Undercover Soldier

by Linda O. Johnston

  But Miles would undoubtedly believe he had finally penetrated her female defenses and that she was, at last, attracted to him.

  Poor Miles.

  No man could compete, in mind, and certainly not in body, with Brody-Jim-Bill.

  Especially not this soon after their last, utterly amazing, physical exercises. The memories even now, while she was hard at work, started heating and swirling inside her, and she let them. Too bad it hadn’t been romantic bonding, as well.

  But even if they finally found the criminals and Brody was able to—

  What was that?

  Sherra stared at the screen. The great, amazing and altogether exciting thing, the thing that proved her incredible capabilities on the internet, was that she had finally gotten past what appeared to be the last obstacle preventing her from reading all AFD email in their entire system.

  The scary thing was what she’d found.

  She plugged in her thumb drive to copy the most important correspondence she had located.

  Maybe she wouldn’t hang out with Miles that night after all.

  She hadn’t planned on getting together again with Brody, but he needed to see this. She pulled her phone out of her purse and turned it on, then dialed Brody’s number.

  “Where are you?” he demanded without even saying hello.

  “Hi to you, too.” But she didn’t want to act too cute. “Brody, I did get into that…information you were looking for. There’s something you need to see. I can’t just tell you about it because you’ll want verification. But—”

  “Where are you?” he asked again.

  “At my business office.” Was it okay to say that? What if someone was listening? She didn’t intend to stay here long, but if anyone who shouldn’t have had heard what she’d said and interpreted it correctly, she could be toast if they found her.

  “Good. I’m just walking up to the security desk. Tell the guys there that I’m okay to come upstairs.”

  * * *

  Damn.

  Brody had learned through hard experience to be leery, but this was one situation that he’d had not even an inkling of suspicion about. Especially not after all he’d gone through when recruited for this undercover work, when he’d trusted no one, not without proof of reliability.

  “Tell me how you got this.” He sat on a hard-backed chair beside Sherra in her tiny CMHealthfoods office, looking over her shoulder toward her computer.

  The expression on her lovely face was wry as she glanced sideways toward him, and no wonder.

  She pushed her straight black hair behind her ear and squinted at the screen as if trying to see past it into the intricacies of the internet. She pursed her full lips in a manner so unconsciously sexy that it made his body react, then she turned back to him. “If you were a techie, I’d explain. But it was pretty complicated to ease my way through the really tight security system in place at AFD—and the fact that it was enhanced because of its Department of Defense contacts made it even dicier.” She kept her voice low, even though they were behind closed doors in her tiny office. He appreciated that, for her protection as well as his.

  Her coworkers—and bosses—didn’t need to know she’d been working on non-CMHealthfoods business on what was supposed to be company time.

  Especially because the type of online research she’d been conducting could jeopardize the whole company if CMHealthfoods was discovered as the source of a leak.

  He wanted to hug her for her courage and her intelligence and her apparent success, even as he wanted to punch out the person she had outed with her efforts.

  “You’re sure about this?”

  “I can’t guarantee one hundred percent accuracy,” she snapped back. “But if you trust me, you’ll trust this. The way I got to it was close to foolproof, and I really stuck my neck out. If anyone ever traces it back to me, I could wind up in federal prison for the next millennium. But you know that. You’ve threatened me with it enough.” Her voice had dropped to a frightened whisper.

  “That won’t happen,” Brody assured her. “I’ve got contacts who’ll be very interested in seeing this. Can you copy it?”

  She nodded. “Onto the flash drive.” She pointed to one that was already connected to her computer.

  “Good. Go ahead, then you and I have someplace to go.”

  She shook her head. “Yes to the first part, but now that I’m here I have to do some real work. I want to come back to my job when this is all over.” She paused. “Assuming I’m not in that permanent lockup.”

  She typed on the keyboard for a few seconds, and he could see on the screen that she was uploading what was there onto the flash drive.

  Good.

  What she had found changed everything. Or at least everything concerning him, and his assignment, and what he should do next.

  The information staring at him from the computer screen showed a bunch of emails from the highest execs at All For Defense. These particular ones were all about projects in Afghanistan.

  The projects he had been looking into while he was there, before he had been “killed.”

  As he had suspected, the roadside bomb that had gotten the other Brody instead had, in fact, been intended for him, Brody McAndrews.

  The people at AFD knew he’d uncovered enough irregularities in those projects to indicate a lot of shoddy workmanship at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

  Worse, AFD’s poor showing was known within the Department of Defense. Condoned by it. Not by everyone, of course, but by those who’d been bribed to look the other way.

  All that had been within Brody’s suspicions. What he’d needed to do was to prove it, and these emails would finally do that. His undercover work here, in the States, for AFD, might actually be drawing to a close.

  The problem was, he needed to determine how to handle what he’d learned. What he now could prove.

  He was used, in the military, to going up the chain of command. It was what had been drilled into him.

