How Spy I Am

by Diane Henders

Fierce elation seized me when I rocketed through two firewalls in quick succession and found myself floating in the placid backwater of the Macon network.

  I probably would have discovered the Knights’ secret communication system even without Kasper’s advice. Their system had diverged so far from the original that I found them more by tracking the half-familiar taste/smell/sensation of their data packets.

  So that was what I’d sensed in my last rushed survey of the Macon network. I hesitated, wondering why I could find it from Macon’s network but not from our own at Sirius. Whatever. I was in. Make it count.

  Sudden fear gripped me as I contemplated the data flow inside their tunnels. What if I met another mage? She’d instantly know everything about me. And if she belonged to the evil Knight, he’d know instantly, too. Unless I sent another innocent woman into a catatonic stupor. Guilt over Betty suffused me again, but I shook it off. Stay focused.

  What difference would it make? The evil Knight already knew everything about me.

  Shit. Everything about me. But not all the classified information living in my brain. All the little things I’d discovered about our national security, about our clandestine operations. All the identities that couldn’t be compromised. All the top-secret research and development I’d encountered.

  I determinedly rerouted my mind from my increasing panic. Apply some logic. It didn’t matter whether the evil Knight got the information from me now or stole it using his mage later. Either way, he’d get it.

  And I needed to go into the network to stop him.

  I slid into their system, holding a breath I didn’t even possess.

  All was silent. A thin trickle of nondescript packets pulsed through the deserted tunnels, but they were only low-level hardware communication signals. Nothing to see here. I’d have to find their servers and hope I could somehow identify the evil Knight from what I found there.

  The Knights’ server was secured just as effectively as Macon, and it took me two terrifying tries to bodysurf through.

  When I abandoned their server much later to surge back through Macon’s firewalls, my nonexistent heart pounded with my discoveries. Shit, I had to get back and talk to Stemp right away. I cast about for the trail home and found nothing.

  Ignoring my lurch of fear, I sniffed for camels.

  And found Sam Kraus.

  What the hell?

  I dove through the convoluted trails of the internet after the packet to capture the entirety of the message.

  An email. Sent to his personal address. I wrapped my virtual feelers around the data, digesting it.

  My heart banged painfully in a chest I didn’t even have while I gathered up the message and rerouted it to the secret cache of data I’d stored earlier. So Terry Sherman probably wasn’t trying to kill Sam and me after all.

  Too bad. That would’ve been easier to deal with…

  Chapter 46

  Camels. Where the hell were the camels?

  Camel-echoes bounced everywhere through the vastness of the internet. How many people researched camels, for chrissake?

  Exhausted and disoriented, I floated, trying to force my fading concentration to focus while I fought the black terror that gnawed the edges of my consciousness.

  What if my physical body had flatlined when I went into Macon’s network right at the beginning? I’d lost track of time, but I was pretty sure I’d been gone for quite a while.

  What if they thought I was brain-dead and they’d stopped trying?

  I’d die. Really die. I knew it with cold certainty. Already my consciousness was thinning, diluted by aimless drifting through endless data tunnels.

  A jolt of fear jerked me back to my search. Keep looking. Spider wouldn’t give up on me.

  Would he?

  Come on, Spider, where are you?

  Finally, a thin but persistent trickle of camel-related searches washed feeble hope through me.

  Slowly, so slowly, I crept down interminable passages, fighting to stay focused while I followed the trail home.

  When I crept into Sirius’s virtual file room at last, Kane’s distant shout was filled with pure relief. “Aydan!”

  Blind and barely aware, I let my consciousness trickle into an amorphous puddle. Kane would save me. Kane always saved me.

  “Aydan, thank God!” His voice was closer now.

  I swirled sickeningly. Jolted unbearably.

  Pain.

  “Aydan!”

  The voice wouldn’t leave me alone. I groaned and groped in the general direction of my head, where evil trolls were apparently attempting to render the Anvil Chorus on my skull using stone clubs.

