“Zoe, this is Brody. Kate’s been hurt. She’ll need medical treatment as soon as we land.”
“How serious?”
“It’s a flesh wound, but she’s lost some blood and she doesn’t look good.”
“Thanks,” Kate murmured in the background.
“Is Jake landing in the remote area of the terminal or Fort Bliss?” Zoe asked, gulping air and talking faster than a two-year-old.
“Airport.”
“I’ll have a doctor standing by when you land. You don’t happen to know her blood type do you?”
His hand covered the voice speaker. “A positive.”
“Got it. Tell her she’s in good hands. I’ll have the best doctor there when you land.”
“One thing more,” Brody said. “Can you get her a change of clothes? Something comfortable.”
“You have a size?”
“Maybe a six?”
After disconnecting, Zoe took out her private file and turned to the list of emergency doctors that specialized in caring for Falcon agents. Before continuing, Zoe stopped and took several deep, cleansing breaths. Closed her eyes and imagined Kate Stone surrounded by white healing light.
Now much calmer, and positive all would turn out well, she opened her eyes and picked up the phone. “Hello,” she said to the receptionist. “This is Zoe with Falcon Securities. I wonder if Doctor Hall might be available today?”
When the receptionist came back on the phone everything had been confirmed and Zoe hung up. Knowing Kate would be taken care of eased her mind and her naturally peaceful calm returned.
She’d gone back to compiling a background check on the Swede when the phone rang again. This time a woman asked for Frank.
“I’m sorry, but he’s out of the office at the moment. Can I help you with something?”
“Yes, you can give him this number and tell him it’s very important to his assignment that he return my call.”
The phone went dead.
After reversing the information from the call and learning where it originated from, Zoe immediately contacted her boss.
“Hello, Frank?”
“Yes, Zoe.”
“I just received a call from a phone listed to a Monique Sutherland in Georgetown, D.C.. I checked her out, and she works for Intercommunication Services in the White House. And she’s also the woman Tony discovered was having affairs with Ben Reed and Ron Rafferty.”
“Did she say what she wanted?”
“Just gave me a number for you to call.”
“Hold on, Zoe.” Frank must’ve turned to Tony because she heard him say, “Monique Sutherland called the office. Says she wants me to call her.”
Tony replied, “Could be that break we’re looking for.”
“Text the number Zoe, and we’ll take care of it from here.”
“By the way, Kate Stone has been wounded. I have a doctor waiting for her at the airfield.”
“How bad?”
“I don’t know. Brody mentioned loss of blood but nothing serious.”
“Okay, keep me posted.”
Chapter 25
Exhaustion seeped into Kate’s body as if she’d run a twenty-six mile marathon and finished last. Her head pounded like the chapel bells of Norte Dame, and her stomach churned. The arm with the bandage didn’t hurt that much, but Kate knew something wasn’t right.
She didn’t feel herself. And yes, she’d lost a lot of blood, but not that much. Brody mentioned adrenalin, but she’d come down off too many missions not to know what that felt like.
No, her eyelids were heavy and begged to close. She knew that couldn’t happen. She struggled to remain conscious.
Brody put his hand on her knee. “You’re going to be okay.”
“I know,” she barely whispered. “What’s wrong with me? I feel weird.”
“Did Angel give you anything? Pills, an injection?”
“No, but I think el Jibar might have. We struggled and the next thing I knew, the gun went off and hit me in the arm.”
“What did he give you?”
“I don’t know. I - I can’t think clearly.”
“Try Kate, this is important.”
“I’m trying.” She massaged her forehead. “When we reached La Hacienda we struggled and he took out a needle. I think he gave me a shot.”
“Where?”
“Maybe in my neck.” She rubbed behind her head and winced. “Here”
“Okay, don’t worry we’re only a few minutes out and I have a doctor waiting.”
“Okay.” Her eyelashes fluttered. “I need a drink of water.”
