Chapter 10
745 Words
Chapter 10
By midnight Alice had convinced herself that she’d imagined the whole thing, especially the line of warmth she could still feel on her cheek.
By one o’clock she was pretty sure she hadn’t, and around two a.m. she decided she’d better be ready in case he actually came for her.
Sometime around three she’d finally passed out for four hours of shuteye.
By ten the next morning she’d dropped a significant portion of her next paycheck on a killer dress and new shoes. That had required a new winter coat to avoid looking totally ridiculous; can’t wear a killer dress with a worn blue parka. She’d had her hair cut just last week, the only reason she didn’t go in and have something drastic done to “fix” herself. Even in the salon, her hair had never behaved, though how she wished it would just for one night.
To get over herself, she swung by the office and dove into her own analysis. Her premise, try to prove it wrong. If she couldn’t, well, then she had even more thinking to do. She reviewed the last six months of news from the incredibly spotlight-shy communist nation and its equally elusive leadership. Nothing revealed a softening to their strict isolationist attitudes. No comment reported by any of North Korea’s Top Six gave the least hint of who was coming out or what they’d want to talk about. The new supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, now named Wonsu, the highest active military rank, provided no indication of any change to his deceased father’s paranoid policies.
When Betsy asked if she was coming to S.A.D. training or not, Alice observed the time in shock. Six o’clock. She locked down her work and was out of the building before Betsy could repeat the question. Thankfully no cops waited along the two-mile drive to her apartment.
A shower and fast change.
The dress was nearly impossible to zip up by herself, but she managed, thankful for the flexibility gained in the S.A.D. gymnasium.
Her nose shone, despite powder. Her cheeks didn’t, despite a bit of blush.
Disgusted with the whole effort, she washed it all off her face and accidentally dribbled water down her cleavage. The dress hadn’t seemed so revealing in the store. She had just managed her shoes, a mid-heels compromise, as a knock sounded on the door. A quick glance proved that there was no way she was letting Daniel into her apartment in its current state.
The couch had a rumpled afghan she’d knit years ago to snuggle under while watching movies, a fair pile of which she hadn’t filed away. A stack of books covered much of the armchair she didn’t use. Her home computer and a friendly disarray of paper, projects, and empty teacups were scattered about the surface of the dining table. With a quick kick, at least the clothes she’d stripped and dumped on arriving home would be out of sight.
Coat. That was it. Be completely ready to leave. She snagged the knee-length wrap-around black cashmere coat. She overlapped it and tugged the wide belt tight around her waist. She liked that it had made her look like a modern secret agent in the store mirror.
She opened the door just as the knock repeated.
It wasn’t Daniel.
She didn’t manage to suppress either her surprise or her disappointment.
“Dr. Thompson?” The man was big, crew cut, mid-forties. The kind of square features you wouldn’t want to mess with. The incongruous black suit looked distinctly out of place on his fighter’s frame despite the good fit. The small coiled wire leading to an earpiece marked him for what he was, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service.
“Uh, I’m she.” Lame! “I’m Alice, er, Doctor, uh. Oh crap! Yea, that’s me.”
“Frank Adams, ma’am.” He didn’t even blink at her being a total i***t. “Sorry that I’m a disappointment, but Dr. Darlington was unable to get away. He didn’t want to be late, so he asked if I could come and provide you with transportation.”
“Oh, okay.” Alice had hoped to wow Daniel with her new look, and instead she was suddenly facing one of the President’s personal bodyguards. The shift was jarring.
“May I say ma’am, that if I weren’t married, I’d be even more sorry that I’m a disappointment. You look great.”
“Uh, thanks.” That gave Alice some hope of not appearing like a total frump.
“Though, if I may?”
She shrugged her permission.
With a move that she barely registered despite her S.A.D. training, the massive man suddenly held a short, but nasty looking knife to her wrist. Before she could protest, he gave it a practiced flick and then it disappeared again from view.
With his other hand he offered her the price tag that had been dangling from the coat sleeve.
- Writer
