She smiled and kissed the air in front of his face. “You’re sweet, but aren’t you hungry for food?”
“Grizzlies and crocodiles.”
“What?”
“Lions and tigers.”
Her face grew puzzled, and then she caught his mood. “Something wild, eh? Well, I may be able to arrange it. We need a few groceries, too. I’ll take you for lunch, and we’ll pick up some things while we’re out.”
“Someplace close?”
“Why close?”
“So we’ll get back quicker.”
Her eyes almost glowed with her agreement, but she said, “Nonsense, we need to rest, and we should talk.”
“We can talk here.”
“You know I won’t be able to talk business while touching you. No, there’s a restaurant I want to take you to. It’s not far. We can be there in ten or fifteen minutes.”
“Okay. Come to think of it, there are a few things I should get.”
“What kind of things?”
“Oh, you’ll see.”
Caitlin took her purse off the table and loaded the notebook back in it. John pulled on his shoulder holster and got his coat from the newel post. He removed Caitlin’s coat from the closet and held it for her. She slipped her arms in; her fingers touched his and sent another shiver through them both.
“Man, this is going to change everything. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to these intense feelings every time we touch,” he said.
“Nonsense, you’ll get used to it, but you’re right about it changing everything. There’s a new world coming.”
***
“Holdren here.”
Holdren was tired of the phone calls. For two days, they had contained nothing but electronic surveillance hits on the Maxwell woman or that Blalock character. Every time they deployed a quick response team, it was only to discover that once again their quarry had eluded them. It was beginning to seem like a big game, but one where only the quarry knew the rules.
“Mr. Holdren?”
It was the barn.
“That’s what I said. What do you have for me this time? Did they purchase theater tickets? I know, they bought a pair of cruise tickets on a charge card and will be spending the day touring the bay.”
“It’s nothing like that, sir. I’m not sure it’s even reportable.”
“Get on with it then.”
“You wanted to hear of any transmissions on a particular frequency.”
Holdren was immediately alert. “You have a transmission?”
“Yes sir, but it’s not in the area we were expecting to find it. In fact, we wouldn’t have noticed it at all except that we had ordered VORTEX 13 to search for it and forgot to tell it to stop looking after it left the target zone.”
“Vortex 13? The SIGINT satellite?”
“Yes, sir. That’s the one.”
“Where did the signal originate?”
“Colorado, near Schriever Air Force Base. It could be just a test transmission by the research boys out there. They’re always playing around in C-band.”
“Just how close to Schriever was the signal?” Holdren asked.
“Ten miles, give or take a mile. We can’t be more accurate until VORTEX makes another pass. The signal occurred at the limits of its detection range, but it’ll be back in view in about an hour.”
“Don’t you have any other satellites that can cover the area?”
“Not that can pick up signals as weak as this one. It was a very low power transmission,” the watch officer said.
“Look, Maxwell’s parents have a home in that area. I need to know whether the signal came from there or not.”
“Well, there is something else we could try.”
“What?” Holdren asked.
“The house was unoccupied at last report; in fact, we did a close look at it a few days ago. There was no sign of activity, and the house was only a few degrees warmer than its surroundings.”
“You have a satellite that can get me a thermal image?”
“One moment ... yes sir, GEO 3, is coming into view now.”
“Link it to my computer. I want to see this for myself,” Holdren said.
“Yes, sir.”
Holdren hung up the phone and opened his notebook computer. It woke itself up.
“Link up,” Holdren ordered and placed his left thumb on the ID pad.
The watch officer was on the ball for a change. As soon as the link was made the thermal image of a house nestled in trees appeared on the screen. It was immediately obvious that it was much warmer than its surroundings.
“Close up,” he ordered.
The image enlarged until it filled the screen. The quality of GEO 3’s imager, designed to locate schools of fish at sea, was such that while he couldn’t see sharp shapes, he could make out individual heat sources within the structure.
As he watched, two of the images moved.
“Got you.”
CHAPTER 24
The electric tingle of John’s ring woke him to a room filled with an intense darkness. He lived in the city for so long he’d forgotten how dark the country could be. His hand automatically reached for the gun on the nightstand. Wrapping his fingers around it, he raised it to point at where he suspected the door to be.
The door didn’t open.
The house was silent, although occasionally he’d hear wind whistling around the eaves. He lay still, waiting for his eyes to pick out shadows. Nothing, just a hint of light from the windows and a dim, blue-green glow from his left. In a moment, he recognized it being from the alarm clock on Caitlin’s side of the bed.
He fumbled for the glasses and earpiece he’d left next to his gun. They clattered against the wood and slipped out of reach. Mumbling to himself, he stretched and gripped the frames. He set the earpiece against his right ear and pulled the frames over his eyes.
The image flickered in the right lens immediately. For a second he wasn’t sure what he was looking at, then his eye adjusted to the
