by Trevor Scott
She got up from the bed wearing only a pair of shorts and a shirt that almost reached the bottom of those. At the door she glanced around the corner and saw Jake stooped down poking at the fire with a metal bar. He was only wearing a pair of boxer briefs. Wow. She had no idea the man was still that ripped.
Moving out into the main room, Lori stepped lightly on the wooden floor.
Jake rose and turned to Lori. “Everything all right?” he whispered.
She scanned his body and thought, ‘Yeah, it’s just fine.’ She said, “I can’t sleep.”
“Welcome to the club,” he said. “It’s too hot out here. But I want to make sure to get some good coals for the professor.”
Stepping a little closer, she pointed at the scar on his left knee. “What happened there?”
“Blew my knee out.”
“Skiing?”
“No. A bullet.”
“And that one on your side?”
Jake smiled. “Let me make this easy for you.” He pointed out various scars on his body from top to bottom. “Only this one, this one and this one are from knives. All the rest are bullets. Well, except for some of the slashes on my back.” He turned for her to see. “Most of these are from torture I received in what is now the Ukraine. Oh, and this scar on my shin is from football in high school.”
Lori shook her head. “Wow. I’ll bet you could tell me some stories.”
He smiled. “You know the old saying, though. I could tell you, but then I’d have to. . .”
“Kill me. I know. But I have the clearance.”
“But not the need to know.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “It must be difficult holding all of this inside you.”
Jake shrugged. “It could be worse.”
“How so?”
“Well, one of these bullets could have killed me.”
“True. But you have nobody to talk with about this.”
He took a seat on the sofa and leaned back. “Secrets are the nature of my business. Well, used to be. Now that the hits keep going up on the internet I might have to really go into retirement. Thank your committee for that.”
Lori thought about that and sat next to him on the couch, leaving a foot between them. “We’re not the one who made the video so interesting.”
“It was a waste of my time, Lori. A dog and pony show. And I was the mutt. Everything I knew about that case was in my after-action report I gave to the Agency.”
“I know,” she said. “I brought that up in closed session to my colleagues. The left wouldn’t listen.”
“That’s because nearly every one of those assholes have never put on a uniform or worked in intelligence. They can’t keep a secret to save their own ass.”
God, she liked this man. She could easily fall for Jake Adams. “I know. It’s why I got into the game in the first place.”
“I didn’t mean you, Lori.”
“I know.” She wished she didn’t have so little time with Jake. “Where do we go from here?”
“We keep Tramil here until we find those after him,” Jake said.
“I have to go to Korea in a couple of days,” she said.
“I meant we as in me,” he clarified. “What kind of boondoggle junket are you going on?”
“Hey. It’s official congressional business. A bipartisan select committee from the senate and the house. A meeting with officials from South and North Korea, along with a few from Japan, China and Russia. All the major players in the region.”
Jake smiled. “I’ve done a little work in that area.”
“Really? I thought you worked in Europe.”
“Mostly. But I’ve dabbled in other regions, depending on the needs of the Agency. Sometimes it’s nice to bring in unknown players. Someone without a complete intelligence dossier.”
“Makes sense.”
They both stared at each other for a moment.
Jake broke the silence. “May I ask you a personal question?”
Reluctantly she said, “Sure.”
“You’re obviously a very attractive woman. A professional woman. Accomplished and. . .”
“Why am I not married? Am I a lesbian?”
“Well, you’re not getting any younger.” Jake smiled.
She hit him in the arm. Perhaps harder than she expected, because her hand felt like it hit a stone wall. Which turned her on even more, if that was possible.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She shook her hand and then tried to rub life into it. “I’m the one that’s sorry. Are you sure your arm isn’t made of titanium like your knee?”
Jake took her hand in his and brought it to his mouth, kissing it gently. “I just wondered how you had escaped all those cowboys in Montana and now the sharks in DC.”
“What about you?” she asked. “I mean, you’re reasonably attractive, in a rugged sort of way. Some women might find that appealing.” She held back a smile.
“Too many scars.”
Suddenly a voice from the end bedroom yelled out loudly, “Would you two just have sex?”
Lori put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.
“We’re doing it right now,” Jake said. Then he made all kinds of fake sex noises.
Lori took that as a sign to pretend orgasm herself, moaning and shaking the sofa.
“Ha, ha. You two are hilarious,” Tramil said. “Seriously, though. Get a room.”
Jake shook his head and smiled at her.
She got up and said, “Better hit the hay.”
“Right,” he said. “Could be a long hike out tomorrow through some thick snow.”
“And I do need my beauty rest,” she added.
“Yes, you’re such an old hag.”
Walking back to her room, she was conscious of the sway of her hips for the first time in years. Deep down she wanted Jake to follow her. Take her. But he didn’t. Unfortunately, he was a perfect gentleman.
18
It was only hours later when Jake woke, curled up on the sofa in a sleeping bag, his brain still somewhat tired. The room had chilled considerably so he immediately added wood to the fire, blew the coals to a bright orange, and watched as the flames engulfed the new fuel.
