The Agent's Surrender

by Kimberly Van Meter

  “The question is, why is a highly trained scientist slumming it as a lowly gopher for a pharmaceutical company when she could’ve been in the lab?” Michelle mused. “Doesn’t add up.”

  “Here’s a thought....” Jane said. “Maybe it was a ruse to cover her tracks. No one is going to pay attention to a secretary. She’s a ghost, moving in and out of people’s offices without arousing suspicion. Honestly, it’s the best cover, because everyone always overlooks the secretary.”

  Holden nodded. “And if Penny handpicked Selena, she had to have a reason. Let’s dig into Selena’s background and see what pops up.” He grabbed Jake’s computer and did a preliminary search but came up with nothing except benign Google entries. “Top of her class in Stanford, a member of Mensa and on the chess club.”

  Jake frowned. “What about family connections? Is there a possibility that Selena is related to Penny?”

  “It doesn’t say in her file,” Jane answered, shaking her head. “But then it probably wouldn’t if that was something they were trying to conceal. According to her file, Selena is twenty-six. I guess it’s feasible for Selena to be Penny’s daughter, but I would imagine something like that would eventually be known, right?”

  “Penny used to serve in the military,” Holden said. “That’s how she met Tom and Ulysses. They served in the same unit. Do you think Penny had a kid overseas and left her behind when she returned stateside?”

  “I shudder to think of that woman as a mother,” Jake said grimly, then shook his head. “I don’t know. Even if that theory is correct and Selena is related to Penny somehow and she’s continuing her work...to what end?”

  Jane shoved her hand through her hair, exasperated and exhausted. “I don’t know,” she admitted with a long exhale, and fell back against the sofa cushion. “Everything is starting to swim in my head. Maybe we’re completely off base and spinning our wheels.” She looked at Jake with sympathy. “How’s Kat? She doing okay?”

  “Yeah, she’s just not accustomed to all this intrigue and danger. Does terrible things to her nerves. Can’t blame her. This crap is getting old, even for me.”

  Holden nodded with a yawn. “You and me both, brother.”

  Michelle rubbed red-rimmed eyes and said, “I’m going to call it a night. I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe you ought to stay here,” Jake said, his voice hoarse from too much coffee and not enough sleep. “It’s not safe at your place.”

  “Probably not, but I can’t run out of fear. They’ve been controlling my life for too long and I’m done. Chances are my sister is already dead. You and I both know how this works. If they’re going to try to take me out, they can do it on my turf, at the very least.”

  Jake nodded, though he didn’t look happy about it. They all had military backgrounds and understood her need to stand her ground. “Keep your gun loaded and under your pillow.”

  “And sleep with one eye open,” Holden tacked on. “With any luck we’ll come out alive when this is all said and done.”

  “From your mouth to God’s ear,” Michelle said with a small smile before letting herself out.

  “Kat’s going to be upset that you let her go home,” Holden said.

  “Michelle has to do what she feels is right. I can only imagine the guilt and fear she’s been living with,” Jake said quietly. “You guys going to stay here tonight?”

  “No, my place is pretty secure. Jane is staying with me.” Jane, too tired to put up a fuss, merely nodded in agreement. That was Holden’s cue to pack it in. “We better call it a night, too. We’ll contact you tomorrow if we find out anything more. What’s Kat going to do?”

  “I don’t know. Call in sick, I imagine.”

  “Good idea. But watch your doors and windows. Bullets have been flying lately, if you know what I mean.”

  “I do.” Jake accepted Holden’s advice. “Keep your head down.”

  “Copy that.” Holden collected Jane and they walked to the car, eyes trained in the darkness, ears on alert. Danger didn’t always announce itself with a bang. Sometimes it sailed through on the wind.

  Chapter 22

  The following morning, Holden and Jane were gulping down fresh coffee after very little sleep and browsing the web when something on a news site snagged their attention. A woman’s body had been found floating in the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial.

