November. The man has gotten entirely too popular for his own good.”
“You’re not afraid he’d simply become a martyr for the cause?”
“I think we’ve taken care of that possibility with some very carefully targeted mudslinging. It’ll be released shortly after Starling’s death. By the time the nation is done recovering from the fact that Vice President Starling was assassinated by the daughter of the nation’s most beloved senator, we’ll have planted enough evidence to suggest that Starling was involved in some highly questionable money schemes-in addition to a sordid affair with Tess Ross.”
“What makes you think anyone will buy your smear campaign?”
“Oh, they’ll buy it all right. No matter what the public says, they love a good scandal. The information released will be supported with ironclad evidence. In the end, it will be a miracle if the public even allows Starling to stay buried in Arlington.” He crushed the end of the cigar in the center of the ashtray and stood up. “And now, you’ll have to excuse me. I have a party to attend.”
Ryan watched him cross the room, his brain racing, wildly trying to figure a way out of the mess he’d stepped into.
Flynn unlocked the door and stepped aside, waving one of the two men waiting outside into the room. Ryan slipped his hand into his pocket and touched his handkerchief, running his finger along the barrel of the plastic
