by CJ Lyons
Whoops. “Ah, sorry about that. One of us should've given you a heads up.”
“You think? So how do you want me to handle these guys? Besides letting them gorge on the brownies I baked for Chase’s homecoming? By the way, KC says he’s doing fine, and they are letting him go home today. I just hope that boy learns to take it easy before he hurts himself again.” She paused for breath. Teresa was STR’s resident worrywart. “Anyway, want me to play dumb? Not hard since no one has bothered to tell me anything.”
Her tone, usually cheerful, was edged with pain and a touch of recrimination.
“We were trying to protect you,” Billy explained—without telling her there was a traitor among them. Should he? It might prevent Teresa from saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. But what if she was the traitor? If it was the person they least expected, that sure as hell would be Teresa.
“I know that,” she said with a sigh. “Just wish I could be more help—”
“You are, always.”
“Thanks, boss.” Her sunny nature reasserted itself. “Don’t you worry about these paper-pushers. I’ll keep them stewing until they get tired and go home, give you and Rose some breathing space.”
“Thanks. I—we—appreciate it.”
“Just doing my job. Call me if you need anything.”
<><><>
Jay wasn’t sure whether to be frightened by all the fuss KC was making or angry. She and Chase were treating him like he was a kid, unable to take care of himself. Making him promise to follow them out of the city to a place he didn’t even know they had all the way out in Laurel, Maryland. Telling him to stop only after he was outside of DC, to go someplace where he wasn’t known—some big old Wal-Mart or the like and stock up on supplies, then ditch everything he owned back at his dorm.
Like hell he was. Did they have any idea how expensive textbooks were? Besides, if he didn’t want to fall too far behind, he’d need them to study while they were stuck out in Laurel. Not to mention his laptop. Vital supplies, as far as he was concerned—not that anyone asked Jay’s opinion—much more important than anything on the shopping list KC had given him.
Still, he knew enough about the Preacher and the kind of danger his crazy followers could pose to take KC’s warnings seriously. He’d ducked into his dorm through the rear entrance, made sure no one was on the floor before racing down to his room, grabbing his stuff and leaving again. Now he was sneaking across the Georgetown campus, trying to look normal and blend in but also taking lesser-used paths so he could see if anyone was following him.
He’d just passed the fountain in front of the Dahlgren Chapel when he spotted a familiar figure at the chapel’s entrance alcove. It was Rose, Chase and KC’s boss. Had they sent her here to follow him? Damn, he’d never even spotted her.
Guilt flooded him—Chase was going to be pissed that he’d disobeyed orders. Worse would be the look of disappointment from KC. Deciding to take his punishment like a man, he hunched his backpack higher up his shoulder and strode toward the red-brick chapel with its arched doorways and windows.
Suddenly, a dark-haired woman ran around the corner of the chapel. She stopped at the sight of Rose, and they moved into the entrance of the chapel, heads bent together. Jay stopped, confused. Why would Chase’s boss be here, on the campus of Georgetown, if it wasn’t to watch over him?
He glanced around the courtyard. It would make a good place to meet someone: out of the way, private, yet also the kind of spot where you could innocently meet someone by “accident” without it looking suspicious. He ducked back behind a row of trees. Was Rose meeting another spy? Maybe one of Chase and KC’s colleagues?
It was kind of cool—Rose was supposed to be like Mrs. 007 when it came to spies, at least from the way Chase and KC talked about her, but she hadn’t even noticed Jay. True, he’d been across the courtyard, beyond the fountain, and she’d been facing the other way, but still…Just went to show that he wasn’t bad at this spy stuff himself.
The two women emerged, Rose handing the younger one something and giving her a quick hug. Top-secret plans? Whatever it was, it was small, the size of a key or thumb drive or maybe a bug hidden inside a tube of lipstick. His mind conjured every spy movie he’d ever seen, and before he could look twice, both women had vanished.
