Close Pursuit

by Cindy Dees

  No dial tone. What was up with that? She wiggled the phone line coming into the top of the table set. Nothing. Squatting down, she reached under the desk to jiggle the line down there. Still no dial tone. Crap.

  She headed through the lobby toward the stairs and the offices on the second floor. She slipped into the first one at the top of the stairs and hurried to the desk. Dammit, this phone didn’t have a dial tone, either! She thought she detected a faint electrical hum as if the line was live, just not giving her an outbound dial tone. The whole building’s phone system wasn’t out then. Did Doctors Unlimited turn its phones off at night?

  She went back out to the hall, frustrated. And spied André Fortinay’s door across the landing. If anyone’s phone would work all the time, it would be his. She headed for the director’s office. On his desk, she spied two telephones: a regular one like the other office had and an old-fashioned dial phone. She picked up that one. A dial tone hummed in her ear. Bingo.

  She reached for the phone to dial Alex’s cell when she was arrested by the sight of a big, round Rolodex file sitting beside the phone. The card she could see in the dim streetlight coming in the window read Nigeria.

  It made sense that D.U.’s director would have contacts to pretty much every country on earth. Curious, she gave the thing a spin. Country names flew past in alphabetical order, along with contact names and information on intelligence agencies, military commanders and a host of other VIP contacts the leader of a global aid organization might need to call.

  Frowning, she rolled to the Rs. There were several cards for Russia. Russia: Kremlin. Russia: Prime Minister. Russia: FSB.

  She stared. André Fortinay had a contact at the FSB? It was probably someone high ranking. High enough to know Peter Koronov probably. She should give the man a call. Tell him to back off his son...

  The idea broke across her brain without warning, like a rogue wave swelling up out of the depths of her mind to capsize all her other thoughts. What was the one thing she could offer Peter Koronov that would get him to leave his son alone?

  With a clarity so sharp it hurt, she knew.

  She reached for the phone’s dial and, one by one, rolled the numbers around its face.

  * * *

  “SO. THOSE FAKE REBELS were Spetsnaz, after all,” Mike breathed.

  Alex nodded. He’d suspected the Spec Ops team he and Katie had seen was the elite Russian Special Forces unit, but he’d never dared put it into words.

  Mike continued, “Were the Russians there to stop the Iranians from getting uranium? Hell, if our side had known what was up, we’d have wiped out that village.”

  “I don’t think it’s that simple.”

  “Explain,” Mike bit out.

  Alex forged on grimly, “My father is intimately familiar with the interior workings of the Russian government.”

  Mike snorted at that little piece of understatement.

  “It’s far from a homogenous beast. There are factions within it and factions within factions.”

  “Sounds like the U.S. government,” Mike commented wryly.

  Alex snorted in turn. “I don’t necessarily think the intent of that Spetsnaz team was to stop uranium from being smuggled to Iran. I think the intent could have been to protect the smuggling operation.”

  “How does wiping out two villages do that?”

  “The arrival of an American doctor in the area had to freak out whoever was sponsoring the uranium smuggling. I might spot the signs of uranium toxicity in the locals. I was a liability that had to be eliminated. Except Katie and I were moving fast, going from village to village and laying low. Local women were hiding our tracks, too, which would have made us hard to locate and take out.”

  “I can vouch for that. I was trying to keep an eye out for Katie, and my people had a hell of a time keeping tabs on you two.”

  Alex smiled briefly. A high compliment from a man in Mike’s line of work. “For all the Russians knew, I already was onto them. I might already have reported back to Doctors Unlimited that I was seeing uranium poisoning among the locals. They had no choice but to wipe out the physical evidence.”

  “By killing all the locals?”

  Alex nodded grimly. “If D.U. filed a formal report, the International Atomic Energy Agency and/or the United Nations would have immediately sent a team out to test the locals for evidence of illegal uranium mining and trafficking.”

  Both of them knew that, in the game of global nuclear brinksmanship, the lives of a few hundred natives in a place no one had ever heard of were meaningless. Governments wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter a local tribe to protect a secret this big.

