The Hidden Years

by Susan Kearney

  She kept it to herself. Jake had enough to do. He’d taken out the wallet he’d confiscated from their pursuers. Inside the wallet he found $210. No identification. No credit cards. No pictures of family.

  Jake held the wallet carefully by the edges and wrapped it in an airsickness bag. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and get some prints off it.”

  Cassidy could tell he didn’t think that likely, but she admired the fact that he never gave up. Jake’s determination would eventually lead them to answers. She just hoped he was happy once he finally learned the truth. There was a restlessness about Jake that she’d like to ease. She wanted him to find a peace that would let him look to his future, instead of always to the past.

  The pilot made a slight course correction. “Whatever you say. I won’t go in low to avoid radar. That’s drug-smuggling territory down there, and we don’t want to look suspicious and get searched for the wrong reasons.”

  Despite her worries, Cassidy slept, and when she opened her eyes, the plane was landing. The pilot raised the wing flaps and braked until they taxied to a stop.

  Jake and Cassidy stepped onto the tarmac as soon as the plane stopped. Cassidy slung her backpack over her shoulder and carried Jake’s briefcase with his mother’s papers, while he hefted the large duffel with his gear and extra clothing. The duffel must have weighed eighty pounds, yet he walked so quickly she had to hurry to keep up with him.

  As soon as they were off the runway, the plane taxied away and lifted into the air, leaving them alone on the small private airfield. On foot, in a strange place, Cassidy felt more vulnerable than she had in a long time. Once again she had the premonition that they were heading into trouble, but the night seemed quiet and the place deserted, its silent line of private planes lined up like headstones in a graveyard.

  Out of the darkness, Cassidy heard a car engine start. Sweat broke out on her brow.

  There was no place to take cover. She grabbed Jake’s arm, her heart pounding with fear. “Someone’s out here.”

  Jake had already dropped the duffel by his feet. He shoved her behind him, placing himself between the sound of the car and Cassidy, protecting her with his body.

  “How did they find us?” Cassidy whispered, angry and bewildered and hoping they wouldn’t be gunned down where they stood as a car, headlights off, rolled slowly up to them and stopped.

  Jake didn’t answer. He’d withdrawn a gun and aimed it at the car. Cassidy peered around Jake. She couldn’t see a driver. Couldn’t see anyone in the car.

  The vehicle’s back door opened.

  “Get in,” a hushed voice ordered.

  Jake held his ground. “Who are you?”

  “If I wanted you dead, you wouldn’t still be breathing. Now get in.”

  Cassidy wanted to ignore the command. She wanted to keep on walking. But Jake had already picked up his duffel, tossed it inside and prepared to follow.

  It occurred to her that she didn’t have to stay with Jake. She could just head the other way. But in this cloak-and-dagger world, she was like a baby taking her first steps. She couldn’t protect herself or hide. While she hated her vulnerability, hated depending on Jake, she had no other good options if she wanted to stay alive.

  With a sigh, she admitted to herself that she didn’t want to leave Jake, either. He might be difficult, he might make her furious, but she wanted to be with him. Slowly she followed Jake into the car, feeling as if she were being swallowed whole.

  As soon as Cassidy shut the door, the driver, a woman, sat up. “Both of you hunker down. I don’t think I was tailed, but they might have an eye on us.”

  Cassidy frowned. “An eye?”

  “Satellite surveillance?” Jake guessed.

  “They have telescopes up there that can read the date on a dime from space.”

  “Who are they?” Jake asked. “And for that matter, who are you? And how did you know where we’d be landing?”

  “Your pilot filed a flight plan, so it wasn’t hard to find you.”

  “But how did you know we were on the plane?”

  The woman grinned. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Donna Rodale.”

  The woman they’d flown here to find! As Cassidy gasped in surprise, she could almost hear the chuckle in the woman’s voice. Maybe Jake had a clue as to what was going on, but Cassidy felt like Alice in Wonderland after she’d just gone down the rabbit hole.