“There are several cold bottles in that cooler,” Jake said, anxious to make Kate comfortable.
The next thing she knew, the most delicious tasting liquid rolled down her parched throat, and she swallowed. Nothing had ever tasted so good in her life.
She looked at Brody and saw his worried expression, and then her eyes closed as the tires of the plane touched down.
***
Face buried in his hands, Brody felt the walls he’d carefully and methodically built crumble around him. Dread and shame bowed his head and forced him to rethink his entire life.
Jake’s comforting hand touched his shoulder. “She’ll be okay. The Doc said the tranquilizer was mild, and she should be able to sleep it off.”
Brody snorted. “Yeah, after all the shit she’s been through, all she needs is rest.” Unable to control his rage, Brody stood, grabbed a wooden chair and crashed it against the wall of the hotel room.
“Stop beating yourself up, Brody, and go find that bastard and kill him.”
“Oh, I’m going to kill him, all right.”
Jake reached in his pocket and took out the tracker. “I have a twenty on A.J. I’m going to get him.”
“I should stay with Kate, but I’d love to be going with you.”
A knock sounded on the door. Jake drew his weapon and Brody stepped next to the door and called out. “Who is it?”
“Special Agent Nancy Goldberg, CIA.”
Jake nodded, and Brody cracked the door. A woman no more than five feet tall and weighing less than a hundred pounds stood in the hall wearing a grey suit and low heels.
Hair in a long ponytail, she looked like a smile would crack her face.
She flipped out her CIA ID badge and asked to enter. Brody pushed the door wide, and the agent stepped inside.
He smiled. “That gun’s bigger than you are, Nancy.” He reached out and shook her hand.
“Stop teasing me about my height,” she said with a scowl. “You know it makes me mad enough to shoot you.”
Laughing, Brody held up his hands. “Oh, please, Miss CIA lady, don’t shoot me.”
Jake snorted. “I should shoot you for using that silly voice.”
They all chuckled. Brody and Jake had been acquainted with Nancy Goldberg since a case they worked on in England three years ago. He liked her, but more importantly, he trusted her.
After clearing her throat, she said, “I’m here to take custody of agent Kate Stone as ordered by the Director of the CIA, Vince Colanglo.”
“Don’t take her anywhere. She’s been drugged, and she’s sleeping off the effects.”
The agent stubbornly took the chair next to the bed where Kate lay. “Then I’ll wait here until she wakes up. Agent Ortega will be here soon.”
“Okay, just keep her safe. And order some food. She might be hungry,” Brody suggested.
The agent didn’t budge. “I’ll follow my orders, as always.”
The room suddenly shrunk, and Brody could hardly breathe. His hands shook, and his eyes burned. “Take care of her, okay?”
“I will.”
“Make sure no one enters this room but me or Jake.”
She blinked several times and then nodded. “Only Ortega.” Nancy narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but she’s safe on my watch.”
Brody picked up his backpack and loaded his guns. “Okay, I’
m going hunting for a few hours.” He scribbled on a piece of hotel stationary. “Here is my cell number. Call me the minute she wakes up.”
Agent Goldberg looked at the number then at him. “I will.”
Brody and Jake ran toward the Taurus parked outside the hotel. Jake jumped behind the wheel and they drove south.
***
Frank slipped his cell phone back in his pocket. “I just had a very interesting conversation with a Miss Monique Sutherland.”
“Did you record it?” Tony asked.
Frank patted his pocket. “You don’t doubt that for a minute, do you?”
Looking at his iPad, Tony smiled. Then his eyes grew wide. “We’ve been compromised. Our sensors are out, our optics useless, and every bit of our communications are gone.”
“What?” Frank shouted.
Tony looked around. “I don’t know how it happened or why, but we’ve got to get out of this room now.”
While Tony gathered up papers, Frank grabbed his briefcase and, Glock and darted across the room. When he turned the door handle, it didn’t budge. “We’re locked in.”
