I Will Fight No More Forever

by E B Corbin

“Are you sure? It is only another few minutes.”

  Sam leaned forward and tapped Henry on the shoulder. “I noticed you limping when you went to retrieve that gun. Your ankle isn’t entirely healed yet. Let him take us to the front portico.”

  “Damn!” Henry snapped his fingers. “I left the gun in the glove compartment. I’ll have to go back and get it before we call the rental agency.”

  “No, you won’t.” Sam sat back and patted the seat beside her. “I stuck it in my purse before we locked the car.”

  “What about the bullets?”

  “They’re wrapped in a tissue, tucked into a zippered compartment. You don’t think I’d grab the gun and no bullets, do you?”

  “Of course not,” Henry said with a grin.

  By this time, the light had turned green and the taxi started moving. The gun was only part of the reason Henry let out a breath. White Cloud seemed to be intent on changing lanes to get to the hotel entrance and spoke no more of spirit guides. He’d dodged a bullet that time and his ankle would thank him for it later.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  As soon as they reached their suite, Sam threw her jacket on the sofa and went to retrieve her laptop from under the mattress in her bedroom. “I need to move the money today.”

  “Don’t you get tired of doing that?” Henry understood her reasoning, but he had a hard time making sense of the urgency.

  “If I let down my guard for one day, Jules could find the money. He could make it almost impossible for me to get it back, and I can’t let that happen.”

  “That would be unfortunate, it’s true. But they’re not going to let up on sending people to retrieve what they consider their money.” Henry picked up the room-service menu. “I need a snack.”

  “Jesus, Henry. We had lunch at Starbucks and it’s almost dinnertime. Can’t you wait?”

  “Hhhmm.” He pretended to think it over. “I don’t think so. You go ahead and do what you have to do. I’m going to order a piece of pie.”

  “Get one for me, too. Apple, with ice cream.” Sam could not pass up sweet treats. She decided she’d pay for it later at the gym downstairs and turned her attention to choosing which accounts to move and where to move them.

  Julian Stein was her father’s assistant and a brilliant IT developer. He took it as a personal affront when Sam managed to hack into the accounts he had set up for her father’s ill-gotten gains and promised her father he would get the money back, whatever it took.

  Sam met Jules while at Stanford getting her undergraduate degree, and the two of them had hit it off. Both were mechanical engineering majors before Sam switched to computer science. They were engaged until Jules grew enamored of her father and his tricks. Sam begged her fiancé to come to his senses, but the appeal of easy money proved too alluring. She broke off the engagement as soon as she learned that Jules had accepted a position with her father.

  The two men formed a lasting and lucrative relationship. Jules became the son replacing the daughter who had repudiated half her parentage.

  Her father charmed great sums of money out of rich clients, and Jules made it appear as if the funds were in legitimate investments. The pigeons never suspected anything until it was too late. By then, her father had moved on to another city and adopted another name.

  When Sam was five years old, her mother discovered the game and took her daughter to Albuquerque, where she had cousins, aunts, and uncles willing to help. Sam never knew when or even if the divorce became final, but she grew up resenting her father for what he put them through. The ill will and humiliation overpowered any love she may have once had for the man who sired her.

  She became an FBI agent after graduation and made it her mission to see that she put an end to her father’s operation. She specialized in computer crimes so that it was not difficult to focus on him. After five years, she managed to accumulate enough evidence to arrest the man responsible for so much heartbreak.

  His trial was the apex of her career. After his sentencing, Sam didn’t feel the same passion for her work. But she stayed until she had located all the money that Jules had hidden when his employer went to jail. Since the FBI showed little interest in locating what they considered “missing funds,” Sam took control and moved the money to accounts hidden from Jules.

  She felt some sort of vengeance against her former fiancé, especially because she had tried to turn him and get him to testify against her father, but Jules refused. He managed to convince her superiors he had no knowledge of where the funds originated. Sam knew better but could not prove anything—Jules had covered his tracks well.

  Thus, the man she once loved became her enemy. She had no doubt it was Jules’s idea to offer a reward to anyone with information leading to the recovery of her father’s money. The anger emanating from her father was fed by Jules, and there was nothing she could do to change it. She had a hard time accepting that the reward included eradicating her.

  Her father was obsessed with getting his money back to bribe his way out of prison, and he would do anything necessary. Freedom was more important than family—especially when he felt that the family had betrayed him.

  Sam learned of the reward from a secretary to the warden, whom she had befriended. Whether or not her father knew he’d placed a target on his daughter’s back, Sam was not certain. But Jules knew and he threatened Sam via the dark web, where she had communicated with her ex-fiancé when she still believed she could somehow turn him to the “good” side.

  Henry was aware of her connection to Jules and had used the computer skills he’d picked up as a cyber warfare specialist in the Navy to help Sam contact Jules once again. He’d never had the opportunity to attend college after his father lost all his money and disappeared, so Henry enlisted in the Navy and took advantage of every opportunity he could to further his education. As a result, his computer skills were only slightly behind Sam’s. To call her a “geek” would have been appropriate from the time she was ten years old.

