Deep Cover

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  “That’s not a problem,” Ted agreed.

  “I’m going to get some FBI analysts working on where the possible attacks might be. We’re looking for anything that would draw a big crowd near the water.”

  “Who is going to coordinate with the CIA? James will call his tips in to them.”

  “I’ll take care of that for now. I’ll also see if Lewis Tate can set us up with a new office. When the time comes, we’ll run everything through the taskforce,” Noah said. “NSA headquarters is secure and is pretty centrally located.”

  “That’s a good hour or two from here depending on traffic.” Devin gave both men a knowing look. “And none of us has time right now to sit in traffic.”

  “I’m sure Skip can set us up with temporary quarters on base,” Noah told him. “We’re only talking about one night, if that.”

  “What about James?” Ted asked. “Who’s going to deal with him?”

  “I’ve been thinking about what Kelly said,” Noah said, automatically using her cover name since his home was currently being used as a workplace. “If she’s right, James is only going to give us three targets. He’ll then let one go so the world will know about the danger, and he’ll stop another one himself.”

  “Which means, we’re better off not stopping him until after it’s all over.”

  “Exactly.” Noah agreed. “I already have the FBI tracking his cell phone. Once he calls in the tip, we have a couple of agents follow him to the bomb he plans to disarm himself. Then we pick him up and hope he’ll tell us where the last target is.”

  “But we need to be prepared to have extra personnel ready to search in case he doesn’t cooperate. This guy doesn’t exactly sound stable.”

  “He’s not.” Noah thought of the way James had simply handed Kelsey over to known arms dealers, men who were notorious for killing anyone in their way. “He’s definitely not.”

  * * *

  Impatience hummed from Salman while he waited for news. A full day had passed since he had held his phone and heard for himself that Taja really was in the United States. He had intended to have her brought to the seaside village in Abolstan where his daughter’s wedding would take place tomorrow. He wanted assurances that she hadn’t interfered with his plans and that she hadn’t somehow been coerced into sharing confidential information.

  His oldest son entered the room Salman was currently using as his office. “Father.” Fathi bowed slightly. “I have heard back from our contact in the United States. He confirmed that Medrano was among those killed during the shootout you heard.”

  “And Taja?”

  “The woman was also killed.”

  “How did this happen?” Salman demanded.

  “Mr. Duckett believes someone put some sort of tracking device on Taja. When they tried to capture Medrano, she was caught in the crossfire.”

  “How much do the Americans know?”

  He hesitated slightly. “They found one of our boats.”

  Salman’s face flushed. “Who found it?”

  “Someone from the Americans’ navy.”

  “And the other four?”

  “Everything is well with them. We haven’t seen any activity near any of our targets, and our American friend is following his routine precisely.”

  “I still don’t like that he knows so much,” Salman said, his voice deadly calm. “Now that Taja is dead, he is the only one who knows enough to interfere.”

  “Shall I make a call?”

  “He could be useful in the future.” Salman considered a moment. “Have someone follow him. If he proceeds as planned, it would be best to let him live.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Eliminate him.”

  Chapter 41

  Noah stood just outside Kelsey’s door, watching silently as she slept. He knew he needed to go to bed himself, but first he needed to make sure she was really okay. The evidence of how things could have turned out was hanging from the back of the rocking chair in the guest room: her blood-stained T-shirt and shorts.

  He had given her a shirt to sleep in and now realized she would likely need something to wear tomorrow until they could buy clothes for her. He didn’t dare go back to her house for fear that someone might be watching. He knew firsthand how easy it was to set up motion detectors or thermal cameras to alert James that she had survived the day.

  The agents parked outside of her house as well as the ones he had staying with her family had all checked in over the past few hours. So far, things were quiet, but he knew that could change much too quickly. Devin had offered to take watch for him tonight, and for once, Noah hadn’t argued. He needed to sleep. He needed to make sure he was ready for whatever happened in the coming days.

  Kelsey shifted slightly, and he could see her wince in pain before settling back into a deep sleep. Something inside him warmed and softened.

  She had been visibly upset when she found out her cover had been compromised, something that could clearly affect her future with the CIA. Yet, in the next minute, she sounded like she would walk away from it all if given the chance.

  With a quiet sigh, he stepped back from her room and prayed that Kelsey’s future would include him.

  * * *

  Kelsey sat up in the darkness, her heart racing and her ribs throbbing. She looked around the unfamiliar room, at the simple pine dresser against the wall, the double bed she had slept in, and her clothes draped over an old rocking chair.

  Then she looked down at the too-big T-shirt Noah had given her to sleep in, and she remembered where she was. Noah’s house. Then she remembered why.

  She rubbed both hands over her face, her stomach queasy once more as she thought of the deadly scene in the hangar. She could still hear the bullets impacting her vest and smell the gunpowder and blood.

