Furious

39

Senior Chief Agent in Charge Foile dictated most of his report to his computer as Agent Chu drove his team back to Bureau headquarters. It said a lot about what he’d done but very little about why or what he had actually accomplished.

He did not like that.

He left his computer putting together his report and dropped into his boss’s office. “You done?” she asked.

“Kris Longknife is no longer on Wardhaven. She was alive the last time I think I saw her, at the controls of a shuttle headed for orbit, so I guess I am done.”

“Very good, Senior Chief Agent. Why don’t you go home.”

“You’re satisfied with the outcome?”

“The Prime Minister’s daughter is alive. That’s what he wanted.”

“Have you heard from him?”

“Not so much as a peep.”

“Interesting,” Foile said, and left.

On the way out, he stopped by the team area. Agent Leslie Chu was finishing up her contributions to the team’s report. “Do you still have that media alert on the princess?” Foile asked her.

“Of course, sir.”

“Have you gotten any hits recently?”

“Not a beep this whole time, sir. The media didn’t know she was here.”

“Oh,” Foile said. “A shuttle takes off from Longknife Towers and lights up the sky, not to mention makes a roaring mess of a lot of people’s sleep. Anything about that?”

“Again, sir. Nothing. If I didn’t know it was impossible, I’d say someone told the media not to cover it.”

“But that, of course, is impossible,” he said.

The two exchanged sardonic grins.

He turned for home, then thought better of it and turned the other way. In five short minutes, he was standing at the front door to Government House. A flash of the badge and he was in. The elevator responded to his punch for the Prime Minister’s floor.

Apparently, someone had given him access and not yet taken it back. They probably would by morning. Which meant it was a good thing he hadn’t gone home.

He quickly found his way to the Prime Minister’s outer office and walked in. “Senior Chief Agent in Charge Foile to see the Prime Minister,” he said, not slowing down as he headed for the door he now knew led to the Prime Minister.

“You can’t go in there,” the secretary shouted. “You have no appointment.”

He went in.

The Prime Minister was behind his desk. He glanced up from his screen, then leaned back to give the agent his full attention. “You,” was all he said.

“Yes, sir. Me. Your daughter is safe and no longer on Wardhaven.”

“So I am told. Yet you did not apprehend her.”

“She is a rather elusive person.”

“So she is.”

“Why was she trying to see her grandfather, and why was he so intent on not seeing her that he abandoned his home and flooded a portion of it with poison gas?”

The Prime Minister stood from behind his desk. “I sent you to secure her. You don’t need to know why. Most certainly, since you failed to do what you were ordered to do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to be about the people’s business.”

“What is going on here?” Foile demanded, but he was speaking to the Prime Minister’s back as he left his office by a back door.

Foile considered chasing after the Prime Minister, but the door behind him opened, admitting two burly security guards who, no doubt, had been instructed to pay no attention to anything so minor as a Bureau ident.

Foile went before he was forced.

This matter was not finished. He’d have to look for someplace else to find his answers. Where could Kris Longknife fly a shuttle to? She hadn’t landed on Wardhaven. That left only one other place for her to go.