Now, with a big breakfast under her belt and a giant coffeein her cup holder, she was once again heading north when her phone rang. Shelooked at the readout. Her grandfather. She chewed her lip, thinking hardbefore answering. Should she tell him what was going through her mind? ThroughXena’s? Sometimes he paid attention to her, other times she wondered if hethought she was crazy and his best course of action was to humor her.
Again she was reminded of the connection she and Xenashared. The legendary, mystical Psi ability of the Caucasian Ovcharka was oneof the reasons she’d gotten her. She needed a dog tuned in to her .Sensitive to her. Training dogs for other people was one thing. But sheneeded an animal of her own, one who could almost predict danger. Could smellit in the air. And keep her and the other dogs safe.
This was the first time since she’d brought Xena home withher that she was scenting danger for another person. She thought it verystrange, but she’d learned at the very beginning not to discount Xena’sintuition. Her grandfather was right there where things were happening. Hecould at least pass along a warning to Rick, no matter how stupid they allthought it might be.
She punched the Talk button on the hands-free unit to answerthe call.
“Hey, Granddad,” she greeted him. “I was just about to callyou. How’s Rick?”
“Mike took him home from the hospital this morning and he’sdoing okay. At least he’s mobile. I thought you’d want to know. You soundedreal worried yesterday.”
Kelly let out a breath as if she’d been holding it for along time.
“Thank heavens. Then he must not have been badly hurt.”
The old man’s chuckled sounded over the connection. “He’dhave to be near dead to keep this one down.”
Kelly tugged at her lower lip with her teeth again.“Granddad?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Tell…tell Rick to be real careful, okay?”
The silence was telling. Finally Charlie said, “You aren’tgetting any of those crazy notions again, are you? This business with Xena?Because these guys aren’t—”
“Please,” she interrupted. “Just tell him, okay? Xena’s beenvery edgy since yesterday. She hardly let me sleep last night. Just…do what youcan. Please?”
“Now, Kelly. You know I don’t argue much with these ideasyou get but I don’t think I could tell Rick Latrobe that my granddaughter andher dog— especially her dog—are getting strange feelings about him.”
Kelly sighed. “Just tell him to be careful, okay?” sherepeated.
“Okay. Sure. You drive carefully now and call me when youget home.”
“I will. ’Bye, now. I love you.”
She disconnected the call, knowing he’d never say a thing.But Xena’s uneasiness had communicated itself so strongly to her that she wasfeeling edgy herself. Should she try to call Rick directly?
No. He’d probably think she was more of a nut that hergrandfather did. Anyway, she was sure his number was unlisted and Charliewasn’t about to give it to her.
She glanced over at Xena, riding in the seat next to her.
Danger. A lot of danger.
“I hear ya, girl. But what can we do? How can we help him?”
* * * * *
Mike D’Antoni had taken Rick’s keys with him so he could lethimself back into the house. Now he deliberately fumbled with them as heglanced as casually as possible at the gardener across the street. Earlier he’dbarely noticed him but now something about him caught his eye. The man was suretaking a damn long time trimming those hedges.
As if he sensed Mike watching him, he looked up, flashed asmile and gave a small wave, then went back to his task.
I’m seeing bogeymen where there aren’t any, Mike toldhimself. Still, that little sensation skittering over his spine was trying to tellhim something.
Inside the front hall he punched the security code into thekeypad so it wouldn’t screech, then reset it.
Rick, still stretched out on the couch, opened his eyes whenhe heard the door. He lifted an eyebrow at the sight of the grocery bags.
“Do you think you’re feeding an army?”
“No, just two very hungry men. And you need to get lots ofprotein into your system. Fast.” He walked through to the kitchen where he setthe bags down on the counter. “Troy will be by this afternoon to give you hisown once-over and see what needs doing.”
“I got hurt worse than this falling out of a tree,” Rickobjected.
“Maybe but you weren’t about to take off for Iraq when thathappened.” He stood in the doorway between the two rooms. “Have your neighborsacross the street always had the same gardener?”
Rick frowned. “Gardener? I have no idea. Everyone on thestreet has someone. I’ve had the same landscaping service since I bought thehouse. Why?”
“But not the same one they use?”
“No, I don’t think so. I’m sure I’d know if it was. The guyswould have mentioned it.” He levered himself up into a sitting position.“What’s going on, Mike?”
“Something…I don’t know. He’s been trimming those hedgessince we got home. I get the feeling he’s more interested in this house than inany landscape work.”
“The things that have been happening lately probably make usboth see shadows where there aren’t any but maybe we should check him out.”
Mike turned off the alarm system and opened the front door.“I think I’ll see if he’s interested in taking on more work.”
He strolled casually across the street, hands in hispockets, looking for all the world like a man with nothing on his mind. Thegardener didn’t look up until Mike was standing right next to him.
“Hi,” Mike said. “Nice job you’re doing.”
The gardener looked up. “Thank you.”
Mike noted the slight accent as well as the dark skin andthick head of curly black hair. Was he unconsciously profiling, letting thesituation with Iraq color his thinking? Well, better safe than sorry.
“Been working for these people long?”
The man kept his head down, still clipping away. “No. Notvery.”
