by Mike Ryan
“He sent me money last week so I guess that’s about as good as I can expect from him.”
“Well, if you ever need help with her, babysitting or whatever, maybe I could help you if you ever need it,” Heather offered shyly, unsure of how it’d be received.
“Aren’t you busy with your job and all? That used to keep you pretty busy.”
“I don’t do that anymore,” Heather responded, her eyes tearing up.
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” she replied, dabbing at her eyes to dry them. “I met this great guy and I got a different job working at a marketing and advertising company.”
“Really?” Cassie asked, surprised.
“Yeah. Decided to finally put my degree to use.”
“That’s great. Really great. I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, so I’ve been doing that for a couple years now. Well, not this past year.”
“Why not? What happened?” Cassie wondered.
“Oh. I was in the hospital for like eight months.”
“Oh wow. Are you OK?”
“Yeah. I was shot and in a coma and unconscious for a while. Almost died, but you know, no big deal,” she said with a laugh, trying not to make a big deal of it. “I’m still here.”
“You were in the hospital for eight months and nobody told me?”
“Once I woke up Matt asked if I wanted him to bring you down but I figured you were busy and had other things to do.”
“I would drop everything to make sure you were OK. So who’s this boyfriend of yours?”
“His name’s Matt. He’s a really great guy,” Heather told her, smiling. “I couldn’t live without him.”
“I can tell you have something special. You smile when you talk about him.”
“Yeah. He’s made my life so much better. He’s made it worth living.”
“So why are you here? Are you in some kind of trouble?” Cassie asked.
“I could really use a place to stay for a day or two if you have the room,” Heather nervously said.
“Uhh, yeah, I have an extra room you can have.”
“I promise I’ll be gone in a couple days.”
“You sound scared. What’s going on?”
“The less you know the better off you are probably,” Heather told her.
“Well if you’re gonna stay here then I think I deserve to know what’s going on,” Cassie stated. “It’s been a long time since we’ve talked like this. Let’s start back up on the right foot.”
Heather sighed and sat down at the kitchen table. “It’s a long story.”
She told Cassie to sit down to listen to it as she explained. Heather started by going back to the first day she met Cain. She remembered every little detail and didn’t leave anything out. Every incident they encountered, every mission she knew he’d been on, their entire relationship, and every bump in the road. She remembered it all and explained it in great detail. By the time Heather was done, Cassie felt like she was there with them for the entire time.
“So your boyfriend is some secret government agent hit man?” Cassie asked.
“I wouldn’t put it quite that way, but I guess you could say that.”
“Leave it to you. This would only happen to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Only you would finally get your life turned around by falling in love with a man who kills people for a living.”
“Hey, he only does that to bad people,” Heather objected. “It’s not like he has fun doing it and knocks off everyone he sees. It’s to protect our country.”
“I guess so,” Cassie replied. “Well, the bedroom’s down the hall to the left. You can stay as long as you like.”
“Thanks. I really owe you.”
“You don’t owe me anything. That’s what family is supposed to be for, right? It’d be nice just to get my sister back,” Cassie told her, wiping her eyes.
“It would,” Heather said, reaching over to hug her sister. “It’s been too long.”
Heather grabbed her backpack and walked down the hall to the bedroom. She felt much better now that she and Cassie had talked. She felt like they would actually have a relationship again. Though she was happy about how things went with her sister, she was worried about Cain. She wished she was still with him. If he was caught, or worse, how would she know? It would just be covered up and she’d never know what was going on with him. All she wanted to do at that moment was to call him on the phone and talk to him to make sure he was OK. Heather sat on the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands and started to cry. The severity of everything was beginning to overwhelm her. Cassie walked in to see if Heather needed anything else and felt bad that her sister was crying. She took a seat next to Heather and put her arm around her to comfort her.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Cassie said to reassure her.
“I just feel lost without him right now,” Heather sniffled. “I don’t know what to do.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Cassie responded, putting Heather’s head on her shoulder.
New Jersey—Cain was contemplating their next move as he let Falk try to make sense of the information for his story. Cain took a shower and had just come out when he saw Falk fiddling with his phone, putting it down as soon as Cain appeared.
“What were you just doing?” Cain asked.
“What? Nothing.”
“I just saw you using your phone.”
“Oh, that? I was just sending my boss a message,” Falk replied. “He was wondering where I was so I told him I was working on an explosive story.”
“How many messages?” Cain asked, looking deeply concerned.
“I don’t know. He sent two and I sent two.”
Cain started moving quickly to gather his things causing Falk to wonder what was wrong.
“What are you doing?” Falk asked.
“We gotta go.”
“What? Why?”
