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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

BETWEEN QUITTING THE NAVY and running into Cade, Luke had been a professional bodyguard and security consultant. That meant he was suspicious of anything that didn't quite feel right. The seeming matter-of-factness with which Julia had accepted Cade's disappearance, and the little inclination she had shown to try locating or contacting him since had seemed unusual even before Cade's call warning that Julia might not be what she appeared to be.

What did it mean?

Because she'd been installed into Cade's life around a year ago after a romance that had bloomed too smoothly and easily, a clear possibility was that she had been planted. With Cade commanding a growing social circle of influential Hyadeans and Terrans who did business with them, and then having a former wife connected with CounterAction, it was the kind of thing they should have expected. And then the broadcast had told of his almost being killed after going off with Rebecca, who had been introduced by Julia. It reeked of "setup."

Midway through the day that the flight bringing Vrel and the others from Quito was due to arrive, Julia asked Luke to have the limo ready to collect Wyvex and Dee from the mission and then go on to LAX to meet them. She explained that it would avoid the Hyadeans having to venture out in public at a time when hostility was being shown from some quarters.

Luke would normally not have thought twice about it, but the present circumstances caused him to question everything. Why was Julia showing such concern, when nobody from the household would be among the expected arrivals? It felt odd. Had the Hyadeans asked her to arrange for the party to be collected? Luke called Wyvex to check. No, Wyvex said. Julia had called him to suggest it. Even odder. If it were merely to keep the Hyadeans out of the way, why not use any of the commercial limo or shuttle companies at the airport? Why did it have to be this limo? His suspicions fully aroused, Luke went out to the garage and checked over it from end to end. And concealed in a cardboard carton in the trunk, he found a heavy black suitcase that shouldn't have been there. He took it out and stood it out of view between the wall and the rear of Julia's Cadillac. By now it was almost three in the afternoon. Luke went out the back of the garage, across the rear yard to the dock, and boarded the yacht. Warren Edmonds, the Sassy Lady's skipper, was in the main cabin, taking in a movie with Charles, the boat's cook. "Warren, I need to talk to you," Luke said. They went out onto the foredeck, Luke closing the door behind them.

"What's up?" Warren asked.

"I'll explain it all later—I have to leave for the airport in a few minutes. But there's a black suitcase by the wall in the garage. I think it might be a bomb."

"Jesus, you're joking! Where—"

"I said, later. What I want you to do is pick it up after I'm gone, take it out over the water in one of the dinghies, and drop it down on the end of a line. It's just a precaution." Luke looked around and lowered his voice. "Look, I haven't told anyone this, but Roland is okay."

"What?!"

"He called me a couple of days ago. I'm not sure, but I think he might be arriving this afternoon with the others. If so, then we'll be able to straighten everything out after he gets here. You mustn't mention anything to Julia about this. But in the meantime, just to be safe, I want that thing out of the way."

Warren nodded. "Okay, Luke. If you say so."

* * *

Julia finished packing the black leather pilot bag and set it alongside the garment bag, red suitcase, cosmetic bag, and shoulder purse on the bed. She made a final check through the drawers of the vanity and added a few final items to the blue carryall containing her jewelry boxes, personal papers, and some casual clothes and shoes. Then she moved to the window, which overlooked the rear of the house, and peered past the drapes. Luke was just coming down the steps from the yacht. He crossed the rear yard and disappeared from sight into the door at the back of the garage. Julia went from the bedroom to the far side of the suite, where the window commanded a view of the front. A minute or two later, the limo backed out of the garage, turned in the circle at the top of the driveway, and left. Julia went back to the bedroom, picked up two of the bags, and carried them down through the house. "Henry," she called out as she approached the door into the garage. "Are you anywhere around, Henry?" He appeared as Julia put the bags down behind the Cadillac.

"Yes, ma'am?" His face registered surprise.

"Something has come up suddenly. I have to make a trip. There are some more bags on the bed upstairs. Fetch them for me and load them, would you, while I collect some other things?"

"Er . . ." Henry waved a hand undecidedly and looked perplexed. He seemed far from happy, as if some explanation were called for, yet at the same time conscious of his station.

"It doesn't matter why, Henry," Julia said sharply. "I do not have to justify myself to you. Just kindly do as I ask, please."

"Yes. . . . Yes, of course." Henry turned and went back into the house.

Julia followed, going to the den, where she retrieved the briefcase and book bag that she had previously filled with documents and files from her own drawers. She took them through to the garage along with her laptop, placing them by the bags that she had left previously just as Henry came back with three from upstairs. He was agitated and unsure, depositing the bags with the others and departing, as if to spend as little time around her as possible. As Henry was about to leave, Warren Edmonds came in through the door from the rear yard. He stopped, seemingly confused.

"Ah . . . has anyone seen Luke?" he asked. It sounded like an excuse. Evidently, he hadn't expected to find Julia and Henry here.

"He's just gone," Henry said from the doorway. "Picking up Vrel and the rest at the airport, remember?"

"Oh . . . right." Warren gazed around the garage as if reluctant to leave.

"He'll be back in a few hours. Was there something else?" Julia said impatiently.

"Er, no. . . . No, I guess not. Okay." Warren turned and went back the way he had come. Henry exited into the house. Julia went through to the front hall to sort coats and jackets from the closet. By the time she returned to the garage, Henry was back and had just lifted the last of the bags into the trunk. Julia opened the driver's door, threw the coats onto the back seat, prepared to get in, then saw that Henry was watching her strangely. Something needed to be said. It didn't matter what. Five minutes more and she would be out of this place permanently. "I told you, something unexpected has come up," Julia told him. "I"ll be back in a day or two." Henry nodded but didn't look as if he believed her. She climbed in, started the motor, and backed the car out.

As she came onto the freeway, Julia called her ISS control unit and left a message that said, "Arcadia checking in. Rooster is on schedule. Gamecock. Surfing." The code words meant that Luke had left on time, the device was planted, and she was on her way out.

A couple of miles farther south, she pulled into a service area to fill up with gas. She decided it would be a good time to eat too, rather than stop again later. On her way into the coffee shop by the gas station, she threw her regular domestic phone into the trash bin by the door. That part of her life was over now.

* * *

Warren found Henry in the kitchen, doing something with the program of the autochef. Henry was looking worried, but Warren was too flustered to notice. "Henry, drop that and come this way. I've got a problem." Warren led the way back through to the garage, then waved a hand around. "There's supposed to be a black suitcase here somewhere. I've looked all over. You were in here a few minutes ago. Have you seen it?"

"I loaded all the bags into the Cadillac," Henry said. "Julia's orders."

Warren looked around, as if noticing for the first time that it was gone. "Where'd she go?"

"I don't know. She didn't say. But she was acting strange. Packed. Gone. I don't know what it's all about."

Impossible thoughts raced through Warren's mind. "All the bags?" he repeated.

"That's what she said. The mood she was in, I wasn't asking questions. Why? Is something wrong?"

Warren thought frantically, then went out into the yard and called Luke's number from his pocket phone. "Hello?" Luke's voice answered.

"Luke, it's Warren. We may have trouble. There isn't any black suitcase in the garage. Henry says he put it in the Cadillac with a bunch of other stuff of Julia's that he just loaded. She's gone."

"Gone? Where to?"

"We don't know. She's blown. Taken off. She was set to go right after you left. Henry says she was acting strange." Warren paused, but there was no immediate response. "What does it mean?" he asked finally. The silence persisted for a long time, as if Luke were wrestling with all manner of imponderables. "Luke?" Warren prompted.

"Don't worry about it," Luke's voice said at last. "Just leave everything to me."

 

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