Double Agent

by Phillips, Lisa

  Task number one: ditch the protection detail.

  *

  Doug folded his arms across his chest and stared at the door to the ladies’ bathroom. He couldn’t fault Sabine for hiding in there. She didn’t like the way he had pushed her out of this op. He didn’t, either. But, if the unthinkable happened to her, he would never forgive himself.

  Hanning strolled by and raised his wrist, indicating his watch. Doug gave him an I know nod. There was no time to hang around. They needed to get moving if they were going to drop off Sabine and get to the meeting they had scheduled with Colonel Hiller.

  A plan had already begun to formulate in Doug’s mind. Using the photos and the information Ben had gathered, the team would draw the Raven out. Once they had a location, they’d be able to move in and detain him—or her, if it really was Sabine’s mom.

  Major General Taylor’s death was connected. If it wasn’t, then the timing was entirely too coincidental for Doug’s liking. In his experience, there were no such things as coincidences.

  Something hovered just outside his consciousness, as if he were trying to grasp a cloud between his fingers. There was some detail about this whole thing that he was missing—something that connected Sabine’s handler with CIA agent Steve Adams and the dead major general.

  God, help us find the Raven. Let Taylor’s death mean something.

  Doug kicked away from the wall and tried to look nonchalant instead of on alert. He strolled to the door of the restroom, his mind flashing back to the Dominican Republic. That time he’d been the one in the bathroom, and Sabine had made an effective getaway.

  And she was really good at disguises.

  He announced his frustration out loud, turning several heads. The cell phone in his hand rang. “Richardson.”

  “What is it?” It was Barker.

  Doug sighed. “Sabine ditched us.”

  “Girls take a long time in there, doing whatever they do. What makes you think she split?”

  He gripped the phone. “Who knows? But I intend to find out. When I get my hands on her, I’ll—”

  “You were going to leave her anyway. Weren’t you?”

  “That’s not the point.” Doug was done arguing about it. “You and Perkins find security and get a look at the recording. She’ll be in a disguise. I want to know when she left and where she went.”

  A young woman with pink streaks in her blond hair exited the bathroom pulling Sabine’s suitcase. “I’m out.” He ended the call. He jogged over to the girl and swung around so he could cut her off. “Excuse me, ma’am?”

  She jerked to a stop, her eyes wide.

  “Where’d you get the suitcase?”

  The ring in her lip jutted out. “What’re you talkin’ about?”

  Doug folded his arms. “My friend went into the bathroom pulling that suitcase, and you came out with it. I know it’s hers. It has her name tag on it.”

  A. Surleski.

  She sighed like Doug was imposing on her. “Fine, some chick gave it to me. What’s it to you, anyway?”

  “It’s important that I find her.”

  “I get it.” She nodded. “You’re the stalker boyfriend.”

  “What? No, she’s in danger. She’s freaked out, but if I don’t find her, she could get really hurt.”

  The young woman with the pink hair narrowed her eyes. Doug tried not to let his impatience show. Finally the girl found him worthy. “She paid me a hundred bucks to trade bags, but I ain’t givin’ you the money.”

  “Which way did she go?”

  “I was in the bathroom. How should I know?” She walked away, shaking her head.

  Doug called out. “Hey!” The girl looked back. “What color was your bag?”

  “Pink tote.”

  Doug moved. The nearest exit was off the food court that connected the string of gates that branched off from it. He passed the kids’ play center and was almost to the gathering of restaurants when his phone rang.

  “Richardson.”

  “Security tapes came up dry.”

  “Look for a pink tote bag.”

  Barker sighed. “The image is black and white.”

  “Assume she’s in disguise.”

  “I thought you were kidding. Fine, we’ll check for totes, and a woman with her build.”

  “Let me know what you find. I’m heading for the exit. Maybe she’s leaving the airport and not planning on getting a ticket on another flight.”

  “Benny’s sister really got to you, didn’t she?”

