Dangerous Secrets (28 page)

She looked at him.
‶
Still in the line
of fire.″

Chapter 3

Jack followed her line of sight. The headlights
of two cars darted in and out of the trees. They drove slowly and sprayed a
searchlight into the woods. They were obviously looking for someone and Jack
knew he and Morgan were the prime suspects.

‶
Climb the tree,″ he
commanded. She didn′t question his authority, but started up the trunk.
Jack did the same. They′d just made it into the leaves when the light
swept the trunk. Jack put his hand on her waist to stop her. They settled in
the arms of two branches, her body pressed into his, and waited, peering through
the leaves, neither saying a word.

The cars rolled by slowly, continuing to search
as they moved down the road. Jack and Morgan remained hidden in the branches,
rigidly alert. When the car went around the curve in the road, Morgan relaxed
against Jack. He felt the tension in her body leave it. He slipped his arms
around her, securing her to his chest. He told himself it was to keep her from
falling, but Jack knew he wanted to hold her. It had been twelve years since
he′d had his arms around her. He thought he could forget her, but
throughout his career she′d made several appearances in faraway places
during long nights and in his dreams. She hadn′t known it and she never
would. He could keep her safe, but that′s all he could do.

Jack looked through the branches, after the
car. It was no longer visible. He waited, turning to look in the other
direction, wondering if there were more vehicles. From the gunfire that slammed
into the house, there had to be more than two cars. Jack had counted more than
seven handguns, an equal number of rifles, more assault weapons than should be
on the streets of a major city, let alone a small community like St. Charles,
Missouri. The noise from the rapidly firing guns muffled the other machinery.
He couldn′t make out how many other types there were. Who were they? What
did they want?

Morgan moved suddenly. She inched away from him
to begin her descent to the ground.

‶
Not yet,″ he said,
restraining her. Moments later a pickup truck sped past them. In its wake, it
bent the branches of nearby bushes to the ground. Before they could snap back,
another car came behind it, barreling forward with the same intense speed.
Morgan shrank back against Jack. Her arms tightened around his waist. She lay
in his arms, her head pressed against his shoulder.

Ten minutes later they were still holding each
other. Jack felt it was safe to move.

‶
We should get going,″ he
said.

They climbed down without a word. Morgan struck
out immediately in the direction the trucks had gone.

‶
Where are you going?″ he
asked.

‶
I have a car,″ she told
him.
‶
I′m
going to get it.″

Jack′s car was back at her house. He
hadn′t parked in front of the house. The car was several hundred feet
from the entrance to her driveway. He′d walked the remaining distance. It
was a cautionary action. Jack had been part of the CIA too long to get caught
with his pants down, but today seemed a blunder he hadn′t been prepared
for. Thankfully, Morgan had an escape plan. Jack admitted he was impressed with
Morgan. Few women he′d known would even have an escape plan, or the
presence of mind to keep their heads in the wake of certain death. Jack had
thought of Morgan as the vulnerable nineteen-year-old who needed looking after,
but she proved him wrong and he admired her for it.

‶
How far is this
car?′′

‶
About a mile from here.″
She walked with purpose, the backpack not slowing her gait one bit. Jack
matched her stride. She left the road where the cars had been and continued her
trek through the woods.

It was totally dark and only his keen night
vision and training made it easy for him to see where he was going.

‶
Why don′t you tell me
what′s going on?″ Jack asked.

‶
Didn′t Jacob fill you
in?″

‶
He had no time.″

‶
Why not? I sent the message two
days ago.″

He grabbed her arm and pulled her to a halt.
‶
I
only found out today.″

Her eyes changed. They were barely visible in
the darkness, but he saw the difference before she moved her gaze to his hand.
He let her go. He had the feeling she knew he′d rushed to her side, but
then he dropped the idea. She couldn′t know. They hadn′t seen each
other for twelve years. She remembered him from the Olympics, but she had no
knowledge that he′d come here as soon as he discovered she could be in
danger.

‶
Twelve years ago I didn′t
just go to the Olympics.″ She started walking again.
‶
I
helped the government get a man out of a South Korean prison.″

Jack knew this. He′d been part of the
mission. In fact, her actions had been the direct result of his own idea, one
he no longer regretted, but had from the very first thought should have been
used only as a final solution.

‶
Now someone is trying to kill
me.″

‶
Twelve years is a long time.
Why did they wait until now?′′

‶
I don′t know. Olympic
fever. Maybe they didn′t know where I was. Maybe something has happened
to trigger this action.″ She glanced at him, never breaking her stride.
‶
I
only know they started playing that tape and Austin Fisk showed up.″

‶
Fisk.″

‶
You know him?″

Jack′s instinct was to deny it. He denied
everything. It was ingrained in him. If he were ever captured in a foreign
country, he was to deny knowledge of anything except his cover. The problem
here was he had no cover and he felt more and more vulnerable the longer he
stayed in Morgan Kirkwoods′ presence.

‶
I know of him. We′ve
never met.″

‶
But. . .″ she prompted.

‶
But he′s tenacious, not
likely to let a fish go once he′s got it on the hook.″

‶
And he′s trying to hook
me.″

The ground they were covering flattened out and
Morgan increased her pace. He checked her breathing, but she looked as if this
was a country stroll on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Finally they came to a
fence. Without hesitation she scaled the twelve feet to the top and used her
backpack to cover the circular barbed wire. Jack noticed the small black and
white sign stating U.S. government property. do not enter. Morgan didn′t
appear to see the sign, but somehow Jack knew she knew it was there. He
followed her over in the same manner and they continued through the nearly
complete blackness.

