Above Reproach

by Lynn Ames

  “I know. But it’s the truth.”

  “I’m sure Vaughn doesn’t see it that way.”

  Sedona wasn’t so certain.

  “Okay, folks. We’re starting our descent. Better get those belts fastened,” the pilot announced.

  Sedona looked out the window at the crystal clear ocean below. She wasn’t even positive where they were or where they were going. Somehow, that seemed fitting.

  “Kate. It’s Vaughn.” Vaughn switched the cell phone from her left hand to her right as she maneuvered through the gate to the marina and down the steps to the dock, where a powerboat was idling in a slip. Sabastien trailed behind her.

  “Hey. Miss us already?”

  “You wish.”

  “I can hardly hear you. What’s all that noise?”

  “It’s a boat engine. Listen, something’s come up. I’m sorry, but I think it’d be best if you cut your vacation short.”

  “What’s going on?”

  Vaughn briefed Kate on the events of the day. When she was done, there was silence on the other end of the line.

  “Kate? Are you still there?”

  “I’m here. I feel like this is my fault for getting you into this,” Kate said. “You blew up your own house? Oh, Vaughn.”

  Vaughn closed her eyes. She didn’t want to hear the sorrow or sympathy in Kate’s tone. She didn’t want to think about what she’d done at all.

  “Yeah, well. I signed up for this gig.” She cleared her suddenly dry throat. “As far as I could tell, they never made contact with anyone after they arrived at the house, but I can’t be positive about that, and I don’t want to take a chance with anyone making a connection between your presence on the island and me. I know it sucks,” Vaughn rushed on, “but I can’t be sure they won’t send another team. Also, we’re going to be on the move, and I’m going to need someone to brief the president for me. Will you do that?”

  “Sure. I’ll just let Jay know that we need to pack up. She’s going to be really disappointed. We spent the day diving on the other side of the island near the coral reef. It was magical.”

  “Yeah,” Vaughn said quietly, “that was one of my favorite places to dive.”

  “Damn, Vaughn. I know you wouldn’t have destroyed the house if you didn’t think it was absolutely necessary—”

  “It was.” Vaughn didn’t mean to snap, but Kate was beginning to sound like Sedona. Vaughn frowned. She wondered if Sedona still was as angry as she appeared to be when the 4x4 pulled out of the drive. Why do you care? Vaughn tried to shrug it off. The problem was she did care. In fact, she cared quite a bit about Sedona, what she thought, how she felt… Vaughn stowed a duffle bag under one of the bench seats, kicking it into place with more force than was necessary. “Listen, I’ve got to get going.”

  “No problem.” Kate’s tone was clipped.

  Shit. “Like I said, Kate, I’m really sorry. These guys are pros, and whoever they’re working for doesn’t seem to be on a budget. I just think it’s best not to tempt fate, you know?”

  “Gotcha. We’ll get on a flight for the States tonight. I’ll fill the president in as soon as I can get an appointment.” Kate was all business now.

  “Right.” Vaughn wondered how many more allies she was going to piss off before the day was over. “I think it’s best if I reach out to you, rather than vice versa. That way we can keep the communications more secure.”

  “Of course.”

  “Kate—”

  “Stay safe, Vaughn.”

  Vaughn held the dead line away from her ear. “What a crappy day.”

  “What is that, Elliott?” Sabastien was squinting in the bright sunshine.

  “Nothing. We need to cast off. Are you ready?”

  “Ay, ay, Captain.” Sabastien gave a mock salute. “You own this boat?” He looked around and whistled appreciatively. “It is beautiful.”

  “Yeah. Now sit your ass down. This is going to be a bumpy ride.” By her calculation, they could reach the mainland just before nightfall and meet up with the rest of the group for dinner. By then, Vaughn mused, she might have figured out a plan.

  “Apparently it’s nothing but a hole in the ground with teeny tiny bits of furniture strewn here and there.” The woman’s hair blew wildly in the sharp breeze off the Potomac. She pulled up the collar of her Burberry coat.

