Friends In Spy Places

by Diane Henders

  “But you could tell the Department the whole story, and the lie detector would confirm everything,” Holt objected. He shivered again. “Fuck this. Let’s get in the back where it’s warmer.” He strode to the truck and opened one of the rear doors, motioning me ahead of him.

  “But Nora didn’t know the lie detector existed when she set up the kidnapping,” I explained as I stepped inside. “She thought it would be Grandin’s word against mine, and my fingerprints were on the bullet casings. I have to question her again. Did you talk to Ian?”

  I turned to face Holt just as his hand flew up.

  “Wha-” I began, but the jab of his tranquilizer dart turned my tongue and knees to rubber.

  “…th’fuc…” was all I managed before everything went away.

  Chapter 52

  …trapped-trapped-trapped-TRAPPED!

  I tried to fight but my body wouldn’t move. My screams were only dull mumbles leaking sluggishly from between my slack lips. When I finally managed to drag one eyelid half-open, a white room swirled nauseatingly around me.

  Holt. That bastard, I’d kill him.

  Just as soon as I could move, I’d find him and kill him.

  My eyelid fell shut again and I abandoned the struggle temporarily. In a few more minutes the trank would wear off and I’d be able to move again. In the meantime, I didn’t seem to be in immediate danger…

  Except I was trapped-trapped-trapped…

  My breath jerked in and out, too fast.

  Shut up. Calm down. Think.

  My glimpse of the room plus the silence told me I was alone, and I had a pretty damn good idea where. One of the holding cells at Sirius. About six feet wide by nine feet long…

  An involuntary scream tightened my throat, but it only emerged as another useless mumble.

  Stop panicking.

  Stop.

  I fought my breath into a slow calming rhythm, visualizing ocean waves as hard as I could.

  I might never see ocean waves again…

  A sob wrenched my chest, but I wrestled it into submission.

  Breathe.

  In-two-three-four… Out-two-three-four…

  My heart hammered inside my chest, three heartbeats for each of my counts.

  Slow down.

  Calm.

  In-two-three-four… Out-two-three-four…

  My eyes opened more easily this time, and the room stayed stationary around me.

  The reality was as bad as I had guessed.

  Standard Sirius holding cell. All white, except for the grimy-looking drain in the middle of the floor. Transparent polycarbonate panel with air holes for a door. Plastic shelf bolted to the wall for a bed; seatless, tankless toilet in the corner. Nothing else except the malevolent eye of the small camera tucked into the corner of the ceiling.

  In-two-three-four… Out-two-three-four…

  I tried to divert my terror. Take stock.

  They’d updated these cells. The last time they’d stuck me in one, I’d torn the old security camera off its mounting bracket. Now I wouldn’t even be able to snag a fingernail on the smooth plastic dome, even if I could jump that high. They must have realized the old-style cameras were a hazard after I’d tried to cave in Stemp’s skull with my makeshift weapon.

  I’d love to see Stemp coming through that door right now. How times change.

  In-two-three-four… Out-two-three-four…

  At last I managed a finger-twitch, then a toe-twitch. A long minute later, I was able to drag myself semi-upright on the narrow bed.

  Jingling and an unaccustomed weight made me look down, and panic nearly flattened me again at the sight of the shackles on my wrists and ankles.

  A chain between my feet, just enough for half a stride. A chain between my wrists. No way to spread my arms. A chain between my wrist and ankles. I couldn’t even raise my arms unless I drew up my knees no-no-no-NO-NO!

  With every ounce of will I fought the compulsion to scream and struggle. To batter my head against the wall until merciful unconsciousness took me again.

  How long would they hold me here, without explanation, without trial, without hope?

  Maybe my trial had already happened.

  Maybe I’d already been tried, convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned for the rest of my life…

  Don’t-scream-don’t-scream-don’t-scream…

  Jerking my knees up into fetal position, I raised my bound hands. Thank God. My wrists reached my mouth.

  I could tear open my veins with my teeth.