  But what was on the damned screen, in the emails that Sherra had uncovered, was a significant person within the DOD who’d been accepting bribes and hiding the truth. The one who’d been so afraid of being found out that he had manipulated Brody’s intended death. And then, he had helped to set things up to hide which Brody had actually been killed so the survivor could go undercover to ostensibly learn the truth.

  While being manipulated every step of the way.

  The Army Corps of Engineers? Hell, maybe they were involved, too, as Brody had originally believed—and been told. But these indicated that the highly vetted government contracts arm of the Department of Defense hadn’t been so highly—or accurately—vetted after all.

  Over these weeks, Brody had considered many scenarios, many possible perpetrators who’d been behind the explosion meant to kill him. But one person he had eliminated each time his possible involvement had come to mind, particularly thanks to his trust in the government contracts arm of the DOD, was the one who’d been guilty after all.

  It was Brody’s commanding officer, Captain Michael Cortez.

  Chapter 19

  The steakhouse where they were to meet Ragar was, like last time, in Crystal City, Virginia, not far from the Pentagon and within the underground shopping and restaurant area.

  Now, Brody and she sat at a corner table in the dimly lit establishment, waiting. Again. This place held the aroma of well-broiled steaks and there were softly burning candles on each table.

  “You’re sure you can still trust Ragar?” Sherra whispered. Brody was clearly upset that one of the people he had trusted, his superior officer, had been outed as an enemy.

  Brody shrugged. “I think so, but who knows? I’d no reason to mistrust Cortez—none I was aware of. Till now.”

  “Ragar apparently didn’t
know the truth about the false Andrews family when we met with him before,” Sherra reminded him. “That might be in his favor.”

  “Right. And he’s now actively involved in their prosecution. As he will be with Michael’s, I’m sure.”

  “Then we can trust him?” Sherra asked in confirmation.

  “Sure. For now. There he is.”

  Brody nodded his head toward the door, where Ragar, tall, thin and again dressed in a suit, had just walked in and was leaning down to speak with the maître d’. The greeter must have told him where to find them, since he turned and strode between the mostly occupied seats toward them.

  Brody stood immediately. He was still dressed in his button-down shirt and slacks, but again wore no jacket or tie to meet this more formally dressed man.

  Even so, Sherra felt terribly underdressed in her casual gray slacks and black knit top.

  Once more, Ragar shook hands quickly. “Hello, Ms. Alexander. McAndrews.”

  Sherra smiled wryly as she sat back down. The two men were already engaged in conversation, practically ignoring her.

  They kept their voices low, but Sherra heard Captain Michael Cortez’s name mentioned, then hers. Brody nodded toward her, and Ragar glanced in her direction. “I was aware that you were looking into matters online before, and breaking into sites that didn’t concern you, Ms. Alexander, but Brody is such an integral part of our operation that we allowed him to deal with you and get you to stop. Good thing he decided to use your services instead. It appears you’ve turned into an asset—assuming that what you found is true and Captain Cortez is playing the role of a double agent.”

  The server came to take their drink orders, seconded by an assistant who put a basket of rolls on the table. Ragar and Brody ordered gin and tonics. Sherra decided on a glass of beer.

  When the server had left again, Sherra discovered that Ragar’s eyes, light blue and glowing in the candlelight, were once more focused on her. She didn’t remember any question pending, but his expression suggested he was studying her for an answer. She smiled faintly, not at him but at her own hand as she picked up a roll and a pat of butter.

  “Brody explained in general how you learned about our possible traitor, Sherra, but I’d like to hear it from you.” He’d used her name for the first time. Did that mean he finally trusted her?

  But possible traitor? “I’ll tell you some of it, John. What I found made it clear that emails were going back and forth from the executives at All For Defense and Michael Cortez, and they weren’t just talking about the weather. There’s obvious corruption going on there, and worse. The AFD guys were looking to continue making a fortune from the U.S. and were willing to pay a percentage of it to someone who could help throw business their way. They were also willing to protect him along with their own shady operations.” Sherra glared at Brody. Hadn’t he already passed this along to Ragar?

  “You already know from our previous discussions, John, how good and dedicated—and accurate—Sherra can be on the computer,” Brody said. His tone was placating, but his expression harbored no doubt as he regarded his boss with a hard expression in his amber eyes.

  Which stoked Sherra’s feelings of warmth. He was sticking up for her. Protecting her, in a way. Making it clear to this high-ranking civilian that he believed in her.

  “I don’t dispute that,” Ragar said. “And I have some agents I trust looking into these allegations, and into everything Cortez has been doing over the past year or so. But he’s a member of our team.”

  And Sherra wasn’t. That was his implication. In fact, she had been a thorn in their side ever since she started trying to learn the truth about Brody.

  She doubted Ragar liked her much. She didn’t care—but she didn’t necessarily want to stay on his bad side. That could be harmful to Brody. Not to mention her, if he wanted to roll the weight of the government against her.

  “I understand how you want to be sure,” she said. “I know Brody trusted the man. In some ways, I’d like to be wrong.” But she knew she wasn’t.

  Not unless Captain Michel Cortez was being framed by someone… .

