Christmas Witness Protection

by Maggie K. Black

  “They’re putting you on camera,” she called.

  “Who better to be the face of an illegal auction than Canada’s favorite hacker?” Seth said, weakly.

  An electronic bell dinged so loudly the sound seemed to echo through the building. Seth yelped like he’d been electrocuted.

  “Seth! Are you okay?”

  “The first name’s been sold, Holly!” Pain strained Seth’s voice to the breaking point. “The first witness’s file and secret identity has been sold! Now the second name is up on the auction block.”

  Dear God, no, please no. Help us stop this.

  A figure stepped from the shadows and climbed into the ring, blocking her view of Seth. It was the Ghoul. He’d been there the whole time, she suspected, watching and listening, like a director watching a play from the wings. He was wearing the same nondescript delivery uniform as the Wraith, with his hat pulled low over his eyes.

  “We’ll figure out who you are,” she shouted. “And we’ll stop you. I promise.”

  The Ghoul didn’t even flinch. Instead it was like he was looking through her with the same cold, flat expression she’d learned to spot in the face of terrorists who were willing to die as long as they took everyone they could with them.

  Was there no humanity left in the Imposters? Had they pretended to be so many other people, and destroyed so many lives, they’d forgotten who they were and how to have compassion? And now, if Seth was right about the bomb, they’d rather blow up the building with themselves inside then get caught. For all his mistakes and faults, when she’d argued with General Bertie she’d seen the angry, conflicted, self-righteous man he was inside. With the Ghoul, all the saw was inhumanity.

  She straightened her spine, feeling the muscles in her shoulders and back strain, as the Ghoul walked toward her. His hands rose. In one he held a gun and in the other a cell phone.

  The Ghoul stretched the phone out toward her so that she could see the name Det. Noah Wilder on the screen. Something flickered in her brain, like the fragment of a memory she had yet to fit within a bigger puzzle.

  Lord, help me see what I need to see and remember what I need to remember.

  Another chime sounded through the gym. A second witness identity had been sold.

  “We’re going to call your boyfriend,” the Ghoul said. His voice was cold and heartless, and one that would haunt her nightmares. “You’re going to tell him exactly what I tell you to, okay?”

  So they could send him on a wild-goose chase until the auction was over? So they could trap and kill him somehow?

  Her chin rose. “I won’t do it.”

  He could hurt her. He could kill her. But no matter what, she’d die a soldier’s death and not lie to the man she cared about.

  “You will do what I say.” The Ghoul stepped closer. The phone floated before her face, like a rectangle of light burning her eyes. “Or you will die painfully and alone.”

  “I’d rather die alone than die a traitor.”

  The Ghoul hit a button. The phone rang. A loud and raucous rock-and-roll riff reverberated down the hallway, filling the gym with noise.

  Her heart swelled. She wasn’t alone. Noah was there. He’d found her.

  The Ghoul spun toward the sound and fired down the hall. Holly lunged, feeling her arms ache and her shoulders strain as blinding pain shot through her limbs. The wedding sash tore in two and she flew forward, throwing herself at her captor and catching him in the knees. The Ghoul fell out of the ring. His gun clattered somewhere in the darkness. She crawled forward. Her feet were still tied to the ropes behind her, and her wrists were still tangled in the sash. She couldn’t see the Ghoul anywhere.

  “Holly!” Noah was pelting down the hall toward her.

  “Stop!” she shouted. “The Wraith is upstairs with Seth. He has Seth rigged to a bomb and says he’ll blow up the building if anyone tries to stop him. Go save Seth and stop the auction. Two lives have already been sold! I’ll be okay!”

  For one agonizing second, she watched Noah hesitate and a million unspoken thoughts and feelings fill his face. She loved this man. She knew it now without a doubt. Now she just prayed he trusted her.

  A third sale pinged. Another life had been stolen.

