Alyssa shivered. She was the woman in the cemetery.
The headlights turned toward them, and the car coasted to a stop about fifty feet away.
Nick got out of the van and opened the door for Alyssa. Gravel crunched under her sneakers. She squinted into the glare.
The driver’s side door of the other car opened, and a man emerged. He was a vague shape wearing a dark suit. She couldn’t tell if there was anybody else in the car.
Nick raised one hand and shaded his eyes. “Right on time,” he called. “Turn off your headlights, and leave the parking lights on.”
The man leaned into the car. The headlights vanished, leaving a bright afterimage in Alyssa’s vision. She blinked, and the man became more distinct. He had a foreign look with a dark complexion. Alyssa thought he could possibly be Middle Eastern. Or maybe his coloring just came from the parking lights.
“Stay here, Alyssa,” Nick murmured. “If you have to run, go around to the other side of the Suburban and run straight. There are lots of hiding places in the woods there.”
“What are you ‒”
“I’m just going to check the car. Make sure he came alone.”
Nick moved toward the other car. “Just looking,” he said and walked around the vehicle. At the back, he said to the man, “Open the trunk.” The driver held up his key, and with a faint beep the trunk popped open. Nick looked in, closed it and quickly made a complete circle, looking in the windows. He gave the man a wide berth and came back and stood beside Alyssa again.
The other man raised his hands shoulder high, as if welcoming them. “Ah, Travis,” he said. “Or should I say Nick? The last little pig.” There was no accent. “We all thought you were dead. I see that was merely a vicious rumor. There’s a plane with a pilot waiting at the airport in Escanaba. There’s another agent with the plane. It was as few as I could manage. I had to be sure we were adequately protected. I see you are not alone. Allow me to introduce myself. Frank Hood, Section Director for the National Security Agency.” He nodded at Alyssa.
She wasn’t sure what to say, so she kept silent.
Nick moved closer to her, his arm touching her shoulder.
“I’m sure you’ve read the reports, Frank.” Nick’s voice was neutral. “That’s what the Agency does. Gathers information. You know who she is.”
The other man chuckled. “Alyssa Mallory, kindergarten teacher, witness to her uncle’s death ‒ but that’s an unrelated story ‒ accomplice to a wanted fugitive and implicated in a shooting in Flint.”
Alyssa bristled to hear herself characterized so callously. Nick bumped her gently. She should let him speak. She glanced up at him.
Nick’s face twisted in a wry smile. “Well, Frank, you know it’s easy to plant a story that distorts the facts ‒ if you have the right connections.”
Frank laughed. “Yes, yes, indeed. You will be glad to know, Ms. Mallory, that your … victim … Mr. Tadley, is actually in very good shape. A temporary setback, nothing serious. It was a bureaucratic mix-up. The lady friend thought he was having surgery. The hospital called the wrong person. Simply a case of mistaken identity. No harm done. I checked. He’s home now.”
“Thank God,” Alyssa said. “But I didn’t ‒”
“Don’t say anything, Alyssa,” Nick broke in. “Stay calm. Wait here.” He took several steps toward Frank, away from her. She was alone and vulnerable.
Now that her eyes had grown accustomed to the dimness Alyssa saw the man’s face in more detail. Sharp features, dark hair. Middle-aged. A successful businessman look to him. He raised his right hand and touched the left side of his chest.
He has a gun, too, Alyssa thought, recognizing the gesture as a habitual movement Nick probably didn’t realize he made. Like a man checking his zipper. Her stomach fluttered.
“You have any trouble getting here?” Nick said.
“None at all,” Frank said. “Even though this is a bit off the beaten path. And, given the political climate” ‒ he lowered his arm and shrugged ‒ “the spy business has fallen off considerably. Not many people are interested in a retired agent like you.”
Nick scoffed. “I’d say differently from my recent experience, Frank. The two men chasing us aren’t your ordinary street thugs. I’d say they’re CIA, or private contractors.”
“I think,” Frank said softly, “that what you have must be valuable.”