  But I’d have to be smart about it. I’d wait until they gave me a blanket so I could hide my actions under a pretense of sleep. I’d be dead before they realized anything was amiss.

  The thought gave me an eerie calm. I could escape any time I wanted. Permanently. They couldn’t hold me. Would never recapture me.

  Safe. I was safe.

  I swivelled on the bed and lay down on my back.

  I breathed.

  “Kelly!”

  A rough voice jerked me awake, and I sat up to see Dermott’s nasty grin outside my door.

  I let my mouth gape open in a thoroughly ill-mannered yawn. Then I did it again, rolling my shoulders and putting everything I had into it.

  “What do you want?” I asked at last, injecting as much boredom and contempt into my tone as possible.

  “Enjoying your little vacation?” he gibed.

  “Hell, yeah. This is the best sleep I’ve had in days.”

  Sadly, I was telling the truth. Sometimes total exhaustion is your friend.

  “This is a nice firm mattress, too,” I added.

  A vicious light kindled in his eyes. “Too bad about your claustrophobia.”

  I yawned again. “What claustrophobia? Haven’t you read my psych reports? I’m over that.”

  “Rawling thinks you’re lying.”

  “His problem, not mine.” I stretched out on the bed again and closed my eyes. “Buzz off. I was in the middle of a great dream.”

  “Tough,” he snapped. “You’ve got a meeting to go to. Take her.”

  As I sat up again, the door-panel slid open and two burly armed guards stepped inside, shrinking the cell to the dimensions of a coffin.

  An icicle of terror stabbed my guts. trappedTRAPPED…

  Don’t panic.

  Don’t give Dermott the satisfaction.

  Desperate for a distraction, I studied the guards’ faces. Both were members of Holt’s erstwhile security team. Too bad my spy career was over. I’d gotten good at this facial recognition stuff just a little too late.

  I stood and offered my elbows to them with a grin. “What, two prom dates? Thanks, boys. All this attention’s going to go to my head.” I fluttered my eyelashes at them. “I hope you each bought me a nice corsage.”

  They looked away and stayed silent as we shuffled out of the cell. Slowly, to accommodate my chain-shortened stride.

  Don’t. Panic.

  “Wow, tough audience,” I said brightly. “Well, that’s okay; I’ve got lots more where that came from. Stick with me, folks, I’m here ’til Saturday!” I imitated the ‘bup-pup tschhhh’ of a classic comedy rimshot.

  “Shut up,” Dermott growled.

  “Make me,” I retorted. Not the smartest rejoinder, but my brain was only firing on one cylinder while the rest was engaged in full-throttle panic. With nitrous boost.

  “Oh, I will,” he purred. “Believe me, I will.”

  None of his usual bluster. My blood chilled.

  A few moments later we passed through the security checkpoint and I realized why he looked so smug.

  I wasn’t in Silverside. I was in the secure facility in Calgary.

  Where the long-term prisoners were kept.

  Don’t-scream-don’t-scream…

  The rest of our walk was silent except for the jingle of my chains and the frantic shrieking inside my brain.

  When we arrived at one of the conference rooms, Dermott pushed ahead of us through the door. Then
a guard, then me, then the last guard.

  As the first guard stepped aside, I got a full view of the conference room.

  The whole chain of command was there, along with Holt.

  Shit, Dermott must have had this planned right from the start. At least half of these people would have had to drive more than two hours to get here.

  I scanned the faces around the table. All were serious. Half looked puzzled and a couple looked outright annoyed.

  My gaze flew to General Briggs’s stern face and upright posture. I didn’t know much about the rest of Command, but I knew Briggs. He was tough but fair. This was no kangaroo court.

  At least I hoped it wasn’t.

  My momentary relief vanished as my gaze travelled past Briggs’s face to the clock on the wall behind him.

  Two-thirty.

  Nora’s plane was in the air, winging her forever beyond my reach.

  When she realized I’d uncovered her kidnapping scam, she would never come back to Canada. And she would never be prosecuted in the UK because we couldn’t reveal classified intel as evidence.

  She had shattered my world again.

