How much time was left? How much had he wasted on that kid? Was Ivy okay? Had she found her target?
It would have been ideal if they could have coordinated moving in on their two targets at the same time. In reality, Killam knew what the end result would be.
He couldn’t disarm whatever was under the car. Not like Ivy could. He hadn’t exactly decided what he was going to do. It all boiled down to time that wasn’t on his side.
Like usual, he’d figure it out as he went.
Killam cut toward the curb and slowed, his gaze searching through the crowd.
There.
Something glinted red.
His heart fell.
Of course it would be red.
The other two cars were fakes. Expensive cars, but not what their packaging promised. The red Lamborghini Aventador was exactly what it pretended to be.
Killam glanced over his shoulder.
If the Lamborghini was here, then Ivy should have found the Rimac C Two by now.
In another world or another life, he’d hope for the chance to spend more than a few days together. Even their couple weeks holed up in that farm house somewhere in France waiting to see how things went would be better than this. But he rarely got what he wanted in life.
Killam turned his focus back on the car.
Did he dare try to remove the device? What the hell was he going to do?
He cut back across the walkway, watching the crowd for anyone paying attention to him.
There was what? Fifteen minutes left? Twenty if they were lucky?
His head wasn’t in the game. Time felt as though it were passing oddly. Probably because his head was a hundred yards back. With Ivy.
God, he hoped she was okay.
Killam’s gaze jumped back to a too familiar face.
He locked eyes with a man dressed in an old T-shirt and jeans.
Miran.
A distant gunshot spurred Killam into action.
He threw himself sideways.
The gun in Miran’s hand went off.
The bullet hit the tree, sending chunks of wood and splinters sailing through the air. Killam felt them dig into his flesh as he yanked his gun out.
People screamed and ran.
“God damn it,” Killam muttered.
Miran roared.
Killam sidestepped directly into his path.
The bigger man rammed into Killam.
Killam staggered back, going down. He rolled on instinct, coming up on his knees.
Miran kicked out, but he was too far away. The motion set him off balance.
Killam charged the man, toppling him easily. Except Miran got hold of Killam, pulling him to the ground with him.
The two men tumbled. Killam struck out with his fists.
From somewhere on the green he heard another gunshot.
Time was ticking down.
Ivy’s life depended on him.
Pain shot up and down Killam’s side. It was white hot fire, but he didn’t have time for sensations like pain or love.
He managed to drive his left fist into Miran’s face, knocking him back.
Killam scrambled to his feet, gun trained on the bigger man.
Miran shook his head, braced on his hands and knees.
“Get up,” Killam ordered.
Miran had to know how to stop this.
“Get up, I said.”
Miran pushed back to sit on his heels and held up both hands.
In his right hand he held a small remote the size of a credit card. Blood trickled down from his nose and smeared on his cheek.
“What did you do?” Killam demanded.
A strangled scream drew his attention.
The red car was smoking.
“Fuck,” Killam spat.
He hauled off and punched Miran. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head. With luck, someone would find him.
Killam sprinted for the car.
People were rushing away, but at least four lay on the ground, barely moving.
He pulled his shirt up over his face and shoved aside the nylon barrier. He jammed the key in the lock as his eyes began to burn. All the while he prayed that Ivy had gotten to the Rimac in time.
Killam cranked the engine and worked the foot pedals. The engine revved and the car vibrated with power. He shifted into drive, barreling through the nylon barrier, off the curb and clipped a police barricade there for the parade. A mounted officer’s horse skittered sideways as Killam pushed the car faster.
He didn’t know anything about the gas, what it would do, how potent it was.
Behind him, a thin plume of smoke rose in the air.
He turned onto Constitution Ave. Ahead of him the street curved, and beyond that was the Potomac.
He didn’t know a lot about devices like the one attached to the car, but if he’d learned anything it was that water and electronics didn’t mix.
Killam pushed the car as fast as he could, taking advantage of the lighter traffic.
His eyes blurred and burned. He coughed and swerved before he got it under control.
Those people had died almost on contact. How much had he been exposed to?
Just a little bit farther.
The avenue merged and flowed onto the bridge.
Killam floored it and cut across two lanes, aimed straight for the edge of the bridge. He braced himself and let go as the Lamborghini hit the rail. He felt the world twist and turn, gravity pulling him in all directions. He clung to the steering wheel, but the impact sent him into the glass and everything went dark.
His last thought was, Ivy. Her smile. And the hope that she was safe. It didn’t look like he was going to make good on his promise to protect her. Hopefully her faith in her people wasn’t misplaced. Most of all, he was sorry he wasn’t going to get that time with her.
MONDAY. NATIONAL MALL. Washington, DC.
Ivy sucked down air and stared off across the grass. That had sounded like the backfiring of a car amidst the chaos. But she couldn’t be certain.
Had Piers made it to the car in time?
“What’s going on?” Kelsey demanded. She still had her gun pressed to Zak’s back.
Nasar didn’t budge. He didn’t say anything. He stood with his hands at his sides, completely still. He was possibly the only calm person there.
