Double Danger

by Trilby Plants

  ***

  When Alyssa and Will got in the SUV, Bella was nowhere in sight. After they started moving, the cat poked a paw from under Alyssa’s seat. Alyssa turned. The lights of half a dozen cars gleamed behind them but she did not see the sedan.

  “I think we lost them,” she said.

  “Keep watching.”

  Will turned onto the main road, and the sedan’s headlights came around the corner.

  “There they are.” The knot in her stomach was becoming a familiar companion.

  Will glanced over at her. “We want them to follow us, remember?”

  “I know, but it ... it scares me.” Alyssa wasn’t sure she should admit that.

  “Good. Scared is the appropriate emotion to feel in this situation.”

  Alyssa glanced at him sharply. Was he afraid? He looked calm. He needed to be calm to pull this off. To make up for her fear.

  A few miles out of town, Will pulled into a motel parking lot. He stopped in front of a single story, tan aluminum sided building sporting fake brick halfway up the front. A neon sign flashed “Vacancy.”

  “The Notel Motel,” Alyssa said. “No tell Motel. You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Will looked at her sheepishly. “Nope. That’s a real name. Owned by Harry and Betty Notel. And no, it’s nothing like what you’re thinking. It’s just an ordinary motel, Alyssa. The whole town’s been after Harry for years to change the name to something that sounds respectable. He says his name is his reputation.”

  Alyssa stared at the sign. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

  Will cleared his throat. “You’re going to have to do one more thing. You’re going to have to go in and register.”

  Alyssa quailed. Her insides turned liquid. “Me? Why me?”

  “The guys following us will get too good a look at me in the light. If they see I’m not Nick, they’ll go looking for him. Plus, I am the county sheriff, and that could create a whole new set of problems. The owner and I are friends. I don’t want to be seen at his motel with a woman other than my wife.” He nodded toward the office. “All you do is walk in, ask for a room at the far end ‒ where there isn’t so much light ‒ pay them, and come back here. Can you do this?” Will gazed at her.

  She nodded, took the five twenties he proffered and let herself out of the van.

  Yes, she could do this. To save Nick.

  It was easier than she had thought. She glided, maybe floated, to the door of the office and slipped inside. A young man with shoulder-length stringy hair sat behind the desk reading a car magazine. He looked up incuriously.

  Alyssa cleared her throat. “I’d like a room, please. Down at the far end.”

  The man appraised her with a penetrating gaze that made Alyssa uncomfortable, but she didn’t avert her eyes. He looked beyond her, probably taking in the vehicle parked outside.

  Finally he said, “Seventy-five dollars a night, plus tax, plus a ten dollar deposit on the key and ten more if you want the phone turned on. When you bring the key back, you get the deposit back.”

  Alyssa blinked. “Okay. But I don’t need the phone.”

  The bored expression never left the clerk’s face, but Alyssa thought she saw a flicker of amusement in his eyes.

  “That’s $94.25 for everything,” he said. “Cash or credit?”

  She handed him the money, and he gave her change and a key. Not a card, but an old fashioned key. Room 18.

  “Is the room clean?”

  He glared at her.

  “Is it clean?”

  The clerk leaned across the desk and snatched the key from her hand. He whirled and pulled a key marked 19 from its hook on the wall and stuffed this new key into her hand.

  “Here.”

  “Thank you,” Alyssa said and left the small office.

  She climbed back into the SUV and held up the key. “All set.”

  Bella was draped across Will’s lap getting her chin scratched. “Do you know this little critter?” he said.

  “This is Bella,” Alyssa said. “Bella, Will Stevens.” Will stroked the top of the cat’s head. Bella leaned into his hand and purred loudly. “I like cats,” he said. “Where did this one come from?”

  “She’s mine. When I found my house trashed, I just grabbed her and took her with me, and there hasn’t been a good place to park her since then. I’ve been a little busy the last couple of days.”

  Will smiled. “Doesn’t she have to go outside?”

