Next Exit, Three Miles

by CW Browning

  “And attacks the bridges and highways themselves...” Damon continued.

  “Then he could orchestrate possibly the largest attack on US soil since 9/11,” Alina finished.

  Silence fell heavily between them and Damon turned his eyes to the island in the distance.

  “He has to have more people working with him,” he said finally.

  Alina nodded.

  “Which makes it even more confusing why he would be killing off his team,” she added. “I don't understand that. But he has to have at least three others working with him. They have to create the explosion at the island, and then in the space of a few hours, set off bombs in the airport and/or train station, and on the bridge and/or the highways leading into Harrisburg.”

  “This is all pure conjecture,” Damon stated, glancing at her.

  She nodded.

  “Yep,” she agreed. “But I'm right. I can feel it. And I know Johann. This is right up his alley.”

  “I can't alert Washington on a hunch,” Damon told her. “You know that.”

  Alina looked at him in surprise.

  “You don't have to!” she exclaimed. “It's not going to happen. They won't be there to make it happen.”

  They were silent again as Alina stared out into the distance and Damon watched her. She had all intentions of completing her mission before the weekend, and Damon had no doubt that she would. Part of him still wanted to alert Washington to their suspicions, but the other part recognized that it was not an option. He turned his attention out to the Island. He had learned a long time ago that things were never easy, and he had grown used to it. So had Viper. Between the two of them, this was just business as usual. Damon wondered what Stephanie would do if she had an inkling of what they were thinking. His lips twitched. Good God. The Feds would be thrown into a frenzy the likes of which hadn't been seen since 9/11.

  “Any word yet on that missing security guard?” Alina asked.

  Damon shook his head.

  “Nothing.”

  “I want to talk to Bobby Reyes,” Alina said suddenly, dropping her sunglasses back on her nose and straightening in her seat.

  Damon looked at her, surprised.

  “Why?”

  “I want to know what exactly was in that specialized shipment that went missing,” Alina answered, turning the key in the ignition. The engine came alive with a growl.

  “That's not our department,” Damon pointed out as she pulled into the road and swung around to head away from the Island. “Don't go getting involved in multi-tasking, Viper. It's no good.”

  “I prefer to think of it as insurance,” Alina retorted. “I want to know what Johann has up his sleeve.”

  “We know what he must have up his sleeve,” Damon argued. “You know as well as I do what kind of firepower it would take to accomplish what we think he's going to do.”

  “True,” Alina admitted after a minute.

  Damon glanced at her.

  “It's gotten under your skin, hasn't it?” he said suddenly. “This is all too close to home for you.”

  Alina looked at him irritably.

  “Of course not,” she snapped.

  Hawk raised an eyebrow.

  “Bobby Reyes is not a good idea,” he stated. “It's bad enough that Solitto saw me. If he ever wanted to find out who I am, it wouldn't take him long to discover part of the truth. And the same goes for you. Don't be a fool and throw away your invisibility.”

  “Why did you agree to play the DHS agent, anyway?” Alina demanded as they sped along, dropping the subject of Bobby Reyes for a moment.

  Damon glanced at her.

  “It was the easiest way to keep tabs on the investigation,” he replied easily.

  Alina glanced at him.

  “I already had an in on the investigation,” she pointed out. Damon was silent. “You lost your anonymity the second you walked into that FBI building. Why?”

  “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Damon answered, flashing her a grin. Alina snorted. “It's serving my purpose right now to have a high profile,” he informed her, “but it would not serve yours.”

  Alina was silent. He was right. Not only was it none of her business what shipment Bobby Reyes lost, but it was not in her interest to draw any more attention to herself. Hawk was also right about this hitting a little too close to home. It was one thing to track and eliminate targets on foreign soil. It was another thing to do it on home ground.

  Her job was to find Johann and eliminate him. By the time the people whose job it was to worry about what was in that shipment came to investigate, she would be long gone.

  Chapter Nine

  Alina pulled off the road into the entrance of the long driveway leading through the trees to the house. Damon was quiet beside her. They hadn't spoken much on the rest of the ride back into Jersey, and Damon had even dozed off at one point. Alina glanced at him now. He was staring out the window and seemed pensive. She wondered, for probably the thousandth time, what he was really doing here. Every day she had more questions and no corresponding answers where he was concerned. Why was having a high profile in his interest? It was never in their interest to have large exposure to people, and most especially to people in governmental positions. The people in those offices didn't like to think about the existence of people like Viper and Hawk. They were bad for politics. So why had Washington agreed to put Hawk in place as an DHS agent, of all things? And why had he done it? He had thrust himself into the spotlight with the Feds and with anyone connected with the investigation they were conducting. Why? It was almost as if he wanted as many people as possible to see him and see what he was doing. But what was he doing? And why was he seemingly content to sit by and watch as Alina went about her business? He seemed much more interested in Alina's work than in whatever it was that he was supposed to be doing. Why?

  Alina broke through the trees and the house came into view ahead of them. If it was anyone other than Damon, she admitted that she would probably think that they were there to take her out of the equation as soon as she had taken care of Johann. But Alina trusted Damon. She knew that whatever he was doing, he wouldn't harm her. She might not trust the boys in Washington as far as she could throw them, but she trusted Hawk.

