CL Hart -From A Distance

by CL Hart

  Kenzie heard his footsteps and cautiously opened the door a crack to watch the judge's approach. Using her foot, she opened the door to him, keeping her eyes on the parking lot. Once he was inside, she closed the door but felt little relief.

  Judge Woodward looked around the room and then to Kenzie. She looked a lot different than she had the last time he'd seen her. The quiet, cocky, confident woman he had known was gone, and in her place was a woman who appeared nervous, exhausted, and...something he could not quite put his finger on.

  "Katherine...I'm alone," he said solemnly. "I made sure of it."

  "I know. It's just that every time we thought we were alone, someone was right behind us."

  Curious about the woman his Katherine had been ordered to kill, he looked around the room, but it was obvious no one else was there. Then he realized the bathroom door was closed. "She's in there?"

  Kenzie nodded as she sat down on the bed.

  "You look tired," he said as he pulled out one of the chairs.

  "But alive, which is more than we should be," Kenzie said. "Cori," Kenzie called out. The invitation was obviously loud enough, as the bathroom door opened.

  Stepping into the room, Cori smiled politely as Kenzie introduced them. She held out her hand as the judge rose to his feet. He was bigger than she had pictured. He didn't really look like a judge, but he did have that air of authority.

  The judge was studying her, just as Cori was studying him. She looked...he searched his mind for the right word - contradictory. She appeared meek, but strong, young but mature. She appeared confident, though in great need of some reassurance. "You look like you need a hug more than a handshake," he said in a compassionate voice.

  Cori welcomed the bear hug she got from the man she had just met.

  Kenzie watched the exchange with interest, surprised by the feeling of pride welling up inside her. They were strangers with one commonality...her.

  "Katherine, you never mentioned what an attractive woman she was," the judge said, still holding Cori in his arms.

  "I didn't?" Kenzie watched a smiling Cori step out from the judge's embrace. Her face flushed and her eyes shimmering with tears, she smiled at Kenzie. "I should have." Kenzie said, beginning to realize just how much she cared for Cori.

  The conversation quickly moved to a full recounting of everything that had happened and what they each knew. The judge listened quietly, asking the odd question as he looked with admiration at the two women who had been through so much. When it came to the telling of the explosion aboard Kenzie's boat, the judge's expression showed grave concern. "But I thought no one but you and I knew about your boat."

  "You and I...and Big Polly - that's it."

  "And you trust this...Big Polly?"

  Kenzie looked him in the eye, her face, strong and certain. "Unequivocally, as I do you, but I guess somehow they found out about it."

  The judge's face turned to one of sympathy and regret. "Ah, Katherine, your beautiful boat."

  "I've tried not to think about it too much. I mean it's just a material thing, right? I can replace it. I'm glad that it wasn't us."

  "But it could have been. You were lucky."

  "It wasn't luck," Cori cut in. She had been silent through the depiction of their near death experiences, sitting at the table, scratching away on her pad of paper. "This woman is amazing. She has gotten us out of trouble so many times."

  "I'm not amazing, far from it. I've made lots of mistakes," Kenzie said, not attempting to hide her frustration. "Besides, you're the one who got us out of San Diego. And let's not forget, I'm the reason why we're in all this trouble to start with."

  "Are you sure about that, Katherine?"

  "I'm not sure of anything right now. After our conversation last night, I don't even know who I've been working for."

  "You said it yourself - you were just following orders-"

  "So was Oliver North," Kenzie interjected, "And he wasn't actually pulling the trigger - I was. I've been all over the globe killing people and now I don't know..." Her voice drifted off, leaving a heavy silence in the room. There were too many questions, and for the first time, Judge Woodward got a full sense of what the women had been struggling with.

