Operation Sheba

by Evans, Misty

  “She has Ben Raines and several security officers with her, sir.”

  Michael’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  Brad glanced at Julia and back to Michael. “She claims she has an arrest warrant.”

  Julia’s heart slammed into her ribs. She instinctively took a step back. “For who?”

  Brad watched Michael this time. “She’s here to supervise the arrest of Abigail Quinn.”

  “What?” Michael drew up to his full height and looked at Julia, a frown pulling his eyebrows down. He searched her face, questioning her with his gaze.

  Julia took another step back and saw his gaze turn accusatory.

  “Good God, Abby,” he said. “What have you done?”

  Julia turned on her heel and started a swift pace for the house. In a few steps Michael was next to her. His hand touched her elbow, but she refused to look at him or slow down. She could hear Brad’s footsteps behind her. “I need to give you something, and then I have to go.”

  His hand tightened on her elbow. His voice was low and demanding. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “I don’t have time to explain everything, but I have a disc that will explain most of it.”

  They reached the back door and Julia shot through it, Pongo cutting in front of her. Michael was right behind her, protesting and insisting she stop and tell him what was going on. She ignored him, running through the kitchen and up the stairs to the bedroom where she’d left her tote bag.

  “Here.” She grasped the disc and jabbed it at him when he caught up with her. Brad had followed and was standing directly behind Michael, eyeing her over Michael’s shoulder like a cat ready to pounce. She had no doubts he would tackle her to the floor if she tried to run.

  Drawing in a quick breath, she decided she needed to tell Michael a condensed version of the truth. “Susan Richmond is the CIA’s traitor,” she said, removing the papers she’d stolen from Susan’s files from her bag. “She’s set all of us up in an attempt to undermine Titus and become the next director of Central Intelligence. Con and Smitty thought you were the mole and Susan led them on, planting evidence of her own misdeeds and linking it back to you for them to trace. She was using them and me to help her get rid of you.” She handed him the papers.

  “Con and Smitty?” Michael’s voice fell a notch as he accepted the papers. He stilled completely. “What are you talking about?”

  Truth or consequences. Only this time it wasn’t or consequences, it was and. “Conrad Flynn is alive, Michael.”

  Julia saw the enormity of what she said reflected in his face. Disbelief, confusion, anger. Been there, she thought. Biting the inside of her cheek, she pushed on. “He faked his death and Smitty went AWOL to help him track down the mole. Only they thought it was you. They came to me and asked for my help. I knew it wasn’t you so I only agreed because—”

  “Flynn’s alive,” Michael echoed, his voice deadly soft. It wasn’t a question. Julia saw the pieces in his head snap together and flinched when his eyes narrowed at her. Anger trumped the other emotions. His voice rose, hard and unforgiving. “Conrad Flynn is fucking alive?”

  Willing herself not to shrink back, Julia only nodded. It was not from fear of Michael’s anger that made her want to step back, but from what she knew would come next.

  “And you knew?” He glared down at her. “You knew, and you didn’t tell me?”

  Brad’s walkie-talkie buzzed. “Sir,” he interrupted. “What should I tell the guard at the gate? Ms. Richmond is pressing to come in.”

  Michael ignored the security officer, his accusatory gaze burning through Julia’s skin. She tried to shut down her emotions, knowing Susan was but a few paces away from arresting her and throwing her in jail for some bogus charge. She couldn’t let her guard down and get tangled up trying to sort things out with Michael.

  Yanking her Beretta out of her bag, she slid it into the waistband of her pants, and didn’t miss that Brad moved his free hand to cover his own weapon. Next she reached for her cell phone and fumbled with the buttons to turn it on.

  “That’s where you’ve been the past few days and nights when you haven’t been here with me.” Michael’s voice was filled with hurt. “You’ve been with Flynn.”

  Brad’s walkie-talkie buzzed again while Julia’s cell phone played its opening ring tone. The security guard stepped forward and addressed Michael again, and Julia felt her ire rise at him. She and Michael were having one of the most important conversations of their relationship and Brad was hanging on every word.

