Aaron Elkins - Fellowship Of Fear

"You don’t really want to get out of bed, do you? I’m not going to let you sleep in your room tonight anyway, so why don’t you register in the morning?"

"But-"

"This way, you get the continued uninterrupted pleasure of my wondrously beautiful body."

"Well…"

"Plus the immediate gratification of any perverse wishes you’d care to make known."

"Well…"

"Plus you don’t have to pay them six dollars for the night."

"Now that’s a point," he said, snuggling down against her.

"I thought you’d think so," she said. Then, just as they were falling asleep again, she added, "I’ll only charge you three."

"Do you charge extra for perverse wish gratification?"

"First two are on the house."

"Deal," he said, and fell happily asleep.

Forty feet down the hall in Room 15, Tom Marks was staring gloomily at his reflection in the mirror. He could already see the bags under his eyes, and wasn’t the left one getting a little bloodshot? He looked at his watch: nearly 2:00 a.m., and he had to get up at 6:00. He was a man who needed his sleep. If he didn’t get enough, it made his stomach queasy all day and he couldn’t eat right. Even if he left right now and slept on the cot at the office, he’d only get three hours’ sleep. How was he supposed to function on that? His work was very demanding, very detailed.

Damn. Where was Oliver? The Madrid plane had been on time and Oliver had been on it; they knew that. But the 11:00 train had arrived in Heidelberg without him, and the next one wouldn’t be in until 9:20 a.m. He hadn’t stayed over at the Rhein-Main Air Base Hotel, and so far the Polizei hadn’t turned him up at any of the hotels in Frankfurt.

There was something fishy about that smart-mouthed professor, even if Delvaux didn’t think so. One way or another, everything he touched got screwed up, including tonight. Delvaux had made it sound simple: "When he arrives, you will obtain the book from him and take it at once without opening it to Major Lauffer for deposit in the maximum-security vault." Simple, except what if he didn’t arrive?

This was ridiculous. He was not a field operative used to all-night stakeouts. He was an official; he needed his sleep, and who knew when, if ever, Oliver would come? And when he finally came, he would naturally be without the book, and with some fantastic story of how he’d been set upon by Spanish pirates who had stolen all his jockey shorts at saber point.

And they’d check it out, and it would be true.

There was really no point in continuing to wait. He might have some idea of what to do, had Delvaux taken him into his confidence and told him what was so special about the book, but le directeur, in his wisdom, had chosen not to. It was the source for some code, probably. Well, enough was enough.

He left the room, slamming the door behind him. At the noise, the slow, steady snoring from the room across the hall fractured into a series of little hiccups and stopped. Good. Why should that sonofabitch sleep when he had to stay up all night? He hurried down the stairs, just in case the interrupted sleeper came out to see about the noise.

He got a sheet of paper from the sleepy attendant at the reception desk and wrote, "Oliver-Call me at once no matter what time. Do not let book, Skull of Sinanthropus Pekinensis, out of your sight. Extremely urgent. Tom Marks." He put the sheet in an envelope, sealed it, wrote "Oliver-urgent" neatly in its center, and gave it to the attendant.

"See that he gets this the minute he arrives."

"Check," the attendant said.

"Even before he registers."

"Right."

Marks formed his lips into a thin, tight line. "This is of the first order of magnitude," he said.

"I hear you, I hear you," the attendant said.

Marks glared at him a moment longer, then turned on his heel and went home for a few hours of hard-earned sleep.

Gideon was awakened by a gentle nuzzling high up between his shoulder blades. He lay on his side with Janet pressed close behind him, her hand resting on his hip, her soft belly against the base of his back, her knees fitting comfortably into the hollows behind his own.

So had he awakened peacefully with Nora on a thousand mornings. Nora…A black shadow of grief and despair darkened his mind suddenly. His stomach twisted, and a violent shudder ran across his back from one shoulder to the other.

"Oh oh, it’s awake, folks. Better stand back," Janet said, snuggling in even closer and moving her lips softly over his shoulders.

The black shadow passed on.

Gideon closed his eyes again and sighed. "Ah, Janet, how good you feel."

"Boy, do I ever," she said. She moved her hand to his chest-the touch excited him-and she pressed him still more tightly to her. "Mmm, I’m glad you have a hairy chest."

"Not always. I just wear it with girls who like truck drivers." He was sorry as soon as he said it and twisted to face her. He placed his fingertips on her mouth. "I’m sorry," he said. "That was stupid. I’m glad you like me, Janet. I don’t think you have any idea how glad."

He took his hand from her lips and softly stroked her cheek. She lay still, watching him with glowing eyes. Her hair was tousled and her cheeks a little flushed. Something made Gideon’s breath catch in his throat. He kissed her softly on the lips, a long, serene, relaxed kiss, with both their heads resting easily on her pillow.

This was getting serious. If he didn’t watch out, he was going to find himself right up to his ears in a Meaningful Relationship, and with an odd female of whom he barely approved, if at all. Somehow, the prospect failed to repel him.

Her hand had stayed at his chest and now began to lightly caress his nipple. He leaned toward her and kissed her again, harder this time, and stroked her long, solid thighs.

She caught his hand and lifted it to her lips. "Don’t get me excited. We don’t have time for that stuff."

"It’s six o’clock in the morning," he said plaintively. "And it’s Saturday."

"We’re going on the faculty Rhine cruise. They do it every year, with whoever’s in town. I guess I forgot to mention it."

"Janet, I hate stuff like that-"

"I know, but I have to go. I’m on the administrative staff, remember, and Dr. Rufus likes all of us to be there. I just figured that you’d want to come along, so I booked a place. You don’t have to if you don’t want to."

"Well, I haven’t seen the Rhine yet, but the idea of a group cruise-"

"It isn’t, really. They’ve just reserved thirty places on one of the regular Rhine steamers from Rudesheim."

"How do we get to Rudesheim?"

"Most of the others are going up on an army bus, but we’re driving up with John and Marti in their car."

"Who are they?"

"John Lau."

"John’s married?"

"Sure. You’ll like Marti. She’s really off the wall."

"Do you know, I had no idea he was married?" It made Gideon feel vaguely guilty that he had never even asked. Had his relationship with John been as one-sided as that? "Okay," he said, "sounds good. I’m game."

"Great. We have to meet them at the Admin Building in half an hour. Let’s go." She kissed him with a loud smack: the perfunctory sort of kiss shared by people who have kissed many times before and know that many more will follow. Then she reached down and gave his genitals an amiable little jiggle-as if she were scratching a friendly dog behind the ears-and jumped from the bed.

Gideon liked the possessiveness and indulgence implied by the gesture. Meaningful Relationships aside, he had wondered whether he would ever again share with any woman the comfortableness he was beginning to feel with this one.

With mixed feelings, all of them pleasant, he watched her walk toward the bathroom.