The Trident Conspiracy: A Gripping Vigilante Thriller

by KJ Kalis

  Chase blinked and then looked at Jess. “You’re right. I’m sorry. There are times she’s just insufferable. No, she’s not being fair to you. Yes, she should show a little bit more compassion. I’ll talk to her. That’s all I can do.”

  “And what about Abby?”

  Chase glanced around the garage before answering, “What happened to the detective?”

  “Jamison?”

  “Oh, so now you two are on a first name basis?”

  “Not really. He just gave me his business card before he left. His first name is on there.”

  “We didn’t tell him anything,” Chase sighed. “I think Piper was about ready to, but then she clammed up all of a sudden. It was strange.”

  “Where is she now?” Jess wanted to be prepared in case Piper decided to come screaming out of the back door of the house for another round of the blame Jess game.

  “She’s locked herself in the bedroom. Said since the actual target was you that you and I have to fix this.”

  It was just like Piper to push off the responsibility onto someone else. “No pressure, right?” The fact that Piper would insist that Jess and Chase somehow go up against a well-planned kidnapping plot was somehow funny to Jess. She shook her head.

  “Right.” Chase leaned against the back of his car, standing next to Jess, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Neither of them said anything for a second, both lost in their own thoughts. Jess’s mind cycled through the memory of crawling through the hole at the back of the bank, to the presentation she was supposed to be working on that morning, to Piper screaming at her. She felt like her emotions were on overload, as though someone had charged her skin with a current of electricity. For a second, she wondered if she’d ever be able to sleep again. She shook the thought away. Abby. They had to figure out what to do about Abby.

  Jess sighed, “So, since it is up to us,” she said sarcastically, “What do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know,” Chase said, pushing himself off of the car and turning to face her, “I think I’m going to have to call my boss and tell him what’s going on. See if they’ll give me the ABG so I can get Abby back. We don’t have that much time left.”

  “But you said they wouldn’t do that. You said it was a matter of national security, right? What would make them help you now?”

  Chase started to pace, his arms crossed in front of his chest, “I don’t know! What else am I supposed to do?”

  Jess sighed. No answers were coming to her. “We’ve got to think this through. These guys have apparently spent months planning this. There’s no telling how deep the leaks go. And, if you call your boss, they may lock everything down. That won’t leave us with any options at all.”

  “I feel like I’ve become part of one of your intelligence briefs.”

  Jess raised her eyebrows. What he was saying wasn’t entirely false. “Well, maybe that’s the way that we need to look at this. I remember a case from a few years ago. It had to do with a leak in the FBI office in Oklahoma. Tulsa, if I remember right. Anyway, there was an organization that had spent years getting people in place so they could get information on moving terrorists into the United States through the southern border. I mean, these guys went to such great lengths. They had people at every level of the organization — we found a janitor, a landscaping company, electrical contractors and even some people in catering that had ties to a cartel from Mexico. On the face of it, it looked like nothing, but when you put the pieces together, it was like an octopus that had tentacles everywhere in the organization. By the time we figured it out, so much information had been leached out of that office they had to shut it down temporarily, send in some FBI specialized task force to remove bugs and other surveillance equipment and then reopen the office. It was a nightmare.”

  “And you think that’s what’s happened here?”

  “I have no idea. I’m just telling you to think of what’s possible. Look, they managed to fabricate official enough looking mortgage documents that it made me show up at the bank this morning. And I do this stuff for a living! Who knows if they’ve been surveilling you in the lab or what else has been going on.”

  Jess could tell the idea was settling in on Chase. Although he wasn’t as up to speed with intelligence gathering and analysis as she was, the thinking he’d done to develop ABG was much the same type of mental exercise. As she waited for him to speak, Jess realized there was no telling how deep the plot had gone. Quiet settled around the two of them. Off in the distance, she could hear a dog bark. It wasn’t Roxie, but down the block, maybe. A car passed by, the tires crunching on grit from the desert breezes on the road. Jess started to think about the ABG again. How was it possible that anyone knew about the ABG if it was a classified project and only Chase was working on it? “You said the ABG is classified, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. It’s more for medical use than anything else. I can’t figure out why they want it.”

  Jess shook her head, “Listen, that’s not the right question to be asking. The right question to be asking isn’t why they wanted, it’s who. Who comes before the why. Whoever is looking for the ABG has a problem and they’re looking for something to solve it. And it must be a pretty serious problem for them to go to these lengths.”

  As Jess watched Chase absorb the information, he became a little paler, as if the idea that the people who’d taken Abby were far more dangerous than he ever imagined. Jess didn’t want to hurt him with the information, but she needed to make sure he understood exactly what they were dealing with. The pieces started to click together in her mind — the bank paperwork, the carefully executed escape route, the overly cheerful computer-generated voice that communicated with them and now the picture of Abby and Piper together. It was a clear-cut escalation campaign, designed to keep Chase teetering on the edge. It wasn’t enough to make him shut down, but it was definitely enough to get his attention and keep him moving forward to meet their demands, not to mention question himself.

  And that’s what the kidnappers needed Chase to do... question himself.

