Girl Undercover 12: Showdown

by Julia Derek

  Oh, God, will I do without Ian?

  With a tremendous amount of willpower, I pushed myself out of bed and stumbled toward the bathroom. I needed to take a shower. It would wake me up, help me deal with this situation. I couldn’t just give up and stay in bed, despite that I wanted to do just that, creep under the covers and pretend I was five years old again.

  When I returned to the bedroom, wrapped in big, fluffy hotel bath towels, I heard the sound of a phone ringing. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was in fact my phone because I had yet to get used to the odd-sounding ringtone. Only as I ran around the bed and saw how the phone that I had plugged in to the wall had lit up did I get it.

  Ian is calling finally!

  I hurried over and squatted beside the phone, picking it up. As I glanced at the screen, my heart sank like a stone in water. It wasn’t Ian’s number, but one I didn’t recognize.

  Crestfallen, I pressed the Talk button and put the phone against my ear.

  “Hello?”

  “Gabi, it’s me, Ian.”

  I closed my eyes and a fierce rush of gratitude at hearing Ian’s voice went through me. I grinned, thinking that I should’ve known he wouldn’t leave me to deal with this practically on my own. He wasn’t so stupid he’d let Jonah get control over him. But soon the gratitude was replaced with anger—why the hell had it taken him so long to get back to me?

  “Where the hell have you been?” I snapped. “I was worried out of my mind that something had happened to you. Didn’t you hear my messages?”

  “Yes, I did see that you called, but I didn’t get a chance to pick up or even listen to your message. Or messages you said? You left more than one?”

  “Yes, I called you twice. Why did it take you so long to call me back?”

  “I was busy with Jonah. What did the messages say?”

  “Well, it was really only one message that contained important information. I managed to fix Brady. He’s no longer an untouchable.”

  Ian sucked in an ecstatic breath. “You did? Brilliant!”

  “Yeah, I know, isn’t it? And what were you doing in the meantime, while I was busy helping us getting through this mess?”

  “I found Stenger.”

  Chapter 6

  I nearly dropped my phone. “Wha...? That’d better not be a joke, Mr. Armory,” I added sternly. As casually as he’d said those three words, they simply couldn’t be true.

  “It’s not a joke,” Ian said, his voice dead serious. “Jonah finally told me where he was. Unless he’s lying—which I highly doubt that he is—Stenger lives in a house in Alpine, New Jersey. I’m going there in a few to check it out.”

  I could hardly believe my ears. “Jonah gave you that information voluntarily?”

  Ian gave that soft chuckle I had come to know so well and miss so much while in L.A. “Of course he didn’t. I had to work hard to get it out of him, which was why I missed your call. The boy put up a good fight—at least more than I’d expected out of a chicken shit hothead like him. But eventually he relented.”

  “You kidnapped him then?”

  “Yes. He’s still at my place. And if turns out he lied about his father’s whereabouts, he’s a dead man.”

  “He’s at your place? Really? Is that a good idea?”

  “Sure, it’s as good as any other place.”

  “Are you there right now?”

  “No, I stepped out for a moment. I needed some fresh air. It was a long, arduous night for both me and Jonah. Besides, it was time for me to get a new burner.”

  Ah, so that’s why I hadn’t recognized his number.

  “So he’s at your place on his own right now?” I asked. “What if he tries to escape?”

  “He’s not going anywhere. Massimo is watching him.”

  Even though I wanted to be mad at Ian, I couldn’t. The absurdity of his small, gray cat sitting watchdog over big, mean Jonah was just too much. A giggle that took on a life of its own came out of me, making my body shake and snorting sounds coming out of my mouth.

  “Gabi, are you okay?” Ian asked. “You sound like you’re having some kind of seizure. Don’t worry about Jonah escaping. I was just kidding about Massimo watching him. Obviously I made sure he can’t get anywhere before I stepped out.”

