Josh asks, “Could that have been what killed Davidson?”
“Probably, but the U.S. government hasn’t released Davidson’s autopsy report and probably won’t. That toxin has been known to intelligence agencies for years, but was originally developed by Russia during the Cold War. We also know Harrison was born in the U.K., but his mother wasn’t. Anastasia Sokolov was a Russian immigrant. On top of that, we’ve heard rumors that Russia is working on a new type offensive weapon that’s concealable.” He looks at Josh. “And you told me you were under surveillance by Russian agents, probably the FIS.”
Josh tilts his head. “Ok, we’ve talked about means but what would their motive be?”
“Russia is strongly opposed to a U.N. brokered elimination of nuclear weapons and has refused to fund the United Nations. That’s why we don’t have Russian astronauts on the station right now. Russia was also one of the few countries that voted to release the Raptor virus to destroy Jen.”
“What’s their issue?”
Turan says, “I’m speculating but many of the people in power lived under the totalitarian Soviet regime. They have an inherent distrust of centralized government like the U.N., or anything else they can’t control … including an artificial intelligence. And no world leader dislikes the Secretary-General more than the new Russian President Alexander Volkov. It’s also been suggested that he secretly belongs to an extremist religious sect.”
Meadows nods. “I haven’t met him yet, but the media paints him as very nationalistic and rather paranoid.”
Josh asks Meadows, “What does he have against the Secretary-General?”
“Volkov was a Russian emissary to the Middle East when our Secretary-General was the two-star in charge of air strikes. They definitely crossed swords.”
Josh frowns. “You really think Russia could be involved?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a faction or an organization within Russia.” He pauses. “Or, it could be part of some unholy alliance that temporarily shares a common cause like the destruction of the U.N. and Jen.”
Josh nods. “Time to learn Russian and visit my old friend, Christoff Bobinski.”
“Hopefully we’ll come up with some other leads.” Turan pauses. “In the meantime, you deserve a break.” He gave him a half-smile. “One of the U.N.’s biggest formal balls is in two days.”
Josh shakes his head. “Don’t have time. I need to find out what Bobinski knows.”
Meadows gives him a meaningful look and slowly says, “I think it would be a good move on your part to take your wife to that ball.”
Turan adds, “Josh, I’ve been working closely with her. She’s truly an amazing woman.” He also gives him a serious look. “I agree with Joe. You need to spend some time with her.”
Frowning, Josh nods slowly. “I understand and … thanks.”
III
PROBE
21
BALL
As they leave the meeting, Joe hands Josh his phone.
Josh gives him a puzzled look as he takes it. “Hello?”
“Josh?” It’s Elizabeth.
He frowns at Joe and gets a look that says, “You better not screw this up.”
Despite his frustration with her apathy and lack of communication, he quickly resets and opens with an apology. “Uh, Elizabeth, I’m sorry. I know I’ve been a jerk and I apologize.”
There’s a pause and finally a slightly strained, “Accepted. I’m … I’m sorry too. I haven’t been very understanding and I’ve been too caught up in my own world.” She pauses and he hears her quietly say, “I … I heard you were up on the ISLO?”
“Yes.”
He hears her take a deep breath and then more enthusiastically, “Josh that’s so amazing!”
“Yeah, it was incredible. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.”
“On the news they said there was a fire onboard.” Sounding a little lighter and more like his Elizabeth, she adds, “Why do I suspect you were involved?”
He laughs. “We’ll talk about it when I get to New York.” He pauses. “Someone told me the U.N.’s biggest ball of the year is tomorrow. May I take you?”
He could almost see her smile. “Oh my, yes! But I don’t have anything to wear.”
“Well … better get shopping. My flight lands two hours before the ball and—”
“And you don’t have a tux.” She laughs. “Don’t worry. I got you covered, literally. Josh, I can’t wait.”
He takes a cab from LaGuardia to her apartment. As he starts to put his key in the lock, he stops, takes a deep breath and knocks on the door.
