Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes)

by Bristol, Sidney

  These days, they couldn’t get anywhere without decent computer skills.

  “Lives depend on it. Kids. Families. I’ll do whatever it takes, okay? Just make it happen.”

  Andy’s finger’s stilled. Rand was playing him, and likely Andy recognized the ploy. “Consider it done,” Andy said without another pause.

  “Thanks, man. You know how to get ahold of us?”

  “Yup. Use the Istanbul code.”

  “What do you know about a guy named Zhang Wei?”

  Andy didn’t just stop typing, he went completely still. And not deer-in-the-crosshairs still. No, this was predator-still.

  “Is he here?” Andy’s voice was rough, raw.

  “He is,” Sarah answered.

  “That’s why we need the help,” Rand said.

  Andy turned, his complexion gone ashen. One side of his upper lip curled up. “Tell me. From the beginning.”

  Rand had been fairly circumspect in his call for help, and the others wouldn’t ask too many questions. That was how it had to be. But from the look on Andy’s face, he wasn’t going to let them go without an answer.

  Rand filled Andy in, keeping to the barest of details, with only a few added details from Sarah.

  “I’ll help you, but I get Wei. Me, okay?”

  “What are you going to do with him?” Sarah stared at Andy.

  No, no, no, don’t answer that.

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  …

  Mitch peered down at the parking lot.

  Irene and Hector were gone. He had no idea where they were, what was happening, and his superiors wanted answers.

  What a fucking nightmare.

  If they didn’t recover those protocols soon, their jobs were over. Their assets in Asia would abandon them if they weren’t killed. Something had to happen. It was happening without him. And he had no way of figuring this out.

  Fuck.

  Why was Charlie dead? How had this happened? It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

  The body was here. They were going to compare the dental records and they just weren’t going to match up. He’d done it to protect Charlie, but how did he explain what he couldn’t prove to the higher ups?

  Mitch was fucked.

  “Mr. McConnel?”

  “Hmm?” He turned to face the young woman at his door.

  She was vaguely familiar. One of the analysts, if memory served. Not fresh out of the academy, but close enough that she looked more like a kid to him. God, he felt old.

  “Carol Sark, hi.” She extended her hand. In the other she held a folder.

  A fucking folder.

  His stomach tightened at the sight of it.

  Did they know? When Charlie came to him, scared for his life, Mitch had switched out the medical records in an attempt to protect Charlie and throw off the suspected mole.

  “Hi, Ms. Sark. What can I do for you?”

  “I had some questions about an operation you were part of. It’s come up in my review. Do you have a minute?”

  The last thing he needed was to answer questions right now. He couldn’t keep things straight, what he was supposed to admit to, what he wasn’t, the things no one could ever know. But he had to press on. Business as usual. No fucking this up. His life depended on it.

  …

  Sarah stared straight ahead, weaving through people with Rand at her back.

  “Calm down, Sarah,” he said just loud enough for her to hear.

  Calm down? Was he serious?

  They’d just bartered a man’s life for help. And she was supposed to—what? Be on board with this? She knew Wei was bad, but was killing him the answer? Irene had talked about what they did ending the killing, not causing it. But would green lighting Wei’s death protect more people? It was a gray area she’d ignored until now.

  Holy shit. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. She clenched her hands into fists. Her arm ached.

  Fuck.

  This was real.

  “Hey. Hey, this way.” Rand grasped her shoulder and tugged her out of the flow of foot traffic, down a lesser-traveled street.

  They didn’t speak. Every time she opened her mouth, there were more people around. They walked for a good fifteen minutes before they found a small courtyard between buildings with a fountain and benches. Rand led her to the fountain and perched on the edge. She watched him appearing to admire the scenery for a few moments. The only go-ahead signal she got was a slight dip of his chin.

  “What the hell, Rand?” She kept her voice low and gripped the edge of the fountain, staring at the way the cobblestones under their feet fit together.

  She’d always seen her path as one brick in front of the next, building a road forward. Progress. Peace. A better future. Now she didn’t know what to think.

  “Andy’s—”

  “Is that his name?” She glanced up at Rand.

  “Yeah.”

  “He doesn’t have the right to be judge, jury, and executioner.”

  “Not by normal thinking, but who could Wei face for justice?”

  “Murdering a man can’t be called justice. Can it?” Sarah was beginning to question her view of right and wrong. What Wei did, it was wrong. But was killing him right? Or was that adding another wrong to the pile?

  “Think about it.” Rand leaned forward, peering up at her. “Who do you think killed the man at the hotel, hmm? If we go forward with this plan, if we do what they want us to, chances are we will run up against Wei. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have Andy at our back than not. The way I see it, this ensures we have one of the best guys with us. If it comes down to getting you out or holding off Wei, Andy takes care of Wei. I take care of you. No part of me is going to try to capture that man, anyway. We’re just…not standing in Andy’s way.”

  “Why does Andy want him dead?” Sarah had never hated anyone that much.

  “If I were you, I wouldn’t want to know all the details.” Rand grimaced. “There were kids involved. Andy gets…protective when children and innocent bystanders are hurt.”