  I finally controlled myself. “Sorry. No, I’m fine. I was just laughing really hard when I thought of Massimo keeping Jonah in check. Thanks for that; I needed a good laugh. So you’re about to go see how he lives now then? Stenger, I mean.”

  “Yes. I just wanted to talk to you before. I’d really like it if you could be here with me so we can plan how to best approach him. Now that you’ve fixed Brady, nothing’s keeping you on the West Coast, correct?”

  “No, I can come back any time now.”

  “Great. Want me to book you a ticket?”

  I was about to protest and tell him that I could do that myself. Then I thought of how efficiently he’d taken care of getting me a flight the last time. “Sure, that would be great. I could be ready to leave my hotel in thirty minutes.”

  “I’ll find you something that’ll leave in the next few hours. Keep your phone with you at all times. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve found you the right flight.”

  We disconnected and I threw on some clothes, then immediately began to pack my bag so that I’d be ready to check out from the hotel when Ian called.

  He did call only twenty minutes later, while I was talking to Brady. My captain was back at the office, trying to figure out who might be involved with The Adler Group out of all his contacts in law enforcement across the country. And at the division. We suspected we had one or more moles there who'd been updating Adler about what I was up to. It was the only explanation as to how they had been able to transmit information about me to Brady pretty much in real time.

  “I found you a flight that leaves LAX at ten twenty,” Ian said. “You think you can make that?”

  I checked the time. It wasn’t even eight a.m. yet. “Definitely.”

  “Great. It lands at La Guardia at five past seven New York time tonight. I’ll be there to pick you up.”

  ***

  As I walked through the sliding doors to the small arrivals hall at the La Guardia Airport several hours later, I immediately spotted Ian. His unshaven face and mussed mop of blond hair stood in stark contrast to the neat navy cashmere sweater and dark slacks that he wore. I felt a big grin spread across my face, and I moved as fast as I could toward him with my big suitcase in tow. He returned my grin, and as I got closer, I noted that there were dark circles under his chameleon eyes. Which were bloodshot. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

  He opened his arms wide and I slid between them, hugging him with as much fierceness as he hugged me. As I inhaled the familiar smell of him, I realized just how much I had missed him. I closed my eyes and smiled, enjoying the feeling of having his arms around me again.

  “It’s good to have you back, Gabi,” he mumbled into my ear, smoothing my hair away from my neck.

  As we finally let go a little, he looked down into my face, deep into my eyes. The air between us felt suddenly tense, like it had been infused with electricity, and, for a moment, I was sure that he’d lean in and crash his lips to mine. As I held his gaze, I found myself wishing that he would.

  He did kiss me, but not on my mouth and certainly not with lots of passion. Instead, he pressed a sisterly peck to my forehead, which made me feel like it was Dante holding me in his arms.

  I swallowed back the disappointment that surged through me and told myself that it was better that he insisted on treating me as a friend only, not someone he’d shared quite a few great nights with. We had way more important things to focus on and worry about than the confusing situation between us. Yes, it is much better, I cheered myself quietly. Even so, I couldn’t let go of the nagging sensation that suggested that maybe I had imagined him ever having feelings for me. Maybe he’d just been horny and had needed the release sex gave him
as much as I had at the time. Hey, he was a man after all. The sensation bothered me so much that I instantly forced it to retreat.

  We let go of each other and Ian asked, “How was your flight? I’m sorry I wasn’t able to find a first-class seat for you this time. Business class was all they had left.”

  I smiled at him. “You really think stuff like that matters to me? I was very comfortable in business.”

  “I’m happy to hear that. How’s Brady holding up?”

  I had spoken to Brady again as my plane had landed at La Guardia, super nervous that the man in his head had made another appearance during the day. He hadn’t. Brady told me to stop worrying; he felt fine. But just in case that suddenly changed, his wife had come to the station and been with him all day so he could get another shot of Haldol into his system quickly. He was not about to take any chances. I explained this to Ian, and how Brady’s wife was a nurse.

  Ian nodded, pleased, and picked up my suitcase. “Let’s go. I have a car waiting for us outside.”

