Truth or Dare

by Fern Michaels

  “A little TLC.” Harry guffawed.

  “Who is Tea Pope?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Who is Tea Pope?”

  Harry smacked at his forehead. In a strangled-sounding voice, he demanded that Jack tell him where he had come up with that name. Jack shrugged. “It just popped into my head. Why? Who is she, Harry? An old girlfriend, what?”

  “Just like that, you came up with her name. Out of the blue? Why?”

  “I just said I don’t know. I was petting Cooper and then I . . . Oh, shit! He put that thought in my head. He’s done it before. Son of a bitch! Okay, okay, who is she?”

  “She was the best student I ever had. She’s the one in the center of the wall of pictures at the dojo. She has the center spot because no one ever came close to her. She’s in a class all by herself. She’s her own weapon. Black belt. Honors. The truth is, and I hate to say it out loud, but the woman is a killing machine. That’s what her superiors wanted, and that’s what they got. All one hundred and fifteen pounds of her. They called her the Bionic Woman, and not because she had artificial parts or anything. It was just that she was . . . hell, I don’t know what she was, but she was something special.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “I have no clue. I never saw or heard from her again after she graduated. I did ask around for a little while, but no one would admit they knew her or even that there was such a person as Tea Pope.”

  “Better than you, Harry?” Jack asked curiously. He fully expected his old friend to deny it, but he didn’t. He watched as Harry thought about the question. “No, not better, but if it came to a contest, we’d both be bloodied and battered. She’s my match. What does it mean, Jack?”

  “Damned if I know. Obviously, Cooper seems to think we need to know about her. Here’s a stretch. Maybe she’s the kids’ mother. That would make some kind of sense, don’t you think?”

  “Well, I’m suddenly thinking we should find her. Where’s Abner?” Harry asked.

  “Down in the war room,” Jack said, and descended the secret staircase that took them down to the war room, where Abner was toiling over his laptop.

  “We need you to stop what you’re doing, Abner, and hack into something and find a Langley recruit named Tea Pope.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Cooper told us to do that. Is that good enough for you?” Jack snapped.

  Abner shrugged, then rolled his eyes. “I didn’t come across that name yesterday, when I hacked into the files. Right, right, okay, I’ll try again. Just so you know, if they erased her true identity, then it’s probably gone for good.”

  Jack stood in the center of the room listening to what was going on. Everyone was talking on top of everyone else and answering each other at the same time. In a cockamamy way he understood it all because they were so attuned to each other. He listened as Maggie said her team drew a blank back on Apple Avenue, no one knew the Bannons, and they were never part of the neighborhood and even in broad daylight no one would be able to point to them as the Bannons.

  Dennis echoed Maggie’s report with one exception, Betty, who minded the Bannons’ kids, lived in a residence where there was top-notch security with no chances of breaking and entering and questions were frowned on. He said security copied down his license-plate number and watched until he drove through the security gates.

  And then the room went silent with a shrill whistle from Avery Snowden. He motioned for everyone to take their seats, and that included Charles and Fergus. When he had everyone’s attention, he got right down to it.

  “I believe this child-trafficking ring is headed up by the Karas brothers. They are untouchable. They have their own private army. They’re Armenian. At least we think they are. Hell, when it comes right down to it, they could be any nationality. They came on the scene about seventeen years ago. They just materialized out of thin air. They would have you believe they are international playboys. Unlimited monies. They’re known the world over. No agency has ever come even close to bringing any kind of charges for anything against them. And yet everyone on the dark side knows they are behind all the human trafficking that goes on in the world. You talk, you die. It’s that simple. I am willing to stake my life and my reputation that they are behind what is going on. And as much as I hate to admit it, we are no match for the Karas brothers. We’d need a private army to get within ten miles of either one of them.”

