by Lisa Hughey
“You don’t understand what happens if I have contact with her.”
Sunshine Smith was one thing. Contact with Sunshine was inadvisable but not career threatening. A stupid move but not one that could destroy his life.
Susan Chen was another situation completely. She was directly linked to an ongoing investigation. One that he was freaking right in the middle of and under suspicion for participating in. He couldn’t have contact with her. It was career suicide. It was life suicide.
“You don’t have to have contact with her. Just watch out for her. We need to know who is behind this entire operation,” Jamie said firmly, quietly. “There’s no way Chen and her dead partner had the authority to engineer everything on their own. They had to have help at the highest level.”
Zeke knew that. Knew Jamie was right. He had a vested interest in discovering the traitor who had let Chen and her partner experiment on espionage agents, but he had to tread with extreme caution.
Because if David Armbruster, the Assistant Director of the NSA, found out he’d been anywhere near Susan Chen he was fucked.
“I realize that, but—”
“What’s going on at your end?” Jamie asked suspiciously.
Besides the fact that he was an idiot and unbelievably attracted to his surveillance subject? Besides the fact that he’d broken a cardinal rule of surveillance and actually had extended contact with his subject? Besides the fact that he’d kissed his surveillance subject and, frankly if he had the chance, he’d probably kiss her again?
“Nothing.” The only threat that he could see to Sunshine Smith was himself. “It’s quiet.”
“What if sending you there wasn’t just a hunch?” Jamie asked. “San Luis is extremely close to Cambria. She’d have access to a lab, and maybe to a test subject. After all the first round of subjects who’d been given the drug were part of Department 5491.”
Zeke’s heart froze. Chen’s original experiments had not been a success. For all they knew she could be looking for new subjects. And for some reason they didn’t understand, her test subjects were all from the same genetic pool.
“She could be after Sunshine.” Jamie’s words speared worry through his heart. Logically it didn’t make sense that Susan Chen would go after Sunshine, assuming she could even find her. Sunshine had been off the grid in a major way. However Chen had access to all sorts of information and resources that she shouldn’t have had. So what if Jamie were right?
“Shit, do you think so?” But as he examined the idea, he thought it was possible. They only knew about the agents that had been injected. What if she was looking for a new batch of test subjects?
Patterns. Patterns everywhere. The pattern was there, even if he couldn’t see it right now. Zeke said fiercely, “She can’t hurt Sunshine.”
“Why does that upset you so much?” Jamie’s voice was soft in his ear.
Jamie couldn’t possibly have figured out he was a little obsessed with his surveillance subject, could she?
He stayed silent and Jamie continued, “The only people given the original drug and antidote are in the 5491 file. Chen could be going after the others who hadn’t been given the drug. Sunshine, Bella, and ADA, whoever that is.”
“But the original experiment subjects were...agents,” he argued. “People with secrets. People with security clearance.”
But if Zeke thought about it, Sunshine clearly had secrets too or she wouldn’t have stayed hidden for the last thirteen years.
“Who’s to say Chen hasn’t gotten ready to start up again with new subjects? She is frantic to make an effective antidote. And to test the antidote you have to have the drug first.”
Exposing herself to capture did not seem like a smart or even viable plan to lay low, which surely should be Susan Chen’s course of action. Especially if she wasn’t going after her daughter. Zeke couldn’t see it. Sunshine didn’t fit the pattern.
But what if Jamie was right and Chen was planning on using Sunshine and others as new test subjects?
Over his dead body. Susan Chen was not getting her hands on Sunshine. She was not continuing her experiments and fucking up that woman’s life. No effing way.
Suddenly everything clicked, as if his whole life he’d been fractured, a little off. The reason for his inability to connect with people, the reason he saw patterns in random facts and numbers. He refused to let anyone become a threat to Sunshine.
