Operation Sheba

by Evans, Misty

  Just drive, Julia told herself. Don’t look back, just drive. It was no surprise someone was following her. She’d been expecting it for the last three days, although now she was sure the order hadn’t come from Michael. However she wasn’t sure who the driver was behind the wheel of the rusty Ford Econoline van that stayed three to four cars behind her. Raines? Conrad? Good grief, even Ace was in on surveillance these days. At least the car wasn’t a hearse this time. The thought of that following her around conjured up weird vibes, like someone was just waiting for her to keel over dead.

  Julia slipped off the highway and began crisscrossing smaller roads, casually weaving her way around Arlington while circling closer to her apartment. She needed to drop the memory sticks off to Smitty and tell him and Con about her plan and how she now had Michael’s official okay to track Smitty down. She’d have more time to help them—that part they’d like. The rest…well, she’d probably have to call Ben Raines, turn Smitty in and explain the rest of her plan afterwards…

  Julia glanced in her rearview and noticed the tail had disappeared. She slowed the car by a few miles an hour and divided her gaze between the road in front of her and the road behind while she drove. If she’d lost her tail that easily, it had to be Ace or someone else equally unqualified.

  Or she was just being overly paranoid.

  Julia checked the mirror again after another mile. Nothing.

  She increased her speed and headed back toward Interstate 66. Within minutes she exited the interstate and headed home with still no sign of her tail. She scanned the parking lot outside her apartment building and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  Just inside the building’s main door, she waited at the window, hidden behind what was once a white gauzy curtain now gone yellow with age. After ten minutes, she was rewarded for her patience as the Ford van pulled slowly up to the curb about fifty yards away. It looked right at home parked behind a neighbor’s woody-sided Plymouth station wagon.

  Fact: Conrad Flynn wouldn’t be caught dead in a Ford.

  Julia went directly to Con and Smitty’s door. There was no answer. She considered picking the lock and letting herself in. No doubt they’d packed up the computer equipment, wiped the place clean of prints and taken off before Raines and his group had canvassed the place. But Conrad would be in contact…he might even be in her apartment at that moment, so she left the lock alone and went to her apartment instead.

  She was shocked to discover her apartment was a mess. Couch cushions were askew. Her measly amount of silverware was dumped in the kitchen sink. Her bed had been stripped. Drawers of clothes had been dumped on the floor. The place looked like professional criminals had tossed it.

  The CIA had handheld instruments that could scan a room or car for listening devices without ever touching a thing. There was no reason for this destruction of her personal property. Michael had only requested Security check for bugs. Julia felt a wave of uneasiness wash over her.

  What was Raines really looking for? Numbered bank account books? Classified documents? The name and number of my bookie?

  Conrad’s voice whispered in her ear. Access is power, Julia. Whoever did this is trying to scare you, show you who’s in control.

  Julia shook her head to remove that thought and fixed the cushions on the couch. She moved on to the bedroom and felt her blood begin to boil as she picked up her bras and panties and returned them to the dresser drawer. She couldn’t stop the fleeting image of male security officers enjoying themselves slingshotting her thongs around the room. The image didn’t fit with her impression of Benito Raines, but then she didn’t really know him.

  Benny, my boy, you are in deep shit when I get hold of you.

  As she continued returning her apartment to normal, she contemplated marching out to the van and shooting its tires out if it were Agency goons in it. That would certainly get her message across to Ben but rob her of real satisfaction. Michael would no doubt pull her off Smitty’s case to chastise her. No, she’d have to hold her anger in check for now. As long as she was in charge of tracking down Smitty, she could buy him and Con, and herself, a few more days to figure everything out.

  Julia had just picked up her iPod, when she heard a noise behind her. Expecting to find Con, she took a step back when it was a woman standing in the doorway instead.

  “What a mess,” the woman said, her leer scanning the room’s dishevelment. “You should think about hiring a housekeeper.”

  She was tall, dark-haired and her words were crisp and accented ever so slightly. Warning bells were going off in Julia’s head—she knew she knew this woman, but she couldn’t place her. Slipping the iPod casually into her purse, Julia let her hand rest on the SIG hidden there. “And you should think about knocking before entering someone’s home.”

