Chapter 2
Monday Morning – 8:00 a.m.
Lee Stetson hurried down the corridor
to the bullpen, heaving a sigh of relief when he realized the meeting hadn’t
already started. The conference room door stood open, and Francine Desmond was
just coming out of Billy’s office, carrying a stack of files. Lee turned toward
the conference room and grimaced at the unwelcome sight of Herr Volkenauer smiling
at Amanda and lifting her fingers to his lips in a Continental greeting. He
narrowed his eyes, stuffing both of his hands into his pants pockets, as he
noticed Amanda smiling back at the German detective. “What the—?” he grumbled
between clenched teeth.
Francine brushed past him, giving him
a teasing smile as she asked, “What’s the matter, Scarecrow? Somebody beating
time with your girl?”
Lee glared at her, gritting out, “Oh
please, Francine!” He took a second to straighten his jacket and tug at his tie
before following her into the conference room.
Seeing Amanda's sparkling eyes and
friendly smile directed at him, Lee couldn't keep from smiling back as he took
a seat directly across from her. He knew she'd probably caught his scowl, and
he could expect some questions later. Frank Duffy passed Amanda the last two
folders containing the information for the meeting, and she passed one across
to Lee. Their eyes connected briefly as he accepted it with a whispered
"Thanks", just as Billy Melrose closed the door and called the
meeting to order.
"All right, people, as you know,
our associates from Interpol have informed us that members of the 'Lightning
Flash' group may have entered the United States. I'd like to introduce our
guest, Mr. Dieter Volkenauer, of the West German BKA, who is on temporary
assignment to Interpol with regard to tracking these terrorists. Mr.
Volkenauer. . ."
"Danke schön, Herr Melrose. . .my fellow agents," Volkenauer
greeted them. "Fräulein Desmond, bitte?" he prompted, as she acquiesced
and doused the lights. Immediately, the screen at the front of the room was
filled with the horrifying picture of the flaming remains of a jumbo jet.
"I am sure you are all aware of the recent failed hostage crisis at the
Frankfurt airport. The people we believe to be responsible for this incident
call themselves 'der Blitzstrahl', auf
Englisch, 'the Lightning Flash'. We have been following the movements of
several members of this group for the last three months, but so far we have
remained several steps behind them. We now have reason to believe that some of
them may have entered your country. In the last two weeks, we have received two
messages. The first was received in the BKA office."
He pressed the remote control for the
slide projector, and an enlarged picture of a small tear-off from a yellow
legal pad appeared on the screen. The words ‘Ihr
solltet in den Spiegel sehen’ were scrawled across it in red ink.
Volkenauer scanned their faces as the agents in the room fixed their eyes on
the cryptic message. He pointed over his shoulder toward the screen and stated,
"The basic translation of these words is: 'you should look in the
mirror'." Seeing the disgusted frown on Lee Stetson's face, Dieter went on
with an indulgent smile. "You are quite right, Herr Stetson. This simple
statement tells us very little."
"Right," Lee interjected,
impatiently drumming his fingers on the table. "You said something about a
second message.” He gestured with his hand to indicate their section chief as
he went on. “Billy. . .Mr. Melrose, here, told me you'd had a message on your
answering machine, correct?"
"Yes. . .” Volkenhauer replied,
his voice tinged with irritation at Lee’s impatience. He cast a sweeping glance
around the room as he went on, “Yes, that is correct--one week ago today, in
fact. Without troubling you to listen to the message, we have transcribed it in
English, as you see here," he pointed out, as he clicked the remote to
bring up the translation: "Do not think you can hold back the Lightning
Flash, and neither can your friends, the Americans! Their golden idols and
their greed are unmatched! We promise you. . .one of their capital city’s great
marble monstrosities will fall, before the stroke of midnight, 31 October! Do
not think you can stop us!"
"So they've basically dared
you—us—to try and stop them?" Lee put in.
"Quite right," Dieter
replied with a rueful smile. He nodded to Francine to turn the lights back on,
then continued, "And we have ten days. . .possibly less than that, to
prevent a disaster here in your beautiful city."
Billy Melrose stood to take charge of
the meeting once more. He shook their guest's hand and said, "Thank you,
Mr. Volkenauer. Now, first off, the rest of you are to pair off and become
tourists for the next three days. Visit all the best-known sites, and keep your
eyes and ears open. Your assignments are listed on page two in your folder.
We'll meet again, same time, Thursday morning. All right, people, let's get out
there!"
As the rest of the agents dispersed,
Lee motioned to Amanda to follow him out to the corridor. She framed a question
with her eyes before she asked out loud, “Okay, Lee, what’s this all about? And
why were you so bent out of shape just now?”
“What? Me? I don’t know what you’re
talking about, Amanda,” he parried defensively. He touched her elbow and turned
her to start toward the closet elevator as he went on, “I’m fine. . .really.
Now, why don’t we go on up to the Q Bureau and go over our assignment, hm?”
