Assassin Games (Tarnished Heroes)

by Bristol, Sidney

  She swallowed and turned to face him.

  “I was thinking, sir, we might force Carol out into the open. If we had her mother killed—”

  “No,” he said sharply.

  “But, sir—”

  “Mrs. Sark is one of ours. She is loyal to us. If her daughter surfaces, she will tell us where she is. Understood?”

  Kristina gaped at the man, her whole world tilting slightly. Carol’s mother was one of their assets?

  …

  Andy stared at the index of growing names. They were never going to develop a useful suspect list at this rate. If Carol’s theory was right, and the connection was the family members of the agents involved, then they were in a world of trouble.

  They couldn’t get a line of communication with Irene.

  Mitch was potentially compromised and still missing.

  Noah didn’t have the technical know-how to assist.

  Rand and Sarah were entrenched God only knew where.

  That left him and Carol.

  He’d been able to upload the algorithm to the CIA servers and let it run because it was essentially a computer virus, worming its way where it wasn’t supposed to go. Eventually, if left unchecked, it would infect everything.

  He stroked his chin and continued staring at the screen, but his entire focus was on the woman next to him. She sipped from a mug of steaming tea, offering no commentary to go along with his thoughts.

  She wasn’t clear on what her standing with the CIA was. Without Irene or Mitch to give them the rundown on what the hell was going on, they were blind.

  Worst-case scenario, Carol was already a wanted person within the Company. If she swiped into any CIA facility, they’d come for her in a manner of minutes. He couldn’t gain entry without her, because he didn’t actually exist within the Company.

  Best-case scenario, Carol swiped in, they got what they needed, and the leakers came for them en masse to finish the job.

  Andy didn’t like either situation.

  What other alternatives did they have?

  “How long?” Carol asked, her voice soft.

  “Maybe half an hour?” His indexing program was fast and the documents easily scanned.

  “There’s over twenty thousand people who work for the Company. This is a small number, but think about their reach?”

  Andy didn’t offer his thoughts. After all, they wouldn’t be welcomed. He was a prime example of what one person could accomplish with the right skill set. Whoever these people were, they wouldn’t bother with single skill set people. They’d go after key players, people with power. And that meant the people under them could be influenced. That was why the index was only the beginning. Many of the people on it were there because they’d been following orders, nothing more.

  “We need some criteria to sort the list, I just don’t know what. These cases, they’re all over the place. Departments maybe? We could pick out problematic areas, clusters of people.”

  “This is too big, Carol.” He turned to face her. “We need to start thinking about you, and only you.”

  “What? No. Don’t talk like that. There’s always a way.”

  “I’m running through every possible scenario in my head. This index? It’s nearly five percent of everyone who works for the Company. Even if just five percent of the five percent are involved, that’s a lot of people with a lot of power behind them.” Andy stared at the side of her head.

  He’d take that five percent on, but not until she was safe.

  “You expect me to run and hide from this?” She gestured to the screens.

  “Yes.”

  “Then you don’t know me at all, Andy.”

  “I can only do one job at a time. Right now my job is keeping you safe. I can’t begin to focus on this until you are safe.”

  “Then we have a problem, because I’m not going to hide, twiddling my thumbs while you save the country. We’ll do this together, or…I’ll go public.”

  “You know what going public would do to the country? You do. Just think about it. Our allies would lose complete confidence in us. Our enemies would take that as the sign to attack. Senator Fowler is a shoo-in for the presidential race right now, but you throw an upset like that into the mix? He probably won’t make the ballot because someone will come along and scoop up that opportunity to seize power based on nothing more than the general population’s fear that all those nightmares they thought were just in movies are real.”

  “What are we supposed to do then? I don’t know how we fix this, even with the list.” Her complexion went pale, her eyes wide.

  Andy clenched his teeth.

  Every plan he came up with had one crucial problem.

  It put her at risk.

  He needed her to gain access to any CIA site. The same code he’d used to install her algorithm wouldn’t work a second time. Besides, they didn’t have the time for the virus to work. They needed to log in directly, hack the system, and get what they needed.

  At most he’d need…half an hour.

  That was forever when it came to covert work.

  What they were doing was bigger than either of them, which meant it came down to a choice.

  Andy’s life, or Carol’s.

  There wasn’t a world where he’d pick himself over her.

  The catch was, she couldn’t know what he was doing, because Carol still believed in happy endings and everyone getting to go home at the close of the story.

  “There is one plan, but it’s dangerous.” He swallowed.

  “Let’s do it,” she said without hesitation.

  “There’s a small company office outside of DC. During the summer they train people there. The ones most can’t know about. During the winter it’s only got a small staff. It’s where they took Rand and Sarah after they got back.”

  “I wondered where they were taken.”

  “Because of what was leaked, we think the moles have a direct line on that place, and that they are wired to the main CIA servers. It would make the hack cleaner, more direct.”

  “What do you need me to do?” Carol leaned forward, so eager to help.

