“I have a reception to attend in Georgetown tonight, so I won’t be home till late, and I have to leave early tomorrow morning. I wanted to catch you while I could, before your meeting with the congresswoman today.” He snapped the briefcase shut and came around to the front of the desk. Jo sat casually on the corner, as she had so many times in the past, no matter what home her father’s desk happened to be in, and there’d been a few.
“JoJo, this is pretty close-hold, but our friends in the Hoover Building have been keeping an eye on Congresswoman Chamberlain. To be precise, it’s her chief of staff they’re interested in.”
Jo’s research had mentioned little about the young man who ran Chamberlain’s office. Ethan Blaine was in his late twenties, graduate of the U. of Maryland, and the son of a wealthy Chamberlain supporter. “The FBI doesn’t get involved unless it’s pretty serious, Daddy. Why are they looking at Blaine?”
“I got this from a friend at the Bureau as a heads-up, because the fallout might impact one or two of our areas of concern. Blaine is known as a ladies’ man, so that’s one thing right there you should watch out for.” This brought a smile from Jo, but her father stayed serious. “The important thing, though, is that he’s been seeing a woman the FBI suspects of being an Argentine agent.”
“I’m not sure how I fit into that picture, Daddy. I won’t be spending much time around him.”
Her father looked away briefly, as if he was making a decision, then looked back at her. “I’m told Blaine’s girlfriend is rather new to the game. This is her first overseas assignment, and Blaine is apparently her target. He’s not suspected of giving her any classified material yet, but we would prefer he not get any further involved with her.”
“Why doesn’t the FBI just tell him about her?”
“They don’t want to take the chance she’ll find out her cover is blown. She works out of the Argentine Embassy and met Blaine at an official function a few weeks ago. The Bureau was hoping to steer her toward another man, who is working with them. They felt they might be able to turn her, but not if she keeps seeing Blaine.” He hesitated again, then said, “I didn’t want to involve you in this, JoJo, but when we heard about Chamberlain’s plans to hold these hearings, we thought we might have an opening. All we want you to do is ask Blaine out to dinner tonight, and meet him at a certain restaurant in Georgetown. The Argentine woman will be there. We think when she sees you with Blaine, she’ll react by breaking things off with him. That will allow the FBI to bring their man back into the picture.”
Jo considered it. There really didn’t seem to be any downside, and it wasn’t as if she had never done undercover work. A simple dinner, allow herself to be seen by a certain woman, and that would be it. What could go wrong? “All right, Daddy. I’ll see what I can do.”
He smiled. “That’s my girl.” From his inside jacket pocket he produced a card. “Here’s the number and address of the restaurant. On the back is another number. If there’s any trouble, call that number. The code phrase is ‘purple sundown’. That will get an FBI tactical team on the scene within two minutes. But that shouldn’t be necessary.” From another pocket came a photograph of an attractive blonde. “Here she is: Carmen Suarez. Tall, and I’m told she favors short skirts and pumps.”
“Okay,” she said. Something in his briefcase buzzed.
“That’s my driver, calling my pager,” he said. “Give me a hug, honey.”
She embraced him gladly, smelling his so-familiar musky cologne, feeling the warmth of his affection. “I had such a good time last night, Daddy. Thank you.”
“Yeah, it was great.” Her mother had cooked a wonderful dinner, and after the meal they looked through old photo albums as a fire crackled in the hearth. Even though she hadn’t grown up in this house, Jo felt at home here. She would be sorry to leave.
***
The table she’d reserved gave her a view of the entrance. Her dinner companion didn’t seem to mind, as his focus was entirely on JoAnn. “Have you been here before?” he asked.
“No, but I’ve heard good things about the food,” she said, forcing herself to smile. Being here with this man was a real test of her professionalism, not to mention her acting ability. This was her first dinner date with a man since her time with Ian in Hong Kong, and the difference between the two men couldn’t have been more apparent.
