Out of Sight (Project Athena) Read online

  “Precautions.”

  All desire to tease slid away. Jenna resisted the urge to turn around and see if anyone was following them. “Is there something I should know?”

  “No.”

  “Figures. You know, if you keep driving for about ten more hours, we’ll be back in Nashville.”

  He didn’t respond. The moment their plane had landed, most of his teasing evaporated. Without it, there was nothing to lighten the seriousness of the situation.

  Jenna crossed her arms. “So, are you going to tell me yet why I’m here?”

  “Because we need someone with your talent.”

  “Don’t be surprised when you never win the Mr. Specificity Award.”

  He stared at her in a way that proved unnerving.

  “Shouldn’t you be watching where you’re going, or does this beast drive itself?”

  “Are you always so sarcastic?”

  “No, you just bring out my good side.”

  Daniel looked on the verge of responding, but his cell phone rang. He flipped it open. “Webster.”

  She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know what the conversation was about, so she stared out her window, admiring the Jefferson Memorial in the distance. D.C. was one of those surreal places where it seemed like you were stepping into a nightly news broadcast.

  Daniel ended the call and parked in front of a tall, glass-enclosed office building. She’d expected imposing stone and armed guards, but perhaps this was a more effective, unexpected disguise.

  The urge to latch on to her seat and refuse to leave the SUV gripped Jenna. She’d stared down drug dealers, pimps, wife beaters, even gunrunners, and never felt the all-consuming fear she did now. She’d never dealt with people with this kind of power.

  Daniel must have seen her fear reflected in her eyes. “They won’t hurt you.”

  Not until they’re done with me anyway.

  “Can’t say I’m comforted by your assurances when I don’t even know who they are.”

  Daniel led the way inside and across a spacious lobby filled with huge potted plants. As they rode the elevator up, she tried to think of a sarcastic comment to lighten the moment but her mind failed her. It was too filled with what might await her at the end of the elevator ride.

  But it wasn’t a gurney with restraints or beefy giants armed with needles. A brightly lit office that could have been anything from an insurance company to a travel agency welcomed her to the tenth floor.

  “Hi, Daniel, haven’t seen you in awhile,” the lovely blonde at the front desk said as they entered.

  “Hey, Sandi.”

  “Go on back. He’s expecting you.”

  Jenna glanced around the room for some identifying sign, but nothing gave away the goings-on inside these office walls.

  Daniel slid a magnetic key card in an office door, but when he opened it, Jenna found herself facing another elevator. She hesitated.

  Daniel stood inside, watching her. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m afraid this is the elevator to hell.”

  He smiled. “No, just the basement.”

  Basement. Underground bunker. Prison. She didn’t move.

  “I reacted the same way the first time I came here, but I made it back to the surface,” he said.

  She could go on her own or be pulled to the basement by force. This might look like an insurance company, but she already had that “watched” feeling crawling over her again. Only this time, it wasn’t her imagination.

  She hesitated for a moment, then stepped onto the elevator. When the elevator began to descend, her stomach fell even faster. It didn’t help when she glanced at Daniel and saw how his face had lost any trace of humor. With the lack of emotion and the rigidity of his stance, he looked like a Fed.

  Jenna inhaled sharply when the elevator dinged and the door opened. Without a word or even a look in her direction, Daniel stepped off and headed down yet another hallway. Had this labyrinth been constructed to confuse those who entered so much that they couldn’t find their way out?

  Daniel was several feet down the hall by the time Jenna shook herself and followed. She caught up to him as he was opening another door. “Does this door lead to Oz?”

  He didn’t answer, but instead swung the door open to reveal an interrogation room minus the large metal table and opposing chairs. Nondescript concrete walls. Fluorescent lighting. A couch pushed against one wall. No two-way mirror graced the opposite wall, but Jenna didn’t doubt the room had video and audio surveillance. Her skin prickled.

  Daniel gestured toward the couch. “Have a seat.”

  “I’ll stand.” She wanted to pace, but someone was watching her and she didn’t want him to know her nerves were making her stomach roll. Instead, she scanned every corner of the room.

  “You’ll never find it.” The voice came out of nowhere, yet seemed to project from all directions.

  “You seem confident about that.”

  The man chuckled. “My dear, if you stood in that room until you were eighty years old, you wouldn’t find our little eye into your world.”

  “Well, since I’m not planning on staying in your lovely accommodations that long, I guess we won’t find out.”

  “Smart, snappy. So much like your father.”

  Jenna stiffened, afraid these people would sense how much the information they held meant to her. That would give them too much power, and she’d already forfeited more than she liked. “And you’re nothing like him. He never hid from anything.”

