"Did you check under the others?" he asked quietly.
"Not yet," I said, wanting to pound my forehead for not thinking of it myself. I went to mist and checked all the other cars. The President's limo was the target; they hadn't cared about any of the others.
After the explosive was removed, Tony asked me to wander around the building. Nobody else showed up, the President had a good night, his car was checked from one end to the other and still a replacement was brought out which yours truly examined end to end, even without Bill's reminder. It was clean. I reappeared at the proper moment, dutifully loaded into the limo with Tony, the President and the First Lady, and rode along to the White House. Somewhere along the way, I was looking out the tinted window on my side and absently humming the opening to Kung Fu Fighting. Tony was annoyed but the First Lady loved it and we ended up having a sing-along for the rest of the ride.
"Director, you may have to learn to loosen up a little," the President slapped Tony on the back before allowing his bevy of Secret Service to escort him and his wife inside the White House.
"Was that an executive order?" I asked innocently. Tony snarled a little and hauled me off toward a waiting car.
We didn't go home as I hoped; we ended up at an office building somewhere nearby. Don't ask me to name off streets, I was completely lost and confused unless I was on familiar terrain. Nothing about D.C. was familiar terrain. This building reminded me a little of the one I'd been inside in Georgia, but that seemed like a hundred years ago, so many things had happened since then. Instead of getting left outside a soundproof room, however, I was pulled inside it. It turned out to be an office where a vampire sat at a computer.
He wasn't more than eighty or ninety, I guess, and sat there staring at me as Tony led me inside and pushed me into a chair right in front of his desk. "Agent Baker will fill out the report, just answer all his questions," Tony ordered. What had I done? Sang a song with the First Lady? Is that why he was pissed? Agent Louis Baker had beautiful mahogany skin, a nice face and might have had a wonderful smile if he ever smiled. He didn't. He asked me all sorts of questions instead, including how I'd found the vampire under the limo. I told him. He huffed his disbelief when I said I misted beneath the car. Tony stood nearby, arms crossed over his chest and frowning while I answered questions.
"Show him, Lissa." The order was terse. Dutifully I went to mist, causing Agent Baker to hiss and back up a little.
"Baker!" Tony barked and Agent Baker drew in his fangs. I came back to myself.
"It used to take a lot longer," I explained, trying to put Agent Baker at ease. He barely lifted an eyebrow as he went back to work, taking notes on how I'd decapitated the vampire. I wanted this over with quickly. I had phone calls to make when I got to Tony's house. Merrill would want to know about another mister—Saxom had the talent for picking them, I guess. This one hadn't been related to the brothers I'd killed already so there was a possibility that he had other siblings somewhere. That didn't make me happy.
"None of the guards noticed a vampire's feet sticking out?" Tony asked.
"I think compulsion had something to do with it," I offered dryly.
"Christ," Tony muttered and walked away to pace along nearby windows.
"He's not mad at you," Agent Baker said softly, out of Tony's hearing. "This is an attack on the President and it's a tough thing to guard against if these guys are vampires."
"Fine," I replied and went back to answering questions. Tony and I didn't talk on the way home. I couldn't help what I was. If I hadn't been there, the President might be dead now. Tony had to take the good with the bad. He was going to have to pull his vamp agents in, I think, and they were going to have to do something to help.
Tony went to bed while I made my calls. Merrill didn't sound at all pleased when I explained to him what happened. I think he wanted to pull me out of there but Wlodek would have the final word. It was too late to call Franklin so I sent an email, asking how he and Greg were doing. I'd done my best to get both of them on berry smoothies before I'd left New York. We'd bought frozen berries and put them in the blender. I even added a little ice cream to Greg's concoction—he'd lost some weight.
I had an email from Winkler and I waited until I'd finished with the others to look at it. Kellee had her ultrasound and discovered she was pregnant with twins. Winkler was going to get off the hook quicker than he thought. Now he would have to hire a nanny or Davis was going to learn to change diapers, I think. Kellee had signed those kids off in the pre-nup so Winkler would be raising them. Personally, I wouldn't mind if Kellee flew off on the broom I'm sure she had hidden somewhere.
Winkler, I am still pissed at you, I wrote. If Leigh Williams is still available when all this is over, I think you should ask her out. You schmuck.
Then I went back to my map of places in Great Britain where the children had disappeared. How were they connected? I couldn't get any clear idea, even though I racked my brain over the whole thing. Dawn was coming and I barely had time to shower and get ready for bed before I was out.
* * *
Larry was asking for more ash and Tony was berating himself. If he'd had any sense at all, he'd have asked Lissa to pick up what she could of the mister from the night before. Tony was pacing a little in the President's office while Dr. Lawrence Frazier sat nearby. They'd all sat and watched the computer screen when Larry loaded in the results of his experiments with the mister's ash from Los Angeles. Tony couldn't believe what he was seeing. If a chimp could turn to mist, then a human could. He had absolutely no doubt in his mind about that. This had so many possibilities. Hostages could be rescued. Soldiers could be gotten into places they'd only dreamed of before—secret meetings between enemy operatives or inside tanks, planes and helicopters—Lissa had. Tony drew in a sharp breath and looked at his watch. It was after four. "I'll have somebody pick you up around ten tomorrow morning," Tony informed Larry. "Be ready to go and bring blood collection supplies with you. I trust you know how to draw blood without harming the patient?" He gave Larry Frazier a hard look.
"I can draw blood just fine, thanks," Frazier grumbled. The President was watching the exchange with interest.
"Is this something I don't want to know about?" he asked, steepling his fingers.
"It's better if you don't, sir," Tony replied. He was stepping onto thin ice, gambling heavily that it wouldn't crack beneath his feet.
* * *