Crash and Burn

by Maggie Nash

  “Don’t worry. I will,” she said. “Now go, so you can bring me lunch at a reasonable hour.”

  He nodded and turned for the door. Briefly the thought crossed his mind that she was giving in too easily. He hoped not. She’d better stay put. There wasn’t time to go traipsing after her if she got into more trouble. And she had to stay safe at all costs. Maybe he should’ve handcuffed her to the bed. Grinning at the thought, he imagined her eyes flashing with passion and fire. No way… That would be too tempting by half. He straightened up and pulled the cap over his head to hide his slightly long brown hair.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  * * * *

  After Daniel had left, Beth collected the breakfast trays and deposited them outside the door. Leaving the ‘do not disturb’ light on, she locked the door and flipped the chain into place. Time to get to work.

  She knew Daniel had been suspicious of her. He’d thought she was up to something. She wasn’t, but it amused her that he thought she was. As if. She wasn’t that stupid. What could she do anyway? She wasn’t familiar with Canberra, and she knew no one in the city. Except…maybe she did have one contact. Her parents had had a friend who lived in Canberra, but she’d lost contact with him over the years. She hadn’t seen him since the funeral, and she’d been so numb at the time that she couldn’t even remember what they’d talked about. She remembered that he’d had a falling out with her father not long before her parents’ death, and that her father didn’t talk about him after that. Maybe he could help them. He used to work with her father in the Australian Federal Police. He might know what to do. She walked over to the desk, withdrew her address book from her purse and started flipping through the pages.

  * * * *

  The phone rang in an office high above the city. The silver-haired man hesitated before reaching for the cradle, his fingers tense as he raised it to his ear. He knew exactly who it was on the end of the line. He needed more time. Time he didn’t have.

  “Is it done?” barked the voice at the end of the line.

  “Not yet.”

  An intake of breath sounded. The voice paused before continuing. “I’m getting impatient. It must be done soon.”

  “I know. We’re getting closer.”

  “You had better be. You know what will happen if you fail.”

  The silver-haired man sucked in a breath. He knew exactly what would happen if he failed. He knew what was at stake. He had to prevent that at all costs. “I’m aware of the consequences. It will be done in time.”

  “Good, see that it is.”

  * * * *

  Daniel crossed the road and entered the hotel through the side door. He’d had a frustrating morning and needed to get to his laptop before he could get any further information. Will hadn’t been able to add anything to what he already had. Someone knew their every move. There were no tracking devices on them. He’d checked everything they’d brought with them. And the Conference was only a few days away. They thought they had it covered. The security had been upgraded to protect the British Prime Minister.

  Unless it wasn’t the Prime Minister who was the target. If not him, then who? His best bet was those files Beth was checking out. He hoped she’d been able to come up with something. If he could find the leak, he may be able to figure out what this was all about, but they’d better hurry. Time was running out.

  As he’d prearranged with Beth, he rang the doorbell when he reached the suite. Nothing. The hairs on his neck pricked up and his gut clenched. A maid peeked out of the room opposite and stared suspiciously at him. Ignoring her, he switched to knocking, then pounded on the white painted wood. Still nothing. He grabbed the handle and tried it. It was locked. He slipped his key card into the slot and shoved the door open. He raced into the suite, where his eyes zeroed in on the desk. The laptop was gone. Listening for any sounds, he carefully walked to the bedroom and opened the door. The bed was neatly made with clean towels sitting on the edge. He stepped through to the bathroom and swore.

  She was gone.

  Chapter Seven

  Beth entered the coffee shop and asked for directions to the ladies room. She smiled, thanked the waitress and ordered a cappuccino before moving past the counter out the back entrance and into the back lane.

  Her heart pounded as she looked both ways. Suppressing a twinge of guilt for ordering something she’d had no intention of paying for, she adjusted the cap she wore over the long dark wig she’d pilfered from Daniel’s backpack of tricks. No way could anyone have recognized her. She’d never be caught dead in a baseball cap. Anyone who knew her would know that. But of course, whoever was trying to kill her didn’t know her as well as her friends did.

  She walked up the lane, slowly at first, then gathering momentum as she neared another small lane that veered to the right. Ducking into a doorway, she peered back. She couldn’t see anyone, but she could feel someone there. Right now she was wishing she’d stayed put in the hotel. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. She was going stir crazy waiting for Daniel to come back from his meeting, so she thought a short walk wouldn’t do any harm. After downloading the files she needed when she’d logged on at the Internet café, all she’d wanted to do was sit in the park and do her research in the sunshine. She’d thought the hat and the wig disguised her pretty well. Obviously not well enough, because she’d only been sitting in the park for about fifteen minutes before she’d felt, rather than seen, someone staring at her. She’d gotten up and moved around the park among the crowd.

  The feeling had followed her.

  That was how she’d found herself here in this laneway. She couldn’t take any chances. Daniel wasn’t going to be happy when he found out. In fact, she imagined that he was furious right about now. Now if she could only figure out how to get herself back to the hotel, which at the moment was clearly a challenge.