So if that meant finding Susan Chen and making sure she didn’t get anywhere near Sunshine, he would do it. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
“Yeah. I knew you would. Just find her, call us, then follow her until we can get someone there to apprehend her.” He could practically see Jamie’s smirk through the cellular frequencies. “But dude, remember to go incognito. Remember the lessons.”
Yeah, whatever. “Got to go.”
Zeke nearly sprinted through Cambria’s quaint downtown. The sound of the surf shushed in the distance, and crisp, piney eucalyptus and the weighty smell of fog scented the air.
He’d head over to Cal Poly, he’d stake out Susan Chen’s former professor, and he’d make sure nothing happened to mess up Sunshine Smith’s already complicated life. He’d seen the shadows in her gray eyes, and he was determined not to add to her burdens.
Ten
I sat at the little bistro table and watched the morning fog swirl around the old wine barrels potted with flowers, the briny breeze off the ocean ruffled the lacy edges of an asparagus fern and drew out the sweet scent of alyssum.
I considered the empty wrought iron chair across from me then glanced down the sidewalk towards the other end of town. Zeke Thorn was striding away, gesturing restrainedly while he talked into his cell. With an odd sense of melancholy, I watched the most interesting guy I’d met in a long time, possibly ever, rush away.
Which was certainly ironic because I was usually the one running away. I’d been running since I was seven years old. Both physically and metaphorically.
He sure flowed hot and cold.
Of course, so did I. I didn’t need a guy in my life. Couldn’t have a guy in my life. That was my reality. But the overwhelming emotion tightening my throat and causing the tremble in my fingers as I picked up my teacup was regret. My throat convulsed and that last sip of tea stuck in the hollow as I watched him go. I wished I could call him back. I could pretend for a short hour we were friends, lovers even, sharing a cozy little date with scones and tea.
A small, private birthday celebration.
I was going to be twenty years old tomorrow. I’d never had a real boyfriend, never been intimate, never had a true friend, always too worried about being discovered to let anyone get close. Always worried about having to move again.
Wistfully I watched as his silhouette got smaller and smaller, shrinking like the little kernel of hope that had swelled in me after that amazing, haunting kiss.
Ruthlessly I shoved the hope aside, and crushed the futile emotion like I pulverized the dried herbs in my mortar and pestle. I sighed, took a final sip of my tea. Time to get back to the shop. Back to reality. Back to my life.
Of course, now I had to come up with a plausible explanation for how I knew Zeke, because sure as sugar, Mama was going to ask more questions.
I didn’t date. Ever. I certainly didn’t kiss men in front of my mother. My introduction to the dysfunctional side of relationships came too early and with too high a price tag.
Men were pleasant enough in small doses, in public and never to be trusted to get too close. I had to protect myself and I had to protect my mother. That’s the way it had always been. We took care of each other.
Except now Mama had Blue.
My cell rang. Mama wouldn’t be interrupting me and that’s about the only person who ever called me on the damn thing anyway.
I glanced at the display, noted it was the French pastry shop on the other end of town.
“Hello?”
“Bonjour, Sunny,” Madame Broussard greeted me.
“Just wanted to let you know zere was un homme asking about you and vȏtre mére.”
Zeke. I glanced down the street, where he was all but invisible.
“He found me.”
“Already?” Madame sputtered. “Mais...he was just here a second ago.”
Madame’s speech always degenerated into a mix of English with a smattering of French when she was upset or had had a little too much wine.
Alarm skittered across my neck. What if it hadn’t been Zeke? “What did he look like?”
“Older, in his fifties, under six feet tall, almost bald, a broken nose, and les yeux a pale, ice blue.” Madame always noticed the eyes, I thought with amusement.
Except her words kicked in. My heart started thumping in my chest. The eyes were the clincher. Appearances could change but the monster had extremely light blue eyes. She hadn’t described Zeke. Zeke was close to my age with curly blond hair. And his eyes were the color of the ocean. Murky and deep. I should not be thinking about Zeke Thorn’s eyes right now. Focus, Sunny.
