SECRET IDENTITY

by Linda Mooney

  That’s why she’d made such a meteoric rise up the corporate ladder, despite her poor job ratings. The company had singled her out for some godforsaken reason to be their scapegoat, and Wilson was in the thick of it.

  That, or someone used his phone to make the call.

  She shook her head. It was all too confusing. And making suppositions when she didn’t have any real, tangible proof wasn’t doing her any good.

  One thing was certain, though. The Defender had saved her from being blown up, which she hoped meant he’d saved Lorne, too.

  “But the people who tried to kill me don’t know I’m still alive.” She glanced down at the phone on the bedside table. “What’s your next move, Bren? Stay here and be a sitting duck once they find out the truth? Or should I confront them head-on?”

  Either way, the outlook didn’t appear promising. Sure, there was always the option she could run for cover again. Hide someplace where they couldn’t find her. Maybe take on a new name and identity, like what the Witness Protection Program offered. But what kind of life would that be? Would Lorne be a part of that life? Could he?

  Tears rose in her eyes as she tried to imagine life without him. Now that they had finally breached that last obstacle keeping them apart, when they had confessed their love to each other, and spent the night loving each other, how could she face a future devoid of him?

  Footsteps paused outside the door. Brenda waited to see if anyone would enter, but the person left without coming in. It was then she knew what she had to do.

  The doctor had said The Defender had brought her here. That meant that at some point he would come back to check on her. She would swear to it. But if she waited for him to appear, she knew there was no way he would let her go back to Dobbling Enterprises, with or without him.

  Getting carefully to her feet, she walked over to the tiny closet and peered in. The solitary hangar was empty. There were no clothes for her to change into, and she couldn’t leave the hospital in this skimpy gown.

  On top of that, Dobbling Enterprises was on the other side of town. She had neither transportation, nor any money to pay for some.

  But I do have an alternative. Brenda smiled. “Better yet, she’s right here in town. A local call.”

  Without hesitation, she picked up the phone again and dialed out. After two rings, a no-nonsense voice answered, “Dobbling Enterprises. How may I direct your call?”

  “Extension twenty-two-fifteen, please.”

  “Please hold.”

  A Brahms concerto filtered through the earpiece for all of nine seconds before a familiar voice answered, “Media. Samra Fox.”

  “Hey, Sammie! It’s Brenda.”

  “Hey, Bren! What’s up, girlfriend?”

  “I have a huge favor I need to ask of you.”

  “Shoot. I’m bored out of my mind at the moment.”

  “Well, first of all, do you still have that key to my apartment?”

  “Yes. Do you need it back?”

  “No. I need you to go over to my place and get me a change of clothes, and bring them over to Ocean City General Hospital.”

  There was a second’s pause. “Oh, shit, Bren! Ocean General? What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you when you get here. Promise,” Brenda told her. “Just grab me a pair of jeans and a shirt, and come get me as soon as you can. I’m in room 303.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” her friend said, and hung up.

  Brenda put the receiver back on the cradle, feeling a bit sick to her stomach. She had no idea what she would say to Wilson Wagner when she confronted him, but these near accidents had to stop. And they had to stop now.

  Furthermore, she had to find out why she was being framed. She only wished she could speak to Lorne and know he was all right, and tell him what she planned to do, even though he would try to talk her out of it. She could see no other alternative than to have a face-to-face with Wagner.

  It was the only option that gave her any hope for a future.

  Chapter 28

  Call

  Lorne entered the basement through the vertical backyard tunnel that Luke had opened for him. Once he flew in and landed, both brothers hugged in silence for several long seconds.

  “God, that was too fucking close,” Luke confessed, backing away. He gave Lorne a good once-over. “You’re still shaken.”

  “You damn right I am. If I hadn’t smelled that unguindene when I did, Brenda and I would have died in that explosion.”

  “Is that what tipped you off? The smell?”

  “Yeah.” Lorne frowned. “Why? Isn’t that why you yelled?”

  Luke went back to his chair in front of his control panel and monitors. “I yelled because through you I heard the telltale sizzle of a doctored connection. Whoever had put the unguinedene in the phone and rigged it to blow once she answered the incoming call was good, but he was also sloppy, or not an expert in electronics.”

  He gave his brother a cautious look.

  “You really need to learn to listen for that sort of thing yourself.”

  Lorne chuckled. “Yes, Dad. I’ll make it part of my next training regime.”

  “How’s Lee?”

  “He’s fine. Luckily he was far enough away from the cabin when the phone blew.” He grimaced. “Wish I could say the same for the car. I had to drop it and Lee off at the auto body shop. He should be here shortly with the rental. What’s the latest on Brenda?”

  Luke pressed a few keys, and a monitor lit up with her hospital records.

  Lorne watched as his older brother hacked effortlessly into the system. Of all of Luke’s abilities, this one amazed him the most. No computer was safe around Luke. Not even the governments’.

  “As far as they can tell, she suffered no internal injuries.”

  “Thank God,” Lorne breathed aloud.

  “She’s under the care of a Dr. Wyche, who has authorized an overnight stay for observation.”

  “Were you able to trace the source of the phone call?”

