Dangerous Code

by Stella Marie Alden

  “All you had to do was hold onto her for a couple hours. What happened?” He throws the idiot onto the grass, holding him by the throat.

  “I wasn’t there. I swear. I was getting food in the hotel restaurant.” The sniveling moron is on the edge of hysteria as well he should be.

  His face draws closer to the trembling man. “You shouldn’t have left your brothers alone with her.”

  “Mullah, I’m trying to tell you. She’s a witch, a demon. I had to remove myself from her wicked presence. She cursed me and my family. Said I would soon die.”

  “Well, the brilliant whore was correct.” Teherizad grins, aims, and pulls the trigger.

  When a hole appears in the center of the man’s forehead, blood gushing, some of his anger dissipates.

  “The world has lost another idiot.” He kicks the body into the underbrush, gets back into the van, and drives.

  Chapter 13

  From under the dash I glare up at Colin wondering if he believes all that government nonsense on file. The least he could do is ask but he just drives, staring out the front window, jaw muscles clenched.

  Fine. Be like that. The only thing that really matters is that we got away. I know what I saw.

  Suddenly, a slew of high-pitched sirens blare, growing louder until a line of emergency vehicles passes us in the opposite direction, heading toward the hotel.

  Colin hits a button on his steering wheel and the police band squawks. APB. Shots. Van. South. Route 9.

  I should give him an I-told-you-so with serious attitude but it’d lose some of its impact while I’m cowering in a ball on the floor. Besides, his mouth is tight around the edges and his brows are creased. He’s either worried or pissed off, maybe both, and I don’t want to make matters worse.

  The radio volume lowers, he picks up his phone and says, “Call Joe.”

  The lines on his face disappear after a moment and I feel a whole lot better, too. Even though I don’t know the guy, Colin’s partner did rescue me and warned him about that video this morning. He seems like a guy you could trust.

  “Good to hear your voice, too. What? Say again?” Colin hangs up and hands me his cell. “I lost signal.”

  “What did he say?” I sense something is off, but without Jason, I can’t be sure.

  He glances my way, as if this mess is all my fault. “Six professionals arrived right after we left. They shot one kidnapper, found another in the woods, and then drove off in a white van.”

  Mahmoud. It was him! Suddenly, my heart pounds, I wheeze, and the oxygen disappears. Then the interior of the car shrinks.

  Panic attack imminent.

  PTSD. That’s what my doctor writes on the insurance forms because there isn’t a diagnosis code for all the bad stuff that’s happened to me.

  I am calm. I am safe. I am whole.

  But I’m not. Mahmoud is out there and he won’t stop until he has me.

  Inhale, hold, count to eight. Exhale, hold, count to eight. I breathe to the tempo of waves splashing upon the sand.

  “You okay?” Colin’s voice is gentle as he reaches over me to open the glovebox.

  Then he places a pair of hi-tech glasses on my nose. “Here. Joe got them from your apartment. Jason insisted. You know what these are, right?”

  I nod. The frames emit infrared light and block facial recognition.

  Certain that no random camera will catch me on video, I bravely crawl out from under the dash. I should trust Jason’s stealth-mode, but I’m not feeling all that rational.

  While I’m engaged in finding my brain, Colin pulls off the highway and under a sign that reads, CAM’S CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED VEHICLES. A salesman with the body of a linebacker approaches, passing about a dozen cars with prices on windshields. Triangular flags flap overhead in the breeze. Maybe it’s the badge Colin flashes or something he says, but minutes later, we’re back on the road in an ancient Ford pickup.

  He finds another pair of reco-blockers, drives for over a mile in silence, and then turns to me. “Alright. Who’s after you?”

  Even if I tell him the truth, he won’t believe me. After all, who did the authorities side with the last time? “I don’t know.”

  “Megan, you stared right into that van and said, ‘It’s him.’ Who the hell is him?” His knuckles turn white as he grips the steering wheel.

  “No one. Didn’t you read? I’m schizophrenic with paranoid delusions,” I recite the words exactly as they’re written in my government file. Yeah, I know. I’m bitter.

