Next Exit, Dead Ahead

by CW Browning

  “I can't tell Stephanie!” Angela exclaimed. “She's with the FBI! She'll feel obligated to tell the agents with Rodrigo's computers that she knows me.”

  “I don't think you should let that worry you,” Alina murmured.

  “Oh, you just don't get it,” Angela said disgustedly. “If I go to Stephanie, she'll be put in a bad position between her job and her friend. I don't want to do that to her, but I need someone to help me. I'm in a hell of a mess here, and I didn't even do anything! I've worked my ass off at that stupid bank for ten years and now I'm going to lose my promotion, and probably lose my job, because some geek got a hold of my network credentials and used them to hack the mainframe!”

  “Oh, I get it,” Alina assured her. “But you need to tell Stephanie. I'm not sure what you think I can do to help you.”

  “Well, that's not everything,” Angela admitted after a slight hesitation. “I think I'm being followed.”

  Angela waited for Alina to start laughing at her, but there was no sound. She glanced at her to find Alina watching her seriously with a detached and unemotional look on her face.

  “Why?” she asked simply.

  “Last night, when I got home, I forgot something in my car,” Angela said slowly. “I went back out after about ten minutes and there was a car sitting at the end of the road. People park along the road all the time, so I wouldn't have noticed it at all except when I stepped outside, I saw the interior light switch off. It was dark and they were parked away from the street lights, so I saw the light clearly. I guess I really didn't think anything of it. I mean, it could have been anyone doing anything.”

  “But...” Alina prompted when Angela paused.

  “I saw the same car this morning when I stopped for coffee on my way to work from the gym,” Angela said. “I know it could be a coincidence, but something just feels funny to me.”

  “If it feels funny, it probably is,” Alina told her. “Did you notice anything before you went to see this IT guy last night?”

  “No.” Angela shook her head.

  Alina was quiet, staring at the top of the bar thoughtfully.

  “Did you see the car when you left work just now?” she asked. Angela shook her head. “Where did you go when you left work?”

  “Just to Angelo's to pick up the salads, and then I came straight here,” Angela said.

  Alina looked at her steadily for a moment, debating with herself. Finally, she got up and went over to the counter where her laptop sat. Opening the lid, she typed in a few commands and armed the security perimeter again. Within a few seconds, she had all the perimeter cameras scanning slowly. Hitting a button, she pulled up all the camera views on the screen.

  “What are you doing?” Angela asked, watching from her spot at the bar.

  Alina ignored her, watching the twelve cameras intently. After a minute, she clicked on the front quadrant and smiled coldly. A navy sedan was parked in the trees near the front of the driveway.

  “Gotcha,” she whispered.

  Viper picked up the remote and turned on the plasma screen above the TV. Redirecting the front quadrant onto the screen, she motioned for Angela to look.

  “Is that your mystery car?” she asked.

  Angela spun around on her seat and gasped at the security footage on the plasma screen.

  “Yes!” she exclaimed, getting off the stool and walking across the living room to stand in front of the screen. “What is this? You have cameras?”

  “I have a whole security system,” Alina told her as she joined her in front of the plasma screen. She smiled faintly when Angela stared at her. “I'm in security consulting. What do you expect?”

  “I didn't...I guess I never thought....” Angela looked away from the faintly amused glint in her old friend's eyes. “That's definitely the same car. I am being followed!”

  “Want to go find out what they want?” Alina asked her cheerfully.

  Angela looked horrified.

  “No!” she exclaimed. “What if it's the same person that cut off Rodrigo's head?! What do we do?”

  “Find out who it is,” Viper answered. She turned and went back to the laptop.

  “How?” Angela followed her.

  Alina zoomed in on the dark blue sedan and got a good shot of the license plate before she turned her attention to the interior. A man was sitting in the car with a sweatshirt hood pulled over his head. He held what looked like a tablet in his hand and he was watching the driveway.

  “I'll take care of it,” Viper said coldly. “Looks like you weren't being paranoid.”

  “What should I do?” Angela asked, her face pale. Viper glanced at her.

  “Let me handle it,” she said shortly. “I wouldn't advise going back to work today. Can you take the rest of the day off?”

  “Yes.” Angela nodded. “I had a meeting this morning, but I don't have anything for the rest of the day. I can call and tell them I'm working from home this afternoon.”

  “Good.” Alina closed the laptop and turned to go down the hallway toward the front door. “Do it.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I'm going to get a closer look at our visitor,” Viper said calmly. “Stay here.”

  “Are you insane?!” Angela cried. “You can't go out there. He could have a gun!”

  Alina glanced at her and the look on her face sent a cold chill down Angela's spine.

  “One can only hope,” Viper murmured before she disappeared out the door.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lowell stared at the tablet in front of him with a frown. According to the tracking dot on Ms. Bolan's GPS software, he was supposed to be sitting in the parking lot of a mall. He raised his eyes to the dirt road that emerged out of a forest of trees. Instead, he was in the middle of the Pine Barrens somewhere. It didn't make any sense.

