Blue Skies

by Ali Vali

  “We’ll go with that assumption then that Chandler is indeed behind this, but I want him brought in under the radar. If there’s a leak I’m going to assume it came from someone in this room and you’ll find yourself without a place at this table if anyone decides to go that route,” Peter said. “If the information gathered so far is correct, then the terrorist’s game has changed, but this is no Ruby Ridge or Waco.”

  Peter pointed to Duke Stiel, the current head of the FBI, who had so far nodded at everything he’d said. “I want you to split this investigation between your agency and Drew’s people, Duke.”

  “It might be better if we bring Mr. Chandler in for questioning since he’s still advising Congress on energy matters. We can tell him that we need his help with some vetting issues.” Duke paused as if to see if there would be any objections. “This is a man with deep connections in every branch of government, industry, and foreign entities, so we have to tread carefully.”

  “If he’s guilty then he’s going down, I don’t care who he knows,” Sawyer said.

  “I’ll be glad to be the one who escorts him to a small cell one day, but we need to have all the facts we can get our hands on before we accuse someone like this of treason and terrorism. Shoot blind and he’ll drive anyone working for him underground so deep it’ll take dynamite to find them,” Duke said and pointed at Sawyer. “Do you want that?”

  “I think we can all agree that something has to be done, and all the evidence collected as soon as we can,” Peter said. He knocked on the table once with his knuckles to bring the meeting back under control. “I want you to break into teams and get this done.”

  “Sir, I don’t mean to interrupt, but what would you like from Commander Levine and me?” Aidan asked.

  The president gazed at her and smiled. “Everyone, if you could excuse us a minute, I’d like to speak to Capitan Sullivan and Commander Levine,” he said and everyone headed for the door. “Drew, please join us.”

  “Mr. President, before we begin I’d like to thank you for the privilege you honored me with when you gave me the helm of the Jefferson. I realize that things didn’t turn out like we planned, but it’ll be the highlight of my career,” Aidan said.

  “Aidan, I hope that you don’t mind me calling you that,” the president said and Aidan nodded. “I’m not here to tell you what a bad job you did, because from the reports I’ve gotten what you were able to do in this situation is beyond the call and deserves congratulations from a grateful nation. You and Berkley epitomize what’s right with the military.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Berkley said.

  “Before I answer you as to why you’re here, let me tell you a little story.” The president waved them closer. “I promise I don’t bite,” he joked. “I started my career working in the inner city with kids no one gave a damn about, and that got me to the city council and eventually to the state house. The senate was a fluke chance that worked out for me in the end, and I was able to get a pretty good promotion from the American people. Through it all what I learned on the streets held true no matter what office I held.”

  “What’s that, sir?” Berkley asked.

  “That people who think like Rodney and Dick Chandler, if that’s who he’s working for, take one look at segments of society and totally dismiss them because of their beliefs. It’s only a woman, or a black man, or whoever they think is beneath them and they move on.”

  The president talked in his usual elegant but calm style even though his audience was so small, and Berkley found herself nodding. “You might come from New York, sir, but my father volunteers his time in New Orleans working with the kids you were just talking about. You can decide to dismiss them if you like, but if you turn your back on any of them you’ll find yourself wising you’d paid more attention.”

  “Then you understand where I’m coming from,” the president said. “This is going to play out one of two ways. If this is Dick, he’s either going to totally ignore you as a non-threat, or having you two involved will make him concentrate his people into bringing you down.”

  “So our new official role will be bait?” Aidan asked.

  “I’m not taking your commission away from you, Aidan, but I’m asking you to come ashore for a bit and lead this investigation with Berkley. If I sign the order, the choice will be out of your hands, but I’d rather it be voluntary on both your parts.” The president stood and held out his hand. “So to answer your question, you can consider yourself bait, but if I’m right this time around the shark will find himself on the dock gutted and filleted, hating himself for not paying closer attention.”

  “That’s very complimentary, sir, thank you.” Berkley stood and shook his hand. It wasn’t the job she’d signed up for when she decided to follow Aidan, but the president was right. Shaking his hand made it a binding agreement, but the different agencies and people they’d have to work with would know it was something they took on. For morale later on if things didn’t go well, that would go a longer way than if the team the president put together thought they were working with someone forced to be at their side.

  “We’ll do our best not to let you down,” Aidan added.

