“But they’ve already seen you. How can we explain this?” Whitney asked as she and Trent climbed up on their usual spots.
Darominius flapped his wings and as they started to rise he said, “Don’t worry about explaining anything. I can scrub their memories for the past five minutes. Close your eyes.”
Whitney closed her eyes as a bright flash of white light filled the sky. She opened her eyes but her vision was distorted and kept going out of focus. She kept her eyes closed as they speeded up and reached the clouds quickly. She felt the dragon change directions and surge through the sky.
The milky surroundings made it hard to see even with her vision being completely restored. She dug her fingers into the dragon’s flesh as Darominius plunged toward the ground. She got that ill feeling again and thought she might pass out.
Whitney shook off the sensation and realized she was standing on the sidewalk of some town. She looked across the street at a huge building which bore the name Rose Ridge Club. The green structure had white columns around the huge patio entrance, a well-manicured lawn and a small rose garden.
They watched as men in suits stood around the patio with drinks in their hands and others arrived to have their cars valeted.
Trent tapped her shoulder and said, “You see what I see?”
“This looks like almost all of those people from the arms deal. I guess they just can’t get enough. These are all the top guys from the Bull Party. And there he is. Our piece of trash that calls himself the Chief of the Bureau.”
“Oh tremendous. I’m so glad we have some more stuff to nail this guy on. Look at him stuffing his face with that shrimp cocktail. We need to find out when and where we are,” Trent suggested.
“Alright, since we can’t be seen or heard, let’s move in for a closer look.”
Darominius said, “I’ll be back. Remember not to leave the safety radius.”
Whitney and Trent walked across the street as Darominius disappeared into the cloudy sky. She noticed the Vice President as they got closer but she hadn’t seen his boss yet. So far, they hadn’t been able to find any concrete evidence to connect the President directly to anything. She started to wonder if these guys had done all this stuff behind his back and just used his name to seal the deal.
“Lookie there. If it isn’t the Ambassadors from Goldera and Starvary. Maybe this was to setup those face-to-face meetings on the bridge and tarmac,” Trent said as he pointed into the crowd of politicians.
The overwhelming smell of competing colognes offended her nose. The conversation all sounded innocuous although Whitney didn’t expect to hear them making deals and exchanging money in public.
She found a flyer on the ground and picked it up. The top read Bull Party International Convention and Policy Updates. Whitney didn’t have to read any more.
“Well that spells it out pretty well. I wonder what international policies they plan to update with the representatives from Starvary and Goldera sitting in the crowd? It’s weird though, the President’s never adjusted those policies or lifted the embargo.”
Trent said, “He just said in press conference yesterday that he is considering more measures if these countries don’t improve their human rights policies. It’s almost impossible for me to think that he isn’t in on all this, but this just doesn’t seem right. Did you see what it said on that itinerary?”
“What part exactly?”
“Where it said that Presidential Candidate Alan Gergen was supposed to be the Featured Speaker, but he couldn’t make it so it’s going to be the VP. It didn’t say Vice Presidential Candidate. So how did they know he was going to be in that position? Why would they make this pamphlet like that if they knew the President wasn’t going to be able to make it?” Trent asked.
“I don’t know, to use his name for leverage maybe. Alright so this meeting had to take place after those other ones. It had to be right before the election and it’s likely they knew they were going to win.”
Everyone moved inside for a sit down dinner. Trent and Whitney worked their way around the room trying to find out new information but they only encountered small talk. After the dinner, Whitney saw the Vice President with a small circle of men around him as he stood near the bar. They all started to move toward the front of the building.
“Trent, let’s go see what this bunch is up to.”
Whitney pointed to the five men walking out of the building. They all started to get into a black SUV with tinted windows.
“What should we do?”
“I’m going to open the back gate and we need to jump in fast. If they can’t see or hear us, they might think the door was open,” Trent said.
He quickly lifted the gate and Whitney slid in as Trent contorted his body to jump in and pull the door closed. Two of the men in the backseat turned around and Whitney got nervous even though she knew they couldn’t see her.
Representative David Alldreck said, “Did you see that shit?”
The other man said, “I heard something sound like it was closing. I didn’t see anything.”
“The whole gate just opened and closed, what’s up with this haunted car?” David Albright asked.
Whitney recognized the other man to be Judge Rennett Goldstein. He said, “I think you’ve had one too many gin and tonics, my friend.”
“Keep it down ladies, we’ll hammer out all the details once we get to the shack,” the Vice President said as he drove the vehicle down the road.
The truck pulled into a run-down neighborhood and crawled down a dead end road. Suddenly, Rennett Goldstein looked back.
The old Judge screamed, “Who the fuck are you people?”
“Oh shit we must’ve gone outside the mile radius.”
Trent tried to open the back gate but it was locked. Whitney leaned down to get into a position to kick out the back window.
“Don’t try anything stupid, assholes,” said David Albright, who had a gun pointed at Trent. “Get the fuck out of the truck and into the house. Who should I let kill the two of you? Who should I call?”