  “Why haven’t they killed you?” Mike demanded.

  “Oh, they’ve been trying. But I’m a slippery bastard.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” Mike noted drily.

  Alex shrugged. He wouldn’t apologize for stabbing the guy. McCloud been following them and pulled a knife on him. His expression went dark once more.

  “The Russians need to kill my sister, too. Don’t they?”

  “Probably. She may be a know-nothing civilian, but she may have seen and heard too much while she was hanging around out there with me.” He sucked in a sharp breath as his mind made the next leap.

  “What?” McCloud demanded sharply.

  “Not only do the Russians have to kill the two of us, but they particularly have to kill Dawn. And furthermore, they have to dispose of her body.”

  “Why the kid?” Mike asked sharply.

  “She’s the only survivor from the Karshan Valley massacre. If her mother was exposed to uranium, she’d have absorbed some of it across her mother’s placenta.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Mike breathed.

  “She’s the only remaining evidence of illegal uranium mining and smuggling.”

  “So you’re telling me the whole fucking Russian government is out to kill one baby?”

  “At least a powerful faction within it. A faction that would like to see Iran become a nuclear power. If Tehran nuked Israel, the U.S. would have a gigantic mess on its hands for decades to come. This would be a deep source of satisfaction in the Kremlin. Not to mention give it plenty of room to maneuver in other parts of the world while the U.S. was distracted.”

  Mike added, “And the price of oil would go sky-high. Russia would make a freaking fortune.”

  “This faction would no doubt love to see the U.S. quaking in its boots over the possibility of Iran lobbing a nuke at Washington.”

  “Jesus.”

  “It’s possible I’m wrong,” Alex said.

  “You’re not.”

  The two men traded grim looks. Where in the hell was Katie? She had no idea the danger she and Dawn were in.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  THE MAN WHO answered Katie’s call was stunned at her request. She lied and said that André had sanctioned this call and would appreciate whatever cooperation the anonymous Russian could give her. It was an emergency. The man rattled off a phone number, which she copied down on a sticky pad on André’s desk. She thanked the man for his help and disconnected the call. She dialed the second number.

  It rang with a funny electronic buzz. Once. Twice. On the third ring, it picked up.

  “André! It is the middle of the night in Washington. To what do I owe this call?”

  André Fortinay knew Peter Koronov? Holy crap. She had no time to stop and think about that just now. “Umm, Mr. Koronov?”

  “Who is this?” he demanded sharply.

  “My name is Katie McCloud. I’m—”

  “The young woman who has seduced my son. Yes. I know who you are. How did you get this phone number?”

  “I stole a number from André’s desk and lied to the FSB man who answered it.”

  “Resourceful,” he commented. She thought maybe she detected a hint of humor in that single word. She sure hoped so.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, but I have a proposition for you.”

  “Do you now? Th
is should be interesting.”

  “You want Alex to work for you, yes?”

  “I’m not going to walk into such a blatant trap—”

  She cut him off. “Fine. You and I both know the answer anyway. And you and I also know what the odds are of Alex doing it voluntarily. But I think I can help you.”

  Silence. She had his attention now.

  “Alex will never work for you as long as I am in his life. He would never jeopardize my safety that way. You taught him very well that friends and family are a liability a spy cannot afford. He knows he dare not love anyone or else you’ll come after them.”

  More silence. More importantly, no denial from Koronov.

  “I cannot deliver Alex to you, and I’m not willing to commit treason against my country. But I can leave Alex. If I do, I can guarantee you he will not become involved with another woman for a very long time.”

  Of course, she could only guarantee it if her leaving him broke Alex’s heart. And she was far from sure that she had such power over Alex. But Peter didn’t know that.

  “You are lovers, you and Alex?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Is the child his?”

  “No, sir. Alex delivered the baby, but the mother died. We brought her out with us when we left Zaghastan.”

  “Ahh. That is a shame.”