It wasn’t that Ethan Blaine wasn’t attractive. He was; tall, well-groomed with wavy dark brown hair, striking green eyes, and sharply dressed. But Jo had seen those eyes on her the moment she walked into Chamberlain’s district office. Blaine was standing at a filing cabinet, pulling a thick file out of a drawer, but that all ended when Jo stepped into the rather small reception area of the office. She was in her Air Force Class-A uniform, which she had never considered to be sexy, yet Blaine evidently thought so. She could almost feel his eyes roving over her. Fortunately, she was on time for her appointment and she’d only had to endure a couple minutes of small talk with Blaine before the secretary ushered her into Chamberlain’s inner office.
It hadn’t taken any persuasion at all to convince him to join her for dinner. He was waiting when she and Chamberlain came out from their meeting, and he offered to show her out. They shook hands and he held hers a little longer than professional courtesy dictated. When he asked if she was going to be in town for a while before going back to her base, she said yes, and her dinner invitation was quickly accepted.
He’d offered to pick her up, but she declined, saying she’d meet him here. The Air Force driver had dropped her off a block away, and Blaine was waiting for her at the bar. They shared a drink until their table was ready. Jo hadn’t seen Suarez anywhere, and now was beginning to think the Argentine spy would be a no-show. Well, she’d just have to endure the dinner and call it a night. Things didn’t always go according to plan.
Blaine had his own plan, though, but she had to give him credit, he was smooth. Lots of eye contact, always a smile, and occasionally he’d reach across the table to touch her hand. She allowed the contact, thinking that it was usually the woman who did that, to show she was interested in the man. Now he was probing a little too much, asking her about her Air Force work. She had to assume that he didn’t know the full extent of it, but it was better to steer away from it entirely.
“I thought the meeting with the congresswoman went well,” Jo said, dodging his question about what type of training she was doing down in Florida. In truth, she wasn’t sure how it had gone. Chamberlain was businesslike, cordial, but clearly she didn’t like the military and had every intention of following through with her hearings when Congress convened in the New Year. Explaining that her work was often of a sensitive nature, Jo asked to be removed from the witness list. Chamberlain said she’d consider it, and Jo didn’t leave feeling very hopeful. But maybe Blaine had heard something different.
“You made a good impression on her,” Blaine said, sipping at his glass of merlot. “Normally, military people have the opposite effect. You must’ve said something right in there.”
“Some of my work for the Air Force is classified,” Jo said, telling him as much as he needed to know. “I think I was able to impress upon her that there are plenty of other female officers who could talk a lot more freely about their experiences.”
“Good experiences, and bad ones?”
“It’s like any other job in that respect, Ethan,” she said, sipping her Chablis. “Women have a ways to go in the military, but things are a lot better now than they were fifteen or twenty years ago, or so I’m told.”
“What about combat arms?” he asked. “Doesn’t the fact that women aren’t assigned to front-line units limit their chances of promotion?”
Jo had to smile at that. She’d already seen a lot more combat in her career than most men did, but it wasn’t the kind that would show up in the newspapers. “Women have been in combat in all of our nation’s wars,” she said. “The Air Force and Navy already have women pilots.”
&n
bsp; “But not in fighter wings,” Blaine said. “Can women handle that kind of stress?” He said it with a sly grin, sipping his wine, but his eyes were intense.
“You’d be surprised what kind of stress women can handle,” Jo said, meeting his gaze. He blinked first, then sat back.
“Enough about that,” he said. “You look great out of uniform.”
“I take that to mean you like my choice of civilian attire,” she said. For this particular dinner date she’d gone with a low-cut off-white blouse, showing off what cleavage she had, and a tight skirt that showed more leg than her uniform had offered him earlier. Stiletto heels not only brought her height closer to his but accented her legs, something she knew he’d appreciated when he followed her back to the table.
“Very much,” he said. She knew that look, having seen it from men before. But she hadn’t seen it from Ian. Was he thinking of her, now, on his ship thousands of miles away? She stifled a sigh.
“Well, shall we order?” She picked up her menu.
