“That was you.”
She nodded. “Yes it was me. I was one of the few. But you took it to another level.”
“Not by choice.”
“Precisely and that’s why I don’t like that you’re being pushed so hard, so fast.”
“I can’t handle it. I feel fine.” He mostly did.
“That’s what worries me. Those little spells you’re having are bothering me. I’m not sure what they mean.”
Jordan pulled into the parking lot of the small ten-dock marina and eyed the boat. “That’s the boat they got for Murt?”
Kayci undid her seatbelt and nodded her head towards the largest boat bobbing at the closest single-rail dock. “I want to keep a low profile. I don’t need the FBI getting all up in my face over this. We’re way early. I don’t imagine anyone from the feds is here yet.”
“Do you think Agent Rumi told anyone we’re helping again?”
“No, he won’t break protocol. He’ll follow orders. The DRC agents all work in anonymity, we don’t want anyone to know what we’re doing or when. In this case, the FBI doesn’t really want us here, at least that’s how their agency head is going to play it. We’re like the loose cannons and that’s why the commissioners love us. They can just say we were operating outside of their knowledge.”
“Oh so now I get it. It’s pure plausible deniability for the department heads.”
“That’s right. We’re the bad guys so they don’t have to be. We protect careers politically and in the public eye if needed. And no one will know where or when we might pop up.”
“Amazingly simple. What’re you planning on doing?”
Kayci shrugged. “I want to get Murt to give up. If I can get into his head, I should be able to get him to let the girl go at the very least. I just want to get her away from him so the snipers can get a shot because I’m sure he will be using her as a shield.”
As they got out of the car and walked towards the dock, two FBI agents appeared from around the corner of the two-story red marina building. “Damn,” Kayci uttered. “I didn’t expect they’d be here already.”
The taller of the two men held up his hand. “Sorry folks, this area is about to be shut down, official police matter.”
Kayci showed her ID. “Agent Dewitt, NSA. I’m aware of the operation.”
The shorter blond agent tilted his head and looked closer at the chrome card in her identification wallet. “Dewitt? That says Taylor.”
Kayci twisted the badge and looked at it in surprise. “Yeah, I’m sorry, Taylor. I, umm, just went back to my maiden name and forgot. You know how it is.”
“Why is the NSA interested in this? On whose authority are you here? This is an FBI matter. And that’s not like the NSA badges I’ve ever seen.”
She pointed to the card. “I’m with the DRC.”
The taller dark haired agent narrowed his eyes and looked at the card closer. “Oh, okay Special Agent Taylor.” The two agents stepped aside to let Kayci pass. “Carry on.”
“Wow,” Jordan said after they walked away. “Just like that.”
“I told you, the DRC is no joke.”
“Why does your badge say Taylor?”
Kayci shook her head. “Yeah, umm…that’s bizarre. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that.”
“Why did you stop using Taylor in the first place?” They headed into the tall building and started up the steps.
She sighed. “It was my aunt’s idea. She said it would be easier to get things done if they officially adopted me. Since, at that time, I thought both my parents were dead anyway it made sense to just take the name Dewitt. It was easier than having to explain all the time why I had a different name than the people I lived with.”
“And now?”
“Now, I guess I’m Kayci Taylor again as far as the DRC goes.”
“But why would they use that name all of a sudden?”
She met his eyes, and then looked away to the ocean beyond the docks. “That’s a very—very good question.”
Chapter 11
Kayci tried to get her mind clear as Murt’s ETA grew near. The problem was that she couldn’t stop going back to the fact her DRC identification said Taylor. Her father was dead, again, there couldn’t be another mystery parent somewhere in the NSA looking out for her. Cayden was an only child as far as she knew, so there couldn’t be an uncle. Her mother’s family was never in the intelligence business.
Obviously, someone knew who she was. The only person she had some inkling to suspect was Oscar Barden, her very first handler when she got into the NSA after getting kicked out of the police academy. He was Senator Barden now in California, but that was a long shot. He didn’t owe her anything. He was a nice man and he retired from active duty after a twenty-five year career to get into politics. However, he didn’t know her as Kayci Taylor. No one had since she was a teenager. The fact that Cayden was her father was now widely known, so the connection to Taylor was there, so perhaps it was just a glitch. Whoever had done her ID might have just gotten the wrong name. Of course, that lie wasn’t holding water. There was no way such a mistake was made on identification like that. This was deliberate by whoever had set this all up.
With a final shake of her head, she balled her hands into tight fists and tried to concentrate. She’d locked onto Murt’s frequency earlier from farther away so this should be simple. Getting in there and making some strong suggestions should be child’s play on a frazzled mind like his. But it wasn’t happening. And not only wasn’t it happening it really wasn’t happening. She opened her eyes and looked at Jordan sitting across from her. “I can’t get in.”
“Maybe he’s not close enough. What if I try and boost your signal, will that help?”
“No, it’s not a matter of power, we’re close enough and I know his signature. It’s like his signal is full, and jittery, or it’s changed. I grab at it and it kind of modulates.”
