“Miranda Haynes, you are under arrest,” Andrew said as he approached her, flanked by three internal security officers.
Miranda looked at him in surprise. She looked around the room, which was starting to fill with officers—some ready to make the arrest, some ready to search through her office and personal effects for any information.
“Is this some kind of a joke?” Miranda laughed. “My birthday isn’t for three months.”
“Unfortunately, this is no joke.” Andrew gestured for the officers to restrain her. “We have evidence of your collusion with terrorist organisations with the goal of planning a mainland attack with loss of civilian life.”
Two officers stepped behind her and took her arms firmly. Miranda glared from Andrew to Claudia. Handcuffs clicked in place. Claudia could hear the rest of the office whispering about what they were witnessing.
“Ah, I see,” Miranda nodded. “You’ve become aware of the training exercise. I’m sure once you investigate it, all will become clear, and we’ll laugh about this.”
Claudia wouldn’t put it past Miranda to have concocted a paper trail proving her innocence. Her computer skills were legendary, and if she had assembled a like-minded team, who knew what they could have put in place.
Miranda didn’t seem worried. Claudia was hit by a strange sinking feeling. Of course Miranda would have an exit strategy.
“The exercise is simply to demonstrate how weak our security is. How our processes are too slow, and our methods don’t work. It’s highly classified, but I have proof.”
Claudia scoffed a laugh. “Of course you do.”
“Claudia,” Andrew warned.
“We found the explosives,” Claudia blurted out.
It was a gamble; they hadn’t quite deciphered all the aspects of the plan. Claudia had her assumptions and was keen to fast-track the interrogation process. Miranda was a master strategist; she wouldn’t break easily under the intense lights of the interrogation room.
The look of terror in Miranda’s eyes told her that she was on the right track.
“And we’ve already linked you to the supply of explosives. Your man, in the woods, he’s working with us.”
“Claudia,” Andrew said again.
Miranda’s face was practically turning purple as she struggled to breathe. “The plan wasn’t mine.”
“Oh, well, that’s all right then.” Claudia laughed. “Phew. For a minute, I thought you were the mastermind. But you were just a sheep.”
“Nothing would have happened,” Miranda said. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
“Are you seriously telling us that you wouldn’t have let an actual attack happen? Or that you’d be able to stop one? You would have been in your element if an attack had taken place. You would have been able to throw Andrew under the bus, and you would have taken control of this division. Shaped it into what you have always wanted. A spy state where everyone is guilty until proven innocent, where you weren’t accountable to anyone. A large-scale attack on UK soil is exactly what you want to happen.”
“I have to read you your rights,” Andrew began. Claudia knew the tone. He was on board. He wanted her to push to see what they could get out of her in the heat of the moment.
“You’re up to your neck in it, Miranda,” Claudia continued. “If you want to help us with some of the finer details, maybe you’ll get a cell with a window. Although I doubt it. In the Miranda Haynes world of justice, you’d vanish from sight, wouldn’t you?” She turned to face Andrew. “What do you say, boss?”
Andrew drew himself up tall and turned to look at Miranda with disgust. “I don’t think we need anything from her. We’ve already picked apart the relevant details,” he lied smoothly.
“I can help you,” Miranda assured him. “For immunity”.
“What makes you think we need your help?” Andrew asked. “Your network has turned on you. We have everything we need.”
“I can give you names. All of them. I know things, things that you need to know. Just give me a chance,” Miranda pleaded.
Andrew sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Fine.” He turned around. “Get an interrogation room set up.”
Claudia imperceptibly nodded at Andrew and turned on her heel. She trusted his skills to get the details from Miranda, and either way they had suspended all trains operating on the so-called ghost lines pending a search of all vehicles.
Her suspicions of Miranda’s involvement had been spot on. She’d never liked Miranda. As much as she hated the red tape within the service, she had always felt that Miranda toed too harsh a line. Miranda had always claimed that an apocalypse was just around the corner, and every conversation quickly descended into a discussion about the softness of the agency.
Claudia just wished that she had considered the idea of doubting the intelligence handed to her by Miranda’s team long before she set off searching for Amy and Kerry.
Claudia pushed on the heavy metal door and winced at the loud screeching as it opened. She looked apologetically at Amy who was lying down on the cell bed.
“We pay millions of pounds in taxes, but it’s impossible for someone to oil that door?” Amy asked. “Then again, I should be happy it’s you and not the mole. Whoever that is. Did you catch them? Can you even tell me? I mean, you should, considering I agreed to this plan.”
Claudia smiled. “Do you ever stop talking?”
Amy pushed herself into a sitting position and smiled sweetly at Claudia. “Yeah, but only for tops thirty seconds.”
Claudia stepped into the cell and closed the door behind her. “We did catch the mole. They will be questioned and their network taken down. So, on behalf of Her Majesty’s government, thank you.”
“Does Her Majesty’s government pay compensation?” Amy asked, with a wide grin. “Because I’m suffering serious emotional distress.”
