by John Sneeden
“To be honest, I’m a little surprised myself. After all, you never were one of the smart ones.”
Corbin’s face reddened briefly before he finally forced a smile. “Says the woman who’s staring down the muzzle of a gun.”
“I’m not too worried about the gun. Most people like you aren’t comfortable getting their hands dirty. It’s why you farmed out all the hard work.”
There was a purpose to Drenna’s jabs. She hoped to keep Corbin engaged while she tried to think of a way out of her current predicament.
He laughed. “Bluster from an overrated spy. She couldn’t keep her cool and rushed headlong into a trap.”
“You’re right. I did let my anger get the best of me. But I can assure you that won’t happen again.”
“You keep forgetting I’m the one with the gun, dear.” Corbin walked over to the sliding glass door, opened it, then motioned for her to step outside. “I don’t like to smoke inside.”
As Drenna slipped past him, Largo barked ferociously. The animal’s reaction reminded Drenna that it would be difficult to get away. Corbin had bullets and a dog. She might be able to get away from the dog, but she couldn’t outrun a bullet.
Even so, she wasn’t about to give up. She had gotten out of worse predicaments.
Corbin crossed the patio and lifted one of the chair legs. He put the looped end of the leash around the chair leg and set it down again.
“You made it easy for me,” Corbin said. “I had a plan to draw you out, but now I won’t need to use it.”
Something about the remark bothered her, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. “I take it you were watching me on your phone the whole time,” she finally said.
Corbin removed a cigar and lit the tip. After taking a few puffs, he said, “Yes, I love those little apps. I knew you were coming the moment you got to the top of the ridge.”
“Laser sensor?”
He nodded. “I knew you’d eventually show up. It was just a matter of when.”
Largo growled. The dog was looking toward the fence.
“That’s the problem about living out here in the sticks,” Corbin said. “Too many coyotes. Largo’s caught several already.”
“That was dumb to use the old Croesus account,” Drenna finally said.
“How so? You’re the only one who knows, and in a few minutes, you won’t be able to tell anyone.”
“I’m sure Mack is on to you.”
Corbin laughed. “That idiot? He doesn’t have a clue. He’s always suspected that you were alive, and now that Nathan is dead, he’ll assume you were the one who killed him.”
Drenna wondered if Corbin was telling the truth about Sprague. It was certainly possible he was dead, but it was also possible Corbin just wanted her to think that.
“The Brits know what happened in Nice,” Drenna said. “You really think they won’t figure it all out?”
Unfortunately, Drenna hadn’t been able to tell Driscoll what she had learned about Corbin. She had left him a message earlier that afternoon, but he hadn’t returned her call yet. She had to hope that he and others would put all the pieces together.
“You still don’t understand, do you? It’s not you I’m going to pin this on, although I suppose they might lump you in with the whole thing.”
Drenna thought for a moment. If he wasn’t trying to frame her, who was he trying to frame? Then it hit her. She looked at him. “Nathan?”
Corbin took a draw on the cigar then spoke through the smoke. “I’m sure you know about the burner phone I purchased from a store near Nathan’s house.”
“That’s circumstantial.”
“Don’t worry. That’s not the only evidence they’ll find that implicates him. I’ve been very busy for the last few days.” He smiled. “When all is said and done, they’ll believe he was the Phantom and you were one of his casualties. That or they’ll think the two of you were in it together.”
“So how are you going to explain you killing me here?” Drenna asked.
“They’re going to think you were killed by one of his men. When I dump your body, I’m going to plant Nathan’s pistol on you.”
“Nathan’s pistol?”
“I grabbed it before I left his house last night.” He took another pull on the cigar. “I also grabbed his phone and sent out a few incriminating texts.”
“Who did you send after me?”
“A friend who takes care of problems for me from time to time.”
“What’s his name?”
“He’s former Finnish Special Forces. You don’t know him.”
That also rang a bell, but Drenna still couldn’t come up with a name. “Try me.”
Corbin tossed his cigar into the pool. “Anyway, I’m getting bored. Let’s get this over with.”
“I have a question.”
“I know you’re trying to buy time, but it’s not going to work.” He smiled. “But I’ll give you one last question.”
“How did you know I was meeting Nathan for dinner on the night I met Trevor? It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
Corbin gave her a blank stare. “Trevor?”
“My boyfriend.”
Corbin paused for a moment then asked, “You think your boyfriend was working with us?”
“Don’t even try to deny it. I went through Petrov’s phone. The two of them spoke several times in the days leading up to our trip to West Virginia.”
Corbin chuckled. “This is truly funny.”
His reaction seemed genuine. Drenna wondered if there was some angle she hadn’t considered. Maybe he was just playing games. Maybe he was going to let her think Trevor wasn’t involved, only to burst her bubble later.
“You know, I should have let you take that lie to the grave. But since the cat’s out of the bag, I guess I’ll tell you the truth.” He paused for a moment. “No, he wasn’t working for us.”