  “I figured since you had the smarts to look me up—”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “I still keep up with some of my former connections. Since I heard you stopped at the Saunderses’ residence, I called there. Patty filled me in on your predicament.”

  What kind of connections? Cassidy wondered.

  “And you decided to help?” Jake asked.

  “Your mother saved my life. I owe her. Helping you is my way of paying her back.”

  Oh, the stories this woman could tell Jake about his family. Cassidy peeked over the seat to see the back of the woman’s head. She wore her gray hair in a neat bob like a grandmother, but there was nothing grandmotherly in the steel in her voice as she snapped, “Stay down.”

  Cassidy wanted to believe that Donna was who she said she was. And that her motives were pure.

  “Once Patty told me you were heading my way, I figured you’d take a private plane. It’s quick and you can hide your identity. Then I merely made a few phones calls to learn your flight plan. Only two small planes headed this way tonight and the next one is due to land in an hour.” Donna drove out of the airport onto a dirt road and turned on her low beams. “I’m glad you got here. Since my house is staked out, I figured I’d better come meet you.”

  Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but Cassidy was totally confused. Was this woman who she said she was? Or was this a trick to bring them in? If so, she sure had concocted an elaborate story. No. She had to be telling the truth. No one could come up with such a story just so Jake and Cassidy would stay in the car.

  “Who’s watching your house?” Jake asked.

  “The agency, of course,” Donna answered as if she expected him to already know that.

  Jake’s voice rose in surprise. “The CIA?”

  “You didn’t know?” Amusement filled the woman’s voice as she lit a cigarette, careful to keep it below the dash and out of sight of any onlookers.

  “I didn’t think the CIA used stolen vehicles. Or operated within the U.S.,” Jake admitted.

  “Or hunted down and tortured U.S. citizens,” Cassidy added, still not sure she believed the woman. But it all made a weird kind of sense. The mystery of Jake’s parents and their name change, the secret password, the cloak-and-dagger detective work and the efficiency with which they’d been tracked—it all added up to professionals. If not for Jake’s expertise, she had no doubt they would have been captured days ago.

  Donna puffed on her cigarette, cupping her palm over the butt to hide the glow. “By calling that phone number and giving the password ‘blow back,’ you made someone at the CIA very nervous. ‘Blow back’ is a CIA term that means a past operation has gone sour.”

  “So how is a past operation connected to us?” Jake asked, and Cassidy had to marvel at his one-track mind. In his position, she would have been asking about his parents. Yet Jake had to put the puzzle in the present together first, and he did it with a logical precision that amazed her.

  The woman blew smoke rings into the air. “You either know something or have something important that someone wants.”

  Jake dug out the pictures Cassidy had found in the attic. “Maybe you can shed some light on the subject. Can you tell me the names of these people?”

  Still on the grounds of the private airport, Donna parked the car under the trees. She extracted a tiny penlight from her purse and shined it on the pictures. “These two are your parents.” She pointed to the man with his arm around the shoulders of the smiling woman.

  “What were their names?” Jake asked, and Cassidy heard the anti
cipation in his voice. Finally he would get some answers.

  “Originally, Mary Lou Ellis and Michael Scott. They changed their names when they took an undercover assignment for the agency.”

  “Changed their names to Janet and Steve—”

  “Cochran,” Donna finished for him.

  “Are you sure? How do you know that?” Cassidy questioned, seeing that Jake was stunned, even though they’d suspected the name change for some time.

  “Because I recruited Mary Lou and eventually Michael during their senior year of college.” Donna lit a new cigarette from the stub of her last one. She looked at Jake in the rearview mirror. “Your mother was determined to serve her country. She even hired a full-time nanny so she could take dangerous assignments. Michael loved her so much he would have followed her anywhere.”

  “What about the other people in this picture?” Cassidy asked, taking over as Jake thought through the facts they’d just been given.

