Protective Measures

by Maggie K. Black

  * * *

  The Ottawa River raged and surged as it flowed through Canada’s capital city, past beautiful historical buildings and stately monuments. Leo walked with his daughters down a path that ran alongside one of the river’s branches as it flowed into a canal. His mind swirled like the water. It was Tuesday, the morning after the fire. Thankfully no one had been hurt, the symposium was continuing as usual and the informant had left another untraceable robotic message on Leo’s phone line saying the intel was still up for sale but the price had just gone up. But an early morning phone call from Admiral Jacobs’s secretary had sent everything into chaos. The admiral had been in a terrible car accident on the way to work and was now in the hospital. Leo had no way to get the admiral’s advice on whether he should continue with the mission, no idea who could’ve tipped The Anemoi off to the informant’s existence and no one else inside naval intelligence he knew he could trust. He was on his own. His eyes rose to the sky in prayer. I just don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to do. Guide me. I need backup and I don’t know how to get it.

  “Can I get ice cream?” Eve’s voice broke into his thoughts. Bright blue eyes looked up hopefully into his. Her tiny hand slipped into his large one and squeezed it, very hard, like she was double-checking he was really there. “Or can I climb a tree?”

  There was something so real and genuine about his littlest girl’s smile.

  Thank You, God, for my daughters. Help me be the father they need me to be. Help me raise them and protect them.

  “You can’t climb a tree in flip-flops,” he said. “But we can see about ice cream later.”

  Eve squeezed his hand hard one more time. Then she scampered off to join her sister, Ivy, who was now walking alone up the path ahead of them. Ivy had been a little girl on his last visit home. Now, at twelve, she was almost a teenager, with long hair as dark as his and eyes that tended to glance sideways at the world. He watched as Eve nudged her big sister in the side. Ivy threw her arm protectively around Eve’s shoulders. It was hard to know how much the strained mess that was his marriage to their mother had impacted them, but he knew they missed her. He missed Marisa, too, in a much more complicated way. Late at night, her painful words to him still echoed in the empty recesses of his chest: “I tried to love you, Leo. I really did. You’re just not the kind of man who’s easy to love.” But she’d stayed married to him, accepted politeness instead of romance, made a bed for him on the couch whenever he was home on leave and given him two beautiful daughters. He’d always be thankful for that.

  “This isn’t really a normal walk, Eve,” Ivy said, in a conspiratorial tone that was so loud she had to know that he would be able to hear it. “Daddy is meeting someone. But it’s a secret meeting.”

  Eve gasped, a sound that was thankfully all excitement and intrigue, not worry. Leo almost stopped short. How could she possibly know that? Josh had phoned his cell before the sun had risen this morning to suggest they meet up. Josh’s tone had been friendly, but there’d been a current cutting through it that had let him know it was important. Leo kept his voice level. “Why do you say that, honey?”

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Ivy tossed a glance back over her shoulder. A slight smile turned at her lips, her keen eyes flashed and he realized that she’d been guessing. She was a smart kid and perceptive, too. Neither of which helped the gnawing feeling he got in his gut sometimes that Ivy was bothered about something she still didn’t trust him enough to open up about.

  His cell phone buzzed. He reached for it hoping it was the admiral. Instead it was a text from a number with an Irish area code.

  Hey Commander, it’s Killian Lynch. Any news on the identity of your mystery woman? My message board’s been pinging nonstop from other women asking me if you’re single!

  He frowned. Killian’s tabloid story on the fire had been posted online before the fire had even been put out and included a blurry photo of Leo falling through the air with Zoe in his arms. The post and picture had “gone viral,” which apparently meant it was now spreading around the internet like a plague. He had no intention of blowing Zoe’s privacy. He’d lost sight of the dark-haired beauty in the crowd after the fire. But he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind since.

  A second text arrived: A woman named Melody Young asked me to pass on her name and number. She’s an old friend of your wife. Had lost contact and misses your girls. Wanted to send her condolences and set up a playdate.

