by Vicki Hinze
“Do it quickly,” Jackal suggested. “He’s close to becoming a major liability we don’t want or need.”
“I agree, he’s walking a thin line.”
“Thinner than you think,” Jackal warned. “He recommended I issue an advisory on you to Hawk or Sage.”
Alarmed, she slumped back against the building. “You’re kidding me.”
“I never kid when it comes to your safety or that of our daughter.”
“Where is Johnson now?”
“Reconnaissance.”
Her stomach sank. “I know he didn’t go back to the Lodge after I expressly ordered him not to do it.”
“No, the fool spotted Jaycee and intercepted her at Three Gables. Stunning that Mark Taylor allowed it.”
“He didn’t. He’s away on his honeymoon.” Phoenix rushed to her car, certain Ben Brandt was having fits at Three Gables. “Is Jaycee alive?”
“Last Johnson reported, yes. Now? Who knows?”
“Where’s he taking her? Did he say?”
“To join the Howells,” Jackal told her. “I don’t know where they are. I wish I did.”
Thankfully, Phoenix knew exactly where the Howells had been stashed. The question was, how did Johnson know their location? He had to have followed her. How else could he possibly know? “I’m on my way.”
“Drive safely, but do hurry,” Jackal said, his concern escalating to worry he didn’t bother to hide. “All the reasons we wanted Johnson working for us also make him formidably dangerous—especially right now.”
Easy to control. Too afraid of elimination to cross them. But if he’d gone rogue and bypassed her to warn Hawk about her…? Very dangerous. “Knowing Johnson,” she told Jackal, “he could convince himself that killing Jaycee Cole is helping you, and going over my head and straight to Hawk is saving you.”
“That’s my worst fear. I tried to convince him both Hawk and Sage would be pleased. That things were developing exactly as planned, but I’m not sure he bought it.”
Her worst fear, too. “I know you did your best to be convincing.” The CIA wouldn’t be able to protect them. No one would. Hawk would act against them both without lifting a brow. He’d put out kill orders, assign them priority one with his authorization code, and there’s no way in the world either Jackal or she could survive.
Reaching her car, Phoenix ended the call and quickly sped toward the village. She and Jackal had one chance: to stop Johnson before he destroyed them and those they were trying to protect.
Chapter Fourteen
Sunday, June 7th, 11:00 p.m.
The Lodge
The phone rang.
Nick rolled over in bed and glanced at the clock. Eleven? Couldn’t be good news. He lifted the receiver. “Yeah.”
“Nick, it’s me, Lizzie.” Her voice cracked.
“Lizzie?” He sat straight up. “What’s the matter, half-pint?” She sounded terrified.
“The bad man was here. He—he took my mom.” A sob escaped her throat. “He left a flower. A poppy.”
Her mom? Surprised streaked through him. “Where are you?”
“Three Gables.”
“And your mom was there?”
“Yes. Nick, you have to come. He took her, and I don’t know where.”
“On my way, Lizzie. Are you safe?”
“Yes. He locked me in the bedroom.”
“He who?” Nick stood on his feet and grabbed his pants, started stuffing his feet into them.
“The man from the wreck.”
Johnson. Wow, this was bad news. Johnson had snagged Jaycee for NINA—from Three Gables? Nick blamed himself. He should have eliminated Johnson when he’d had the chance. “But you’re safe now?”
“Yes, we were in Ben’s cottage. I crawled out the window and came back in through the door to get to the phone.”
“Do Ben and Kelly know what happened?”
“I—I called you.”
Trusted him. “I’m on my way, half-pint.”
“Bring Sam.”
“I will.”
“And Elle.”
“All right.” He jerked on a shirt. “Lizzie, you call Ben and tell him what happened. He’ll stay with you until we get there.”
She screamed.
Nick’s heart stopped, then thudded. “Lizzie! Lizzie!”
“I—it’s okay. It’s Ben. He scared me, but it’s okay. He’s here.”