  When room service delivered, she packed away the computer.

  “What do you suggest we do now?” Henry asked before he slid a piece of pie into his mouth.

  “About Nina?”

  Henry nodded before he swallowed. “She knows who we are, but she doesn’t know why we’re involved with her.”

  “I suppose we’ll have to tell her soon. I had hoped to learn a little more about her first. But I checked online and there is very little to find. She isn’t on social media of any kind, and even her birth certificate isn’t listed in North Dakota, if that’s truly where she’s from. I get the impression she’s holding back.”

  “Can you blame her? She doesn’t have a clue why two random strangers would stick their noses in her business.” Henry took the last bite and pushed the empty plate away. “You need to explain things to her.”

  Sam finished off her pie and ice cream. “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

  “Can we transfer the money to her and get out of here then?”

  “After we make sure those goons aren’t bothering her.” Sam was not willing to leave Nina in a tough spot.

  “I get the impression she can take care of herself,” Henry said. “And our encounter with the phony foreman today leads me to believe he’s working with your pal Jules. We need to move on.”

  “Yeah, and if he located us so easily that means Jules has a reliable way of tracking us.” Sam hoped it wasn’t her gun. Even though it was one she’d confiscated from her father’s stash after he went to jail, she’d grown used to the feel of the small .44 in her hand and liked the firepower it provided.

  “You know as well as I do, it’s more than likely your Smith & Wesson.” Henry sat back and gave her a hard look. “Why are you so stubborn about replacing it?”

  “I like it. And besides, it’s hard to come by—a collector’s item. Expensive if you do find one for sale.” She wasn’t getting rid of it if she could help it.

  “We need to find a substitute for you. There has to be some
thing out there that you could be just as comfortable with.”

  “All right, all right. We’ll look for a new gun. But I’m not giving it up until I have another one.”

  Sam fell back on her go-to method of response: she changed the subject. “I’d like to see if Jules has tried to contact me again. Get your computer.”

  Henry stared at Sam before he moved into his bedroom and retrieved his new MacBook from the safe. Unlike Sam, he locked up his computer rather than rely on a dicey hiding place. He knew better than to argue with his boss when she was being deliberately obstinate. He logged on to the dark web using his special version of the Onion Browser.

  To his surprise, he found what they were searching for.

  Chapter Four

  When he navigated to the chat room Sam had set up to communicate with Julia Stein, a message was blinking at him.

  “Sam, there’s something here from Jules.” Henry motioned for her to join him at the small round table in the sitting area of their suite.

  She pulled her chair close to read over his shoulder.

  J: I can follow your movements so why don’t you give it up? There’s no need to get hurt.

  She regarded the screen for a moment, trying to come up with a response. If she could somehow maneuver him into giving away how he was tracking her, she could eliminate the danger, at least for a while, until he came up with some other method to keep tabs on her.

  Henry looked at Sam. “You need to find out how he’s tracking us.”

  “I know, dammit. But Jules is smart. He won’t be tricked easily.” Sam crossed her arms and stared at the brocade curtains covering the windows.

  Henry drummed the fingers of his right hand on the table, keeping his left hand poised over the keyboard. “Let’s go back to the very beginning. It’s a big country. We could have been anywhere. How did he know we’re in Portland?”

  “I used the Elizabeth Peters alias to book the flight. I don’t see how he could know about that.”

  “Did you book it online?”

  “Well, sure. How else?”

  “He could have hacked your computer. When did you load that anti-hacking program?”

  A light came into Sam’s eyes. “Not ’til the night before we flew out here. He could be aware of that alias.”

  “And your black American Express card. Whose name is on it?”

  “It’s a company card, so just the company name.” Sam sat up and leaned her elbows on the table. “But I used it at the Apple store and again at the Japanese Garden. Those two idiots showed up at both places.”

  “And how did you pay for the new phones at Target?”

  Sam shifted her gaze to Henry. “With the American Express card.”

  “So it’s conceivable that Jules is tracking the card purchases.”

  “But that phony foreman from the Stay Andrew place found us at the hotel the second night we were there. We used your credit card for that, and I registered under the name of Stephanie Plum.”

  “And he found us this afternoon in front of Nina’s house.” Henry blew out a breath. “So Jules obviously has more than one way to track us.”

  “He’s aware of my Elizabeth Peters alias and maybe Stephanie Plum but not the others. The company I set up for the American Express card can be traced to Elizabeth Peters as the owner. It would take some doing, since there are multiple bogus corporations involved, but it could be done.”

  “And Jules would have the incentive to do it. Is that company in any way connected to any of your father’s money?”

  “No.” Sam gave him a sidelong glance. “I know better than to make it that easy.”

  “Well, one thing is for sure: we can’t use the American Express card anymore.”

  “I have others. I’ll cut it up right now.” Sam stood to retrieve her purse from the couch.

  Henry grabbed her hand. “Not so fast.” He felt the strength in her fingers and held on tighter than necessary. Longer than necessary, too, then he eased up. “We might be able to use it at some point to misdirect him.”

  Sam let her hand rest in his and sat down with a smile on her face. “Good point. Use his own tricks against him.”

