R.N. Shapiro's Blog

The jet crash Amanda Michaels survives severs her memories from before.  She learns early in Taming the Telomeres that Jonathan was her high school crush, the two were inseparable.  But, despite learning this, Amanda feels nothing.

In Targeting the Telomeres, the stand alone book #2 in the series, Amanda recalls a flash of a memory of her time with Jonathan.  That flash causes her to seek out Jonathan to try to rekindle what they had together, something she believes will make her more whole as a person.  This chapter highlights her feelings about Jonathan, from Part II of Targeting:

Junior Crush

Almost no mail ever comes for her. In fact, more still arrives addressed to Kyle Perless, the former farm owner, than to her. Amanda takes them over to the Crossroads Broken Halo rehab facility and asks Helen, the coordinator, to forward them to him at his condo. Once in a while there’s a stray letter to Kent. Every time one arrives it still hits her right in the gut, robbing her of her breath.  She thinks of the first time she walked in his room in the farmhouse, the feeling of it all. But this one is addressed to her, so she flips the envelope over and checks the return address as she tears open a corner. If the contents are what she thinks they are, they might help her remember something, anything.

Looking for somewhere comfortable, she walks down the hallway to her room and plops down on the bed, the perfect spot to read her old high school letters she wrote to Jonathan. Before she starts reading, she lays the folded papers down and gets up to light some incense. She blows air over it, ensuring the stick is lit, and takes in the pine-needle scent. Back on the bed, she unfolds several pages and her eyes focus in on the one on top:

Jonathan:

It’s so boring here this summer without you. My mom’s always trying to do stuff with me. Not what I want to be doing though. I’m doing the club soccer team with Reston and practicing twice a week. Charlyne and Iris and I went to a movie last night at the Starr Center. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were spies or something. I didn’t think it was any good.

Bobby Firstine totaled his dad’s Suburban after Michael Beasley’s party last Saturday night. Holy shit. The cops arrested him, he flunked the DUI test. Big trouble! His parents were out of town and he’s up shit creek. Wonder where that creek is, anyway. Ha ha.

Jonathan – I miss you sooo much. Can’t wait until you’re back!! Can you come home now?

xxooxx Amanda

The second page is a photocopy of a handwritten letter, just like the first:

July 16

Jonathan:

I saw your mom at the Giant supermarket with your sister. Your mom’s always so nice to me. She wants me to come on another trip with your family. She says the ski trip we went on was one of her favorite family trips ever. Do you remember how cold the weather was at Seven Springs? And the night we had that snowball fight outside the cottage after dinner? Your sister was so mad at you when you stuffed that snow down the back of her coat, I thought she was going to kill you. We have a game tomorrow at the Loudoun Striker Field. You know I hate the Strikers team. They beat us on penalty kicks the last time we played. Anyway, I miss you and wish you were here right now.

xxooxx Amanda

P.S.:  What day are you getting home again? I always forget, is it the 15th or the 16th of August? Write me back!!

* * *

Instinctively she closes her eyes: Jonathan, in a dark blue puffy ski jacket; chasing his sister, he pounces on her in the snow and stuffs the mushy snowball right between the nape of her neck and the top of her pink coat.

Why didn’t I help her? Why did I laugh at her?

She’s crying. Her brother climbs off. Seeking revenge, she jumps up and grabs any snow she can, throwing it at him, tears running down her cheeks. I’m still laughing. So mean…

“Help me Amanda, help me!”

Oh my God, I remember? Why didn’t I help her? What a bitch I am. I was.

She opens her laptop, finds Jonathan’s profile on Popchat, and sends him a private message:

I got the old letters. Thank you for sending them. Remember when you shoved the snowball down your sister’s ski coat at Seven Springs? I remembered it!  Maybe things will keep coming back to me. I saw David the other day, we rode horses here at the farm.

Amanda waits, hoping for a quick response, and just before bedtime she notices his reply:

I thought they might help. Hope to see you later this summer? I’m coming home at some point.

Amanda starts imagining herself getting back together with Jonathan, imagining what that will be like.

(c) R.N. Shapiro 2018 All Rights Reserved

——-     ———-    ————-

I decided to write a number of chapters involving this relationship, they appear in Parts II and III of Targeting the Telomeres.

