Outside the Law

by Michelle Karl

  Yasmine yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, but somehow the short nap had actually left her feeling a bit worse. It had to be the painkillers wearing off. “Do we have any water left?” Noel passed her his bottle with a few gulps left, and she took her next dose of pills.

  He opened the back door for her, and she climbed out. “Where are we?”

  They’d pulled into the driveway of a home with a wide, untamed lawn. It looked like an upper-middle-class suburb, except that none of the homes were in very good shape. The driveways were empty of vehicles, including the driveway they’d pulled into.

  “It’s an FBI safe house,” Noel explained. “Crais wanted to meet here instead of at the FBI office, and I wasn’t about to ask him to drive all the way to Newherst.”

  “Why didn’t he want to meet at the office?” Yasmine couldn’t stop looking up and down the street. Where were all the people? “This place seems completely deserted. Like a ghost town.”

  Noel shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m sure he has a good reason. And I assume this is one of the abandoned areas in Buffalo. Detroit has neighborhoods like this, too, but both cities are starting to revitalize some neighborhoods thanks to dirt-cheap real estate. The instability in so many cities these days makes me glad to call a small town like Newherst home, even if I haven’t lived there for a while.”

  “No kidding. Is your mentor here?” Noel looked up at the house in front of them with a confidence that Yasmine didn’t share. The whole situation felt off. “I guess the lack of traffic means we’ll hear anyone coming, but it makes more sense to me to meet at the FBI office.”

  Noel started up the red brick path that led to a set of unkempt stone porch steps. “This isn’t officially an FBI investigation yet, remember? We need to hash out the details on how to make it one before the military steps in and tries to take over. They’ll shut us out and it could be years before you get answers about Daniel.”

  “If you say so.”

  At the door, Noel knocked three times, waited and then knocked once more.

  “Secret code?” she asked.

  He gave her a quizzical look. “Courtesy.”

  Within seconds, footsteps thudded inside the house. A latch turned, and the door opened to reveal a dark-haired man in a black suit. His short, spiked hair and manicured goatee reminded Yasmine of a television character, though she couldn’t recall exactly whom.

  “Black?”

  Noel held up his badge. “The same. Special Agent Crais?”

  Crais opened the door wider and gestured them inside. He shut and locked it behind them. “Down the hall to the right. Take a seat if you like.”

  Yasmine followed Noel, her sense of unease growing by the minute. All of the blinds were closed. The house had sparse decor, and all the furniture and carpets were black or dark brown. As they entered a moderate-size living room, she noticed a layer of dust coating a side table. Did the FBI not pay to keep up their properties?

  “It’s good to finally meet you, sir, but if you don’t mind, I’ll get right to it.” Noel stood rather than taking a seat. Crais stepped into the room behind them and clasped his hands at his front. “If the local police or even just the captain has been taking payouts from this inspection facility, we’ve got a big problem. There’s no question there. But I’ve no idea how the soldier who was supposed to have been killed in action fits into this. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Crais nodded slowly, rolling his shoulders back. His movements were calculated. Deliberate. “You’re right. It’s a mess. But what makes you think someone is receiving payouts from this inspection facility? What makes you think it’s not just the work of a corrupt manager? Maybe he’s just greedy.”

  “A greedy manager who has enough money and organizational skills to launch a series of coordinated attacks on Miss Browder?” Yasmine waved at Crais, who nodded his acknowledgment. Noel continued. “I mean, the guy definitely has money, but there’s absolutely no way he’s behind these attacks. I had time to think on the way over here, and I’m wondering—what if this goes higher? What if there’s a chain of corruption that goes beyond the facility? It would explain the attacks and the dead soldier who turned out to be very much alive. Only someone with extensive reach, resources and considerable cash flow could have recruited a soldier and convinced him to fake his death, since that’s what this is looking like with our current information. There’s got to be somebody at the top making calls, somebody who has money and authority and power, and who for whatever reason believes that Daniel Browder’s sister also knew about these falsified reports. And they’re trying to cover their tracks.”