  “Go now!” She yanked the fabric from her wrists, then turned around, shoving the skirt of the wedding dress out of her way and trying to free her ankles. “Each time that sound goes it means another life’s been sold. Every second you wait, another person could die. Go! Stop the auction, save Seth and defuse the bomb. Then come get me!”

  Steel and tears burned in his eyes. “Promise me you’re going to stay alive until I get back!”

  “I do!”

  Noah turned and ran for the stairs. She kicked her feet, feeling the fabric tear.

  The Ghoul lunged over the side of the boxing ring and leaped at her.

  * * *

  Noah bounded up the stairs to the second floor, feeling his heart crack and splinter a little more with each step. Behind him he could hear Holly fighting for her life.

  Save her, Lord! Keep her alive. Please, don’t let her get hurt. I don’t want to imagine my life without her in it.

  He rounded a corner and reached the athletic studio. There, he saw Seth, bound to a chair, dressed in an explosives vest and sitting in front of a computer screen. The Wraith was at another desk typing on a laptop. There was black detonator switch in his hand. Seth flashed Noah a weak and terrified smile. Noah turned to the Wraith and raised his weapon. “I don’t want to hurt you. Please just stop the auction and let Seth go.”

  Wraith snorted and hit a key on the laptop. A ding sounded. “Every step you take, every time you even move, I’ll release another person’s file, free to the first person to bid on it,” he said.

  Noah rolled his shoulders back. “This doesn’t have to end badly. You can just get up and walk away.”

  The Wraith hit another key. Another ding sounded. “That’s five lives, Detective. Five people whose identities have been sold. Turn around and walk away yourself, or I’ll release them all.”

  “Seth?” Noah turned to his friend. “I believe in you.”

  Then he turned to the Wraith.

  “Stop. The. Auction! Now!” Noah raised his weapon and aimed it at his chest. “I don’t want to shoot you. I really don’t. But I will if I have to.”

  The Wraith laughed and slapped the laptop. Loud dinging filled the room, like half a dozen elevators all stopping at once. Every ping was another life being destroyed.

  Lord, have mercy.

  “I’m the only one who can stop this auction now.” The Wraith’s hand moved over the detonator switch. “You so much as move and I’ll blow this whole place, taking us all with it and there’ll be nothing you can do to stop it.”

  Noah fired. His bullet struck the Wraith in the chest. The Imposter crumpled to the floor, dead. The detonator fell from his hand. Noah ran for Seth, grabbed his knife, cut the hacker free from the chair and helped him out of the explosives vest. “You got this, right?”

  “Absolutely.” Seth leaped up, sending the chair crashing behind him. He ran for the laptop.

  “Seth—”

  “I know!” His hands flew over the keys. “Hack the encryption, stop the auction, delete the data, make sure the bomb doesn’t have some kind of a fail-safe backup and if it does defuse it too, and also call in everyone possible in law enforcement. I’m on it. Run! Go save Holly!”

  Noah turned and dashed from the room, prayers for help and of thanksgiving pouring through him at every step. He reached the stairs and flew down them, his heart aching when he reached the hallway and saw the scene unfolding before him. Holly had jumped or been thrown from the ring and was now on the gym floor on her back, struggling and kicking at the Ghoul as he tried to choke the life from her lungs.

  Dimly, Noah registered th
e fact that the pinging had stopped. The auction was over.

  The Ghoul yanked Holly up by her neck like a rag doll and held her in front of him.

  “Let her go!” Noah shouted. “It’s over! The auction has ended! Your partner is dead! Step away from her! Hands on your head! Now!”

  The Ghoul tossed Holly to the ground. She landed on her stomach, bounced and lay there. Then the thug turned and charged at him.

  Noah raised his gun and pulled the trigger. His weapon jammed. But a second bullet cracked the air a fraction of a second later. The Ghoul fell, and Noah looked past him to where Holly stood in the tattered wedding dress, over the criminal’s body with the Ghoul’s smoking gun in her hands.

  It was over.