“Oh, shit.” Tony said. “Quick, get in the bathroom and turn on the air vent. Chances are something is being sprayed into the air ducts. The vent sucks in while the ducts push out.”
Turning around, Frank shouted, “Let’s move.”
Inside the large bathroom, Tony quickly closed the door, threw towels on the floor, and kicked them to cover the gap. Frank flipped on the exhaust fan. “What the hell now?”
“My phone isn’t working. Yours?” Tony asked.
Frank pulled his cellphone from its case and saw the flashing red No Signal display. “Nada.”
“Be smart. We’ll find a way out,” Tony said. “There isn’t a place or situation in the world without options.”
“We can’t shoot our way out. I don’t want the president alarmed, or the authorities involved.”
Tony searched the entire room. Commode, shower, tub, vanity, air duct. Tony lowered the seat and jumped up and unscrewed the vent for the heating and cooling system with his pocketknife. The smell of an antiseptic chemical blew in his face.
***
Mac worked the area until he located the hotel where Burr had checked in. Surveillance cameras had him coming out of the airport and getting into a cab. After finding the yellow vehicle, it had only cost a hundred bucks to learn which hotel Burr checked into. Then another hundred for the room number from the desk clerk.
Inside the room, Mac searched the luggage for any clue to where he might be going, but found nothing. Not even a picture of his target or a hint to where he’d purchased his weapons.
Annoyed at not being able to find anything, he called Frank. The phone automatically went to voice mail. The hairs on the back of his neck and arms stood. His stomach flipped, and cold sweat peppered his body. Mac hung up, raced down the stairs and to his car. He drove as fast as the vehicle would go toward the Camino Real Hotel. While driving he dialed Doug Morgan.
“Morgan, here.”
“This is Falcon Agent, Mac McKinsey. I need you to check Tony’s and Frank’s rooms.”
“Check for what?”
“I don’t know, but I called Frank and got his voicemail.”
“Maybe he’s in the shower,” Doug said, calmly. Obliviously, he didn’t understand that Frank always answered his phone. It was as vital to him as a heartbeat.
“You think Tony is in there with him? Because he isn’t answering either.”
“No.”
While still on the phone, Mac heard Doug Morgan run across the hall and start banging on doors. “I can’t get either one of them.”
“Use your master key.”
Mac stopped the car in the alley behind the hotel. Ignoring everything, he darted through the back door and up the stairwell taking three steps at a time.
***
Between holding his breath and trying to get the cover off, Tony reached out, and Frank handed him the last large bath towel. Already groggy, Tony stuffed the hole and stepped off the toilet seat. He staggered a little, but Frank caught him from behind, and together they slid onto the floor.
“You recognize the smell?”
Tony shook his head. “No, but there’s plenty of it, and it’s being circulated by the air conditioner. Let’s hope the exhaust fan can pull most of the chemical out of the room.”
Both men leaned against the tiled wall, Frank rested his arm on his bent knee. “Any idea who’d do this?”
“A couple, but only Doug or Scott has the authority or the expertise to pull this off.”
“We pretty much know it wasn’t Doug.”
“Let’s just hope someone gets here in time.”
Tony stood and turned on the hot water in the shower. Soon steam filled the room. “Depending on what they used, the steam may neutralize some of the effects. Just depends on the weight of the substance.”
“On an educated guess, what do you think it is?”
“It isn’t Nitrous Oxide because there’s no sweet smell. However I did smell something like alcohol or an antiseptic. So it’s not Methoxyflurane because that has no smell at all.”
Frank slicked back his hair. “I doubt they want to kill us, but knocking us out for a few hours would give them free rein to do as they please.”
“I have one feed still working. If my phone would come up, I might learn something.”
Frank stood. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not staying in a toilet while some idiot tries to takes out my government.”