  Holden double-clicked the news report, and he swore under his breath. “The bastards killed her.” Jane quickly scanned the short article.

  “Michelle’s sister?” Jane supposed, and Holden nodded. “The age seems right. If that’s Michelle’s sister, that means they’re snipping loose threads right now. They must have what they’ve been after.”

  Seconds later, Holden’s cell rang. It was Jake. “You see the news?” he asked.

  “Yeah, just now. Was that Michelle’s sister?”

  “Yeah. She’s devastated.”

  “Understandable. You know what this means...”

  “Whatever plan they were setting in motion has begun,” Jake answered. “And we still have nothing concrete to go on. We have no idea who’s pulling the strings and no idea where to start.”

  “Not entirely true. We know something’s up with Selena. I say we bring her in.”

  “We need more evidence,” Jake disagreed. “If we pull the trigger prematurely, it’ll end up blowing up in our faces.”

  “What, then?”

  “Let’s see what we can dig up on Selena first. Try to make those connections before we pull the alarm. You have anyone you can trust with this information?”

  Holden thought of Chief Harris and nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Good. We’re going to need all the backup we can muster. In the meantime, I’ll start cultivating my own posse.”

  “Sounds good.” They clicked off. Jane waited for Holden to share, which he did. “We’re going to need James Cotton again.”

  She raised a brow. “To dig up dirt on Little Miss Perfect?”

  “Yep.”

  “Sounds like a plan. What about Ulysses or Trevor?” she asked. “Maybe we ought to dig into their pasts, too.”

  “Couldn’t hurt,” Holden agreed, then, acting on impulse, he grabbed Jane and pulled her into a hard kiss. When they broke apart, they were both gasping for breath with pupils dilated.

  “What was that for?”

  “Because we’re heading into some serious shit. I know at any moment either one of us could bite the big one, and I didn’t want to take the risk of going into the hereafter without one last kiss from the most beautiful woman in the world.”

  Jane stared, her eyes welling with tears. “You’re killing me,” she said softly, her body melting against his. “And don’t talk about dying. You’re not going to die. And neither am I.”

  “Tomorrow is promised to no one,” he reminded her gently without a hint of his usual smart-ass wisecracking. He wanted to show her the raw side of what he was feeling, the stuff he couldn’t quite put into words without fumbling like an idiot. “Jane, I know you have a lot of reasons why you and I don’t work, but I can give you one reason why we do.”

  “Yeah?” The lilt of wary hope in her voice gave him courage. “What’s that one reason?”

  “This.” He brushed his lips across hers in the sweetest, most tender kiss he’d ever given to another human being. In that single motion, he tried communicating that somehow she’d captured his heart in a way he didn’t understand nor could truly verbalize, but he knew was true just as he knew the sun would rise every day. He was pretty damn sure he’d fallen in love with Jane Fallon and he wanted her to know, even if he couldn’t say the words just yet.

  She blinked back tears, and when she closed her eyes, moisture slid from the corners. “Why are you doing this?” she asked plaintively. “This isn’t doing either of us any favors.”

  Disappointment crashed around him when she didn’t seem to appreciate his grand gesture. He released h
er and tried not to let the bitterness of his letdown seep into his voice. “I just wanted to seize the moment,” he said with a twist of his lips. “You know, in case.”

  She nodded but turned away from him, saying, “Well, let’s focus on catching this SOB so we don’t have to end up running for our lives, okay?”

  Good plan. Following Jane’s lead, he shoved his heartbreak under the proverbial rug and got on the horn with James Cotton.