They’d just finished the main course when she saw the woman. Not quite as glamorous as the photo made her out to be, but it was definitely her, turning heads as she walked toward the bar. Her hair was shorter than in the photo, though, and her outfit wasn’t as daring as her father had described, but it was close: she wore a black pantsuit, her jacket covering a revealing red blouse, and the pumps matched the blouse color. Taking a seat at the bar, she glanced around once, then quickly back to zero in on the table Jo shared with Blaine.
“There’s a woman at the bar staring at us,” Jo said.
“What?” Blaine turned to look, then did the briefest of double-takes. “Oh. Just someone I know,” he said.
“A friend?”
“Yeah.” He turned his attention back to Jo, but she could tell he was on edge. “Say, what do you think about getting a nightcap somewhere? I know a place a couple blocks from here, and they have a jazz combo tonight.”
“Well, I don’t know, Ethan, I have an early flight back to my base tomorrow.”
“Just one drink. It’s still early.”
Jo considered her options. The bait was dangling in front of Suarez, but she hadn’t taken it quite yet. “Can we walk there?”
“Sure.” He beckoned at the waiter.
***
They hadn’t been at their tiny table in the jazz club five minutes when Jo said, “Your friend just walked in.”
She could see the briefest hint of panic in Blaine’s face, but he recovered quickly. “It’s a free country,” he said. “What would you like to drink?”
Her glass of wine at dinner had taken up half of her personal limit. Anything more than two, she knew from past experience, would shave precious split-seconds off her reaction time, if something came up that required a reaction. “A gin and tonic,” she said.
Within a few minutes, a well-built young man joined Suarez at the bar. It was evident that they were acquainted. She laughed at something he said, but to Jo it looked forced, and Suarez had been glancing their way every minute or so. She was on her second drink already, and that was on top of the one she’d had at the restaurant bar.
Jo decided to let this game play out a little longer. Two couples were on the small dance floor as the band got into a Wynton Marsalis number. “You like to dance?” Jo asked.
She led him to the floor and held him close as they started moving together. He relaxed, moving his right hand down her back to her hip, then slowly over the cheek of her derriere. Jo turned them slightly, and a glance told her Suarez had seen the hand.
Back at their table, Blaine had evidently forgotten about Suarez completely. He was focused entirely on Jo. “So, you’re heading back to your base tomorrow?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, “’fraid so.” Over his shoulder, she saw Suarez finish off a drink and stare at her. Jo gave her a bit of a smile. Next to Suarez, the man touched her on the arm and nodded toward the door. She shrugged him off and got up from the bar stool. Jo saw her start walking their way. It was showtime.
Blaine was making his pitch. “Look, Jo, I don’t want to seem forward, but I really enjoy being with you. My place is only a few minutes away—“
“Let me guess, Ethan, she’s your long-lost cousin from Japan, right?” Suarez said, slurring a couple of the words. Jo sat back in her chair making sure her hands were free. The well-built man was right behind Suarez, his face a bit flushed. Jo knew this could go either way.
Blaine’s eyes went wide, but he recovered quickly, turning to face her. “Carmen! I didn’t see you come in.”
“Obviously. You’ve been pretty focused on your cousin here.” She only had a slight accent, Jo noticed, and that struck her as odd. An Argentine national speaking English was certainly not unusual, but one without a real accent was. Something wasn’t quite right here.
“JoAnn isn’t my cousin,” Blaine said. “She was a guest of the congresswoman today at the office, and I offered to buy her dinner before she leaves town.” He looked back at Jo with a tight smile, but she could see he was getting more agitated.
“Just dinner? I’ll bet I know what you want for dessert.”
Blaine stood up. He was taller than Suarez, but a good six inches shorter than the man behind her, whose high-and-tight haircut had military stamped all over it. “Carmen, you’ve had a little bit too much to drink,” Blaine said. “Why don’t you have G.I. Joe here take you home? I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”
“Watch your mouth, wise guy,” the man said, moving forward a couple inches. Jo moved slightly to her right, clearing her legs from the table. She carefully scanned both Suarez and the soldier. No sign of weapons, but you never knew what might be in a pocket.
