“Then shut up and let me figure out what happens next.” Irene pulled her arm out of Noah’s grasp. “Carol, I have a safe location we can—”
“You are not going into this without me.” Carol held up her hand. Yes, she was a paper pusher and not remotely up to date on her field certifications, but none of this would have happened without her. She wasn’t leaving Andy in a pit to die. “Besides, the minute we’re done, if Andy is alive, I need to get him out of the country. And I don’t think any of you are prepared to do that, are you?”
No one offered any other solutions or protests.
“Then it’s settled.” Irene didn’t sound thrilled about that. “I have a vehicle two blocks west of here.”
“We aren’t backtracking for it,” Jesse said.
He crossed the rectangular panic room to a rear panel opposite the door and placed his hands against it. He adjusted the placement of his hands a few times, then leaned into the wall.
Something beeped, and the panel moved back several inches. He grunted under the effort of it, but slid the panel aside.
“All right, ladies, Living Dead Boy and I will bring up the rear,” Noah drawled, slapping Kevin on the shoulder.
“It’s clear,” Jesse said. “Come on, stay close. It’s dark in here.”
“Where is here? Do I want to know?” Carol glanced at Lillian.
“Don’t ask me. I didn’t know we had this.” Lillian wrapped her arms around herself.
“Yeah, seems someone has been keeping secrets,” Camilla said a little too loud.
“Stay close,” Jesse called over his shoulder.
Two flashlights were passed back. Carol let the others take possession of them. There was too much on her mind to man that, too.
The panic room let out into a narrow corridor, some sort of drainage pipe. Ice covered the ditch below and the footing along the edge was treacherous, but so long as Carol went slow it wasn’t bad.
Irene dropped back so they could almost walk side by side.
“We need to think about our next move,” she said, keeping her voice low.
“I am.” The way Carol saw it, they needed to get out of the country fast and put together a comprehensive case with evidence.
“Where will you go?”
“Better if you don’t know.”
“And if Andy is gone?”
“I don’t want to consider that right now.”
“You need to be prepared, Carol.”
“Working on it.” Carol wrapped her arms around herself. It was cold in the subterranean tunnel, and her jacket had been left in Lillian’s office.
“I’m sorry for how things happened—”
“Save it, please?” Carol didn’t want to hear Irene’s lip service. Whether or not she truly did not intend for this to blow up and burn Carol was no longer her concern. They were all wanted persons. What did the past matter in light of what they now knew?
“You and Andy did good work together,” Irene said.
They had.
Once Carol had come around to seeing him for who he was, they’d done a lot. She’d seldom worked with someone as well as she had with him. They’d clicked. Under different circumstances, had he been Mark, she liked to think things might have progressed naturally. But they weren’t normal people. They were spies and intelligence agents. Their lives would never be typical.
If they found Andy, if he was still alive, she was holding him to his plan. She couldn’t imagine starting this new chapter of living outside the bounds of the Company with anyone else at her back.
She loved him.
Maybe it was the circumstances that’d thrown them together, forced them to strip away the usual walls and learn to trust each other more deeply, or maybe it was just them. She loved him, and if she lost Andy, that might be the thing that broke her.
Their group walked on and on. Time seemed to blur together. Carol’s feet ached and she lost the feeling in her fingers. They picked their way over bridges and through what appeared to be a campsite, until a pinpoint of light ahead cast long shadows.
“What’s up ahead?” Carol asked.
“I have no idea.” Irene muttered her reply.
Jesse didn’t so much as pause at the portal back to the surface. He moved a metal grate out of the way, then hopped down into a concrete culvert. One by one he helped them down.
“This is miles from the office,” Lillian said.
“I could watch you walk for a few more miles.” Noah grinned and winked at Lillian.
“Noah, knock it off,” Irene snapped.
“This way, everyone.” Jesse led them up the bank.
A storage facility backed up on the spillway. Kevin pried the chain-link fence up at one corner and held it for everyone to pile through, while Jesse remained in the lead.
“Jesse? Jesse, what the hell is this place?” Camilla demanded.
“My oh shit plan,” he said without looking over.
“Your what?”
Carol watched Jesse and Camilla’s banter, the sniping back and forth. It was so normal.
An icy breeze gusted through the buildings, cutting through Carol’s clothes.
Jesse unlocked a storage unit and rolled the door up halfway before ushering everyone inside. Motion-sensor lights flickered on. The unit was the size of two. A late-model SUV filled part of it, while lockers and a workbench took up the other half.
“Jesse—what is all of this?” Camilla gestured to the back wall where a sheet of glass protected a small display of handguns.
“You know when you tell me to handle something and you don’t want to know how?” Jesse pulled a locker open and passed around a variety of jackets. “Ask yourself if you want to know.”
“I wouldn’t,” Irene said.
“Camilla, Lillian, here’s a thousand dollars.” Jesse handed a roll of bills to Lillian, who seemed to be keeping up a tiny bit better. “There’s a bus stop thirty yards that way. Don’t use plastic or phones, pay in cash, get somewhere and stay there until I call you.”
