“What about you, dear?” Moonbeam inquired, turning tactfully to Linda. “Who might be jealous if you got married?”
Linda went pink, too. “I don’t know. I can’t really see any of my ex-boyfriends throwing dye on my wedding dress.”
“That’s true; it does seem more like a feminine attack,” Moonbeam agreed. “Would any of your female friends be jealous that you were getting married? Or perhaps an ex-friend who might be harbouring a grudge and see this as a convenient way to hurt you?”
“I… don’t know.” Linda frowned. “I wouldn’t like to think so, but…”
We sat in silence until she shook her head. “I’m sorry, I just can’t think of anyone. I haven’t broken up with a friend since high school. We just all grew out of that kind of pettiness. I mean…” She hesitated. “Most of us did. It’s a small town so it can still be a little cliquish, you know?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “So who’s in the opposite clique from you?”
After some more prompting and prodding we extracted a few names from Linda, but she seemed doubtful that any of them could be suspects. A perusal of the guest list for the wedding was equally unrewarding. At last we abandoned the discussion and I dragged myself to my feet, barely able to keep my eyes open.
“Go to bed, Storm Cloud Dancer,” Moonbeam urged. “You look exhausted. Karma Wolf Song and I will sit up for a while.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, and made sure everybody had towels and bedding before staggering toward my bedroom. Moonbeam’s soft call stopped me just as I reached the door.
“Storm Cloud Dancer…” She hurried down the hall, casting a cautious glance over her shoulder. Leaning close, she murmured, “What is our emergency response protocol?”
Blinking stupidly, I attempted to boot my brain into some semblance of thought. “Um… I’ve got the monitor back from Spider…” I lifted my wrist to show it. “If I see anything incoming, I’ll wake you. If it’s only one person, I’ll deal with it and you can stay in the house to defend Spider and Linda. That’ll maintain your cover and provide an extra layer of protection just in case. If there’s more than one attacker, I have a secret room in the basement where we can put the kids while we take care of business. And if it’s an army, I’ll hit the panic button and we’ll all hide out in the basement and let my backup team deal with it.”
She brightened. “You have a backup team?”
“Yep.” I hid a wry smile. The chain of command wouldn’t risk losing me, and I was pretty sure Stemp would use that as an excuse to unleash holy hell on anybody who attacked while his parents were here.
“We only have to survive for twenty minutes or so to give them a chance to get here,” I added. “But I’m not expecting a major frontal attack. So far it’s all been sneaking around in the shadows.”
Moonbeam unleashed a predatory smile, her soft façade dropping to reveal the lethal agent behind it. “And it just so happens we’re very good at that. Sweet dreams, dear.”
“You, too,” I mumbled, hiding the shiver that brushed my spine like icy cobwebs.
Of course the deer had to pick this night to traipse all over my yard. Twice I woke to the vibration of the monitor, my heart pounding. The first time, around two AM, I could still see the soft glow of my office lights under the door. Spider was obviously hard at work.
When I bolted up in bed the second time at three forty-five, the rest of the house was dark and quiet. Easing myself back onto the pillow, I switched to full-video and watched the doe and half-grown fawn nibbling the lawn and looking longingly through the page-wire fence at my garden.
Once I might have enjoyed watching them, or even envied their freedom. Now I noted every twitch of their ears, every wary survey of their surroundings, every quiver of taut muscles ready to flee at the slightest threat.
I knew exactly how they felt. Poor little bastards.
Chapter 37
The buzzing of my alarm clock at six-thirty was an affront to decency. Groaning, I slapped the snooze button and buried my face in the pillow.
My eyes finally opened after I’d stumbled through the shower, and by the time I made it to the kitchen they actually focused in the same direction. That seemed like a good start.
Karma and Moonbeam drifted in on silent bare feet as I was eating my second piece of toast, and Karma waved me back to my chair when I began to rise.
“Don’t worry, we know where everything is,” he assured me, and they helped themselves to yogurt and cereal before joining me at the table.
“How did you sleep?” I asked.