  * * *

  Jane fought with her fluttering heart, hating that she was on the verge of a total meltdown after Holden’s kiss. It’d felt like a goodbye kiss. As if he knew something she didn’t, and she hated the very idea of Holden not being there across the conference table, giving her a hard time or trying to best her in the gym. She especially hated the idea of not being able to wake up each morning in his arms, but that was a separate problem she’d have to deal with later. Right now, they both needed their heads on straight if they were going to survive, which meant stop freaking crying! She surreptitiously wiped at her eyes and cleared her throat, determined to suck it up. They had very little time left on their clock, and no doubt the sniper was already loading his gun with bullets inscribed with their names. While Holden gave James instructions, she logged onto the computer and started looking for connections they might’ve missed last night. She cross-referenced Butterfly Bend winery to anyone else associated with Tessara aside from Penny Winslow, and when that came up empty, she started looking for ties to Selena and the cofounders of Tessara. The answer was there—she could feel it. And because it was so tantalizingly close, yet still just out of reach, she wanted to scream.

  Within a few hours, James returned Holden’s call. Holden put him on speaker so Jane could hear, too.

  “You are not going to believe this, but...”

  “Selena is Penny’s daughter?” Holden answered. Jane half expected James to confirm, but when he didn’t, her eyes widened in shock.

  “Nope. I don’t think pure evil can gestate,” James quipped. “No, but she definitely has ties to Penny. Penny was her aunt.”

  “Aunt?” Holden repeated in surprise, mirroring Jane’s expression. “How so?”

  “Selena’s the daughter of Trevor Granger. Trevor and Penny were half brother and sister, not cousins as they told everyone.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jane gasped. “How’d we miss that?”

  “They weren’t raised together and didn’t let people know they were actually siblings, preferring to tell everyone they were cousins.”

  “But why?”

  “They were pretty close. Perhaps too close?” James guessed, grossing out both Holden and Jane.

  “Are you saying...oh, God, that’s disgusting,” Holden said, grimacing. “So Selena is Trevor’s daughter. Funny how he failed to mention his daughter worked at Tessara.”

  “Seems a little suspect on his part,” Jane agreed. “But that alone is not a crime. We need more to go on.”

  “Well, today is your lucky day,” James said with a cocky grin in his voice. “I have something you might find of use.”

  “Such as?” Holden asked.

  “Selena’s godmother is someone pretty important.”

  “Spit it out, Cotton,” Holden said, losing patience. “We’re in a bit of a time crunch.”

  “You take the fun out of everything. All right, all right, her godmother is none other than...the veep.”

  “The what?”

  “You know, the veep...as in the vice president of the United States. Talk about connections.”

  Jane met Holden’s astonished gaze, which she was sure matched her own. “Are you sure?” Jane asked before Holden could. “How did you find that out?”

  “The internet is a wondrous place. It was fairly easy. Once I tracked down how Selena, Penny and Trevor connected, I just did background checks, verified birth records and whatnot and found the VP’s name on the christening details kept at the church in the town where Selena was born. That’s where I struck gold.”

  “You’re a freaking genius.” Holden grinned, but there was an edge of fear in his gaze and Jane knew where he was going with that. “So our connection to the higher power pulling the strings is the woman closest to the president.”

  “The one who stands to gain everything if something were to happen to the president,” Jane finished. Holden nodded grimly. “Holy hell. We have to tell the chief.”

  “This is what Miko was trying to piece together,” Holden said. “Thanks, James. You may have just saved the life of the president of the United States.”

  * * *

  Holden and Jane barreled into Reed Harris’s office but skidded to a stop when they saw who was having a conference with the chief.

  “What’s he doing here?” Jane asked in a low tone.

  “Good question,” Holden muttered. “The last time he was here, it was to poke around in our investigation. I doubt he’s here to bring us a muffin basket.”

  “More’s the pity. I’m starved,” she quipped. “Let’s welcome him to D.C., shall we?”

  They walked into the chief’s office and pinned Ulysses Rocha with twin looks of solid unwelcome. He had the grace to flush. “Morning, Chief,” Holden said. “Mr. Rocha, Tessara must have some incredible frequent-flyer miles. To what do we owe this pleasure today?”

  “I apologize for the way I handled myself the first time I came here. Unfortunately, I was operating under a different assumption, but I have information you might find of use to your investigation.”

