Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie)

by Alexander, Juli

  She giggled, unfazed by my threat. “Just you is cool. If you know... you're that insecure.”

  “Girlfriend,” I said, “if I could get out of this messed up chair, I'd tickle you til you cried for that.”

  Her resulting giggling fit lasted a full three minutes.

  “You guys are fun. What have you been doing while we've been gone?”

  “Oh,” Leah said. “We did so good. We gave out all fifty of those chargers.”

  Fifty more chargers would get us a huge amount of surveillance. Especially since they'd be used by more than one person and get us access to multiple households. “How?”

  “We had a bunch of people over last night, and we told them that we got a ton of chargers for Christmas because our parents were making fun of us for losing them. They thought it was funny to take one so we'd run out sooner.” Leah grinned. “So that was about ten.”

  “Then today,” Sidney said, “we took some to Church and gave them to everybody who showed up for our youth group ice skating party.”

  “I wonder if it was a sin to do that,” Leah said. Then she shrugged. “Oh well. It's for a good cause.”

  “You guys went ice skating today? I'm so jealous.” I'd only been a couple of times since middle school. “I would love to skate at Rockefeller Center, and see the tree.”

  “It's so cold, though,” Leah said. “Last time I went to an outdoor rink, I wore two pairs of pants to keep warm.”

  Sidney started giggling. “She could barely move her legs. She looked so ridiculous, and then she fell and couldn't bend her knee enough to get back up.”

  Leah rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “I don't recommend it.”

  “It took Logan and West and me to get her upright.”

  “If I get a chance to go skate, I promise I will only wear one pair of pants.” Hopefully I wouldn't have to wear the body armor.

  “Have you gotten any leads from the chargers we gave out?” Sidney asked.

  “Actually, I don't know. We've had a rough time today. I'll have to ask Nic since a couple of other teams are working on the data analysis. I'll try to let you know soon. I'm sure we are getting some good stuff. After all, you probably doubled our reach.”

  The two sisters high fived.

  The knock at the door startled all three of us.

  “Come in,” Leah called.

  Will peeked in. “Hey, guys. I think we have to get back to our place. Nic, er, Dad, only gave us two hours.”

  They protested, but I knew Will was right.

  I used all my leg muscles to propel myself out of the chair with some degree of grace.

  “We should see you tomorrow,” I assured them. I turned to Will. “Don't you think?”

  He nodded. “And Logan told me about the chargers when the other guys went out for West to smoke. That's great. Thanks.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  When we got back to our loft, Christie was still sleeping in Nic's arms.

  I rolled my eyes at him.

  “What?” he whispered. “I didn't want to wake her.”

  Will echoed my thoughts. “Whatever, man.”

  We told him about the chargers, and he had to admit that he hadn't checked in lately.

  “I guess I'll get up and do that,” he said, with a sad look at my aunt.

  “She's been sleeping for decades now,” I said, unable to resist making fun of him. “I'm pretty sure she can do it without help.”

  Will laughed, and Nic carefully slid off the couch, making sure not to wake her.

  “I may have to take that from some of the guys, but I don't have to take it from the two of you,” Nic said.

  Interesting. So the other guys were teasing him about her too.

  Nic went over to the kitchen table. “I'm just looking out for my partner. Being around you two is like watching a video about how to flirt. It's sickening.”

  “Geez, Nic,” Will said. “Don't pull any punches.”

  “You know I'm right,” he said.

  Yeah, so Nic was not in a good mood.

  He tapped on the keyboard and started scrolling down. “Okay. Here's the message from the analysts. They really did double our reach. No, they tripled it. The guys at Headquarters are excited about what they are finding, but so far, no leads linked to our case. They have given some info to the DEA about the location of a high level dealer.”

  “Was that from teenagers?” Surely not.

  “No. It looks like one of the kids from the skate party already had her purse stolen. Lucky for us, the thug kept the charger along with her cash.”

  “Can we tell them about it?” I asked. “They will love it.”

  “Yeah,” Nic said. “I hope we'll have more to tell them before this is over.”

  Nic was looking over my shoulder, so I turned to see that Christie was now awake and sitting up. She was facing us, but her blank expression made me wonder if she was all the way here.

  “Are you okay, hon?” Nic asked.

  She nodded.

  “You'll tell us if you need anything?” he asked.

  She nodded again. I didn't know this quiet Christie, and frankly she had me worried.

  We turned back to the laptop.

  “There are some more questions for your aunt,” he said in a low voice. “I'll put that off until she's more alert.”

  “Have they made any progress with the mercenary?” Will pulled out a chair and sat down next to Nic.

  He searched through his messages for a minute. “The team found a cell phone stuck under the mattress in the motel room. The phone belonged to the sniper who was killed trying to take down the Secretary-General before Christmas.”

  “So he was tied to that crime as well?” Will asked. “But people don't usually pass on their phones. Don't they just use cheap prepaid phones?”

  “It doesn't make sense,” Nic said. “You're right about that. However, he may have held onto the phone if he wanted to use it against someone else. The team is still tracking the calls made by the sniper. I don't know what the mercenary was doing with it, but it's a great find for us.”

