‘Yes I am,’ she replied.
‘Sorry Dan,’ Vince called over. ‘You don’t have a drink! Can I get you something?’ Dan Hall stood up and walked over and stood next to Vince. She heard him ask for a Sam Adams and then he was silent. She could see his face reflected in the mirror behind the bar and she suspected that he was attempting to resolve some mental turmoil, which was just what she was trying to do.
‘Hi Gerry!’ She looked up somewhat startled and realised that she had been so introspective that Annie Madden had walked up to her table without her noticing. Hell, if she became that distracted on an operation she could get herself killed.
‘Hello Annie, I thought Ryan was coming.’ Then she realised he was greeting the other two men, and then he walked over to her and Annie.
‘Hi Gerry, you look great,’ he said with a grin. He was wearing light grey trousers, open necked shirt and blue jacket that matched his eyes. ‘What can I get you girls to drink?’
‘I’ll have a dry white wine, please,’ she replied. ‘How was the sailing?’ she asked with a smile.
‘Good, but I got a little sunburnt on my back,’ he replied. ‘I’m wearing lots of moisturiser and my softest shirt. Annie, how about you?’
‘Gin and tonic, please Ryan.’
Annie and Gerry chatted inconsequentially for a couple of minutes about holidays and foolish people were old enough to know better about over-exposure to the sun, while the men waited at the bar to be served. She stared at their broad backs, thinking how similar they were in build and self-assurance. She realised that Annie had asked her a question.
‘Yes, I am hungry, and I love seafood. Any place you guys recommend would be good for me,’ Gerry replied.
‘Great! I guess we should be able to get the three of them to pick up the bill for the two of us,’ Annie grinned.
There you go Dan, I’m not the only manipulative bitch here, Gerry said to herself as she smiled in agreement.
Hours later back in her room and thankfully alone, Gerry picked up the remote control and began to hop through the channels, most of which seemed to be showing commercials. The evening, which had turned out to be purely social, might even have been enjoyable if it weren’t for the extraordinary occurrence of meeting Dan Hall. She had taken the opportunity to be seated with Ryan next to her and Hall on his other side, so minimising their conversation. At no time during the evening did she or Dan reveal that they had encountered one another before. She had asked Annie during a visit to the women’s room how long he had been in the agency and she had told her it had been five years, but apart from that she knew little about him, and Gerry had been reluctant to appear overly interested. They had finished dinner at about 10pm and Gerry turned down the suggestion of another drink at another bar and took a taxi alone back to the hotel.
She stopped changing channels when she saw a map of Florida festooned with weather symbols. Apparently tomorrow morning was going to start hot and sunny but then a weather front was going to sweep in off the Gulf of Mexico and bring thunderstorms to the west coast. The weather girl exchanged some witty comments with the news reader who then adopted a serious expression and began to read the local news. Gerry yawned and reached for the remote control. It was only 10:40pm but her body clock was somewhere mid-Atlantic, so she decided to go to bed.
She was cleaning her teeth when she heard a knock on the door.
‘I bet it’s that bloody Jasper White again!’ she muttered to herself. She peered through the spy hole and was surprised to see Dan Hall standing outside her door. She opened it with the door security restraint in place.
‘Hello Dan.’
‘They told me you were a prize bitch,’ he said.
‘Fuck off!’ She tried to close the door but the edge thudded against a rolled up magazine that he had inserted in the gap. She tried to snatch it but there was not enough to grab.
‘Look, what the hell do you want?’ she asked, exasperated.
‘Can I come in and talk to you?’ he requested.
‘No it’s bloody late and I’m tired,’ she snapped.
‘Five minutes?’
‘Oh… what the hell… ok then. Five minutes.’ She unhooked the door restraint and allowed him into her sitting room.
‘Dan, what do you want?’
‘Why do you think you’ve come over here?’ he asked.
‘What? To the States? You know why I’m here. We talked about it at dinner this evening.’
‘Humour me?’ he asked.
She sighed irritably. ‘I’m here to talk to Ali Hamsin, then escort your unwanted prisoner out of your country where he’s something of an embarrassment as Obama wants to close Guantanamo Bay.’
‘What about the scheme to send guys to infiltrate terrorist networks?’
‘That’s really nothing to do with me, and I’m sure I don’t want to be involved.’
‘Why not? It would see you back in your exec ops section,’ Hall suggested.
‘To tell you the truth, I’m not really interested. I haven’t been involved in anything in exec ops since we did that job in the Gulf.’
‘What happened to that guy Dean Furness? Why did you have to kill him? Were you ordered to do it by my side or yours? What have you really been doing since I last saw you? Someone told me you’ve been in prison, but that’s got to be ridiculous!’
Gerry stared at him feeling more irate with each question. ‘Listen I didn’t kill the poor bastard!’ she snarled, ‘he was my only chance of finding out what happened to Phil. Now I don’t know if that’s five minutes up, but get the hell out of here Dan, before I… oh just get out!’ She saw his expression change into something that looked like despair but in the heat of her anger she slammed the door shut behind him. Later as she lay in bed she thought about that expression and his questions while staring up at the red light of the smoke alarm as it flickered every eight seconds. It took her a long time to fall asleep.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Next morning Gerry stood at the restaurant entrance staring across at Vince Parker as he ate fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast, wondering whether to retreat back to her room until he had finished. Vince suddenly turned round and caught sight of her and waved a hand; she quickly assumed a smile and walked briskly towards him.
‘Good morning Gerry,’ he called, ‘you looked lost in thought.’
‘I was just thinking about skipping breakfast and going to the gym instead. I was feeling guilty because I ate that heavy meal yesterday.’
‘Yes, after you’d told us that you weren’t very hungry,’ he said.
‘I know, but it was good food, and I did leave some of the fries,’ Gerry replied with a grin.
‘Then please join me,’ said Vince indicating the seat opposite.
‘How did you get on with our American friends last night after I left?’ she asked after she had collected her breakfast from the buffet.
‘Oh, ok, I guess. Ryan Carson seemed sorry to see you go; I think you’ve made an impression on him Gerry.’ He grinned and Gerry scowled.
‘I doubt it… what kind of impression?’
‘I think he likes you.’
‘Bog off.’
‘And Hall seemed rather interested in you too; he asked how long you’d been in the Service.’
‘And what did you tell him?’ Gerry asked trying not to sound tense.
‘I told him that you had been in for about sixteen years but you decided to take a career break, and you’d been writing a doctoral thesis or something for the last few years.’