But the presidential invitation changes everything. It says that he loved her race and wants to congratulate her in person. The invitation also says she can bring a guest, but just one. Shanti and I beg off, and her old coach is wise enough to know that this moment belongs to Teri and her true love. Yet our star feels guilty about leaving. As is often the case, she turns to me for advice.
“What do you think?” Teri asks. “I feel guilty leaving all my friends. You’re the ones who made this all possible.”
“The president will meet with you for a few minutes and send you on your way. You can always come back here. This party has plenty of life in it.”
“All right.” She hugs me and turns to leave, but something keeps her by my side. “Alisa?”
“Yes, Ms. Olympic Champion?”
“Thanks for that smile at the start of the race.”
“I’m amazed you saw us in the crowd.”
“I knew where you were sitting. But it’s not that. When you smiled at me, it’s funny, I felt everything was going to be all right. That I was going to win.”
“You had faith?” I tease her.
She smiles. “Maybe.” She turns serious. “It was deeper than that. I felt you ran the race with me. At the end, when the pain was overwhelming, I had this moment of doubt. I thought, I can’t do it. Then I saw your face again in my mind, and my doubt vanished.”
I brush her long hair from her eyes, a habit of mine.
“We were all with you, Teri. But you were alone on that track, and you faced that fear alone. Don’t forget that. It will give you a special kind of strength that will stay with you for the rest of your life.”
She hugs me. “I feel like I’ve changed inside.”
I squeeze her in return but stay silent.
Teri and Matt leave the party and go off to Matt’s room to change. Teri is famous for taking forever to dress and fix her makeup. Seymour, of course, acts like he should get to meet the president.
“He’s a fan of my books,” he says.
“Under which pen name?” I ask.
“All of them.”
Shanti goes off to bed. Seymour and I sit alone in a corner and drink wine and smoke cigarettes. I’ve taken up the habit to keep him happy, but only smoke in his company. He nods in the direction Teri disappeared.
“How does she feel?” he asks, and I know what he means.
“She’s going to be all right.”
“You’re sure?”
“She pushed herself to the limit but not beyond it.”
“You know you have a problem now.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Her coach is already talking about the next Olympics. Between now and then Teri expects to break the world record a dozen times. How’s she going to feel when the magic wears off ?”
“Disappointed. But she’ll never forget tonight.”
Seymour shakes his head. “I think that ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ bullshit is overrated.”
“How would you know? You’re afraid to come out of the shadows.”
“So says the world’s last vampire.”
I touch my wineglass to his. “Touché.”
Then I feel it. I hear it. I sense them.
Seymour sees my face change and asks what’s wrong, but I gesture for him to be silent. However, he follows as I hurry from the party out into an empty lounge area. There I sit cross-legged in a leather chair and close my eyes. My subtle hearing spreads out into the night, like a vast fishing web thrown over a dark sea. I cannot see the predators that await me, but I’m suddenly convinced they are there.
Four powerful heartbeats. Four pounding pulses—of a type I have only heard once before in my life, the night the assassin Claudious Ember came for me. They approach from four separate directions. They’re still miles away and appear in no hurry to reach me, probably because they’re confident they already have me.
Opening my eyes, I explain my dilemma to Seymour.
“How can I help?” he asks when I’m finished.
“Get out of here. It will only distract me if I have to protect you.”
“I’m not going to leave you.”
“Then give me a brilliant idea that will allow me to stop them. Make it quick.”
“Are you sure there are only four?”
“Four in a ten-mile radius. Beyond that, I can’t tell.”
“Are you armed?”
I gesture to my leather coat. “I have a Glock .45 semiautomatic.”
“How many spare clips?”
“Three.”
“Can you tell what they’re carrying?”
“I hear their weapons banging into each other. They’re carrying some kind of bags. We have to assume they’re more heavily armed than I am.”
“What if you run as fast as you can in one direction? Can you kill one of them and keep from getting boxed in?”
“I doubt it. They increased their pace the moment we came out here. That means they must have me under observation, in this hotel, by a normal person. If I try to flee from this trap, they’ll just spring it that much faster.”
“How many do you think you can take?”
“Based on the last guy, maybe two. If I’m lucky.”
Seymour suddenly holds up a hand. “Wait a second.”
“I hope what you have is extremely good.”
“It’s perfect. We’re not vulnerable at all. In fact, we’ve never been so invincible.”
“I’m dying to hear what you have to say.”
“The president’s hotel. It’s down the block from here. Teri and Matt just left to go there, but you know how long she takes to get ready. They won’t get there for half an hour. You won’t have to worry about exposing her to harm.”
“I’m not following you.”
“I’m talking about the secret service. The president will have at least a hundred agents with him. More like two hundred. This is the Olympics, a prime terrorist target. If you can get inside his hotel, you’ll be surrounded by a wall of the best-trained guards on earth. If these monsters try to attack you, they’ll be cut to pieces. If they just try to sneak weapons into the president’s hotel, they’ll be arrested.”
“You can’t arrest creatures like these.”