“I have a very limited need for thigh-high stilettos. I don’t dress up for Halloween.”
“Oh, go on, just put them on,” she cajoled. “I want to see how they look. With your long legs, they’ll be great.”
I shrugged and took the boots. “You realize I charge by the hour. You’re going to pay for this one way or the other,” I teased as I squashed the legs of my snug jeans inside the boots and awkwardly zipped them up.
Lola gazed up at me. “Holy cats, how tall are you anyway?”
“How high are the heels?”
“About four and half inches, if you count the platform soles.”
“Then I’m just over six foot two.” I prowled and swaggered across the floor, tossing my hair and striking a sexpot pose while she laughed. As I glanced toward the window, I realized a man was standing outside, rooted to the spot while he stared in at me.
“Shit!” I dodged behind a display.
Lola followed my line of sight. “Hey, free advertising. Thanks, honey!”
I unzipped the boots and jerked them off my feet. “Easy for you to say. You owe me big-time for that.”
“No, if you were wearing fishnets and a leather miniskirt with the boots, then I’d owe you. Hey, I don’t suppose…”
“No.”
“All right, all right. Grumpy. Go do the books.” She grinned unrepentantly and picked up the discarded boots as I made a beeline for the back office.
A couple of hours later, I emerged warily. Lola smirked at me. “Hey, I just had a great idea!”
“No. Whatever it is, no. Not when you’re smiling like that.”
“Oh, go on. How would you like to make some extra money?”
“No, I will not dress up in boots, fishnets, and/or lingerie and parade around outside the store.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to do such a thing,” she said loftily. “But I do need a model for our online catalogue.”
I was already backing away, shaking my head. “Absolutely not.”
“We wouldn’t show your face in any of the shots. And we’d hide the naughty bits.”
“Lola! No! Jeez! Do it yourself if you need a model.”
“Now, there’s an idea…”
I fled the shop while she thought it over.
Chapter 16
When I stuck my head into his office, Spider was clicking computer keys, frowning intently. A stack of papers overflowed the tray on his desk, and the entire desk surface was covered.
He glanced up with a start. “Is it four o’clock already?”
“Yeah. Long day?”
“You can say that again.” He rubbed wearily at his stubbly chin.
I looked more closely at the stubble. “Are you growing a beard?”
He blushed. “Trying. It’s not going so well. This is a week’s worth.”
I couldn’t think of anything encouraging to say, so I took another tack. “Going for a new image?”
“I thought it might make me look older. I’m tired of getting asked for ID. I’m twenty-six, for crying out loud.”
Actually, its fledgling state made him look even younger. I nodded and changed the subject. “You rang?”
“Yes, we have to set up the paper trail so we can pay you for your undercover work.” He rooted through several piles of paper, restacking them until he discovered the one he was looking for. “I meant to have this ready, but time got away from me this afternoon. I haven’t decided yet whether you should invoice Kane Consulting or Spider’s Webb Design.”
“Which would then flow money through from my actual employer, I presume.”
“Yes.”
“Um, Spider, I don’t feel comfortable invoicing for bookkeeping services if I haven’t actually seen your books. In my mind, there’s some responsibility associated with this.”
“We can’t let you see the books unless you go through a bunch more security clearances.” He scratched his chin again. “Darn, this itches. Maybe I’ll just shave it off.”
“How do you and Kane deal with the income?”
He shrugged, still absently fingering his stubble. “It’s easy for us. We’re both officially part of the INSET team, so we draw normal salary. If there’s anything that can’t be covered by that, it flows through our personal companies.”
“What if we skip the bookkeeping angle and you just subcontract some of your web design out to me?”
“We can’t take a chance on lying about it. It’s too easy to check. That’d be a good solution, though, if you could do web design.”
I shrugged. “I can.”
His eyes sharpened, and I could see the wheels turning. “You can? Do web design?”
“Yeah. I’d never win any prizes for graphic design, and I don’t do any of the complicated stuff. But I can do pure HTML and search engine optimization. I did my own website.”
Spider turned back to his computer. “What’s your URL?”
I told him, and his fingers flew over the keyboard. He clicked around for a few seconds. “This is good. It’s nice and clean and fast.” He gave me a calculating smile. “We could kill two birds with one stone. If you’re willing.”
“Willing to do what, exactly?” I leaned back in my chair, regarding him suspiciously.
“I keep some civilian clients for cover purposes. It seems like they always need something right when I’m buried with CSIS stuff. Like now. I’m working sixteen hour days, trying to stay on top of everything for this thing at Harchman’s. My civvie clients get pushed to the bottom of the pile. If you could cover for me, that would be fabulous.”
“It depends on what they need,” I equivocated. “I told you, I’m no guru. I can do basic stuff, that’s it.”
“Trust me, it’s all basic. Minor updates. Please,” he begged. “You have no idea how much it would help me.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
“Aydan, you’re a lifesaver! Invoice me for the actual time you spend plus the amount for your undercover work.”
I left the office with a stack of files and spent the evening at my computer, wondering what I’d gotten myself into.