I’ve been invited to take part in more book funnel.com free advance reader thriller book promotions, one featuring females in protagonist roles in mysteries and thrillers. As some of my followers already know, Amanda Michaels is the protagonist of my new book, Targeting the Telomeres, and also was the protagonist of my first telomere series novel, Taming the Telomeres.  I am offering advance reader copies in this promo, along with other excellent authors.

The female lead free books promo is for a limited time, click on the link below to get up to 17 free female lead international thrillers:

Free Female Lead Thrillers on Book Funnel

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Free Female Lead Thrillers on Book Funnel

 Secondly, I am participating in another mystery & thriller giveaway– this one is even bigger with over 30 authors offering free advanced reader copy novels, so snag your copies of mysteries and thrillers to fill up and discover great books for your summer reading.

Major Mystery & Thriller Novel Giveaway

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Major Mystery & Thriller Novel Giveaway

So, if you are still with me here is a fun excerpt from Targeting the Telomeres, an  excerpt from a chapter entitled “Hard Way” in Part III of TTT-2:

Excerpt from “Hard Way”

Amanda climbs up on the short wall and starts to descend into the blackness off the rear of the ferry. Using her sneakers to glide down the stern, she reaches the waterline and feels the cold water soak into her shoes as she sinks down into the water. She glances toward the pier, getting a fix on the direction, then she notices a moving flashlight beam cutting through the darkness and paddles back into the shadow of the ferry. Once she sees Ty’s silhouette sliding into the water and swimming just below the surface, she lowers her head and mirrors him, seeing nothing except his amorphous figure ahead, even with her goggles in place.

As they approach the pier, Ryan slows down and signals with his hand for her to do the same. He holds a finger in front of his mouth, indicating not to speak, and points toward the pier. The guard stands no more than twenty feet away on the sidewalk, his flashlight shining downward. Ryan disappears, and Amanda maintains her position, treading water, assuming he has a plan. The ray of light starts scanning the water in her direction so she pushes her arms up and silently lowers herself underwater. From below the surface she watches the light shake spastically, then hears a loud splash.

He’s coming for me, she thinks, and begins swimming away frantically. The thrashing sounds, which come closer for several seconds as she strokes toward the ferry, suddenly stop. She turns and looks back, but sees nothing.

Now what? Ryan didn’t tell me what to do if someone came after me in the water. Since there is no sign of the guard in the water, she decides to try to find her way back to the pier and hopefully get out of the cold water.

She begins swimming under the surface, coming up for air for a split second, and wondering if another guard will be waiting for her on land. A few feet away from the pier, she starts looking for one of the ladders Ryan mentioned when something on her left touches her torso. She jerks away, like a fish instinctively leaping to avoid a shark attack, and prepares to slam her fist down on the top of the guard’s skull.

(C) 2018 R.N. Shapiro Targeting the Telomeres, All Rights Reserved.

I was recently listening to a podcast about gender equality, and strong female characters in fiction when I first learned of the Bechdel-Wallace test, a method for evaluating the portrayal of women in fiction.

This simple gender equality baseline test asks the question whether at least two women talk to each other about something other than a man,  and also asks:  do at least two women have a name.

Believe it or not, only about half of all Hollywood movies supposedly meet this ridiculously simple test and of course the test calls attention to gender inequality in fiction.

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I thought it would be appropriate to talk about this in relation to the sequel action thriller I just released in paperback, Targeting the Telomeres, A Thriller which not only features a strong female protagonist, Amanda Michaels, but also several other (actually named) female characters that are far from bit players. Amanda Michaels has genetically altered telomeres, which are the protective tips of cell chromosomes which control cell life-and-death. She survives a horrible jet crash in my first telomere series novel, Taming the Telomeres. A Thriller a prior #1 bestselling Amazon suspense thriller.  In the final parts of my new thriller, Targeting the Telomeres, Amanda engages in a do-or-die rescue mission inside Communist China, but there are several other strong female characters, Britt Hayes, a covert CIA operative, and Liza Zhang, herself a former CIA agent, who has left the agency and occasionally takes on undercover contract work.

First of all, in both my novels Amanda is the central character, herself a complex, unpredictable heroine, but her many interactions with Britt and Liza all occurred during the daring rescue mission inside China.

