Halon-Seven (44 page)

“It’s not what you think,” Nathan said finally. His voice was hoarse and quiet.

“What should I think?”

Nathan was breathing again, but he didn’t look well.

“I’ve helped you in every way you’ve asked.
I’ve done everything I could!
” Nathan looked like he was going to be sick. His face was covered in sweat. Granted, the air conditioning had gone down along with the power, but this wasn’t the heat.

“I’m not the only one you helped,” Cyrus said in a flat even tone. Since he’d arrived, he hadn’t yet raised his voice. He found he could get further in situations like this by remaining calm. Sometimes a person acting calmly under extreme circumstance could be more unnerving than someone ranting and yelling. This way he had better control of the discussion. Still, Cyrus’s voice had gone cold. He made no effort to hide that.

Nathan sat silently. He seemed to have a lot to say, but as far as Cyrus could tell, the entire conversation was going on in the man’s head.

“Nathan, we go back a long way. Talk to me. You provided the tech to use against us, but you also gave us the gear we needed to find the bugs. If you hadn’t suggested we take your detection gear, we never would have found this. Why are you working for Dargo?”

At that, Nathan’s attention perked up. “Dargo? No! I sold this gear to
Yuri
Dargoslav. I sold this tech to him months ago, long before you were ever part of the picture.”

Cyrus still didn’t understand. His expression must have betrayed this, because Nathan took it as a sign that he should continue.

“Yuri came to me four, maybe five months ago. He needed some special tech. I’d just taken possession of these experimental cameras, so it seemed like a good opportunity to do a field test. Whoever Yuri was working for had deep pockets, and he could pay.

“It seemed like a great opportunity at the time. As I started pulling files and putting together reports for you, I started to see there was a chance Yuri’s operation was related to what you were working on. But I didn’t know for sure.

“You have to realize, for all I knew, Yuri’s op was long over. He could be working on a completely different contract now. I didn’t know. But I wanted to be sure. So when you were going to sweep for bugs, I thought you should take my latest hardware. If your op overlapped with his, you’d find those,” he pointed at the cameras on the table beside the gun. “And I’d finally know for sure.”

Cyrus took a deep breath and thought this through. His ongoing confusion was over everything Nathan had provided so far. The man had delivered all of the intelligence he’d requested. As far as he could tell, all of the information was accurate. But Nathan was a free agent. By definition, he was in it for himself. Alliances were largely a matter of convenience in this field. While Nathan was a resource that had proven trustworthy in the past, no resource could be trusted blindly.

Nathan had provided surveillance hardware to Ian Dargoslav, by way of Yuri. He didn’t deny that. And Cyrus was inclined to believe him when it came to the timing of the transaction. From what Cyrus was been able to put together, Dargo had been working his operation for several months.

With this in mind, the circumstances of his visit had now changed. In a way, intentionally or not, Nathan was playing both sides of the fence. Cyrus could bleed him for any information that might help get a leg up against Dargo, and more importantly, whoever hired Dargo. Tactically speaking, interrogating Nathan would be the smart play.

“Okay,” Cyrus finally conceded. “I can see how that might happen in your profession. The fact is, you don’t owe me anything more than you would owe Yuri or Dargo. In the end, we are just clients, and you’re a business man.”

Cyrus let the statement hang in the air. The confusion on Nathan’s face appeared genuine. He still looked terrified.

With a nod of understanding, Cyrus realized the problem. He leaned forward and carefully lifted the Colt from the table between them. Rolling forward in the chair, he placed the gun on the edge of the table nearest Nathan. After taking a long look at Nathan, he rolled his chair back to where it had been and sat back comfortably.

“No trick,” Cyrus said. “I believe you’re being straight with me. You’ve provided me with everything I’ve asked. You’ve been professional and reliable. You’re afraid I’m going to go all Gitmo on you. It’s not gonna happen.” He took a moment and considered what he wanted to say. “You’ve explained everything to my satisfaction. I appreciate that.”

An awkward smile crossed Nathan’s face. “Did I really have a choice?”

Cyrus shrugged. “We all have choices.”