  In some of the most difficult cases Jess worked, the difference between whether the classified intelligence got out into the community or didn’t was the amount of uncertainty the target experienced. More uncertainty meant more control. There wasn’t much more control than holding the life of a child in your hands. Jess swallowed and then looked hard at Chase. He was staring down at the ground, pacing back and forth. Three steps one direction and then three steps back. It was something she’d seen him do when they were young when he was trying to solve a problem. Habits die hard, she thought.

  A second later, he spoke through gritted teeth. “I understand what you’re saying, Jess. But where does that leave me? What am I supposed to do? How can I possibly get Abby back?”

  “I think we need to go back to the lab. See if you can quickly fabricate some samples. I think we need to be prepared to give them what they want, or at least some version of it.”

  “What about the detective? What are we gonna do about him?”

  “Technically, you sent him away. I don’t think he can pursue the case from the kidnapping angle, at least not too much, without your permission. He can look at the robbery, but with nothing missing, he’s kind of stuck. Saunders needs our cooperation. We might not be able to stop him, but we don’t have to give him any information. Now, if the FBI catches up with us, that might be something completely different. We are gonna have to cooperate at some point, but maybe we can put it off for a while.”

  “What you’re saying is we have to outsmart the kidnappers and outrun the police.”

  “Something like that.”

  Chase nodded and sighed, “All right, let me go in the house and tell Piper we're headed back to the lab. I’ll see if she wants to come, but I don’t think that’s very likely.”

  Jess didn’t say anything. She just watched as Chase turned toward the door into the house, weaving his way between the two cars, one of the s
teps giving a little squeak as he put his weight on it. For a moment, quiet descended over Jess. She checked the time on her cell phone. How had only a couple hours gone by? Time was moving alternately very fast and very slow. Time that could tick down to the end of Abby’s life if they weren’t careful.

  The image of Abby’s smiling face popped up in Jess’s mind again. Jess remembered the last soccer game she’d attended. Piper had been out of town visiting friends and Chase had invited Jess to come. She stuffed her pockets with candy and showed up at the game with two yellow pom-poms in Abby’s school colors. She found Chase perched up in the stands, his eyes never leaving his daughter. As she passed him a box of licorice she’d bought at the local drugstore, she didn’t say anything, absorbing the sweet moment of watching her brother watch his daughter.

  Jess stared down the driveway as a landscaping truck passed by, the engine rattling and thrumming as the trailer behind it bounced along on the pavement, branches sticking out from inside. It looked like the tanned crew had been trimming trees nearby, two of them in the truck and two of them sitting down inside the bed. They must not be going far, Jess thought.

  Around her, she could hear birds chirping and the rustle of some small critters in the landscaping on the side of Chase’s driveway. Her breathing slowed, but the weight of Abby’s disappearance still set heavy on her. They had to get Abby back. They couldn’t turn to the police or the FBI because the kidnapper said they would kill her. Unfortunately, Jess believed them. These were the kind of people that had a contingency planned for every circumstance. Probably military or former military, Jess thought, doing some quick calculations in her head. They’d been outmaneuvered before the game ever started.

  Jess chewed her lip. It was one thing to do intelligence analysis on paper, but she’d never worked as a field agent. Her stomach sank a little bit. What if they couldn’t find Abby? What if somehow in the next few hours, she lost her nerve or forced Chase to make a wrong decision? Uncertainty poured over her. A child’s life was in her hands. Jess knew that Chase wasn’t in the mindset to make decisions. It was all on her.

  Chase still hadn’t come out of the house. Jess started to pace. What was he doing inside with Piper? Were they having an argument? Her palms sweaty, Jess sat back down on the bumper of the car, and drew in a deep breath, trying to still the pounding in her chest. She never felt this overwhelmed before. She knew the pieces of the puzzle were coming together, but not enough that anything made sense yet. Would it? Would they be able to figure out enough information to make enough of the right moves to be able to save Abby? Time was ticking and they were on the clock. Jess shook her head and held her breath for a second, feeling the air stopped in her lungs. What if the kidnappers killed Abby? Jess stood up. She couldn’t focus on Abby dying. She had to focus on Abby living. And the only people that could make sure it happened were she and Chase.

  10

  By the time Chase’s footsteps went back down the hallway, it was nearly one o’clock. Piper sat on the edge of the bed, dabbing at her eyes. She sat for another moment, listening and staring at the painting that had been hung on the opposite wall. It was one she’d found at an art show on the outskirts of Tucson a few years before, an oil painting of the mountains at sunset. When she first saw it at the show, her first thought was that it matched the colors in their bedroom. Then she realized that looking at the mountains gave her peace. Not that she was an outdoorsy, hiking in the desert kind of gal, she thought, standing up and tugging her leggings up a little bit higher around her waist. But she did like the way it looked.

  Piper walked to the window, pulling the curtain aside just a little bit, enough that she could see the corner of the street. If Chase and Jess were really leaving in a second, she’d see one of their cars through the corner of their yard, going down the street. There was only one way to exit their development, so they had to pass the window where she was standing. Licking her lips, she stared as she saw Jess’s car go by.