  Sudden fear paralyzed her as she found an unexpected sense of clarity. She didn’t want to do this anymore. She didn’t want to be the person everyone depended on to stop some mad terrorist. She didn’t want to spend her life living lies. With a shake of her head, she battled against her emotions. For the next two days, she didn’t have a choice. She had to help stop Salman, and she had to make sure James didn’t put her family in jeopardy.

  Groaning a little, she pushed the covers back and swung her bare legs over the side of the bed. She started to reach for the shorts she had worn under her burqa the day before. Then she noticed a fresh T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants folded neatly on top of the dresser.

  Had those been there when she had gone to bed last night? Her bedroom door was halfway open, just as she had left it. She had been too afraid to shut herself completely away from Noah and Devin.

  Her body throbbing in pain, she closed the door and dressed in the dark. The sweatpants were several sizes too big, and she had to roll the waistband to keep them from falling off. After rolling up the cuffs so she wouldn’t trip over the extra length, she padded quietly out into the hall.

  Her hands flew to her chest when she heard movement in the room beside hers.

  “Are you okay?” Noah asked, his voice low.

  “You startled me.”

  “What are you doing up? It’s four o’clock in the morning.”

  “I was hoping you had some Tylenol.” She noticed that Noah was already wearing his work clothes, and her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing up so early?”

  “I was actually going to wake you up in a few minutes. We’re heading to NSA headquarters in a little while.”

  “Why?”

  “That’s where we’re setting up shop. We can’t chance you being seen around here or at Quantico.”

  Kelsey tugged at the sweatpants she wore. “Any chance I can talk you into getting something from my house for me? I’d really like to have some clothes that fit.”

  “We can’t risk it,” Noah told her. “But there’s a Walmart on our way that’s open twenty-four hours. We can stop and pick up a few things for you.”

  “Thanks.”

&nbs
p; “Let’s get you that Tylenol. Then we’ll take off. We might as well leave now since you’re up.”

  Kelsey immediately tensed, but she nodded in agreement.

  “Are you okay?”

  She could feel her emotions welling up again and blinked hard. “I’m just ready for this to be over.”

  Noah gave her a look of understanding and took her hand in his. “We all are.”

  * * *

  He hated the waiting game. The taskforce had been working around the clock to quietly put the right personnel on alert. Six teams were now standing by, five in the expected target cities and another one in Boston in case they had misread the intelligence they had gathered over the past few months.

  FBI and NCIS analysts had already identified what they considered primary targets. Noah cringed at the possibilities: a waterfront carnival in Philadelphia, Baltimore’s inner harbor, the monuments in DC.

  Lewis Tate from CIA was working with his branch chiefs in preparation for when James would hopefully call with clues to where Salman planned to strike. Devin had joined the taskforce and was spending most of his time piecing together the connections between Medrano and Salman.

  The three-bedroom cottage Skip had secured for them to use on base as their temporary quarters also doubled as their new office. Three computers sat atop the kitchen table, and a whiteboard on an easel perched in the living room. Beside it, a second easel held a large map with red pushpins identifying the cities they were worried about. The oak coffee table had been pushed aside to make room for the long folding table now covered with files, notes, and photographs of possible targets.

  The large television screen hanging on the wall had been hooked up to communication equipment so they could talk with Manuel in Arizona. He was visible now as he worked at his desk, all of them unwilling to sever the connection until this crisis passed.

  Noah glanced at his watch. Only three more hours. If Kelsey was right about the time, the terrorist attack would begin at one o’clock this afternoon. Noah looked at her now, her head bent low as she studied some notes beside her computer. Her hair curtained part of her face, but he could see that she still looked a bit paler than usual. Since arriving at Fort Meade, she had been unusually subdued. She had barely slept the night before. Then again, none of them really had. Time was short, and tensions were rising.

  Ted sat across from Kelsey, a phone to his ear, and Skip worked on the third computer station at the table. Devin was also talking on the phone while he consulted with Burt at FBI headquarters. Noah sorted through the photos in front of him, praying for some sort of clue.

  “We may have found something,” Ted said, crossing into the living room where Noah stood. “The harbor patrol in New York thinks they’ve identified Salman’s boat in their harbor.”

  “Have they made a move?”

  “Not yet.” Ted shook his head. “I told them to keep it in sight but not to move in until I called them back. Should I send in our team to intercept now, or do we gamble and wait for that phone call to come in first?”

  Kelsey had followed Ted into the living room. She looked at the clock on the wall, and Noah could tell she was weighing options.

  “What do you think, Kelly?”

  “James doesn’t know we already have response teams in place, so I really think he’ll give us at least two hours’ notice.” She shrugged. “I think we should have the response team get ready to intercept the boat, but we should wait another twenty minutes to have them move in. We don’t want anyone to know we’re on to them, and we can’t give Salman enough time to adjust his plans.”

  Noah looked over at Ted. “You got that?”

  “I’ll pass the word.” Ted started punching numbers on his phone.

  Kelsey stepped closer to the whiteboard that listed the possible target cities, and everyone busied themselves again.

