by Mike Ryan
“What?!” Lawson stated, her voice raising slightly. “No I’m not jealous.”
“Oh. I thought maybe you secretly wished you were in her shoes sometimes,” Cain said, trying to egg her on.
“Yeah, right, don’t be ridiculous.”
“It just seemed like a little jealousy there.”
“Listen buster, I can get just as many men as she can if I wanted to,” Lawson replied.
“Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure.”
Once they arrived back at JFK airport, they grabbed their bags and started for their cars. Lawson invited Cain to her home for dinner and maybe a drink, but he thought it best to decline. He knew she was still in a highly emotional state and didn’t want to complicate matters further. Besides that, he wasn’t ready for any type of commitment with anyone and thought continuing any type of relationship that wasn’t work related would lead in that direction. Before going home, Lawson went to the Center to drop off her computer to have it analyzed. The technician was still there as he often worked late nights and started working on it right away.
Cain walked through the door of his apartment only to find it empty again. It seemed like every time he got back Heather wasn’t there. He wondered where she was at this time. Maybe she was out shopping again, he thought. He looked for something quick and easy to make himself for dinner and settled on macaroni and cheese. He sat down in the living room and turned on the Yankees game while he ate. As ten o’clock approached, Cain started to get concerned about Heather’s whereabouts. He figured she would’ve been back by now. A few minutes after ten she came staggering through the door. Cain could tell right away that she was a little tipsy. He got up to make sure she didn’t fall over and hurt herself. He put his arm around her shoulders and walked to the couch. By the smell of her breath she’d been drinking something fruity.
“Hey, you’re back,” she said.
“Yep.”
“I, uhh, I was gonna say something.”
“You’ll think of it later,” Cain replied.
“You’re such a cutie pie.”
“Thanks.”
Heather put her hand on his face and stroked his cheek. Cain sat her down on the couch and started to leave her when she grabbed his arm to sit him back down. She put her arms around his neck to move closer to him, hoping to get a kiss or two.
“You’re pretty nice stuff,” she told him.
“You’re pretty drunk,” Cain responded, taking her arms off him.
“Why do you hate me?”
“I don’t hate you.”
“Then why won’t you kiss me?” she asked, moving in on him again.
“Because I don’t want to take advantage of you,” he replied with a laugh.
“Please take advantage of me. I want you to take advantage of me.”
“Not tonight. You need to sleep.”
“What’s a girl gotta do to get a kiss around here?” she stuttered.
“Be sober for one.”
“And then you’ll kiss me?” she hopefully asked.
“We’ll see.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Just lay down,” Cain laughed.
“Not till you promise to kiss me.”
“I promise.”
“When?”
“We’ll talk about it when you wake up.”
“Sounds like a deal.”
Cain finally eased her down on the couch, Heather falling asleep within a few minutes. Cain went into the bedroom for a blanket and placed it over her. He stood over her for a few minutes, watching her to make sure she was OK.
“Seems like you started a little early,” Cain said to himself, looking at his watch.
Cain was pretty tired and laid down on the sofa across from her. He figured he’d stay there instead of going to bed in case Heather needed anything during the night. It was a pretty quiet night though, as Heather slept straight through to the following morning. She woke up holding her head and immediately went to the bathroom. Cain heard her getting up and got up himself to make sure she was all right. A few minutes later Heather emerged from the bathroom walking a little straighter though she was still rubbing her temples trying to make the pain go away. She noticed Cain standing by the sink in the kitchen.
“Hey,” she said, forgetting she saw him the previous night.
“How you doing?” Cain asked, smiling, somewhat amused with her condition.
“My head hurts.”
“I can see that.”
“When’d you get back?” she asked, putting her head down on the counter.
“Oh, I rolled in last night.”
“Last night? Were you here already when I got in?”
“Yeah,” Cain laughed.
“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. Happens.”
“I don’t’ remember much. I really hope I didn’t make a fool of myself,” Heather stated.
“You were fine.”
“Wait, I think I remember a little bit,” she said, straining to collect her thoughts. “Were we sitting on the couch or something?”
“Yeah.”
“Did I try to, uhh, throw myself onto you or something?”
“Well, it wasn’t quite that bad,” Cain responded.
“Oh God. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad.”
“Heather, it’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I feel like such an idiot now,” she explained.
“What were you celebrating? It’s not New Years.”
“A girl I used to work with at the club is getting married. She wanted to go out for drinks with some of the girls to celebrate. I didn‘t have anything else to do.”
“Oh. Sounds nice. Did you have a good time?” Cain asked.
“Apparently I had too good of a time.”
Cain laughed as he started brewing some coffee for her. As they continued talking Cain kept making a few jokes at Heather’s expense. She could tell he was enjoying her agony and seemed to be having some fun with it.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asked.
“You know, maybe a little bit.”
“Glad you’re getting some laughs out of my pain.”
“Hey, I’m sure you’d be doing the same to me,” Cain said.
“Thanks for taking care of me though,” Heather said, getting serious.
“I really didn’t do much. Just put you on the couch and threw a blanket on you.”
