Volcano (6 page)

Albert set down his glass with a thunk.
Ana Kane was not,
never had been- and would not- be a part of the deal.

And now, here Albert stood with tethered hands. Unable to
make one sure move until they’d received some word from the kidnappers. Of
course, they had people
on it
. No matter what
god
damned
thing happened in the free world, the DOS had people
on it.
But
that knowledge granted Albert little reassurance.

Mark had insisted he go home.
Get some sleep, for God’s
sake
. Like Albert was some rabid, old dog about to be put down. Well,
Albert was rabid all right. He was pissing mad. But he was
not
about to
be put down.

Albert strode purposefully to the bedroom where he withdrew
his loaded pistol from the drawer in his
night stand
.
It had been three years, he thought, pulling back out the cylinder and checking
the load. The weapon snapped shut and settled comfortably in his hand.
Three
goddamned years
since he’d had occasion to make some kind of difference
.
And- this time- Albert Kane was going to see to it personally that somebody
paid.

***

Ana sat in a cold sweat beside the graying Oriental whose
predilection seemed to be holding a pistol to her head.
He
was known by the other as Sun-tzu
, but had been adamant Ana not call him
that. Was it out of deference or something more?

“How are things at the DOS?” he asked, with a twisted smile.

Ana tossed a sideways glance out the window trying to see
where they were going, but nothing was visible through the tinted glass but
pitch-black night. “I have no idea.”

“Hmm,” the old man adjusted the pressure of the pistol
barrel against her temple. “No idea about that, but plenty ideas about my name,
no?”

“All I did,” Ana said, stiffening against her fear, “was
address you by the name
he
called you.”
 
She jutted her chin toward the front
seat, from which Hay Long looked back with a wicked smile. “I’ll be happy to
address you by another name, if you’ll be kind enough to provide it.”

“Very slick, Ms. Kane,” the other answered. “But I think
not.”

“You’re a student, are you not?” the old man asked. “A
student of all things political-military?”

Ana shifted, interpreting his question as a referral to her
recent stint as an analyst.

“I’m out of school now,” she said, hoping somehow that would
save her. Knowing still, what a ridiculous
long-shot
that notion was.

Sun-tzu laughed and gave her a mirthless smile. “Christmas
break? I see.”

“Where are you taking me?”
Ana asked.

“Somewhere safe.”
 
From the driver’s seat Hay Long bellowed a riotous laugh. “Does that
please you?” Sun-tzu continued.

“It would
please me
,” Ana said attempting to turn her
head away. “If the two of you’d let me go.”

Sun-tzu studied her in silence then pulled back his weapon.
“Fine,” he said. “We shall let you go.”

Ana turned to him in incredulity.

“How much farther, Hay Long?” he asked the man in the front.

Hay Long smiled in his rear view mirror, his eerie eyes
drawing into slits. “Six kilometers.”

***

Joe McFadden waited in the shadows of the tiny Orange County,
Virginia town. In a distant field cows bawled, threading rustling leaves with
low, mournful cries. Though it was late December, the long Indian summer had
caused some of the more stubborn Virginia foilage to hang on. It taunted him
now...scraped fear down his spine with imprecise cadence, as winds whipped and
hollered, twisting the shedding limbs of a nearby tree.

Joe patted his coat and rechecked the weapon strapped to his
chest.

Five minutes, he thought, scanning the luminescent numbers
on his watch.

Five minutes until package delivery.

Joe tried to relax his shoulder against the cold
stone wall
that lined the alley, but every inch of his being
tensed.

It had been over two years since he’d seen Ana Kane.

Two years and eight months exactly.

There’d been that last time together. That last time in
Costa Negra, when
Ana
had looked at him with those
soulful eyes and told him it could never work between them.

Joe had never seen it coming. Never in a million years would
have been fool enough to fall in love with such a headstrong woman. But the
more he’d known her, the more impossible it had become not to want to know more
of her. Then, when it had become a matter of life and death...