“Yes,” Nick said. “I suppose it must be. Did you find out who’s after us?”
There was a momentary pause before Frank answered. “No. Not yet. I’m still working on it. The Agency isn’t infallible.”
“Whoever they are, they won’t be bothering us tonight,” Nick said.
“Oh?”
Nick shifted his weight. “They’re the guests of the local sheriff.” The other man was silent. “There’s another problem, Frank.”
“What’s that?”
“There’s the matter of my cover.”
Frank nodded. “Certainly. We’ll coordinate with the Marshals. New identity.”
Nick shook his head. “You’re not following me, Frank. They knew who I was. That means someone inside leaked my identity. Either the NSA or the Marshals. I’m a member of a group only a handful of people know about, Frank. Only someone highly placed would have this information, would be able to give me away.”
“You think it’s one of ours?”
Nick nodded.
Frank sighed audibly. “We’ll see to that, too.”
“And there’s the matter of Alyssa’s safety. She’s not part of this. She’s only here by accident. The government has a responsibility to protect her.”
“WITSEC?” Frank said.
“Yes,” said Nick. He glanced at Alyssa. “Temporarily, hopefully, until she’s out of danger.”
Frank’s eyebrows twitched up. After a pause, he said, “Very well. Ms. Mallory can come with me. We’ll put her in protective custody, which may or may not lead to a permanent placement ‒ depending on how long it takes to be certain of her safety. I can assure you I’ll clean up that little matter of the shootout. Nick, you can either come with me or go your own way. If you come with me, I’ll see you disappear for good. Another new life.”
Alyssa gasped as the import of his words became clear. Somehow she had thought she and Nick would be together. The truth dawned. She had been so wrapped up in her fears that she hadn’t faced her own feelings. She loved him. Hopelessly, unconditionally. No matter what happened, she would always love him. Forever. And she might never see him again after this night.
Alyssa tuned back to the present. Frank was speaking again. “ ‒ Agency will do whatever is necessary to insure your safety.”
It was a line from a standard text, meant to be reassuring. She nodded, never taking her eyes off the man.
“First things first,” Frank said. “You spoke of missing information. Do you have it?”
“Yes,” Nick said.
The other man took a step forward. “Then I suggest we get on with it.”
Nick turned to Alyssa, his expression guarded. “Be right back.” He strode toward Frank, stopped a few yards away.
The man smiled. Alyssa thought it was a cruel smile.
“All right, Nick,” Frank said, holding out a hand. “The thumb drive.”
Nick froze. The tension in his body was visible in the way he clenched his fists against his thighs. Neither man spoke for a long, breathless moment. Something was wrong ‒ Alyssa felt it.
“Nick,” she said.
“Sure, Frank,” Nick said. “The drive. It’s in my pocket.”
With studied casualness Frank raised his arm, ready to slip his hand inside his jacket for his gun.
Slowly, Nick reached into his jeans pocket, withdrew a flash drive and handed it to Frank.
“You won’t mind if I check this, will you?”
“Not at all.” Nick’s voice was tight.
Frank went to his car, opened the back door and retrieved a laptop comp
uter. He set it on the hood of the car and opened it. He inserted the drive, pressed buttons, and in a few seconds electronic music played the first few notes of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” until he cut it off by pressing a key. After a series of beeps, he withdrew a paper from his jacket pocket, leaned over the laptop and tapped keys. His face was visible in the glow from the screen. He waited a moment, then again typed a series of keystrokes. Anger hardened Frank’s features. He scowled and straightened.
“Well, Nick,” he said, “there’s nothing here but pictures and music. Why would you assume this is so valuable?”
Nick crossed his arms casually. “You know, Frank, there’s a funny story about that. I got this drive in the mail from a friend who’d been dead for two months. He thought it was important enough that he had someone hold it for him and send it to me. I didn’t know what was on it. I never got to look at it before I died. Then, three years later, I was just minding my own business in my made up life in southern Michigan, and people started shooting at me. And looting the houses of acquaintances, such as Ms. Mallory. When I ran, I had no idea why I was running or from what. Then I realized all that was happening to me must have something to do with what was on that drive. So I got it and looked at it and didn’t find anything.”
