Iron Orchid (Holly Barker 5)

Holly grimaced. They had had training with knives, but Holly found them distasteful.

Sarge chucked and handed her a black switchblade. “Take this,” he said. “You never know.”

Holly dropped the knife into a pocket and signed for her weapons.

“Good luck, kiddo,” Sarge said. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too, Sarge.”

“If you ever get tired of field work, we can always use you on the Farm.”

“Thanks.” She took her weapons and walked slowly toward the car, where Daisy waited for her.

Sally Liu caught up with her in the parking lot. “I can’t believe we’re out of here,” she said, hoisting her bags into the back of the Cayenne, next to Holly’s.

“Neither can I,” Holly said. “I had been expecting at least a few more weeks of training. I hope we know enough.”

She got into the car and started it, and Sally climbed in.

“My pulse is up,” Sally said, holding three fingers to her neck.

“So is mine,” Holly said. She put the car in gear and headed for the gate.

TWENTY

TEDDY SPENT THE DAY at home, resting after his Herculean efforts to make and deliver the bomb, and flipping from channel to channel on TV, watching the reports that came in. Before dinner, he called Irene on her secret cell phone.

“Yes?”

“It’s Mike. Are you indoors?”

“Yes.”

“Walk out into your garden before you speak again.”

There was a thirty-second pause, then she came back on the line. “I’m outside.”

“Have you watched the TV reports?”

“Yes, and there’s talk of nothing else at the office.”

“I succeeded beyond my dreams, let me tell you. I think there may already have been explosives in the house, and my device set them off.”

“That’s what they figure at the office, too. There’s something else.”

“What?”

“They think they know who did it.”

“Are they right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I expected they would figure it out.”

“They’re changing all the entry codes for the computer databases,” she said. “It won’t be possible to call in and download without them.”

“Can you get them for me?”