by Geri Krotow
“That we’re going to have to figure out a way to infiltrate the cult starting now. We need to find out if international terrorists have joined Wise at the compound.”
“Let me fill you in,” Claudia spoke. “For the record, Abi, Keith is now one of us. He was read into Trail Hikers before the meeting. He doesn’t have the training you do but needed to be in on the intelligence we have.”
Keith was a Trail Hiker. Abi looked at him and saw his guarded expression. As she expected, she didn’t feel as relieved as she’d once thought she would. Abi wished they were alone, that she could find out what he was thinking. She was more confused about her feelings for him than ever.
“We have reason to believe that three international terrorists are living on the lam in Silver Valley. We think they found out that Wise is planning his big TMI takedown, and are hoping to get in on it for their own reasons.”
Abi waited for Claudia to say more. Claudia looked like she was steeling herself for a big statement. “I’ve looked at Abi’s reports, which by the way, Abi, far surpass anything we’ve ever had for such a case. Your thoroughness and attention to the minutest detail in the evidence reports are what led us to the international link in the first place.”
“How so?” It bothered her that Claudia hadn’t told her before now but she also understood that everything handled at such a sensitive intelligence level had to be compartmentalized, for good reason.
“At the elementary school fire, you found Taylor’s business card. You also inadvertently discovered the residue from matches on the charred paper you collected—matches that were made overseas, in the Mid-East.”
“Actually, Keith found the business card.” She nodded at him but Keith’s focus remained on Claudia. Hell, was he angry with her for not telling him she was a Trail Hiker? He had just been read in—he had to understand that she couldn’t possibly have told him.
“Yes, well, now we combine that with the fact that three men from high-threat nations obtained visas to attend the international symposium at the War College next month. But they then forged their dates and arrived early.”
“Wait a minute. They got through airport security and customs and then disappeared?” Keith sounded incredulous and it hit a vein of annoyance in Abi.
“If you had any idea how many suspects we stop on a daily, hourly basis, you might appreciate that sometimes people slip through the cracks. No system is one-hundred-percent foolproof, Keith.” What the hell was she doing, getting angry at Keith like this? Did she think it would hurt less when he told her he didn’t want to see her anymore?
“I’m aware of that.” He dismissed her as if she were a rookie. “Claudia, why are you so sure the terrorists are with the cult?”
“We’re not, but since there appears to be a connection between Taylor and them, it makes sense. He was also on travel to the same country six months ago.”
“We have a spy, then. A traitor.” Abi spoke, needing the confirmation.
Claudia nodded. “We’re not working that angle, though—NSA and FBI have it. If those men are going to attempt a takedown, it’s more likely to be a cyber attack combined with a physical breach. Too much for one agency, even a powerful one like TH, to handle. We have to focus on the cult and its local operations.”
“And SVPD will be backing up this the most, since we’ve been in it since the start.” Rio spoke from his seat. “We’ve been stopping them at each escalation on their part, we can handle this last part.”
“This ‘last part’ is going to require infiltrating the cult again, much like Nika did, but for longer. Until the end.” Claudia’s tone made Abi take notice.
“Use me, Claudia. I’m the most likely person to go into the cult. No one in town knows me that well yet.” Abi had worked mostly at a desk while in the FBI but she had been trained for all kinds of work, including undercover.
“No. I’m going in.” Claudia spoke with authority as if daring anyone to contradict her. Abi felt sorry for the person who tried.
“What? That’s not realistic, Claudia.” Colt’s personal emotions erupted. “Put one of my people in there, or two. I’ve got a few officers who go home after work and spend all night on those damned video games. They don’t get out much and there’s little chance anyone in the cult knows them.”
“No way, Colt. All of the SVPD officers work traffic and criminal beats. They all run the risk of being identified as police. I’m the best shot. Besides, I’ve got a secret weapon none of you know about.”
Abi held her breath. Why did this feel like some kind of X-Files episode?
“I’m the granddaughter of an Appalachian preacher. I’ve seen it all, from people speaking in tongues to snake dances. There’s not a sermon on earth that would surprise me, for good or evil. And I know how to play the demure, quiet church mouse.”
Rio coughed in an obvious attempt to cover a laugh. “No offense, Claudia, but I can’t picture you as demure anything.”
Claudia smiled demurely. “Why, Rio, ye of little faith. How do you think I bamboozled my folks into letting me take the SAT and apply to the Naval Academy? They never thought I’d make it, never thought I’d get in. If they’d thought for one minute that I’d go in the military, they wouldn’t have allowed me to try. But they thought they were teaching me a lesson about where women belonged. So I played their game, and worked out after school when they thought I was at Bible study. I passed all the entrance exams with flying colors, and went on to enjoy a good career in the Corps after I was in one of the first classes of female graduates.”
Only Claudia Michele would deem being one of the first women to graduate from a centuries-old male bastion of bigotry, and then over thirty years in the Marine Corps where she made general, “good.”
They all digested what Claudia proposed.
“What can I add to this, Claudia? I’ve analyzed every bit of evidence and all the reports to date.” Abi had to help more directly. She was in it too deep not to.