  The strains on his marriage to Marisa had meant he didn’t really know much about her life. While his transfer home to Ottawa had meant the girls had to move to a new house and new school, Theresa had told him the more connections the girls had to their past the more grounded they’d feel.

  This is her. Said I’d pass it on to help the girls remember her.

  Another text came in before he could answer. It was a picture of a beautiful, blond-haired woman holding a toddler on her lap. He looked closer. The child was Eve.

  Leo texted back: Thank you.

  No problem, came back the reply. Ready to go over that stuff I uncovered online yet? The story can’t stay on ice forever.

  No. Leo slid his phone into his pocket without answering. He followed a path and reached a small park. His eyes surveyed the scene. Josh sat on a bench by the water. Alex stood nearby with his back to the street. The location was pretty isolated and yet still close to the road, with good lines of sight. He could only spot two ordinary civilians in the park. One was a well-dressed mother with auburn curls who was pushing a stroller along the riverbank. The other was an older man with a small white puppy, ambling through an outcrop of trees. Neither looked like anyone he’d need to worry about. The tiny ball of puppy fluff started to pull and scrabble on all four paws toward Ivy and Eve. The girls squealed and cooed, and begged Leo to let them go pat it.

  But all of that was eclipsed by the site of the petite, dark-haired woman walking toward him. She was dressed simply, in jeans and a tank top that showed off the strength in her arms. Her skin was free of makeup. A simple elastic held back her hair, letting only a few wisps escape and fall around her face. She was even more dazzling than he’d remembered.

  “Hey,” she said. “How’s it going?”

  “Not bad,” he said. “You?”

  “I’m okay.” Her dark eyes met his and it was like everything else faded to static around him. There was something about her that hit him like a punch in the gut. An attraction? A feeling? He didn’t know what to call it. But it was like someone had attached jumper cables to the dusty remnants of his heart and was trying to jolt it into beating again.

  “Daddy!” Eve said. “Can we go see the puppy? Please?”

  “It’s okay,” Zoe said, stepping forward. “I’m happy to watch the girls. I know you and Josh need to talk. We’ll stay right around here within eyesight.”

  Her hand brushed her ear and he saw she was wearing a tiny earpiece. Apparently she’d be staying within earshot, too.

  “Please, Daddy? Can we go with her?” Eve’s bright eyes brimmed with hope.

  “Okay.” He hated having the girls beyond arm’s length. But he trusted she’d keep them safe, and maybe putting a few feet of distance between himself and Zoe would help keep the jumper-cable jolts at bay. “Zoe, these are my daughters, Ivy and Eve. Girls, this is my friend Zoe. She’s really nice and is going to watch you while I talk to my friend Josh. I want you to be very polite and stay where I can see you.”

  Ivy’s skeptical eyes flitted to Zoe’s face. Zoe stretched out her hand toward Leo’s eldest. “It’s very nice to meet you, Ivy.”

  “I like your bracelet.” Ivy eyed her hand.

  “Thank you,” Zoe said. A tightly woven black-and-green rope encircled her wrist. If she was wearing a microphone, Leo didn’t see it. “It’s a special kind of rope called a paracord. I wear them all the time. You ca
n unravel it really long and use it for climbing or other useful things. I can show you how to make one.”

  Ivy paused another moment, then asked, “Do you like dogs?”

  “Definitely. I have a terrier at home named Oz. He’s very pesky.”

  “Do you like ice cream?” Eve interjected.

  “A bit.” Zoe looked at her seriously. “But I prefer sherbet.”

  Eve’s lips scrunched as she pondered this. “Do you like climbing trees?”

  “I love climbing.” Zoe smiled. “I used to be a gymnast.”

  “Really?” Eve beamed. “I want to be a gymnast!”

  Did she now? Last he’d heard she wanted to be either a princess or a unicorn. But he wasn’t exactly surprised. Both girls loved climbing.

  Having apparently passed inspection, Zoe started walking with the girls toward the dog.

  “I can’t climb trees in flip-flops,” Eve was saying.

  “Well, maybe after we meet the puppy I’ll teach you how to climb in bare feet.”

  Their voices faded to background babble. He let out a long sigh, then turned toward Josh. The former soldier was already on his feet.