Joe startled at the sound of a car engine. He peered around
the corner at the black Audi’s approach, his mouth going cottony dry.

Then, there’d been that other time. That time four months
later, after Ana had closed out her project office and dismissed him from her
life, when Joe had bumped into Ana and Neal on Capitol Hill.

Joe’s gut twisted as the car halted at the curb and its back
door swung open. A slight dark-haired woman was forced from the car, a pistol
most likely pressed into her back.

Joe McFadden stepped from the shadows and leveled his weapon
at Ana Kane.

“One word,” he said, “one fucking word, sweetheart, and I
blow your goddamn head off!”

***

Mark hung up the phone and spun Albert’s desk chair away
from the window. It was too much to look at. The glory and splendor of
Washington, DC, the illuminated ivory of the Capitol dome, the far-away
Washington monument cutting a swath through the coal black sky.

There was nothing shitting honorable about this town.

Nothing whatsoever, Mark thought, kicking his feet up on the
desk.

At least Isabel was okay. Major Walker had seen to it that
Maria and Isabel were made comfortable in the DIPAC’s underground quarters. It
was supposed to be a secret they were there. The fact that a supposed Army
acquisitions processing center had an entire suite of bedrooms and fully
stocked kitchens in its basement would raise plenty of eyebrows. And not just
in Central Virginia.

It was necessary to have the provision to make room for
round-the-clock operations, should those become necessary. And the only way to
ensure that could happen was to provide a place where the analysts and computer
specialists could eat, sleep, then
be
roused for
another shift.

As it stood, DIPAC’s temporary-housing quarters had never
been pressed into use. Mark was grateful now that such a place existed. The
rest of the world could go on about its business while Major Walker spirited
diapers and baby supplies into the DIPAC under the upper-level clearance of DOS
Assistant Director Albert Kane. No questions asked.

But, Ana...

Mark shifted his legs, his feet dropping heavily to the
floor.

This was not supposed to be happening, dammit. Not now.
There was some kind of rule against double jeopardy. Once in a lifetime was
enough for anybody. It was certainly enough for him. And clearly would be for
Ana.

The timing could not have been worse. There were all kinds
of tensions between them. Mark loved
Ana
, loved her
with a passion greater than life. But, in these past several months, he’d
dropped the ball. He’d failed to let her know it. The press of work had been
tight. Each day revealed a new screw up. Mark’s team was fucking falling apart
at a time when he needed them most desperately to hang together.

Now Mark wondered if his other analysts had also been
experiencing
tensions
 
not
so unlike his own at home. And it hadn’t only been Mark’s
division. Havoc seemed to be imploding all over the DIPAC these days. Workers
had been slack, uncharacteristically lax in their duties. It was as if
everybody’s mind had been elsewhere.

No better time, Mark thought, with a shake of his head. If
the state of affairs at the DIPAC was any indication, there was no better time
for a strike against the intelligence community than now. Now, when every
goddamned analyst was so internally focused that the last thing he or she could
handle was subversion from the outside.

Mark squeezed shut his eyes and did what he rarely did
anymore. He prayed to God there was a solution. All Mark needed was one more
chance, one more chance not to blow things all to hell and back.

Then, he was certain, he’d prove to Ana, once and for all,
how he really felt. And never let her out of his sight again.

***

Ana looked down into the barrel of Joe
McFadden’s pistol in sheer horror and disbelief.

“One word-” There was a sharp metal click. “One fucking
word,” Joe said, his voice as cold as steel, “and you’re sleeping with the
angels.”

Sun-tzu bellowed a laugh from inside the car, as Hay Long
dragged Ana in Joe’s direction.

A million pictures raced through Ana’s mind, none of them
involving Joe McFadden pressing a pistol to her head.

“That’s right,” Joe said, his weapon fixed just above her
temple. “Nice and easy. Come to papa and nobody gets hurt.”