Drenna was confused. Corbin didn’t seem to have a reason to lie, particularly since she was the one who’d brought it up. And yet she knew what she had seen on the call log. “Then why was Nikita Petrov talking to him?”
“Because that’s how we got the tracker on your little boyfriend’s phone.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Once I found out you were dating this guy, I realized there was an opportunity to track your movements when you were here in the States.”
“Why not just hack my phone?”
“Because the only phone I knew about was your official one, and you’ve told me several times you never use it.”
He was right about that. She used the official phone only to discuss mundane matters within the agency. She used burners when out in the field. She had a personal phone, but the account was set up in her sister Elena’s name. No one knew about it except her.
“I had one of my friends over at the NSA put together a file that we sent him by text,” Corbin continued. “It looked like an official update from his cell phone provider. In truth, the file contained Trojan malware that would allow us to track all calls and texts.”
“Someone from the NSA was helping you?”
“Yes, but he had no idea this little stunt had anything to do with you.”
“It still doesn’t make sense. I saw actual calls between Trevor and Petrov.”
“Apparently, your boyfriend isn’t good about updating his phone, so we had to call him a few times to get him to do it. Nikita had his girlfriend do all the talking. She’s Australian but can do a very good American accent.”
Drenna caught her breath as a wave of bittersweet emotion shook through her. Trevor had been faithful all along. Their connection had been real. Their love for one another had been real. If she had to die, at least she’d be able to do so knowing that the only man she had ever loved hadn’t betrayed her.
Corbin lifted his pistol. “I guess we’ll do this like the movies. Any final requests?”
Largo stood and began barking. At first Drenna thought he was barking at
the gun being raised, but then she saw his gaze was fixed on the pool house.
“I do have a request,” she replied. “Make sure you kill me with one shot. I wasn’t too impressed with the one that hit Nathan.”
“It worked, didn’t it? But don’t worry your pretty little head. You won’t feel a thing.”
Drenna had thought about making a run for it but quickly decided against it. She would never be able to get away. Corbin might miss once or twice, but with a full magazine at his disposal, it was only a matter of time before he brought her down.
Not only that, but she refused to be shot in the back. If she had to die, she would do it while facing her killer.
As Corbin centered the gun on Drenna’s chest, the dog’s barks grew more vicious. The animal moved across the patio, dragging the chair behind her.
Something was out there.
Drenna looked briefly toward the pool house before shifting her gaze back to Corbin.
Seconds later, a shot rang out.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Drenna smiled at Mack Delgado, who sat across from her. “I guess I owe you a beer.”
It was the first time either of them had spoken in five minutes.
“If that’s the way we’re settling up, then make it a case,” he replied.
The two were seated at one of the poolside tables behind Corbin’s house. Largo the German shepherd was still tethered to a chair yards away. The dog wasn’t showing any signs of the aggression that had been there before. Drenna found the whole thing odd. The death of its owner seemed to put the dog at peace. It made her wonder if Corbin had abused the animal.
Looking back, she realized she should have paid more attention to the dog’s behavior. If she had, she might have seen Mack Delgado creeping out from behind the pool house, pistol in hand. Fortunately, Corbin hadn’t paid attention either. He had probably assumed his dog was reacting to the scent of a coyote. In the end, his lust to kill had led to his own death.
“So, what tipped you off that Gabe was somehow caught up in all of this?” Drenna asked.
“I started to get suspicious soon after a meeting we had with Nathan. That was the first time Gabe and I told him about our theory that you might be alive. Nathan told us to forget looking for you. Instead, he told us to focus on finding the people who tried to kill you, and he told us to start with the agency itself. It was clear he thought we had a mole.”
Drenna nodded.
“From that point on, Gabe changed. He seemed irritable and distracted. I also caught him having a strange conversation out in the garden.”
Drenna knew Delgado was referring to the Memorial Garden, which was located behind the CIA’s main building. It was a quiet outdoor area where employees went when they needed quiet reflection.
“A few nights ago, the two of us were working late,” Delgado continued. “At one point, I decided to go outside to get some fresh air and clear my mind. The garden is usually deserted at night, but when I got there, I heard someone talking in a loud and agitated tone. I saw the silhouette of a man standing by the pond, and it didn’t take me long to realize it was Gabe.”
“What was he saying?”
“His back was to me, so I never heard.”
Drenna frowned. “So what’s the big deal? I’ve had a few nasty conversations out there myself.”
“The big deal is this. I’ve never seen him in the garden before.”
“Not even to smoke a cigar?”
Delgado shook his head. “He always smokes right outside the building. But him being in the garden wasn’t the only thing I found strange. It was also his behavior when he saw me walking toward him. Instead of continuing his conversation, he got off the phone right away.”
“So what did you say to him?”
“I asked him what he was doing out there, and he concocted some story about a plumber refusing to take responsibility for a faulty repair at his house. It was an obvious lie. If that was the reason he was on the phone, then he wouldn’t have gotten off.”