  “I’m not the enemy, Megan.” His voice softens but I’m not so naïve as to be lulled by his dulcet tones.

  I wonder if he knew about the video cameras in my apartment last night. “Tell me, when did you know it was me? Before or after we had sex?”

  His neck pulses which means he’s clenching his back teeth. “I read your file when I got back to the office.”

  Oh my God. He used me, made me think he cared, but all the while he was playing with me. He’s not the only one who’s pissed but unfortunately when I’m angry my voice cracks, ruining the whole effect.

  However I can glare, real well. “Did you know we were under surveillance last night?”

  “Really? You think I’m like that?” He swerves off the road and stops in the emergency lane, penetrating me with that dark stare of his.

  “I don’t know what to think.” And that’s the God’s truth. I want to believe he’s one of the good guys, but all of the evidence points to the contrary.

  “Well, you should know I’m not like that.” As if that statement resolves the argument, gears grind, gravel spits from under tires, and the truck roars back onto the road.

  “Well Detective, I’m done here.” Okay. I might be overtired and churlish, but if I say more he’ll think I’m a few berries short of a cherry pie. I can’t tell him I saw my former professor. Mahmoud Teherizad who supposedly drowned off the Amalfi coast years ago.

  This Colin O’Brien is so not the one I remember from summer camp. That Colin would’ve said something nice. Good. Go ahead. Be an ass-hat.

  Exhausted and head pounding from whatever drugs the kidnappers gave me, I stretch out on the old fashioned front seat. When the top of my head brushes his thigh, he lifts an arm and pats his leg, indicating I should use it for a pillow.

  I don’t argue even though I should. Obviously, sleeping with him was a big mistake. So is liking the smell of his t-shirt, the feel of his muscles under my cheek, and the way he plays with a lock of my hair as he drives.

  I am so screwed.

  After a few miles, the rumble and rocking of the truck sends me to uneasy dreams. There, I’m thirteen, geeky, and in love with a teenage boy who can’t remember my name.

  When I wake, my cheek is wet and I’ve slobbered on Colin’s thigh. We definitely haven’t got to a point in our relationship where drooling is acceptable.

  “Sorry.” My face heats and I sit as fast as humanly possible.

  “No worries.” A half-smile opens up in his face. “Listen. I’m sorry about earlier. But you need to tell me what you saw, even if you just think you saw something.”

  He has no idea. The less he knows, the better. My lips are sealed and thankfully, he doesn’t push.

  We stop at a light just outside the New Paltz Shopping Center, somewhere north of New York and south of Albany. We drive through the quaint town in silence except for the rattling of the old rust-bucket. Then after many bends in the road, the pavement turns to dirt and the hills get steeper. Apple trees dot the countryside along with fields of squash and cabbage. When we pass a pick-your-own pumpkin sign, it seems as if we’ve gone back in time.

  “Where’re you taking me?” I wonder if I can charge him with kidnapping.

  “Almost there.” He turns into a narrow, private drive.

  Just ahead, like the city of Oz only not green, a cathedral-like building sits on top of a hill with the sun sparkling off long stained-glass windows. To the right on a lesser hill, six redwood bungalows
nestle under thick pines.

  Colin parks next to over a dozen vehicles on the grass and moans. “We can’t stay. Hold on a second, Meggie. I’ll be right back.”

  I’ve had a lot of water to drink and we haven’t stopped once. Removing my expensive heels, I open the truck door, and jump. When cool mud squishes between my toes. I make a mental note. Never, ever, leave the office without changing into sneakers.

  “Stop!” Colin rushes around the front of the vehicle.

  “Please, I need a bathroom break. I’ll make it fast.”

  He mumbles an apology and looks so stricken that I wish I hadn’t said anything. Then without warning, he scoops me up and my hands wrap around his neck. His mouth is too close and the black centers of his eyes too wide and one nostril flares.

  My breasts harden where he holds me tightly against his chest. Was it just last night he’d entered me with such passion? It hardly seems possible. I lick my lips and move up an inch, waiting for his lips to devour mine. I want this kiss, I need to be reassured that last night meant something.