  He caught up with Angela when she stopped to pick up lunch at an Italian pizza place just outside Mt. Laurel. Expecting her to turn around and head back to work, he had been surprised when she pulled out of the parking lot and continued heading south. Now, he was just confused. He checked both the GPS tracking on her car and her phone, and they both thought they were in a mall parking lot.

  Pulling his hood over his head, Lowell settled down in the seat and started updating the tracking software on the tablet. Something must have gotten hung up somewhere. He would update the software and then he would be able to see where the hell they were. Not for the first time, he wished he hadn't given his own GPS system to Philip.

  While he waited for the scan on the tablet to complete, Lowell leaned his head back and stared at the roof of the car. The Feds had come to the building this morning and picked up Rodrigo's laptop and two hard drives. By the end of the day, Angela Bolan would be implicated in the security breach and everything would be back on track. It was unfortunate that Rodrigo got cold feet in the end. They could have been on their way already, mission accomplished and no one the wiser. Instead, Rodrigo seemed to have been attacked with something resembling a conscience.

  Lowell shook his head slightly.

  It had taken two years to get to this point. Rodrigo had been willing to throw away all that work and careful planning. While it was shocking he lost his head, Rodrigo really couldn't have expected to just walk away from this without any consequences. He really couldn't have been that naïve. Life didn't work that way. They all knew going into this that they were in it for the long haul, and there was no going back. The only question now was, who had gotten to Rodrigo? Lowell had been waiting for him to resurface so that he could take care of himself, but someone beat him to it. Who?

  Lowell lifted his head and glanced at the tablet. The scan was finishing and then the software would begin pulling down the updates. He looked at his watch. It should take about ten minutes or so, then he could confirm that the tracking viruses on Angela's car and phone were working properly. Until he killed her, he needed to know where she was at all times. She was their scapegoat. Without her, the
Feds would start looking more closely at Rodrigo's associates, past and present, and that would never do.

  Lowell looked up as a black F-150 appeared on the road, heading towards him. He slid down in his seat as the truck slowed down and turned into the dirt road right near the front of his car. The driver glanced at the car, but continued into the trees without slowing down. Lowell breathed a short sigh of relief and sat back up. What was down the dirt road? He wanted to get out and walk through the trees and see what was back there, but he needed to finish the software update first. There was no point in seeing what was down the road if he didn't even know where the road was.

  Lowell was still staring at the tablet in his lap a few minutes later when there was a tap on the glass of the passenger's window. He started violently and raised his eyes to see the man from the pick-up truck peering into the car. Swallowing, Lowell slid one hand into his sweatshirt pocket to close around the gun there. With the other, he pressed the button to lower the window slightly.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  “You're parked on private property,” Michael told him, his eyes narrowed. He pulled out his badge and flashed it through the window. Lowell stilled at the sight of the badge. “I'm a Federal Officer. Are you lost?”

  “Actually, I am,” Lowell said, releasing the gun in his pocket and doing his best to look confused. “My GPS on this tablet doesn't seem to know where I am, and I pulled off the road to try to update it.”

  Michael studied the stranger through the glass.

  “If you follow this road, it'll take you back into town,” he told him, motioning to the road behind them. “You're a fair way out, though, so just stay on this road until you hit civilization again.”

  “Where would that be?” Lowell asked, starting his engine.

  “Medford,” Michael answered and stepped back. He watched as the man pulled his hand out of his sweatshirt pocket and set the tablet on the seat next to him. Michael glanced at it and saw an upload just finishing up on the tablet. “Once you hit the center of town, your GPS should be able to get you where you're going.”

  “Thanks, man!” Lowell waved and backed out of the trees.

  Michael nodded and watched as the sedan switched gears and drove away down the road. He shook his head slightly and turned to head back into the trees. Rounding a tree, he came face to face with Alina, looking decidedly annoyed.

  “What do you think you're doing?” she demanded.

  Michael raised an eyebrow and glanced down at the gun in her hands.

  “Getting rid of someone who looked suspicious,” he answered easily. “What are you doing?”

  “I was trying to find out who he was,” Viper retorted, tucking the gun into her back holster. “I saw him on the security camera.”

  “So you came out armed? What am I missing?” Michael asked. His green eyes glinted in the afternoon sun trickling through the trees.

  Alina sighed and turned to walk through the trees beside him.

  “Nothing good,” she replied. “And I'm always armed. You know that.”

  “And here I just spent last night convincing Blake there was nothing to be worried about here,” he sighed, falling into step beside her. “Am I going to regret that?”

  “That depends,” Alina answered, her lips twitching.

  “Are you going to tell me what's going on, or do I have to figure it out myself?” Michael demanded. “I will, you know, so you might as well tell me what's going on now and save us both some time.”

  “I don't doubt you,” Alina murmured. “Angela is at the house. She came for lunch and it seems like she's got herself into a situation.”

  “Did Coach go out of business?” Michael asked dryly.

  Alina bit back a laugh and shook her head as his truck came into view, stopped in the middle of the long dirt road that snaked through the trees to the house. She glanced at him, debating how much to tell him.

  “Hardly. Angela is being followed,” Alina told him.

  Michael raised an eyebrow in surprise as he opened the passenger's door to his truck for her.

