Once Burned, Twice Spy

by Diane Henders

  I held my breath.

  Any minute now…

  The light ahead of us turned yellow, but the cab went straight through.

  “Dammit!” Kane stepped on the gas.

  A roar behind us indicated that Hellhound had run the light, too. With typical Calgarian disregard for traffic signals, three other vehicles followed Hellhound through the intersection on a dead red light.

  I snapped a glance at each of the drivers. “I don’t recognize any of them.”

  “Good.” Kane shifted his grip on the wheel. “We should catch the taxi at the next light.”

  We did.

  This time the cab slithered to a stop. As we pulled up beside it, Kane yanked a black balaclava over his head, concealing his face.

  “NOW!” Hellhound’s shout through the phone was accompanied by a chorus of honking horns.

  I was already out the door and into the street, yanking open the taxi’s back door as the brown half-ton slid sideways toward us.

  Nora scrambled out, wide-eyed, and I shoved her into the back seat and half-fell on top of her. Jerking the door shut behind us, I yelled, “GO!”

  Kane accelerated into a hard right turn. More horns blared.

  I popped up to see the brown half-ton stopped sideways across three lanes of traffic, but I didn’t see any dented fenders. Both rear doors of the taxi hung open and Skidmark was clambering into the passenger side of the half-ton.

  Just before we turned a corner that hid the scene from view, the light changed and Hellhound drove smoothly away. The cabbie stood beside his abandoned car amid renewed honking, wearing a shell-shocked expression and clutching a fistful of cash.

  “We’re clear,” Hellhound said a few moments later.

  “Same,” Kane replied, and disconnected.

  “Aydan?” Nora sounded strained. “Could you please get off me now?”

  “Sorry.” I squirmed over to the other side of the seat and activated the bug detector as she righted herself, wincing.

  “Green,” I reported, and Kane’s shoulders relaxed.

  “Wh-Who…?” Nora began, leaning forward to peer at Kane.

  “A friend,” I said. “Tell me more about this programming in my mind.”

  “I… ah… where are we going?”

  “That depends on you.” I gave her my best steely glare. “I want everything you know. And I want you to tell me under a lie detector.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Oh… Dani-dear, I… I couldn’t.” She blinked and sat up straighter, her jaw firming. “You know I can’t consent to a polygraph test. I have far too much classified knowledge that I’m not at liberty to divulge, to you or…” She glanced at Kane’s silent figure in the driver’s seat. “Anyone.”

  My heart plummeted. Despite my conviction that she was nothing more than a fraud and a liar, some small idiotic part of me had been hoping she would pat my hand and reveal everything in a burst of maternal love.

  What a moron.

  But I still had to try.

  “You can say anything you want in front of him,” I said without much hope. “He won’t tell anybody. And I’m not asking you to take a truth serum or anything; just a simple lie detector test. Yes or no questions. And you wouldn’t have to answer any questions that weren’t directly related to me and the programming Sam left in my brain.”

  “I… I don’t think…” she began.

  I turned to Kane with a sigh. “Okay, she’s been lying right from the start. Pull over and we’ll dump her.”

  “No! No, wait!” Nora clutched my sleeve as Kane slowed. “Dani-dear, please, this has been such a shock. And there’s so much that you need to know, I barely know where to start. Just… give me a moment…”

  I nodded at Kane and he resumed speed.

  Nora sagged back in the seat. “Thank you. You were always such a quick-tempered child. I was hoping you might have grown more patient.”

  “I have no patience,” I growled. “Especially not for you and your lies.”

  Her chin jerked up in a familiar gesture that wrenched my heart. “Don’t you take that tone with me, missy! I had enough of your backtalk when you were a teenager.”

  “Obviously,” I snarled. “Since you faked your own death to get away from me.”

  Her frown smoothed into sympathy. “Oh, Dani-dear, I’m so sorry. I can’t blame you for being angry, but I hope you’ll be able to forgive me when you know the whole story.”

  “You’re stalling,” I snapped. “Will you answer my questions under a lie detector or not?”

