Cloud Rebel: R-D 3 (17 page)

"Well, you're not in charge, here," he hissed. "So back off. I'll let you know if we need to up our game."

"Right," I said, just as his cell phone rang.

* * *

Notes-Colonel Hunter

I was asleep when the call came. Laci lay beside me, her breathing soft and even. The vibration of my cell phone didn't disturb her sleep as it did mine.

Rolling off the bed, I stalked into the bathroom and shut the door before answering. Only an emergency would interrupt my sleep like this.

"What is it?" I barked without looking to see which White House staffer generated the call.

"Madam President is dead," the voice informed me. "Of an apparent heart attack."

Chapter 10

Corinne

I wasn't aware of anything until I woke. I understood then why Larentii always had others stand guard during and after energy sex, whenever they were away from their homeworld. It took the term mind-blowing and lifted it to the fiftieth power, at the very least.

If Ilya had been human, it would have torn him apart, the force was so great. Most Larentii arranged to have humanoids shielded if they were included in the backwash of pleasure.

Ilya got the full force of it and managed to survive.

I imagine his shield kicked in at an appropriate moment.

"Dearest, wake, there is news," Val whispered against my ear.

I only wanted to sleep longer, or be transported into sunlight and sleep longer.

"Whuh?" I asked.

"The President is dead," he informed me. "I fear it is not from natural causes, as others are currently reporting."

"Fuck." I was awake and standing beside the bed in a blink while Ilya disentangled himself from the sheets.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Madam President is dead. I need sunlight, coffee and a trip to the White House, because I intend to get to the bottom of this."

* * *

We ended up in Auggie's office with James while we waited for Auggie and Matt to arrive after their meeting at the White House. The Vice President had already been sworn in; I was grateful for that bit of news, at least.

As the former Secretary of State, I knew he was a decent, fair-minded human being-as long as the enemy wasn't planning to pay him a visit. He suffered from an undiagnosed case of PTSD, and wasn't getting treatment for it. I worried that something small could set him off and then we'd all be in trouble.

As for Madam President's death, it smelled of betrayal and assassination to me, and I wanted to see everybody who'd had contact with her in the past two days.

I'd read in their faces what they weren't willing to tell anyone-whether they were involved in this debacle.

"Cabbage, you look as if you're a pressure cooker turned too high," Ilya cautioned as he patted my hand.

"I know," I mumbled. "I can't help it. I'm so mad I could blow something apart."

"Dearest," Val warned.

"Yeah."

"Thank God you're here." Auggie looked gray as he stalked into his office, James and Matt right behind him. "Look, I need your talents, Cori, and I need them fast. I also need to keep you disguised, if possible. We don't want to alert any enemies to your presence, unless I miss my guess."

"I can handle that," I began.

"No, I need you to look like a regular staffer," he said. "James, show her the photograph."

James handed a tablet to me, where a young woman in a photograph smiled at me-it was the picture used for her White House Staff identification.

"Your name will be Laura Quimby, assistant to the current Chief of Staff," Auggie said. "You'll say you were called back from vacation by your boss, who's already been informed and sworn to secrecy," he added.

"But what about," I pointed at Val and Ilya.

"Oh, they'll come too-as bodyguards for Matt and me. James has more photographs for them. You'll have a better excuse for getting in and out of sensitive areas."

"I see. I really want to take a look at anybody who had dealings with Madam President in the past two days," I said.

"We'll do our best to accommodate that request," Matt said. "Most are scheduled for questioning by the Secret Service, at President Granville's request. You'll help herd them to and from their appointments. It's disguised as a debriefing, sort of, to record and compile Madam President's final hours in office."

"Do you know how sad and fucked up that sounds?" I rounded on Matt.

"Yeah. I do. Not my fault," he held up his hands.

"All right," I offered a curt nod in apology.

"Come on-get your disguises together. Cori, will you help with Rafe's?"

"I will see to it," Val offered.

"Good. Cori, James will drop you off at the employee entrance. Make sure your badge has the proper barcode and chip. The Chief of Staff will be waiting for you in his office. I assume you recall where that is?" Auggie asked.

"I do."

"Perfect. Let's get on this, people. I want to know what happened, who's behind it and what we should be doing about it. Now."

* * *

"How's Nathan?" James asked as we drove through crowded D.C. streets.

"He's fine. Finch is being an asshole as usual, but he should be minding his manners unless he wants Val to put him in a corner again."

"What?" James jerked his eyes off the road for half a second before turning back to his driving.

"Just what I said. I'm sure he's still pissed about it, too, but if he knows what's good for him," I shrugged.

"I don't believe this," James muttered before a chuckle escaped. "I hope Nathan got pictures."

"Val can probably pull up an image for you, if he didn't," I said.

"What do you think happened? To the President?" James turned to a more serious topic.

"I don't know, but I doubt poor health played into it. Last time I saw her in the Oval Office, she was in very good health. If I don't find anything at the White House today, I may ask Auggie to let me see her body."

"This whole thing is so frustrating," James said. "I voted for her, you know. Sure, she did some things I disagreed with, but that happens no matter who it is."

"All that time Zoran was trying to kill her and take over, and this happens now," I said.

"At least he's dead," James gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"Yeah, but we have no idea whether he has clones running around or not. We've had a Zoran sighting in Dublin-don't forget that. Plus, the American people still think Phillips is alive. Madam President never announced his death to the public."

"You had to scare me worse than I was already," he grumped.

"We'll get through this," I patted his shoulder. "At least I hope we will."

"Right."

"You think this outfit is all right?" I asked.

