The Agent's Surrender

by Kimberly Van Meter

  He acquiesced with a slight tip of his head and began again. “Kat, I would like you to meet CIA agent Jane Fallon.”

  “A pleasure,” Kat said, pushing her glasses again and shaking Jane’s hand just as vigorously as she had Holden’s. “What’s the occasion? Want a tour of the lab? It’s mind-blowing what the government has in resources. I would’ve died and gone to heaven at Tessara if I’d had access to such state-of-the-art equipment.”

  “Wasn’t Tessara well funded?”

  “Oh, yes, but I was a lower-level scientist so it’s not as if I got the corner office, if you know what I mean.”

  “I guess that all changed the minute you created the Game Changer,” Jane said, and Kat’s expression darkened into a scowl.

  “Please don’t call it that. MCX-209 was an embarrassing failure and only that psychopath, Miles Jogan, and his bimbo, Camille, called it that.”

  Miles and Camille, formerly of the Defense Intelligence Agency, currently serving time for a host of crimes against the nation—and human beings in general—had been the ringleaders behind the plot to weaponize and consequently sell MCX-209 to the highest bidder. But in the process, they’d made Kat test the drug on human subjects, most of whom had died, with the exception of Kat’s husband, Jake.

  “Not exactly,” Jane corrected, taking Kat aback. “Did you know Penny Winslow was monitoring your progress on that particular drug way before you started administering your drug trials?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Holden held up his hand and said, “Is there someplace we can talk in private? This is a sensitive topic and we’re not sure who all is listening, if you catch my drift.”

  “Oh, great. More secret government spy stuff,” Kat grumbled. She motioned for them to follow her into her office. Once they were safely closed inside, she dropped into a leather-backed chair and said, “All right, now start again. Penny Winslow was watching my experiments?”

  “Yes. It appears she also dubbed MCX-209 the Game Changer, possibly before Miles Jogan did. In fact, it might’ve been Penny who christened the drug in the first place. Did you ever have any contact with her?”

  Kat shook her head. “No. All my contact was with my supervisor—”

  “Hector Olonzo,” Jane supplied. As Kat nodded, Jane added, “He’s dead.”

  Kat’s stare widened and she gasped in shock. “What happened? Hector was so sweet. On Tuesdays he always brought me caramel cookies from the snack cart.”

  “He was killed in a mugging gone wrong, but I’ll be honest, I don’t think it was an accident,” Holden admitted.

  “What do you mean?”

  Jane held the woman’s gaze. “He means we think someone may have killed Hector to keep him quiet. He was a loose end that someone needed to snip.”

  Kat’s hand flew to her throat as she realized what they were saying. “Do you mean...I’m a loose end, too?”

  “Potentially,” Holden said. “But not yet. You’re the only one with knowledge of how MCX-209 works. But, honestly, we don’t even know if that’s what this is all about. My brother killed himself and left behind a lot of unanswered questions that all seem to circle back to Tessara in one form or another.”

  “I understand,” Kat murmured with a nod. “But MCX-209 has been shut down. The whole reason I agreed to come to work here was so I could be assured that no one else would get their hands on the formula.”

  “So you would know if anyone was poking around?”

  Kat nodded. “Heck yes. I’m the lead scientist here. I answer directly to Director Michelle Rainier, and she answers to the president. I made sure of it. I don’t want anyone ever getting their hands on that horrid drug.”

  “How is Jake holding up?” Holden asked quietly.

  At the mention of her husband and the one person still recovering from an injection of the drug, Kat brightened. “Oh, he’s doing so well! I’d say almost recovered and still going strong. He has minor gaps in his memory, but it seems to correlate with his interest in whatever he’s doing, such as not doing the dishes when I ask him.”

  Jane and Holden chuckled. “Glad to hear he’s on the mend,” Holden said. “He’s a good man.”

  Kat grinned, eyes sparkling behind her glasses. “I think so, too.”

  Jane cleared her throat and brought the topic back into focus. “It seems Penny Winslow was actively involved in a few other projects—Switchblade, Carousel, Serenade. Any of those ring a bell?”

