Josh shrugged his shoulders. ‘I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me.’
Nick paced back and forth. ‘Shit! Shit! I wanna know who’s in charge. Who ordered this?’
‘Won’t do any good. No way. Maybe it’s their way of keeping you in check. Figured you’re no threat while you’re looking for her.’
‘I can’t believe they did this. What’s the matter with them? I’d a thought they’d have more to worry about than this leaking out before they’re ready. Bastards!’
Josh put his hands of Nick’s shoulders. ‘Look, calm down buddy. They won’t harm her, they just want to shut her up, until the press conference.’
Nick paced and Maxime’s eyes followed him back and forth. ‘Do they expect me to wait here until they decide I can leave? I can be back in Australia in less than two days. Before this gets out. I need to be there.’ He walked to the window to gaze at the fog rising around the city buildings. His mind just as fogged.
‘How do you plan to get out of the country? They’ll be watching you.’ Josh said.
‘Just let them bloody well try to stop me. I’m not saying any more. If you don’t know you can’t tell anyone.’ He snapped. Then was reminded of his remorse when he had snapped at Josh at the airport. ‘Sorry. I don’t blame you. I know you didn’t expect this to happen. From now on we’d better watch who we talk to.’
Josh rubbed his forehead and sighed. ‘Yeah. I was going to call you late last night, but I didn’t know how to tell you. If we get through this I’ll make it up to you and Laura somehow.’
‘You can start now, tell those bastards at the Capitol I fell for their bait. I’m looking for Laura, give me time to sort things out.’
Josh headed for the door. ‘I’d better get out of here, they’re probably watching me too. Good luck buddy. I’ll keep looking for Laura, make sure she’s okay.’ He saluted and was gone.
Nick trembled and he felt the anger rising. If this was how people were going to react, things were going to get rough. He had to get away, but how? His normally structured mind churned like that damn concrete mixer again! He’d wanted to find out where Laura was, but that could take more than a few days! A few precious days…Christ what’s happened? This’s crazy! He hurried to the bedroom, opened drawers, moved papers, looking for any clues Laura may have left, then to her small office to repeat the exercise, but found nothing.
His mind flashed to their last conversation when she had said she wanted a man around all the time. He wondered what he would have said if this situation had not existed. There was no way he would give up his life at sea, he needed a woman who would want to share that with him, and Laura was not that woman. He went to the bathroom and the face in the mirror told him it was just as well, she would never leave Washington for anyone, least of all him, even though she had said she loved him. For a moment his anxiety over her safety was replaced by sorrow when he realised he did not love her that much either. It was over.
He also saw he wasn’t going to find her and decided to leave the country anyway. Frustration welled inside him. Josh would look for her as he promised, that was the least he could do. His nerves jumped like tight strings rebounding when his sat-phone phone buzzed, alarming him more than it should have.
‘G’day Nick. How y’ going mate?’
Nick sighed. It was good to hear a fellow Aussie’s voice, best of all Graham’s welcome rumble. In his state of funk he’d almost forgotten about him.
‘Not so good pal, where are you? I need to call you back.’
‘I’m in LA. The Airport Hotel. Why? What’s up?’
‘Can you get over to Jerry’s place? I’ll call you there in forty-five minutes.’
Jerry’s was a restaurant where Nick and Graham had often dined when they were both in LA, a popular intimate place in Venice Beach, where they served the best steaks in town.
‘Jerry’s? Sure,but why the mystery?’
‘Can’t explain now, I wouldn’t ask unless it was important.’
‘Okay mate. You’re lucky, I’m between flights and I could do with a good feed. How’s Laura?’
‘She’s fine.’ The words hung in the air. ‘I’ve gotta run. Jerry’s. Forty-five minutes, and keep your bloody eye-phone on!’
Nick threw the sat-phone on the table and stared at it wondering whether it was bugged. It was still early morning, he could go out and call Graham from a phone check station. These were service booths located in all the parks and public areas where people could recharge their eye-phone, get city directions, order a Trancab and many other options, and he worried that they too could be bugged, but figured this would be the safest option, as people did not use them to carry on conversations when they had their personal eyephones, which he was sure would be bugged. He fumbled around in Laura’s robe and found his jacksuit. It was not as stylish or as functional as those worn by executives and government officials, but wearing this he would blend in with the crowds on the streets. He plucked the eye-phone set that Laura had bought him from the shelf where he had tossed it, and jammed his hair under a baseball cap. He felt ridiculous.
Graham would need about 30-40 minutes to get to Jerry’s from the airport, so he calculated he should wait 15 minutes. He glanced at is his TAG wristwatch impatiently waiting. While he waited plans formed in his mind. If he moved fast he could be in LA today, and off with Graham to Hawaii before they knew what he was up to. It would be easy to get out of Hawaii, especially if he could talk Graham into taking the flight back to Australia.
Nick wished he was back in The Alice now where he first met Graham. Things were so uncomplicated then. Brian and he were young, and Graham was so sure of himself. Brian had nagged Nick into going on a balloon flight, and it turned out to be the most fantastic week of his life. He thought Graham was the most reckless character he had ever met. Higher, higher, faster, faster, he never seemed to get enough.
It was Graham who persuaded him to push ahead with oceanography. ‘The world needs the odd sane scientist.’ He’d said, laughing at his own joke.
Nick loved his sense of adventure, the devil-may-care attitude that matched his own, and they were very much alike. Underneath the gentleman facade Graham was a tough cookie. He’d built his airline from small beginnings, moving cargo through the outback of Australia, to carrying passengers and then on to international passenger flights. His ambition was boundless and Nick admired him more than any man alive. Graham would help him. He looked at his watch it was time to go!
Chapter Fifteen
Nick sensed a presence, but did not look behind as he walked briskly away from Laura’s building without looking back, letting anyone who may be following think he was unaware of them. He headed for the nearby Lincoln Park two blocks from Laura’s apartment, thinking how the scenery differed from his usual walking area on the deck of the Platypus. Trancars buzzed three lanes deep in every direction, and until he reached the park he found himself dodging jack-suited business people heading for their mundane jobs in the tall glass houses that lined the streets blocking the sun. He found the jacksuits men wore to be dull and boring colours of grey, black and brown. The women however had managed to turn the jacksuits into fashionable clothes, wearing various styles of jackets and colourful accessories over the body suits. If the weather was mild most people wore normal clothes.
The air was cool as Washington enjoyed the spring season, and the park, one of fifty-nine triangular parks designed by Pierre L’Enfant, that provided urban green spaces for locals to relax in the beauty of the outdoors. The Lincoln park, seven acres in size, featured many monuments, gracious lawns and gardens, and Nick wished he had time to enjoy the atmosphere and the calm it engendered in those fortunate to spend time here. He smelled the fresh cut grass and the perfume of prolific flowers as he walked, stopping now and then to steal a furtive glance toward the people walking behind him.