Chimera

by Orion Gaudio

  “But I can also find a new place to live.”

  Claire reached into her purse and took out an envelope. She handed it to Turner.

  “This is the purchase agreement for a house about twenty minutes to the north of town. Our employer thought it best for you to move there. They’re hoping it will prevent this sort of thing from happening again.”

  He nodded and stuffed the envelope in his back pocket. He hadn’t even thought about that, but it made sense.

  “And what about this house?”

  “Don’t worry about it. My office will take care of it. Just move whatever things you want to keep, but take your time… there’s no rush.”

  “I’ll do it when I get back from fishing.”

  “Just get in contact with my office and let them know once you’ve moved out.”

  He nodded and sipped on his coffee.

  “Have you done this sort of thing before?”

  “Relocated an agent?”

  Turner nodded.

  “Yes,” she said. “You have nothing to worry about. Just move your stuff there and we’ll take care of everything else.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Also… that other thing we talked about….”

  “Alice.”

  “Yes, one of my associates tracked her down.”

  “Is she alright?”

  “She is… and he was very discrete, so you have nothing to worry about.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Charleston, South Carolina.”

  “Good.”

  “I have the address if you want it.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  She took out a pen and wrote it on the back of her business card before handing it to Turner.

  “I don’t want to presume to tell you how to live your life, but… this kind of thing, what happened here… it could happen again.”

  “I know.”

  She turned and walked back to her car.

  He knew what she meant. Alice would never be safe if she were a part of his life. Turner knew that, but it stung more when he heard it coming from someone else. He checked his phone and headed back inside. There was still no response from Alice and he was starting to think there wouldn’t be one. Turner kept telling himself that it was in her best interest to never speak to him again, but that didn’t make it any easier. He had started falling for her… and then she was ripped out of his life forever.

  Turner sighed and set his empty coffee mug in the sink. He needed to get out of town if for no other reason than to be away from everything that reminded him of Alice.

  38

  Turner stopped the car and got out. The sound of a babbling stream reached his ears and he smiled. It was a sound that he hadn’t heard in a long time. It was a reminder of a simpler time… a time in his life when he didn’t have to wonder if he’d live through the day.

  He got his rod, reel, and vest out of the trunk and walked toward the water. Turner ducked under a tree branch and stopped when he saw the water. It was serene. Not another person in sight… just him and the water.

  Turner tied a fly onto the end of his line and walked the shore until he found a spot without trees where he could cast without snagging on something behind him. He cast his line into the water and let the fly drift down the river. Once it had passed him, he slowly pulled the line in and cast again.

  Between casts he found himself looking around the shores of Penns Creek. He sighed and shook his head. It had been less than a day since he’d been in D.C., so it was hard for him to distance himself from everything that had happened there. Holloway was still on his mind as he wondered what had happened to his fellow agent. Turner had checked his phone a dozen times during the drive to Penns Creek, expecting to hear from Howard at some point… to let him know that Holloway had returned… but that message never came.

  Turner took a deep breath and cast out his line.

  Alice had been right—he needed to get away and just do something that he loved. The problem was, fishing reminded him of her.

  He pulled in his line and walked further up the shore to try his luck at another spot on the river. She was the one who suggested going to Penns Creek… he imagined they would make a little overnight trip of it and stay in a quaint bed and breakfast. As much as he was trying to enjoy himself, he couldn’t get over the fact that he wished she was there with him. Turner knew she’d be bored considering she’d expressed no interest in fishing herself and it didn’t matter—it was just her presence that he craved.

  “Catch anything?”

  Turner froze and slowly turned around. An older man he guessed to be in his early sixties was standing behind him on the shore of the river. The man had a fly rod in his hands and a smile on his weathered face.

  “Not yet.”

  “Haven’t seen you around these parts before. You new in town?”

  “No,” Turner said, as he shook his head. “Just here to do a little fishing.”

  “You out here alone?”

  Turner nodded.

  “Yeah… why?”

  “Just be careful, young man. It may seem safe, but you never know what can happen when you’re alone someplace you don’t know.”

  The older man turned and walked up the bank of the creek. Turner stood and watched him until he disappeared around the next bend. He shook his head and started walking back toward his car.

  Getting out on the water was supposed to bring Turner some kind of clarity, but instead, he found his mind had wandered the entire time. Things hadn’t gone his way recently and he wondered if they ever would again. He felt like he was walking a tightrope without a net—one wrong move in either direction and he’d lose control of everything and fall to his death.

  Turner stowed his rod and the rest of his gear in the trunk of his car and got in. He took his phone out and checked. No response from Alice, not that he blamed her after what he had done. She had trusted him and allowed herself to open up emotionally, and she had almost gotten killed because of it. Turner shook his head. He knew that if he could just talk to her, he’d at least be able to explain to her what had really happened. It wouldn’t change anything, he wasn’t that naive, but he hoped perhaps at least she would understand why it had happened.

