by Dee Davis
She walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out a favorite volume. Dylan Thomas. Do not go gentle into that good night. She’d always loved the poem, but it held even more meaning now. Thinking of her father, and Jason. Even Smitty. Life was so damn fragile. And there was only one. Thomas was right, you had to keep fighting. No matter the obstacles. No matter the fears.
She closed the book, her heart feeling lighter. There was something wonderful about words and the way they could be strung together to evoke memories and emotions, to paint pictures in your mind. To carry you away to a faroff place.
God, she was feeling fanciful. It was Emmett’s fault. Him and his poetry. She reached up to slide the book back into its place on the shelf, but something caught her eye, her hand freezing as her brain registered what it was she was seeing stuffed back behind the books on the shelf above her head.
Hand shaking, she laid the book on the desk and, standing on tiptoes, reached back into the depths of the shelf, her hand closing on silk.
Blue silk.
She’d found her mother’s scarf.
Heart pounding, Tyler swung around, the world moving in slow motion as the door opened, and Emmett stood there, looking almost comical in his surprise. But almost before she could finish the thought, he changed, his features tightening, anger mixing with regret as his eyes grew cold and he pulled the gun from his pocket.
“Ah, Tyler,” he said, his eyes falling to the scarf in her hand. “I wish to hell you hadn’t found that.”
“Well, first off, I should tell you that I’m a total freak when it comes to anything electronic. Phones, computers, iPods, you name it, I can break it,” Lara said. “Sometimes without even turning it on.”
Her fingers were still laced together, the whites of her knuckles showing the effort it cost her to hold it together. But so far nothing they’d told her had garnered more than a mumbled curse directed at Logan Palmer. Owen had spent most of his adult life reading people, and although Lara was upset, she wasn’t acting like someone with dark secrets to conceal.
“I actually remember Jason saying something to that effect once,” Avery said, a smile lifting the corners of his lips.
“Yeah, probably wondering how he could possibly have fallen in love with a woman who can’t program her DVR. Anyway, all of that to say that there’s no way I could have manipulated programs on Jason’s computer. And even if I could I couldn’t possibly have gotten around his security systems.”
“Harrison managed without any problems,” Owen said. “Maybe things weren’t as secure as you think they were.”
“No, believe me, he’s got security systems for his security systems. Harrison only got in because he’s got game. Jason said he was the most talented person he’d ever worked with. And Jason isn’t—wasn’t—” she corrected, her voice cracking a little as she sucked in a breath, “he wasn’t an easy sell.”
“But even if we accept that you haven’t tampered with Jason’s computer, there are still some very serious allegations coming out of Logan’s office.”
“The trips,” she sighed. “Actually, there’s a sound explanation for most of it. And it’s got nothing to do with plutonium. The second trip you mentioned, the one in June. I was in Golovchino. But only for a few minutes. I’d scheduled a trip to the Ukraine after the task force meetings, and I mentioned it in passing to a couple of the other members. Anyway, the day we adjourned, one of the Russians on the committee, Beral Kirov, asked me if I’d mind dropping some paperwork off for him in Golovchino. They were official reports of some kind, all in Russian. And since it was on my way, I agreed. I signed in, handed over the papers, and in like five minutes I was on my way again.”
“To the Ukraine.”
“Yes. To meet with Yuri Strevski. Logan was right about that. I suspect I was the woman they heard in the conversation. But the package wasn’t plutonium.” She closed her eyes for a moment, gathering her thoughts, then with a conscious exhalation of breath she opened them again with a soft smile. “A couple of years ago, I had a bit of a medical scare. I was pregnant. But it turned out that the baby was ectopic.”
“I’m sorry,” Owen said, understanding in a way Avery couldn’t what it was like to want a child and then to lose it.
“It was tough. I made it through the first trimester before they found out what was what. And by the time they did find it, there’d been a lot of damage. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I can’t have children.” She stopped for a moment, her eyes misting over. “Jason wanted kids really badly. And I wanted to have them with him. So we looked into adoption.”
“But you weren’t even married,” Avery said.
“We didn’t think a piece of paper was that important,” she shrugged. “Commitment comes from the heart. Anyway, we tried every legal channel we could think of, all with absolutely no success. Either they were appalled that we weren’t married or they didn’t think people in our line of work should be raising kids. So for a while we sort of shelved the idea. Then Annie and Adam came into our lives, and I saw Jason with Adam and just knew it was time.”
“So you went to the black market,” Owen said, everything suddenly making sense. “The package you were discussing with Yuri, it was a baby.”
She nodded. “It was just a preliminary discussion. I found him through the same colleague I delivered the papers for. It was expensive. But we were considering it. I knew Yuri had other interests, but sometimes you have to look the other way. Anyway, my friend will confirm that he gave me the name as long as anything he says stays private. He’s a government official so he can’t be linked to someone like Yuri.”
“What about the other visit?” Avery asked. “The earlier one to Golovchino?”
“That wasn’t me.” She shook her head. “I was in Russia. But I never left the conference. In fact, I never left the bed. I had food poisoning. A really heinous bout. Bad fish, we think. Anyway, the hotel doctors can confirm it. They’re required to keep records when foreigners get ill. And I was really, really sick.”