Nathan looked down at the pistol for a moment, finally exhaling. He was looking more himself by the minute. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you what I suspected… I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t speaking out of turn. Giving Hondo the detection gear seemed like the best way to test the waters. Only you dropped in on me before I knew what he found. For what its worth, if he found any of my bugs, I was going to tell you all of this straight off.”

Cyrus had to smile. He would like to believe that. But Nathan was a professional. He couldn’t afford allegiances like that. “You don’t have to say that,” he said quietly. “I know the business you’re in. Telling me about your deal with the Dargoslavs would’ve been bad for business.”

Nathan considered Cyrus’s words. His head bobbed back and forth as he thought. “Bad for business? Sure. One of the very few major ‘No-Nos’ in my profession, I suppose. I’ve known a lot of operators in my time, kid. I mean it—a lot! And not one of them has what you do. You’ve got integrity and a soul. And you were smart enough to get out of the game before those qualities were torn from you.”

Cyrus didn’t know what to say. He was good at reading people in times of high stress. It was part of the reason he’d gone for the high drama and blindsided Nathan. Even the best liars make mistakes when under extreme pressure. Nathan seemed truly sincere in his words.

“I mean it, kid. You’ve worked with pros over the years. Knowing what you did and given the circumstances, every one of them would’ve come down on me like a ton of bricks, and they would’ve cut on me until I said whatever they wanted. You could’ve gone that way. But you asked me…
Scared the ever loving shit out of me,
but you didn’t start cutting. That’s what makes you one of the good guys.”

That was the problem. He didn’t feel like one of the good guys. And, more importantly, he really had believed all of this was in his past. The last week had brought some painful feelings back to the surface. He gave Nathan a nod. It was the best thanks he could offer given the circumstances.

“Cyrus?” Nathan looked uncomfortable, as if he had something important left to say.

Almost afraid to ask what it might be, Cyrus just looked at Nathan and waited for him to continue.

“You look like you were in a car wreck. What happened?” Nathan finally asked.

Cyrus smiled. He kept forgetting he looked worse than he felt. Telling Nathan that he’d run into Yuri Dargoslav would explain his banged up appearance, but he knew that given the circumstances, Nathan would just feel more guilty. “Would you believe someone tried to mug me?” he asked finally. It was close enough to the truth.

The look on Nathan’s face made it clear he didn’t know whether Cyrus was joking. “Ah…if you look like this, do I want to ask about the other guy?”

That brought a chuckle from Cyrus. “No, you really don’t,” he said with a grin.

Stepping out of the chair, Cyrus headed for the door. After two steps, he stopped and looked back. “Sorry about the power. You’re going to need an electrician to come out and get the service back up and running. I really did a number on it.”

Nathan’s laugh was genuine for the first time all day. “I’d expect nothing less!”

He followed Cyrus out into the hall.

“Oh,” Nathan said suddenly. “I’m sure you haven’t seen it yet. I talked with Hondo a few minutes ago. He said something about a list of compromised locations? I’m supposed to watch for his email. It’s supposed to contain a list of properties. I need to pull ownership histories and look for anyone who has run a similar search recently. He was going to send you the email, too.”

This was the news Cyrus was waiting for. Among all of the files recovered from the printer’s hard drive in Underwood’s office, Cyrus was hoping they wouldn’t find a list of properties Meade owned. But since Dargo’s men were waiting for him in Chicago and New York, Cyrus was betting some kind of list was on file. He needed that list. It should help him understand which transport sites were compromised.

With no power in Nathan’s office, Cyrus resorted to checking the email on his smartphone. Sure enough, he had a message from Hondo. As they feared, the documents saved to the printer’s hard drive had included a list of properties owned by Walter Meade. And at this point, it was a near certainty that the same list was in Dargo’s hands as well.

The list included the apartment in Cyrus’s building in Chicago, the group’s office space in Santa Barbara, the apartment in Manhattan, an office space in Washington DC, and the house in Colorado.

Cyrus felt his stomach drop as he read the last line on the list of properties.
The house in Colorado!
They’d been so confident that location was secure. But if Dargo had access to the files, it meant he knew all about the house in the mountains!

