Classified Christmas Mission

by Lynette Eason

  Amber nodded. “Good idea. Wish I could join you.”

  “You just keep that little boy safe. I’ll keep you in the loop.”

  “Fair enough.” She stepped out of the room and Tiffany turned. “Would you like to take a walk with me?” Amber asked her. “Clay’s going to keep an eye on the door so you and I can go visit someone.” Clay had finally introduced her to Tiffany at the hospital when he’d had the deputy cover the door. Amber figured there was no sense in trying to keep her presence in Wrangler’s Corner from law enforcement. Not at this point. She did not want, however, to be recognized by anyone else.

  Confusion flickered in her eyes, but she shrugged. “Sure.”

  After a quick stop to the ladies’ room around the corner, they headed for the elevator that would take them down to the second floor where surgery was located. Amber was anxious to speak to the man, but didn’t want to hurry. She wanted to watch her back. “We’re going to talk to one of the men you captured out at Lance’s ranch. He’s heading for surgery and is insisting on speaking to me before he goes under.”

  “Good, maybe you’ll learn something.”

  “That’s the hope,” Amber said. She flicked a glance at the deputy. “How long have you worked in Wrangler’s Corner?”

  The pretty blonde smiled. “I’ve been here a little over two years.”

  “You like it?”

  “I love it. I’m a small-town girl at heart.”

  “Where are you from originally?”

  “Manhattan.”

  “I knew that wasn’t a Tennessee accent.”

  The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Tiffany stepped out, her hand on the weapon at her hip. Amber wasn’t comfortable with the deputy being right at her side. She stood out like a sore thumb, but Amber hoped her disguise was good enough that no one would realize who she was.

  “Hey, Tiff, how are you?” A young woman rushed up and gave Tiffany a hug. Amber slowed her pace, but kept going, not wanting to be seen with the deputy and raise questions. Tiffany seemed to understand. Amber heard her say a few kind words, offer to pray for her friend’s father, then excuse herself.

  Amber let her gaze touch on each face she passed. She didn’t know how Pirhadi could possibly know they were at the hospital, but she wouldn’t assume he didn’t. He seemed to have eyes and ears all over town. She felt sure he knew that one of his men had been shot in the raid and would be taken to the hospital. She wouldn’t put it past him to show up. From the corner of her eye, she saw Tiffany coming up on her left. “There’s a coffee bar. I’m going to get some.” She didn’t necessarily want coffee, but it would give her a chance to scan the area without looking like she was doing so.

  “That would be wonderful.”

  She went to the window and ordered. Tiffany did the same and Amber paid for both. While they waited for the coffee, she again studied the faces around her. Her tension eased slightly when she didn’t recognize anyone—and no one recognized her. “All right, let’s go see what Taj has to say.”

  Together, she and the deputy walked down the hall to the surgery center. Amber paused at the door and scanned each face. There were twelve people of various ages sitting in the chairs. Two children played in the small area loaded with toys and books to her left. No one paid any attention to her so she approached the waiting area desk where a gray-haired woman named Eve—according to her silver-plated name badge—seemed to be the one in charge. “I’m Amber. I hear you have a patient who’s asking to speak to me.”

  Eve looked over the top of her glasses. “Oh yes. I was instructed to bring you right back. Follow me, please.”

  Amber did, her gaze roving, nerves twitching. Tiffany followed a few steps behind. Once they were through the secure doors back where they held patients for surgery, she was able to relax a fraction. Eve led them to a room closed off by a yellow curtain. She poked her head inside. “She’s here.” She then gave a little wave and headed back toward her station.

  Trent stepped outside and motioned her in. “Wait here,” she said to Tiffany. “Watch everyone walking by. If anyone hesitates near this room, will you let me know, please?”

  “Of course.” Tiffany planted herself just outside the curtain where she would have a good view of anyone coming or going.