  Her chin rose again. “Yes. I’ll take a polygraph test.”

  Chapter 45

  As I stared at Nora’s determined expression my stomach clenched with fierce hope and queasy fear.

  Nora had to know that my first question would be ‘are you my mother’. And if she was prepared to answer that question under a lie detector, she had to be telling the truth.

  She was my mother.

  And Sam had programmed me.

  I suppressed a shudder and diverted my mind to the less terrifying part of that combination.

  Mom. Alive, after all these years. After sacrificing her home and family and the life she had known, to protect me…

  I jerked my thoughts back from the beguiling fantasy. Just because I wanted it to be true didn’t make it so; it only made it dangerously seductive.

  And snatching Nora had been too easy.

  I reactivated the bug detector. Green light again. Unbelieving, I waved it around the interior of the car.

  Kane didn’t speak, but I read his concerned gaze in the rearview mirror.

  “It’s still green,” I said, and pocketed the device before leaning toward Nora. “Is this is a setup?”

  She blanched. “No, of course not. Your friend Brenton searched me… very thoroughly…” Colour rose in her cheeks as she went on, “…and he removed a bug and a locator, which I left in the taxi. I wanted this, Dani-dear. I wanted to speak with you.”

  “What did you tell Ian?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Bullshit.”

  We glared at each other for a moment before she sighed and capitulated. “I told him that you had come to visit me two nights ago to discuss Sam, and that you had left without harming me. I don’t know who drugged me after that, but I told Ian I was certain it hadn’t been you. The agent from your Department… Holt, is it?”

  I nodded, and she sniffed and went on, “What a rude man. But he unwittingly helped my cause by pressuring Ian to use me as bait to lure you back to the hotel. I was at my wits’ end worrying that you’d come back and fall into their trap.”

  “So how did you get away?” I demanded. “If you had the locator on you when you left the hotel, then Ian and Holt knew exactly where you were. At least one of them would have followed you.”

  “Not Holt. I am Ian’s responsibility, and he certainly wouldn’t entrust my safety to another agent.”

  “You’re avoiding my questions again,” I ground out. “How did you get away from Ian? And don’t hand me any bullshit about how you slipped away without him noticing. If you got away, it was because he let you go.”

  Her chin rose. “Of course he did. I’m sure he had been listening to the bug he had planted on me, and Brenton is very charming.”

  I managed not to snicker at the combination of ‘Skidmark’ and ‘charming’ in the same sentence while Nora went on, “Brenton showed me your portrait so I knew he was my contact, but we didn’t say anything out loud that would make Ian suspicious. We chatted for quite a while and Brenton asked me to pose for a portrait, so it was completely believable when I told Ian I had met an interesting man and was going out for lunch with him. After all, I am on vacation so it would be reasonable for me to want to enjoy myself a bit.”

  “Vacation?”

  “Yes. I requested two weeks’ vacation after the official part of our trip here.” Her eyes softened. “I was hoping to spend the time with you.”

  I fought the
rush of warmth to my heart and kept my voice cold and level. “You still haven’t told me how you got away from Ian. What are you hiding?”

  She looked hurt. “I’m not hiding anything, Dani-dear. I knew Ian would have to follow me, so I simply asked him to respect my privacy by hanging back. He agreed, although not without some arguing. He must have been too far behind the taxi to react in time when you made your move.”

  Ian wouldn’t screw up like that.

  Heart thumping, I scanned the vehicles around us but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Where was the trap, dammit?

  Or had we actually gotten away clean? It was remotely possible. Ian wouldn’t be accustomed to driving in heavy snow; and particularly not on what he would consider the wrong side of the road. Maybe he had miscalculated and let us slip away.

  “Where was Holt during all this?” I asked.

  Nora waved a dismissive hand. “I have no idea. He and Ian didn’t see eye to eye; and Ian made it clear to Holt that he didn’t want or need assistance.”

  I eyed her with suspicion. “There’s no way Holt would have just backed off because Ian told him to. If Holt thought there was a chance I’d show up, he’d have been there.”

  “I really don’t…” Nora began, but the vibration of Kane’s phone interrupted her.