  And I had failed. Completely and irrevocably.

  A choking lump lodged in my throat. Thank God I’d kissed John and Arnie. None of us had known it was our final goodbye.

  I dragged my attention back to the proceedings. Pointless now.

  Don’t scream…

  “Are the restraints really necessary?” General Briggs snapped. “This is a meeting, not a trial.”

  “She’s an agent. She’s dangerous,” Dermott growled.

  “All our personnel are potentially dangerous. Has Agent Kelly given you any reason to believe she poses a threat?”

  “Flight risk,” Dermott said stubbornly. “Everybody knows she’s so claustrophobic she can’t even go through the time-delay chamber without freaking out. She’ll do anything to avoid being imprisoned.”

  Briggs studied me, and I projected as much composure as I could fake. It wasn’t as difficult as usual, since my mind and body had gone numb with despair.

  “She seems calm enough now,” Briggs observed.

  He had always treated me fairly. Maybe he’d stand up for me. I should at least do something to help my case.

  I made a show of smothering a small yawn in my shoulder. “’Scuse me. I just woke up.”

  Brigg’s eyebrow rose fractionally, reminding me of Stemp.

  God, I missed Stemp. He would slice and dice Dermott with such speed and precision that the cuts wouldn’t even bleed until all his pieces collapsed in a twitching heap.

  “How long were you asleep, Agent Kelly?” Briggs asked.

  “I don’t know. I fell asleep a little while after the trank wore off and I woke up in the cell. So I guess… an hour or so?”

  “So you were obviously quite agitated,” Briggs said dryly.

  I avoided a direct lie. “Well, I wasn’t happy.” I shot a small scowl in Holt’s direction. “Especially since I don’t even know why I’m locked up. But at least I was pretty sure I was with the good guys. Supposedly.” Somehow I prevented myself from glancing pointedly at Dermott.

  “You haven’t been informed of the accusations against you?” Briggs frowned at Dermott.

  “No,” I said hurriedly before Dermott could get started. Focus on the one successful part of this whole benighted clusterfuck. I widened my eyes a bit, going for ‘injured innocence’. “My mission with Holt was a success. We identified the middleman, and Nora was Grandin’s buyer. But when I got into the truck for what I thought was a debriefing, Holt knocked me out and I woke up here in a cell.” I jerked my hands, rattling my shackles. “In chains.”

  “Holt?” Briggs prompted.

  “Dermott’s orders,” Holt muttered, not looking at me. “He said to relieve Kelly of duty and take her into custody as soon as our sting was complete.”

  “Dermott.” Briggs turned to him. “Please inform Agent Kelly of the allegations against her.”

  Dermott rose, his pseudo-grave expression brimming with triumph. “Misuse of Department resources. Inappropriate conduct. Insubordination. She issued orders she had no authority to give.” He drew himself up to deliver the coup de grâce. “And she intentionally botched two missions to benefit her mother and her boyfriend. That’s wilful dereliction of duty. We can’t trust her to perform as an agent, and her classified knowledge makes her too much of a security risk. Our only option is to imprison her for life.”

  Chapter 53

  Imprison her for life.

  My worst fear, spoken aloud in front of the chain of command. Even though I had always known this day would come, the reality nearly shattered me.

  A scream rose deep in my belly, clawing the back of my throat.

  If I started, I wouldn’t stop. I’d still be screaming when they trussed me in a straitjacket and chucked me in a cell for the rest of my life.

  Clenching my teeth, I fought the scream back.

  “Those are serious allegations,” General Briggs said. “Do you have evidence?”

  Dermott gave me a gloating smirk. “Yes, I do.”

  Briggs sighed and settled back in his chair. I was pretty sure I wasn’t imagining the disappointment in his eyes when he looked over at me.

  “All right,” he said. “Let’s start with misuse of Department resources.”

  “Kelly used covert cameras and monitoring software to resolve a petty small-town dispute. And she brought a civilian into our secured area and let him see highly-classified technology while she wrongfully interrogated him.” Dermott shot me a triumphant look. “And she abandoned her official mission to do all that.”