  “You never know when the opportunity might come up. It’s time we were a little more proactive rather than trying to hide.”

  “You’re right.” This time, Sam patted his hand with her free hand, leaned over, and kissed him on the cheek. “I knew I made the right decision to hire you.”

  Henry attempted to hide his uneasiness, but it shone on his face like a neon sign. He’d tried so hard to remain professional when, so many times, he wanted to grab her and take her in his arms. Not only to show relief at finding her safe but because he needed to feel their connection. Before this, Sam had never exhibited any inclination to become closer, so Henry had tried to keep those thoughts out of his mind.

  Sam immediately was sorry she’d shown such affection and made him uncomfortable. She realized she was out of line and knew that in today’s world, female bosses could be just as guilty of sexual harassment as males, and she didn’t want to be that kind of person. “I’m sorry. I got carried away for a moment. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

  Henry did not know how to respond, so he sat there mute.

  Sam cleared her throat. “So, let’s answer Jules.”

  Thankful to get back to the matter at hand, he typed with precision, despite his preoccupied mind and faltering fingers, as Sam dictated to him.

  S: I’ve already been hurt. I’m not afraid. Why don’t you just give it up?

  She doubted Jules was online, so she started to get up. Henry gently pulled her back down by her arm, his touch lingering as long as he dared. It was the only way he could think of to tell Sam he wasn’t offended by her show of affection. He didn’t feel it was his place to bring up the slight sexual tension that had been growing between them. At least not yet. Better to ignore it for now. “You got an answer.”

  J: I’m trying to prevent further harm to you. Your father will not give up and it will become more dangerous.

  S: I won’t give up either.

  J: We have considered changing the order to an outright hit.

  S: Really? You don’t want to locate the money?

  J: It may be easier with you out of the way.

  S: It will be more difficult. Close to impossible.

  J: Not how we see it.

  S: Are you increasing the threat?

  J: We may have no choice.

  S: There’s always a choice.

  J: Not always. Please, I’m begging you give it up before it’s too late.

  S: Can’t do that.

  J: Then there’s nothing more to say. I’m sorry it has to be this way.

  S: It doesn’t.

  A few beats of silence followed before Sam’s intuition kicked in.

  S: Are you still there?

  Sam cut off the connection quickly once she realized he wouldn’t respond. She knew Jules was attempting to trace her feed and hoped Henry’s clever use of Tor and all that “onion stuff” was enough to keep their location private. “Dammit! He always cuts it short before I have a chance to ask a question that might lead us to a clue on how he’s tracking us.”

  “He probably doesn’t want us to trace him any more than we want him to locate us.” Henry nudged Sam aside so he could shut his laptop down.

  “Why is he so cautious? We can’t do anything to him.”

  “He doesn’t know that. He might think you’re still working with the FBI and trying to manipulate him.”

  “Then why does he keep threatening me? Don’t you think he would be more careful? I have enough to use against him with these chats already.”

  “If you could prove they came from him. I’m betting he covers himself and there’s no way to trace anything back to him. Besides, once you’re done, those chats are gone.”

  Sam pushed her chair away from the table, walked to the other side of the room, and began pacing. “Maybe we can f
igure out a way to save them.”

  “Wouldn’t do much good if we can’t prove they came from him.” Henry’s gaze followed her as she moved back and forth. “The police weren’t able to tie those two idiots to Jules or your father. If Little Eddie hadn’t squealed like a frightened canary when they arrested him, we wouldn’t be able to prove their connection at all. As it was, he didn’t know very much about who they were dealing with. Not nearly enough to implicate your father or Jules.”

  Sam stopped pacing and stared out the window. “I don’t think this so-called reward my father and Jules are offering can be very much. They seem to be attracting mostly amateurs with it.”

  Henry nodded. “Yeah, it wasn’t too difficult to get you free every time they took you. But Jules could always up the ante to attract a better class of degenerates.”

  “I’m not sure they can do that. I told you how my father spent a lot of money hiring some high-cost lawyers to get him out. Those appeals must have cost a fortune. And, even if I didn’t locate all the funds he stashed away, I had to get most of it. Since he hasn’t tried for another hearing lately, his stash could be running low.”

  “Which makes it all the more urgent for him to locate his money,” Henry said.

  “It’s not his money.”

  “He considers it his, and you’ve thrown a wrench into his plans. As long as they rely on incompetent lowlifes to track you down, we may be able to outsmart them.”

  “And I’ll be more alert now that I know it’s related to them. They won’t find it so easy to get to me from now on.”

  “It took you long enough to admit it,” Henry mumbled as his phone rang showing an unknown caller. He almost let it go to voicemail before he decided to answer: “Yeah.”

  “I am troubled.”

  Henry recognized the voice. “White Cloud? Troubled about what?”

  “Nina. My spirit guide is telling me she is in danger. I feel we should help her.”

  “What can we do?” Henry had to be cautious with his response. Although he’d helped Henry save Sam when she was kidnapped, the taxi driver knew nothing of the true reason for Sam’s presence in Portland. White Cloud never asked, and Henry never had to explain.