  Kane passed it back to me. When I answered, Hellhound’s voice crackled through the speaker. “We’re on. Rendezvous at twelve-thirty.” He disconnected.

  “Did you get that?” I asked Kane.

  A silent nod was my only reply, and I breathed a sigh of relief. With Kane’s face obscured by the balaclava and no voice to recognize, Nora wouldn’t be able to positively identify him even if she did decide to rat us out.

  I returned to questioning Nora. “What did Sam program into my mind?”

  She glanced at Kane, her lips tightening. “That is for your ears only.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” I countered. “As long as I don’t know what programming is in my mind, I’m not going anywhere or doing anything without supervision; and that includes talking to you. So spill it.”

  Nora crossed her arms and leaned back in the seat. “I’m sorry, Dani-dear, but that’s the way it has to be. I can’t tell anyone but you.”

  I tried a different tack. “When did you find out about Sam’s programming? How much did he tell you?”

  “I’m sorry, but I must insist on privacy.”

  I persisted with my questions for most of the half-hour ride, but she remained obdurate. Finally I abandoned the effort and we lapsed into silence.

  A few minutes later Kane slowed and turned into the small parking lot under the bridge at Heritage and Glenmore. The brown half-ton was already there, and I was pleased to see that the continuing snow had deterred everyone else and we were alone. The Saturn wallowed valiantly across the rutted lot to park beside the half-ton.

  As we slithered to a halt, Hellhound and Skidmark got out of the truck. The familiar lie detector case dangled from Hellhound’s hand, and hope lifted my heart.

  Finally, I could get all my answers…

  “Dammit!”

  Kane’s sudden epithet made me snap my head around looking for the threat, but the Saturn was already in motion. Engine screaming under Kane’s heavy foot, we churned across the parking lot.

  Too late.

  A car had already stopped sideways across the driveway. A moment later a second car blocked the other exit.

  Kane slammed on the brakes and barked, “Run, Aydan!”

  I hesitated, gripping the door handle. Ian was already crossing the parking lot, gun in hand. Nobody had gotten out of the second car yet, but it was probably Holt behind that tinted glass.

  I wouldn’t shoot either of them; and if I ran I wouldn’t get far. Even in frigid weather the Bow River rarely froze, so escape was impossible in that direction unless I wanted to die a quick death in its icy water. And if Ian and Holt had cornered us so easily, it meant they’d been monitoring us all along. They undoubtedly had teams in place to nab me if I fled down one of the walking paths.

  “AYDAN, GO!” Kane roared.

  I sighed. “No point. It’s over. Stay here while I go and talk to Ian. Maybe I can still get you out of this.”

  I climbed out of the car, keeping my hands where Ian could see them. Behind me, Hellhound and Skidmark stood uncertainly.

  “I’m disappointed, Storm,” Ian said as he ambled over, looking deceptively friendly and relaxed. “I thought I’d been clear that you weren’t to speak with Nora unless I was present.”

  Hoping to hide the pounding of my heart, I emulated his casual tone with a shrug and a smile. “Sorry about that. Orders. You know how it goes. How did you find us?”

  “Satellite tracking.” He smiled in return. “I recognized Skidmark this morning, so I expected you to act soon. I picked up a live satellite feed through MI6 to watch the hotel and surrounding streets. Since I didn’t know what vehicle you’d be driving, I had to wait until you made your move.”

  “You recognized me?” Skidmark demanded. “Well, shit.”

  “You owe me fifty bucks, old man,” I told him without turning.

  Ian laughed. “Thank you for betting on my powers of observation. I’m flattered.”

  I sighed. “Satellite tracking. Damn. I wasn’t actually expecting you to screw up and lose Nora, but I was hoping.”

  “That was a lovely little vehicular dance you did in the middle of the street.” Ian tipped his chin in a deferential gesture. “I’m sure I would have lost you there if I had actually been following Nora’s cab. Now, I’m sorry; but I must break up this little party. Will Kane give me a problem if I open his car door?”

