The Project 05 - The Tesla Secret

thoughts and feelings away until she could look at them.
    "Damn it," she said.
    Nick got to his feet and gestured at the bodies. "They deserved what they got. That one over there was going to kill Burps. Just for fun."
    "You're bleeding a little," she said. His chest was crossed with welts from the branches and scratches where the screen door had cut him going through.
    "It's nothing. We'd better call Harker. There's a backup phone in the truck. "
    Selena watched the shifting colors of the flames play over him. His gray eyes were black in the night. His skin glowed red in the firelight, the old scars dark shadows and spots and hollows on his body. They walked to his Silverado. He pulled a gym bag from behind the seat and put on running shoes and an old black tee shirt. He took a phone from the bag and stuck it in his pocket.
    The cabin burned. They could feel the heat all the way across the clearing.
    "Let's check the bodies." He went to the first man he'd killed and started going through his pockets. Selena took the man next to him.
    "Nothing," she said.
    "Not here, either." He went to the last body and felt a hard shape through the clothes. He pulled out a cell phone, the kind of cheap throwaway model you could buy anywhere with prepaid time. He pocketed the phone.
    "This place is going to be crawling with cops and fire trucks soon," he said. "We have to get the bodies out of sight. Help me drag them into the trees."
    They moved the three dead men deep into the woods, went back and collected the weapons, put them with the bodies.
    He handed her the phone from the bag. "Give Harker a call while I find some socks."
    Selena stood with the phone and watched him walk back to the truck. As she watched, the propane tank in back of the cabin exploded. She looked at the blazing building and realized she still held the Glock in her other hand.
    How did I get here? she thought.

CHAPTER TWO

    It was a few minutes before six in the morning in Virginia. Elizabeth Harker had been behind her desk for more than an hour. A cup of black coffee warmed her hand. She felt at home when she was behind the desk. The Project had become her life.
    Elizabeth Harker had wide green eyes and milk-white skin. She was a small woman. Her size and looks and raven black hair made people think of a Tolkien fantasy where elves and fairies danced in the woods. People sometimes confused size and gender with competence and wrote her off. It was a mistake no one made twice.
    Her satellite phone signaled a call.
    Trouble, she thought, it's too early. She picked up.
    "Director. Someone came after us at Nick's cabin. We need a clean up."
    "Bodies?"
    "Three. The cabin is toast. Literally."
    "Are you all right?"
    "Yes. Nick's scratched up some."
    "Scratched up?"
    "Here, he'll tell you."
    Elizabeth heard Selena say something and Nick came on.
    "Director, we need a clean up team."
    "So Selena said. What happened?" She listened while Nick told her.
    "Hold on," she said. She picked up her desk phone, spoke briefly to someone on the other end. Set the phone down.
    "A team is on the way. It will take them two hours. Hide the bodies and weapons before anyone gets there."
    "Already done."
    Nick watched the embers rise, every one a fire waiting to happen. There'd been a freak rain the day before. The cabin was in a wide clearing. There was plenty of space around the flames and there was no breeze. It might be all right. In the distance he heard the first siren.
    "Fire trucks and the Sheriff will be here soon."
    "What will you tell them?" Harker's voice echoed over the satellite link.
    "Propane leak. They'll buy that, the tank went up with the cabin."
    "Any idea who they were? Any ID?"
    "No. A cell phone, nothing else. There might be something on it."
    "Get back here as soon as you can. Don't get arrested."
    Elizabeth leaned back in her chair and thought about it. If someone had gone after Nick and Selena, they might go after the others. She called Ronnie Peete and told him what had happened. She called Lamont and Stephanie and told them Ronnie would pick them up.
    The Project was the shadow hand of the President. No one was supposed to know who was on the team or where they lived. The Project was secret as far as the public was concerned, but it wasn't the public throwing grenades. Over the last few months too many people had found out about her group. She was getting the feeling that secret wasn't the operative word anymore.
    Elizabeth sipped her coffee and looked at