A big man who looked like the Vice President’s body guard opened the back gate and erased any thoughts Whitney may have had for a dramatic escape. The other men surrounded Trent and Whitney and started to push them toward a house across the street.
A shrieking squawk came thundering down from the sky. Whitney looked up to see a golden object descending rapidly as it streaked through the clouds and cerulean backdrop. All the men looked up and pointed at the incoming dragon.
Three of the men pointed their guns toward Darominius. The dragon opened his mouth and hoisted flames across the horizon. The men started shooting at Darominius, but the bullets just kept ricocheting off the steel-like scales and causing golden sparks to trail from the dragon.
The men eventually stopped shooting and ran down the street after they realized that their bullets were useless. Whitney looked around and saw that other people had come out of their houses and were staring in awe as the golden dragon landed in the middle of the road.
Whitney and Trent ran over and got up on their reptilian friend who wasted no time rising above the trees and houses. Whitney couldn’t understand what Darominius said as a great milky flash blinded her. She almost let go of the dragon to rub her eyes, but she remembered at the last moment to continue holding on. She had to keep her eyes shut for the entire ride back to the Capitol.
Whitney’s heart didn’t slow down for the whole of the ride home. She dragged her weary body into the house. She and Trent climbed into bed and tried to relax and heal their physical ailments.
“So where are we at here on the case?”
“I know it gets worse every time we hop on that dragon. We gotta let Barrett and the guys know about this meeting and see if they can find anything out about that that we almost witnessed. If the Ambassadors reported back to their homelands, someone in intelligence will have a transcript of that conversation,” Trent said.
“Some of the patriotic a
gents want to meet up tomorrow and see if we have any information since they can’t discuss this at work. They will be here at two o’clock so don’t make any plans.”
Trent laughed. “You know me, so much to do, so little time. Too bad they raided our office before we could get all of that stuff copied. We have the zip drive too, but now they know everything that we know. I wonder if they are getting scared.”
“Can you be scared if you don’t have a heart? So, new subject, my mom called me the other day and she wants us to come home for a few days to visit. It’s either that or she comes here and trust me, we don’t want her as a house guest. Plus I don’t want my family anywhere near this stuff. I need to keep them away from the danger. So what do you think?”
Trent said, “I think it sounds like a great idea. We need another break from this action and since we haven’t had a honeymoon yet, it’ll be nice to get away. Not exactly the tropical destination and, speaking of which where should we go for the official honeymoon?”
“I don’t know. A tropical getaway would be great. Or a part of the world with a lot of history. Looks like we have some time to figure this out because we can’t go before this issue of national security is taken care of. Seems like we love our country as much as we love each other.”
Trent said, “I’m not sure if that’s a great thing or it’s just sad. And I think I love you more than anything else, so it can’t be true.”
Whitney rolled over and gave Trent a kiss. Her entire body ached as she looked at her husband’s healing bruises. He was still the most beautiful creatures in the world to her, but it saddened her to see his blood-blister infested arms and legs. She didn’t even look at herself in the mirror anymore.
“So as soon as the bruises and marks go away, we can head back to Pennsburgh for some real fun. I’m usually a fast healer but these babies might take a few days.”
“I know. These guys better hope I don’t find out who was behind this. I can handle taking a beating myself, but when they hit you, they messed up bigtime. What type of dreg hits the most beautiful woman in the world?” Trent rhetorically asked.
10
Whitney limped back and forth by the front door as she waited for the agents to get there. Her ankle hurt more today than yesterday but she was filled with nervous energy and had to move around. A car pulled into the driveway and three people wearing suits got out.
Two men and a woman approached the house and Whitney opened the door to greet them.
“Come on in.”
“Thanks,” Barrett said as he led the way.
Whitney shut the door and they sat down at a mahogany oval table. Barrett Nedhurst, Aimee Penderhook and L.J. Udanowitz joined Trent and Whitney to fill the small room.
Barrett said, “Are you guys alright? Holy shit you look terrible. I should have warned you two not to pick up Hopkins. He’s a true scumbag and would rather go down with the ship than make a deal.”
The tall, slender, dark-skinned agent named Aimee said, “Everyone knows what happened and it’s brought more people to the cause. I can’t believe they kidnapped and beat you guys.”
“It sucks, but it’s over and we need to move on. We need you three to find out anything you can about a meeting for the Bull Party at a place called the Rose Ridge Club. It happened right before the election I think.”
“Do you have an exact date?” L.J. asked as he shifted his square frames back into the correct position at the top of his big nose.
“No. The event was called the Bull Party International Convention and Policy Updates. The ambassadors of Starvary and Goldera were there and probably even more that we haven’t discovered yet. Most of the people who were implicated in the arms deal were at the meeting so I think this might have been the first payoff and a setup for how they are going handle all of the payments.”
Barrett said, “I’ve been getting some calls from the F.C.U. lately about strange activity involving those island banks you two alerted us to. The problem is that every account is filled with strange activity and mystery transfers and the banks don’t help us with anything.”