  “Did he finish with the sketch artist?” I asked.

  “Yes, he did.” He opened up a pdf of the sketch. “Here's our second abductor.”

  The sketch was detailed, and if I'd ever seen the woman before, I knew I could recognize her from the sketch. Unfortunately, I hadn't seen her.

  “I'll show it to Christie in a minute,” Nic said. “For now though, they don't have any leads on her. We should have been able to find something in our system through facial recognition. We usually don't have to work this hard. First, going to Interpol about the man. Now we can't identify the woman right away. I'm not liking this case one bit.”

  We waited while Nic pulled up more updates.

  “The evidence is pointing to the Avaritia Militia. The bank deposit tracked backward to an account in one of the banks they use. The sniper had exchanged calls with someone from the AM. We don't want to jump to any conclusions because the AM is a powerful group. GASI has never had to take them on before. Nor has any agency in the US. That's why we don't know very much about them.”

  “How long before they know something more concrete?” I asked.

  “Hard to say, but I would guess in the morning. If it is the AM, we only know the identity and whereabouts of three or four of them. An arrest may be difficult. We'd have a media circus if we have to go through extradition.”

  We talked for a few more minutes and then Nic finally got up and took the laptop over to my aunt. “Have you ever seen her before?”

  Christie said no.

  “Neither have I.”

  He walked back to the table with us, and Christie sat staring off into space.

  Nic sat down. “The woman has obviously been trained. For your aunt to be taken down by just two people... She could easily take on four. I think we have to assume that this woman has some serious training, possibly military training.”

  “Should w
e assume she's not American?” Will asked. “The mercenary isn't.”

  “I don't know, Will. She could be anybody. We need to trace her affiliations, but we can't do that without more to go on.”

  “There sure is a lot we don't know,” I said.

  “We know a thousand times more than we did yesterday,” Nic pointed out. “And we have Christie back with us.”

  The door opened and Grandma came in.

  “You're home,” I said, jumping up to go hug her.

  She hugged me tight, and then Will, who'd been right behind me.

  She glanced over at Christie. “How's she doing?”

  “She had a bath, a little dinner, and she's slept some,” I said.

  Grandma took off her heavy wool coat and hung it on the hook on the wall. “I am exhausted.” She made her way over to Christie. Then she leaned down to hug her.

  I couldn't hear what they said to each other, but Christie held onto Grandma like she was drowning.

  When Grandma made her way over to the table, she put her hand on Nic's arm. “Jobson says you can come down and touch base for an hour or two, but only if you feel comfortable leaving your partner.”

  He nodded. “I'm chomping at the bit to question the mercenary myself, but it will keep until morning.”

  Grandma and Nic kept eye contact for a few moments as if conveying more information than they wanted us to hear.

  Finally, she looked at us, and said, “We should all get some shuteye. These old bones need a good warm soak, and then I'm going to set my alarm for seven hours of sleep. Nobody leaves the loft, and no more communication with anybody on the outside tonight. Not even your friends next door. Just shut down your phones and get some sleep. I'll wake you if there are any pressing developments.”

  “What about Christie?” I asked. “Should I put her to bed?”

  “I need a few more answers from her first.” Nic looked over where she sat on the couch. “I'll get her upstairs and stay until she sleeps. In fact, I'll just drag that air mattress into her room. I don't want her to wake without someone there.”

  “I can sleep in there with her,” I said. “If it would help.”

  Nic shook his head. “Not tonight. If she has nightmares, I'd rather you weren't the one getting the brunt of them. We'll revisit the idea tomorrow night, okay?”

  “Yes. I'll go say goodnight.” I walked over to the sofa and hugged Christie. “You come get me if you need me, Christie. You can stay in my room if you want. The bed is huge.”

  “Thanks, sweetie.”

  I told everyone else goodnight and went up to take a hot shower. I washed my hair and scrubbed off any residual filth from the motel. That place was nasty, and I couldn't believe people actually lived there.

  My bed was heaven after two days of stress and a night on the couch. I pulled the comforter up to my chin and went to sleep.

  I didn't remember dreaming. When Christie woke me the next morning, I thought it was still the middle of the night.

  “What's wrong?” I asked quickly.

  “It's morning. Everything's fine. I feel like myself again. We're all going into Headquarters for a while. They need to debrief me. Nic and Grandma have plenty to do, and they plan to have you two sort through some of the audio we're getting from the new surveillance. There's a lot to do.”

  I sat up and stretched. I wanted to ask if she was faking it, but I didn't want to make her cry. If she was faking being okay, she must have a good reason. Like maybe this was the only way she was going to be able to deal with things. “I'll be down in a minute.”

  GASI hadn't found any signs that Bill Smith was involved. He'd been home alone since leaving the gym. They'd managed to hack into his computer through his internet service provider, a risky approach they generally tried to avoid. They hadn't found anything to connect him to Christie's disappearance or the assassination plot.

  All trails had led to the Avaritia Militia. One of the members, a Canadian, had been contacted. In exchange for keeping this quiet for a day or two, he had agreed to come to New York and turn himself in at our office. The morning crept by slowly as we all worked with one eye on the clock.

