“I told you I was going to treat you right. Let me do a little something for you.”
A long, steamy, shared shower and another emptied wrapper later, I kissed him goodbye at the door.
“See ya later?” he asked.
“Hope so. Maybe sooner than later.”
“That’d be good,” he agreed.
I looked into his heavy eyes. “Go back to bed.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. The door swung closed between our sated grins.
I floated down the hallway and out to my car, fell into the driver’s seat, and smiled all the way home.
Chapter 47
Back at my desk after supper, I surveyed my workload with chagrin. I’d planned my schedule based on a five-day work week. I’d lost three workdays and two weekends. And I’d taken on Spider’s website clients.
I spent the rest of the evening trying to catch up. After a week of strung-up nerves, my bookkeeping tasks seemed soothing but unreal. A sense of morbid anticipation hung over me, and I twitched at the slightest creak of the house. In bed alone that night, I slept restlessly and woke twice, screaming.
In the morning, I dragged myself out of bed, rubbing scratchy eyes. I pushed my head under the shower before stumbling into the kitchen for breakfast, only to find the last few slices of my bread had gone mouldy. I cooked some oatmeal instead and slogged to my desk.
At lunch time, a brief survey of my fridge convinced me it would be a good idea to eat in town before going to do the books at Up & Coming. I changed my clothes and was heading out the door when my cellphone rang. I checked the call display.
“Hi, Spider.”
“Hi, Aydan.” His voice still sounded tired. “Do you have time to come by the office later?”
“Sure, any time after two-thirty. I’m seeing a client at one.”
“Will three o’clock work?”
“Fine. See you then. Bye.”
I hung up, wondering what our meeting would be about. Maybe they had more information about the operation at Harchman’s, although I didn’t think they’d share it with me. The less I knew, the better. Or maybe they needed some more information from me. I shrugged and went out the door.
I was smiling when I left Up & Coming after a session of off-colour banter with Lola. The previous evening’s sense of foreboding had vanished, and tired as I was, buoyant optimism filled me. I had escaped Fuzzy Bunny unscathed, and my stint as an unwilling spy was over. The summer stretched ahead of me, ripe with the promise of happy time spent drinking ice-cold beer, tinkering with my cars and working in my garden. I could go back to enjoying my new home, my delightful new clients, and my safe, peaceful life.
When I arrived at Kane’s office, Spider looked up from his desk with a haggard expression. His stubble had resolved itself into a patchy beard. He did look older, but I thought it had more to do with his eyes than with the growth on his chin.
“Spider, are you okay?” I asked. “You look exhausted.”
“I’m… not great,” he admitted slowly. “I…”
Kane walked in, and Spider clammed up. My ‘uh-oh’ detector registered red alert. As far as I knew, Spider and Kane had no secrets between them.
“Hi, Aydan,” Kane greeted me pleasantly. “Oh.” He reached into his pocket. “Here’s your watch. Minus a certain piece of technology.” He turned to Spider. “What’s up?”
“Let’s go into the meeting room,” Spider said tensely.
Kane and I exchanged glances. Good, I wasn’t the only one who thought something was out of the ordinary. We followed Spider down the hall and took our places at the table.
“Did you get all the prisoners sorted out at Harchman’s?” I asked.
“Yes. There weren’t as many of Fuzzy Bunny’s people as we’d originally thought,” Kane responded. “We did some pretty intense questioning, and Webb’s been dividing his time working on the network there as well as digging for information on the prisoners.” He shot an appreciative look at Spider, and Spider returned a jerky smile.
“It turned out Maria was the mastermind,” Kane continued. “She’d been playing Harchman for years. She set him up with enough business to keep herself valuable to him, so they stayed married. And she was able to carry on her own business dealings with Fuzzy Bunny under the cover of his activities. She had a few of her trusted associates planted in the regular rotation of guards and staff at the house. Harchman never had a clue.”
“What about the two guys that kidnapped Hellhound?” I asked.