  I didn’t find any trolls, but I encountered a set of hands I was pretty sure weren’t my own. I groaned again and managed to crack one eye half-open.

  “Aydan!”

  I dragged the other eye open and focused slowly on Spider’s ashen face, inches away.

  “Aydan, oh thank God!” He flung his arms around me and nearly squeezed the breath from my lungs.

  I patted him on the back and tried to summon up the energy to speak. After failing the first time, I managed a dry croak.

  “Spider. Cameltoe? You do realize I can’t un-see these things, don’t you?”

  Kane stopped massaging my temples to roar with laughter as Spider pulled back, flushing scarlet.

  “I’m s… sorry…” he stammered. “I just… I was trying to do searches as fast as I could and I just accepted whatever the search engine suggested…”

  I started to laugh, too, and pulled him down into another hug. “You crazy nut, I’m kidding! Thank you for saving my ass. Again. You’re the best.” I gave him an extra squeeze before releasing him.

  “Oh.” He straightened, still blushing, but this time it looked more like pleasure than embarrassment. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

  “Thanks to you.” I slumped back on the couch to peer up at Kane, still chuckling behind me. “And thanks to you for sluicing me into a bucket and carrying me out of the sim. Are you getting tired of that yet?”

  His sexy laugh lines crinkled. “Yes. Stop doing that, would you?”

  “I’ll try.”

  Jack moved haltingly across the room to lean over me. The elegant bones of her face were sharply defined under chalk-white skin, making her eyes look even bigger and bluer than ever. She laid a trembling hand on each of my shoulders and held my gaze.

  “Don’t… ever… do that… again,” she said slowly and distinctly.

  “Um…?” I eyed her with concern.

  “You were brain-dead. For over two hours. Do you have any idea what you put us through?”

  “I’m… um… sorry…” I stared back at her helplessly. “I had to do it. I didn’t mean to worry you, but I-”

  Kane interrupted gently. “It’s all right, Aydan.” He peeled Jack’s shaking hands off my shoulders and held them between his own for a moment before releasing her. “Come on, Jack, you need a break. I’ll buy you a coffee.”

  She nodded wordlessly, her big blue eyes brimming with unshed tears. Kane guided her to the door, his fingertips at the small of her back.

  Stemp’s flat voice made me jump. “Welcome back, Ms. Kelly.”

  “Jeez! Where did you come from?” I jerked around to see him leaning against the wall, arms crossed, reptilian eyes intent.

  “After you’d been brain-dead for an hour, Dr. Travers summoned me to decide whether to continue the web searches.”

  “Oh.” I hesitated. “Thanks for not giving up on me.”

  The tiny twitch of humour appeared at the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t have much choice. Webb would have disobeyed me even if I’d given him a direct order to stop.”

  Spider shuffled his feet and uttered an inarticulate mumble that might have been an attempt at defense.

  “I wouldn’t have given the order,” Stemp added, the twitch spreading into the fleeting smile that made him look momentarily human. He straightened, deadpan again. “What
did you discover?”

  “I… I’m not sure yet. I gathered some information that still needs to be analyzed. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something.”

  His gaze bored through me for a moment. “Very well.” He was turning for the door when I spoke again.

  “Wait. Did you get the bomb analysis back?”

  “Yes.” He appraised me briefly. “It looks as though your car bomb was hooked up to use your car’s ignition as a detonator. The motel bomb was C4 with a remote electronic detonator. ”

  “That’s plastic explosive, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did they find any feathers?”

  “Feathers.” His gaze sharpened. “If so, they weren’t mentioned in the report. What sort of feathers?”

  “Bird feathers…” I grimaced at his sardonically raised eyebrow. “Shit, yeah, I know all feathers come from birds. My brain still hurts. Feathers from a big bird. Like a goose or something.”

  “Is the type of bird important? For instance, would goose down be more significant than some other type of bird feathers?”

  “Not down. Feathers. I’m talking about big feathers, like wing feathers.”