No, I never thought about the Bechdel test when I wrote either of my novels, and I was thinking about it, maybe it’s because I’ve been surrounded by strong women throughout my life, I’m married to a CPA, I have a CPA daughter, I work with and against many female attorneys and I happen to have a number of relatives who are members of the LGBT community. I happened to invent a strong female character in Amanda Michaels, and maybe subconsciously dynamic women that I’ve known throughout my life have informed some of the attributes of these characters in my novels.

In one action-packed scene in my novel, Amanda Michaels, Britt Hayes and Liza Zhang all are involved in decision-making relating to the daring, desperate rescue.

Anyhow, maybe I didn’t think about it in those terms when writing scenes, but if you’re looking for strong female characters, who don’t follow old Hollywood stereotypes, check out my telomere thriller novel series, featuring Amanda Michaels.

Note: the e-book version goes on sale on Amazon September 6, 2018, currently you can get a free download of an advance reader copy of Targeting the Telomeres by clicking  the link above and below the cover:

BookHip.com/MRPFKT

BookHip.com/MRPFKT

If you miss the free ebook Book Funnel promotion, Targeting will be available to download on Amazon or other bookselling sites.

Targeting the Telomeres (TTT2) was selected as one of the ‘honor and glory’ Book Funnel novels featuring warrior protagonists.  In a sense, Amanda Michaels becomes a warrior , who risks all to travel into China in TTT2.  Along with other great novels, TTT2 is being offered free to advance readers for the next 14 days on Book Funnel.  The bonus: twenty other authors with warrior protagonists are offering free advance copies or special insider deals.

Click here:  Book Funnel Honor & Glory Free Advance Reader Book Offer.[image error]

Click here:  Book Funnel Honor & Glory Free Advance Reader Book Offer

Explore thrillers and warriors in this special offer on Book Funnel.  For more background information about the telomere series, authored by R.N. Shapiro scroll around on the author’s website: https://RNShapiro.com

I was pleased to be included with 20 plus international thriller writers who are all teaming up on Book Funnel to provide limited time offer ADVANCE READER COPIES of their mysteries and thrillers.  Wow, it feels like summer and swoop in to select some great thrillers, free, no strings attached.  Targeting the Telomeres, A Thriller on Amazon my new stand alone sequel novel, is only available in paperback on Amazon, my ebooks do not go on sale till September, so get my thriller FREE and pick FREE thrillers and mysteries from over 20 other authors also.  In my new sequel thriller, Targeting the Telomeres, Amanda Michaels faces a new family crisis, and, along with an unlikely ally, she enters Communist China for a do or die rescue mission.

But, this is about many other thriller authors offering their new thrillers also.  Check them all out on Book Funnel below.

Click here: Feels like summer 20 plus thrillers for free

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20 plus thrillers offered free for next 14 days

Targeting the Telomeres Book Cover

My sequel stand alone thriller, Targeting the Telomeres on Amazon has been released in paperback only, and will be offered in ebook format Sept. 6, 2018,  but on Book Funnel we are offering FREE Advance Reader Copies for kindle, ibooks and pdf for several weeks this summer, just click the Book Funnel link to Targeting the Telomeres below to snag your free version, the download link is only good for 14 days.

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Please leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon or your favorite book website if you enjoy Targeting the Telomeres.  I really hope you will.  The initial reviews from Readers’ Favorite have been encouraging.  Here’s the link:

BookHip.com/MRPFKT

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After a design contest on 99Designs, we selected the cover design for Targeting the Telomeres, the sequel stand alone novel that follows Taming the Telomeres.

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The target viewfinder features elements in the novel, such as a US passport and a Chinese visa, as Amanda Michaels travels to China due to a family crisis.  She enlists an unlikely ally in her desperate effort which takes her to Beijing and other places in China.

A number of characters introduced in Taming the Telomeres re-appear in Targeting, but we will not spoil anything here.

