Pandora's Box (38 page)

“What are you talking about?”

“My plan is to stay alive.”
 
The first lady picked her white satin robe off the edge of the bed and pulled it over the matching pajamas.
 
“I was a fool to marry that man, but I grew up dirt poor and desperate for the good life.
 
We agreed to fake a good marriage in public, live separately in private, and divorce once we left the White House.”
 
Her voice drifted away as if she was traveling back in time.
 
“I’ve seen a different side of Malcom since then.
 
I don’t think he wants to sully his good name with a divorce.
 
I expect he was thinking about killing me.”

Madison
shook her head.
 
“Am I supposed to believe the president, a man who has survived three assassination attempts, has been plotting to kill you?”

“Believe what you want.”
 
The first lady shrugged.
 
There was a deep sadness in her eyes that would have been hard to fake.
 
“Malcom is a charming man.
 
He had me fooled for years.
 
Then one day I saw the real him and it scared the living hell out of me, enough to make me pretend to be a horrible drunk.

“Don’t you understand, dear?
 
If I make a big enough fool out of myself in public, no one will blame him for cutting me loose.
 
He’ll see the benefit of having me alive then.
 
People will feel sorry for him.
 
They’ll admire him when he presses on despite having a drunk and a cheat for a wife.”

Madison
let the words sink in slowly and added it to the things she knew.
 
She had always thought of the president as a good man, but lately certain negative things had come to light.
 
A twisted scenario sprang to mind.
 
If Malcom Law was a man willing to do anything for power, he could be working with Roxie.
 
Every time someone tried to kill the president, his popularity skyrocketed.
 

“Have you heard anything about Pandora’s Box?” she asked.

“You mean the story, the myth?
 
I think I read it when I was a child.
 
Why?”

“Not the myth.
 
It’s an invention of Grainger’s.
 
Someone is either using it to have your husband assassinated, or your husband is using it to make it look like someone is after him.”

The first lady shrugged.
 
“I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

Madison
remembered the first lady was still a suspect on her growing list.
 
She watched the woman’s eyes as she said, “I know you’re in love with the vice-president.”

“I told you I’m a cheat.
 
It’s part of the plan.
 
People will rally behind Malcom when they know I’ve committed adultery.”
 
She shrugged.
 
“I’m willing to weather anything, even a terrible scandal, as long as Malcom lets me leave this marriage in one piece.”

Madison
might have lost her mind, but she believed the first lady and mentally took her off the suspect list.
 
Mercer, on the other hand, was an entirely different story.
   
He could be using the first lady, setting her up to take the rap for her husband’s murder, while Mercer settled comfortably into the Oval Office.

Madison
’s eyes fell on a photograph of
Tyler
with his mom.
 
She went to it, picked it up, and stared at the handsome face she might never see again.

“You have a thing for my son, don’t you?”
  
The first lady took the picture from
Madison
’s numb hands and replaced it on the nightstand.
 
“He’s nothing like his father, I’m proud to say.
 
I think the two of you would make beautiful babies.”

Madison
blushed.

The first lady added, “Although I’m sure you don’t care, you have my blessing.”

“Have you seen or heard from
Tyler
recently?”
 
Madison
asked.
 

“Not since he had that closed-door meeting with my husband after Malcom sent the jet for the two of you.
 
I heard the plane exploded.
 
Thank God neither one of you were injured.”

“Please call me right away if you see or hear anything.
 
He could be in big trouble.”

The closet opened and Mercer stepped out.
 
“There’s something you should know, Agent Grey.”

Madison
jumped, startled.
 
She stared at the vice-president with wide eyes.
 
Disbelief was written all over her face.
 
It was too ridiculous to be real.
 
The lover was hiding out in the closet?

Mercer continued, “I’ve been secretly working with the CIA along with Tyler Law to expose the president’s lies.
 
Tyler
calls me at regular intervals, but I haven’t heard from him in three days.”

The vice-president had been working with
Tyler
this whole time and
Tyler
hadn’t said a word to her.
 
Once again she felt betrayed.
 
She squelched it down, buried it deep.
 
Finding
Tyler
and saving him from Roxie’s twisted plan had to come first.
 
Then she’d deal with the rest of the garbage.

“Roxie has him,”
Madison
said.
 
“She’s the one implanting the microchips in people.
 
You must know all about Pandora’s Box.”
 
She waited for him to nod once.
 
Then she continued.
 
“I don’t know if she’s working alone or has an accomplice.
 
She had her father shot, so it’s a safe bet that she’s not working with him anymore.”

“Good to know.”
 
Mercer circled the bed and put his arms around the first lady.
  
Vivian Law almost melted.
 
He added, “I would appreciate your discretion on this matter.
 