  They were gone.

  Piper went to the bedroom door and opened it, feeling the rush of air on the other side. She looked towards the kitchen and turned the other direction, her bare feet making a quiet padding sound on the cool tile. Down two doors on the left, the door was closed. Abby’s room. Piper put her hand on the doorknob and turned it, pushing it open.

  Sunlight was pouring through the large bay window throwing sharp shadows on the carpet, lighting up the white walls with a golden glow. A pair of soccer cleats sat on the floor next to Abby’s bed, even though Piper told her to keep them in the garage. Somehow, they always ended up in the house. The door to the adjoining bathroom was open. Piper wandered in, passed through the bedroom and stopped in the bathroom, where Abby’s toothbrush lay off to the side. She touched the handle of it and pulled her hand back, her stomach clenching in a knot. What had they done to her daughter?

  Piper turned and walked to the bedroom, swallowing hard. She bent forward a little, tugging on the comforter on Abby’s bed. Abby was pretty good about making it every day, but not always very good about doing it well. There were wrinkles, always wrinkles.

  She couldn’t spend one more minute in Abby’s room. Everything about it looked and felt and smelled like Abby, slightly sweet and clean, like the floral shampoo she used. Piper went back to the bedroom she shared with Chase, except for those nights he didn’t come home, cooped up in the lab, leaving the door open. When Chase was gone, she didn’t mind it. A little alone time wasn’t ever a bad thing, she reasoned. She sat back down on the edge of the bed, crossing one foot over the other as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. Looking at the screen, she found the phone number that had sent her a picture of Abby and dialed.

  “I was wondering if you’d call,” Landon said.

  “Yeah, they just left. I’m not sure where they’re headed. But Chase and Jess are together, just as you predicted.” Piper glanced around the room for a second, “How’s Abby? Is she okay? She’s not hurt or anything, is she?”

  “No, she’s been a real trooper. I can tell she’s scared, but who wouldn’t be.”

  Piper swallowed, “I miss you. I want to see you. I can’t wait for all of this to be over.” The words came out of her mouth in a rush, far faster than she wanted them to. She and Landon had met by chance a few years before at a restaurant when Piper was out with her girlfriends. Piper thought it was some innocent flirting, after all, she was a married woman, but for some reason when Landon asked for her phone number, she’d given it to him. Not that she ever expected him to call...

  The first call came about a week later. He asked if they could meet for coffee. Said he was having marital problems and that she seemed like someone who had her head screwed on straight. Piper remembered stammering on the phone a little bit, “I’m not sure. I don’t know if my husband would be okay with this,” she said to him.

  “I just need some advice, Piper, that’s all. I’d prefer to do it in person if that’s okay with you.”

  Landon sounded so sad and lost at the time Piper didn’t feel like she could refuse.

  A few hours later, Piper met Landon at a local coffee shop. He told her the story of his wife and how they didn’t have any children and had fertility problems and now they weren’t getting along. What did Piper think he should do?

  Two weeks later, after another one of their coffee dates while Abby was at school and Chase was at the office, Piper found herself in Landon’s car doing something she never planned to do.

  And now she was in love.

  Landon was everything Chase wasn’t — strong, courageous, a man of decisiveness. Chase could barely decide what to order for dinner, let alone exude the kind of strength that Piper needed in a man. After meeting Landon and spending time with him, Piper wasn’t sure why she married Chase. At the time, she thought his quirkiness and scientific brilliance was attractive. He was so cerebral, so different than so many of the other men she’d met.

  Then, three months ago, things had changed. Piper had tol
d Chase she was going on a weekend trip with a couple of friends from college he’d never met. There was no trip. It was a weekend away with Landon. They’d driven up into the mountains, to a little resort with tall pine trees and long walking trails. It was there that Landon said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but there was something they needed to do first. When Piper first heard the plan to abduct Abby in order to get the ABG from Chase, she balked. “No, I can’t do that to my family,” she said to Landon, sitting up on the edge of the bed they were sharing. “How can you ask me to do that? Abby would be traumatized. And I have no way of knowing how Chase will respond.”

  “Piper, honey, you need to understand. This will save lives. Chase has a formula that could be out helping people right now, but he won’t release it. I needed to protect my men, to protect lives in the field. All we’re going to do is scare him a little bit. And, I promise, we won’t hurt Abby. She’ll walk out of the whole thing thinking it’s a fun experience. I’ll make sure she knows I know you. She’ll have so much to tell her friends about.”

  Now, sitting on the edge of the bed, Piper wasn’t so sure Landon was right. How could she have believed him? What kind of a mother was she to allow this? She tried to refocus on the conversation she was having with Landon. His gravelly voice penetrated her thoughts, “Where are you right now?”

  “At the house still. What else do you need me to do? Landon, I’m lonely and scared.”

  “I know, baby. This will all be over soon. There’s not much going on here. Want to meet?”

  Piper’s heart skipped a beat in her chest. Meeting Landon might be exactly what she needed. At least she could look into his eyes and make him promise her that Abby was okay. “Yes. I think that would be good.”