  Donna pointed to the man standing beside Jake’s father. “That’s Burak Sansal, our agent in Istanbul. It’s essential that you talk to him. Beside him is—”

  Gunfire shattered the windshield. Donna slumped in the front seat.

  Cassidy ducked, flattening herself instinctively. “Jake, I smell smoke.”

  Jake tumbled into the front seat. “Donna’s cigarette.” She heard him stomping on the floor and peeked between the seats. The fire was gone, but the stink of burned carpet lingered. But that wasn’t the only smell. The stench of death fused with the coppery scent of blood.

  Jake placed two fingers on Donna’s neck in search of a pulse. “She’s dead.”

  Cassidy hadn’t known Donna for more than half an hour, but the poor woman had been trying to help them. Now she was dead. Two more slugs slammed into the car, but sadness overwhelmed her as Jake shifted Donna’s body into the passenger seat and then crawled behind the wheel. “Stay down.”

  Another bullet pinged off the car’s hood. “You stay down, too,” Cassidy whispered back.

  Jake gunned the engine and hunched as low as he could. “We can’t just sit here. That sniper will take us out if we don’t get moving.”

  JAKE HOPED THEY’D LOST the tail during the past two hours. He couldn’t be sure. Not if their enemies could track them by satellite. Or they could have placed a homing device in Donna’s car. He hadn’t had time to search. Nor had he had the opportunity to switch vehicles. Used-car lots didn’t tend to be open in the middle of the night.

  Close to dawn, Jake stopped in the woods and moved Donna’s body with care into the car’s trunk. He wished he could do better for his mother’s friend, but she’d given her life to save them, and he didn’t believe she’d want them to get caught because of her. When they ditched the car two hours later at Miami International Airport, Jake called the authorities about the dead body in the trunk. When he was finished, he took Cassidy’s hand. “It’s the best we can do for her.”

  “She was a brave lady.” Cassidy, clearly exhausted after their sleepless night, looked to him for answers. “Where’re we going now? Won’t they be expecting us to fly out?”

  Jake grabbed her hand. “That’s why we’re taking a taxi to the Port of Miami.”

  “We’re taking a ship?” Cassidy walked beside him toward the airport taxi stand.

  “The tourist trade to the Bahamas is enormous. From there we can catch a flight to Istanbul.”

  As tired as she was, Cassidy’s mind was still working. “We’ll need passports.”

  “I’ve got it covered.” Jake helped Cassidy into a taxi, and they said nothing more on the way to the port. Cassidy laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, but Jake didn’t think she slept.

  Her breathing never evened out. And every time a car honked, she jerked. He slung an arm over her shoulder, his mind still working on the information Donna had given them. He no longer questioned the veracity of her statements. Her explanations had made too much sense to doubt them, especially after she’d given her life to tell them.

  Jake thought it best to follow up on the one clue she’d given them—the name of the agent in Istanbul who’d also known his parents. So now they had to get out of the country. Usually leaving the United States was easy. It was getting back in that was difficult.

  Although Jake had fake passports, he worried that the agents at the Saunderses’ house had had the opportunity to search his bag. It was possible the CIA already knew about their aliases and were just waiting to nab them when he tried to use the fake identification.

  On the other hand, he didn’t think their pursuers wanted to alert security at customs, the airport, and the shipping ports. Jake had the impression this was a covert operation among one sector of the agency, but he couldn’t be sure. In retrospect, he wished he’d asked Donna that, but nothing could be done now, except use extreme caution.

  Jake considered the boats that made the run to the Bahamas. First there were the large cruise ships. The advantage to being on one of these was that customs never hassled the ship’s passengers. The disadvantage was he couldn’t count on finding a ship leaving this morning that would have vacancies.

  Another alternative were the casino ships that went over to Freeport and returned the next day. But most of those left in the evening, and Jake wanted to leave as soon as possible.

