The orange glow of the streetlights bathed her path. The whoosh of her tires on the road was the only sound she could hear.
She made a few more turns as Paul instructed, running a few red lights in the process. Christine was grateful that the late hour meant that she didn’t endanger anyone else.
“I think we’ve lost them,” Paul’s voice murmured. Christine glanced in the rear view mirror to see he was right. The black SUVs that had been glued to her trail had disappeared.
“Thank God,” she breathed, easing her foot off the accelerator.
“Don’t slow down too much,” Paul told her, still tense. “Keep to the speed limit. Don’t relax until you’re safe.”
Her racing heartbeat returned full force. Just for a moment, she’d felt the relief of safety. But he was right; it was an illusion.
She cruised the streets. Crossing the river, the bare neighbourhoods she’d left morphed into lush green suburbs. He was taking her west, skirting the edges of the Portsboro central business district, with its skyscrapers and high-rises. While during the day the city centre teemed with besuited workers, at this time of night it would only be populated by a few drunk stragglers.
As she drove, Christine checked every few seconds to make sure the cars still weren’t following her. Paul still directed her, just with less urgency, giving her plenty of time to turn.
“I have so many questions,” she said into the darkness.
“Like I said. Later.”
“Are you directing me to where you are?”
He hesitated. “No.”
“Then where am I going?” Panic itched at her, leaking into her voice. Paul had saved her life. She felt attached to him. But going to an unknown location, alone? The thought made it difficult to breathe.
“A safe house that the company I work for owns.”
“What do you do for a living?” she asked, partially to sate her curiosity, and partially to distract herself.
“This and that. The company does all kinds of jobs. I do most of the surveillance.”
“Is that why you were watching me?”
He was silent for a moment, and Christine wished she could see his face. She sensed that he was debating how much to tell her. Or maybe deciding if he should lie to her.
“Sort of,” he replied.
“Well?” she demanded.
He directed her to pull up around the back of an apartment building up ahead. Christine complied, pulling into an empty space near the back of the lot, but didn’t make a move to exit the car. Trees hung over the surrounding fences, blocking out much of the moonlight. The car was dark, shadowed.
“Go inside,” he ordered.
“Not until you answer me,” she said, feeling bolder now that the immediate danger had passed.
He made one of those frustrated sounds again, almost a growl.
“I’ll tell you when you get inside.”
She shook her head, then wondered if he could see her. “No. I don’t know what I’m walking into. You need to give me something.”
He was silent for a long moment. She could hear his short breaths coming through the speakers.
“Fine,” he ground out. His displeasure was evident in the way the word sounded like it’d come through a clenched jaw. “Someone hired us to watch you, but not as protection. We were meant to ascertain whether you knew certain information. They thought you might be a corporate spy.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“Your employer.”
“Mr Disik?”
“His company.”
“I wasn’t aware he had one,” she whispered. She felt small compared to the vast swathe of information she didn’t know. “Why do they think I’m a spy? I never did anything. I’ve only worked there for two weeks.”
“He’s retired, though still listed on the board of directors. We were hired to watch you, see if you met with anyone suspicious.”
“And?”
“Nothing. If we hadn’t found anything after three weeks, the job would have been over. You would never have known we were there.”
“But then tonight happened.”
“Yeah. And I broke just about all the rules we have in getting you out of there.”
“Saving my life was against the rules?” Her heart hammered.
He cleared his throat. “No revealing ourselves to the suspect. No direct contact with the suspect. No interference in any other operation, meet, or other unusual activity. No revealing that we have access to our own personal spy satellite…” He sounded like he was ticking each item off on his fingers.
“Right,” she murmured. She squeezed her eyes shut as tears sprang in them. “Well, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You’re not inside and safe.”
She smiled at his grumble. “One last question, and then I promise I’ll go in.” Her heartbeat was slowing to a more normal rate.
He grunted, and Christine took it as a yes. “Why did you break the rules for me?” The words came out in a whisper.
He was silent for a long time. Christine once again got the feeling that he was considering whether he should lie.
She didn’t know this stranger. But he’d just helped her through the most dramatic event of her life. Now, it was just the two of them in the enclosed cabin of her car, his voice surrounding her in the early morning quiet. Like a confessional. It all combined to weave an unexpected spell of trust and intimacy between them. His answer mattered to her.
He sighed, and it sounded pained. “From what I could tell from my – our – research and surveillance, you didn’t deserve whatever they had planned for you. Or, at least, I hoped you didn’t.”
“Will you get in trouble for disobeying?”
“That’s another question.”
She grinned, and the expression felt strange on her face after the events of the last hour or so. “Humour me,” she told him.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Could go either way. Now will you come inside? It’s level fourteen.”
She almost laughed at the playful petulance in his voice. “Yeah,” she said, to put him out of his misery. She gathered her things and got out of the car. It wasn’t until the frigid air hit her that she realised she was wearing her pyjamas. She tugged at the hem of the shorts, fruitlessly attempting to cover more of her legs. It had been a while since she’d showed that much skin in public. At least she’d had the foresight to put shoes on.
All the energy drained out of her at once. Christine felt bereft, shivering alone in a strange, unfamiliar parking lot. She trudged inside, almost uncaring about what might await her.
Continue Reading
For more adventures of the Soldiering On crew, click below:
Soldiering On Series
Station Alpha: (Soldiering On #1) - Paul’s book
And Blake’s book, Guarding Sierra, is coming soon!
About the Author
Aislinn is an Australian Expat living in Qatar. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in English and History, which she loved, and then went on to do a Masters in an unrelated field. She now largely pretends that last degree never happened.
She enjoys reading, writing, travelling, and fantasising about her future cottage in a forest. Now that she’s published, her next life dream is to own a dog.
Visit her at https://aislinnkearns.com/
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