“They’ll get a beat on your phone and track down what cell towers your messages came from. That’ll eventually lead them to here,” Cain answered.
“Oh my God, I had no idea.”
“I told you to stay off the phone.”
“I thought you just meant phone calls. I didn’t know they could trace texts!”
“Get your stuff together.”
“Are you gonna call Mike again?” Falk wondered.
“No. We only used him twice so if they find him he’s probably safe if he sticks to the story. If we use him any more than that then they’ll probably assume he’s thrown in with us which’ll put him in danger.”
“So what’re we gonna do?”
“Stay here. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Where are you going?”
“Gonna steal a car,” Cain replied.
Cain returned ten minutes later with a two year old silver Honda Civic.
“Couldn’t have found something sportier, like a Porsche or Camaro or something?” Falk joked.
“The goal is to blend in. Not stick out.”
“So where are we gonna go?”
Cain took a minute to think before answering. “Rochester.”
“What’s there?” Falk wondered.
“Someone I need to help.”
“There’s more people out there?”
Cain couldn’t help but think that Heather was in an increasing amount of danger. He thought she’d have some time before they turned their attention toward her but what if he was wrong? If they went after her right away he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. She shouldn’t have been out there left to fend for herself anyway. He got her into it and he’d get her out. Thoughts of his wife and son crept into his mind as he wondered about them. He had ideas about going to see them but quickly realized this probably wasn’t the best time to be doing that. The last thing he wanted to do was put more people in danger. It was a six hour drive from New Jersey to Rochester. Cain hoped he wouldn’t be too late. He got ou
t his phone to make sure she was at her sister’s and to let her know he was coming so she’d expect him.
Heather was helping Cassie clean the house. She figured it would help pass the time, plus she felt like she should help do something since her sister was letting her stay there. Heather was in the kitchen cleaning dishes when she heard her phone ring. She rushed out to the living room, drying her hands on her shirt on the way. She was so focused on the phone, which laid on an end table, she almost tripped on a couple boxes and some baby toys that were on the floor. She saw it was a number not in her phonebook and knew, or hoped, that it was Cain.
“Hello,” she eagerly answered.
“Hey. It’s me,” Cain replied.
“Thank God. I’ve been so worried about you.”
“No need to worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“So what’s going on?” Heather wondered.
“Are you at your sister’s?”
“Yeah.”
“OK. Stay there. I’m on my way.”
“When will you get here?” she asked.
“I’m about six hours away.”
“Six hours? Where are you?”
“New Jersey.”
“What are you doing there?”
“I’ve got the reporter Heyward was working with. Was gonna stay low for a bit but it didn’t work out.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re coming. I miss you,” Heather told him.
“Don’t answer the door for anyone until I get there.”
“I won’t. Won’t even get close. I’m not gonna make that mistake again.”
“If anyone does come and they get in, you know what to do,” Cain said.
“Two in the chest and one in the head.”
“You got it.”
As soon as Heather put the phone down she went back into the kitchen to finish the dishes and talk to Cassie.
“Matt’s on his way,” Heather said.
“Well that’s good.”
“Yeah, he’ll be here in about six hours he said.”
The two continued cleaning for a while, trying to get the house in order. Once Cassie got Emma to lay down for her nap the two sisters sat down to watch a movie.
“Remember when we used to sit in your room and watch movies together?” Cassie asked.
“Yeah. I miss those days.”
“I guess high school couldn’t last forever.”
“I guess not.”
“So when Matt gets here what are you guys gonna do?” Cassie wondered.
“I don’t know. Whatever he thinks is best I suppose.”
“Well, if you leave right away when he comes, or…” she said, stumbling over the right words. “What I’m trying to say is if you do leave, I don’t want another five years to go by without seeing or talking to you.”
“We won’t. I promise,” Heather replied with a smile. “Whatever our differences were before were silly and stupid and shouldn’t have driven us away like it did. That’s not gonna happen again. I wanna be a part of your life. And Emma…I wanna be part of hers. I want to be the best aunt ever.”
“You’ll be great. She’s gonna love you.”
New York—Ed Sanders had stepped out of The Room for a few minutes to get a cup of coffee and clear his head. Whenever he felt the tension of his job was getting the better of him he’d go sit down with a cup of coffee and try to find a peaceful setting to relax. It worked as well as it usually did and once he began to feel better he went back to The Room to get a beat on Cain. As soon as he walked in, an analyst informed him of the breaking developments.
“Sir, we got a hit on the reporter’s phone. He sent and received some messages to his editor at the paper.”
“Were you able to trace it to his location?” Sanders asked.
“It comes back to a tower in New Jersey.”