The initial editorial reviews of Targeting the Telomeres on Readers’ Favorite have been really humbling:

Five Stars

Targeting the Telomeres by R.N. Shapiro is the sequel to the author’s debut novel in the same series, the acclaimed Taming the Telomeres. In the latest installment, Amanda Michaels is thrust into a dangerous web of intrigue, political artifice, and corporate expropriation when her family is unable to shake the pitfalls of her father’s telomere discovery….R.N. Shapiro certainly knows how to write suspense, and the thrills and tension charge through every page. The dialogue feels authentic and Amanda is a fabulous heroine, working with and against a whole cast of supporting characters that enhance and drive an already great plot…. I’d recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an awesome series that doesn’t hold back as a thriller, fueled by an intelligent and articulate plot that feels like it could have been written to play out on the big screen.

—-Reviewed By Jamie Michele for Readers’ Favorite

I have included a great view of the Great Wall of China from one of my trips to Beijing.

Visiting Great Wall

Its down to 6 semi-finalists and I hope you will share your preference with me.  This relates to the sequel to Taming the Telomeres, fiction thriller a #1 Amazon best seller.  The sequel picks up soon after my first novel ends, involving Amanda Michaels and a new family crisis.

R.N. Shapiro’s book cover design poll for Targeting the Telomeres

Two semi finalist book covers for Targeting the Telomeres book contest

In the September 2017 edition of Trial Magazine, they asked the nation’s trial lawyers “what’s your favorite legal thriller?”

To have Taming the Telomeres mentioned in a favorite legal thriller list with Greg Iles and Truman Capote, well, is pretty humbling and amazing.  Thank you Wayne Parsons of Hawaii!

Taming the Telomeres won the Gold Award in the Reader’s Favorite 2015 Literary Award Contest for suspense thriller, and later, during May 2016,  the novel held the #1 thriller position on Amazon for suspense thriller ebook.  The author is working on a follow along sequel to the novel, and re-posts a sneak preview of the Prologue chapter for the forthcoming novel, tentatively titled Targeting the Telomeres.

What kind of scum-sucking cockroaches kidnap a defenseless baby, Amanda Michaels thinks while trying to fall asleep. She will make them regret that decision.

Lying on the cramped, lower bunk of the sleeper car, she feels with her fingertips along the thin foam-rubber pad masquerading as a mattress. There it is. She tugs on the lower portion of her backpack hiding the loaded pistol with the customized silencer, nestling what constitutes all her belongings in the crook of her right arm. The sheath strapped under the left pant leg of her jeans secures a long KA-Bar serrated edge fixed blade knife. And in the right pocket of her hoodie are two identical burner cell phones. One is her only means of communication with her compatriot, who is also on the train, both of them full-in with their improbable mission. Imagining the linen scent of her favorite candle briefly tricks her olfactory glands into ignoring the foul odors. The elderly Chinese lady on the bunk overhead smells of mildewing clothes. On the lower bunk an arm’s length away, a twenty-something Chinese girl sleeps with her jacket over her head. The sleeper car’s other occupant, a tiny woman who barely stands five-foot tall and can’t weigh 100 pounds, presses her torso against the tiny sink, paper towels surrounding the collar of her shirt, while she works some type of soapy liquid through her dark brown shoulder-length hair. Amanda decides to pass on that shower.

She thinks, all I wanted was to get some of my memory back from before the crash. Not this.

If she’s captured, what could Chinese intelligence agents possibly “get” out of her anyhow? Sure, she survived the Hemispheres plane crash, but she doesn’t know how or why. Only that it might have had something to do with her dad’s research and her being his test subject. To study her telomeres, maybe that’s what they would want? Most likely to torture her to learn whatever she knows.

The bullet train hurtling northbound towards Beijing at 180 miles per hour suddenly lurches, causing a metallic screech that soon fades.

Amanda thinks for a moment about a family photo. Of her dad, her, and her mom, sitting on the front porch of the house they lived in before the crash. The one she hopes to recall, that her Uncle Andy showed her. She mentally photoshops her baby brother Justin in too. Nothing can stop fantasies no one else can see.

The sink-showering lady climbs back up to her top bunk, and talks in Chinese with the other older lady.

If my plan fails, I won’t have to worry anymore, Amanda decides. Because I’ll be dead.

(c) 2017 R.N. Shapiro All Rights Reserved.

A former Navy SEAL, Ty Ryan, is kidnapped by the Chinese intelligence agents in Taming the Telomeres, my first Telomeres novel, and is released in a complicated swap of prisoners towards the conclusion of TTT.

