Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(27)
"Better," he took the binoculars and held them to his eyes. "I can see the top crust breaking apart to allow the molten lava through. Thank you for bringing me here, cabbage. I like this."
"Ilya, someday I want a house in a place like this. Where you can see trees, water and maybe a volcano, without another house being ten feet away." I said.
"I want that, too. If we weren't tied to the Program at the moment, I would see that you had exactly what you want."
"I appreciate your willingness to get it for me," I said. I could see the sun shining on the water in the distance, past steep cliffs that called the lava flow toward them. Volcanic rocks stood in the water just past the cliffs, looking sharp and forbidding in sunlight.
"Have you been to Hawaii before?" Ilya lowered the binoculars and turned to give me a smile.
"Years ago. For an anniversary."
"Ah. Do you miss him?"
"At times. He was sick when we went to the Louvre-it was the last thing on his bucket list before going home to let the disease run its course. They tortured him before they killed him-in front of me."
"You have your vendetta, just as I had mine. Baikov is dead. A Baikov clone is also dead. I hope there are no others to kill," Ilya sighed before pulling me against him. "I am sorry, cabbage, that parts of our lives have been so similar."
"I know." We both had loved ones to avenge.
"So." I watched as Ilya's mind worked behind beautiful, dark eyes. "The former President-the one we hunt, knows who you are because you were made before he left the White House," he said.
"And, as he was already plotting and planning while the real Hal Prentice posed as him in the White House, he's responsible for all those deaths at the Louvre."
I wondered how long it would take him and Auggie to come to the proper conclusion. "I just never saw the President before he left office-it was during the last few weeks of his term and he went off the radar afterward. I'm sure Merle and the Joint Chiefs kept him informed as to what a disappointment I was to everybody."
"But now he knows how formidable you are."
"I'm sure he's plotting ways to take us, still," I said. "Why do you think I haven't explained to anybody all the things I can do?"
"This is worse than I imagined," Ilya rubbed his forehead before gazing into the distance. "We have to stay alive, my love. This man must be destroyed."
"Yeah. I feel the same way. I just can't find the f*cker to get rid of him."
"He wants to destroy you, because you'll know him, no matter what he looks like," Ilya concluded.
"And he knows you'll stand beside me until the bitter end."
"At least he recognizes the truth of that," Ilya pulled me tighter against him.
"Yeah."
*
Notes-Colonel Hunter
"She'll be back," Matt Michaels assured me.
"How do you know? You don't know her like I do," I snapped.
"Then you tell me-will she be back?"
"Yeah. She still has ten minutes." I'd checked my watch again, just to make sure.
"If the enemy is Phillips, and I'm pretty convinced it is, he wants her out of the way," Matt said casually. We sat in my office, with the door shut and James guarding the door. "After all, if he intends to make a bid for the White House again, or any position of power, really, Corinne will know it's him. Whatever he decides to do, she'll know it's him."
"And she can announce what he is to the world," I grumbled. "For all the good it will do."
"With Askins and the Joint Chiefs working against her," Matt shrugged his agreement. "Ricin in the bottled water was an opening volley, I think."
"That means we have to have a private agenda," I said. "I'm hesitant to let the President know all our movements. Anybody could be listening."
"True. This is the biggest mess," Matt agreed.
"Hi, Auggie." Corinne and Rafe appeared in my office, looking fresh off a holiday. "Where were you?" I demanded.
"Hawaii, watching the lava flow from Kilauea," Rafe answered.
"You know, Auggie, I'll do your windows when I get back," Corinne smiled.
"Where do you intend to send DB?" I asked.
"I hear Alaska is a good place to go, and it's really close to Russia. You can practically see Russia from your back door, you know."
"Cori."
"Yeah."
She disappeared, leaving me to stare at Rafe, who barely looked perplexed.
*
Corinne
Although streets were blocked off from the wharf in Seattle, tourists were still coming-most of them snapping photographs of the damage to streets and businesses beyond the blockade with their phone cameras. It was easy to get lost in that crowd, especially since I no longer looked like myself. I could have been anyone at that moment-just a tourist carrying a cell phone, dressed in jeans and a fleece jacket.
I stopped at the spot nearest where DB was beneath the ground-he was hungry; I understood that. I'd timed it to coincide with his feeding schedule, too. Where he was going, he'd find plenty of fish, few whales and lots of water mostly free of fishing vessels.
I had to use the same talent I'd employed to bring binoculars to Rafe, except in reverse. Instead of pulling something to me, I'd be sending it away. Before I did that, I took a moment to scan the crowd.