Reach For the Spy (21 page)

My overused muscles
screamed with pain and fatigue. Come on, asshole. Hurry up. Before
I fall down from sheer exhaustion.

Slow, careful footsteps
on the stairs.

“Aydan.”

I gasped desperate
relief at the sound of the whisper.

“I’m here. All clear,”
I quavered.

I straightened out of
my crouch and let the muzzle drop as Kane spoke aloud. “I’m coming
down. Don’t shoot.”

I gave a shaky laugh as
he came around the corner. “Don’t worry, you’re safe. I can’t hold
the friggin’ gun up any longer.” Then my trembling knees gave out,
and I slithered down the wall to sit on the floor.

He closed the distance
between us fast and knelt beside me. “Are you all right?”

“Fine. What’s happening
up top?”

“We’re securing the
area. The house is clear. Germain’s upstairs standing guard. We’ll
stay down here until we get the all-clear from JTF2.”

I gaped at him. “You
brought in JTF2? How the hell am I going to explain helicopters and
army guys with assault rifles to my neighbours?”

Kane scowled. “That’s
the least of our worries. Did you get a look at the shooter?”

“Hell, no. I was too
busy running. But I’m pretty sure the shots came from the
northwest. And the guy had to be a lousy shot. I was a sitting duck
in the garden, not even moving, and he missed me by at least six
feet.”

“Either that or it was
extreme range.”

“Could be. Somebody
smart could probably do the math. The bullet hit, and then about a
half-second later, I heard the shot.”

“It would depend on the
muzzle velocity of the rifle.”

“It sounded a lot like
my .22-250.”

He shrugged. “All
right. Let’s take that as a wild guess. Muzzle velocity on those is
around thirty-five hundred to four thousand feet per second.” He
considered for a few seconds. “Somewhere around a thousand feet
away, then. That’s an easy shot, so your gunman wasn’t a
professional.”

I gaped at him. “Okay,
I’m impressed.”

Kane chuckled. “Don’t
be. Remember, it’s just a wild guess. I could be out by fifty
percent or more.”

“Still. You know the
muzzle velocity of a .22-250 off the top of your head?”

As he shrugged,
Germain’s voice floated down the stairs. “All clear. Come on
up.”

“You go ahead,” I told
Kane. “I need to unload everything and put it away.”

He frowned at my
arsenal. “Not exactly convenient defensive weapons.”

“No kidding. The guy
could have strolled in and shot me before I even got the stupid gun
locker open.” I sighed. “I understand why we have gun laws, really
I do. But I sure could’ve done without them today.”

“Mm,” he agreed, and
went up the stairs.

I hunted out all the
shells I’d scattered during my wild loading spree and stowed
everything away again.

When I poked my head
around the top of the stairs, I grinned at the sight of the blocky
man cradling a sub-machine gun easily in the crook of his
elbow.

“Carl! Hi again!”

“Hi, Aydan.” His
good-natured square face crinkled into a smile. “We have to stop
meeting like this.”

“No kidding. Hey, you
finally got your hair cut.”

He laughed and ran his
fingers through his crisp black curls. “Yeah. This is so much
better.”

“I don’t know. I liked
the rock-star ringlets on you.”

“Very funny.” His
two-way radio crackled, and he turned away to reply.

The ring of the phone
made me jump. Kane held up a hand and leaned over to check the call
display. “It’s Rossburn. You’d better pick up.”

“Shit!” I reached for
the receiver. “What should I tell him?”

The phone rang again.
Kane made a frustrated gesture. “Stall him. Make something up. Just
answer, or he’ll be coming over here wondering what’s wrong.”

I snatched up the
receiver just before the machine picked up. “Hello?”

“Aydan, it’s Tom. Is
everything okay over there?”

“Everything’s fine,
thanks, Tom.”

“Aydan,” he said
hesitantly. “I’m not trying to butt in, but I saw a military
helicopter landing at your place.”

I bared my teeth at
Kane and thudded my free hand against my forehead. He rotated his
hand in a ‘string him along’ gesture. I glared at him and tried
again.

“Don’t worry, it’s
fine.” Inspiration hit me. “I have a friend who’s in the military,
and I offered to let them use my place for a training exercise.
Nothing to worry about.”

