How Spy I Am (27 page)

“Hi, I did, thanks.
Must’ve been your fabulous curry,” I lied, carefully not looking at
Kane. “I’ll be right back,” I added, and fled to the ladies’
room.

By the time I
returned, Kasper and Stemp had arrived. I was grateful when Stemp
began the briefing with his usual abruptness, sparing me any
interaction with Kane.

“Ms. Widdenback, Kane,
you’ll be leaving for Macon, Georgia on a 17:45 flight out of
Calgary tonight, arriving 08:35 local time tomorrow morning. You’ll
be assisting Dr. Kraus in the U.S. counterpart of our
brainwave-driven program. Dr. Travers, Webb, you’ll assist from
this location however required. Smith, you and Webb will handle any
technical questions that may arise. This will be your top priority.
Questions?”

I glanced around the
circle of faces. Kane wore his cop face. Jack looked as though
everything was as expected, Spider’s mouth hung open, and Smith
looked… Smith looked…

I couldn’t interpret
his expression. He didn’t look surprised. Nor unsurprised. There
was nothing in his face to indicate any particular emotion, but his
eyes looked vaguely…anxious. That was it. He looked anxious. I
wondered why.

“Um, what U.S.
counterpart?” Spider stammered.

Stemp offered him an
abbreviated version of the briefing I’d received from Jack, and I
did my best to look as bowled over as Spider, just in case I wasn’t
supposed to know any of this.

“What are we supposed
to do when we get there?” I asked.

“Their super-user has
gone into a catatonic state which has persisted for several days.
Dr. Kraus hopes you’ll be able to reach her inside a network
simulation and persuade her back to reality. Kane will be
travelling with you to keep you safe.”

“But if she’s
catatonic, why would she be in the network? And if she’s in the
network, wouldn’t it make more sense to send a shrink in to talk to
her? And couldn’t I just go into the network from here?”

Stemp shrugged, and I
detected a note of irritation in his even tone. “Those were exactly
the questions I posed. Dr. Kraus was insistent. For the record, I
opposed it strenuously, but I was overruled by political…”

His deadpan façade
vanished, leaving the expression of a man eyeing a fresh turd on
his dinner plate. A bare instant later, his mask twitched up again
and he continued emotionlessly, “…factors. Be that as it may, your
primary responsibility is to stay safe and return as soon as
possible. Any other questions?”

Great. Fabulous. Sure,
I’d love to spend a few days of quality time with a man who hates
my guts and thinks I’m a lying spy. I swallowed my
consternation.

“Accommodations?” My
voice came out only slightly strangled.

“I’ll email you an
itinerary of flights and accommodations. You’ll have a rental
vehicle waiting for you in Macon.”

I summoned up an
impassive expression and nodded.

“Very well. Dismissed.
Ms. Widdenback, a word in my office, if you please.”

He strode out. I
suppressed a groan and dragged my sorry ass down the hall after
him.

“Close the door and
have a seat,” he instructed as I trailed into his office.

Shit. How bad was it
going to be this time?

I sank into the chair
and watched him. He returned my gaze without speaking while I
fought to keep my expression from betraying my anxiety.

“Ms. Kelly,” he said
finally.

Not Ms. Widdenback.
Hmmm.

“I’m sending you on
this trip entirely against my better judgement. Kane is authorized
to do whatever is necessary to safeguard you, however, I want you
to take an active role in protecting yourself, too.”

He pushed a small
canvas bag across the desk to me. “Your trip should take three days
at the outside. This bag contains six disposable cellular phones.
Each of them is programmed with a speed dial to a secured line. I
expect you to check in minimum once daily. Use each phone once and
then dispose of it however you please. The secure line won’t be
accessible by that phone again. If you have nothing to report, a
simple ‘all clear’ will suffice.”

I opened the bag and
took stock of the phones. Garden-variety disposable phones.
“Okay.”

“If I need to contact
you, I’ll text your cell phone with the words, ‘Call home’. Use one
of the phones to call in.”

