Hard and Fast (23 page)

Alex looked up at him seriously, then surprised him by rising up on her toes to press a soft, sweet kiss on his lips.

“I’ll be fine. It’s just rain,” she teased.

Before he could stop himself, Lucas leaned down to kiss her again, savoring the pleasurable tingle that radiated through his body from the touch.

“Okay, ready?” he whispered when he finally pulled back.

“I’ll race you,” she stated quickly, then dashed out the front door to run across the street.

“Alex, wait!” Lucas immediately yelled, but she didn’t even look back.

He ran after her, cursing under his breath and doing a full hasty security sweep along the way. Lucas entered the café only seconds after Alex, only to find her giggling as she declared her victory.

“Damn it, Alex! Don’t ever do that again,” he growled while pulling her with him to the back of the small bakery.

“What? What did I do?”

“I told you, never go anywhere without either me or Ned at your side. That’s the protocol. That’s the only way to keep you safe at all times,” he snapped, still struggling to reduce his heart rate.

There were only a couple of other people in the store, and neither even looked their way.

“Sorry,” mumbled Alex, her bright golden brown eyes wide with surprise. “I was just messing around.”

He let out a deep breath.

“I know. It’s okay,” he finally acknowledged. “You just took me by surprise, that’s all. Here, have a seat. I’ll go get your latte.”

She nodded, all traces of her earlier playfulness now gone. It made Lucas feel like an ass, but he knew that his reprimand was necessary. The potential danger was too real not to remain diligent at all times.

While he waited for the barista to make Alex’s specialty coffee, Lucas scanned the street outside to note anything unusual or concerning. At first, it looked calm and quiet except for the pounding of the hard rainfall. Until he noted the car parked two stores down from the postal office. It was a dark blue sedan with rental plates, with one person sitting in the driver’s seat, and it had been there fifteen minutes ago when they had arrived.

He took out his cell phone to call Ned.

“I think we have a problem,” he stated immediately.

“What do you have?” the other agent asked.

“A stakeout in a rental car, near the post office for at least fifteen minutes.” Lucas provided the license plate number. “Can you work with Laura at headquarters to find out who rented it? I’ll keep Alex locked down in the café across the street.”

“You got it. I’ll send you what we find.”

“Thanks, but be prepared for an extraction,” Lucas added before they hung up.

“Is everything okay?” asked Alex when he returned to the table where she was sitting. He handed her the latte and took the seat across from her where he could still see the car on the street.

“I’m not sure,” he told her honestly.

“Why? What’s going on?”

He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, wishing she didn’t look so scared.

“Nothing for certain. I’ve just asked Ned to check something out,” he told her. “Drink your coffee.”

Though she looked around with concern, Alex did as he suggested. The text from Ned came less than five minutes later.

“Alex, we have to go. Ned is coming to take you back to the house,” he stated, standing up.

“Why? What happened?” she demanded, lower her coffee cup and staring up at him.

“I think we’re being watched. I want to make sure you and the package get back to the safe house without being followed,” he explained briskly while his eyes remained fixed on the suspect outside.

“What about you?”

“Ned will stop the truck across the street in about three minutes. The second he gets here, we’ll run to get you inside, okay?”

“What about you, Lucas?”

“Alex, did you hear my instructions?” Lucas demanded while escorting her to the front of the café as casually as possible. “Do you understand?”

“Yes! I heard you.”

“Okay, good. I’ll be fine,” he finally explained. “I’m going to stay back and find out who this guy is and make sure he doesn’t locate the house.”

Within a couple of minutes, Ned drove up the street in their large SUV and came to an abrupt stop in the active lane right beside the dark blue sedan, effectively blocking it. Lucas put a protective arm around Alex’s shoulders and hurried her across the empty street. He nodded at Ned as she quickly ducked into the backseat. Once her passenger door was closed and locked, Lucas withdrew his gun and crept low around the back of their truck and then between the two vehicles. Betting that the driver’s side door was unlocked, he pulled open the door just wide enough to press the barrel of his gun into the side of the driver. The heavyset man jumped in surprise, letting out a stream of curses.

