Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(32)

"No, I don't want any of them out alone. If Merle and his bunch are after them, it'll be harder to take all of them on at once."

"True. I see your point."

"I still want Marcus-he can do damage to us. I've notified Farrell, so he'll watch for anyone else who's looking for DB. So far, he says he can't get radar on him."

"Then it's likely the enemy hasn't found him either. What about the other survivors that escaped the facility in Nevada? Any word?"

"Nothing. But that only means we're fighting against those who've hidden them for their own purposes."

"We still have no real idea what they're capable of doing," Matt said. "The team in Nevada only kept them alive and happy-or as happy as they could."

"While Askins received regular updates on them and we got nothing." I was still so pissed about that it gave me headaches.

"Madam President had no reason to be suspicious," Matt drummed fingers on his chair arms. "We don't know exactly what Askins and the others have planned, either; we just have well-founded hunches."

"I'm concerned about the possible connection with the Russians," I countered. "We know Baikov has likely handed out faulty advice to the President. How do we know one of his clones isn't there now, doing the same thing?"

"We don't know that for sure, but I have people on it."

"Trustworthy people?"

"The best I have in the area."

"Good. Will you keep me informed?"

"Yes."

*

Corinne

"She made two calls." Ilya turned my phone around so I could see the text sent by James. "He said the audio wasn't working because she had her hair dryer on. We have no idea what she said."

Somebody at the facility was keeping a constant eye on Mary while she was in her cabin. She hadn't found the bug, but took precautions anyway. Now, we were no farther along than we were before.

Ilya and I had only been awake for a few minutes; I could tell he wanted breakfast. Instead, we were dealing with the Mary clone and her indecipherable phone calls. "Stop worrying about her for the moment," I took the phone from his hand. "Let's go to breakfast. James will let us know if she leaves her cabin."

"Thank you," Ilya leaned over to kiss me before sliding off his side of the bed. Fifteen minutes later, we were on an elevator, traveling to deck six and the buffet. I went straight for the poached eggs and toast-Rafe loaded up on bacon and sausage with his eggs.

That's where Maye and Opal found us ten minutes later, sitting at a table near the port side windows, drinking coffee, eating and talking.

"Here's the latest," I pulled up the text from James and passed the phone across the table to Opal and Maye.

"So we still don't know anything," Maye sighed and handed the phone back.

"We know she's in contact with somebody," Rafe said. "We merely don't know what she said."

"We get to Ketchikan tomorrow. I wonder if she'll get off the boat," Opal said.

"We have something," Nick set his plate down at one end of the table, while Jeff took the chair at the other end.

"What?" Maye turned to Nick.

"She talked to the bartender last night about one of the bus tours in Ketchikan," he grinned. "He wanted to hook up with her, I could tell, so I asked him about her last night when I went for a beer after dinner."

"Which tour?"

"No idea-there are several buses, so there's no way to tell unless she actually books the excursion."

"Damn," Maye cursed. "We have to follow her, no matter where she goes. How are we going to do this?"

"She may be laying a false trail," Rafe bit into his last slice of bacon.

"Even worse," Opal said.

"It's what I would do," Rafe added after thinking-and chewing-for a moment.

"We'll just have to split up and stay in contact with each other," Maye said. "Corinne and I can use telepathy; the rest will have to rely on cell phones."

"I can use telepathy," Rafe grinned.

"Seriously?" Maye frowned at Rafe. "Why doesn't Colonel Hunter know this?"

"Because I haven't told him?"

"Great. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Corinne knows."

"Hey," I elbowed him-he was trying to place half the blame on me.

"So, Nick with Corinne, Opal with me, Rafe with Jeff," Maye sorted us quickly.

"I don't like that," Rafe said immediately. He wanted to stay with me.

"You outed yourself, now you pay the price," Maye pointed her fork at him. "Everybody who can do telepathy gets a non-telepathic partner."

"Dude," I nodded at Nick.

"Dudette," he grinned at me.

"Fine," Rafe breathed. Just don't get too chummy, he warned.

Honey, that won't happen, I replied.

*

Mary stayed in her cabin for the rest of the day, ordering room service for her meals and drinks. She was also drinking heavily-James let us know she ordered two bottles of expensive Scotch and consumed both by midnight.

Something was definitely going on-I just couldn't figure out what it was.