I know you don’t owe me anything, especially not after the way I attacked you following your father’s death, but—.”

She waved a hand.
 
“Don’t worry about it.
 
I have more important matters on my mind, like saving
Tyler
.”

“Let me know if you need anything.
 
The CIA is at your disposal.”

Well, that was a switch.
 

“There is one thing you can do for me.
 
You can answer a question.
 
Are you the one who asked
Tyler
to compile a file on Pandora’s Box?”

He nodded slightly.

She asked, “Do you have the file?”

“It’s in a safe at my home.”

“Who killed Agent Warner?”

The vice-president sighed and rubbed his forehead.
 
“President Law has a few agents on his private payroll.
 
They killed Warner in an attempt to get the file, find out who knew about the Box, and silence us for good.
 
Fortunately
Tyler
is exceptional in the field.”

The first lady said, “My son has an apartment.
 
I’m the only one who knows the address.
 
He wanted somewhere other than a motel room to hide out in whenever he felt the need for it.”
 
She quickly jotted down the address.
 
“Maybe you should check here.”

Without another word, she walked out.

Madison
left the White House in a hurry, praying she wouldn’t run into the president on her way out.
 
As luck would have it, he was in a meeting.
 
She fast-walked to the end of the drive and grabbed a taxi.

Somehow she was going to find
Tyler
and stop him from killing his father.

******

Three tension-filled days slid by at a snail’s pace without a word from or about
Tyler
.
 
Roxie was keeping him under wraps somewhere.
 
Perhaps she knew about the other remote, the one that
Madison
kept hidden from prying eyes.
 
Horrible images filled
Madison
’s mind every time she allowed her thoughts to stray to
Tyler
’s whereabouts.
 
Roxie could have him under lock and key or she could have killed him.

The latter probably wasn’t true.
 
Roxie wanted
Tyler
to kill the president.
 
Madison
doubted the plan had changed.
 
At the very least Roxie would want to use
Tyler
against her.
 
He'd shot at her.
 
Every time she closed her eyes she saw his cold expression as he pulled the trigger.
 
Lucky for her she had awesome reflexes.

Madison
went to the graveyard at dusk.
 
She knelt at the grave, grateful for a place to go to visit her mother.
 

It was a shame their family had been torn apart so neatly through her mother’s murder.
 
She wished her mother had divorced her dad while
Madison
had been a baby.
 
They would have been better off without him.
 
Madison
pulled a stray weed from the ground and carelessly tossed it aside.
 
She pressed her fingers to her mother’s name, tracing it over and over.
 
“I wish you were here with me now.”

A throat cleared behind her, startling her.
 
She jumped to her feet, spun around, a hand going to the gun beneath her long coat.
 
A strange man stood there in tattered clothing.
 
Threat assessment: this guy didn’t mean her any harm.
 
She relaxed, moving her hand to her side.

“You Madison Grey?” he asked.

She nodded.
 
Before her head had bobbed twice the man thrust a metal box into her hands.
 
She asked, “What is this?”

“Your father told me to give it to you if he died.
 
Sorry it took me so long to find you.”

The old man wobbled away quickly, leaving her holding the box.
 
He looked like a homeless man.
 
She wondered if her father had given him an implant and programmed him to give her the box.
 
She stared down at it in disbelief.
 
Was this Pandora’s Box?
 
She lifted it close to her ear and shook it.
 
A slight rustling was all she heard.
 
Papers.
 
Probably important papers.
 

It had a lock on it, but the man hadn’t given her a key.
 
She yelled, “Wait!”

Too late.
 
The homeless man had vanished from view.
   

Holding the box close to her chest, she left the cemetery.
 
As soon as she got it home, she’d pick the lock.
 
Then her father’s secrets would belong to her along with the rest of his estate.
 
Her feet moved faster.
 

As she hurried to the truth, she remembered the story of Pandora’s Box.
 
If she opened the box, would she release a plague on the world?

******

Two hours later
Madison
still hadn’t opened it.

She listened to the falling rain pelt the windows of
Tyler
’s apartment.
 
Since his disappearance she’d spent almost every waking hour there, hoping he’d come strolling through the door as if nothing had gone wrong.
 
Freshly showered, she’d slipped on one of
Tyler
’s button-down shirts.
 
It still smelled like him, total masculinity.
 

She had lain down on
Tyler
’s couch, ready for a long night.
 
One thing she couldn’t bring herself to do was sleep in his bed.
 
Not without him.
 
She looked at the metal box on his coffee table.
 
Her father’s Pandora’s Box.
 
Now that she had it she was reluctant to open it.
 
Hard to believe her father had kept secrets from her.
 
Yet the proof rested inside that box.