  “Jenna,” Daniel warned under his breath.

  She ignored him. These people might have managed to get her here, but she’d be damned if she’d dance to their tune the rest of her life. She’d do what was necessary, no more.

  “You know nothing of the precautions we must take,” the disembodied voice said.

  “If today’s travel itinerary is any indication, I have some idea.”

  “I’m sure Daniel has told you why we’ve recruited you.”

  She said nothing. They knew what she was capable of, but she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of hearing her admit it.

  A faint whirring heralded the appearance of a flat screen that descended from the ceiling against the far wall. A grainy video began to play. Jenna schooled her facial features not to reveal her fear as she watched the bank video from the day of the robbery.

  She saw herself take those careful steps back. And then the sliver of herself that still remained visible to the camera disappearing. Daniel hadn’t lied. She really had misjudged. And even more damning — that momentary lapse when the gunman had fired. Her stomach churned violently, and she could have thrown up on command.

  “As you can see, we are well aware of your unique ability, one that will serve your country well.”

  “I’m not becoming a Fed.”

  “I think you’ll change your mind when you see what we can offer you.”

  The image on the screen changed to a man holding a newspaper. Her breath caught in her chest. It couldn’t be. It was impossible. She walked toward the image, trying to convince herself it was a fake engineered to ensure her cooperation. But hope couldn’t be quelled.

  An older version of her father stared back at her holding a copy of The Washington Post dated October 1, 2002.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Jenna’s body went numb, as if she’d been given an extended jolt from a stun gun. All those years she’d thought her father dead, yet here was possible proof he was still alive. Or had been three years ago.

  “Is this picture real?”

  “Yes,” the unseen man said.

  Her eyes burned and she spun away from the image, scanned the room for the electronic eye. “I want answers, and I want them now.”

  “We’ll give you what information we can.”

  “No, you will give me every scrap of information you have, have had, or ever thought about having, or I walk away from you and your mysterious assignment.”

  “That
might prove difficult and unwise.”

  A potent mixture of fury and fear pulsed beneath Jenna’s skin. “Don’t threaten me.”

  “It’s more a statement of fact. Remember, we’re the ones who can give you the answers you’ve sought for so long, that closure.”

  Jenna jerked at the phrasing. “Closure? What do you mean? Is my father dead?” Would fate give her this unexpected flicker of hope only to dump her into a new wave of mourning?

  “That is one question we cannot answer.”

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Can’t. We know he was alive at the date on the newspaper, but we’ve heard nothing since.”

  “Who sent the photo?” Silence greeted the question, and in the pause Jenna clenched her fists. Would the unseen man require her commitment before he divulged more?

  “An anti-American terrorist group. He was either originally captured by them or fell into their hands later.”

  “That narrows it down. In case you haven’t noticed, those are fairly common these days.”

  “Yes, but you’ve never heard of this one on the evening news.”

  “Where are they based?”

  “They move around. They began in the Soviet Union in the early seventies, worked out of China for a few years. Now, they appear to be enjoying the hospitality of North Korea. Very multi-national, multi-ethnic.”

  “Have there been any ransom demands?”

  “No.”

  “Then why send the picture?”

  “It wasn’t sent to us. We intercepted it. We believe it was being sent to someone who might have wanted access to the information your father had.”

  Something about the explanation didn’t sound right. “Eighteen years after he was captured? Not killing him immediately would make sense if they wanted to pump him for information, but what would they hope to get after all that time?”

  “Leverage perhaps. Who knows how the minds of terrorists work.”

  “I thought that was your department.” She caught the look on Daniel’s face, the warning to tread carefully. “So...North Korea. When do I leave?”

  “I’m afraid that isn’t your destination. Our most pressing needs are a bit more domestic.”

  “More pressing than getting my father back from terrorists who might decide at any moment that they don’t really need him anymore?”

  “Yes. Besides, we don’t know if he’s still there, if he ever was.”

  “Do you have agents in the area looking?” If they dropped her at the DMZ, she wouldn’t know what to do. A single trip to Toronto was her only out-of-the-country experience, but at least there she’d looked like everyone else.

  “Some things are more important than your father’s life.”

  Jenna would give a year’s pay for her Glock right now. She ached to find the man behind the voice or ventilate the building in the effort. “Listen, you blackmailing bastard. Let’s get one thing straight. If I help you with whatever it is you want me to do, you pull out all the stops to search for my father and you don’t stop until you find him.”

  “Understood.”

  “You planning on telling me anytime soon what this secret assignment is?”

  “Are you in?”

  Jenna resisted the urge to look back at the image of the man her father had become. This coward hiding from her now already knew the answer, and not having a choice burned her royally. She caught Daniel’s gaze. “I’m in.”