“And that’s not a normal reaction to all the stress?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not normal at all. Usually it’s just the opposite. A strong outside signal will actually smooth the line of a weaker one. I seem to be blowing it up. It’s like the signal is stressed beyond its ability to stay together and one more…” She stopped. “Wait, maybe that’s it?”
“What’s it?”
“I’m not sure yet but I have seen something similar once. When too many signals get into one frequency bandwidth it can’t stay together and it starts to break up. And this one is breaking up.”
“Huh, that’s kinda weird.”
“What is?”
“The guy from the mall…the one with the bomb, I tried to lock onto his signal and it did the same thing it kinda broke up. It like, swelled and burst.”
“Okay, that’s it. This is the same hacker. I know this whole mess is connected now, I’m certain of it. And whoever it is has a very powerful signal to overwhelm a frequency like that. There should be much more stretch bandwidth than that. It should be no problem getting two or three signals on one bandwidth.”
Jordan scratched his head. “But how? I mean on what level is it connected?”
“I don’t know. But I think the hijacker from the shootings, is also hijacking Murt. And whoever they are, they’re powerful.”
“But, to what end? Why kidnap a little girl?” Jordan huffed. “What sense does that make?”
He had a good point. “I don’t know. We thought Murt was trying to get revenge on Evan Hill, but clearly it’s not Murt who wants revenge on Hill, it’s someone else. Maybe someone Hill put away is a psychic, or maybe he’s barking up the wrong tree with an investigation. We need to talk to him and we need to get that list.”
They looked out the window of the marina and saw the mass of police cars, escorting the white van down to the docks. “It’s Murt.” Kayci said as the convoy stopped to allow the white van to pull up ahead.
“This is round two for these guys, so they’re going to be itchy. Be careful.” Ka
yci said. “Once I can see him and can look him in the eyes I think I can take him out no matter what outside force is acting on his brain. I can blow the other signal out of the water and that alone should bring him down.”
They ran down the steps of the marina and into the parking lot where uniform officers and FBI agents stood, guns drawn.
Murt and a woman climbed out of the van. The woman with short blonde hair was holding a gun against Bella Hill’s head. They were hugging the girl close, allowing no sniper to get a shot without risking a horrible outcome in this stiff ocean breeze.
“Back off!” Murt yelled as he looked around frantically.
Kayci stepped up past the wall of cops and one grabbed her arm. “Hey, what’re you doing?” He asked.
She showed him her ID. “I’m NSA,” she said sternly.
The cop looked to the FBI agent to his right and the agent shrugged and waived Kayci and Jordan through the wall of agents.
There was a strange silence inside the circle as the sun ducked behind a cloud. Everything Kayci felt about this moment was all wrong but she had to push through. She looked to Jordan who nodded back.
Murt twisted his head and looked at Kayci. “Back the fuck up! Are you deaf?”
“I’m not backing up, Peter.” Kayci noticed he wasn’t twitching. Maybe she was wrong in thinking the same hijacker was at work here.
He firmed his lips. “Screw you FBI bitch. I’m not going back to jail—back—back—back to jail.”
Jordan stepped up to the couple. “Hey,” He said to the girl. “What’s your name?”
She threw her blonde hair off her face. “I’ll kill her.” She pressed the gun against Bella’s head.
Jordan shook his head. “No, you don’t want to kill her.”
“Like hell, I’ll do it!”
“No, you won’t, you can’t—because you don’t want to die for him.” He pointed to Murt. “Look at him, he’s ugly, rude, he’s a killer.” He sniffed hard. “Ugh, and he smells pretty bad.”
Kayci wanted to jump back in, but Jordan was doing something. She had to trust him. He was once again breaking the rules of mind war but that’s how he did his best work. Picking up on what he was doing, she tried to take advantage of his distraction because whatever it was, it was working.
Jordan tilted his head and looked at her. “What’s your name?”
The woman’s face softened as she looked at Jordan. “Andi, my name is Andi.”
Jordan stepped closer to her. “Andi, you have the gun. I don’t have a gun. I hate guns. You control this situation, you, not him. He doesn’t love you. You don’t want to die for him.”
Andi matched his head-tilt. “Are you a cop?”
“No, I’m an auto mechanic. I just fix cars.”
She smiled. “I love cars.”
“I know. What’s your favorite car?”
She smiled. “Ferrari, a red Ferrari.”
“Great choice, they’re fine vehicles.”
She shook her head. “You’re lying, why would you be here?”
“I’m not lying. I really am an auto technician.”
“Prove it, tell me something about cars.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Umm…what’s that thing called, on the front wheel that turns the wheels, like the front drive shaft? I had to replace it on my Honda.”
“You mean the C-V joint?”
“Yeah—yeah I had to replace that last month.”
“Can be expensive.”
“It was. It was expensive. Okay, tell me something else. I also had to replace this thing it was like making my car run crappy, some kind of sensor with the air flow.”
“Sounds like it could be the mass airflow sensor.”
“Yeah—yeah that’s it.” She smiled at him and nodded. “You really are a mechanic.”
“Yes I am.”
“Why are you here?”
“For you. I came to help you get out of this. I’m good with people, I understand people in trouble like you.”
Andi smiled, “Yeah, I like you, you’re nice.”