Jay continued his stroll through campus to where he’d stashed his car—nowhere near his usual spot—feeling more confident. This spy stuff wasn’t so hard after all. Chase and KC were just overreacting.
No way would the Preacher’s people ever get him. He could take care of himself.
<><><>
EZ, the Team’s resident computer genius and former NSA whiz kid, had sounded hesitant about meeting with Rose outside the STR offices when she called. “What’s this all about?” he asked. “The special project you and Billy have me working on?”
From his tone, she knew he resented hiding his work on the Preacher’s hard drive from the rest of the Team. But after the attack on Lucky today, EZ could be a target as well—especially if he’d found anything hidden behind the layers of encryption on the hard drive.
“Yes. Meet me at our regular spot.” She and Billy had taken to debriefing EZ at a parking garage attached to a nearby mall. The concrete and steel made outside surveillance next to impossible, and a quick run to the mall’s food court made for an easy cover story.
He sighed. “Okay. I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Take your time.” Rose had driven straight there from Georgetown and was already waiting. She liked to arrive to any meet first, scout it beforehand. Not that that prep work had helped this morning.
It was twenty-two minutes before EZ opened the door to Rose’s Subaru and hopped into the passenger seat, computer bag on his lap. “I hate this hush-hush shit,” he said as she began to drive up the corkscrew path to the roof. “You know the FBI’s lab is examining the drive, probably the NSA as well. So why all the secrecy from our own people?”
He’d asked the question before, and Rose had always deflected it. This time she held nothing back. “Because there’s a traitor on the Team. Someone working with the Preacher.”
He physically recoiled, banging his knee against the door. “The Preacher’s dead.”
“His organization isn’t. And they clearly have a lot more planned that we know nothing about.” They’d reached the roof. She turned the Subaru around so it faced the exit and put it in park. The anemic sun barely made a dent in the clouds. “This morning they tried to kill Lucky and blew up a school bus.”
“That was them? Lucky was there? Is he okay? Of course he’s okay, you would never let anything happen to him, and they said on the news no casualties, but—” EZ’s words flowed faster than his thoughts—he had a habit of thinking out loud like that.
“He’s fine. But we need to know what the Preacher’s organization has planned. Have you been able to break through any of the encryption codes?” The hard drive had had some files readily accessible on the laptop Lucky had stolen because he’d taken it while a user with the proper pass code had been logged in. But EZ had found more files hidden behind other encryption codes.
“I cracked one,” he admitted. “Just this morning, in fact. Still working on the data, but it looks like these files are all about bioweapons. Some lab in Georgia, talk of dispersal apparatus, blueprints. Problem is, it will take a while for everything to fully decrypt.”
Rose sucked in her breath. She knew there was something big in the works—she’d hoped she was wrong, her paranoia working on overdrive. “Georgia, as in the country?” The former Soviet Republic shared a border with Razgravia. “Any mention of Grigor?”
He frowned. “Not that Georgia. Georgia as in a place outside of Savannah, on the Intracoastal Waterway.”
It was her turn to glance away in dismay. A bio lab a few hundred miles down the coast? “I need more details. As quickly as possible. What biological or chemical agent are we talking about, a timetable, exact location of the lab—”
EZ opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came out. Instead, his eyes went wide, and he raised his hand to point out the window…at a large, black SUV rocketing toward them, a masked man holding a machine gun out the passenger window.
Chapter 8
Bullets flew through the air and ricocheted off the cars around them as Rose hit the clutch and gas, slamming the Subaru into gear, and twisting the wheel to spin the smaller car to the driver’s side of the SUV.
“Get down!” she shouted to EZ.
He’d already jammed his lanky body into the wheel well, his computer wrapped protectively in his arms. The SUV tried to swerve and cut off their escape, but Rose ruthlessly pushed the Subaru through the narrow space, sideswiping the parked cars that stood in her way. Metal shrieked, and for a moment, she thought the rear bumper of an oversized Dodge Ram truck might take out her passenger front wheel until she found the inches she needed and sped past the SUV.