  Amber stepped inside the curtained room and noted the nurse to the side, the doctor with the chart and the patient in the bed and Trent keeping watch over his prisoner. The doctor looked up with a frown. “We really need to get him into surgery. He’s already lost a lot of blood.”

  “Hopefully this will just take a minute.”

  Trent waved her forward. She stepped up beside the dark-haired, dark-eyed man on the gurney. His eyes were closed. She touched his arm and his lids fluttered. “Taj, talk to me.”

  He raised a hand and pulled the mask from his mouth. “Yousef...”

  “Yes?” She leaned forward.

  “He’s here.”

  “I know. Why does he want me dead?” Taj’s eyes closed again. She nudged him. “Come on, Taj, you need to get that bullet out. Talk to me.”

  The man looked at her through slits. “Don’t let him kill Sam.”

  “I’m trying to keep Sam safe, I promise.” She had a vision of Taj pushing Sam on the swing in the backyard before Yousef had yelled at him to get back inside and leave his “imbecile” son alone. She’d seen the flash of fury in Taj’s eyes before he’d left Sam to her and hurried back to the house.

  “Ravi...”

  Amber sucked in a breath. The name Sam had used. “Yes?”

  “On the plane. They’re coming with a virus.”

  “What kind of virus?”

  “Go,” he said. “Watch for Yousef. I set you up...s-sorry.”

  “How did Pirhadi find me, Taj? He knew I was here.”

  “Sam’s shoes—a tracker—your handler’s—” He let out another labored breath and shuddered. Then fell unconscious.

  “All right, that’s it,” the doctor said. “We’re going to surgery.” He nodded to the orderly who moved to grasp one end of the gurney.

  Before she could blink, they were out of the room and rolling down the hallway. Tiffany looked at her and raised a brow. Amber’s gut twisted. She hadn’t missed a tracker on the car, she’d missed it on Sam. She pulled her phone from her pocket and texted Lance. Get rid of Sam’s shoes. There’s a tracker in them. “Well, I know how they’ve been finding us this whole time.”

  Doing it now. Lance’s text came back almost immediately.

  She had to get to Sam. They needed to move him ASAP. She turned back to Trent. “Where did Kat go?”

  “She said she had some arrangements to make and she’d be in touch.”

  “Thanks.” Amber headed for the elevator. “What did the prisoner have to say?” Tiffany asked as she fell in line beside Amber.

  “The same thing Sam did. Only Taj said something about a virus and a setup, but I’m not sure how to put it together to make sense. He also said something about...”

  “About what?”

  “About someone I thought I trusted, but now I’m just not sure.” Your handler’s—What had he been trying to tell her? How did he know Kat? Did he know Kat or just that she had a handler?

  Tiffany frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “No.” Her phone buzzed and she glanced at the screen even as she debated whether or not it would be faster to take the stairs. “Lance texted me. He said there’s definitely a flight with that number from Sacramento to Atlanta, but it was also a connection from Ibirizstan. The last leg of the flight is supposed to land in New Mexico.”

  “Then that’s where the meeting place is. So someone needs to intercept the passengers on that flight when it lands.”

  She texted Lance back. Check the manifest. See if there’s
a man by the name of Ravi on board.

  Already done, Lance replied. There was. But they changed their itinerary at the last minute and are on a plane set to land in Nashville.

  They’re meeting here! Because of Sam.

  Looks that way. Plans are being made for law enforcement to greet the passengers coming off at the gate. They’ll apprehend this Ravi and take him in for questioning with a minimum of fuss.

  Taj mentioned a virus. Tell them to be careful.

  She let out a slow breath. “So, that’s it for now. I need to get back to Sam.”

  She and Tiffany returned to the elevator to wait. The blond-headed doctor to her right studied a legal pad, his head bent, gold-framed glasses perched on his nose, stethoscope wrapped around his neck. He tapped something into his phone.

  The elevator doors opened and the fire alarm went off. Red lights flashed, the sound was deafening. Amber spun and saw people standing in brief confusion before heading to the exits.