“When was he in the patisserie?”
“He just left,” Madame responded smartly. “I told you that.”
“Car or on foot?”
“Weeelll, I sink on foot, but I could be wrong, we are very busy for an October matin.”
I shoved back the wrought iron chair and ran for the store.
I didn’t like this. Two people in one day, two strangers in one day asking about us. What were the odds?
Not good. Dammit. Not good.
“Merci, Madame,” I huffed into the phone as I ran.
Had I been wrong about Zeke Thorn? Had he been some sort of advance scout for him?
I slammed into the store. Blue appeared to be gone and Mama was dusting the shelves. I flipped the “Be Back in 5 Minutes” sign onto the Dutch door, closed the top half, and bolted the locks.
My breath came in great gasps, and my heart thundered in my chest, but my mind was calm, almost preternaturally so as I assessed our options and figured out which escape plan we needed to put into play.
Mama whirled, her eyes wide with alarm. “What are you doin’?”
“Code Red, Mama.”
She took a step back, away from me. “Now Sunny, I’m sure you’re mistaken.” But her arm trembled as she lay down the duster.
“At Madame’s.” I repeated the details as I shoved the minimal cash from the register into a Go Bag stashed beneath the sales desk. There wasn’t much, but I also had more stockpiled inside the bag and it would get us out of town fast.
“We need to go, now.”
As I moved around the store, I ticked off the seconds in my head.
“I...I’ll call Blue,” she said calmly.
“From the road.”
“Sunny, wait.”
I stopped at her sharp tone and gave her my full attention.
Mama stood in the doorway to the stockroom, twisting her hands, and her big moonstone ring sparkled when it caught the ray of the display light. “I think we should split up.”
“What?” I stopped moving. Stopped breathing. Splitting up was never one of the plans. We stuck together. Always.
“Call your friend Zeke and go with him. Zeke can protect you. I’m sure of it. And I’ll go with Blue.” Mama firmed her lips. “He wants me, we both know that. You need to stop running and get a life.”
Mama’s words stabbed at me with a near physical pain, as if she’d broken off a piece of glass display shelf and jammed it in my heart. “I have a life.”
“Half a life,” Mama said, her eyes sad, resigned. “All because of him. You deserve more. I deserve more. We need to end this.”
We didn’t have time to hash this out now. “Can we discuss this while we’re on the road?”
Mama shook her head and yelled, “Blue!”
Blue thundered down the stairs and burst into the public area of the shop.
“It’s happened.” Was all Mama said.
“Shit,” he whispered.
Another spear of pain. She’d told Blue. We weren’t supposed to tell anyone. Ever.
“The plan?” Blue asked.
“I think we should split up. You can protect me.” Mama straightened her shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. “He doesn’t want Sunshine.”
I watched as Blue grasped Mama’s hand gently. Her fingers appeared so delicate in the clasp of his larger, protective hold.
Blue shifted his gaze to me, full of concern. “You going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” I said softly. Not about to tell the truth. Even now I was protecting my mother.
“Let’s go.” Blue herded Mama toward the back door.
“Love you, Sunny.” Mama’s eyes crinkled with concern and maybe a touch of guilt. And she hesitated, as if maybe she was going to change her mind. It had always been me and Mama. But then Blue tugged on her arm. She gave me one last look. “Use our separation protocol and let me know where you are.”
“Go.” I shooed them away, even as inside my heart was breaking. “I’ll be fine.”
I lugged my escape bag to the store room in the back. “Love you too, Mama,” I whispered to the empty store. I inhaled slowly, taking in the familiar smells, the fragrant aroma of lavender, the comforting perfume of vanilla and lemon, and the crisp fresh scent of the ocean.
As I looked around the place that had been my home for the last nine years, I wondered if I would ever be back.
Hell yes, I vowed. I refused to let the bastard win.
