How Spy I Am (43 page)

“What do you want me
to search for?” Spider asked.

“I don’t know. Pick
something.”

“I don’t know.
Camels?” He grinned. “They always make me laugh. They’re so
funny-looking.”

“Camels it is.”

Back at the firewall
outside Macon, I hovered nervously in the data stream. Nothing to
be afraid of. This time I knew what would happen. I’d get
scrambled, but it wouldn’t hurt me.

I deliberately ignored
the memory of Jack’s comment about flatlining the previous day. It
wouldn’t hurt me. And I needed to get into this network now more
than ever.

I dove into the
stream.

Chaos swallowed me.
The wild tumbling shredded my control and panic overtook me despite
myself. Flinging my virtual spiderweb far and wide, I dragged
myself out of the riptide and trembled in the smooth flow outside
it, clinging to composure with the last quivering remnants of my
will.

Do
not
panic.
Calm. Stay calm. There had to be a way.

I hung suspended in
the data tunnel. Spider said I might have to do things a little
differently. Okay, so my usual swimming metaphor obviously wasn’t
working. The undertow was killing me.

I quickly discarded
that mental image. Not killing me. I was fine. I attempted a deep
breath, but quickly abandoned the effort before I could freak out
again about not being able to breathe.

No need to breathe.
I’m only data. Data doesn’t need to breathe. I’m fine.

Come on, brain, work
with me here. Give me some new imagery. Swimming? Definitely not.
Floating? Nope. That would be even worse. How about…
bodysurfing?

Cautious hope
bolstered my rapidly shrinking courage. I suppressed a slightly
hysterical snicker at the ‘shrinking in cold water’ reference and
propelled myself atop the data flow before I could change my
mind.

Fierce elation seized
me when I rocketed through two firewalls in quick succession and
found myself floating in the placid backwater of the Macon
network.

I probably would have
discovered the Knights’ secret communication system even without
Kasper’s advice. Their system had diverged so far from the original
that I found them more by tracking the half-familiar
taste/smell/sensation of their data packets.

So that was what I’d
sensed in my last rushed survey of the Macon network. I hesitated,
wondering why I could find it from Macon’s network but not from our
own at Sirius. Whatever. I was in. Make it count.

Sudden fear gripped me
as I contemplated the data flow inside their tunnels. What if I met
another mage? She’d instantly know everything about me. And if she
belonged to the evil Knight, he’d know instantly, too. Unless I
sent another innocent woman into a catatonic stupor. Guilt over
Betty suffused me again, but I shook it off. Stay focused.

What difference would
it make? The evil Knight already knew everything about me.

Shit. Everything about
me
. But not all the classified information living in my
brain. All the little things I’d discovered about our national
security, about our clandestine operations. All the identities that
couldn’t be compromised. All the top-secret research and
development I’d encountered.

I determinedly
rerouted my mind from my increasing panic. Apply some logic. It
didn’t matter whether the evil Knight got the information from me
now or stole it using his mage later. Either way, he’d get it.

And I needed to go
into the network to stop him.

I slid into their
system, holding a breath I didn’t even possess.

All was silent. A thin
trickle of nondescript packets pulsed through the deserted tunnels,
but they were only low-level hardware communication signals.
Nothing to see here. I’d have to find their servers and hope I
could somehow identify the evil Knight from what I found there.

The Knights’ server
was secured just as effectively as Macon, and it took me two
terrifying tries to bodysurf through.

When I abandoned their
server much later to surge back through Macon’s firewalls, my
nonexistent heart pounded with my discoveries. Shit, I had to get
back and talk to Stemp right away. I cast about for the trail home
and found nothing.

Ignoring my lurch of
fear, I sniffed for camels.

And found Sam
Kraus.

What the hell?

I dove through the
convoluted trails of the internet after the packet to capture the
entirety of the message.

An email. Sent to his
personal address. I wrapped my virtual feelers around the data,
digesting it.

My heart banged
painfully in a chest I didn’t even have while I gathered up the
message and rerouted it to the secret cache of data I’d stored
earlier. So Terry Sherman probably wasn’t trying to kill Sam and me
after all.