  “Angela?” he repeated. “By whom?”

  “That's what I was trying to find out,” Alina retorted, climbing into the truck.

  Michael slammed the door closed and went around to get behind the wheel.

  “That guy was waiting for her, not you?” he asked, starting the engine and putting the truck in gear.

  “Unexpected, right?” Alina looked out the window as they bounced through the trees. “I'm so used to it being the other way around.”

  “What did she get herself mixed up with?” Michael asked after a moment of silence.

  “Stephanie and John's investigation, as far as I can make out.” Alina glanced at him. “They have a dead informant on their hands. Angela knew him at work and somehow he got hold of her network credentials and used them to hack into the bank mainframe before he turned up dead.”

  Michael whistled softly.

  “And now she's being followed,” he said slowly.

  “Yep.” Alina turned her attention back to the trees. “It started last night, or at least, that's when she first noticed it.”

  “Does Stephanie know?”

  “Not yet.” Alina shrugged. “Angela says she doesn't want to put Stephanie in a bad spot, but she doesn't know yet Stephanie is the one heading the investigation.”

  “Wait, back up,” Michael shook his head. “If she doesn't know Stephanie's in charge, how does she know she's gotten mixed up in their investigation?”

  Alina sighed and leaned her head back on the head rest.

  “The FBI went to get the dead man's equipment today,” she explained. “It's a long story, but the basics are the dead man hacked into the bank's mainframe from his computer with Angela's credentials. Someone in the IT department caught it when he was copying data from the computers to get them ready for the Feds. He told Angela. Now the Feds have the computers and they'll see the logs for themselves.”

  “Angela has no idea how this happened?”

  “None.” Alina shook her head. “She really does have rotten luck sometimes. She doesn't know Stephanie and John are the agents working on the case. She just knows she's about to be implicated in something she had no part of.” Alina raised her head as the dirt driveway gave way to gravel. They approached a clearing in the trees and the house came into view ahead. “She went to work last night to change all her passwords and when she got home, she spotted her tail.”

  “That certainly doesn't sound good,” Michael murmured. He followed the drive past the front of the house and turned left to follow it to the back. “She'll have to tell Stephanie.”

  “I know,” Alina agreed. “In the meantime, I want to find out who's following her.”

  “You think she's in danger?” Michael asked, stopping the truck in front of the garage and turning the engine off. He glanced at Alina to find her frowning slightly.

  “I do,” she answered quietly. “Stephanie's informant is showing up in pieces. Whatever is going on, it's not good.”

  “What can I do to help?” Michael asked simply.

  Alina glanced at him as she reached for the door handle.

  “Help me keep an eye on Angela.”

  Stephanie stared at the scene before her. John was right. It was a mess. The makeshift operating room in the maze had been decorated to look like a massacre had taken place there, and fake blood was splattered everywhere. The fake corpse of the headless surgeon had been tossed aside into the corner and in its place on the gurney lay Rodrigo Frietas.

  Or what was left of him.

  Stephanie swallowed heavily as her stomach rolled over slowly in protest of the gruesome sight. Rodrigo had been cut from the base of his breast bone to his abdomen and splayed wide open. As if that wasn't enough, whoever did it had pulled half of his intestines out.

  “I told you it was a mess,” John said, watching Stephanie's face drain of color. “You look like you need to sit down.”

&nb
sp; “I'm...I'll be...” Stephanie started to speak, then turned abruptly and left the area.

  John nodded to Larry, who waiting a few feet away, and followed Stephanie around a corner in the maze. She dropped down onto a prop chair, lowered her head between her knees, and waited for the wave of nausea to pass.

  “Two of the techs so far have lost their breakfast,” John told her, watching as she kept her head down and took some deep breaths. “You're in good company. It's not a pretty sight.”

  “Who does that?!” Stephanie exclaimed, lifting a white face and looking at him. “Who the hell does something like that!?”

  “A sick bastard,” John answered promptly.

  Stephanie shook her head and lowered it down again, taking deep breaths and trying to forget the sight. The nausea was starting to pass now that she was away from the sight and smell of Rodrigo's mutilated remains.

  “How did they get in here?” she demanded. “We had this locked down and agents posted over-night. How the hell did they bring a body in here?”

  “The outer door to the parking lot behind the Warden's House was found unlocked,” John answered. “One of the techs found traces of bodily fluid and a footprint just inside the door. It looks like they brought him in that way.”

  “And neither of our agents saw anything?” Stephanie raised her head, staring at John in disbelief. “How incompetent can we get here?”

  “Trust me, I asked them that very same question,” John answered grimly. “It's almost like we are working with a ghost. They walk through walls, unlock doors, no one ever sees them, and no one ever hears anything.”

  Stephanie took a final deep breath and sat up.

  “Ghosts don't slice people up like that,” she muttered. “Did Larry have any initial observations?”

  “Only that he was already dead when he was cut open, but we knew that already,” John said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against a metal support beam. “He estimates that Rodrigo was killed sometime between two and nine on Saturday. He did say that according to his examination of his head, Rodrigo's tongue was cut out before the head was severed.”