  "We'll figure it out, I promise." Even to him, his words sounded hollow and uncertain. There was a lot of power at play and he was well aware they might never find the answers they were looking for. He had done enough service in the military and had worked long enough in the government to know that no matter how quiet and non-existent an operation was, sooner or later someone talked. But it would only matter if the right person was listening. "Follow the money, Katherine. You're smart enough to know that. Follow the money and follow the power, and you'll have your answers. I'll do what I can for you, you know that."

  "Yes, sir," she said quietly. "But I can't ask you to do anything more."

  "You're not asking, I'm offering. You're not in this alone."

  She wasn't alone, and she felt a warm feeling of contentment as she turned to look at Cori. The truth of what she knew, but had not wanted to admit, hit her hard. The target in Mexico wasn't Cori. "They weren't after you," she said in realization. "They were never after you...they were after me." It had been a long night of thinking, and no matter how she turned the pieces, they only seem to fit one disheartening way. "Whatever is going on, I've been a part of it, unknowingly, but participating. I think when I told Manuck that I wanted out, somebody got nervous. I became the problem that needed to be eliminated."

  "We don't know that for sure," Cori said.

  "Cori thinks there's some kind of connection between us, but...I don't know. None of this makes sense."

  He looked at Cori. "A connection?"

  "Yes...sir...Your Honor...ah..." Cori found herself stumbling over how to address him.

  "My name is Benjamin, but my friends call me Ben, well, with one acceptation," he said, looking at Kenzie.

  "What?" She shrugged. "You don't call me Kenzie."

  "Your name is Katherine," the judge said. "Now, what is this about a connection?"

  "We haven't actually found one...Ben," Cori said, turning her pad so he could read it, "but I know there is one. Kenzie's name...I've heard it, or seen it...somewhere."

  Ben looked over the notes Cori had been working on. "You're spelling Katherine's name wrong."

  "What?" Cori turned the pad around and looked at how she had spelt Kenzie's name.

  "You have it with a C, it's Katherine with a K and LeGault is L-e-G-a-u-1-t." The judge picked up the pen and in neatly printed, block letters wrote out Kenzie's full name. Katherine Mackenzie LeGault, and then twisted the pad so Cori could see.

  Kenzie watched the change come over Cori's face "What?"

  "Oh my God," she said slowly.

  Chapter 21

  The cold rain fell heavily on downtown Seattle, but Terry Bucannon was sweating profusely. The judge had disappeared and the men he had sent to watch him had returned to their regular assignment. It had only taken a phone call and the cachet of the CIA for the local police department to forget the previous evening's mess. They had no idea where Kenzie and Cori were, but they all knew the two women were close - too close.

  The heated phone call he had earlier with Manuck left him feeling desperate and vulnerable. Staring down at his computer, he studied the official emblem on the wallpaper screen. This was not what he had signed up for and he knew now that it had all gone beyond what he could explain. He thought about running. He had enough money - Maquinar had been very profitable for all of them - but where could he go? He had been asking himself that question all morning.

  His cell phone vibrated in his pocket and a quick glance told him it was the annoying but persistent senator. He answered it curtly, expecting to hear more complaints and demands. That was not the case.

  "What are we going to do, Terry?"

  "I don't know," Bucannon answered, his voice filled with dejection.

  "I just talked to Manuck, and h
e still thinks we can quash this, but I'm not willing to lose everything if he can't. He can't even find one of his own."

  "What would you suggest, Senator? I'm open to just about anything."

  "Let's make her a deal."

  "And how do you suggest we do that? If we could find her to make her an offer, then it would be easier to put a bullet in her head."

  There was a heavy sigh of frustration on the phone as both men contemplated their predicament.

  The senator had had enough. "Well, I'm tired of this phoning back and forth. I want to meet, all of us, and figure out what we're going to do. This sitting around is not the way to get the job done."

  "You want a meeting?"

  "With all of us."

  Terry knew Manuck would be against a meeting, but it was not his argument. Senator Palmer had a point. "You call him. I've already argued enough with him today."

  "What?" Kenzie and the judge said in unison.

