by Mary Alford
She couldn’t believe he thought she was working with Kate’s killers. That hurt like crazy. “You believe they tracked our phones? Which one? Yours or mine?” She said the first thing that came to mind, mostly because she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around her current reality.
Jase considered her question. “I don’t know. My guess is yours. If not, then we have a bigger problem if they were able to breech the CIA’s security. Whoever these people are, they’re skilled. They’re after you and they won’t give up until they find you.”
Hannah shivered at those ominous words.
Jase spared her a quick glance. “They’ll have found our destroyed phones by now, and they’ll be watching the truck. They’ll realize we’re one foot. It won’t take them long to put two and two together a figure out we’ve boosted a vehicle.”
“You think they’ll come this way?”
“Oh, without a doubt. I’m hoping they’ll think we’ve taken the interstate, but that’s a longshot. If it were me, I wouldn’t. I’d search the back roads. Unfortunately, the way I see it, our choices are limited.”
Hannah blew out a sigh. His answer was even more frightening. “So why are we taking this particular back road?”
Jase actually smiled then. For a second it took her breath away. She remembered another time. A different type of road trip. Her heart drummed a frantic beat in her chest.
“Another longshot. I’m hoping they’ll think after what happened back there that we’re heading back to D.C. This is about as opposite of that as I could find in a moment’s notice.”
“And if they don’t?” Hannah knew the answer already.
“Then we’re on our own.” His gaze locked with hers. “And it won’t end up good, I’m afraid.”
As if in answer, the Toyota sputtered again then belched out black exhaust.
“We’ll need to ditch this car soon for something more reliable. I’ll have the Agency let the owners know where to find it. I think I saw a sign for Sanger, Pennsylvania where we turned off. It should be a few miles up the road. Hopefully, we can find some supplies and another means of transportation. Once this is settled, I’ll have headquarters let the owners of car know where they can find it.”
As they raced toward an uncertain future, Hannah tried to relax. The undue stress she’d gone through in the last twenty-four hours alone wouldn’t be good for her new heart. Yet as she watched the miles of rich Pennsylvania farmland disappear, she wondered if the impending danger facing her would be any worse on her heart than being this close to the man Kate had loved and trusted and have him not believe a single word she said.
Chapter Seven
Sanger, Pennsylvania wasn’t much bigger than the hole-in-the wall town they’d stopped at to eat breakfast. It was however, in the opposite direction of their final destination. He hoped this diversion worked.
Jase spotted a sign for Wal-Mart and pulled into the parking lot. He stopped the car some distance away from the handful of vehicles in the lot.
Hannah turned in her seat to study him. “We need to pick up some disposable phones and a change of clothes,” he said in answer to her unspoken question. Jase took the Glock from his jacket pocket and tucked it under the driver’s seat. Then he climbed out of the car and came round to her side. “I’ll get you something to eat so you can take your meds. It’s been hours.”
She got out and stood next to him while he scanned the lot and surrounding area. Not much was happening in Sanger even though it was mid-afternoon. His instinct told him they needed to be in and out as quickly as possible, but he had to slow their pace down for her sake. She didn’t look well.
On the drive there, he’d done a mental assessment of the contents of his truck. He’d tucked the Glock into the backpack containing his computer and brought them with him into the diner, along with her meds. By now, the men following them would know who he was. They probably had known from the start. He rarely kept anything of importance in the truck. Certainly nothing that would give away their final destination. No one knew about the cabin in Vermont … with the exception of Kate.
The front license plate on the Suburban had been deliberately removed. With the windows blacked out, he hadn’t gotten a good view of its occupants. He suspected there were two men in the front. Who knew how many in the back.
He glanced at the woman at his side. She looked exhausted. She needed a place to lie down and rest. Right now, they couldn’t afford the luxury. They had to keep moving.
The fact that the Wal-Mart was pretty much deserted didn’t make it easy for them to appear inconspicuous. A handful of bored employees watched them with mild interest as they entered the store.
Jase reached in his wallet and pulled out some bills. “Here, I want you to buy a couple of disposable phones and whatever clothes you need. I’ll grab some supplies and food and wait for you out front. I doubt this town’s seen a whole lot of outsiders lately, so we’re going to stand out to anyone asking about us, which is not a good thing.”
A middle-aged man with thinning hair and thick glasses stopped next to them. “Can I help you two find something? I’m the store manager,” he said with pride.
Jase pulled Hannah close and smiled. He felt her grown tense. “Yes you can. My wife would like to buy her family some disposable phones so that they can call her whenever they would like to catch up. Can you show here where they’re located?”
“Of course.” The manager smiled at Hannah. “Right this way, ma’am.” Hannah gave Jase one last worried look before she followed the man.
Jase grabbed a cart and went to the sporting goods section. He loaded it with camping supplies, flashlights, batteries, and whatever else he thought they might need to survive on their own. Then he found a couple of warm jackets, extra clothing, and stocked up on groceries. By the time he rolled up to the disposable phone section, Hannah had moved on. He grabbed one and headed toward one of the few open checkouts. The girl manning the register stared at the pile of items curiously.
