Off Chance: A clean action adventure novella

by Glen Robins

  “It’ll probably take us a couple hours to get there, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Tomorrow, the real work begins.” Rob smiled without breaking his concentration.

  Collin shot Rob a questioning look, but Lukas provided the answer. “He’s right, Collin. We’ve got a lot to cover while we’re cruising. If you want to survive out there without being detected, you’ve got a few things you need to learn.”

  Collin’s face grew even more quizzical. “Geez, Lukas. Am I going back to grade school with a tutor?” His tone was surprisingly jovial. Collin always was a tease and it was good to see his mood back to form somewhat.

  Lukas chuckled. “I guess you could say that.”

  “And don’t forget,” Rob chimed in. “You’ve got to work for your food. You want fresh fish? You gotta catch it yourself.”

  ****

  And so it went for the next three days as the three friends made their way down the coast, motoring along at twenty-two knots per hour in the daylight, stopping along the way for gas in Monterrey, Santa Barbara, and again in Ventura, just to be safe. They bantered with each other, swapped stories, told jokes, shared opinions on everything from technology to politics to sports to the majesty of the ocean and nature. They basked in the tranquility of their surroundings and reveled in each other’s company. They hadn’t spent this kind of time together ever. It was a rare treat for each of them and a much-needed therapy session for Collin.

  A time or two, when the moment was right, Lukas and Rob were able to coax Collin into telling his story and talking about his loss. The pain was obvious, but so was his avoidance of the subject. He told them much about what happened the day of the accident—everything he could remember before he fainted and cracked his head on the coffee table. They learned that Emily had been in town and that she and Collin had had dinner together the night before. After admitting that and insisting that nothing happened, Collin clammed up and changed the topic.

  ****

  The last night of their epic journey had arrived. The boat bobbed in the swell as Collin stood on the back deck, barbequing the fish he had caught earlier in the afternoon. Anacapa Island rose like a dark monolith behind them and an orange sliver of clouds hung above the watery horizon off the bow. The three friends huddled around the barbeque, donning beanie caps, gloves, and parkas. A comfortable quiet had fallen among them, each man lost in his own thoughts until Collin broke the silence.

  “I wish this didn’t have to end. It’d be nice if we all could just hide out on the boat forever. Seems like no one would ever find me out here.”

  Lukas was trying to work out what to say. It would be insensitive to remind Collin that he and Rob had lives to get back to—people who depended on them. It didn’t feel right to explain that he really wanted to get back to his office and resume his pursuit of Penh so he could stop him from committing more atrocities. He didn’t know what to say, but Rob did.

  “I’d be all for it. Problem is, I don’t know how much longer we could survive on your cooking.”

  That was just like Rob. He always knew how to bring levity into a tense situation and make everyone laugh.

  Collin’s question, however, and the longing in his voice gave Lukas pause. Was he up for what lay ahead? Collin had put on a good show the past few days, but would he have the emotional fortitude to live a life on the run, traveling the world alone? Suddenly, the whole plan felt like it hung on flimsy hinges. Lukas shot Rob a furtive look, attempting to communicate his concern nonverbally. Rob picked up on it and gave a slight nod.

  “Look, Collin, let’s dump Lukas off in Marina Del Rey so he can go back to his boring job saving the world. Then you and I will do some more fishing and give you some more time to hone your culinary skills. We’re not in that big a hurry.”

  Lukas raised his eyebrows at Rob in appreciation.

  Collin nodded slowly, looking out at what remained of the sun’s glow. Lukas felt Collin’s emptiness. He stood and moved inside to the galley, ostensibly to grab another soda. Really, he just needed a moment alone to harden his tender emotions. It would not do to feed Collin’s sense of desperation. What Collin needed most right now was reassurance and confidence, not pity. Lukas hobbled down to the head and pretended to use the restroom while he gathered himself.