Claudia chuckled. “You will be compensated for the inconvenience.”
“Sweet. It’s pretty inconvenient being called a terrorist and having a shit picture of you plastered all over the news. And I gave my favourite coat away. And I think I lost a Q from my travel Scrabble, and that’s the best letter.”
“A retraction has been issued. We contacted your work and gave them the basics of what happened, so your job is still yours if you want it. Of course, you’ll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. You can’t speak about what happened here.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine. I was going to write a book about my daring escape, overcoming insurmountable obstacles in order to evade the stunning huntress.”
“Stunning huntress?” Claudia raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah.” Amy blushed fiercely.
Claudia blanked for a moment. Was Amy flirting with her?
“So, I get a retraction, but my Q remains lost?” Amy shook her head. “The stuff I do for Queen and country.”
“Can’t you draw a line on an O?” Claudia suggested with a smirk.
A knock on the door sounded, and it noisily squeaked open. Andrew stepped into the cell. “Miss Hewitt, I wanted to introduce myself and apologise for the events of the last few days. And to go over a few pieces of paperwork, if I may?”
Suddenly, the cell seemed so much smaller. Andrew’s awkward appearance had interrupted something, but Claudia wasn’t sure what it was. Had Amy being flirting with her or just letting her mouth run unchecked as she so often seemed to do?
Whatever it was, Claudia felt the need to get out of there quickly.
“I have to go, I have some things to finish up,” Claudia said. “All the best, Amy.”
She turned and left before anything else could be said.
39
The Next Step
Amy hummed a tune to herself as she wiped down the work surface. She’d been back at work for two weeks, and it was like nothing had changed. Which was a positive and a negative thing. On the bright side, she could dive back into her daily routine. On the down side, she’d slid back in with astonishing ease. Though
ts of changing her life and doing something different had vanished.
Arriving home had been a strange feeling. Her mum had hugged her long and hard and berated Andrew, who had brought her home. Within an hour, everything had been said, at least everything Amy was willing to say. A couple of hours after that, they watched a movie with tea and biscuits, and it was like nothing had changed.
The following day, she had gone back to work. Tom had turned up to welcome her back, and to tell her that she had a choice of not being paid or having her holiday allowance docked for time away. She chose to have her allowance docked. It wasn’t like she’d be going on holiday anyway.
Days quickly took on their normal pattern. She woke up horribly early to go to work. She came home exhausted and went to bed in the early evening. It amazed her how fast she had fallen back into her old lifestyle.
“Could I have a latte, please?”
Amy turned around and smiled at the woman. “Sure, in here or to go?”
“To go.” The woman fished around for coins in her purse, not bothering to make eye contact with her.
Amy quickly made the drink and took the payment. She even thanked the woman when she left a measly five pence tip in the cup and saucer by the till.
She turned around and carried on cleaning the work surfaces. The place had gone to hell while she’d been gone.
“Is the coffee here any good?”
She knew that voice.
She dropped the cloth and spun around.
Her heart started to beat faster as she stared into the familiar eyes of Claudia McAllister.
“Y-yeah,” she stammered. “It’s the best you’ll ever taste.”
Claudia raised an eyebrow. “A bold claim. I’ll have a black coffee, then.”
“Here or to go?” Amy asked. She couldn’t move. Her feet were rooted to the floor.
“Here.” Claudia sat on a stool and placed her briefcase on the counter next to her.
“You just vanished,” Amy said. “I know we didn’t agree to meet up or anything, but I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.”
“I was called away onto the clean-up operation, the mole left a lot of mess behind,” Claudia said. “And... and then I didn’t know if you’d want to see me. So, I decided to stay away.”
Amy frowned and gestured to where Claudia sat on the stool. “But you’re here?”
“I couldn’t stay away.”
Amy couldn’t help but grin at the admission.
“So, you came for the coffee?”
“Of course, I hear it’s the best coffee around.”
“How have you been?” Amy asked. It wasn’t lost on her that Claudia had become her new Cara. Her older, exciting crush. But this time she wasn’t going to stammer while she wiped sweaty palms on the back of her trousers. This time she was going to be brave.
“I’ve been good. Bored, but good. You know, one of the people I caught, they didn’t even know what a narrowboat was. Didn’t have a painting by number kit either.”
Amy shook her head. “Those terrorist bastards. Travel Scrabble?” She asked seriously.
“No. And no M&Ms.”
“Amateurs,” Amy muttered. “What would they do if they had a blood sugar drop?”
“That was probably why I managed to catch them so soon.” Claudia chuckled.
Amy let out a contented sigh. She just stared at Claudia. She was back, she was actually back. And for no other reason than to see her.
“Amy?” Claudia questioned after a few moments of silence.
Amy shook her head. “Sorry, it… this just reminds me of Cara, you know?”
Claudia looked around the café in understanding. “Ah, I imagine it would. Don’t worry, I’m not here to make a drop.”
