[The Exit 01.0] Next Exit, Three Miles

by CW Browning

  “I can't have them become a casualty on my conscience,” she said softly. “This is the only way I know to keep them safe.”

  “And who's going to keep you safe when they start to put two and two together and get four?” Damon demanded just as softly. “Do you trust them that much? Do you trust them with your life?”

  Alina stared at him. Did she? He was absolutely right. Once this was over and they had time to think, they would certainly realize that Alina was, herself, an assassin. They would be torn between their loyalty to old, past friendships and their commitment to the law. Of course, the plan was that she wouldn't be around when they finally realized that fact. But what if they worked it out sooner? Before this was over? Did she trust them with her life?

  “Yes,” Alina said suddenly with conviction.

  Damon stared at her in silence, then nodded.

  “Ok,” he said. He lifted his hand to cup her cheek. “But God have mercy on them if you're wrong,” he added harshly, his eyes becoming almost glacial, “because I won't.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Alina was in her command center by seven the next morning, hot coffee in hand. Damon had left directly after making that cryptic statement and she had gone in, reset the security system, and gone to bed with the strangest feeling of warmth in her soul. She couldn't remember the last time someone had been concerned for her. It had certainly been before she had even met Damon. But there had been no mistaking his sincerity. He had left her standing on the deck, bemused and speechless. And, when Alina laid her head on her pillow to sleep, a deep sense of comfort had lifted her into her dreams. She had been too tired to question it, and had allowed the feeling of being cherished to wash over her and carry her away.

  When Viper woke a few hours later, her mind was sharpened by rest. She opened her eyes, and was hit suddenly with the clarity of thought that only comes upon first wakefulness. The memory that had been eluding her the previous night rose up before her clearly, as if she was back in time and experiencing it again.

  Cairo!

  Alina had sat up quickly with a gasp and Raven had peered down from his perch, disturbed by this sudden, uncharacteristic movement by his mistress. The man in the room behind Johann! She had spent two years focused on the identity of the well-known Westerner who had been meeting with Johann that day.

  What she had forgotten was what she heard!

  Viper knew the name of the man in the woods. She had known it all along. She heard it that day in Cairo, just before all hell broke loose.

  Alina sipped her coffee and settled in front of her laptop. She was irritated with herself that she hadn't remembered it sooner, but there would be time enough to examine why she had disregarded her own memory later. She was now consumed with focus. Now was the time to work.

  Now was the time to find out just who this Engineer was, and what she was up against.

  Damon shut his laptop with a frown and got up restlessly. He went into his small kitchen to pour himself another cup of coffee and carried it back to the living room. His mind was racing, processing the information he just received from Harry.

  Harry had been digging around in the recesses of Washington and the minds of men who had been forgotten when the new regime took over. That untapped source of knowledge was endless, and Damon knew that Harry was just getting started. He stopped pacing in front of the balcony. The sun was coming up, bathing the outdoors in gray shifting light that, in less than an hour, would be dawn. Damon stared outside, sipping his coffee.

  Hawk had been in Scotland when Harry first contacted him a few weeks ago. He and Harry had kept in touch fairly regularly over the years, so the contact hadn't been a surprise. Hawk always had the impression that Harry thought of both he and Viper as his protégées. They had both certainly learned more from him than from any of their other instructors. As any good mentor, Harry touched base occasionally with Hawk, and Damon had always just assumed that he did the same with Viper. However, when Harry suggested meeting in person this time, Damon had known something was wrong. Harry was going to be in Belgium for a few days at a summit. Damon went without any hesitation.

  That meeting was why he was here now.

  Damon watched the shadows on the balcony. Harry had been working for Homeland Security over a year before he stumbled across a situation. He became suspicious when he realized that some resources were being diverted. Upon investigation, he discovered that someone in the government was actually bringing a terrorist into the country. With no one else to trust, he turned to his best asset and Hawk agreed to help. Their information was sketchy at best, but Damon took the reins and told Harry to go back to Washington and let him take care of it. Harry had done so, promising to pass on any additional information as he found it. His new position in the government made things tricky, however, and Damon hadn't expected much. The information that he received since being in New Jersey had not been outstandingly helpful until now. Harry had certainly delivered this time. This latest intelligence confirmed Damon's suspicions and gave him the means to a name.

  A name that Viper undoubtedly already knew.

  Damon had all the pieces to the picture, except one. He turned away from the door impatiently and strode back to the laptop. Setting his coffee down, he flipped it open. There was only one place he could find out what he desperately needed to know now.

  He had to go to Cairo.

  John stared at Matt in disbelief. It was a little after eight in the morning and he had taken the elevator down to the basement, to the forensics lab. Computers and monitors lined one side of the large room, and mysterious-looking machines and big refrigerators were on the other side. Two long tables took up the center of the room, and on them was just about any device used for testing imaginable. Old-fashioned chemistry equipment jostled for space with state-of-the-art technology while music blared out from one of the computers. The master of all the chaos was dressed in wrinkled khakis and a lab coat. He had a widow's peak on his high forehead and his sandy colored hair always had a tuft sticking straight up at the back of his head. He was the genius of the building. All the agents deferred to his skill. If he said it was so, then science made it so, and there ended the conversation.