  He sighed and put his phone in the cupholder as he started the engine. The only thing he could do was move on with his life and forget about Alice. Turner knew it was the best outcome for her, but it still pained him to think about what could have been and how he so easily thrust her into danger without so much as a second thought.

  When he reached the main road, Turner stopped his car. He looked to the right… and the road that led back toward Altoona. He sighed and looked to his left. There was a bend a few hundred feet away where the road turned to the south. He turned the wheel to the left and started driving. He wasn’t sure it was the right decision, but he knew he had to give it a shot.

  39

  Howard turned the flash drive over in his hand. It was encrypted, just like the last one Turner had brought him. He thought about getting one of his techs to work on it, but they had so far been stumped by the encryption on the first one. He set it down on his desk and opened his laptop.

  Once he was logged into the VPN and navigated to the part of the dark web where they contacted each other, he typed out a message for The Council.

  Gyr

  Second drive now in possession. Also encrypted. Please advise.

  The response showed up a few seconds later.

  TC

  Cease attempts to access information and ready for retrieval. Agent will arrive in two hours.

  The messages faded from his screen. It was highly unusual for The Council to send an unfamiliar agent to his base of operations. The only time it had happened was twelve years earlier and that had been an extenuating circumstance. Howard didn’t blame them, though. The sensitive nature of Chimera meant The Council wasn’t going to take any chances. Even though it was his agent that had been responsible fo
r retrieving the flash drives, he wouldn’t be sorry to hand them off—it was one less thing he would have to be responsible for keeping under wraps. It also occurred to him, that with Turner away, the death of Rhys and Smith… the fact that Holloway was still missing… he didn’t have enough agents to really lock down the mine if someone were to come after the flash drives.

  He waited another minute to see if The Council would message him again, but nothing appeared on his screen. Howard logged out, closed his laptop, and put the flash drive into the top drawer of his desk.

  It had been a stressful set of missions for NIA, and he would be glad to be rid of Chimera. He needed to spend some time recruiting new agents to replace Rhys and Smith… and he still needed to try to locate Holloway.

  Howard stood up from his desk and walked out of the room. Jess jumped to attention.

  “Mr. Castle, did you need something?”

  “Please let the front gate guard know that we’re expecting a visitor in about two hours.”

  “Sir?”

  “They should already be in the system, so it shouldn’t be a big deal… but let me know when they arrive.”

  “Of course, Mr. Castle. Anything else?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head.

  She picked up the phone at her desk to call the guard shack as he walked toward the stairs.

  The buzzing room fell silent as he walked through the doors and toward the rows of computers. Howard walked over to Stefan and cleared his throat. The young German looked up from his computer screen.

  “Ah… Mr. Castle… how can I help you?”

  “Any progress on the flash drive?”

  He shook his head.

  “No, I’m sorry… I will keep working on it.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Sir?”

  “It’s fine, but I appreciate you trying. I’ll take the drive back.”

  Stefan begrudgingly ejected the flash drive from his tower and handed it back to Howard.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “It’s OK.”

  He took the drive and headed back up to his office. His techs had a few days to crack it, but none of them had been successful. If they had been given more time, Howard was sure they’d be able to get into Chimera eventually, but The Council wasn’t giving them that chance. He didn’t see it as a failure on their part, sometimes it happened with heavily encrypted files, but it didn’t change the fact that he’d have to hand the drives over.

  Howard sat down behind his desk and set both flash drives out as he waited for the agent to arrive to retrieve them for The Council.

  His job was safe again for the time being, which was a relief. Turner had pulled through and recovered both of the drives considering the odds, but it had been a costly few missions for some of his other agents.

  He sighed and leaned back in his chair. The Council would be pleased. There were a few times when Howard thought the drives would be lost to the Chinese, but they were both in his possession—now it was up to The Council to keep the information safe.

  40

  Turner brought his car to a stop and picked up his phone. It was the right address. A large plantation house with four tower columns on either side of the red front door. He shook his head. It was possible that they had given him the wrong house number when he called Claire, but it seemed unlikely.

  A car rounded the corner down the street. Turner slid down in his seat and watched as it pulled into the circular driveway of the house and stopped in front. He watched as Alice got out of the passenger door.

  “Well… I guess I’m in the right place.”

  The driver opened their door and stepped out. It wasn’t who Turner was expecting. A tall, muscular, man in his thirties with dark hair and a beard.

  “Huh.”

  Turner frowned as they walked up to the front door of the house. It opened a few seconds later and they walked inside.

  It didn’t make sense to him. He wasn’t exactly sure what her ex had done, but Alice had made it sound like he was a real piece of work… but that was the only person he figured she could have been with. He wondered if it was his own fault… that he had driven Alice right back into the arms of the man she had run away from.