  “Oh? Please share,” Jane said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  “It’s come to my attention that Selena may have misrepresented herself and misused company resources. I found this in an encrypted file.” He handed a manila envelope to Holden. “Selena has been using Tessara to continue where Penny left off on many of her less-than-FDA-approved experiments. Mainly, Game Changer and Switchblade. As soon as I found out, I put a stop to it. We’ve only just recently begun to recover from the bad press Penny created, and I wasn’t about to go another round with Selena.”

  “Where is she now?” Jane asked.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “That’s why I’m here. I’m sure with your resources you’ll be able to find her a lot easier than I will. Of course, it goes without saying that when she finally surfaces, she’s fired.”

  “She’s more than fired...she’s facing criminal and federal charges,” Holden said. “Do you have any idea what she was planning?”

  “Only that she was going to do something that would change the course of history. Naturally, I was concerned.”

  “Too bad you couldn’t have been this concerned when we were first talking,” Jane said with a wry twist of her lips. “A young woman might still be alive. Selena may have blood on her hands.”

  “Well, that’s for you to work out. I’ve done my part,” Ulysses said with a distasteful shudder. “I trust you can take it from here. I have a flight to catch.”

  Jane turned to the chief. “Are we just going to let him walk? Surely we’ve got him on obstruction, at the very least.”

  “We’ve got bigger problems. Let him go,” Chief Harris said, waving them off and gesturing for the file. They closed the door behind Rocha as Reed said, “Let me take a look at what we’ve got here.”

  “Chief, we’ve got bigger problems indeed,” Jane said. “We believe the vice president of the United States is plotting to use MCX-209 on the president and the executive branch at a special dinner slated for the end of this month.”

  “That’s a very serious accusation,” Chief Harris said, steepling his fingers. “You’d better know what you’re talking about before you start saying that in mixed company.”

  “Selena’s godmother is the VP. We think this plan has been in motion since way before Penny was killed and Selena just kept the plan in motion. We were sure there was something bigger at the top of the food chain pulling strings, and what bigger puppet master could there be than the VP?”r />
  “And how would this be accomplished?” he asked.

  “Through Selena’s father’s winery, Butterfly Bend. Tessara created a special coating for the cork that will be used to bottle the Presidential Reserve. My guess is they’re planning to coat the cork with the MCX-209 so the wine is contaminated with the drug.”

  “Holy hell...” The chief looked green, but he snapped into action quickly. “If that’s the case, we’re in a heap of trouble, because that dinner is tonight.”

  “Are you sure?” Holden asked, frowning. “Trevor Granger told us it was at the end of the month.”

  “That was a security measure. The true date of the dinner is known only to a select few. We’ve got to get to that dinner and make sure no one drinks the wine.”

  Chapter 23

  Teams flanked all exits of the executive dining room as the sounds of the dinner plating from the kitchen staff filled the air, along with the low hum of chatter. Michelle, Holden, Jane, Jake and Reed all headed up individual teams, covering all bases, while Kat waited for the all-clear. When the scene had been secured, the plan was for Kat to come in and verify if, in fact, MCX-209 was in play. Badges were flashed at the Secret Service, and they filed into the room to the surprised gasps of the dinner-party guests.

  “Mr. President,” Michelle said. “I apologize for the unorthodox appearance and for ruining your dinner, but we feel a threat to national security is in this room.” She marched straight to the wine bottle directly in front of the president’s plate.

  The vice president, Gloria Burroughs, stood with an indignant expression, glowering at the intrusion. “What is the meaning of this? Explain yourself immediately,” she demanded, looking to the Secret Service. “Remove these people. This is a private dinner and they are clearly misguided. There is no threat in this room. For heaven’s sake, everyone in this room has been vetted.”

  The Secret Service shuffled, unsure of what to do. Michelle trained her gun on the vice president and the woman gasped, wilting against her chair. “Have you lost your mind? What are you doing?”