Too bad. That would’ve
been easier to deal with…

Camels. Where the hell
were the camels?

Camel-echoes bounced
everywhere through the vastness of the internet. How many people
researched camels, for chrissake?

Exhausted and
disoriented, I floated, trying to force my fading concentration to
focus while I fought the black terror that gnawed the edges of my
consciousness.

What if my physical
body had flatlined when I went into Macon’s network right at the
beginning? I’d lost track of time, but I was pretty sure I’d been
gone for quite a while.

What if they thought I
was brain-dead and they’d stopped trying?

I’d die. Really die. I
knew it with cold certainty. Already my consciousness was thinning,
diluted by aimless drifting through endless data tunnels.

A jolt of fear jerked
me back to my search. Keep looking. Spider wouldn’t give up on
me.

Would he?

Come on, Spider, where
are you?

Finally, a thin but
persistent trickle of camel-related searches washed feeble hope
through me.

Slowly, so slowly, I
crept down interminable passages, fighting to stay focused while I
followed the trail home.

When I crept into
Sirius’s virtual file room at last, Kane’s distant shout was filled
with pure relief. “Aydan!”

Blind and barely
aware, I let my consciousness trickle into an amorphous puddle.
Kane would save me. Kane always saved me.

“Aydan, thank God!”
His voice was closer now.

I swirled sickeningly.
Jolted unbearably.

Pain.

“Aydan!”

The voice wouldn’t
leave me alone. I groaned and groped in the general direction of my
head, where evil trolls were apparently attempting to render the
Anvil Chorus on my skull using stone clubs.

I didn’t find any
trolls, but I encountered a set of hands I was pretty sure weren’t
my own. I groaned again and managed to crack one eye half-open.

“Aydan!”

I dragged the other
eye open and focused slowly on Spider’s ashen face, inches
away.

“Aydan, oh thank God!”
He flung his arms around me and nearly squeezed the breath from my
lungs.

I patted him on the
back and tried to summon up the energy to speak. After failing the
first time, I managed a dry croak.

“Spider.
Cameltoe
? You do realize I can’t un-see these things, don’t
you?”

Kane stopped massaging
my temples to roar with laughter as Spider pulled back, flushing
scarlet.

“I’m s… sorry…” he
stammered. “I just… I was trying to do searches as fast as I could
and I just accepted whatever the search engine suggested…”

I started to laugh,
too, and pulled him down into another hug. “You crazy nut, I’m
kidding! Thank you for saving my ass. Again. You’re the best.” I
gave him an extra squeeze before releasing him.

“Oh.” He straightened,
still blushing, but this time it looked more like pleasure than
embarrassment. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks to you.” I
slumped back on the couch to peer up at Kane, still chuckling
behind me. “And thanks to you for sluicing me into a bucket and
carrying me out of the sim. Are you getting tired of that yet?”

His sexy laugh lines
crinkled. “Yes. Stop doing that, would you?”

“I’ll try.”

Jack moved haltingly
across the room to lean over me. The elegant bones of her face were
sharply defined under chalk-white skin, making her eyes look even
bigger and bluer than ever. She laid a trembling hand on each of my
shoulders and held my gaze.

“Don’t… ever… do that…
again,” she said slowly and distinctly.

“Um…?” I eyed her with
concern.

“You were brain-dead.
For over two hours. Do you have any idea what you put us
through?”

“I’m… um… sorry…” I
stared back at her helplessly. “I had to do it. I didn’t mean to
worry you, but I-”

Kane interrupted
gently. “It’s all right, Aydan.” He peeled Jack’s shaking hands off
my shoulders and held them between his own for a moment before
releasing her. “Come on, Jack, you need a break. I’ll buy you a
coffee.”

She nodded wordlessly,
her big blue eyes brimming with unshed tears. Kane guided her to
the door, his fingertips at the small of her back.

Stemp’s flat voice
made me jump. “Welcome back, Ms. Kelly.”

“Jeez! Where did you
come from?” I jerked around to see him leaning against the wall,
arms crossed, reptilian eyes intent.

