Devious Minds

by Colleen Helme

  “He’s out to kill Shelby. That’s why we didn’t tell you his name,” Ramos said to Gabriel. “I believe he wants Shelby dead, and I didn’t want him to disappear and come after Shelby some other time. We need to flush him out. I thought Louis, Blake’s driver, had a connection to the terrorists, since he drove by the apartment right before we got shot at, and before the car exploded. Are you sure he’s on your side?”

  “Yeah,” I chimed in. “I know Blake was wondering about that when Louis picked us up at the airport. Could he be the one who alerted Cypher that Blake was here?” I glanced at Blake, since he’d never said that out loud, and hoped that his pain meds worked in my favor. I picked up that he didn’t remember telling me any such thing, but... he must have...

  “Absolutely not,” Suzette said. “Louis told me that Blake was in France in the first place. He watched Blake’s apartment last night, and I was concerned when Blake never returned. After Louis told me that you were attacked in front of Blake’s apartment this morning, I realized that something bad had happened to him. Through my resources, I found him at the hospital.” She turned to Gabriel. “If I could find him, so could his enemies. I didn’t think he was safe there, so I brought him here.”

  Gabriel shook his head, thinking lots of things in French, but from his long-suffering expression, I didn’t think he was too happy with her.

  “We need to find a link to Cypher,” Ramos said, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. “And so far all we’ve got is Mason. Has anyone gone to Mason’s apartment and looked through his things for clues?”

  Everyone glanced at Gabriel, who threw up his hands in exasperation. “I have been busy trying to find the bomb. I am beginning to doubt that it has been planted in the metro. Perhaps with all of the activity of my men, he has changed the venue. Maybe Shelby should use her gift to see if it is somewhere else.”

  Now everyone looked at me. Suzette wondered what Gabriel was talking about. Ramos thought I was in one hell-of-a-mess. Blake was still trying to figure out how I’d known his thoughts about Louis, although the mention of my gift brought him back to our discussion.

  “You mean her premonitions?” Blake said. “She told you about that?”

  “But of course. How else was I to believe she knew where the bomb was to be placed?”

  Blake glanced at me. “I think you left that part of your story out.”

  I let out my breath. “Fine. This is what happened.” I proceeded to tell them about seeing a premonition of a ventilation grate in a tiled wall while talking to Cypher. “It looked exactly like those in the metro.”

  Blake closed his eyes, and his mouth tightened with pain. “Knowing what I do about Cypher, I think he will put it somewhere significant... like a monument or a museum. Many of those buildings have similar-looking ventilation systems. You need to find Cypher... and let Shelby question him. She’s our only hope of finding the bomb in time.”

  The doctor returned. After one look at Blake, she ushered us out and shut the door.

  Gabriel shook his head. “I do not have the manpower to check all of the ventilation systems throughout the city. But I can order a high alert at each of the monuments, as well as the museums, and have the security personnel check their systems. If they see anything or anyone suspicious, they will call it in.”

  “Sounds like a good idea,” Suzette agreed. “In the meantime, I’ll go with these two and check out Mason’s place.”

  “Uh... I’m not sure I remember exactly how to get there,” I said. “I mean, it’s not too far from Sainte-Chapelle, but I kind of got turned around last night.”

  Suzette shook her head, thinking I was definitely not field-trained and could end up being a liability. What was Blake thinking to bring me along? There must be something to my premonitions, or he wouldn’t have risked it. But still... she wasn’t sure it was worth it. Blake had nearly gotten killed. Where were my premonitions when all of that was going down?

  “Blake obviously had some way to get in contact with him,” she said. “Have you checked the binder?”

  I glanced at Ramos, who frowned before letting out a sigh and shaking his head.

  Suzette turned to Gabriel. “I trust you can show yourself out while we take care of this. When is the bomb supposed to go off?”

  “That is not something we know, we can only guess that is it in conjunction with the Global Conference on Climate Change, which is set to begin the day after tomorrow.”

