Merit Badge Murder (20 page)

I smiled. Of the two of us, Kelly was the smart one. "That makes a little more sense," I said, "but it still seems like a reach…"

Kelly rolled her eyes. "Why does it have to be more complicated than that? I think you're overthinking it."

Lana nodded. "Maybe they were behind you being outted and forcibly retired?"

That stopped me. Was that what happened? "So you think they leaked the information on me?" I remembered the hell I'd been through to get back to the U.S. when it had happened. Especially that armed chicken. I'll never forget
that
.

"Maybe they thought I'd be killed on the spot. That I wouldn't make it home alive?" That was possible.

We sat there in silence, thinking. Of course, we also had another serving of the casserole. It helped—believe me.

"I don't know," I said finally. "I mean, it could've happened that way, but it seems like a pretty elaborate conspiracy just because I turned Lana."

"I think it's a good explanation," Kelly said.

"Yes, but you're not a spy," I countered. "And besides, how do you explain the Congressional commission finding that the Vice President was behind the betrayal?"

"He denied it all the way," Kelly said. "Maybe the commission was wrong."

I could tell she really liked this idea. Lana seemed to be backing her up, because her head was nodding like a bobblehead that mainlined a pound of speed. Why was I so unsure? It just seemed too fantastic. Too bizarre. But then, the FSB weren't quite the agency they were in the Cold War.

"I'll have to worry about that later," I said finally. "Our main objective right now is to get Riley back alive." I pulled a plastic grocery bag from under the counter and rolled some dishtowels up inside of it.

"What are you doing?" Kelly asked.

I went to the front door. "I have to get our guns out of the car. I couldn't bring them in when Rex was here. And if Aleksei comes here tonight, I want to be ready."

I was out the door before they could say anything. I squinted at the patrol car. It really was Kevin Dooley in there.

"Hey Kevin!" I waved. "I have to get some things out of the car. I'll just be a minute!"

He nodded, then went back to staring into space. Since I found out that I knew him, I felt a little guilty about betraying him by leaving. Even if he was a jerk to me in middle school.

I climbed into the driver's side of the SUV and shut the door. The console was a mess as a result of me hotwiring the car. Damn. Riley wasn't going to get his deposit back on this rental, and I wasn't going to get this thing started again. I wonder if Kelly would let me use her car to go rescue Riley.

The guns were under the seat, so I grabbed all three and wrapped them in the towels before putting them in the bag. I reached up to adjust the rearview mirror to look at Rex's house. It would probably suck if he came over and caught me with three unregistered handguns in a grocery bag.

My hand bumped the visor, and a set of keys fell into my lap. Really? They were there the whole damn time? Perfect. I shoved them into the bag too and got out of the SUV. I held up the bag to Kevin as I walked by. He nodded, and I went back into the house.

I put the two H&K's and the Colt Gold Cup on the kitchen counter. Well, at least we had weapons. That made me feel a little better. I couldn't imagine charging into a rescue operation wielding a nail gun that required an extension cord.

"Why do you have tools lying all over the house?" Kelly asked me as she carried the giant wrench into the kitchen.

"It made sense at the time," I said irritably. Why was everyone criticizing my homemade weapons system? First Riley, now Kelly. I'd like to see them do better. "It's all I had to work with."

Kelly dropped the wrench on the counter with a loud clank. "You thought they'd come back, didn't you?"

I nodded. "Yup. Only we didn't have to do that. And now we have these!" I held up the Colt.

We sent Kelly home with a clean casserole pan. Lana and I unloaded each of the guns and checked the magazines. They were in good working order. We re-loaded the magazines and racked the slides to chamber a round before putting the safety on. I plugged my cell into the charger. We were kind of, sort of ready.

Now all we had to do was wait.

I woke up to the sound of someone banging on the door. I was face down on the breakfast bar, with a pistol for a pillow under my cheek. Daylight streamed through the kitchen window. What time was it?

I got up, somewhat unsteadily and looked around. There was no one else in the kitchen. Lana must've gone to bed. I ran cold water over my face in the sink, ignoring the continued pounding on the door. The clock on the stove said it was eight o'clock in the morning. Great.