“Oh.” The relief was
palpable in his voice. “That explains the gunfire earlier, then,
too.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, I
should have let you know in advance.”

“That’s okay. It’s none
of my business, anyway. I just wanted to make sure you’re all
right.”

“I’m fine. Thanks for
checking.”

I hung up the phone and
made fists in my hair. “Jesus Christ. I might as well live in a
fucking fish bowl.”

“You handled that
well,” Kane said with satisfaction. “It’s a good cover story, and
it will explain away a lot of activity over here. Nice work,
Aydan.”

I shrugged to hide my
pleasure at the compliment. “Thanks.”

Germain hooked his
radio back into its holster. “They found shell casings up on the
northwest hill, about three hundred and fifty yards from the
garden. Looks like .22-250. There were tire tracks leading away
that look like a regular recreational quad ATV.”

“Can you trace any of
that?” I asked.

Kane shrugged. “The
.22-250 is a pretty common rifle in rural areas, and there are lots
of quads out here, too. We’ll be able to trace it eventually, but
it’ll take time.” He turned to Germain. “Which way did the tracks
go?”

“Out to the road.”
Germain grimaced. “They could have just run along the road, or they
could have loaded it onto a trailer and driven away. No way to
tell.”

“Did you hear the
quad?” Kane asked me.

I thought hard. “I
should have been able to,” I said slowly. “If it was less than a
quarter mile away. Hell, I should have been able to see it if he
was riding along north of my fence line.”

“But you don’t
remember.”

“No.” I made a face. “I
was absorbed in my garden, and the wind is from the south today. It
must have carried the sound away. Or else I was a lot more tired
than I realized.”

I sank shakily into a
chair as the truth of that statement became clear to me.

Kane regarded me with
sympathy. “Why don’t you go and lie down? There’s nothing you can
do here, and it’ll take us quite a while to get everything buttoned
up. You need to stay in the house until we’re done anyway.”

That sounded like
heaven. I nodded gratefully and shuffled off to the bedroom. The
shouts of male voices and the thumping din of the helicopter
floated through the open window. I smiled and fell asleep
instantly.

I opened my eyes to
Kane as he bent over me in the silver moonlight. He smiled when I
reached to pull him down. He lowered himself on top of me and my
breath caught at the sensation of his hard body against mine. His
fingers stroked through my hair while he kissed me slowly. I moaned
against his lips, running my hands down his broad, muscular
back.

“Aydan,” he
whispered.

I kissed him
hungrily.

“Aydan.”

I moaned again, feeling
his touch on my shoulders and wanting him.

“Aydan.” He was shaking
my shoulders gently.

That was annoying.

“Stop that,” I told
him.

“Aydan.”

I jerked awake. Kane
was stooped over the bed, gently shaking me. “Aydan, it’s all
right, it was just a dream.”

“I know!” I snapped.
“Dammit!”

“Aydan, wake up. You
were moaning in your sleep. It was just a dream.”

I sighed. “I’m awake.
Thanks. I’m fine.” I squinted over at the clock. “Why are you still
here? It’s almost two A.M.”

“You’ve got a
twenty-four hour guard now. Stemp’s orders. Germain is taking over
at two. I’ll be back to pick you up at eight tomorrow morning. We
have a meeting with Stemp at eight thirty.”

I groaned. “Yeah, I
could see that coming.”

“Go back to sleep,” he
advised. His phone buzzed in his pocket. “That’ll be Germain
arriving. See you in the morning.”

“Okay. Thanks. Tell
Germain not to worry if I start screaming.”

“He’ll come in and wake
you if you do.”

I groaned. Guess I’d be
sleeping in my clothes for the foreseeable future. I didn’t own any
nightwear.

Male voiced rumbled
briefly in the kitchen before tires crunched on gravel as Kane
departed. I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow, not sure
whether to feel comforted or smothered by the guard. Before I could
decide, sunlight and birdsong woke me.

Six thirty. I lay
lethargically for a few minutes until my brain spun up to speed and
reminded me that I could look forward to a major confrontation with
Stemp this morning. Shit, he was going to be pissed that I’d known
about the bugs all along.

I rolled stiffly out of
bed and shuffled to the shower, trying to formulate a strategy for
the meeting. How would Stemp react? He’d better not push me
again.