  “Touché,” the woman acknowledged with a glance at Julia’s purse.

  “You’re the one following me?”

  The woman’s hair moved with her nod.

  “Do I know you?”

  The woman brushed her red fingernails across a neat row of bangs and smiled coyly. “Not exactly.” Her accent was definitely German. “You and I are going to help each other out, Ms. Torrison.”

  Letting the purse slid out of her hands and to the bed, Julia pulled out the gun and crossed her arms, leaving it showing. She raised her eyebrows, doing her best to imitate Michael, and waited.

  The woman took the hint. “I have information that will save Conrad Flynn’s life. Yours too.”

  Julia studied the woman’s face and felt another twinge of familiarity. She remembered the picture Con had shown her of Heinrich Kramer and his girlfriend. Her pulse, already pounding out a pretty good tempo, kicked up another notch. “I’m listening.”

  “The person you are looking for is Susan Richmond.”

  Julia sat at the kitchen table and watched Cari Von Motz carefully. Cari was doing the same to her—their eyes were locked in a stare down. It was hard to gauge her truthfulness, Julia decided, but not her confidence. Or defiance.

  She immediately liked her.

  “First of all,” Julia said, “how do you know I’m looking for someone?”

  “I know Flynn is alive and Smith is AWOL from the CIA, and I know why,” Cari answered with forced patience, as if explaining to a three-year-old. “I know you are sleeping with Michael Stone and helping Flynn and Smith. I know a few other things as well. Things that are—how do you say it? Sensitive in nature?” She spread a well-manicured hand. “How do you think I know these things?”

  Julia felt her morning’s breakfast twisting in her stomach. “Susan.” Her gut rejected the idea, but her brain was snapping pieces into place at the speed of light. Susan, her boss. Long-term, loyal employee of the CIA. Conrad’s trusted friend. A traitor?

  It was hard to wrap her mind around it.

  Julia chewed the inside of her cheek. The gun was still in her hand, the memory sticks still in her bra, and they were starting to dig in just above her underwires. Her body was humming with a discomfiting energy that made her want to jump up, find Con, call Michael and hunt Susan down and demand an explanation all at the same time. And she positively had to get those darn silicone jump drives out of her bra in the next minute or she was going to scream. Instead, she took a breath and considered her options.

  Nope, the memory sticks were going to have to stay put. She had to get the full story.

  The listening devices Con had given her to distribute at Michael’s house were in the pocket of her coat. Because Raines hadn’t swept the house for bugs yet, she’d kept them on her, planning to distribute them tonight. Now, she set the gun on the table to distract Cari while she slipped her left hand in her pocket, brought out a bug under the table, ran a finger over it to turn it on and stuck it to the wood. Please, Con, be listening.

  “Okay, Cari,” she said, smoothing her hand over the black SIG, “Susan’s told you about Conrad Flynn, Ryan Smith and myself. How do you know she’s the person we’re
looking for?”

  Cari brought her eyes up from the gun. “Because I’m the one who has been helping her all along to lead Flynn and Smith on a wild goose chase ending here in America. She is the CIA’s traitor. She used me to set all of you up.”

  “Why you?”

  Clicking her nails on the table, Cari flipped her hair back and sighed. “It is a long and complicated story.”

  “Give me the Cliff Notes.”

  “The what?”

  “The condensed version.”

  Cari studied her for a long minute. “I was given up for adoption at birth. It was a private adoption. The records were sealed in Geneva. As a teenager, I began looking for my birth mother but I only found dead ends. When I hooked up with Heinrich Kramer, he had various connections who helped me find her. When I found out who she was, Heinrich and I decided to blackmail her.”

  Julia was momentarily baffled. “You’re telling me Susan Richmond is your mother?”

  Cari nodded. “I wanted a life here in America. A life of privilege, like she enjoys. She owes me that. But when I contacted her, told her I would out her if she didn’t bring me to America, she turned the tables on me. She told me I had to do something for her first, and then she would bring me here and set me up with a trust fund of sorts.”

