by K. T. Lee
Stefanie tapped her fingers on her desk, thinking of how she’d phrase the request. Well, she hadn’t gotten this job by being a shrinking violet. Although, it was odd that Nash’s request had been turned down without further explanation, especially considering how much time the OEG spent talking to the press about their groundbreaking research. Well, every office had its own politics and the Oceanic Exploration Group couldn’t be that different. Maybe she just had to nudge them a little to help Nash get some more momentum. And in the meantime, there were plenty of spare parts in the lab to prove they could do a lot with even a little funding.
5
Ree Ryland-Mitchell flipped the lock on the front door of her new house, nearly exactly halfway between her work at Indiana Polytechnic and the FBI Chicago field office. After everything she’d been through with Parker and his team at the FBI, Ree was fastidious about security. Today, she’d taken a half-day at home and would soon drive to Indiana Polytechnic for her office hours. While it was a longer commute than her old house near campus, she loved everything else about the location. They’d found a cute little place in a friendly neighborhood and purchased it in time to tweak it to their preferences before construction was finished. The next owners might raise an eyebrow at the gun safe built into the wall, but if it was up to Ree, they wouldn’t be selling the house for a very long time. Ree checked her purse for her car keys, and after several seconds of digging, she came up empty. She checked again. Ree usually kept them in their own small pocket of her meticulously-organized handbag, but she must have tossed them in the larger part of the bag. While she prided herself on having all of her metaphorical ducks neatly in their rows, the last few weeks had brought changes to Ree’s life that had sent those ducks into a tailspin. After looking in just about every room in their house, she finally spotted her color-coded key ring on the kitchen counter. Phew. She wasn’t completely losing it. Ree walked over to pick them up and startled when the door to the garage opened. Her husband, FBI Special Agent Parker Mitchell, walked in, crossed the room, and gave her a kiss. “Hey honey, I’m home.”
Ree grinned against his lips. “Hi there. You’re home early. I’m still not quite used to getting to see you every day.”
He pulled back but kept his arms wrapped around her waist. “Yeah, but getting used to it has been a lot of fun.”
“We may have had a little too much fun. It’s been affecting me all morning.” Ree swatted at him.
“I’m sorry you don’t feel well.” Parker leaned his forehead against hers. “But, I’m not sorry we had a great honeymoon, Dr. Ryland-Mitchell.”
She laughed. “Glad to hear it. Now I just need you to stop strutting around like a peacock.” She meant to smile at Parker but a rush of nausea rose up, fast and furious. She froze for a moment and Parker jumped out of her path just in the nick of time. Ree made a beeline to the toilet with her hand over her mouth and she did something that was the opposite of how she felt toward her husband. Once she thought she was done, she lifted her head and shouted, “You know I love you, but don’t even think about coming in here.” Ree heaved again.
Parker’s voice came from just outside the door. “Can I get you some water? Or crackers?”
Ree leaned her head against the wall and said weakly, “I’m fine.”
“Wouldn’t suggest otherwise.” When the feeling had passed, Ree rose and brushed her teeth. The doctor assured her that her occasional nausea was normal and her pregnancy was proceeding as billions of pregnancies had before. It was not nearly as reassuring as her doctor had probably intended it to be. Once convinced this wave of “normal pregnancy” was tamed enough, she sighed and left the bathroom. Parker met her in the hallway with a glass of water. “I love you. You are strong and incredible. And glowing.”
“I think you mean I’m sweating, but thank you all the same.” Ree put the back of her hand to her forehead. “Throwing up after you kissed me really wasn’t personal. I still think you’re hot, if it helps.” The sheen of sweat on her brow was probably less than convincing.
Parker pulled her to his side, giving her a gentle squeeze. “Thank you, but that’s not the thing I’m worried about. You have a long afternoon ahead. Have you told anyone at work yet?”