  “Shit. I can’t do this.” He unlocks his gaze, drops me, and strides toward the door.

  I wipe away a few stupid tears. Everything is ruined. I’ve fantasized about him for years, of being in his arms. It sucks that he doesn’t feel the same. Miserable, I follow him to where an elderly gentleman waits at the top of the stairs. He slaps Colin on the back, and ushers us in.

  For the first time since last night, Colin smiles widely. “Doctor Jenna Jones, meet Sir Robert McTigue.”

  Asian eyes study mine, he takes both my hands in his, and we exchange polite greetings. In the foyer, we sit on a pine bench and Colin wipes the mud off my feet with a soft cloth.

  That should not feel so good.

  Then barefoot, we climb up a pine staircase that spirals around a chandelier made of hundreds of pieces of glass, an upside down wedding cake.

  This place must’ve cost a fortune.

  Three foot watercolors of grasshoppers and butterflies grace the rough pine walls. At the top, we exit into an open area with plush couches, lounge chairs, and a seventy-two inch monitor.

  Colin points. “Bathrooms to the right, Meggie-pie.”

  I rush away, tears again pooling. My emotions are probably on edge from the drugs or the lack of sleep. I recall the last time he used that nick name. It was the last day of fat camp, a couple hours before the bus left for home. I’d been looking for him, crying my eyes out for hours.

  My heart was breaking in two.

  He was wearing low-cut jeans with large holes and no shirt and never looked better. I stared to imprint him into my memory forever. We’d never see each other again.

  “Hey Colin.” I tried to look nonchalant as I sat down on the wet grass while he skipped stones.

  “Hey. Why the long face?”

  “Dunno.” But I did. I loved him so much it made everything hurt real bad.

  He handed me a flat round rock. “Try it. It helps.”

  “That’s really ridiculous. You know that, right?”

  “Actually, for once you’re wrong. Google it. Simple tasks will often disengage the brain and allow the subconscious to work at solving problems.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was just teasing as I studied his expression. Finally I gave up and said, “That’s pretty deep.”

  Like a big brother, he rustled my hair. “I’m not just a pretty face and a mass of muscles.”

  I smiled at his lame joke, picked up a couple of perfectly shaped rocks, and skipped twice. “I lost ten pounds.”

  “I heard.”

  “But studies show I’ll gain it all back, and then some.”

  He tucked my chin, forcing me to look up into his gorgeous blue eyes. “Is that true for one hundred percent of the people, Meggie-pie?”

  At his use of an endearment, my heart had fluttered in my chest. Surely he felt something for me.

  I sighed heavily and tried to stay on topic, “No. Approximately five percent will use this as an opportunity to change their lifestyle, but usually that’s accompanied by change of acquaintances and location. My Mom’s not moving us.”

  “So aren’t you smart enough to figure out how to be in that five percent?” His smile makes me sad. I don’t want to leave him and go home to my overly-critical family.

  “Probably. But what does it matter?”

  “What do you mean?”

  I tell him what I’ve never said aloud to anyone before. “I’ve got mild Asperger’s. I’ll probably never have a boyfriend, let alone get married. Even if I lose thirty more pounds, my teeth are crooked and we can’t afford braces. Basically, I’m destined to live alone as a highly successful nerdy programmer for some top-ten company.”

  He squatted with elbows resting on his knees. “You can become what you think about. Have you ever read that?”

  I shook my head, no.

  “Read Napoleon Hill. Read Dale Carnegie. Study emotional intelligence. And here’s the name of a good martial arts teacher about five miles from your home. I’ve already written to him. He’ll take you on as a student if you take over his web site.”

  “Seriously?” A tiny ray of hope shimmered and a big chunk of depression fell away.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why? Why do that for me?”

  “Because I see the awesome woman you will someday become. Don’t settle. Ever? Promise?

  “Promise.” I left him by the water, but from that day forward, I was different.