  Julia weighed the story judiciously. On a cellular level, she was relieved Cari was pointing a finger at someone other than Michael, but she needed more evidence to believe Susan was in any way connected to the shadow CIA. “Give me concrete details, Cari. I’m finding it very difficult to picture Susan as the CIA’s mole.”

  Resignation spread across Cari’s features. “My mother’s top analyst, I knew you would ask for proof.” She reached into an inside coat pocket and Julia’s hand closed over the butt of the gun. Cari stopped, eyed the gun and shot a look at Julia. Julia nodded for her to bring her hand out. She did so slowly. “A disc.” She laid it on the table. “It contains a diary of sorts of the past five years. Flynn and Smith will corroborate much of what’s on here. They’ll recognize their own parts in my mother’s great scheme.”

  Julia clenched her jaw, took the disc and fingered it. There was only one way to find out if Cari’s story was true. She needed a look at that disc. “Why is Susan doing this?”

  Again, Cari struggled to be patient. “You know very well she is an aggressive career woman. She has an agenda. A timeline. Her career has not progressed as quickly as she thought it would.” She paused. “Even though she refused to marry my father, and she gave me up, she has never made it to the top of the CIA like she expected.”

  Fingering the gun, Julia thought of Conrad and Smitty’s “inside” person. It had to be Susan.

  Cari shifted in her chair. “Susan has a partner outside the CIA, but I don’t know who he is. Someone high up who has promised her advancement if she makes the CIA look strong again.”

  Meeting Cari’s gaze across the table, Julia asked, “Why are you here, Cari, telling me all of this? What do you want?”

  “Revenge, and a new life.” Sitting forward, she rested her arms on the table. “America is where I want to be, but I’ve realized my mother will never allow me to live here. I’m a mistake she does not want to think about. She has already refused to fulfill her end of our bargain until you, Flynn, Smith and her bosses at the CIA are out of the way. I do not believe she will fulfill it even if her plan works. And where does that leave me? Back in Germany, broke and out of work. Heinrich is dead. I have nothing to go back to.” She tapped one nail firmly on the table. “I want to stay here.”

  “Get a green card, get a job, become a citizen. It’s not that hard.”

  “You don’t understand,” she hissed. “I have a criminal record in my country. It is not so easy anymore to become an American with a background like mine. That’s why I needed Susan to help me. She could erase my past and give me a nice, comfortable future.”

  Julia decided to skip informing Cari that by participating in Susan’s treason, she was a criminal in this country as well. It was hard to feel sympathy for her, but in some ways she did. “Why are you bringing this information to me?”

  “I want you to take it to Michael Stone. He will believe you, and he will help me. My mother will be arrested and I will testify against her. The CIA’s problems will be solved.” She quirked an eyebrow. “And so will yours and Flynn’s. Susan is planning to eliminate all of you, you understand.”

  She understood. No need to know if Cari’s definition of eliminate was the same as hers. She could see it on the younger woman’s face. “How?”

  “I do not know the details. But I do know if Plan A fails, she has Plan B.”

  “And what does Plan B involve?”

  Smiling indulgently, Cari rose from her seat. “I’ve given you enough for now. You give that disc to Director Stone and tell him what I told you. If he agrees to give me immunity, I will testify against Susan.” She pushed in her chair. “Then I will tell you what I know about Plan B.”

  As she made her way down the hallway, Julia followed. “You’re in as much danger as Flynn and I are, Cari. Susan will eliminate you too, if she believes you are a threat. Why don’t you come with me right now and we’ll go see Director Stone. You can tell him in person what’s going on and walk him through the information on this disc.”

  Cari stopped at the door, shook her head. “No. Not yet.”

  “Why not?”

  Cari gave Julia a defiant look. “Sorry, Ms. Torrison, but I do not trust you. Not completely, anyway. You are my mother’s protégée. If you follow my directions, and help me, then I will help you in return. I’ll be in touch.”

  Julia watched her go, her nerves tingling with anticipation. She half expected for a car to come whizzing around the corner and run Cari down, or a bullet to drop her in the street. But the woman made it to the rusty van and disappeared a few seconds later.

