While I was woolgathering, J pa.s.sed out the manila folders we always received at the beginning of a new a.s.signment. This time they were so stuffed with paper they were over an inch thick.

Benny, the first to get the folder, opened hers and began reading some of the material inside. She quickly closed it, slapped her hand down on it loudly, and piped up. "J, sugar, can't y'all just spit out what's going on? I ain't too set on reading this here boring stuff about that old navy ship that's been turned into a museum and docked over at the river."

J's body went from stiff to rigid. Calling him, our superior officer, sugar sugar no doubt p.i.s.sed him off, as Benny knew no doubt p.i.s.sed him off, as Benny knew it it would. She sometimes acted as ditzy as Marilyn Monroe in the old movie would. She sometimes acted as ditzy as Marilyn Monroe in the old movie Some Like It Hot Some Like It Hot, but her IQ was in the Mensa range. She had a tongue so sharp it could carve a Thanksgiving turkey. She had her own issues with J and didn't take orders any better than I did. That's a vampire for you. We don't play well with others.

I took a quick peek in my folder and rifled through the sheets. I estimated at least fifty single-s.p.a.ced typed pages. From what I glimpsed, the content appeared to be World War II naval history, including scale drawings of an aircraft carrier. It might take an hour to wade through this stuff.

J squared his shoulders, dropped his hands to his sides, and barked out, all military to the core: "The consensus from those higher up is that background data will speed the resolution of this case."

"Well, Lordy, now, doesn't that just take all. I may just be a po' lowly hillbilly from Miz'ora, but in my mind that there consensus consensus is jist a pile of cow pucks," the Branson native drawled while tapping her perfectly manicured forefinger on the closed folder. "And, honey-chile, maybe them higher-ups don't know our biker friend Rogue ain't what you call 'print oriented'-no offense, darlin'." is jist a pile of cow pucks," the Branson native drawled while tapping her perfectly manicured forefinger on the closed folder. "And, honey-chile, maybe them higher-ups don't know our biker friend Rogue ain't what you call 'print oriented'-no offense, darlin'."

"None taken," Rogue said, and turned to J. "I'd appreciate a verbal rundown."

"Ditto," said carbon-copy Cormac.

We all nodded our heads in agreement, including Audrey, who, with her expertise in New York City history, might already be familiar with some of the information.

I discreetly closed my folder and n.o.body else opened theirs. Together we stared at our commander. J faced mutiny in the ranks and decided that discretion was the better part of valor, as Falstaff once said. He cleared his throat.

"Simply put, the USS Intrepid Intrepid is missing." is missing."

"That so?" Rogue grunted and leaned back in his chair, stretching his tree-trunk legs under the table, kicking my chair accidentally on purpose.

I ignored him, trying to make sense of J's p.r.o.nouncement. "Missing?" I asked. "I read in the Times Times that the ship had been moved to be refurbished. Where was it they said it was going? Newport News?" that the ship had been moved to be refurbished. Where was it they said it was going? Newport News?"

J nodded. "That much is true. The Intrepid Intrepid was scheduled for renovation. It was heading for Virginia. It never made it. It's gone." was scheduled for renovation. It was heading for Virginia. It never made it. It's gone."

"What do you mean, 'it's gone'?" Benny asked. "Gone where? You can't lose a World War Two aircraft carrier. What is it, as long as a city block?"

J locked his fingers behind his back again, stood square, and answered without consulting his notes. "The USS Intrepid Intrepid weighs twenty-seven thousand one hundred tons. It is eight hundred seventy-two feet long. It took sail with a captain and a skeleton crew under its own power two days ago. The harbormaster and three tugs escorted it out of New York Harbor. The ship set sail on a southern course. It was last sighted off Asbury Park." weighs twenty-seven thousand one hundred tons. It is eight hundred seventy-two feet long. It took sail with a captain and a skeleton crew under its own power two days ago. The harbormaster and three tugs escorted it out of New York Harbor. The ship set sail on a southern course. It was last sighted off Asbury Park."

