'Would you happen to have the number where she's staying?'
'Uh-right here, yes,' Stark, who had just finished talking to Renee moments before, responded. 'Would you like me to call, or...'
'Best let me do that. But thanks.'
Stark gave her the number and Cam jotted it down. 'Fine. Would you get one of the vehicles and wait for us downstairs, please.'
Us, Stark thought.Huh.
'Roger, Commander.'
After Cam hung up from, Blair asked, 'Are you sure we should involve them?'
'No, not really. Cam swiveled around on the stool until her back was to the counter and regarded Blair, who stood a few feet in front of her. Tiredly, Cam rubbed her eyes. The headache was back. «But unfortunately, we need to do some digging and some legwork, and I don't see that we have much choice. Hopefully, if things go bad, I can keep them out of it.'
'Go bad?' Blair worked to keep her voice casual.
'If I'm wrong, and I reallyam the primary target of whoever is digging around in D.C., then something may break-or leak-pretty soon. If I go down in a big way, I don't want anyone else going with me.'
'That's not going to happen,' Blair said emphatically, eyes blazing.
'We have to be prepared for that event. And if it happens, you're going to need to get distance, too.'
'No.'
Softly, Cam said, 'It will have to be done. I would want it that way even if youweren't the first daughter. If this turns out to be some junior reporter's bid for fame, and it becomes an exposition piece on degeneracy in the nation's capitol or security breaches within the Secret Service or God knows what else-the story will be huge. If that happens, the spin will all be bad, and your name and your father's name can't be linked to it.' Before Blair could object, Cam added, 'You know I'm right.'
'Define what you mean bydistance , Cameron,' Blair said steadily, the edge in her voice so sharp it would have cut glass. 'A week, a month-six goddamned years?'
'Please, Blair,' Cam said wearily. 'Do you honestly think I'd want that? You can't think it would be easy for me, can you?'
There was no fire in her voice, only a deep sadness. It was one of the few times Blair had ever seen Cam show even the slightest hint of defeat. It was so unusual, it shocked her free of her anger. Suddenly, she saw with brutal clarity that Cam was facing the potential destruction of her career as well as the threat to their relationship. Immediately, she went to her and slipped her arms around Cams shoulders, pressing Cam's cheek against her breasts. To her surprise, Cam's arms came around her waist and tightened. Blair could feel her trembling.
Tenderly, she kissed the top of Cams head. 'It's going to be okay. We'll figure out what this is all about and we'll find out who's behind it and we'll put an end to it. Whatever happens, there's no way you're getting rid of me.'
'I'd die for you without even thinking about it,' Cam murmured hoarsely. 'But I can't imagine living without you. Not now.'
Listening to Cam's words, Blair pulled her lover closer still, a strange peace suffusing her.
'You don't have to worry, because you won't have to.'
*****
Forty-five minutes later, Stark, Cam, and Blair stood outside the rear entrance of a nondescript six-story stone building in midtown Manhattan. Precisely at the designated time, Savard keyed the security lock and opened the door.
'Commander', she said when she saw Cam, her eyes moving over Starks face with a faint smile, then stopping in surprise when they met Blairs. 'Good evening, Ms. Powell.'
'Hi', Blair replied. 'How are you feeling, Renee?'
'Okay. Ill be better when I can get out of this damn thing', Savard said, indicating the sling tethering her left arm to her chest. 'Come inside. The security cameras are timed back here. Weve got a few minutes.'
Savard led them through a warren of beige hallways that were indistinguishable from one another. All the office doors were closed and the harsh fluorescent lights spaced at intervals overhead cast everything in the same impersonal institutional glare. Opening the door to a stairwell, she said, 'The labs on the third floor. There's a video camera in the main elevators, and I thought we might as well walk.'
'Good idea,' Cam replied. It was doubtful that anyone would actually go through the routine surveillance tapes in the absence of any reason to do so, but the less time their little group was recorded, the better.
The three of them climbed single file and then walked silently through yet another corridor to the last door on the right. Savard pushed it open and they stepped into a large open space divided into work stations by laboratory benches and tables containing high tech analytical equipment.
Since most of the technicians who worked in the lab were regular eight-to-fivers, the vast area was empty save for a lone white-coated figure hunched over a lab bench at the far end of the room. As the group approached him, Savard called out, 'Hey, Sammy.'
A pale, bespectacled young man with a thatch of red hair badly in need of a cut and a mildly befuddled expression on his face, glanced in their direction. Then, as if suddenly remembering an appointment, he smiled broadly. 'Hey, Renee. You got something for me?'
'Yep. Savard pointed to the manila envelope in Cam's hand. «I need you to take a look at whatever's inside. I don't need to tell you the routine. Anything you can give us will be helpful.'
His hands were covered in thin latex gloves, which he stripped off and replaced with a new pair from a cardboard box by his right elbow. Despite the fact that he must have realized that dozens of people had already handled the envelope, he took it from Cam with stainless steel tongs and laid it on a nearby glass surface. With a magnifying glass, he bent down to examine the surface, pausing for a few seconds over the hand-printed address.
Mumbling to himself, he remarked, 'Standard magic marker, no postmark, nothing distinctive about the packaging.'
He straightened and picked up the envelope. 'Give me a few minutes and I'll see what I can turn up. Ill scan it for hand-writing analysis if you need that done later.'
'Okay, great. We'll be in the conference room,' Savard said, indicating a door in the far corner of the room.
'Uh-huh,' he said distractedly, his mind clearly somewhere else already.
The four of them settled into chairs around the small table in the unadorned windowless room in the rear of the forensic analysis lab. The silence as they regarded one another speculatively was broken when Blair said, 'How do you know he's not going to make a record of all of this?'
Her tone held no censure, merely curiosity.
'I've known him since we were cadets,' Savard replied. 'He's a genius with anything that's quantifiable, but he's a lousy marksman and not particularly agile in the physical department either. Somehow, we ended up being workout partners and I spent a lot of extra time helping him prepare for the things that didn't come easily. Were friends, and hes loyal.
'What about the content? It could besensitive', Cam pointed out.
'He doesn't care what's in there; he only cares what'son it. Fingerprints, fiber, bodily fluids. Thats what makes an impression on him. If it's a photograph like the first one you gave me yesterday, he won't even notice the subject matter.'
'Did he find anything on that one?' Cam inquired, this being the first opportunity she'd had to ask.
Savard should her head. 'No, that's why I didn't bother calling you when I found out the results. You'd already left for DC at that point, and I figured it could wait. It was a copy, probably scanned, of the original-computer generated. It wasn't made from the negative.'
'Which means,' Cam mused, 'that it may have been made by someone who didn't have physical access to the original file.'
'Or by someone who was pressed for time,' Stark noted. 'If you're looking through material that you don't have clearance for, you dont bother doing anything except making quick copies.'
'Could be.'