Drenna nodded. “I agree. That was odd.”
“Anyway, I watched him closely after that. One afternoon, I heard him tell a colleague he was going out for a smoke. As you know, he does that a lot. What made this so surprising is that it was raining at the time. The man hates getting wet, so I followed him out on a whim.”
“Weren’t you scared he’d get suspicious if he caught you out there spying on him?” Drenna asked. “You had already caught him once before.”
“I kept my distance this time,” Delgado answered. “Anyway, he was on the phone again, and I could tell it was another difficult conversation. Never once did he light up a cigar.”
“Interesting.”
“I also knew it couldn’t be the phony plumber act again because he had already told me that got resolved.”
Drenna was about to pose another question when she heard Largo give a low growl. She noticed the dog was looking toward the pool house again. Drenna started to get concerned that someone might be sneaking around, but the dog eventually put its head down again and closed its eyes.
“At that point, I was pretty sure we had a problem, so I put a tracker on his car,” Delgado continued. “The first thing that caught my attention was when he left the office last night. Instead of heading out here, he drove across the Potomac into DC. That was really strange.”
Drenna frowned. “Why was that strange?”
“Gabe hated DC. He avoided it like the plague. Not only that, but there was a storm coming through. No way he would go out in that mess unless it was something important.”
Drenna nodded. Now that she thought about it, he probably wouldn’t have ventured into the city unless he had a very good reason. Like killing me.
“I was curious about what he was up to, so I got in my car and followed. By the time I left the parking lot, I could see that his car had been stationary for some time.”
“Where was it?”
“A block north of Adams Morgan. At that point, I thought it might be legitimate, since I knew Nathan lived close to where Gabe was parked. I thought maybe the two had decided to talk about something away from the office. To be honest, I thought both of them might be involved in all this.”
Drenna nodded but said nothing.
“I never made it there. Traffic was bad with all the bad weather, so by the time I made it across the river, I could see that the signal was moving back toward me. So I pulled into a parking lot in Georgetown and waited. I was just about to call it a night when I saw that he had turned east on R Street. His location was only about five minutes away from my position at the time, so I decided to follow him.”
“He thought he was going to meet me,” Drenna said.
Earlier, she had told Delgado about the text she had received from Nathan Sprague’s phone, asking her to meet at the outdoor shelter.
“It was raining hard, so I was never able to see him in the park. After forty-five minutes or so, I saw the lights of a car turn on about a block away, and the signal moved off.”
“So why did you come out here tonight?”
“To confront him.” Delgado paused. “I still didn’t know exactly what he was up to. I thought perhaps he might have uncovered something about your disappearance and was keeping it to himself. If so, I wanted to help. I also knew he might have gone rogue, which was why I brought my service weapon.”
“So you drove up to the front of the house?”
He nodded. “I was about to ring the front doorbell when I heard voices back here.”
Silence fell between them. Drenna glanced over at Largo. The dog seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
Delgado rubbed his face then looked at her. “How could I have been so ignorant? How could I not have known?”
“What about me?” Drenna asked. “And what about Nathan? He fooled all of us.”
“But neither of you worked with him as closely as I did.”
“I don’t know if this is the right word, but I think it�
�s pretty clear he was psychotic. I think he was able to transition back and forth between his two worlds without showing any outward signs that would give away his secrets. You noticed a change in behavior, but that was after things started falling apart.”
“I guess the Phantom was a pretty apt name.”
“Indeed.”
Delgado exhaled and pulled out his phone. “Shall we make the call?”
Drenna suddenly remembered something she had meant to bring up earlier. “Before we do that, we need to find the man who came after me. I’ve seen him somewhere before. I’m sure of it.”
“Drenna, come on. It’s over. We’ll work on that when—”
“No, when the FBI gets here, they’ll take control of all the evidence. We don’t investigate crimes. You know that.”
“After all you and I have done off the books, I really don’t think we should—”
“I just need to check one thing. It will only take five minutes.”
Before he could protest, she stood and went over to Corbin’s body. She rummaged through his clothing before finally locating a cell phone in one of the pants pockets. She swiped the screen saver then exhaled when the phone opened without requiring a password.
Delgado came over to where she was standing. “What are you doing?”
“Obviously, he’s been communicating with the assassin, this man from Finland. I’m going to see what they’ve been saying to one another, then we’ll go from there.”
“He may have more than one phone.”
He was right, but they might as well start with this one. Drenna opened the texting app and saw Corbin’s most recent exchange was with someone whose name wasn’t listed in the contacts. She stared at the number. It seemed to be of European origin.
“Did you find anything?” Delgado asked.
“I think so,” she whispered. “Give me a sec.”
Drenna opened the thread and read the messages, starting with the most current and working her way back. She had read through only a half dozen when she felt the blood drain from her face.
Delgado seemed to sense something was wrong. “What is it?”
Drenna struggled to breathe as she read through the exchange. No, it can’t be. It can’t be.