'But that solves our problem, doesn't it? Dead men don't generate
radio broadcasts.'
Toni said it before Michaels had a chance to say it:
'You're assuming he didn't tell anybody how he did it before he
died.'
'Well, he probably didn't tell the Chinese. Maybe they were after him
because they figured out he was responsible for what happened to their
villages. They caught up with him, there was a shoot-out, end of
story.'
'Too easy,' Michaels said. He tapped the com.
'Get me on the next flight going to Los Angeles.'
'You're not a field agent, Alex,' Toni said.
'The FBI will take care of this, you can't--' 'But I can,' he said,
cutting her off.
'Portland got zapped with some kind of death ray, the leader of my
strike team is in bed nursing a gunshot wound, and my top computer whiz
just got the crap beat out of him--not to mention I had the guy
responsible for all of this in my hands and I let him walk away. This
has been a FUBAR from the word go.'
'You didn't know--' 'But I know now. You want to tell your new boss
I'm overstepping my bounds, fine, go ahead. I can take some vacation
days myself if I have to.'
'You don't have to,' she said.
'And if you want, I'll go with you.'
He considered his next words carefully. He considered not saying
anything, but decided he needed to: 'This is Net Force's problem, Toni,
and I think Net Force should take care of it.'
She blinked at him.
'And I'm not part of Net Force anymore, is that what you're saying?'
'You said it, not me.'
She nodded.
'I see.'
He didn't like the way it made him feel, didn't like the distress on
her face, but it was going to come out eventually, and better sooner
than later. Maybe they could salvage their personal relationship; he
sure hoped so. But the job had already changed. It wasn't going to be
the same as it had been. If Toni didn't work for him anymore, okay,
fine, he could learn to deal with that. If she was going to report
about what he did to somebody else, he needed to have some control as
to what he let her see and hear. If the director wanted to keep tabs
on him, all right, that was her prerogative. Nothing said he had to
make it easy for her.
Toni had made her choice. Now they'd both have to live with it.
In the air over northern California
Ventura glanced around, uneasy. There was nobody looking at him, and
he hadn't seen anybody following him, but something felt. .off
somehow. He was in full-alert mode, scanning, listening, being aware,
and he hadn't spotted anything about which to be worried, but even so,
something was not quite right.
He glanced at his watch. Maybe it was the flight. He was concerned