“Oh, very well, thank you.” Moonbeam looked fresh and bright, and I envied her with every cell in my body. “How did you sleep, dear?” she added.
“Okay. Deer triggered the cameras a couple of times, but other than that everything was quiet.” I gulped another mouthful of toast and peanut butter and passed over my wrist monitor. “Here, I’ll leave this with you. I don’t know if I’ll be back tonight, but I’ll be here tomorrow morning by eleven at the latest. If the wedding is at two, guests might be arriving as early as one.” I crammed the last bite of toast into my mouth and rose with my dishes. “I’ll see what I can do for weapons detection,” I mumbled through peanut butter. “I’ll call you as soon as I know.”
“Very well, dear. How may we contact you if necessary?”
“Hang on…” I read off the number from the burner phone I’d been using, then appropriated another from the drawer and gave them that number, too.
“Excellent. Good luck with your day, and don’t worry about a thing here,” Moonbeam said, and I nodded my thanks and headed for the door carrying my small backpack.
On the way to the office I watched my rear-view mirror anxiously, but there was no sign of pursuit. The parking lot at Sirius Dynamics held the usual vehicles and I didn’t spot anybody watching while I walked up to the entrance doors.
Maybe Labelle had been permanently scared off yesterday.
The thought filled me with a queasy mixture of relief and fear. If he spread the word that I wasn’t to be trusted I could drop the arms-dealer charade, but that likely meant I’d be assigned to another, possibly more dangerous mission.
Or consigned to prison.
I swallowed hard and pasted on a smile for the security guard while I signed in.
Plodding up the stairs, I attempted to look at the bright side. At least if Labelle wasn’t following me today, my courier mission to Calgary should go smoothly.
But somehow I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that easy.
I tossed my backpack onto the sofa in my office and dropped into my desk chair to check my email. I was wading through the usual administrative crap when my desk phone rang, displaying Reggie Chow’s caller ID.
Picking up with a quiver of anxiety, I kept my greeting down to a brief ‘Kelly’ to hide my nerves.
“Hey, Kelly, good news,” he said cheerfully. “I got the approval to gear you up. If you can get down here before ten we’ll have time to do it before you leave for your assignment.”
Some of the weight eased from my shoulders. A technological advantage. Exactly the kind of confidence-booster I needed right now.
“Okay,” I replied. “It’ll depend on how long my nine o’clock meeting with Stemp goes, but I’ll be down as soon after that as I can.”
“See you then.”
He hung up and I leaned back in my chair, letting my mind drift to fantasies of some cutting-edge spy gear or performance-enhancing drug that would miraculously make me ten feet tall, bulletproof, and competent. And maybe even confident.
Imagining the glorious possibilities, I saw myself engaging guys like Labelle in conversation without a single surge of adrenaline or droplet of sweat. Boldly striding through ambushes, effortlessly identifying and eliminating the bad guys even though I was outnumbered. Somehow I had become a martial arts master, too…
The ‘ding’ of my meeting reminder jolted me awake, and I jerked upright from my slouch and wiped a
bit of drool from the corner of my mouth.
Shit.
So much for the half-hour of work I’d planned to get done before my meeting with Stemp. I had exactly enough time to use the washroom and get to his office.
Suppressing a groan, I hauled myself out of my chair and headed down the hall.
Stemp’s agenda was mercifully brief. He supplied me with the address of the Calgary facility and the protocols for accessing it, then asked, “Anything else?”
“Um, no… I can’t think of anything else I’ll need for today… but…” I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. “I was wondering…”
His expression smoothed to watchful waiting.
“Um, I didn’t mention this to you before, but, um… Spider and Linda’s wedding is tomorrow and they’ve been having problems…”
He frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that, but their personal issues are really none of my business.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that. I meant… well, you heard about Linda’s wedding dress, but there have been other things as well. Some damage to the brakes on Spider’s car; and the hall where they’d planned to hold their reception burned down; and they’ve had things like dead birds and black roses showing up on their doorstep. Somebody doesn’t want them to get married, and I’m afraid it’ll escalate to a bomb or a weapon attack at the wedding.” I eyed him imploringly. “Do you think… would the Department maybe lend them a weapons detection system for a few hours on Saturday… as a wedding present?”