I nodded, and as I
closed the bag, Stemp spoke again. “Carry your weapon at all times,
including on the plane. I’ve made the necessary arrangements with
airport security. When you arrive in security, proceed through the
regular lineup as usual. When you reach the checkpoint, a security
officer will inform you that you’ve been selected for a random
physical search. When asked if you would prefer to have the search
conducted in privacy, say yes. You’ll be escorted past the
checkpoint. Customs, security, and aircrew have been informed that
you and Kane will be travelling armed.”

I kept my jaw from
dangling with a supreme effort of will. While I sat fumbling for a
response, he continued.

“As I said before,
your primary mission is to return unscathed, as soon as possible.
If at any time you’re asked to do anything that seems unsafe or
unwise, I authorize and command you to lie and say it’s impossible,
and/or use whatever persuasion or force you deem necessary to
remove yourself from the situation. I leave the interpretation of
this command entirely to your discretion.”

Aw, shit. A no-win
scenario. No matter what I did, he’d shuffle the blame off on
me.

I was opening my mouth
to tell him where to stick it when he continued. “If it becomes
necessary for you to carry out this order, I will take full
responsibility for giving it. There will be no repercussions for
you personally or professionally.”

My mouth stayed open.
After a moment, I gathered enough wits to close it.

Stemp met my eyes.
“Despite our various differences of opinion, I do trust your
judgement. I hope you won’t give me reason to regret that.”

“I’ll do my best not
to.” My voice was a feeble croak.

“Thank you.
Dismissed.”

When I stumbled back
into my office to collect my things, it was deserted except for
Kasper working at my desk. He rose and followed me when I headed
for the door, and a glance at his expression told me he had
something to report. My pulse quickened, and I studiously avoided
looking at him while we walked down to the lobby.

Kasper signed out
first, and I was just scribbling my signature on the sign-out sheet
when Kane emerged from the time-delay chamber. I tried not to
stiffen when he caught my eye and strode over.

“Do you want to
car-pool down to Calgary?” he asked.

Jeez, the guy was an
amazing actor. You’d never know we’d just been at each other’s
throats.

I matched his
noncommittal tone. “Thanks, but I’m going to take my own car. I
have some errands to run in Calgary. I’ll see you at the airport.”
Where I would do my very best to continue avoiding any conversation
with him.

His eyes cooled to the
colour of storm clouds, but he nodded and gave me a friendly smile
that looked absolutely genuine. “All right. See you then.” He
strode away, no sign of tension in his posture, and I envied his
self-control.

I made myself turn
toward the door, attempting the same easy gait. Kasper trailed me
outside and fell into step beside me, and I tried without success
to unobtrusively close my nose to his stench.

“I’ve had contact,” he
muttered.

I stopped in my
tracks, staring. “Did you see him?”

“Keep walking,” he
hissed. “Don’t be so obvious.”

“Sorry.” I turned to
stumble along the sidewalk again, my feet apparently incapable of
walking while my brain whirled. “What happened? What did he tell
you?”

“We set up a meeting
using the secure channel, but he must have had to abort. I didn’t
see him.”

“Same here,” I said,
feeling a little better. At least I hadn’t been the only one he’d
stood up. “I might not have been in the right place, though. Or
maybe I missed him. I got there as soon as I could, but I might’ve
been a few minutes late.”

“You can’t just be
a few minutes late
, stupid! You’re not meeting your friends
for a nice little cup of tea and some gossip.”

I bit back an angry
retort. Don’t burn this particular bridge.

“Sorry. I got delayed.
I waited for over an hour, but-”

“You what?” he
interrupted, frowning.

“I waited over an
hour…”

He eyed me peevishly.
“How stupid are you? If he wasn’t there at the appointed time, he
obviously had to abort. You don’t hang around attracting
attention.”

“Sorry,” I said again
before irritation overcame me. “Shit, stop calling me stupid! I’m
not a fucking spy. How am I supposed to know what to do?”

“You don’t have to be
a spy,” he snapped. “Just use some common sense.”

The realization that
he was right and I’d probably been responsible for the failure of
our meeting did nothing to improve my mood. I clenched my
teeth.

“So now what?” I
ground out.

“We wait.” He shot me
another sour glance before crossing the street and walking
away.