  He leading the way, we hurried toward the exit and the adjacent parking lot where he had parked his rental car, a shiny black Mercedes with tinted windows. He opened the passenger seat door for me, and I entered the car while he went to put my suitcase in the trunk.

  When he was beside me, seated in the driver’s seat, I asked him, “I assume you went to check out Stenger’s house earlier today?”

  “Yes, as soon as I’d found you the flight. It’s closer than I thought to the city. Only a twenty-five minute car ride from Nikkei if there’s no traffic. It’s a mansion, not a house, by the way. A gorgeous, big one.” He gave me a sideways grin and stuck the key into the ignition, starting the car and pulling out of the parking spot. “Not that that should come as much of a surprise.”

  “Right, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “Do you have some kind of plan as to how we can get to him? I’m sure it’s well protected. Was there a wall encircling the property?”

  We drove onto a road alongside the airport parking lot that would take us to the freeway back to the city.

  “No, there wasn’t,” he replied. “Which was surprising at first. I, too, had been convinced there would be some kind of tall fence going around the place to stop unwanted visitors. But it was completely open.”

  “Wow… That seems unbelievable.”

  “I know. But then, as I thought about it some more, it didn’t seem so strange any longer. Given all that Stenger and his team have accomplished in the fields of genetic engineering, computer security and medicine, it’s more likely than not that an invisible fence circles his home, an invisible fence far more advanced than what’s currently on the market. Instead of merely giving the intruder a shock or even notifying his security team, the fence will surely make stuff happen to anyone who tries to cross it.”

  I considered Ian’s words and, while they were only speculation, they made perfect sense, I soon concluded. A technology-savvy man like Stenger would of course use more sophisticated, smarter barriers to protect himself, ones that would fool potential intruders into thinking it would be a piece of cake breaking into his house. A regular wall, especially a chain-link fence, was not the way to go. As concerned as he was with aesthetics, chain link would not only appear pedestrian, but give the property the feel of a prison.

  “You’re right,” I said. “He definitely uses some kind of invisible fence.”

  “There were also more than one entrance to the house. Surely he relies heavily on cameras that cover any potential entrance point that are being surveilled 24/7.”

  “Agreed. Were there a lot of security on the premises?”

  “Not as far as I could see and I walked around the area for almost an hour. From what I was able to discern, there were only a couple of men at the main entrance. Then again, it’s not really needed if he has that invisible fence. Also, he likely has lots more inside the house and who knows what they’re able to do. It wouldn’t surprise me if he uses hybrids that have been developed solely to protect him. Remember that we can’t be sure what abilities they might have.”

  I nodded, instantly picturing Javier and Tim, who had been able to pole-vault themselves so far into the air. Tim was still at large, which meant that he must have been able to swim under water for a very long time, like a fish. Then I thought of Alyssa, the Smiley Killer, who had been able to sneak up on us on all fours like a cat, not making a sound, and how that first hybrid had been able to climb buildings like a spider.

  “Which is why we should not try to break into the house,” I said. “It’s better if we come openly. Announced somehow, with Stenger’s explicit permission to enter the house.”

  “Yes, I thought so too. But before we do that, we need to be sure that he’s actually at home when we get there.”

  I leaned back into the expensive-smelling leather seat as I faced Ian. “And how do we do that?”

  Ian smiled at me. “Your boyfriend will tell us of course.”

  “Right. Jonah.” I grimaced with disgust. “I almost forgot about him. How is he? Still at your place?”

  “Yup. He’s furious and refuses to eat. He only accepts water from me. I’m not sure what he thinks he’ll gain by going on a hunger-strike. All he’ll achieve is getting weaker, which will make it even harder than it already is for him to escape.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good point. Huh. Well, the guy was never a logical thinker. So are we headed to see him now?”

  “I was thinking that we should first go to your place to drop off your luggage, then go see him. He’s not going anywhere.”

  “Yes, let’s do that. I wouldn’t mind freshening up a little. How did you go about getting your hands on him, by the way?”

