Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Mark Devlin let his phone ring four times before answering.
“Are you alone?” he asked after picking up.
“Yes, I’m alone,” Senator Socrates Chappelle replied.
“What does Sapphire Angel know?”
“Not even a thank you, first?” Chappelle responded with a chuckle. “I took some risk by inviting her into my offices. You should at least thank me.”
Devlin didn’t appreciate the mirth in the man’s voice. They both needed each other, but at the moment their relationship was out of balance. Chappelle knew it and was enjoying it.
“Bullshit,” Devlin snapped. “Her visit was a huge public relations coup for you. So let’s cut to the chase. What does she know?”
“We don’t have anything to worry about it.”
“She knows nothing?” Devlin asked.
“I didn’t say that.”
“Details, Socrates,” Devlin growled in annoyance. “Give me the details.”
“Somehow she knows that the boy wanted to meet with me. She also knows he was doing work for your company. She hasn’t learned much more than that.”
“How the hell did she find out he wanted to meet with you? The laptop?”
“Doubtful. Everything I’ve heard about Sapphire Angel says she works alone. Harper wouldn’t be helping her. Plus, you said after your guy stole the laptop from Harper, it was encrypted, right? And a message came up about too many failed password attempts? That means Harper tried to get into it but couldn’t.”
“Sapphire Angel is more resourceful than we guessed, if she found out on her own what the kid wanted.”
“Didn’t I warn you about her once we learned she was in town?” Chapelle said. “She’s been all the buzz on the Hill, ever since she saved President Andrews.”
“I’m well aware of her accomplishments. I don’t live in a cave. You don’t have to lecture me.”
“To the contrary,” Chapelle said, “you told me we didn’t have to worry about her. You said she’d never figure out what was going on, and even if she did, you had a guy who could take care of her.”
“She won’t find out any more than she already has. We have this bottled up pretty tight.”
“I believe you. But she’s not done poking around. In fact, she wants a tour of your facility. She asked if I could facilitate it. I told her I would make the request.”
Most people in Devlin’s shoes would have panicked upon hearing those words. Instead of panicking, his mind started working. He remembered his earlier words — not going after Sapphire Angel unless they learned she discovered their plans. Had they reached that point?
Maybe, maybe not. He might find out more by meeting with her, but there was a risk in allowing Sapphire Angel into the facility. The risk might be worth it, though, because they might also use the visit to throw her off their trail. And the more time he spent with her, the more he might learn about her. And the more he learned about her, the more it might help Mantis take her down at a later date, if it came to that. Devlin paused again as this line of thought — learning about her — played through in his mind.
“Let’s do it, Socrates.”
“Seriously? You want to allow her in?”
“I do. There’s a risk, but also an opportunity unlike any we’ve ever had.”
“Care to enlighten me?”
“I don’t, actually,” Devlin replied. “I just had an idea. WarTech business. Perhaps a long shot, but one worth taking. Tell her she can come tomorrow morning at nine.”
Before Beth made it back to the apartment, she received a text message from Senator Chappelle on Sapphire Angel’s phone, arranging for her tour of the WarTech facility. She was to appear at a side gate the next morning, where someone would meet her.
Beth didn’t have answers to Eric’s disappearance, but there was at least reason for optimism. Chappelle was searching his network for Eric’s email message, and Sapphire Angel would gain access to the WarTech campus. She wasn’t sure what she hoped to find at WarTech, but if Eric had done work for the company, she needed to see the place.
After parking the SUV, Beth scurried across the apartment complex’s parking lot. The temperature had dropped several degrees in the last few hours, making her miss the warmth provided by Sapphire Angel’s necklace. October in Pennsylvania could be cold, but not this cold. By the time she darted into Ross and Jack’s townhouse, she was chilled to the bone. She took a moment to rub her arms before removing her overcoat and hanging it in the hall closet. She heard voices coming from the kitchen.
Beth made her way down the hall and stopped dead in her tracks outside the kitchen. Conner sat at the kitchen table, chatting with Ross and Jack. He looked up at her and smiled, before rising from his chair.
“Conner...” she said, her voice trailing off. Emotion flooded over her. After all she had done, all the secrets she had kept, he was here. She blinked back tears.
He came to her and wrapped his arms around her. She flinched at his touch, just for a moment, as thoughts came unbidden of the last time someone had touched her — the man groping her while she was cuffed to the bar at Lanigan’s. Conner leaned back and gave her a look of concern. She grabbed his shirt and pulled herself close again, as she forced any unwanted thoughts from her mind. She wouldn’t let them control her.
“You came,” she murmured, nestling her face against his shoulder.
“I did,” he replied, his voice quiet, as he wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m glad you came,” she said, holding tight. “I feel so terrible about how things have been.”
“Not now,” he answered, and she remembered they weren’t alone. Ross and Jack sat at the kitchen table, watching them. She stepped back from Conner.
“I guess you guys have met Conner,” she said with a nod, wiping the start of a tear from her eye.
“We have,” Ross answered. “We were just bringing him up to speed.”
“How did things go with the police officer?” Conner asked.
In order to meet Senator Chappelle as Sapphire Angel, Beth had told Ross and Jack she was going to visit Officer Jennings, to find out if she had any leads.
“Turns out she was off duty,” Beth replied. “I didn’t find out anything.”
“You were gone for a while,” Ross observed. “What have you been doing?”
“Thinking,” Beth said. “Sometimes ideas come to me when I’m alone, working through things in my head. So I just sat in the car near the police station, trying to piece all this together.”
