Hide and Seek (28 page)

“There we go.”

It was the voice of the stranger.

Without another thought, Michelle took two steps forward, clearing the door frame, before she swung at the dark figure waiting there for her.

“Shit, no, Michelle!”

Nick’s outcry came in mid-swing, too late to pull back the shovel and divert its path. The dark figure—the stranger—lunged to the side, avoiding a hit to his head, but a second person—Nick—stood beside him. As the shovel completed its arc it landed right on Nick’s ass, sending him flying into the dirt.

Nick grunted.

She dropped the shovel and was already running to him, crouching down next to him.

“Fuck, Michelle, what did you do that for?”

“Oh my God, did I hurt you?”

A belly laugh from the stranger made her whirl around.

“I think you guys have some real relationship issues you’ve gotta work on,” the stranger said.

“I was aiming at you,” she ground out.

“Maybe you wanna teach her some target practice, Fox.”

Groaning, Nick pushed himself up to stand and reached for her, pulling her up, looking past her to the other man. “I blame you for that hit, not her. If you hadn’t insisted on locking her into a shed full of gardening tools, that wouldn’t have happened.” Then he looked at her. “Michelle, meet Stingray.” He paused for a moment. “An old colleague of sorts.”

She turned slowly, looking the stranger up and down. His gun was holstered at his side now, and he looked somewhat less scary than earlier. But only just somewhat. “Mr. Stingray.”

The guy chuckled. “Not mister, just Stingray. You know, like Bono.”

Michelle nodded, then glanced over her shoulder at Nick. “You gonna tell me what all this was about?”

“Later. We’ve gotta get out of here first.” He motioned to Stingray. “Lead the way.”

Nick made a motion to follow the guy, but Michelle grabbed his arm. “You’re forgetting something.”

“I told you, I’ll fill you in later.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” She sighed. “But if I don’t text Smith a recording soon, he’ll know something went down, and he’ll be looking for me. I’ve gotta disappear right now, or he’ll get me.”

Nick froze.

“She’s right,” Stingray said, turning back to them.

The two men exchanged a look, then they both started grinning.

“Well, then let’s give this Smith dude something to keep him busy,” Nick said.

“Always wanted to do a little acting,” Stingray replied. “You want me to do an accent? I can do Colombian real well.”

Nick rolled his eyes, while Stingray pulled Michelle’s cell phone from his pocket and navigated through the menu.

Michelle leaned into Nick, bringing her mouth to his ear. “Can you trust him? He was pointing a gun at your head earlier.”

“Just as I was pointing a gun at yours. Yet you trust me.”

“I didn’t say that.”

He moved his head back to lock eyes with her. “But you do.” He tipped his chin in Stingray’s direction. “I trust him about as much as you trust me right now. That’ll have to do.”

“Hey, if you lovebirds would stop doing whatever you’re doing, we could get this show on the road.”

Michelle stepped away from Nick abruptly, feeling herself blush in the dark. They weren’t lovebirds, far from it. They were… Well, she didn’t really know what they were. No word came to mind.

“I’m ready,” Nick announced and walked up to Stingray.

18

Stingray opened the back of a dark van. “Hop on in.”

Nick got inside and offered his hand to Michelle to help her up. The interior was dark, but not empty.

“Who’s she?” a big, dark-haired man sitting on one of the benches asked, suspicion rolling of him in waves.

“Fox’s girl,” Stingray explained from behind them and hopped in, pulling the door shut behind him.

“Fox? So your name isn’t Nick Young?” Michelle murmured next to him.

“I’ll explain later.” Right now there were more important things to discuss. He offered his hand. “You must be Ranger.”

The other Phoenix nodded and motioned to his shoulder. “I’d shake your hand, but I had a bit of run-in with a bullet the other day, and it hurts like a bitch when I move my arm.”

“No worries.” Nick lowered himself on the bench and pulled Michelle to sit next to him.

“So you’re Fox.” Ranger looked past him at Stingray. “Did you explain to him why we’re here?”

“Yep.”

“Did you tell him about the premonition?”

“He did,” Nick interrupted, sensing Michelle’s inquisitive look. He squeezed her hand in reassurance, but this wasn’t the time to go into long explanations about his special gift.

“You have ’em, too? The premonition about the inferno? The destruction? Your skin melting from the intense heat?” Ranger pressed.

