“Good. Then let’s get out of here. You need lunch, and you can tell us about your changes.”
“Sounds good.” I smiled to myself as we walked to the portal. Regular meals had never been a priority for Kane. I was touched that he would pay such careful attention to my needs.
Then again, it was his job. I stepped out of the portal and swore my way through the pain.
When I straightened and opened my eyes, Spider was watching me anxiously. I sighed and cracked my neck. “Where’s Kane?”
“He just left to take the key down to the secured area. He’ll meet us in the lobby.”
I massaged my forehead. “I am such a massive pain in his ass. He must be ready to shoot me himself just so he can go back to his regular job without being saddled with a neurotic civilian.”
“You’re not neurotic.” Spider smiled at me. “And this is his regular job.”
I hauled myself to my feet and followed him to the door. “Not quite the excitement he’s used to, though, I’m sure. Sitting around watching me stumble through the network.”
“That’s been far too exciting lately, if you ask me,” he said wryly. “Boredom is a nice change for a guy like Kane.”
“I guess.”
Walking back from The Melted Spoon, Kane turned to Spider. “Webb, will you get the key for Aydan? I need to stop off at the cafe and check my email again.”
“Sure.” Spider frowned. “Your computer’s still down? Do you want me to have a look at it?”
“No, I didn’t want to bother you with it, so I took it to the repair shop. They said it would be ready later today. Thanks, though.”
“No problem.”
Kane strode off toward the cafe, and Spider and I continued on to Sirius. I sighed as we retrieved our security fobs. “I’m so glad I don’t have to go downstairs anymore.”
Spider smiled at me. “I’m glad, too. I’ll go and get the key. See you upstairs.”
In my office, Spider leaned forward eagerly. “I see some changes in your program. What did you do?”
“Well, you said the file was sent from the internet cafe, so I set up the program to watch for anything else that comes from there and goes to Fuzzy Bunny. If it catches anything, it’ll send you an email alert flagged as urgent. At least that way we’ll know if our traitor tries again.”
As I spoke, Spider’s phone buzzed. He glanced absently at it, then did a double-take as his eyes widened. “I just got an alert!”
“Shit!” I dove into the network and folded space to get to the file room. Snatching up the file that awaited me, I scanned it at light-speed before snapping, “Shit!”
My virtual consciousness rocketed down the tunnels, tracking the file.
Much later, I oozed down the connection, returning to the Sirius servers. Slithering back into existence in the virtual file room, I listlessly watched Kane pace. After a few seconds, it occurred to me that it might be helpful if I was visible.
With an effort, I concentrated. I wasn’t quite fast enough. Kane altered direction and attempted to stride right through me. I let out an involuntary grunt at the impact, and we both sprawled on the virtual floor.
“Aydan?” His hands shot out, feeling across the floor while he stared blindly right at me.
“I’m here.”
He jerked back when his searching hand landed on one of my invisible boobs. “Sorry.” A flush crept up his neck. “I can’t see you. Take my hand.”
If I hadn’t been so tired I might have had some fun with that, but I just wasn’t up to it. I put my hand in his and he gripped it tightly. “Let’s go.”
“I just need to do one more thing in my program first.”
“Aydan, you’re still invisible.”
“I know. I’m too tired to change. And I need to be invisible to work in my program anyway.”
“Why? You don’t need to hide in our network,” he argued. “Come on, you can do that later.”
“I don’t know why it works that way, but I have to be invisible. I can’t do it otherwise. Just keep holding my hand. I’m not going far.”
“Aydan!”
I ignored him and stretched lethargically into the network structure again, tweaking my program. I worked slowly and carefully, afraid I’d make a mistake out of sheer exhaustion. Finally, I backed away, barely breathing. It was a delicate setup, but it should work.
I tried to snap back into the file room, but it was more like the sluggish retraction of an earthworm in cold ground. Minus the slime. My imagery mercifully left that part out.
“Okay, I’m ready to go,” I whispered.