And who the hell was beating on my door? I swept the gun off the counter and into a drawer. After running my hands through my hair, I straightened my shirt and answered the door.

Rex stood there wearing a suit and a smile.

"Yes?" I asked a bit irritably.

Rex looked at me for a second, like a dog looks at you when it doesn't understand what you've just said. He pointed at my cheek. "You've got the word
Colt
imprinted on your face."

I rubbed my cheek vigorously. "Why are you here, Rex?"

"I just wanted to check on you and Ms. Babikova," he said, his smile never fading. "Before I go into the office."

"Oh. Right," I said. "We're okay. I fell asleep watching TV. I should probably take a nap." I didn't really want him to go. But I needed to brush my teeth and wake up Lana. Why didn't she hear the door?

Rex sighed. "You know, Merry," he said softly, "I'm just doing my job."

For reasons I couldn't really explain, that just pissed me off. "Just doing your job? Well, if you're just doing your job, you know that we're okay so you can go now, Detective."

"Well, it's more than that, really." His blue eyes studied me. Like he was sizing me up. Like he wanted to tell me something.

"Yeah?" I snapped. "Well, it's starting to feel like harassment." I hated myself a little just then. He was a great guy. A good neighbor and a cop just trying to help people. But I needed him to go. My cell could ring any time now, and I didn't want him there when Aleksei called.

He nodded. "Sorry to bother you." I watched in agony as he turned and walked a few steps away. Then he turned back to me. "You know, Merry, you really need to let someone help you every now and then. I'm not a bad guy. I'm not the enemy." With a half smile that seemed a little sad, Detective Rex Ferguson turned and walked away.

I stood there, on my stoop, and watched as he walked across the street, got into his car, and drove away. I noticed the officer in front of the house was staring at me.

"Go fuck yourself, Kevin!" I shouted as I turned and went into my house. Like I needed judgment from
him
.

When this was all over I needed to take Rex a cake or something to apologize for being such a jerk. Maybe Kelly would help me. Or maybe she'd just make it for me. But that would have to wait until after I'd killed Aleksei, Riley was rescued, and Lana was safe from threat. Then I could get my car fixed, buy real curtains, and start acting like a normal person—or at least a person who doesn't get into shootouts with terrorists. Now that I think of it—that seems like a pretty long list. Maybe I could take him a cake before I get curtains. Something to think about.

As if on cue, my cell began to ring. I ran to it and grabbed a pen and paper. You know how in those spy movies, the villain calls and gives detailed instructions to James Bond, and he memorizes it—addresses, names, etc. without any problem at all? Well, that's not me. That's actually not any spy I know. It's just a movie. I needed paper and pen.

"Hello?" I answered. "Riley?" I asked hopefully.

"No." A thick, Russian accent said. "If you want to see Riley alive ever again, you need to do exactly as I say."

Ugh. What a cliché! I swear, some of these foreign agents learn English from bad TV shows.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to meet me at noon at the school," he said. Clearly he didn't have an original bone in his body. We'd already done the school. Oh well.

"Fine. Is that all?" I asked. But he'd hung up.

"Lana!" I ran down the hall to her bedroom. "Lana!" I knocked on the door as I opened it. "We've got our instructions!" I said as the door swung open on an empty room.

Oh, right. Of course. She must've spent the night in my room. It's probably still scary to be in hers.

"Lana!" I called as I crossed the hall and opened my door. The bed was made. Lana wasn't there. I ran through the house calling for her, but she never answered. I checked the basement, the garage, and the backyard. I looked in every closet. But Lana was gone.

I pulled my gun out of the drawer and looked around. That's when I realized that the other two guns were missing. And after that, I realized that during the phone call with Aleksei, he never mentioned Lana during our conversation. Not even once.

I sat on the couch with the gun in my hand and thought about it. If this was about Lana, Aleksei would've asked me to bring her. But he didn't. He just asked for me. Either he was really bad at this and didn't realize he'd made a mistake, or he wasn't after Lana to begin with.