  “That’s most unfortunate. Any sign of our team?” The man with the pale blue eyes stared off into the distance.

  “Nothing. I think we have to assume they’re lost.”

  “You think?” The man emphasized the k. As he turned to face her, she could see the flint in his gaze.

  “Astin. Those men were all battle-tested war heroes. They were hand picked for the assignment. Whatever was going on at that place and whoever owned it, it’s obvious the Ramos woman—and I emphasize that we’re assuming the satellite intrusion has to do with the Ramos woman—has some powerful allies of her own.”

  “Again,” Astin said, “most unfortunate. Did we at least get a report from the field prior to losing contact?”

  “The last check-in occurred shortly before they arrived onsite. Nothing after that. No data was uploaded, no cell phone transmissions were received.”

  “So you’re telling me we have absolutely nothing.”

  “I didn’t say that.” The woman risked reaching out and touching him on the sleeve. At one time, they had been more than colleagues—they were young, passionate lovers, both on the path to greatness. But that was a long time ago.

  Astin recoiled. “Out with it then.”

  The woman swallowed her regrets. “All right. Our source was able to relay that at least seven people had arrived within several days of the satellite incident.”

  “Interesting. Do we have pictures?”

  The woman shook her head. “No, but we believe the group included two men and five women.”

  “And this source has not seen them since?”

  “No. It’s as if they disappeared. Perhaps our men took them out?”

  “If they had, they’d still be alive, now wouldn’t they?” Astin pushed off the railing and started to walk away.

  “Wait!”

  He turned to face her.

  “What’s next?”

  “You’ll know when you need to know. In the meantime, do be a dear and get that oil pipeline through your damn committee, will you?”

  The woman stared after him, wondering what had happened to all their young, idealistic dreams and when it had come to this.

  Sedona picked at her salad as the conversation washed over her.

  “Are you okay?”

  Justine nudged her arm and Sedona mustered a smile.

  “Fine.”

  “Well, that poor piece of lettuce certainly isn’t. I think you’ve stabbed it to death by now.”

  That surprised a laugh out of her. “Yeah, well, I always say, ‘The only good lettuce is a dead lettuce.’”

  “Catchy.”

  “I’m thinking of copyrighting it so no one else takes it.”

  “Better hurry. That’ll be a hot one.” Justine reached over and speared a cherry tomato off of Sedona’s plate.

  “Hey!”

  “What? You weren’t eating it.” Justine made a face as if to emphasize just how good the tomato was. “Want to talk about it?”

  “About what?”

  Justine rolled her eyes. “Okay. Let’s try something else. Can I ask you a few questions?”

  “That depends.”

  “On?”

  “What’s the topic?”

  “Background.”

  Sedona stopped even pretending to eat.

  “I’ll go first,” Justine offered. “I’m an East coast girl. I live in Maryland when I’m home, which isn’t nearly often enough. I had no aspirations to be a CIA officer. They found me. I was a trauma nurse working out of an insanely busy emergency room. Lots of gunshot wounds and stabbings. Blood and guts everywhere. I guess they thought that would be go
od preparation for war zones and ops gone bad.”

  “So they just approached you out of the blue?” Sedona asked.

  “Pretty much. I was doing triage on the late shift on a particularly busy night. I’d just finished sewing up some gangbanger on his third visit in a week. I walked out of his bay and over to the sterile sink to wash myself up. This man came up alongside me and took me by the elbow. He asked if he could buy me a cup of coffee, even as he was already leading me toward the cafeteria.”

  “That was pretty presumptuous.”

  “No kidding. I was about to tell him to go pound salt when he pulled out this very official-looking ID. He said something very trite about making me an offer I wouldn’t want to refuse. He promised to get me away from that depressing hospital. Told me I could do something good and important for my country. The rest, as they say, is history.”

  “Just like that?”

