The Libra Affair (4 page)

“You
heard
?” she said to him.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Rumors always were your amusement, Knox,” she dug at him.

More than once, he had chased the wrong lead by relying on false statements. And more than once, she covered for his mistakes. But all that was in the past. She no longer worked with the man. He was a loser agent who schmoozed his way up the ladder using his daddy's influence. And he was never going to get in her head again, or her pants.

“Cute, Jordan.”

When a group of teenagers passed on both sides of them, Jordan angled a foot in front of Knox, causing him to stumble. Knox caught her hand and recovered his balance before he fell.

“Hey!”

Jordan reclaimed her hand, then asked, “You okay?” as if tending to an injured child.

“Not nice, Jordan.”

“It's been fun. I'll see you around, Knox.” Then she diverted her direction away from him and toward the bathroom.

“I'll be looking for that rain check.”

Inside a bathroom stall, Jordan changed into a
chador
, the conservative prayer dress she would wear to hide her body from neck to toe. Then she slipped the Roosari headscarf over her head, leaving only the features of her face revealed. And for the final touch, she opened a small case containing a pair of dark brown contact lenses engineered to conceal her identity and popped them into her steel blue-gray eyes.

In an airport this size, this busy, and international in scope, she didn't have to wait long before a group of Muslim women matching her new profile entered the bathroom. Nor did she have to wait long to leave huddled within the group of women.

When she left the bathroom, she walked right past Knox. He was completely clueless. Jordan was glad she didn't have to create an unnecessary diversion to get past the idiot. Knowing Knox, he'd probably stand in the corner across from the restrooms all night, waiting for her. She hurried on to the security checkpoint.

When she was called forward, the customs officer asked, “Where are you traveling today, Ms. Ankasa?”

Embodying the new alias of Ava Ankasa, Jordan answered modestly, refraining from direct eye contact with the man. “Home to Tehran,” she said with an accent.

“Passport.” He held out his latex-covered hand.

She placed the document onto the counter and waited.

“Are you carrying any food items with you today? Firearms? Chemicals?”

“No.”

“Look up,” the officer said.

With confidence, Jordan peered into the scope of the newly-installed biometric retina and iris scanner.

“Have a nice trip,” the man said, but his meaning was clear:
Don't come back. Your kind doesn't belong here.

Another day, another place, she would have decked the arrogant pig.

• • •

“Jane, I need your help,” Ben said to his sister on the other end of the line.

“What's going on?” she asked.

“It's Jordan.”

“Is she okay?”

“I don't know.” Ben knew he sounded demoralized. “She split.”

“What do you mean split? I thought you two were tight. Tighter than tight.”

“We were.” His voice rose, then fell. “I thought, anyway.”

“Let me guess, you didn't ask her?”

Ben thought about the ring that he'd recently purchased. It cost him quite an armload, but in his mind, Jordan was worth every hard-earned dime he'd paid for it, or at least, she would have been worth it if he had acted sooner. “You think she just gave up, got tired of waiting?”

“Yeah, it's possible,” she said.

“Why is it the guy has to ask a girl to marry him? What's wrong with the girl being straightforward?”

“Ben, what happened?”

“I lost it. Some guy was hitting on her and it went too far. I just went off.” But wasn't that a reasonable response on his part? He had never been in a situation like this with Jordan; she had never even looked at another guy. She tended to his feelings like a sacred garden. She made him feel like he was the only guy in the world worth talking to.

“Okay, so you had a jealous fit. How about getting her some chocolates, take her to dinner, or just do something nice. And if that doesn't work, get down on your knees and beg.”

“It's not that easy. She's gone, Jane.”

“So go find her.”

“No, she's gone, gone,” he tried to explain.

“What do you mean, gone?”

“She quit her job, cleaned out her place, quit the gym; there's no trace of her.”

“Are you serious?”

“Like a frigging heart attack.”

A moment of silence passed between them.

“Maybe it wasn't you,” his sister suggested. “Have you thought of that?”

“I've been through everything a thousand times. Nothing seems to add up. The fact that she packed up and left, it doesn't sit square. It's like she knew she was leaving but didn't have the decency to tell me. I can't figure out what went wrong.”

“I have to admit, it does sound rather odd, Ben.”

“I mean, Friday night was perfect. We went to a reception at NASA headquarters. She seemed happy. Later on back at my place, the sex was amazing.”

“Okay, you can leave out the details.”

“Then Saturday night,” he sounded befuddled, “everything went south.”

“You had an argument?”

“Jane, we've never had an argument that lasted more than a minute before Saturday night. We were like two people with the same mind and body. She knew me better than I knew myself. I knew her … or I thought I knew her.”

“So what about the guy, what happened?”

“It was late. The whole place was rocking. Someone got the idea to do a drinking game. It seemed harmless. Until — ”

“Until someone planted one on Jordan,” his sister finished the sentence.

“It's my fault; I should have played a round with them. But doing shots isn't my thing. New Year's, okay, I'll do a few.” Ben drew in a deep breath.

“One day, you're going to learn to communicate with the people who matter to you before there's a problem.”

“Who needs a bunch of words?” he quipped. “Isn't it a given that girlfriends aren't supposed to go around kissing complete strangers?”

“If you had just opened your mouth and said, ‘Jordan, you're killing me. Honey, please, I'm jealous.' If you had just said something, anything to tell her she was wicked hurting you, she would have donkey-kicked that jerk to the curb.”

“You're right, I should have stopped her, I should have said something before I lost it. But Jordan doesn't normally get toasted. It's not like her. She seemed happy, you know. I don't know.”