  “Considering what I’ve asked of you already, I’m not worried. You’ve earned your spots at this table, and Drew will see that you get the support you need to do what’s necessary,” the president said and told them good night.

  “If it’s not something you really want to do, I’ll talk to him,” Drew said when the president left.

  “Do you really think the former vice president is planning a coup against the government?” Berkley asked.

  “You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that,” Drew said. “The country has become a place people like Dick don’t recognize anymore, and it’s being led by a man who doesn’t fit their mold of someone who deserves the office. Things like that make a man crazy, and we’re in for some insane times.”

  “Don’t worry, Drew, we’re going to work with you,” Aidan said.

  “That makes me feel better since I know I can trust you, and with who’s been recruited for the other side, that level of trust has been in short supply lately.”

  “Let’s get to it, then,” Berkley said.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Duke Stiel pulled his jacket down as the agent driving turned into the long, winding driveway that led to former Vice President Chandler’s Virginia estate. The charcoal suit suddenly felt too tight on him as he contemplated having to bring in the man a good number of people in the high levels of government and some of the public thought was the real brains behind the last administration. Dick might’ve been unpopular with the general public, but in law enforcement circles like the FBI, he held near hero status because he’d fought so hard to lower the standards to make cases or actually question someone.

  “Is he expecting us, sir?” the agent asked.

  This wasn’t the first time Duke had been to the farm, as Dick referred to it, and they had never followed the drive to the front door. That was only for guests who weren’t friends of the former vice president, and they were welcomed but kept at arm’s length. Duke’s visits had never started at the front door but rather around back where the large mahogany paneled study had its own private entrance.

  “No. So go around front,” Duke said, willing to carry out the president’s orders but also wanting to give his old friend a warning that this wasn’t a friendly visit.

  The big house came into view and the strategically placed lights illuminated the stately columns that lined the front of the two-story house that sat nestled in a stand of large trees. It was lit but there was no movement to alert them that anyone was home, and Duke almost let out a relieved breath.

  They’d brought along only two cars. Enough to accommodate the Secret Service men assigned to Dick and his wife if she wanted to accompany him, so Duke put his hand up to keep them in their seats. With one last tug at his clothing, Duke climbed the ten steps to the door and hesitated before
he pressed the doorbell, listening for any sound from inside. The only noise was the hum of the Suburbans behind him and the call of an owl in the distance.

  When he pressed the bell there was only a sudden but brief excruciating pain.

  *

  Aidan stood in the middle of her bedroom toweling off her hair after the long, hot shower she’d shared with Berkley. The apartment that had for so long seemed like a storage unit for her clothes and bed felt more like a home with Berkley walking around the place in a robe, waiting for the pizza they’d ordered.

  They had chosen to put off any discussion of their surreal day until they’d eaten and slept for at least six hours. “This seems weird, doesn’t it?” she called out to Berkley.

  The phone rang and the doorman gave her notice that the pizza delivery man was on his way up. “What?” Berkley asked when she came in to retrieve her wallet.

  “Pay the guy and then I’ll tell you,” Aidan said and laughed when Berkley tweaked her nipple and closed the door behind her. “It’s a good thing she still doesn’t like to share,” Aidan told her reflection when she went back into the bathroom to hang up the wet towel. She joined Berkley at the counter that separated her den from the kitchen and sat next to her on one of the tall stools in a pair of sleep pants and T-shirt with Navy stitched across her chest.

  Berkley opened the refrigerator and opened two cold beers before she sat down. “What’s strange aside from the fact that there are big chunks of pineapple on my pizza?” Berkley asked.

  “That’s not strange, baby, so quit complaining and try it.” Aidan held up her piece to Berkley’s mouth. “What I was talking about is that this is such a normal night here with you, doing what I’m sure a lot of people are right now, and yet there’s all this stuff going on. Do you think their theory is too out there?”

  “I’m sure we’ll have a better idea once we get to read all the info they collected now that we have those dandy all-clearance decoder rings the president gave us.” Berkley laughed. “Seriously, though, I’d tell you it’s all bullshit, but nothing surprises me anymore. People don’t feel right about something these days and they pick up a gun instead of uttering a word.”