“We got both of them. They were among the group we picked up at the house.”
I relaxed back in my chair. “Clean sweep. Sweet.”
“Looks like it.” He returned my smile.
A movement at the door made us both jerk our heads up. I froze at the sight of two men wearing shoulder holsters. Kane was already on his feet and reaching for his gun when Stemp appeared behind them.
Stemp moved into the room to sit at the table, his reptilian face impassive. The two men took up positions standing at opposite walls of the meeting room.
“What’s going on?” Kane asked evenly.
“Sit.” Stemp gestured to the chairs.
Kane moved warily to the seat beside me. I could tell he was looking for a position that wouldn’t place his back to either of the armed men. I caught his eye, and he gave me an almost imperceptible lift of his eyebrow as we faced Stemp.
“Webb has some fascinating information,” Stemp informed us expressionlessly. “Webb, go ahead.”
Spider cleared his throat. His eyes flickered to me, and then to the tabletop as he spoke. “Aydan, we’ve discovered something… unusual in the network out at Harchman’s.”
Oh God. My heart sped up.
“Unusual, how?” I was pleased that my voice came out sounding calm and level.
Spider glanced at Stemp, then down at the table again. “We can’t access any of the files. Everything is heavily encrypted. They’re using an encryption system called Blowfish.”
“Okay…” I tensed. Now I was definitely waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“It’s completely secure. There’s no known way to crack the encryption without knowing the code phrase that was used to encrypt it.”
“Okay…”
“Aydan, you could read all the files.”
“Well, yeah.” I shrugged. “I had the network key.”
“The network key doesn’t crack encryption,” Spider said. “You’re doing that.”
“But you said this Blowfish couldn’t be cracked.”
“It can’t.”
I shook my head impatiently. “What are you trying to say?”
“What he’s trying to say,” Stemp said smoothly, “Is that you’ve just become the world’s most dangerous weapon.”
Chapter 48
“What?” I stared at him. “How… how do you figure that?”
“There is no known way to crack Blowfish,” Stemp repeated patiently. “Everyone in the world knows that. It’s used for virtually all clandestine communications. But we’ve just discovered that what everyone in the world knows… is wrong. You can crack it. In real-time. You can read encrypted documents as easily as if they were plain text. Do you have any idea what that means from a security standpoint?”
I glanced from Spider’s drawn face to Kane’s growing frown. “I’m going to take a wild-ass guess and say it would be disastrous in the wrong hands.”
“Yes.” Stemp leaned back in his chair. “Which is why we now have to take drastic steps to safeguard you. You are our ultimate secret weapon. With your skills, we can crack almost every scrap of digital data in the world.”
Kane shifted suddenly beside me. I glanced over at him, and fear swept over me at his expression. I mentally replayed what Stemp had just said. My mouth went dry. “Define… drastic.”
Stemp crossed his arms and tilted his chair back a fraction on its back legs. “You will go directly from here to a secured underground facility. We will notify the app
ropriate authorities that you have died, and we will dispose of your home, business, and other assets. You will be given a new identity, and the proceeds from the disposal of your assets will, of course, be transferred to your new identity. Kane will be your handler.”
He gave a short nod, as if satisfied with the utter destruction of my life. “If you have no further questions, we’ll leave immediately.”
“H…hold on.” I couldn’t seem to draw enough air into my lungs. “What… underground facility? You mean… literally… underground?”
“Of course,” he said, as if addressing a particularly backward child.
Adrenaline spiked through my bloodstream. I made a sudden move to push my chair back and the armed men snapped to alertness, their hands on their weapons.
“Stay calm,” Kane murmured.
I gasped a couple of shallow breaths. “You know I can’t do this,” I implored Kane.
“Is there a problem?” Stemp inquired.
“Yes,” Kane said firmly. “Aydan is claustrophobic. You can’t expect her to stay underground.”