Hay Long gave McFadden a smirk. “You have your orders?”

“Absolutely.” Joe bared his teeth in an ungodly smile. “All
one of them.”

Behind her, Ana felt a presence retreat, and then soon heard
the slamming of car doors.

“J--” Ana began, her voice rattling.

“Shut the fuck up!” The pistol pressed deeper, as he looped
his arm through hers and pulled her into the alley.

And then, while the engine of the black car idled at the
curb, Joe angled his pistol and fired.

Albert Kane threw back the door to his office, where Mark
sat hunched over in his chair, his hands around a stale cup of coffee.

“Any word?” Albert asked, crossing into the room and
dropping his briefcase onto the sofa.

Mark sighed and pushed his coffee aside. “Negative on the
vehicle trace.
Negative on involving the police.
The
DOS wants this kept internal.”

Albert walked over and laid a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Son,
if you don’t mind my saying so, you look like hell.”

“Yes sir,” Mark said, looking up. “And, this time, looks
aren’t deceiving.”

“We’ll find her,” Albert said. “I know there are
complications-”

“Complications?”
 
Mark pushed back from Albert’s desk, the wheels of his chair skittering
noisily across the floor. “Complications?”

My God, Mark wanted to know just how more complicated things
could get!
 
Four days before
Christmas, with a significant portion of the work force on leave and now
this!
 
An analyst
scare with who-knew-what sort of ramifications.
A bad time of year to
have the Defense Department running scared. The worst time of year...and
somebody knew it.

Somebody who also might have been
responsible for taking Ana.
The link between the analyst incidents, including
their home system invasions, and some sort of infiltration of the security
structure of the DOS seemed all too neatly tied together to be mere
coincidence.

Albert slid his briefcase over on the sofa and sat. “Mark,”
he said, slowly removing his glasses and tucking them into his pocket. “I know
how-”

“No, sir, you don’t.”

Albert flagged a patient hand in Mark’s direction. “I
know,
Mark. I know. How in the hell can you think I don’t
?!
”

Mark didn’t know
what
he thought anymore. All he knew
was he was crazy with worry about
Ana
and damned
concerned about the threat that was snow-balling elsewhere. While
Washingtonians throughout the city were Santa shopping, somewhere a
mother-fucking grinch was stealing Christmas. But these were no petty hoods,
Mark thought with a frown. Their plan was certain to be quite deadly.

Albert let out a long breath,
then
tightened his jaw. “How’s Isabel?”

“Fine. She and Maria are just fine.
Major
Walker’s looking after them at the DIPAC.”

“Well, at least that’s something.”
 
Albert sighed. “But you and I need to
keep our shit together.”

Mark looked up, hit by the impact of those words.
What
had gotten into him? Was he falling apart? Had Albert seen it?

“Oh hell, Mark. You and the rest of the boys- all of you-
are so damn well ready to put me out to pasture.”

Mark stood abruptly, feeling the fury spike to his limbs. He
may very well be the torn-apart husband, but Mark was also a god damned
professional. And it was his professional side that held the greatest chance
for bringing Ana back.

“No, sir. Wasn’t thinking that at all.”
 
Mark walked to the back of the office
and thumped the window glass. “Somewhere out there some putrid son of a bitch
is holding my wife, your daughter. And you’re right, sir.
Absolutely
right.
All you and I have got to do is get our shit together. We’re
professionals, you and I, with years of training. Decades, combined. And if
anybody can get
Ana
back...

Something akin to faith alighted in Albert’s eyes. He stood
and joined Mark at the window. “Where do we begin?”

“We begin by going through the files, all two hundred and
nine of them that we’ve gotten in so far. Major Walker can fax anything you
don’t have here from the DIPAC.

“We check for the commonalities, the trends.”

“We search for the motive,” Albert said solemnly, his gaze
fixed on the Capitol dome.