by Regan Black
“Far as I know I’m the only one who survived the process,” Ben mused. “This particular enhancement had an emotional component they didn’t anticipate or handle well.”
“I bet.” Aside from the benefits of the immunity and overall health boosters UI had dosed him with, his general hearing had been improved through the enhancement process. It hadn’t taken long to discover the downside of knowing things people whispered in private. Danny paused at the same corner where Ben had first spoken to him. “Why do you care if this FBI agent lives or dies?”
“I don’t,” Ben replied with a detachment that echoed Messenger’s. “Friends of yours care about whether or not you can be reformed.”
“Reformed how?”
“Saved might be a better way to put it,” Ben said mostly to himself. “We can get you out from under Messenger’s thumb if that’s what you want. It’s sure what your friends want.”
“What friends?”
“Hank Patterson.”
The name landed in his chest like a tracer bullet—hard, with a white-hot heat. Since being left for dead, Danny made a conscious effort not to think about Hank or the others on the team. “You know Hank?”
“Yup.”
The world just got smaller and smaller, Danny thought. “How did he know I was still alive?”
“I didn’t listen very closely to those details. Not my business really. Are we going up or not? That pie smells amazing.”
It really did. “We’re going up.” Danny crossed the street and pressed the buzzer for Spencer’s apartment.
She didn’t say a word, but the door unlocked with a click. Before Danny could reach the handle, it was opening for him.
“You keep two hands on that pie box, mister,” Ben said, humor in his voice. “I don’t want my piece falling on the pavement.”
The door closed and they were alone in the vestibule. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Ben,” the voice said. “Like I said.”
“Why are you invisible?”
“Call it Messenger’s invisible plan for battlefield supremacy. Who could stop an army of soldiers using techy camouflage that allowed them to blend into their surroundings? Slip behind enemy lines unseen and decimate the opposition before they got started. High cost of development nixed the effort.”
Danny wasn’t aware Messenger had ever thought about creating a fighting force on that kind of scale. It cast a new light on the situation with the drone developers. Was he out to design and sell mercenary armies? A chilling thought. When Messenger spoke with Danny the conversations usually revolved around the limited options pertaining to the success or failure of an immediate task, like killing Spencer. With Ben at his back, Danny felt as though the stairwell had an extra echo as their footsteps landed not-quite-in-unison on each tread.
How would Spencer react to his claims and explanations about his involvement in her case? He wasn’t sure he could convince her to disappear without telling her the whole, unbelievable truth about UI. Having overheard her methods with the team, he wasn’t holding out hope that the facts in this situation would help his cause. She was no pushover, in or out of investigation mode. If and when she learned he was the culprit behind the drone company leak, her first instinct would be to arrest him.
At her door, he hesitated. The invisible guy knocked before Danny had caught his breath. Too late to complain or turn back, he held his ground.
Special Agent Spencer opened the door and he nearly dropped like a felled tree. Framed by the doorway, her long golden hair down and a curious half-smile on her lips she seemed warm and approachable despite the service weapon in her hand. Standing here now, she didn’t strike him as the same all-business agent he’d observed in Europe or her local office. She boldly measured him with a wary recognition in her eyes. “So you turned in your mop?”
He swallowed. “Once I finished the floors.” A lame response but it was too late to reel it back in now.
“Are you a threat to me?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I brought cherry pie.”
“Well that’s a good start.” She opened the door wider and Ben nudged him forward with a hand on his shoulder. “Hope you brought enough pie for my guard dog here,” she said, tucking the gun into the holster on her hip.
Another man stepped into view, gun in hand, though he held the weapon near his thigh.
“Relax,” she said. “Both of you. This is Scott Blackwell. He claims he’s here to protect me from you.”
“That’s my partner,” Ben said at his ear. “Play nice.”
“Danny Connolly. Previously anyway.” He pegged the younger man as mid to late twenties. The hard edge in his gaze and the resolute set of his jaw spoke of the kind of life experiences that shifted a man’s perspective. “I’m not here to hurt her,” he said for Scott. “Ben vetted me.”
“I got the text.” Scott didn’t relax.
“And he showed the message to me which is why you’re standing here,” Spencer said. “Call me Chloe.” She stared at him and shook her head, her golden hair swaying with the movement. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you earlier. You were working right under our noses. In France too?”
He nodded. Restless and edgy, he carried the pie box past her, setting it on the dining table. “I was, yes. Now I’d rather make sure you don’t become a casualty. Conducting espionage is one thing, committing murder to snip loose ends is another.”
“Why did you make that leap?”
“Not me.” Danny struggled with his explanation. “My boss made the call. He sees you as a threat because you won’t accept defeat and drop the case as unsolvable.”
“But it isn’t unsolvable.” She folded her arms across her chest. “The company deserves answers. I can give them those answers if you confess. Testify against whoever sent you in and upped the stakes and I can probably negotiate this down to probation.”
The last thing he needed was one more person making promises that wouldn’t hold up. Still, her gaze, intense and sincere, moved him. “I don’t think that’ll be as easy as you think.”