The rear window crashed inward, although she didn’t hear the bullets. She was too busy concentrating on putting as much distance between her and the SUV as well as keeping an eye out for any other vehicles blocking their path.
The SUV screeched through a U-turn behind them and started down the ramp, speeding, obviously intending to use its greater bulk to ram them off the hairpin curves circling around the outside of the garage. Rose pushed the small car, her head crouched low as more bullets flew. One hit the dash, plastic shards flying into her hand and shoulder.
She ignored the pain and focused on conquering the laws of physics as she steered, two wheels coming off the pavement.
“Call Billy, get us back up,” she told EZ.
The computer tech slid his phone free from his bag, his hands trembling. Rose pulled the wheel hard as she steered around the final curve. Up ahead was the gate leading out. No way was she slowing. “Hang on.”
EZ jerked his head up as they flew over a speed bump. The phone jumped from his hand. He fumbled for it on the floor.
Rose scanned the scene beyond the garage. Her heart caught as she spotted a mother with a large stroller and one hand clutching a toddler, step off the opposite curb. The exit led to a one-way street, and the family would hit the middle of it at the same moment as Rose and her hurtling Subaru.
Coming down the street was a delivery truck, the driver slowing for the mother and her kids. Another obstacle or salvation? She glanced in the rearview—the SUV had rounded the final curve and was speeding up on the straightaway, sparks flying as it slammed over the speed bumps.
Rose squinted her eyes, wishing she had Billy, KC, or Chase here to help her know when the coast was clear, but instead, all she had was EZ, head down, in the wheel well.
Then she spotted her opening. If the truck driver saw her and the woman kept crossing at the same angle and if her brakes and tires held out…yes, they could make it. Worst-case scenario, they’d miss the mother and the truck would hit them on Rose’s side.
She sent a quick prayer up, nudged the gas, and flew past the attendant in the booth, the gate snapping in two, one piece catapulting over the hood of the Subaru, aimed at the SUV behind her.
The truck driver saw her. He blasted his horn as he slammed on the brakes. The Subaru spun out in front of him as he skidded to a halt, blocking the exit and trapping the SUV inside the garage. The mother looked up, but she didn’t freeze, thank God. Instead, she jerked her kids to the side, giving Rose the space she needed to ram the driver’s side tires up on the curb and hurtle past, two wheels up, two wheels down.
Once they were clear, Rose yanked the wheel. The car bounced back down onto all four wheels, and they sped out into the afternoon traffic.
“You okay?” she asked EZ as she steered them down side streets where they could avoid police attention. Wind rushed in through the shattered rear window. Poor car probably had a few other holes in it as well.
He twisted his face to stare up at her. “I think I’m going to be sick,” he gasped.
Rose chuckled. “It’s the adrenaline. Gets to everyone. Makes Chase Westin cry like a baby, if that makes you feel any better.”
Slowly, he eased his way back into an upright position. “Where are we going?”
“My place.”
“I thought you lived in Alexandria.”
The official address she used was a small apartment there, but Rose had over a dozen safe havens in the DC metro area that she’d set up over the years, along with a network of assets who had no connection to the intelligence community. Some of her safe houses were as simple as a cot in a storage unit or friend’s garage; others were rentals that were backstopped with complete aliases.
One thing she’d learned during her years with the CIA—you can never be too careful. Not even after you finally came home.
“I have a few places,” she said nonchalantly. “You’ll be safe here.”
EZ looked up at that. “Wait. What do you mean I’ll be safe here? Are you saying those guys were after me?”
“You and what you might find on that hard drive. Got everything you need?”
He frowned. “No. I need a toothbrush and clothes and—”
“I mean everything you need to work, find out more about this bio lab.”
“Oh that. Yes.” He bounced his computer case in his lap. “But—”
“No buts, EZ. About time you got out of the office, got a taste of the real world.”