"Okay. So what? They can't find it? It must have sunk or something," Rogue said, lacing his fingers over his flat belly.

Audrey hopped in. "Any SOS? What were the weather conditions?"

"No distress signal. Early morning haze. Calm seas," J responded.

"Maybe a rogue wave?" Audrey ventured.

"Not likely. This was a mile or so off the Jersey sh.o.r.e," J responded.

I cut in, impatient, my excitement having ebbed away, feeling let down. "J, what's going on here? The Intrepid Intrepid is missing at sea. How is that a national security problem? We're talking a creaky sixty-year-old ship that had been turned into a museum for tourists. If it hadn't been, it would have been scuttled anyway. It has no military value. No working ordnance on board, right? It probably leaked like a sieve. It sank. Its wreck will be located by sonar sooner or later. What are we really doing here tonight?" is missing at sea. How is that a national security problem? We're talking a creaky sixty-year-old ship that had been turned into a museum for tourists. If it hadn't been, it would have been scuttled anyway. It has no military value. No working ordnance on board, right? It probably leaked like a sieve. It sank. Its wreck will be located by sonar sooner or later. What are we really doing here tonight?"

J shook his head back and forth very slowly. "I hear you, Agent Urban. I repeat, we are here to find the Intrepid Intrepid. It is a matter of national security. I am not at liberty to say more than that at this time. As to its possible sinking-it didn't.

"The ship-which you must understand is a symbol of American military might-was seaworthy. It had withstood a torpedo attack and two kamikaze hits by the j.a.panese in the Pacific. Those attacks didn't sink the seaworthy. It had withstood a torpedo attack and two kamikaze hits by the j.a.panese in the Pacific. Those attacks didn't sink the Intrepid Intrepid. A ma.s.sive explosive might send her to the bottom, but nothing less would do it-and there wasn't one. Believe me, all the other scenarios you suggested have been investigated, without positive results."

He took a deep breath and stared each of us in the eye before speaking again.

"We don't know much, but here's what we do know. The ship was spotted off the Jersey sh.o.r.e early Monday morning. Lots of witnesses. Sport fishermen. People on boats in the area. Their stories concur: Mist, haze, fog, or smoke, something something moved in for a few minutes and obscured the ship. When the air cleared the ship was gone. It had been there. Then it wasn't. The navy tried to raise the captain by ship's radio. No response. moved in for a few minutes and obscured the ship. When the air cleared the ship was gone. It had been there. Then it wasn't. The navy tried to raise the captain by ship's radio. No response.

"In addition, the ship was within cell phone range. Efforts were made to phone the crew. No contact could be made with any of the mates aboard. The navy scrambled jets from Long Island. The coast guard arrived on the scene within twenty minutes. They found nothing. No debris. No wreck on the bottom.

"After an official investigation we can positively confirm only one thing: The Intrepid Intrepid is gone. It appears to have vanished into thin air." is gone. It appears to have vanished into thin air."

Chapter 4.

"I want to know what it says ... ... The sea, The sea,Floy, what is it that it keeps on saying?"Charles d.i.c.kens in Dombey and Sons Dombey and Sons

"Well, my-oh-f.u.c.king-my. It's the f.u.c.king Philadelphia Experiment all over again." Rogue snorted loudly and sat up, sc.r.a.ping his chair against the floor.

J glared at Rogue, then responded to him, his voice all frost. "That never happened."

"What never happened? What are y'all talking about?" Benny leaned forward, unable to repress the smile playing on her lips as she watched both men. She enjoyed what she saw: two alpha males trying to p.i.s.s on the same tree.

Rogue turned his shaved head toward J, his chin thrust out. "Maybe it didn't happen and maybe it did. But we should look at it. Put the information out. What's the problem with that?"

"Waste of time," J said dismissively.