  “Well, if we can’t get to them, then let’s make them come to us. Or, let’s come up with a plan that would exclude them. We plan something, then allude to the fact that people of their ilk are not fit to attend. Something to do with children. Not that we would actually use children, we’re just going to allude to it. Hundreds of children, hundreds of young women, the kind of women sickos salivate over.”

  “The Post can kick it off. Even though Annie isn’t here, she won’t have a problem with us using her name to arrange something like this,” Maggie said.

  “Where are the Karas brothers now? Do you know, Avery?” Ted asked.

  Snowden shrugged. “Check Page Six or TMZ. They love getting their names in the paper. Time! We’re going to need time.”

  “We have the kids, they’re safe for now. So, we do have time. Social media is instant. Mention Annie’s name, and the news is all over it in an instant. A banner headline in the Post will make it happen. The brothers will be aware of it within an hour. Black tie, invitation only.”

  “In the meantime, we go straight to the top of every organization to have their top people in the wings. It might work,” Charles said. “It just might work,” he repeated.

  Chapter Seven

  Jack was the first to arrive at Myra and Charles’s Pinewood farm. He’d simply cut across the field in his farm truck, saving himself seven miles and twenty minutes in the heavy downpour that had started an hour earlier. The time was six o’clock. He shrugged out of his rain slicker and hung it on the rack near the door before heading to the laundry room for a towel to dry off Cyrus.

  “Smells good in here,” he called over his shoulder. Cyrus yipped to show that he, too, agreed. He did love pancakes as much as his master did. Not to mention the strip of bacon and one sausage link that always found their way to his plate.

  “Can you eat solid food, Jack?” Charles asked.

  “Yep. I’m good to go. Take your time, I’ll have some coffee while you guys finish your breakfast. Where is everyone?”

  “Avery is down in the war room. Abner is upstairs sleeping. Margie has the kids out in the barn. That lady is the best thing to happen to those children. They’ve bonded with her. She has their whole day mapped out. In the barn. All the animals, the barn cats, and there’s a new litter of kittens. Avery tells me she has a theory, and he’s working on it because, as he said, it actually makes sense. The important thing is the kids are safe.”

  “Agreed. The others are coming this morning, right? I know I’m early, but when Nikki is away, I hate being alone in the house with just Cyrus. It just feels . . . empty.”

  “No one has called in to say otherwise. I expect they’ll be here within the hour. We need to work on a plan. I’m especially intrigued by the Karas brothers. Avery promised a profile when we get down to work. I hate to admit this, but I had never heard of them.”

  Jack waved his hand in the air. “Me neither. But then, I’m not up on all that society stuff and who attends what and when. It’s all I can do to keep up with Annie and what she does. Maggie will probably have the skinny on it all when she gets here.”

  Fergus cleared the table as Charles stirred a monster bowl full of pancake batter. “How many, Jack?”

  “Six for me and six for Cyrus. Today is his day to get three scrambled eggs, so just add them to his plate. By the way, where’s Cooper?”

  Charles lowered his head and looked over the top of his glasses at Jack. “Now, where do you think he is? In the barn with the kiddies. He never leaves their side; you know that.” Jack shrugged. Cyrus
looked up at his master as much as to say, I knew that.

  “I didn’t know Abner stayed the night,” Jack said.

  “He did. That young man is exhausted. He went to bed around four, at least we assume he went to bed then, because that’s when Fergus and I retired. I told him I didn’t want to see his face until eight o’clock this morning. I think I heard the shower running, so I assume he will be down shortly. He did tell us one thing. He was able to find the birth name of Tea Pope’s husband before they were erased from the files. His name was/is Simon Spinelli. I’m not sure how those agencies do things in regard to the children. They go by the name Bannon, and that appears to be the name they’ve used since birth. The parents go by different names according to whatever mission or job they’re on, but the kids, mostly for school purposes, I assume, go by Bannon. This is just a theory on my part. Abner is the expert.”

  “Did someone just mention my name?” Abner asked as he sauntered into the kitchen. “Ah, pancakes, my favorite!”

  “How many?” Charles asked.