Ree sighed. “I mean, we just found out, so I’m still processing. But yeah, I will soon. Matt has already noticed that I’ve gone running from our shared office space to the restroom at least once a day.” Dr. Matt Brown wasn’t just a colleague and friend, he’d also helped out on previous operations with the FBI. Really, she should be able to tell him just about anything at this point, he was privy to so much top-secret information. Her pregnancy hardly qualified as more secret than chasing down an assassin. “He might have figured it out but is just being polite. Or he thinks I am having GI issues. To be fair, even I thought my fatigue was from the stress of moving until a few weeks ago.” Ree grinned. “I’m pretty excited about our honeymoon surprise. Of course, we’ll have to think of a better name than ‘honeymoon surprise’ if we want them to be normal.”
Parker shrugged. “Normal is overrated. I’m pretty sure a ‘normal’ engineering professor wouldn’t be moonlighting for the FBI and married to an agent she met while trying to prevent the assassination of the president of another country. But, for the record, we have another six months to think of a name.”
“I hope this morning sickness thing is over soon.” Ree rested her head on his shoulder. “It’s hell on my nerves, teaching classes when I know I might have to run out at any moment. Oh, and since I haven’t told anyone yet, I just get to be cheerful Ree instead of mom-to-be Ree who was up half the night because hormones are the literal worst. Seriously, you have no idea.”
Parker kissed her forehead. “You’re absolutely right. Still, you at 50 percent is more formidable than most people at 100 percent. So, pace yourself and let me know what I can do to help. When you’re ready, you can let people know. Matt will help when you’re ready to tell him. And we’ll lay off of you moonlighting for the FBI. Unless a problem follows you to campus again, it’d be a bad idea to send you undercover right now. Puking on suspects is frowned upon at the Bureau.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Something was off.
Ree narrowed her eyes. “There’s something you’re not telling me. What’s going on?” Ree checked her watch. “And wait a second…why did you come home early?”
Parker rubbed the back of his neck. “Alexis discovered something. And you deserve to know, but we need to think very carefully about what we do next. And I really don’t want you involved, especially considering you aren’t feeling well. I’m just not sure if that’s possible.”
“Please tell me we aren’t in danger again. We just moved. I love this house. It’s perfect. I don’t want to leave.” Ree’s stomach dropped.
“We have no reason to believe we are in danger, but there is…a complication. You need to be read in.” Parker pulled her hand into his and led her to the couch. “I called Cam on the way over. He said it’s okay if you know, but we need to keep him informed if we engage the subject involved.”
Ree put a hand to her forehead. “Okay. I promise to talk to Cam before I put my nose anywhere it doesn’t belong. Now, what’s going on and why is it about me? Is someone lurking around campus again?”
“No.”
Ree breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh good. Then it can’t be that bad.”
Parker cleared his throat. “Um, well, the good news is, we’ve been tracking one of Dmitri’s sleeper agents and we finally have a good idea of his location. The bad news is, Alexis thinks he might be working at your sister’s new company. And that he may be more active than sleepy, if you get my drift.”
Ree leapt up from the couch and her stomach lurched. She put a hand on it, then sat back down gingerly. “Excuse me, what? My sister? Stef, the same sister who called me because she was over the moon to get her dream job after two years of applying? This was her big chance! How did we not know about this?”
&
nbsp; “We just connected the dots. Our guy has been really good at living a double life.” Parker put a hand on top of hers. “Once Alexis told me the company name, I put two and two together. I mean, it’s a big enough company, they may not even run into each other.”
Ree studied Parker. “You don’t believe that, or you wouldn’t have told me. Stef needs to know. She’s a big girl. She can handle it. And if something happened to her when I could have prevented it, I couldn’t live with myself. I’ll go there myself to protect her if I have to.”
“I know you would.” Parker moved his hand to thread his fingers through hers. “Let’s look at this objectively. Since she nearly outshot you at the Thanksgiving target shoot, we know she can handle herself.” The Ryland family had the rather unusual tradition of going to the gun range the week of Thanksgiving for family night. Ree wasn’t the only one in her family with a big personality.