  She blocked his interruption. “Tell Susan Richmond the Director is on his way back from the lake and he will meet her at the gate as soon as he returns.”

  Brad drew back, a little nonplussed, and waited for Michael’s instructions.

  Michael just continued to stare at her. She dropped her cell phone into her bag. “Listen, Michael,” she said, wishing her heart wasn’t breaking. She could feel it literally hurting in her chest, but she couldn’t stop to think about it. Not now. “Don’t get hung up about the Conrad thing. What he did was wrong and he knows it but he had a good reason. My name was on the list of operators Susan was having killed off. Conrad was trying to protect me, not screw you over.”

  “Not screw me over?” Anger turned his face hard. “Not screw me over? He faked his death, and you’re telling me he didn’t screw me over?” He took a breath and paced to the balcony’s edge and back. “You lied to me.”

  Julia paused and tried again to take the heat off Conrad. “This is important. That disc is important. Read what’s on it, but don’t tell Susan you have it. There’s a detailed log on it from a woman who’s been helping her all along. Cari Von Motz. She’s Susan’s illegitimate daughter.”

  Michael’s eyebrows rose and he started to say something, but the sound of someone banging on the front door downstairs stopped him. A man yelled out his name and demanded Michael let him in.

  Julia’s cell phone rang. She reached for it, but didn’t open the flap. “I have to go. I’m sorry.” She stood on her toes and kissed him softly on the mouth. His lips were granite. “I’m really sorry, Michael.”

  “Abigail.” He reached for her, but she stepped toward the balcony. She flipped open the phone and heard Con’s voice in her ear. “Get the hell out of there. Susan’s coming for you.”

  “Thanks for the update,” she answered, but before she could say more, Brad grabbed her from behind, wheeling her around.

  The cell phone flew out of her hand, skidded on the balcony, hit the railing and dropped off to the ground below.

  She clocked the security agent on the ear with her open palm and kicked him in the shin at the same time. He shifted, trying to move both left and right from the double assault, and she threw her body weight into him with all the strength she could muster, making him stumble backwards. Her hand flew to the Beretta and before the guard could draw a breath, she had the end of the gun buried in his gut. Pongo came to stand beside her, a low growl coming from his throat.

  “Get your hands off me,” she said, staring up at Brad.

  He let her go, stepping back with his hands up. Julia stepped to the railing, her gun still on him. Downstairs, the front door banged open and Julia could hear Susan’s group pouring into the house. Susan’s voice called out to Michael.

  “Abigail.” He stepped in front of Brad, as if to take the bullet Julia was threatening him with. “What the hell are you doing?”

  It happened so fast and furiously, Julia’s hand twitched. Frustration overtook heartbreak and fear. “My name is Julia.” She now looked down her gun at Michael. “Julia Torrison. Abigail Quinn doesn’t exist. Not anymore. But I do, and I’m trying to save your career. Read the papers and look at that disc. I’ll be in touch.”

  Feet pounded up the stairs. Sticking the gun in her waistband, Julia dropped her bag over the balcony and let it fall to the ground below. “Tell Susan I know who Cari’s father is,” she said as she straddled the railing. “I’m going t
o him next.” She flipped herself over the edge and wrapped her legs around a post. Just as she began sliding down it, she heard a man call to her, demand she stop.

  She hit the ground and rolled, grabbing her bag as she regained her feet. She snatched her cell phone off the ground, flipped it closed and took off running to the sounds of more shouting. She heard Michael’s voice yelling at the officers to put their guns away. Pongo was barking furiously.

  Clearing the tripwires, Julia set off the house’s security alarm. The floodlights came on and she heard the buzz of the alarm inside the house before another command for her to stop came from the balcony. She jumped the small ravine and heard the retort of a gun. The bullet smacked a low-hanging branch of a tree on her left, and Michael’s voice rang out across the clearing, a booming, “No!”

  She dodged, stumbled over her own feet, but ran on, ignoring more hanging branches that smacked at her face as she reached the cover of the woods. Her cell phone rang inside her tote, but she ignored it.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  She’d dropped her phone. “Julia!” Conrad yelled. Smitty and Ace were on their feet, staring at him.

