by Janie Crouch
“Yes, there’s always lots of trouble with my parties.” Smith chuckled. “And I trust our lovely Sophia had a good time, also? She looked beautiful last night.”
Smith wasn’t giving away much. Cam grinned again. “She didn’t seem to have any complaints.”
“Glad to hear that. Tell me a little more about Sophia. You seem quite taken with her. You met her for the first time a few days ago at the warehouse?”
These questions were not going in the direction Cameron had wanted. He couldn’t quite determine their purpose. Did Smith know something? Was he setting up Cam? Or did he just like the sordid little details of other people’s lives?
He wouldn’t put any of it past Smith.
Cam decided to play it on the assumption that Smith didn’t really know anything. It was his only real option anyway. To make up some sort of history between he and Sophia now would just be suspicious. “Yeah, at the warehouse, where Marco found her.”
“And you think she was there to try to sell us the information she had about Ghost Shell.”
“Yeah, that’s what she told me. Honestly, really, I just thought she was hot. I wasn’t thinking much past that.” Better to come across as careless, rather than a traitor.
“But when Fin and Rick were about to eliminate her, you stopped them.”
Cam looked at Smith then over at McNeil, who still was leaning against the wall. “Yeah, it seemed like a waste.” Cam shrugged. “She knew stuff that was helpful about Ghost Shell so I thought we should bring her to you and let you decide.”
“I see.” Smith sat back in his chair.
“I mean, I know she wants you to pay her money, Mr. Smith. But at least Ghost Shell will still work with her help. And it sounded like you would make much more from selling it than what she was asking.” Cameron injected a bit of nervousness into his tone, which wasn’t difficult.
“Yes, that’s true,” Smith responded, leaning back in his chair. “The problem is that I have Mr. McNeil here, who tells me that the information Sophia provided was not correct.”
Cameron looked over at Fred McNeil. “Oh, okay. Are you a computer specialist guy or something?” Cam added just a little bit of mockery. Perhaps he could discredit this guy. But it was a long shot.
Fred snorted. “No. I am definitely not any type of computer geek.”
“Then how do you know that Sophia isn’t telling the truth?”
Mr. Smith answered for Fred. “Because Mr. McNeil is on my payroll and has been for years. He works for the FBI.”
This was not what Cameron wanted to hear on multiple levels. First, because a mole selling secrets to DS-13 was never good, but more important, because this meant Sophia was really in trouble. Tonight was going to be too late to get her out. She’d be dead long before then.
Cameron shot from his chair. “Whoa. FBI? I don’t want to have anything to do with an FBI agent.” He had to stall. Figure out what to do.
His sudden movement had put McNeil on the defensive. His hand was already at his weapon.
“Calm down, Cam,” Smith told him. “Obviously, Fred is not here to arrest anyone. He wouldn’t be much use to me if he was, would he?”
Cam pretended to process that. He sat back down slowly. “No, I guess not.” He glared over at Fred. “Sorry. Not a big fan of law enforcement.”
Fred just rolled his eyes and Cam could tell that he’d just written Cameron off as being just another dumb thug. Good.
But Smith didn’t seem quite as quick to lump Cam in that category. “Fred informs me that what Sophia said about some secret fail-safe code is not accurate.”
“Maybe she knows something he doesn’t.”
Fred pushed himself away from the wall and came to stand closer to Smith’s desk. “Look, Sophia Reardon is a graphic artist for the FBI. She’s not an agent. She’s not in the cyberterrorism division. She made up all that crap about a special code.”
“How do you know?” Cameron asked.
“Because I was the person who acquired Ghost Shell for DS-13,” Fred sneered. “Some goody-goody computer scientist at a technology company contacted us a few months ago in fear that something like Ghost Shell was being developed. Guess who happened to be assigned that call?”
“You?” That would explain a lot. How Ghost Shell got into DS-13’s hands so quickly. And why the FBI was so clueless. The FBI may not even officially know that Ghost Shell existed. Omega Sector knew of its existence, but Omega had resources and connections the Bureau didn’t have.
