Ken Follett - Code to Zero (2000)

'How about you?' he asked Elspeth. 'Peg's married, Billie's already getting divorced - you've got some catching-up to do.'

'Oh, you know about us government girls.' The phrase was a newspaper cliche. So many young women worked for the government in Washington that they outnumbered single men by five to one. Consequently they were stereotyped as sexually frustrated and desperate for dates. Luke did not believe Elspeth was like that, but if she wanted to evade his question, she was entitled.

She asked him to watch the stove while she freshened up. There was a big pan of spaghetti and a smaller one of bubbling tomato sauce. He took off his jacket and tie, then stirred the sauce with a -wooden spoon. The martini had made him mellow, the food smelled good, and he was with a woman he really liked. He felt happy.

He heard Elspeth call out, with an uncharacteristic note of helplessness: 'Luke - could you come here?'

He stepped into the bathroom. Elspeth's dress hung on the back of the door, and she stood in a strapless peach-coloured brassiere and matching half-slip, stockings and shoes. Although she was wearing more clothes than if she had been on the beach, Luke found it unbearably sexy to see her in her underwear. Her hand was to her face. 'I got soap in my eye, damn it,' she said. 'Would you try to wash it out?'

Luke ran cold water into the washbasin. 'Bend down, get your face close to the bowl,' he said, encouraging her with his left hand between her shoulder blades. The pale skin of her back was soft and warm to his touch. He cupped water in his right hand and raised it to her eye.

'That helps,' she said.

He rinsed her eye again and again until she said the stinging had stopped. Then he stood her upright and patted her face dry with a clean towel. Your eye is a little bloodshot, but I guess it's okay,' he said.

'I must look a mess.'

'No.' He looked hard at her. Her eye was red and her hair on that side was wet in patches, but nevertheless she was as stunning as she had been on the day he first set eyes on her, more than a decade ago. You're absolutely beautiful.'

Her head was still tilted up, though he had stopped drying her face. Her lips were parted in a smile. It was the easiest thing in the world to kiss her. She kissed him back, hesitantly at first, then she put her hands behind his neck and pulled his face to hers and kissed him hard.

Her bra pressed against his chest It should have been sexy, but the wiring was so stiff that it scratched his chest through the fine cotton of his shirt. After a moment he pulled away, feeling foolish. 'What?' she said.

He tightly touched the brassiere and said with a grin: 'It hurts.'

'You poor thing,' she said with mock pity.

She reached behind her back and unfastened the bra with a swift movement. It fell to the floor.

He had touched her breasts a few times, all those years ago, but he had never seen them. They were white and round, and the pale nipples were puckered with excitement. She put her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his. Her breasts were soft and warm. 'There,' she said. 'That's how it should feel.'

After a while he picked her up, stepped into the bedroom, and laid her on the bed. She kicked off her shoes. He touched the waistband of her half-slip and said: 'May I?'

She giggled. 'Oh, Luke, you're so polite!'

He grinned. It was kind of silly, but he did not know how else to be. She lifted her hips and he pulled off the slip. Her pink panties matched the rest of her underwear.

'Don't ask,' she said. 'Just take them off.'

When they made love it was slow and intense. She kept pulling his head to hers and kissing his face while he moved in and out of her. 'I've wanted this for so long,' she whispered into his ear; and then she cried out with pleasure, several times, and lay back, exhausted.

Soon Elspeth fell into a deep sleep, but Luke lay awake, thinking about his life.

He had always wanted a family. For him, happiness was a big, noisy house full of children and friends and pets. Yet here he was, thirty-three and single, and the years seemed to go by faster and faster. Since the war, his career had been his priority, he told himself. He had gone back to college, making up for the lost years. But that was not the real reason he was unmarried. The truth was that only two women had ever touched his heart - Billie and Elspeth. Billie had deceived him, but Elspeth was here beside him. He looked at her voluptuous body in the faint glow of the lights of DuPont Circle outside. Could there be anything better than spending every night like this, with a girl who was smart, brave as a lion, wonderful with children, and -on top of all that - stunningly beautiful?

At daybreak he got up and made coffee. He brought it into the bedroom on a tray, and found Elspeth sitting up in bed, looking sleepily delectable. She smiled happily at him.

'I have something to ask you,' he said. He sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. 'Will you marry me?'

Her smile disappeared and she looked troubled. 'Oh, my God;' she said. 'Can I think about it?'

.

7 A. M.

The exhaust gases pass through the nozzle of the rocket like a cup of hot coffee being poured down the throat of a snowman.

Anthony drove up to the Jefferson Memorial with Larry sitting in the front seat between him and Pete. It was still dark, and the area was deserted. He turned the car around and parked so that its headlights would shine at any other car that came along.

The monument was a double circle of pillars with a domed roof. It stood on a high platform approached by steps at the rear. 'The statue is nineteen feet high and weighs ten thousand pounds,' he told Larry. 'It's made of bronze.'

'Where is it?'

'You can't see it from here, but it's inside those pillars.'

'We should have come in the daytime,' Larry whined.

Anthony had taken Larry out before. They had gone to the White House and the zoo and the Smithsonian. They would get hot dogs for lunch and eat ice cream in the afternoon, and Anthony would buy Larry a toy before taking him home again. They always had a good time. Anthony was fond of his godson. But today Larry knew something was wrong. It was too early and he wanted his mother and he probably sensed the tension in the car.

Anthony opened the door. 'Stay here a second, Larry, while I talk to Pete,' he said. The two men got out Their breath misted in the cold air.

Anthony said to Pete: 'I'll wait here. You take the kid and show him the monument Stay this side, so that she'll see him when she arrives.'

'Right' Pete's voice was cold and abrupt 'I hate this,' Anthony said. In truth, he was past caring. Larry was unhappy, and Billie was frantic with fear, but they would get over it, and he was not going to allow sentiment to get in his way. 'We're not going to harm the kid, or his mother,' he said, trying to reassure Pete. 'But she'll tell us where Luke has gone.'

'Then we give back the kid.'

'No.'

'We don't?' Pete's expression was concealed by the darkness, but his voice betrayed dismay. 'Why not?'

'In case we need more information from her later.'

Pete was troubled, but he would acquiesce, at least for now, Anthony thought. He opened the car door. 'Come on, Larry. Uncle Pete's going to show you the statue.'

Larry got out with careful politeness he said: 'After we've seen it, I think I'd like to go home.'

Anthony's breath caught in his throat Larry's bravery was almost too much. After a moment, Anthony replied in a calm voice: 'We'll check with Mommy. Now go ahead.'

The child took Pete's hand and they walked around the monument toward the steps at the back. A minute later they appeared in front of the pillars, lit by the car's headlights.

Anthony checked his watch. Sixteen hours- from now, the rocket would have taken off, and it would all be over, one way or another. Sixteen hours was a lot, plenty of time for Luke to do unlimited damage. Anthony had to catch him, fast Billie should be here by now. He suffered a pang of doubt. Surely she would come? She was too frightened and panicky to call the cops, or pull any kind of stunt, he felt certain.