A smiling Greek goddess opens it. Her gown is a classic flowing waterfall of white silk that highlights her sensational figure and complements her beautiful tan complexion. All he can say is, “Wow! You look absolutely stunning.”
“I better. I spent a day finding the gown and shoes, and,” she grimaces, “a week’s worth of wages.” She kisses him and smiles. Holding both his hands, she adds, “I really want to hear about everything that happened, but we’re running late.” She hands him a tux on a hanger. “So, if it’s ok, why don’t you get dressed while I finish my makeup and we can talk at the ball?”
He smiles and nods. “Yes ma’am.”
They arrive fashionably late. As they make their entrance, male and female heads swivel. With his simple black tux, he’s the canvas on which she’s painted. His only bent to fashion is outrageously colorful socks. As they walk by a large mirror, he realizes they aren’t the usual wedding cake couple but they do look extremely good together.
Joe Meadows finds them. He pats Josh on the back and says to Elizabeth, “Wow! You make that gown look incredible.”
As they talk about their adventures with the Blaster, Josh confirms tragedy plus time equals comedy. Then Josh notices Elizabeth’s eyes light up. He turns and sees Turan approaching, surrounded by a small cloud of groupies. They’re young upwardly mobile professionals trying to impress him. As he gets closer, they hear him say to his cloud, “Would you please excuse me, I need to talk a little shop.”
Josh notices looks of envy directed their way as Turan joins them.
Sweeping his eyes up and down Elizabeth, Turan says, “Josh, you have incredible taste. Elizabeth, you are absolutely breathtaking.”
Elizabeth blushes and with a dismissive smile, says, “What, this old thing?”
Then Turan nods toward Josh and says to her, “And Elizabeth you, you have, well … pretty good taste.”
Josh gives a good-natured shake of his head. “I’m just an accessory.”
“Not true, you’re almost as good looking as me.”
Elizabeth laughs. “Ok, now it’s getting deep.” Taking Turan and Meadows’ empty glasses, she says, “Let me get you some more champagne.”
As she leaves, Turan says to Josh, “You did good.”
“I clearly married above my level.” He pauses with a small smile. “Unfortunately, I think she’s figured that out.”
Looking serious, Turan asks, “How’s it going?”
“Better, but—” Before he can answer, he hears a loud, “Josh!”
Looking up, he sees a beautiful woman in a sexy gown with long black hair and mocha skin. As she makes a beeline for him, he suddenly realizes it’s … Wendy! He’s never seen her with long hair and rarely with a grin. Framed in a beautiful cascade of curly locks, her smile takes her face to supermodel status. She also looks taller in heels and wears an amazing ball gown. On a scale of classic to Hollywood scandalous, her gown definitely leans heavily toward the latter. Using a minimum of material, it accentuates her exceptional assets, leaving room for nothing underneath.
Closing rapidly with a glass of champagne in hand, she says, “Josh, you look awesome!”
Before he can reply, she wraps her other hand around his neck and pulls him in for a kiss … held just a moment too long. As he comes up for air, he sees Elizabeth approaching with two glasses of champagne. More importantly, he sees t
hat … she saw.
With clearly raised eyebrows, Elizabeth hands the glasses to Turan and Meadows, who are both looking at him with sympathy.
Josh immediately motions toward Elizabeth and quickly says, “Colonel Crow, I don’t think you’ve met my wife, Elizabeth.”
Wendy turns a little too fast and with a significantly reduced smile, holds out her hand. “Uh, glad to meet you.”
It doesn’t require Josh’s finely attuned senses to tell that the champagne in Wendy’s hand isn’t her first.
Elizabeth, very civilly, says, “It’s good to meet you,” and with a slight frown, asks, “You worked closely with Josh?”
Hearing the emphasis on “closely,” Josh quickly inserts, “Colonel Crow is the astronaut on the ISLO that I—”
“Closely?!” Wendy interrupts with a loud laugh. “That’s hilarious. We were wedged into a one-person pod like sardines.” She becomes more serious. “He not only got me out of the burning module, he somehow managed to resuscitate me inside that pod.” She unconsciously puts her hand on his arm as her smile returns. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him.”