“After you’d been
brain-dead for an hour, Dr. Travers summoned me to decide whether
to continue the web searches.”

“Oh.” I hesitated.
“Thanks for not giving up on me.”

The tiny twitch of
humour appeared at the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t have much
choice. Webb would have disobeyed me even if I’d given him a direct
order to stop.”

Spider shuffled his
feet and uttered an inarticulate mumble that might have been an
attempt at defense.

“I wouldn’t have given
the order,” Stemp added, the twitch spreading into the fleeting
smile that made him look momentarily human. He straightened,
deadpan again. “What did you discover?”

“I… I’m not sure yet.
I gathered some information that still needs to be analyzed. I’ll
let you know as soon as I have something.”

His gaze bored through
me for a moment. “Very well.” He was turning for the door when I
spoke again.

“Wait. Did you get the
bomb analysis back?”

“Yes.” He appraised me
briefly. “It looks as though your car bomb was hooked up to use
your car’s ignition as a detonator. The motel bomb was C4 with a
remote electronic detonator. ”

“That’s plastic
explosive, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did they find any
feathers?”

“Feathers.” His gaze
sharpened. “If so, they weren’t mentioned in the report. What sort
of feathers?”

“Bird feathers…” I
grimaced at his sardonically raised eyebrow. “Shit, yeah, I know
all feathers come from birds. My brain still hurts. Feathers from a
big bird. Like a goose or something.”

“Is the type of bird
important? For instance, would goose down be more significant than
some other type of bird feathers?”

“Not down. Feathers.
I’m talking about big feathers, like wing feathers.”

“I’ll ask.” Stemp’s
expressionless gaze gave me the creepy impression he was looking
directly through my skull to inventory the contents of my brain.
“Can you elaborate any further?”

I couldn’t keep my
eyes from shifting away. “Not at the moment.”

“I’ll inform you as
soon as I hear back.”

I didn’t look up until
he was gone.

“We should get a
coffee, too.” Kasper shot a sharp glance in my direction as he
spoke for the first time.

“Yeah,” I said
quickly, and heaved myself to my feet. “Coming, Spider?” I ignored
Kasper’s ‘you idiot’ scowl.

“Sure.” Spider held
out his hand for the network key. “I’ll take this down to the
secured area and meet you in the lobby.”

“Sounds good.” I held
my smile until he vanished out the door, and then turned to Kasper.
“What?”

“I was in touch with
our mutual friend,” he growled.

“Me, too. Eleven P.M.
at the park?”

“Yes. This time I’ll
wait out of sight. When he appears, I’ll take him down.” He
glowered. “You just stay out of the way.”

I bit my tongue to
keep from uttering the retort that was burning to escape, nodded
instead, and left.

In the lobby, Spider
gave me a quizzical look. “Where’s Smith?”

“He decided to get
coffee from the lunchroom instead.”

On the way back from
the Melted Spoon, Spider enthused about his latest movie experience
while I nervously eyeballed my surroundings for threats. I nearly
jumped out of my skin when my cell phone vibrated.

“Sorry, Spider.” I
snatched my phone out of my waist pouch, punching the talk button
before the call could go to voicemail.

“Aydan, it’s Sam.”

I held my face and
voice neutral. “Hang on a second.” I glanced up at Spider and
grimaced fake apology. “Sorry, I have to take this. I might be a
while. Meet you back at the office?”

“Sure.”

As soon as he was out
of earshot, I ducked around the corner of the post office and
leaned my back against the wall. “Sam! Where the hell are you? I
need you here.”

“I’m hitchhiking. I
don’t dare travel any other way.” His voice was thin and strained.
“I’m at a pay phone. I can’t talk long. Have you found out where
Terry is yet?”

“No, but it doesn’t
matter. I don’t think he’s the problem. I have a message from him
for you.” I paused. So much to say. And I didn’t dare say it on my
cell phone.

The bitterness of
betrayal burst out in spite of me. “Sam, how could you manipulate
me all these years? And how could you even think about… about…
treason!” The ugly word hung between us in the silence.

He wheezed a long
sigh. “I didn’t commit treason. I never divulged any of Canada’s
information.”