  “Good to see you.” A broad smile crossed Josh’s face as he reached out to clasp Leo on the back. “You’ve met Alex, right?”

  “I have.” Leo stretched his hand out and shook Alex’s hand. “Theresa never told me you were a bodyguard.”

  A wide grin crossed Alex’s face. “We do our best to keep it on the down low. Doesn’t always work, but we try. The work we do is one hundred percent confidential.”

  “I noticed Zoe was wearing an earpiece.” Leo looked at Josh. “I take it she can hear our conversation, too?”

  “Yep.” Josh turned his wrist toward Leo. There was a small microphone implanted in his watch. He had to admit, it was pretty impressive tech.

  “I was surprised to hear from you.” Leo sat. “I thought you were on your honeymoon.”

  “I am,” Josh said. “But it’s the second week and it’s hard to keep Samantha off the internet once she knows she’s onto something. She found something on The Anemoi’s message board we thought you should see.” Josh passed Leo his phone. Leo looked down at the picture the waiter had snapped of the vandalized poster of him and the girls. “Did you know that you’re The Anemoi’s next target?”

  FOUR

  Leo glanced at the picture of the vandalized poster of his girls, then up to where his girls were now climbing trees with Zoe. The old man with the dog had continued down the path. Eve was hanging upside down from a low tree branch like a koala, while Ivy was halfway up the tree. Leo reached into his wallet, pulled out the first bill he could get his fingers on and pressed it into his old friend’s hand. “I’m hiring you, all of you, because I need advice. We can work out the details later. But as of right now, I’m your client and everything we discuss is confidential. Agreed?”

  Josh nodded. “Agreed.”

  Leo let out a long breath. “Yes, I suspected that I was The Anemoi’s target. But I didn’t know for sure.”

  Zoe wasn’t looking at him but he could see her shoulders flinch, as her earpiece picked up their conversation through Josh’s mic. He imagined it bothered her that he hadn’t been more forthright with her when they’d swum to safety together after the fire. But open book had never really been his style.

  “Does this mean you know what The Anemoi is trying to steal from you?” Alex asked. “Have they stolen it yet?”

  “That’s a complicated question with a very complicated answer.” Leo turned back to the men. He didn’t know how to answer Alex without breaking his cover and spilling classified information. But he trusted they could read between the lines. “I gather Josh told you the story of how we met? It was about six or seven years ago. I was commanding a ship, Josh realized that one member of my crew—a real charmer named Tommy Ferrier—was smuggling some drugs in his bunk. I looked into it, got the proof I needed, and Tommy was discharged and tried. He eventually went home, ruined his life dealing drugs in Canada and went to jail for beating his girlfriend so hard she miscarried. It was an incredibly sad story. But it’s why I trust Josh with my life and why I trust you and Zoe by extension.”

  Josh nodded. So did Alex. Neither answered.

  “Now imagine, instead of one ship it was a lot of ships, and instead of one rat on my ship there were a bunch of them scurrying inside a lot of ships, and instead of just telling me that info, Josh had offered to sell it to me for a whole lot of money. After seeing what happened to Tommy Ferrier, I know how important it is that information like that gets handled very carefully and what people would do to keep it from ever coming out. But let’s say that my boss just ended up in hospital from a car accident this morning, and I was obligated to get that intel, but I couldn’t ask any of my crewmates for help in case they were rats.”

  “Wow, that would be quite the thing,” Alex said.

  “Wouldn’t it?” asked Leo. Out of the side of his eye, he saw Zoe flash a smile in his direction. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he felt his shoulders begin to relax. It felt good to know he wasn’t alone. “Obviously you can’t be involved in my mission, at all. Hands off. If any of you were at an event with me and someone were to approach, you’d all have to skedaddle and disappear. I can’t have outsiders involved in this. You are all civilians with zero clearance. But you can watch my back, keep your eyes open, tell me if you see anything I should be worried about, keep me informed of whatever this Anemoi situation is, and of course make sure my girls aren’t touched by any of this.”

