by K. T. Lee
Mike held out a hand towards Ree. “You’ve read her profile and correctly guessed that she was not a mass murderer, but now you can meet her in the flesh. Scarlett, Ree Ryland. Ree, meet Scarlett.”
Ree grinned. Mike had a way of getting straight to the point. His wife rolled her eyes and shook her head, saying to her husband in a stage whisper, “Filter, honey. Brain, then filter, then mouth.” Turning to face Ree and Alexis, she continued, “Ree, it’s wonderful to meet you in person.” Scarlett shook hands with Ree and gestured for Alexis and Ree to join her, and the women filed over to the break room in a tight group.
“Dude, this cannot be good for us,” Mike said.
Parker smiled. “I think we can handle a little girl talk, Mikey.”
“Voice of experience, buddy.” Mike crossed his arms.
The women started laughing and looking in their direction. Mike gestured to the group and raised his eyebrows at Parker, who conceded, “You may have a point.”
Sandy joined the pair of agents and said, “That looks like trouble.”
This time, Parker agreed. “You’re telling me, sir.”
“My office. Fifteen minutes. Let Alexis and Dr. Ryland know, please.”
“Yes, sir.”
* * *
Ree followed the rest of the team into Sandy’s office, still wearing a broad grin from Scarlett’s stories. The team settled into the old but still functional chairs surrounding his desk, and Sandy handed out numbered manila file folders to each person in the room. Ree’s eyes widened in surprise when he handed one to her. “Good morning, team. First, if you want me to stay for the entire CIA-FBI meeting, let me know. If you guys can handle it, I have a never-ending stack of paperwork calling my name. Second, I wanted to brief you on some new intel about the Minneapolis company the CIA asked us to look into last week.”
Ree held the unopened file in her hands before placing it on the desk of the man who had forgotten she wasn’t one of them. “Chief Sandhill, would you like me to leave?”
“No, Dr. Ryland, the opposite. While you’re here, I’d like to share some information, in case we need you to do a little more consulting work for us. If you’re willing, of course.” Ree’s eyebrows rose. Alexis placed her index finger on the file and slid it closer to Ree.
“No problem, sir. I’m happy to help if I can. I mean, you’re sure it’s okay if I see this?”
Alexis grinned. “Why do you think Sandy made you fill out all of that paperwork? You’re basically one polygraph away from becoming a full-blown agent.”
Sandy nodded and Ree tentatively reached for the file. Once she opened it, curiosity took over, and she began to dig into the details with the same enthusiasm as the FBI agents. That settled, Sandy folded his hands on his desk and began his explanation in earnest.
“VacTech Pharmaceuticals has been on the CIA’s radar for the past couple of months, but a recent kidnapping of one of their employees has elevated the priority of their investigation. Some time ago, the CIA traced overseas payments from some unsavory characters to one of their employees. The payments appear to be associated with an automotive repair business belonging to a man named Bruce Stevens. He’s running it out of his home, which is hardly unusual, but he is a biologist, not a car mechanic, and the sums are larger than you might expect. The CIA checked his house and there was no evidence of such a business. Alone, it’s a curiosity, but combined with the kidnapping of the VacTech vaccine scientist, they’d like for us to do some digging on this.”
“Is the scientist okay?” Ree asked.
“For now, yes. Because the CIA was surveilling her kidnappers, they were able to extract her without too much attention. However, it seems the trouble followed her back home. They moved her to one of our safe houses for the time being.”
“What can I do to help?” Ree flipped through the file and tapped her finger absently on a large photo of the VacTech building.
“The CIA believes the scientist is still being followed. I received permission to debrief you in case we need another technical person to help keep an eye on things at VacTech without raising questions. If we need you, we’ll fill you in on the rest.”
“Do their analysts know why she was kidnapped?” Parker asked.
“Negative. They have surveillance video, but it was inconclusive.”
“Follow the money,” Mike said, leaning back against his chair.