  “She’s an indoor cat,” Alyssa said. “She’s been out more on this trip than in her whole life before now. Nick put water and dry food and a disposable litter box in the back for her. She doesn’t seem to mind riding in the car.” Alyssa stroked the cat’s back. “She’ll be fine. At least she has been so far.”

  Will drove to Room 19 at the end of the motel where it was darker. Alyssa gave the cat one final pat, made sure she had food and water, and in less than five minutes she and Will had installed themselves in the room. It was small, but neat and clean, with a spotless bathroom. A No Smoking sign on the door announced state law and a hefty penalty for breaking it. The brown carpet and the bedspread, a long-out-of-fashion gold, brown and rust pattern, was somewhat shabby.

  Will closed the door and pulled the shade down.

  Alyssa stared at the window.

  “I know,” Will said. “Old fashioned shades.”

  He flipped on the light and nodded toward the back of the room. “One other advantage,” he said, “a door that can’t be seen from the road.” He fastened both door chains.

  Alyssa looked longingly at the bed. Sleeping on the ground had left her wishing for a good mattress, a mattress she could sink into, a mattress she could share with Nick. The erotic turn of her thoughts surprised and embarrassed her. She turned away from Will, hoping he would not see the red she felt in her cheeks.

  “Well, here we are,” he said. “Make yourself comfortable. Maybe you’d like a nap while I keep watch.”

  Alyssa sank down on the edge of the bed. “A nap sounds wonderful, but I don’t think I could sleep.” She rolled her shoulders forward and turned her head from side to side to ease some of the tension in her neck. As she did so, a flash from the ceiling caught her eye. She looked up and gazed at her own reflection. Gold-veined mirror tiles covered the ceiling above the bed. Will’s gaze followed hers, and when Alyssa looked back at him, his cheeks were red.

  “Mirrors on the ceiling?” Alyssa said.

  Will shrugged, and his face reddened. “Okay, maybe it is a little no tell. I’ve never been here before.”

  Alyssa was surprised to find herself laughing. “I don’t think I could sleep, given the situation and the mirrors and all. What do we do now?”

  Will pulled an armchair away from the window, back toward the side of the room facing both doors. “We wait,” he said, settling into the chair. He unsnapped the tab on his holster.

  Alyssa stretched, wincing as her ankle reminded her it was not yet completely healed.

  “Dammit.” She rubbed her ankle.

  Will rose and moved toward her. “Hurts? I thought you faked it.”

  “When we were still in the adversarial stage of our relationship ‒” Will raised his eyebrows questioningly, but Alyssa didn’t elaborate. “Your buddy dropped me onto a concrete floor. I sprained my ankle.”

  “Tell me,” he said.

  Alyssa leaned against the headboard. Will propped her foot up with the other pillow while Alyssa told Will in abbreviated form about her encounter with Nick in the ladies’ room.

  Will laughed. “He thought you were a foreign agent? He must have spent the last three years living a paranoid dream.”

  “That’s probably how he survived,” Alyssa said. “He cut himself off from even casual relationships with other people.”

  Will frowned and shook his head. “Trav – Nick was a good agent. He was a terrific hacker. I never saw him in the field, but his exploits were legenda
ry.” Will swallowed hard. “He was my best friend.”

  “Is.”

  “Yeah. Now he is,” Will said. “I wish I had known….” Will glanced at his watch. “They’ll expect lights off now.” He went to the switch by the door and flipped it, plunging the room into darkness. He checked the door locks and lifted the shade a bit to look out the window.

  “They’re still there,” he said. Vinyl squeaked and rustled as he settled once again in the chair. “Well, while we’re waiting, maybe you’d like to hear the story of how my buddy and I came to dump Kevin Wilkerson in the trash barrel with honey in his hair.”

  Chapter 16

  Hunter waited a full five minutes after the lights in the motel room had gone off, then made his call. He punched in the number on his cell phone and waited briefly. When it was answered, he spoke before the man on the other end said anything. “Just thought you’d like to know, we’re on his home ground now. We got them. Any directions?”

  “Yeah,” the man said. “Bring them to me.”

  “Okay. I can do that. When?”

  “Alive.”

