Clarissa hung up the phone and looked at the other three.
“We have under a minute before he calls back. What’s the crisis if not the airplane slamming into the George?”
Jeremy’s phone rang. “Hi, Miranda.”
The last thing Clarissa needed was for Miranda to become a factor in this. She was the one variable that always screwed up Clarissa’s plans whenever their paths crossed. Not that she had any plans at the moment to be screwed up by the annoying little woman.
“An incoming recorder for a KC-46 Pegasus crash? Sure, I can handle that.”
Was that the sudden crisis? No. If Miranda’s people had already arrived to investigate a crash, it was officially old news.
Taz nudged him in the ribs and then pointed toward the crash at the hotel.
“Oh, right. I might not get to it myself, but I’ll make sure the lab is watching for it. We’re in the middle of a launch for the AIB at the moment… Oh you, too?... Ours? Someone flew a USAF jet into the George Hotel. Killed a Senator Ramson, but they might have also been targeting D/CIA Clarissa Reese… No, she’s not dead. She’s right here…Yes, itwillsave the CIA the trouble of finding a new director.”
“What was Miranda’s launch?” Clarissa didn’t care, but she didn’t want Miranda, or anyone, on the topic of her near death. Someone targeting the D/CIA wasn’t completely unheard of and it sounded a little too likely that way. Several of her division directors wouldn’t shed so much as a crocodile tear at her demise.
A glance to Rose showed that she, too, was nearly as pale as her white Armani over the narrowness of her own escape.
“Really?” Jeremy gasped. Then whispered to Clarissa, “She heard your question.” Then turned his attention back to the phone. “Wild. Well, call if you need help from here.” And he hung up.
“She didn’t ask about the move?” Taz asked. “We’ve only been in DC for about four hours.”
“Didn’t need to. I texted the others as soon we arrived, so they all know we’re fine.”
“As if she cares,” Clarissa didn’t, but she knew the statement would piss off Taz—and it worked. So it was worth it.
“She cares,” Taz voice was so steady it could be used to slice steel. “In ways someone like you could never understand. Though, I admit, she’s not very skilled at showing it.”
“Spoken like a true acolyte. Do you bow at her holy altar every night?”
“Absolutely!” Taz drew that battle line and Clarissa was very tempted to charge through and point out a few of her beloved boss’ shortcomings.
Clarissa wondered how good it would feel to run Taz through with the bronze sword that the leader of the Cavalry Charge statue at Grant’s Monument held aloft.
“Jeremy, what was Miranda’s launch?” Rose tactfully changed the topic. She offered a look that hit Clarissa like a slap. As if she’d disappointed Rose by going after the little bitch. But Rose wasn’t merely a social powerhouse, she was a top powerbroker. There was no possible way Senator Hunter Ramson could have been half the man without her working behind the scenes on his behalf.
“Oh, she said we’ve lost an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. So, where did we leave off? Oh, right, your vehicle was being hit by debris. You said a chunk of brick the size of a small footstool. Let’s assume a half-meter cube, that’s roughly a hundred and six bricks, oh wait, the mortar. Take away a centimeter per brick, a half-cm to all sides, and add back in ten kilograms of mortar for every twelve bricks. Do you know if they were hollow red clay or solid bricks? Doesn’t matter, I suppose. The building is old enough that were probably solid centers. In kilograms, that would be about…” Jeremy look at her, then Rose, then Taz. “What?”
“Are you sure you aren’t autistic?” Clarissa had certainly had her fill of Miranda’s weird ways.
“Are you sure you aren’t abitch?”Taz shot back.
Clarissa once again noticed her driver’s sidearm sticking out of Taz’s pocket close by her hand. Wouldn’t that be perfect? Shot dead by a CIA-issued sidearm. That would make her day truly complete. Maybe Rose was right and sheshouldn’tbe picking at Jeremy or his defender.
“No, I’m not. Not like Miranda.” Jeremy’s tone was almost wistful. “I’ll never be that good.”
Yet another dead-end conversation. She tried again.
“We lost an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea?”
Jeremy nodded.
“And you didn’t think to ask for details?”
“Should I hav—”
Clarissa answered her phone the moment it rang, and didnotput it on speaker. She waited for the encryption handshake tone.