“Still. It’s the thought that counts.”
“Well, I recall you taking care of me the night before I left. I figured it was my turn to return the favor.”
They just sat and talked in the living room for a few hours, trying to take it easy. Just after twelve Cain’s phone started ringing. Heather walked over to the kitchen counter to get it and looked at the screen. She made a face when she saw who it was.
“Guess who?” she asked, handing it to him.
“Hey, what’s up?” Cain asked his handler.
“Just got the findings back from the technician about my computer.”
“And?”
“You were right. He’s been looking at my e-mails, case files, missions, everything,” Lawson told him.
“Since when?”
“For about nine months,” she revealed.
“So what now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you get the IP addresses from the computers he was using to hack it?” Cain wondered.
“No. He’s using a very sophisticated system that encodes his info. We can see what time and general location he looked at everything, down to the city, but that’s about it. We might be able to nail it down further but it’d be kind of pointless by the time we find it. He’s already long gone by that point.”
“What’s the last few things he’s been looking at?”
“You,” Lawson stated.
“He knew you were in Honduras before you got there. He’d already accessed your file. He was waiting for you.”
&nbs
p; “I see.”
“And he knows you and I were in Indonesia. He looked at our flight information a couple days ago. Hold on,” she said, looking at her phone. “Sanders is calling. I’ll call you back.”
“You want some aspirin?” Cain asked his hung over companion.
“Yeah, I guess I’ll take some more.”
Cain went to the bathroom to get some Advil for her, bringing out a couple capsules along with a drink of water. As soon as he handed Heather the glass his phone rang again.
“Hey,” Cain said.
“We have something going on. Can you get in here?” Lawson hurriedly asked.
“Uhh, yeah, I’ll be right there.”
Whatever was going on sounded like it was important as Lawson seemed to be rushing her words. Cain quickly got his shoes on and grabbed his guns.
“What’s going on?” Heather asked, concerned.
“Not sure. Have to go to the office.”
“Be careful,” she told him, worried about the guns he was putting on.
Cain rushed over to the Center, still unsure what was going on. Once he arrived he immediately went to Lawson’s office, who was waiting for him.
“C’mon, we’re going to The Room,” Lawson said.
“What’s that?”
“It’s kind of like an observation room. There’s a bunch of analysts looking at information on their computers, and if there’s an important mission going on, communicating with the agents in the field as things are happening.”
“Oh,” Cain replied as they swiftly walked.
“If we have video it’s put up on the big screen for everyone to see. If there’s a decision to be made then a higher up will make it…usually Sanders.”
“So what’s going on now?”
“I’m still not sure myself,” Lawson responded. “Sanders said he’d explain once we got there.”
Five minutes later they entered The Room, Lawson swiping her ID to gain entrance. Once inside, Cain looked around the room, impressed at the sophistication of the area. There were a bunch of mini workstations, all manned by analysts on headsets, with a bunch of small TV’s all over the room, with a huge screen in the middle of the wall at the front. There were a couple of supervisors going from station to station to get the latest updates that the analysts had for them. Sanders attention kept diverting between the TV’s before he realized Cain and Lawson finally arrived.
“Glad you got here so quickly,” Sanders noted.
“What’s going on?” Lawson asked.
“Well, considering both of you have gotten involved in this I figured you’d wanna be here to see it’s conclusion.”
“Conclusion of what?”
“We’ve got Raines,” Sanders stated.
“Where?” Lawson asked.
“He’s on a plane to San Francisco. He just left Mexico an hour ago and should arrive in about two hours.”
“How do you know he’s on it?” Cain asked.
“We got him on video from the Mexican airport boarding a plane. We then tracked the flight information. We‘re tracking the flight now so we‘ll know when it lands.”
“What’s he going to San Fran for?” Lawson asked.
“Just a layover,” Sanders answered. “Going to San Francisco and then Hong Kong in lieu of his final destination…Indonesia.”
“He’s going back,” Lawson said.
“Well, we’re gonna make sure he’s not.”
“What’s the plan?” Cain asked.
“We’ve got two agents en route to the San Francisco airport as we speak. They should arrive within a half hour.”
“Are they capable of taking him out?” Cain wondered.
“They both have considerable experience in the field. They’re more than qualified,” Sanders replied.
“Are they gonna kill him as soon as he steps off the plane?”
“No. As much as I’d like that it’s too high profile. Our agents will be there waiting for him. They will take him into custody as soon as Raines steps off that plane.”
“I thought custody wasn’t sanctioned?”
“They will take him into custody and then they will immediately escort Raines into a bathroom. They will then proceed to lead him into a stall where they will promptly put two bullets in his head,” Sanders explained.
“Oh.”
“Then we will tamper with the surveillance footage in that time frame so there is no evidence that we were ever there.”
“Sounds like it’s all under control,” Lawson added.
“This should be the end.”