  A flash out of the corner of her eye made Jenna turn back toward the screen. Her father’s photo was gone, replaced by a blueprint.

  “Do you know what building this is?”

  She stepped closer, then read the descriptions. Blue Room. Lincoln Bedroom. “The White House.”

  “You will learn every inch of the layout because you’ll be working there beginning tomorrow.”

  She looked at Daniel, who gave a slight nod, then back at the blueprint. Holy hell. What had she gotten into? She swallowed.

  “Secret Service?”

  “No. Janitorial staff.”

  She snorted. “And my mother didn’t think the time at the academy would pay off.”

  “You may find this humorous, but the situation is deadly serious,” the disembodied voice said. “We have reason to believe an assassination attempt against the president is being planned — by someone who has regular access to the White House.”

  “And you want me to find out who?” Good Lord, she wasn’t trained for this kind of thing.

  The magnitude of the assignment weighed on Jenna. She couldn’t accept that the life of the leader of the free world could rest in her hands. She protected lives every day, but this was much more than a single man’s life.

  “Yes.”

  “What about Secret Service? The FBI?” Anybody besides her.

  “They can’t investigate totally undetected. And we’re not eliminating anyone as a suspect.”

  “So, since you can’t go poking around the White House, you need someone undercover to do it for you.”

  “Yes, undercover would be one word for it.”

  Everyone present knew about her supernatural ability now, but Jenna still refused to admit it out loud. Her mother’s long-ago warning had dug its talons in deep, and she doubted they would ever lessen their grip.

  “If this person already has access, what are they waiting for?”

  “We don’t know, but the threat is credible.”

  She took a deep breath. “Any clues who’s behind it?”

  “No. All we have is the anonymous note the president received telling him that he’s not the world’s policeman and he should back off if he knows what’s good for him. It was attached to an article about a speech he’d given on how it was the responsibility of powerful nations to ensure justice and equality around the world.”

  “How do you know it’s not a hoax, someone’s idea of a joke?”

  “Because it was written on White House letterhead,” Daniel said.

  “And yes, we’ve had it checked and it’s authentic,” the hidden man added.

  “Plus, it didn’t come through the regular mail. It was left on his desk in a stack of inter-office memos,” Daniel added.

  “Has the president been warned?”

  “Yes, he and only a couple other top people,” Daniel said. “Considering the note came from the White House, we don’t know who to trust and who to suspect. And since we haven’t notified the Secret Service that there could be a possible threat, we don’t have any reason to be snooping around.”

  “Shouldn’t the Secret Service know? They’re the ones protecting the president.”

  “We have to be sure it’s not one of them first.”

  “Not to mention that only a handful of people even know we exist,” mystery man said.

  “Who are you guys anyway?” Jenna asked.

  “That is something we’ll work toward, just like more information about your father.”

  Her jaws tightened. “Fine. But we work out the details of when I get information about my father before I leave here.”

  A pause followed in which Jenna hoped she hadn’t pushed too far. After all, she was deep in some government hidey-hole and no one other than the federal boys knew she was here. She doubted she could fight her way out. And she couldn’t forget that those sinister medical facilities might lie underneath this modern office building as well.

  “That’s reasonable,” the man said. “You will be our eyes and ears inside. You’ll place yourself in positions to overhear as many conversations as possible and watch for suspicious activity.”

  Jenna paced across the room and crossed her arms. “Is an assassin really going to be discussing his plan while walking down the White House hallway?”

  “We have to start somewhere, Miss McCay,” the hidden man said. “And during the times you’re invisible, you might be able to spot who wrote the note if others appear. The fact that the note came from inside the White House makes it imperative we work quickly. You’ll rep
ort in on each day’s progress, and we will give you an amount of information we feel is proportionate to the information you’ve garnered for us.”

  “And what if I disagree with your determination?”

  “That’s your prerogative, but it won’t change the outcome.”

  Jenna swallowed her pride and the nasty comment she wanted to hurl at the hidden man. “If I begin tomorrow, you’d better start filling me in.” Her skin crawled as she imagined the man smiling in triumph.

  For the next five hours, Daniel and the ironically invisible head honcho threw background at her at a rate roughly equivalent to that of bullets flying from a machine gun. Even when pizza was delivered — no surprise they knew her favorite was plain cheese without even asking — they kept quizzing her about White House staffers’ names, backgrounds, physical appearances. As midnight came and went, they made her repeatedly draw the floor plan of the White House.

  “Draw it again,” Daniel said.

  Jenna pitched her pencil across the room, ricocheting it off the opposite wall. “I’ve got the floor plan down, okay?”