  A low humming sound interrupted her thoughts. Confused, she turned her head to see where the sound was coming from. It seemed to come from her bag. She patted the bag down to find the source of the buzzing. Of course, the phone! Beth retrieved the device Daniel had given her and braced for what was coming.

  “Daniel, I can explain.”

  “Where the hell are you?”

  “In a doorway.”

  “Doorway? Where?”

  “In an alley behind a coffee shop.”

  Beth moved the phone away from her ear as a few choice expletives came through the line.

  She heard footsteps coming toward her. “Look, Daniel,” she whispered. “You can shout at me later, okay? I think I’m being followed. I have to go. I’ll head back to the hotel when I shake him, otherwise I’ll call you.”

  She pushed the end button, threw the phone in her bag and knocked lightly on the door she stood in front of. As a short Chinese woman opened the door, Beth placed a finger to her lips and sidled past her to the front of the shop. It was an Asian grocer. Thankfully there were a number of customers bartering noisily in their own languages. Beth slipped around them quickly and out onto the street.

  There was a taxi rank across the street and a cab pulled up to the curb as she arrived, letting out a passenger.

  Thank you, God!

  Beth raced over and jumped in, slamming the door behind her. She turned as the taxi sped off in the direction of the hotel and saw a man run out of the shop, looking both ways down the street. That was too close.

  She retrieved the phone and dialed Daniel.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “Good,” he said curtly before he hung up on her.

  Beth got out of the cab around the corner from the hotel. She slowly walked across the road at the pedestrian lights, trying to check out each person she passed without causing suspicion. Any one of them could be following her. How had someone found her? How had she been recognized? The disguise was good. She knew it was. She’d been certain even her parents, if they were alive,
would have had a hard time knowing it was her. If not her looks, then what was it that gave her away? She felt the laptop bump her thigh through the bag she had slung over her shoulder. The laptop? No, it couldn’t be. They’d had it with them the whole time. She’d have to ask Daniel if that were possible.

  Think. If not the laptop itself, maybe the site she was searching. The appointment diary. It had to be. They must have picked up the signal while she was plugged in at the Internet café. That had to be how they’d found her.

  She needed to get to Daniel and fast.

  As inconspicuously as she could, she raced through the lobby and took the first elevator up to their suite. Trepidation filled her as she reached the room. She knew Daniel was angry with her and she really couldn’t blame him. Taking a deep breath, she slipped the card in the slot and placed her hand on the doorknob.

  The door jerked open and away from her hand. Daniel dragged her into the room and closed the door firmly.

  “What the fuck did you think you were doing?” barked Daniel.

  Yep, he’s angry all right. May as well tell him the good news now.

  “We have to get out of here right away. I’ll explain as we go,” said Beth as she headed for the bedroom with every intention of packing.

  Daniel grabbed her arm again and held her in place. “I’ve already packed. You can explain in the car. We need to hit the road.”

  Too stunned to do anything else, Beth nodded and took the bag Daniel handed to her as they headed out of the door. The lift doors opened as they reached the hallway. Signaling her to be silent, Daniel grabbed Beth’s hand and pulled her the other way down the corridor and through the fire escape door. Surprising Beth, Daniel led them up the stairs instead of down.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Up to the walkway to the other tower. We can get to the garage without going through the lobby from there.”

  Of course, thought Beth. First rule of secret agents—know your escape routes. She followed him as best she could, trying not to slow their progress, but her leg had started to ache again. Her limp was getting more marked as they drew closer to the elevators in the adjacent tower. Daniel watched as she rubbed her thigh while they waited for the car to arrive, although he seemed more irritated than concerned. Boy, he’s still mad.

  “Your leg hurting you?”

  “It’ll be all right. I can manage. We are going for another car trip, right? I can rest it while you drive.”

  “It’ll be a long drive. We can’t afford to stop for some time.”

  “Where are we going? No, scratch that. Surprise me.”

  Daniel arched his eyebrow and his eyes crinkled at the edges. For a second there Beth thought he was smiling, but it passed as quickly as it started and his face became a mask of determination. Not a smile in sight.

  * * * *

  Daniel drove carefully around the outskirts of the city. The lunchtime traffic wasn’t heavy, but busy enough that he needed to be alert.

  How had they been made? Damn stubborn woman! Why hadn’t she just stayed put? He’d trusted her, even when he’d known she was giving in too easily. It wouldn’t happen again. From now on they’d be joined at the hip. He had to keep her safe, and that was damn near impossible if she went charging off on her own.

  But first he had to figure out how they’d been located. He had to admit Beth’s disguise had been pretty good. If he hadn’t known it was her coming through the door, he wouldn’t have recognized her. He needed some answers. She was sitting slumped in the passenger seat and he felt a twinge of guilt. If they’d taken her into protective custody from the start, this wouldn’t have happened.

