by Mike Ryan
“How’d you get around verifying the body?” Lawson asked.
“You must understand, the Indonesian government is very corrupt. For a few extra dollars you can find someone willing to switch records or create documents to say anything.”
“What exactly did he need you for?”
“He came to me with what he wanted. I know the proper people who can make that happen. I am mostly a middle man.”
“For a fee,” Cain stated.
“Of course.”
“I’m assuming you get paid well for that sort of thing.”
“Yes.”
“Then what are you doing working here?” Cain wondered.
“It’s good cover. Plus if I ever need to do business I can blend in. Plenty of people walking around here. Easy to get lost in the crowd,” Guntur explained.
“Did Raines tell you why he wanted to fake his death?” Lawson asked.
“No. Man who wants to do that has his own reasons. Not for me to know. Or to ask.”
“Do you know where he was going after leaving here?” Lawson pressed.
“No.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us about him? Anybody else he may have talked to while he was here?” Cain asked.
“No. As far as I know it was just me. I got the documents for him and off he went. What he did after me I couldn’t say.”
“OK,” Cain sighed in frustration.
“Wait, one other thing,” Guntur said. “When I let him know everything was taken care of he received a phone call in my presence.”
“What’d he say?”
“I don’t know. It was in a language I cannot understand.”
“How long did it last?”
“Only few minutes. He kept saying “nyet, nyet”. He seemed a little angry after he was done though.”
“Russian,” Cain said to Lawson.
“Kurylenko,” Lawson returned.
“They’re working together.”
Cain reached into his pocket and handed Guntur a 2,000 rupiah note. A big grin surfaced on Guntur’s face, appreciative of the money being handed to him. Cain also gave him his phone number, and received Guntur’s as well, in case he ever had any information for him.
“You learn anything else, you call me,” Cain said.
“You work for U.S. government?” Guntur asked.
“Maybe.”
“I ever hear anything else about different things, maybe I call you about that too?”
“I don’t wanna hear about old ladies getting hit in the street. But if it’s big, you let me know,” Cain said.
“And maybe I get more of these?” Guntur asked, holding the rupiah note up.
“Depends how good the information is.”
“Guntur only has good information,” he smiled.
“Well you take care of yourself.”
Cain and Lawson walked around the zoo for a little bit, looking at the animals, while also discussing Raines. They tried to figure out what his plans were or where he might be but didn’t have much luck coming up with any answers. After the zoo they went back to their hotel to continue brainstorming, Lawson trying to dig up anything she could on her computer. After still not coming up with anything, she called Sanders to let him know of their findings. Although finding out he was probably in league with Kurylenko was a good start, she wasn’t prepared to hear the news that Sanders had for her.
“Well, we’ve just received some information here about Raines,” Sanders told her.
“Oh? What’s that?” Lawson asked, surprised.
“We got word about eight or nine hours ago that one of our agents was killed in Mexico meeting with an informant.”
“Oh my God. Who was it?” she asked, concerned.
“Danson. Both he and the informant were eliminated.”
“Do we know who did it?”
“Not at first,” Sanders said. “But we were able to get our hands on some surveillance footage of the building next to where they were located. Came in about two hours ago. It showed a man leaving that building minutes after the two of them were killed.”
“Have we identified who the man is yet?”
“We have,” Sanders replied. “It was Eric Raines.”
Lawson was stunned to hear that Raines had killed one of their agents, someone who used to be on the same side as him. She didn’t know what to say upon hearing the news.
“You there, Shelly?”
“Yes. I’m here. Are we positive it’s him?” she asked, hoping it was a mistake.
“It is confirmed. The facial recognition software positively ID’d him. There’s no doubt it’s him.”
“So what’s our next step?”
“His picture and file has been sent to every field agent, handler, executive, and support staff to get familiar with him. I’ve ordered a KOS on him. No questions asked,” Sanders told her.
“I see.”
“I’m sorry, Shelly. I know it’s difficult for you but we have no choice now that he’s killed one of our agents. We now know which side he’s on and it isn’t ours.”
“I know.”
“Get back to New York as soon as you can.”
“Our flight’s leaving tomorrow,” Lawson said.
As soon as Lawson got off the phone, Cain could see she was troubled by something. She was trying very hard not to break down and cry, though eventually a tear ran down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away, not wanting Cain to see her crying.
“What’s wrong?” Cain asked.
“One of our agents was killed in Mexico.”
“Who was it?”
“He said they have video of Raines leaving the building minutes after our agent was killed,” she struggled to say.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” Lawson said, managing to let a fake smile through.
“So what’s the next move?”