Then he got dressed in a hurry, packed his bag and woke the others in the cabin.
Glancing out the front window, Jake stared at the sun shining off the fresh snow. They must have gotten at least eighteen inches that night, which would make their hike back to the truck quite difficult.
“How does it look?” Tramil asked, coming up behind Jake.
“Beautiful but not fun to snowshoe through.”
“Your girlfriend awake?” the professor asked with a smirk.
“The congresswoman is getting dressed,” Jake said. “There are a couple of things you need to know about this place.” Jake explained the firewood supply, the generator and fuel, the backup batteries that were charged each time the generator fired up, and the food supply, which consisted mostly of dried meat, cheeses, power bars, and freeze dried meals.
“And water?” Tramil asked.
“The well has an electric pump,” Jake said, “but if that fails, you can pump it by hand. If it freezes up, which will probably not happen with this snow cover, then you have to collect the snow and melt it. There’s also a spring fifty yards to the west.” Jake pointed outside.
“The toilet?”
“As I told you last night, a pump pulls the water up to flush. But, make sure you don’t flush it at night. The pump will run the backup batteries down in a hurry.”
“If it’s yellow, let it mellow?”
“Right. You’ll get just one flush at night and then the water won’t refill until the generator powers up in the morning.”
“Got it. Sounds like a nice system. How long will I have to stay here?”
That’s one question Jake couldn’t answer. “I don’t know.” He pulled out the flash memory card the professor had given him and stared at it for a sec
ond. “I will get this to someone I trust. You stay here until I come and get you or until I send my brother for you. Understand?”
“Yeah. But who do you trust?”
“Don’t worry. I still have a few friends in high places.”
Lori, dressed and ready to go, moved in close to the two men. “Hey, I thought I was your friend in high places.”
Jake smiled. “True. But you’re with me. It wouldn’t make sense to hand it to you.”
“I’m kidding,” she said. “I’m sure your sources are much better anyway.”
Changing the subject, Jake said, “You ready to go congresswoman?”
“I don’t know. That snow looks pretty deep.”
“Trust your snowshoes. Just don’t fall or it might be hard to get up.” Jake turned to the professor and extended his hand to shake. “Take care, Professor Tramil.”
Jake and Lori headed outside into the cold mountain air. Each refreshing breath tweaked his nostrils. The going was rough for them, especially Lori, who was not as adept with snowshoes. That and the fact that her legs were not as long or strong as Jake’s. It took them a couple of hours to make it down to the rental SUV, which was covered with more than a foot of fresh snow.
Once they got the engine running, the snow off of the top, and the windshield cleared, Jake put the vehicle into low four wheel drive and powered his way down the mountain road toward the main highway. He was thankful they were going downhill, because he wasn’t sure they would have made the climb uphill with all this snow.
They got to the main highway and had to plow through a snow bank made by the snowplow sometime in the middle of the night.
“Now what?” Lori asked.
“Unfortunately we head back to DC,” Jake said. “I’ll turn over the data and you can get ready for your trip to Korea.”
He glanced at her and wondered what she was thinking. She seemed more subdued than at any time since they met.
“I wish I didn’t have to go to Korea,” she said.
Jake had no response to that. He still wasn’t sure who was after this information and wanted him dead. But he was used to that game. He thought he’d retired too many times to count. Then the Agency kept calling him back into service. This time was different. Now he had been asked to work for the sister of an old friend. The honorable U.S. Representative from the great state of Montana. He couldn’t say no to her.
“How far do you want me to go?” he asked her.
“What do you mean?”
The SUV hit a patch of slippery road and Jake put both hands on the wheel to keep control. Finally, he said, “Well, we have the information. I just need to turn it over to some old friends.” After making a copy, he thought. “So, do we end it there?”
“Don’t we need to find out who is after this information?” she asked.
“That list could be long, Lori. Could be anyone. Russia. China. Even some of our allies in Europe. It could even be a private player. Someone wanting to cash in on manufacturing this technology.”
She stared at him, dumbfounded. “You have a nefarious mind, Jake Adams. I hadn’t even thought of the private sector.”
“It could be a combination. If a government wants to keep its hands clean, an intelligence agency talks to a company, who hires the bad guys to get the technology. Then if anyone gets caught spying, the government has plausible deniability. Then the government contracts with that company to produce the technology. It’s a win/win for both parties. In the case of China, most of the industries are owned or controlled by the government.” What he didn’t tell her was the only way to find out who was behind this spy game was to catch someone and make them talk. Even then there would probably be layers of compartmentalization, where those killing and kidnapping resided a couple of levels away from the actual bosses.
As they drove north the roads got better the closer they came to Missoula. Now they cruised slowly along the frozen roads south of the city.
“You don’t mind stopping by my mother’s house?” Lori asked.
“No. I’m sure she would be mad if she heard you were in town and didn’t stop by.”
“You have no idea.”
“She still in the same house?”
