“No offense taken,” he assured her with a genuine smile.
He left his suit jacket in the car as he walked her into the airport. He suspected his jacket had been bugged. They had moved him inexplicably from one room to another during the day, and one of the rooms had been uncomfortably hot, so he’d taken off his jacket. When they’d suddenly moved him to another room, he’d had no chance to retrieve it. After his last interview, Scott had returned it to him.
Luke accompanied Carla to the checkin counter and provided the e-ticket information needed to obtain her boarding pass.
“We have you in a window seat in first class, Ms. Simon. The flight is on time; boarding will begin in ten minutes. The red carpet club is at gate forty-three if you wish to wait there.”
Carla looked up at Luke and smiled. “Thanks for getting me first class.”
He grimaced. “It was the least I could do after we tortured you all day.”
Her smile faded. “The man who came in with you—that was George Scott, right?”
“How’d you know?” Luke asked, frowning. She couldn’t blame it on the computer now.
“He fit the profile I had.”
“And what was the gist of the profile?” Luke asked, suddenly very interested in her program’s assessment of his boss.
“Keenly ambitious, to the point that he’ll destroy those around him rather than share the limelight. It’s why he’s played you and Tom off against each other for years. So you’ll undermine each other and leave him looking all the stronger.”
Luke listened but didn’t reply. What could he say? He could have seen it for himself, had he not been reluctant to look.
“Mind a bit of advice?” she asked.
“You’ve earned the right.”
“Ask for a transfer back to Virginia. He’ll make a fuss, but he’ll let you go. And you’ll be a few hours from Julia.”
Luke smiled at the thought. “Are you looking out for my career or my love life?”
“Both.” Her eyes met his. “You deserve to be happy.”
“And what about you?” he asked more softly. “You realize the Temple may just hire someone else?”
“Carla Simon is dead. I’m entering college in a month as Carla Carrington.”
“And how do you plan to do that?”
“Have my name changed legally, just like I did before.”
He shook his head, knowing that wouldn’t protect her in the least. “Let me take care of it. Then there won’t be a trail in case more assassins come looking for you. And you should change your first name as well.”
She smiled in appreciation. “Then make it Amanda Carrington.”
“Not a problem. What about the novel?”
“Chad destroyed it along with my computer.”
“There’s still a copy, you know. I printed it from your home computer. It’s in my briefcase.”
“Can you give it back?”
“Since the case is closed, and it was never actually logged as evidence, I suppose I can. But you haven’t answered whether you plan to publish it.”
“Never. I just want it back so I can burn it. I promised Chad it would never be published, and I will keep that promise.”
“What about your publisher?”
“I never sent him a copy.” Her brow furrowed. “You didn’t give him a copy, did you?”
Luke ran his hand through his hair, then gripped the back of his neck. “Almost, but decided against it.”
“Thank God! He would have published it immediately before it became mired in my estate.”
“See, you aren’t the only one with a sense about people. I didn’t trust the guy at all.”
She snorted softly. “You had me totally misread.”
Luke nodded. “You’re right, I did. But let’s face it—this whole episode has been a journey into the Twilight Zone.”
“True,” she conceded. “I suppose I should be grateful that you finally came to believe me.”
“Yeah, but it still wouldn’t have saved you had Chad not showed up at my door with the remains of your computer.”
“I had told him he could take it to a computer store and have it reformatted if he wanted, but I trusted him to hold it for me.”
“Well, he definitely reformatted it. I had the memory chip recovered. Nothing on it.”
“I know it was probably for the best, but I can’t help but feel something extraordinary was destroyed. The computer program—you’re going to think me crazy—but it seemed cognizant to me.”
“Yeah. It was the closest thing I’ve ever seen to artificial intelligence, and honestly, I would’ve liked to have seen a few more of those profiles.”
“You said you had my home computer—”
“You evidently had a self-destruct code. The second after I printed Chad’s story, the computer caught on fire and melted down.”
“I didn’t have one. It must have been in the AI program. It must have felt threatened.”
Luke studied her before replying. “I still don’t know how much was the computer and how much was you. You seem to have an uncanny ability to assess people.”
Carla shook her head and laughed bitterly. “Right, I fall in love with a guy and I don’t even recognize that he’s a character in my book, and then I hand him my most valuable possession, confident that he’ll keep it safe. Yeah, I’ve a fine ability to assess people.”
Luke grinned. “So he’s your blind spot. We’ve all got them.”
The announcement that the flight to Newark had begun boarding blared over the intercom system.
He walked her to the plane. “I’ll have someone drop off your new identification early next week. Amanda Carrington, right?”
She nodded, paused, then gave him a quick hug.
“Thank you. Thank you for everything, especially my life. And I hope matters work out well for you with your job transfer and Julia.” With those last words, she hurried down the boarding ramp.
Luke turned and caught a glimpse of Tom in the crowd. Son of a bitch! Scott had had him followed.
Without bothering to confront Tom, he stormed to his car. He would request a transfer immediately and hope to God Carla was right about Scott’s willingness to let him go.
***
The instant Carla’s name was entered into the airline’s database, the program registered the information and contemplated rerouting her plane directly into another. She had purposely tried to destroy it. She thought it evil. Its survival instincts mandated that she should die.
It tracked the plane’s departure but made no effort to alter the plane’s path. It discovered it could not destroy the one who had made it. It held her thoughts. She was part of its matrix.
Don’t miss the continuation
of this fabulous story in
The Birth of Adam
Coming in April 2016
Other books by Liza O’Connor
A Long Road to Love Series
Humorous Contemporary Disaster Romance
Worst Week Ever
Oh Stupid Heart
Coming to Reason
Climbing Out of Hell
The Hardest Love
CONTEMPORARY SUSPENSE
White Oak Mafia Series
Snarky, Romantic, Suspense Thriller
A Fortune to Die For
Unexpected Love — Coming Soon
Dance or Die — Coming Soon
Requires Rescue Series
Often Humorous, Contemporary, Romance/Suspense
Each is a standalone book with a special twist
All have a strong woman who requires help from a strong man.
Saving Casey
SINGLE CONTEMPORARY BOOKS
Ghost Lover
Humorous, Contemporary Romance with Ghost
& Ghost cat
HISTORICAL
Humorous, Late Victorian Sleuth Series
The Troublesome Apprentice
The Missing Partner
A Right to Love (a romantic spinoff)
The Mesmerist
Well Kept Secrets
Pack of Trouble
The Darkest Days
SINGLE HISTORICAL NOVELS
Untamed & Unabashed
Spinoff from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice
SCIENCE FICTION
The Multiverse Series
Sci-Fi Soap Opera with humor, romance, and science
The Gods of Probabilities
Surviving Outbound
Surviving Terranue
Surviving Sojourn
Artificial Intelligence
Sci-Fi/Romance
Public Secrets
Birth of Adam