How Spy I Am (44 page)

“Only because you
didn’t get a chance,” I snapped. “If you’d been able to bring me
into the program sooner, you would’ve-”

“Aydan, I’m sorry. I’m
out of time. What is the message from Terry?”

“Where’s the
club?”

His breath whistled
faintly in the silence. “That’s the message?”

“No. I’m asking you,
where’s the club?”

“I can’t-”

“Sam! Tell me! If you
cooperate, there’s a chance you might not end up in jail.
Otherwise, your goose is cooked.”

“M-my
goose
?”

“Where’s the goddamn
club?”

His wheezing was
getting louder. At last he spoke faintly. “A barn on a farm two
miles east and three miles south of Silverside. I have to go. What
was the message?”

“What’s in the
barn?”

“Aydan, please…”

“
Now
, Sam!
What’s in the barn?”

A long, wheezing
inhalation. “Lab. Brainwave-driven network. What’s… the message…
from Terry?”

“All knights attending
the club 8 PM tonight. The quest is lost.” I spoke into the
silence. “Sam, I think they’re all in on it
except
Terry.”

A choking noise, and
the line went dead.

“Sam!” I realized the
futility even as I spoke, and I slowly returned my phone to my
waist pouch to lean against the building for a few more moments, my
mind racing.

If I could sneak close
to that building, I could snoop in their network and find out
everything I needed to know about the Knights’ plans. Probably find
out if Robert was involved, too.

All I had to do was
get my network key from Sirius Dynamics.

I locked my trembling
knees to keep from slithering down the wall.

God, I was so far out
of my league.

I heaved myself
upright to totter into the back alley, where I paced back and
forth, willing my stuttering heart back into a normal rhythm.

There was no way Stemp
would let me take the network key out of the building without a
full explanation and a security escort. And Kane would be the
logical choice for my escort. If Robert was meeting the Knights at
the club, that would create the very confrontation I’d be trying so
hard to avoid.

But stealing my
network key from Sirius was impossible. The only time I had it in
my hands was when I was actually using it. Kane or Spider always
carried it to and from the secured area. And I wasn’t a spy.
Stealing top-secret technology was far outside my skill set.

And I’d be facing a
treason charge if I got caught.

Maybe it was time to
tell Stemp everything.

Really, how much
trouble would Kane be in if Stemp found out Robert was still alive?
So he screwed up, so what? Everybody screws up sometimes.

I could hardly believe
he’d screwed up something that important, though. This was Kane. He
just didn’t make mistakes like that.

An icy band squeezed
my heart. No. He didn’t make mistakes like that. And that would be
the first thing Stemp would think, too.

Stemp would accuse
Kane of conspiring to let Robert escape. Treason. He could probably
make it stick, too.

Oh, God.

I clasped my head in
my hands and groaned out loud when I realized there was even more
fuel for Stemp’s distrust. All he had to do was talk to Lurene and
Winston to hear the story of Kane and me apparently going at it
half the night in Macon. He’d use that as proof that we’d been
lying to him all along. Especially if he caught me stealing the
network key. We’d both be in jail for the rest of our lives,
assuming Stemp didn’t just arrange for us to die in a convenient
accident.

I couldn’t afford to
tell Stemp anything until I had the whole story. Find out exactly
who helped Robert escape, and make sure Kane wasn’t implicated.

I had to get that damn
network key.

I plodded back to
Sirius Dynamics in despair. I only had a few hours to figure out
how to steal the key, and I already knew it was impossible. Wild
ideas of pretending to trip and drop the tiny key only drove home
the hopelessness of the task.

‘Oh, oops, I dropped
it; I guess it’s gone’. Yeah, right.

Maybe I should throw
myself on Stemp’s mercy after all. But dammit, there was only a
slim chance it would save me at this late date, and it would cost
Kane’s life. Just not acceptable.

I nearly ran into
Kasper as I dragged up the outside steps to Sirius, and his
unmemorable features flooded me with sudden dazzling
inspiration.

“Walk with me,” I
hissed, and turned back to the sidewalk.

He fell into step
beside me, shooting me a sour sidelong glance. “What?”

“Where’s Irina’s
key?”