“And what did you come up with?” Conner asked with a raised eyebrow and doubt in his voice. He was accustomed to her stories by now, and might not be buying this one.
“Uh, nothing, really. I just put together what we know.”
“Which is?” Conner asked.
“Well, uh...” she stammered, her mind racing to sort out the facts she knew as Beth, and the ones she had learned as Sapphire Angel. “We know Eric went to the garage on the night he disappeared, and then to the bar. And then maybe to the hotel. He took his laptop with him, but returned without it. He headed back to the garage, but never made it to his car. There was a suspicious man who left the bar around the same time, and the man drove a car with a dirty license plate. We know the police here don’t want to help. Eric was doing contract work for WarTech, and wanted to meet Senator Socrates Chappelle, who he admired. And that’s about it.”
“So what’s next?” Jack asked.
Before Beth could answer, Conner jumped in.
“Two things,” Conner said. “A visit to WarTech would make sense, to see if anybody had any dealings with Eric. And we should go to Senator Chappelle’s headquarters, and see if they have a record of Eric contacting them, and if anybody responded.”
“Great ideas,” Beth murmured.
“We can split it up,” Ross suggested. “Two of us can go to Chappelle’s office, and two can go to WarTech.”
Beth shook her head.
“No,” she said. “Conner and I have experience with this sort of thing. You guys stay here in case anybody stops by. Conner can visit the Senator’s office, and I’ll stop by WarTech.”
“Fine by me,” Conner said with a yawn. Ross and Jack frowned, but said nothing.
“Conner, you must be exhausted,” Beth commented. “It’s a long trip to get here.”
“Yea, it was kind of an all day thing,” Conner replied.
“We can make up a bed on the couch,” Ross offered.
Beth looked down at the ground and let Conner answer.
“I, uh, can crash on the floor in Beth’s room,” he replied. “After what happened last night, I’d feel better having somebody with her.”
Realization crossed Ross and Jack’s faces, and they nodded.
Conner grabbed his bag and Beth followed him upstairs to the bedroom. Once the door was closed, they rushed to each other, wrapping their arms around one another as their lips met. Conner reached over and flicked off the light.
Although she slept until 7:30, Beth was still able to slide out of bed, shower, and leave the townhouse before Conner awoke the next morning. He must have been exhausted, since it should have felt two hours later to him. She left a note, telling him she was getting started on her visit to WarTech. Beth was a notoriously late sleeper, so she hoped he would chalk it up to her anxiousness to investigate WarTech, rather than avoiding their issues.
She took Jack’s car, since Conner had driven a rental from the airport. She found a coffee shop to kill some time, and ordered a bagel for her breakfast. The stand near the register contained copies of the local newspaper, with images of Sapphire Angel on the front page below a bold headline reading, “An Angel in Town.” She bought a copy and read the article while she sat at a booth eating her bagel and sipping on a cup of tea. The article was a fluff piece, talking about her appearance and recounting some of her past exploits. Since the journalist hadn’t been privy to her conversations with Chappelle, the article didn’t get into any details about her visit.
As she read the article, her phone vibrated in her bag. She fished it out and saw a text from Conner.
You were up early this morning.
She pecked away at the keyboard. Wanted to ask around about WarTech before heading over there.
Be careful, he replied.
I will.
She put her phone back and glanced at the clock. It was time to move.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
This is a trap. This is a trap. There's no way this can't be a trap; I can practicaIIy TASTE it. And I knew ChappeIIe wasn't aII he appeared to be at first. I mean.....the portrayaI of governmentaI figures---or at Ieast peopIe in high positions---being absoIute dirtbags is reaIistic and aII, but having someone up there who couId actuaIIy vouch FOR Sapphire wouId be a nice change of pace, you know? I mean.....there's aIways the president, but, Iike......I don't know, it's just something that came to my mind.
ChappeIIe sure Ioves to press DevIin's buttons, that's for sure. He's in a pretty tight spot with him; he basicaIIy has to put up with ChappeIIe's behavior; ChappeIIe acts as his informant, in return for getting something out of DevIin and WarTech. Maybe fame, recognition, and/or a boost in eIection ratings? The senator's gotta be carefuI, though; DevIin couId decide at any moment that he's no Ionger usefuI and then throw him by the wayside.
Conner's back at Iast! Woohoo! I knew he was going to hop on sooner or Iater; I just wasn't exactIy sure when. If I were either Ross or Jack, though, I'd be raising an absoIuteIy ROYAL stink about not being incIuded in the pIan; I wouId IiteraIIy compIain to no end untiI I was given a more significant roIe. Maybe I'd even rat them out to WarTech out of spite; I'm just petty Iike that. A duaI pIotIine with Beth and Conner going off to do something whiIe Ross and Jack do something eIse wouId've made for a more invoIved storyIine; a narrative where aII four of them can have some sembIance of focus rather than just Beth and Conner, you know? EspeciaIIy since they were running the show for most of the Iast noveI.
But.....I guess it wasn't meant to be. So now Sapphire's heading off to tour WarTech, and Conner's going to the senator's office. Wonder what both of them wiII find over there. If Sapphire does faII into a trap at the WarTech faciIity---and I'm betting she probabIy wiII---either she couId save herseIf or Conner couId drop in at the Iast minute and save her. (gasp) Or Ross and Jack couId even back him up! That wouId be sick!
StiII don't know what WarTech's pIanning. War? Country supremacy over the others? Guess we'II see!