In Targeting the Telomeres, the second in this series, and still a work in progress, Ryan has a much larger role in the story, and the working manuscript is over 75% complete at this point.

I have been busy writing in the last few months, but here are sneak previews of two chapters inside Targeting the Telomeres, involving Ty Ryan, and a new character, Liza, who both interact with Amanda Michaels in pivotal parts of Targeting the Telomeres.

Excerpt from Targeting the Telomeres, Challedon Publishing Co.

By: R.N. Shapiro ©2017 All Rights Reserved

Falling Man

The man stares at the large photographic reproductions mounted along the wall of the exhibition hall from his vantage point on the flat horizontal bench.  Several somber looking people slowly shuffle through the alcove ensconced deep inside the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan.  They hardly notice Ty Ryan seated along the opposite wall from the iconic photos. He sits like Buddha, hands resting along his thighs, motionless,  gaze focused on the falling man. Tiny, dwarfed against the enormous black and white grainy image of the World Trade Center.  What absolute inferno from hell, what immense fireball, impelled this seemingly voluntary decision?  But it was not at its bottom a voluntary decision. Hardly.  Ryan knows this.  He understands hell.  Hell forced this man to free fall out of a high World Trade Center floor.  Death by inferno or free fall to death?  Was that a choice?  No.  This one image haunts him.  Each time he returns, he finds his way here, like a magnetic pull.  The free fall guy didn’t deserve to die.  Only the terrorists deserved to die, and wanted to.  This conundrum bothers Ryan.

He feels his phone vibrate in his pocket.  He looks at the screen, its from Liza.

I will text you when I am leaving the MOMA.

He replies.

K

Liza

The pulsating bass line of the loud techno music pulsates inside Liza Chang’s stomach. Ba-ba boom. Ba-ba boom. She sits two rows back from the catwalk at New York Fashion Week for her company’s most important stateside presentation of the year. People are packed in like sardines on folding chairs lining either side of the runway under the mammoth white tent in Bryant Park, Manhattan. It has earned the nickname “7th on 6th” because most New York design houses are on Seventh Avenue, but Fashion Week events are held off Sixth Avenue at the park. The Michael Morse line is slated for 7:00 p.m., after Tom Lord.

Marco, one of the designers for Morse leans over to Liza. “Oh my God, here we go! I can’t stand it anymore!” Thundering synthetic music plays and a choreographed light display begins.

Camera flashes burst from all directions as the first model in the Morse line makes her way down the catwalk, looking frighteningly thin and somewhat androgynous; short dirty blonde hair, exotic makeup in multiple shades, including pastels that would look ridiculous anywhere but here. Those lucky enough to be in the front row point and converse about every detail of the model’s look, from her shoes and the dress to the jewelry and makeup. In quick succession, a series of additional models appear in Morse outfits until they fill the narrow stage in a single line. At the far end, the first model turns and walks back, giving the audience a second chance to see all the ensembles.

Leaning again toward Liza, Marco excitedly says, “Here’s the dress that I managed! Don’t you love it?”

“Absolutely, Marco. It’s amazing.”

The announcer comments on various facets of the clothing as the models stream by. Between the music, the clapping and the chatter of the industry pros packing the venue, Liza can’t hear herself think. Fortunately, the hour goes by quickly. Then Liza, Marco and five other of the designers and national sales representatives rush behind the stage, hugging, giggling and high-fiving each other.

“The reception was amazing.” Marco lifts his plastic champagne glass high in the air. “The Nordstrom and Dolce reps congratulated me on the way here. Can’t wait to talk to the buyers at the after-party.”

Liza faintly hears the familiar tone from her phone emanating from her small purse. She glances at the message. Ty Ryan, her old friend and occasional fling is meeting her after the party at the Conrad. She texts back, confirming she’ll find him in the lobby bar.

The MOMA after-party is an immense success for the Morse line. Liza and her colleagues foresee job security, at least for one more fashion cycle. Liza has a unique role as an industry regional sales and quality control representative with the company for their accessories, mostly made in China. It’s a well-kept secret that the accessories—and even some of the upscale clothing—is made in China. The mandatory “Made in China” labels are sewn into the clothing in the most discrete locations possible, away from the splashy hang tag stating “Designed by Michael Morse, Seventh Avenue.”