“Move over,” Lucas demanded while still crouching low at the driver’s door. He poked into the man again with the gun barrel to reemphasize his command. “Now!”

“Who the fuck are you, man?” the stranger stammered while trying to maneuver his large size over the center console of the car.

“And don’t bother trying to reach your weapon. I have no problem shooting you in the gut long before you ever get your hands on it,” Lucas explained. “And don’t make me run after you either. You wouldn’t make it to the end of the block.”

“Okay, okay!” the man yelled desperately with his hands up in the air.

Finally, after some awkward scrambling, Lucas was able to enter the rented sedan in the driver’s seat. Ned immediately drove away with Alex and the package secured.

“Give me your wallet,” Lucas instructed with his pistol still discreetly pointed at the man’s midsection. “Slowly.”

The guy took out a leather billfold from a pocket on the inside of his jacket and handed it over to Lucas before putting his hands up in the air again.

“Who sent you?” demanded Lucas softly as he flicked open the wallet to read the identification displayed on the inside. ROBERT MALONE.

“I don’t know. I was just given instructions to come here.”

“What instructions exactly?”

“Just to wait for someone to pick up a package from this post office today, and track where they went and provide the location,” Malone explained.

“How did you get the instructions?”

“By phone, at my office in Syracuse. I’m a private investigator, so it’s pretty standard stuff.”

“And how were you to send back the information you gathered?” Lucas asked.

“I have an e-mail address. It’s inside my wallet.”

“Good.” Lucas tossed over the wallet so it landed in the other man’s lap. “This is what’s going to happen, Bobby. You’re going to wait until tomorrow to e-mail your client, saying that you did not see who picked up the package at this post office. Got it?”

“You can’t do this!” stammered Malone. “I’m a legitimate professional.”

“Unfortunately for you, I can, Bobby,” replied Lucas in a patient and patronizing voice. “Word of advice: I don’t take cases from faceless clients who pay more than the job is worth. There’s a big chance that they’re on the wrong side of legal. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Robert Malone swallowed a big lump in his throat.

“What about my payment? I have a business to run!”

“I can’t help you with that, unfortunately.”

Lucas could see the desperation in Malone’s eyes and knew immediately that the man was going to do something stupid. They stared at each other for three seconds before the private detective lunged across the center of the car, trying to hit Lucas’s right arm with his elbow and knock the gun out of the way. But Lucas saw his slow attempt coming from a mile away, and followed Malone’s momentum with a swift, fierce jab into the big man’s right jaw with his left elbow. Malone immediately slumped down in the middle of the car, knocked out cold.

It was still raining pretty hard, with no one on the street to see the struggle. But Lucas remained cautious of anyone who might see him step out of a car where an unconscious guy could be resting for a good twenty minutes or more. And since Malone seemed reluctant to follow his instructions and take his advice, Lucas took matters into his own hands. He turned on the dark blue sedan with the keys in the ignition and drove it and the PI out of town about four miles north, stopping on a rural side street. Then, he took Malone’s wallet, the car keys, and the small pistol he found after a quick search. He left the cell phone, to allow for some tracking. Satisfied that would slow him down sufficiently for the day, Lucas started back to the cottage at a steady jog.

About a mile outside of the town center, he tossed away the keys, gun, and wallet, minus the driver’s license and a small note with an e-mail address on it, just as Malone had detailed. Lucas then called Ned to provide an update and plan for reinforcements.

CHAPTER 23

That evening, Ned left in the seaplane to pick up Samuel Mackenzie and another Fortis agent, Renee Thomas, from LaGuardia Airport in New York. They were back at the lakefront cottage in Skaneateles before midnight. Lucas met them in the backyard as they crossed the lawn.

