Chapter 50

It felt good to get out of the car and stretch his legs. Stone had come two hundred nonstop miles with no issues. The eyeglass production software was stashed in a compartment hidden behind the glove box. Murphy agreed to have General Steele bring her to meet with Stone.

The brilliant sunshine was a welcome change for Murphy, who had been stuck inside a house, watching rain come down. Steele sent two men to pick her up and bring her to Stone; they arrived as she completed her fourth trip around the large yard where she was staying. Already packed, she scooped her suitcases up off the porch floor and got in the back seat of their car. Stone was an hour away, she was told. She put her ear buds in, closed her eyes and thought of what she and Stone were going to do when they got together. While walking outside, she had disregarded the fact that the “eyes in the sky” may have filmed her, and that her image would be run through facial recognition software. Her blonde wig and puffy clothes did nothing to hide her face.

In fifty-nine minutes, she and Stone were together, alone. They kissed; passions enflamed; Stone pulled away.

“We have to keep moving. We’ll have plenty of time for this, I promise,” he said.

They got in his car and started off. Their conversation was light, a nice counterpoint to some of their recent ones, which were consumed by the project, the president, and Evan McGowan.

Several hours later, Stone pulled into the parking lot of a busy restaurant. He slipped on his baseball cap and tinted glasses as a further distraction to accompany his now lightly bearded face. They went inside and hung with the rest of the crowd waiting to be seated. It wasn’t paranoia, but with so many people looking for them, it took his meditation training for Stone to display a calm demeanor and maintain his concentration on the people who were looking at them, watching to see if they were merely people watching or if they seemed too interested in them.

Davids had experienced the same scrutiny sitting in the Maine restaurant as he was fleeing to Canada, but he was alone and unsure of himself.

Murphy, on the other hand, was having fun watching the other people and seemed calm to those looking back at her, of which there were many. The only way to hide her physical beauty was to put her in a sack.