  “All right,” Suzette said. “I’ll let you know what we find.”

  “Merci,” Gabriel said. “Je nous souhaite à tous bonne chance.”

  As he left, Suzette turned to us. “He wished us luck, so let’s see if we can find something on Mason. There’s a computer and plenty of room to study the binder in the library.” She was thinking that the binder might have other information that would be helpful to her as well, and she hoped to get her hands on it while we weren’t looking.

  Hmm... that sounded ominous. But wasn’t she on our side? I’d have to let Blake know she was interested in it, and watch it like a hawk until then.

  We followed her down the hall and into a room on the opposite side of the house. This room ran along the entire south side of the mansion, with windows every few feet along the wall. Antique bookcases sat at either end of the room, interspersed with several curio cabinets, holding interesting artifacts from all over the world. A matching, antique office desk with computer equipment sat on the opposite side, facing the windows and the beautiful view of the gardens.

  If this all belonged to Suzette, she had some serious money and probably some great connections with important people. So how did she get mixed up with Blake and Gabriel? Was she a British spy?

  Another matching table at the end of the room had several chairs around it. While Suzette did a computer search, Ramos and I sat there to look at the binder. It was my first chance to take a good look at the binder, and it seemed filled with all kinds of paperwork in a disorganized fashion.

  Ramos knew how to interpret it though, and actually found the file on Mason in the contacts list without too much trouble. “Here it is,” he said. “The address listed has a question mark by it, but it’s worth a try.”

  “Good,” Suzette said, hearing him from her desk. “I found one as well. If it’s not the same, we can check them both out.” She wrote the address down on a piece of paper, and then had Ramos repeat the address he’d found to her. “They’re different, but at least they’re not too far from each other.”

  She took a key from the desk drawer and used it to open a cabinet beside the bookcase. A large safe sat inside. Turning the combination lock, she pulled it open, then proceeded to slide two trays with several types of guns, along with boxes of ammunition, out in front of her.

  She took a gun from a tray and began to load it. “Do you need one of these?” she asked Ramos.

  “Sure do,” he answered.

  “I’ve got an Axelson Glock. Will that work?” I picked up that, based on everything she’d observed about Ramos, she thought it was just the kind of gun he would like.

  Ramos’ eyes warmed, and his lips turned up into a sweet smile. “Hell yeah.”

  Wow, I didn’t think I’d ever seen that look on his face, and it kind of made me feel bad. He hurried to her side, and they started talking about guns in all their glory. What they liked and didn’t like. She handed the gun to him, and he fondled it with enthusiasm, even sighting down the barrel a few times.

  After Suzette handed him a box, he filled the gun with ammunition, clicked the safety on, and stuffed it in the back of his pants. Suzette slipped her gun into a fancy holster at her waist. Then she put the boxes away, slid the trays back into the vault, and locked the door, without even asking me if I wanted one. How rude was that?

  Of course, the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind until she glanced up to find me staring at her. Then she smiled indulgently, thinking that there was no way she was giving me a gun when I needed a
man like Ramos around. She figured a woman like me didn’t know how to shoot a gun.

  “I do...” I blurted, but stopped in time.

  “You do... what?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

  “Uh... I have to use the restroom before we go.”

  “Okay. It’s just down the hall to the left.” She was thinking that maybe they should leave me there with Blake, then I wouldn’t get in the way if something happened. She knew Ramos could handle himself, but she didn’t like having to worry about amateurs like me.

  “Don’t leave without me,” I said, walking out the door. “I might get a premonition while I’m there about where the bomb is.” I hurried down the hall and into the bathroom, quickly shutting the door behind me, so I wouldn’t have to deal with her thoughts or explain that comment to Ramos.

  She seemed competent, so I didn’t mind involving her too much, but I wasn’t so sure I liked her. Either way, it looked like we were going to Mason’s place, and I knew if we didn’t find anything, I’d have to come up with a premonition about him to appease Suzette. Too bad I never had the chance to question him while he was alive.

