Kiana Cruise

by Jody Studdard

  Kiana had never gone so fast on a snowboard in her entire life. She was desperately trying to catch up to them and she knew if she hit anything at that speed, like a stump or a tree, she would probably break every bone in her body including her neck. At the same time, however, she was determined to help Michael in any way possible and she knew she couldn’t do so unless she caught up to him quickly.

  A few seconds later, they emerged from the edge of the woods and entered the outskirts of Whistler’s downtown area, which was called the Village. Parts of it were bare pavement and brick, but the man on the snowmobile kept to the areas that were covered with snow since he knew he would lose significant speed otherwise. Pedestrians darted in all directions as he and Michael zipped along a small street, then turned and raced into an alley. They disappeared from Kiana’s view for a few seconds as they went behind a small, one-story, brick building.

  Kiana did something completely crazy. She knew it would probably be the death of her but she didn’t know what else to do. She was desperate to assist Michael but she was so far behind she didn’t see any other way.

  She jumped the building.

  There was a large pile of snow right next to it on the side she was approaching. It had probably been pushed there by snowplows that had cleared the adjacent parking lot earlier in the day. To Kiana it looked like it would make a good ramp so she used it as one.

  For a brief second, as she flew through the air, she had flashbacks of the last time she had done something so reckless, back in Chiang Mai when she had jumped the moat on her scooter. During that jump, when she had looked down she had seen nothing but dark, murky water. This time, she saw the building’s tiled roof and it was actually much higher than she had originally thought. She barely cleared its peak (by less than a foot), and she felt her stomach get queasy as she dropped rapidly over the other side.

  She would have liked to have said she planned the whole thing, but it was actually nothing more than dumb luck. She landed right on top of the man on the snowmobile. He never saw her coming, since she came from above, and when she hit him she took him completely off of the snowmobile’s seat. They hit the ground hard and the snowmobile, which had suddenly become driverless, plowed into a nearby dumpster. In the meantime, Kiana’s snowboard bounced away and hit a parked car.

  The man never had a chance after that. Kiana couldn’t do anything since she had had the wind knocked out of her when she had hit the ground, but Michael pounced on him and subdued him quickly. He then turned and ran over to Kiana, who was still lying flat on her back in the middle of the alley trying to catch her breath.

  “Kiana. What were you thinking? That was crazy. Are you okay?”

  “I’ve seen better days.”

  “Do me a favor. Don’t do anything like that again, okay? You really freaked me out there for a second.”

  “You? Imagine how I felt? I was the one who was twenty feet in the air.”

  He helped her up, then called Christine and had her bring the car down to them. As soon as she arrived, he called Beckman to report what had happened and Beckman instructed them to take the man to Whistler’s police department to be held until another USIA agent could be sent to retrieve him. Beckman wanted to oversee his questioning personally. In the meantime, she wanted them to continue their original assignment by returning to Vancouver and taking their flight to San Diego.

  That plan sounded pretty nice to Kiana. She had had enough snowboarding for one day and she hoped their time in San Diego would be a little calmer than their time in Whistler.

  But then again, she should have known better. She was a secret agent and in the world of secret agents, nothing was calm for long.

  Chapter 49

  Kiana could not believe her luck. Somehow, she had gotten herself involved in another crazy, out-of-control, high-speed chase. This time, however, she was sitting atop a Sea-Doo watercraft, racing through a bay in southern California, with water flying in all directions all around her.

  It all started right after their assignment in Whistler. Following Beckman’s instructions, Michael, Christine, and Kiana had driven from Whistler back to Vancouver and had caught the first available flight to San Diego. Upon arrival in San Diego, they had rented a car and had made their way to the address they had been given for Zander’s San Diego residence, which was actually in La Jolla, a small city about twenty minutes north of downtown San Diego. Zander’s house was small but extremely nice and it sat right on the beach. It even had its own dock, which was about twenty feet long and had an enclosed section at the far end that had a small speedboat parked inside, as well as a Jet Ski and a Sea-Doo.

  Remembering how the Whistler assignment had gone and not wanting a repeat of it, the three of them approached the house cautiously and Kiana was on high alert the whole time. The house was empty, and like they had done in Whistler, Michael and Christine went inside while Kiana took a look around the yard. Kiana was armed with a real gun, Michael’s backup, since she had lost hers when she had crashed her snowboard in Whistler and they had not had enough time to return to the USIA’s headquarters to get another tranquilizer gun for her. Giving her a real gun was technically a breach of company protocol since teen agents were not supposed to use anything but tranquilizer guns, but after their ordeal in Whistler Michael was unwilling to leave her unarmed while they were continuing their investigation.

