Page 62 of Secret Weapon

“Is that three hours with you behind the wheel?”

My driving was another thing James wasn’t enamoured with.But I rarely hit anything unintentionally, unlike my friend Dan who mostly stuck to the speed limits and wrote off a car every other month.

“Traffic was light.”

“So we’re looking at a four-hour drive, plus a couple of hours to get a team together.Could you watch Marquette this morning to buy us time?”

“I could, but there’s another problem.”

James groaned.“You have no idea how much I hate those words.”

“Ottie was camping out at a local resort.The owner knows her name, and so do the staff, and her friend, plus there are deputies sniffing around.Somebody needs to do damage control if you want to keep a lid on this.”

“Dammit.Can you speak with the friend?Pay off the resort owner?”

“I can try, but the owner’s the son of a Russian oligarch, so…”

This time, James let fly with a whole string of curses.Most unpresidential.

“Russian?You think he’s involved with this?”

“I might edge towards a ‘no,’ but I’m not going to commit either way right now.And I don’t have a clue whether he’s a Markovich supporter.I’ll get Mack to nose around.”

“What’s his name?”

“Nikolai Belinsky.The father was Lev.”

“I’ll have my people take a look too.Are you alone in Oregon?”

“Ana’s with me, plus Alex and Hallie.”

“Hallie’s the new girl?The one dating the cop?”

“That’s right.”

“Can you send them to the hospital while you deal with Belinsky and the rest?It’s only for half a day.”

“We’ll have to talk about the fee…”

“Send the invoice to the usual place, and we’ll wash it through.I owe you one, Linny.”

“Mr.President, you owe me hundreds of favours by now.”

He blew me a kiss, and then he was gone.

And just like that, Ottie Marquette became my problem.

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