Alyssa began to wonder if the pressure had finally gotten to Nick. Why was he babbling on about this?
“Nick,” Frank said. “What is your point?”
“My point, Frank, is that it’s all a matter of knowing where to look.”
Frank appraised Nick coldly. A shiver of apprehension run up Alyssa’s back.
“I got lucky,” Nick said. “You know, if the two hit men hadn’t been sent to get me, none of this would be necessary. I never knew what was on the drive. It wouldn’t have gone any further.”
The two men were silent as they stared at each other.
“I’m a great hacker, Frank,” Nick said. “I know about the money.”
Frank’s indrawn breath sounded almost like a gasp. “The money?”
“Don’t play games with me, Frank. You know the pictures on that drive are missing the embedded information.”
“Well then,” Frank said, “We have a bigger problem, haven’t we?”
Nick shifted his weight. “Oh, yes, Frank, we do. It’s a lot of money. No wonder people were willing to kill for it. And I figured out something else. For someone like me who sees to the heart of patterns, I can’t believe I was so dense. Hood. Frank Hood.”
“So?” Frank backed a step.
“Hood, as in Little Red Riding. It just dawned on me. Who else would the three little pigs answer to? Big Bad Wolf. That was you. All this time we trusted you, and you were stealing from the Agency.”
“Yes, well, this whole thing has indeed taken an unfortunate turn.”
“That’s an understatement.”
Alyssa’s mind reeled. What was Nick doing? What did he hope to accomplish?
“So now you know,” Frank said. “Where are the files?”
“I put the pictures back onto that drive without the bank account numbers, Frank.”
Frank took an angry step toward Nick. “It was supposed to be tamper-proof.”
“I’m a genius with computers, Frank,” Nick said. “I never did play by the rules. Nothing’s foolproof.” He glanced over his shoulder at Alyssa. “It seems we have a stalemate here.”
“Ah.” Frank sighed. “I don’t think so. I know you, Nick. You wouldn’t just let that information vanish. You’d ‒” He glared at Nick for a long moment. “You’d want a bargaining point. You’d use the money. Where is the original, Nick?”
“Safe,” Nick said. Then, in a blur of motion, he pulled his weapon and pointed it at the other man’s chest. “I’ll take that gun, Frank.”
Alyssa swallowed. Don’t panic, she told herself. Stay calm. Focus on the problem, not the gun.
For a moment the two men stared at each other, then Frank’s shoulders twitched slightly.
“Slowly,” Nick said.
Frank reached inside his jacket and brought out the gun, holding it between thumb and forefinger, and tossed it to Nick. It landed on the grass near Nick’s feet.
Nick retrieved it and ejected the clip, then threw each in opposite directions into the bushes. “How did you know?” Nick said.
Frank raised his eyebrows. “Know what?”
“How did you know it was a flash drive? When you asked me for the list, you asked for a thumb drive. I was very careful not to tell you what I had.”
Frank hesitated. Too long, Alyssa thought.
“You told me,” he said.
“No, I didn’t,” Nick said. “Nobody knew it was a flash drive except Ed and Jerry, and they’re dead.”
Frank nodded. “You told me on the phone.”
Nick shook his head. “No. You could only have known if you were the one who pirated the files from the Agency’s computers in the first place. It was you, wasn’t it? You all along. You gave my cover away.”
Frank sighed. “Sometimes you do what you must.”
Nick pressed on. “How did you find me?”
Frank’s face twisted into a leering smile. “The time-honored American way ‒ I got promoted. New levels of security access. Your old contact, Bernstein, retired, then promptly had a heart attack and died. I got all of his people, all of his access, and so I found your records. And that led me to the Program. It was a long search. But in the end it made sense.
“Travis Nickels became Nick Trammel. You must have insisted on a name close to yours. It didn’t do you a solid.”
