by Mike Ryan
“Aren’t all those guys in like their fifties or something?”
“Wow. Insulting my music choices now. OK,” Turner nodded.
“I’m not really,” she laughed. “I guess it just means you’re young on the outside and old on the inside.”
“An age joke already. Man, you’re just firing both guns right now, aren’t you?”
“I’m sorry, I’m just teasing,” she insisted. “I really don’t mean it.”
“It’s OK. I like a girl that can joke around with me.”
They continued talking at the pizza shop, getting to know each other, for another couple of hours. There were times when Parker was so into Turner, happy to actually be talking to someone who she didn’t perceive as a threat, that she forgot about trying to get information out of him. What started out as nothing more than an information mission turned into an incredible evening with someone that she really enjoyed talking to.
“So it must be pretty rough around the holidays, traveling around so much. Christmas and Thanksgiving and all that,” Turner noted.
“Not really. I don’t really celebrate anything.”
“What? Why not?”
“I don’t have any family,” she told him. “Holidays are really for families, I think. Without that, just makes it another day.”
“No family? At all?”
“My parents were killed in a car crash when I was ten years old. I was an only child. I spent the rest of my childhood in an orphanage.”
“Wow. I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“It’s OK. I’ve gotten over it.”
“It must’ve been pretty tough.”
“It took a long time,” Parker revealed. “It’s probably one of the reasons I never got adopted. I was a very angry girl for a lot of years.”
“Well I can understand that. That’s uhh, a painful thing to have to go through. You never got adopted?”
“Parents tend to look past the young girl with severe anger issues in favor of younger kids without as much emotional baggage,” she said, trying to change the subject before her eyes started tearing up. “So what about you? Big family?”
“Me, my sister, my dad. Not too big,” Turner said.
“What about your mom?”
“She died last year. She had an aggressive form of breast cancer.”
“Aww. I’m so sorry,” Parker said, putting her hand on his forearm.
The two of them talked for another hour before realizing it was just after ten o’clock. They decided to call it a night and Turner drove them back to their apartments. As they were walking back to Parker’s apartment, Turner was wondering if he should kiss her. He usually didn’t try that on a first date but he felt an amazing connection with her right off the bat. They stopped in front of her door and just as he was about to move closer to Parker, his phone started ringing. Turner pulled out the phone Davis had given him and then his cell phone. It was his sister, Victoria, who was calling. Parker looked at him a little strangely, thinking it was odd that he would have two cell phones. Turner hit the ignore button, planning to call her later.
“You have two cell phones?” Parker asked.
“Uhh, yeah. One’s a work phone,” he lied, not sure what else to say.
“Why would you need a separate one for work?”
Turner wasn’t quite sure how to explain it. “There’s just a lot going on right now with some secret game designs. Some of these gaming companies act like it’s a matter of national security with some of their information. Afraid of leaks and bugs and stuff. It’s pretty crazy.”
“Oh. I see.”
“So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Maybe,” she smiled, giving him a good night hug.
As soon as she entered her apartment she dialed Cole’s number.
“How was your date?” Cole sarcastically asked.
“Wonderful. Listen, Turner’s got two phones,” Parker informed him.
“Huh?”
“Two cell phones. He was carrying two cell phones in his pocket. A little strange, don’t you think?”
“Maybe one’s business and one’s personal.”
“That’s what he said.”
“Could be. Why? You don’t think so?”
“I dunno. Just seems weird,” she said.
“You think one might be a burner phone?”
“That was my initial thought. We need to somehow take a look at it.”
“Well, you know my thoughts on that,” Cole hinted.
“No, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me.”
“Gotta get the phones out of his pants. One good way to do that.”
“Uhh no.”
“Mission comes first Parker. Gotta do what you gotta do. Take one for the team,” he teased.
“I’ll find another way.”
“Suit yourself. I could go in there and rough him up a bit.”
“No. I’ll figure it out.”
“Are you sure? I’ll just rough up his face. I’ll save his man parts for you,” he snickered.
“You’re ridiculous,” she replied, hanging up.
Before going to bed, Parker sat on her bed and just thought of Turner. She was highly suspicious of him having two phones and really didn’t want to be right that one was a burner phone. Burner phones were often used by people trying to avoid being detected. Parker thought Turner was a nice guy, at least on the outside, and hoped he wasn’t involved in anything. She’d hate to have to take him down if it came to that.
The next morning Cole tailed Turner for the day. As soon as Turner left for work, Cole followed, sitting outside GameTech until Turner left the building for any reason. While Cole was on Turner, Parker snuck into Turner’s apartment to plant listening devices throughout the place. She planted the bugs in each room of the apartment, easily concealing the tiny chips behind picture frames, under furniture, and inside of cabinets. They were so small that Turner would never find them and wouldn’t know what they were even if he was holding one in his hand.