  Kat pursed her lips as she searched her memory but ultimately shook her head. “No, I was pretty focused on my own project. I truly thought I was on to something big.”

  “It was big, all right—just not what you thought it was going to be for,” Holden said. “Do you keep samples of MCX-209 here on the premises?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Would you mind checking to see that everything is where it should be?” Holden asked. “MCX-209 and Tessara seem to be the only common denominators, and we’re grasping at straws.”

  “Sure. I can’t take you into the restricted area, but I can show you the live feed from the security line.”

  “You have a video camera trained on the samples?” Jane asked incredulously. “That must make for some really boring footage.”

  “Very. But it’s a clean room and only certain people have enough clearance to even access that portion of the building.” She logged onto her computer and quickly brought up the live feed. Several tubes of blue liquid were suspended in liquid nitrogen, frozen for safekeeping. “See? All good and accounted for. The feed is also time-stamped for additional security. If there’s a single, tiny blip in the time feed, it’ll alert security. And so far, it’s been quiet.”

  Jane released a pent-up breath. “That’s good to know. That drug—and the fact that it’s real—freaks me out.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty scary in action, too,” Kat said with a bleak expression. “Anyway, you don’t have to worry about this particular baddie getting out there in the world.”

  Holden nodded. “I guess we’ve taken up enough of your time. Listen, watch your back. Until we figure out who’s all behind this, don’t trust anyone.”

  Kat smiled nervously. “Boy, and here I thought I was done with dodging people trying to kill me.”

  Holden crooked a charming grin and said, “For me, that’s a typical Thursday.”

  Jane rolled her eyes and gave him a slight push toward the door. “Okay, Mr. Bond, let’s go. We have to find a way to break into this thumb drive.”

  “Oh, I can do that for you,” Kat offered with an unexpected smile, adding shyly, “I’m a bit of a technogeek in my spare time. I could’ve been a hacker in a different life.”

  Jane liked this odd scientist woman. For all her admitted geekiness, she had a warmth to her. Holden produced the thumb drive and handed it to Kat. “Good luck. Work your magic. It seems to be encrypted—”

  “No offense, but I break encryptions when I can’t sleep at night. Well, it’s either that or memorize formulas. Depends on my mood,” Kat said brightly, accepting the drive and pushing it into the USB port on her computer. “Let’s see how ambitious this encryption is.”

  Jane glanced at Holden and saw his anxious expression. They needed a bit of hope today. Within a few minutes, Kat chortled with a happy squee of excitement like a little kid, her feet dancing on the floor as she motioned with a “Ta-da!” for them both to join her behind the desk. “No problem-o. This was easy-peasy. Whoever encrypted it wasn’t really serious about keeping people out. Now, who does this belong to?”

  “My brother, Miko. He kept it in a safety deposit box along with some cash,” Holden answered, peering over Kat’s shoulder. He looked to Kat and said, “Mind if I poke around?”

  “Be my guest.” She rolled out of the way to give Holden more room. “Do you know what you’re looking for?”

  “Not a clue.” But Holden and Jane saw soon enough what was on that drive, and it took Jane’s breath away. Holden doubled-c
licked the file marked Insurance Policy, and suddenly everything came into focus. “Am I looking at what I think I’m looking at?”

  “It looks like a hit list,” Jane answered under her breath, shocked. “I recognize some of these names from restricted files. These are I.D. hits.”

  “That’s a lot of names,” Kat observed with a worried expression. “Why would he keep this?”

  “He called it his insurance policy for a reason. Someone doesn’t want this information going public. I suppose Penny Winslow would’ve been pretty threatened by the knowledge that this list exists.”

  Jane nodded, pointing. “Click on the file marked Key.”

  Holden double-clicked and another set of notes opened on the screen. “You’re kidding me.” He shook his head. “This isn’t good.”

  Jane looked to Kat. “Are you sure no one’s been working on MCX-209 without your permission?”

  “I’m positive,” Kat answered. “Why?”