  “I’ll ask.” Stemp’s expressionless gaze gave me the creepy impression he was looking directly through my skull to inventory the contents of my brain. “Can you elaborate any further?”

  I couldn’t keep my eyes from shifting away. “Not at the moment.”

  “I’ll inform you as soon as I hear back.”

  I didn’t look up until he was gone.

  “We should get a coffee, too.” Kasper shot a sharp glance in my direction as he spoke for the first time.

  “Yeah,” I said quickly, and heaved myself to my feet. “Coming, Spider?” I ignored Kasper’s ‘you idiot’ scowl.

  “Sure.” Spider held out his hand for the network key. “I’ll take this down to the secured area and meet you in the lobby.”

  “Sounds good.” I held my smile until he vanished out the door, and then turned to Kasper. “What?”

  “I was in touch with our mutual friend,” he growled.

  “Me, too. Eleven P.M. at the park?”

  “Yes. This time I’ll wait out of sight. When he appears, I’ll take him down.” He glowered. “You just stay out of the way.”

  I bit my tongue to keep from uttering the retort that was burning to escape, nodded instead, and left.

  In the lobby, Spider gave me a quizzical look. “Where’s Smith?”

  “He decided to get coffee from the lunchroom instead.”

  On the way back from the Melted Spoon, Spider enthused about his latest movie experience while I nervously eyeballed my surroundings for threats. I nearly jumped out of my skin when my cell phone vibrated.

  “Sorry, Spider.” I snatched my phone out of my waist pouch, punching the talk button before the call could go to voicemail.

  “Aydan, it’s Sam.”

  I held my face and voice neutral. “Hang on a second.” I glanced up at Spider and grimaced fake apology. “Sorry, I have to take this. I might be a while. Meet you back at the office?”

  “Sure.”

  As soon as he was out of earshot, I ducked around the corner of the post office and leaned my back against the wall. “Sam! Where the hell are you? I need you here.”

  “I’m hitchhiking. I don’t dare travel any other way.” His voice was thin and strained. “I’m at a pay phone. I can’t talk long. Have you found out where Terry is yet?”

  “No, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t think he’s the problem. I have a message from him for you.” I paused. So much to say. And I didn’t dare say it on my cell phone.

  The bitterness of betrayal burst out in spite of me. “Sam, how could you manipulate me all these years? And how could you even think about… about… treason!” The ugly word hung between us in the silence.

  He wheezed a long sigh. “I didn’t commit treason. I never divulged any of Canada’s information.”

  “Only because you didn’t get a chance,” I snapped. “If you’d been able to bring me into the program sooner, you would’ve-”

  “Aydan, I’m sorry. I’m out of time. What is the message from Terry?”

  “Where’s the club?”

  His breath whistled faintly in the silence. “That’s the message?”

  “No. I’m asking you, where’s the club?”

  “I can’t-”

  “Sam! Tell me! If you cooperate, there’s a chance you might not end up in jail. Otherwise, your goose is cooked.”

  “M-my goose?”

  “Where’s the goddamn club?”

  His wheezing was getting louder. At last he spoke faintly. “A barn on a farm two miles east and three miles south of Silverside. I have to go. What was the message?”

  “What’s in the barn?”

  “Aydan, please…”

  “Now, Sam! What’s in the barn?”

  A long, wheezing inhalation. “Lab. Brainwave-driven network. What’s… the message… from Terry?”

  “All knights attending the club 8 PM tonight. The quest is lost.” I spoke into the silence. “Sam, I think they’re all in on it except Terry.”

  A choking noise, and the line went dead.

  “Sam!” I realized the futility even as I spoke, and I slowly returned my phone to my waist pouch to lean against the building for a few more moments, my mind racing.

  If I could sneak close to that building, I could snoop in their network and find out everything I needed to know about the Knights’ plans. Probably find out if Robert was involved, too.

  All I had to do was get my network key from Sirius Dynamics.