“Hey, Renee,” he stated as he patted the tall, lean woman on the shoulder. “Thanks for taking this assignment so last minute.”

She grinned at him with white teeth that shone brightly against the cool, milk chocolate tone of her skin. As the newest member of the Fortis ground team, this would only be her second mission.

“No problem, boss. You know how much trouble Sam can get into if I’m not around,” she replied with a strong British accent.

“I think it’s the other way around, young lady,” came the deep, burly response as Sam stepped up to them.

Both Lucas and Renee raised their eyebrows.

“Let’s get inside, and I’ll show you around the house,” continued Lucas. “Renee, you can take the bedroom I’ve been using. There’s a fourth room with two beds. Sam and I can share that one while Ned and Alex can stay where they are now.”

“No concerns from me,” Sam stated. “I can sleep anywhere.”

“That’s for sure,” Renee added. “He was asleep the minute we were seated on the flight from D.C. to New York. One of the flight attendants dared to wake him up when we were about to land, then ran away scared after the look he gave her.”

Sam just shrugged. He was a big guy, about six feet four inches and all carved, rippled muscle. There were few people who would risk their lives to point out any of his less endearing qualities. But Renee never seemed to hesitate. Probably because they had a history working together in MI5 prior to Fortis.

They entered the living room area, where Alex was still awake, sitting at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee. It had been a long, scary afternoon and evening for her. Lucas gave her a small encouraging smile and watched as she took a deep breath before standing up to meet the new agents.

“Alexandria Cotts, meet one of my partners, Samuel Mackenzie,” Lucas stated.

“Nice to meet you in person, Alex,” Sam added as he stood forward and shook her hand. “Call me Sam.”

“Hi, Sam. Thanks for coming here so quickly,” Alex told him, craning her neck to look up at him.

“And this is Renee Thomas, our newest recruit,” continued Lucas.

“Hi, Alex,” said Renee with a wide smile.

“Hi,” she replied as the two women also shook hands.

“Why don’t we get settled in for the night,” suggested Lucas. “Then we can meet in the morning at O-eight hundred hours to review the security plan.”

He and Ned then showed the new agents where they could put down their travel bags. Lucas left them a few minutes later to do a perimeter inspection of the property. All was secure. Back inside, the house was quiet. He paused in the hallway to the bedrooms, knowing the smarter choice would be to join Sam in the fourth bedroom and get a good night’s sleep. But after the events of the day, Lucas didn’t try to resist the need to hold Alex securely in his arms. He strode purposefully to her room at the end of the hall and quickly stripped out of his clothes to join her under the sheets.

The next morning, Lucas was up before the rest of the team and ready with an operational plan before the others joined him for coffee and a light breakfast. Alex walked through the space a few minutes later, grabbing coffee and a bagel on the way out to her work shed.

“You guys had a chance to review the updated mission report, including the threat assessment based on yesterday’s events,” he stated to the other three Fortis agents who now stood around the table. “I’d like to confirm our protection plan for the next two weeks.”

“We remain at this site until next Friday while Alex finishes off the motor and other components of her Cicada design,” Ned explained. “Then we will meet with the Magnus racing team in British Columbia so they can put the car together and complete the road test and final calibrations.

“The challenge is we now have confirmation that someone is still trying to get the hybrid. And they are running out of time. Once the product is launched publicly by Magnus at the race in less than three weeks, the window to steal the designs will be closed. Which is why we’ve brought on additional security support. We need to be prepared for anything, and the threat will only increase as we get closer to the race.”

“How confident are you that it’s Crow that’s after the design now?” Sam asked, standing with his legs spread wide and his arms crossed against his massive chest.

“From everything we’ve gathered about the cyber intrusion tactics used on North’s computer by Pratt in Chicago, then directly on the Magnus servers, I’m ninety-five percent certain Edgar Purdy is involved. And you’re all now up to speed on the various incidents of corporate hacking over the last seven years that have been attributed to the ghost organization called Crow. The code signatures are pretty damn close,” stated Lucas. “So either Edgar Purdy is Crow or he is closely affiliated.”