  Beth’s unruly curls were translucent as the afternoon sun shone through the windscreen, showing sparkling golden highlights. Her green eyes were dull and tired and he noticed the dark circles that were more apparent now, due to the light. She might be a bit reckless, but she was certainly not a shrinking violet. It was an impossible situation, but she had been handling it like a pro—if he discounted her idiocy this morning. She shifted in her seat and took in a deep breath. Her breasts rose and the T-shirt she was wearing stretched tightly, outlining her nipples.

  Heat and awareness flooded through Daniel as he remembered the previous night. Those breasts were damn near perfect. He shook his head in a vain attempt to shift the erotic images of his mouth claiming a taut nipple and grazing it with his teeth. He turned his head quickly back to the road, but not quite quickly enough. He saw Beth flush as he heard a catch in her breath. Her eyes widened as she stared at the not-so-subtle bulge in his jeans before jerking her head in the opposite direction.

  Good one, Daniel. This is not the time for fantasizing. Get over it. They needed a plan.

  * * * *

  “So, now would be a good time to fill me in on why you thought it was a good idea to disregard my orders,” said Daniel as they sat at the picnic table, eating the burgers they’d bought for lunch.

  Beth stopped mid-bite and swallowed. Her face was flushed. She really was beautiful, he thought. Annoying, exasperating, but still beautiful. He had to stop thinking like that—he knew it was dangerous. After the distress he’d seen in her eyes last night, he knew he didn’t want to hurt her again.

  She turned back, this time making eye contact with him. He didn’t see the repentant face he was expecting, but a fierce determination.

  “Well, it was lucky I did, because if I’d stayed in the hotel, I would have been a sitting duck,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He traced me somehow. I think it must have been when I was logged in to the email account. If I’d been in the hotel, I wouldn’t have been able to give him the slip.”

  “Go on…” said Daniel.

  “Look, I took precautions. I had myself so well disguised that even my own family wouldn’t have recognized me, but he did.”

  “How do you know it was one of the bad guys? It could have just been someone who fancied you.”

  “I don’t think so. An admirer doesn’t chase you through a back lane and follow you through a shop out onto the street. I think I can tell the difference.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right. What about the person in the hall at the hotel? How did they find us if it wasn’t a tracking device?”

  Daniel paused to think. He took another bite of his burger and visualized the equipment they had with them. Maybe he missed something, but he wasn’t convinced. “It’s possible. But I don’t think it’s from the website. I was working on that most of the night and they didn’t find us then. It has to be something else. What did you take with you?”

  “The laptop, your phone, the wig and cap. The shoulder bag, my purse…”

  All those items were secure, thought Daniel. It had to be something else. He reached for his cola and took a sip before placing it back on the table. “How about you start from the beginning…from when you decided to leave the hotel? Tell me everything that happened—where you went, who you saw. Don’t leave anything out.”

  Beth blinked and stared down at the empty wrapper in front of her. She wiped her fingers and mouth with the napkin, and leaned forward onto the table with her elbows.

  “I started to get claustrophobic in that room and I knew I had to get out before I suffocated. I just wanted a change of scenery, Daniel. I didn’t mean to stay out long.”

  Daniel frowned at her but remained silent. Gulping, she continued.

  “So I took a wig and hat from your backpack, packed up the laptop and went out.”

  “Where did you go?”

  “I went to that Internet café in the hotel lobby, where I found a private cubicle and plugged in the laptop. Then I logged into the diary again.”

  Daniel narrowed his eyes. How the hell did she do that? He’d had to hack in. It wasn’t an easy task, he knew from first-hand experience. He opened his mouth to speak but she raised her hand for him to let her continue.

  “I’ve be
en studying computer programming with Open Universities and it seems I have a talent for it.”

  “I’ll say. That site has top-level security attached to it.”

  Beth blushed again and shifted in her seat. “I remembered what you’d done this morning and tried to reproduce it. It worked. Anyway, I didn’t stay logged on for long.”

  “How long?’

  “About fifteen or twenty minutes. I decided I needed fresh air, so I copied the file, packed up and went outside. That’s when I found the park.”

  “Park? That’s quite a way from the hotel.”

  “I needed the exercise. I have to compensate for my appetite somehow.” She smiled slightly but Daniel ignored it and continued firing questions.

  “Okay, so you went to the park. What happened next?”

  “I was sitting on the grass working from the laptop for about fifteen minutes when I started to feel uneasy. I was sure someone was watching me, but I couldn’t see anyone.”

  “I know that feeling. I’ve learned to trust my instincts.”

  “Yes, well, I didn’t want to take any chances so I headed out the other side of the park. I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being followed so I ducked into a coffee shop and slipped out the back door.”

  Daniel stared at her now. She was smart, but she shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Shrugging his shoulders, he resumed his interrogation.

  “Did anyone follow you out of the coffee shop?”

  Beth’s breathing became shorter. Her eyes flashed and for an instant Daniel thought he saw fear, but they cleared quickly as she exhaled deeply.

  “I hid in a dark doorway. By this stage my leg was really killing me and I couldn’t run. That’s when I saw a man searching the alleyway near the coffee shop.”

  Holy Shit! She could have been killed. He continued to be amazed at her cool head. Gripping his fists under the table, he waited for her to continue.