Hidden Impact

by Piper J. Drake

  It was what he would say too.

  His fire team might be out of rotation, on leave in the US while they healed up from their latest mission overseas, but eventually they’d cycle back and rejoin a squadron for their next contract. The Centurion Corporation had several squadrons deployed around the world, how many and where depended on the contract and the nature of their clients. Where there was conflict, there was a need for private military contractors.

  As much as his team needed the rest, every one of them, including him, had been itching to do something after the first couple of weeks hanging around Centurion Corporation’s Seattle base. That was when Gabe had suggested to their leadership that they take on the lighter duty, local bodyguard contracts. Didn’t require as much physical activity and kept them all sharp.

  It’d made sense. Then he’d encountered Maylin.

  He watched the woman as she made yet another omelet for Marc and Seth, demonstrating how she made layers of cooked egg and rolled it.

  His team was already getting engaged, attached to their client. Maylin wasn’t some aloof wealthy personage hiring them for personal security. She was a warm, genuinely nice, dangerously likeable person with a talent for feeding hungry people.

  And she was good at what she did. He’d seen her in action last night. She’d managed her catering team with cool efficiency. Her people came to her with issues and she was calm, decisive in handling anything brought to her attention. Always smiled for the guests, never broke a sweat. And the entire time she’d been worried about her sister and recovering from the craptastic rebuff he’d given her.

  Yeah. He’d been slick. A real pro way to handle a situation.

  And he might choke on the sarcasm of his own thoughts.

  Hell.

  He sighed and placed his hands on the counter. His team stopped the chatter almost immediately, all of their attention turned to him. Maylin followed their cues, her green eyes wide. Hopeful.

  “For starters, we’ll head back to your apartment and try to get some intel on exactly who is after you.”

  She frowned. “An-mei is the one who’s missing.”

  He nodded. “And for some reason someone tried to run you down last night and took the time to bug your apartment. Unless you’re involved with the Chinese mafia or some other illicit activity, is it safe to say that sort of thing might be related to your inquiries about your sister?”

  Her lips pressed into a tight line and her cheeks flushed pink with either embarrassment or anger. Considering the spark in her eyes, he’d guess both. And damn it, he didn’t like it.

  He looked to his team. Every one of their faces was carefully blank. They’d never voice their disagreement in front of a client. They respected him too much to undermine his authority. But the carefully neutral expressions they’d all put into place told him enough. He was being too much of a hard-ass.

  He really hated these heart-string contracts. They always ended up a complicated mess.

  “Look, it’s the best lead we have, and it’ll take the entire team to sweep the apartment.” See? He could be reasonable. Nice even. “We stand the best chance of getting good intel the sooner we go.”

  Maylin nodded, a determined look taking the place of her earlier embarrassment. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Five

  “All right,” Marc began. “We know there’s audio surveillance in the apartment. What we need is to confirm whether there’s video. We also need one or more samples of those devices.”

  The team was stuffed into an SUV, which normally would be comfortable for a group of four plus Maylin, but somehow seemed a tight fit for Gabe’s group. It wasn’t as if they had a lot of gear or that anyone was particularly bulky in build. Each of them had a strong personality and carried an indefinable sense of pent-up energy. Gabe was driving, while Lizzy had shotgun and Marc and Victoria rode in the back. They’d insisted Maylin ride in the middle row, making her a part of the conversation. She was grateful for it. They didn’t have to but it went a long way toward easing her nerves.

  “I didn’t see signs of video surveillance in the usual places,” Gabe interjected. “But there was only me looking.”

  “What would it look like?” Maylin thought Gabe had taken a long time looking through her apartment, but she’d been tired at the time and confused about what he’d been doing.

  “There’s all sorts of possibilities,” Marc answered. “It’s close to impossible for a single person to do this sort of sweep and find even most of the devices present, much less all of them. That’s why our whole fire team is going in to look. Even if we only acquire one or two samples, we want to take note of the placement of every one we can find. Do you have a sound system, Maylin?”

  “I have a small set of speakers in the kitchen and the bedroom.” Startled, Maylin fumbled for her phone. “I hook them up to my phone for music.”

  Marc nodded. “When we go in, Maylin, once it’s clear I’d like you to come in too and turn on some music. Not anything superdynamic with loud booms and quiet lulls, but music you play normally with a steady amount of sound. It’ll allow us to have quiet communication without them being able to make out what we’re saying.”

  “Hand me your phone, love.” Victoria held out her hand. “I’ll look through your playlists and pull some songs together that would be suitable.”

  Maylin passed her phone to Victoria gladly. “But if there’s video surveillance, won’t they know we’re all there?”

  “Yes. Not optimal, but you’ve been gone long enough they have to know you found somebody to stay with overnight.” Marc nodded. His lips pressed in a thin line. “But we’ll go in taking measures to hide our own conversation. They might have most of us identified from when they tried to run you down anyway. We were all there. It’s not giving them that much more information to see our faces on video surveillance. It’ll be even more frustrating if they can’t figure out what we’re saying.”

  Made sense.

