Vicki finished logging in the statistics for the last tank in the room. It was amazing, all that was involved, she thought. But she also felt weightless while she was working, as if nothing mattered except the present.
She stopped in front of a tank where the slate propped up against the glass drew her attention. There were more than two hundred blobs adhered to it, each the size of a fat pinhead. And they were all moving.
Dylan had called them “wigglers”: baby angels, their heads literally glued to the slate through an act of nature, their bodies wiggling as if their lives depended on popping free. The parents were busily inspecting each one with a dedicated diligence as if each little wiggler was the only one they had to care for.
Vicki glanced at the clock against the far wall. It was nearing lunch time, and she was dying of thirst. She made her way back through the room, glancing in each tank as she neared the door.
Stepping outside, she could almost feel the humidity rippling as she moved through the back yard toward the house, and by the time she reached the kitchen door, her shirt was patched with sweat. She opened the screen door and tried the knob, but it was locked. Puzzled, she made her way around the side of the house.
Benita was strolling along the sidewalk toward downtown, out of earshot.
She continued around the side of the house. She emerged from behind the overgrown thickets and stopped cold.
On the front porch were two people. A man rang the doorbell and was waiting patiently for someone to answer, while a woman was peering casually into the front window. The curtains were drawn shut, as they always were, and she pulled back after a split second and glanced around the front porch as they waited.
She knew the man. Knew him too well, she thought. And he should have been anywhere else but here.
Of course, Vicki finds she can't refuse the CIA when they need her for "one last mission" and she finds herself straddling two different worlds: one of tranquility with angelfish and the charming Irishman Dylan Maguire, and a dangerous world of spies and counterspies halfway around the world in the remote border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Vicki's Key is available at all fine book stores. It is also available online at amazon, at Barnes & Noble's online store, and through other retailers. You can get a copy now from www.pmterrell.com and get free shipping just in time for the holidays!