He didn’t say anything to that, simply clutched his briefcase to his chest and stared out the window with a glazed expression.
They pulled up to a modest brick apartment complex. Rose parked behind a set of dumpsters, out of sight. She’d move the car later, clear it of any evidence and torch it, switch to a backup vehicle. But first, she needed to get EZ settled.
She got out of the car and led him up two flights of stairs to a corner unit. As she unlocked the door, he stared at her, and she wondered what he was wrestling with.
“Is it worth it?” he asked finally. “This job we do? The sacrifices we make? Not telling friends and family what we do for a living, the danger we face, who we really are. Not trusting anyone, not even the people we work with?”
Rose took a deep breath, his questions hitting a tender spot that had been growing through the years as she, too, wondered, was it worth it? The image of Billy the first time she’d seen him—all dark and earnest as he led his Delta team. Intense, yet also loving every moment of his mission. How many times over the years had she turned to that memory for strength? Yet, they still were both hopelessly tied to their jobs. Their missions.
How much of her life was she willing to sacrifice? Billy? A love life, a family? Children? Marriage? Happily ever after?
Apparently all of it.
But that didn’t give her the right to make those choices for anyone else. “I’m afraid that’s a question you'll have to answer for yourself.”
<><><>
After spending the afternoon verbally sparring with the FBI and Capitol Police and avoiding the NSD audit-hounds during the debrief, Billy waited inside the Capitol building as the Senate session broke for the day. Senator Susan Payne was the last to leave.
“What a pleasant surprise.” She smiled and handed her coat to Billy, then spun and waited for him to help her on with the ankle-length shearling that made her look like a 1940s starlet while also protecting her against the January chill. As Billy helped her on with her coat, he was caught by a wistful yearning to have a moment of simple intimacy like this with Rose. A man helping a woman on with her coat—why was that too much to ask for?
His thoughts on Rose, he was caught by surprise when Susan tilted her face to nuzzle her cheek against his hand. “Thank you, Billy. Are we still on for tonight?”
Escorting the senator was one of Billy’s frequent duties—a great way to pick up intel disguised as gossip and to have clandestine meetings with foreign operatives. But the next thing he had on his schedule was accompanying Susan to Norfolk tomorrow to watch the president commi
ssion a new destroyer.
Things being the way they were, he’d probably have to bow out of that trip. While he enjoyed Susan’s witty conversation and the intel he gathered from the DC insider circles she allowed him access to, theirs was a strictly platonic relationship. At least that’s what he thought.
“Tonight?” He frowned. “I’m sorry—”
“Dinner. Just me and you. No diplomats, no politicians, no eavesdropping on foreign dignitaries. My house. Alone.” She smiled, a smile most men would have a difficult time refusing.
Most men didn’t have a lunatic fringe terrorist group on a rampage to stop while fighting off the NSD’s and the oversight committee’s attempts to shut his team down.
“Sorry, Susan. I can’t.”
The smile faded. She laid a hand on his arm. Not possessive. More resigned. “You’ve already committed perjury for Rose Prospero today. Surely she can let you have the night off?”
His guard went up at her use of the word “perjury.” He said nothing, but his grip on her arm tightened as they walked down the steps leading from the Capitol. The sun was setting, silhouetting the Washington Monument in ribbons of blood red.
“Billy, I think you owe me at least the courtesy of a reply.” He winced at the pain in her voice. He’d never meant to lead her on—but surely she could see it was impossible? “After all,” she continued, “my security clearance is the same as yours. In fact, technically, I outrank you. You and your team answer to me and my committee.”
Sometimes the best defense was a good offense. Billy met her square on. “What is it you want to know?”
“Are you canceling on me to be with her? With Rose Prospero?”
He didn’t like the way Rose’s name sounded coming from her mouth. But if this was a simple case of misguided jealousy, well, that he could handle.