  Of course, that didn’t rule out that I might still hear from him anyway. Yikes! That was enough to make me think hard about staying here with Blake after all.

  Chapter 10

  Ramos and Suzette waited for me at the front door. As soon as I arrived, Suzette took us outside to her huge garage and put in her code. The door opened to reveal three cars in pristine condition, and I heard Ramos suck in his breath. I had no idea what kind of cars they were, but I picked it up from Ramos without a problem.

  He thought the Mercedes-Benz was nice until his gaze slid to the Aston Martin. By the time he got to the Jaguar, he was practically drooling. He was thinking that this was the best trip ever, and he hoped he could talk Suzette into letting him drive at least one, if not all of them.

  Suzette hadn’t missed the gleam of appreciation in his eyes either, and she preened with pride under her half-lidded gaze. In that moment, she began to remind me a little of Cruella de Vil. All she needed was a cigarette holder between her fingers and a fur coat.

  Then Ramos caught sight of a motorcycle at the far end of the garage, and his eyes got even bigger. He headed straight for it, like he was under a spell. “Is this a Vincent Black Shadow?” He ran his fingers over the black chrome with a reverent touch.

  “That it is,” Suzette said, impressed that Ramos knew what kind of a bike it was. “A true British Classic. They only made seventeen-hundred of them.”

  “Yeah, I know. How does she run?” he asked.

  “Pretty sweet.” Suzette smiled, remembering the last time she’d ridden with Jean-Luc. It hadn’t seen much action since then, but her mechanic kept it in top shape. She should have sold it long ago, but it was like giving up the last piece of her husband that she had left, and she couldn’t do it.

  “Once this is over, I’ll let you take it for a spin if you’d like,” she said, willing to offer because she could tell he understood the value of the bike and was obviously a true fan.

  Ramos caught his breath. “I’d like that.” He glanced at her with narrowed eyes and a half-smile.

  He made quite the picture standing beside that bike in his jeans and leather jacket, and a thrill caught in my chest just to look at him. That and his sexy voice made it difficult to pull my gaze away. I even had to shake my head a little to break the spell.

  I noticed he affected Suzette the same way, since her breath caught, and she couldn’t stop staring. But since she had to be at least sixty-five, it didn’t bother me too much, especially since I figured eye-candy was good for a woman’s soul at any age, right?

  “We’d better take the Mercedes if we all want to go together,” she said, unlocking the four-door car with a push of the button. “I’m driving.” She could tell Ramos was itching to drive it, but she wanted him to know she wasn’t a pushover, and thought men like him pretty much got their way with any woman they met.

  Hmm... she was probably right about that, so it made me feel pretty good that he’d never had his way with me. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

  Ramos just shrugged and opened the passenger door, motioning for me to get in. That made me happy. Mostly because, even pitted against all of the mechanical beauty surrounding him, he still remembered that I was there. Score one for me.

  Suzette programmed the GPS with the address from Blake’s binder, and we left. I kept my gaze out the window to admire this amazing city. To my delight, I caught sight of the Eiffel Tower before it was swallowed up behind the buildings. A few minutes later, we approached the river and came to a bridge.

  “We are going across the most famous bridge in Paris, the Pont Alexander III,” Suzette said. “See the large pillars with the gilded statues and all of the ornamentation?”

  “Wow, it’s amazing.” Golden winged horses crowned the top of the pillars, and the bridge itself had lampposts from one end to the other. As we crossed the bridge, the Eiffel Tower came into view, and I grabbed my phone to take a quick snapshot. “This is great.”

  I glanced back at Ramos, and he smiled, but his mind was still on the motorcycle, and how fun it would be to drive around the streets of Paris, so he wasn’t paying much attention.