  He needed someone who could work with his schedule and decided one of the fishing boats might be best. In clear weather, they could make the Bahamas within hours. So he asked the taxi driver to take him to where tourists and natives hired fishing boats with a crew. Money would make the captain cooperative, and once again Jake was grateful for the cash he kept on hand for emergencies like this.

  He was even more grateful for Cassidy’s company. He’d never known she could be so strong. The unexpected discovery pleased him, and his feelings of protectiveness for her kicked into overdrive.

  She rested her head trustingly on his shoulder, her golden hair spilling onto his chest. With a soft sigh, she snuggled closer, and he breathed in the scent of the soap she’d freshened up with during their last stop. But it wasn’t her girl-next-door good looks that called to him so much as her attitude about life.

  She didn’t complain. She didn’t worry out loud. And she knew when to keep silent, following his lead as if they’d been longtime partners.

  She’d even handled their on-again, off-again romance with unusual forthrightness. While he’d hesitated to explore their feelings, she was unafraid. Just knowing how easily they could have died with Donna made Jake realize how foolish he’d been. Life was for living. And trying to protect himself from his growing feelings for Cassidy was like trying to stop the return of the evening tide.

  He wanted this woman as he’d never wanted anyone before. Holding back was only hurting himself. And Cassidy.

  As Jake paid the taxi driver and nudged Cassidy awake, he searched the dock for a suitable boat and captain. He needed a boat big enough to make the sixty-mile ocean trip, but one small enough that the captain wouldn’t insist on taking other passengers.

  Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Cassidy looked at the boats and frowned. “We’re going fishing?”

  “In a manner of speaking.” Jake pulled her close and kissed her forehead. Then he hefted his duffel over his shoulder and escorted Cassidy down the dock.

  The water sparkled with sunlight. The light chop made him think the voyage would be a breeze. But after Donna’s death, he didn’t know if he’d ever stop worrying about Cassidy’s safety.

  For a moment he considered whether he was being selfish to keep her with him, instead of leaving her here. And then he figured if they remained on the run, they’d both be safer.

  Jake hired a captain who was happy to take his money. The man didn’t ask questions, and he offered them the forward cabin. But both Jake and Cassidy stayed on deck, watching the coastline disappear below the horizon until only the deep blue of the Atlantic surrounded them.

  It seemed as if they had made their
escape, when a Coast Guard patrol boat signaled them to stop.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cassidy clutched Jake’s hand, terrified that the Coast Guard vessel that had hailed their fishing boat was there to take them back to the United States. She’d never realized that Coast Guard boats carried guns on their decks. Or how intimidated she would feel as the big ship hailed them.

  Beside her, Jake stood, calmly watching as the ship approached, but he must have sensed the fear in her. “It may be just a routine stop to search for drugs. Hold it together, Sunshine. We don’t want to make them suspicious.”

  “They wouldn’t have stopped us if they weren’t suspicious.” The increasing wind whipped Cassidy’s hair in her eyes, and she shoved it aside, annoyed that Jake had read her fear so easily.

  “Think of it as a random police stop for drunk drivers late on Friday night.”

  “It’s never happened to me.” She was rarely out late on Friday nights. She had never broken the law. Had only had two traffic tickets, which didn’t really count. And now she was on the run from the CIA. Just thinking about her situation blew her mind.

  “It’s okay to show a little nervousness. It’s expected,” Jake told her as one of the Coast Guard crew threw a line to the captain.

  The seas were by no means rough, but large gentle swells made the approach difficult. Cassidy realized that both boats had turned into the wind to match their angles. As the large Coast Guard ship pulled alongside, it blocked the sun. She shivered, partly from the sudden chill, partly from dread.

  On the water there was no place to run. Nowhere to hide. And while the fishing-boat captain had willingly accepted Jake’s money, Cassidy didn’t think he’d lie for them.

  It’s not like you’ve done anything illegal.

  Donna died because we went to her.

  You didn’t kill her.

  A fine legal distinction. Besides we may be blamed for her murder.

  Jake wiped the car of prints before he left it at the airport.