I delayed my arrival
at the Calgary airport for as long as I dared. When I finally
walked away from my car, I swallowed queasy nervousness. Nothing
like flying under an assumed name, going through U.S. Customs with
a fake passport, and carrying a semi-illegal weapon while
travelling with a man who very probably wanted to strangle me.

I determinedly
squelched the urge to hide in the trunk of my car until after the
flight had departed.

Inside the terminal, I
held my face in the most benign expression I could muster and
concentrated on keeping my shoulders relaxed. My act wasn’t aided
by the security guard who’d glanced at me, muttered into his
headset for a moment, and was now discreetly tailing me toward
security. The harder I tried to stay loose, the more my joints
seized up until I was certain I was walking like a robot that
hadn’t seen grease in a decade.

Finally, I couldn’t
take it anymore. I ducked into the ladies’ washroom and locked
myself into a cubicle. A few minutes of stretching, deep breathing,
and a stern internal lecture about positive mental attitude, and I
emerged ready to try again.

In Customs, the border
guard’s face betrayed nothing, but his gaze frisked me from top to
toe. I was escorted politely through security as Stemp had
promised, and I was relaxing fractionally when the boarding call
for my flight made me realize I’d dawdled too long.

A jog down the length
of the terminal left me sweating profusely, and a few choice
expletives leaked out when I spotted the empty boarding area.

I was hurrying toward
the desk when Kane rose from behind a newspaper.

“Cutting it a little
fine, aren’t you?” he muttered as we approached the
impatient-looking airline clerk.

“Sorry. Shit
happened.”

“Anything I need to
know about?”

“No.” I showed my
boarding pass to the attendant and scurried down the ramp. Inside
the plane, I buckled into my seat, crammed headphones into my ears,
and closed my eyes, feigning deep relaxation.

I nearly jumped out of
my skin when Kane lifted my earbud out and leaned close. “We need
to talk,” he murmured.

I retrieved the
earbud. “Not here, and not now.”

“Why not? It’s
uninterrupted time, and we really need to…”

I held up a
restraining hand. “I’m sorry, I’m really tired. I’ve only had a
couple of hours sleep in the last few days, and I just can’t deal
with this right now.”

Not to mention I
didn’t want to argue with him in the first ten minutes and then
have to endure his fury all the way to Macon. I stuffed the earbud
back in and kept my eyes clamped shut.

I alternated between
faking sleep and dozing fitfully for the duration of the flight
segments, avoiding Kane as much as possible during our two plane
changes to increasingly smaller aircraft. He apparently got the
hint, and we travelled without speaking for the rest of the long,
uncomfortable night.

When we finally
disembarked in Macon, I rubbed gritty eyes and tried unsuccessfully
to stretch the kinks out of my back and shoulders. My small
suitcase arrived at the baggage claim unscathed, and I was towing
it away when Kane loomed up beside me.

“How about some
breakfast?” he asked.

Now there was a smart
man. Those were the only words in the entire English language that
could have improved my mood at the moment.

“Yes. Thanks.” When I
smiled at him, I thought I saw his shoulders relax. “Where’s a good
place to go?” I added.

“I don’t know. I’ve
never been here before. This was as much a revelation to me as it
was to… you…” He stared down at me. “Did you know about this U.S.
branch before?”

“Didn’t I look just as
surprised as everybody else in Stemp’s briefing?”

Kane’s eyes narrowed.
“Yes. I’m going to take that to mean you
did
know in
advance. Nice acting job. Were you planning to share that knowledge
with me at any point?”

I sighed, feeling the
tension knotting up in my shoulders. “I only found out on Saturday.
And we haven’t been having a lot of friendly chats lately.”

“No, you haven’t
exactly been chatty,” he replied, and I hissed irritation through
my teeth.

“I don’t want to
fight,” he said quickly. “We’re both tired and hungry. Let’s just
get some breakfast.”

After a mercifully
short transaction at the rental car counter, we faced each other
warily across the table in the airport café. Kane wisely said
nothing until we were halfway through our breakfast.

“Arlene,” he
began.

“Don’t call me
that.”