  “Eight, ten, a dozen. I’m starved.”

  “How do you do that? You eat like a stevedore and never gain an ounce,” Jack said as he eyed the computer hacker’s lanky frame. Abner shrugged as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “I don’t eat lunch,” he offered by way of explanation. “Nor do I snack.”

  Cyrus reared up, as did Lady and her pups. They all ran to the kitchen door.

  Ted, Espinosa, and Maggie were running through the rain. Jack held the door open while Abner ran to the laundry room for towels.

  “All this rain is going to be good for your garden, Charles,” Ted mumbled as he handed out the towels.

  “Well, I hate it!” Maggie grumbled. “It makes my hair frizz up. In fifteen minutes, I’m going to look like a firethorn bush. First one who laughs at me gets it right in the snoot! So what’s up? Talk to me,” she barked.

  “I have nothing to report,” Jack said. “Abner has some news, but I don’t see it helping us in any way. Just something to add to the Bannons’ dossier. I’m not making light of it, I’m just saying I don’t see how it can help us.” He dug into his pancakes with gusto as Abner reported his limited news.

  Charles tested Cyrus’s food and set it down. He adjusted the griddle and started to pour out batter for the latecomers’ breakfast.

  Dennis arrived, with Harry right behind him. Both were soaking wet by the time they raced into the kitchen. More towels were called for.

  “Looks like you have laundry duty today, Ferg,” Charles quipped. “And no shortcuts; you wash them, then you dry them, no just drying them.

  Cyrus looked up at Charles and beelined for his space next to Jack. Just because he knew how to fold towels didn’t mean he was going to do it. Jack grinned as he patted Cyrus on the head.

  “Anything we need to know?” Dennis asked.

  “Kids are in the barn with Margie and Cooper. Avery is in the war room. We’re all here. Abner found out the birth name of the kids’ father, but that’s all,” Jack said.

  Harry sat down at the table, shook his head at the offer of pancakes, and reached for the cup of tea Fergus had placed in front of him. “I might have something, and I might not. Choa, my right-hand man at the dojo, checked in with me late last night. He said some woman called the dojo nine times yesterday. Nine times! His English is limited to yes and no. So when the woman asked for me, he just kept saying no. She didn’t leave a name. I wrote out my cell-phone number for him to give her in case she calls back today. It’s probably some senator’s wife who wants to learn a little self-defense without anyone’s knowing. I get those calls all the time. Other than that, nothing.”

  “Well, crap!” Jack exclaimed as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I forgot I turned it off. I was wondering why no one was calling me. Oh! Shit, shit, shit! Guess who called me seven times, and I missed all seven calls! Lizzie Fox!”

  Everyone stopped eating to stare at Jack. No one said a word until Harry said, “Maybe it was Lizzie calling me yesterday, and when she couldn’t get me, she called you or vice versa. But then Lizzie would have called Charles or Maggie or someone. Doesn’t make sense.”

  “Well, what are you waiting for, Jack, a bus? Call Lizzie,” Maggie snapped irritably as she worked at smoothing down her frizzy hair.

  “There’s a little matter of the time difference, Maggie. Lizzie is three hours behind us and is probably still asleep. Or she’s taking little Jack to school. Let’s give her another half hour. It’s like Harry said, if it was some kind of emergency, Lizzie would have called one of you guys when she couldn’t get me.”

  “I just got goose bumps,” Dennis said. “When I get goose bumps, something always happens. And it’s never good.”

  “And you felt the need to share that with us . . . why?” Ted growled.

  “To alert everyone to possible trouble coming our way,” Dennis growled in return.

  “I think we’re already in trouble,” Espinosa mumbled.

  Cyrus reared up, as did Lady and her pups, just as Avery Snowden stepped into the kitchen and Harry’s cell phone rang and Jack’s cell buzzed like a horde of angry bees. Both men stepped out of the way to take their calls as Avery headed to the coffeepot. The silence in the room was deafening as the gang struggled to hear whatever they could, which wasn’t much as both men appeared to be listening to the person on the other end of the phone and contributing nothing to the conversation.