He frowned. “Still in
Kraus’s house, unless he moved it.”

“I need you to steal
it for me.”

“I already told you
Irina’s key is no good to you or anybody else.”

“Just get it for me.
This afternoon.”

He snorted. “Why would
I do that?”

“Because you’re going
to jail if you don’t.”

He turned a bland face
toward me, but his eyes glittered with such dislike I had to
control my urge to backpedal.

“If I get caught
breaking into Kraus’s place, I’ll go to jail anyway,” he growled.
“I don’t see any reward here.”

“So don’t get caught.”
I gave him my best stony expression. “Your reward is to be
completely off the hook when I break this open.”

“How do I know you
won’t sell me out?”

I ground my teeth. “I
promise I won’t sell you out if you cooperate.”

“You promise. Oh,
that’s reassuring. I feel so much better now,” he sneered.

“I need that fucking
key.” I gave him a hard stare. “Do it. Before three-thirty. Or I’ll
tell Stemp everything.” I turned and strode away before he could
respond.

As I hurried back
toward Sirius Dynamics, I wondered if I should have coerced him
into coming with me tonight. Heaven knew I needed the help of a
spy.

I recalled his
malevolent eyes with a shudder.

No, maybe not.

Back in my office, I
had to control a guilty twitch when Stemp stuck his head in the
doorway.

“No feathers reported
at the scene of either explosion,” he said. “But the techs couldn’t
be sure. They weren’t looking for anything like that. Would you
care to explain why you’re asking?”

“I think the motel
bomb was delivered using an animatronic flying goose model packed
with C4.”

Spider’s face lit up.
“Get out! How cool is that? I mean…” He flushed slightly. “I didn’t
mean the bombs were cool, I meant the models are cool. I’ve seen
some of those mechanical birds in videos. They flap and fly just
like the real thing.”

“And they’d be
undetectable.” Kane spoke slowly, frowning. “They’d fly too slowly
and too low to trigger any radar, and nobody would pay attention to
a bird. But their range would be severely limited. They’d have to
be deployed very close to their intended target.”

Spider’s fingers had
been flying across his keyboard. “Not as close as you might think.
Geese can fly thirty to forty miles an hour. If the model is
anywhere near accurate, they’d only have to get within ten or
twenty miles and let the goose do the rest. The only limitation
would be their power source, and with the new battery
technology…”

“How lifelike are
these things?” Kane asked.

“Not very, up close,”
Spider replied. “But at a distance, you probably wouldn’t notice
unless you were really looking. And nobody pays attention to
birds.”

Stemp’s frown matched
Kane’s. “Geese are fairly large. The model could probably carry a
couple of pounds of C4. Add a simple electronic detonator and a
rudimentary guidance system… It would be an expensive way to
deliver a bomb, but it would be virtually undetectable. That amount
of explosive has limited tactical potential, but-”

“Geese travel in
flocks,” I interrupted.

Everyone turned to
stare at me.

“H-how would you stop
something like that?” Spider quavered.

Kane and Stemp
exchanged a glance. “Air support wouldn’t work,” Kane said. “The
targets are too small and too slow-moving. An aircraft would be
travelling too fast by comparison. No chance to lock onto the
targets.”

Stemp turned a grim
smile in my direction. “I understand you enjoy trap-shooting.”

Kane’s eyes widened,
and I knew what they were both thinking. “No, I just found out
about the geese this morning,” I said quickly. “And I wouldn’t want
to use a shotgun on one of those things. You’d have to be too
close.”

“I see.” Stemp uttered
the two words with no intonation whatsoever, his gaze skewering
me.

Kasper bustled in the
door, mercifully breaking the eye contact between Stemp and me.
“Sorry I’m late,” he grunted. Everyone ignored him.

“I’ll notify the
guards at your homes.” Stemp shot a glance between Kane and me.
“Inform me when you’re ready to leave the building, and I’ll
position sharpshooters.” His penetrating gaze fastened on me again.
“Your priorities just changed. Find out as much about these things
as you can. Who makes them, how they’re deployed, and most
importantly, who deployed them against you.” He turned and strode
off down the hall.

“What did I miss?”
Kasper demanded.