“Something’s been bothering me,” Amy confessed. “Why did Cara place that USB under a different table that last time? If she didn’t want them to have it, then why come here at all?”
Claudia put her chin in her cupped hand as she thought. “It’s hard to say. Maybe she had a last-minute change of heart. Or maybe she had been followed here, her tail remaining just out of sight, allowing her to choose a different table? Maybe false information had been given to her?” Claudia looked Amy in the eye. “Or, maybe it was you.”
“Me?” Amy blinked.
“Maybe she knew you’d find it and know what to do with it.”
“But, I… no, it couldn’t have been that.”
Claudia sat up straight and looked at her. “And why not?”
“I’m just… me. If Cara needed help, she would have asked someone else.”
Claudia shrugged. “If you say so. Personally, I think it’s reasonable that she would come to you. Someone she knows, someone she trusts. She’d seen you every day for ten months. If she were being blackmailed to take part in a plan she didn’t want to be involved with, it would be a way of preventing the plan from succeeding. Speaking of which.” She opened her briefcase and held out a piece of paper.
“What’s that?” Amy asked.
“It’s an application form.”
Amy stepped forward and took the form. “To join the intelligence agency as an officer?” She looked up at Claudia.
“The agency needs good people. It needs intelligent, caring women who really understand how people work. I think you would be perfect for this role. I also think you want to be more than you are now, but you’re scared. So, I’m going to sit here and drink the best black coffee I’ll supposedly ever taste, and I’m going to either watch you fill this form in or I’ll fill it in for you and drag you to the interview myself.”
Amy chuckled. “I... don’t know what to say.”
Claudia reached into her briefcase, pulled out a pen, and handed it to Amy. Amy looked at the form and the pen and then back up to Claudia. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because you won’t,” Claudia said. “And you saved my life so now I’m saving yours.”
“Pfft, I’m fine, I don’t need—”
“Maybe you don’t. But other people do. Amy, you enriched people’s lives when you went on the run. You were a criminal, on the run, being chased by the police, and you actually told people that and they still let you in, fed you, and protected you. Lied for you. You are an amazing person. Keeping that amazing person locked up here serving some of the slowest coffee I have ever known...”
Amy laughed. She lowered the form and the pen to the counter and quickly served up a black coffee from the jug on the hot plate. “There, stop whining,” she joked.
“At last, I was dying of thirst,” Claudia replied with a smirk.
Amy pulled the cap off the pen and looked at the form. She was buzzing with excitement to see Claudia again. Her palms were indeed sweaty, and her heart was beating fast and hard in her chest. She couldn’t believe that Claudia had taken the time to come and see her, to bring her a job application form. She believed in her, really believed in her. To the point where she was willing to blackmail her in order to realise her true potential.
She lowered the pen and looked up at Claudia. The woman was looking at her phone, her brow knitted in an adorable manner as she read from the screen.
When Cara had vanished, all Amy could think about were the opportunities wasted. The times she could have said something, could have told Cara how she felt. If anything had come from the events of the past month, it was a sincere promise to herself to not let opportunities go to waste.
Claudia looked up from her phone, obviously sensing Amy’s eyes on her. “Yes?” She asked with a crooked smile.
Amy reached forward. She grabbed the front of Claudia’s shirt and drew her closer, placing a firm kiss on her lips. She briefly cast a thought to the fact that Claudia could possibly be armed, and may end her there and then for kissing her. So, she put all of her feeling, all of her passion, into the kiss. If she was only going to get one chance at it, it would be a good one.
She ended the kiss and pulled her head back slightly. She stared with wide eyes at
Claudia, letting her go and gently straightening out her shirt front for her.
“So...” Claudia whispered. “I... I didn’t imagine it. There was something between us?”
Amy smiled in relief. “Yes, yes, there was. Is. If you want there to be? I mean, I know we’re very different and I’m not sure you wanted that kiss, but I just kinda gave it to you anyway. It was really presumptuous and probably rude. And I have totally ruined your lipstick. Which means I probably look a complete mess. And—”
“Amy?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up and kiss me again.”
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I adore publishing. There’s a wonderful thrill that comes from crafting a manuscript and then releasing it to the world. Especially when you are writing woman loving woman characters. I’m blessed to receive messages from readers all over the world who are thrilled to discover characters and scenarios that resemble their lives.
Books are entertaining escapism, but they are also reinforcement that we are not alone in our struggles. I’m passionate about writing books that people can identify with. Books that are accessible to all and show that love—and acceptance—can be found no matter who you are.
I’m at the beginning of my writing career and have already published over ten books, have attained best-seller status around the world, and am a Lambda award winner. I have plans to write many, many more novels. However, writing, editing, and marketing books take up a lot of time… and writing full-time is a treadmill-like existence, especially in a very small niche market like mine.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel very grateful and lucky to be able to live the life I do. But being a full-time author in a small market means never being able to stop and work on developing my writing style, it means rarely having the time or budget to properly market my books, it means immediately picking up the next project the moment the previous has finished.
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