Chapter 17
When my phone rang at 4:45 A.M., I levitated several inches off the bed. I’d been deeply asleep, and my heart tried to bang its way out of my chest while I groped wildly for the receiver. Fear shot through me when I squinted at the illuminated call display and recognized Spider’s number.
I jabbed at the Talk button. “Spider, what’s wrong?” I snapped.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he said quickly.
I collapsed back onto the bed and hyperventilated quietly for a few seconds. “Thank God. What’s up, then?”
“I just got a call from Kane. He needs you there.”
I rolled out of bed, shivering when the chilly air from the open window hit my bare skin. “Okay. What’s the plan?” As I spoke, I dragged out my backpack and started to dig in my underwear drawer.
“You need to come in to the office. We can talk there.”
Right, of course he couldn’t tell me anything over an unsecured line.
“When?”
“ASAP.”
“See you in twenty minutes.”
I hung up the phone and threw on some clothes, abandoning the packing effort until I knew more about what I was getting into. On my way through the kitchen, I grabbed a cereal bar and hurried out the door.
I failed to appreciate the beauty of the sunrise on the way to town. My nerves jangled while I wolfed the bar down without tasting it. If Kane needed me, it meant only one thing. I’d be going back into the network. Nothing like the anticipation of pain and fear to get you going in the morning.
I pulled up in front of the little house precisely twenty minutes later. The lights were on, and I strode up the walk and barged into the office without knocking. Spider gave a violent start in his chair, and I offered him a penitent ‘sorry’ as the phone rang.
He picked up. “Yes, she’s here… Yes, I ran a sweep just a few minutes ago. We’re
secure… Okay.” He put the receiver against his shoulder and spoke to me. “I’m going to put him on speaker now.”
He pressed a few buttons, and Kane’s deep voice filled the room. “Aydan?”
“Hi, I’m here.”
“Thanks for coming so quickly.”
“No problem, what’s up?”
“We’ve had some activity here overnight. People coming and going from the guest house. In the night vision scope, it looked like at least one of them was bound and blindfolded. We need to know if they’re using the network. The sooner the better.”
“Shit, I should have stayed in Calgary. I’m at least three hours away by the time I get loaded up and on the road.”
He sighed. “I know. But I didn’t know when, or if, we would need you again. It can’t be helped. That gives me time to make some arrangements at this end, anyway.”
“Okay, what do you need me to do?”
“You still hold a valid Class 6 driver’s license.” It wasn’t a question. Spider’s research skills had obviously been at work again.
“Yes.”
“Hellhound says you still ride.”
I shook my head incredulously. “His memory is phenomenal. I made a passing reference to it. Months ago.”
“But you do?”
“Dirt biking. I haven’t ridden a street bike in years.”
“I guess that doesn’t surprise me,” he said slowly. “But could you get back on a street bike?”
“I guess. As long as I have a chance to ride it around for a while and get used to it again. But I don’t have a helmet I’d trust for anything other than tooling around the back forty.”
“We’ve got a base camp set up a few miles from Harchman’s, and we’re doing all our surveillance from motorcycles. They’re small and manoeuvrable and easy to hide. I’ll arrange for a bike and a helmet for you. Do you have riding clothes?”
“Yes. But get me a cruiser. 750 cc, max. I’ve never ridden one of those hyperbikes. I’d probably kill myself.”
“All right. Plan to be here for a few days. Camping. Sorry, it’s pretty primitive.”
“No problem. I’m happier in the bush than dressed up at a party.”
His laugh boomed over the speaker. “Somehow I thought you’d say that. I’ll bring you up to speed when you get here. Webb will give you the network key and the address where you can pick up the bike and helmet. When you’re kitted up and leaving Calgary, call Webb. He’ll relay a call to me and I’ll meet you on the highway about five miles east of Harchman’s. Any questions?”
“Lots, but I think they can wait.”
“One more thing. We need to be able to get you out of the network reliably. You and Webb need to work on that before you leave Silverside. We can’t afford a repeat of what happened in March.”
“Agreed. We’ll figure something out. I think it was the… other stuff that was the problem, then.”
“Let’s hope so. See you soon. Ride safe.”
“I will.” The words came out of my mouth sounding more like a prayer than a statement.
Spider hung up the phone. He was the first to break the short silence. “I guess we’d better head over to Sirius and get the network key. I’ll meet you there so you can leave right after.” He scribbled an address and handed it to me. “Here’s where you can pick up the bike. Tell them you’re picking it up for Kane Consulting.”
“Okay.” I headed for my car while Spider locked up the office. My heart pounded as I sank into the driver’s seat. I was so far outside my comfort zone. Despite my confident words, I was terrified of getting back on a street bike. And I was afraid to go back into the network, too.
I drove over to Sirius on autopilot, mindlessly following Spider’s custom-painted lime-green Smart car. Throughout the short drive, I racked my brain for a safer, less obvious way to get into the network. God, why couldn’t I just be invisible?
We parked and let ourselves into the prison-like security at Sirius, my already-racing pulse accelerating even more in the cramped time-delay chamber. When we arrived in Spider’s lab, he unlocked the drawer again and retrieved the emerald necklace. I cocked an eyebrow at him, clenching my quivering hands behind my back to hide my nervousness.