  He’d heard her voice, far away, and he’d jammed the phone tighter against his ear. Stone’s voice had mixed with Julia’s voice and then a thud, the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the ground had sent chills down Conrad’s spine.

  “Julia!”

  But yelling didn’t help. The connection was dead.

  “Goddamn it!” He punched buttons to call her phone again. While it rang, he held out his hand to Ace. “Give me the keys to your car.”

  “No way, bro,” Ace said, but he dug into the front pocket of his baggy cargo pants for the keys anyway. “You’re going after her? I’ll be your wheel guy.”

  Conrad started to say no, it was too dangerous, but Smitty interrupted him. “I’m going too.”

  Julia’s phone continued to ring. Seeing his own fear mirrored in his best friend’s face, Conrad checked himself. How ironic it was that with all their differences, the years of walking side-by-side between the rocks and the hard places with Ryan Smith had bound him in a loyalty that surpassed any he’d ever known. Even with his own brothers. “No. Smitty, you’re not going this round. I’ll take care of Julia. You take care of the files and all this stuff. Make a backup of all the information, especially the networks and liaison contacts worldwide, and secure it in one of Ace’s vaults. And then”—Conrad wished he could squeeze the life out of Susan’s throat—“you go see Stone and tell him everything. We have to stop Susan. Now.”

  Smitty nodded sullenly. “It won’t be hard to find Julia.” He reached underneath the counter and pulled out a briefcase. He unzipped it and handed Conrad a Toshiba portable satellite computer. “This baby will dial up the satellite and find her for you.”

  Conrad took the computer and jerked his head at Ace to get moving. “Thanks.”

  Smitty followed them to the door. “If Stone throws my butt in jail, you’ll break me out, right?”

  Conrad slapped him on the shoulder. “Damn straight, Smith.”

  “Man, I dig this 007-shit, Connie. Flirting with danger, dressing incognito.” Ace touched the brim of his baseball cap. “Rescuing nicely stacked damsels in distress. This is some life you lead. Where do I sign up?”

  Conrad kept his eyes glued to the tiny computer screen in his lap as the unit tried to acquire the satellite uplink it needed to track the GPS chip in Julia’s bra. “You already signed up, Ace. You’re the wheelman, remember? But you should understand the most important rule of this partnership. I get first pick of the nicely stacked damsels, distressed or not.”

  Ace laughed into the wind roaring through the CJ. “You’re my hero, bro.”

  Conrad reached down to check his cell phone while the computer continued trying to find the satellite signal. Come on, Jules, call me.

  “Hey, what was that indiscretion stuff Susan was threatening King with?” Ace asked.

  Raising his head, Conrad answered, “Daniel King is Cari Von Motz’s real father. Susan is using their affair and Cari as a trump card to get King to back her up on this operation.”

  Ace nodded and Conrad returned his focus to the computer. A second later, the satellite zeroed in on Julia’s location. “Yes! She’s still in the woods west of Stone’s house. Looks like she’s following a north-south road that parallels Highway 65.”

  “I’m on it.”

  Conrad felt a stab of relief, pulled his hat farther down on his head and watched the image on the screen continue southwest.

  Come on, Jules, call me.

  Julia was still moving, but had slowed her pace. She was sure security officers were following her, but she couldn’t hear anyone moving through the woods when she stopped to listen. Hugging the tree line beside the gravel road, she watched a pair of horses on the other side of a white fence across the road. Nervous energy from the approaching storm was eating at them. Their tails swished viciously, their heads up and ears pricking forward as they watched her pass from tree to tree.

  A few fat drops of rain fell on the leaves around her. Shifting her attention back to herself, Julia stilled again and listened. Still no telltale noises. She shifted her Beretta to her left hand, shook some feeling into her right and pulled out her cell phone.

  While the phone tried to connect, Julia held it to her ear with her shoulder and took the picture from her bag.