  "Your name." Cori pointed to the pad as she looked up at them. "It was your name. I saw your name when I was working at Trillium."

  "Saw it? Saw it where?" Kenzie asked, her eyes narrowing with interest.

  "Remember I said that sometimes I did payroll? Nancy was sick and I was entering payroll numbers into the computer. Well, when I was shutting down the system there was a window someone had left open, it was encrypted, but it piqued my curiosity, so I started to play around with it. When I was finally able to read it, I realized it was only a basic payroll file."

  "Payroll?" the Judge asked.

  "Yeah. I remember it as being strange because there were only a few names in a department that I had never heard of. Trillium International has hundreds of employees, but they are all split up into just three departments: management, development, and office staff. The names I saw were in a separate department, all on their own. They had no social security numbers assigned to them, and their payroll checks were issued under names other than their own. You have to have a social security number to get a payroll check, that's the law." Cori looked to Kenzie. "Your name was one of those that I saw."

  "You worked for Trillium?" Judge Woodward asked Kenzie in surprise.

  "I've never worked for Trillium. I've never even heard of them."

  "Well, they were issuing Katherine Mackenzie LeGault's payroll checks to an S. L. Etcher," Cori insisted strongly. Then another thought flashed, "Etcher, isn't that the name you had your boat moored under?"

  "Yeah...but..." Kenzie was confused.

  "What else did you see in the file?"

  "Nothing, just payroll."

  "What was the name of the department you saw," the judge asked.

  "Waste management. That was another reason why I thought it was strange at the time. Trillium doesn't do any kind of waste anything."

  "But I've never worked for this Trillium under any name."

  "Are you sure you haven't, Katherine?"

  "Judge, you know as well as I do, I've never had a job other than the military. I think I would know."

  "You got paid, didn't you? Well, who paid you?"

  "Yeah...but...I don't know..." Kenzie scratched her head. "It's all done by direct deposit. I've never paid that much attention to it."

  "Let's follow the money then," Cori said.

  "And find out who owns Trillium," the judge added.

  They agreed the easiest way to find out who was behind Trillium would be on a computer, so they went looking for an Internet cafe. Flipping through the Yellow Pages, they found several, but they opted for one of two in the downtown area of Seattle, near where Cori said the offices of Trillium International were located. The judge had wanted to go to the courthouse where he would have federal access, but Kenzie was adamant that someone would be watching the courthouse. They left the motel in search of answers none of them had.

  Zipping up Interstate 5 in the car the judge had borrowed, it took very little time to reach Seattle even though the traffic was heavy. Cori gave directions as Kenzie sat quietly in the backseat, alone with her inner turmoil. She paid little attention to where they were going, too concerned with where she had already been. Coming home, back to Seattle, she had hoped the feelings of disorientation would be dispelled, but she was disappointed. The familiarity of her surroundings only made her question herself more.

  Looking out the window, she watched as they drove past Quest Field, home to the Seahawks, and Safeco Field where the Seattle Mariners played baseball. It all seemed so normal, and yet she felt her world imploding. She had wanted to go straight to the base and confront Manuck, but the judge and Cori sharply disagreed with her.

  "I think we should take it to the media. Let King 5 News sort through the shit and find the answers," Cori said.

  "We can't do that, not until we have some answers. Katherine's work was under the umbrella of the government and we have to be careful. The last thing she needs is to be charged with treason."

  "And let's not forget, the government declared me dead years ago," Kenzie said from the backseat. "And if it turns out I'm no longer working for them, then basically I've just been travelling around murdering people."

  Cori turned around and looked at Kenzie. "You didn't murder anyone, you followed orders." She reached out to touch Kenzie's hand.

  "That's a little hard to swallow right now," Kenzie said, keeping her emotions in check and her eyes away from Cori's.

  The judge glanced in the rearview mirror and then turned his gaze back to the road. "Let's not jump to any conclusions. We'll see what we can find out, and go from there."