“Exploding geese,”
Spider said slowly. He still looked a little pale.

For the next couple of
hours, I jittered inside the network. I already knew most of the
information Stemp wanted, but I couldn’t tell him. Yet.

I spent most of my
time adding everything I’d discovered to my secret data file and
worrying obsessively over whether Kasper would get Irina’s key for
me.

And if he did, then
what? I had no idea how to infiltrate an enemy base.

When I straightened in
the real world holding my throbbing head, Stemp’s flat voice was
the first thing that penetrated my misery. “Sandwiches are
available in the lunchroom.”

“Uh?” I cracked an eye
open.

“You won’t leave the
building until end of day,” he elaborated.

“Oh. Right.” I closed
my eyes again and tried to relax under Kane’s ministrations.

As I finished my
sandwich Kasper gave me a sharp look, and I rose. “Back in a bit,”
I said to the room at large, and meandered down the hall toward the
ladies’ room.

When I neared the
door, Kasper brushed by me on the way to the men’s room and bumped
into me. I closed my fingers around the tiny cube he slipped into
my hand, and strolled into the washroom.

Back inside the
network in the afternoon, I put the finishing touches on my data
file, including the details of how I planned to take my network key
and use it to infiltrate the Knight’s network. Then I set up
another delayed email containing the encryption key and location of
my data file, to be sent the following day.

At least if anything
went wrong, Stemp would know I hadn’t been a traitor. And maybe,
just maybe while he was investigating me, he’d find enough evidence
to exonerate Kane. I hoped.

I pulled my quivering
data bits together. This would work. I’d get all the information I
needed tonight, and then I could tell Stemp everything. Give him
the whole package neatly tied up.

Please let it
work.

When I stepped out of
the virtual portal at the end of the day, my pulse raced with
guilty apprehension. I doubled over, groaning, to hide my hands as
I fumbled Irina’s key out of my sleeve to replace mine.

Clutching Irina’s key,
I thumped my forehead against my knees a few times until Kane’s big
warm hands closed around my head. I tried to relax into his massage
but my tense muscles refused to respond, and I groaned again in
earnest.

“Aydan, are you okay?”
Spider’s concerned face hovered in front of my squinted eyes.

“Fine.”

“You’re shaking. Do
you need another sandwich?” Kane asked.

“No… Um, actually,
yeah, I think I do,” I agreed. “Good idea.” I straightened slowly
and held out a trembling hand. “Here’s the key. I’ll go and grab
another sandwich before we leave.”

I resisted the urge to
hold my breath when his hand closed around the key’s tiny box.
There was no way he could know I’d switched them. I was the only
person who could use my key. Nobody would know he held a useless
copy instead of the irreplaceable mote of technology now hidden in
my sleeve.

Calm. Stay calm. I
took a slow, deep breath and headed for the lunchroom to collect my
sandwich.

Back in the bunker
under Kane’s office, I hadn’t realized I was fidgeting until Kane
looked up from the computer. “Are you all right?” he asked.

“Fine.” At his
disbelieving look, I elaborated on the lie. “Just claustrophobic.
I’m having a hard time tonight.”

His face softened.
“This must be tough for you.”

He pushed the keyboard
away and stood, stretching. I averted my eyes and ignored the
breathlessness that accompanied the memory of the last time he’d
done that.

“Do you want to play
cards?” he asked sympathetically.

I seized on the
diversion with gratitude. “Thanks, that would really help.”

While he headed to the
lunchroom for the cards, I consulted my watch. I’d hidden the
network key inside it, and it took all my willpower to refrain from
peeking at it every few seconds for reassurance.

I had a hard time
concentrating on Rummy despite its simple rules. After I’d lost a
couple of games, I laid the cards down with a sigh and consulted my
watch one more time before pushing back my chair to stand and
stretch.

My rigid muscles
responded unwillingly, and I faked relaxation as best I could. I
kept my voice casual. “I have to go out for a little while. Don’t
wait up.”

Kane’s gaze sharpened,
and he rose, too. “I knew there was more to it than claustrophobia.
Where are you going? When will you be back…” He trailed off,
frowning at my expression. He took a deep breath. “Forget I asked.
How can I help?”