Turner got home around five, followed a few minutes later by Cole. It was a rather uneventful day for Cole’s standards. These were the days he hated. Just waiting for something to happen. He lived for the action moments of their profession. He let Parker know that Turner didn’t go anywhere other than work and disappeared back into his apartment. She synced the listening devices in Turner’s apartment to her computer so she could listen any time she wanted. She turned it on as soon as he got home. Unlike Cole, she didn’t mind this part of the job. Parker found that getting to know her assignments in every way possible, to the littlest detail, was what made her so successful. An hour went by with nothing but the usual background noise, appliances, TV, body movements. Then his cell phone went off. Unfortunately he didn’t have a house phone so she wasn’t able to hear the other end of the conversation. If he had one she could’ve bugged the phone and heard both parties.
“Hey sis,” Turner answered. “What? No, not tonight. Cause you know blind dates never really work out for anybody,” he told her. “Besides, I think there might be this other girl I might be interested in.”
Parker kept carefully listening, even though she knew she wasn’t going to get any leads out of the conversation.
“No, it’s not serious. We’ve only been out one time,” he said. “But I liked her and I dunno…she seemed to kinda like me I guess.”
Parker realized Turner was talking about her. She hated that sometimes she had to get close to people only to later turn on them and break their trust but it was part of the job at times. She didn’t mind doing it to criminals but on the occasion when she needed to do it to innocent people, it tore her up. Turner and his sister talked for a few more minutes, him not saying anything of real importance before hanging up. Parker kept listening, hearing Turner go into the kitchen to make dinner. A few more boring hours went by, nothing of note happening. Around nine, Turner went into the kitchen for a few minutes then headed out the door. Parker quickly
got up and hurried toward the door to see where he was going. She stopped just before she turned the handle, surprised when she heard a knock on the door. She looked out the peephole and saw Turner standing there.
“Ryan. Hi,” she said upon seeing him.
“This might be a little presumptuous of me but I was having an ice cream craving and was wondering if maybe you’d be interested in sharing a little with me,” he smiled, revealing a cone in each hand.
“What makes you think I like ice cream?”
“Seriously? That’s even a question? I thought everyone likes ice cream. Who doesn’t?”
“I’m just kidding you,” she smiled. “I love ice cream.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. I can see your tempted,” Turner teased, holding the cone up.
“Is that just vanilla?”
“Chocolate girl?”
“No, I’m just teasing. Vanilla’s my favorite,” Parker told him, taking one of the cones out of his hand, and letting him in.
They went to the kitchen and sat at the table to finish eating.
“You know, I’ve noticed you seem to just like the basics,” Turner said. “Plain pizza, plain ice cream, not too much variety.”
“I guess I’m just a plain kind of girl. Nothing special about me.”
“I don’t know about that. From the little I know about you, just overcoming the things you’ve been through, you seem like you’re pretty special.”
A big smile came over Parker’s face. She was very touched by his compliment and honestly didn’t know how to respond to it. She just kept eating until she could come up with another subject to talk about. If it was another situation, if she had another profession, she could see herself falling for Turner. But she reminded herself it was her job to get close to him and to find out if he was involved with Davis in any way. After they finished their ice cream they talked a few more minutes before Parker’s cell phone rang. She went to the living room to grab it off the coffee table. It was Cole.
“Hey. Might’ve got something,” Cole told her.
“What’s up?”
“Got a contact who says he might know where Davis is.”
“Great.”
“You alone?” Cole wondered, since Parker was giving short answers.
“Uhh no. I just have some company right now.”
“It’s Turner, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Yes it is.”
“Playtime’s over Parker. Put it back in his pants. My contact’s willing to meet in about an hour. Stop buttering his muffin and start doing some real spy work.”
“Oh, you kidder. That’s one of the things I like about you. Always with the jokes,” she replied, gritting her teeth to try and hide her displeasure.
“Dump him and let’s go,” he said, hanging up.
Parker stood there for a few moments looking at her phone, thinking.
“Everything OK?” Turner asked.
“Yeah. Everything’s fine. Just work. We have a security team on someone in a hotel in Los Angeles and they’re having some problems so I’m gonna have to go down and give them a hand,” she replied.
“Oh. Yeah, sure. I should be getting back to my place anyway. Have a big day tomorrow so I should really be getting to bed soon anyway.”
“Oh. A big day? What’s going on tomorrow?” Parker wondered.
“Well. Umm. It’s uhh…well, OK, there’s nothing really going on. I just figured it’d be better to end on that note,” he admitted. “Well, good luck. Hope everything turns out well.”
“Thanks.”
“And maybe I’ll see you tomorrow?” Turner hoped.
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
“OK. Well, goodnight.”
Cole had already left his apartment and waited in his car for Parker. She waited a few minutes before leaving, making sure the surveillance equipment in Turner’s apartment was working in case anything happened while they were gone. Once everything was running, she left and hopped in Cole’s car.
“So where are we meeting this contact at?” Parker wondered.
“Burger King.”
“What?”