  Holly ran for Noah and landed in his arms. He clutched her to his chest, letting the warmth of her fill his core. For a moment, he was lost in the feeling of having her there, of holding her to him and of her clutching him to her, breathing in the relief of being together. Then he heard the sounds of sirens roaring outside and the shouts of law enforcement officials pelting down the hall, with Liam, Mack and Jess leading the way.

  “Come on,” Noah said. He slid away from Holly just enough to put his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s brief the team, leave them in charge and grab a quick moment alone, away from the chaos. There’s something I need to say.”

  She nodded. “Deal.”

  They ran toward the team, filled them in, and then helped direct the cops to the Wraith and the Ghoul. Noah saw Seth stumble down the stairs and watched as his friends took control of the scene. Then Noah and Holly pressed through a side door and out into the snow. They stood there for a moment in the relative calm and peace, feeling the snow brush their bodies.

  “I’m never wearing a skirt again,” she said, after a long moment. “Ever. I think I’ve also developed an allergy to flashing lights and emergency sirens. I can’t wait to get rid of all this hair.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t blame you.”

  “Before you ask, my head feels terrible,” she said. She turned toward him. “Thank you for trusting me, turning around and running to stop the auction. Every second we delayed could’ve cost someone their life.”

  “I know, and Seth is the one who stopped the auction. I just saved Seth.” His hands slid around her shoulders and he pulled her to his chest. “Thank you for staying alive until I reached you.”

  “Anytime.” A smile crossed her lips and warmed something in his heart.

  He lowered his face toward her, letting his lips brush hers in a kiss.

  “There you are!” Seth called. “Auction’s done and the bomb was easy enough to defuse.”

  Noah pulled back but didn’t let go of Holly.

  “How many of the stolen identities were sold before the auction was stopped?” she asked.

  Seth’s face paled. “Sixteen.”

  Holly’s eyes closed. “Lord, have mercy.”

  “We’ll save them,” Noah said. “I’m going to take that promotion. I’m going to recommend Seth for a position in Cyber and track down each criminal buyer. Liam, Mack and Jess will go back out in the field. We’ll find and help every single one of them before the criminals from their past can reach them. We’ll help them find new lives.”

  God had blessed him with an amazing team. Together, they’d make sure every person on that list was safe.

  “Can you give us a moment?” Noah asked.

  “I would,” Seth said. “But there’s something really major going down that Holly’s going to want to see. Like, right now.”

  He held up his phone, open to a media site. Holly let go of Noah and took it with both hands. Noah looked over her shoulder. It was a news conference. General Bertie Frey was standing at a podium in front of a group of reporters, surrounded by other members of her military unit and his closest aids. His arm was in a sling from the Ghoul’s bullet.

  “I had an alert set up to let me know if Bertie did anything,” Seth explained. “Apparently, he called a press conference today. We missed the first fifteen minutes, but I can start it from the beginning when it’s done.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “On Christmas Eve? Why?”

  “He’s confessing,” Seth said.

  “To what?” Holly asked.

  “Everything,” Seth said. “Judging by the news scroll. He’s admitted to bartering and selling weapons, falsifying records and lying to investigators. I don’t know what went on between you and him yesterday, but apparently whatever you said or did, or the fact that you saved his life, gave him a pretty big change of heart.”

  Seth pushed a button and the general’s voice filled the air.

  “...I’m prepared to make a full and complete accounting of my actions to the parliamentary inquiry and law enforcement,” Bertie was saying. “I want to apologize to God, my family, my colleagues and all those I lied to and who were impacted by my actions. I also want to apologize deeply and sincerely to Corporal Hildegard Asher for the horrible position I put her in and the reprehensible way people treated her because of my actions. She is a hero, a soldier and a patriot, who deserved to be lauded for her courage and not threatened by cowards who believed they were acting on my behalf. Finally, to the family of my dear friend Detective Elias Crane, I am so sorry for his loss...”