  Hunter let the silence stretch out a long moment. The other man said nothing more. Finally Hunter said, “Okay. Good-bye.” He punched End and turned to Charlie. “Change of plans. Hand me the tranq gun.”

  Wordlessly, Charlie retrieved the case from the back seat.

  Hunter pulled on latex gloves, opened the case and, with a cloth he produced from a pocket, carefully wiped all the surfaces of the gun and the four tranquilizer charges before he returned them to the case. Then he wiped down the case. “Get rid of this.”

  “Why?”

  “Orders.” Hunter pointed toward a Dumpster labeled For Motel Use Only ‒ No Household Trash. Violators Will Be Prosecuted.

  Charlie sighed. He wrapped the cloth over the handle of the case, got out of the car and tossed the case into the Dumpster. He didn’t bother to close the door.

  Back in the car Charlie settled himself and turned to Hunter.

  “So, what do we do now?”

  Hunter shrugged. “We wait. It’s all coming together.”

  Charlie grunted. “Whatever that means.”

  Hunter smiled. Charlie lacked imagination. Hunter knew what the next steps would be. He licked his lips in anticipation.

  ***

  Alyssa began to relax. Will’s story was humorous, and she found herself wishing they were sitting on a patio with candles burning, sipping wine with Nick next to her adding his comments to Will’s.

  “And Kevin still managed to marry my sister.”

  Alyssa laughed. “With honey in his hair?”

  Will grinned. “He got us back for that.” He sighed. “But that’s a story for another time.”

  “Will, does he really have an Indian grandmother?”

  “One-quarter.” Will’s voice came softly from the darkness. “Nick’s father was a no-account drifter. He left when Nick was maybe three. Just took off and never came back. His mother and Grandma Maki raised him. Grandma was part Swedish, and her mother was Native American.

  “His mom died when Nick was a freshman in high school. There was some life insurance from his mother’s job at the paper company. He went to live with his Grandma. She bought him his first computer. He hacked into the high school computer system. Didn’t get caught. He admitted he’d done it and got them to install better security.

  “He was going to community college here. Grandma Maki got sick. Pancreatic cancer. He hacked into a pharmaceutical company and enrolled her in a drug trial. The FBI showed up on his doorstep. They gave him two choices: jail or college and a commitment to government service. The NSA recruited him and gave him a full ride at Carnegie Mellon in exchange for him working for them. Grandma Maki got into the trial, but she died when Nick was a junior in college.”

  Alyssa thought of the N monogrammed on his handkerchief. “You called him Travis. What’s his real name?”

  “Travis Nickels.”

  “Is it possible he’s never been camping?”

  Will chuckled. “Only once that I know of. He likes hiking, he likes trees and water and birds and wildlife, but he hates snakes. I made him go camping with me once when we were both about fourteen. Just sleeping bags under the stars. The next morning we were in the sun, and a snake crawled over his bag, right across his chest. It was just a harmless garter snake, but he vowed he’d never do anything like that again. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you about it, considering he slept in a tent. You don’t know very much about him, do you?”

  Alyssa imagined Will’s gaze on her in the darkness. “I don’t know anything about him,” she said.

  Will was silent a long moment. “What can I tell you, Alyssa? He was a good man. Responsible, caring, dedicated without being self-righteous about it. A good friend.”

  “Was?”

  She heard Will’s quick intake of breath. “Alyssa, he’s been dead to me for three years. Was becomes a habit of thought and speech. Plus, I don’t know what he’s been through or what he’s like now. People change, especially when faced with great trauma. He seems the same in some ways, but he’s also different. I’m not sure I really know him now.”

  Danger surrounded Alyssa ‒ physical and emotional danger. “What am I going to do?” Alyssa whispered.

  “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  Emotion choked off her response. How could she be in love with someone she barely knew?

  Will sighed. “If you were my sister, I’d tell you to be careful and don’t expect too much. Of course, Maggie never listened to me, so why would I expect you to? Maybe there are times when we should just go after what we want and damn the consequences.”

