The Project 05 - The Tesla Secret

involuntary step backward, as if he had just seen something unspeakably evil. Ridiculous, he thought. It's just the stress talking.
    Foxworth calmed himself. "Don't ask me again. A long as I can reach you, I don't need anything else."
    "I'm always available for you." Morel closed his case.
    The money he got for these visits guaranteed it. If his patient didn't want tests, well, that was his decision. Morel had done what he could. He wouldn't bring it up again, not after what Foxworth had said. For a moment, he'd actually felt threatened.

CHAPTER SIX

    Selena's condo had security good enough for Langley or the NSA. She needed it. There was enough rare art on the walls to start a private museum. She'd inherited a fortune from her uncle. His murder had brought her to the Project. She'd never imagined then that she would end up working for Harker.
    One of the things Nick liked about her was her lack of pretension. Selena didn't flaunt her money. She had no false airs of superiority because of wealth.
    He sat at the counter and watched her in the kitchen. She moved with smoothness perfected in twenty years of martial arts training. The reddish blond coloring of her hair revealed her Celtic ancestors. Her eyes were sometimes blue, sometimes deep violet. Her face was interesting. One cheekbone was a little higher than the other. She had the kind of look people called striking. There was a small dark mole on her upper lip, a natural beauty mark.
    Selena had a lot of skills, but cooking wasn't one of them. She was trying out a recipe for beef stroganoff. A pan of noodles burbled on the stove.
    "You need any help with that?"
    Nick kept the nervousness out of his voice. Selena's last two attempts to make dinner hadn't ended well. They usually ate out when they were together, or Nick fixed something.
    "No, I'm fine. How's your drink?"
    "I'm good." He picked up his whiskey, took a sip. Foam lifted off the noodles and boiled over onto the stove.
    "Darn!" She turned down the flame.
    "Won't hurt anything," he said.
    She took the noodles off the stove, strained them into a colander in the sink. Half of them stuck to the pan. She scooped them out and added the beef and brought everything over to the counter. It was already set with plates and napkins and silverware. She'd put a rose in a bud vase on the counter. Water in crystal glasses. A large Greek salad.
    Nick eyed the stroganoff. "What are those black things?"
    "Olives. I didn't have any pickles."
    He took a bite. The meat was like leather. His eyes watered. "Kind of hot." They both reached for water. "How much pepper did you use?"
    "It said a tablespoon. You like spicy things so I added a bit more."
    "A tablespoon." No way, he thought. "Not bad," he said. He took another gulp of water.
    "It's terrible. Damn it." She pushed her plate away.
    "Great chefs weren't made in a day. The wine's good." He leaned over and kissed her. "And you taste good. Kind of like peppered wine."
    "You taste like whiskey. With curdled sour cream."
    "Let's just eat the salad."
    When they were done they moved to a long couch where they could look out over the lights of the city. The Capitol Dome glowed white in the distance.
    "I wish it could always be like this," she said.
    "It's like this right now."
    "For how long? Something's going to come up. It always does. We still aren't certain who came after us."
    "No. We'll find out, though."
    "You think they'll try again?"
    "Yes."
    "How can we stop them?"
    "They'll make a mistake. Sooner or later, there's always a mistake. All we need is a lead. We follow that, we learn more, we keep going. Somewhere there's an end to the trail. Then we eliminate the threat."
    "We don't know what the threat is."
    He picked up his drink and gazed into the amber glow of the whiskey. He set it down.
    "We'll find out," he said again. He changed the subject. "You miss what you did before you hooked up with Harker?"
    Selena had a unique gift for ancient and obscure languages. She had a world wide reputation as an expert.
    "Sometimes. Mostly not. After this last year, I could never go back to my old life. Even with the drawbacks of working for Elizabeth."
    She stared into her wine glass. "You think you'll ever want to get out of this? Do something different?"
    "I think about it, sometimes. It would be hard to just have a normal life. Whatever that is."
    "Some things don't change, normal life or not."
    "What do you mean?"
    She set her glass down and kissed him. A long kiss.
    They