  And right now, he had just finished telling John that the accelerant used in the explosion was made up of various chemical components that could only be found in one of two places. Both of those places were military bases inside the United States.

  “That's impossible!” John exclaimed, staring at Matt.

  Matt pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose and shrugged.

  “It's not impossible, John,” he answered calmly. “It's fact. The traces of the compound left were actually quite good samples, considering the amount of burn-off everywhere else. They shouldn't have been left, really, but the pocket of air caused by the...”

  “Yes, yes, I got all that the first time,” John cut him off hastily. “But this bomb was set by a terrorist.”

  “Then it's a terrorist who has access to our military bases and their newest toy,” Matt retorted. “What can I tell you? It's your job to find out the hows and whys. I just give you the whats. I'll put it all in a report and send it up to you today.”

  Matt turned to go back to his computers. John frowned, turning to leave the lab, but Matt's voice stopped him at the door.

  “Oh! I almost forgot. I have something else for you.” Matt turned around and went over to one of the tables, shuffling around in a mess of paper. John turned back and watched as Matt fished out a photo from under a pile of blown up images. “That picture you gave me a few days ago.”

  John raised an eyebrow.

  “The one of Angelo Cordeiro and Martin Sladecki?” he asked, walking over to Matt.

  Matt nodded.

  “That's the one.” He held it out to John and turned back to the other pictures. “It was taken in Avalon about 2 months ago, believe it or not.”

  John's eyebrows soared into his hairline.

 
; “It would have been freezing!” he exclaimed.

  Matt grinned.

  “Yep!” he agreed.

  They looked at the picture together. Both men and their wives were wearing short-sleeves with the ocean directly behind them. John looked at Matt.

  “I don't get it,” he said.

  “That's because you're not looking outside the box,” Matt informed him. He picked up one of the blow-ups and handed it to John. “Look closer.”

  John frowned and looked at a blown-up version of the same picture. Both men were laughing, and their respective wives were smiling into the camera. The sun was shining on the beach and the waves were crashing onto the sand. John stared at the picture helplessly. Matt clucked his tongue and pointed to the waves.

  “The beach is in the wrong spot,” he explained.

  John wondered if Matt had inhaled too many fumes.

  “I'm sorry?” he asked.

  Matt sighed.

  “If they were standing on the beach, the waves would be directly behind them. If you look closely, they're slightly below them!” he told him. John's head snapped up. Matt nodded with a grin. “They aren't on the beach. They're standing in front of a glass wall in a house that is on the beach. Look.” Matt pointed again. “You can just make out the reflection of the glass.”

  “Oh my God,” John murmured.

  “It gets better.” Matt fished for another blown-up angle of the picture. “Obviously, there were other people there. Someone is taking the picture. But I thought this looked interesting.” John had another photo shoved unceremoniously into his hand. Matt pointed to a shadow reflected in the corner of the picture. “So I tried to blow up just that portion. I didn't have much success on the shadow itself, but I did get this. It's a reflection from a mirror, I think, behind the shadow.”

  Matt handed him yet another picture. John stared at it, stunned. It was a grainy, blown up image of part of a face, reflected in a mirror. There was no doubt about the identity. The mark on the face was too distinctive.

  “It's that body you brought back with you last night,” he said. “He was there too.”

  “That's damn good work, Matt,” John said, looking up. His eyes had a light in them that Matt recognized. All the agents got that look when he gave them something they could use.

  Matt nodded complacently.

  “I thought you'd like that,” he agreed. John flashed him a grin and turned to leave, the pictures gathered in his hands.

  “I owe you a drink!” he called over his shoulder.

  Matt snorted.

  “You owe me a couple,” he retorted.

  But John didn't hear him. He was already gone.

  Alina sat back and rubbed the back of her neck absently as she stared at the sketched image on the monitor of Dimitrius, also known as The Engineer. She had heard of him. They all had. He was notorious even before she had completed her first assignment. Alina never dreamed that her path would cross his. He was an Israeli ex-patriot, by all accounts. A mercenary for hire, if you had the money to pay him. No one knew much about him, only that he had deserted the Israeli special forces and gone into business for himself. Some people whispered that he was mad. Others said he was disillusioned. Yet others said he must be acting on religious zeal. Alina had read enough in the past three hours to draw the conclusion that it was probably a little of all three. She guessed that he was probably about five or ten years older than her and his experience was extensive. The rumors were that he never failed. Alina's eyes narrowed slightly.

  He had never gone up against her.

  She pushed her chair back and propped her feet on the counter, crossing her ankles and lowering her chin, deep in thought. She had been able to glean quite a bit of information from her various sources and Viper was confident that she had a pretty accurate picture of him. He charged exorbitant prices, even for their line of work, and it was paid without question. Alina realized now that her glimpse of him put her in a class of her own. She appeared to be the only one ever to have seen him. He was invisible, and the people who paid him seemed content to leave it that way.