For a moment I was treated to the unprecedented sight of a speechless Stemp.
After a brief silence his lips twitched. “Well, that is certainly the most unexpected request I’ve ever received. But as much as I’d like to help, I can’t justify the deployment of a classified system and a tech to operate it simply because of a damaged dress and a dead bird.”
“No, those aren’t the things that are worrying me,” I argued. “I’m worried about the hole in Spider’s brake line and the community hall burning down. Labelle was at their wedding shower, and he could very well be threatening them to get to me.”
“But why would he?” Stemp objected. “Other than the gunman, who was likely only a test, why would Labelle want to coerce you? If he’s looking for a business associate, antagonizing you would be a poor way to start. And if he is doing these things to coerce you, he would have given you some indication of what he wants by now.”
“I don’t know why he’d be doing this stuff.” I stared at him in frustration. “If I knew, I’d just solve the problem. And in the meantime, you could lose your top analyst if somebody slips a bomb into a wedding gift.”
Stemp blew out a breath. “True. I simply doubt the likelihood of that happening.”
“And you might lose more than just Spider,” I argued. “Remember, your mom and dad will be at the wedding, too.”
He stared at me, his face hardening. “That was a low blow,” he said stiffly.
“I didn’t mean it as a blow at all. It’s a simple fact. I’ll be there, too, along with John and Arnie.”
Hellhound actually braving any wedding was unlikely at best and I couldn’t imagine Kane being in any condition to celebrate, but I ignored that and pressed my advantage. “You were invited, too. Top analyst, top decryption asset, top agent, top weapons specialist, and the director of operations. All of us could be gone in a second. Can you justify the detection system now?”
His mouth twisted as if he’d bitten into something sour. “Perhaps. If you seriously consider Labelle a threat, I could theoretically justify the expense against your current mission. But I still doubt the connection.”
“Doubt it all you want,” I snapped, and jerked to my feet. “But you’d better be right.”
Stemp sighed. “Indeed. The story of my career.”
For a moment he looked so tired and dispirited that my heart smote me. “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I know you’re doing the best you can.”
“Always.” His lips crimped into what was likely meant to be a smile, but it looked more like a grimace of pain. “Dismissed.”
I trailed out of his office and down the hall to collect my backpack, deep in thought. Stemp was right; I couldn’t think of any reason why Labelle would want to coerce me. Was I just letting my paranoia run away with me?
But it isn’t paranoia if they really are out to get you…
Blowing out a breath, I headed for the Weapons lab.
When I rounded the corner into the main area of the lab, Chow looked happier than I’d ever seen him. Grinning, he beckoned me over to his counter.
“This is great,” he exulted. “I’ve never had an agent with a high enough security clearance to use all my toys without them being deployed ‘way the hell-and-gone out to where I can’t get the prototypes back easily. Here.”
He handed me the fashionable glasses I’d seen on my first trip to the lab. “We put tinted lenses in, since it’s summer,” he said. “Designer sunglasses, just for you. Put ‘em on; see what you think.”
I slipped them cautiously onto my face.
“Where’s your phone?” he went on. “I’ll load up an app so you can control the heads-up display zoom and brightness and the audio volume remotely, for when you can’t get caught fiddling with the sunglasses.”
“Um… I’m just carrying burner phones right now.” I held one out to him. “Sorry, normally I’d carry my smartphone, but-”
“No problem; I’ll load it onto as many phones as you’ve got. The app isn’t classified. It looks like a cheap useless audio player, and if anybody picks up your burner phone after you ditch it, they’ll think it’s shit and chuck it. But everybody’s always got their phones in their hands these days, so it’s the perfect cover for when you’re listening in or watching somebody. Just stand there staring at your phone like the rest of the fucking zombies.”