“My friend lives across the street. We’ve been admiring yourwork. He wondered if you were taking on any new jobs.”
The gardener shook his head. “Oh, no. I have all I canhandle.”
“He pays well,” Mike pushed. “We can always use a few morebucks, right?” He forced his mouth into a grin.
“No. Sorry.” He glanced at his watch. “In fact, I don’t evenhave time to finish this today. I must leave. I will have to call the peopleand tell them when I’ll be back.”
He brushed off his shears and walked away, toward his van inthe driveway. Mike watched him go, sensing something a little off. As the doorto the van slammed, he realized what it was. There was no other landscapingequipment. No lawn mower. No edger. No sprayer. And every gardener he’d everseen drove a pickup with an open bed and hauled an open trailer. This guy hadnothing but his hedge trimmers.
Mike started toward the van. “Hey, hold on a minute.”
But the van backed up in a hurry and tires squealed as itpulled out into the street.
“Damn.” Mike gritted his teeth. “I blew that one. Must betired. Damn, damn, damn.”
He jogged back across the street to tell Rick, theskittering on his back even stronger.
* * * * *
“I tell you, he suspects.”
As soon as he was out of sight and away from the street he’dbeen on, Malik had opened his cell phone and called Gabir.
“What makes you think that?” the other man demanded.
“I saw the man who brought Latrobe looking at me strangelywhen he came back from an errand,” Malik said.
“You are imagining things,” Gabir told him. “Just actnormal, keep an eye on things and you’ll be fine.”
“No, no, no,” Malik protested. “You don’t understand.”
“Understand what?” Gabir’s voice sharpened. “Did somethinghappen?”
“The man came across the st
reet to talk to me.” Malik was sonervous he was nearly stuttering. “He talked to me, Gabir.”
“About what?”
“He asked me how long I’d been working at that house. Did Iwant to take on more work? Said his friend was watching me and wanted to hireme.”
“All you had to tell him was you were substituting for afriend and Latrobe would have to talk to him.” There was a pause. “But youdidn’t do that, did you? You did something very stupid. I can tell.”
Malik’s hands were sweating so badly they were slipping onthe steering wheel. “I told him I couldn’t take on any more work and then Ileft.”
“Left?” The word was a roar across the connection. “You justleft? How stupid can you possibly be?”
“But—”
“But nothing. Now you’ve gotten their attention because youdid something out of the ordinary. Shit. This means a change in plans. We’llhave to find some other way to set him up and we won’t be able to watch him ascarefully while we make plans. Get back here at once. If you pray hard enoughto Allah perhaps I won’t kill you.”
* * * * *
“There’s definitely something up with that gardener,” Mikesaid, closing the front door and rearming the security system. “If he’s even agardener at all.” He gave Rick a brief recap of what happened. “I’d say he wasthere to keep an eye on you. But wouldn’t your neighbors have wondered when astrange man showed up to clip their hedges.”
Rick frowned. “Maybe not. All he had to do was tell them hewas a new man on the crew, or substituting for the regular.”
“Someone’s painting a target on you and you know it has todo with what’s going on in Iraq. Weapons missing, all that.” He gave Rick acareful look. “I keep coming back to Greg Jordan, although I really don’t wantto.”
Rick sat up, stifling a moan as his muscles and ribsprotested. “Me too. I could have sworn he was clean as far as dirty contactsover there. But now I’m willing to look at anybody and everybody.”
“Any word yet on the van from the so-called accident?”
“Not a thing. I talked to Jennings this morning. Someone’smade it just disappear.”
“Great.” Rick ran his hand over the stubble on his jaw.“That definitely means we’re not playing with amateurs here.”
“We’ll need to go over the plans for delivery in theminutest detail before we ever lift off,” Mike pointed out. “There’s no marginfor error here.”
“Don’t I know it. I just—”
Whatever else he might have said was cut off by the ringingof his cell phone. He dug it out of his shirt pocket, where he’d stuck it inthe hospital.
“Latrobe.”
“Rick? It’s Harry.”
“Hey, Harry, thanks for the call.”
“You doing okay?”
“Yeah, it’ll take a lot more than a little wreck to knock meout of commission.”
“Listen.” there was the sound of discomfort in Harry’svoice. “I’m not sure I should even be making this call.”
There was such a long pause Rick frowned. “Is everythingokay? Trouble at the field? Do you have a problem?”
“No, no, nothing like that. It’s my granddaughter.”
Instantly the image of the striking redhead popped into hismind and the memory of how her body had felt against his, even for just thatbrief moment. “Does she have a problem? Something we can help with?”
“That’s not it. I just…”
“Harry, maybe you just better spit it out.”
“It’s just that it sounds so crazy. And I don’t want you tothink she’s nuts.”
Rick chuckled. “There are too many people standing in lineahead of her for that. Lay it out.”
“Well, see, you met her dog, right? Xena?”
“Yes. I seem to remember her being startled that she jumpedout of the truck and sat down by me. I guess she doesn’t take to strangers.Harry, you’re not calling about that, are you? It’s okay. Dogs sometimes dofunny things.”