  Turner shook his head. He refused to believe she would do something like that… not without a more significant motive than what had happened between them. She had been scared when she left Altoona, but he refused to believe she would throw herself back into such a bad situation without good reason.

  He sat in his car for the next twenty minutes, just watching the front door. The street was quiet. Just two cars passed him in that time and nobody else pulled up in front of the house he was watching.

  “What the hell am I doing here?”

  He shook his head as he sat there. The drive had taken close to eleven hours spread over the previous afternoon and the morning after he stopped in Durham to sleep for a few hours. It had still seemed like a good idea when Turner woke up in the morning, but sitting there changed his mind.

  “Stupid.”

  His phone chirped. He looked down at the screen and saw the message from Alice.

  James, what are you doing?

  Turner glanced over at the house and sighed. He wrote a response and hit send.

  Nothing, what’s up? Is everything OK with you?

  He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel while he waited for a response.

  I saw your car parked down the street. I know you’re here. I’m not sure how you found me, but you can’t just show up here.

  Turner shook his head and looked up.

  “Sloppy.”

  He was disappointed in himself. It wasn’t his intention for her to notice his car, but she had spotted him with ease and he hadn’t even noticed her looking in his direction when the car pulled up in front of the house.

  I’m sorry, I know. I just needed to talk to you. You didn’t answer my last text. I just want five minutes, that’s all.

  A few minutes dragged by before she responded to his text.

  There’s a coffee shop two miles down the road. I’ll meet you there in ten minutes.

  He started his car and drove back in the direction of the coffee shop he saw on his way to the house. It was a neighborhood place, so parking was plentiful, and Turner was able to find a spot right near the door. He got out of his car, sat down at one of the outside tables on the sidewalk, and took out his phone while he waited for Alice to show up.

  Even though he had gotten both the flash drives to NIA, there was a part of him that half expected to get a text from Howard at any moment saying they needed him at work. He knew it was unlikely… he had been through a lot and deserved the time off, but it was hard for him to sit idle while Holloway was still missing. Turner still felt partially responsible for the whole fiasco. He wished he had disobeyed his direct orders and gone back to search for his fellow agent. It wasn’t the right thing to do, though, he knew that. If something did happen to Holloway, and he was dead or captured, going back for him could have put Turner in the same position and he was the one in possession of the flash drive. All he could do was hope that Holloway would still turn up.

  Alice stepped up to the table and sat down. Turner put his phone back in his pocket and looked at her.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  She raised an eyebrow and let out an exaggerated sigh.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to check on you.”

  “You get that this is really weird… right?”

  He frowned and shook his head.

  “Sorry… I just… I texted you and didn’t hear back. I was worried and wanted to see if you were alright. I had a few days off, and nothing to do.”

  “It didn’t cross your mind that the reason why I didn’t respond is that because I didn’t have anything to say to you? Or that I didn’t want to talk to you?”

  He sighed and looked down at the table. It had occurred to him.
That’s exactly what he assumed she was thinking, but it didn’t stop him from wanting to see her again.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “James… you seem totally unfazed by what happened. Men with guns showed up at your house and started shooting at us. I could have died. You killed them. I don’t know how you’re not more upset by that. How are you not totally freaked out by this whole thing?”

  He looked up at her and nodded. She was right. It was a messed-up situation that she should have never been a part of, but he had stupidly allowed himself to develop feelings for her… and it had almost gotten her killed.

  “You’re right.”

  “About what?” she asked.

  “All of it.”

  “I don’t even know what to say.”

  “It’s my fault.”

  She shook her head.

  “I’m not sure why you’re here.”

  He sighed. Turner wanted to tell her the truth about him, but he knew it would only make the situation worse. She would never understand and then her life would be in jeopardy if anyone ever found out she knew the truth about him or NIA. He would never be able to live with himself if she were hurt because of something he did.

  Turner shook his head.

  “I don’t know either,” he said.

  “I think you should go.”

  “I… I will. You are a wonderful woman, Alice, truly. I’ll always cherish what little time we spent together. I’m incredibly sorry about everything, I really am. It’s just… from the moment I met you… I can’t even explain it. I was overcome by this feeling. It didn’t make much sense at the time. I’ve spent years trying to distance myself from people. For some reason, though, when I met you… I don’t know. It was different. You reminded me of the good in the world. Of the person I wished I could be. It’s not my path in life, though. And for that, I am sorry. Not just sorry for what happened at my house, but for everything. I hope you have a wonderful life and that you get to experience everything you want because you truly deserve it.”

  He stood up from the table and walked back to his car. Turner opened the door and sat down. A quick glance back to the table they were sitting at confirmed that Alice had already gotten up and left.