  “Because according to Miko’s notes, someone authorized another trial of the drug.”

  “That’s impossible.” Kat shook her head. “I supervise all experiments in this lab. Nothing gets by without my knowledge.”

  Holden frowned. “Someone’s planning something with that drug. Maybe Miko was on to whoever had put plans into motion.”

  “If so, why didn’t he just tell you?” Jane asked, sagging at the enormity of the situation. “Maybe we could’ve helped.”

  “I ask myself that question a hundred times a day and I still don’t have a suitable answer,” Holden said, scrolling through the notes, searching for clues. “Every single day.”

  Kat, visibly shaken by the realization that her drug was still sought after by the wrong people, said, “Listen, I hate to cut this short, but I have to talk to my boss about this. If someone is circumventing our security, we have to find out how and why.”

  “Can you trust your boss?”

  Kat nodded emphatically. “Yes. She’s the one who helped take down Miles and Camille, and she shut down The Compound. She’s going to want to know about this newest development.”

  “If you feel confident without a shadow of a doubt that you can trust her...” Jane let it trail. If it were her, she wouldn’t trust anyone outside of this room, especially given the history of that drug. It was the scientist’s call, though.

  “I do,” Kat said, looking devastated. “I can’t believe this is happening again. I wish I’d never created that stupid drug.”

  “Well, think of it this way—you never would’ve met Jake if you hadn’t,” Holden said, trying to cheer her up even though the situation was pretty dire for everyone involved.

  Jane suppressed the immediate flood of warmth at his show of kindness toward the scientist. He was such a good guy. Why couldn’t she just forget about her family and let her heart decide?

  “Hey, have you ever heard of a winery called Butterfly Bend?” Holden asked Kat, switching gears quickly.

  “Um...yeah, I think that’s the winery owned by Penny Winslow’s cousin. He came by Tessara a few times. They were real close, I guess. Why?”

  “I don’t know. Miko mentioned Butterfly Bend in his notes and we visited the winery and talked with the owner. He seems like a nice guy. He said Tessara was working on creating a cork that didn’t disintegrate with time and protected the integrity of the wine. Sound familiar?”

  “Not really. Then again, I was hyperfocused on my own trials. I don’t doubt that Tessara was doing exactly that for him as a favor to Penny. Like I said, he and Penny seemed really close. Almost like brother and sister.”

  Jane pocketed that information. From the expression on Holden’s face, he seemed to find that nugget interesting, too, even if they didn’t know how the pieces fit together. He pulled the thumb drive free from the USB port and tucked it back in his pocket. “Thanks for all your help, Kat,” he said, moving away from the computer and heading for the door. “Remember what I said—don’t trust anyone if you can help it. Keep your circle of trust tight, and just to be on the safe side, go ahead and clue Jake in on this newest development. Wouldn’t hurt to have him keeping an eye on things.”

  “He’s going to freak out when I tell him.” Kat grimaced. “But I’m a terrible liar, so he’ll find out sooner or later anyway.”

  Holden smiled and thanked Kat once more, then they were escorted from the building.

  “Is it just me or does this plot get more and more convoluted by the second?” Jane asked, glancing at Holden wearily. “I can’t make heads or tails of which direction we’re supposed to be traveling anymore. Tessara, MCX-209, fake IDs, hit lists...where does it end?”

  “It ends with us finding out what really happened to my brother and who tried to shoot you,” Holden answered grimly, pulling everything back into focus. “All the pieces are there. We just need to put the puzzle together.”

  “If you say so.” Jane felt a headache coming on. “I think I need a beer.”

  “Now you’re talking my language.” He grinned, and her heart did a funny flip-flop that was entirely too telling for her liking, but what could she do? It seemed useless to fight what was happening between them. She knew without a doubt she could put on a show of keeping him at a distance, though by the end of the night, there was nowhere she’d rather be than snuggled up tight against his side. What a lovely mess they’d created.

  “Fine, but I’m buying,” she said almost grumpily, and he laughed.