“Put him on the phone, honey.” Nick slid into his shoes and opened his bedroom door, nearly colliding with Sam, Joe, and Elle.
“What’s wrong, bud?” Sam asked, his hair poking out in every direction.
“It’s Lizzie.” Nick held up a finger. “Ben?”
“Yeah, Nick,” Ben said. “Jaycee’s been snatched. She’s been hiding out in my cottage. Don’t come unglued at me. That was another little detail my wife failed to mention until now.”
That explained why they hadn’t been able to pick up a trail on her. “Is Lizzie hurt?”
“No, she’s physically fine. But she’s freaking out at her mom being taken.”
“We both know she has just cause. You keep her safe, Ben. We’re on our way.” Nick hung up, then looked at the others.
“Someone hurt Lizzie?” Sam’s voice thundered.
“No, she’s fine. Apparently, Jaycee’s been hiding out in one of Ben’s cottages.”
“He held out on us?” Joe asked.
“Kelly failed to tell him,” Nick said. “Lizzie’s safe. Unhurt. She says the man who took her mom was the man from the wreck.”
“Johnson.” Sam shook. “I should’ve—“
“I know, but we didn’t,” Nick cut in. “He left a poppy.”
Elle frowned. “What does it mean, Nick?”
Oh, how he hated to answer her. “Death.”
Elle dragged in a sharp breath. “Let’s go.”
“Lizzie wants us all there.”
“She needs us all there,” Joe said. “To feel safe.”
“Maybe,” Elle said. “But she wants us all there to find her mother.”
“Elle’s right.” Nick started moving toward the door. “Let’s go.”
“You and Elle head out,” Sam motioned. “I’m going to gather some tools. Meet you there shortly.”
“I’ll ride with Sam,” Joe said. “Go, go. Lizzie’s got to be frantic.”
Nick and Elle ran to Nick’s car and took off. As soon as he turned onto the main road, he dialed Omega One. “I have an emergency. You take it to Hip Pocket. He gives you any flak, you go straight to the White House. Where is Glen and Daris Howell? I need to know, and I need to know now.”
“What’s going on, Nick?”
“NINA just snatched Jaycee Cole.” He went on to share details with One, then added, “Either the Howells aren’t where they were sequestered anymore, or Jaycee and NINA are now with them.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Elle was a decoy. NINA’s using Jaycee. Her car was bombed, she lost her job, her identity, everything. Howell will do anything for her—so will Elle. You can bet NINA’s playing that angle.”
“I don’t know where they were sequestered. All I know is it was a remote location.”
“Find out—fast. Otherwise, Jaycee and the Howells are as good as dead.”
Nick hung up.
“I need that.” Elle grabbed his phone. “How do I get Sam?”
“Sam? What for?”
“Just give me the number, Nick.”
“Speed dial two.”
She pressed the buttons. “Sam,” she said. “You still at the Lodge?”
His voice carried to Nick. “Just leaving.”
“Go back. I want you to get to the lab and try this code.”
“Now?”
“Right now,” Elle said. “I’m not sure it’ll work. I could be wrong. But if I’m right, it’ll give us a location.”
“Location of what, Elle?”
“My parents and Jaycee.”
“Walking i
n now,” Sam said, sounding a little winded from the stairs. “Go.”
“Seven, one, fourteen, twenty-nine, thirty-two.”
“That it?” He harrumphed. “It can’t be that simple, Elle.”
“Read it back to me.” Elle snatched a tissue from the box on the console, then swiped at her nose.
He did, then she added, “Immediately after entering the numbers, key in Purple People-Eater. Cap just the first letters, and add the hyphen between People and Eater.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“I’d never joke about this.”
“That’s the code word—between you and your dad?”
“Yes.”
“Try it, Sam. And when you get what you get, start on the third line of code. Read it backwards and skip every third letter in every third word. Then drop the first, third, and last. My guess is what’s left is going to be coordinates that will take us to him.”
“Not the system?”
