Read Online The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry - Free Book Online

Armani in a crowded theater. Instead she was in federal custody being driven who knew where.
    Her long dark hair was still damp, curling as it dried. She wore no makeup, but rarely did anyway. She’d chosen a smart ensemble of brown leather trousers, a camel-colored cashmere shirt, and a double-breasted camel-hair blazer. Vanity had never been a weakness, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t conscious of her appearance.
    “Sorry about the kick,” she said to the agent sitting beside her. He’d been the one to first rush into the apartment.
    He acknowledged the apology with a nod but kept his thoughts to himself. She realized prisoners rarely had luggage brought with them to jail. Apparently, after her identity had been discovered, new instructions had been provided.
    Up ahead she spotted the grand expanse of John F. Kennedy International Airport. They motored through an open gate and she caught sight of Air Force One parked on the tarmac. A swarm of people were being led away from the plane.
    “We’ll wait until the press clears,” the agent in the front seat said.
    “Then what?” she asked.
    “You’re going on board.”

THIRTEEN

    PAMLICO RIVER , NORTH CAROLINA

    HALE CONTINUED TO WATCH THE TELEVISION COVERAGE .
ADVENTURE
was less than thirty minutes from home. They’d slowed to a crawl respecting the fact that the Pamlico, for all its vastness, was little more than twenty feet deep at best. He recalled what his grandfather had told him about the channel markers—once merely cedar saplings, they were routinely moved by the local pilots to encourage visiting boat captains to hire them. Thank God the days of tacking inland from the sand banks, dodging shoals that had not existed the day before, were over. Engines made quite the difference. He’d muted the TV and was listening to the
slap-slap
of the river’s flow against the ship’s smooth hull.
    Waiting.
    He’d placed a call twenty minutes ago and left a voice message.
    Danny Daniels had been impressive before the press. Hale had caught the president’s unspoken message. The investigations were already starting. He wondered how good the quartermaster had been. Thankfully, Knox was thorough, that he’d give him. Knox’s father had been the same, serving Hale’s father. But this situation was unusual, to say the least.
    His phone chimed.
    When he answered, Knox said, “I told them not to do it, but they were insistent.”
    “You should have told me.”
    “It’s no different from what I did for you, and they have no idea of that. I’ve never violated your confidence, so you can’t expect me to violate theirs.”
    True, only a few days ago Knox had indeed performed a clandestine mission for Hale. One of great importance.
    And never had he violated any of their confidences.
    Of the four families, the Hales were by far the most prosperous, with a net worth equal to the remaining three combined. That superiority had often bred resentment, evidenced from time to time by bursts of independence, the others’ way of asserting themselves, so he should not be surprised by the day’s events.
    “What happened?” he asked.
    He listened as the quartermaster reported, including the NIA’s interference and the elimination of their agent.
    “Why did they interfere?” he asked. “They are the only ones who have stood by us.”
    “Apparently, we went a bit too far. Beyond that, their agent offered no explanation. He seemed intent on sending us a message. I thought it important for them to know that we received the message, and don’t appreciate what they did.”
    He could not argue with that conclusion.
    A sense of mission had always bound a pirate company, the team more important than any one individual. His father had taught him that missions required goals and rewards, the participants bound into a single purpose. That had been the way of his ancestors, and even today every good ship captain knew that a clearly defined mission transformed the hunted into