Tension wound up in my
stomach.

By the time I entered
the kitchen, my hands were quivering.

“Good morning,” Germain
greeted me cheerfully. His sharp brown eyes gave me a quick
once-over, noting my tremors. “Everything okay?”

“Fine,” I lied. No way
I was going to say anything in front of the bugs. “I’m just hungry.
Do you want some breakfast?”

“I wouldn’t say no,” he
agreed. “Have you got coffee?”

“That’s not my area of
expertise. Do it however you like it. The coffee pot’s over
there.”

When Kane arrived a
little before eight, we were just finishing off the last of our
toast. He stuck his head in the door, sniffing. “Is that some of
your homemade bread?” he inquired hopefully.

“Sure is. Want
some?”

He nodded, and I
pointed him toward the breadboard. “Help yourself.”

He sawed off a couple
of generous slabs and slapped on some butter. “I’ll take these with
me. We need to head out.”

Kane stepped casually
out the front door, sweeping the yard with his eyes. Germain
brought up the rear. Kane raised a hand, and I was startled to
notice the man in camouflage concealed in the band of trees that
formed my windbreak. I hadn’t even seen him until he returned
Kane’s salute.

“How many of those are
there?” I asked.

“Two. They’ll trade off
during the day so that your house and yard stays secure.”

I climbed into the
Expedition with a sinking sensation in my chest. “This is a huge
expenditure of manpower just to keep me safe.”

“Yes,” Kane said
carefully.

“Shit, this isn’t going
to work for the long haul, is it?” I clasped my hands together to
hide the tremor.

Kane apparently wasn’t
fooled. He glanced at my hands before meeting my eyes. “We’ll
figure something out. Don’t worry. One thing at a time.”

I sighed. “Yeah. Stemp
might just shoot me today anyway. That’d solve all my problems
right there.”

“Except for the problem
of being dead.”

I shrugged. “Not my
problem. I won’t be here to worry about it.”

Kane eyed me with
concern. “You say that like you don’t care.”

“At this point, I
don’t.”

At Sirius Dynamics, I
struggled to fasten my security fob. My perfidious hands shook and
I breathed deeply, trying to calm down. I honestly didn’t know
whether I’d leave the building alive. Despite my words to Kane, I
kind of hoped I’d survive. The idea of being dead didn’t scare me
at all, but the dying part didn’t sound like much fun.

I gave a mental shrug
as I followed Kane’s broad shoulders down the hallway. What the
hell, I’d died a couple of times already in the sim. Same old, same
old.

I marched into the
meeting room and took a seat beside Kane with my back to the wall.
Holding my body language open and casual, I repressed the urge to
fidget. Slow, even breathing. Calm.

My heart sped up when
Stemp appeared in the doorway, his face impassive as always. He
took a seat facing us and we locked eyes for a few seconds. Stemp
spoke first.

“How long have you
known about the bugs?”

“Since the day you put
them in.”

“Who told you?” He shot
an expressionless glance at Kane.

Fear rushed through me.
Keep Kane out of it.

“Nobody told me. I
smelled the guy you sent to install them, so I went looking.”

Stemp’s impassive mask
faltered. “You
smelled
him?”

“Yes. He was a smoker
who wore cologne.”

“Oh.” The mask was back
in place. “And how did you know that the bugs were ours?”

“I didn’t. But the
timing was just too coincidental.”

“That was a dangerous
risk to take,” Stemp said. “You should have reported them right
away. What if they hadn’t been ours?”

I shrugged. “Then
whoever it was would’ve heard exactly what you heard. Which was
nothing.”

“Until last night. What
if Fuzzy Bunny had showed up instead of us?”

“If Fuzzy Bunny knew
about me, they wouldn’t be wasting time bugging my house. They’d
just walk in and snatch me.”

He pinned me with his
reptilian gaze. “How can I trust you to keep your word when you
deliberately conceal knowledge from me?”

I swallowed a wave of
rage. He was accusing me of being untrustworthy? That was the
funniest fucking thing I’d heard in a long time.

“Actually, speaking of
deception, you do realize that as soon as you placed those bugs,
you were in breach of our agreement,” I said calmly.

Kane shifted suddenly
in the chair beside me, and Stemp’s eyes darted sideways.
“Nonsense.”