  “I have a few words for you.” Aidan fed Berkley some more pizza. She gladly put it down when Berkley gently batted her hand away and kissed her. When Berkley’s tongue passed her lips, all the stress that had built up from the moment they left the Jefferson’s deck gave way and another feeling altogether flourished in her groin.

  This was what she missed about Berkley the most. Her lover was to most a hardnosed military pilot who had a habit of knocking you on your ass if you were out of line, but then there was this side of her that only a few had ever experienced. Berkley had a way of building a desire in you that robbed you of any reason or caution that could arise in your brain.

  The leather sofa in her den felt cold under her back for only a moment when Berkley put her down after carrying her there, but the discomfort was short lived when Berkley snaked her hand under her shirt and squeezed her breast and sucked her nipple through the garment. The television was on, but the soft murmurs of MSNBC were easy to ignore as Berkley lay next to her.

  “I don’t want to wait,” Aidan said out of breath. “Please, baby.”

  “I thought about this when I was walking through that barren landscape praying that I’d see you again,” Berkley said softly before she moved to the other breast. “That I’d get to do this again.” She flattened her hand and ran it down Aidan’s stomach and under the elastic of her sleep pants.

  Aidan closed her eyes and let the deep voice fill the cold, empty places in her like hot chocolate on a winter’s day. Her skin felt like it was on fire and the pressure in her groin was building to the point that she thought she’d come the second Berkley put her hand between her legs.

  “That’s what scared me the most,” Berkley said, her hand stopped on the top of Aidan’s sex.

  “What?” Aidan opened her eyes and placed her hands on Berkley’s face after she heard the rawness in her voice. “You can tell me.”

  “That I wouldn’t ever get the chance again to show you how much I love you.” Her hand went lower and Aidan saw the pure bliss in Berkley’s eyes when she felt how wet she was. “But most of all that I’d squandered this gift with my own stubbornness. I love you,” she whispered before lowering her head and kissing Aidan as her fingers slipped inside.

  To Aidan, it was where Berkley belonged. In that place that existed in her that held the deepest of her truths, she knew she’d never belong to anyone as fully as she did to Berkley. It wasn’t because of the great sex, or what Berkley brought to her life, but that Berkley was the one. The only person who’d hold the essence of who she was in the palm of those big hands, and it’d be safe forever.

  “I love you so much.” Aidan let out a grunt when the pad of Berkley’s thumb hit her clitoris. Trying to stop the reaction it caused in her body was like trying to turn back a tsunami. Her hips rose in rhythm with Berkley’s hand until the orgasm brought tears to her eyes. “Thank you for coming back to me.”

  “You don’t really ever lose anything that belongs to you, my beautiful girl.” Berkley carefully wiped her tears.

  Aidan smiled at the poetic side of Berkley and was going to chastise her for turning her head toward the television, but stopped when she saw what Berkley was staring at. The reporter was standing in front of a blazing inferno, talking excitedly with his hands. Berkley reached for the remote and turned up the volume.

  “From our accounts the explosion happened approximately an hour ago, completely destroying former Vice President Chandler’s home and surrounding buildings. There is no word yet whether Mr. and Mrs. Chandler were home at the time, but the FBI confirms that Director Duke Stiel was one of the agents killed in the blast.” The reporter pointed to the metal shell of the car. “What Director Stiel and the other agents were doing here has not been disclosed yet, but our colleague at the White House is investigating.”

  They both looked on in shock and then the phone rang.

  “Are you watching the news?” Drew asked before Aidan could say anything.

  “What happened?”

  “The bastard is gone and left no trail. He must’ve known we were coming and rigged the bombs to go off when whoever we sent pressed the doorbell. We have to wait for the fire to be put out before we can do anything, but I need you and Berkley ready to go in the morning.”

  “We’ll be there,” Aidan said and disconnected the line. “There was no sign of Chandler,” she told Berkley.

  “Ready or not, love, it’s begun.”

  About the Author

  Ali lives right outside New Orleans with her partner of many years. As a writer, she couldn’t ask for a better more beautiful place—so full of real-life characters to fuel the imagination. When she isn’t writing, working in the yard, cheering for the LSU Tigers, or riding her bicycle, she makes a living in the nonprofit sector.

  Ali has written The Devil Inside, The Devil Unleashed, Deal With the Devil, Carly’s Sound, Second Season, Calling the Dead, and Blue Skies and the soon-to-be-released The Devil Be Damned.