  “Basically, I just waited for him as he left his building last night. As I’ve been surveilling him, I came to learn what his habits are. He tends to leave the house in the evening, after getting home from work. Almost every night he goes to hang out with friends or to pick something up at the supermarket or the drugstore. Last night was no different, thankfully. I was so determined to get him to tell me where his father was that I hung around him the entire day yesterday. I never let him out of sight for more than a couple of minutes. Since I couldn’t count on him going out in the evening, I had planned to just go up to him during the day and simply hold my gun to his back and make him come with me.

  “I wasn’t happy about having to assault him in broad daylight, of course, as so many things could go wrong. But I also knew that we didn’t have much time. I needed to get him somehow, so I waited for him to take a break between clients and take a walk outside Nikkei. He did go out in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, he was with another trainer, so I had to wait for a better opportunity. I got another when he walked home from work around eight—you called me around that time, but I was too focused on Jonah to actually answer the phone.” He gave me an apologetic little smile.

  “That’s understandable,” I said. “Go on.”

  “I was about to go up to him when he was only minutes away from his building. But as I neared him, some bloke stopped him and joined him for a couple of blocks before leaving again. By that time, Jonah was too close to his entrance and well within sight of the doorman that I didn’t dare approach him. So I bought a newspaper and hung around the newsstand in the corner of his block, praying that he’d come out. And he did an hour later, just as I had decided that I would be able to hold onto the newspaper at the same time as I checked your voicemail. As you can imagine, following him took precedent over listening to your message.”

  “Yes, I can imagine that. So how did you finally get him?”

  “It was easier than I had I thought. Much to my surprise, the bloke for once decided he had some business to do inside the park.” Ian chuckled. “I could hardly believe my luck.”

  “He walked into the park?”

  Ian grinned, delighted. “Yup. I think he was just crossing it to get to the eastside. It was so dark inside the park that it was hard to see much and f
ew people were there. Even so, I waited until no one was around before I snuck up behind him, put him in a chokehold at the same time as I held a knife to his back. I told him not to make a sound or I’d drive the knife into his lungs. Then I urged him to get walking. Which he immediately did.”

  “Did he realize who you were?”

  “No, not until we were inside my brownstone. I thought he’d figure it out based on my voice despite that I did my best to make myself sound like a different person. I did warn him that I’d stab him if he tried to turn around, and that I’d be long gone before anyone would notice. I was lucky that few people were out on the streets as well, so getting him to my block was a piece of cake. I of course didn’t keep him in a chokehold the entire time as that would seem suspicious, nor was it necessary to keep the bloke moving.”

  “As much as he hates you, he must’ve been furious when he understood who you were.”

  “Yes, he was, but I pushed the knife into his back so that it broke some skin and he shut up before he could actually yell something.” Ian chuckled quietly again. “The bloke’s a candy-assed chicken shit, as I always suspected… Anyway, he was like putty in my hands after I scratched him with the knife. Until we got to my apartment. There, he did try to fight back a little. Especially when I put the gag around his mouth. Also when I asked where I could find his father. On that particular point, he put up the most resistance.” A corner of his lips quirked up into a lopsided little grin. “For a short time.”

  I regarded him for a moment. “You look exhausted. Did you get any sleep last night?”

  “Nope. But it wasn’t because it took me that much effort to get information out of Jonah. As I told you, the bloke’s chicken shit. He spilled the beans fairly quickly when I started to apply my ‘special’ interrogation skills.”

  Against my will, I shivered. There was no question in my mind what Ian meant, and I had seen with my own eyes ways to inflict extreme pain on others with little effort. Ways that didn’t even leave marks on the subjects. I knew torture was necessary in this case, but the thought of inflicting pain on another person to make them talk, even someone as despicable as Jonah, always made me cringe. I prayed I myself wouldn’t have to apply whatever techniques Ian was referring to. I was convinced it would hurt me almost as much as it hurt the subject.