Agent McNeil rolled his eyes. “Yes, obviously. Me. So when I say your lady friend is lying, I know what I’m talking about. I know things that are going on in the FBI, the CIA and even some agencies you’ve never even heard of.”
Things had just gone from bad to hell-in-a-handbasket. Obviously discrediting Agent McNeil wasn’t going to work. And his bragging about unknown agencies—was McNeil referring to Omega? A mole in Omega would be ugly. Life-threatening, not only to Cameron, but also multiple other agents. Agents that included his family and friends.
Mr. Smith stood up. “Fin, get Rick and have him fetch Ms. Reardon and bring her here.” Smith smiled over at Agent McNeil. “Rick has a nice cruel streak I find useful in these types of situations.”
Cameron didn’t turn around as he heard the door click behind him. He had to do something, fast. But pulling his SIG out now wouldn’t do anything but get him killed.
“You were the one we couldn’t figure out, Cam.” Smith turned his attention back to Cameron. “Whether you were working with Ms. Reardon to cheat me of money.”
Cam held his hands out in front of him. “Whoa. I just met this chick a couple of days ago! I thought I was helping you, Mr. Smith, honest. I had no idea she was trying to scam you.”
Smith walked over to one of his large bookshelves. “I actually believe you, Cam. Not because of what you’re saying right now, but because given the timeline of the development and our acquisition of Ghost Shell and Fin’s ability to account for your location during that time, I believe you when you say you just met Ms. Reardon. Although I must admit, I hope you’re not too fond of her, given what’s about to happen.”
Cameron watched as Smith reached over, pulled down a book from the bookshelf and opened it. Inside was a cleverly hidden keypad and biometrics scanner, into which Smith punched a code and provided his thumbprint. The entire bookshelf spun and opened.
This was much more than the safe he and Sophia had found last night. And with the security measures Smith had, there was no way they would’ve been able to break in. Obviously he and Sophia hadn’t been as close to discovering Ghost Shell as Cameron had thought.
Smith looked at Cameron and Agent McNeil, obviously happy to show off a bit. “Gentlemen, my panic room. Although, I rarely panic so I haven’t had much use for it in that sense.” Chuckling, Smith walked into the room. “It’s fabulous, isn’t it? And here is the Ghost Shell drive for which Ms. Reardon is determined to try to cheat me out of two million dollars.” Smith reached over and pulled an external hard drive from one of the shelves. It was black, not too big. So benign-looking.
Cameron knew instantly what he had to do; he wouldn’t get another chance like this. He could grab Ghost Shell and get Sophia out. It meant not being able to arrest Smith, but it was a trade-off Cameron was willing to make.
Cameron pulled his weapon out and pointed it at Agent McNeil. He knew that man was armed. Smith he wasn’t sure about, but knew not to take him lightly.
“Sorry, Mr. Smith. But I’m going to have to take Ghost Shell off your hands.” Cam decided to try to keep his undercover identity intact. Let them think he was just stealing from them out of greed. Both Smith and McNeil spun to look at Cam. McNeil made a move toward his weapon. “Nope, Agent McNeil. I need you to keep your hands right in front of you where I can see them. You, too, M
r. Smith.”
Cameron kept the weapon pointed at McNeil as he walked over and took the man’s gun from its holster.
Anger radiated from Smith’s cold eyes. “So you did know Sophia?”
“Nope,” Cameron told Smith, popping the P in the word as he reached over to take the hard drive from his hands. “But let’s just say she convinced me of Ghost Shell’s true value and that I could make a lot more money selling it on my own.”
“Cam,” Smith said, obviously trying to get his temper under control. “This isn’t what you want to do. DS-13 is not an enemy you want to have. Even if you kill me, others will hunt you down.”