  When he returned to the back deck with sodas in hand, Collin was pulling two long fillets of perfectly seared tuna off the grill. The meat looked tender and the fixings smelled delicious. It would be their last supper together before Lukas’s departure. Try as he might, Lukas could not shake the dark sense of foreboding. Even with all of the knowledge he had imparted and Collin’s ability to learn quickly, Collin’s emotional state left too many question marks for Lukas’s comfort.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Marina Del Rey, California

  Seven and a half Years After Graduation From MIT

  Lukas dragged his bag behind him with one hand and clutched his cane with the other as he walked along the woodgrain composite dock toward the exit. Rob and Collin followed closely behind, escorting him to the waiting taxi. Lukas had to bury his misgivings and trust that Collin would adapt to his new life quickly and would stay below Penh’s radar long enough for Lukas and his NSA cohorts to figure out and then execute a reliable plan to ensnare him.

  Just before the ramp up to the exit gate, Rob came around Lukas’s left and dashed up to the wrought iron door adorned with mesh and a locking handle set deep in a metal sleeve to prevent break-ins. Rob held it open for Lukas and gestured for him to go first. What a gentleman.

  The taxi’s trunk popped open as the three approached and the driver jumped out and scurried around the rear of the car to greet them at the curb. He took Lukas’s bag and opened the rear passenger door for him. Lukas thanked him and turned to his two pals. “This has been fabulous, guys. Rob, this was the perfect setting to get our friend all set up and ready to go.” He turned to Collin who seemed to be forcing a hopeful smile onto his face. “You’re ready, Collin. Don’t doubt it. Just follow my instructions and keep to the plan, OK?”

  “Will do,” said Collin. “I can’t thank you enough for teaching me all this spy stuff and for pulling me out of the doldrums I was in. Even if you made up all the stuff about that Penh guy, I appreciate you launching me on this adventure.”

  Lukas chuckled. “Yeah, I made him up just so you’d have an excuse to explore the world.”

  “Two birds, one stone? Isn’t that what they say?”

  “Sure, Collin. That’s what this is.” Lukas grinned at the boyish outlook his friend continued to hold despite all of the trials he had faced. “Have fun when it’s time to have fun, but be serious when it’s time, too. Got that?”

  “Yeah, I got it. I’ll manage. I promise.”

  Lukas gave Collin and Rob each a big Austrian hug, then folded himself into the back seat of the brightly painted cab.

  As the car pulled away from the curb, Lukas waved. Once his friends were out of sight, he blew out a long sigh and held the sides of his head with both hands. Have I done the right thing? Was there any other way to keep Collin safe? Can he hold it together long enough?

  As the cab turned right onto Lincoln Boulevard, heading for LAX, Lukas looked out the window at the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. In some respects, he thought, the world was very large with plenty of places for a guy like Collin to hide. On the other hand, Penh was cunning, devious, and dedicated. With his technical skills and a pile of ill-gotten cash, he had everything he needed to find a civilian inexperienced in the art and science of running without leaving a digital trail. Surely, it was only a matter of time.

  Nonetheless, he knew there was no good place to hide. Penh would and could find Collin if he really wanted to, whether he holed up in some secret location or kept moving. For Collin’s mental health, being on the move was the best option, far better than sailing solo for the rest of his life.

  Lukas had done his best to train Collin. Now he had to trust Collin to be the same sm
art and resourceful guy he had always been. Lukas wanted more than anything to make Penh pay for his crimes, but he was not willing to sacrifice his friends in the process. He was anxious to return to Washington, meet with his team, roll up his sleeves, and get to work.

  Lukas pulled out his phone and sent a group text to his team. Assuming his flight would land on time at midnight, he called a team meeting at 6:30 the next morning. There was nothing like hitting the ground running. Lukas wanted to waste no time. Rob had promised to spend another two days with Collin, but he had to be in New York for meetings by the end of the week, so Collin would be on his own after that.