  My bruised face stares back at me in the bathroom mirror as I gingerly wash. My wrists have thin bracelets of raw skin and my side hurts like a mother but I’m lucky. I could be on my way to the Middle East.

  Suddenly, I’m filled with guilt. Colin and his partner had risked their lives to save me and I don’t think I’d even thanked them. No wonder he’s angry. Maybe it was the reminiscing, but I pick up my phone and press ‘home’ even all the while knowing it’s a bad idea.

  “Hi Mom.” I take a deep breath, already wishing to hang up.

  “Well, Hi Megan. This is a surprise. What an odd time of day to call. Is everything alright?”

  “I’m fine. I was thinking about taking a little vacation and might be up your way, and maybe I could drop by?”

  “Oh.” Here it comes. Her tight tone, the hesitation…“Well, Steve and I actually have plans. Really, Megan, a little notice would be appropriate. I mean you’re welcome to stop by, but, we won’t be home.”

  “No, no, that’s okay. I just thought it would be nice. I might be out of town for a while and unreachable, so, I didn’t want you to worry.” Wincing, I wait.

  “Megan Joan McCarthy. This isn’t going to be like last time where you ran away from that perfectly nice college and made up those horrible stories? I don’t want the police showing up on my doorstep. What will everyone say? I know what they’ll say. That you’re a bit crazy. Why can’t you just deal with your problems without running away? You are an intelligent-”

  I hang up.

  My Mom is not the right person to call when I’m feeling low. Why do I keep trying?

  My psychologist would have a field day.

  Chapter 14

  Colin ‘fesses up

  The long sky-lit hall outside Bob’s office is empty, behind the ladies room door, water runs. For the moment, Megan is safely tucked away with two deadly guys watching out for her, me and Bob.

  I’ve known my teacher for years. He’s been the most positive presence in my life, more than my mother, and especially more than my father. He’s the reason I am who I am and I owe him a debt of gratitude.

  “Rough day, laddie?” He places a mug of coffee in my hands.

  What’s taking Megan so long?

  “Not one of my best.” I savor the caffeine rushing into my bloodstream and stare at a bright orange maple tree out the window.

  The late afternoon sun has just poked out from behind a cloud, lighting the trees on fire. I’d love to stay and chat but need to make this qui
ck. How could I have forgotten? The day after Columbus Day’s a big deal up here. I mentor and chaperone Bob’s students. His tournament dates should be engrained in my head.

  He stands behind me with a hand on my shoulder while the scent of burning leaves wafts on a breeze through the open window.

  “Joe called. He said to tell you they’ve identified the six from the hotel. They’re high-priced mercenaries. One was found dead alongside the road halfway to the city. He suggested you keep Jones out of sight a while longer.”

  “We should go.” I start to fetch Megan but Bob pulls me back.

  “Hold on son, just what have ye gotten yourself into?”

  I don’t want to put him in any more danger than I already have but he’ll need some intel to keep the kids safe. “That woman with me? She’s a genius in the field of artificial intelligence. After rescuing her from the Poconos, I stopped here to swap cars and get provisions. Totally forgot about the competition.”

  Bob raises his eyebrows.

  Obviously that’s not an excuse so I give him more. “Yesterday, Doctor Jones took her Beta software out for a trial run, it uncovered a terrorist, and I was a first responder. When the FBI realized we’d met years ago, they asked me to guard her for a couple days. Then all hell broke loose and I ended up with my fist around a detonator downtown.”

  “I heard about that. Well done, grasshopper.” For the first time today, Bob’s eyes soften but I don’t want his approval because I screwed up big time by coming here.

  “Well, yes and no… She was kidnapped under my watch.”

  My teacher used to be affiliated with army intelligence and so he catches on real quick. “You think someone staged this elaborate plot? She’s worth that much?”

  I nod and attempt to pace the small area in front of the coffee maker. “Definitely but her program’s a nightmare waiting to happen.”

  “Hmm. That explains a lot, but not why you’re so distracted. By her.”

  There’s no point in lying as he can read expressions better than me. “It’s complicated. I slept with her.”