  Doug hung up. She’d been in black slacks and a red sweater before, hadn’t had much time to change, maybe added a jacket and pulled up her hair. She could be wearing a hat.

  A woman with Sabine’s build and a wide-brimmed hat strode by on high-heeled black boots. Doug grabbed her arm and succeeded in freaking her out, but didn’t find Sabine.

  God, help me find her. Keep her safe.

  Worry churned the remnants of the sandwich in his stomach. It was hard to believe that God might choose to keep her safe by keeping her away from Doug, but he would accept it. He scanned the crowd again.

  His phone rang. “Tell me you found her.”

  “Dark jacket. Hair tied back with what looks like a bandanna, but it’s definitely her. She went west, looked like she was with two guys in suits. Tracked her all the way to the exit. She looked in a hurry, but you might be able to catch her on the curb.”

  “I’m right there.”

  Doug ducked out the doors and through the crowd that waited for arriving passengers. Now that he knew she’d left the terminal, he could head out there. If he’d risked it, he might have had to come back through the security line when they found her still inside.

  He weaved through families, skidded so as to not collide with an old man and had to wait a second for the automatic doors to let him out. The curb was lined with vehicles being loaded. A cop leaned against his squad car with a paper coffee cup.

  The fact that she thought she would be better off alone instead of with him freaked him out big-time. There was no way he’d be able to concentrate on apprehending the Raven if he didn’t know she was safe.

  A hotel shuttle bus pulled away from the curb where they made pickups. Doug scanned the windows for a woman with a cloth over her hair. Beyond where the bus had been was a black Escalade in the far lane. Two men in suits—Christophe Parelli’s bodyguards—had their hands on Sabine.

  Doug was halfway across the street when shouts erupted and a car horn screamed by behind him. A truck sped into the edge of his vision, and he sidestepped as fast as he could. It screeched to a halt inches from his hip. The cop yelled for him to stop running.

  Sabine was almost in the car, being shoved with a hand on her back. Her head hit the door frame. She cried out and turned, and her eyes flew open.

  “Doug!” She swung the pink tote at the two men. One of the men grabbed the bag, threw it aside and punched her in the head.

  Sabine slumped into the man’s arms. Doug was spurred on, narrowly missing another car. He barreled at full speed while they loaded her into the car. The last man climbed in, and the car pulled away before he got the door closed.

  Doug braced, prayed and leapt for the open door. His momentum pushed the guy in, creating a tangle of limbs. The car swerved, and Doug gripped the doorframe to keep from falling out. Something pressed into his side and crackled. Just before everything went dark, a heavy accent spoke.

  “Maybe we’ll get paid double for two of them.”

  FIFTEEN

  The road twisted and turned as it climbed the mountain. Trees lined the edge of the gravel, at least the side that Sabine could see. Her forehead was pressed against the window. Her head pounded from the slam of that fist, and she was about ready to throw up. The press of a large body smashed her against the door. How many people were in the back of this car anyway?

  She kept her eyelashes low and hoped they didn’t realize she had regained consciousness. She had no idea how long
they’d been driving, or where they were headed.

  All she could do was watch as her mind replayed the image of Doug running toward her in high definition. That was followed by violent images of them killing her and dumping her body. She tried to remember him in her kitchen, instead. The way his lips moved into a smile and the light of it shone in his eyes.

  How would he find her? Did he even want to? She’d hardly been nice to him. The last words spoken between them had been full of frustration over the life she wanted with him, but could never have.

  The car slowed and finally pulled to a stop. The landscape was still all trees and the orange glow of sunset. If they’d been driving all afternoon while she was passed out, they could be hundreds of miles from the airport by now. Way out here there was little hope for escape and no one to call for help.

  Deep breaths.

  She scoured her memory for a time when she’d been in a worse situation, but the pain in her head was too much. Still she hadn’t survived being a covert agent for this long without developing some skills.

  Think.

  A door slammed. Footsteps on gravel rounded the car to her door. When it opened, she started to slide, but football-size hands hoisted her up and out of the car. She was flipped over him fireman-style and her stomach hit his shoulder with every step. She swallowed hard against the nausea as he carried her across the clearing up the wooden steps of a structure.