  As Julia locked the apartment door, her phone rang. Caller ID told her it was private caller. Debating whether to pick it up, she unceremoniously pulled the memory sticks out of her bra, breathed a sigh of relief and stuck them in her coat pocket. The phone rang again and she relented.

  “Hello?”

  “Where the hell did you find Cari Von Motz?” Conrad’s voice rumbled in her ear.

  “She found me.”

  “Are you at home?”

  “Yes.”

  “Doors and windows locked?”

  “Yes.”

  “Gun loaded?”

  “Conrad—” Julia started, but he cut her off.

  “Gun loaded and in your hand, Torrison?”

  Julia quick scooped the gun up off the table, but she wasn’t intimidated by his gruffness. “Yes,” she said levelly.

  “Don’t open the door to anyone but me.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  The phone went dead in her hand.

  Chapter Twenty

  Julia paced, eyeing the disc. She knew she should wait for Con before she looked at it, but she was seriously thinking about discarding that idea. Cari had given the disc to her. It only made sense she be the first one to look it over. But on the other hand, confirming Susan’s traitorous actions alone wasn’t all that appealing. She felt the same sickening feeling she’d felt after the explosion when she thought Con had died. Feeling like someone had just gutted her. She wanted Conrad there when she looked at the contents of the disc. He and Smitty were really the only ones who would know for sure if Cari was telling the truth or not.

  Relief washed over her at the thought of Conrad. Funny how after months of living without him, she had welcomed his presence back into her life again so easily, and after the past two days of knowing he was near, she missed him.

  Glancing at the disc as she passed the kitchen table again, she decided to boot up her computer and just take a peek at the files. She was too antsy to sit and wait while the computer was opening Windows, so she grabbed her backpack from the closet floo
r in her bedroom, threw some underwear and other essentials in it and set it on the bed.

  Just in case, she told herself.

  Back at the computer, she put the disc in and started to read. It was a mixture of German and English, mostly German, and Julia swore under her breath. Ten minutes later, she was rubbing her temples where a headache was brewing when Conrad and Smitty came sweeping into her small den.

  “How do you do that?” she asked. “Turn into ghosts and float through the walls or something?”

  Smitty held up a key as Conrad blew past him to look at the computer screen. “Keys are easier.”

  Julia rolled her eyes and vacated the seat. Conrad plopped into it, reading before his butt hit the upholstery.

  He closed the file Julia had up and hit several keystrokes. The hard drive hummed. Without taking his attention off the screen, he held out his hand and snapped his fingers. “Disc.”

  Smitty opened a slim case and exchanged the disc with the one in the tower. A few seconds later, the original had a copy. Conrad pulled up the files and began to read again. Smitty unzipped a briefcase and opened up a laptop. Using the copy, he began to read as well.

  Julia went to the kitchen and started the coffeepot. Waiting for it to brew, she paced between the kitchen and the den, trying to read over Con’s shoulder, but not able to keep up with his good German. As he flew through the typed pages, Julia’s headache kicked up a notch.

  “Goddamn,” Conrad muttered several times under his breath in the space of about five minutes. Smitty said nothing, but Julia noted the way he kept running a hand through his hair. Pretty soon he’d have it standing straight up.

  It took over an hour for the two men to read through everything. Another hour to discuss and analyze the information contained in Cari’s diary entries. Julia listened and analyzed, filled coffee mugs and asked questions until she was exhausted. Cari had been a busy woman. So had Susan, apparently.

  Since none of them had eaten lunch and Julia’s cupboards were bare, she called Ace and ordered him to pick up groceries and come over. When he arrived, she put him to work in the kitchen with her. Pulling out a wok, she heated olive oil, and made Ace sauté onions, peppers and mushrooms. She put several cups of rice in her rice cooker with a bouillon cube and turned it on. Next she added precooked chicken strips and teriyaki sauce to the wok. While the chicken was heating, she called Michael, got his voice mail and left him a message that she was staying at her apartment again. Throwing snow peas and carrots into the wok, she concentrated on cooking and tried not to think about how irritated he would be with her.