“Kelsey, Ivy!”
She whipped her head around and stared at Logan, flanked by Tucker and Jamie rushing toward them. They had on blue windbreakers with FBI emblazoned on the chest in bright yellow. Ivy eyed them warily.
The two CIA agents who’d tried to kill her and Piers were still out there somewhere.
“What’s going on?” she asked, needing to know something.
Had anyone heard from or seen Piers? Where was he?
Logan glanced from Kelsey to her and back to Kelsey.
“Logan,” Ivy snapped.
“We’re not sure, but it sounds like something went off on the north-western corner of the Mall.
“What?” Ivy took a step toward Logan, forgetting Nasar entirely.
Logan held up his hands. “Look, I need you to come with us—”
“Piers was headed that direction.” Ivy whirled.
The Mall was emptying of people. A few dazed individuals hurried about, but the crowds had rushed away.
She could see across the green now.
There was no red car.
Piers had said there was a silver one, a black one, and a red one.
She’d disarmed the silver and black ones, leaving the red one to him.
What had happened?
“What the hell’s going on?” Kelsey shoved Zak at Tucker. “Take these two.”
“Where is Piers? What happened?” Ivy demanded. Her cool composure was evaporating.
Kelsey stopped in her tracks. Her big, brown eyes locked with Ivy’s and only got larger.
“Oh, shit,” Kelsey muttered.
“What?” Ivy demanded, desperation making her knees s
hake.
“Keys.” Kelsey thrust her hand at Logan.
“Kelsey.” His growling voice was full of warning.
Kelsey whirled on him. “Give me the keys now, Logan, or so help me God... You sent her into this. You don’t get to be pissed at how this is going down. Keys.”
“Here.” Jamie thrust them at Kelsey.
Logan grabbed Ivy’s arm. “Give me the gun.”
She thrust it at him. If she was with Kelsey, she hopefully wouldn’t need it. And if giving it up meant she got to find out where Piers was, she didn’t have to think twice about it.
“Come on.” Kelsey grabbed Ivy’s hand and took off at a run.
Ivy sprinted to keep up with the shorter woman.
Kelsey waved the keys around as they reached the road.
“Where the fuck is it?” she growled, sounding a lot like Logan.
A SUV’s lights flashed. “There!”
Both Ivy and Kelsey put on a burst of speed.
Ivy threw herself into the passenger seat as Kelsey started the truck.
Ivy twisted to face the other woman. They’d worked together for a week. They didn’t know each other all that well, but Ivy had liked her. She hoped that sentiment wasn’t misplaced. “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
Kelsey licked her lips and shifted into drive, then glanced at Ivy. “A red sports car just went into the Potomac.”
“No,” Ivy whispered.
Why? Why would Piers do that? Or was he forced off the road?
“Fucking tall men and their stupid long legs.” Kelsey perched on the very edge of the seat. The SUV lurched forward. “I don’t know all the details. What were you doing to that car?”
“Zak and Miran Samaan stole the cars from Piers and attached some kind of gas. We don’t know what it is, but they tested out the delivery system on us. Me. The other girls on the plane when we left.”
“Oh my God,” Kelsey muttered.
“I got the detonators on the silver and black cars taken apart.” Ivy pulled the pieces out from her hoodie. “But Piers was going for the last one. You said...”
People had died on the north-western corner of the Mall.
Ivy swallowed.
Sinking the device would have been her go to move if she couldn’t dismantle the detonator. The water would destroy the electronic pieces. What would the gas do in the water? Would it still be released? What would it do to the water? The ecosystem?
She didn’t have any answers.
Kelsey swung around the Lincoln Memorial, blazing past the few cars on the road until they were on the waterfront.
Ivy gripped the arm rests and stared at the broken railing of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. People stood there, looking into the water and pointing.
She followed their fingers to the water with its pristine surface.
There wasn’t a bubble in sight.
Kelsey pulled off. Ivy jumped out of the SUV before it was completely still and sprinted for the sidewalk.
Where was he? Where was the car?
She slowed as she reached the railing.
Piers would have crashed into the water while they were standing there.
They’d used, what? Five, ten minutes getting here?
He could be dead.
Ivy yanked her hoodie over her head.
“Ivy!” Kelsey grabbed Ivy with both hands.
“Let go of me.”
“Think! Think, Ivy.”
“Piers is down there.”
Ivy twisted out of the other woman’s arms and vaulted over the rail, plunging into the cool waters. Her whole system felt the shock of it. For a second she allowed herself to feel the cold. Then she pushed it away and moved. Her arms reached out. She kicked her legs, working against the current.
The car would have landed ten or fifteen feet from the bridge. As it sank it the current would carry it farther.
She could be right on top of it.
The water was so dark. Not a shimmer off a bumper or anything.
Ivy dove into the darkness, gritting her teeth as they tried to chatter.
It wasn’t cold, just cool. She could do this.
She searched the depths until her lungs ached, but found nothing except silt.
The light beckoned her above.
She broke the surface, gulping down air.
“Ivy! There she is,” a voice called out.