Blaine looked the soldier right in the eye. Jo could see his body language change slightly, and not in a good way. He was about to get confrontational. That would not be a wise move. “Ethan, perhaps we should leave,” she said. “We don’t want any trouble.” She stood up carefully, taking a short step away from the table, bringing her closer to Suarez and the soldier. She steadied her breathing, allowing her senses to expand and focus on the man and woman who had now become potential threats.
She could see Suarez starting to soften a bit, but the soldier chose that moment to ratchet things up. “Yeah, buddy, why don’t you take her home? Chinese take-out’s pretty tasty.”
“Tommy, don’t—“
Blaine ignored Suarez and took a step toward the larger man. “You better watch your mouth, wise guy.”
Jo saw the punch coming even if Blaine didn’t. She grabbed his arm and pulled him back toward the table, but Tommy’s fist still managed to clip him across the face. Blaine crashed backwards into the table. Out of the corner of her eye, Jo saw the bartender pick up a telephone.
Tommy was moving in to pound Blaine, but Jo stomped down on his left foot with the heel of her stiletto. The heel broke but Tommy yelled in pain, hopping backward. Suarez now came at Jo with a yell, throwing a wild right cross. Jo easily blocked the punch and controlled Suarez’ arm, bringing it around easily into a chicken-wing hold behind her back. “Calm down, missy,” she said into Suarez’ ear, “your joints are very fragile back here.”
“Fuck you!” Suarez screamed.
“Wrong answer,” Jo said, applying a bit more pressure. Suarez gasped as the pain shot from her wrist down to the elbow and then up to the shoulder. Jo saw Tommy starting toward her and she maneuvered the helpless Suarez in between them. “Back off, soldier, or I’ll break her arm.”
The door to the bar opened and two policemen rushed in. Jo breathed a sigh of relief. A bar brawl wasn’t exactly how she had wanted to spend her evening.
***
Jo was waiting up for her father when he arrived just after ten. She’d changed into pajamas covered by an old bathrobe that her mother had kept since Jo’s high school days, always waiting for her in the closet of the guest bedroom.
“Is your mother asleep?” Joseph asked as he hung his overcoat up in th
e hall closet.
“Yes, just a few minutes ago. I thought you’d want to hear what happened.”
“Already did,” he said. Joseph tossed his suit jacket on a side chair, loosened his tie and sank into his favorite recliner. “Got a call from my Bureau contact during the reception. I’d let him know where to reach me.”
“The tac team wasn’t needed, thankfully.”
“That’s what I understand,” her father said. “I’m told you handled the situation very nicely. Not that I ever doubted that you could,” he added with a smile.
“The police arrested Suarez and the soldier,” Jo said. “Probably just disorderly conduct, they’ll get fined and walk.” She hesitated. “One thing bothered me, Daddy. Suarez spoke without much of an accent, and I can hardly believe the Argentines would post an operative here who has such trouble keeping her cool. What’s going on?”
“You’re very observant, and you’re correct to be suspicious,” he said. He sighed, then leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “My friend told me that Suarez is of Argentine descent, but she’s a native-born American. She’s also a lieutenant j.g. in the Navy, posted at the Pentagon. The FBI and Naval Intelligence have suspected her of being the source of a security leak, probably the one that landed you on Chamberlain’s witness list.”
Jo felt her temper rising. “I have to ask you, Daddy: did you know she wasn’t an Argentine agent?”
“Not until tonight. What I told you this morning was what I was told the day before.”
“Then why the deception?”
He sat back, his brow furrowed. “I don’t know for sure, but I suspect it’s because of your involvement, and the fact you’re my daughter. The Bureau and the Navy saw a chance to expose Suarez, and keep you off that witness list. Telling me there were foreign interests at play was probably designed to make it more attractive to me as far as getting you involved.”
The White Vixen Page 11