A small sound behind Alyssa. Louder than a raccoon would make. Before she could react a hand clamped over her mouth. She was yanked back against the hard contours of a man’s body. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. Her arms were pinned to her sides. She struggled, trying to kick backwards. One of the man’s legs entwined around hers, and she was held fast.
“So pretty,” the man said, his breath warm on her neck. “It will be a shame to ruin you.”
Nick spun. “Alyssa.”
“Don’t move, Nick,” the man who held her said. “Or she dies.”
Nick froze, gun still pointed at Frank.
A rush of adrenaline sped up Alyssa’s heart. The familiar queasiness of terror roiled in her midsection.
The hand moved from her mouth around to her cheek and forced her head to turn. She gazed into the eyes of one of the men who was supposedly in jail.
“What took you so long, Hunter?” Frank said.
Her captor chuckled. “That hick sheriff arrested us.”
“Where’s Charles?” Frank said.
“Charlie isn’t with me anymore. He had a little accident,” the man called Hunter said. “I’m afraid so did that deputy.”
Alyssa silently prayed for Will’s safety, while a sinking sensation in her stomach warned her of something unimaginable about to happen to her.
The man took his hand from her face. She tensed to bolt.
“Don’t be foolish.” His voice hissed next to her ear. Alyssa’s gaze focused on a glittering blade close to her eyes. “See this?” he whispered. The blade waved seductively, like a snake swaying to the unheard music of a snake charmer’s flute.
She nodded.
“You won’t run, will you?” he said. She shook her head. “Because if you do, I’ll find you. And you won’t like what I’ll do to you.” The knife came so close her eyes couldn’t focus on it. He touched the flat of the cold blade to her cheek. She cringed, trembling, felt him push his body against hers. She fought the urge to back away from the knife. Her stomach lurched.
The knife left her cheek, brushed against her throat. She froze.
“Let her go,” Nick said. “She’s not involved.”
“She is now,” Frank said softly.
The man holding Alyssa chuckled. “Sweet,” he said softly. “Maybe we’ll let Nick watch.”
She desperately wanted this to end. The man’s hand mo
ved to her collarbone. Even though she couldn’t see the knife, she knew it was there, a deadly presence that forced her to remain utterly still. His hand paused, moved back to her throat, and again she felt cold steel against her skin. She could barely breathe.
“Tell him to let her go, Frank,” Nick said. “She doesn’t know anything.”
Frank smiled. “Oh, I think she knows a great deal.”
Hunter pulled Alyssa tighter against him. She drew a quick, ragged breath. The contours of his body pressed into her. His fingers caressed her neck. “Have you ever seen someone die?” he said. His voice was hideous, obscene.
“No,” he said. “Of course, you haven’t.” His fingers brushed her cheek again. “The movies don’t show it right, you know. Eyes tell so much. The body goes dead before the eyes do.” He paused. “Do you understand?”
If evil were palpable, Alyssa thought, it was in his voice.
Tears welled in her eyes. There was no way out of this.
Chapter 20
Alyssa was going to die. When Will and his deputies arrived, they would find her body and Nick’s beside some stranger’s grave marker. A coldness settled over her, and the tears vanished. Anger rose in her mind, displacing her fear. She’d been afraid for too long. Had let the fear take over her life. If death were inevitable, she had nothing to lose. She could determine how she died.
Her heart slowed, and she willed her muscles to relax. Even the point of the blade under her chin held no fear. If terror in her eyes excited Hunter, she would deny him that.
Being killed right there that moment, the pain would be fleeting, and then would come oblivion. The man could take her life, but she refused to give him her fear.
“Drop the gun, Nick,” Hunter said, “or I’ll cut her.”
The edge of the blade pressed against the tender skin of Alyssa’s throat. She did not draw back.
Nick hesitated.
“Put it on the ground,” Hunter said.
Slowly, Nick set the gun down.
“Now back up,” Hunter said. He pushed Alyssa forward, knife still at her throat, until they stood within arm’s length of Nick. Hunter kicked the gun aside, into the bushes beside the road.
Double Danger Page 23