Stemp eyed us both with contempt. “That’s ridiculous. Kane, deal with your asset.”
Anger started to trickle through my terror. Asset. An object, not a person. No discussion. No rights. My beautiful farm. My cars. My clients. My friends. My entire life to be discarded like a used tissue. On Stemp’s whim. Who the hell died and made him God?
I drew a deep breath as the trickle of anger turned into a torrent. My hands clenched with the urge to rip Stemp’s snakelike head off and shit down the hole.
Kane turned to me, and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “Stay calm,” he repeated warningly.
I turned back to Stemp. “And if I refuse?” I was proud that my voice was dead level.
He fixed me with his expressionless gaze as he leaned forward slightly. “You won’t.”
“Because…?” I inquired.
“Because it’s your duty to do this. And I know you feel strongly about duty.”
“Sorry,” I said flatly. “You’re confusing me with Kane. He’s the one that’s all about duty. Me? Not so much.”
“Nonsense,” Stemp said. “You were willing to give up your life to protect national security. Several times. You’ll do it again.”
“No.” My voice was beginning to sound dangerous. “I was willing to die. That’s different than giving up my life.”
Stemp’s emotionless eyes held mine. “Let me put this another way. I also happen to know you’re very loyal. You go to great lengths to protect the people you care about. Let’s just say that if you refuse, there will be consequences.” He looked pointedly at Kane and Spider.
I froze. Pure red rage suffused my soul. “Did I just hear you threaten my team?” My voice vibrated with suppressed violence.
Stemp’s impassive face faltered for a split second as he sat back in his chair.
His mask firmly in place again, he waved an airy hand. “Threaten is such an ugly word.”
I took a deep breath and held my voice steady. “I’m going to say this in small words so you can understand.”
Kane caught my eye and shook his head. I ignored him.
“You will not notify anyone that I’m dead. You will not sell my assets. I will not take on a new identity in an underground facility. I will live where and how I please. I will do business with whomever I please. Whenever I please.”
I drew another hissing breath. “And you will not, repeat, not, cause any consequences,” I made vicious air quotes around the word, “…for anyone. And that means anyone that I’ve ever even said hello to. Clients. Neighbours. Team members. Friends. Friends of friends. Any. Fucking. Person. I. Know. On the contrary, you will protect them to the best of your ability. In return, I will aid you with your encryption issues.”
Stemp eyed me expressionlessly. “This is not a negotiation. I know where your friends live. I direct your team. I know you’ll do whatever is necessary to protect them all. I hold all the cards.”
I jerked forward across the table.
“Yes, I can see you hold all the cards,” I ground out. “It’s really too bad that while you were busy gloating over your cards, you forgot to look under the poker table. Because I’ve got a .45 aimed at your nuts.”
The armed men made a twitchy grab for their weapons, but since both my hands were clearly visible, they apparently realized I was speaking metaphorically and stood down, watching me warily.
In my peripheral vision, I could see Spider’s mouth hanging open. I focused on Stemp and recognized the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
“And you’re right,” I continued in the same deadly voice. “It’s not a negotiation. Before you decided to threaten me, it could have been. Now, I’ve stated my terms. You will abide by them.”
Stemp leaned back, adjusting the knot of his tie. His eyes darted to the armed men, then back to me. When he spoke, his voice was as flat as ever. “What makes you think I’ll agree to your terms?”
I locked eyes with him. “Because it’s your duty to acquire the world’s most dangerous weapon.” I spat his own words back. “And I know you feel strongly about duty.”
“You have exactly two choices,” I continued coldly. “You can agree to my terms, and I will do my best to help you with the decryption. Or you can shoot me. Right here and now.” I ignored Spider’s gasp. “Because if you don’t agree to my terms, that’s the only safe thing you can do.”
“And why would I do either of those things?” Stemp inquired.
I stood, and the guards clutched their weapons again as I glowered down at Stemp. “Because you can drag me underground and destroy my identity and threaten the people I care about, but you can’t make me accurately decrypt files.”