  “Stop when you pull around the side of the house.” Hawk broke the silence, undoing his seatbelt and putting his hand on the door handle. Alina looked at him. “Someone followed us into the woods.”

  Alina obligingly stopped at the side of the house and watched as Damon jumped out and disappeared into the woods. She continued on to the garage and pulled her car inside, parking next to the black SUV. Viper calmly got out of the car and reached under the seat to extract her modified .45, slipping it into the holster at the back of her pants. She pulled her lightweight jacket on over top and headed out the side door of the garage, hitting the automatic door button on her way to close the garage door. Alina went straight into the trees behind the garage and then picked up the pace, doubling back in a wide arc to approach the house from the road again. She moved silently and quickly, her ears tuned to any sound out of the ordinary. She had known she was being followed all day, and she had a pretty good idea who it was. The fact that Damon had caught it was interesting.

  Viper paused in the trees halfway between the road and the house. A chill snaked down her spine and she turned her head quickly, sinking to her knees silently. She scanned the trees toward the road, her breathing steady, her ears straining for any unusual sound. Something was wrong. She could feel it. All her instincts were screaming. Glancing toward the house, she detected faint movement and knew that Hawk was there. Viper turned her attention back toward the road. Hawk and their visitor were in front of her. But something, or someone, else was behind her.

  Alina slowed her breathing down and crept to her left to take cover behind a tree. Closing her eyes, she drew her attention inward, until she could hear her own heartbeat. She took note of the sounds in the trees above her. The rustling of
the wind through the upper branches mixed with the scratching of scurrying little furry feet, leaping from tree to tree. Wings suddenly came alive as a bird launched out of its nest. Underbrush creaked to her right as a small predator foraged under a tree. Vipers eyes slowly opened.

  To her right, there was no sound.

  She started moving stealthily to her right, reaching down to unstrap the guard on the knife at her ankle. Her eyes darted around the area, scanning the trees above and the ground below. Afternoon sun was filtering through the trees and she looked for tell-tale shadows as she moved silently forward, foot by foot, her senses alert for movement and sound.

  Alina was moving on instinct now. Her heart was pounding, but her breathing was steady and her eyes were clear and alert. She paused to listen, taking note of where all animal movement ended and where the silence began. It was a few yards ahead and to the right.

  Viper began moving again silently.

  Suddenly, from the left, came the sound of two motorized dirt bikes. They were coming through the woods quickly, the distinctive high-pitched whir getting louder by the second. Alina straightened up quickly, and then she saw it! A tall shadow flickered ahead and to her right, moving quickly toward the road.

  Alina darted forward, jumping over an old, uprooted tree trunk and running parallel with what she imagined was the route the shadow had taken. The dirt bikes came into view behind her and she glanced back. Two teen-aged boys were tearing through the woods joyfully at top speed, oblivious of her existence. Viper looked forward again, running swiftly. She had lost the shadow, but she knew it wouldn't have stopped.

  Viper reached the end of the trees just in time to see a tall man dressed in hunting fatigues disappear into the trees on the other side of the road. She stopped behind a pine tree and leaned on it, breathing hard. A few seconds later, an engine caught and revved. A black Bronco pulled out of the woods a few yards away and sped away down the road. Alina stayed concealed behind the tree, watching it disappear. She was able to get a partial plate as it fish-tailed slightly coming out of the trees. SKD-4. It was enough to run a trace.

  Alina bent down and secured the knife at her ankle before turning and jogging back through the woods. Whoever he was, he hadn't been following her.

  He had been waiting for her.

  Alina emerged into the front yard from the trees and grinned. Angela and Damon were seated on the front steps, side by side. Damon looked amused and Angela looked disgruntled. She was dressed in black jeans and a black stretch tee-shirt. Four-inch stiletto black leather boots, which were now generously coated with dirt and grass, graced her feet. Alina bit back a laugh. A black baseball cap with a rhinestone P glittering on the front completed the outfit. Angela was trying to be incognito. Alina wasn't sure which was worse: the four inch stilettos or the rhinestone Phillies cap.

  Her eyes met Damon's as she crossed the lawn towards them. He raised his eyebrows questioningly and Alina gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. He frowned, his eyes darting past her to the woods, then back to her face. Alina flicked her eyes to Angela warningly and turned her attention to her friend.

  “Angela, what on earth are you doing?” she demanded as she walked up to them.

  Angela pouted as much as a grown woman could pout.

  “I don't know what you're talking about,” she retorted. “I just came to see you.”

  Alina glanced around.

  “I don't see your car,” she commented.

  Angela shrugged.

  “I left it by the road. I thought the walk would be good for me,” she said.

  Alina stared at her, doing her best not to laugh outright. While Alina stared at Angela, Damon stared at her. His frown deepened. Her flushed skin told him that she had been moving rapidly, and there was an errant sprig of moss in her hair. She wasn't breathing heavily, but her tank top was damp. She had been running. His eyes went back to the trees. He hadn't missed her silent warning to keep quiet. Someone else had been out there.