  According to the prescribed plan, Collin would first fly to Montreal, spend a few days there, then on to Rome and Paris and Madrid. Lukas had advised Collin to spend a week to ten days in each area, but never to spend more than two nights in the same hotel. He needed to keep moving. He needed to use cash whenever possible. And he needed to rotate through each of the falsified passports and the associated credit cards on a haphazard basis. That and change up his looks before each flight.

  Collin and Rob had a laundry list of things to acquire before Collin took off on his “adventure,” including prosthetic teeth, cheek implants, hair dye, several sets of glasses, and a variety of colored contact lenses. Confident that these things would help, and that Collin was onboard with the game plan, Lukas tried to settle in and enjoy the rest of the ride to LAX so he could focus on strategy during the five-hour flight to Thurgood Marshall Airport.

  It wasn’t a perfectly designed plan, but it was workable. Collin wasn’t one-hundred percent ready, but he knew enough. Lukas liked perfection and detested unknowns and surprises and loose ends. This hastily conceived idea had too many of those for his liking. It all came down to trust. The bond between himself and his friends was strong and had just been made stronger during the previous three days on the boat together.

  Lukas took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Trust them, he thought. This can work. It has to.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, Maryland

  Eight Years After Graduation From MIT

  Collin had been living on the run for six months and things had been going quite smoothly. His twice-daily check-ins gave no indication of trouble brewing. He seemed contented with his new life of travel and exploration, though at times the loneliness was obvious.

  Lukas did his best to keep Collin upbeat and positive. Due to the top secret nature of Lukas’s job, he could not divulge any progress on any of his cases, including the hunt for Penh, but he reassured his grieving friend that he was doing the right thing and that it would all be over soon so he could return home to his parents and friends.

  Internally, however, Lukas had much less confidence. Penh had eluded him and his team for most of the intervening time since Collin’s settlement. Only twice had he popped up on facial recognition software in any of the world’s airports. Both times he vanished as the net was closing in on him. While Lukas was annoyed at not yet having found his quarry, his respect for Penh continued to increase.

  In April, five months after Collin began his new life as a fugitive from a criminal, Penh emerged from a long interval underground. First, Lukas discovered him in the Bahamas. Two weeks later, he showed up in London. Each time Lukas got a bead on him, Penh disappeared as quickly as he had materialized from the shadows. The most concerning part of these appearances was the fact that they coincided with Collin’s arrival in each place. Penh had shown up a day after Collin had landed in each of those two locations.

  Lukas habitually kept his communications with Collin simple and to-the-point when discussing his adherence to the plan. He didn’t want to preach or scold or disapprove. Instead, he tried to encourage and uplift his ailing friend. Since Collin was untested in the field under stress, Lukas did not want to do or say anything to alarm him. If Collin panicked, that would be it. Game over.

  Sensing that Collin was in a particularly vulnerable state of mind as he toured the Bahamas, Lukas chose not to inform him of Penh’s presence on the island, chalking it up to coincidence—not that he believed in such things when it came to the likes of Pho Nam Penh. Nothing Penh did was whimsical or capricious. He was the calculating type who wasted no effort. Like a champion chess player, there was always a purpose to his every move that folded into a larger strategy. Always.

  When Penh arrived in London less than twenty-four hours after Collin touched down, Lukas knew something was up. He didn’t know what it was, but it made him nervous. Unlike the Bahamas, Lukas could readily get eyes on Collin, even if he couldn’t locate Penh. The government assets provided hourly updates while Lukas and his team monitored Collin’s every move.

  Lukas hesitated, trying to determine the best way to inform his friend that the hunter was lurking nearby. Every conceivable outcome of such terrifying news for Collin flashed through Lukas’s mind, every one of them bad. The only hope was to keep Collin calm. Keeping him calm meant withholding information and being ready to counter any move Penh might make.

  Lukas put resources in place to follow and watch Collin, prepared to respond. Collin never noticed them. They were that good. They never noticed a threat, not until Collin ducked into a pub in Kings Cross in the middle of the afternoon. The female member of the surveillance team waited a few beats, then followed Collin into the establishment. She took a seat at the bar where she could see Collin in the mirror as she sipped a beer and talked with the bartender. She could also keep one eye on the front door and one eye glancing down the hallway to the back door.

