Find Me Where the Water Ends (So Close to You) Read Online Free Page A

killing Sardosky doesn’t even work? What if we still end up with a nuclear war?”
    Wes gives Tim a grim look. “We don’t know yet if killing him will stop the war, but it’s the only viable option left. The Project believes this is the solution, so we need to do our best to succeed tonight. If we can’t kill the president, then we’ll come back again until we do. It’s our job.”
    Tim doesn’t answer.
    “Remember that as soon as we leave this room, I am thirty-year-old Michael Gallo, a financial analyst at an international shipping company. I’ve been invited because one of the president’s friends, a Mr. Tierney, is trying to set up an export business in Washington and he wants to do business with the company Michael Gallo works for.” Wes glances at me, but when our eyes meet he looks away. “Seventeen is Samantha Greenwood, my fiancée. Twenty-two is Bea Carlisle, Samantha’s cousin, and Thirty-one is posing as a waiter. Everyone is clear on this?”
    We nod.
    “Twenty-two is a dead ringer for Sardosky’s mistress, who’s been away from the capital for weeks. She’ll seduce the president, and try to convince him to meet her in a private room.” He gestures at the other girl’s small, dark features, her petite frame. She doesn’t smile at Wes—she probably hasn’t smiled in years—but her mouth parts slightly, her head tilts down and to the side, and suddenly I believe she’s capable of seducing anyone. It makes me inch toward Wes, though I refuse to let myself think about why.
    “Thirty-one can’t hold on to the poison; the guards physically search the waitstaff. Seventeen and I will pass it off to him after we go through security. He’ll doctor a drink and deliver it to the president. I’ll infiltrate the control room of the hotel and disable the security cameras in the room where Twenty-two leads the president. It will take one solid minute for the drug to take effect, at which point the president will have what appears to be a completely typical heart attack. If Sardosky gets help too quickly, then he could recover, which is why we need the attack to happen in private. By the time Twenty-two runs out of the room looking for help, the president will be dead. In the confusion, we disappear. Seventeen.” He turns to me, but keeps his eyes on the wall behind my head. I wonder if it is hard for him, seeing and treating me as another recruit. But why would it be? He’s the one who put me in this position. “Do you understand your job while this is going on?”
    “I’ll create a distraction in the main room that will occupy security long enough for them not to notice that the feed of an adjoining room has been cut. It has to last at least five minutes,” I answer. “Thirty-one will act as my backup in case something goes wrong.”
    “What will you do?” Tim asks me.
    “Huh?”
    “How will you distract them?”
    “There’s a congressman from Michigan who’s having an affair with his aide. Both his wife and the other woman will be there tonight. The wife likes champagne and apparently has a temper. A few whispers, and she’ll make the scene for us.”
    “Really?” Tim makes a huffing noise. It is not quite laughter, but it’s close. Twenty-two looks at him sharply.
    “According to her history, she likes to throw things,” I say, a little defensively. “It’s the best way to keep a large number of people distracted.”
    “Fine,” Wes says. “I’m running point for the mission. Once we put in our I-units, we won’t be able to communicate as ourselves. From that point on, you will all become your aliases. Here.” He hands us each a small contact-lens case. Inside is an I-unit, the future’s version of a cell phone and personal computer, all in one, made to become a part of its wearer.
    “You both know what an I-unit is, right?” Twenty-two asks us, unable to keep the condescension from her voice.
    “Of course.” Tim is impervious to her tone, and I realize how