  That possibility had entered her mind before. This man could certainly ferret out the reality. But if Cortez was being framed, who might be doing it? The why was obvious: to protect him or herself.

  Their dinner was served, and for a while Sherra ate small bites of steak as if she had an appetite, and eavesdropped as the men spoke about what Brody had been doing, and all he had learned, at AFD.

  At first she felt good about it, as if she had finally been accepted by Ragar.

  But then she began to wonder. As she listened to Ragar discuss who at AFD was undermining the work being done by the company for the U.S., and how Brody could prove it, she was struck by his quiet and composure and acceptance.

  As if he was humoring Brody.

  What if he disagreed but wasn’t about to let his underling on the front lines know about it?

  The underling who might be in danger if all wasn’t as he now believed.

  Did Ragar know more about Cortez than he was letting on?

  What if Brody’s lukewarm response when Sherra asked if he still trusted Ragar was right? Could Ragar be conspiring with Cortez?

  Framing him?

  Or was Sherra simply paranoid because of all she’d been through? They’d been through?

  But in case this man was picking Brody’s brain in order to explode it, and him, for real this time, Sherra knew she had more research to do.

  She glanced at Brody. He must have felt her gaze, since he also looked at her. There was a caring look in his eyes. And a quizzical one, as if he wondered what she was thinking.

  And damned sexy, even if this wasn’t the time or place to think about that.

  Or how it would feel if she was wrong and he got so mad that he never wanted to make love with her again.

  * * *

  Brody accompanied Ragar, edging between tables toward the sign indicating the restrooms’ location. But taking a leak clearly wasn’t on the man’s mind.

  He obviously wanted to go somewhere to talk to Brody without Sherra’s presence.

  Which was fine with Brody. She’d been a huge help. Definitely a valuable asset despite the initial problems she had caused for him.

  But what she had found changed a lot for Brody. Even with Ragar’s backing, protecting her might be a lot dicier now, especially if anyone even hinted to Captain Cortez why he was now under suspicion of murder and bribery. He undoubtedly had allies—unidentified and potentially dangerous. Only in the government? At AFD? Most likely both.

  Brody would sound out Ragar, see what kind of help he’d provide. If any. Right now, Brody wasn’t inclined to rely on anyone. Let alone trust them.

  “Okay,” Ragar said quietly. They were at the far end of the hall where the restrooms were located, near an exit door. “We need to set a trap for Captain Cortez. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Ms. Alexander, but so far what she’s supposedly learned by her hacking—even with all those email messages she’s downloaded—I’ve had some guys looking into it, and it smells. Not that I’m blaming her.” He held up his hand, and Brody realized his protectiveness of Sherra must be written in his expression. “But she’s found what someone might have wanted to be found. We may be able to use her assistance to figure it out, but I don’t want her to know about it.”

  That was the opposite of what Brody wanted to hear. He intended to get Sherra out of the middle of all that was going on, as quickly as possible. “I think it would be better if we sent her to a new safe house, without her computer. If Cortez, or whoever is behind framing him, figures out that she was the source of the information, she may not survive it this time. She’s a civilian, and she’s outlived her usefulness to us. Let’s just get her out of it.”

  “I’l
l consider that,” Ragar said. “But this operation is taking a lot longer than I wanted it to.” He glared at Brody, obviously blaming him. “She at least set us on a trail that might finally end it.” He paused. “Although I’ll want her to keep quiet about that. For our ongoing security and future effectiveness, I’ll want to deal with our own ineptitudes without letting our team members know they were outsmarted by someone who had no business being involved at all.”

  Brody caught himself before he smiled. He’d have some leverage here to protect Sherra. “That should work. But for now, I want to be at AFD while this plays out. I want to see the execs there squirm, and what they squirm over, as Cortez’s possible treason is revealed.”

  “Fair enough. I’ll work out a new safe house for Ms. Alexander. In fact, I’ve got someplace in mind, and a couple of highly trusted members of the military police to protect her. Your buddy Roy Bradshaw, by the way, is in custody being interrogated. He may be a resource for figuring out the truth about Captain Cortez. For now, though, excuse me for a few minutes.” He nodded toward the restroom door.

  Brody headed back toward the restaurant area. But when he reached the end of the hall and glanced toward the table, Sherra was gone.

  * * *

  They’d gone to the little boys’ room for some male bonding—or quiet and covert conversation—without her. Fine. Sherra got that.

  But she was edgy. Irritated. Wanted answers and closure soon.

  That was what made her decide to do something that was probably pretty foolish. But if it led to helpful results…well, why not? She’d be careful.

  She had gone to the ladies’ room shortly after the guys left. Because they hadn’t yet paid, she had reassured the waiter that the men in her party had just gone to the men’s room. Then she told him she, too, needed to use the facilities. That was obviously more information than he wanted to know, but he had just nodded.

  She hadn’t spent more than a minute inside the room. Instead, she scoped the area out. A door to the rear hallway was next door. She peeked out there, then stood watching the men’s room door from the shadowy entry.