“I still can’t see you.” Kane’s grip tightened. He skimmed his other hand up my arm to find my shoulders and lifted me to my feet. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah. Hold on.” I focused the last of my concentration, and managed a ghostly image of myself.
“That’s better.” I read the relief on his face. “Let’s go.”
I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and was dully surprised when we stood in front of the portal. Kane gave me a gentle push, and I stepped through into my aching head.
As the pain subsided, I slowly unwrapped my arms from over my head and uncurled. Thank God for the couch. I sprawled with my face mashed into the cushions for a few seconds, trying to gather the energy to sit up.
“Aydan?” Spider asked. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I mumbled into the upholstery.
Kane’s turn. “Can you sit up?”
“Probably.” I sighed deeply. Motes of dust shot into my airways, and I immediately convulsed in a fit of coughing. I tumbled off the sofa onto my knees and clamped my hands around my throbbing head while I hacked and gasped.
At last, I wiped the tears from my eyes and squinted up at the two worried faces above me. “Strategic error,” I croaked. “Do not inhale the couch.” I dragged myself back up and propped myself in the corner of the sofa. “Jesus, has this thing ever been vacuumed?”
“I don’t know,” Spider said uncertainly. “Are you okay?”
“Peachy.”
“What happened?” Kane demanded.
“I inhaled some dust...”
“No. In the network.”
“Oh.” I made an attempt to round up some organized thought. “My program caught another file outbound from the internet cafe. It was another report on me. Apparently our guy decided to try again. So I had to go and find it and get rid of it in Fuzzy Bunny’s network.”
“Did you get it in time?”
“Yes. And then I went in and altered my program. It’s still watching for any traffic between Fuzzy Bunny and the internet cafe, but now it’ll hijack the file and bring it here. I set it up so the program will grab the file just before it arrives at its destination. That way, it’ll look to the sender as though it went through. Unless somebody does a detailed trace on it.”
“Good.” Kane sat back in his chair, his shoulders easing.
Spider pulled out his phone. “Let’s see if Germain saw anything.”
“What do you mean?” Kane asked.
“As soon as Aydan disappeared in the sim, I called Germain to go over to the internet cafe and see who was there. See if we could catch our guy in the act.”
Kane leaned forward abruptly. “And?”
“And, I’ll call him and see.” Spider dialled. “Hi. Any luck?” His brow slowly furrowed. “Oh. Okay. Well, thanks.”
Kane’s eyes bored into Spider. “Well?”
“Well, it took him about ten minutes to get over there after I called him,” Spider said slowly. “There were several people working at the terminals. Nobody he recognized as a Sirius employee. I guess he didn’t see you. But Stemp was leaving just as Germain got there.”
“No, Germain wouldn’t have seen me,” Kane agreed. “I just went in, checked my email, and came straight over here.” He opened his notebook and started to sketch. I recognized the layout of the internet cafe.
“When I came in, th
ese terminals were occupied.” He marked off several of the seats. “Stemp was there when I came in. He sat here.” He wrote ‘Stemp’ on one of the seats.
“These ones, I didn’t recognize the people, so they weren’t high-level Sirius employees.” He jotted a quick physical description beside each seat. Once again, I marvelled at his ability to observe without appearing to pay attention. No wonder he was the top agent in the service.
“Here, here, here, and here, were people in costume.” He glanced at Spider. “Some of your World of Warcraft buddies, I expect. An elf here and here.” He added their descriptions.
“Oh, sounds like Red Eakins and Tim Moorcroft,” Spider put in.
“Okay.” Kane added the names. “These other two wore rubber masks, the kind that cover their entire heads.”
“What did they look like?” Spider asked.
Kane lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know what your characters are called. Trolls, maybe. Ugly, wrinkled, kind of pig-like.”
“There are about six guys that I know who’d wear a mask like that for their characters. Don’t worry, it’ll be easy to figure out who was there. I can just check the game record,” Spider reassured him. “But nobody who works for Sirius has time to play during the day. The only guys who play during the day do shift-work or whatever.”