  Yasmine stared at Noel. His face was flushed and his eyes bright, and for one inexplicable instant she wanted nothing more than for him to sweep her off her feet and kiss her with the same intensity he’d given to making that speech. But when she looked over at Crais to see his reaction, the intensity was of quite a different kind. Darker.

  “You’re assuming that these falsified reports exist and that they’re the cause of the attacks. Without proof, it’s going to be extremely difficult to pursue that line of thinking.”

  “But—”

  Crais held up a hand. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. Only that it’s going to be difficult, and you can’t rule out anything yet, even the local police.”

  Noel seemed to shrink under his mentor’s scrutiny. “I know. That’s why I was hoping you’d know a way to open an investigation and convince a judge to give us a warrant to subpoena the facility’s documents, the manager’s emails, financials, whatever it takes. This is about more than one man’s death. If it really is a case of falsified inspection reports, we could be sending soldiers out into the field with shoddy equipment, pieces that aren’t up to standard and could fail on them in a critical moment. That’ll cost more than one life. And if it goes higher? I mean, if there’s a Department of Defense connection, or other government service—”

  “Stop.” Crais grunted and shook his head. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Crais’s sigh was heavy. “I should say, I don’t want to know any more, for your sake and mine. Black, I didn’t ask you to come here to talk only about this situation. I’ve received an official request from the Department of Defense to detain Miss Browder and pull you in early to the Buffalo office.”

  Yasmine’s stomach dropped. Her gaze flicked to the standard-issue Glock holstered on Crais’s belt, the same kind of gun that Noel had strapped to him right now, making her the only unarmed person in the room despite being able to use a weapon as well as these men. Maybe better.

  She inched closer to Noel until her right side was positioned behind him, hidden from Crais’s view. Her feeling of unease wasn’t going away, and she wanted to be ready to act if this meeting turned sour.

  “Who made the request?” Noel demanded.

  “No idea. The communication came through a secure channel from the Department of Defense, so it’s definitely legitimate, but no one over there is talking. I’m getting stonewalled.”

  “They won’t tell you anything at all? Not a clue?” Yasmine crept even closer to Noel’s side, her hand snaking around his back.

  “All I’ve been told is that it’s a matter of national security.” He held up his hand as Noel began to sputter in protest. “Trust me, I tried to talk to my superiors, but all I’m getting is a recommendation that I comply. In the FBI’s view, there’s no good reason not to. The FBI works hard to ensure we maintain a good working relationship between our organizations. Until we have a solid reason to open a case, the FBI sees no good reason for me to refuse this request.”

  “I can give you a few,” Noel said, his words sharp.

  Yasmine’s fingers brushed the leather of Noel’s gun holster, then slid across the bumpy ridges of the weapon’s grip. With her free hand, she clutched her ribcage
and leaned toward Noel to help disguise her movements as simply those of an injured victim. Yasmine froze as Noel stiffened, unsure whether he’d done so as a reaction to Crais’s words or if he’d noticed that the belt around his waist was becoming lighter as she slowly slid the gun from its holster.

  “If I don’t follow orders, the situation worsens for both of us,” Crais said.

  “So, this is it?” Noel’s tone grew colder. “You know something big is happening and you’re still going to bring us in?”

  Crais looked hard at Noel, then reached his hand inside his jacket. “In a manner of speaking.”

  She had to act now, before Crais pulled his own weapon from inside his jacket and things turned messy. In one smooth move, Yasmine drew Noel’s gun the rest of the way, straightened and trained it on the FBI agent in front of them. “Not if we can help it.”

  NINE

  “Whoa! Hold on, Miss Browder.” With excruciating slowness, Crais withdrew his hand from his jacket. He held up a phone—not a gun. Noel released the breath he’d been holding and waved at her to stand down.

