'He's fine. Here he is.' Ventura waved at Morrison, who was listening
to his half of the conversation. He held his thumb over the
transmitter mike.
'Wu. He's ready to deal. And don't get bent with him--he didn't send
his people after you. Those were legitimate feds.'
Morrison's eyes went wide.
'It couldn't be--' 'You screwed up. Doctor. They figured it out,
somehow, and now we have a whole new set of problems.'
He handed Morrison the phone and headset. He had to make a couple of
calls on his own to verify this, but if it turned out to be what he was
now sure it was, he had some serious thinking to do. Very serious
thinking.
Quantico, Virginia
Alex had gone off to see the director, and Toni took the opportunity to
go to the gym. It wasn't as big as the rooms in the main FBI compound,
but she didn't need much space. And early as it was, she was the only
person there.
Nobody had gotten around to cleaning out her locker-there was still a
pair of sweats and a sports bra folded neatly there, along with her
Discipline martial arts shoes, and, by chance, the clothes were still
clean, though a little stale. She shook everything out and dressed,
then padded into the gym. She could have worked out in her street
clothes, she made a point of doing that every so often, but since she
didn't have any clean ones to change into afterward, that would have to
wait for another time. If you couldn't do it in your ordinary wear, it
didn't matter how terrific a move was; if you couldn't use it when you
needed it, it was pointless for self-defense. In a street fight you
wouldn't have time to take off your shoes, get dressed in your gi, nor
ten minutes to stretch and warm up. Sweats and limbering exercises
saved wear and tear on your clothes, muscles, and joints in the long
run, that was why you did them, but they were luxuries, not
necessities-'Toni?'
She looked up and saw Jay.
'Hey, Jay.'
'Boss around?'
'He had to go see the Dragon Lady.'
'Okay, I'll call him.' He was in a hurry. He turned and started to
leave.
'What's up. Jay?'
He paused.
'You knew they found John Howard shot in the woods across the road from
the HAARP compound?'
'Yeah.'
'He was choppered to a hospital in Anchorage, and it looks like he's
gonna be okay.'
'Thank God.'
'Yeah. He was supposed to be on vacation with his family. How'd he
get to Alaska?'
Toni shook her head. Here was another problem for Alex, one he didn't