* * *

An Asian-American woman, now 30 years old, Liza’s mother and father emigrated to the United States from Beijing. She grew up in Brooklyn before her parents relocated to Arlington, Virginia, where her dad was a professor at Mary Washington and her mom ran a successful upscale nail salon. As a child she learned Mandarin, Beijing’s main language, and Wu, commonly spoken in the Shanghai area, as well as Yue Cantonese. They traveled back to visit her extended family about once a year; her parents were hard-working and frugal, but reconnecting with family was a vital family ritual for them.

Valedictorian of her high school class in Arlington, she was offered an academic scholarship at Yale, where she graduated summa cum laude and was recruited by the CIA. Speaking multiple Chinese languages at a time when keeping tabs on China was of increasing interest made her valuable to the agency. Her affinity for languages also allowed her to master Arabic while at Yale.

One of her first covert operations for the CIA was to Iraq, embedded with SEAL Team 7, part of the so-called surge—when the U.S. thought it successfully marginalized the “insurgency.” History proved the victorious surge to be a hollow success—much like the entire Iraq war and ill-fated occupation thereafter. During her Iraq assignment, her world collided with Ty Ryan’s. Every night the SEALs, along with Liza and their Iraqi interpreter, would engage in missions to take out terrorists and so-called insurgents. Liza didn’t take out the bad guys, that was for the SEALs to do, including Ty. She handled mission organization and logistics. Ryan had observed her acumen with a pistol and a semi-automatic at the firing ranges between their almost nightly missions, and he became smitten with her exotic beauty. She was different than any woman he had been involved with in his life “BL,” or “before Liza.”

In their first months together she often shared her innermost feelings with Ty and confided that she did not think their Iraqi missions would ever win over the hearts and minds of the Sunnis and Shiites, who had a centuries-old blood feud that would not be settled by a weak government propped up by Americans, who most Iraqis distrusted. During her time in Iraq, two SEALs died, and every few days an IED would kill or maim a U.S. soldier, sending a chill through every member of the unit.

To the chagrin of her supervisors at Langley, and Ryan, she tendered her resignation at her six-year anniversary and surprised everyone by taking a position with Michael Morse, filling their need for an East Coast representative willing to travel to China and handle interaction with their overseas factories. Get as far away from intense stress was her paramount thought.  A clothing line rep for god’s sake.

She soon discovered she could earn significantly more taking private contracts than she did with the agency, though some of the shadowy figures were downright spooky strange. She often didn’t know who hired her, but for the right money, usually paid in full up front, she didn’t care. Hong Kong has long had a cottage industry of managing agents, who front for limited liability corporations, tasked with retaining confidentiality for businessmen hiding their profits offshore from their host nations.  Liza established a managing agent and a bank account to receive her off the books funds.  Her account there was in the name of her fictitious name on her fake U.S. passport.  The contract ops she had accepted frequently involved honeypotting a clueless businessman, which required the use of her femininity in seductive ways. With some assignments she assumed the sex was filmed, but her marks never once suspected she targeted them. She was careful to wear disguises and not take any repeat jobs in the same cities.

Another lucrative side business for her was a bit of smuggling from China to the U.S. Never expressly apprised of what was being smuggled, her involvement was oblique—she would simply advise her contact when various samples were being shipped from one of the Chinese factories back to the Morse warehouse in Brooklyn and her contact did the rest. She presumed they were paying intermediaries at the factory and the warehouse, to collect the illicit contraband at the warehouse. She got paid for each shipment she initiated, and the money had encouraged her to collect as many potential accessories or clothing samples as reasonably plausible.

Approaching the hotel bar to meet Ty, she wears a sheer white button-down blouse and above-the-knee black suede skirt from the Morse line, black nylons with seams running up the back of each leg, and black stilettos. Shoulder-length brunette hair infused with red highlights. Ryan stands and gives her a big hug beside the barstools. His muscular, almost six-foot-tall frame easily envelopes her petite, trim body.

“Good to see you.”

Liza looks him over carefully. His wavy brown hair does a few untidy flips and is slightly  longer than a military cut. He has chiseled facial features, high cheekbones and piercing blue eyes, and he wears a simple black t-shirt revealing his strong arms. She admires his faded jeans and black leather belt with silver diamond-shaped studs surrounding it.