  “Yasmine? He’s not going to kill us or turn us in. Right?” The tension in the room was so tight Noel feared it might snap at any moment.

  Crais’s attention slipped from Yasmine and the gun back to Noel, a hint of a strained smile in the corner of his mouth. “Make it look convincing, Black. My hands are tied, but you’re not technically on the clock for another five days. I’ll let you follow the breadcrumbs, and I’ll have your back where I can, but I’ll also need to play along with the Department of Defense as much as possible to buy time for you to figure out what’s going on.” He shifted his attention to Yasmine again. “Sufficient, Miss Browder?”

  For a moment, Noel feared she might not believe him—that she still suspected a double-cross—but she lowered the gun and nodded. “As long as you follow through, yes.”

  Noel opened his palm again, but Yasmine still clung to the weapon. “You’ll have to give the Department of Defense a reason we’re not in custody, and it’ll need to be believable.”

  Crais waved the phone. “I’m expecting a call at any moment to confirm that I’ve detained you both. If I answer, I’ll have to lie, and I can’t do that. If I don’t answer, you’ll have only a few minutes before reinforcements arrive.”

  “What should we do?” Yasmine’s voice remained steady, to Noel’s surprise. If she felt as anxious as he did, she didn’t show it.

  “You’re going to take my car keys so that I can’t be coerced into going after you,” Crais said, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. He tossed them to Noel. “And then you’re going to knock me out.”

  “Sir?”

  “Based on what you’ve told me so far, Black, this is a life-or-death scenario. If I’m going to be any help to you on the inside, there can’t be any suspicion cast my way. I need to appear one hundred percent compliant with Department of Defense requests.”

  Noel felt sick to his stomach. “But it’ll look like we assaulted a federal agent.” If they didn’t figure out what was going on, that action alone would end Noel’s career before he’d even started it. His hands began to shake as the consequences of what they had to do sank in.

  And then Yasmine was beside him, touching his arm. “It’s okay. I won’t let you put your future, your career on the line. I’ll do it.”

  “Yasmine, no.” He couldn’t ask that of her. Crais cleared his throat, and Noel stared at his mentor. “You, too?”

  “If this comes back to either of you, an experienced lawyer can claim self-defense for her, whereas you’d lose your job before you checked in for your first day.”

  Noel groaned and pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. “This can’t be happening.”

  “But it is,” Yasmine said. “It’s all right, Noel. I’ll do it.”

  “Time’s up,” Crais said, his voice rising. As soon as the words left his mouth, the trill of a cell phone ring cut through the silence of the safe house. “It’s my contact.”

  Noel met Yasmine’s gaze and tilted his head. She nodded once in return and strode forward while Crais tossed his phone across the room as though he’d lost it in a struggle. Noel watched, overcome by a sense of helplessness as Yasmine used a curtain tie to secure Crais’s hands behind his back. As she stood up, his mentor met his gaze.

  “Be careful,” he said. “This is big, Black. You make it through this and you’ll be the most promising recruit I’ve ever had the honor of mentoring. I’m sorry you were thrown into the fire before you’d even started, but I’ll do what I can from the inside.”

  Before Noel could verbally extend his gratitude, Yasmine had drawn her arm back, still standing behind Crais. He realized what she meant to do only in the moment that his Glock swung down and across the side of Crais’s head. It connected with a loud thwack and the man fell over, unconscious.

  Noel couldn’t stop his shout of alarm, but he also knew that Yasmine had only done what she needed to in order to protect both his and Crais’s careers in the FBI.

  She extended the gun back to Noel. Her eyes were red and filled with sadness, but no tears fell. “We should get out of here. The phone isn’t ringing anymore, and Crais said we’d have only minutes to exit the place before reinforcements are sent in.”

  Noel nodded, surprised to feel a strange veil of calm settling over his shoulders. Nothing was as it seemed. All he’d wanted to do was make a difference in this world, and now he’d stumbled onto something big and terrifying and totally beyond his abilities or training. But Crais believed in him, and that was the encouragement he needed to keep moving forward.