Tony pushed up the wall and pulled out his weapon. “Let’s shoot the door to the adjoining room. The main door to the hall might be rigged. I don’t think they’d think of the other door.”
“I have a suppressor on the bed,” Frank said. “We don’t need to draw any attention.”
“You get to the door. I’ll get the silencer.”
Unsure what waited on the other side, they both had their guns up. Frank said, “On the count of three.”
With the neck of his T-shirt over his nose and mouth, Tony opened the door and darted for the bed while Frank, also with his shirt as a mask, ran toward the next room’s door. The dry air of the room slapped him in the face along with a dose of the sleeping gas. Frank focused and edged along the wall until he reached his objective.
Tony waited there with the suppressor in hand. Holding his breath and blinking back watery tears, Frank snapped on the silencer and shot the doorknob.
Frank and Tony fell inside the unoccupied room. Quickly Tony rolled over and kicked the door shut to contain the gas. They both took a deep breath, and Tony clicked on his phone. The screen lit up.
***
Jake drove as fast as the Taurus would go through the busy streets of El Paso. According to the coordinates A.J. was in a residential area just a few miles from their location. Brody wondered if he was still breathing. He hated leaving Kate, but A.J. had to be rescued or he’d be dead, and that wasn’t an option.
Jake drove past Loretto Park to Tularosa Avenue. “He’s in the third house on the right,” Jake said. “I can’t tell if he’s inside or out.”
“Park, and let’s go the rest of the way on foot.”
“You think we need to wait until dark?”
“No, A.J. might not have that long.”
Jake walked around to the trunk. “Let’s see what Zoe has for us.”
The equipment inside the trunk would take out a small army. Brody looked at Jake and smiled. “I love Zoe. She’s such a violent person.”
“Better not let her hear you say that.”
Brody pocketed two flash grenades, a small container of C4, and an automatic rifle. Jake packed as much as he could carry, and they lit out on foot towards their friend and fellow agent.
Chapter 26
Kate woke with a raging headache and a stranger sitting next to her bed. “Where am I?”
“You’re okay. I’m CIA Agent Goldberg and Director Colanglo sent me to get
you.”
Kate wondered if she’d ever met the agent before, but didn’t think so. “Okay. Where is Brody?”
“He and Jake went to get someone named A.J.”
Kate relaxed against her pillow. They’d gone to get A.J. That was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. “How long have they been gone?” Kate shoved into a sitting position and then tried to stand. A sharp pain stabbed her in the upper arm, and she looked to see a bandage where the lying padre had grazed her with a bullet. She was lucky he hadn’t killed her.
“They left about ten minutes ago.” Goldberg helped Kate get to the bathroom on her own two legs, though weak and unsteady.
After she’d washed her face and hands, Kate turned to find the agent waiting for her. “Colanglo has instructed me to stay with you and keep you safe. I told Brody I’d call him when you woke up.”
Kate pushed her hair back. “If he’s looking for A.J., just send him a text. He doesn’t need a phone ringing.”
“Consider it done.”
“I’m going to have a shower and wash my hair.”
Agent Goldberg pointed to a Dillard’s bag on the chair. “I think those clothes are for you to change into.”
Kate smiled. “More reason I need a shower.” She stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. After removing the clothes she’d worn for days, she turned the faucet on. Bending over, she adjusted the water temperature before walking beneath the spray.
When she raised her face, she let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes. Without looking, she unwrapped the small bar of hotel soap and slowly slid it over her body to wash away two days of grime.
She used all the shampoo and conditioner in the tiny bottles and wished for more. But she was grateful to feel clean.
Finally she stepped out of the shower and gently dabbed her wound before drying the rest of her body. Covered with a towel, she motioned for Goldberg to turn around while she slid into a new pair of panties, jeans, a nice green top and a pair of comfortable flats. After finger combing her hair, she smiled at the agent and sat on the edge of the bed. Had all this taken place in just two days? It felt like half a lifetime.
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