  “No.” Luke swiveled around to look up at him. “But I know there was a moment when you caught a glimpse of the number on the display screen. It’s still freshly buried in your mind, Lo. Can you recall it? Because of the natural block we siblings have, I can’t go in and get it myself, but I can help you bookmark it once you bring it to the front.”

  Closing his eyes, Lorne let his mind go blank as his thoughts went back to that fraction of a second at the beach house. Taking slow, deep breaths, he sensed Luke watching from the sidelines as the memories flowed back.

  “This isn’t my phone.”

  She flipped open the lid to where a greenish number glowed on the black display.

  He concentrated as he tried to focus in on the tiny hyphenated numbers. Slowly, he started to make them out as Luke fine-tuned them.

  “Area code eight seven three…”

  “That’s Ocean City,” Luke noted.

  They were interrupted by the sound of Lee coming down the stairs rather noisily. “Boy, if you think Lo’s driving is scary, try being in a car when he’s flying you a few thousand feet above the ground!”

  “Lee, for a covert operator, you make more noise than a sold-out rock concert,” Luke growled.

  Lorne started to add his two cents when a familiar jangle caught their attention. All three men froze at the distant sound. It was Lee who finally commented, “Someone’s calling on the house phone upstairs.”

  Reaching over his console, Luke flipped a switch. “Hello?”

  “Lee?” It sounded like Brenda’s voice.

  “This is Luke. Brenda? How are you feeling?” Luke asked, giving his brothers a curious glance and a mental message. I sense something’s up.

  “How’s Lorne? Is he there with you?”

  Lorne started to answer when he felt Luke place a damper on him. He glared at his brother, even though he knew Luke wouldn’t do that to him unless he had a damn good reason.

  “Yeah. He’s home, but
he’s upstairs sleeping.”

  “Oh, thank God!”

  Her relief was evident over the crappy connection.

  “Yeah, he told us all about the fake phone and the explosion, and about how The Defender flew in to take you two out of the cabin before the blast.”

  There was a pause. “I’m so sorry about that, Luke. Did it do much damage?”

  Don’t tell her, Lorne ordered his brother.

  Luke nodded.

  “Brenda, we’ve got a shitty connection. Can I call you back? What’s your room number?”

  “I’m not at the hospital,” she told him.

  “What? They released you already?”

  “No. I’m AWOL. A friend of mine came and brought me some clothes. We’re heading over to Dobbling Enterprises now.”

  Lorne scribbled the rest of the numbers onto Luke’s doodling pad and shoved them at his brother.

  Luke grabbed the pad and did an immediate search.

  “Why would you go against medical advice? Isn’t it too soon to go back to work?” Luke asked, trying to keep her on the line as long as possible.

  “I’m not going back to work there. Never ever again. No, I’m calling to let you know what I plan to do in case something happens to me.”

  The hairs on the back of Lorne’s neck stood up. At the same instant, their answer appeared upon the monitor.

  Dobbling Enterprises. Wagner, W.

  The phone call to trigger the explosion had come from Wagner’s office at Dobbling! Lorne told his brother. He called her directly from his office?

  Why not? Luke countered. She was not expected to survive. There would have been no way to trace the call after the phone disintegrated.

  “Luke, right before the blast, right before I tried to answer the phone, I saw the number on the display. I recognized it. It was the direct line to my boss, Wilson Wagner,” Brenda told them, coincidentally.

  “Oh, God, Bren! Don’t tell me you’re going to try and confront this guy on your own!”

  Lorne was already stepping away from the console and preparing to race back to Ocean City.

  “I have to, Luke! I have to find out what’s going on. That’s why I’m calling you!”

  “Brenda, no!”

  “Please tell Lorne when he wakes up that I love him with all my heart.”

  “Brenda, stop! This is insane! There’s no telling what that man will do!”

  “I have to,” she insisted. “If I don’t try to get this all out into the open, he’s either going to keep trying to have me killed, or it’s going to force me into going into hiding for the rest of my life, and I’m damned if he’s going to succeed!”

  “But why do you have to face him alone? That’s nuts! Wait a bit, and we’ll come join you. That way you’ll have us to back you up, just in case.”

  “There’s no time. I have to confront him while he still thinks I’m dead.”

  “Not by yourself!”

  “I’m not by myself!” she assured him. “I’ll have friends with me.”

  Luke started to say more when she added, “We’re here. I gotta go. ’Bye Luke. Love to you and Lee, too!”

  And the connection was broken, but not before Lorne had flown up and away through the exit tunnel.

  Chapter 29

  Plan

  Brenda closed the cell as Samra pulled into the underground parking garage at Dobbling Enterprises. The sense of relief she felt, knowing Lorne was safe and well, made her more determined to face Wilson Wagner and demand to know why someone had painted a target on her body.

  But she had another reason why she had risked seeing if the Palmer’s home phone number still worked. She wanted as many people as possible to know where she was headed, in case Wagner tried to pull something. The more people who knew her intentions and why, the safer she felt approaching Wagner, especially if she let him know about her precautions.

  She only wished Lorne could be here with her when she approached the man.