  “Oh.” Sarah swallowed and stared at Rand. She wasn’t surprised at the extent of Wei’s evil. She’d heard the rumors of the silent killer since she started working for the company, but was she ready to be one of those who cast the lot, choosing that man’s death? “And you’re okay with this?”

  Rand opened and closed his mouth.

  She studied his face, the lines appearing, disappearing, the internal war he was waging playing out on his features.

  “They’ve asked you to kill for them, haven’t they?” Her hands went so ice-cold, the stone under her palms didn’t even register.

  “Why do you think they wanted to recruit me in the first place?” He stared out at nothing.

  Matt and Rand had been two peas in a pod. Where one went, so did the other. Rand had disappeared so soon after Matt’s first surgery, when they took the dead part of his arm, that… Had things been different, would it be Matt and Rand out in the field doing this stuff?

  She licked her lips, staring at the frown lines bracketing his mouth. “Matt…?”

  “It was time to re-up or get out. We hadn’t had the time yet to do the paperwork before the accident. I couldn’t go back and face what was left of the others so, I got out. Next thing I know, there’s a knock on my door.”

  “Why us?”

  “Dunno.”

  “They told me my job allowed me the kind of freedom to travel, come and go, that would be suspicious of someone else. But…why me? Why you? I never really thought they wanted Emily after my panic died down. Would they have wanted Matt, too?” The scary thing was, even in the first few years of her brother’s marriage, she wasn’t sure if he’d have said no if the company came calling. It was a motivational job offer, to say the least.

  “My best guess is we fit a profile. Everyone fits a damn profile.”

  “How am I supposed to sign off on the death of a man? How are you okay with i
t?”

  “I’ve met guys like Wei. They will kill anyone, do anything. People like you make the world a little brighter. People like Wei make it a little darker.”

  “And Andy?”

  “He’s a crazy bastard. Shit.” Rand shook his head. “I imagine Wei has something to do with a job that went sideways for Andy a while ago. We all have that one job we wish had gone…I don’t know. Better. Different. I get the idea that a lot of people died and maybe Wei was involved or responsible.”

  “Why Andy? Why did you go to him? He’s crazy.”

  “Because he’s batshit crazy, but in his moral code, we’re the good guys. Helping us means saving kids, women, innocents.”

  The greater good.

  That was what Charlie had talked about to her when she hadn’t been able to wrap her head around something he said. Sometimes one person had to die so many others could live. The cost of a few lives versus the many. In this scenario, that meant sacrificing Wei, a terrible person, to save everyone was acceptable. Sarah had always known these decisions were happening outside of her knowledge, but now she was directly involved. The ethical struggle was one she’d been able to avoid until now. She knew that was what Charlie or Irene would tell her, but Sarah didn’t know if she could do it. If she could agree. She’d signed up to protect people, not just Americans, but others, too. Agreeing to this meant that there were some lives that shouldn’t be saved.

  How many innocents had Wei killed? How many children?

  “Look, I know this stuff bothers you, and…I’m glad. I don’t want you to get like me.” Rand peered up at her.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’m not all good, Sarah.”

  “I don’t want to have this conversation.”

  Rand wasn’t the bad guy here. End of story. She couldn’t look at it more closely without losing her nerve.

  “I need to stash you somewhere—not at the Wishing Well house—while I go see a guy.”

  “White? The one Andy mentioned.”

  “Yeah.” Rand sighed.

  “What’s so dangerous about him?”

  “Christ.” Rand rubbed his face, muffling a groan. “Last I heard, he was embedded in a white supremacist group. Not church burners or the lynching kind of biker guys. I’m talking about lobbyists and white-collar types. Believe it or not, those are the ones that scare the shit out of me. He’s an adrenaline, thrill-seeking, fucked-up kind of junkie. I don’t want you anywhere near him if I can help it.”

  “Why him?”

  “Because while Andy can probably find out more about the auction, Noah’s going to be the guy that could get us in. It does us no good to know what’s happening if we can’t get in there and get the case.” Rand leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and glanced up at her.

  “Can’t we just destroy what’s in the case?”

  “That’s not our job.” He shook his head. “Hector wants us to recover it.”

  Sarah wrung her hands together, wishing she could hold onto Rand. “But…”

  “Look, sometimes the job doesn’t make sense. We’re only seeing a small piece of the puzzle.”

  “How could protocols be worth all this?”

  “I’m sorry.” He reached over and took her hand in his. “This is all very confusing for you, and I wish I could be more patient, but we no longer have an inside view to what they might be doing.”

  “We passed a coffee shop. I could hang out there. It was close to the metro.”

  “Think you could hang out for a couple hours?”

  “I could probably use some tea and time to clear my head.” And to come to terms with this new facet of Rand she hadn’t considered before. The man she’d grown up loving was probably a killer. The thought chilled her blood.

  “Come on, I want to get you a burner phone just in case.” Rand took her hand and pulled her to her feet.