What did it say that Carol wasn’t even fazed by an instance like this anymore? She’d become part of this world.
She turned and walked to the wall of guns, mentally discarding some until she landed on the one she was most familiar with.
A Glock, just like what Andy had used.
“Your friend? Do you need to let him know you’re coming in hot?” Irene slid up to her, holding out a phone.
“Yes.” Carol took it and stared at the screen. Jan had no idea what he was getting involved with.
Once she dialed that number, things would be set in motion. They couldn’t take it back.
“Did we lose the data?” Irene asked.
“No.” Carol had the thumb drive in her jeans pocket. The duffel bag was toast since it’d been in the conference room. But that didn’t matter. The original was still on Andy’s servers, and she was fairly certain he’d die before he gave up a single byte of information.
“He might not be coming back,” Irene whispered.
“He is.”
Carol had to believe that Andy was alive, that they’d bring him home, that this wasn’t the end. If she didn’t have that to believe in, she had no reason to keep going.
…
Georgia pushed through the side door, keeping her head low, and made straight for the stairs. She’d been through the facility enough in the last day that no one blinked an eye at her. Tapes would be scrubbed, and no evidence of her presence would be on record.
That was the least of her concerns right now.
She ducked through the classroom. An armed guard stood at the open doorway.
That was new.
Usually this was so ultra secret they griped about entering and exiting during typical working hours.
She presented her wrist and the man scanned her RFID chip that granted her entrance to the SICA quarters.
This was not going to go well.
She seriously doubted Jennifer Sark was sup
posed to have died.
Georgia wished she didn’t have to be the messenger, or that she’d have come up with a way to tell the director on the phone rather than face to face. But here she was.
A man stood guard at the director’s door. He nodded at her and tapped once before opening.
The whole day was an utter failure. From following Andy’s directions to tracking Carol and her mother, it couldn’t have gone worse.
The door opened and the guard gestured for her to enter.
Great.
Just what she wanted, some alone time with the director.
He sat behind the desk this time, hat and glasses still on, lights low.
“Well?” he asked.
“Things did not go well,” she said slowly.
“So I heard. Your assessment?”
“Andy set us up. I don’t know who he sent us to, but they were prepared. I’m the only one who made it out alive, and I still can’t identify the man. I followed the body and found Irene Drummond, Jennifer Sark, and Kevin Winters.”
“What?” He dropped the papers in his hands and sat forward.
“Jennifer made them believe…she told them who was in charge.” Georgia tilted her head.
“I see. Good. And?”
“And then Jennifer killed herself while the others—and I’m guessing Carol—escaped.” Georgia had stuck around to hear what was discovered once the panic room was cut open.
A lot of nothing.
“I see.” He turned. “We must clear the facility by the end of the day, and assume our operations have been compromised.”
“What would you have me do, sir?”
“We need to prepare for our departure soon. Think you could hide a body?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Bring me Kristina. It’s time to dangle the bait.”
Georgia had no idea what that meant, but she wanted a front-row seat, that was for sure.
…
Andy gripped the cuff and slid his right wrist as far through the hole as it would go.
Over the course of a few hours he’d rotated his chair through a series of outbursts. He’d yelled, stomped his feet, demanded attention, and generally been an ass to Mitch. It seemed to have done the trick.
Shadows had moved, whoever had been watching him left, and that meant Andy was about as alone as he was going to get.
“Dear God, will you shut the fuck up.” Mitch tipped his head back, face turned toward the ceiling, eyes shut.
“I haven’t said anything for a while.” Andy watched Mitch while he fumbled with the lock picks in his watch.
Mitch cracked his eyes open and frowned at Andy.
“You haven’t?” he asked.
“No.”
“That wasn’t you…?”
“You’re probably hallucinating by this point. Have they turned off the lights, fed you, given you the chance to lie down?”
“No, but they did finally turn that damn music off.” Mitch peered around the room as though he didn’t recognize it.
“Typical interrogation tactics. You know this, Mitch. Think.”
“I guess you’re right.” He heaved a sigh and slumped forward.
Mitch would break soon. He’d say something to someone who was just in his head or he’d want the torture to simply stop. There were people who were built for this side of the line, and people who weren’t. Andy was. Mitch wasn’t.
Andy gave the lock picks a nudge and felt the release of the cuffs.
He froze, catching the cuff in one hand so that it might appear he was still restrained.
Heavier footsteps thumped around outside.
There was still the matter of his ankles.
Those were at least heavy-duty zip ties.
The door creaked open and the woman with the Cheshire grin stepped into the room.
Great.
What the hell had they done now?
Andy sat back in his chair until he could lift the front legs off the floor. Just a little bit. From studying Mitch’s, the legs appeared to be tapered, so the only thing they could do was stay put or slide down.
“What do you look so happy about?” Mitch squinted at Kristina.
“I thought you’d want to know as soon as possible.” She shut the door behind her.
