The statement awakened something inside of him, but he didn’t know what it meant or what to do with it. Maybe it was just regret that he’d missed out on the full undergraduate experience. The people in the middle row turned around and asked Kendra why they had come to the area.
Kendra answered easily about visiting the J. Paul Getty Museum. The driver dropped them off at Arrivals. Kendra stepped out at Southwest. They’d gone over the map and knew that from here on out, eyes could be watching. Joe remained in the shuttle with darkened windows until the driver stopped at Delta.
Once inside the airport, he kept his eyes down and made his way to the elevators. Kendra would be, by now, halfway down the escalators to the baggage claim and Arrivals.
A few minutes later, he stationed himself behind a cement pillar, one where the security camera would be at his back while he kept an eye on the automatic glass doors where Kendra planned to exit. He acted as if he was reading his phone and waiting, even though he was staring at his blank messages screen. The two-way radios they’d used on campus had been left behind in their rush to escape the demolished building. What a waste.
His spot enabled him to watch for Wyatt as the cars rushed by, with only quick stops for other passengers. Aside from the backpack on his shoulder, the only weight was his gun, loaded and ready, and his FBI badge in case guns needed to be drawn, after all.
There. He spotted her. Kendra had pulled her hair into a ponytail and was wearing a pleasant smile. If he hadn’t noticed her stiffened posture and the way her eyes roved for signs of weapons, he’d guess she was Audrey, especially from afar. So far, he hadn’t seen a driver or anyone approaching that resembled Wyatt.
He peeked around the column and felt a sharp metal barrel in his side. “No sudden movements.” The male voice spoke firmly. “DEA.” Joe took the man to be true to his word, but slowly looked over his shoulder. The man was dressed in a blue jacket with the Drug Enforcement Administration embroidered logo on the front. A second man appeared at his other side. The first man tapped Joe’s hip and held up a bag of white powder. “Oh, look at what I found. Cocaine, probably with the intent to distribute.”
Joe debated his options. He might be able to pull a stunt that could enable him to get enough room to pull his own gun and badge. But that could backfire without a follow-up plan. He looked toward the exit to see if Kendra could see what was going on, but instead only saw the back of three jackets, all labeled with the yellow DEA. They had her surrounded.
The remaining passengers walking past had varying reactions. Some seemed curious but wanted to keep their distance. He didn’t see anyone pull out their iPhone, though even if they had, the agents were doing a great job in covering three sides of Kendra.
A white SUV with a blue stripe and the Homeland Security logo pulled up to the curb with silent blinking emergency lights. “Which is it? Are you from DEA or DHS?”
“Time to take a ride,” the man on the left said.
“What, no Miranda warning?” Without a plan of action, Joe couldn’t risk putting Kendra in jeopardy. The best idea he had was to stall and buy some time to figure out a new tactic.
“Pretty sure you know you won’t be needing any rights.” They roughly removed his backpack and gun. “Concealed weapon. No carry permit,” the man practically yelled before shoving him into the back seat.
A second later Kendra joined him, her face flushed.
He reached for her hands, searching for signs of abuse. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head ever so slightly. “No, but I think the Pirate just declared checkmate.”
* * *
The sirens kicked on, and through the metal grid separating them from the driver and passenger, two men dressed as officers didn’t so much as give them a second glance. The passenger grabbed a cell phone. “We’ve got her and the guy.” He turned to look over his shoulder at Kendra. “What was your favorite burrito place for middle-of-the-night runs while you were at Duke?”
She blinked for a second. What a ridiculous question, and she was sure the answer would not be the nationally known chain, Qdoba, her personal favorite because of the queso. Besides, they weren’t open in the middle of the night. And, knowing her sister, she would never pick a chain restaurant. So what would Audrey do in this situation?
“Tell Wyatt,” she finally answered, “that if he wants the answer to that question, he needs to ask me himself. When I’m not in the back of the police car on the bogus charge of intent to distribute cocaine.” She increased the volume with each word as she leaned forward. “Are you trying to ruin my reputation, Wyatt? What’s going on?”
“Sit back,” the officer hollered. He held up the phone to his ear. Kendra might’ve been mistaken but she thought she’d heard a laugh on the other end. “Yes, sir. Understood.”
He hung up and motioned with his chin. “He wants to talk to her at the place.”
Kendra exhaled. She couldn’t play the indignant card forever, but she didn’t want to know what was planned if she’d simply answered wrong. The sky had darkened quickly to a midnight blue and the stars twinkled brightly. They pulled into an underground parking garage. An automatic gate closed behind the SUV. So much for an attempted escape once they got out of the vehicle. Sounds of drums and cheering sounded in the distance.
“Stupid holiday parade,” the driver muttered.
“Works in our favor,” the passenger muttered. He opened the door and glanced at Kendra. “Screams won’t do you any good. Play nice and you’ll get to speak to Mr. Nardelli.”
For the moment, she decided to play along. She glanced at Joe and gave him a nod. The man yanked her by the arm and roughly pulled her arms behind her back and clipped on handcuffs. “Really? You tell Wyatt he better have an amazing Christmas present for me to make up for this treatment.”