“A little overdressed for camping, don’t you think?” I asked.
“Definitely.” He carried the necklace over to a workbench and prised the backing off the gem with tiny tools, peering through a powerful magnifying glass. “The question is what to do with it. If it gets lost, we’re sunk. It’s so tiny, all you have to do is sneeze and it’s gone.”
I frowned, pondering. “I hate to take it out in the bush. That’s just asking to lose it.”
Spider extracted the circuitry with tweezers and held it up. “Any ideas?”
“I shudder to think I carried that around on my keychain without a care in the world for nearly six months. Now I’m afraid to carry it across the room.”
“I think you need to carry it on your person this time,” he said seriously. “I don’t think we should take a chance on putting it in your waist pouch or on your key ring.”
“I hope you’re not going to tell me where to stick it.”
He blushed scarlet. “No! I didn’t mean… I just meant… you should carry it with you. Somewhere. I mean, somehow.”
I chuckled. “I know what you meant. I’m thinking.” We sat in silence for a few moments. “Would it go under my watch strap?” I took off my large, battered watch and passed it over.
Spider examined it carefully. “Maybe. Or maybe…” He carried it over to the workbench and got out his little tools. A few seconds later, he looked up with a grin. “Perfect. Your watch is so big and old, the circuitry fits right inside the body of the watch. And nobody would ever think it’s valuable.” He stopped himself awkwardly. “I mean… it’s a nice watch, but…”
“It’s okay, Spider, I bought it over a decade ago for twenty bucks. I have no illusions that it’s valuable. Or that anyone would ever think it was valuable.”
He handed it back to me with an embarrassed shrug. “Sorry.”
“No problem.” I strapped it back on. “Okay, let’s give it a test run. Have you got the monitors up?”
“Give me a minute.” He turned to his computer, fingers flying. “Okay. Ready whenever you are.”
“Let’s kill two birds with one stone. I don’t want to go in and out any more than I have to. How about if I go in and wait, and you see if you can wake me from here.”
He nodded. “Go ahead.”
I concentrated and stepped into the white void of the simulation network, wearing Robert’s image. I walked around experimentally, focusing fiercely on holding the illusion for as long as possible.
After several minutes, my head started to throb from the effort. With a sigh, I let my body regain its normal appearance and wandered back and forth a little while longer. Then I conjured up an armchair from nothingness and sprawled into it, wondering what was taking Spider so long.
Finally I got tired of waiting and stepped back through the portal. I clutched my head and swore violently when the expected pain hit me. Straightening slowly, I squinted at Spider.
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I couldn’t. I shook you and yelled your name. You didn’t come out.” He gazed at me in consternation. “This isn’t going to work.”
“Shit. I didn’t feel a thing in the network. I thought you said you could get people out of the network just as easily as waking them out of a sleep.”
“Normally we can, but I guess it must be something weird about the way you access it with the key.”
“We’ve got to find a way to make it work. Slap me or something. Or hey, how about this?” I dug into my waist pouch. “Here. Stick me with this pin.”
He recoiled. “No! That’s gross!”
“Spider, we have to make this work. Have you got a better idea?”
“I’m not sticking you with a pin.”
“Do it, dammit! Wo
uld you rather I get captured or killed because I’m messing around in the network and I don’t know I have to get out and run away in my real body?”
He took the pin from me, revulsion in every line of his body. “I think I might puke if I have to stick a pin in you. Or pass out.”
“Then find somebody who can. Go get John Smith. I’m sure he’d love to stick a pin in me.”
He squared his shoulders, pale but determined. “No. He’s not sticking a pin in you. I’ll do it.”
“Okay. Here goes.” I stepped back into the network void and waited. Nothing happened. I’d always liked Spider for his soft heart, but this time it was a serious handicap. He was probably still standing there trying to get up the nerve to poke me. I sighed and waved my armchair into existence again.
I flopped into it and kept falling into agony. White-hot whips lashed my brain and blindness swallowed me whole. Screams tore from my throat and my body flailed helplessly, beyond my control as it tried to escape the torture. Time folded into an eternity of torment.
The blindness resolved into a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours. Nausea overtook me as they swirled, and I curled into a tight, whimpering ball. Finally, the pain and sickness began to subside as the colours faded. My clenched muscles slowly eased and awareness returned.
I lay on the floor of the lab. Spider was kneeling beside me, his face chalk-white. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he babbled.
I roused myself from my misery and dragged myself onto my knees. “Hey, Spider, I’m okay.”
He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my shoulder, trembling . “I’m sorry…”
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. Hey.” I gave him a little shake. “It’s okay. My fault. I should have guessed this might happen.”
He pulled away, swiping his hand across his face and taking a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m so sorry,” he repeated. “Are… are you really okay?”
“I’m fine. It wasn’t anything you did. Remember when something like this happened before? When I went through the portal too fast?”
He nodded wordlessly, visibly working to compose himself. His face was still ashen, and I let him take his time. Finally, he took another deep breath, steadier this time.
The Spy Is Cast Page 11