  “Elias was behind this,” Holly said suddenly. She glanced from Noah to Seth and back again. “Bertie just called him a close personal friend, which means taking on my protection was a conflict of interest. He all but told me he thought Bertie’s crimes were no big deal. You told me he’d requested to transport me. He had access to everything Snitch5751 gave the Imposters. Those facts alone would’ve put him top of the suspect list if the Imposters hadn’t killed him. It would explain why Snitch5751 hasn’t sent anything else since the accident.” She glanced at Seth. “Is this a live feed?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded.

  “We text him, right now,” she said, “tell them it’s me, that I’m watching and ask him if Elias Crane was at his country house the same day and time Snitch5751 messaged the Imposters.”

  What was she thinking? Was she really about to do this while Bertie was live on television? And yet Noah trusted her, like he did his own heartbeat.

  “Here.” Noah reached into his pocket. “Use my phone.”

  “Thank you,” she said. She took the phone from his hand and started typing. “And yes, I know he probably has the discipline not to glance at his phone during a news briefing. But that’s why we also text everyone other member of my unit who’s standing around him in that room right now, too. I’ve served with every single person on that screen right now, and I can tell you several of them will at least glance at their phones. Eventually one of them will nudge him.”

  “All right,” Noah said. It was worth a try.

  She hit Send.

  They all watched in real time as a round of pings sounded in the crowd. The general flinched. Sure enough he didn’t check his phone, but several around him surreptitiously glanced at theirs. Finally the sergeant to his left leaned over and whispered something in Bertie’s ear. He glanced down at the man’s phone.

  Holly typed another line, turning the phone so Noah could read it on the screen. Please, General. I told you what those men did to me. Is it possible Elias sent them?

  Bertie’s face paled. Reporters were shouting questions now. The general raised his hand.

  “One more thing I’d like to add,” he said. “Corporal Asher suffered a reprehensible attack at the hands of three men, which led her into witness protection. It has since been drawn to my attention that it’s possible the person who arranged that evil act was a personal friend who did so from a device that was connected to my Wi-Fi at the time. While I didn’t think anything of it then, I did have an ill-advised and regrettable conversation with that friend, in which he said he wished there was something he coul
d do to encourage Corporal Asher to keep her mouth shut.” His eyes locked on the camera, but it was like he was gazing through the screen directly at her. “I will do everything in my power to enable investigators looking into that possibility. No more questions. Thank you.”

  The news conference ended. Seth stopped the video.

  “That’s as close as I think we’re going to get to a confession for now,” Seth said. “But I’ll start digging into the Elias Crane is Snitch5751 theory immediately. It shouldn’t take much to prove.”

  Holly’s knees buckled, her head dropped into her hands and her shoulders shook.

  “Hey.” Noah reached for her, gently rubbing his palm between her shoulder blades. “It’s going to be okay.”

  She looked up at him. Fierce tears shone in her eyes.

  “What if that’s it?” she asked. “What if it’s finally over?”

  He ran his hands down her arms until his fingers touched hers. But she didn’t grasp them. Instead, she stood up and shook her head, tossing the ragged mess of long, fake hair around her shoulders. “General Bertie has confessed and called off the attack dogs. The Imposters have been stopped. The auction is over. I’m free. I can go back on active duty. I can be deployed. I can get back to my life.”

  Noah’s heart sank in his chest. Yes, she could, she would, and he was happy for her for that. Yet the thought of Holly leaving made something ache so painfully in his chest it was as if she’d reached inside him and taken his heart with her.

  She ran both hands through her hair and turned toward the door. “I should go. I have to go talk to investigators and get back to base. I’ve been away far too long.”

  “Wait,” Noah said. Holly stopped and turned back. He turned to glance at Seth, and only then realized the hacker had already discreetly slipped back into the building. “Don’t go. Not yet. Let me celebrate Christmas and your birthday with you tomorrow. Let’s spend a few days together, before you go back. You’re still recovering from a concussion.”

  “Which I can do better in my own home,” she said, “on base, under the care of a military doctor. I’m caught up in two major investigations, Noah. I can’t put off doing my duty for a few days just because I’m tired.”