  Just like Whistler, Michael found a desk with a computer and he instantly tapped into it and started copying its data. In the meantime, Christine searched the rest of the house but she didn’t find anything of interest. Kiana’s search of the yard, and the beach and its dock, was equally fruitless.

  But then, much to Kiana’s dismay, it happened again. She had just finished her search of the back yard and was circling around to check the front when she spotted a man sneaking along the side of the house. He had dark hair and tanned skin and a pistol in one hand. Luckily, he was facing the other direction, away from Kiana, and he didn’t see her.

  She drew her gun and pointed it at his back.

  “Don’t make a move or I’ll shoot.”

  Much to her surprise and chagrin, he immediately took off running, directly away from her along the side of the house. Normally, she would have shot him in the back and it would have been an extremely easy shot given the distance between the two of them, but since she didn’t have her tranquilizer gun and was using a real one, she couldn’t do that. So instead she lowered her aim and tried to shoot him in the leg, hoping that would stop him but not hurt him too badly. Unfortunately, her shot only grazed him and he continued to flee away from her. Before she could do anything more, he had run all of the way down the back yard, across the beach, and onto the dock. He jumped into the speedboat, fired up its engine, and took off. Without thinking, Kiana raced after him, jumped onto the Sea-Doo that had been parked in the dock’s enclosed section, and chased after him. Luckily, she had driven Sea-Doos before, several times, so she was familiar with their controls and had little trouble driving it even though it was a windy day and the water was choppy all around her. The man had gotten a bit of a lead but she was able to catch up to him quickly. She pulled aside him briefly but had to ease up on her throttle and drop back quickly as he spotted her and swerved the speedboat to the side, directly at her, in an attempt to run her over. He then raced by and circled back around, clearly in an attempt to flank and get behind her. She saw what he was intending to do and reacted quickly, racing forward once again, then looping around so she could remain in the rear. She had to adjust her balance slightly as she crossed over the boat’s wake, which wasn’t huge but could still flip her over pretty easily if she wasn’t careful. Seeing he couldn’t get behind her, the man raised his pistol and fired at her twice, but both of his shots were high and flew harmlessly over her head. Not knowing what else to do, she returned fire and one of her shots shattered the boat’s windshield right in front of him.

  The chase proceeded from there and it got really intense sever
al seconds later. They entered an area filled with other watercraft, including a small yacht, two Jet Skis, and some type of old fishing boat. Kiana circled the yacht, sped past the fishing boat, and zipped right between the two Jet Skis. One of the riders took a look at her as she zipped by and shouted, “Righteous,” which was a word she hadn’t heard since her relocation to Seattle. In the meantime, the man in the speedboat maneuvered closer toward shore, but at one point he had to swerve back toward Kiana to avoid hitting a man on a surfboard.

  It was at that point Kiana saw her chance. As carefully as she could, she climbed upward on the Sea-Doo’s seat, so she was basically standing on top of it (which wasn’t easy at the speed she was travelling), then launched herself onto the speedboat’s side. There was a brief, mad scramble as she fought to get ahold of its side and pull herself aboard, and the minute she did, the man tried to turn and shoot her, and likely he would have succeeded but he didn’t see a dinghy that was in the water in front of them and he ran right over it, tipping the speedboat momentarily to one side. As it tipped, he lost his balance and dropped his gun, which was good since Kiana had lost hers too during her scramble to pull herself aboard. They were both left standing there, inside the boat, just a few feet away from one another as it raced toward a nearby marina.

  If only Master Gwon could see me now, Kiana thought. Taekwondo in a speedboat – even he had probably never done that before.

  The fight did not last long. The man lunged at her but she knocked him to the side, then punched him in the chest. While he was recovering from the blow to his chest, she jumped straight back, just far enough to give her some operating space. The man tried to lunge at her again, but this time his efforts were countered by a rapid succession of her infamous snap kicks, including one to his midsection and another to the side of his face. The blow to the side of his face ended the fight and sent him falling onto his back in an unconscious heap.

  Kiana took a deep, relieved breath, jumped into the driver’s seat, then piloted the speedboat back to Zander’s dock where Michael and Christine were anxiously waiting for her. They still didn’t know what had happened since they had been inside the house and had only emerged in time to see her race away on the Sea-Doo. The looks on their faces were a combination of surprise, relief, and amazement as she pulled the speedboat up alongside the dock and said, “I got another one.” She pointed at the man lying on the floor at her feet.

  “Incredible,” Michael said. “Absolutely incredible. I don’t know how you do it, Kiana.”

  She smiled. She wasn’t really a fan of all of the high-speed chases, but at the same time she had to admit she was starting to get pretty good at them.