  Collin ordered, read a newspaper as he waited for his food, then ate. Nothing exciting happened until he was finishing his meal. With only a few bites left, Collin folded up the newspaper he had been reading and leaned back in his chair. That’s when three Asian men came into the dining area from the hallway off to the side of the bar, having gained access through the back door. The female operative reported later that there was a rear entrance off an alley that lead to Pancras Square. She watched as the Asian men approached the table, stabbing out a text to the other team members the moment they entered the pub. Collin apparently spotted them. His demeanor shifted from relaxed to tense in a blink. He seemed wary and uncomfortable as one of the men leaned in and spoke softly to him. Collin stood and gestured at his seat, then maneuvered around the group and made his way to the front door.

  The female operative fingered her service weapon under her coat as she sat stone still and watched the scene play out. Through her earpiece, Lukas instructed her to hold her position. This was no place to take on such a dangerous criminal as Penh, not when he was flanked by two ominous-looking bodyguards. It was likely there were more of them outside.

  Collin did an admirable job of blending into the crowd and slipping past Lukas’s sentries. He returned to his hotel and stayed there through the night.

  The next morning, Collin called Lukas in a panic. Two suspicious men had followed him into the Victoria and Albert Museum. Collin hadn’t thought to send a photo at the time but followed his instincts to get out of London as soon as possible. That was a good call. Collin’s senses were better than Lukas had supposed, increasing his confidence.

  Once Collin got on the plane for Germany, the chess match really heated up. Lukas tried to dismiss the idea that Penh knew of Lukas’s involvement. His death had been published online, complete with details of the explosion and eyewitness accounts of the event. His obituary and funeral services had been posted as well. Penh would have seen that. But the lingering question in the back of Lukas’s mind always remained: did Penh believe it?

  If so, he would feel very little hinderance in pursuing an easy target like Collin. If he did not believe the reports, he would make an elaborate ruse to try to coax Lukas out of hiding. With the game on, Lukas knew he had to be careful and remain in the shadows. The unfortunate reality was that Collin became a pawn in a dangerous game with high stakes.

  Two days later, the Royal Ba
nk of Scotland experienced the worst hack attack in its history. Lukas was part of the forensic team that analyzed the attack. By the time he and his team finished their first pass through the data, he knew the attack had been engineered by Pho Nam Penh. His digital signature, as it were, was all over the entrenched virus. He suspected the next step would be to frame Collin Cook somehow. Lukas figured that was a ploy to smoke him out of hiding. Penh, if he thought there was a chance Lukas was alive, was likely trying to test Lukas’s loyalty, knowing the temptation to run to Collin’s rescue would be strong. Lukas resisted and allowed Collin to use his brains and resourcefulness to scamper away from the danger and find a way to regroup.

  Had Lukas intervened, dozens of clandestine agents and their respective missions could have been compromised. Yes, he unintentionally risked Collin’s life and safety, but he maintained his operational dominance by remaining hidden, allowing him to use his full range of skills and resources to continue the hunt for Penh and his syndicate. Lukas would use this advantage to bring Penh out into the open and expose his vulnerabilities. The trick was to set up all the pieces first and let the dominoes fall only when the time was right.

  Lukas would give Collin the choice to be involved or not. He predicted Collin’s response long ahead of time but made sure to build Collin’s confidence in the field before sending him in to lure Penh into the trap. The game of cat and mouse had begun. Collin would be required to perform at nearly a professional level if this was going to work. Lukas had to trust him and himself. He also had to have patience and contingency plans in place.

  The outcome of this game would remain obscured to the general public, but those in the know would appreciate the level of skill and experience required to pull it off. If Lukas prevailed, the world would be a better place. If not, he would lose his best friend and his chance to avenge Theresa’s death.