  Why? Alarm exploded in her gut at the regretful tone in Koronov’s voice.

  “Tell me something. Why do you make this offer to me, Miss McCloud?”

  She avoided the whole issue of loving Alex enough to sacrifice her feelings for him so he could be safe. Be at peace. Breathe. She answered obliquely, “It’s a trade I’m offering, Mr. Koronov. I leave Alex, and you agree to leave him alone.”

  “Define leaving him alone.”

  “Don’t split semantic hairs with me,” she snapped. “I’m making you a generous offer. You back off of Alex. Let him live his own life. Be his own man. Quit trying to get your hooks in him and suck him into working for you.”

  “Why would I agree to such a thing?”

  “Because currently, he’ll die before he works for you. But if he loses me, if I tear his heart out in the process, he may just come back to you someday. Trust me. Right now you’ve got nothing. This is the only chance you’ve got at ever winning him over. I’m offering you a shot at getting your son back.”

  * * *

  ALEX JUMPED AS his cell phone rang. He yanked it out of his pocket. When he heard her voice, he nearly passed out in relief. “Thank God, Katie. Are you and Dawn okay?”

  “Yes. We’re fine.”

  His antenna stood straight up and wiggled violently. She didn’t sound okay. She sounded damned strange, in fact. Distant. Like she might be in shock.

  “I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t know where to go or what to do when—”

  He cut her off sharply. “Not over the phone. Can you tell me where you are without being too specific?”

  “Umm, I suppose.” A pause, then, “Do you remember where I wore that sexy little black dress on our first date?”

  “Got it. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “DUDE, YOU GOTTA slow down.”

  Alex glanced over at Mike in the passenger seat of the rented Porsche coupe and took his foot off the accelerator. Again.

  “You okay?” he asked Katie’s brother. The guy was still recovering from a serious stab wound but had flatly refused to stay in the hospital doing nothing to protect his little sister when she was in trouble. Alex couldn’t blame him.

  “I’ll live,” Mike bit out. “How much longer till we’re there?”

  The guy must be in severe pain. But Alex wasn’t going to coddle him. He’d demanded that Alex help him slip out of the hospital. He would have done the same if he were laid up and Katie was in trouble.

  Realization slammed into him like a runaway train. He’d move heaven and earth to protect Katie if she were in trouble. No. No. He couldn’t feel that way....

  Alex’s world was collapsing in on him faster than he could prop it up. And it was all because of Katie and Dawn. Never before had he had anyone else to worry about beside himself. But the two of them changed the whole damned equation. Something—someone—mattered now. And it made him vulnerable to everyone who’d ever coveted a piece of his hide. Cold terror poured over him. Life as he knew it was over.

  They drove a few more minutes, and the underbellies of thick rain clouds glowed pink.

  “We gonna make a direct approach?” Mike gritted out.

  The question jolted him. He hadn’t given any thought to doing anything other than parking out front and using his access code to walk in the front door. Mike’s question was a sharp reminder to get his head in the game and not assume everything was hunky-dory.

  Alex shook his head. “Let’s play it cautiously. I have no reason to believe she’s been followed, but there’s no harm in being careful.”

  “The Russians will make a run at her as soon as they know where she is.”

  Mike was right. What were the odds someone had monitored Katie’s call to him? Would that person know where she’d hinted at being? Or maybe just trace her phone? Or—

  He swore violently and hit the call back button on his phone. It rang. And rang. Dammit, she wasn’t picking up! He threw his phone down and stood on the accelerator.

  “What’s wrong?” Mike asked sharply.

  “She’s got Dawn with her.”

  “And?”

  “The intruder to the convent passed through the nursery briefly as he fled the scene.”

  Mike swore low and hard. “Bastard had time to plant a tracker on the baby.” He added tightly, “As soon as we’ve got her and the kid locked down safe, I’m telling her to dump your ass like a hot potato.”

  Alex mentally winced. If she were his sister and she was involved with a high-risk asset like him, he’d do the exact same thing.