  Then Jack explained in detail to Lizzie about his root canal and his phone’s being shut off and what was going on at the farm. Lizzie listened, then got right to the point of her call. “Listen to me, Jack. I am going to do something I never thought I would do as in ever. I don’t know how I’m going to live with myself after this, but when it comes to children I . . . Just listen, okay, and judge me later. Years ago, a young woman came to me, her name at the time is not what it is today. She works for the government. For want of a better term, she’s the agency’s superspy. They literally created her into this . . . this . . . machine. They invested millions of dollars training her, turning her into, like I said, this superspy. If they could have, they would have drained all emotion from her, but that didn’t happen. She had me set up a safe house for her, take care of her finances for the day when she said she would need it. She came by a lot of money in a nefarious way, but that’s not important right now. Out of the blue, she called me yesterday and asked me to help her. I had already done everything she asked, so it was just a matter of making some phone calls.

  “She’s a rogue agent now, Jack. She’s on the run. She has kids and a husband. A husband she thinks swung to the other side. Rivalry there. Someone snatched her kids, and her people are not helping her, so she went rogue. This woman . . . Jack, she’s one of a kind. I gave her your number and Harry’s. Here’s the kicker, Jack. Harry trained her. She said she’d call you guys. You need to help her. You can talk now, Jack.”

  Jack had followed Lizzie’s words at warp speed. He knew exactly who she was talking about. “We have the kids. It all fits now. Espinosa found them two days ago. They’re right here at Pinewood. Long story, but the main thing is they’re safe. If we have to, we can call Pearl Barnes and put them temporarily in her underground. Just assure her they’re safe. Call her and tell her. And, Lizzie, I would have done exactly what you just did by calling me. Sometimes the rules just have to be broken. I’ll get back to you.”

  Jack clicked off, shoved the phone in his pocket, and stared at Harry, who looked like he’d just seen a ghost or was talking to said ghost. If his eyes grew any rounder, they’d be marbles.

  He waited.

  They all waited.

  “That was . . . that was . . .”

  “Tea Pope. Your star pupil. The one whose picture hangs in the center of your dojo wall,” Jack said.

  “How . . . how do you know that, Jack?” Harry whispered.

  “That was Lizzie on the phone. Your star pupil just happens to kno
w Lizzie, and she contacted her and Lizzie told her to call us, that we could help her. Did you tell her we have her kids safe and sound?”

  “I did, and she cried. I swear to God, Jack, I never for a moment thought that young woman had an ounce of empathy for anyone or any thing. She cried. No, she damn well bawled. That’s a difference. We need to go downstairs and get to work. She’s going to call me again in two hours. Right now, she is in Tennessee. We have to find a way to get to her. She only uses a burner phone for one call, then ditches it, so we can’t call her back. She has to call us. She’s what they call a rogue now. Shoot to wound, and if that doesn’t get her then it’s STK. She wants to see her kids before that happens. She said they’ll show her no mercy no matter how much they have invested in her.”

  “Harry’s right,” Abner said. “I know how those guys at the CIA work. Right now, she’s on American soil, so the FBI and Homeland Security are on her ass, and don’t think for a minute that every other agent who is available, no matter what the alphabet says on their jackets, isn’t on it with them. She’s marked. We have to get her to safety.”

  “Then let’s go,” Jack said.

  Charles looked around at his kitchen, winced, then shrugged and followed his lads, and one lassie, with a last minute warning to Lady to watch over things.

  As always when entering the war room, they all saluted Lady Justice, who was on the big screen hanging from the ceiling. Everyone took their seat.

  Charles held up his hand. “The children are safe, and so is Ms. Pope for the moment, so let’s give the floor over to Avery, who has been toiling down here all night long. Maggie will go next with her plan. What do you have for us, Avery?”