While he loaded the software I walked around the lab, getting used to the distraction of the heads-up display showing objects receding behind me and the whisper of the enhanced audio in my ears. Two tiny pressure-sensitive pads on the side provided a visual zoom that was good enough to identify fine details even at the far end of the lab, while two pads on the opposite side adjusted the sound amplification and balancing. I played with the control, fading out the ambient noises in the room and boosting the murmur of voices from inside one of the sealed labs.
By the time Chow had loaded and demonstrated the app, I had heard every detail of the modifications Sawyer and Melinda were planning for some unspecified piece of equipment, and I was sold.
“This is fabulous!” I exclaimed, grinning. “No more trying to sneak peeks over my shoulder and into plate-glass windows to see who’s following me! And I love the way I can isolate and amplify voices!”
“And you can turn up the amplification as loud as you want,” he agreed. “There’s an equalizing circuit so if there’s a sudden loud noise in the frequency range you’re amplifying, it’ll automatically suppress it to a bearable level. Okay. Next.” He guided me over to Murray and Melinda’s counter. “We’re giving you the flies and the control box.”
“Uh…” I shrank back from the small but furiously buzzing box he extended. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”
“Don’t be such a fucking pussy,” he said without heat. “Take it. You don’t have to carry it for long. We just want to try the location system in a larger crowd than what we can test here. You’re going to be in Calgary today so you’ll have a better chance of finding a crowd than we will.”
“And then what?” I griped, still avoiding the box. “Don’t you think people are going to wonder when a swarm of flies suddenly comes out of my backpack? And what if somebody kills them all? Sprays them with Raid or something?”
“Then we breed another batch and try again in ten days. Take it, Kelly.” He glared. “Or I won’t let you play with the rest of the toys.”
I eyed his lopsided scowl and sighed. “Okay. Fine. Give me the damn flies. How does the control box work?�
��
A brief demonstration left me feeling slightly more confident. There wasn’t much to it other than pressing one button to move the flies to the next target and another button to call them back into their box. I didn’t even need to use the joystick unless I wanted to. Still, I suppressed a shudder as I stowed the buzzing box inside my backpack.
I gave Chow a glower of my own. “You’d better have something good for me. You owe me for putting up with these disgusting flies.”
He returned a smug smile, lifting a lightweight black jacket from the back of a chair. “How about this?”
“That’s supposed to be good?” I grimaced at the garment. “I may have all the fashion sense of a blind troglodyte, but I do know that is one fugly jacket.”
“Fugly?” Chow inquired, his remaining eyebrow rising.
“Fucking ugly,” I enunciated clearly.
He snorted. “You’re right, you have no fucking fashion sense. This is a knockoff of some big fancy-ass designer.”
“What big fancy-ass designer?”
“How the hell should I know?” Chow gave me an irritable glare. “Do I look like I give a rat’s ass about designer clothes?” He glanced over as Sawyer strode in. “Hey, Sawyer, what designer did we knock this off of?”
“No idea.” Sawyer’s brow furrowed. “Prada?”
“Did you just make that up?” Chow demanded.
Colour rose through Sawyer’s beard. “Yeah,” he admitted. “That’s the only designer name I know. Does it matter?”
I shrugged. “Not to me. I still say it’s fugly. What’s so good about it?”
“It keeps you from getting shot or stabbed, you ungrateful beeyotch.” Chow shook out the jacket by its shoulders and handed it to me. “Lightweight, flexible, discreet, and it’ll stop bullets and edged weapons.”
“Really?” I examined it with new interest. “But it’s so light. The impact from the bullet would kill you even if it didn’t penetrate.”
“Well, it’ll knock you on your ass all right, same as a regular bullet-proof vest,” he agreed. “No way to completely counteract the force transfer, but it’ll leave you with less of a bruise than a conventional vest. The fabric is woven from nanotubes containing a non-Newtonian colloidal fluid. The higher the mass and velocity of the projectile that hits it, the harder and faster it stiffens up.”
The Spies That Bind Page 30