“She comes from money, so it’s a short trail. The officers working on this don’t think it’s a simple ransom case. Her kidnappers went to a lot of trouble to get her.”
“Okay, they think it’s not about the money, but kidnapping a scientist who works for a not-for-profit doesn’t give us motive,” Mike said. “So, she’s good with creepy crawlies. That mean anything to you, Doc?”
Ree shrugged. “You’re talking about biology, not mechanical engineering. That’s out of my comfort zone. It’s a specialty, but she can’t be the only one in the country that knows how to work with this stuff, right?”
Sandy answered, “You wouldn’t think so. Afraid I don’t have anything else for you just yet. We’ll pass along any additional information as we get it, but in the meantime, you guys have a meeting to get to. I’m meeting the CIA officers in a moment to shake hands before I get back to work. You all are dismissed. I’ll get them in the door and hand them off to you in the conference room in half an hour.”
* * *
Parker only had a small window of time to study the VacTech file before his meeting with the CIA. When Sandy came back sooner than expected, Parker placed the file on his desk and raised an eyebrow.
“Are they ready for us already?”
“Yes, but I have a question first. You have a brother, right?”
Parker raised an eyebrow. “Sir?”
“In the Navy, as I recall? Rides a desk?” Sandy crossed his arms.
“Yeah, he lost part of his leg in Iraq but he’s bounced back really well. Desk work suits him without pushing him too hard.”
“What is it that he thinks you do?”
“He knows I work here but may be under the impression that I’m an analyst, sir. I don’t like lying to my brother, but it hasn’t come up, so I didn’t mention it. Sorry, sir, why the questions about my family? Did I do something wrong?”
“You may want to stop into your meeting early, son. Why don’t you introduce yourself a few minutes before the rest of the team?”
Parker wondered at what had gotten into the Chief. He normally didn’t share all of the information he had, but he didn’t usually act this odd. Regardless, Sandy had watched Parker’s back for years and it was no trouble to do him a favor. He’d be a team player even if he’d been voluntold to play on this team. Parker grabbed his things and knocked on the conference room door before entering. The door opened to a familiar face.
“Parker? Hey, great to see you, brother. It turns out they moved my update meeting here, of all places.” Cam Mitchell lied preemptively and his complete lack of tells was impressive.
Parker realized that the scenario in front of him made more sense than any story that Cam had told for the past several years and decided to enjoy himself. “Wow, it was sure nice of the FBI to accommodate the Navy at the last minute. Never heard of them doing that before.” Parker leaned against the doorframe.
“Sure was. I was hoping I’d run into you here since they moved the meeting. Were you on your way somewhere? I hate to hold you up.” Cam shrugged.
Parker stepped into the conference room. “Not a problem, Cam. I have a few minutes. Where was your meeting supposed to be, again?”
“A small building off Michigan Ave.” Another man sat at the conference room table, watching their verbal tennis match with unconcealed interest.
Parker crossed his arms over his chest. “You aren’t here, representing the CIA, to meet the FBI agents who helped execute the successful arrest of an international weapons smuggler in Accra, Ghana?”
“It depends on if you are Agent Parke
r Landon,” Cam said, lifting a corner of his mouth.
“Sorry, bro, looks like you aren’t the only one who has been fibbing to the family.”
Cam’s eyes lit up. “Guess I can take the speech I was going to give you tonight about your potential for fieldwork and stuff it. Well, nice work out there. You and…Ree?”
Ree, Alexis, and Mike appeared behind Parker. Ree let out a small laugh. “Oh! Hello, Cam. Well, that certainly makes more sense. Desk jockey, my foot.”
“You guys know each other?” Alexis asked.
Mike looked between the two of them and down at Cam’s badge, which only had the first initial of his last name. He looked back at Parker and then pointed a finger between the two men. “Take a look–see a resemblance? Jeez, man, I already have to put up with one of you.” Sticking out his hand, he introduced himself formally. “Mike Moretti. We met under different circumstances. Thought you looked familiar.” After handshakes were exchanged with Tyler and everyone was settled into their seats, Cam began the meeting.