  Thinking of Lorne gave her a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. Why hadn’t they come to realize they were meant for each other before now? Why had she wasted all those years trying to find that “someone special”, instead of acknowledging that the only person who made her happy, who made her laugh amid her tears, had been living less than thirty feet away?

  Samra parked the car. “We’re here. Want me to go with you?”

  “No. No thanks.” Brenda gave her a grateful smile.

  “Are you sure? I don’t mind offering a little moral support. Besides, didn’t you tell your friend you’d have me along with you?”

  “I know, Sam, and I appreciate it, but this is something I need to do on my own. He isn’t going to be happy when I hand in my resignation. Oh, but I may need you to run me back to the apartment when it’s over. Would you mind?”

  “Not a problem.” The pert redhead smiled.

  Brenda handed back the borrowed phone, then wiped her sweaty palms on her pants. “I hope this goes better than I expect.”

  “Pish. What’s the worse he can do?”

  They walked to the elevators together. Samra punched the up button. “You know, I wish I had the balls to up and quit the company just like that. I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could get another job offer that could bring in enough to pay the bills. Where did you say you were going?”

  “I didn’t,” Brenda admitted as they stepped into the elevator car.

  Samra gave her a wide-eyed look of disbelief. “Are you shitting me? You’re handing in your resignation without having another job waiting in the wings? Why?”

  Biting her lower lip, Brenda wondered how much to tell her, then figured there was no reason to hold anything back. Eventually the truth would come out…hopefully. Better her friend heard it straight from her.

  “Sam, I think Wagner’s put out a contract on me. I think he’s trying to have me killed.”

  She waited for her friend’s response, fully expecting the woman to either blow it off like some bad joke, or to come to the company’s defense. Instead, Samra gave her another are-you-shitting-me look.

  “Have you gone to the police about this?”

  The woman believed her. Without question, without doubt, the woman believed her.

  “No.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because I don’t have any proof! All I have are suppositions and too many damn coincidences!”

  The elevator doors dinged as the car came to a gradual halt. They opened up to an almost deserted foyer. Samra quickly pulled Brenda over to a small waiting area which contained a few stuffed chairs and a coffee table piled with magazines.

  “So you’re going in and handing over your letter of resignation? You’re just giving up? You’re letting that bastard win?” she hissed, grabbing Brenda by the shoulders and giving her a little shake. “Bren, if you do that, you’re giving that son of a bitch carte blanche to go through with it! And once he has you killed, he’ll go after someone else! Hell, no telling how much blood he already has on his hands!”

  “Which is why I’ve told people I trust what I’m going to do,” Brenda said. “If anything happens to me, others will know ahead of time.” She gave her friend what she hoped looked like a confident smile and took back the cell phone. “Now show me how to record on this model.”

  Samra showed her, then pressed her lips together in what Brenda knew was her obstinate face.

  “I’m not letting you face this alone, Bren. I’m going with you.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “No.” Brushing the woman’s hands away, Brenda firmly whispered, “No. You’re not. What I want you to do is go to my office and start clearing it out for me, all right? After I’m done, I’m going to get my things and leave this building, and I’m not coming back. So if you’ll do that for me, I can get out of this place that much sooner.”

  The two women stood facing each other for several long moments. Finally, Samra murmured, “I hop
e to hell you know what you’re doing.”

  Then she gave Brenda a hard hug before heading down the hallway toward Brenda’s office.

  Chapter 30

  Confrontation

  Taking a deep breath, Brenda crossed her fingers and walked up to the receptionist sitting in her little horseshoe-shaped cubicle. After all this planning, it would be just her luck the man would be out.

  “Hi, Miss McKay. How can I help you?”

  “I need to speak with Mister Wagner, please. It’s about the factory explosion in Fullerton.”

  “Go right ahead, Miss McKay. I know Mister Wagner isn’t expecting you, but I know he’s been keeping an eye on the project since the accident.”

  She started to reach for the button on her console to notify him, but Brenda held out a hand to stop her.

  “That’s okay. I think he’s going to want to hear what I have to say,” she said, and hurried through the double doors without waiting for an answer.

  Wilson Wagner was seated behind his massive, hand-carved wooden desk. His face was partially obscured by the enormous flat screen computer monitor. Brenda watched him work for a few moments, then moved further into the office to attract his attention. The man’s eyes lifted to her, dropped back to the screen, then jerked back to her. She had the satisfaction of watching his face go several shades paler. She also saw a flash of doubt in his expression when he wondered if she was real or a figment of his imagination.

  “What’s the matter, Wilson? Think you’re seeing a ghost?”

  She no longer cared about her tone of voice. All respect for the man was gone. He deserved nothing from her other than her disdain.

  He backed a few inches away from the monitor, but he remained sitting in his enormous stuffed chair. “May I ask how you escaped?”

  “I’ll tell you everything I know, but first I need to know why. Why did you blow up the factory and labs in Fullerton? Why was I framed? Why, Wilson, why?”

  Her fists were clenched so hard, her fingernails dug into her palms. The pain helped to keep her focused, but it couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks.

  “What have I done to you that made you target me? Huh? Answer me, you sorry fuck!”