  “I’ve got to get to Sam!” She raced for the stairs, Tiffany behind her. She flung open the door only to be greeted by a flood of people coming down. Going against the flow of the traffic, Amber pushed her way up. She had to get to the fourth floor. In her mind, she knew Clay and Lance were watching over Sam, but her heart was screaming at her to get to him. Her phone vibrated against her hip and she grabbed it. A hard hit to her elbow caused the phone to fly from her grasp and hit the step in front of her.

  She grabbed for it when something jabbed her in the side. She looked to see the same doctor who’d been standing beside her waiting on the elevator. His hand gripped her upper arm. “What are you doing?”

  “Shut up. Do as I say or your pretty bodyguard will die. I’m not here alone. Pirhadi just wants his son.” Tiffany had stopped to help an elderly woman up who’d fallen on the stairs. Her distraction had enabled Pirhadi’s man to act. Pirhadi had probably set it up and pushed the poor woman. “Move,” he said. “Take me to Sam.”

  “No.”

  “Do it or I blow up the hospital. You understand?”

  She hesitated, torn between believing he really had the capability to do something like blow up the hospital and getting Tiffany’s attention. Tiffany looked up and caught her eye. And Amber realized she had no choice. She had to respond as though the threat was real. Amber motioned she was going to get Sam. Tiffany frowned and shook her head.

  The gun pressed harder and she continued to weave in and out of the thinning crowd. The fact that Pirhadi had one of his men make a move in a crowded hospital was a testament to his desperation.

  Tiffany fell behind.

  “Get out here,” the man said. At the second-floor landing, she pushed the door open. He kept the weapon steady against her. “We’re going to change stairwells.”

  “He’s probably not even there,” she said. “They’ve most likely evacuated him with the others.”

  “He’s still there.” He tapped his ear and she noticed the earpiece for the first time. “I haven’t heard otherwise. Now move.” He ground the weapon in her lower back and she bit her lip against the pain.

  Chills enveloped her. He had someone watching the room? Amber let him direct her down the hall while she searched for a way to get away from him without putting anyone else in danger. She saw nothing she could do and frustration bit at her. The only thing she could do was take them to Sam. Once they entered the room, she would twist in front of the gun and take the bullet, praying Lance and Clay would be able to subdue the man before he could fire again. Her plan set, she said a prayer, placed herself in God’s hands and headed for the room.

  FOURTEEN

  Lance hung up and tried Amber’s number again. The fire alarm continued its assault against his ears. He wanted to go find Amber, but wouldn’t leave Sam alone. He knew she’d want him to stay, but it took everything in him not to walk out the door. Clay was on his phone, commandeering his deputies and giving orders.

  He peered out the door and saw the empty hallway. Sam’s IV still dripped healing medicine into his small body and he slept through the noise and the chaos thanks to the sedative in the bag. “Why isn’t she answering?”

  Clay looked up. “This fire alarm isn’t a coincidence. Something’s going on. I reported the possibility of a virus on the plane coming in. Kat texted me and said she’d gotten TSA involved as well as the FBI and other antiterrorism agencies.”

  “Good.”

  A hospital worker poked his head in the door. Lance’s hand went to his weapon and he noticed Clay’s did, as well. “Who are you?”

  “I work here. We need to get you out of here. It looks like a fire broke out in the bathroom down the hall. There’s smoke coming out around the door so we’re not opening it. We’ll need you to leave. There are workers who can direct you to a safe area of the hospital. Fire trucks are on the way.”

  Clay held up his badge as did Lance. “We’re staying right here. Just forget you saw us.”

  The man’s eyes went wide. “But the fire...”

  Lance and Clay didn’t move or speak.

  “Right.” The worker spun and disappeared.

  Lance shook his head. “Will you stay with Sam while I go look for Amber?”

  Clay hesitated and Lance decided to take that as a yes. He slipped out the door and heard Clay’s too-late protest. Not at the assignment to protect Sam, but at Lance’s leaving.