“This is also the first time where Purdy has blatantly used virus algorithms that we know he developed while with the Secret Service,” Ned added. “He’s shown his face and we have to assume it’s because of Lucas.”

“Yeah, well, from what we read in the mission files, it’s not surprising,” rumbled Sam. “He taught you everything you knew about developing solutions to secure the country against electronic crimes, and you turned around and ruined his plans to make millions from the Russians.”

“I think you’re overstating things a bit, Scotsman,” Lucas scoffed. “I had learned a few things on my own before joining the Service.”

Sam smirked. “All right, all right, don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

“The point is that Purdy has always been driven by his ego, and he now thinks he has something to prove,” continued Lucas. “Let’s take advantage of it.”

“You want to bait him to come after the Cicada,” stated Renee. “Do you think that will work? I mean, this is a guy that’s managed to stay completely off the grid while wanted by several government agencies. Seems pretty stupid to risk all that just to prove that he can steal something out from under your protection, Lucas.”

“You would think so,” Lucas agreed. “Yet here we are. If our friend Robert Malone was hired by him, Purdy’s spending a lot of energy to get the Cicada long after his contract has been cancelled by Hernandez. And he wants me to know it.”

“Whatever his motives are, it’s stronger than staying off the grid,” Ned summarized.

“Exactly,” Lucas agreed. “So let’s see if we can use it to draw him out.”

Ned pulled up a map of British Columbia.

“The Sea-to-Sky race is an open competition that runs along a fifteen-mile stretch up Highway Ninety-nine from Daisy Lake to the ski town of Whistler. Last week, Marco Passante confirmed accommodations in Whistler, with plans to arrive with the racing team and meet us one week before the race to conduct a final road test with the new hybrid,” Lucas outlined. “He’s also booked time at a racing track about thirty minutes north of Whistler, in a town called Pemberton, to try out the Cicada.”

“Won’t that make us the perfect target?”

“It would, which is why it makes the perfect decoy,” replied Lucas.

“Since the Magnus racing team thinks Alex’s Cicada was destroyed, they’ve built another gas engine for the race, loaded in one of their other Mitsubishis,” Ned told them. “We’re going to suggest they continue with those plans, but only arrive in Whistler a day or two prior to the race like all the other teams.”

“So, what about Alex and the Cicada?” Sam asked.

“We’ll go with her and stay in Pemberton for the road test, using aliases,” explained Lucas. “Magnus has a few spare car frames. I’m sure Alex can recommend one for the Cicada that can be shipped there for her to use. And if we fly to British Columbia on a private charter out of Toronto, there will be no online record of the trip.”

The other three agents thought about the plan for a long moment, trying to uncover any weak spots.

“What about the road tests?” Renee asked. “Won’t Alex need other engineers to help?”

“That’s our only gap in the plan right now,” Ned admitted. “We’ll need one, maybe two engineers to help complete the car and do final tuning and calibrations.”

“I’m sure we can find someone good with the Fortis or DaCosta networks,” Sam suggested.

“Yeah, I’ve asked Evan to see who he can come up with,” Lucas agreed. “Alex has suggested Adam North.”

“North? The guy whose wife started this whole thing by trying to sell the Magnus battery tech to another buyer?” Sam asked incredulously.

“Yeah, that was my reaction also,” added Lucas. “But if you think about it, it makes sense. He’s a well-respected physicist with a solid knowledge of auto design according to Alex, and he’s the expert on the battery. He also has a vested interest in making sure the Cicada has a successful launch, especially now that he’s provided an official statement confirming that he had shared the battery specs with his wife. Whether that’s true or not, it means that there are no criminal charges. The lawyers confirmed that the wording of the nondisclosure agreement does in fact extend the restrictions to his wife, so Magnus can sue them for damages. If North gives us a week of his time to complete the road tests, we can probably talk Passante into only suing them for out-of-pocket costs, like our fee.”