"You look perky," he grinned.

"Great. Perky. Not one of my usual attributes."

"No, it fits her character. She's the youngest of three girls. I looked through a lot of photographs of her, and that's exactly how she is."

"I hate doing bubbly," I sighed. "I'm the sarcastic, older sister type."

"I disagree," he said. "And, I haven't had my reading fix in a long time," he complained.

"Honey, I don't know when or if I'll ever get back to writing again."

"Dang."

"Did you say dang? I haven't heard that in a possum's age."

"Stop with the hillbilly," he grinned.

"You started it."

"Okay, you're right. Here we are," he drove up to the employee entrance. "Have your badge ready-that's Secret Service there at the door, waiting to check everybody."

"Will do, boss," I quipped.

"I get you all to myself for a talk, and it had to be on the day the President died," he said as I opened the door.

"Honey, we'll get to the bottom of this," I promised.

"I sure hope so. I'll be here to pick you up later; just let me know when."

I nodded, straightened my perky outfit, shut the car door and walked toward the frowning Secret Service agent at the employee entrance.

* * *

That morning, I saw twenty faces in detail before lunchtime. None of them had anything to do with Madam President's death.

"Laura, we have a lunch appointment with the President," the Chief of Staff, Kyle Lakin, informed me when the line of interviewees dissipated.

I found myself scrambling to get used to the name and title assigned to me.

"Yes, sir," I nodded and rose to follow him to the Oval Office.

"Anything?" the former Vice President asked when Kyle and I stood before his desk.

"No sir. Nothing yet," I reported.

"Damn." He cursed and stood to pace behind the President's desk. "I trust you'd let someone know if I or anyone you come across has been compromised?" He turned back to ask.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Make sure it stays that way."

"Sir, I'd like to meet everyone assigned to guard you, and everyone you're scheduled to have contact with in the days to come," I said.

"You're that good?" The Chief of Staff asked.

"She's that good," President Jonathan Granville stated. "She's the reason the PM of Great Britain and I survived the attempt on our lives in London."

"Thank you, sir. One more thing, if I may," I said.

"Of course," he inclined his head and sat down again.

"I'd like to review your choices for Vice President. Just as a precaution," I said.

"I think I'll allow that," he agreed.

* * *

"How was your day?" James asked when he picked me up at eight that evening.

"Long. I need sunlight," I said. Auggie, Rafe, Matt and Val were in meetings with the President all afternoon, but I didn't see them. I only heard from Val in mindspeech. He probably needed sunlight, too.

"I'm taking you to the ugly building in Arlington," James said. "Colonel Hunter says President Granville wants you at the White House every day until further notice. The real Laura Quimby's vacation has been extended in Scotland."

"She's on board with all this?"

"I believe Matt told her it's a matter of National Security. She's been to the American Embassy there, where a new passport with an alias has been provided for her, and all her vacation expenses have been comped. All she has to do is keep quiet that she's really someone else."

"Poor girl," I sighed. "Can't even use her real name because a Larentii borrowed it. And, on top of everything else, Mr. Snaky Pants Norian Keef will be here in two days."

"Snaky Pants?"

"He keeps his alter ego hidden, but he's a lion snake shapeshifter. He's sort of an asshole, too, but don't tell him I said that. I'll tell him myself."

"You think I'll end up meeting this guy?" James sounded worried as he turned a corner.

"Nothing would surprise me at this point. What we have to do is get to him before he can cause trouble and show him exactly what his shiny agents did while they were here. All of which resulted in their deaths."

"Do Larentii do this sort of thing all the time?"

"No, honey. Larentii have a four-word standard they all live by.
Stay. Out. Of. It
. They don't interfere as a rule unless they are threatened in some way, or their mate is threatened. Somehow, I've been given special permission to be here, and Val was allowed to come with me."

"Wow. What's the Larentii homeworld like, then?"

"Imagine an Earth with no industry, no shopping, no streets or roads-just wild, with tree-covered mountains and wide, open meadows where falaca graze. The houses they build, well, think of the marble buildings in Rome, with most of the roof open to the sky. They don't need kitchens or bathrooms, so anything in their home is purely for other comforts."

"Television?"

"None. Their version of television is folding space to another world and watching real people. Most of the time, those people don't even know they're there. I wish you could read some of their histories in the Archives-they're written from a neutral standpoint, because there's nothing for the Larentii to gain by slanting the story in one direction or another."

"That's incredible," James breathed. "Wow." He shook his head at the thought of it.

"Val's father is Chief Archivist there. It's scary what he knows and has seen. Val is one of his four sons, all of whom are Assistant Archivists."

"Where do you think you'll go for sunlight?" James asked as we pulled up to a stoplight.

"I don't know. Val likes Hawaii."

"Can I go?" he asked wistfully.

"You know, Nathan probably needs a break, too," I said. "Why don't we take both of you?"

* * *

"We just decided-we want our wedding here," James floated by in the pool fed by Val's favorite waterfall. He and Nathan were both naked and swimming-or in James' case, floating, while Val and I soaked up sunlight. At Val's insistence, we were both naked and our full, blue selves.

"Hawaii is beautiful," Val agreed. "Of course you should marry where you feel happy and at peace."

"That's as good an excuse as anything we could come up with," Nathan stopped swimming for a moment to tread water and talk.

"I'll make sure it's paid for," I said.

"I still have money in that account you opened for me," James said. "We decided to use that for the wedding."

"Then we're good." I leaned against Val's chest and closed my eyes with a sigh.

"Holy shit," James breathed.

I opened my eyes to see what had happened.