His hand snaked behind her neck and he pulled her in for a leisurely kiss. He tasted of mouthwash and male heat, totally addictive. She wanted more from him and let him know with her hands.
When he lifted his head, his silver eyes searched hers. “I won’t have you remote viewing free form without being aware of me. Quantum entanglement theory be damned, if you took off spontaneously without me around, I want to be able to call you back, Elena. And the only way I know how is to activate the trigger between us.”
“I know. I was thinking the same thing too.” She grinned, and added, “But I don’t mind bouncing particles and creating my own physical reality with you while you do it.”
Actually, she was a little awed at how far ahead he’d planned this. He’d embedded that trigger inside her anticipating this problem, and as much as she personally loathed the idea of using her attraction for him against her, she had to admit it was the perfect way to anchor her. He was asking her permission. She leaned into his hand as he caressed her.
“I’m ready.”
Besides, maybe she could actually catch the trigger phrase this time. Her expression must have betrayed her thoughts, or he read her mind. In the soft glow of the room, his smile turned devilish.
“Want to take a pill first?” he asked wickedly, his caress turning into a vise.
She realized, much later, how difficult it was to pay careful attention to words when a master seducer was carefully giving her all his attention.
Chapter Twenty
So far so good. Even at half a dosage, Helen could feel a big difference. The pain was gone, or at least, she didn’t feel it. Maybe it was from being nagged by a headache for the last few days, but the sudden lack of tension felt incredible. Undistracted by pain, she could think in whole paragraphs again. She didn’t need to distract herself by taking notes.
She frowned. Armando and his illusions—was he distracting himself from his headaches that way? She needed to make it A-1 priority to have a one-on-one chat with that man when she returned to Center.
“Hell, status.”
The sudden sound of Jed’s voice through the earpiece made her shiver with sudden awareness. Thanks to the serum, she’d been crouching in this position for over an hour now without feeling a darn thing—not the discomfort of her position, not the heat that was making her shirt damp, not any normal need to stand up and stretch at all—and he managed to cut through its effect and disrupt her sense of calm watchfulness by just saying her name.
She peered through the binoculars, checking the auditorium below. “On time,” she said. “I see the diplomats on the stage. It’s heavily guarded.”
With the presence of so many important heads of state, the whole place had been swept by sniffing dogs and detectors, double-guarded with metal detectors at checkpoints as well as security cameras at every possible angle, looking for snipers and suspicious-looking packages. The American contingent had brought their own operatives, but had been told to keep out of the way of Macedonian security, which didn’t want any interference from outsiders. Nonetheless, Helen was quite sure there were plenty of other “outsiders” from Interpol, Europol, and other outfits walking around here. No one wanted an international incident. Or at least, on the outside.
There was a decoy out there somewhere and the package given to him at Lake Matka had convinced Jed there was a connection with Deutsche International. While they were busy going through exit points, Hawk had reported in again. She hadn’t been close enough to hear the conversation, but whatever was happening at the SEALs’ end was serious enough to warrant Jed making several calls as they walked out of their room to head to their positions.
Just as she’d turned to leave, he’d grabbed her hand in the middle of a call, and said briefly, “It doesn’t matter that this is a decoy. It means they’re still waiting out there for the real thing. Do you remember those CIA faces we saw?”
She’d immediately understood him and nodded. “I’ll keep an eye out for them.” He’d squeezed her hand and let it go, but she felt his gaze following her out the door. It was while outside, with the crowd and noise, that she had first noticed something different. Sometimes the people she was observing glowed. That was the best word she could come up with to describe it. It only happened intermittently and the sight usually dissipated after a few seconds.
So taking the serum before she was undergoing remote-viewing downtime caused wonky perception. But that was to be expected, right? She didn’t have time to analyze it right now, but when she had some time, she’d sit down and make a list of all the odd reactions she had while using SYMBIOS 2. Dr. Kirkland had wanted to experiment using the serum before an RV session anyway, so this decision to use the serum now should give him an idea. Of course, they hadn’t thought of spontaneous remote viewing.
She looked through her binoculars again. Frowned.
“Where’s Number Nine going, over?” she asked. Jed hadn’t said anything about moving out of position.
“He’s going down to the underground parking lot. Weber’s meeting him there,” Heath replied.
“Weber from Deutsche International?” She remembered the name from the last mission. Weber was one of the top guys at Deutsche International where she’d retrieved the SEED decoder. What was D.I.’s connection with all these missing weapons?
“Yes. He had someone pass a note to Jed. Jed says to give him fifteen minutes and not to move out of position. All eyes on entry and exit points. Stay in position, Hell.”
It struck her as strange Jed would leave when the decoy could strike at any time right now. What was in the note given to him?
“Affirmative,” she said.
But something just didn’t feel right to her. They’d all agreed that, decoy or not, someone was planning to make a statement against thisgroup of leaders gathering here today. The first shot, the one today, was meant to distract from the bigger target, which they were hoping to avert once Hawk took care of business at his end.
“One thing at a time,” Jed had said, as he laid out the initial plans.
Why did he choose to go off to the underground garage without more than furtive instructions to Heath?
“Is his comm. device on?” Hell asked.