“Hmm . . . When you put it that way, it does have some merit,” mumbled Sam.

“Any other questions about the plan?” Lucas asked, but the others shook their heads. “Good. I’ll provide Alex and Passante with an update this morning and we’ll confirm all the logistics. In the meantime, we’ll double up on our security rotation, add a rotating night shift. This house is wired like Fort Knox, but I’m not taking anything for granted. Purdy had the same protocol training as Ned and I, and was in the Service for far longer. If he manages to figure out where we are, I want to make sure we have the manpower to stop him.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“What about our new friend, Robert Malone?” Ned asked.

Lucas leaned over and opened a tracking application on his laptop.

“He was pretty resourceful. Based on his cell phone records, he managed to get back to Syracuse late last night.”

“Has he reached out to Crow yet? Or anyone else of interest?” Sam asked.

“Nope. Looks like he may be taking my advice after all,” Lucas surmised.

“That’s encouraging,” Ned noted. “Purdy has to be using a fairly complicated algorithm to search the Internet for any component orders that could suggest we’re rebuilding the Cicada. He might not back off just because Malone failed to pinpoint our location, but he’ll have enough similar queries popping up every day to keep him busy for a while.”

“Maybe,” Renee conceded. “But based on the mission report, don’t we have to assume he already knows about our initial order of parts and components? That puts a pretty big bull’s-eye on our back.”

“It would if there were any accurate records of where it all was delivered,” said Lucas with a cocky smile. “That’s why I had all the fabrication tools and equipment delivered to the post office box in Syracuse, which Ned picked up. And, I made sure that the paper trail for the engine parts had a delivery address of an auto shop in Akron, Ohio. Only the truck driver knows different, and we paid him pretty generously to forget this address.”

“Well, with any luck, we’ll make it to Vancouver without having to repel a siege,” added Sam, looking almost optimistic.

“Now, let’s work out the important stuff,” Lucas stated, looking seriously at the other three agents. “The housekeeper comes on Tuesday and Friday to clean and restock the fridge. Which of you is going to take over the cooking?”

They managed to figure out an acceptable schedule of the task, then moved on to implementing the new plan. For the next twelve days, Sam, Ned, and Renee focused on surveillance and reconnaissance within a five-mile radius of the property and small town. Memorial Day weekend brought a crowd of tourists to the lake, and plenty of noise and rowdiness with it. The Fortis team knew it was an ideal opportunity to create diversion for an attack, and they were prepared for anything. But the holiday came and went with only bursts of loud fireworks and a couple of drunk college kids who tried to steal the seaplane.

Midafternoon on Wednesday, two days before they were scheduled to travel to British Columbia, Alex sent him a text message asking him if he could stop by the shed when he had a moment. Lucas was in the middle of building an online identity for their alias racing team that would arrive in the small town of Pemberton to do the road test. But, he was ready for a break to stretch his legs, particularly since he and Alex were no longer able to take their daily walks. After the incident with the private investigator, it was too risky for her to be seen in the town.

As Lucas made his way through to the back of the house, Sam was coming in from his surveillance of the immediate vicinity. Ned was doing a similar scan of the broader area, while Renee was still asleep after her overnight security detail.

“Did you speak with DaCosta yet,” Sam asked.

“About the tech company in McLean? Yeah,” replied Lucas. “I told him I’ll need another week after the Magnus engine launch to wrap things up before I can take on a new client.”

“Doesn’t sound like they can wait that long,” Sam stated. “And they’ll need both you and Raymond to help them with their network security problem. I can finish off this mission in Toronto after the race.”

Lucas knew it was a great solution. The final objective for Magnus would be to install a sustainable and scalable security plan, particularly if the Cicada engine fulfilled its potential. And there was no one more capable than Sam to do that. But it also meant that Lucas would be heading back to Virginia in less than two weeks. It didn’t seem like enough time to figure things out with Alex.