I ignored our cute little Bug, and cranked the engine on our getaway car. An ancient blue Volvo, parked in the garage behind the store. We started it once a month and had it serviced once a year in another town. The car was registered to an old lady up in San Francisco. The floppy sun hat I’d tugged on slanted over my face. It wasn’t much of a disguise but it would work to get out of town.
I turned away from our home and toward Highway One. I’d head down to San Luis Obispo and enact our plan. Part of me, the woman who’d managed to disappear in plain sight and build a life and livelihood with my mother, wanted to confront the man who’d ruined my childhood. But the other part of me was still that scared little girl clutching her Lunette doll and running for her life.
I knew what part I wanted to triumph.
In the last few years, I’d let myself relax, convinced after all this time he couldn’t still be looking for us. Even though we stuck to the plan, I’d believed that he’d finally given up.
He shouldn’t still be looking. It had been thirteen damn years.
And yet he was.
Obsession, or something else? As I pressed on the accelerator I wondered why he’d kept searching all this time. And even more importantly, how did he find us? Why now?
I would need to trace everything, trace him, track our movements and figure out how the hell he found us after all this time hiding in California, laying low. We’d completely submerged our identities, hidden away, hidden our assets, hidden our very existence behind a corporate shell in another state. Besides the legal precautions, I’d hidden myself, denied myself the education I’d always wanted, to keep us safe. So how the hell had he found us?
Eleven
Zeke slipped his phone into the zippered pocket in the lower back of his compression tank top and jogged down the center of town. Traffic had picked up in the last hour. More people wandered the picturesque sidewalks, meandering in and out of stores, and stopping indiscriminately to peer in shop windows. A lot of couples held hands, and snuggled together against the crisp October morning.
Up ahead, an older model Ford F150 with a Semper Fidelis sticker in the back window turned down the street toward his hotel and Blue’s bar. Sunshine’s mother was visible in the passenger seat.
That was a littl
e surprising.
Zeke continued to jog, picking up his pace as possibilities and patterns filtered through his brain, and his mind searched for a reasonable explanation for why her mother wouldn’t be at the store.
He realized that Sunshine had never really explained why she’d been upset when he’d burst into the shop. They’d gotten sidetracked by the kiss.
That amazing, shouldn’t happen again, kiss.
Zeke followed the truck to the front of the bar where Blue normally parked. He’d noted the cars in the lot when he’d arrived yesterday. Except Blue didn’t park in his regular spot in front, he drove around to the back which butted up to a steep hill sprinkled liberally with towering eucalyptus trees.
Zeke jogged closer, and heard the slam of the screen door leading to the delivery entrance in the back of the bar. The only other things in back were the dumpster and a little alcove where the hardcore smokers went to light up.
Blue’s behavior triggered an alert, as if Zeke’s packet sniffer program, which looked for incursions into a secure system, had been activated.
Something was going on. He’d already met them, interacted with them, so what could it hurt to get closer and see if he could figure out what the problem was.
They were going to tell him it was none of his business, he told himself even as he drew nearer.
Blue’s odd behavior likely had nothing to do with him or Susan Chen. Unless Sunshine was somehow in danger from Chen already. But how would Blue even know that? Zeke crept closer, trying to figure out a way to snoop without getting caught.
Sunshine’s mother sat in the front seat of the truck, her face set in stiff, stressed lines. As if she’d gotten really bad news and was trying to hold it together.
He wondered what was wrong. Suddenly he was overwhelmed with the urge to check on Sunshine. Blue shoved out the back door, an army green duffel in one meaty fist. He tossed the duffel into the back of the truck then swung into the driver’s seat. Blue gunned the engine, the loud revving disturbed the quiet morning air.
Zeke crossed the street and headed toward his motel, more convinced than ever that something was really wrong. He couldn’t help but glance back as he heard the truck screech to a stop behind him. Shit, hopefully they hadn’t seen him lurking.