  When Kelsey didn’t move from the board, Noah looked over at her and noticed the way her brow furrowed. “Is something wrong?”

  “I’m not sure.” She looked up at him. “I keep wondering if Cullen is really involved or if something happened to him.”

  “I don’t think Cullen is involved. James’s whole purpose for getting involved with Salman was to prove his value to the Agency. He wouldn’t want to share the credit with someone else.”

  She looked up at him, vulnerability showing on her face. “What if I’m wrong about all of this? What if it isn’t today? Or it’s at a different time?” Kelsey asked, doubt plaguing her voice. She looked at the clock. “James should have called by now.”

  “We keep working with the best information we have at the moment.” Noah didn’t tell her that he too wondered if she had misread the information, if they had all given her instincts too much weight. Despite his own doubts, he put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “All we can do now is pray that we’ll know what to do when the time comes.”

  “I think we’ve all been doing a lot of praying,” Kelsey said quietly. “Right now, I’m praying that the phone will ring and we can get these threats neutralized.”

  Noah started to agree with her, but he didn’t have the chance. He barely had time to draw a breath before the shrill ring of the phone broke the silence in the room.

  Chapter 42

  Everything was happening very much as she had expected. James’s call to Lewis hadn’t given them much time, but he had indeed provided clues for all five target cities. Apparently, he hadn’t been privy to the information that the boat near Virginia Beach had been found days ago.

  Surprisingly, the one city they had expected to be on the target list that James hadn’t told them about was Washington, DC. Kelsey wasn’t sure if that meant DC was the target or if it, like Boston, had been eliminated because they didn’t feel they would have enough success striking there.

  The whiteboard in the living room listed all seven cities they had originally found notes on. Already, two of those targets were crossed out. Besides the boat discovered off the Virginia coast, the suspicious vessel in New York had been identified as carrying the explosives they were looking for. It was located right where James said it would be.

  Kelsey gripped her phone in her hand, hoping that it would ring, that she would find out where James was now so they would know the city where they needed to concentrate their search.

  Noah’s phone rang first. Kelsey watched him intently, unable to decipher his one-sided conversation. When he hung up, he looked at her but spoke to everyone in the room. “The FBI wasn’t able to find James. He dumped his phone before they got there.”

  “We have to figure out which one of these clues isn’t good,” Kelsey said, stating the obvious.

  Noah pointed up at the wall clock. “We only have an hour and forty-three minutes left.”

  “We’ve got to split these up to coordinate with the response teams,” Kelsey said with urgency. “Which cities can we eliminate?”

  “We’ve already recovered the explosives from Virginia Beach and New York,” Ted said. “I’m waiting to hear from our team in Baltimore. We’ve also got our teams standing by in Boston and DC in case the intel from James is wrong.”

  Kelsey’s phone rang before she could respond to Ted. “This is Kelly.”

  “It’s Lewis. Two things. First, we just got word from the authorities in Philadelphia. The boat was right where James said it would be.”

  Kelsey announced the news to the rest of the taskforce before responding to Lewis. “That cuts it down to two.”

  “Make that one,” Ted called out. “The explosives in Baltimore have been found.”

  “Did you hear that?” Kelsey asked Lewis.

  “Yeah,” he answered, his voice grave, “but there’s something else you need to know. We just found Cullen Plesky.”

  “Where?”

  “He’s in the morgue.”

  “What?” Disbelief and denial filled her voice.

  “His body was dumped in Rock Creek Park. It looks like he’s been there
since he disappeared.”

  Her throat closed up, and she blinked hard. “Please tell me he wasn’t tortured.”

  “The body was in pretty bad shape after being in the woods, but it looks like he was killed execution style, just like Bealton.”

  Kelsey fought against the images and tried to analyze the news while clamping down on her emotions. “He found something.”

  “That’s what we think,” Lewis agreed.

  She closed her eyes against the harsh reality and drew a deep breath. He wasn’t the only person who would die if they didn’t succeed today. She let that truth take priority. “Do you think James is the one who killed him?”

  “It’s hard to tell. There aren’t any electronic signatures connecting them outside of the office, but James was on leave when Cullen’s alias was used in Turkey. I checked the personnel records. Cullen was definitely at headquarters at the time. James must have had a phony passport made up with the name Jerry Allenbaum.”

  “How could he have managed that? Phony passports aren’t easy to come by.”

  “Not usually, but he did work in both security and documentation. That means he had access to Cullen’s alias and he had also learned how to create false documents.”

  “So you think James stole his alias and set him up?”

  “Exactly. We think Cullen must have figured out what was going on and confronted James.” Lewis paused before adding, “James probably sent one of Medrano’s men after him. As much as James wants to be seen as a man of action, I don’t think he has the stomach to kill someone himself.”

  “You’re probably right. Otherwise he probably would have killed me instead of trying to turn me over to Salman,” Kelsey admitted reluctantly. She played back her time with James, that long drive together before he delivered her to Medrano’s men. “Where exactly was he when he called in the tips of where to find the explosives?”