  I locked my trembling knees to keep from slithering down the wall.

  God, I was so far out of my league.

  I heaved myself upright to totter into the back alley, where I paced back and forth, willing my stuttering heart back into a normal rhythm.

  There was no way Stemp would let me take the network key out of the building without a full explanation and a security escort. And Kane would be the logical choice for my escort. If Robert was meeting the Knights at the club, that would create the very confrontation I’d be trying so hard to avoid.

  But stealing my network key from Sirius was impossible. The only time I had it in my hands was when I was actually using it. Kane or Spider always carried it to and from the secured area. And I wasn’t a spy. Stealing top-secret technology was far outside my skill set.

  And I’d be facing a treason charge if I got caught.

  Maybe it was time to tell Stemp everything.

  Really, how much trouble would Kane be in if Stemp found out Robert was still alive? So he screwed up, so what? Everybody screws up sometimes.

  I could hardly believe he’d screwed up something that important, though. This was Kane. He just didn’t make mistakes like that.

  An icy band squeezed my heart. No. He didn’t make mistakes like that. And that would be the first thing Stemp would think, too.

  Stemp would accuse Kane of conspiring to let Robert escape. Treason. He could probably make it stick, too.

  Oh, God.

  I clasped my head in my hands and groaned out loud when I realized there was even more fuel for Stemp’s distrust. All he had to do was talk to Lurene and Winston to hear the story of Kane and me apparently going at it half the night in Macon. He’d use that as proof that we’d been lying to him all along. Especially if he caught me stealing the network key. We’d both be in jail for the rest of our lives, assuming Stemp didn’t just arrange for us to die in a convenient accident.

  I couldn’t afford to tell Stemp anything until I had the whole story. Find out exactly who helped Robert escape, and make sure Kane wasn’t implicated.

  I had to get that damn network key.

  Chapter 47

  I plodded back to Sirius Dynamics in despair. I only had a few hours to figure out how to steal the key, and I already knew it was impossible. Wild ideas of pretending to trip and drop the t
iny key only drove home the hopelessness of the task.

  ‘Oh, oops, I dropped it; I guess it’s gone’. Yeah, right.

  Maybe I should throw myself on Stemp’s mercy after all. But dammit, there was only a slim chance it would save me at this late date, and it would cost Kane’s life. Just not acceptable.

  I nearly ran into Kasper as I dragged up the outside steps to Sirius, and his unmemorable features flooded me with sudden dazzling inspiration.

  “Walk with me,” I hissed, and turned back to the sidewalk.

  He fell into step beside me, shooting me a sour sidelong glance. “What?”

  “Where’s Irina’s key?”

  He frowned. “Still in Kraus’s house, unless he moved it.”

  “I need you to steal it for me.”

  “I already told you Irina’s key is no good to you or anybody else.”

  “Just get it for me. This afternoon.”

  He snorted. “Why would I do that?”

  “Because you’re going to jail if you don’t.”

  He turned a bland face toward me, but his eyes glittered with such dislike I had to control my urge to backpedal.

  “If I get caught breaking into Kraus’s place, I’ll go to jail anyway,” he growled. “I don’t see any reward here.”

  “So don’t get caught.” I gave him my best stony expression. “Your reward is to be completely off the hook when I break this open.”

  “How do I know you won’t sell me out?”

  I ground my teeth. “I promise I won’t sell you out if you cooperate.”

  “You promise. Oh, that’s reassuring. I feel so much better now,” he sneered.

  “I need that fucking key.” I gave him a hard stare. “Do it. Before three-thirty. Or I’ll tell Stemp everything.” I turned and strode away before he could respond.

  As I hurried back toward Sirius Dynamics, I wondered if I should have coerced him into coming with me tonight. Heaven knew I needed the help of a spy.

  I recalled his malevolent eyes with a shudder.

  No, maybe not.

  Back in my office, I had to control a guilty twitch when Stemp stuck his head in the doorway.