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.”The sheaf of pictures she’d dropped in front of the Chaosium Café.Her hacker buddies had come through for her.They’d figured out who Owen Haas was and sent the pictures to him.“That’s the Q-group cell, or most of it I think, that attacked you today.”Gabe swore quietly and relayed the information to Owen, but came back on the line quickly.“Owen says he’ll have a guy at your house in one hour.Can you be there that soon?”She looked at the policemen milling around her.“The trick is going to be getting the cops I’m with now to release me.”Gabe retorted, “Owen will take care of that.You just be home in an hour.”She replied lightly, “For you Gabe, I’ll move Heaven and Earth to be there.”Silence greeted that remark.Oops.Had she overstepped her bounds? Her and her irreverent mouth.“I’m sorry.That was a joke.I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, sir.I’ll be ready in an hour.”Gabe retorted quickly, “You didn’t make me uncomfortable.And for God’s sake, please don’t start calling me sir.I like Gabe a whole lot better coming from you.And Diana?”“Yes?”“I’m looking forward to seeing you again.”Well, okay then.It was her turn to stammer and stutter into a loaded silence.Finally, she managed to choke out, “I’d better get going if I’m going to be home in time to meet Owen’s man.”She hung up reluctantly and stared at the phone for a moment after its glowing face went dark.She shook herself out of her reverie and looked up at the nearest police officer.“Who’s in charge around here?”The cop pointed to a man in a suit and she strode over to the detective in charge.“Hi, my name’s Diana Lockworth.I wanted to give you a heads-up that within the next couple minutes, a Secret Service agent named Owen Haas is going to get in touch with you or your superiors.He’s in charge of Gabe Monihan’s security detail, and he needs to speak to me right away.I realize you guys need a complete statement from me, but Haas is going to pull rank and declare some sort of Presidential Security necessity to talk to me first.”The detective sighed in resignation.“I probably should’ve expected that.But I’ve got to have a statement out of you in the next twenty-four hours so I can charge Albadian.If Monihan’s people screw that up…” He scowled in frustration and didn’t finish the remark.She felt sorry for the guy.He was just trying to do his job and handle this case perfectly so there’d be no chance of Albadian slipping through the justice system’s fingers.She asked, “Would a tape-recorded statement from me work for you guys?”“As a preliminary statement, yeah, it would.”“How about this, then?” she proposed.“You guys can give me a ride back to my house where I’m supposed to meet Haas’s men, and I’ll tape a verbal statement in the car on the way there.”The detective nodded.“That would work.Hey, Frankie!”Another policeman walked up to them.“Yeah?”“This lady’s going to need a ride to her house, and I need you to go with her and take a taped statement from her en route.”The cop frowned at the highly irregular procedure.The detective’s cell phone rang, and he pulled it out.He glanced up at Diana.“Right on cue.It’s the Chief of Police.”She listened to the detective’s end of the short call, and sure enough, he was given orders to delay interviewing her and get her home right away.Good thing she’d given him the heads-up and an alternative plan.He didn’t waste any time arguing with his boss and probably earned brownie points when he mentioned he planned to get a taped statement from her in the car en route.In a matter of seconds, Frankie had scared up a pocket Dictaphone and led her toward one of the clustered police cars blocking the street.She passed by a squad car and glanced at it.She jumped as Albadian glared out at her.Through the glass, he mouthed, “You’ll die, bitch.”She nodded back at him grimly.She might at that.But not today.4:00 P.M.The police got Diana across town in record time, but it was a breeze with the streets so deserted.Everyone was no doubt plastered to their TV sets or flat-out hiding from further possible terrorist attacks.Some brave new world it was turning out to be.She made a brief statement into the tape recorder her police escort shoved under her nose.She started her narrative at the point of seeing Albadian moving through the crowd with a backpack and thinking it looked suspicious.She might eventually tell the police how she recognized Albadian and how she knew to look for him in the first place, but first she needed to talk to Owen Haas and Delphi, and let them determine how much got released to whom about this threat to the President-elect.When she got home, she had about a half hour before Owen’s man was due to arrive.Thank goodness.She couldn’t wait to get this awful black dye out of her hair.She jumped into the shower and turned the temperature up as high as she could stand it.As she thawed out, she edged the temperature up higher and higher until her skin turned pink and her bathroom filled with thick steam.Although she could stay in there happily for an hour, duty called.Three vigorous shampoos later, she stepped out of the shower, blond once more.She dried off, blow-dried her hair quickly and dressed in a tailored wool pantsuit and matching turtleneck.The pale blue fabric had a touch of Lycra in it and followed the contours of her body closely.It was one of her favorite outfits.It was fully classy enough to see the President-elect of the United States in, but it was still comfortable, and just sexy enough to give a girl confidence.She put on a touch of makeup for good measure.She might not get to see Gabe when she talked to Owen this afternoon, but she wasn’t taking any chances.She was going to look her best for once.Five minutes early, a knock sounded on her front door.The Secret Service must subscribe to the same definition of what constituted being on time as the Army did.If you weren’t five minutes early, you were late.She opened the door.And started in surprise.She’d expected a burly, serious Secret Service agent in a conservative suit, but instead her older sister stood there, looking better than any woman had a right to in a long, red coat.Diana gaped.“What are you doing here?” she finally managed to say.“Well, gee, you don’t have to sound so thrilled to see me!” Josie exclaimed.“The family’s been frantic about you.When Gramps’ car got to the Pentagon and you were already gone, he got all worried about you.Then that bomb went off downtown, and the phone lines are all jammed, and you didn’t answer your phone—let’s just say Mom and Dad are panicked.They sent me over here to check on you.”She’d been gone when her grandfather’s car had reached the Pentagon? Then who…? “I didn’t know you were in town,” Diana mumbled, stepping back from the door to let her sister inside before Josie ran her over and forced her way in.“Diego had a couple meetings at the Pentagon and I had some shopping to take care of, so I took a couple of days’ leave and came with him.Mom wanted to visit Gramps so she tagged along.They’ve got some…catching up…to do.”Now there was a delicate word for it.Her mother and grandfather had a huge rift to heal between them.He’d never been able to accept Zoe Lockworth’s clinical depression and had railed at her irresponsibility for wallowing in it for years.Now that the antidote had been found, Joseph Lockworth had some serious crow to eat with his daughter-in-law, and she had some serious forgiving to do.Fortunately, she and Josie had already worked out most of their differences.When she’d flown out to California to help Josie, and got shot in the process, it had gone a long way toward reminding them what was most important among families.She just wished she could’ve helped Josie complete clearing their mother’s name
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