  Justine shrugged. “Pretty much. I quit the next day. Two days after that, I was in training. Six months after that, I was on my first assignment—an op in Cairo. That’s where I met Sara and Vaughn.”

  Sedona’s head snapped up. “Who’s Sara?” She could feel the shift in Justine’s energy before she saw Justine squirm in her seat.

  “I probably shouldn’t—”

  “That’s okay. It’s none of my business.” Sedona could feel the war raging within Justine. “Really. It’s all right.”

  “Your life may depend on Vaughn. I guess that entitles you to know something about what makes her tick.”

  Justine squirmed some more, and Sedona resisted the urge to let her off the hook. She very much wanted to know more about Vaughn—a lot more. She doubted that Vaughn would talk freely about herself. That just didn’t fit with the stoic, self-contained person Sedona had seen thus far.

  “Sara was Vaughn’s best friend, her college sweetheart, the one constant in Vaughn’s life.” Justine stared down at the table. “She was killed a couple of years ago, right in front of Vaughn’s eyes, and Vaughn couldn’t stop it.”

  Sedona gasped and put her hand to her heart. “Oh, my God. That’s horrible.”

  “Vaughn’s never forgiven herself. That event changed her in profound ways. I don’t know that she’ll ever be the same again.”

  Sedona quickly processed this information. It explained a lot. The holes in Vaughn’s aura, the leakage from her heart chakra, the emotional wounds that Sedona saw when they first met, her gruff nature. So much pain. Sedona closed her eyes against it. When she opened them again, Justine glanced at her with a knowing look.

  “That’s such a sad story,” Sedona said quietly. “I hope you’re wrong about the last part.”

  “I hope so too,” Justine said. “But I haven’t seen any signs of it.” She put her napkin on the table. “Your turn.”

  Sedona took a deep breath, buying herself time as she decided how much she should say. Fortunately, she was saved from having to say anything at all.

  “Okay, folks. We’ve got a lot to figure out, so we might as well get started.” Vaughn leaned her elbows on the table. “Here’s what we know. There’s clearly something going on at a closed nuclear facility in a war zone. Someone, or more likely, a group of people really doesn’t want anyone poking around. Somehow, this is connected, at least peripherally, to the NSA or someone at the NSA. Whoever has a stake in this has got large amounts of money and access to seriously advanced technology. They’ve also got real pros, probably with military experience, on their payroll.” She looked around the table. “Am I missing anything?”

  “That about sums it up,” Lorraine said.

  “So where do we go from here?” Justine asked.

  “Seems to me the one solid lead we have is the facility itself,” Peter said. “It’s the one place we know for sure we’ll find more clues.”

  “True,” Vaughn agreed. “But it’s a big risk. We already know they’ve got the technology to detect a satellite focusing in on the place from space. I think it’s a safe bet they could track humans on the ground with no trouble at all.”

  “I’m not sure we have an alternative. If we can’t use advanced technology ourselves to get a look, we’re going to have to do it the old-fashioned way.” Sedona gestured to Sabastien. “I assume without actual human intervention, there is no more effective means to get a look at Tuwaitha, right?”

  “Just so.”

  “Anyone else?” Vaughn asked. “All right. I guess that’s settled then. I’ll contact the powers that be and get us the gear once you all come up with a list of what we’ll need.” She made eye contact with each member of the team. “Next stop, Iraq.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “We can’t go in there without an expert in uranium enrichment,” Peter said. He and Vaughn stood outside on the veranda of the condominium that had once functioned as one of Vaughn’s safe houses. “We won’t have the first clue what we’re looking at. It’s not enough to know who’s running the show over there, or even who’s behind this. We have to know what it is they’re doing and how serious a threat it poses.”

  “I agree, but you understand my reluctance.”

  “I do. It means bringing in someone none of us knows. We’d be taking a chance on making ourselves vulnerable.”

  “I think it’s fair to assume that if these people have the kind of resources we believe, and if what’s going on at Tuwaitha involves the facility’s original purpose, which is uranium refinement and production, they must also have scientists onboard who are running the operation over there.”