“Most likely is a decoy. Cain’s too smart to get tripped up by something like that.”
“Unless he didn’t know Falk used the phone.”
“Get some people out there just in case but he’s probably gone by now,” Sanders dejectedly said. “Did you try that number Cain used before to see if he used it any other times?”
“We did. It’s no use though. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” the analyst told him. “One minute it traces to Los Angeles, the next Miami, the next Chicago, the next Beirut, then Paris, it just goes around in circles with fifty different locations. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“We’re going to have to change tactics,” Sanders stated.
“How so?”
“Cain’s too smart and too good. He’s using an untraceable phone number, he’s withdrawn his bank account so he’s got unlimited resources, and he knows how we operate. He could stay a step ahead of us for a long time.”
“What else could we do?”
“Go after the only thing that matters to him,” Sanders replied, staring at a monitor.
“Which is what?”
“His girlfriend. He won’t sacrifice her. He’s proved it and told me that himself. We get her. And we get him.”
“Any ideas on where to start?”
“The first place you usually start. Family.”
They ran the background check on Heather and within five minutes found the only family she had, her sister.
“Cassidy Fleming. Married for three years, one daughter, lives in Rochester,” an analyst stated.
“What’s the husband do?” Sanders asked.
“David Fleming…works in construction. Nothing to worry about.”
“Good. Who do we have that’s near there?”
“Closest agents we have are about an hour away,” the analyst replied, checking the computer.
“Send them over and check the place out.”
“And if they find her?”
“Heather Lloyd is to be brought in alive. We need her to set the trap for Cain,” Sanders said.
“And her sister?”
“If Heather’s there, we don’t need any witnesses. Eliminate the rest of them.”
“And the child?”
“Same policy as always. Nobody is left behind that could cause a problem in ten or twenty years,” Sanders coldly explained.
Sanders then left the room and went to his office to do some paperwork while he waited for word from the agents dispatched. Once an hour went by and the agents arrived at Cassie’s house, Sanders went back to The Room to oversee everything. They finally got word from the agents sent to New Jersey, who finally were able to track Cain and Falk to the motel they were in.
“They’re five or six hours ahead of us,” Sanders stated with a shake of his head.
“Agent James and McNabb are in position,” an analyst said.
“Tell them to move in when they’re ready.”
Rochester—Cassie had just put the outside light on when she caught a glimpse of something across the street. The lights of a car driving by revealed two men sitting in a dark car sitting across from the house. Frightened, she retreated into the living room where Heather was reading a magazine.
“I think someone’s here,” Cassie hurriedly said.
“What?”
“Someone’s sitting in a car across the street.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Heather looked at the time. Nine o’clock. She didn’t expect Cain for probably another hour. One thing was for sure, nobody would have a reason for being there at that time of night unless they had bad intentions. She got up to look for herself, peering through the curtains. She did see a car sitting across the street, but wasn’t ready to jump to the conclusion that they were there for them.
“Maybe it’s someone that lives across the street waiting to go in or something. Maybe had a date or something,” Heather stated calmly.
“The only person that lives over there is a seventy four year old woman. I don’t think she’s done any dating recently,” Cassie dryly joked.
They kept watching out the win
dow for a few more minutes until their worst fears were realized. They saw two men get out of the car and start walking toward the house. They paired off as one approached the front door while the other appeared to be going around the back.
“Oh my God, what are we gonna do?!” Cassie yelled, freaking out.
“Calm down!” Heather replied, grabbing her sister’s arms. “Go to Emma’s room and lock the door. Get your phone and call 911.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Hold them off until the police come.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Just go! Emma’s the first priority. Keep her safe,” Heather told her.
Heather ran to her room and went into her backpack and pulled out her gun. She ran back to the living room, breathing heavily, hoping Cassie called the police. She had no delusions about being better than a couple of professional agents; she just hoped to be able to hold them off long enough for help to arrive. There was a knock on the door as Heather stood beside it. She learned her lesson from the last time she stood in front of a door. She wasn’t gonna make that mistake again. The man knocked on the door again.
“Hello?” the man said.
“What do you want?” Heather replied.
“I’m looking for David Fleming.”
“What do you want him for?”
“I’m a friend of his. I really need to talk to him.”
“He’s sleeping right now.”
“I really need to talk to him. I just had a fight with my wife and she left me and I don’t know what else to do. I could really use someone to talk to,” the man said.
“Leave your number and I’ll have him call you when he wakes up.”
“Is he here? I don’t see his car in the driveway.”
“It’s in the shop.”
“Are you Cassidy?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“He talks about you all the time about how much he loves you,” the man lied.