  She couldn’t let him get her in the house.

  Sabine locked on to his torso with her legs, levered herself up and dove sideways to pull him off balance. They slammed down on the hard wood of the porch. His weight knocked the breath from her lungs. She flipped over as soon as she could move and found herself face-to-face with a .357 Magnum, silver with a black grip.

  She swallowed. “Nice gun.”

  Beyond the barrel of the pistol, the big Italian smirked. “’Tis my favorite.”

  Sabine stretched out her muscles as she clambered to her feet. Her head still thumped, but a brisk five-mile run through wooded terrain would take care of that. Sadly she didn’t get her wish just then, because he poked her in the back with his weapon. She stepped ahead into a small hunting cabin, and the two men crowded in behind her. She turned to glare at them…and froze.

  The other Italian hefted a body from his shoulder, flipped it over and dumped the unconscious man on the floor.

  “Doug.”

  She tried to run to him but thick arms banded around her like a vise. Sabine kicked and squirmed. “I’ll kill you. If you hurt him, I’ll kill you.”

  A woman walked up the cabin steps. The urge to fight dissipated from Sabine, and her knees gave out.

  The woman’s snug black dress outlined a figure that was the blueprint for Sabine’s own body. Chocolate-colored hair fell past her shoulders, and her eyes were dark and hard, heavy with smoky eye makeup.

  There was no trace of the mother Sabine had known. All that was left now was a woman who had killed her own son.

  “Hello, darling. Long time no see.”

  The Italian bodyguard set Sabine down. She stumbled but forced her shoes to stay planted on the bare wood. She couldn’t look at Doug. She couldn’t react at all, so she kept any sign of emotion from her face, determined not to let weakness show. The daughter couldn’t do anything but react emotionally to what was happening. The covert agent could fight…and win.

  “Nothing to say?”

  Sabine shrugged, as if reuniting with the long-lost mother who had once tried to kill her was no big deal. She reached up and sought solace from the necklace Ben had given her.

  Her mother raised an eyebrow at the sight of Doug unconscious on the floor. “What is that?”

  The bodyguard by the door replied in Italian. “He decided to join us.”

  Her mother huffed and replied in English. “Interesting, since I was under the impression he was recently rendered out of commission in a nasty accident. He looks relatively uninjured to me. I’ll have to note that tactic for the future.”

  Sabine cleared her throat. “Can we get on with…whatever this is?”

  A perfectly shaped eyebrow rose. “You have somewhere to be?”

  Sabine could name a hundred places she’d rather be. Somehow she’d known this day was coming. The day she would finally face her mother again and have to try to survive when neither her stepdad nor her brother had been able to. Now that it had arrived she felt seriously unprepared to handle what was happening. She had to get herself and Doug out of there.

  She swallowed, giving herself a moment to tamp down her emotions. “What’s it to you? I doubt you suddenly started to care about my life just now.”

  Her mom sighed. “I had hoped for the chance to explain a few things to you.”

  “At gunpoint?” Sabine held back the laugh that wanted to spill out. “Wow, that’s one warped sense of atonement you have. You want to make amends so you can have a clear conscience when you kill me?”

  “Why on earth would I want to kill you? You’re my best agent.”

  Sabine took a step back. She’d known it, but it was still a shock to hear it confirmed.

  Her mother’s smile emerged, like a feral tiger. “You’ve been working for me for years now. You’re really very good at your job, Elena.”

  “It’s Sabine.”

  Her mom waved away the correction. “Details. Anyway, your handler, Neil—”

  “The dead major general.”

  “Very good, and yes, he’s dead. Pity, really. He had his uses.”

  Sabine felt sick. “And my team, six years ago when they were all killed?”

  Her mother shrugged. “It was necessary—to make your transition easier.”

  “It was necessary to ruin my career? The CIA thinks I killed them and went rogue. They’re looking for me. I’ve been under the impression I was an American agent all these years, and now I find out I’m a criminal? How dare you.”