  Nausea twisted my guts. Ian had barely glanced at Kane wearing the balaclava and he still recognized him. Granted, Kane’s height and the breadth of his shoulders were difficult to miss in the small car; but I had been clinging to the foolish hope that he might remain anonymous.

  And now he and Arnie and Skidmark would be arrested.

  And so would I.

  All my worst fears were coming true…

  I must have made some small desperate sound.

  Ian frowned. “Don’t cause any more trouble for yourself than you’ve already done, Storm. Be a good sport, now.”

  As I stood frozen with indecision, Skidmark advised quietly, “Do what he says, Storm. We’re all on the same side here. We can figure everything out as long as nobody does anything stupid.”

  I swallowed hard. Skidmark trusted Ian. I should, too.

  But why had he shot me earlier?

  “Come on, Storm,” Skidmark urged. “Just do what Ian says.”

  Skidmark was right. Even though I wasn’t sure I could trust Ian, my only other option was to shoot him.

  And I couldn’t.

  I finally managed to unlock my stiff neck muscles with a nod. “We’ll cooperate. I’ll tell John.”

  Tottering forward, I opened the driver’s door and leaned down. Kane stared rigidly ahead, both hands on the wheel.

  “Ian wants…” I began, but Ian’s hand flashed past me and jabbed a small dart into Kane’s neck.

  Kane reacted instantly, his hand clamping around Ian’s wrist.

  “John, no!” The words had barely left my mouth when Kane’s hand slid nervelessly off Ian’s wrist to dangle limply by his side. His body slumped, lolling sideways in the seat.

  “That’s how it’s supposed to work,” Ian said with satisfaction. “Straight into the bloodstream instead of messing about with an intramuscular shot and giving someone…” He shot me a disapproving look. “…the opportunity to shoot me in return.”

  My heart hammered in my chest, my words ghosting out on the tiny breath of air still available from my rigid diaphragm. “That’s… just… a tranquilizer, I hope…?”

  “Of course.” Ian frowned. “We’re all friends here. Now, Skidmark? Hellhound? Into the car, please. I don’t want you to freeze to death in the twenty minutes you’ll be asleep.
”

  “What d’ya want me to do, Aydan?” Hellhound asked. His voice was calm, but his knuckles glowed white on the handle of the lie detector case.

  “Just do as he says.” The words burned like acid in my throat.

  All my fault.

  The two men I loved, plus a man who had sacrificed most of his life to uphold the law; all of them would rot in prison because of me.

  Hellhound nodded and moved closer, his weight on the balls of his feet and his gaze locked on mine. My slightest flinch or blink would send him into a murderous rampage if he misunderstood my intentions.

  I drew as deep a breath as I could manage around my aching heart. I didn’t deserve his loyalty, much less his love.

  “I don’t want any trouble, Arnie,” I said firmly. “You haven’t done anything wrong, and I want to keep it that way. Just get in the car. Skidmark; you, too.”

  They both shuffled over and climbed into the vehicle. As soon as they were settled, Ian tranquilized them.

  “You, too, Nora,” Ian said as he rounded the car and opened her door.

  “How dare you…” she began, but slumped into unconsciousness as Ian’s dart found its mark.

  “So that’s sorted,” Ian said jauntily as he closed the door. “There’s plenty of petrol so the heater will keep them warm until they wake up. And…” He gave me one of his sparkling smiles. “…perhaps we can conceal this little escapade from your authorities so nobody has to go to prison. Now, Storm, I’m sorry to have to ask; but I’ll need your weapons.”

  Fearful hope made my hands tremble as I handed over my pistols butt-first. Maybe Ian would let us go. Maybe he only wanted to question me about Nora.

  Ian eyed me with a half-smile as he stowed my weapons in his parka pockets. “I’ve been dying to get my hands on that tranquilizer pistol. I do hope that’s all of your weapons. It would be a disappointing breach of professional courtesy if you were holding out on me. Do I need to search you?”

  Couldn’t hurt to flirt a bit.

  I turned around, widening my legs and placing my hands on the car while I shot a smile over my shoulder. “You don’t need to, but you can if you want.”