Failsafe

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  She couldn’t share her secrets, but maybe she could help him understand why she had to keep them.

  They reached the outskirts of Raleigh, and Charlotte mustered her courage to speak to him once more. “When you decided to stay in Virginia after your parents died, why did you do it?”

  “You know perfectly well why I stayed. I had to.” His intensity was still evident. “My grandmother needed someone to make sure she stayed safe.”

  “This meeting today is important for the same reason. There are people who need me to help keep them safe.”

  “You aren’t making any sense. Why would you be expected to keep people safe?”

  Charlotte couldn’t answer his question but gave him directions for where he needed to take her. He looked at her with curiosity when he pulled into a parking lot in a strip mall. Ironically, the dominant store, the one on the far end, was a large bookstore.

  “This doesn’t exactly look like a part of town that’s horse friendly.”

  Charlotte had already come to the same conclusion. If she tried to ride Sahara around here, she would stand out, and that was the last thing she wanted right now. “I’ll walk the rest of the way. Are you still willing to wait for me?”

  “Of course I am.” Jake raked a hand through his hair impatiently. “In case you missed it the first dozen times I said it, I want you to come back home. It’s driving me crazy not knowing what’s going to happen next and knowing that you won’t confide in me.”

  “I may never be able to explain everything to you, but I promise to come back if I can.”

  “How long do you think you’ll be?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll try to meet you back here at five o’clock.”

  “And if you aren’t here?”

  “Then you should go home.”

  “What about your horse?”

  “Consider her a gift.” Charlotte didn’t wait for him to respond before she opened the door of the truck and climbed out, taking only her leather satchel with her. She didn’t know if it was optimism that made her leave her clothes behind or if she wanted an excuse to come back and see him if Ace told her she couldn’t return. Shaking those thoughts aside, she started to walk away only to hear Jake call after her.

  “Hey, Hannah?”

  “Yeah?” She turned back to see him staring at her intensely.

  “You asked me why I stayed in Virginia,” Jake said. “I may have stayed for my grandma, but the reason I didn’t leave was you.”

  Her eyes met his, and she blinked back the tears trying to escape. Quickly, she turned away, forcing herself to head for the first stop of her next journey.

  * * *

  Charlotte slipped into the alley behind the strip mall, cut through a parking lot, and walked another two blocks to reach her destination. The Mexican restaurant was currently closed, but when she approached the back door, it immediately swung open.

  “Were you followed?” Ace asked in the way of a greeting.

  “Not exactly, but someone brought me to Raleigh.”

  “Who?” Ace immediately looked around before motioning her inside and closing the door. “You were taught better than to trust anyone.”

  “I know, but I didn’t expect to be without ID and transportation,” Charlotte countered. “Besides, it’s not like he could possibly know anything about me.”

  Ace’s posture relaxed slightly. “How did you meet?”

  “I took shelter under a tree on his farm.” She gave Ace a pointed look. “I was traveling on horseback at the time. He offered me a job taking care of his grandmother. I thought hiding out in the country was better than trying to move around unnoticed.”

  “What exactly happened?” Ace led her deeper inside the currently vacant restaurant and motioned for her to sit at one of the tables. “Why didn’t you follow the plan? You should have had your fake credentials and Dwight’s truck.”

  Charlotte related the events of the day she left home, struggling at times to keep her emotions in check. She went on to describe the living situation at Jake’s house.

  “Do you trust this guy who brought you here?”

  “I do, but there is one problem I’m hoping you can help me with.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I found a newspaper article in my mom’s things. The guy I was staying with helped me do some research on it.”

  “What happened?”

  “He went to Richmond, and he requested the birth records for four people who died in a car accident.”

  Ace reached out and gripped Charlotte’s hand. “What four people?”

  “A little girl, her parents, and her grandmother. Jonah, Linda, and Hannah Richardson and Nikolina Tomov,” Charlotte said. “At some point, he also requested mine.”

  “He did what?”

  “He knew I didn’t have any ID, and he thought he was helping me,” Charlotte explained. “The name I gave him was Hannah Thomas, but I need you to erase the search. I hope no one is running traces on vital records requests, but I suspect if we can do it, someone else might be able to figure it out too.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “I found out about it three days ago,” Charlotte said.

  Ace pushed out of his chair, standing abruptly. “Three days is an eternity with today’s technology.”

  “There was one saving grace. He didn’t use his real name when he made the request. Any logs would list his pen name.”

  “His pen name? Who is this guy?”

  “Professionally, he’s known as Jackson Clark, but he goes by Jake Bradford.”

  Ace’s hands came down on the table, palms flat against the surface as he stared at her. “Are you talking about the author?”

  “Yeah, that’s him,” Charlotte said. “From what Jake said, if someone tried to track him down, the information would lead back to his agent in New York, not the family farm in Virginia.”

  “He’s too big of a name to be anonymous. Eventually someone will figure it out.” Ace lowered himself into his seat once more.