As they came to stand in front of the
elevator, Amanda turned and looked up into his eyes. “Um. . .Lee? You haven’t
looked at page 2 yet, have you? See, it looks like Mr. Melrose partnered you
with Francine on this one. He paired me with Dieter. . .Mr. Volkenauer.”
“He did what?!? Why?” He took his vengeance
out on the elevator’s ‘up’ button, then pushed back his suit coat and stuffed a
hand in his pocket as he kept on, his voice lower now. “I don’t like it Amanda!
I don’t like it at all!”
“What d’you mean, Lee? You’ve worked
with Francine before,” Amanda inserted, pushing the coats aside as they entered
the elevator. After they’d crossed under the bar and straightened up, she
asked, “What’s the big deal?”
“It’s not so much my assignment as
yours that bothers me,” he admitted, wincing at the level of truth in what he’d
said.
Amanda fisted her hands at her sides
and looked up at him defiantly. “MY assignment?!? What about it? Look, I may
not have the training that you or Francine have, Lee Stetson, but I’m perfectly
capable of acting like a tourist! That much I can do!”
With a hurt look, he searched her eyes
as he came back with, “Hey! You know very well I didn’t mean it like that,
Amanda King! I know better than anybody. . .” he hesitated, softening his tone,
“how capable you are. I just don’t like the idea of you partnering with. .
.him,” he finished, casting a fleeting glance at the ceiling.
When the elevator doors opened, Amanda
did her best to contain her grin. Each of them nodded to Mrs. Marston, then
ascended the stairs silently. As soon as she was fairly sure they were out of
the receptionist’s hearing range, Amanda asked, “Now, Lee. . .why should you be
upset about that? I mean, Mr. Melrose is just being practical here. After all,
Mr. Volkenauer and I have at least met before, and I know my way around the DC
tourist sites as well as anybody, so. . .”
“I know, I know,” he said softly,
granting grudging acceptance to the hardwood floor. He lifted his eyes as he
held the door open for her, saying seriously, “It’s just that. . .Amanda, those
terrorists called him at home. They most likely know him on sight, and who
knows? They might’ve even followed him here.” He paused, taking hold of her
arms and turning her, so he could look directly into her eyes. “Just promise me
you’ll be extra careful, okay?” he asked plaintively.
“Always,” Amanda answered with a warm
smile.
Lee gestured for her to take a seat in
the captain’s chair that faced his desk, and the two of them leafed through the
materials in their assignment folders. “Ah. Francine and I are going to the
Capitol building. . .we’ll have plenty of ground to cover there. So where are
you and ‘Dieter’ supposed to go?”
She was slightly distracted, as she’d
been reading through the captions on the photos of the suspected terrorists.
“Hm? Oh. . .we’re going to the National Mall, gonna cover the Lincoln Memorial
and the Washington Monument today, and the Jefferson Memorial tomorrow or
Wednesday.”
Lee’s face blanched visibly and his
nerves went into overdrive when he heard the last name, so much so that he
blurted out, “The Jefferson Memorial??”
Amanda kept her voice level,
indicating the assignment run-down with her finger and showing it to him as she
replied. “Yes, Lee. It says so right here. See? I don’t know why that should
bother you--”
Her facial expression changed as she
appeared to realize what it was that bothered him about the Memorial. Her lips
formed the word before she said it. “Oh.”
“Right,” he whispered, looking away
for a moment. He’d said goodbye to her there, had tried to keep her out of this
life. . .his life. ‘Talk about regrets!’ he thought. ‘If she’d listened to me
that day. . .’
“Lee? Are you all right?”
“What? Oh. . .yeah. . .yeah, I’m
fine,” he answered with a weak smile, as he closed his folder and looked up to
her. Resting his elbows on the arms of his chair, he connected with her eyes
before asking, “So. . .did you and Herr Volkenauer make plans for your ‘hot
date’?”
“No, we—” she started to answer, then
squinted her eyes at him and retorted with a touch of irritation, “so what’s it
to you if we have?”
“Nothing,” he replied too quickly. In
response to her determined glare, he back-pedaled, tilting his head to the
side. “Well. . .you mentioned something Saturday about him wanting to take you
out to dinner, and then this morning. . .”
At that, her mouth dropped open and
she frowned at him in earnest. “What about this morning?!? He was just being
nice and saying hello—okay, in his own way—but anyway, you know, it’s really
none of your business if I do go out with him while he’s here. I mean, he’s a
very nice man, and you’ve got no right to act like a je—“
Lee’s mouth dropped open and his
eyebrows lifted in a silent question as he realized where she was headed with
this. He cut in before she could finish, asking, “Like a—?”
“Never mind!” she ground out through
gritted teeth, darts flying from her eyes as she grabbed her purse and folder
and swept out of the Q Bureau. It was a wonder the glass didn’t shatter, she
slammed the door so hard.
Lee flinched at the sound, and thought
about how close she’d come to calling him a ‘jealous person’. . .again. She
didn’t know how right she was this time, he admitted to himself. He knew he was
attracted to her, probably had been for a long while. . .so why hadn’t he acted
on it? He kicked himself mentally, knowing what she’d said was true. He had no
right. . .no right at all.
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