“My wife and I are going camping in Virginia,” he said in way of explanation when she eyed the odd assortment of items. The girl managed a halfhearted smile and took his money.
Jase wheeled the cart out to the car and loaded its contents into the trunk. He grabbed the phone he’d purchased, then pulled up close to the door and waited for Hannah. She emerged a few minutes later carrying a couple of bags.
“Ready?” he asked when she was inside.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Let’s gas up and then keep moving. There’s some pumps over there.” Once the car’s tank was filled, he left the parking lot and drove out of town, still heading in the direction of D.C. There were dozens of farmhouses around. Many abandoned. He hoped they’d be lucky and find a more reliable vehicle at one of them.
As they drove by one house in particular, it grabbed his attention because it looked as if it had been recently vacated. The owners had parked a beat up four-wheel drive Jeep around at the back of the house. Jase put the car in reverse and pulled the Toyota up next to it.
“Stay here. I want to check and see if the house is empty.” She didn’t answer. She’d grown silent again. He wondered what she was thinking. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Jase tried the door. It opened easily enough. He did a quick sweep of the rooms, but the place was as empty of people as it was furniture.
“It’s clear,” he said and she got out. “There’s a picnic table over by that tree. You should probably eat something.”
He rummaged through the bags of food he’d bought and found the sandwich stuff and handed it to her.
She took it but didn’t move. “What about you?”
“I’m going to try to breathe life into that Jeep. Go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”
He waited until she was out of earshot before retrieving the phone and the pack of cigarettes he’d bought. He lit a cigarette and felt the nicotine begin to course through his body. It took longer to make the phone w
ork. When he did, he called Travis.
“Man, am I glad to hear from you. Where’ve you been? I’ve been calling you since you left D.C. Why haven’t you answered your phone?”
“Someone came after us, Travis. We had to ditch the phones and the truck and leave on foot.”
“Did you get a good look at the vehicle?” Travis breathed out.
“Sort of. A black, late model Suburban. The license plate was missing. At least two people, probably a whole lot more were inside. We managed to find a vehicle and we’re mobile again.”
“Could you identify any of the occupants of the SUV?”
Jase glanced around the empty farm then over to where Hannah stood sorting out food. “Nope.”
“Where are you now … never mind, best I don’t know.”
“Exactly. I’m just checking in. I wanted to let you know we’re okay. For now. Anything new on your end?”
The length of time it took for Travis to answer didn’t exactly settle Jase’s nerves.
“Not much, really. Still no word from The Foreigner. He’s in the wind.”
“What do you make of it?” Jase asked while he took another draw of the cigarette then tossed it on the ground. Since Kate’s death, he hadn’t found comfort in much of anything, smoking included. He knew it was time for him to start moving on. He wasn’t dead yet, and he certainly wasn’t going to survive the life of a spy only to die from lung cancer.
“I’m not sure. The Foreigner never gave any indication he was anything but legit as far as I can tell. Kate trusted him completely.”
Jase swallowed hard. “Yeah, and look where it got her.”
Travis’ only answer was a grunt.
“Anything new turn up on Sandoval’s past?”
“Nope.”
Jase could tell from Travis’ tone something was wrong. “What else is bugging you, partner?”
Travis took his time before answering. “I’m not sure. I’m getting a bad vibe here.”
Travis had his full attention with that revelation. It wasn’t like his partner to be squeamish. “In what way?”
“Well, after the debriefing I thought that’d be the end of the questions, but not so. I’ve been interrogated at least a half-dozen times. Not simply by our agents, but also by people I don’t even know. Only it’s obvious they wield a lot of power. They’ve asked the same questions repeatedly, and people are looking at me differently, Jase.”
“What kind of questions?” Jase asked.
“Like what did I know about The Foreigner? Had I ever met him or had any contact with his former associates? Where did I go in the days prior to that night? I don’t like it, Jase. I don’t like it at all.”
Jase glanced over at the picnic table. Hannah was staring off at the horizon unaware of him. “It’s probably your imagination. The brass’s getting heat from everywhere. This case, Kate’s death.” He shook his head. “It was a screwed up from the beginning. Try not to worry too much. I’ll check in with you in a couple of hours. Hopefully we’ll both have some good news by then.”
“Yeah. I hope your right, but as I said, I have a bad feeling. Someone’s going to take the fall for this. I hope it isn’t me.”
Jase shoved the phone and the cigarette pack in his pocket and popped the Jeep’s hood. It took only a few minutes to realize why the vehicle had been abandoned. Most of the hoses were shot. It would take hours to get the thing running, if at all. There was a barn off the side of the house. Hopefully, he could find something useful in there to repair the hoses.
The inside of the barn was dark and cavernous. The power had long ago been disconnected to the place. Next to the door, someone had left a kerosene lantern. Jase retrieved his lighter and brought the lantern to life.
There wasn’t much there except of a few bales of hay. A tarp covered a large object off to the back of the barn. He pulled it away. Someone had abandoned an old Ford pickup along with the Jeep.