The man spun her around but didn’t respond. Instead he gave her a little shove. “Move it.”
They rode the elevator to the tenth floor. Kendra second-guessed her decision to cooperate as the numbers climbed. If they did escape, each floor meant increased chances of getting caught. The men led them to a room with no furniture, a cement floor and plain white walls. There was one window in the room, but it had bars on the outside of it. “Who needs bars ten flights up?” she muttered.
The men left and slammed the door behind them.
Joe walked toward it. “All the windows in this building, as well as the couple we drove by, were covered in bars. I’m guessing this didn’t use to be the safest place to work. Maybe they’re revitalizing the area. Though, this building seems abandoned.” He stared up at the lone light bulb. “The room doesn’t seem prepared for us. I don’t see signs of a bug or camera, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. We might want someone watching if we need something.”
He continued to look around, calm and serene, as if he was waiting in line to be let into a movie theater.
“We need to stay alert and figure out—”
“Stick to the plan,” Joe said.
“Excuse me? We are so far off the initial idea, we would need a day by boat to simply get in viewing distance of the plan.”
“No, listen, we still have leverage if we—”
The sound of the doorknob twisting ended their argument early. Kendra whirled around to find Wyatt, looking smug in the doorway. “Sorry about the handcuffs. It’s been a rough couple of days. Precautionary.”
“If you wanted to win me back, Wyatt, handcuffs were the wrong tactic. Although, I have to admit you must’ve become a smooth talker. How did you get so many agents to do your bidding?”
He smiled. “Oh, the DEA? It only took one real officer, but you don’t know which one now, do you? The fact is you don’t need to turn that many, very few really. And you might suspect the high-level soldiers or officers, but rarely do you need to go after them. The lowest level with access to the information
you seek is the safest and most lucrative way to go. For many, it’s a onetime thing and I never contact them again. They get paid, I get paid and countries get more equal footing. Everyone wins.”
He was talking too much, telling her more than she imagined. That didn’t bode well for a chance at survival. Maybe he didn’t intend to ever let them go. “Everyone wins?” She doubted a debate with her would change his mind, though. “I don’t exactly feel like a winner standing here in handcuffs.”
He walked forward and looked into her eyes. She stared right back, noticing the wrinkles and the sunspots on Wyatt’s face. He was either much older than Audrey was led to believe, or he wasn’t handling the stress of a life of treason as well as he pretended.
“What was our first date?” he asked.
“My fiancé is next to me. We’ve both been kidnapped. I’m not going to play a round of twenty questions.”
“Then stop pretending you’re Audrey.”
“You’re right. She’s not. She’s also not the one calling the shots,” Joe said. “We arranged for the real Professor Clark to take a trip so we could come to Caltech on business. We’ve wanted in on Masked as soon as we got wind of it. We tried to make contact with you through another professor we believed was working for you, until someone tried to take us out.”
Wyatt glanced at Kendra. “You were trying to talk to Beverly.”
She nodded. “Until you blew her up.”
This was the moment of truth. He’d either admit it or deny it and Kendra would finally know if she was still alive.
He turned to Joe instead, though. “What did you think you’d gain by coming here?”
“We were certain it would only be a matter of time until you would go after Audrey Clark’s research.” His chin jutted toward Kendra. “She looked similar enough it didn’t take much work to make her look like the real thing. We planned to offer our services to your organization, but when Beverly disappeared, we decided to take matters into our own hands. Bottom line—you pay us, and then you get the research. Simple. We want a win-win scenario.”
Wyatt studied Kendra as if in a new light. “And what about Audrey?”
“She won a vacation. She’s safe and has no idea someone has taken over her lab, her email, her apartment... Although I imagine she’ll figure it out real quick when she returns to find her lab blown up and two murdered scientists on her floor.”
Wyatt frowned. He turned back to Joe. “And you are?”
“Joe Rose, FBI.”
Kendra hated that he was using his real name.
“And her?”
“An excellent actress whose name stays with me. She’ll be changing her identity again soon enough so you don’t need to worry.”
Wyatt looked both of them up and down before he left the room without a word.
She spun around. “Why’d you tell them your name?”
“They already had my badge.”
She closed her eyes. This was getting worse by the minute. “Do you think he’s going to be willing to make a deal? What’s your take on him?”
“Not what I hoped. That was not a man that looked open to negotiation.” Joe averted his eyes, shifting them upward as if simultaneously answering her and praying. “We need a new plan. Now.”
SEVENTEEN
Joe didn’t want to say the other thing on his mind, but he felt the need. “We need to prepare ourselves that we might not get to leave.” They had achieved what they set out to do. They had identified the Pirate, but Wyatt knew it, as well. What were the chances that he would let them go?
She stepped forward, closer to him. “Every time I prepare for a mission—” her shoulders wiggled as her frown deepened “—I have to be okay with the possibility that I might not come back alive, and I need to be at peace with that.” She smiled. “But I also have a firm belief that I’m not going down without using every bit of strength I have to stay alive.” Her chin lifted and her neck strained, as if she was fighting against the handcuffs.