  “What do we do? He’s waiting for me until five. I told him if I didn’t come back by then, he should just leave.” Charlotte took a step back in the conversation, desperate to know the truth. “The people killed in the car accident. Were they my parents?”

  Ace averted his eyes just long enough to heighten Charlotte’s suspicions. She felt her throat close up as the truth washed over her. All this time she had been training and learning everything she could to work within the guardian program, never understanding why her dad had trusted her with so much so soon.

  “The little girl,” Charlotte began, her voice hoarse as she fought back her emotions. “It was me, wasn’t it? I’m a ghost, aren’t I? I’m Hannah.” Again, Ace remained silent. She reached out and gripped his arm. “Why, Ace? Why would I need to be a ghost? Who could possibly care about a three-year-old orphan?”

  “All I can tell you is that whoever killed your real parents could be the same people you’re running from now.”

  “Why?” Charlotte repeated.

  Ace straightened and looked her in the eye. “Charlie, you aren’t just a ghost. You’re the key.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You’re talking about the password my dad gave me.”

  “That’s part of it. Your father, your biological father, designed the guardian database and put in biometric locks as an extra precaution. Those locks were going to be changed as soon as the system went online, but when your biological father died, Dwight was afraid to reveal that you were the only back door left in the program.”

  Charlotte’s world crashed down around her. All these years Dwight and Belinda had raised her as their own daughter. Had they done it because they loved her, or was it to protect her role as an integral part of the guardian program? Memories of her childhood flooded through her: horseback riding with her father, the adventures with her mom through old Civil War battlefields, learning to shoot in the backyard and cook in the kitchen.

  Sl
owly she worked through her shock and the grief that replaced it. “What are the keys?” she asked. “Retinal scan, fingerprint? What?”

  “I believe it’s a three-prong system: password, retinal scan, and fingerprint.”

  “When do you want to reactivate the system?”

  “That’s the tricky part. Somehow we have to figure out who is after you and neutralize them. They have the equipment. We have to find it.”

  “I thought there was a backup.”

  “There is, but as soon as we activate the system, they could be able to access it,” Ace explained. “If these guys were able to find the equipment in the first place, we have to assume they would have the ability to hack into the database once it’s back online.”

  “How long do we have until we run out of funding?”

  “Our emergency funds were supposed to last another six weeks, but with the increased activity in the Middle East and Asia, we only have enough for about two weeks. Three, tops.”

  “What do we do now? We can’t process any new funding as long as we’re locked down.”

  “Kade is setting up shop nearby. Let’s get you some ID and compare notes. We need to coordinate our efforts if we’re going to find these guys.”

  Charlotte stood, slid her satchel over her shoulder, and reminded herself that the guardians needed to be her priority. “Lead the way.”

  Chapter 36

  Jake had watched Hannah go, his insides tearing apart at his lack of control over the situation. He didn’t want to think about Hannah not returning, but his thoughts continued to dwell there. Shortly after she had disappeared from sight, he had forced himself to plan for the hours of waiting.

  Not comfortable with leaving Hannah’s horse in the trailer all day in the summer heat, he had used the Internet on his phone to find a local stable that would be on his way back home, then arranged to leave Sahara pastured there for the day. After unhitching the trailer, he returned to the spot where he had last seen Hannah and settled into the café in the bookstore, where he could access their Wi-Fi. That had been hours ago.

  His laptop was open in front of him, but he had done little in the way of polishing his story. Instead, he had let himself get distracted by random news reports and had researched various ideas for his next book. Nothing succeeded in diverting his attention for long.

  Lost in thought, Jake drummed his fingers on the table, the screen saver on his laptop engaging from lack of activity. He hit the space bar to bring the screen back up, even though the words in front of him failed to capture his attention. His stomach rumbled, and he glanced at his watch to see that the lunch hour had arrived. He supposed the steady stream of customers in and out of the café should have clued him in sooner.

  Closing his laptop, he tucked it under his arm and stood. He left his computer bag on one of the chairs to save his seat and approached the counter to order, his eyes scanning the menu as he did so.

  After placing his order, he collected his food and returned to his table. Another glance at his watch sent his stomach spiraling in frustration. How was he going to survive another five hours of waiting? And what was he going to do if Hannah didn’t come back?

  * * *

  Charlotte nibbled on a peanut butter cookie after finishing the sandwich Ace had brought her from a local deli. Their lunch break had lasted a mere fifteen minutes, with Ace, Kade, and Charlotte comparing the information they had gathered and Charlotte trying to create a computer composite of the men who had been chasing her.

  When Ace had told her Kade was setting up shop, she hadn’t anticipated his shop being anything like this. The trailer of a semitruck had been converted into a combination of a working lab/workshop and an office, and she had a space in the far corner. Her desk folded down from the side of the trailer, a laptop computer her current tool of choice. She shifted in her canvas-and-wood director’s chair and glanced at Kade.

  She knew the bios of the guardians, but seeing Kade for the first time in person reminded her of how much those in the program chose to sacrifice to do this work. He was only twenty-seven, yet he had spent most of his adult life living in the shadows of society, traveling to wherever someone needed him, providing false documents, money, and intelligence to the operatives who found themselves out in the cold, not knowing whom to trust.