“So there’s no way you could have gone to the western facility?”
“Absolutely none. I could barely make it to the bathroom. Emmett can back me up. He was there. At least part of the time.”
“What do you mean part of the time?”
“Well, like I said, I was really ill. So I had to stay on a couple of days past the end of our meetings and Emmett had somewhere else he had to be. So I sent him on his way. There was nothing he could do for me. And I figured it was probably some operation for you.”
Avery pulled out his phone and keyed in a number, a frown creasing his brow. “Hannah?” he said into the phone. “Can you pull up the duty roster for May of last year?”
They waited while Hannah presumably logged on to her computer.
“Great,” Avery said. “I need to know the dates for the conference they attended. And can you tell me when Lara and Emmett left for Russia?” He nodded. “And then when did they get back? I see. You’re sure?” There was another pause and then Avery nodded once and disconnected.
“So what did you find?” Owen asked, ignoring the pulse of worry settling in his gut.
“Emmett didn’t come back here for assignment. In fact, he didn’t come back until the day before Lara. The conference ended on the twenty-third. And Lara was back on the twenty-seventh. The log at Golovchino has her there on the twenty-fourth.”
“Which is impossible. Unless I have a clone,” Lara said.
“Or someone used your credentials to get in.”
“But that would have to have been a woman. I thought we were talking about Emmett.”
“We are.” Avery said, his jaw tightening as the full implication sank in. “Hannah got a call from Logan. He wanted to let us know that he’d talked to the people in Golovchino. Apparently, the first Lara Prescott was accompanied by a man. So Logan faxed them photos of everyone in A-Tac. The woman they saw wasn’t you. But there was no question about the man. It was definitely Emme
tt.”
“Bloody hell.” Owen grimaced, his hand curling into a fist, the worry turning to full-fledged fear. “Tyler’s with Emmett now. She was going to tell him everything. God, if he thinks we’re on to him, she could be walking into a trap.”
CHAPTER 25
I don’t understand,” Tyler said, holding the scarf in her hand as she stared down the barrel of Emmett’s gun. “Why did you do this?” It was the only thing she could think of to say. Emmett was—or at least had been—her friend.
“Cutting right to the chase, as usual. One of the things I’ve always liked about you. Are you specifically asking about the scarf or my long list of other sins?”
“All of it, I suppose.” She scrambled to clear her head, to keep him talking so that she could figure a way out. It was hard to believe that Emmett would kill her, but he’d clearly had no problem dispatching Jason, so she knew better than to let her distorted perceptions rule the day.
“Well, explaining the scarf is easy,” he shrugged, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “I used it in part because it amused me, and in part because it suited my purposes. I needed to keep you off-balance. And you have to admit it worked like a charm.”
“But how did you even know? I never talk about my mother.”
“Tyler, you should know by now that there are no secrets in A-Tac. Everyone talks about everything.”
“No one else knew, Emmett,” she ground out, her fingers tightening around the soft silk, wishing it were a weapon of some kind. “At least not the details.”
“Well, that sort of thing just takes a little digging. Isn’t that what we do best? A copy of the police report, and a quick look into your personnel file. I even talked to Della. The woman was quite forthcoming, especially when she thought I was the love of your life.”
“So that’s how you knew about my father’s connection to Smitty. And you used him to get to me.” She inched forward, thinking there might be something in the desk drawer, or at least that she could use the desk for cover.
“Well, in truth,” Emmett said, “I just stirred the pot a little so things would work out the way they were supposed to. I needed you to be on that road in Colorado. It was the easiest way to make certain A-Tac was involved. I knew they’d all bend over backward for you.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Everyone knows you’re the favorite child. Nash and Avery would sell their souls for you.”
“And I’d do the same thing for them. Hell, I would have done it for you,” she said, her fingers closing around the desk drawer handle, the scarf blocking Emmett’s view. “But what I don’t understand is why having A-Tac involved was so important.”
“Because if A-Tac was in charge of the investigation, I could manipulate things. Keep you all confused. Allow the real agenda to progress without interruption.”
“Building and detonating a bomb.” She pulled the drawer open, sliding her fingers inside.
“For the greater good, yes,” he said.
“You really believe that killing millions of innocent people is a greater good?”
“We’re fighting a war, Tyler. And it’s us against—well, you and others like you. Sometimes there is going to be subsidiary loss.”
“Like my father?”
“I didn’t actually pull the trigger,” he said, his expression thoughtful. “Although I suppose I would have had I been asked. But you’re missing an important point here. Your father was losing his mind, and with it his dignity and self-respect. He wouldn’t have wanted to live like that.”
“He’d have wanted to make a choice,” she said, fighting down a surge of emotion. “You took that away from him.”
“Half-empty, half-full.” He shrugged. “I see it my way, you see it yours. Anyway what’s done is done.” His eyes narrowed, his gaze dropping to the scarf. “I want you to move away from the desk.” He waved her toward the corner with his gun.