  Most of them wore baseball caps, though Victoria had opted for a fedora. Studying them for a minute, Maylin realized their faces would be hard to see from most security cameras set at ceiling level. Their hats went with their casual attire, so it didn’t seem all that out of place in a public area.

  If anything, she stood out from the rest of them. When they all got out of the car, they kept her between them and she decided a hat was going to be the least of her worries. She matched their pace and walked with confidence. This was her parking garage and her apartment building. She belonged here, knew exactly where she was going, and there was no reason to be afraid.

  Or every reason to refuse to show how nervous she was.

  They headed up to her apartment, and she gave Gabe the key when he turned and held out his hand. She watched in fascination as they each readied themselves for some surprise, keeping her around the corner from her entryway as Gabe unlocked the door and let them inside.

  Gabe and Lizzy went in first, clearing the apartment while Marc and Victoria waited outside with her. Once it was clear, Lizzy returned and motioned for them to enter.

  Marc indicated she should proceed with definitive gestures to the speakers she kept in the kitchen as Gabe drew the curtains across all the windows in her apartment. She set up her phone with the playlist Victoria had hastily created and hit Play.

  Music filled the apartment and they began to spread out. Victoria and Marc began in the living room while Lizzy started in the kitchen. Maylin followed Gabe into her bedroom.

  He leaned close to her, his breath tickling her ear. “Don’t touch anything but look closely. Does anything look different, out of place? Is there any disturbed dust, or a place that looks like it’s been dusted more recently than the last time you cleaned? Look especially around the level of about five feet, anywhere someone would be standing at bookcases, picture frames
, lamps, any kind of fixture.”

  “Why five feet?” she asked in a low whisper.

  Gabe shrugged. “Fairly optimal to catch conversation for people of average height.”

  She was so going to regret bringing this up. “Would the person placing these things in my home take into account that I run somewhat shorter than average?”

  Hello, she had to arch her back and tilt her head to look up at Gabe when he got into her personal space. Which he did kind of often. Whether she minded or not was something to think about later.

  The corner of Gabe’s mouth lifted slowly. “We’ll check in a range give or take six inches and lower areas around places you’d be seated or laying down. Why don’t you update the others on the team and join me back here? Stay away from the windows, even with the curtains drawn.”

  She pressed her lips together. The minute she turned her back, he was going to have the biggest grin on his face. She knew it. Couldn’t prove it. And for no good reason, she wanted a picture of it.

  So not the time to be obsessing over the range of his facial expressions.

  The sooner they found one or more of these bugs, the sooner they had their hands on physical evidence of whoever was trying to keep Maylin out of the way. More than likely, they were the same people responsible for An-mei’s disappearance, and Maylin wanted answers.

  She cautiously headed back to the kitchen and passed her message on to Lizzy. Lizzy only nodded. “I always check. You and I are around the same height. Stick with Diaz and I’ll pass the message on to Marc and Victoria.”

  If someone was actively listening in, Maylin guessed they’d be able to monitor multiple frequencies, maybe including whatever channel Gabe’s team was using. So it made sense for them to pass the verbal messages on this way, in low murmurs behind the music. It still felt like playing the telephone game or some other school time thing.

  As she reached Gabe again, he kept her with him, his tall frame always between her and the windows and well away from them. He had her look carefully at all of her knickknacks and keepsakes, picture frames, and even her pillows. She stared at each item hard. Conflicted. On one hand she wanted to find something to help them. On the other hand, she was seriously hoping there weren’t video cameras in her room or bathroom. Please, please not her bathroom.

  Too creepy for words.

  She rubbed her upper arms as a chill went through her. A moment later, Gabe draped one of her jackets from her closet around her shoulders. She smiled up at him in thanks and he gave her a solemn nod. His eyes were warm and, she thought, maybe held a bit of sympathy.

  Minutes later, it was Gabe who found the first one. It was tucked into the corner edge of her headboard, not much bigger than a long grain of rice, and clear. She wouldn’t have spotted it unless she’d gone into one of her insane spring-cleaning modes, and then she’d only have caught it with a cleaning cloth as opposed to actually seeing it.

  He motioned for her not to touch it, marked it with a small colored sticky flag and resumed the search. As they stepped away from the device, he leaned close again. “We’ll let Marc handle taking it. He’s our communications expert.”

  Her throat had gone dry, so she only nodded. When he stepped into the bathroom, he turned on the shower. Presumably to create similar noise interference as the music in the kitchen.

  It was a small space, so she stood back and watched him check the clear light bulbs and light fixtures. He also checked the fire alarm. When he placed a sticky at the corner of the bathroom mirror, she shuddered, hoping it was an audio device and not video.

  Please no video.

  It was a violation. Her home wasn’t hers anymore. Someone had snuck in and made it theirs to use against her. She’d have never known without Gabe.

  When he was done, he handed her an empty duffel bag—not one of her own. “Grab some more clothes for yourself. A few things for any situation. Give them to me to check over before packing them. Once you’ve taken what you need out of the closet, I’ll do a sweep of it.”

  She nodded in agreement. This process was painstakingly slow. Her nerves were wound taut and she had to deliberately stretch her jaw because she’d been clenching it without realizing. Finally, she was packed and Gabe was motioning for her to head back out to the kitchen and living areas.