  “True,” Peter said, “but they can’t have every uranium enrichment specialist on their payroll. Maybe we should wait until we get over there and then reach out to someone in the Middle East.”

  “As opposed to an American, you mean?”

  “Well, we already know that whoever is running the show has a connection to the NSA. The team that trashed your house was speaking English with an American accent…”

  Vaughn nodded, her respect for Peter growing. “You’re right. There’d be much less of a risk by going foreign.” She let the idea sit for a minute, considering all the angles. “Not only that, but it would mean we wouldn’t have to carry the person with us. We’d pick him up over there, which would also limit our exposure.”

  “That was my thinking.”

  The more time she spent with him, the more Vaughn realized what an asset it was to have a seasoned veteran like Peter to strategize with. He was good. Very good. A critical thinker who paid attention to the big picture and always seemed to be looking several steps ahead. It was a luxury she hadn’t often had in the field and one that most definitely would come in handy now.

  “Okay. I’ll shake the trees and see if I can come up with a list of potential names,” Vaughn said.

  “I’ll call Kate with an update if you want. She’s going to talk to the president tomorrow. It looks like we’re going to need some supplies, the sanction to slip unofficially into and out of Iraq, and some resources.”

  Vaughn pondered that for a moment. “Do you think the president wants to know that level of detail? I suspect he might prefer to have plausible deniability.”

  “Yeah. Now that I think about it, you’re right. If he doesn’t have actual knowledge of our plans or our whereabouts, he can honestly disavow any connection to us if things go sour.”

  They were both quiet then, as the very real possibility of getting caught or killed hung in the air between them.

  “Hey. Why does it feel like a funeral out here? I mean, it’s not like we’re heading off to the most volatile region in the world to stop some evil plan to blow up humanity or anything,” Lorraine joked, as she stepped out onto the veranda to join them.

  “Nope. After all, that would be crazy, right?” Peter said.

  Lorraine elbowed Peter in the ribs. “You’re not going to make me save your life again, are you?”

  “Heaven forbid. That pause for thought was just me trying to decide if I brought enough clean underwear,” Pete
r said.

  “Oh, no wonder you’re so serious. That’s a critical question, for sure.”

  Vaughn could see that Peter and Lorraine had real chemistry. She wondered if that was only professional. While she knew the broad outlines of the Hyland case, she suspected there were a lot of things that weren’t in the file. In addition, Lorraine’s reference to saving Peter’s life intrigued her, as did the fact that he didn’t seem to have any problem having been saved by a woman. Was that about the Hyland case too? Her curiosity drove her forward.

  “I always like to know who I’m going into battle with,” she ventured. “It’s obvious you two know each other pretty well. If you don’t mind my asking, how did that come to be?”

  Peter and Lorraine looked at each other. It was Lorraine who answered. “I’m assuming you read the Hyland file as part of your training with the agency?”

  Vaughn didn’t see any sense denying it. “Yes.”

  “I figured. Every agent under the age of fifty I’ve ever met must have been forced to read that bleeping file.”

  “Well, it was legendary.” It wasn’t often that Vaughn felt like a fan girl, but if she were honest, Lorraine was the closest thing to a role model she had ever followed. Not that she would admit that out loud.

  “Face it, King, you’re a rock star.” Peter poked Lorraine good-naturedly in the ribs.

  “Somebody had to save you from yourself.” She turned to Vaughn. “Mr. Macho over here was the oft-redacted person who orchestrated the hostage swap at the Lincoln Memorial. He nearly got himself killed in the process. Going in there without a vest. What were you thinking?”

  A light went on for Vaughn as she remembered a detail from the Hyland case. “You were the agent that found and turned the doctor in charge of the president’s supposed ‘death’,” she said.

  “Correct.” Peter wagged a finger at Lorraine. “As I recall, I was also the one who took out the unexpected guest—the last sniper. At the time I believe he might have been aiming at you.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Lorraine replied.