Kayci glanced at Murt, he was just standing there behind Bella, oddly looking at this conversation like he wasn’t even here.
Jordan continued, “You’re better than all this Andi. You don’t want to throw your life away for him. You can still get out of this.”
Murt came back to the scene and smacked the back of Andi’s head. “Hey,” He pulled her face close to him. “What the hell’s wrong with you, get it together.”
Jordan stepped even closer to Andi. “What if I told you, Andi, that nothing you’re feeling is real right now? If I told you, reality was falling apart around you and everything you think you know about the world is fake. What would you say to that?”
She looked at him, confusion played at the corners of her face. “What?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy right? But you know it. This is all a fantasy created by him with an outcome that can’t possibly be the one you think. But you can control it all, you can let that little girl go, so simple, so easy and the world will snap back to everything good you’ve ever known.”
“What’re you saying?”
“I’m talking about the good times, Andi, before you went wrong, before you stole that car with your friends, before your neighbor did what he did to you that late night at the pool. You had a good life once, Andi, fun and carefree. You can have it all again. Don’t you want it?”
Andi nodded, a smile curled into her lips as her grip on Bella loosened, and the grip on the gun started to slip.
In a flash Murt ripped the gun from Andi’s hand and shot her in the head. There were a wild few moments of chaos, and Murt managed to grab Bella by her honey brown locks. He pulled her in front of him and put the gun to her head.
Everyone froze for a moment. “No—no—nothing’s changed,” he said. “I want the boat—the boat—the boat, and I want out of here—out of here—here.”
Kayci could see the mind war going on between Jordan and Murt, she was a bit transfixed by what he was doing but now with Andi dead, it wasn’t going to work. She used everything she had to get into Murt’s frequency but Jordan was already there. Maybe it did work after all. She tried to aid him, double-teaming the frequency that was clearly interfering but it was blowing up with every attempt.
Jordan walked slowly towards Murt who backed up, he looked afraid. Jordan said with a smile, “I know, Pete, I know. It’s all wrong, you didn’t mean to shoot Andi. You loved her.”
Murt shook his head as the twitches and ticks suddenly started in earnest. “No, it was—I was. I can’t, it happened so fast—so fast—fast.”
“You want to shoot me, don’t you, but you can’t do it. You can feel your fingers on the gun, can’t you, they’re straining. On one hand, they want to betray you and drop the gun and on the other, you want to shoot me dead. There’s something in your head that’s not right. But, you’re not a killer, are you.”
“No, I’m not, I never killed that girl, I never killed that girl. I told them, told them—told them—told them—them.”
“I know you told them. But they didn’t listen.”
Murt started to shake, he screamed out, swinging the gun at the crowd and back to Bella. He cried with a moan and his grip of Bella went slack. Jordan bolted into Murt with his elbow driving into Murt’s face, he broke the grip and Bella sprinted away into the waiting arms of the nearest police officer.
The FBI and cops started to converge on Murt until Jordan stopped them. “No!” He yelled while struggling with Murt for control of the gun. “Back up.”
Murt was bigger, and stronger, Jordan put his hand on his head and then Murt punched him in the face, he staggered back and Murt put the gun on him but he didn’t shoot.
Kayci jumped in between Jordan and the onrush. “NSA, official business, please just give us one moment.”
Murt dropped to his knees in tears. “Why?” He smacked himself in the head with the revolver.
Jordan squatted in front of him. “Drop the gun, Pete.”
Murt raised the gun put it to his temple. “I can’t.”
“You can, Pete, we can work this out.”
“No, it’s too late, I can’t think anymore, I’m tired, so tired.”
“C’mon, Pete, you’re stronger than this, I can see it, I know it’s not you, I know you don’t want to do that.”
“There’s nothing left.” He twisted the gun to his temple.
“Pete, don’t do it.” Jordan moved even closer to Murt’s face, Kayci was growing nervous. He was too close, just inches from his face. She was about to pull Jordan away when Murt pulled the trigger.
Jordan fell onto his backside from the shock of the gunshot. The cops and FBI rushed to Murt, this time Kayci didn’t try and stop them. And she probably couldn’t have anyway. They gave her all the rope they were going to give.
Kayci pulled Jordan back out of the path of the chaos. “C’mon, babe, let’s get up.” He looked shocked and took a few moments to get his feet under him. “You tried.”
He stood and looked to the sky. “Not hard enough.”
Chapter 12
Jordan sipped water from the tiny paper cup. He might’ve looked like he was staring at the off-white tile floor with tan grout by the few people who walked by him in the office foyer, but he was studying. He’d learned so much in those few moments with Peter Murt he was trying to sort things out. Trusting the things in his head was becoming easier to accept with each moment.
Just like a computer, he was able to store the data stream and examine it later. The stream that came in from Murt blowing his brains out was such a kick to his head it knocked him off his feet.
With his phone in hand, he sent a text to his mother, just to let her know he was okay. It was something he always did after a crazy moment just so she didn’t have to worry. She was a tough woman, who packed huge chrome revolver in her purse, but she still worried about her only child.
Soul Frequency (Frequency Series Book 2) Page 6