“So Stemp was the only high-level Sirius employee there.” I spoke into the silence.
Kane shrugged. “It could be sheer coincidence. Our guy could have come and gone, after I left and before Germain arrived. It wouldn’t take much time to send a file.” He stood. “Come on, Aydan, it’s time for you to go home. Webb, do you mind taking the key back down?”
“Sure.”
I handed Spider the tiny box and trailed thoughtfully out the door behind Kane. I really didn’t like Stemp. And I sure as hell didn’t trust him.
When I stepped outside, a chilly wind was sweeping heavy clouds across the sky. I shivered and rubbed my hands over my bare arms while I trotted to Kane’s Expedition. Damn, I’d wasted two beautiful, sunny weeks trapped underground. Now that I was aboveground again, the weather turned to crap. Murphy’s Law.
I spent the evening catching up on my bookkeeping entries for some quarterly clients and doing some minor web updates for Spider’s Webb Design. Kane stayed until Germain arrived to relieve him at eight. Rain pounded down outside, and I pitied the two guards who’d drawn the night’s outside duty.
I went to bed early, and had another vividly erotic dream about Kane. While I lay there in wakeful frustration, the phone rang.
Fine. Gotta get the obligatory threatening phone call, too. Fuck my life.
I let Germain pick up.
Chapter 36
Morning was cool and overcast. I decided to give the waist holster a try, since it would be concealed by my sweatshirt. I squirmed uncomfortably at the breakfast table and met Germain’s quizzical glance.
“How long did it take you to get used to carrying your gun?” I asked. “This just feels wrong.”
He chuckled. “I was pretty much used to it after the first time it saved my life.”
“Yeah, I could see that.”
“But seriously, you’ll gradually get used to it. You’ll get to the point where you feel naked without it.”
“Hmmph.” I pulled at it again, trying to find a comfortable position. The doorbell rang, and I got up to let Kane in.
“Ready to go?” he inquired.
“In a minute.” I grabbed my jacket and waist pouch and put on my hiking boots in deference to the muddy ground outside.
Kane glanced over at me as we pulled into Silverside. “Stemp wants another meeting this morning.”
“Do you think he’s our leak?”
Kane blew out a breath. “I’d be inclined to say not. Webb and I spent several hours last night digging into him. But we didn’t come up with anything definitive.”
“You were there half the night again? How much overtime do you guys do in a year?”
“What’s overtime?” His lips crooked up. “This isn’t a job, it’s a way of life.”
“I guess it is, isn’t it?” I said slowly. He was on call, 24/7. Lives depended on it. God, I wouldn’t want that responsibility.
I wondered if he had time left for any hobbies or life of his own. He worked ridiculous hours, and I knew he must spend a lot of time working out, practicing martial arts, and target shooting. He was a deadly marksman in addition to his skill in unarmed combat.
Being a lethal weapon really was a lifestyle. Once again, I thanked my lucky stars he was on my side.
When we tapped on the door to Stemp’s office, he looked up sharply from his desk. “Ms. Kelly, come in. Kane, wait outside.”
I glanced nervously at Kane, but his face was inscrutable as he took up a position at parade rest outside the door.
I stepped inside and obeyed Stemp’s command to close the door.
“Please sit.”
I stepped forward slowly and took a seat in the chair facing Stemp’s desk. His face was as unreadable as always, half in shadow from the light of the window. Why the hell did he always keep the lights off in his office? Like being in a cave. Or a snake burrow. That’d be appropriate. I dragged my attention back to him as he spoke.
“Our mole made another attempt to communicate with Fuzzy Bunny yesterday.”
“Yes.”
Should I mention I knew he’d been there at the time? Before I could decide, he spoke.
“I was at the internet cafe during the time that the file was apparently sent.”
“Oh.”
Interesting. He admitted being there. I shut up to see what else he’d tell me.