Jase opened the driver’s door. The key dangled from the ignition. He popped the hood. Everything appeared to be intact. When he tried the key, the only sound was a few faint clicks. The battery was dead.
He drove the Toyota over and retrieved the jumper cables he’d bought out of the trunk then attached them. With a few minutes of charging, the Ford fired up.
Jase loaded the Toyota’s supplies into the truck and stowed the car in the barn, and then he went to collect Hannah.
“Ready?” he asked while snagging a piece of ham and cheese from her plate. She had a virtual smorgasbord displayed there, but it didn’t look as if she’d touched much of it.
“Yes.” She wiped her hands on a napkin and swung her legs over the bench.
He decided whatever she chose to eat was her own business.
She arched a brow at their new means of transportation but did say a word. They got into the truck and hit the road again, this time heading north.
* * * *
“No. Please no,” she cried out as someone grabbed her from behind. They were going to kill her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She could feel the knife slicing across her throat. She couldn’t scream. Couldn’t cry out for help. Her life’s blood was leaving her body, and she was helpless to do anything but die.
“Hey, wake up.”
Hannah awoke to someone gently shaking her. She opened her eyes. She could feel tears on her cheeks. It was the dream again. Always the same. It took her back to that night. Kate’s final moments of life slipping away. Too many things left unsaid.
It took everything inside of her to shake of the effects of that dream. She realized she’d been asleep for hours. It was pitch dark outside. They were in the truck, still driving to a place as vivid in her dreams of Kate as the struggle she’d lost in that night in the desert.
“Are you okay?” Jase asked and sounded like he meant it. She could feel him watching her. How much had he heard? Would he even believe her if she told him about the dream?
Hannah swallowed hard and wiped at the tears on her face. “Yes.”
“What are you sorry for?” His voice was barely a whisper.
She cleared her throat. “I beg your pardon?”
“You said, ‘I’m sorry, Jase.’ So what are you sorry for?” There was something in his tone. Something that almost sounded like hope in the question. What did he want her to say?
“Nothing. I’m sorry for nothing.”
She had no idea where they were. All she could see outside the truck was darkness. Clouds had rolled in and there were no stars visible. No moon. She sensed they were in a remote area.
Jase turned off the small road they’d been traveling and glanced her way. She couldn’t read his expression, but nothing in his eyes lent itself to comfort.
“Where are we going?” Her voice shook a little, and she caught a hint of a smile lift the corners of his mouth. He’d heard it too.
“We’re going to find someplace to bunk down for the night. It’s late and we’re both tired. We need rest.” When she would have argued that there could be nothing promising down the gravel road they were heading down, he added, “Whoever that was after us won’t give up. Chances are they’ll have ditched the Suburban because they know we’ll be looking for it by now. There are a dozen or more back roads like this one. If they do come this way, it will take them forever to figure out which road we took from there. We’ll be safe for now, but we need to be sharp to survive, which means, we need some rest.”
She understood his logic, but up until now his full attention had been focused on escaping the men who followed them and keeping her alive. What happened when they stopped for the night and it was just the two of them alone with Kate’s past standing between them and all night on their hands?
Jase slowed the truck to a crawl and peered out his window. She followed his line of sight. At first, all she could see darkness, and then her eyes adjusted a bit more and she picked up on what he saw. A dark silhouette stood a little ways off the road. She couldn’t tell if it was a
house or a barn, but it looked as if it had seen its better days a long time ago.
He turned the truck onto what had once been a drive and edged toward the building. Overgrown weeds and brush slapped the underside of the truck every inch of the way. The headlights flashed across what appeared to be an old barn that leaned hard to the left.
Jase pulled around back and looked her way. “Stay here. I’ll check it out.”
She didn’t answer, and he grabbed a flashlight, climbed out of the truck, and slammed the door in his wake.
Hannah glanced around the place. She could make out the outline of trees scattered around the property, and something that looked like a burned out shell. She guessed it had once been a house.
A light appeared close by and Jase came back to the truck. He grabbed the two sleeping bags and opened the passenger door.
“Ready?”
She managed a nod and got out. He handed her one of the sleeping bags.
“Stay close,” he told her, and she followed close behind him. They picked their way through thick brush that snagged at their clothing until they reached the door.
The flashlight illuminated the dark expanse within. Dust and cobwebs covered the place, evidence that it had been years since another soul had ventured beyond the door. A perfect hideaway.
Jase dropped his sleeping bag on the dirt floor and Hannah shivered as the noise it made reverberated throughout the space.
“I’ll go bring in some more supplies. The food should be okay still and I think we can safely make a fire in here. It’s freezing.”
He didn’t wait for her to respond. He walked out and left her standing alone. A few minutes later, he returned carrying several bags.
“Why don’t you see if you can scrape together something for us to eat amongst what’s left of the food?” Jase rummaged through the bags until he found a battery powered lantern and clicked it on. “Use this. I’m going to gather some wood to make a fire.”
She illuminated her watch. It was almost midnight, and they’d been traveling all day. Hannah was emotionally and physically drained.