“I didn’t say easy, I said probably.”
Her candor was refreshing, but futile in his case. Somehow he didn’t think pointing that out would help him.
“Let me help you,” she added with quiet persistence.
If only she could. He plowed on with the offer more likely to end in her survival, if not his. “Your best chance is to take the intel I have on my boss to your superiors and then you can wait behind a protective detail until the dust settles.”
“Do you know where the lab is?” Scott asked.
“You’re assuming Messenger doesn’t have another escape hatch,” Ben said, scoffing.
Chloe gave a start, her eyes wide and tracking from Scott to Danny and back again. “Who said that?”
Danny was ready to try and explain it when Ben spoke up instead.
“I’m Ben.” Slowly the man came into view, manipulating whatever it was that rendered him invisible. “Formerly of the Unknown Identities program, now Scott’s mentor.”
“Partner,” Scott said.
“A pleasure to meet you,” Ben finished, extending his hand.
Chloe gawked at him, shrinking back a step.
Scott stepped forward. “Ben’s enhancement takes some getting used to, but now that he’s visible, you can see UI is doing some edgy work.”
When her baffled gaze latched onto Scott, it lit a spark of jealousy in his gut. Not the right time, definitely not the right woman. Watching her for a few weeks didn’t mean he knew her. With a mental headshake he reined in his wayward reactions.
“Nice going,” Danny muttered. “Why didn’t you do that earlier?”
“You were being watched. Followed.” Ben shook his head as if Danny was an increasing disappointment to him. “One of the perks of being invisible is that the bad guys don’t know where I am.”
“What is this?” Chloe demanded.
“Evidence that y
ou’re up against forces you don’t understand,” Danny replied. Weariness swamped him, but he couldn’t give up. She was too good to be destroyed by Messenger’s disreputable, self-serving plans. “If you’ll let us explain—”
“No.” She shook her head. “Get out.”
Chapter 4
Chloe was done with the bizarre and strange tonight. She would do some digging into their story and then decide how to proceed with her case. “Get out,” she repeated. Her jaw tight from fear and uncertainty, she thought her teeth might crack if they didn’t clear her apartment. “I can take care of myself.”
“I tried to tell her,” Scott muttered.
The stranger named Ben faded to something close to a man-shaped foggy shadow. Impossible and yet she wasn’t hallucinating. She shivered as her imagination filled in all the creepy ways he could apply that skill. It would take time to shake the paranoia swirling through her mind.
“Kid,” Ben said to Scott, “next time John asks, you tell him this is why invisible is better.”
“Sure thing, man.”
“You all need to leave,” Chloe insisted, stalking toward the door. Ben made himself more visible and blocked her path. She drew her weapon. “Invisible or not, if I shoot you, the police can sure as hell follow the blood trail.”
“Easy,” Danny said. He raised his hands in surrender when she spun around to level that gun at him again. “We’re all here to protect you.”
“Right.” She didn’t flinch, didn’t alter her aim. Overwhelmed, she couldn’t see a way out that didn’t end violently. And much to her dismay, she didn’t understand what or who she was up against. “I will shoot and you will die.”
“We don’t want a fight,” Scott began, but Danny cut him off.
“Special Agent Spencer, you can’t possibly want to deal with the paperwork of shooting three people who don’t officially exist.”
Danny’s tone was too calm, placating. It aggravated her to be on the receiving end of that particular technique. “Identifying your bodies won’t be my problem.”
“No, without us, you won’t last long enough to have problems,” Ben muttered.
“What’s that mean?” she asked Scott.
Danny stepped between her and Scott, his chest inches away from the barrel of her gun. “Our identities were scrubbed when Messenger got his hands on us. I came into this life as Danny Connolly, but if you look me up now, you’ll find I’m officially listed as killed in action.”
There was no mistaking the sincerity in his eyes. Or the way he protected Scott, clearly the least experienced of the three. If he was handing her some kind of story, he clearly believed it. “What action?” She kept her gun level, though it was tempting to let down her guard.
“Navy SEAL operation about four years ago.”
She didn’t know if she could believe him or not. If he was a SEAL, his fingerprints were in a military database somewhere. She could have the pie box dusted as soon as they left. “What about your prints?”
He shrugged. “I heard someone at the lab changes them in the system.”
“They do.” Scott scowled at her from behind Danny. “We need to find that lab. Are you coming with us or not?”
“Not.” She gave up the pretense and holstered her weapon again. She didn’t want to shoot anyone, especially not here in an apartment she loved.
Danny hissed an oath between his teeth and she opened her mouth to argue, but he pressed one index finger to his lips. With his other hand he tapped his ear.
If she’d thought the tension was at a peak, she was wrong. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears. None of them seemed to breathe while they waited. What could he possibly be listening for?
Silently, he moved toward the window that overlooked the front of the building. He stayed out of the line of sight, his brow furrowed as he concentrated.
“What’s his deal?” she asked Scott in a whisper.
“They call him Audible,” Ben answered when Scott shrugged.