  Fingering the familiarity of the gun in her jacket pocket, Kenzie continued to process the flood of information and questions. A simmering anger was slowly replacing her disbelief. She was going to get answers, and they were not going to come from a computer.

  The Internet cafe was easy to find, nestled on the corner between the high office towers on Pike Street. It was a cafe and coffee shop/ bookstore all rolled into one. Dark chocolate-colored leather couches made it homey and comfortable. Large pane windows on both sides gave it an open-air feel. The small coffee shop was nearly empty, allowing the trio their choice of computers. Picking one near the back of the art deco cafe, the three of them hunched around the monitor as Cori's fingers flew over the keys. Kenzie considered herself computer knowledgeable, however Cori proved to be very proficient. Trillium International was easy to find on the Internet, but getting into their computer system was proving to be beyond Cori's ability.

  After a lot of keystrokes and a long wait, Cori leaned back with a defeated sigh. "I can't get passed their firewall. We need a real hacker or someone with a lot more experience than me. I can't even get beyond the login without - proper ID." She began to type rapidly. "I'm in," she said victoriously. "All that security and no one thought to erase my old login ID." She rubbed her hands together, "Now let's see what we can find."

  The names of those running Trillium were public knowledge. The names of who actually owned it seemed to be more elusive. "Someone has put a lot of time and energy into covering up who the actual owner is." Cori scanned the scrolling lines of information.

  "What did you find?" the judge asked as he peered at the screen.

  "Not much really," Cori said, tapping away feverishly. "A lot of corporate names," she added.

  "Let me try my way," the judge said as he pulled a pen from his pocket. "Give me what you do have, and the address of Trillium. I've got federal connections that should be able to bypass some of this."

  "I can also try the back door," Cori said, looking from the judge to Kenzie.

  "What back door?" Kenzie asked. She wanted to do something. Sitting around a cafe, idly waiting was not something she did well, and it was gnawing at her patience.

  "Money comes in and money goes out," Cori said as the judge scribbled away on his notepaper. "There are taxes, payroll, electricity, phone lines. Somebody is paying for all that."

  "I'm going to make some phone calls and see what I can find," the judge
said.

  "You look your way and I'll keep looking through the utilities. They're usually easier to get into," Cori responded as he moved to a different table and another computer.

  Manuck was expecting the call. Palmer was getting antsy and Bucannon's backbone was disintegrating by the hour, but not Manuck. He was a soldier. There was a job to do, and he was going to get it done. He still had Viper at his disposal, and he had all the faith in the world that Viper could complete the assignment. He debated whether to answer the call, but the annoying buzz was just too persistent.

  "Manuck."

  "We are meeting today, with or without you," Palmer said without preamble.

  "That wouldn't be my first suggestion," Manuck answered.

  "It's not a suggestion, Colonel." Fury filled the senator's voice. "These phone calls aren't solving the problem, and the problem is only getting closer."

  "And you think getting the three of us together, out in the open, is going to solve anything? Because it's not, it's just going to make us easier targets. She's in Seattle; we're sure of that."

  "You have confirmation of that?"

  "Cori Evans just hacked into Trillium's computer system."

  "Oh my God... Wait. How do you know that?"

  "Because she used her own login ID, but it don't matter, now. I think we should just see what they're going to do."

  "You want to wait... Need I remind you that she isn't looking for us, she's looking for you. You're the only one who's had contact with her. You know her training better than we do, and you know exactly what she's capable of."

  He had considered those elements himself, but still he didn't like being told what to do and where to do it. "What time are you meeting and where?"

  "In the underground parking, level C, at three."

  Cori and Kenzie were huddled in front of the computer monitor as Cori manipulated the mouse and ran the cursor over the screen. They were backtracking Kenzie's payroll deposits to her bank account. The amount she was being paid startled Cori. Kenzie had mentioned that she was financially comfortable, but Cori could see that was a gross understatement. It had never crossed her mind how much someone in Kenzie's line of work would be paid.