“Yeah, why?”
Jake shrugged. “I dropped your brother Bob off a few times in high school.”
A few minutes later and Jake pulled up to the curb in front of the house where Lori grew up.
“Come in,” Lori insisted.
About to use her key on the front door, Lori was surprised when her mother opened the door quickly. Her mother was wearing blue jeans and a Montana Grizzlies sweatshirt, her feet kept warm with a pair of fuzzy pink slippers, the only feminine item on the woman. Jake remembered her from his youth. She had aged gracefully, he thought.
Lori and her mother embraced, while Jake, out of habit, glanced about uncomfortably. He wasn’t used to meeting up with those from his past. Had never attended one class reunion, and only spoken to a couple of people in this town from his past a couple of times. In his game it could get people killed. His official Agency record made no mention of siblings, cousins, or where he had grown up. The records for most covert operative officers looked like someone had invented them for Hollywood. Which wasn’t far from the truth, just in case the files were somehow leaked to a hostile foreign government.
The mother and daughter broke free and the mother said, “Get in here out of the cold. You must be that fellow from the internet.” She wrapped Jake into a bear hug.
“Yes, ma’am. Unfortunately,” Jake said.
Inside they took off their boots and sat in the living room.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” Mrs. Franks asked Lori.
“I’m sorry, mom. I didn’t know I’d be in town until the last minute.”
“What the hell were you doing up in Whitefish?”
“What? Who told you I was in Whitefish?”
“A couple of Feds came by last night.”
That was impossible, Jake thought.
Lori and Jake shared a glance, both uncertain.
“Here’s one of their cards.” Her mother scooted a business card across the coffee table.
Lori looked at the card and then handed it to Jake, who scrutinized it more carefully before smiling.
“I’m guessing you have video of the two men,” Jake said.
Mrs. Franks smiled at him. “I knew you were a smart one. How’d you know that?”
“Your motion light on the front porch has a camera,” Jake said.
“Good eye.” Lori’s mother fired up a laptop, found the video file, turned it for the two of them to view, and then hit play.
Jake watched the video of the two men at the front door, them going inside, and then the short pass as they left the house.
Shaking his head, Jake said, “Those weren’t FBI. Not even close.”
“That’s what I thought,” her mother said. “That’s why I pulled my Colt forty-five on them.”
“Then who were they?” Lori asked.
Jake was concerned now. “Part of the crew who kidnapped me in DC and followed me to Montana. May I use your laptop for a minute?”
Lori’s mother nodded. “It’s on the internet if you need that.”
In just a few seconds he pulled the flash card from his pocket, encrypted the contents, and forwarded them in a zipped folder to his server in Europe. He then sent a copy of the video to a friend at the Agency, along with a few instructions. He set up a meeting for the next day to discuss the weather. His contact would know that meant he had something extremely important to pass along. Then he made sure there was no record of his access on the laptop.
When Jake was done he said, “Mrs. Franks, I hate to say this, but you need to take a little trip.”
“I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
“These people are dangerous, ma’am,” he said.
“You mean like you?”
Lori interjected. “Except Jake is one of the
good guys. These are killers.”
“And they won’t think twice about going through you to get to your daughter. You put both yourself and Lori in jeopardy if you don’t take off for a while. You must have someplace to go.”
Lori reached across the table and grasped her mother’s hand. “Mom, go to your sister’s place in Helena.”
Mrs. Franks shook her head. “I don’t know. She smokes like a chimney. And she’s got those two little shitty dogs.”
“You mean shih tzu?” Lori asked.
“No, they pretty much shit all over the place.”
“Better that than a bullet in the head,” Lori said. “Go stay with Aunt April.”
All three of them got up and Lori hugged her mother again. This time Jake actually hugged the woman back. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Franks. And I’m sorry to hear of Bob’s passing.”
The mother looked confused. “You knew Bob?”
“Yes, ma’am. We graduated together.”
Mrs. Franks shook her head. “You’re that Jake Adams? You played football with Bob. You were friends.”
“Yes.”
“Well I’ll be damned.” She turned to Lori. “And you called Bob’s friend to testify before your committee? Shame on you.”
“I didn’t have a choice, mom.”
“It was entertaining. I saw you on O’Reilly that night also. You should come out with a book. You could make a lot of money shilling it on those shows.”
True. But most of what Jake knew would remain classified for a long time. “I don’t know if I have the stomach for that, Mrs. Franks.”
Lori’s mother hugged him again and then pulled away. “I know. And next time I see you, you better be calling me Jane.”
“Okay.” Jake headed outside and got to the SUV, leaving the two women to say their goodbyes. While he sat behind the wheel of the SUV, he sent a quick coded text to one of his contacts at the Agency, saying he was heading to DC today and needed to set up a meeting. Although he had just sent an e-mail with similar info, he should have gotten a response by now.
Lori came over and got into the passenger side, an uncertain expression on her face.
“Everything all right?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. My mom is just. . .” She struggled for the right word.