Claudia nodded. “I need you to shadow Keith’s call-ins, be on scene at any fire that is related. And, most important, I want to know the ins and outs of Three Mile Island. Abi, you’ll work on that, along with going in as Rio tells you to. Rio, you’re in charge of the surveillance team. We’re placing watch teams in expanding rings around the site, above and beyond the regular security, which is very tight.”
“Will do.”
“Keith, you’ll run your department as usual, but I also want you in direct comms with Rio and the TMI fire department.”
“Done. I’ve trained with them before.”
“I understand that. This is more than concern over a nuclear meltdown, if you can believe it. We don’t want a cult using the reactor site for any kind of propaganda, and we don’t want international agents of any kind figuring out how the security plays out. I’m more concerned about the terrorists gaining intelligence on the site than I am about them trying to actually blow it up.”
Abi wasn’t so sure. They lived in days of extremist action and abhorrent violence. A nuclear power plant was exactly what a terrorist wanted to attack. As well as a deranged cult leader—it would enable Wise to hold millions of people hostage to his sick message.
Over the next hour they planned the next steps to dismantle the cult. Abi heard it all but her mind was reeling with the reality that terrorism was knocking on the door of Silver Valley, of all places. Her arson work had morphed into an antiterrorism campaign. She knew from training and life that no location was safe; anyone could become a target at any time. But she’d found her own kind of peace of mind here. Even with her tumultuous emotions surrounding Keith.
“You don’t believe the terrorists are going to let a chance to blow up Three Mile Island get past them, do you, Claudia?”
“Of course they won’t, Abi. But it’s our job to make sure they don’t even get close
.”
* * *
She found Keith in the reception area on his way out of the building. Abi had to half jog to keep up with him.
“Why aren’t you talking to me?”
“Not here, Abi.” His voice was a controlled growl. She followed him out of the building and into the parking lot, the amiable mood of their hike long forgotten. Had it only been this morning?
She jumped in front of him and planted her feet, hands on her hips. “Okay, how about here?”
He stopped short of running into her.
“Damn it, Abi.” He looked into the distance, his tension visible in the tight lines around his mouth. “My car.”
“Fine.”
“Waiting on you.”
“Okay.” She stood still, not sure of where to go. “Where did you park?”
He sighed and jerked his thumb to the right. “Back lot.”
Once in his car they sat in the front seats, staring out at the white-brick wall of the station.
“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”
“What’s to say, Abi? That I feel as though you’ve played me for a fool?”
“How do you figure that?”
He slammed his hands on his steering wheel. “It’s my pride, if you want to know the truth. I totally get that you couldn’t tell me who you really were, but it still stings.”
“But I did tell you who I really am, Keith. None of what I said about my family was untrue. And I have been working as an arson forensics analyst here—the only thing I had to hold back was my work as a Trail Hiker.”
“Let me show you who I am, Abi.” He reached for her and she didn’t hesitate to go into his arms and answer his greedy kiss with her own. They didn’t break apart until they were both near the edge of letting go completely.
“We’ve fogged up your windows.” She loved how their breaths intermingled, how their hearts felt as though they pounded together.
“Babe, it doesn’t matter who you are, who I am. What matters is what we are together. Do you feel it, too? Tell me you do, Abi.”
She couldn’t promise him anything, but she could answer this one question truthfully.
“I do.”
* * *
Abi worked long into the evening after she left Keith’s car. Since they’d addressed the constant tension between them and her secret work, she’d had a hard time getting emotionally settled again. She’d told herself that being undercover was the real reason she’d kept him at arm’s length. Now, she didn’t have that excuse. Didn’t want any excuse to stop another searing kiss. She groaned over the maps she was studying on her screen. The mere memory of his lips on hers made her want to chuck it all—her contractor job, this case, law enforcement in general—and go to him. Screw his brains out.
Her sense of duty was too strong, her need to not make a decision about Keith equally so. She really wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Enlarging a satellite photo of the area where she thought the cult might have set up some kind of hideaway, Abi looked for anything that looked different from a photo of the same area two weeks ago. If anyone from the station walked in on her, she’d claim the shots were from FBI-ordered intelligence. But they were shots Claudia had signed off on, and the request to have the entire region monitored had gone into effect almost a month ago.
It was at a high cost to taxpayers, and Abi wanted to make sure the dollars were well spent. A tiny dot caught her eye and as she enlarged it she thought it might be an ATV. Maybe the same one that had aided in the escape of the first arsonist?
“Any luck?” Rio spoke quietly behind her.
“Jeez, I didn’t notice you coming in.”
“Sure you did. You just knew you could trust me.”
“Maybe. And, no, nothing yet. I’m going to keep superimposing the sat images with the topography and hiking charts. At some point they’re going to overlap.”
“And then TH will have to go in there and take them out.” Rio’s weariness reflected in the way he cracked his knuckles. “But my guess is that it’ll be FBI who gets that job.”
“I don’t know, Rio. It will all depend upon when the fires and explosions start again, if they do.”