  Gabe led her to the foyer, tucked into the small space next to the door to her apartment. He then moved to Marc and Victoria, taking up a watchful stance as the other man headed to the bedroom. Presumably, he was going to get the two devices Gabe had located.

  Moments later, Gabe caught Maylin’s attention and pointed to his watch, then held up five fingers.

  Five minutes. Maylin nodded.

  He gave her a brief smile and her spirits lifted somewhat. Then his gaze moved past her to the kitchen where the floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over Elliott Bay.

  “Lizzy, up and over. Now!”

  Lizzy responded immediately, planting her hands on the kitchen counter and hopping up onto the surface. Her left shin was bloody. Shocked, Maylin looked around wildly.

  Something had torn through the lower part of the curtains in two, maybe three places. Tiny shards of broken glass glittered on the kitchen floor. Lizzy came the rest of the way over the tiny breakfast bar, grabbing Maylin’s phone off the speaker stand as she did.

  “Shots fired. Shots fired. Alpha team, out now.” Even as Gabe was issuing terse commands, Lizzy was rushing to plaster Maylin against the wall. Gabe motioned for Victoria to precede him. “Marc, I’ll provide cover as you come past the kitchen.”

  Lizzy grabbed Maylin. “Let me go first, but stay right behind me, you hear me?”

  “Yes.” Maylin choked out the agreement as Victoria caught up to them, grabbing up the duffel bag of Maylin’s clothes.

  Lizzy led the way, a small handgun out and ready as she checked the hallway. Once she motioned clear, Victoria hustled Maylin out and down to the far end of the hallway where the three of them hustled through the fire door to crouch in the stairwell. Victoria took a guarding stance as Lizzy holstered her gun and pulled a few lengths of bandage from a pouch on her utility belt. “Shit. Gabe saw it happen before I even felt it.”

  “Bad?” Victoria asked.

  “Nah. Minor graze. Stings is all. I’m fine.” Lizzy finished tying off the quick bandage.

  “Is there something I can do to help?” Maylin asked belatedly. Everything was happening fast and she was not keeping up.

  “Keep doing what you’re doing.” Lizzy took out her gun again. “Do as we say, no hesitation. You’re doing fine.”

  There was a sharp rapping at the door to the stairwell in a broken staccato pattern, then Marc came through, followed by Gabe.

  Even in her panic, Maylin realized Gabe had been waiting to be sure all of them had gotten out first. All of them.

  Victoria gripped Maylin’s upper arm. “We’re going now. That wasn’t a lot of noise, but if any of your neighbors got concerned, someone’s going to check your apartment and find the broken glass. Best for everyone if we’re away from here so no one else gets caught up in this.”

  * * *

  Back in the car, the silence was killing Maylin. She’d huddled low in the middle seat of the SUV as they’d left the parking garage and only sat up once Gabe had given the okay.

  They were out of the downtown area and on the highway before anyone spoke.

  “No sign of a tail,” Marc reported from the backseat.

  “Roger that.” Gabe’s acknowledgment came out harsh, angry.

  The entire car was quiet again after that. Maylin watched mile markers go by, the tension inside her winding tighter and tighter. This wasn’t the way they’d come into the city. Maybe Gabe was taking them on a more roundabout way home.

  She couldn’t sit still anymore. Reaching for the big, sof
t cooler bag she’d packed this morning, she tugged it up onto the seat next to her and started digging inside.

  “Maylin, dear. What are you doing?” Victoria didn’t sound displeased but her tone was gentle, the way one would talk to somebody fragile.

  Maylin wasn’t fragile. She was practical. And silence the whole car ride home was a waste of time.

  She pulled out a sandwich wrapped in wax paper and held it out to Victoria.

  The blonde mercenary blinked. “What?”

  “It’s been hours since any of us ate. I made muffuletta sandwiches just in case we got hungry.” Maylin wiggled the package in front of Victoria. “There’s salami, ham, mozzarella, provolone, and olive salad. I raided the bigger kitchens over on the training side of the complex earlier this morning.”

  “Seriously?” Marc snagged the sandwich out of Maylin’s hand. “I’m starving.”

  Maylin quickly grabbed another wrapped sandwich and handed it to Victoria, who accepted it with a smile. Two more went up front to Lizzy and Gabe. Once everyone had a sandwich, Maylin took out one for herself, unwrapped it halfway and took a bite.

  Savory, salty flavor burst across her tongue as she chewed. The olive salad had just the right punch and she loved the combination of the Italian meats. It wasn’t just a sandwich, it was a meal, and every bite should be packed with flavor and interesting.

  Immediately, the atmosphere in the car edged away from icy tension to more relaxed.

  Gabe paused in eating his sandwich. “Lizzy. Status?”

  “Minor. Just a graze.” Lizzy took a minute to chew and swallow. “Shots came in a low spread across the kitchen. I’m thinking they saw vague movement through the curtains and took a chance they’d hit to injure.”

  “Looks like they’re trying to wound our genius cook here, rather than kill her,” Marc said around a mouthful of bread and olives.