Foreign and Domestic: A Get Reacher Novel (10 page)

Li said, “Welcome to Washington, DC. Get in, and I’ll take you to the hotel.”

Cameron said, “You already know what hotel I’m staying at?”

“We booked it for you in advance.”

Cameron paused, turned to her, and said, “How do you know where I want to stay?”

“We took a guess.”

Cameron shrugged.

Li asked, “Getting in?”

Cameron stayed quiet and opened the passenger door. He dumped himself down in the seat. Plenty of room in the footwell, always something he appreciated in a car.

Li walked around to the rear of the car and shut the trunk. She had left it open, probably because she had assumed Cameron had luggage. It was a normal assumption, but not in Cameron’s case.

She walked around and opened the driver door and sat down on the seat. She shut the door, put on her seatbelt, and looked at Cameron intensely like he had broken some social taboo.

She asked, “Ready?”

“Let’s go,” Cameron said.

“Seatbelt?”

Cameron put on his safety belt and snapped it into the mechanism. Then he nodded at her.

Her demeanor made her hard to read. Cameron wasn’t sure if she was mad at him or just hated her position in life. He had known a woman like that before. He shrugged and just stared out the window.

She put the car in drive and moved away from the curb.

Chapter 15

THE HOTEL THAT LI BROUGHT CAMERON
to was a place he would’ve never picked, not in a hundred years. Not even if he was told that Jack had stayed there. Not even if he was told that his father was waiting in the hotel bar for him.

It was a modern, youthful hotel that looked more like a Saudi prince’s palace than a hotel in the nation’s capital city. It was called
The Fifth
. Cameron wasn’t sure if that alluded to the Fifth Amendment, like when someone in courtroom movies takes the witness stand and says, “I plead the fifth,” or if it meant that this location was the fifth one in the franchise or that it was on Fifth Street or Fifth Avenue because Cameron hadn’t been paying attention to the street names when they were driving.

Li parked the car in the underground parking garage, a small dark area with dim lights that might as well have been torches in a deep cave.

They got out and headed toward the elevators. In the booming echo of the underground chamber, Li’s shoes clopped and drummed on the pavement. She wore short heels, something that Cameron was again certain was enforced in some field manual somewhere about Secret Service uniforms like in the Army. Cameron hadn’t been in the Army, not yet. He had no plans to join, but he’d had plenty of military lifestyle lessons and experience. Far more than most people. Far more than even some military families, but then again, he hadn’t known another kid who’d only had one parent, and that parent was a Marine. Cameron had no basis for comparison.

Li walked him to the elevator on the eastern side of the underground parking complex. She hit the only button—the
up
button—and she stood by him, waiting. He could hear her breathing in the silence, and even her breathing seemed judgmental. Which was a vibe from her that even his outsider demeanor could pick up on.

The elevator came, and they stepped into this steel contraption—chrome everything, but shrouded in a light that was dimmer than that of the underground parking garage. The back of the cabin had a mirror that spanned half of the wall’s length. The elevator’s style reminded him of the inside of an oven with no working light.

Cameron stood a short distance away from Li, and she pressed the ground floor button. The doors closed, and Cameron took it upon himself to break the ice or at least try to figure out why she was acting so standoffish toward him.

He said, “So you work for Agent Cord?”

She turned a shade of red that could only be described as violent. She turned to him—didn’t move her feet, just twisted at the waist—and stared up at him with furious dark eyes.

She said, “I’m not his assistant or anything.”

She looked pissed.

He said, “I wasn’t saying that. I meant, does he outrank you? Is he your CO? Is he your superior? Do you take your orders from him? And that’s all.”

Li snorted slightly. The breath flowed forcefully out of her nose, making her nostrils flare and appear much larger than they were.

“Look, I’m sorry for whatever, but I don’t know a thing about you. I don’t really know anything about Cord, either. And I don’t know why the hell I’m here. Other than some ambiguous claim that some guy knew my dead uncle and has information for me. But now I’m here, and you’ve been rude to me since we met. Tell me how that makes any sense? What’s with the cold treatment?”

Li sighed, and the elevator doors opened in unison. Like it was a cue.

They walked out of the elevator and stepped out into a short hallway, also dimly lit, and Cameron wondered,
What’s the deal with this hotel? Why is everything so dark? Are they trying to they want to scare away guests?

The carpet had this modern, artsy black design with white trim. The walls were painted white with more chrome trim and mirrors.

More chrome?

The whole thing had to be hideous in broad daylight, but there wasn’t any natural light, so the dim lighting made it look all right. That must’ve been the reason behind all the dim lighting. It covered up how ugly the place was.

As ugly as it probably was in the light, it still looked like a faraway palace in the sands of the Middle East. And Cameron bet that somewhere in the world there was a gaudy prince with this same horrible taste who had a replica of this hotel as a home.

Li said nothing during the walk down the hall, and then she stopped at the corner.

She turned to Cameron and tried to smile. She said, “I’m sorry I acted like a bitch. I’m not usually like that.”

Cameron nodded and shrugged.

“It’s just that I was ordered to come and pick you up like this morning. I had to wait in the airport the whole day, and it’s just that it ruined my plans.”

Cameron stayed quiet.

She said, “They were important plans. Life-changing, actually. I was supposed to take my S-S-E-E today.”

“S-S-E-E?”

“Yeah, the exam to become a special agent for field duty.”

“S-S-E-E? Never heard of it. But then, I’m not that familiar with the Secret Service and its policies on becoming a field agent.”