  Alina stared at a scuff on the tip of her boot. Not only had she seen him once, but she could have seen him a second time at the explosion. Now why was that? Was he getting careless? Or had he intended for her to see him? Alina was sure that he knew all about her and was baiting her. But to what end? She frowned. And why was he toying with Johann? He had clearly had numerous opportunities to get the job done. Why the games? She brooded on that thought for a moment, and Damon's question popped into her mind.

  “You think this is a game to him?”

  Alina lifted her eyes from her feet as the truth slowly dawned on her.

  “Of course,” she breathed.

  It was a game! He had turned the job into a game! Whether it was his coping mechanism or whether it was the result of a broken mind was immaterial. He never failed because none of his targets ever knew that they were in the middle of a carefully planned out game. Viper smiled slowly, lowering her feet to the floor.

  She had always been rather good at games.

  Damon let himself into Viper's house silently and paused to listen. The house was silent, but he knew she was here. He glanced around the living room and moved into the kitchen. He was just lifting his hand to the sauté pan when the island started sliding to the side. Damon dropped his arm and stepped back as Alina appeared in the opening, carrying an empty mug. Her dark hair was pulled back into a pony-tail and she was dressed in dark, khaki-colored SWAT pants and an olive green tank top. Her dark eyes met his as she stepped out of the stairwell.

  “I'm not sure how I feel about you showing up in my kitchen unannounced,” she murmured.

  Damon grinned.

  “You knew I was coming before I ever got near the house,” he retorted. “I was hardly unannounced.”

  Alina smiled and went to put the mug in the sink. She touched a button under the sink and the island slid noiselessly back into place.

  “True,” she agreed, turning from the sink to face him.

  “Any luck yet?” he asked, leaning back against the island and crossing his arms.

  Alina smiled slightly.

  “Of course,” she answered.

  Damon grinned.

  “Are you going to share?” he asked.

  Viper smiled back slowly. Her satisfaction was palpable and Damon couldn't stop the sudden rush of affection that he felt for her.

  “It's The Engineer,” she said softly. “Someone sent The Engineer after Johann.”

  The teasing smile was wiped off Damon's face and his eyes lost their twinkle.

  “The man's a myth,” Hawk said. Nevertheless, his stomach lurched at her words and he felt a chill streak down his back.

  Alina shook her head.

  “Oh, he's real enough,” she answered. “He's Israeli...or used to be, and he gets paid an absolute fortune,” she added, walking over to the refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of water. She held it up questioningly and Damon shook his head, his mind working furiously.

  “If half of what I've heard is true, then I'm not surprised,” he said, watching her as she twisted the lid off the bottle and took a sip.

  Alina nudged the refrigerator door closed with her foot and went over to sit at the bar.

  “Oh, I think it is,” she said thoughtfully.

  Damon stared at her for a moment, his heart pounding. The Engineer was a legend, and one that he had never really taken seriously. But if Viper said he was real and after Johann, then Damon had no doubt that she was right. He had never known her to be wrong.

  He suddenly, desperately, wanted her to be wrong now.

  “You don't seem very concerned,” Damon remarked, realizing that she almost looked excited.

  She looked at him, faintly surprised.

  “I'm sorry,” she answered politely. “Should I be wringing my hands and saying, 'Oh what should I do?'”

  Damon moved to the bar and leaned forward until his f
ace was level with hers and just inches away.

  “This changes everything,” he told her harshly. “If this guy is real, he isn't someone you can just dismiss.”

  “Oh, I'm not dismissing him,” Alina replied softly. “I'm fully aware of what he is capable of and how dangerous he is. But I have an advantage. I know how to get to him.”

  Damon straightened up, raising his eyebrow. She had a plan. He stared at her for a minute before sighing, resigned.

  “Do I want to know?” he asked.

  She grinned and shook her head.

  “Probably not,” Alina answered. “Suffice it to say that I am fairly confident that I have discovered the secret to The Engineer.”

  A look Damon remembered well from days long past crossed over her face and Hawk was slightly comforted. This was the Viper he knew, and he had complete faith in her. Blue eyes met brown in a brief look of understanding. There was nothing more to be said. He knew she would do her job. Viper didn't know how to fail.

  “Well, if anyone could, it would be you,” Damon said with a flash of a smile.

  He glanced at his watch and came around the bar to stand next to her. Alina looked up curiously from her perch on the stool. She took in the look on his face and her heart dropped. She had seen that look on his face before.

  “You're leaving,” she said flatly.

  Damon saw the flash of disappointment in her eyes before the emotion was effectively shielded and her gaze became unreadable.

  “I'll be back in two days,” he answered. He grinned. “By then you should have this all taken care of.”

  Alina smiled.

  “Perhaps,” she replied.

  She wanted to ask him where he was going, and why, but Alina had the feeling that Hawk would not be completely honest with her. Inexplicably, she suddenly didn't want to hear any lies from him.

  “Well, don't go having all the fun yourself,” Hawk murmured, looking down at her. He lifted his hand and touched her jaw gently. “I have to go confirm some information in person. I'll be as fast I can.”