“First, I want to thank you all for coming and for your help capturing Simon Kakra. The government of Ghana was grateful for the assist, and it allowed us to grow our relationship with them as well as continue to build relationships with our other allies in West Africa.
“I brought everyone together here today to get ideas about how we can collaborate on future operations.” Cam passed out numbered copies of a report, stamped with the obligatory “Classified” stamp. “I wanted to bring attention to where things went well, as well as where we could have improved. For starters, I’d like greater communication between the teams in the future. We knew what you guys were doing, but information was not shared as freely from our team. We generally operate more closely with locals and with less field support than you guys did. I’m hoping to work towards changing that. Also, I’d like to commend the agent who took him down. Which one of you was Rita?” Cam locked eyes with Alexis, who tipped her head towards Ree.
* * *
“Really? Nice shootin’, Tex.” Cam raised his eyebrows in appreciation. His little brother had left out a few important details about his girlfriend at their family dinner. “There are more formalities to discuss, but we have a more urgent situation that presented itself last night. Hope you don’t mind if we change topics. I specifically asked that the team that covered Ghana help us out with the VacTech Pharmaceuticals case this week, not knowing that I could have just called my brother directly.”
“Last night?” Parker asked. “The phone call?”
Cam nodded and Tyler pulled a stack of files out of a case and slid four copies across the table. The files contained the same still images of the surveillance photos that Sandy had shared with some new additions. Tucked behind the pictures of people entering and exiting a building with a modern design and glass front was a picture of Dani. She wore an impeccably tailored suit and gestured to a PowerPoint presentation in front of an audience.
Ree stopped flipping and leaned into the anomalous photo. “Why do I feel like I know her?”
Cam said, “Dani Christensen is a prominent speaker at women in science events and works with kids interested in STEM–that’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for the non-nerds in the room. She’s also the daughter of the CEO of VacTech.”
Ree snapped her fingers. “We sat on the same panel at a conference a couple of years ago. She was nice. I liked her.”
Parker tapped the photo against his palm. “How’d she get mixed up in this?”
“As far as we can tell, she did nothing wrong. She was invited to speak about her research at a legitimate conference in Vienna. Everything was going well, right up until she was kidnapped. The only piece of good luck was that I was in the wrong place at the right time. Keep going until you get to the picture of the camp.”
* * *
Parker let out a low whistle and spread the photos out on top of the conference room table. The images showed the woman being led with bound hands to a grouping of tents. No wonder his brother was in combat mode. The other guy, Tyler, had appeared relaxed when they’d first walked in, but the tight set of his jaw at the change in topics gave him away. He felt a twinge of pride in his brother coming to the rescue of an innocent civilian and he was liking Tyler more by the minute. Yeah, they’d do alright working together.
Cam said, “I need you to treat this as classified for the normal reasons and for Dani’s protection. To our knowledge, the majority of the men at the camp still have no idea I was ever there. I saw them bring Ms. Christensen into the camp, and I extracted her from the situation by neutralizing her kidnapper from behind when they were separated from the others.”
“Please tell me you kicked his ass,” Parker said.
“Didn’t have time. Roughed him up a little, but the worst thing I did was take his prize away.”
“Who’s behind all of this?” Mike said. “This doesn’t look like summer camp.”
Tyler gestured to one of the pictures. “Filip Stanislav is in charge. He got kicked out of Russia a few years ago. We haven’t heard much from him since. He’s got a record of human rights abuses and we believe the Russians had enough. He’s allied himself with a known human trafficker who goes by Andrei. No last name. Andrei and a few of his men kidnapped her in a hallway of the conference hotel. Beyond that, we don’t know what he’s up to.”
“Did Ms. Christensen have a connection to Stanislav?” Mike said.