  “Use your credentials to scan into the building. The moles will no doubt have a flag on your name. Once you’re in the building, take down the entry camera, then proceed through to the other side. I’ll enter behind you, and as you exit I would begin the hack from the basement level.”

  “You want me to be bait. They chase me, but leave you alone.”

  “Yes.” He nodded and prayed she bought the lie. “You understand why I don’t like it?”

  “I’m a big girl, Andy. We’re all involved. When do we do it?”

  He checked his watch. This time of year, two hours there, an hour to scope out the location, then half an hour to complete the hack, all under the cover of darkness.

  “Now. Getting in and out is the easy thing. It’s the after I’m worried about. They’ll send someone after you immediately, so we need to prepare multiple escape routes. I’ll download the information to a secure offshore server and set you up with a login. This way, if we get separated, we can both work on the list.”

  “Okay.”

  “And here’s the most important part—we can’t tell each other where we’re going. We have to split up, for a little while.” If he didn’t know where she was, they couldn’t torture the information out of him. “Think you’re up for it?”

  “Yes.”

  Of course she was.

  Carol was amazing. She’d never back down, and if she knew what he was planning, she’d stick to him like glue. Which was why their journey together had to end.

  …

  Georgia wasn’t sorry to see Mitch McConnel getting the rough treatment. She’d worked with the pretty boy a time or two. Always seemed like he had a stick up his ass.

  Tate muttered something and turned, stalking down the hall.

  They both had ops to get back to. She’d been away from her post for too long. There would be a lot of
questions to account for, but she was hoping for a little help.

  “You wanted a meet?” The old man’s voice was deceptively relaxed. She’d learned the hard way that the exterior and interior did not match.

  “Yes, sir.” She tilted her head toward one of the divisional leaders of SICA.

  “Speak.”

  “I have concerns about the way this op has been run.” She caught herself before she glanced at the man.

  “Don’t we all?”

  “Is anything being done about it?”

  “It will be handled. Either she’ll sink or swim herself.”

  Kristina hadn’t made any friends within the leadership structure it would seem.

  “Is there anything I can do, sir?” Georgia asked.

  “Not unless you can make this one talk.” He sighed and stepped into her peripheral vision. “Bringing him in was a mistake.”

  “He’s a nobody.” Georgia frowned at the man.

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Can’t do anything about it now. We might have to fabricate a backstory. That’s where you could come in, if your op allows it.”

  A shrill beeping sound broke the relative silence. She knew it was late, but down here, under layers of earth, time was meaningless except as numbers on the wall.

  “What the…? It’s Carol,” he said. “She’s upstairs. Get up there. Go.”

  Georgia didn’t ask questions, though she wanted to. She turned and sprinted out the door, headed for the stairs.

  …

  Carol stepped into the brightly lit lobby. The building had the same utilitarian appearance as many CIA buildings. Only this one was located out in the middle of nowhere, Virginia. There wasn’t an emblem outside or even a sign to denote what was here, but Carol had been inside enough company facilities to recognize the sterility of one.

  The front desk sat empty, likely because anyone coming or going at this hour wasn’t meant to be seen.

  She turned toward the camera pointed at the front doors and pulled her clutch out from under her arm. She peered into it and turned the knob on the tiny device inside.

  The light went from red to green.

  That disruption would only last for moments.

  She turned and waved.

  Andy sprinted for the doors, hauling a case with him. He shoved the glass doors open and waved her off.

  “Go,” he snapped.

  She nodded and strode down the wide marble hall.

  Her jammer would knock the cameras in the lobby, utility staircase, and the server room below the entry offline. In the window of time they had, Andy would enter and access the servers while Carol proceeded to exit the building—on camera.

  It took everything inside of her to not bolt and run, but she had to appear as cool, calm, and collected as possible.

  Her boots thumped on the floor.

  The heaters were on just enough to chase the chill from the air, but not make her warm.

  She reached the other side of the building and pushed through the doors out into the frigid night air.

  Behind her a door clanged open.

  Carol glanced over her shoulder and caught the eye of an all too familiar face.

  The woman from the cabin.

  She was alive.

  And she had a gun pointed at Carol.

  The woman fired. The interior glass door shattered.

  Carol threw her hands up and sprinted for the car, around a bend, and behind a tree.

  A second shot rang out, this one bouncing off the pavement close on Carol’s heels.

  She practically threw herself at the car, clawing at the door and diving in. By some miracle it hadn’t been spotted. Andy had been right when he said this was a blind spot.

  Carol cranked the engine, jammed her foot on the accelerator, and shifted into drive.

  The car fishtailed before its wheels found purchase on the pavement and shot forward.

  Another bullet pelted the back of the car and yet another shattered the back window.

  Carol cried out and sank lower, hands shaking and heart pounding in her throat.

  They weren’t supposed to be there. Andy had said the location was hardly used. Then why was a killer waiting for them there?

  Headlights blossomed behind her.