Miami, Florida

Friday, 5:55 pm (3:55 pm Colorado Time)

The phone rang for the third time. Cyrus could hear his heartbeat thundering in his ears. There was another ring, but still no answer. Why wasn’t she picking up? He needed to let Reese know her location was compromised. She needed to get out of there immediately. Nathan still sat across the table from Cyrus, his face was ripe with nervous tension. Only this time he was reacting to Cyrus’s near frantic response to the email message. Nathan didn’t know what was going on, but anyone could see it wasn’t good.

There was another ring of the phone. Cyrus was planning the fastest way back to the platform. He was twenty minutes away, even in the best-case scenario. Getting back to Colorado would take some time, and if Reese wasn’t picking up, he had no idea what might be waiting for him.

Finally there was a click, and Reese answered. “Hey!” she said. “Sorry, I was just getting out of the shower.”

The sound of her voice released the pent up tension from his body. With a sigh, he realized he’d been holding his breath. “We’ve got a problem,” he said without preamble. “The location of the house might’ve been compromised. You have to get out of there now. Don’t wait for me—leave immediately.”

The pause on the line wasn’t entirely unexpected given the bomb he’d just dropped. “Ah…” she stammered. “Easier said than done.”

She seemed at a loss for words, but she finally continued. “We’ve gotten about two feet of new snow. I’m not sure I can drive out of here.”

“That’s not a problem. Take one of the snowmobiles and head for town. Wait for me at the general store.”

“I thought you couldn’t get the snowmobiles started?”

She’d asked the question so matter-of-factly that it confused Cyrus. They’d never talked about starting the snowmobiles. He had never tried to start them, let alone tried and failed. All at once, it clicked. He felt his heart skip a beat at the realization.

Shit!

“That’s no problem,” he said without letting his voice betray his discomfort. “I took care of it. They’re all set now.”

“Meet you at the general store? Got it,” she confirmed.

“And, Reese? Be careful. This might be all for nothing, but I want to play it safe.”

“I understand. I’ll see you soon.” She clicked off, and the line went dead.

Setting the cell phone aside, Cyrus stared blankly at the surface of the desk. Reese was something else. Her reference to a conversation that had never taken place was a warning. Dargo was already there. If Cyrus went back now, he’d be walking into a trap. The security of that damn house was the one thing that Cyrus hadn’t questioned. He was sure Meade had kept its location secure. But the location of the house was part of the information cached in the copy machine’s memory. If Dargo knew about the house, he certainly knew about Meridian.

All their secrets were compromised. The only things Dargo didn’t know were the changes Cyrus had made since joining the operation. That at least meant the team was safe. The transport site in Australia couldn’t be compromised because Hondo had taken the platform to that location personally. It also meant the platform setup in the storage locker in Santa Barbara was safe. But neither of these things helped with the present situation.

Something else occurred to Cyrus. Strangely, the Miami transport platform didn’t appear to be part of the information entrusted to Allan Underwood. It meant that Underwood’s list of transport sites was incomplete. While he didn’t have an explanation for that, it made him wonder if there were other sites not included on Underwood’s list.

Launching the Transport Control app Reese had put on his phone, Cyrus entered his security code and switched to the database of platform locations. He scrolled slowly through the list. As they’d discussed, the list wasn’t terribly long. Meade’s team had had limited resources with which to build their platforms, and thanks to the limited availability of Halon-Seven, they wouldn’t be building any more.

As he reached the end of the list, Cyrus realized none of the listed locations helped with his current problem. He was certain to be walking into a trap. Alternatively, he could transport to Santa Barbara and then fly to Colorado. But even chartering the fastest available plane would take hours. And if he didn’t get back soon, Dargo would sense the deception.

Frustrated, he scrolled back up the list. He reached the top and still had no better options. About to abandon his current avenue of thought in search of one more productive, he was struck by a sudden flash of insight and hope. There was one platform not on the list.

Beta II!

A plan was starting to form in his mind. He looked up at Nathan and was surprised to see a smile cross the man’s face. Accordingly, he cast the man a questioning look.