  “Understood,” Josh said. “Eyes and ears only. Can I ask what you know about the new, less charitable version of me?”

  “The informant?” Leo said. “Not much. He contacted my admiral a week ago using robotic-voice-disguising software and an encrypted line. He said he had ample proof of a large-scale rat problem to sell, but that he couldn’t trust anyone inside military intelligence to handle the negotiations. The admiral suggested me. I’ve been overseas for a long time and would spot bad drug-smuggling data in a heartbeat. The informant suggested the exchange happen during the symposium. I’m authorized to give him a lot of cheese, but only if the intel proves sound.”

  “Can we assume he’s a criminal?” Alex asked.

  “Yes and no,” Leo said. “He could be selling bad data, or good data, to make money. He could be a whistle-blower who just wants some leverage so he can disappear. You might remember, last year a hacker named Seth Miles found proof that some higher-ups in the military were in the pocket of Eastern European mobsters. He struck a plea deal for espionage, but he’s still been branded a pariah and his life was destroyed. It could be someone who doesn’t want to repeat what happened to him. Either way, I have to keep his identity a secret. My boss promised him total anonymity, and my work thrives on privacy. So, if all goes smoothly none of you will ever find out who he is.” He leaned back on the bench. “That’s all I’ve got for you. Now it’s your turn to answer some questions. You’re telling me some vigilante group, named The Anemoi, was at the gala last night, attacked Zoe and set the building on fire?”

  “Pretty much.” Alex nodded.

  “And one of them defaced a picture of my girls and posted it online?”

  “He used the handle Jason of the Argonauts,” Josh said. “He’s quite the hacker. When Samantha tried to trace him, he deleted the picture and any trace of himself on the message board.”

  “My mission, if you want to call it that, is so top secret that nobody knows about it,” Leo said. “So only someone very high up could have tipped off The Anemoi to the existence of this intel, or the informant himself did. Both scenarios are bad news. But either way, I don’t understand why they’d deface a poster of my daughters.”

  “We’re baffled, too,” Josh admitted. “What can we do to help?” />
  “I’ve got to go to a bunch of symposium events this week,” Leo said, “and hope that the informant approaches me with the intel. I need someone to watch my back and make sure The Anemoi—whoever they are and whatever they want—don’t get in the way.”

  A fresh burst of giggling dragged his attention back to Zoe and the girls. Ivy had dropped to the ground and was lounging in the grass, facing the water. Eve was standing on Zoe’s shoulders gripping the thick branch above with both hands. Before he could so much as call out and remind them to be careful, his little girl had scrambled up off Zoe’s shoulders and onto the branch.

  “How many events are we talking about?” Alex asked.

  Leo turned back. “There are symposium meetings tomorrow, a parade on Friday near Toronto and a charity auction back in Ottawa on Saturday, to raise money for children’s hospitals. After that the symposium is done and if I don’t get the intel by then it’s gone.”

  “Understood,” Josh said. “Alex and Zoe have rented rooms at a hotel in Ottawa and can extend their stay a few more days. They can set up the surveillance van in your neighborhood when you’re home, make sure the girls are safe and come with you to events. I suggest you don’t change anything, act like nothing’s wrong and go on with life as usual. Just think of them as extra eyes and ears, watching your back. Nobody ever needs to know you’ve hired private security.”

  “Good by me,” Leo said. “I’ll need someone to take the girls to and from day camp on Thursday. They’ll be with me at the parade on Friday.”

  “All good by me, too,” Alex said. Then he called, “Good by you, Zoe?”

  Zoe spun back, her dark hair dancing around her shoulders as she flashed two thumbs-up. But as her gaze seemed to linger on Leo’s face, for the very first time since they’d met he thought he saw uncertainty in her eyes.

  They talked logistics for a few more minutes. Alex would run the surveillance van and be Leo’s backup at events. Zoe would take point on security for the girls. Josh was running back to his honeymoon at their Cedar Lake cottage, but he and Samantha would stay in touch. Leo would have the backup he needed, without compromising security. Then Alex went to move the Ash Private Security van from a nearby lot to street parking, so that he could give Leo a tour of it.