“Yeah. Though I’m not actually there when it happens.”

“What?” Stingray asked.

Nick turned his head and looked at him. “I’m somewhere at a lake, on a porch of some fancy mansion.”

“Tell us more,” Ranger insisted.

“I’m in front of my computer. Somebody I can’t see gives me iced tea to drink. I think it’s poisoned, because as soon as I drink it and try to type something into the computer, my hands are paralyzed. I can’t do it. I can’t stop it. I’m helpless. On the screen, I can see the explosion. Then the shockwave hits the lake and catapults five sailboats right out of the water, turns them into matchsticks. It’s all I see before I get slammed against the side of the house.”

“Sailboats on a lake?” Stingray mused, rubbing his chin. “Wonder whether that means anything.”

“Could be a location,” Ranger said. “And the person who gives you that iced tea that paralyzes you? Can you remember anything about him? Or her?”

Nick shook his head. “I only see a hand. It’s a man, I can tell that much.”

“Any rings, scars?” Ranger asked.

“I don’t remember any.”

“Next time you have the premonition, focus in on that. We need to find out who’s behind this. In Stingray’s and my visions we don’t see any man. You might be the first one who’s gotten a glimpse of our enemy.”

“Next time?” Michelle interrupted, her gaze bouncing back and forth between the three of them. “You guys have visions? You’re psychic?”

Ranger growled, tossing an angry look at Nick. “I thought she’s your girl. You could have mentioned that she doesn’t know what you are. Damn it.”

Nick put a protective arm around Michelle, pulling her against his side. “She won’t talk. We have the same enemies.”

Michelle nodded quickly, tossing a scared look at Ranger. “I’m no threat to you.”

“That remains to be seen,” Ranger ground out. He glared at Nick. “Involving civilians. You should know better.”

The pinging of a cell phone saved Nick from having to respond immediately.

Ranger pulled his cell from his shirt pocket and looked at the display. “That’s Lisa at the safe house. She’s worried that we’re not back yet.” He punched in a short message, then put the phone back in his breast pocket.

“Apparently Michelle’s not the only civilian involved,” Nick said with a motion to Ranger’s cell phone.

Ranger’s eyes narrowed.

Stingray cleared his throat. “Let’s not get sidetracked here. Since it’s pretty clear that we’re all seeing the same thing, it’s important that we get the Phoenix back together. Not only are our enemies trying to pick us off one-by-one, they’re also planning something major. We have to prevent it. Problem is we don’t know the others or where they’re hiding.” He motioned to Nick. “We were lucky to find you.”

“I’ve been working on a solution for that for a while.”

Both Ranger and Stingray slid forward on the bench opposite Nick’s.

“What solution?” Stingray asked.

“Sheppard kept a private file on all his Phoenix. Names, pictures, backgrounds. Separate from the CIA’s classified personnel file—which I have the feeling has been destroyed by our enemy already.”

“And Sheppard’s file? You think it still exists? Wouldn’t whoever killed him have destroyed that one, too?” Ranger asked.

“I don’t think so. I was able to figure out that Sheppard used a second login at the CIA. The only thing is, I can’t find it.”

“I don’t get it,” Stingray said.

“It’s not easy to explain, but I’ve found digital fingerprints of somebody accessing certain files, but I can’t trace who. In the end it always loops back to Sheppard’s old login, and that’s been disabled long ago.”

“A ghost login,” Michelle said.

Nick whirled his head to her. “You know what I mean?”

She nodded eagerly. “I’ve heard of something like it.” She looked at Ranger and Stingray. “I was a hacker. Anyway, I’ve heard of ghost logins being set up by members of Anonymous to mirror a real login. But when somebody comes across it and tries to trace it, it always leads back to the real login, the one the person was shadowing or mirroring. It’s impossible to trace or find. It’s not hackable.” She locked eyes with Nick. “Was that what you were looking for when you hacked into those servers?”

He nodded. “I was trying to get into the system administrator’s logs to search for the login.”

“If it’s a ghost login, that wouldn’t have helped you. It’s not in the logs.”

“Shit!” Nick shoved a hand through his hair and tossed a regretful look at his fellow Phoenix. “Then I have no way of getting at Sheppard’s files either. Sorry, guys. That’s a dead end.”

Ranger lifted a hand and winced involuntarily. “Crap. Wrong side.” He forced a smile. “You say it’s a login, right?”