  Brushing the last of the crumbs from her hands, she stood and crossed the trailer, grateful Kade’s modifications included air conditioning. She stepped up beside him and waited for him to look up. When he didn’t, she spoke the question weighing on her mind. “Is it worth it?”

  Kade kept his eyes on the fake driver’s license he was currently creating. “What?”

  “Spending your life pretending you don’t really exist.”

  “It’s not that bad.” Kade glanced up at her. “I don’t really like people anyway.”

  Since he had hardly spoken since their arrival, Charlotte suspected he might be telling her the truth. He was one of three who had been recruited five years ago when the guardian program had expanded from four operatives to seven. The other two recruits were near his age, and Charlotte couldn’t fathom what it would be like if she had to join their ranks and live their solitary lifestyle.

  Ace interrupted the brief conversation, looking up from an Internet search he had started to evaluate Charlotte’s vulnerability. “Tell me about the place you’re staying again. How much traffic do you have through there?”

  “Hardly any. The farm is around four hundred acres and is about an hour from the closest city.” Just the thought of Jake’s home and the peace she had found there made her nostalgic.

  Ace fell silent for a moment. “I think you should go back to your job there.”

  Hope took flight inside her. “You do? Why?”

  “Like you said, you’re completely off the radar there,” Ace said. “I’ve erased the search for your birth certificate and put a few blocks on the farm title in case anyone tries to back trace it. From what I can tell, no one pulled the data after your friend did.”

  Overjoyed by the news, she tried to focus on the task at hand so she could get back to Jake on time. She motioned to the composites she had finished. “Is there any way we can get access to run facial recognition on these?”

  “I don’t know. The only way would be to trust someone in law enforcement, and we have no way of knowing who might have put flags up.”

  “What about seeing if Sheriff Hendricks will request it?” Charlotte suggested. “He and my dad were friends for a long time. I trust him.”

  “I don’t know . . .”

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  “I do,” Kade said without looking up. “We can hack into one of the government databases.”

  “I think my way is easier,” Charlotte said.

  “And easier to trace,” Kade countered.

  “Not necessarily,” Ace interrupted. “Kade, run a background on the sheriff.”

  “I can run it,” Charlotte offered, aware that her time until Jake left was slipping away.

  “Okay. Get to it.”

  They all went about their various tasks, Kade finishing Charlotte’s fake ID and moving on to create background information for her. Charlotte finished her background check on Nelson Hendricks, pleased to see everything there was consistent with what she knew of the man. A few years working on the police force in Pittsburgh were followed by his move to her little town, where he’d started as a deputy before being elected sheriff ten years earlier. “Here’s the background on Sheriff Hendricks. Everything looks normal.”

  Ace looked over her shoulder at the information there. “Do you think the sheriff will run this for us and share once he gets the results?”

  “I think so. He’s been a family friend for as long as I can remember.”

  “Do you have a phone number?”

  “Yeah. My dad had me memorize it.”

  “In that case, Kade, I need an untraceable phone. Charlotte, set up a couple dummy e-mail accounts and buil
d firewalls so they can’t be traced back to us.”

  “Okay.” Charlotte spent the next hour building blocks and firewalls while Kade disabled the GPS on a disposable cell phone. When she finished setting up two dummy e-mail accounts, one for her to send the composite images from and the other for the sheriff to receive them on, Charlotte said, “Okay, I think I’m all set.”

  “Here’s a clean phone.” Kade handed her the cell he had been working on. “Try to keep the call brief.”

  “I will.” Memories of the last time she had spoken to Nelson Hendricks ran through her head, and she tried to rehearse what she needed to say in her mind. Hoping to keep her emotions under control, she took a deep breath and dialed the number.

  * * *

  Nelson read through the file on Xi Cheng for the hundredth time. He suspected Ken Holtz from NSA knew who this guy was, but so far, the only information he had on him was what he had uncovered on his own.

  To finally have a solid suspect in Dwight’s and Kurt’s murders was a relief, but the lack of cooperation from the feds was beyond frustrating.

  He picked up his office phone and dialed Holtz’s number but only reached his voice mail. Nelson slammed down the receiver in frustration.

  “What’s wrong?” Larry asked from the next desk over.

  “The feds seem to think that cooperating means we give them everything we’ve got while they keep secrets from us.”

  “What makes you think they’re keeping secrets?”

  “Because when I talked to Ken Holtz about the guy who picked up the equipment at Dwight’s farm, I don’t think he knew anything about it. Since I gave him the names of our most likely suspects, he’s stopped taking my calls.”

  “What are you going to do now?”

  “I don’t know. Nothing has come back on our BOLOs. I hate to say it, but we may have to leave this in the feds’ hands.”

  “Which means we might never know if this guy is caught or why Dwight and his friend were killed.”

  Nelson’s cell phone rang, and he slid it out of his pocket. “Hendricks.”

  “Sheriff, it’s Charlie. I need a favor.”