‶
We′re not going to be
suddenly surrounded by men in green fatigues with rifles at the ready, are
we?″

Morgan actually smiled. It was the first time
he′d seen her do that. She shook her head.

‶
What is this place?″

‶
It′s an abandoned
research base. No one′s been here since the Vietnam War ended back in the
seventies.″

‶
No one but you?″

She didn′t answer. She didn′t have
to. She′d come straight here without a path or a road. She′d made
her way to this place as if from memory. Finally they stopped at a wreck of a
building. It was an old barracks and looked as if it were set at the edge of
the woods. Any paint that had been on the outside of the wash-worn wooden structure
had long since been beaten off by wind and rain. Weeds had grown into vines and
trees, snaking in and out of broken windows and doors as if they were giant
reptiles taking back from the world what it had stolen from them. The entry
door lay close to the ground, hooked onto a rusty hinge by nothing but the
grace of God.

Morgan marched straight for the place. She
pushed her wiry frame under and over branches, easily going toward her purpose.

‶
This is where you have a
car?″ Jack asked, ducking so the swinging branch missed him.

She didn′t answer, only continued toward
a more dilapidated structure behind the barracks. This one was a corrugated
metal building that looked like a huge tube of which half was above the ground.
They were usually used as temporary structures, but with the military anything
temporary took decades to replace.

Inside there was little light, but this fact
did not deter Morgan Kirkwood. Her actions made Jack think she possessed some
kind of internal radar that guided her in this dark space. Her feet never
faltered as she went from task to task. The cavernous room looked to have once
held bunks. Jack remembered his own time in the service, the bed he occupied
with a chest at the foot. It held all his worldly possessions and they could
acquire nothing that would not fit in that three-square-foot space.

‶
Brace yourself, Mr. Temple.
There′s going to be an explosion.″

Jack checked the window. He crossed the room,
skirting the dirt and dust that had taken up residence in the abandoned metal
container, to where she stood. Morgan opened a concealed panel in the wall and
pulled something out.

‶
What is that?″

‶
A remote control.″ It was
a black rectangle, the size of a cellular phone. She pushed the only button on
it, a white disk the size of a dime. Jack heard nothing.
‶
It′ll
take ten minutes,″ she said. Then she replaced the control in its hiding
place and concealed the panel. Nothing looked disturbed when she finished.

Without another word, she started walking
again.

‶
Just a minute.″ He
stopped her.
‶
Isn′t
it time we developed a game plan?″

‶
I have a plan,″ she
informed him in a voice that said
don′t
push me.

She went through the doorway back into the
night. Stepping as sure-footed as if she were walking on smooth concrete, she
traversed the yard in front of them. Jack ran to catch up with her.

He grabbed her arm and brought her around to
look at him.
‶
You
want to clue me in? It seems we′re in this together, whether that pleases
you or not.″

‶
It does not.″

Jack took a deep breath. Why had he come here?
At least he knew how she felt about him. Despite the way she′d relaxed
against him in the tree not half an hour ago, she didn′t want him around.
Jack admitted he wasn′t used to this type of reception. Women were
usually glad to see him. But not this one.

‶
Morgan, I know you′re
scared. I know these things have never happened to you before, but we′re
going to have to work together if we′re to survive this. It′s not
over.″

‶
I know that.″ Her teeth
were set and she spoke through them.
‶
It′s why I′m
getting this car and getting out of here.″

She turned to walk away, but again he stopped
her.

‶
Where are you going
then?″

‶
I have a place.″

‶
Where?″

She clamped her mouth closed. She wasn′t
going to tell him. It made sense. He even admired her for her caution. Anyone
who could set up an escape plan as intricately executed as she had would be
smart enough to only tell someone she trusted implicitly where she was going.
And she didn′t trust him. He had the idea that she trusted no one. Good,
he thought.

He followed her when she started walking again.
They went to another abandoned building. Just as she reached the door, the
explosion happened. Jack instinctively grabbed her and pushed her to the
ground. He rolled over, coming to his knees, all the while keeping her with
him. The sky behind them was bright orange. Jack expected the people trying to
kill them to come through one of the buildings.

‶
It′s the house,″
Morgan explained.

‶
What?″

‶
The explosion.″

‶
You blew up your house?″
Jack stated.

‶
To smithereens,″ she said
dryly.
‶
Now,
there′s no trace of me. Nothing to be found. I′m completely
invisible.″

***

Invisible. That was the perfect word to describe
her. Since she was born, practically no one had thought twice about her. A waif
on the streets, unwanted, unseen by finely dressed strangers who′d deny
she even existed, to be swatted away like some insect. She loved her house, the
friends she′d made in the last twelve years. She′d been cautious,
disguising herself with the skillful use of makeup to keep people from
recognizing her as the skinny teenager crushing roses to her chest as she sang
The Star Spangled Banner
in front of a
stadium of spectators and millions of television viewers.

Morgan walked fast enough for it to be an
exercise program. She often rushed when she thought of her life on the streets,
as if she could outrun the memory of that time. No matter how fast she walked
or ran the memories stayed with her.

And not only those of being on the streets.
There was Jack. And that kiss. She thought she was over him, but how could she
be over something that never had a beginning? And without a beginning, there
could be no middle, no end. That′s where she and Jack stood, strung up in
some nether region where life didn′t exist, where love didn′t
exist, but where Jack had kissed her, where there was the promise of something,
but before she could define it, it ended. Yet Morgan would take its memory to
her grave. When Jack threatened to kiss her at the house, every nerve ending in
her body reacted to the memory of that one, long ago time when the two of them shared
a small piece of heaven that would be forever trapped in some untouchable
cavern where unrealized dreams are stored.