I leaned my fists on the table and glared into his face. “I get tense when I feel threatened. That might cause me to accidentally make a critical mistake when I decrypt your files. And you’d never know. Until it was too late.”
I shoved my face within inches of his. His bland expression slipped as my voice came out in a menacing hiss. “If you hurt someone I care about, you’ll find out exactly how dangerous I am.”
I gave that a second to sink in while I glared at him from close range. Then I sat in the chair again and leaned it onto its back legs. I spread my hands and gave him a poisonous smile.
“Your choice. Abide by my terms, and reap the benefits. Or don’t. Delude yourself that I’m under your control, and find out later how much damage I can do. Or kill me where I sit. Either way, you’ll lose the most valuable weapon you’ll ever have access to.”
I felt my face twist into a snarl. “Do your duty,” I spat.
Chapter 49
There was a prolonged silence. Nobody moved or spoke as my eyes burned into Stemp’s.
Finally, Stemp dropped his gaze. “How do I know you won’t sabotage the decryption even if we do agree to your terms?”
I felt my lip curl. “You wouldn’t have even had to ask that question if you hadn’t threatened me in the first place. But I’ll give you my word that I won’t sabotage it as long as you abide by my terms. You can ask Kane if he thinks that’s sufficient assurance. I’ll wait outside so you can discuss it.” I stood.
Kane laid his hand on my arm. “Stay here.” He turned to Stemp as I sat again. “Aydan’s word is sufficient,” he said, his voice rock-hard.
Stemp’s eyes bored into him. “Fine,” Stemp said, without changing expression. He turned to me. “Give me your word.”
I gave him a sharp nod. “I will do my absolute best to accurately decrypt your files. If you abide by my terms. To the letter. You have my word.”
“I also reserve the right to supply additional security measures to protect you,” he added.
“Subject to my approval,” I snapped. “I have the final say. On everything. Including who I work with, and how and when and where I work.”
“You’re just an asset,” Stemp protested. “That’s unreasonable.”
“You forfeited your right to reasonable behaviour. You know my terms. You understand the consequences of breaching them. We’re done here.”
“Very well.” He rose and nodded to the two armed men. He turned to Kane. “As her handler, you have complete responsibility for her performance, and her safety. I expect you understand the magnitude of that task. I hope you’ll prove yourself capable of it.” He turned and left, trailed by his guards.
I clasped my trembling hands together and took a deep breath.
“Holy… crap!” Spider exploded. “That was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen!”
“First rule,” I snapped. “Don’t threaten me.”
Kane turned to me gravely. “You realize you’ve just made a very dangerous enemy.”
I snorted. “What’s he going to do? Kill me?”
Kane eyed me without speaking.
“He’ll be doing me a fucking favour if he does,” I snarled. “I’m out of here.”
I got up and strode out, hiding my shaking legs as best I could.
Kane caught up to me on the front sidewalk. “Aydan.”
“What?” As I turned, I caught sight of Stemp and his men still parked by the curb across the street.
“Aydan, I’m sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. I hope you know, I would have stopped it if I’d known what was coming.”
I gave him a smile that didn’t feel very convincing. “I know you wouldn’t willingly put me in this position.”
He rocked back as if I’d slapped him. “Aydan, I wouldn’t knowingly put you in this position. I would have stopped it if I’d known,” he repeated.
My eyes slid over to Stemp again. He was watching us intently. Kane was right. I’d made a dangerous enemy. I had no doubt that as soon as Stemp had any alternative at all to using me, I’d die in an unfortunate accident. And I was pretty sure that anyone who was close to me would be destroyed at the same time. Stemp’s last words to Kane had been a none-too-subtle threat.
I sighed.
“John, no offense. But no, you wouldn’t have stopped it. If you got the command, you’d carry it out. You wouldn’t have liked it, but you would have done it. You really are all about duty.”
The Spy Is Cast Page 32