“We’ll have to go back to New York and see. But in the meantime, Sanders has issued a KOS on Raines.”
“KOS? What’s that?” Cain wondered.
“Kill on sight. It’s very rare for that to be issued. It’s only ordered for top priority cases where the other options are limited or exhausted. They don’t like to issue it because it’s dangerous for the field agents. If they run into a KOS target then they’re supposed to kill that target no matter where they are, whether it’s in public or not. It could be in the middle of a crowded street. It exposes the agent as well as possibly compromising them along with the mission they were on. There’s only been two other times the order’s been issued since I’ve been working there.”
“He’s now a threat.”
“You know, it was only a month or so ago where I stopped thinking about him every day and felt like I was actually starting to move on. And now this, just brings the hurt back even more,” she professed.
“It’s gonna hurt worse again once someone finally kills him,” Cain said. “And it will come to that.”
“I know,” she sorrowfully replied.
“How did you break up?” Cain asked, trying to think of a way to tie everything together.
“Huh? Why’s it matter?”
“Just curious.”
“He broke up with me a week before he supposedly died. He said he felt like he had too much going on and just needed a break for a while.”
Cain sat back in his chair, just thinking about Raines. He tried to put himself in Raines’ shoes to get an idea of what he would do if he did the same thing. Cain shot a weird look over to Lawson that worried her.
“What?” she asked.
“Just thinking,” he responded, trying to think of the best way to phrase his thoughts.
“You got something?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Well just say it.”
“He broke up with you a week before he died,” Cain stated.
“Yeah?”
“Well, we know he was planning this for at least six months to a year before that.”
&
nbsp; “So what are you getting at?”
“That maybe he was using you to get information,” Cain responded.
“Information about what?”
“Where agents were located, types of missions being worked on, anything that might help him disappear.”
“He never asked me about any other missions or files or anything.”
“Maybe he didn’t have to.”
Lawson started looking all around the room trying to come to grips with everything. She so wanted Cain to be wrong but knew he probably wasn’t. She had hoped that Raines’ feelings for her were true but she was starting to realize that they most likely weren’t.
“How often do you have your computer cleaned?” Cain asked.
“I don’t know. I check it for viruses and bugs every week.”
“No, I mean have the agency technician give it a complete check.”
“Not in a while,” Lawson replied.
“I think once we get back you should probably do that.”
“You think he’s got my computer hacked?” she asked, looking at her tablet.
“I think it’s possible. If I was in his position, that’s probably what I would do,” he explained.
“I would know if someone tampered with my computer.”
“Would you?”
Lawson looked at him, knowing he was right again. She wouldn’t have known, Raines would’ve been the last person she would’ve expected something like that from and likely would’ve overlooked any signs that her computer had been hacked.
“Love is blinding,” Cain stated, trying to reassure her that it wasn’t her fault.
Chapter 8
On the flight back to New York, Lawson was in a very somber mood, unsettled that Raines may have been just using her the entire time they were together. It was bad enough he broke up with her, then had to mourn his death, and then had to revisit everything upon learning he was actually alive. Now she was thinking that everything was a lie and he had no feelings for her at all, which was the most upsetting, thinking she was just a pawn in whatever chess game Raines was playing.
While Lawson was having her own troubles, and not in a very talkative mood, Cain was trying to sleep on the long ride back to New York after having a brief layover in Great Britain. About an hour into the flight he began to have another vision. He’d seen a woman and a boy in his previous visions, in separate instances, but this one was different. In this one, the same woman and boy were together, playing together in a back yard. She was pushing him on the swing for a few moments, then waited for him to go down the slide. Just like the other visions he had, he couldn’t hear any of their voices. He started moving his head around, hoping to get some clue as to who these people were. After a few minutes, Lawson could see Cain out of her peripheral vision having some type of problem. She assumed he was dreaming. She let him go for a few minutes until what appeared to be a painful expression came over his face. Lawson tapped on his shoulder to try to wake him to no avail. She then shook him a little more forcefully, finally able to awaken him from his sleep.
“Are you OK?” Lawson asked.
“Uhh, yeah,” Cain replied after taking a few seconds to get his wits about him.
“Having a bad dream?”
“No, not really.”
“By the faces you were making it sure looked that way.”
“No, I’m good.”
Cain still seemed like he was out of it, his eyes a little glossy. Lawson kept a close eye on him for the next few minutes, unsure he was as fine as he claimed to be. He seemed like he was a little foggy to her. As the minutes went by Cain continued to shake the visions away, slowly feeling back to normal again. He looked at Lawson, wondering if he should tell her about the visions he was having. He thought if he told her then maybe she could help him in some way to figure out what was happening or who those people were. Cain knew he’d have to trust somebody eventually if he wanted help with them. With Lawson opening up to him about her troubles it seemed like she’d be a good candidate for him to open up to. Cain cleared his throat trying to think of a good way to talk about it.