  Chapter 50

  After departing Zander’s house, Michael, Christine, and Kiana took the man Kiana had captured to the San Diego police department where he would be detained until Beckman could send another USIA agent to retrieve him. Like before, she wanted to handle his interrogation personally. After dropping him off, they rented a room in a hotel in downtown San Diego, since they were all in desperate need of showers and some sleep. During her time as an agent, Kiana had never had a longer, busier, more hectic day. While Christine was taking her turn in the shower, Michael contacted Beckman using Kiana’s laptop. And it was a good thing he did since Beckman had some important information to tell them.

  “I completed my interrogation of the man you captured at Whistler. His name is Antonin Gregorovich. We don’t have too much on him and as far as we can tell he’s little more than a petty criminal. During his interrogation, he revealed he was working for a man named Pavel Voronov.”

  “Voronov?”

  “He was a prestigious general in the Soviet military. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he fell into disregard and eventually left the country completely. For years he worked as an arms dealer and weapons manufacturer, mostly in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Over the years, we tried to put the squeeze on him several times but we were never successful. A few years ago, he disappeared completely and we assumed he had either died, been killed, or simply retired.”

  “Why would an arms dealer have a man watch Zander’s house?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know. I had our analysts take a look at that 1.5 million dollar deposit you discovered while going through Zander’s bank records. Guess where the money came from?”

  “Voronov?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But why? What’s the connection between Zander and Voronov?”

  “That’s what I want you to find out. I put in a few calls, in an attempt to find Voronov’s current whereabouts. We believe he is on an island off of the west coast of Costa Rica.”

  “Costa Rica?”

  “Yes. As far as we can tell he’s on a small, uninhabited island off of the mainland, approximately fifty miles from shore. It looks like Voronov purchased the island quite some time ago, but we have no idea why. In the past year, large amounts of supplies and construction material have been shipped to it, so we believe he is finally up to something. It may be nothing more than a private estate he’s building for himself, but I want you, Christine, and Kiana to take a closer look at it to find out.”

  “What about Zander?”

  “We believe he’s there, too. We were able to locate an image of him on a security camera at the main airport in San José. In the image, he is accompanied by a man named Dimitri Nikitin, who is an associate of Voronov’s. As such, the two men, Zander and Voronov, are clearly linked somehow.”

  “When do you want us to leave?”

  “First thing in the morning. Once you arrive in San José, you will be met by our operative there, a man named Francisco Moratalla. Moratalla is already in the process of obtaining a boat that can get you covertly to Voronov’s island. I want you to keep things as quiet and as low-key as possible for now. Simply do some surveillance, so we can try to find out what is actually going on, if anything. I do not want you to do anything to alert the Costa Rican authorities unless you must. I’ve already purchased your tickets to San José and they’ll be waiting for you at Lindbergh Field tomorrow morning. I want reports every six hours upon your arrival in San José.”

  “Understood.”

  Beckman’s image vanished from the screen.

  For a minute, Kiana thought Michael was done, but then he grabbed his phone and dialed a number.

  “Jones. It’s Michael. Sorry for the delay getting back to you. Were you able to find anything?”

  He waited for several seconds as the man on the other end spoke. Unfortunately, since he had the phone to his ear Kiana couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end.

  “I see. Keep digging and give me word if you find anything more. You may need to check her mother’s files. What? I know. Do your best.”

  He hung up, then turned to Kiana. “Have you heard anything from your sister lately?”

  Kiana instantly grew concerned. Actually, since Olivia’s departure, Kiana had sent her numerous texts including one while they were waiting for their flight at the airport in Vancouver and another after their arrival in San Diego but she had received absolutely nothing from Olivia in response.

  “I haven’t received anything, either,” Michael said. “And I’ve sent her several texts.”

  “Do you think something has happened to her?”

  “No. I’m not worried about that, at least not yet. But I think there is more to your sister than meets the eye.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I had one of our people at the USIA do a background check on her.”

  Kiana couldn’t believe what she had just heard, and she had no choice but to interrupt him. “You did a background check on your own daughter?”

  “Of course. We’re secret agents, Kiana. That’s what we do. And especially since her mother is one of the most cunning British operatives I’ve ever met.”

  “You think Olivia is an agent? Like her mom?”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me at all
. Especially since she isn’t really a student in Sydney.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I had an operative in Sydney take a look at her school. He discovered Olivia is indeed registered at the school, and like all students there she has a class schedule and official transcripts. And her grades are excellent. But when he went and spoke with her professors, none of them had ever heard of her. And the same was true of her classmates. None of them had ever seen anyone who matched her description.”

  Kiana’s head was spinning. Her own sister was a spy, for England? She couldn’t believe it. Or could she?

  “There’s something I should tell you.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “We did a little sparring one night. She was as good as me. Maybe better.”