  “I’m telling ya, Al. You gotta slow down. If we get hauled in for going supersonic on the Beltway, we won’t be able to help Katie at all.”

  He eased off the accelerator yet again, even though every nerve in his body was screaming at him to stand on the pedal. His phone rang again, and he pounced on it.

  “Katie?”

  “Sorry, no. André Fortinay here. I just got—”

  He cut his boss off sharply. “This conversation needs to happen on a secure line.”

  “I’m secure at my end,” Fortinay replied, surprised.

  “Me, too. Continue.”

  “Right. I just got a notification that Katie McCloud’s employee code was used to access the Doctors Unlimited building a little while ago. Shortly thereafter, the emergency phone on my desk was used to make two calls to Moscow. Know anything about that?”

  Moscow? WTF?

  “No, sir. I’m on my way over there now, though.”

  “Wait...I’m getting...standby...”

  Alex exited the highway and turned toward the D.U. building. Five minutes, Katie. Don’t do anything insane for the next five minutes. Like call freaking Moscow. Three guesses who she’d called, and the first two didn’t count.

  Fortinay bit out, low and fast, “Security cameras are showing movement outside the D.U. building. Assume hostiles. Do not make a direct approach. Repeat—no direct approach.”

  Damn. The guy sounded like an FSB operations controller—

  Not FSB. CIA. Son. Of. A. Bitch.

  Fortinay was speaking again. “Alternate approach. I’ve got visual on hostiles. Armed and dangerous. Go to this address. Wait for me there. My ETA five minutes. Say yours.”

  “Three minutes.”

  “Do not go in by yourself, Alex. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, sir.” What on God’s green earth was going on?

  He flipped his phone at Mike. “See if you can raise the number Katie called me from. We’ve got to warn her to stay put. The building she’s in is surrounded by armed hostiles.”

  Mike swore i
n a continuous stream that echoed Alex’s thoughts as he punched the redial button over and over.

  Alex parked the car down the street from the address Fortinay had given him. They were a block over from the D.U. building, and this apartment building’s property line backed up on the Doctors Unlimited backyard. “How mobile are you?” he asked Mike.

  “I can walk. Run a little.”

  “How sneaky can you be?”

  “As sneaky as you need.” Mike bared his teeth in what passed for a grin from a predator about to strike. “Where are we headed?”

  “Ten o’clock. Thirty yards,” he murmured.

  Mike’s eyelids barely flickered in acknowledgment as they moved out, easing silently down the street, sticking to the shadows and shapes of cars and shrubs.

  The apartment building was quiet. Dark with only a single light fixture burning inside the front vestibule. As they neared the building, the dim glow from inside the building abruptly went black.

  Alex, on point, froze. He crouched for long seconds in the lee of a Volvo until he caught a slight movement just inside the target building. Ahh. He knew that silhouette. “C’mon,” he whispered over his shoulder to Mike. “A friendly unscrewed the lightbulb for us.”

  Mike grunted under his breath in acknowledgment, and they moved out.

  * * *

  KATIE DIDN’T WANT to talk to Peter Koronov again. The red phone was ringing insistently enough in Fortinay’s office that it was starting to piss her off. Every minute or so, it set up a new caterwauling. Give it up already.

  She’d retreated to the main floor as far away from the noise of the phone as she could. The last thing she needed was for Dawn to wake up and start hollering.

  Katie thought there might be a small doctor’s office somewhere in the building. It was a source of joking that an entire building full of doctors had no facilities for treating any patients, and she recalled something about Fortinay mentioning the examining room in the back of the house. She could stand to find a kitchen, too. Surely this old mansion had one somewhere. It had started life as a private home, after all.

  Dawn would need a bottle of some kind eventually, not to mention a diaper. If Katie got out of this mess alive with the baby, she was never leaving her house again without a diaper and a tub of baby formula. She found the tiny medical office and poked around for supplies to construct yet another makeshift diaper for Dawn. Note to self: never try to be a superspy with a newborn infant in tow. Or more accurately, never try again.