  The nurses’ station was empty. The hallway was also vacant. He couldn’t see the smoke yet from his vantage point, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. The floor had been evacuated and if the alarm hadn’t been blaring, he knew the silence would have been eerie for a hospital floor. Fortunately, Sam’s room was right next to the stairs. Clay could have him out of the room and off the floor within seconds if he needed to. The question was: Which was safer? Staying put or moving out into the open? Unsure of the answer, Lance decided to let Clay make that call. He trusted him to make the right one and knew Amber would, too.

  Lance moved down the hall, trying to figure out how best to find her. He had to admit he was worried. The fact that she hadn’t come back to Sam’s room by now sent his brain envisioning all kinds of bad scenarios. Lance texted Trent. Where’s Amber?

  While waiting for Trent’s reply, Lance decided to head toward surgery and bolted for the stairs. If the man who’d demanded to see Amber had already been taken to surgery, the team would still be there working on him. They’d only evacuate if absolutely necessary. If the fire—or smoke—could be contained, parts of the hospital would be business as usual.

  And so far Lance hadn’t seen any indication of smoke or fire. He threw open the stairwell door and joined the crowd going down. His gaze scanned the faces as he flashed his badge and excused himself. While several looked familiar, none was the one he was looking for. His phone buzzed and he looked at the screen. A text from Trent. Amber left a little while ago with Tiffany. I escorted the prisoner to the surgical ward and surgery is proceeding as planned. Standing guard outside the surgery suite.

  Lance paused. She wasn’t there. Now what?

  “Lance!”

  He focused in on the voice. Tiffany at the bottom of the second level on the landing. He hurried toward her. “Where’s Amber?”

  “I got caught helping someone who fell. Everyone thinks they have to get out of the hospital immediately when they don’t. They only need to evacuate where the fire is. But everyone is panicking when they just need to follow orders and get to a safe—”

  “Where’s Amber, Tiff?” He hated to cut her off, but the dread in his midsection refused to dissipate.

  Tiffany raised a brow. “She went on up and said she was going to get Sam.”

  “When was this?”

  “Just a short time ago. Maybe ten minutes? The woman I stopped to help broke her arm in the rush down the stairs.
I thought Amber was going to stop, but she kept going.”

  Lance’s concern shot straight to fear. If Amber had continued on, he would have seen her. So where had she gone?

  * * *

  Amber’s already tense muscles contracted as they drew closer to Sam’s room. They’d admitted him under an assumed name so she wasn’t sure how this guy could have someone watching his room, but she had to assume he was. She continued the walk toward the room. The floor was empty—and filled with smoke. “Firefighters will be here soon,” she said.

  “Won’t matter. We’ll be gone. Go to him.”

  “You already know where Sam is,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You said you had someone watching his room.” He hesitated. “So you don’t have someone watching his room.”

  “It doesn’t matter, just go.” He gave her another hard shove and she stumbled.

  When she caught her balance, she shot him a glare. “You know where he is because of the tracker.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “We know about the tracker Pirhadi had placed in his shoe—one of two pairs that he’ll wear.”

  He scowled then shrugged. “Yes, he had a tracker in both pairs.”

  Her anger flared up another notch. “So what do you need me for? Why not just come up here and get him?”

  “Like that would happen with all the security he has around him. But as long as I have you as a hostage, people will obey.”

  A hostage. No, that wasn’t going to happen. She was counting on Lance and Clay to have Sam protected somehow, some way. “How did you recognize me?”

  “I didn’t at first, but I knew Taj was hit and they’d bring him here. I was watching the OR waiting room and when you and that deputy came in it was pretty easy to figure out who you were.”

  Amber grimaced. So much for her disguise. She should have gone alone. “You’re not taking Sam,” she said.

  “We’ll see.” It worried her that he didn’t sound concerned. “It’s ironic,” he said. “All this time, I’ve been looking for a way to make some easy money and you were right there under my nose. Imagine my surprise when I found out.”