  The problem was her idealistic, Captain America, cookie-cutter, good-guy view of what they did. The reality was many more shades of gray. They were only the good guys because this was the side of the fight they were on. Good and bad were perspectives that depended on a person’s world view. She saw what they were doing as good and right because it benefitted the people she loved and cared for.

  If they were Chinese, she was the bad guy.

  Rand could be the man people whispered about in the darkness, afraid they would take his life.

  The world wasn’t black and white. There weren’t good guys and bad ones. What it boiled down to was believing in the cause and having the strength to see it through. Rand had. Could she?

  …

  Wei steered the car out of the lot.

  One of the traps would pull their prey in. But he wasn’t going to sit and wait. They didn’t have that much luxury operating within the States.

  The reinforcements would arrive shortly and things would be put into motion. Once they had the contents of the case, it would become a scramble to sell what intel they could while maximizing what they knew. Which was why every moment spent waiting for Sarah Collins to come to them was another opportunity lost.

  Wei glanced at his phone, confirming the address Ping had messaged him.

  With any luck, Wei could snag the girl and the agent all in one go. If he had to pick, he’d take the girl.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rand strode toward the metro, phone pressed to his ear.

  Do the job.

  That’s what’s most important.

  Lie.

  The thing at the top of his list, since the moment the light hit her face, was Sarah. Nothing else mattered the way she did.

  Would she be at the coffee shop when he came back? Or would the reality of who and what he was make her run from him?

  “What’s on fire?” Hector’s tone missed the usual note of jovial humor.

  “I need to meet with White. Do you know where he is or how I can get in contact with him?”

  Rand glanced in a window, checking his six. No tail. No one following him. He’d round the block a few more times before heading out.

  “I’m supposed to have a face-to-face with him this morning.”

  “Mind if I cut in?” Rand picked up his pace. If he had to be on someone else’s timetable, he had to get a move on.

  “What do you need White for?”

  Rand got Hector up to date on their plans, but left out where they were staying and where Sarah was now. It was time to start treating everyone like the enemy.

  “Fuck. Okay.” Hector sighed. “We put a road block in the hotel case, but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. Probably as long as it takes for the Chinese ambassador to get his foot in with the Secretary of State. Christ, what a mess.”

  “It wasn’t me.”

  “I know. I saw the body.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Whoever did this enjoyed it.”

  And Rand did not relish taking a life. He understood the necessity, but it wasn’t something he wanted to do.

  “How’s Sarah doing?”

  “She’s shaken up, but holding it together.”

  “Good. Make sure she doesn’t contact Irene.”

  “Why?”

  “I only have suspicions…”

  “Tell me.”

  “I’ll tell you when I see you.”

  “I’ll meet you now.”

  They set a spot and hung up. Rand hopped the metro, switched a few lines, circling back, taking a longer route than necessary before hitting the meet spot five minutes late.

  …

  It was time.

  Mitch put one foot in front of the other, his stomach churning.

  The hoops of getting Charlie back to the U.S. and into CIA custody were many and complicated. His estranged half-brother acted as the face of the whole thing, doing the bulk of arrangements to get the body on a cargo plane and lining up a funeral home to receive the remains. Due to the tricky nature of Charlie’s family, none of them wished to
be involved with anything after delivering him to CIA custody, which was good for Mitch. In a way.

  He placed his hand on the plastic bag, the coolness soaking through the glove.

  Charlie was many things. A cold bastard. A quick student. Analytical. Competent in the field. No one could spin plates like Charlie. And now, Mitch was going to have to deny him his final rest. Because there was no way to lay out their plan without incriminating them both.

  It’d begun as a few standard ops going sideways. Then they’d lost an asset. Little things began to add up. Mitch and Charlie had to admit their worst fear, that someone was selling them out. Likely someone from within the company. One of their own.

  Charlie was so deeply imbedded in China that his employee records were some of the most highly classified documents. If someone sold him out, it meant they had the highest clearance level possible.

  Mitch had begun to fear that Charlie would be next. There was no proof they had a leak, only speculation. Without hard evidence they could do nothing to protect Charlie. At least within normal operating procedure.

  Over the years, Mitch had grown to see Charlie as one of his few friends, the people he could trust. He couldn’t let Charlie die in the field, stabbed in the back by a traitor.

  So they’d made a plan. Mitch had taken Charlie’s dental and medical records and swapped them for fakes. If a mole wanted to point someone at Charlie, they’d have nothing but the wrong information on hand. The kicker now was that Mitch couldn’t come clean. He couldn’t tell anyone that the man on that slab was Charlie, despite the records not matching up, without putting himself under the microscope. There was still no proof that they had a leak.

  There was no easy solution.

  Mitch tugged the zipper back.

  The medical examiner had already been over the body. The higher-ups would be buzzing about the lack of definite ID. The groundwork was laid.

  He gulped down a breath and folded the sides of the bag aside—and stared into the face of a stranger.

  That was not Charlie.

  …

  The spot was a stretch of deserted side street with no other pedestrians.

  The hair on the back of Rand’s neck rose.