There was a knob on the inside, which meant it wasn’t a secure door. That was why they had to be restrained. Otherwise Mitch or Andy could just walk out of here. They weren’t set up to house prisoners. Then why the glass? Interviews?
“Know what?” Mitch growled. He really was playing right into their hands.
“About two and a half hours ago, I’m sorry to say, your friends got blown up.” Kristina clasped her hands in front of her, her smile too practiced and sweet to be genuine.
“What?” Mitch roared.
“You’re lying,” Andy said.
“I’d bring you proof, but they’re having problems identifying what pieces go with which person.” Kristina tilted her head, as though she were truly grieved, but her eyes were sparkling with joy.
“No. No. No,” Mitch chanted.
Andy didn’t believe her for a second.
Kristina was being waved in front of them like a red cape, for some purpose, a reason he didn’t quite know yet, but he’d figure it out. She wanted to see them suffer, because this woman was cruel and bloodthirsty.
“Mitch, shut up,” Andy bellowed. “She’s lying. There was an explosion, and maybe someone died, but it’s no one they can identify. Notice she said friends, she didn’t name a person or people.”
“I am not lying.” She scowled at Andy.
“Fine. You’re telling partial truths in a mosaic fashion to mislead us from the real truth. You’re in over your head, sugar.” He grinned, because now he knew—Carol was still alive. She’d gotten away. No one would waste time with him if they’d eliminated Carol.
“Says the man handcuffed to a chair.” Kristina planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “I could kill you myself if I wanted to.”
“I doubt that. You’re the errand girl.” Andy leaned back a touch farther. He was pretty sure he almost had the bonds off the bottom of the chair. “Run along, and don’t come back until you’ve got proof you aren’t a lying bitch.”
Someone tapped on the glass, startling Kristina.
She stared at the glass for a moment, then huffed and opened the door, slamming it shut after her.
Andy watched the figure, the shadows moving across the glass.
This was good.
Carol was alive, and free.
Had she rallied the others? Had the others found her?
Sending people after Noah was risky. The guy was a loose cannon and would hold a grudge till the end of time.
Best-case scenario?
Carol was with Irene and Noah. The three of them would make a solid team. Noah wouldn’t leave his op. He had no dog in this fight. But Carol and Irene could make it out of the country together. They were a dynamite team.
“How do you know she’s lying?” Mitch demanded.
Andy ignored Mitch’s question.
If Carol was making her bid to escape, then that meant Andy didn’t have to stay put. He could see a way out, and he wasn’t just going to sit here and wait for something to happen to him.
“Hey. Hey, you. Answer me,” Mitch said.
What was better?
They’d disrupted normal operations here. That meant people weren’t being careful.
“Sh.” Andy slipped one leg forward, freeing himself from the zip ties.
That done, he got his other foot free, and sat the chair back on four feet.
No one came to restrain him. There was no alarm.
No one was looking.
“It’s time to break out of here, Mitch. Want to hitch a ride?”
…
“I spoke with Director Scott. This location is supposed to be closed.”
Carol stared through the frost-covered branches at the CIA fac
ility. Several trucks were out front moving boxes and furniture.
“Closed my ass,” Noah muttered.
“That’s a lot of people,” Jesse said.
“Yeah, but most of them are wearing uniforms. They’re hired people.” Kevin peered through his binoculars at the site.
“We wait until that truck leaves. The moving truck. Everyone else is plainclothes. When that truck moves, we go in.” Carol knew the building’s layout. She and Andy had studied it backward and forward.
“Go in and do what?” Noah turned to glare at her. “We have no fucking plan.”
“Andy was headed downstairs, so that’s where we’re going.” Carol never took her eyes off the building.
“No. That’s crazy.”
“We should wait for night,” Jesse said.
“I don’t think we have that much time.” Carol glanced over her shoulder at him.
“Is this seriously what you think would be best?” Kevin asked.
Carol mulled the question over. There was an underlying sense of urgency that hadn’t eased up, not since the few moments she and Andy had shared in his bunker. Her gut said to act fast and with force. A surprise attack would catch them off guard. No one would suspect her—or the others—to strike back so soon.
“Yes, it is.” She sucked down a deep breath, the feeling of rightness wrapping around her.
“Then we need supplies,” Kevin said.
“I’ve got C-4, a few rifles, some handguns, and a case of flash grenades.” Jesse ticked off each item with a finger.
“Who are you?” Irene turned to study Jesse.
“You don’t want to know, ma’am.”
“They’re closing up the truck.” Carol turned back toward the SUV they’d ridden to the site in. “I need to coordinate our escape route.”
“Everyone have their flak jacket on?” Jesse asked.
“Hey, Carol. Wait up.” Kevin jogged to her side, matching her stride for stride. “You don’t have to come in with us.”
“Yes, I do. None of you know the building like I do.” She grabbed the burner phone Jesse had given her off the seat, focusing on that instead of the lie she’d just told. She hadn’t used it yet, and chances were low Jan would answer, but she only had these cards to play.
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