Cameron knew Smith was stalling for time. Fin and Rick would be back with Sophia any minute and Cam would lose the advantage. “I think half a billion dollars will buy me pretty ample security.” Cameron looked around the panic room. He had no idea what sort of communicative measures it had. He destroyed what he could see: ripping out a landline telephone and all the cords attached to a computer that sat in a corner. Cameron was sure there were other ways to communicate from inside the panic room, but hoped this would give him enough time to get Sophia out of the house.
Cameron stepped backward until he was just inside the door, weapon still pointing at the two men. “You’re going to regret this,” Smith spat at Cameron.
“Maybe,” Cameron responded and then fired his gun at the keypad inside the door, blasting it into little pieces. Hopefully that would keep McNeil and Smith in there at least a little while.
Now the countdown had really started—somebody was bound to have heard the shot. Cameron stepped all the way out of the room and pressed the button that closed the door on the hidden book keypad. Smith’s eyes were still shooting daggers at Cam as the door closed with a resounding thud. Cameron wasted no time and ran out of the office, Ghost Shell hard drive firmly in his hand.
He was carefully heading back down the hall toward the bedroom when he heard Sophia screaming his name in terror.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When Cameron left to go see Smith, Sophia decided to be ready. Ready for exactly what, she wasn’t sure. But when he got back, she wanted to be ready.
Her shoulder was bothering her more than she had let on to Cameron, and it was becoming more stiff and difficult to move. Bending down to put on her socks and shoes caused a throbbing in her shoulder, but Sophia ignored the pain as best she could. A tap on the door startled her.
“Yes?” she asked as she walked slowly over to it. Sophia didn’t want to open it, although recognized the lock on the door wouldn’t keep anyone out if they were determined to get in.
“A breakfast tray for you, Ms. Reardon,” a female voice said from the other side of the door. Sophia opened it hesitantly, but saw it was indeed just a woman with a tray in her hands. Moving aside, Sophia allowed the woman to bring in the tray and watched as she set it on the table and left without another word. The woman closed the door with a resounding thud as she left.
Was it just Sophia’s imagination, or had the woman seemed hostile and suspicious? Did she know something Sophia didn’t? Did everyone know who she and Cameron really were?
Or was it a woman just doing her job who had other tasks to get back to and didn’t want to waste any time? Also a perfectly reasonable explanation.
See? This was why Sophia wasn’t meant to do undercover work. Save that for the trained agents. It was too easy to reflect her own paranoia onto others’ actions when there was no tangible reason to think they suspected something.
Sophia walked over to the table where the woman had set the tray. She reached down and took a spoonful of the fruit salad. Poison momentarily crossed her mind but Sophia shrugged and kept on eating. At this point either it was poisoned or it wasn’t; she wasn’t going to worry about it.
A knock at the door again startled Sophia. Had the woman forgotten something?
“Yes?” Sophia asked as she opened the door. But it was Rick leaning in her doorway, not the woman with the tray.
Sophia tried to shut the door again, but Rick easily blocked it. When he took a step toward her, Sophia jerked back. She realized the mistake instantly—backing up allowed Rick to enter the room and shut the door behind him.
She heard him click the lock and knew she was in trouble.
“You’ve got on quite a bit more clothes than when I saw you last night.”
Sophia ignored that. “What are you doing here, Rick? Cam’s not here.”
Rick’s grin was predatory. “Oh, I know. He’s in a meeting with Mr. Smith.” He took another step toward Sophia and she backed up again, but realized she was getting close to the bed—absolutely the last place she wanted to be near with Rick in the room—so she turned and strode over to the tray with the food.
“Yeah, that’s right, he’s with Mr. Smith. But he’ll be back in just a minute.” Sophia prayed the words sounded more confident than she felt. She picked up a grape and popped it in her mouth in what she hoped was complete nonchalance.
Rick smirked. “I don’t think so. Mr. Smith had some pretty important stuff to talk to him about.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?” Another grape. Anything that kept Rick on the other side of the room talking.
The gleam that entered Rick’s eyes told Sophia she had asked exactly what he wanted her to ask. “This and that. But mostly about you.”