  Her mom sat on the couch and crossed one leg over the other knee. She motioned to the armchair. “Have a seat, darling, before you blow a gasket.”

  “I don’t want to sit down.”

  First they had her in the car, now the cabin. If she sat down it would be like taking another step on the plank toward the murky water of her death. The bodyguards both took a step closer, each of their guns pointed at her. Sabine wasn’t ready to get shot so she sat and folded her arms. “You expect me to be happy that you did what you wanted with my life?”

  Arrogance shone in the older woman’s eyes. “You love your job, don’t you?”

  “I’m supposed to be grateful?” Sabine shook her head, unable to comprehend this woman’s audacity. “I’ll probably end up in jail for the rest of my life because of what you’ve done. It was you, wasn’t it? You killed Christophe Parelli and made it look like I did it.”

  Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “I hardly think you’ll end up in jail.”

  “How can you be so sure about that? I can’t just pick up where I left off and start running missions again. Am I supposed to be some kind of covert agent for hire, doing jobs for whoever will pay the most and living my life with cash and no identity? You may think you have power over me, but you don’t.” Something clicked in her mind. “I won’t turn into you.”

  Her mother jerked as though Sabine had slapped her.

  A tempting thought.

  The older woman studied Sabine. “Who said anything about your future?”

  “So you are going to kill me.”

  “You said it yourself—the CIA is after you. If you’re not going to join me, I can’t really afford to let you go. There’s no way I can leave loose ends like that.” Her surgically perfect nose wrinkled. “Bad for business.”

  It wasn’t a surprise that her mom wanted to kill her. She’d tried it once before. Her mother had no conscience whatsoever. The thought skittered over Sabine like a thousand ants. Once she’d dreamed of home and a family, and while Sabine hadn’t been born into the life she wanted, it now looked li
ke she wouldn’t be able to make that life for herself, either.

  “Is that what Major General Robert Taylor was? A loose end?”

  “Your Neil’s death was an unfortunate accident. The old man had his charms. I’ll miss him.”

  Sabine saw the first glimpse of humanity then, in her mother’s eyes. Would her mom really miss Neil? That would mean she actually had a heart. While Neil might have been lying to her, he had also supported her for years. The man had been both a sounding board and a mentor to her.

  Sabine leaned toward her mom. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  The woman glared at Sabine. “I don’t need your sympathy.”

  “Good, because I was just being polite. That man betrayed his country because of you.”

  “Pshaw.” Her mom waved her hand. “People will do a lot of things for the right amount of money…and a little added pressure.”

  Sabine was nearly sick. “Why?” The word was a whisper.

  Her mother blinked, and all trace of emotion vanished from her face.

  “Why did you kill Ben…and Dad?” Sabine had to know, since she figured she was as good as dead. Her mom had won, and Sabine didn’t care what was going to happen to her, so long as Doug got out of there alive. She just wanted to know why the woman—who was supposed to have kept her and Ben safe, and to have loved their father—could have turned on her own family.

  “Life rarely gives a satisfactory answer. You should get used to being disappointed.” Her mom stood, then strutted on her spike heels to the door.

  “I’m well acquainted with disappointment. I had you as a mother.”

  The older woman actually laughed. The sound cut off when the front door slammed behind her.

  Sabine studied the room. It was a typical cabin, one room with one door at the front. Yellowed single-pane windows, high and small, dotted the walls, but not so tiny she wouldn’t be able to dive through one if she got enough of a head start. First she had to get past the two goons with guns.

  Not getting shot would be the hard part. After that, her mother would be easy pickings given the rage that burned inside Sabine. All the deaths her mom was responsible for—it was so senseless.

  Doug lay motionless on the floor. If he was still unconscious, he must be really hurt. She’d already shown them how much she cared for him by exploding when they had dumped him on the floor. This was going to be even more difficult if she had to protect him, fight two big Italian thugs and drag Doug’s prone body out of the cabin.