“I hate not knowing when.”
“Don’t we all.”
Chapter 16
Lionel tried to keep his groans as quiet as possible as he approached the meeting center. Brother Wise was waiting to talk to him and it wasn’t going to be good. He’d tried to do a good job by getting Taylor to make up for leaving his business card at the elementary school fire. That had been such a sloppy mistake.
Lionel thought that snooty folks like Taylor were smart enough to know you shouldn’t bring anything like that to the scene of a fire you were going to start. And they’d almost gotten away with it...but then Taylor got caught at that bitch’s house, that bitch who was working for the police.
Lionel knew Taylor had gotten caught because he’d hidden in the field set apart from the farmhouse, too, watching and waiting for Taylor to come out of the house. He was supposed to go in when it was quiet, when he was certain the Redland woman wasn’t there.
But no. He went in too early and she was home. She was too fast, too quick, and had caught Taylor.
Lionel chuckled to himself. She hadn’t found him. He’d been long gone by the time the police showed up, too.
“What took you so long?” The brother in charge of Brother Wise’s security team glared at him, but Lionel didn’t care. They weren’t going to take him away to the place of repentance again. Not when he gave Brother Wise his new idea.
He’d stayed awake all last night writing it down. They still had the major players for what Brother Wise wanted to do. And now Lionel had a new weapon, one they’d never thought of.
* * *
The next week crawled by, everyone at SVPD on tenterhooks as they waited for “the call” to take down the cult. When Saturday came around, Abi decided to make the most of the day. After yoga she headed to the store, the place where her new life would soon start.
She hadn’t expected a team of enterprising women to accompany her, though.
“There’s an awful lot of work here.”
Abi looked around the empty office space. This part of the downstairs used to be a dentist’s office, according to Ezzie. It wasn’t hard to imagine, with the counters and marks through the hardwood floors that indicated where the patient chairs had been. She liked the rustic feel of the place. It was going to add a welcoming ambience to the store once she had it polished up and running.
“Where do you want us to start?” Kayla stood with all the women Abi had met in yoga class: Nika, Cassie, Zora—the wife of SVPD Detective Bryce Campbell—and Ezzie.
“Wyatt’s at a friend’s all day, so I’m good for whatever you need.” Cassie spoke as if her warehouse hadn’t been demolished by the fire, as if she hadn’t had her multimillion dollar industry brought to a halt, at least temporarily.
“Are you sure you want to paint, Cassie?” Abi still couldn’t believe such a successful, famous CEO was also so giving of her time. She barely knew Abi, and wasn’t going to benefit from Abi’s business in terms of her own corporation. Cassie was being a friend.
“Are you kidding? She helped me when I moved into my place, and then with the florist shop. Cassie’s a pro!” Kayla spoke with authority. “I think I’m best left to scrubbing out any rooms you need cleaned, and then I’ll measure for decorative items.”
“What do you mean by ‘decorative’?” Abi wanted the place to look put-together but nothing over-the-top. “I’m not much for silk plant arrangements.”
Kayla grinned. “Damn, that scraps my stuffed-silk cactus idea. Just kidding. I was thinking that since you want a kind of a cabin-in-the-woods theme, I’d donate
some succulent arrangements in log planters.”
“That’s way too generous, Kayla. You can do that but only if I can pay you for the plants.”
“Don’t even try, Abi. She’ll never take your money.” Ezzie shook her head. “Just say ‘thank you.’”
Zora looked at her with the most startling emerald eyes. “You know, Abi, I had a bit of a rough time when I moved back to Silver Valley. I’d been in the Navy and all over the world, and while I met plenty of nice folks everywhere, it was still an adjustment to come home. The friendliness of the people here is for real. Accept it.”
“Thanks. But I don’t think we want you on any ladders, Zora.” She looked purposely at Zora’s bulging belly. “I don’t know how to deliver a baby!”
Zora placed a protective hand on her belly. She was the picture of blissful maternity and something deep tugged at Abi’s soul. Not that she wanted to be Zora. And she wasn’t thinking she wanted her own family yet; that would require settling down. But wasn’t opening her own shop in Silver Valley in effect “settling down”? At least for now?
“You okay, honey?” Nika touched her wrist. She remembered how Keith had done the same at the police station. She hadn’t heard from him since. Abi blinked.
“I’m fine. It’s a little overwhelming, is all.”
“When is your contract with Silver Valley PD up?” Zora pulled her red hair into a high ponytail, preparing to dust and sweep. Zora was also a Trial Hiker; Abi had seen her at headquarters, though neither acknowledged that they knew one another from anywhere besides yoga class.
“Basically as soon as we catch all the arsonists that have been fire crazy over the last several months.”
“You mean, since that cult group moved into town.” Cassie placed several rolls of blue painter’s tape on her forearm. “It’s been on the news since that paroled felon Leonard Wise moved here almost two years ago. I for one can’t wait to see SVPD arrest his bony ass and throw him back where he belongs.”
“What about doing your time and all that?” Zora ran a dust cloth across a windowsill.