"I think the gentleman doth protest too much," Cormac broke in, prissy even in his biker garb. "I would like to make a motion: Let Rogue talk. Any seconds?"

"I second the motion," Benny chirped.

J slammed the flat of his palm on the table. "Enough! We don't vote in this room. I am in command. Not Rogue. Not any of you. So listen up. The Philadelphia Experiment is bogus. No records have ever been located to confirm the event or to confirm the navy's interest in such an experiment."

"Which was... ?" Benny asked.

J let out an exasperated sigh. He had backed himself into a corner and had to answer. "In the fall of 1943 the battleship USS Eldridge Eldridge supposedly was made invisible and teleported from its berth at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards to Norfolk, Virginia. Supposedly members of the crew of the civilian merchant ship the SS supposedly was made invisible and teleported from its berth at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards to Norfolk, Virginia. Supposedly members of the crew of the civilian merchant ship the SS Andrew Furuseth Andrew Furuseth witnessed the witnessed the Eldridge Eldridge materialize in Norfolk. I say materialize in Norfolk. I say supposedly supposedly because no records exist confirming that the because no records exist confirming that the Eldridge Eldridge had ever docked in Philadelphia or that the had ever docked in Philadelphia or that the Furuseth Furuseth ever docked in Norfolk. The whole thing is a myth." ever docked in Norfolk. The whole thing is a myth."

Rogue scoffed. "Sure it is. 'Cause the government government says it is. And we know the ships were never in either place 'cause the says it is. And we know the ships were never in either place 'cause the government government says there are no records of it. Right?" says there are no records of it. Right?"

"That is correct." J nodded.

Rogue insolently leaned back in his chair again, pulled a toothpick from his shirt pocket, and stuck it in his mouth. He c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at our "commander." The p.i.s.sing contest continued. "Well, now, sir sir, the government never never lies or destroys records, does it?" lies or destroys records, does it?"

Rogue crossed his arms across his chest and looked at Benny. "What J is leaving out, little lady, are a few known facts. One: Albert Einstein was a consultant with the navy's Bureau of Ordnance at that time.

"Two: A lot of people knew they were messing around with the Eldridge Eldridge, installing cables, doing something something. Sure, when people asked, the navy explained away eyewitness accounts by saying they were just degaussing the ship, in other words, putting electrical cables around a ship's hull to cancel out its magnetic field. That made it 'invisible' to detecting devices. People must be confused, that's all, they said.

"Three: A witness from the merchant ship Furuseth Furuseth, a guy named Allen or Allende, talked to the media. The navy retaliated. Their top bra.s.s told the media Allen was a crank or a crackpot. Allen then conveniently committed suicide. Some say he was murdered.

"Four: A reputable scientist has since demonstrated that an electronic field could create a mirage effect of invisibility by refracting light. Course, he only did it with a spool of thread, not a battleship. But he showed it could be done, you know?

"You ask me? The whole thing reeks of cover-up. Always has."

While Rogue talked, J's color was rising, crawling like a wine stain up his neck, suffusing his face with an ugly, dark blush. The man was a coronary waiting to happen.

"Anyways," Rogue continued while he wiggled the toothpick up and down between his teeth, "now here's the Intrepid Intrepid, another World War Two military vessel on its way to Norfolk, vanishing into thin air. Come on. You really believe in coincidence?"

"This discussion is over," J interrupted. "You want to discuss UFOs and nonsense like this, tune in to late-night radio and listen to Art Bell. The government did not make the Intrepid Intrepid vanish, and that's that." vanish, and that's that."

"s.h.i.t, J," Rogue said, nonplussed, giving a clenched-teeth grin. "I'm not saying the government's behind the Intrepid Intrepid vanishing. I'm just saying it probably has the technology to do it-and now maybe somebody else does too." vanishing. I'm just saying it probably has the technology to do it-and now maybe somebody else does too."