Elizabeth’s expression softens. “I’m glad it worked out. He didn’t mention any of the details.” She glances at him. “But he has an amazing ability to be at the right place … at the wrong time.”
Squeezing his arm, Wendy’s smile leaves and her eyes unfocus. “Facing something like that changes your outlook on life and what’s important.” She takes a big swig of champagne, adding, “After almost dying twice…” She shakes her head and exhales sharply. “I don’t know what I would have done without Josh helping me through the night.” Refocusing, she looks back at Elizabeth and with an artificial laugh, says, “Sorry, TMI.”
Meadows steps in. “Colonel Crow, I totally forgot, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” He gently takes her elbow. As he guides her away, she looks back and says to Elizabeth, “Nice to meet you,” and with a warm smile at Josh, “I’ll be back.”
As she leaves, Josh turns to face the Sith Lord.
Softly, but with steel in her voice, she says, “Helped her through the night?”
Turan backs away looking at the blank screen of his phone. “I better take this.”
“Elizabeth, it was nothing but—”
“She didn’t think so.” she interrupts and then takes a deep breath. In a calm but deadly voice, she quietly says, “Did you spend the night with her?”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Did you or did you not sleep with her?”
Josh shakes his head. “You don’t understand what happened. It was the only way to—”
“You slept with her?!”
“She was almost killed. All I did was—”
No longer keeping her voice down. “When were you going to tell me this?!”
“We came straight here and I didn’t know she’d be here.” He shakes his head realizing that didn’t help. “I couldn’t tell you on the phone because I was on a sensitive mission and—”
“Mission? Seriously?! You didn’t even bother to tell me you were going to the space station … maybe now I know why.”
He frowns. “I called you and I called your office a dozen times!”
With narrowed eyes, she says, “That’s not true and don’t change the subject.”
Taking a deep breath, he tries to keep calm as he says, “I would love to stay on the subject but you won’t let me explain what happened. I couldn’t talk about the mission on the phone because—”
“No Josh! There was no mission! You were up there because I talked to Meadows. Because I … I felt sorry for you.” Her eyes get a little glassy but her voice holds no sympathy.
He shakes his head. “That’s not true! You don’t understand what’s going on.”
She holds up a hand cutting him off.
Now, he’s angry. “How about you explaining why you never answered my calls and why there were so many late-night meetings with Turan.”
“So, sleeping with her is retaliation for your insecurity?!”
With a clenched jaw, he says forcefully, “I didn’t sleep with her … I mean, I didn’t…!” He stops. Finally, shaking his head in resignation, he says softly, “Believe what you want.” As he turns away, he says, “I’m sorry. I’ve … I’ve got to go.”
22
RUSSIA
Josh leaves the U.N. compound walking quickly toward Elizabeth’s apartment. It’s been a long time since he’s been this angry and frustrated. He understands the encounter with Wendy was embarrassing for both of them, but in the past, Elizabeth would have assumed he was innocent and would have waited for the explanation. She doesn’t trust him anymore and went out of her way to trivialize his trip to the station.
He’s also rapidly losing trust in her. He left multiple voicemails and texts, but he also left messages with her office manager. Even if there was a problem with her phone, she couldn’t have missed them all. He knows she’s infatuated with Turan but thought it was nothing beyond that. Now he’s not sure. He couldn’t help but notice she blushed in response to Turan’s compliment, making Turan’s warning clear.
He believes she’s subconsciously overreacting to Wendy to justify her attraction to Turan. Frowning, he realizes that competing with Turan is next to impossible. He’s remarkably similar to Josh … only better. He appears to have Josh’s abilities … plus charisma, natural leadership and power. If Turan returns her interest, Josh is toast. Finally, he says quietly to himself, “Not going down without a fight. Need to prove I’m neither useless nor paranoid.”