  I half-expected him to tack ‘inappropriate conduct’ onto that, but apparently he didn’t know about my tryst with Hellhound.

  But this was bad enough.

  “Agent Kelly, would you like to respond to these allegations?” Briggs inquired.

  I cleared my throat, hoping my voice wouldn’t come out in a squeak or a croak. Lifting my chin and squaring my shoulders, I said, “I didn’t know it was a small-town dispute at the time. As my reports show, I was afraid Grandin’s buyer might be trying to keep me, or Arlene Widdenback, off-balance by targeting my friends and business associates. Holt can confirm that Grandin said ‘they know how to get to Kelly’, so I had reasonable grounds for that line of thinking.”

  I swallowed, trying to moisten my dry throat. Damn, I was thirsty. And hungry. I hadn’t eaten for hours…

  Yanking my attention back to my rebuttal, I added, “I did run out of a meeting with Nora when I thought one of my clients was in danger, and I did interrogate Bob Armstrong because I caught him in an act of criminal mischief targeting that client. It turned out he didn’t know anything about me or Arlene Widdenback; but at least I gained some intel about Nora as a side benefit. But I had no way of knowing ahead of time whether any of that would advance the mission. That can only be determined in retrospect.”

  Big words.

  Were they convinced?

  “Do you have copies of Agent Kelly’s reports?” Briggs asked.

  Dermott looked momentarily at a loss, but Holt opened the folder in front of him and passed several sheets of paper down the table to Briggs. Dermott straightened and smirked.

  Holt wore his impassive cop face.

  Was he covering my ass? Or Dermott’s?

  Probably Dermott’s. They’d been friends long before Holt and I had worked together.

  If Holt was against me, too, I was completely screwed.

  Panic raked my insides.

  General Briggs skimmed the report and passed it to the man beside him. “Next allegation,” he said.

  What did that mean? Did it mean he accepted Dermott’s accusation? Or my explanation?

  Dermott drew himself up. “Inappropriate conduct and insubordination. She was sneaking off to cuddle with Agent Rand in his hospital bed and pretending it was work-related, and listen to this.” He pulled out his phone and t
ouched a button. My voice blared out of the speaker. “…stay the fuck out of my way and let me get the job done!”

  My mouth fell open. That fucking slimeball.

  The look he shot me was pure poison.

  “Which part is insubordination?” General Briggs asked.

  Dermott frowned. “Didn’t you just hear her yelling at me?”

  Briggs matched his frown. “I heard a woman who sounded like Agent Kelly yelling. We don’t know who she was yelling at, and without voiceprint analysis we don’t even know whether it was Agent Kelly. And a single phrase without context isn’t evidence. Do you have the entire conversation recorded?”

  Dermott flushed dark red.

  I held my breath. Did he want to bury me badly enough to let everybody in the room listen to me rip a strip off him?

  “I don’t have it all,” Dermott muttered.

  Hooray for his giant ego and miniscule balls.

  General Briggs swept an authoritative gaze around the room. “No context, therefore no evidence; and in any case, insubordination is the refusal to carry out a direct order. I heard no refusal. Are we agreed?”

  Nods all around.

  “Then that allegation is dismissed. Agent Kelly, would you respond to the allegation of inappropriate conduct?”

  Fury momentarily swallowed up my fear, stiffening my backbone. “I already explained this to Dermott. Agent Rand needed to communicate sensitive information to me while he was confined to bed in the hospital. I told him there were no bugs, but he was afraid of passive listening devices so he insisted on whispering as quietly as possible. I couldn’t get near enough to hear him, so I lay down on the bed beside him. I explained that to Dermott; Agent Rand corroborated what I’d said; and I offered to take a lie detector test to confirm it. Dermott didn’t take me up on that, so I assumed the subject was closed.”

  Briggs frowned. “And are you still willing to take a lie detector test?”

  “Yes.”

  “But that’s not all!” Dermott interrupted. “She’s been screwing her boyfriend, too…”