“I was placing surveillance cameras in the cafe so we can monitor activity there. But I wanted to warn you again to be ready to defend yourself without hesitation. Against anyone who threatens you, even if it’s someone you know and have trusted up to this point.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
He stood. “Are you carrying your weapon?”
“Yes.”
“May I see it?”
I frowned up at him. “Why?”
“It has come to my attention that some of the Glock 26 magazines had a defect that causes them to jam. I want to make sure that your gun is in top working condition.”
I eased it out of the holster and held it out reluctantly. He came around the desk and took the gun, carrying it over to the window to stand with his back to me. I heard him eject the magazine, and he took a moment to examine it in the bright indirect daylight. He pushed the magazine back into place as he turned, and stood silhouetted against the window.
That just pissed me off. It was an obvious power trick, to make me look at him backlit so that I couldn’t read his face. I stood and walked over to stand beside him, holding out my hand.
He returned the gun without comment, and I stowed it back in my holster.
“Remember to stay alert,” he reminded me.
I nodded, and he watched me for a few more seconds. Snake eyes. Creepy.
“Please send Kane in on your way out.”
I nodded again and left.
Back in my office, I took out the Glock again. I ejected the magazine partway and pushed it into place again, just to make sure it was properly seated. Then I worked the slide to chamber up a round and tucked it carefully back in my holster.
I sighed. I really didn’t want to have to use it.
How long would Kane’s meeting would be? Spider was nowhere to be seen, so I dialled his extension.
“Hey, Spider,” I greeted him when he picked up. “Do you have time to get the network key for me this morning?”
“Um...” he said. “I’m... I can’t right now.”
“Okay.” I frowned. “Spider, are you feeling all right? You sound like you’ve got a cold or something.”
“Yeah...” he said huskily. “Maybe... I’m coming down with something.”
“Well, I hope you feel better soon. Take care of
yourself, you’ve been working too hard lately.”
“Thanks,” he croaked, and hung up.
Poor guy. He sounded awful. But maybe it was a good thing he didn’t have time to bring me the key after all. At least he wouldn’t spread his germs to me.
On the other hand, it didn’t leave me very much to do. Without the key, I couldn’t decrypt anything.
Hmmm. But I could at least go into the network using my Sirius security fob and see if there were any new files piled up in my listening program. And it wouldn’t hurt my head. That’d be a nice change.
I leaned back on the couch and stepped into the network.
There were a few more files piled up in my program, and I eyed them with annoyance. I could open them, but I couldn’t read them. I made myself invisible and tried to check my program, but it resisted my efforts, too, and I was afraid to try too hard in case I upset its delicate balance.
Wandering aimlessly out of the virtual corridor, I headed for the portal. Surely Kane had to be finished soon.
When I re-entered my physical body, I started slightly at Kane’s closeness. He had an odd expression on his face that smoothed away almost instantly as he stepped back.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was just going to wake you from the network.”
“Good, I’m glad you’re here. There are a couple more files in my listening program, but I need the key to be able to read them.”
“Mm.” He spoke as he turned away. “Leave them for now. I just got new orders from Stemp. Let’s go.”
“Go? Where?” I rose and followed him out of the office.
“New site.”
“Okay.” I frowned at his receding back. “Will we need to take the key?”
“No.”
In the truck, I glanced over at his expressionless profile. As usual, his body language was relaxed, his face composed. But I could have sworn he was angry or upset about something. He kept his gaze on the road, so I couldn’t tell for sure.
I sighed and leaned back in the seat as we drove out of Silverside. He’d tell me when he was ready.
Meanwhile, I could enjoy the drive. He steered the Expedition out into the country, and I watched the watery sun gradually win its battle against the clouds. The patchwork of fields kept me fascinated, with the vivid yellow of canola in bloom beside the blue-green of oats and the warm yellow-green of wheat. The wind swept across the fields in endless waves and I caught myself smiling at the sight.
Reach For the Spy Page 21