“Not on a piece of jewelry. Everything but the third line exactly as I just described to you is just stuff and traps.” Elle risked a glance at Nick. “He always told me if no one else could find him, he’d find a way to let me know where he was. I think this is it.”
“Will do. I’ll call you back.”
Elle hung up the phone and passed it back to Nick.
“You knew this and didn’t tell me?”
“I had no idea it was related.”
“After your father went missing, you knew something was up. You should have told me then, Elle.”
“If I’d realized he was involved in all this, I would have. I didn’t—and I needed time.”
“Time? For what?” He pulled up to the gate at Three Gables. It swung open and he drove thru.
“Us. I wanted a chance for us, Nick.”
“Unbelievable.” He stopped at the head of the driveway and shut off the engine. Ben and Lizzie walked toward him. He slung open the car door and got out.
Lizzie ran and launched herself into his arms.
“Hey. Hey, it’s okay, half-pint.” He gently patted her shoulder. “We’ve already got people looking for your mom.”
“Sam?”
“Yes,” Nick said. “And Joe and Tim.” No doubt they’d already called him in.
Ben nodded at Elle and motioned for her to take Lizzie aside.
“Lizzie.” Elle held out her arms.
Lizzie told Nick to put her down. “Elle needs a hug.”
“She does.” Elle smiled and hugged Lizzie, and led her a few feet away.
Ben sighed. “Sorry about this. Kelly told me after you and Elle left. I thought she’d be safe here.”
“What happened?”
“Not sure. Security’s still working it out.”
“Security better thank their stars Mark’s not here. He’d have them for a snack.”
“He would,” Ben agreed. “Still might. Should I give Jeff Meyer a call?”
Local police. “No, we have other resources on this.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Keep Lizzie safe.”
Ben nodded. “We didn’t realize. Now, we do. It won’t happen again.”
Nick nodded. “Elle?”
She walked back over with Lizzie. Nick squatted, so they were eye to eye. “We’re going to go help Sam and Joe and Tim. You stay with Ben and Kelly.”
“Are you going to find my mom, Nick?” Her eyes were earnest and deeply worried.
He wished he could offer her certainty, but he couldn’t. “We’re going to do everything we can. I promise. Everything.”
She nodded. “Be careful.”
“We will. You try not to worry.”
“I’m going to be brave.”
“Again,” Elle said. “You crawled out of that window to get to a phone. That was brave.”
“It was,” Nick agreed.
“I was scared.”
“Of course, you were scared,” Nick told her. “It’s sensible to be scared when you’re in danger. And you’re a very sensible girl, Lizzie. Sam says so all the time.”
“He does?”
Nick nodded. “We’re going now. But we’ll be in touch.”
“Anything you find out—“
“We’ll call you.”
She nodded and watched them get back in the car and head down the driveway.
They hadn’t gone twenty yards down the street when Sam phoned.
“Yeah?” Nick answered.
“Elle was right. It’s a location. A little airport in the north end of the county.”
“The one the former mayor’s wife owned?” Nick asked, stunned.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “She apparently sold it to Glen and Daris Howell about two years ago.”
“About the time Jaycee and Lizzie moved to the village.”
“Yeah. We figure that’s why he bought it—for her. A safe shelter, should she need one.”
Nick had driven by that little grass-strip airport many times, taking Nora to visit her friend’s grave. “There’s nothing on that land, Sam.”
“It’s not on it, it’s under it.”
“A bunker?”
“Yes,” Sam said, verifying it. “Omega One just sent art and there’s a green sedan on the far end of the property right now.
“Drone or satellite?”
“Drone.”
Quicker, more efficient, and something he could do without Hip Pocket coming unglued.
“Tim’s on his way. Joe and I are out the door in five. Need heavier tools. Ten minutes behind you.”
Nick hung up and briefed Elle, finishing with, “I’m going to drop you off at Crossroads Crisis Center. You can stay there with Peggy and the staff until we resolve this.”
“You will not.” Elle added a shake of her head and grabbed another tissue. “These are my parents, Nick. After what I’ve already cost Jaycee, I will not be tucked safely aside while she and they are in jeopardy. I’m going with you.”