Li said, “And you wouldn’t have heard of it. It’s not really a well-known test. Only guys who are interested in the service talk about it. The contents are secret. It’s the Secret Service—everything’s a secret, you know? It’s an official exam that everyone takes if they want to be a special agent. If I do well, I get a better chance of being picked for the best assignments. Top tier sort of thing.”

And then he understood and felt absolutely horrible. “And yours was today?”

Li said, “Yeah.”

“And instead, you were pulled from it and have to be here? With me?”

She nodded.

Guilt was an understatement. Now he felt like a real bastard.

He said, “I’m so so sorry. I don’t need you to hang out with me. Can you still make it?”

“Cameron, it’s almost evening. It’s too late. The test has already come and gone. Even if it was still going on, the agents taking it are locked in. No cell phones. No going out for bathroom breaks. And no entering late. You leave. You’re out.”

“Can you retake it?”

She nodded and said nothing.

“When’s the next time you can take it?”

She looked down at the floor, stared at Cameron’s shoes. They didn’t match his outfit, not that it mattered to him, but it should’ve because these particular shoes didn’t match because they were bright blue, a pair of New Balances. And with his green shirt and brown pants, the bright blue athletic shoes looked ridiculous to any normal person with any kind of taste, and judging by Li’s attire, she had plenty of taste. She made even her required uniform look stylish.

She gazed back up at Cameron, a slight tear in the corner of her eye, which made Cameron feel as about as awful as he ever had, except when someone had died because of him. This was like a close second.

She said, “I can’t register for the next exam until next year. It’s booked until then. It takes forever to get approved to take it.”

“Wow. I’m so so sorry,” he repeated.

He said nothing else because he didn’t know what else to say. He had inadvertently ruined this girl’s plans without having a choice in the matter. Not his fault. Not entirely. But one thing led to another, and everything was someone’s fault somehow. Even all the way down to the molecular level. Everything had a cause, and Cameron was the cause of her professional downfall. At least for a time.

Li didn’t cry, but the single tear that formed told Cameron how important it had been to her to take that test. He pictured her taking classes and staying up late at night to study for it. Maybe she had studied for months. Maybe years.

Li said, “So I’m sorry for being mean to you. Come on—let’s check you in, and I’ll buy you a drink. If you aren’t too tired from the flight?”

Cameron felt some jetlag. The flights across the nation hadn’t been that bad or too long—not like flying across the ocean, he imagined, but it had been his first time flying. Jetlag was a new feeling for him, and he didn’t much care for it. But one thing he wasn’t about to do was turn down a drink from a beautiful woman, especially one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. Agent Li belonged up there on billboards. That was Cameron’s unwavering, immovable opinion on the subject.

Not to mention the fact that, in a way, he had just ruined her life.

He said, “A drink sounds great.”

They turned, and Li said, “There’s got to be a bar in here somewhere.”

“Actually, can we get out of here?”

“But this is where your room is. Don’t you want to check in?”

“This place isn’t really my style. I’m more old school.”

“It’s already paid for. Sean paid for it. And you probably won’t find anything else tonight. Not in the city. The city is hosting a small emergency summit of African leaders in two days because of the thing.”

“What thing?”

“You know. The thing.”

Cameron shrugged.

Li said, “You don’t know what happened in Ganbola?”

Cameron shook his head and said, “Let’s get out of this hotel. You can fill me in about whatever happened over that drink—out on the street.”

“So no checking in first?”

“No reason to check in right this second. You offered to buy me a drink. I’m more interested in that right now.”

She nodded.

“Tell you what,” Cameron said. “I’ll do you one better. Let me buy you dinner? I’m starving.”

Li shrugged and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think that you might be hungry.”

Cameron stayed quiet and stared at her.

“No big deal,” he said. “Let’s get something to eat now.”

She hesitated and looked at his clothes. It was like a reflex, not intentional—at least, Cameron didn’t think it was. She said nothing.

He said, “What? You don’t want to be seen with me? Is it my clothes?”

She nodded.

Cameron said, “Ouch!”

“I don’t mean it like I don’t want to be seen with you.”

“Just my clothes?” He paused a beat and said, “I could lose them. Right here if you want.”

He started to pretend like he was taking them off.

Li cracked a hint of a smile but not quite the real thing, and then she said, “That’s not what I meant, either!”

Cameron said, “I know. Just kidding. So what? You want me to get new clothes?”

Li said, “Can we, please? No place is going to let you in wearing that anyway.”

“What places? Where are we going? I can’t afford a five-star restaurant.”

“You couldn’t get into a five-star restaurant here. So don’t worry about that!”

“What’s that supposed to mean? My clothes are that bad?”

Li smiled wide, and for the first time since they’d met, she not only smiled, she lit up the dim corridors of The Fifth. Her smile was all teeth. All white. All straight.

Cameron actually felt a little nervous now and embarrassed. Because of his clothes, he felt that perhaps he should have put more thought into style rather than convenience and affordability. After all, one thing that’s not convenient is being turned down by a woman before you even start to show interest.

Li said, “Let’s just get you some new clothes. They don’t need to be fancy, just better. They can be casual. Do you have any money?”

Cameron nodded.

“Good. Then let’s go buy something new for you to wear, and then we’ll grab that drink. Don’t worry—there are plenty of places I think you’ll like. But even those places wouldn’t let you in wearing this crap.”

She grabbed his shirt and pinched it. Her fingers brushed his abdomen. It was barely a touch, really, and lasted only a brief second, but Cameron noticed it. He definitely noticed it. He smiled. She gave him a big smile in return. At least he had gotten a reaction from her, and that wasn’t such a bad thing in Cameron’s opinion.