  Carol turned out of the drive and focused on the plan. She turned at the first opportunity, then turned again, sliding into a house with an open garage and a For Sale sign outside.

  She jumped out and yanked the garage door shut, hardly daring to breathe.

  Andy was still in that building. Who else was there?

  …

  Andy pushed the door to the stairwell open and took the stairs two and three at a time. He had maybe twenty minutes before someone descended on this place and he wanted to have the upload going by then.

  He reached the basement level.

  Footsteps pounded the concrete.

  He ducked into the deeper shadows and peered through the crack between the wall and stairs.

  On the blueprints this hall was supposed to be maybe twenty feet long and lead to one of three rooms.

  That hall was a lot longer than twenty feet.

  The figures disappeared up another staircase.

  The signal jammer on him would disrupt more cameras if he moved in any one direction. There was clearly more going on here than they were aware of, and that was a problem.

  Andy reached into his pocket and turned the jammer off.

  He stood up straight and strode forward.

  He belonged here. If he believed that lie, so would anyone looking at him.

  The server room keypad responded to his master key, granting him entrance.

  First, he’d hack the system and start the upload, then he’d figure out just what the hell was going on here. If they’d found a site where the leakers were operating freely, that could change things. There would be evidence, and if he could alert someone, there might still be hope that they’d all get to walk away from this.

  Andy closed the door behind him and forced himself to not jog to the rear terminal. By his estimation it was almost out of the camera frame, so if he hunched down, it would be more difficult to see him at a glance.

  He reached the terminal without anyone coming to check on him. The distraction must be working.

  No.

  He couldn’t think about Carol.

  If everything went according to plan she’d be in that garage for five or so minutes while the coast cleared, change cars, and begin a long journey back to DC. He couldn’t give a moment’s consideration to what would happen if the plan didn’t work.

  It would work.

  Carol would be safe.

  Andy had to keep his head in the game.

  He opened the case and connected the wires from his modified laptop to the server.

  It was time to stop feeling and think. This was one of the things he did best, what a little country boy looking for a better life had pegged as what would set him apart. Keeping his country—and home—safe wasn’t just about handling the bad guys, it was staying a step ahead of everyone else, and in the digital age, that meant being everything.

  His fingers flew over the keys, using every trick he knew to break or fool the security stops between him and the information he needed. It was a long shot, and he didn’t think they’d get everything they wanted—but it would be a start.

  All they needed was a loose link, a weak spot, someone who would talk if the right pressure were applied.

  He could find that person for Carol, and she could take it over the finish line.

  “Yes!” he whispered as the final barrier between him and the personnel database fell away.

  Copying the entire thing would take too long, so he’d written a quick program that would pull the files of the five percent of people already on their index.

  He sat back on his heels and watched the green bar inch across the screen.

  It’d take a good fifteen minutes, if he was right.

&n
bsp; The way he saw it, he had two options.

  One, he could hunker down and see this through, hiding in the hopes of escaping without detection.

  Two, he could have a look around.

  If this was a black site for the leakers, they’d move before the end of the week.

  This could be his only chance to lay eyes on the people after them.

  Andy pulled the two guns holstered under his jacket and checked the chambers. That done, he re-holstered one and put the other in his pocket.

  He had no doubt that there were plenty of innocent people, ignorant about what they were truly doing, who were roped into working for this organization within the Company. But how to tell them apart? He didn’t think he could.

  Armed and ready, Andy retraced his steps to the door and peered out.

  The coast was clear, for now.

  Instead of three doors, the hall extended for some fifty yards. Maybe the entire width of the building. Doors led to a half dozen different places.

  Where did he go? Where had those footsteps come from?

  This area was too open, too accessible. If they were operating out of this building it would be from somewhere more hidden and tucked away. That meant he needed to go lower, deeper into the building’s guts.

  Andy pushed out of the server room and strolled down the hall.

  Someone had expanded this level and made a secret training ground.

  They wouldn’t be here.

  Stairs? Where were the stairs?

  He stood in about the spot where he’d seen the people. Where had they come from?

  A room marked Classroom stood partially open.

  Andy glanced around, then ducked into the room.

  Long desks and rolling chairs took up a good half of the space.

  Across from him a metal bookcase was swung out, revealing an honest-to-fucking-God hidden door.

  If he went down there, he might not come out.

  He couldn’t just stand here, either. He’d be on camera, and those people would be coming back eventually, too.

  Andy pulled out a satellite phone he’d brought just in case. He dialed the number he had for Noah by memory. The call went to voicemail.

  “The chessboard has a second hidden column. Find the queen, don’t go looking for the knight.” Andy hung up the phone and pulled the battery out.

  Noah wouldn’t know what Andy was saying, but Carol would. It would be Noah’s responsibility to tell her that Andy wasn’t coming back from this. He’d owe Noah in the next life, if there was one. Carol would realize Andy had tricked her. But only one of them could walk into the lion’s den and come out alive.