  When he did arrive, they whisked him away and we didn't hear anything for hours. Christie spent five hours getting debriefed. Agent Choo took me and Will out for lunch at a deli down the street. We brought food back for Christie, Nic, and Grandma. Then we each used audio search programs to identify calls that could be related to our mission. Once certain key words were identified, we had to listen to the recordings ourselves to rule out their relevance. It was time consuming. I was glad I was recruited as a field agent and not an analyst.

  Finally, Nic came by to check on us, and we asked about the man from the Avaritia Militia.

  “His name is Simon Bankwell. He was raised by affluent parents at locations around the world. He's reportedly a brilliant investor, chess champion, and classically trained pianist. He's also rich enough to buy most of Georgia and New Jersey.”

  “Has he admitted anything?” Will asked.

  “He has admitted knowledge of the plot against the UN Secretary-General by another group based on conversations recorded through bugging offices at the United Nations. He denies that the AM participated in any attempt on the Secretary-General, and he denies any knowledge of the abduction. He has an attorney with him who keeps telling him to stop talking. The good news is that Mr. Bankwell isn't taking his attorney's advice. He's very interested in sharing enough information to clear his name and that of the AM.

  “They've finally finished up with Christie. There was a lot to cover about her abduction. Christie and I are going to try our hand at questioning the mercenary. I don't know if we'll get anything more out of him, but it's worth a shot. Plus, your aunt needs to reassert herself in a position of control.”

  I wouldn't want to be that guy if Christie lost her temper. Although he deserved whatever came to him. And worse.

  “Is there any way we could watch? I'd love to see that.” Will looked like he was holding his breath while he waited for an answer.

  “Brenda is already observing. You can sit with her.”

  “Thanks, Nic!” Will said.

  “I'll send for you when we're ready. In the meantime, if you could continue scanning through those calls...”

  “Will do,” Will said.

  “Good job,” I said to Will. “I never would have thought to ask.”

  We sat in a room on the other side of a large glass window and waited to watch Nic and Christie in action.

  “The mercenary isn't looking so good,” I said. He was slumped in the chair, his arms pulled up and chained to the table. His face was dark with stubble and he had dark circles under his eyes.

  “No, we haven't let him get any rest,” Grandma said. “He's been operating on an international scale for over a decade without a single arrest. He's taking it as an insult to his honor that we arrested him this time. He's also furious with whoever hired him because he believes he was set up.”

  “If the Avaritia Militia hired him, why would they set him up to get caught? Once we caught him, it was easy to track them down as the group who hired him.” Will frowned. “It doesn't make sense.”

  “Excellent point, grandson. If we accept that someone set him up, then we must question the reason.”

  “So you don't think he was set up?” I asked. “You think we caught him because he made mistakes?”

  “He did make mistakes,” she said. “And Christie acted quickly to get us the image we needed to identify him. He prides himself on being the best at this work, and now he has egg on his face. He would be likely to blame somebody else.”

  I wasn't so sure. “But it wasn't just him that was stupid. I mean, shouldn't the AM have covered their tracks?”

  “Yes,” Grandma said. “With infinite resources at their disposal, you would expect more.”

  Nic and Christie walked into the room. My aunt had dressed up today. She wore a black pantsuit that carried
the message that she was to be taken seriously. Nic had jeans and a black leather jacket. He had a kick butt look about him too. Together, they were intimidating.

  They walked into the interrogation room and sat down. The mercenary reacted to Christie's presence by sitting up straighter. His face was devoid of emotion, and his eyes were cold.

  Nic didn't exchange any pleasantries before jumping right in. “How did you know to use a focused dose of radiation to disable the subdermal tracking device?”

  The man answered with a grunt. “I didn't know. It was the woman.”

  “The woman disabled the device?” Nic asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How did she know?” Nic asked.

  The man stared at Nic. “She did not say.”

  “She didn't tell you anything about herself?” Christie asked.

  “No. I cooperated with you. I sat with your artist and gave you her picture. I know nothing else.”

  Wow. He was not a talker.

  “Did you shoot the driver last week?” she asked.

  He frowned. “The UN driver? No. Why would I bother?”

  “Who put the phone under the mattress?” Christie asked.

  “I never saw the phone until your people showed it to me last night.”

  “You believe that you were set up? Who do you think set you up?”

  The man radiated hatred. “I do not know.”

  “Have you heard of the Avaritia Militia?” Christie asked.

  He paused for a second as if taken off guard. “Yes, of course.”

  Christie waited, staring him down.

  “Are you saying they are the ones who hired me? Who did this to me?” the man asked, raising his voice for the first time.

  Christie and Nic didn't respond.

  “These criminals never take responsibility for their actions,” Grandma said.

  I couldn't help smiling because Grandma had gotten into some trouble herself for hacking.

  The man had started to shake with rage. “The Avaritia Militia set me up!” He pounded his fist on the table, taking full advantage of the five inches of movement the chains allowed.

  “Have you made an enemy of the Avaritia Militia?” Christie asked. “Botched an assignment perhaps? Cheated them out of money?”