“Look, Ben, if she was really planning to leave, whatever happened Saturday night probably didn't have anything to do with her leaving. So don't beat yourself up about acting like a maniac. But I will say this for future reference — you need to walk out of a room the second you feel your temper starting to rise. If you can't control your anger, you've got to displace it.”

Another silence passed.

It didn't happen often, but when Ben's temper flared, he wasn't normally the one who backed down from his principles.

“Jane, I don't know how to find her.”

“Yeah, Ben, you do. You just want me to say it's okay to call Kate.”

Jane had nailed it. He had called his sister so she would tell him it was okay to call his ex-girlfriend to ask for help. Kate worked for Homeland Security and if anyone could track a missing person, it was she. “Am I that transparent?”

“Once upon a time you saved Kate's life. I promise it's perfectly okay to call her.”

“I don't feel right about asking her for favors. I treated her so poorly.” He expelled a long hard breath, riddled with guilt.

“An apology is never too late,” Jane said. “And anyway, Kate has moved on. She's married and has a child now.”

“I'm glad to hear that,” he said, unable to mask the surprise in his voice.

“You never asked, I never mentioned it.”

“So you think she can help?” he asked, knowing he was being redundant.

“If she can't, I don't know who can.”

• • •

Five years was an embarrassingly long time to make someone wait for an apology. What kind of heel calls to apologize five years too late and then asks for a favor?

“Kate Blane,” she said, answering her office telephone.

“Kate, it's Ben Johnson,” he said.

“I thought that was you when I saw the name on caller ID. How's Jane?” she asked, breaking the ice.

“Oh, she's great. Great. Just fine,” he said, stumbling through his words.

“I'm glad to hear it.”

“I heard you got married.”

“I did!” she exclaimed happily.

“Congratulations and all.”

“Thank you, Ben, I appreciate that.”

It was time. Now or never. “You know, not that it makes any difference now, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for having been such a jerk. I should have been more supportive when you needed it. But I'm really glad you're happy now.” He paused, hoping she wouldn't say something like, “Yeah, you were a jerk so go blow and don't ever call me again,” but he knew she wouldn't even if he deserved it.

“It was a tough time, Ben. I don't think I ever thanked you for saving my life, did I?”

“Yeah, I think you did, more than once.” Ben thought back to the day he unexpectedly showed up at her place. Had he not shown up when he did, that monster who raped her would have beaten her to death. Still, Ben wasn't proud of himself for walking out on his relationship with her, not when she needed him most. He was a jerk for that, but he didn't know how to deal with her anger and fears. So when she screamed at him to leave, he did just that — he left her. Despite all that, he knew she didn't mean to end their relationship. He knew she believed he would come back, but he didn't. And now he regretted how cruel he was to her.

Kate continued. “To tell you the truth, I really try not to think about that day any longer. Bad stuff happens to good people. You deal with it or it eats up your life.” She paused, then said, “So what else is going on? I know something big must have happened for you to have called me. And listen, I don't mind helping if I can.”

“I, ah,” Ben stuttered; the words just wouldn't come out. Asking Kate for help seemed shallow, heartless, and downright low. How could he ask her for a favor when he had been such a coward?

“Go on.”

“I've been seeing someone almost a year. Jordan Jakes. We were getting tight. We had an argument. She split town and I haven't got the foggiest idea how to find her.”

“I see.”

“And when I say split, I mean she quit her job, packed up her place, and moved out all in a day's time. She dumped her phone at the gym and I can't figure out how to find her. It feels like something's wrong. I'm concerned.”

Diving to the heart of the issue, Kate started drilling him with questions. “Do you know where her parents live?”

“I think all she's got is a grandmother somewhere in England. She doesn't have any siblings as far as I know.”

“Have you tried calling the grandmother?”

“I don't know her. I know that sounds sad, but we never got that far. I'm not even sure about the grandmother bit. I only overheard something of a conversation I was listening in on.”

“Have you checked the hospitals?” she asked next.

“I just did a little while ago.”

“Do you have her social?”

“No.”

“Driver's license number?”

“No.”

“This won't sound easy, Ben, but do you think there's any chance she's running from the authorities?”

“No, I don't see it.”

“What kind of bank account does she have?”

“I'm not sure, she always seemed to use cash.”

“No credit cards?”

“Maybe, I don't know.”

“But she had a cell phone?”

“Yeah.”

“Did she have any assets?”

“Not that I know of; she lived in a cheap apartment, but who can ever know about these things,” he answered.

“I'm not really supposed to do this,” she hedged, “but I'll run her name through the system and see if anything pops up in the metro area.”

Ben heard her typing in the background as he waited.

“Okay, here's something,” she said.

He felt his breath catch in his chest.

“Does she know anyone at the CIA?” she asked.

“Not that I know. No,” he answered. “Why do you ask?”

“If we've got one and the same, it looks like someone linked her name to Dulles International Airport today.”

“The airport?”

“No details, only that contact was made inside the international terminal. She probably spoke with some agent and he made a notation,” Kate explained.

“That's weird.”

“Maybe there was some glitch going through security. The authorities might have taken something questionable from her. I doubt it's anything, since there's nothing more in the log.”

“You said she was in the international terminal?” He paused to think. “You know, if that was Jordan, my guess is she's heading to England to see her grandmother.”

“Let me check … ” After tapping away at the keyboard for some time, Kate returned to the line. “Well, she's not on any flights to England. In fact, I don't see her name listed with any of the airlines. But if you ask me, there's a fifty-fifty chance she's going somewhere, especially if she was spotted inside the international terminal. You don't usually get past the checkpoint without a ticket or some kind of approval by an airline. The other possibility is that she's meeting someone at the gate who needs special assistance, someone like her grandmother. So hang on, let me see if anyone gave her a pass.” She began typing again.