Ree eyed him skeptically. “Well, I usually do better than that. I’d had a lot of coffee that morning…” Parker’s mouth twitched. Ree, like her sister, had a competitive streak. “Not that it’s important right now.”
Parker chuckled. “Of course not. Even so, going up against Dmitri’s minions is something else entirely. Not that she should need to. We can keep her far away from any action. She can just give us periodic updates.”
“That’ll be her call, not mine. I don’t like that she’s trapped in this situation at all, but we’re well past that. And if anyone can kick ass and take names while still doing her job, it’s Stef.” Ree sighed. “We’re calling her tonight. You can tell Cam that. He can join us if he wants to tell her himself.”
“Won’t be necessary. We’ll fill him in later. I’ve already got a local FBI agent delivering a secure phone to a pickup box. We’ll just let her know we sent something. That’ll keep the call secure. We can handle this.”
Ree leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you. I love you. But for the record, if Dmitri has touched this company, there is an extremely high probability this will turn into a complete shit show.”
* * *
After a long day of waiting to talk to her sister, the curious face of Stefanie Ryland greeted them on a video chat. Ree forced a cheerful smile. “Good evening, Auntie Stef!” Stefanie was one of a small group of people who knew Ree and Parker were expecting a new little person in their life, and Ree was more than willing to use that knowledge to smooth their upcoming conversation.
Stefanie’s eyes flipped from curiosity to skepticism. There truly was no bullshitting her family. “Nice try, but I had to go pick up a ‘gift’ your FBI analyst husband sent. I’m not fooled that this is about the baby, even if I am soon going to be the world’s greatest aunt. Parker, are you trying to trick me into doing some research for your job? You could just ask. I’m happy to help, you know.”
Parker cleared his throat. Stefanie was, like Ree’s mom and dad, under the impression that he was a relatively inexperienced analyst at the FBI. They’d been admonished not to share even that with anyone for security reasons. As a military family, they understood the rules, and Parker had never been worried they might slip up. They didn’t even talk about it at family gatherings. As a result, Ree’s family had remained uninformed of the true extent of Parker’s undercover work with the FBI and were blissfully unaware of Ree’s involvement entirely. Parker exchanged a look with Ree. “I’m afraid it’s a little worse than that. My team has been dealing with a bit of a situation with a rogue Russian politician. We believe he has a spy working for him in the United States.”
“Sounds ominous.” Stefanie rested her chin in her hands and leaned into the video.
Parker slipped a hand into Ree’s. “We think there’s a chance that one of his sleeper agents is hiding out at the Oceanic Exploration Group.”
Stefanie put a hand over her mouth, then lowered it. “Okay. I’m sorry. Back up.” She closed her eyes, then opened them. “A Russian politician sent an agent to do something to my new workplace? And why are you both delivering this news? Isn’t it classified or something? You skipped some key information, new brother. I don’t know what Ree’s told you about our family, but we don’t beat around the bush.”
Ree smiled. “Oh, he knows. Parker isn’t beating around the bush. It’s just hard to know exactly where to start. Dmitri is resourceful and to be honest with you, he’s dangerous. And we don’t know why he’d be working with your company. We were hoping you might help us figure it out. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you’re doing? Specifically?”
“Okay, I’m going to walk past the fact that you said ‘we,’ and answer your question. But we will come back to it, just so we’re clear.” Stefanie gave her sister a pointed look. “The Oceanic Exploration Group sends research platforms into the ocean using remotely controlled vehicles – think of a drone, but a submarine – to do deep ocean research, inspect underwater equipment, check out shipwrecks, monitor pollution, you name it. Our fees are lower than most of our competitors and our platform is customizable. We do a little site scouting for mining operations, but not much yet. I mean, it’s possible that a Russian politician cares about mining opportunities, but that’s not especially nefarious. It’s money, sure, but there is global interest.”
“That’s very helpful. That’s just the kind of information we’re looking for.” Parker scribbled down a note.