Whitney said, “I talked to my friend who works at the F.C.U. and she is going to stop by later today. She said she has some very interesting stuff for Trent and me to look at. If we can’t get these a-holes to admit that they did anything, nailing them on these shady dealings will be impossible without finding the money trail. That might be our only hope in the end.”
Trent asked, “Have any of you found evidence that the President is involved?”
Aimee answered, “I don’t believe there is hard evidence but most of these deals were made with his blessing, yes?”
“They were made seemingly with his approval, but I’ve never seen any direct proof that he is even involved. We haven’t found or seen anything that shows he ordered these meetings or agreements.”
L.J. said, “He has to be in on it and he has probably found a way to make it almost impossible to find out what he did or what he knows. Look at all the people he has promoted to fill the most important positions with one mission in mind; to kill this case. I wanted to believe he wasn’t guilty because I met him when I was a kid and I liked him, but it seems too obvious that he’s covering up something big.”
Barrett said, “I have to agree. No one goes this far out of their way to shut everything down unless they have done something. These aren’t the actions of an innocent man that much I can tell you.”
Aimee said, “I think we can all agree on that and the fact that we are going to have to scour the data trail to take down these weasels. I think we also need to talk to the rest of the foreign Intel groups that we know and see if they have anything they could help us with.”
Trent said, “I think we are close on all this but we still have to remain patient. I know that sounds rich coming from the guy who pulled that foolish move but the scope of this is so big we need to be sure we can take down everyone involved. We’re looking at a list of at least fifty by now on the original crime and the continual obstruction.”
“The final paperwork for this is going to rival a mountain. Now we need to go find that money trail before they destroy everything,” Barrett said.
Aimee said, “Alright, you two take care of yourselves and stay out of trouble. We should get out of here before someone spots us. You ready guys?”
The two agents said yes in unison and Whitney and Trent led them out the front door. Whitney wished Bo was here to see how bad ass she had become. She had never imagined that she would ever tangle with the biggest mob family in her city or expose the President of Adoxia for being a corrupt traitor. A sense of pride coursed through her sore body and provided a jolt of energy.
Later that day, a knock sounded at the front door. Whitney opened it up to see someone in a trench coat, black glasses and a winter hat over their head.
“Can I help you with something?”
“It’s me, Rachel. Let me in,” the person said.
Whitney moved to the side and the short woman with her hair tucked into the hat walked into the house.
“Trent, Rachel is here.”
Trent walked into the room and said hello.
“Hi guys, look, I don’t have time to stay and I shouldn’t even be here. This entire issue has become a real lightning rod. They are trying to get rid of this information that I came across, but luckily I made copies of it. Not only do I have financial info from some of those shell companies that we talked about, but my department also was mistakenly given Intel about the voting machines that were hacked to record all votes to the Bull Party. I was never here and you never saw me,” Rachel said and opened the trench coat. She pulled two folders from her waistband.
She handed them to Whitney, performed a mock curtsy and secured her coat again. The woman from the Financial Crimes Unit left the house. Whitney and Trent tore into the folders and spent the next few hours going over the juicy details.
11
Trent and Whitney pulled into the driveway
of Victoria and Aaric’s house. They walked inside for another Friday night party at the castle. About twenty of Aaric and Victoria’s friends mingled with members of Whitney’s family.
Her sister had hired servers and a bartender from the country club she belonged to. They brought hors d’ oeuvres and a fully stocked bar for the guests to enjoy. Whitney said hi to a few people and noticed her dad.
She pushed a few guests out of the way to get to Robert Powers and hugged her father.
“EEEHHH, daddio.”
“Oh sweet pea, I miss you so much. Where’s that husband of yours?”
Whitney stepped back and looked around for Trent, who emerged from a pack of Aaric’s friends.
“There he is.” Whitney pointed as Trent approached.
“Mr. Powers, great to see you again,” Trent said as the two men shook hands.
Whitney loved seeing her father and Trent together. She still felt horrible about Trent’s family experience and wanted him to be a part of her crazy bunch. He had been graciously accepted by everyone so far.
Her father said, “Hey, I know what. Trent, Aaric and me were going to smoke a couple of stogies out by the pool. You in?”
Trent answered, “I’m not too big on cigars, but every once in a while won’t hurt. You don’t mind, do you?” he asked Whitney.
“No, of course not. Have fun with the boys,” she said in a mocking tone.
Whitney found her mom and Victoria in the kitchen. Her sister waved as she talked on her cell phone.
Ursula Powers said, “Well look who finally got here. Where is your husband?”
Whitney hugged her mom. “He’s around. He’s out smoking stogies with the boys,” she said sarcastically.
Her mom laughed and said, “Oh, don’t get mad, honey. You get to see him all the time and men need stupid stuff like that. Let them go every once in a while.”
“I know, but we just got here and dad drags him away. I wanted to talk to my boys too. I mean they are like my two favorite people in the world…next to you two of course.”
Roam Around The Earth: Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure #2 (Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventures) Page 7