  She was shivering from head to toe. Her face was scratched and her feet hurt like hell after running several miles through the woods. Somehow she’d managed to step in something that smelled awful. Her body ached from the drop off Michael’s balcony and the cool spring air seeped through his sweatshirt and made her teeth chatter. The first rush of adrenaline had worn off, and as she pushed on through the tangle of fallen branches and decaying forest, her mind kept swimming with Michael’s face. She put the picture of Con in front of her and silently pleaded with him to answer his phone.

  “Go faster,” Flynn yelled to Ace over the whine of the Jeep’s tires.

  “Jesus, Connie, I’m doing ninety! My tires will blow out if I push it any faster!”

  Conrad pointed ahead. “Turn there.”

  Ace slowed and bounced the CJ onto the gravel road. “Now this is better. Baby loves rocks.”

  Ace shifted and the Jeep picked up speed. Conrad surveyed the growing storm system moving in their direction. Rain would kill the Toshiba and Smith would kill him if he let the computer get wet, but with the top off the Jeep, he had little choice. There was no way he was stopping now to reattach the soft roof, even if it meant saving the precious computer. An impelling force was pushing him to get to Julia. They were less than two miles from her and if the rain would just hold out another five minutes…

  The cell phone vibrated in his hand. He flipped the case open. “Jules, are you all right?”

  “Not exactly,” came her reply. She sounded a little shaky. “Your queen has managed to step in shit, and I mean that in the most literal and technical way imaginable.”

  He chuckled, grateful to hear the professional reference to their past working relationship. “I’m here to serve. Want some help?”

  “I’m on foot, on some backwoods country road southwest of Michael’s house, and Susan’s Agency officers are looking for me.”

  “That happens when you play with bad guys.” He forced his voice to sound calm although he was spitting mad and scared for her safety to boot. “Ace and I are on our way to pick you up. We’re approximately two miles south of your location.”

  Relief relaxed her voice. “Thank goodness for Smitty and his computer gadgets.”

  “Yeah, the one-man geek squad adds something to our team, doesn’t he?”

  “What if the Agency men find me before you do? Any suggestions?”

  Conrad glanced at Ace and did a circling motion with his finger, signaling him to pick up speed. Ace nodded and pressed the Jeep’s accelerator harder. “They mean business, Jules. Susa
n may have given them the okay to shoot to kill. You have to fight dirty. No fighting like a girl.”

  “I’m not a girl, Flynn.”

  Conrad smiled to himself. “Got your gun, sweetheart?”

  “In my hand and fully loaded.”

  That’s my girl. “Use it. Understand?”

  Julia returned the picture to her tote bag. Her mind swerved as Conrad’s current advice merged with the past…

  Survival, Julia. You do whatever it takes to stay alive. Steal the food, pull the trigger, hot-wire the car. It’s all the same. It means you live and someone else dies, but you do it anyway. Understand?

  Tidewater, Virginia. Training camp. By day, crawling on her belly like a snake in the Farm’s underbrush while Flynn and his soldiers hunted her and the other students from the air. By night, crawling into her bed exhausted, only to have Flynn wake her two hours later and lecture her about staying alive in the field. If shooting the guy in the head means you walk away and he doesn’t, you shoot him. Understand?

  She could clearly remember dark eyes snapping at her, the voice demanding, Understand?

  Julia heard a sound in the distance behind her, a man’s feet crunching fallen leaves? She wasn’t sure. The rain was picking up, clattering on the tree leaves all around her like marbles falling on a tile floor, and the light between the trees was fading. She crouched behind a bush and watched the area behind her, straining her ears to pick up more sounds.

  Her right hand, holding tightly to the Beretta, twitched. Fight dirty. Survive. “Yeah, I understand,” she said softly, struggling to keep her teeth from chattering. “Just hurry, Con.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “You let her get away.” Susan’s face was pinched with anger as she stood accusing Michael. Raising his attention from the warrant in his hand, he took a step toward her and stared her down. “You forced your way into my house, Susan. You ordered Ben Raines to shoot at the woman I love. Don’t stand there and expect me to justify my actions.” He paused and pointed a finger at her. “You’re lucky I don’t toss you over that railing.”