Stefanie narrowed her eyes. “You could get most of that off the company website. What else do you want from me?”
Parker looked up from his notebook. “What about the people you do business with? You work with boat operators, I assume?”
“Yes. We have a handful of folks that manage the research platforms and deploy the submarines, mostly employees, but not all. I can tell you where to find a list.”
“That would be a great place to start.” Parker scribbled down another note.
Stefanie tilted her head. “Is that all you’re looking for?”
Ree shot a look at Parker, then looked at her sister. It’d be easier, coming from her. “The FBI would like you to be a source of information. Maybe just keep an ear to the ground, let us know if you see anything suspicious back at the office.”
Stefanie crossed her arms. “Let’s talk about why you said ‘us.’”
Ree looked at Parker, their silent discussion taking under a second. Ree leaned in to face her sister, insofar as it was possible on a video chat. “Stef, I’ve been involved in operations with the CIA and FBI that involve this politician. For operational reasons, I needed to go in as myself on one of them. It makes this investigation a little more high-stakes than usual. The politician’s name is Dmitri Yeninov, and he might know who I am. Therefore, we’ll need to be careful in our communications and let me know if you hear his name, even just his first name. If someone slips up, it could be the lead that makes sure we are all finally safe.” Ree put a hand on her stomach. “Sis, this guy is dangerous. We can get you out of there if you want. I’d go in myself, but I puke every few hours right now and it’s inconvenient…”
Stefanie’s eyes went wide. “Inconvenient? That’s the only reason you can think of for not getting involved? Ree, what have you gotten yourself into? You’re a professor, not a spy!” Her eyes shot fire at Parker, who assumed a calm mask, his default when he was in over his head.
“Well…maybe I can be both a professor and a spy.” Ree had offered to help the FBI on a case and she wasn’t sorry about any of it. “And for the record, I insisted on helping. Strongly. So please stop shooting daggers at my husband. It’s definitely not his fault. Like I said, you don’t even have to help with this. We have a team of folks who can fake an illness for you until the FBI and CIA sort this out. We can set up a website to update people on your very rare but temporarily life-threatening illness that will require immediate hospitalization. Then, you can come to stay with Parker and me for a little while until this all blows over.”
Stefanie rose and began to pace. Parker rubbed a spot between his eyebrows
and said under his breath. “I’ve seen that look before.”
Stefanie whirled and pointed a finger at him. “I heard that. Listen, Parker. I’m not sure exactly what your role with the FBI is but I’m starting to believe you do more than just research. Now. Is this…Dmitri whoever a threat to my sister?”
Parker nodded. “Yes.”
“Does he know who I am?”
Parker blew out a breath. “At this point, we have no evidence that suggests that. We didn’t even connect the dots until today. If that changes, we’ll let you know.”
“If I leave, it could tip him off that you’re watching him.” Stefanie sat down.
Parker nodded. “Yeah, that’s possible.”
“Okay. Decision made.” Stefanie lifted her chin a fraction. “I’ll stay. And if I’m staying, I’m going to need to be involved. I need everything you can tell me about this guy and his agent.”
Parker looked at Ree. “That sounds familiar.”
“What can I say?” Ree had a twinkle in her eye. “The Ryland sisters aren’t any good at letting someone else solve our problems.”
“Okay, Stef. As long as you’re careful, we can make that happen.” Parker placed his notepad on the table. “And thank you. You’re doing us all a huge favor. But we’re not getting you officially involved until we have a plan to manage your safety.”
Stefanie crossed her arms. “Like you said, you just figured it out. I can’t imagine I’m at any real risk right now.”
Parker said gently, “You’re probably right, but let’s wait until we have that safety plan in place.”
“Fine.” Stefanie put her hands on her hips. “But I’m starting the minute after we have it.”
Ree stage-whispered, “Told ya.”
Parker looked fondly at Ree. “I know, but now there are two of you.”
Stefanie laughed, but it was a bit hollow. “What do I need to know until then?”