Cam shook his head. “If she does, she doesn’t know it. Tyler and I shared the concern there was more to the kidnapping than ransom, but we had no supporting evidence that she was still in danger. Once she was back in the States, she went straight to her parents’ home, and we sent people to monitor the home at regular intervals. However, last night Ms. Christensen called Tyler to communicate that she believed she was being tracked. Fortunately, we were here instead of DC and Tyler was able to get her to a safe house.”
“She’s in town?” Alexis asked. “And you want us to be witness protection?”
“Yes and not exactly,” said Cam. “I want to bring her in to talk to you guys and see if she can answer any questions you have about VacTech. Ree, I was hoping to debrief you further, but I’m afraid this takes priority. Thank you for making the trip.”
Tyler said, “Cam, why don’t we have Dr. Ryland stick around? It might keep Dani relaxed, especially if they’ve met before. She’s pretty wound up and it wouldn’t hurt to have another friendly face in the room.”
“That okay with you, Ree? Your Chief made sure you had clearance and Tyler has a point.” Cam crossed his arms.
“Absolutely.”
“Okay, team. Tyler will pick up Dani. Shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
* * *
Tyler knocked to announce himself before he unlocked the door to the small apartment close to the FBI office. He had dropped Dani off the evening before and it took everything he had to leave her here instead of taking her with him. Even after he’d picked her up, she’d remained extremely skittish. Dani leapt up off the couch when he opened the door and began to rub her arms with her hands.
“Is everything okay, Tyler?” she asked, the dark circles under her eyes a less obvious tell of her distress than the way she shrunk into herself.
He crossed the room gave her a hug. She sank into him before righting herself and straightening her back. “We’ve made a little headway. We’ve asked the FBI to do some digging on suspicious activity here in the States and they have some questions. Would you be willing to go meet them?”
“Of course!” Dani plucked her coat off the back of a kitchen chair and followed Tyler out of the apartment into the waiting car, still warm from the trip over. She was a silent passenger and kept rubbing her arms, even though he’d turned up the heat in the car as high as it would go.
Twenty minutes later, they entered the local FBI field office, and Tyler guided her over to the front desk. He flashed his badge and exchanged some quiet words with the stern woman
behind the desk. Dani was given a badge that didn’t have her name on it and was scanned through security and into the busy office space inside of five minutes. Tyler led her to a conference room and held the door open for his witness. She walked in with her head down, arms crossed tightly across her chest. Dani stayed close to Tyler but gave everyone a small wave. She took a seat, wiped at her bloodshot eyes, and swallowed hard. She bravely straightened her back as Cam pointed out the people in the room.
“Everyone, this is Dani. Dani, everyone. Mike, Parker, Alexis, and Ree. These folks work for the FBI. Ree isn’t an agent, but she’s done a little consulting work for the FBI and has offered to stay and help.”
* * *
Dani folded her shaking hands in her lap and took in the crowd in the conference room. Tyler and Cam sat on either side of her. The faces of the curious FBI agents joining them held no malice. One short day ago, Dani had been holding herself together, giving herself time to process the pain a little bit at a time without letting it overwhelm her. Her hard-won inner peace evaporated when she came face-to-face with the knowledge she had led whoever was following her to the people she cared about most in the world. Despite Tyler’s assurances that the apartment where she slept was being guarded and her family was being watched by local police, rest eluded her. Every time she closed her eyes, the look in her captor’s eyes flashed through her mind. She woke up at least once an hour, curled into a ball, clutching her stomach and rubbing her wrists where they bound her. Morning eventually came, and now she had a room full of FBI agents and her CIA friends willing to help her. It had to get better from here.
Dani took a deep breath and realized they were waiting on her to calm down before getting started. She’d be ready in just a minute. Her eyes kept returning to one of the agents–he said his name was Parker–but her brain couldn’t quite make out why he seemed familiar.
