Powersat

Lamar, Texas

As dawn was breaking, April dozed in Eamons’s car while the FBI agent drove her back to her place. Once they were parked behind the apartment building, April roused herself.

“I’ve got to get to the office,” she said drowsily. It took her two tries to get out of the car.

Eamons slipped an arm around her waist and led her into the building. “You go get yourself some sleep. You’ve been through a lot Forget the office for today.”

“But Dan—”

“I’ll phone Dan,” Eamons insisted as they stepped into the empty elevator. “You get some sleep. That’s an order.”

April smiled weakly at the FBI agent Eamons saw her to her front door, hesitated a moment, then went back downstairs to the parking lot. Chavez had parked his gleaming black Chrysler next to her rental and was sitting on its hood, waiting for her. Once he saw her, he got down and ducked back into his car. Eamons opened the passenger-side door and slipped in beside him.

“Still smells new,” she said.

Chavez smiled at her. “This is the first time I’ve driven her out of the Houston metro area. Didn’t have time to requisition an agency car.”

“You can put in for mileage.”

“Yeah.” Chavez glanced up at the apartment building. “She okay?”

“I think so. She was pretty scared by that Rodriguez character, and she’s been up all night—”

“Who hasn’t?”

Eamons nodded, a little groggily. “Yeah, some sleep would be a good idea.”

“So what have we got here?” Chavez asked.

“You get anything out of Rodriguez?”

“Nada. He wound up asking for a lawyer.”

“What about that phone call from overseas?”

“The office is working on it.”

Yawning, Eamons asked, “So where do we stand?”

“Rodriguez will be arraigned for breaking and entering, maybe assault, too, as soon as the county court opens. He’ll be out on bail thirty seconds later.”

“We should put a tail on him. Monitor his phone calls, too. He’s our only link to anything.”

“Anything?” Chavez snorted. “What anything? All we’ve got on him is smoke and mirrors. Not a shred of proof.”

“But if we keep a watch on him he’ll lead us to whoever killed those two men and sabotaged Astro’s plane.”

“Try telling that to the boss.”

“We can’t let him get away! He’s our only lead.”

Chavez looked away from her. “The office isn’t going to pay for a watch on him, not unless we can connect him to the rest of it.”

“But we can’t connect him to anything until we learn more about him: who he’s talking to, who he’s working for.”

“Catch-22,” Chavez said, with some distaste.

“I’ll tail him,” Eamons said. “He hasn’t seen me.”

Chavez started to shake his head. Eamons said stubbornly, “If the office won’t pay for it, then I’ll take my vacation time.”

“And do it without backup, without electronic surveillance? Who d’you think you are, James Bond?”

Eamons slumped down in the car seat. Chavez thought she looked like a disappointed kid.

“Listen,” he said to her, “we know Rodriguez works for a limo service. In Houston. We can check their trip logs and see who he’s been driving. That might give us something.”

“Check his phone calls, too,” Eamons said grudgingly. “We can do that from the office.”

Nodding, Chavez turned on the ignition. The Chrysler purred to life. “Let’s turn your rental in. Then I’ll drive you back to Houston.”

“Aren’t you sleepy?”

“You sleep and I’ll drive. After a couple hours we’ll switch off.”

Eamons nodded. He’s a good partner, she thought Nacho is smart and dependable. Too damned cautious, but he’s got a family to worry about. I can thumb my nose at the suits upstairs if I have to. He won’t But that’s okay. He can play organization man and I’m the loose cannon. We make a good team.

Senator Thornton scrupulously avoided using taxpayers’ money for her private purposes. Hiring a private jet and pilot to fly to Oklahoma cost a small fortune, but she paid for it with her own credit card. As soon as she got to the ranch she phoned the airstrip and asked for the pilot who usually flew her to Austin.

He showed up at the house half an hour later, while Jane was up in her room, using her desktop computer to check on the afternoon’s rollcall votes in the Senate. She had paired her vote with Bob Quill’s, so as far as the official record was concerned, she was present and voting.

A tap on her half-open door caught her attention. Turning, she saw Yolanda’s swarthy face.

“That crop duster is downstairs waitin’ on you,” Yolanda said. She had been a family servant all her life, as had her mother before her. Jane smiled at her choice of words. Anyone who flew an airplane was a crop duster, as far as Yolanda was concerned.

As Jane came down the stairs the pilot was standing in the entryway, looking more like a field hand than anything else in his jeans and work shirt. He had flown ground-attack Warthogs in the Middle East, although it took several drinks to get him loose enough to start talking about his “tank plinkin”’ days.

“Goin’ down to Austin agin?” he asked.

“No, Zeb. Not this time. I want you to fly me to the Astro Corporation complex on Matagorda Island, first thing tomorrow morning.”

“You’re goin’ there on a Sunday?”

“Yes,” Jane said, thinking, Dan’s office will be closed on Sunday. I’ll be able to talk to him without interruptions, without lots of other people in the way.

Zeb’s brows crinkled. “That’s a private airfield, ain’t it? I’ll need their okay to land there. Might even be closed of a Sunday.”

“I’ll take care of that part of it, Zeb,” said Jane. “You just pick me up here at seven tomorrow morning.”

“Seven, right.” He started to leave, then turned back with a shy smile. “Um, maybe I oughtta pack a breakfast?”

Jane nodded. “That’s a good idea. Grapefruit juice for me, please.”

The pilot left and Jane headed back upstairs thinking, I’d better not let Morgan know about this. He wouldn’t understand why I’ve got to see Dan. She wondered if she truly understood herself.