Free Madness by Bill Wetterman

the implementation will take years.” Pendleton rose. “I have an urgent call to make. Keep in mind, Gentlemen, we’ve been preparing this change in government for over a decade. We have materials and supplies in place beyond what you’ve ever dreamed. The whole earth will be transformed in a decade to a paradise unrecognizable today—all for the better.”

Chapter 10
     
    How long she’d been unconscious, she couldn’t fathom. The car she was in was unfamiliar, not the car she’d taken from the airport. She recognized her surroundings. She'd parked on the south side of Loomis’s condominium. Yes, she needed information, and Loomis could provide that.
    S he abandoned her car, ran to the side entrance, and up to the third floor where Loomis lived. She crouched down in the short hallway by the exit door and waited. After what seemed an eternity, she heard footsteps approaching from the elevator.
    Through the glass Peacock held to see round corners, she observed Loomis, her target, unlocking the door to his living quarters. She cast no shadow from the place she stood. He wouldn’t spot her. She’d been here before and knew Loomis’s work schedule. As he opened his door, which blocked his view of her attack path, she flew around the corner and swung into his room knocking him out with a well-placed fist.
    She tied his hands and feet, emptied his pockets, and searched his room. Pulling the curtains closed, she read the contents of his briefcase. Peculiar, she thought, his calendar had eleven o’clock only twenty-one hours from now circled.
    At the bottom of the calendar was scribbled, Don’t touch Laverna.
    Nothing else of significance was in his briefcase. Which was as it should be for a good double agent.
    She studied the note intently. Reed’s words resounded clearly, “Pendleton instructs me that if a hair on your head is harmed, I will die,”
    The note said, Don’t touch Laverna.
    Her mission had been to discover the plot to kill Monroe. Now she was sure she had. Loomis was to kill Monroe without her interfering. According to his calendar, that would be at eleven o’clock tonight. Names of her targets flashed about in her mind. She’d released herself from pursuing anybody’s enemy but hers. She’d kill Kolb slowly and painfully, and Nyugen simply to remove him as Kolb’s replacement. Major, whom she suspected ordered Ursa to keep her from her son, would be first on her list. Ursa had questions to answer before she decided if he should die. Of course, she’d kill anyone else who got in her way.
    Peacock noticed part of her mind created a thought and another part of her mind reacted and responded to the stimulus. Was she thinking with two parts of her brain at the same time?
    Loomis groaned and tried to roll over.
    “Before I killed Reed, he told me my husband ordered you not to harm me.” She surprised herself hearing the cackle-like tone of her voice.
    Loomis grunted out, “No chance of that now.”
    “Talk to me. You’re not my enemy. In fact, I respect you. What happens when you kill Monroe?”
    “I’m to meet your husband and help him find you.”
    “For what purpose?”
    “How the hell do I know, Laverna? I’m like you. I follow orders.”
    “Not now I don’t. I’m following my own orders.” Her headache spiked. She grabbed her hair and pulled. “Guess as to why he’s looking for me.”
    “He loves you. At least he loves the woman you were before the villains screwed with your head. My guess, he wants to save you and take that probe out.” She pulled Loomis into a sitting position. “You know too much about me.”
    “I’m not a threat. I was a Son of Tiw like you were a Herculean.” He shook his head. “You almost broke my jaw.”
    “I have to take care of my business now, so I can be with my son later.”
    Loomis cocked his head. “What’s that you say?”
    “They took me from my son. I want him back.”
    “And Monroe promised you he’d make that happen. Now what I