“Burger King.”
“We’re meeting this person at a Burger King? Seriously?”
“What’s the matter Parker? Sometimes you gotta meet in unorthodox places if you want good intel. This time it’s a Burger King. Can’t always do it your way,” he laughed.
“Your sense of humor is amazing,” she sarcastically said. “So who is this contact of yours?”
“Just a guy. The less you know about him the better.”
“Sounds intriguing.”
“Right now it’s all we got.”
They drove for half an hour until they reached their destination. They were a little early and ordered food, sitting in the restaurant until Cole’s contact arrived. His contact got there early as well, showing up ten minutes later. He was a smaller guy, short in height, thin, graying hair, probably in his late forties. He sat down and grabbed a fry from Cole’s tray.
“Cole,” he greeted. “Nice to see you again.”
“Yeah. Likewise. This is Alex Parker,” Cole introduced.
“She an agent?”
“Yeah.”
“CIA’s getting a lot prettier lately,” he remarked.
“Careful tiger. She’s one of the CIA’s top assassins. Trained in over a hundred different ways to kill you.”
The contact looked at Parker, who simply smiled back at him.
“Enough of the chit chat. What do you know about Davis?” Cole asked.
“What’s it worth to you?”
“If it’s good you’ll get a few large sent to the usual spot.”
“Good enough. So I heard from a guy I sometimes do business with that he was contacted by Davis yesterday.”
“A guy? We need a name,” Parker said.
“He’s an unsavory type of guy. He’s involved in drug trafficking, arms dealing, that sort of thing. He told me that Davis called him yesterday about trying to sell him stuff,” the contact said.
“What kind of stuff?” Cole asked.
“Information or something. He didn’t get real clear about it and I didn’t want to pester. My guy declined cause he said it was too big and cost too much. Right now he’s not on the CIA’s main target list and he’s flying under the radar. He said if he got in on this deal he’d immediately leap up to the top.”
Parker looked at Cole, now knowing that Davis was attempting to sell the files he stole.
“So this guy of yours wasn’t interested?” Cole asked.
“Nah. It was too big for him. He wasn’t sure what he’d do with the stuff Davis was trying to sell him anyway. Seemed like stuff for people higher up the food chain than him.”
“Do you know where we can get in touch with Davis? Or know where he is?” Parker asked.
“He’s here in Los Angeles somewhere from what I can gather. Where exactly I’m not sure.”
“Can you get in touch with him?” Cole asked.
“No. I don’t know any more than what I’ve told you.”
“Can you find out?”
“I don’t think so. The deal was rejected. Asking more about it might compromise my situation.”
“Understood. Thanks for the info,” Cole told him.
Parker and Cole stood up and started walking away before the contact stopped them, grabbing Cole’s arm.
“So was it worth it?” the contact asked.
“Give me three days,” Cole replied. “You’ll get something.”
“Very nice.”
“Do me a favor, you hear anything else about Davis or his whereabouts, you let me know.”
“Will do.”
Parker and Cole talked on the way home about the intel they received from Cole’s contact.
“So how reliable is this guy?” Parker wondered.
“It’s good. I’ve used him before on a few occasions.”
“How many times did his tips prove to be a
ccurate?”
“Every one,” Cole replied.
Parker was silent for a few minutes causing Cole to think something was bothering her.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about Davis,” Cole said, showing a rare sign of caring.
“Why?”
“I know you two had something going on at one point.”
“That’s over with. It has nothing to do with anything right now,” Parker stated.
“I know. Still, I’m sure it’s not the easiest thing to have to go through.”
“I’m fine.”
“So what do you think about Turner? Is he in on it? We don’t seem to have much on him right now.”
“I’d like to think not. He seems like a nice guy. I’d hate for him to get mixed up in all this. That second phone worries me though,” she said.
“You don’t think it’s a work phone?”
“He works for a game company, not the CIA.”
Chapter 4
It was a Saturday afternoon and Cole had a bucket in his hand, washing his car. A few minutes later Parker came strolling by on the way to her car.
“Where are you off to?” Cole asked.
“Just going out to lunch.”
“With who?”
“Ryan,” Parker said.
“Ryan. You two seem to be getting pretty chummy these last few days,” Cole observed.
“What’s the matter Cole? Are you jealous you don’t get any of the fun? Do you wanna come?”
“Are you kidding? You two’s version of fun consists of bad lunch dates and ice cream socials. I’d have more fun cleaning my bathroom with my tongue,” he smiled.
“Well that sounds delightful.”
“Seriously though, you two seem to be getting close this past week.”
“What? It’s just a job. That’s what we’re here for,” she told him.
“Yeah but you seem to actually be enjoying it. You should see the look on your face when you’re about to go see him. Doesn’t look like just a job to me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m supposed to look happy when going on a date,” Parker said.
“Just the same, you know if we don’t turn up anything on him in the next couple weeks they’ll probably pull us out of here,” Cole replied.