“Can you even shoot a gun?”
“You tell me. You trained me, remember?”
He had. And she’d done well. “All right, but you will hang back—and I mean it, Elle.”
“Fine.”
“And for the record, the only reason I’m agreeing to this is because it’s faster than arguing with you. We don’t have the time to lose—not if NINA is already there with Jaycee.”
“What are you saying?”
“Johnson is sadistic and he enjoys being cruel. He’ll do whatever to get what he wants from your father. If not to your mother, definitely to Jaycee.”
“You mean torture?”
“I mean torture—anything he must to get what NINA wants.”
“Hurry, Nick.” Elle squeezed her eyes shut.
“Pray hard enough for me, too,” he said, pressing down hard on the gas pedal. “And when we get there, you do exactly what I tell you to do.”
“I will.”
She wouldn’t. But right now, he had enough on his plate to worry about. He needed the lie.
Phoenix spotted Johnson’s green sedan and parked beyond it, snapped her fanny-pack into place, grabbed her binoculars, and then disabled the interior lights in her car. There wasn’t anything in the area but trees, weeds, and wildlife. Mosquitoes buzzed, thick as thieves in the air.
She made her way through the brush, sliding her feet, hoping to avoid snakes. Rattlers and cotton-mouths were common in this area. So were coyotes, black bears, and panthers. She popped her spare magazine into the double pouch at her waist, then checked her Glock. Locked and loaded, she grabbed her phone from her lightweight red jacket’s pocket and dialed Jackal.
“Is he there?” he said, on answering the phone.
“Yes, he is.” She let Jackal hear her irritation. “I spotted his car. Prepared to approach the bunker now.”
“He called here about ten minutes ago.”
Why hadn’t Jackal reported that to her?
“I knew you’d be phoning, so I waited.”
Reasonable, but still irritating. “What did he want?”
“To report you. He’s beyond concerned and is now suspicious. He said you met a contact in Panama City—“
Surprise rippled through her. “He knows the pawn shop is a drop site?“
“He suspects it’s something. He doesn’t know what, but he wanted me to report it to Hawk right away. He figures Hawk knows the place.”
“Why would he figure that?” Had Johnson erroneously tagged Hawk as CIA and not her? Maybe he’d pegged Jackal as a double agent? Her worry meter shot up.
“Because I told him nothing moves within a hundred miles of the village without Hawk knowing about it. I thought that’d be enough to convince Johnson a report wasn’t necessary.”
“Logical. Did he accept it?”
“I think so.”
“I’d feel better about this if you were more confident. Johnson’s gone rogue, snatching Jaycee, Jackal. Are you sure he isn’t taking orders from Hawk and us?”
“He’s been taking orders from Hawk, Sage and us. But snatching Jaycee… he did that on his own. I’m sure of it.”
“How? I mean, how do you know?”
“Mostly because you and I are still breathing.”
“Valid point.” If Hawk or Sage suspected either of them, they’d be in a warehouse somewhere being tortured or else shot dead. She gave Jackal that one. “We can’t let him go straight to Hawk.”
“There’s no sign that he has—“
“Yet.”
“Yet, and I can’t really explain his death, so we’re between a rock and the hard place with him.”
“For the moment, anyway.”
“For the moment, but you’re right. We can’t let him go around us. Any evidence he is or might, and he has to go. We have no choice.”
All these years and the upper crust of NINA hadn’t come close to questioning her loyalty or Jackal’s. Then the CIA honchos intervene and force Johnson in, then he puts them both in jeopardy. “The CIA won’t like it.”
“I agree,” Jackal said. “But better them than our daughter. She would not be happy to bury either of us, much less both of us.”
An image of Mandy standing alone at her grave flashed through Phoenix’s mind. Her throat went tight. “We’ve been through that once with her already, if you recall. She was devastated.”
“I remember.” His voice shuddered. “When this is over, I want you to think about something.”