“No offense, but I think physics is more on my side to break out of handcuffs by force, and I can tell you it’s not going to happen. You might as well stop hurting yourself trying.”
Her entire face scrunched up as if she was still wrestling against the metal until there was a small click. She beamed and brought her arms around to her front. A small piece of black plastic hung from the keyhole. She bent over and took off her left shoe. “My grandpa, on my dad’s side, was a retired US Navy SEAL, and before he passed away, he told me and my brothers that we should always have certain tools on our person.” She lifted the sole and pulled out another plastic key, then gestured for him to turn around. “Sometimes I use three large bandages and use two of them like a pouch to stick on my waist, but I usually try to choose pants that have a small pocket on the back waist. They’re usually intended for a smartphone but all I need is to hide one of these keys in the zipper handle. Never gets found in a pat-down.”
Her arms brushed against his as she attempted to unlock his handcuffs. “Only problem is they’re cheap and bend. One use only. Good for us I always carry two in case they decide to handcuff me in front.” Another click sounded and the metal released around Joe’s wrists.
“You’re amazing.” He studied the door. “They’re likely to have that guarded. I do think we need to get out of here right away.”
She strode to the window. “The windows have bars. That leaves one option.” She pointed to the door. “When someone opens it, we try to use the element of surprise. They don’t know we aren’t handcuffed.”
One of the indentions on the door trim caught his eye. It didn’t match the others. He approached the trim to study the odd-looking screw. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a screw at all. “I’m afraid they do know.” He pointed to the miniature wireless camera. His stomach churned, suddenly unhappy with what might have been his last meal, after all.
Kendra’s shoulders fell. “It’s my fault. I should’ve checked the room myself.”
Her words made him feel worse, as if a punch to the gut. He thought he’d been thorough. He’d failed her.
She leaned up against the wall. A sheen appeared on her eyes and she closed them. “We’re out of options.” The sounds of a marching band swelled in the distance. “Might be more appropriate if they played that drumroll famously used before an execution instead of ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas.’” She offered a soft, sad smile. “You probably like Christmas parades, huh? What exactly do you like about the holiday?”
He recognized the sudden need to talk about Christmas as a plea to get her mind off what was about to happen. His throat burned with frustration that he didn’t have any other ideas of his own. If he thought punching a hole in the wall would get them anywhere, he would do it in a heartbeat.
Instead, Joe moved to stand next to her and leaned against the same wall. He might not be a super agent, but he could at least do this for her. Make sure her last few moments felt like time with a friend. “I don’t know about parades, per se, but I guess I like gifts.”
“Figures.” She laughed.
He smiled. “No, I don’t mean the getting. The giving is supposed to remind us that He gave us the greatest gift of all. We didn’t and never will deserve the goodness of a Savior, but we still were given one. It was the ultimate rescue mission.”
She turned to him, eyes wide. “A rescue mission. I never thought of it that way, but I guess it was. I can get behind that.” She groaned. “It’s silly, given what we’re about to face, but I regret not getting—”
She glanced at the camera and back at him, and Joe didn’t know whether it had an audio feed or not.
“—I regret not getting a present for the big day,” she said. Her tone made it clear she meant Audrey but didn’t want to use her name. As far as Masked was concerned, they still didn’t know Audrey and Kendra were sisters, and they wanted to keep it that
way. “Sometimes, I think there’s nothing I’d want more than to live the life that awaits her—the one of a wife and a mother. Except, I’m not sure I’d even care what I did to make a living as long as it supported those two things—” She blushed but forged ahead. “But then I wonder if every decision I’ve made so far is a result of the path my biological mom started for me, by where I was placed and her anonymous tips helping me along the way. But my adoptive mom always wanted the life of a wife and mother, so maybe that desire is all a part of my upbringing. I go around in circles. So, who am I really? It’d kind of be nice to know before I die, wouldn’t it?”
“Most people would agree I had about as normal a childhood as anyone could want. I was safe, I was loved, I was nurtured. Yet, I’m still a thirty-year-old man who doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.”
She offered a sheepish smile. “You’re saying it’s normal to doubt the desires of my heart?”
He shook his head. “I’d never downplay anything you’re feeling. I’m sure the circumstances of your childhood impact you, but your struggles are relatable. They aren’t who you are, though. I’m paraphrasing, but there’s a verse in Proverbs that says if we trust and acknowledge Him in all areas of our life that He will direct our paths.”
“I’m certainly hoping He’ll step in and do that now.”
Joe sighed. “The path might not always be what we want, but I’ve felt a new freedom this week that I haven’t in years. Ironic since we’ve been running for our lives.” He turned and looked into her eyes, and for a second he could imagine they weren’t about to be killed, as long as they focused on each other. “You are a God-fearing, strong woman who wants to make a difference in the world. You’re action-oriented. You have an insane work ethic, choosing to help others, sometimes to the detriment of your own—”
Covert Christmas Twin Page 16