  Suzette smiled at me, though, happy to be a tour guide for the moment. She even turned the car early, to drive along the Seine so I could take it all in. I picked up that she loved this city, and it angered her that some stupid terrorists wanted to bring a bio-weapon into it. Finding and stopping them was more important than anything she’d done in a long time, and it was gratifying to help us out.

  Following the directions on the GPS, we soon pulled up in front of a building that looked a lot like most of the buildings in the city. “This address is the closest one to Sainte Chapelle,” Suzette said. “So this might be the right one.”

  We all got out of the car and hurried toward the entrance, but I couldn’t tell if this was the right place or not. Everything looked so different in the light of day. We were also coming toward the apartment from the outside of the building, rather than the courtyard, making it even harder to recognize.

  Inside the entryway, we found the mail slots with the names of the occupants listed above them. “There it is,” Ramos said. “Room three-twelve.”

  “This is it,” I said, stating the obvious, but still surprised that we’d found it so easily.

  “Let’s take the stairs,” Suzette said, leading us to the staircase. We followed the stairs to the third floor and stopped in front of room three-twelve. Suzette reached into her purse for her lock-picking tools, but Ramos beat her to the punch, and a small smile curved her lips.

  I picked up that he was trying to impress her... then caught that Suzette thought the same thing, and I sent her a knowing smile. She totally missed it though, since she was paying so much attention to Ramos. For once, it was probably a good thing, since I didn’t want her to know my secret.

  He had the door opened in a flash, but pulled his gun and went inside first, telling us to wait until he made sure it was safe. Suzette wasn’t about to do what he said. After pulling out her gun, she followed right behind him. I shook my head and sighed, then entered, closing the door gently behind me.

  Waiting at the entrance, I took in my surroundings. The apartment was only about half the size of Blake’s, with a small kitchenette at one end and a couch at the other. I listened real hard for any kind of latent energy that might belong to Mason, but felt nothing. My shoulders drooped with relief, and I hoped he was long gone.

  While Ramos and Suzette continued their search, I hurried over to the breakfast nook next to the kitchen counter. A laptop, along with several pages of opened mail, covered the space. I wiggled the mouse beside the laptop, and it began to boot up. Yes! This could be just what we needed.

  While waiting, I examined the mail, but found nothing of importance until coming across a bank statement. It showed money deposits which tota
led up to over five-hundred thousand euros. Wow, that was quite a haul for an agent gone rogue.

  I scanned the most recent transactions and found a deposit from a company called Dimension Zero for one-hundred-fifty thousand euros. Could that be the payment from Cypher’s organization?

  “What have you got?” Suzette asked, pocketing her gun and coming to my side.

  “Have you ever heard of a company called Dimension Zero?” I asked, handing her the page.

  “Uh... no,” she answered. “But something about that sounds familiar.” She took the papers from me and looked them over. “This could be helpful.” She glanced at the computer. “That too. Let’s take all of this back with us. Maybe Blake will know more.” She set the papers down and started going through the kitchen drawers.

  “Sure.” I checked the laptop and found the computer screen wasn’t locked or password protected. That was weird, but a good thing for me since I had no idea how to hack into a computer. With a thrill of anticipation, I glanced through the icons on the desktop for anything that might stand out.

  I clicked on a few documents but, after some study, didn’t think they would be helpful. Next, I found the search icon. On a whim, I typed in Dimension Zero. A folder popped up, so I clicked on it. There were three documents inside. The first one was a spreadsheet with names and orders. The second looked like a list of some kind, which could also be valuable.

  The third puzzled me the most, because it looked like a map, but nothing like I’d ever seen. There was a direction compass at the top, but nothing was labeled. As I studied it, a few letters popped out in the drawing, and my heart quickened. They were C-A-T. What the heck did that mean?

  I chewed on my bottom lip and glanced up. As I did, I caught sight of the red light glowing at the top of the screen. A chill ran down my spine, and my breath caught. Did that mean someone could see me and was watching? Right now? In a panic, I snapped the computer lid closed and swallowed.