“I, umm, was wondering if I could talk to you about something,” Cain started.
“Sure,” Lawson responded, sensing something was bothering him.
“For the last week or so I’ve been having visions of people.”
“What kind of visions? Of who?”
“I’m not sure. At first it was just of this woman, I don’t know who she is. No voices. Just her face. Then a few days later she was walking somewhere. Then it was a boy playing on a swing. A few days after that both of them were together playing in a back yard.”
“And you don’t know who they are?”
“No.”
“What do you think it means?” Lawson asked.
“I really don’t know. Maybe I knew them before and I’m starting to remember, get my memory back.”
“Maybe so.”
“I saw my file, but is it possible it wasn’t complete?”
“In what way?”
“Maybe they’re family, or friends,” Cain hoped.
“I don’t know. I saw the same file you did. All I know is that you weren’t married.”
“Maybe a sister.”
“You’re an only child,” Lawson said.
Cain continued looking out the window, frustrated. Lawson could see the trying look on his face and felt bad for him. She wished she could do something for him but she didn’t really know much more than what was in his file.
“Is there something that’s been triggering these visions?” Lawson asked.
“No, I don’t think so. Most of the times I was just sleeping.”
“Maybe you should talk with a psychiatrist.”
“I’m not doing that,” Cain stated.
“No, listen, it might help you. Maybe he could get into your subconscious and figure things out,” she insisted.
“I’ll think about it.”
“OK,” Lawson said, knowing full well that he wouldn’t.
“That’s not all,” Cain said.
“There’s more?”
“I had a dream the other night that I was back in the army as a sniper.”
“And?” she asked, knowing there was something he was troubled about.
“I shot someone in the head.”
“Could’ve been something that happened while you were in the service.”
“The person I shot was me.”
Lawson didn’t reply, not sure what to say to soothe his mind. She could see he was obviously upset by his dreams and visions but had no answers for him. She tried to calm him down.
“I know this isn’t what you want to hear but it could be anything. You’re trying to fit a five letter crossword puzzle answer into a spot that’s only got four spaces,” Lawson said.
“What the Hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“That woman and boy could be anybody. Could’ve been an old girlfriend, a neighbor, just a friend, something you saw on TV, maybe it’s not even any of those things. Maybe it’s just some woman you saw on the street and it stuck in your memory like you knew her.”
Cain kept looking out the window, not wanting to hear what Lawson was telling him. She was right, but he desperately wanted it to mean something. Even if it was a little piece, at least it was a start. He stayed silent as Lawson continued talking.
“Right now they’re just visions of a girl. That’s all they are. If you go around letting it eat at you like there’s more to it you’re gonna drive yourself crazy. And everyone else around you.”
“I don’t have anyone else around me to drive crazy,” Cain joked.
“OK, then me.”
They dropped the subject momentarily as Lawson went back to work on her laptop. A few minutes later she still had more to say and turned it off, putting it away.
“Listen, I know you’re frustrated, and I can understand. I know it’s tough not knowing your past, and I can’t say I know what it’s
like, but I am here for you. If you need help or just want to talk don’t hesitate to reach out to me.”
“Thanks,” Cain replied, giving her a smile.
“One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“Is that woman still living in your apartment?” Lawson asked.
“You mean Heather?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s not my business, but what is she still doing there?”
“It’s not your business but we have an arrangement,” Cain answered.
“She was only supposed to stay there a few days.”
“So?”
“Are you two…involved?” she asked, trying to find the right words.
“She’s a friend.”
“People like that…” Lawson said, before being interrupted.
“She’s actually a very nice person and very intelligent. You just have to get to know her. She actually has a degree you know.”
“Really? That’s surprising,” Lawson responded. “Are you hooking up?”
“That’s not your concern.”
“You are my concern. I’m your handler and it’s my job to make sure your mind is in the right place,” she said.
“Look, I kinda had an incident with the people she worked for,” Cain told her. “I didn’t think it was wise for her to stay at her place so I told her to stay with me until she found a new apartment. They also kind of fired her so she‘s looking for a job.”
“Like a real job?”
“Yes, a real job.”
“You mean one that doesn’t involve putting her ass in someone’s face?” Lawson remarked.
“What is your problem with her?”
“I don’t know. I know why Sanders uses her and I understand the reasoning behind it, I guess it just irks me for some reason.”
“Why? Are you jealous?”