“That’s not even the half of it.” As briefly as he could,Harry explained to him about Xena, the relationship between woman and dog andrepeated the gist of Kelly’s phone call. “So you see, it’s just nuts, right? Itry to tell her that all the time but—”
Rick shifted the phone to his other ear. “Now you’ll think I’m crazy but I don’t think it’s off the wall at all. Start from the beginning andtell me everything about the dog. And Kelly. And give me a number where I canreach her.”
Maybe he could take care of two things at the same time addanother weapon to the agency’s Psi arsenal and at the same time learn moreabout the woman who kept haunting his dreams.
When he hung up he was sure Harry was more puzzled than he’dbeen when the conversation started but that warning itch that had been burninghis neck for days suddenly grew stronger.
“What’s up?” Mike asked, wiping his hands on a paper towel.
“Let’s eat and I’ll tell you. Then we need to make somephone calls.”
* * * * *
Zarife al-Dulami was not at all pleased with the phone callfrom Gabir.
“I give you a simple task to perform and you cannot seem toget it right. Perhaps I need to make you disappear completely. Erase mymistake.”
“No, no, no.” It was hard to miss the fear in Gabir’s voice.“This is just a little glitch. I am working on another plan as we speak.”
“That man cannot be allowed to be on the plane with thoseweapons.” Zarife was having difficulty controlling his anger. “Are you sostupid you cannot find a way to get rid of him without creating a majorincident?”
“Believe me, it’s not so easy,” Gabir cried. “The man islike a shadow. Here, then gone. With eyes in the back of his head and lethalmen always around him.”
“I don’t care if he has the whole damned armed forces of thecountry protecting him. We have to find a way to eliminate him. Now.”
He slammed down the telephone. His orders from the unknownman had been very clear—make sure Rick Latrobe was dead. So far he was battingzero. He had a disastrous premonition that this was going to turn out to be onehuge clusterfuck.
Chapter Four
It was an unusual sequence of events and circumstances thatfound Faith and Mark Halloran and Mia and Dan Romeo living in San Antoniorather than Maryland where the Phoenix Agency headquarters was located.
When Mark Halloran was captured by al-Queda terrorists inPeru, his long-time ability to communicate telepathically with Faith Wildingwas his only means of getting messages out. Like a bulldog with a bone in herteeth, Faith had blown down doors and knocked over people, finally stumblingover Rick Latrobe and Phoenix in her desperation to mount a rescue. When Markleft Delta Force, he joined the agency and married Faith. They had decided tomake San Antonio their home base as he and Faith had both grown up there andhad family there. Often it meant flying back and forth to Maryland for meetingswhen a mission was in process but it was something they both were comfortablewith. And Faith, a best-selling author, was often immersed in her latestthriller anyway.
Dan and Mia met when her precognitive visions had helpedPhoenix retrieve a top secret new robot designed by a friend of Dan’s. MiaFleming had been living in San Antonio for some time then, in a house left toher by her grandmother and working as an art historian. They also decided tomake that city their home base, even though Dan, as the agency’s seniorpartner, would need to make even more frequent trips back and forth to Marylandthan Mark.
“That’s why we have our own planes,” he joked to his wife.
The one adjustment they had made was to convert a room inthe Romeo household into a high-tech electronics studio, so Dan and Mark couldteleconference with the others and receive whatever information they needed bysecure email or fax. Often they could avoid leaving home that way.
The fact that the two couples lived barely ten minutes apartin upscale Alamo Heights made it easy for both business and socializing.Tonight, the men having returned only the night before from Maryland, th
ey werehaving dinner at the Romeos’ graceful two story house. The topic of discussioncentered not just around Rick Latrobe and the sudden danger to him but on thewonder dog, Xena.
When Rick called Dan that afternoon to tell him about Kellyand Xena and the peculiar situation, that conversation prompted the currentdinner table conversation. The newest area that Phoenix was exploring wasparapsychology. With two of the partners married to women with psychicgifts—those gifts having been instrumental in resolving situations—the men haddecided to open a Psi department. Mia Romeo, who now worked only part-time,headed up the unit. Faith Halloran, when she wasn’t on deadline, backed her up.
“I’ve been reading a lot about animal Psi,” Mia told them asshe carried a fresh basket of rolls to the table. “It’s an area that hasn’treceived a lot of attention. People have enough trouble understanding thathumans have psychic gifts. Animals are just more than they can handle.”
“Tell me about it,” Mark laughed.
“Is there much documentation?” Faith asked, sipping at herwine.
“Not as much as I’d like and I’ve really been digging intoit. The psychic connection between animals—especially dogs—and humans is such araw field. People are sort of floundering around in it. The word psi, as youknow, refers to the ability to become directly aware of past, present and/orfuture events outside the body. There are people who swear dogs have had thisability for centuries. Those who know when their owners are about to arrivehome, or are in danger. Any number of situations have been written about anddiscounted by skeptics.” She looked at Dan and grinned. “We know about that,don’t we, honey?”
“I used to know someone who had a Caucasian Ovcharka,” Danput in. “I can believe they have psychic abilities. I’ve seen it myself. Butthey’re one-person dogs, so the link with Rick is very unusual.”
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