She barely managed to keep a lid on her shock. “Do all of you move without a sound?”
“Comes in handy,” Ben replied. The air seemed to shiver and then Ben was visible again, standing behind Scott now. “UI is cutting edge when it comes to enhancements and such,” he said as if being invisible was the most normal thing in the world.
She checked on Danny, but he’d pulled out a device the size of a cell phone that had his full attention. “When was this program initiated?”
The two men exchanged a glance. “We aren’t sure,” Scott said.
“Above our paygrade really.” Ben chuckled bitterly. “It started as an authorized super soldier kind of research deal. Messenger hasn’t done anything authorized for ages.”
What they were telling her was beyond bizarre. Pure science fiction. And yet, the evidence was right in front of her face. She had friends in the military, in the upper echelons of federal law enforcement. If this UI program was above board, she would have heard whispers about it. Probably. Congress wasn’t great at keeping secrets.
Maybe that was why this Messenger-person had taken the program off the books. “How is UI funded?” she asked, her investigative curiosity piqued.
“We’ll tell you if you come with us,” Danny answered, startling her once more. “But we have to get you out of here. The two on the street reported that I entered the building and haven’t left. They’re debating how much leeway to give me.”
He couldn’t possibly know that without antennas, bugs, or other equipment. Questions rattled through her mind, but she focused on what she thought he might answer. “Do they know you and I aren’t alone?”
“I’m not sure.”
“They don’t,” Ben said.
She waited, but the man fading in and out of view didn’t elaborate.
“Chloe, when they come up here, they won’t have pie. Just bullets.” Danny pleaded with her, something she suspected he didn’t do often.
“How long will I have to be out of circulation?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
She hadn’t expected him to be that honest. “Then, I’ll take my chances here,” she said, giving him honesty in return. She couldn’t possibly disappear without an end date. Walking around him, she aimed for the kitchen and the pie he’d brought. “I’m not leaving without more information and something that resembles a plan. In the meantime, who wants pie?”
“Me.” Ben materialized again, a hopeful grin on his rugged face.
She didn’t want to like him, but she was softening toward all of them. If even half of what they were saying about an agency that experimented on honorable men and women were true, she felt compelled to help them.
Her bravado precarious, she gathered plates, forks and napkins from the kitchen. She’d rather make a stand here, four against two, than try to outrun whoever Danny had heard downstairs. And she really wanted to know what gear he was using. It had to be the same equipment he’d used against the drone company.
“Fine, we’ll have pie,” Danny snapped. “But eat fast.”
She opened the box, pleased to see the individual slices. She’d worried a little about introducing a knife among these three. Although it was silly to think the guns she’d seen were the only weapons on them.
“How did you end up with this UI program?” She carried a piece of pie to Danny at the window.
“With is overstating it,” Danny replied.
She arched an eyebrow, waiting.
“UI wasn’t something I asked to join. I was shot on a mission. The rescue was unorthodox. Months later, after they healed me up and started experimenting on my hearing, I learned I was shot by the team that rescued me.”
“Typical,” Ben mumbled around a bite of pie. “Messenger manipulates countries to get a better cup of coffee.”
Chloe pondered that as she continued to study Danny. “I’m supposed to believe some super-hearing allowed you to steal the information that compromised the bid for the drone project?”
<
br /> “Yes.” He didn’t shrink from her assessment. “I’m trained to intercept and interfere with various radio signals and communication.”
“Should’ve named you Hamm. Hammy the Assassin has a ring to it.”
Scott shushed his partner and Danny glared in Ben’s general direction.
Across the table, Chloe smothered a laugh and dug into her pie. She’d always been able to find the humor amid or despite the circumstance. “Why the drone project?”
Danny shrugged, finally taking a bite of his pie. His expression softened as the flavors clearly took him back to a happier memory. “I followed orders and delivered my reports. Messenger didn’t share his reasons.”
“Never does,” Ben muttered.
“That’s good news,” she said. “You can come in and make a statement. Tonight. I can protect you.”
“You can’t. If the team downstairs sees you taking me in, no matter what I do or say, that leaves an irrevocable target on your back.”
“Well, I’m not accepting another stalemate,” she said. “What’s the next idea?”
“If you won’t lay low, we’ll fake your death,” Danny said. “Tonight.”
Her fork clattered to the plate. He couldn’t be serious. “No,” she replied in the same tone he’d just used. “I’m not throwing away a career I love on a vague threat.”
“Nothing vague about this,” Ben said. “I heard the order. Hammy here is good and stuck. If you’re not dead by morning, you’ll both be hunted until the error is rectified.” He pointed at Scott with his fork. “We can help, but we’ve gotta move fast.”
“This isn’t how things work,” she protested. No way could she accept a stranger’s word on this situation. “Give me some time to investigate. Whatever happened to any of you, you have legal rights.”
“Maybe in a perfect legal theory way we do,” Danny said. “The reality is this UI thing is outside the law, undetected, well-funded. I’ve been inside for nearly four years. It doesn’t end well for those who try to escape. It rarely ends well for a target.”