“How was the big show?”

Ryan smells the wine or champagne on her breath, recognizing she had a few drinks before catching a cab to meet him.

“Unbelievably stressful. With it being the biggest show of the year, the whole next buying season rides on it. As far as I can tell, it went very well, at least all the company reps think so. At the MOMA, everyone raved about our line, and you know Marco, my friend, he was really excited because a bunch of his designs were popular.”

“Awesome. Can I buy you a drink you hot thing?”

“Of course, let’s celebrate. The show, all the glitz and glam. And why not celebrate us too?”

Deep down Liza hates the fact that Ty shows up to fall into bed with her only once in a blue moon, such a completely undependable relationship, though she voices not a word of her frustration. She was trained to maintain a fierce front. She finally focuses on the small menu of specialty drinks, then sets it down on the bar, where it sticks to several drops of over-splash from the previous occupant’s drink. “How about a Stoli martini, dry, with two olives.  Please.” Moments later, the bartender whips up the cocktail, and slides it in front of her.

They exchange small talk before she asks if he wants to go to the Loopy Doopy rooftop bar. They down their cocktails and head to the elevators. As soon as the doors close they engage, bodies pressed tight, tongues diving and caressing. When they arrive on the roof, they release each other and find their way to the railing, passing a bunch of couples on couches near a glowing fire pit. They gaze out over the Hudson towards New Jersey, observing the myriad lights of office buildings and high-rises.

Ryan breaks the silence. “Your job seems more copacetic for you than at the agency.”

“It is, but some of my private contracting work has been pretty damn stressful. The good part is I know I’m not locked into anything. I can just make good money, not ask a lot of questions, and move on.”

“Be careful. You haven’t been eliminating targets, have you?” He’s actually curious because they’ve never discussed it.

“No.” She turns and looks him in the eye. “Unlike with the agency, I don’t have to accept every proposed task, and I don’t want that kind of guilt on my head. Who needs it? I’m not planning to die young. You?”

“Nah. I do some shady side stuff for the P.I. group, but its child’s play compared to handling international assignments like you do.”

“Not all have been in China.”

“I thought—”

“Wrong. Sure, I won’t work against the agency here at home. But if the job is just honeypotting…”

Ryan soaks this in, peering out across the Hudson, noticing the shimmers of light reflecting off the surface of the river.

“I can’t block out some of the things I did, particularly in Iraq. Like blowing away teenage insurgents. But I deal with it.”  Ryan says.

“One job haunts me.” She admits cryptically.

“Mind sharing?”

“Honeypot stuff on the surface, but I have a feeling it was a lot more.”

“I’m sure that kind of work can take many different forms. I won’t push it if you don’t wanna tell.”

Ty takes a swig of his drink and stares out over the city. The same bartender returns. Ty places another order but Liza declines, she started way before he did.

“I agreed to it because I could visit my parents in Arlington before the job,” she explains. “It was in Northern Virginia. I was assigned to seduce a married guy. I honeypotted him at a bar he and his pals frequented. I needed to convince him to meet me at a hotel the next day, get him to call in sick, which I, um, accomplished.”

“Yeah, I don’t need the details about the seduction. But I gather that’s not all.”

“Right. The next day I boarded an Amtrak Acela train at Union Station and headed back to New York City. On the way, I saw the news on my laptop about the Hemispheres jet crash. Well, my target was the electrical inspector supervisor for the Hemispheres fleet at that airport.”

She looks out across the river. Ryan contemplates this bombshell for a moment.

“So, you’re saying you were the reason he called in sick that day, and maybe someone sabotaged the jet?”

“Yep.”

“That’s pretty heavy.”  The wheels start turning fast in Ryan’s mind. “Who hired you?”

“I can’t tell you that Ty. Even if I wanted to, I don’t know who it was. They use proxies.”

“Can I ask how they paid you?”

“I have an agent who manages an account in Hong Kong. That’s all I’ll say.”

Ryan mulls over mentioning he’s working for a lawyer who is trying to unravel a $200 million mystery about why the government paid hush money to Hemispheres, but he decides not to go there. Not yet. Maybe after they head to her room he’ll try to pry enough information from her to narrow the players involved.

_____    _______   ________

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