She tread water and searched the shore. Kelsey stood with several big men now. At this distance she couldn’t say if she knew them or not.
“Did you find him?” Ivy called out.
No one answered her.
She looked back at the bridge and how far she’d gone downstream and her heart fell.
Had she even been looking in the right spot? Could Piers possibly still be alive?
No. No, she couldn’t think like that.
Ivy took a deep breath and plunged back below the water’s surface.
Piers hadn’t left her behind. He’d been there for her. And now she’d find him. They were a team. He’d said so himself.
20.
Tuesday. Logan’s Apartment. Washington, DC.
Ivy sat with her legs curled under her in the big armchair. The doctor had been in to check on her again. She was no longer suffering from hypothermia, yet her insides were numb. Kelsey said she was likely still in shock or something. All Ivy knew was that Piers was gone and she was alone.
She’d never been able to find him or the car. Not by herself or when Logan and the others jumped in to help her search. She’d have kept going if they hadn’t hauled her out. She’d been too tired to fight them by that point. She couldn’t struggle anymore, so she’d given in.
Damn it. She should have kept fighting.
“Ivy?”
She lifted her chin and looked across Logan’s living room at him and Zora.
He nodded at the untouched cup of coffee in front of Ivy. “You going to drink that?”
“Sure.” She reached for the cup mechanically.
“I don’t think this is helping,” Zora said under her breath.
This debrief was supposed to have happened in the conference room, but when Kelsey had come to get Ivy from the safe house, they’d come here instead.
“Just be patient,” Logan said to Zora.
“No new updates in the last twenty minutes?” Ivy asked.
He cleared his throat. “Local cops are going to drag the river today. Haul the car out.”
Ivy nodded.
Eventually someone had found the red sports car. She’d been pulled out of the water by then so she hadn’t seen it herself, but she’d heard the description.
The windshield had been blown off. The windows, too. There hadn’t been a body inside, but the prevailing theory was that Piers had died in the car and his body washed out to the ocean by now.
He was just gone.
Like a shadow.
It seemed fitting somehow. And yet, wrong.
They were supposed to have time together. Not much, but a little. And now that would never happen.
“Ivy, we need to hear your side of what went on,” Logan said.
She nodded. “Do I start now, or are you going to record me?”
“We’re recording this.” Zora set her phone on the coffee table. “State your name for the record?”
“Ivy Ashley.”
“Logan Muller, Aegis Group.”
“Zora Clark, NSA.” She shifted in her seat. “Ivy, can you tell us about your undercover mission?”
“Yes.” Ivy sipped the coffee while her mind flipped back to that first day.
It felt like turning the pages of a book, and there in the very beginning was Piers. It had begun with him, and he’d ended it. That should have been her job, not his.
He was back-up.
“Friday, October twenty-first I appeared at the residence of Jabir al Saud to interview to be part of his harem. Undercover, of course.” She hadn’t thought out what she’d say, so
she wound up telling all of it.
The nude interview.
Her commentary on the Shrew Squad.
London and Nor.
But she held back when it came to Piers. She couldn’t go there. Her heart was too fragile, too ready to shatter.
She’d lost him and she’d never really had him.
“What can you tell us about the device on the plane?” Zora asked.
“Nothing, really.” Ivy shrugged. “We didn’t see, smell or hear anything. We slept soundly and woke up feeling hungover. At least London and myself. The other girls weren’t really talking to us by then.”
Zora leaned forward. “Can you go over the night you escaped one more time?”
Ivy shuddered and gripped her now cold cup. “Do I have to?”
“Start with you and Piers,” Logan said.
She nodded. That she could do.
Ivy detailed their trip to the server room, the power outage taking longer than expected and their flight through the night. And right back to Al Hofuf.
“These two men, did they show you badges? Credentials?” Zora asked.
“No. We didn’t get the chance to ask for them.” Ivy finally lifted her gaze to study Zora in kind. “What happened there? This could have all ended differently if...”
Zora’s face remained devoid of expression while Logan found a spot on the ground to stare at.
“What happened?” Ivy asked again.
Logan answered her, not Zora. “We have an information leak.”
“Logan,” Zora snapped.
“What?” He snapped right back. “Kelsey is right, and you know it.”
Ivy couldn’t muster any satisfaction about that statement. None whatsoever.
There was a leak. A mole. Someone on their team divulging their plans. And that had led Ivy and Piers into a trap. A trap that ultimately cost Piers his life.
A bit of sensation broke through the numbness. Bubbles of anger.
How had they seen fit to send her out there, knowing there were holes in their boat? Had they even thought about the cost to her? Piers? What they were risking?
“I’m done here,” Ivy announced and pushed to her feet.
“Sit back down,” Zora demanded.
Ivy stared across the room at her. “You knowingly sent Piers and myself on a job with things this fucked up. I did the job. You got what you wanted. People died. Innocent people. Piers. And getting me to relive it all isn’t going to change anything. You got what you wanted. Listen to the God damn recording if you want to hear me tell it again. I’m done.”
Necessary Risk (Aegis Group Task Force Book 4) Page 27