  The room grew silent again. Seize the day. Not Alyssa’s usual, planned and ordered style. Her planned and ordered life was gone. Perhaps it was time for her to change her thinking.

  “Did I tell you about my daughter?” Will said. “And my boy?” He was off on another story.

  Alyssa closed her eyes. Be careful. Don’t expect too much. It was too late for that. Will’s voice droned while Alyssa’s mind drifted.

  She must have dozed, for she was suddenly aware of a hand clasped over her mouth and a voice at her ear.

  “Not a sound, Alyssa. It’s me, Will. I want you to very quietly drop down on the floor beside the bed and stay there.” A rattle and a tap came from the rear door of the room. “Someone’s at the back door.”

  Choking on her fear, Alyssa scooted to the edge of the bed away from the door and dropped to the floor. Just a silhouette in the dimness, Will crouched, partially shielded by the foot of the bed, his gun pointed at the door. Despite the fear that raised goosebumps on her arms, Alyssa forced herself to watch, ready to hit the floor if she had to.

  Another rattle and a tapping, then a soft voice. “Will? Alyssa?”

  Nick.

  Will leapt across the room in two strides, unlocked the door, and pulled his friend inside and closed and bolted the door behind him. “Dammit, man,” Will said. “You damn near got yourself shot, sneaking up like that. You’re not due for another thirty minutes.” Will returned his service weapon to its holster.

  “Sorry,” Nick said. “Our friends outside have been getting antsy, and I didn’t want to wait too long. One of them dropped something in the Dumpster, so you might want to see what it is.” He strode to the window, made sure the curtains overlapped. He carried a wrinkled paper grocery bag into the bathroom and switched on the light. It cast a soft glow into the room, enough to see by.

  Alyssa pulled herself onto the bed, laid back and stared at her reflection in the overhead mirror. The absurdity of her situation, the guns, the tension, the fear, broke over her. A giggle started in the back of her throat and burst out.

  “I can’t believe this,” she said between hiccups of laughter. “I’m in a motel room with mirrored ceilings with a county sheriff and a spy hiding out from hired killers with guns, who are threatening the life of said spy – and me
– a man who I’ve known less than three days, a man who has caused me nothing but trouble, and, God help me, I’m in love with. If that isn’t an absurd situation for a schoolteacher to find herself in, I don’t know what is.” Laughter broke through her self-control, breaking open a place within Alyssa that had been closed for a long time. She held her belly, trying to contain the laughter.

  “Alyssa,” Will began, but she waved him off.

  “No,” she said, gasping. “I’m okay. It’s just so funny.”

  She rolled off the edge of the bed and sat with a hard thump on the frayed brown carpet. Then the laughter became sobs. She covered her face with her hands, and tears rained through her fingers. Nick stripped the bedspread from the bed and knelt, wrapped it around her and pulled her against him.

  She pressed her face against his chest. He rocked her and crooned to her as if she were a hurt child. “It’s all right,” he murmured. “I’m sorry I scared you. It’s all right.” He kept rocking her.

  Finally, her sobs quieted to noisy gulps of air. “I’m sorry,” she managed to say. “In my normal life, I don’t fall apart like this.”

  Losing control bothered her, upset her ordered existence. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, and brushed hair back. The stitched cut above her eye stung.

  She glared at Nick. “You have got to stop scaring me like this, or so help me God, I’m going to punch your lights out.”

  Nick hugged her harder, and Alyssa thought he might have done more, but Will coughed softly and stepped forward from the corner into which he had retreated.

  “Excuse me, folks,” he said. “We still have some things to deal with here. Like what’s the plan? What do we do about the guys outside? And what about the flash drive?”

  Alyssa tried to focus on the problems at hand. There were things to be done.

  “I’m okay now,” she said.

  Nick rose. “I meet my contact at 10:30 tomorrow night,” he said. “At the cemetery in Cedar River. I give him the drive, tell him everything I know, and ask for protection. Maybe this time it’ll work. Call the Marshals, will you?” He nodded toward Will. “You should go out the way I came in.” Nick handed Will a set of keys. “Your car’s down the road in the Quik Stop parking lot.”