She held her position, her fingers closing around a letter opener.
“Move,” he said, lifting the gun. “Now.”
With a nod, she pulled the scarf into her other hand, holding both of them up as she stepped back into the corner, the letter opener safely concealed in her sleeve.
“Now I just have to figure out what to do with you,” he said, tilting his head to one side as he studied her.
“I’m not the only one who knows,” she said, praying the bluff would buy her time.
“Don’t be silly.” He laughed, the sound without humor. “I saw your face. If you hadn’t found that scarf you wouldn’t have had a clue. You’d have still thought it was Jason.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I knew it wasn’t Jason when I proved that he didn’t kill himself.” She was satisfied to see that her words had at least penetrated his seeming indifference.
“You can’t have done that.”
“Oh, but I did. You see, you made a fatal mistake. Jason was left-handed. You used your right,” she said, nodding at the hand holding the gun. “The knots were wrong. And the placement of the rope. From there we just needed to do a little digging, as you so gracefully put it, to prove that Jason was set up.”
“Stupid prick was prying into my business. Fortunately for me, he hadn’t told any of you.”
“But he kept files. On the Consortium.”
“Guess I missed them.” He looked annoyed, but not overly concerned. “Not that it matters. He didn’t know enough to be of any value to you or a danger to the organization. And I’m betting that when you worked out that Jason was innocent, you moved on to the next-most-likely suspect—Lara.”
She tightened her fists, wishing she could knock the smug expression off his face, but he had the gun. “As a matter of fact, we were in possession of facts that seemed to point in that direction. I’m assuming you had a hand in that as well?”
“Circumstantially. A friend of mine borrowed her name to get me into Golovchino.”
“To steal the plutonium.”
“I prefer to think of it as a liberation. The Soviets would have happily given it to us had history turned out differently. But yes, if you want to use those words.”
“So, what, you’re a communist supporter now?”
“No, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool pragmatist. I’m in it for me. Money. Power. Recognition. The usual suspects. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to get it from A-Tac.”
“But we were your friends.”
“Actually, you weren’t. I was always the outsider. And nothing I ever did was good enough for Avery Solomon. He always gave me the worst assignments. Stay with the boat. Man the communications. He treated me like I was an imbecile. And the rest of you weren’t much better.”
“But you and I—” she started, then stopped, unable to finish the sentence.
“Were what?” Emmett asked, his handsome face almost a caricature. “In love? I thought maybe once upon a time. But you rejected me.”
“We agreed to stop seeing each other. I thought it was mutual.” How could she have not recognized his anger? His contempt? It was there now, boiling just under the surface.
“Well, you thought wrong,” he said, his hand tightening on the trigger. “I loved you. And I had to watch while you screwed around with that traitor from IA. And don’t forget, if it hadn’t been for me, you’d never have known about his lies.”
“Owen is a good man.” She straightened her arm, the blade of the letter opener sliding against her palm.
“Owen was using you to get information for Logan Palmer.”
“It’s his job. And no matter what you think of him, or me, you had no right to spy on me like that. How did that help the Consortium?”
“It didn’t. I bugged your house long before I started working with them. I just liked knowing what you were doing.” He smiled, his lips pulled tight, almost a grimace. “Did you find the one in the bathroom?”
She shuddered, bile rising in her throat, words impossible.
“I thought not. Nice
to know I still have a few secrets. You look really hot in the shower, by the way.”
“You bastard.” Anger sent her flying forward with the letter opener raised like a dagger. She swung downward, but he was faster, catching her right hand in his left and twisting until she dropped the weapon.
Still enraged, she swung with her left hand, and he hit her hard with the butt of the gun. For a moment the world spun, and she stumbled backward, hitting her head against the wall. Then, by sheer force of will, she pulled herself upright, glaring at him angrily.
“Careful, Tyler,” he said, his voice deceptively gentle as he screwed a silencer onto his gun. “I’d hate to have to shoot you. Although I suppose ultimately I won’t have a choice.”
She covered her cheek with her hand, her fingers growing sticky with blood. She’d known he meant to kill her, but his saying it out loud made it reality. “Why didn’t you just let them kill me on the side of the road?”
“I told you, because you were useful to us. But once A-Tac was assigned to find the culprits, your usefulness was at an end. Although I’ll admit, I was secretly pleased you avoided their attempts to take you out.”
“But that didn’t stop you from sabotaging our missions.” Her cheek was still hurting, but her head had cleared and she knew that she had to keep him talking and pray that either help arrived or she found some opportunity for escape. “You’re the one who tampered with my explosives. Your mischief almost cost all of us our lives.”
“That was actually the point—although I’ll admit I was mainly trying to prove to the powers that be that I was capable of playing havoc with A-Tac missions without being detected.”
“So all of it was you? The rope, the communications glitches—the intel leaks in Colombia?”
“Drake Flynn’s a damn fool. He made it easy. He was so interested in getting into Madeline’s pants, he couldn’t see the jungle for the palm trees.”
“You really hate us all, don’t you?”
“I’d never waste time on hate. It takes too much energy. Suffice it to say that I’m indifferent.”