Damn.

*  *  *

An hour later, I was no closer to any ideas than I'd been before. I was tired. Exhausted. I couldn't remember ever being this tired before. More than a year ago, I would've loved something like this. But that all changed when I went civilian. I didn't really want this anymore. Granted, I had no idea what I wanted…but I knew it wasn't this.

I was in way over my head here. The only other person who knew about this was Kelly, and there was no way I was dragging her into a showdown. And if she knew Aleksei had taken Lana too, well, there'd be no way I could stop her from coming.

Was that what happened? Aleksei showed up and took Lana at gunpoint? I rolled that idea around in my head. When would he have been able to do that? Sure, I'd fallen asleep, but I was pretty sure that something like a huge Russian busting down the door and dragging Lana off would've woke me up. I wasn't that sound a sleeper.

Maybe he called her, on her cell phone? Maybe he told her he'd kill Riley if she didn't come. That made more sense. Lana would sneak out in order to get him to leave me alone. But that idea didn't jive with the fact that Aleksei still wanted
me
there. So why didn't he take both of us if he'd been here to take Lana? My head was spinning. Both theories had good and bad points about them. In fact, there really wasn't any way I could know what had happened until I showed up at the school at noon.

All I had was one gun. Aleksei or Lana didn't take it because I was lying on top of it, hiding it with my face.

With no handler to help me out—no headquarters to back me up—I was screwed. I thought about that for a moment. Why not call Langley? Riley still worked for them, and really, this was their problem, not mine.

But who would I call? I had no idea who Riley's chain of command was. What was I going to do? Call the receptionist and say,
Hey, do you know who Riley Andrews' boss is? He's been kidnapped, and I need some backup.
I couldn't do that. And there were—actually, that's classified—but let's just say there were a LOT of staff personnel in the Black Box. How was I supposed to know whose extension I wanted?

Dammit! Riley had never included me in his connections with the agency. I should've forced him to tell me more. But it never occurred to me that I'd need the name and phone number of his supervisor. Riley was just always there. And he kept saying that this was too classified to have other agents there. Too classified for me to know anything more about it. Too classified…

Why did he have to leave me out of the loop? I know I wasn't an agent anymore, but I was involved. So it was stupid not to fill me in. It's not like I was a stranger to covert ops. I would think his little cabal at the agency wouldn't mind me knowing what I was up against. It seemed kind of stupid really. But then, I'd never really pressed Riley to tell me either.

In fact, I couldn't think of a single time in the past when he'd been so secretive. We'd always been upfront with each other. I get that this was different, but he should've clued me in. My brain kept coming back to that. The more I asked myself these questions, the weirder it seemed. Riley's mistake of keeping me in the dark only made things easier for the FSB. And it was rare for Riley to even make such a mistake in the first place. It's like he was…like he was…uh-oh.

Was Riley behind all this? Gears started rolling in my head. Riley. It couldn't be. No. No, no, no, no. That was impossible. What was I thinking? Riley worked for the Agency way longer than I had. He started right out of college and never worked anywhere else. I couldn't think of one single instance when he'd so much as
criticized
the CIA.

Why would he risk everything to betray his country? No. That was ridiculous. I was kind of pissed that my brain introduced the idea. Bad, stupid, naughty brain! Riley would never go rogue. He was married to the job.

I felt a little flustered thinking of him. There were definitely some feelings there that I couldn't ignore. And he'd kissed me. There was an attraction on his side too. After all, I hadn't initiated that. He liked me. Right?

And yet, my mind kept coming back to that little seed of doubt. I couldn't convince myself entirely that Riley was completely innocent. Why was that? I'd always been big on trusting my instincts. They'd never failed me. Not even when all the signs pointed to something different.

Once in a Caribbean country that shall remain nameless (It's still classified.), the agent I was working with assured me that he was on my side. There wasn't even the slightest shred of an idea that Paolo was selling me out. Everything he did and said pointed to his loyalty. I'd even followed him several nights after he'd left me and found nothing even remotely disingenuous.