Duplicity by Vicki Hinze

prime real estate. It was pleasing to the eye, decorated in heavy oaks that shouted no nonsense would be tolerated here, and forest-greens that whispered of dignity, discipline, and decorum. His executive desk stretched across an expanse between two windows. A third window was on the east wall. Tracy had an office with no windows, only a mural of one, and it had taken two moves and more jockeying than goes on at the Kentucky Derby to get it.
    She lowered herself onto his visitor’s chair, the device hidden in her palm. All she had to do was to remove the paper tab and stick the device to his desk. But how could she plant it out of clear sight with him in the room? That, she hadn’t practiced.
    “Captain?” He looked down at his watch. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I have a tight schedule today.”
    “I’m sorry, sir.” As vice to General Nestler, Colonel Hackett’s schedule had to be a bear. Everyone admired his ability to get things done. The man did have a marine’s mentality: anything, anywhere, any means-for the Force. But he reputedly had a conscience that bent to the will of the country’s best interests-as he, or General Nestler, deemed them.
    Sweat trickled down between Tracy’s breasts, and she felt the weight of her locket dangling from its chain. Doubt crept in. Was she doing the right thing? Looking at Colonel Hackett, she couldn’t be sure. She offered him a smile. “I wanted to talk with you about Adam Burke.”
    “Tragic situation. I lost four good men.” Appearing appalled by that, Hackett rocked back in his seat. “I hate to admit it, Captain, but I had high hopes for Burke. I thought he had potential. He did have a hell of a career going.” Hackett stood up, then paced a short path to his office window and looked outside, clearly agitated at himself for misjudging Burke. “He taught me a valuable lesson.” Hackett looked back at her, his intense green eyes shining regret. “You can never be sure about people, Captain.”
    She’d learned that lesson five years ago, and it nagged at her again now. She wasn’t sure about Burke or about Hackett. She had to do this. “No, sir, unfortunately, you can’t.”
    I “A damn shame, that.” He laced his hands behind his back, and gazed out the window, Seeing no reflection of the office in the window, Tracy recognized her chance and seized it, reaching around the side of his desk nearest the wall. Her fingers bumped into a little gray disc, attached right under the lip of the desktop.
    Oh, hell. Oh, bloody hell Someone already had bugged Colonel Hackett’s office.
    Chapter 6.
    Tracy hesitated. What should she do now?
    Hackett seemed so devoted and yet something had to be out of whack with him or there wouldn’t be a listening device stuck under the lip of his desk lid. Aside from her, who else would want to bug his office?
    Do it! Do it now!
    Instinctively reacting, she peeled off the protective strip, slapped the device to the wood beside the bug already there, and then straightened back in her chair, swallowing hard and ordering herself to calm down. He hadn’t seen her move or he would have reacted. The man had extremely expressive green eyes, yet she’d noted no change in them. No, he hadn’t noticed. God, but she hoped she wasn’t doing him dirty.
    Until she had seen that plant, she’d almost believed him too good, too devoted to be involved in any conspiracy, much less one as godawful as Adam Burke had implicated hackett in, but now she had doubts. Doubts and more doubts. Would they never end?““Yes, sir. It is a shame that you can’t be sure about anyone.”
    The colonel again checked his watch. “What did you want to know about Burke?”
    “Just some basics. Your perceptions and personal observations, more than anything else. Your opinion is highly respected at the JAG office and, I’m told, you strive for objectivity. That’s rare in the Burke case, I’m afraid.”
    “Even soldiers have emotions, Captain.” With a