Chapter 68
CHAPTER
Gary soneji smiled and nodded to many of the students in his seventh-and eighth-grade computer science class as they filed into his room for the last course of the day. But he intentionally avoided eye contact with young Cheryl Lynn Wise when she entered and walked to her seat.
Not that Cheryl Lynn paid much attention to Soneji anyway, and that’s how he liked it. Especially when Secret Service agent Jezzie Flanagan was around, as she was that day.
Tall, fit, late twenties, attractive but with an imposing presence, Agent Flanagan had paid more attention to Soneji than he wanted. But at least she had stopped sitting in the back of his classroom whenever Cheryl Lynn was there, scrutinizing his every move.
Flanagan actually stopped in the hall outside his doorway that afternoon, let Cheryl Lynn enter, and then motioned to him. Soneji strolled over without hesitation and greeted her politely.
“Agent Flanagan,” he said. “Nice to see you.”
“You as well, Mr. Soneji,” Flanagan said quietly. “What’s the initial report on Cheryl? Her dad asked.”
“Academically? Cheryl Lynn is very bright and seems to fully grasp the binary system underlying computer coding.”
“Starting to fit in?”
“She strikes me as a little shy, but yes.”
“She’ll come out of her shell eventually. It will help that a friend of hers is transferring here next week.”
“I heard that,” Soneji said. “You’ll be overseeing her security as well?”
“Her grandma’s a sitting cabinet member,” Flanagan said.
“That will do it.”
At first, he had not understood exactly why a Secret Service agent was in the school.
But Flanagan had explained that so many children of politicians attended Washington Day, an interdepartmental decision had been made several years before to put the Secret Service in charge of overall security.
Flanagan and two other agents rotated in and out of the school on a monthly basis.
“I’ll let you know how she’s doing every week?” Soneji asked.
“I think her dad would like that. See you at the end of the day.”
He forced a smile. “Enjoy your coffee, Agent Flanagan.”
“Believe me, I will,” Flanagan said, and strode away.
Soneji walked back into his class. An inner voice told him that he was flirting with disaster, being this close to a Secret Service agent. So far, though, Flanagan seemed unaware of his dark side.
Then again, he had done everything he could think of to keep the lives of Gary Soneji and Gary Murphy separate.
He flashed on an image of Missy admiring Bunny Maddox’s engagement ring and felt perverse pleasure.
The memory of Bunny bound and drugged in the back of the van made him yearn to do it again.
He allowed himself a glance at Cheryl Lynn, who was chatting with a girl across the aisle. She was right there. And she was famous. Her father was, anyway.
Before the fantasy of taking the daughter of the White House chief of staff to the Pine Barrens could completely seize his attention, the interior warning voice told Soneji to slow down, that his cover needed to be deeper and broader before he took that kind of risk.
For a second, Soneji was confused as to how to deepen and strengthen his cover. And then he wasn’t. He just needed time and patience and a—
“Mr. Soneji?” one of his students called. “Are you okay?”
Soneji realized many of his students were watching him.
“Just thinking about a dear friend of mine,” he said, and laughed as he picked up a stick of chalk and turned to the blackboard. “Let’s continue with another look at how an operating system works.”