Sophia tried not to react.
“What about me?”
“Evidently you haven’t been telling the truth about everything, have you?” Rick made a tsking sound. “Mr. Smith has some FBI agent guy who really knows about that Ghost software thing and he basically called you a liar.” Rick glowed with glee.
Sophia felt paralyzed with indecision. Did Cameron know what was going on? Had Smith already done something to Cameron? Sophia thought about what had happened to Cameron’s partner—Smith had had him assassinated. She couldn’t bear to think of anything like that happening to Cam so she pushed the thought aside.
Should she run? Try to find Cameron? Rick was strutting closer, that perverse smirk still blanketing his face. Sophia knew one thing: staying in this room with Rick was not a good idea.
“Whatever. This is just a misunderstanding. I’ll just go set Mr. Smith straight right now.” She headed toward the door, until Rick stepped right in front of her.
“Oh, don’t worry, Mr. Smith sent me in here to get you. Looks like you need to be questioned with force and he knows I’m the best man for that job.” Rick chuckled darkly, cracking his knuckles. Sophia felt bile pooling in her stomach. “But I thought you and I could have a few minutes in here first. So I could get a taste of what you were teasing me with last night.”
Sophia darted to the side to run around Rick but he was too fast. He grabbed her by both arms and threw her toward the bed. Sophia let out a loud moan at the pain in her injured arm, and spun for the door again. But Rick was ready for her.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” He grabbed her from behind, wrapping both arms around her. His breath was sour at her cheek. Sophia tried to get away but couldn’t and knew that Cameron was too far away in Smith’s office to hear her scream. Screaming would only bring more of Smith’s men in here. “C’mon,” Rick said softly. “I’m not asking for anything you haven’t already given Cam. What’s the big deal?”
“Let. Me. Go.” Sophia held herself absolutely still, since the only other option was wiggling all over Rick. “Why would I do anything with you when you basically just told me you were going to torture me for Smith a few seconds ago?”
Rick’s grip loosened just a little. Maybe he never considered the fact that him informing her of upcoming torture wouldn’t make her want to jump into bed with him. Sophia shuddered. As if she would jump into bed with him for any reason.
“Maybe we can work out some sort of a trade-off,” Sophia whispere
d, turning. “I give you what you want now and you see what you can do to take it easy on me a little later.”
Rick considered that then nodded enthusiastically. “Um, yeah, that sounds good.” The lie was plain to see in his eyes and Sophia barely refrained from rolling hers.
“Great. We’ve got a deal.” Sophia forced herself to slide her hands up his arms, as if to embrace him. Rick’s foul breath hitting her full in the face was almost more than she could stand. Rick slid closer to kiss her, and although she knew she should let it go further than this without running, Sophia could not force herself to kiss him. She took a slight step back and brought her knee up as hard as she could into Rick’s groin.
Rick cried out and dropped to his knees, releasing Sophia. She ran toward the door, cursing as the lock slowed her down. Her fingers felt useless as she tried to get the lock to release. It finally did and Sophia frantically pulled the door open, only to have it slam back shut. She turned to find Rick’s hulking form looming over her.
“You’re going to regret that,” he sneered.
Sophia tried to run, but couldn’t get around him. His backhand came without warning and the blow threw Sophia to the ground. From the throbbing in her face, Sophia knew she had to get help. Anybody—no matter who a scream brought in. Rick was going to kill her.
She opened her mouth to scream, but Rick moved quicker than she thought him capable. He was on her in a moment with his meaty hand covering her mouth. “Shut up,” he growled.
Sophia immediately panicked. The need for air, to get the hand off her face so she could breathe, consumed her. She clawed at his hand, his face, anything she could reach. Vaguely she heard vile curses emanating from Rick, but paid no attention. Her only thought was for air.
Rick’s full weight was on her body now, making everything worse. She bucked and twisted sharply, causing Rick’s hand to slip off her face for a moment. Sophia screamed as loudly as she could.