Nick nodded. “Yeah.”

Ranger exchanged a look with Stingray. “You’re thinking what I’m thinking?”

Stingray nodded, grinning. “Lisa’s bracelet from her brother.”

Nick felt his forehead furrow. “What’s a piece of jewelry got to do with Sheppard’s files?”

“It’s not the bracelet. It’s what we found inside. Talon gave the bracelet to his sister for safekeeping. Inside it, we found two strings of names and numbers, all jumbled up. We couldn’t figure out what it was, but before Talon died he told Lisa to find you and give it to you. That you would know what to do with it.” Ranger reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and removed a strip of paper from it. He handed it to Nick. “That’s it.”

Nick looked at it. Michelle reached for his hand and pulled the piece of paper closer to her face. Nick exchanged a look with her. “What do you think?”

“It’s got the right length. All logins have a minimum of ten digits. Same with the passwords.”

“Can we give it a try?” Ranger asked, sounding hopeful now.

“We sure can,” Nick said, bracing one hand on his thigh. “Only thing is, if this is the ghost login, then the only place it will work from is from inside CIA headquarters.” He’d known all along that once he found Sheppard’s second login, he would have to get into Langley to execute the rest of his plan behind the CIA’s firewalls.

“Are you telling us that we need to break into Langley?”

“I wouldn’t call it breaking in…”

Stingray tilted his head, giving him a doubtful look. “What would you call it then? A suicide mission?”

“It won’t be a suicide mission,” Nick assured him. “I have a way in. I’ve got Sheppard’s access card.”

“What?” Stingray’s eyes widened.

“Well, not his actual card, but all the data that I can imprint onto a blank card to get me into Langley.”

“That’s genius,” Stingray said.

“That’s stupid,” Ranger interrupted. “And I’ll tell you why: the CIA would have deactivated Sheppard’s access after his death.”

Nick grinned. “Yeah, they would have, but they couldn’t, because miraculously, right after Sheppard’s murder, somebody moved his access credentials to a hidden archive.”

Ranger’s chin dropped. “You?”

“Yours truly. Without the system administrators knowing where the data was stored, they couldn’t deactivate it. Sheppard’s access card is still there. And only I know where the credentials are hidden. All I need to do is hack in, pull down the data, alter it, and transfer it to a new card. Simple as that.”

“When you say alter it, what exactly do you mean by that?” Ranger asked curiously.

Nick motioned to his face. “I’m gonna have to replace Sheppard’s photo on file with mine.”

Stingray scratched his neck. “And you’re sure you can hack into their servers?”

Nick looked at Michelle who sat next to him in stunned silence. “Considering the one person who would have been able to stop me is now on our side, I don’t see a problem.” He squeezed her hand. “Right?”

“Piece of cake,” Michelle confirmed and looked at the other two Phoenix. “Besides, I’ll give him a hand.”

“Well, then, I guess we only have to discuss what you’ll do once you’re inside Langley. What do you need us to do?” Stingray asked pointing to himself and Ranger. “I’m afraid neither of us is a computer expert, but we can have your back.” He put his hand on his gun, stroking it.

“I’m afraid your little friend there will have to stay home for this mission,” Nick said, grinning. “But you can do something else for me. You can be my eyes and ears while I’m inside.”

Nick exchanged a look with Michelle, who nodded instantly, understanding what he meant.

“I can tap into the infrared security system so they can watch any movements,” Michelle confirmed.

Nick nodded. “Let’s set it up.”

19

Nick’s new friends made sure that they weren’t being followed. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Stingray stopped the van and looked over his shoulder.

“Get some rest. It’s going to be a tough day tomorrow.”

Nick nodded and reached for Michelle’s hand. She rose from her seat and allowed him to help her out of the van, before slamming the door shut and heading for an apartment building.

Michelle was silent when he unlocked the building door, then led her up to his apartment and ushered her in. She watched him as he flipped the deadbolt and set the chain.

She waited for him in the middle of the living room, arms crossed over her chest. She wanted answers, and truth be told, she was surprised that she’d waited so long. Well, maybe the fact that those two guys, Stingray and Ranger, had looked a little menacing had contributed to her artificial patience. Or maybe it had taken her a little longer to get over the shock of having had a gun pointed at her head and being locked up in a shed, before she could wrap her brain around what was going on.