Silence descended on the room. Then Audrey, paying some attention at last, came down on J's side of things. "I don't agree with you, Rogue. It's not the same situation at all. That old World War Two tale? People love conspiracy theories. UFOs. Alien abductions. Men in black-"

"But there are men in black," I interjected in a soft voice.

Audrey shot me a quizzical glance. "Whatever. I think we have to consider some other cause," she insisted.

Benny agreed. "Yeah, Rogue, honey. That was a real nice story, but it's what? Over sixty years old. Besides, that there Eldridge Eldridge didn't just disappear. It moved. And that teleportation stuff is too woo-woo." didn't just disappear. It moved. And that teleportation stuff is too woo-woo."

I drew my index finger in lazy circles on the tabletop while I listened. I didn't look up as I began to speak softly, as if I were thinking out loud, which I was. "Woo-woo? The teleportation stuff, yeah. Not the rest of it, you know." I raised my eyes and searched the faces of my colleagues before letting my gaze rest on J's grim face while my brain kept spinning out ideas.

I thought that the Philadelphia Experiment could be a myth. That didn't mean it was completely bogus. Myths allowed us to accept events or ideas we couldn't explain, events that challenged the status quo, that didn't fit into our worldview. Hey, I was a myth. All vampires were. But here I was, flesh and blood and real.

I guessed everybody was waiting for me to speak, so I did. "Rogue has a point," I said to J at last. "He gave us a theory for how the ship vanished. Maybe somebody has the technology to make it become, for all intents and purposes, invisible. Maybe the ship was simply camouflaged and moved. I'm not sure it's important to know how how they did it. What is essential is to find out they did it. What is essential is to find out who who did it and did it and why why they did it. We need to figure out they did it. We need to figure out cui bono cui bono-who benefits? And where in the world one h.e.l.l of a big ship is right now."

J, honest to G.o.d, didn't seem to know what to tell us at this point. That alone was enough to make me suspicious about the whole a.s.signment. The vanishing ship was weird. Our involvement was weirder.

And therein, my dean lies the rub, as Shakespeare once told my mother. Someday some historian with an open mind-a contradiction in terms-should take a new look into the ident.i.ty of the dark lady of w.i.l.l.y's sonnets. That loose thought flitted through my undisciplined mind before I forced myself to focus on the here and now. And the here and now was J.

At the moment I was staring at him. He bent down to pick up an attache case and pretended not to notice me. I knew he did, though, because whenever I irritated him a muscle in his jaw started to jump. I watched it doing a tap dance.

J put the attache case on the table and clicked it open as he told the Darkwings without looking at any of us to check back here tomorrow. He'd contact us if any information came in later tonight Meanwhile we should-he shrugged at that point and dropped papers into the case-investigate, he added.

The Darkwings, including me, stood up. We had formed a habit of getting together after meetings. Without saying so, we knew we'd talk amongst ourselves downstairs, out in the street, where no listening devices could pick up our conversation. Yeah, we were paranoid. Even paranoiacs have enemies.

Besides, none of us liked the office. None of us ever used our cubicles or computers. We gathered there to get our a.s.signments. It was a rendezvous point. But it wasn't ours. It wasn't anybody's. No pictures hung on the walls. No filing cabinets bulged with records. The dingy meeting room with its faded ocher walls and grime-coated windows appeared to be an anonymous place, as impersonal as a post office box.

Almost. For me the office had one singular characteristic: It contained J. He was a blank slate of a man, a person who had never revealed his name, address, past, or personal life. He showed us a very narrow band in the spectrum of his existence, yet some things couldn't be hidden. From the start he acted as if he hated me. Acted Acted is the operative word. He might not like me, but he did desire me; I was sure of it. is the operative word. He might not like me, but he did desire me; I was sure of it.