  “You loathe walking,” Alina was saying to Angela. “Unless it's in a mall,” she qualified.

  Angela stood up.

  “Your monkey here snuck up behind me and scared the Bejeebus out of me!” she exclaimed in a hurt voice. “And now you think I was trying to spy on you.”

  “That's exactly what I think,” Alina agreed with a laugh. “You've been following me all day. Come on inside. I'll make tea,” she added, stepping past them and unlocking the front door.

  Angela hesitated, as if trying to decide what to do. She finally picked up her black Coach bag from the step and turned to follow Alina into the house. Damon waited until they had cleared the door frame before standing up. He took one last look at the trees before turning to follow them, closing the front door and locking it behind him.

  “I wasn't following you all day,” Angela murmured, following Alina down the hall to the back of the house.

  She was absolutely mortified over getting caught. She had been creeping up to the front lawn when someone grabbed her from behind and clamped their hand over her mouth. She couldn't even move in their grip, let alone take a breath to scream. Angela didn't think she had ever been so scared in all her life. She had felt like she was being held in a solid vise. They had stayed like that for what seemed like forever until a familiar voice had asked her if she was lost. Damon had released her then, laughing when she swung around and tried to punch him. He had caught her wrist easily and the attempt had only made him laugh harder.

  “You're right,” Alina agreed soothingly, going into the kitchen.

  She started to take off her jacket, then thought better of it. She left it on as she went to the cabinets above the counters. Damon noticed the movement and his eyes dropped to her back as he settled himself on one of the stools at the bar. He could just make out the bulge of her .45. He felt a little better about the episode in the woods knowing now that she was armed.

  “You didn't follow me to the coffee shop this morning.” Alina turned from the cabinet with a box of tea in either hand. “Jasmine green or Orange Blossom White?” she asked them cheerfully.

  Damon couldn't stop himself from chuckling. Angela shot him a fuming glare before turning to Alina.

  “Green, please,” she said. “Can I use your bathroom?”

  “In the hall, on the left.”

  Alina motioned to the hallway and then looked at Damon questioningly.

  “Coffee,” he said.

  She nodded and turned to put the white tea back in the cupboard. As soon as she heard the bathroom door close in the hall and the fan switch on, Alina reached behind her and pulled the gun from her back. She flipped on the safety and opened a drawer, dropping it inside.

  “Who was in the woods?” Damon demanded in a low voice.

  Alina took off her jacket and tossed it on the bar.

  “I don't know,” she answered just quietly. “Tall male in hunting fatigues. He knew enough to stay just outside my security perimeter,” Alina added. Damon looked grim and she looked at him thoughtfully. “He drove a black bronco. I got a partial plate. I'll find him.”

  Alina turned back to the counter and Damon watched as she hit the button to brew his coffee. The grinder ground the beans loudly and he waited for it to finish before speaking.

  “You have moss in your hair,” he told her, smiling when she reached up and smoothed her fingers over her hair until she found the greenery and plucked it out.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  The bathroom door opened and Angela came down the hall. She looked much calmer now, and not so disheveled. Her hair was perfect again under the cap, and she looked back in control. Alina switched on the kettle and turned to get Damon's coffee.

  “Ok. So I was following you.” Angela seated herself at the bar next to Damon.

  “I know,” Alina retorted with a laugh, coming over to hand Damon his coffee. “Why?”

  “Because no one will tell me what's going on!” Angela exclaimed
. Damon glanced at her, his eyebrows raising. She looked at him. “Don't look at me like that, Mr. Hunk-O-Mysterious. I have my own issues with you. Do Stephanie and John know you're working with Alina?”

  “There's nothing to know,” Damon answered calmly. “We're not working together. We're old friends.”

  “From the military,” Angela stated.

  Alina looked at Angela.

  “Angie!” she said warningly.

  Damon grinned.

  “It's ok,” he said, holding his hand up to stop Alina. “Yes. I was in the military with Alina. We trained together before I went into Special Forces and she went into Intelligence.” His blue eyes were sparkling as they met Angie's. “I was happy to see her again. We lost touch for a few years.”

  Alina caught the sparkle in Damon's eyes and her own eyes narrowed suspiciously. What was he up to? He had something cooking in that head of his and she was pretty sure that this whole ridiculous charade was about to become even more absurd. The electric kettle switched off behind her and Alina turned to start making the tea.

  “So you just happened to show up the same time as Alina,” Angela said, watching him. He stared back.

  “Coincidences do happen occasionally,” he replied with an easy smile. “In this case, it was a happy one. One day hasn't passed when Alina hasn't been on my mind,” he added with a grin.

  Alina dropped the kettle loudly back onto its base. Angela's mouth dropped open.

  “You mean....you two...” her voice trailed off as she turned her attention to Alina's back. “Lina?”

  Alina finished counting to ten before picking up the two mugs of green tea and swinging around to face them. Damon looked like the Cheshire cat sitting next to Angela.

  “He's still trying to convince me,” Alina said calmly, moving forward and handing Angie one of the mugs. Her eyes met Damon's dancing ones and she smiled sweetly. “We'll see how well he does,” she added.