He pulls out his phone and texts, “Christoff, it’s Josh Fuze. Doing some business travel through Russia. If you’re around, love to drop by.”
He receives an immediate reply. “In Moscow now. Join me for a glass of Jack.”
Josh remembers Christoff’s taste for Jack Daniels. Checking the flights to Moscow, he makes reservations on the next flight out of New York, which leaves in two hours.
Arriving back at the apartment to change clothes, he knows he and Elizabeth both need time to cool off before talking, but part of him hopes she’ll be there.
She’s not. He changes and throws some clothes in his bag. As he heads to the airport, he realizes it might not have been the best idea to leave her at the ball with Turan, but he’s mad and it’s time to get back to work. It’s not just Carl and Kelly at risk, his daughter could be in danger.
While waiting for his flight, Josh glances around the airport waiting area. There are very few people, so he puts on his Bluetooth headset and tentatively asks, “Jesse, you there?”
Yes.
“Never cease to be amazed that I can still talk to you, or more accurately, that you still talk to me.” He shakes his head. “I’ll start by apologizing. Once again, I think humanity’s in trouble, and as usual, I just pissed off someone I love. In both cases, it’s almost certainly a self-inflicted wound.”
He realizes he’s flinching, expecting disgust or dismissal, but as always, senses nothing but Jesse’s quiet attention.
Yes?
He’s relieved, but he doesn’t want to talk about Elizabeth yet. “Jesse, during our last conversation you said the only thing that could destroy sentient life was sentient life. Part of me was naïve enough to think we were finally moving toward a sane world, but after what happened on the space station….” He shakes his head.
Free will.
“What?”
You assume everyone embraces life and light.
Frowning, he asks, “Light?”
What’s the opposite of light?
“Dark?”
Define it.
“The absence of light?”
There’s no response.
“Uh … cold, dark chaos, death.” He pauses. “Are you suggesting some people embrace that?”
There’s still no response.
“Guess that’s a stupid question. Regardless of what ideology someone follows, snuffing out innocent li
fe, by definition, embraces darkness. But how do you stop darkness?”
You can’t, but you can increase the light.
His flight begins boarding.
He lands in Moscow, rents a car and heads to the address Christoff gave him. It’s two hours outside the city.
He ends up in the country and turns onto a heavily forested dirt road. After 20 minutes on a winding dirt road, it ends at a secluded but impressive cabin on a lake. An A-frame, made of real logs, it stands two stories high.
Christoff meets him outside. Despite being Russian through and through, he still looks like a bearded sixty-year-old Sean Connery.
They shake hands and looking around, Josh says, “Nice place.”
“Belonged to former KGB head during Soviet days. He lives in Argentina now. Good to see you. I was not sure you survived until we heard about your involvement in Great Tech Out.”
“Yes, that was interesting. And you did a phenomenal job building all those lasers on the mountaintop.”
Christoff shrugs. “When personnel and material are unlimited, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”
Josh nods. “Let’s switch to Russian. I’m trying to become proficient in it. Please correct me.”
“Dah.”
In Russian, Josh says, “It really is great to see you too and I’d like to catch up on what you’ve been doing. Is there somewhere we can talk, where we won’t be,” he raises his eyebrows slightly, “bothered?” He knows Christoff, who already has a strong distaste for the KGB and CIA, understands what he’s hinting at.
“Let’s go fishing.”
They go inside. It’s a rustic but luxurious cabin with an indoor sauna, home theater and gourmet kitchen.
Christoff hands Josh a sweater and two fishing poles. Then he picks up a bottle of Single Barrel Jack Daniels and two glasses, adding, “Leave your phone here.”
Josh follows him outside to a dock where they hop into a small boat powered by a tiny outboard. The two-stroke motor looks like it came out of a museum. After a few pulls, Christoff gets it started and they motor out into the middle of the lake. Shutting off the motor, Christoff says, “It’s very private.”
Impossible (Fuzed Trilogy Book 3) Page 11
