He raised his hands up off the bar. “Okay, then, show me what you’ve got.”
“Awwww!” Leah’s eyes opened wide and she showed teeth. Her arms shook and the bar wobbled, but slowly reversed direction and headed up and away from her neck. With one final scream Leah forced the bar until her elbows locked straight.
“Damn, Leah. That’s a new max weight on the bench press.” The muscular young personal trainer and gym owner grinned.
“No thanks to you wanting to jump in and save me prematurely.” Leah wiped sweat from her face with a towel. There were probably a hundred things more important to do while waiting for Jack to get the Antarctic trip set up, but without her workout she became even more edgy that normal. Against her better judgment, she’d decided to get a one-hour weight-training session in with her personal trainer, figuring it might be the last for some time to come.
Rock waved his hands in front of her face. “Hello? Are we concentrating?”
“Sorry… got a lot on my mind.” She glanced at her watch. They were only halfway through the hour-long workout. Something was up… she felt it. “I’m going to call it quits. I’ve got a schedule like you can’t believe.”
He glanced at her. “Are you sure?”
She nodded while pulling off the workout gloves. “You mind doing me a big favor?”
He shrugged. “Hey, you name it.”
“If anyone happens to come in looking for me or wants certain kinds of information….”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
She put on a grin. “No more than usual.”
The gym owner nodded and returned the smile. Leah’s exploits were legendary around Albuquerque. “I haven’t seen you in here for a while,” he said, walking her to the door.
She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.” Thanks, Rock. I owe you.”
Leah pushed through the doors into the crisp air and jogged toward her jeep. She yanked open the soft-sided door, hopped in, and stared the dashboard for a moment. She picked up the mobile phone to see if she’d missed any calls from Jack.
“Our cover was blown on the Morning Show,” his voicemail said. “Paulson did an Oscar Award-winning performance denying the rumors, but work of the salvage is out.”
“I knew something was up,” Leah whispered to herself.
“It wasn’t Paulson’s fault, if that’s what you’re thinking. The Chileans couldn’t keep quiet, so we’re moving up the schedule, drastically. That means we’re leaving within twenty-four hours. Drop everything, contact your crew and alert them we’ll pick everyone up in Paulson’s Gulfstream on short notice. I’m not sure what airport. I’ll call when we figure it out. Fortunately, the gear I ordered was available to be shipped FedEx. It’s going direct to the Oakland Airport. I’ve gotten Antarctic clothing in all sizes, so you’ll need minimal gear.”
Leah laid the mobile phone down in her lap. “I’ll buy my own long underwear,” she muttered. “No one-size-fits-all unisex junk for me.”
Ten minutes later, she was running through the local outdoor store, filling a basket with piles of long underwear and other personal items she knew Jack would forget to buy. Against the far wall, mountaineering boots sat in rows on sturdy-looking shelving.
“Do I trust Jack to get me the right size?” Leah murmured. “No, I do not.” Just as she pulled down a heavy-duty pair of plastic-skinned climbing boots, her mobile phone rang.
“Leah? It’s Rocky.”
“Uh oh…. What’s up?”
“I just had a visitor. The guy identified himself as a federal agent.”
Leah’s knees weakened and she felt sick to her stomach. “Was he looking for me?” “He wanted to know if I’d seen you in the gym recently. You missed him by twenty minutes.”
Leah held her breath. “What’d you tell him?”
“I told him you hadn’t been in recently. I thought you had some kind of meeting in El Paso.”
“El Paso?”
“It was the first thing that came to mind.”
She sighed. “Thanks, Rock.”
“This sounds like more than your usual brand of trouble. You mind if I make a suggestion?”
“I’m not sure you can help.”
“Don’t return home, at least until you’ve got a lawyer. It’s a sure bet they have someone watching and waiting for you to return.”
Leah clicked off the telephone and slumped down on a wooden bench.
How did they found out? Had they identified Jack through the rangers’ photograph?
She walked toward the cash register and paid for the thermal clothing — in cash. Once through the doors of the store, she ran to the jeep and burned out of the parking lot. The sooner she got out into the wide-open New Mexico desert, the better.
CHAPTER 36
“Okay, Mr. Fischer,” said the secretary. He pointed toward the white-painted doors leading into the Oval Office. “Go on in.”
The President stood near the middle of the Oval Office, talking quietly to his short, balding Chief of Staff.
Fischer walked toward two couches facing each other. A glass coffee table sat between the two couches, with a crystal flower vase filled with fresh flowers in the center.
“Sit,” said the President. He nodded toward his Chief of Staff, who sat on a couch on the opposite side of the table.
“The Russian President called me this morning concerning this B-29 issue in Antarctica, if you can fucking believe that.”
Fischer’s face registered surprise. “I’d think he’d have more important matters on his plate with oil prices falling through the floor and the Ukraine meltdown.” Fisher grinned. “Let me guess. He’s planning to fly it off the ice himself, shirtless of course.”
The President shook his head wearily. “When he quit screaming, I told him that territorial claims within the Antarctic continent had no basis in international law. Then he went ballistic. You’d have thought I’d laid claim to Moscow the way he went off.” The President stood, and then walked over behind his desk. “We’ve got enough problems with the Chinese pressing their naval strength in the South China Sea, not to mention off Taiwan. I need Beijing to believe that if they made a move, they’d face us in the Straits and have Russians running up their backside.”
The President shook his head, looking defeated. He reached for a sheet of paper covered with typed paragraphs and hand written notes in the margins. “I informed him they could, and should, remove the aircraft from Antarctica, with our support if necessary.”
The Chief of Staff glanced up. “What about the Chilean claims on the aircraft?”
“How many Chilean ships will help us face down the Chinese if it comes to that?”
The Chief of Staff coughed into his hand and nodded his understanding.
“Then there’s the issue of Alan Paulson,” the President said. “Stan has had dealings with Paulson. Politically, he’s not a benefit to us, so we have more latitude than we might otherwise.”
Fischer handed out a sheet prepared with a number of bullet-pointed sentences. “This expedition requires a large cargo-carrying aircraft able to land on snow and ice,” he said. “We’ve spent the last twenty-four hours contacting every American and international air freight carrier with lift capability and experience to handle Paulson’s team. We told them all that any unauthorized flights into or out of Antarctica will be subject to complete and total forfeiture of any current or future American government contracts or subcontracts.”
The President made a circling motion with his hand. “Stan, the short version.”
“All the major carriers assured us they will not participate in the project, excepting several small carriers who didn’t respond. Every one checked out clean except one.” Fischer thumbed through his notes. “InterGalactic Air, which is employed by Canadian and American oil companies for work above the Arctic Circle. After some additional investigation, we found InterGalactic obtained funding for serious mechanical problems with their one aircraft. We also received information that equipment and supplies, including clothing with potential to be used in an Arctic environment, was delivered to their hangar address at Oakland International Airport, California.”