Ark of Fire by C. M. Palov Read Free Book Online

transgression. But it does punish them. Demoted to maintaining a safe house in Paris, it was five years before he was discharged from Her Majesty’s service. Finally, a free man.
    Caedmon glanced at the mobile on the table, recollecting the earlier call.
    Maybe he’d been too quick to cut the old ties.
    “Rather late, old boy, for such regrets,” he muttered, garnering a pointed glance from the horse-faced woman at the next table.
    He apologetically smiled. “Don’t mind me. I tend to rumble about when lost in thought.”
    “Glad to hear that I’m not the only one who talks to them-self.” She met his gaze and held it. An overture.
    “Yes, quite.” His mobile softly chimed, notifying him of an incoming e-mail. Relieved to have a graceful exit, he picked up the device. “I apologize, but I must attend to business.”
    “Oh, sure.” Blushing all the way to her widow’s peak, his neighbor took a sudden interest in adjusting the plastic lid on her coffee cup.
    Caedmon accessed his e-mail file. Staring at the log list, he drummed his fingers on the tabletop, having no recollection of giving his email address to anyone named Edie Miller. Although that didn’t mean his publicist hadn’t given his private e-mail address to someone at a book signing. Assuming that to be the case, he opened the e-mail rather than delete it outright.
    His eyes narrowed; the missive was not what he thought it to be.
    From: Edie Miller
    To: [email protected]
    Date: 12/01/08 02:16:31 p.m.
    Subject: DANGER!!
     
    urgent I meet w u @ NGA cascade café TODAY will wait until closing your life in danger mine 2 ps im not crazy
     
    [email protected]
     
    “Indeed,” he murmured, reading the postscript.

CHAPTER 8
    Edie Miller replaced the wireless headset in her ear.
    She wasn’t going to run. She wasn’t going to hide.
    She was going to play dumb.
    “My safety and well-being? Um, gee, I have no idea what you’re t-talking about. I’m doing just fine.” Her voice noticeably warbled; bravado was slow in coming.
    “Come now, Ms. Miller. Let’s not play games with one another,” the caller replied, seeing right through her ploy. “We both know that you were at the Hopkins Museum earlier today.”
    Her hands began to shake as the Jeep swayed out of its lane.
    Surrender, Dorothy. Now. Before the little winged monkeys get to you.
    A UPS truck to the left of her laid on the horn, causing Edie to swerve back into the correct lane. Hitting the turn signal, she navigated the Jeep into the inner lane of Dupont Circle.
    Back burner. That’s where she needed to put the sudden blast of fear.
    “Of course I was at the museum,” she replied, the best lies being those fashioned from the truth. “I’m at the museum every Monday. It’s the only day of the week that I can take photos of the collection. But you already know that.” She dramatically sighed, hoping she sounded like a whipped and defeated cog. “Linda in payroll has been threatening for weeks to sic the auditor on me for not clocking out when I leave the museum. I know. I know. Really bad habit. Guess you guys in auditing finally caught up to me, huh?”
    “Is it also your habit to exit the museum via the fire escape?”
    “Oh, gosh . . . bus-ted .” She nervously laughed, the lies fast mounting. “All these smoke-free buildings make it hard for us addicts to get our nicotine fix.”
    “And what of your purse? You left it on your desk. Is that also another of your bad habits?”
    Edie braked to avoid hitting a ridiculously long stretch Hummer limo that hogged two lanes of traffic. “Yeah, well, what can I say? Absentminded is my middle name.”
    “According to your driver’s license, your middle name is Darlene. Lovely picture, I might add. But then I’ve always had a weakness for curly-haired maidens.”
    Edie racked her brain for a response, fast running out of lies.
    Determined not to end up like Jonathan Padgham, she injected a big dose of faked incredulity into