I had read his jealousy of Darius della Chiesa in every word he said about my ex-boyfriend. Then, when I became engaged to St. Mien Fitzmaurice, he had given me a direct order not not to marry Fitz. I awakened J's rage-and his l.u.s.t. Don't tell me I'm wrong. A woman knows when a man wants her, even if he denies it to the world-and himself. to marry Fitz. I awakened J's rage-and his l.u.s.t. Don't tell me I'm wrong. A woman knows when a man wants her, even if he denies it to the world-and himself.

Tonight I had p.i.s.sed J off once more. It was always so easy. I ignited his emotions like a match to dynamite. Now I intended to play with fire.

The new best buds, Rogue and Cormac, were already out the door. Audrey and Benny were coming around the table and walking past me. I reached out, tugged at Benny's arm, and whispered, "I want to talk to J. I'll catch up with you downstairs. Five minutes, tops."

Benny gave me a look that clearly said, Don't do anything stupid Don't do anything stupid, and whispered back, "Sure."

I looked over at J. He flicked his eyes away but not fast enough. He had been watching me. He started closing the briefcase. I walked over to him.

"I want to apologize," I said.

His head snapped up. "What do you really want?" he asked.

"No, seriously. I was out of line tonight. No excuses. It won't happen again; that's all."

J stared at me, his face set hard. "Fine."

"And I'd like to ask you something."

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "What?"

"Why are the Darkwings in this? I can't figure it out. What are we supposed to be doing?"

"Finding the Intrepid" Intrepid" J shot back. J shot back.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "No. I don't think that's it. What's the real link? To us, I mean."

J avoided my eyes then, so I moved a little closer to him, forcing him to either move back, which he didn't do, or to look at me. Which he did. "I don't know," he answered.

I leaned just the smallest bit toward him, and suddenly I felt his body heat. I smelled the musky male scent of him. "Guess," I said in a low voice.

His eyes held me fast. Now we were opposite poles of a magnet, and the pull drawing us together was becoming irresistible. "I don't know," he said very slowly. "Why don't you ask your mother if you want some answers?"

The bitterness was there. I heard it. J didn't like Marozia's manipulations any more than I did; I would bet on it. "Believe me, J," I said, my voice intimate and the words themselves just a small part of the game we were suddenly playing. "I'd be the last to know. That's how it is with her."

His breath, lightly scented with menthol and tobacco, moved the air around my face. "Like I said, Agent Urban, I don't know why the Darkwings were brought into this." I watched his eyes move to my lips ever so briefly before returning to my eyes. Did he want to kiss me, or was he thinking about how close he once came to my biting him?

We stood there without speaking for a long minute, both breathing a little harder than we had been. I thought about making the first move, about kissing him. It would have been so easy. But J was a man obsessed with control. s.e.x would be all about domination-either his or mine. I decided to p.i.s.s him off instead.

"I have another question," I said.

"Which is?" he asked.

"Have your people heard anything about Darius?"

A door slammed between us. "I haven't heard anything," he said, then moved away and reached over to pick up his briefcase. haven't heard anything," he said, then moved away and reached over to pick up his briefcase.

"Hey, I didn't ask it to p.i.s.s you off. I need to know. It's not anything personal; it's business."

J shot me a cold look. "Your business is being a spy. And that's my business. So talk. Why are you asking about della Chiesa?"

"I don't have anything solid, J. He left Germany, maybe for Turkey..." I hesitated. How much could I leave out? I wondered. "He seems to have disappeared. Then last night I was attacked on the street by vampire hunters. If they're connected to him in any way-either because he sent them or because they're looking for him through me-I need to know."

J's face was different when he looked at me then. "I'll make inquiries. I'll tell you what I find out." He just looked at me for a moment. "Daphne..."

"What?"

I didn't expect it when J grabbed my arm with his free hand and pulled me to him so tightly that his medals pressed into my breast. His lips were very close to mine. "Don't play with this. If he contacts you, tell me. Don't trust him. I told you that before. Listen to me this time. Don't trust him."