  “Far be it from me to turn down such a charming offer. Now tell me you’re going to throw me down and have your wicked way with me, too, and I’ll be a happy man,” he said with a wink. She groaned. Lord help us both.

  She climbed into the car and barked, “Get in the car before I make you walk.”

  “I love a take-charge woman,” he laughed, climbing in beside her. “Especially when you do that thing with your—”

  “If you value your life, stop,” she warned, fighting the blush in her cheeks. His laughter tickled her insides, but she refused to give in. She may know the score between them, but damn it, she didn’t have to be happy about it.

  Chapter 20

  Kat Odgers hurried to her boss’s office, her soft lab shoes making light squeaking noises as she went. She found Michelle on the phone, but immediately went in anyway, shut the door behind her and waited somewhat patiently for her boss to finish her conversation.

  Michelle, noting Kat’s agitation, ended the call and looked to Kat with a raised brow. “Everything okay?”

  “No. Everything is not okay. In fact, everything is pretty messed up and I don’t know what to think.”

  “Okay, calm down. Start at the beginning. What’s wrong?”

  “Someone is poking around MCX-209 and restarting the trials.” At that, Michelle paused and leaned back in her chair. Kat immediately felt panicked. “What a minute...you already knew this? How is that possible? You promised me that I would be in charge of MCX-209.”

  “Have a seat, Kat,” Michelle suggested, but Kat didn’t want to sit. She wanted answers. Her hands began to shake. When Kat continued to stand, Michelle said, “You are in charge of the initial formula, but there have been some preliminary trials of the modified version of MCX-209 that you formulated to save Jake.”

  “What?” Kat nearly screeched, her heart thundering in her chest. “What are you saying? Someone is testing that formula without my involvement? You promised me that wouldn’t happen!”

  “And I firmly stood behind that promise, but some things are above my pay grade.”

  Kat blinked. “How is that possible? You answer to the president.”

  “Yes, I do, and it’s my job to ensure that we are in control of one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet, and we can’t be in control if we don’t understand how it works.”

  “It works by erasing memory,” Kat said, wiping at the tears gathering in her eyes. “My husband suffered the most unimaginable horror of losing who he was. You know that! And what about the people who died
when Miles forced me to inject them with the first test formula? Their brains leaked from their ears! I’ll never forget their faces and how they trusted me not to hurt them.”

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Michelle reminded her, but Kat didn’t want her platitudes. “Kat, I need you to calm down and listen to me. I should’ve told you, but I didn’t want to upset you, which, judging by your reaction, was a wise decision.”

  “It wasn’t wise. It was deceptive,” Kat said hotly. “This drug should’ve been destroyed completely. It has no acceptable application, and the fact you lied to me means you’re no better than Miles Jogan, tricking me into working for the very people who were responsible for this horror in my life.”

  “You’re overreacting,” Michelle said, losing patience, but Kat didn’t care. She felt betrayed and, worse, terrified that the nightmare was about to start all over again. “The clinical trials are limited and supervised. You have nothing to fear.”

  “You’re wrong,” Kat said flatly, wiping at her tears. “This is going to end badly. That drug is evil and it brings terrible things wherever it goes.”

  “Kat...please. You’re a scientist. Let’s be sensible. Now that you’re aware of the situation, we’d like to include you in the trials. It goes without saying your expertise in this is invaluable.”

  “I need to think,” Kat said, moving to the door. “I thought I could trust you—”

  “You can,” Michelle insisted with a subtle frown, as if distressed by the realization that Kat felt betrayed. “Listen, I understand your concerns. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t share them, but this was taken out of my hands.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked. “No one is higher than the president.”

  “I can’t elaborate more than I have. Trust me when I say MCX-209 will not fall into the wrong hands.”

  “Sorry, but obviously, it already has.” Kat held up her hand, halting Michelle; she’d heard enough. “I...I have to talk to Jake. This is...horrible, horrible news.”

  Before Michelle could say anything else, Kat bolted. She needed air. She needed clarity. Most of all, she needed Jake. Jake would know what to do.