CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“What do you mean you want to meet one of my undercover agents?” Meers shouted, rising from his chair at the Danforth’s dining room table. “I’ve helped all I can. I won’t do that. If you compromise one of my operatives, I’ll be useless here. You’re asking too–”
“Please, Franklin,” Liz pleaded.
Meers turned to Liz.“Listen, I’m sick about what’s happened to you and Bob, but I can’t do this.”
In the sudden silence that came over the room, George said, icily, “You don’t have much choice.” He put his hands on the table and leaned toward Meers. “I could see to it your superiors find out you’ve already allowed unauthorized persons access to classified intelligence files.”
Meers stared at George. His eyes widened, then narrowed in a squint. “You play rough.”
“That’s the way the Communist Bloc trains its agents,” George said, sitting back in his chair.
Meers stood and walked to a window. He looked out at the street. After a few seconds, he turned back to the others. Taking a small notebook from his jacket pocket, he wrote something on a sheet of paper. Passing the sheet to Makris, he said, “Be there at seven tomorrow morning.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
After weeks at the Petrich Orphanage, Michael finally did more than pick at his food. He ate his first full meal. And he began playing with the other children and learned some of the funny language they spoke. He didn’t really like his big new house. It was cold all the time and he kept getting lost. And there were no dogs in this house. At night, the house made him scared. He could hear some of the other children crying. Sometimes he had nightmares.
He liked the way Mommy Katrina took care of him – like he was special. But he wished she’d let him sleep with all the other children. She made loud noises when she slept and it made him wake up a lot. But, she’s nice, Michael thought. She gives me candy and hugs me. I like her hugs. They’re warm like Mommy’s. But my other Mommy smells better. Mommy Katrina says Mommy and Daddy don’t want me anymore. That makes me sad. I miss White Dog.
Michael saw Mommy Katrina smiling at him. She crossed the room and patted him on the head. She picked him up from his chair.
“Oh, what a good boy you are,” she said. “You ate all your food. You have made your mommy so happy.”
Michael stared at Mommy Katrina. He understood her words, even though she talked funny. I like when she’s happy, he thought. I like to make my new mommy happy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Janos tried to get Gregorie to talk during the drive north, but conversation seemed almost painful for the boy. He’d rub his hands on his trousers, stutter, and look straight ahead down the highway.
“Do you go to school?”Janos asked.
“No,” the boy said, almost too quietly to be heard.
“Why not?”
The boy just shrugged.
Janos reached back and knocked on the wall between the truck’s cab and the cargo bay. “Are you all right back there?” he shouted through the small screened air vent he’d installed in the partition.
“It’s hot, but we’re okay,” Vanja answered. “You just woke up the baby.”
For the next five miles Janos listened to the infant cry. Then the crying abruptly stopped.
YOU ARE READING
EVIL DEEDS
Mystery / ThrillerEvil Deeds is the first in a 4-book series that follows the Danforth family from the kidnapping of their 2-year-old son in Greece in 1971 to present day. The book (and series) is a roller coaster ride of action and suspense. This book, as with all o...
