Authors: Sam Masters
The China Dogs (50 page)
“I'm really pleased, sir.”
“How are you and how is your lady friend, Miss Speed?”
He half laughs. “Well, it's fair to say we've both looked healthier than we do right now. But she's out of her coma.”
“I told you she'd pull through. I'm delighted. Delighted for both of you. My office will be in touch. When you're fully fit, I want you both to come to the White House for dinner and get as fat as Thanksgiving birds.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“No, America thanks you, Lieutenant . . .
Icarus
Walton.” There's amusement in his voice. “That's a very fine name by the way. Very fine indeed.”
The President hangs up.
Ghost is left stunned. Not so much by the call but that the name he has gone to such lengths to keep secret is now known to the most powerful man in the world.
He turns the corner and sees Jude and Danny outside Zoe's room. Their faces are animated. “She's good, bro', real good,” announces Danny, as though they've known each other for years.
“Go on in,” says Jude, pleased at the way he's tried to clean up for her friend. “She's been asking for you.”
From a chair, Ghost grabs the carrier bags Annie had brought for him and enters the room.
Zoe looks up from the bed. A smile cracks across her pale face. “Hi.”
He hurries to her side. Bends low. Kisses her gently.
A tear runs down her cheek as she feels his warmth. This is what she'd dreamed of. In the dark depths that had sucked her down, she dreamed of this strange and wonderful man holding her again.
Zoe finds herself sniffling as they break.
Ghost plucks tissues from a box by the bed and gives them to her. “How you feeling?”
She mops her eyes and blows her nose. “Like a pack of dogs almost chewed me to death.”
He laughs at her humor. “Shit, you had us worried.
Really
worried.”
“Sorry.”
He dips down and lifts up the carrier bag. “Here, I brought you some stuff.”
She frowns. Partly from the pain in her head. Mainly from confusion. “What's in it?”
He tips the belongings onto the bed. Files. Prints. Her Hasselblad.
Zoe's eyes spark up. “My camera.”
“And prints of the shots you took before you were attacked.” Ghost steps away with the Hasselblad and takes several snapshots of Zoe.
“Please, not while I look like this.”
“Especially while you look like this. You couldn't look more beautiful to me.” He sits on the bed and puts the camera down near her hands. “You don't know this yet, but you're going to be famous. The most famous photojournalist in America.”
Zoe humors him, “Sure I am. I told you that when we first met. Chief photographer at Reuters, a Manhattan loft the size of a football field.”
“I remember. Well, my sweet, beautiful, crazy lady, you are going to show the world the pictures you tookâthe ones at the Gerbers' home, the shelter, and the Chens', then you're going to tell the story of how you saved the greatest country in the world from the greatest threat this side of a nuclear attack.”
Zoe isn't really listening. She's stretched an arm to the empty carrier bag and is shaking it. “Something's missing,” she says sadly.
“What?”
“The house key you offered me. If that invitation still stands, I'd like to take it and hang around awhileâa very long while.”
Â
S
AM
M
ASTERS
is a pseudonym of an author who has written seven books, including a bestseller sold in more than forty countries.
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This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE CHINA DOGS
. Copyright © 2014 by Sam Masters. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition AUGUST 2014 ISBN: 970062319357
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062343130
FIRST EDITION
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