  Plus, whatever came next, he wasn’t going to have to face it alone.

  “Ready to run?” he asked, looking at the motionless body of his FBI mentor.

  Yasmine sighed, sounding as though the events of the day had caught up with her. He didn’t blame her one bit. She crossed the room, then pulled back the edge of the curtains to look outside for a moment before dropping them back into place. “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  They left the house, moving as quickly as they could back to Noel’s mom’s car. Yasmine climbed into the front passenger seat.

  Noel scowled at her. “What are you doing? Get back there and lie down.”

  “You’re going to need an extra set of eyes, right? I can endure a little bit of pain for that.”

  Noel shook his head and muttered under his breath. He reversed the car and pulled out of the driveway. They made it less than a block before he hit the brakes. “You see what I’m seeing?”

  Yasmine squinted down the long residential road and groaned. A vehicle drove toward them, big enough to be a black SUV like the one that had smashed into them. “Reverse. Now.”

  “Already on it.”

  Here in this deserted subdivision, anything could happen, and it’d be a long time before anyone found out about it. Yasmine gripped her seat as Noel reversed and pulled back into the driveway.

  “What are you doing?” She gaped at him. Had he lost his mind?

  “We have Crais’s keys, so his car must be around here somewhere.” He climbed out of his mom’s car, and Yasmine followed him as he ran back toward the house. He fiddled with the gate latch to the backyard. “Come on, come on.”

  Moments later, he pulled the gate open, and they dashed through.

  “Uh, Noel?” Yasmine heard the sound of an engine drawing closer. They’d definitely run out of time. “I doubt Crais parked his car in the backyard, considering it’s fenced in and that’s therefore impossible.”

  “True, but I have a strong hunch we’ll find the yard connects to the neighbor’s place on the other side.” He shut the gate behind him and surveyed the yard, which was fenced in with no sign of an exit save for the gate they’d entered through. They were trapped, but Noel held a finger to his lips and raced
across the grass. Yasmine’s heart lurched into her throat at the crackle of tires rolling onto a driveway.

  “Noel?” she whispered as loud as she could without giving away their position. Slamming doors and pounding feet told her that they were seconds away from being discovered. If anyone moved to the back of the house and looked out the blinds, they’d be seen.

  Noel ran his hands along the back fence, one on their side and one overtop on the neighbor’s side. His face grew tighter and tighter until he stopped his forward motion. He waved her over with the barest hint of a smile.

  Did she dare? Maybe they could wait until all of the people in the vehicle got out, then run through the front of the house and hijack the SUV—No, what was she thinking? It might be risky without cracked ribs and a body covered in bruises, but considering her injuries, it’d be impossible. She walked as fast as she could to where Noel yanked at something on the other side of the fence. He pushed on the slats in front of him. A second gate swung open, perfectly positioned along the fence to hide that it was there at all.

  She slipped through and he followed, closing the gate and latching it at the same moment the glass patio door at the back of the house slid open. Noel held his finger to his lips, but Yasmine’s heart pounded a nearly deafening rhythm inside her chest. It was a wonder that that alone hadn’t given away their position.

  A walkie-talkie beeped near the house, and Yasmine heard the crackle of garbled instructions through the device’s speaker. Seconds later, the glass door slid closed.

  Noel held up three fingers and counted them down, lowering his fingers one by one. She shook her head. Did he remember that she couldn’t run?

  Three. Two. One.

  On one, Noel ran across the neighbor’s yard in a crouch, moving along the edge of the fence. Yasmine moved along the same path, but crouching was out of the question. When they reached the front of the house, Noel stood in the driveway, hands on his hips. He looked stumped.

  “What did you expect to find?” Yasmine took in this new street. It looked more or less the same as the one they’d come from. “Are we holing up inside one of these places, or...?”