Lawson and Cain took a step back and just watched the proceedings as the time counted down. Lawson sat down in a chair and put her head down, mixed feelings running through her as she thought about what was about to happen. As much as she knew Raines deserved what he had coming to him she still couldn’t erase some of the feelings she had for him. Cain, on the other hand, was fascinated by The Room. He closely watched the analysts as they worked, magnetized by the complexity of their work. They all periodically looked up at the digital clock on the wall, anxiously waiting for that moment to arrive. As the time approached, just minutes from the expected deadly encounter, Lawson rocked on her chair, feeling like she was going to be sick.
“You all right?” Cain asked her, noticing her discomfort.
“I’ll be OK.”
“Want some water?”
“No,” she refused.
Cain could see how anxious she was to the point it seemed like she might pass out. Her skin tone was getting lighter, her eyes seemed dilated, and she was heavily sweating. She was trying not to think about it but that was near impossible. Cain thought it might be best if she wasn’t in the room as the incident went down to spare her feelings.
“It might be better if you weren’t here,” Cain said.
“I’m not leaving,” Lawson replied.
“This isn’t gonna do you any good.”
“I wanna be here when it happens,” she said, appreciative of his offer.
“Being here when it happens isn’t gonna help,” Cain insisted. “Your spirit isn’t gonna feel lighter and angels ain’t gonna come down and sing to you.”
“Being in a different room not knowing what’s going on isn’t gonna help either. It’s just something I’ll have to deal with either way. I’d rather be here when it does.”
Cain knew he wasn’t going to win the fight so he dropped it, hoping she knew what she was doing. Watching someone you once cared for die wasn’t going to be an easy thing for her to swallow.
“All right. Here we go,” Sanders stated, looking at the time. The plane was due to land any minute.
They contacted their agents to check their status and were informed that they were already in the airport, heading to Terminal 1.
“This is Langston,” the agent stated through his earpiece a few minutes later. “Rivers and I are in position to intercept the target.”
“Good,” Sanders replied. “Get it done.”
The United Airlines plane finally touched down and passengers started exiting within a few minutes. The well dressed agents stood there, waiting for Raines to show himself, prepared for a gun battle at any time if he saw fit to engage in such. Raines finally emerged, one of the last passengers to get off, and immediately noticed the two suits waiting there. He assumed they were there for him but he wasn’t the sort of man who panicked at the first sign of trouble. He always calculated risks and determined when would be the right time to counteract any signs of trouble. He continued walking at a brisk pace, suitcase in hand, hoping to walk right past them. He wasn’t past opening up on the two of them right there but usually was a little bit more cunning then that.
“You boys waiting for me?” Raines asked as the two men joined each of his sides, one of them grabbing his bag. They each grabbed hold of one of his arms to ensure he didn’t rabbit on them. “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting long,” Raines joked.
“Let’s go,” Langston told him
.
“Where we going?”
“I have to go to the bathroom.”
Raines knew exactly what that meant. Sanders and the rest of his crew were listening to every word on the speakers, somewhat surprised that Raines was cooperating so easily without a struggle and going peacefully.
“Something’s wrong,” Lawson blurted out, standing up.
“Everything’s fine,” Sanders replied, reassuring the group, though not so sure himself.
“He’s going too easily. He knows there’s a KOS order on him, he’s seen it on my computer. He’s up to something.”
“Have your guard up in case he tries something,” Sanders told the arresting agents.
“Roger,” Langston replied.
“Maybe he just knows the game’s up,” Cain added.
“No,” Lawson responded. “That’s not him. It’s not in his makeup to just accept things as they are. He always has an idea to respond to a situation or an alternate way of doing things. That’s just how he is. Just giving up and resigning himself to his predicament is something he’s never done.”
After a five minute walk they found the bathroom. Static started blaring over the speakers at The Room.
“What’s happening?” Sanders worriedly asked.
“We’re losing the signal,” an analyst replied.
“Why? Get it back up.”
The agents and Raines walked into the bathroom and they all went to the sinks, the agents pretending to wash their hands as they waited for the bathroom to empty of witnesses. One man exited a stall, washed his hands and left, then another man finished at the urinal. As the final man left, Rivers went over to lock the door. As Rivers back was turned to the pair, Raines produced a knife out of his sleeve, sticking it into the stomach of Langston. He grabbed Langston’s gun out of his hand as Langston fell to one knee and fired two shots at Rivers as he turned around. The shots were muffled by the silencer on the gun so nobody would hear the shots and come running. Both bullets hit Rivers in his chest, instantly knocking him onto his back. Langston pulled the knife out of his stomach and got to his feet only for Raines to turn his attention to him. The first bullet entered Langston’s body on the side of his head, blood splattering onto the sink and mirror. As Langston fell to the floor, Raines made sure the job was done and shot the fallen agent two more times in the chest. Langston had already died by that point, the headshot instantly terminating his life. Out of the corner of his eye Raines noticed the leg of Rivers moving slightly and he walked over to him. He stood over him, knowing he would perish shortly, but decided to end it quicker for him. He pointed the silencer at his head, putting one right in the center of the agent’s forehead. There was no more life left within him and Raines quickly looked over his work. He grabbed the earpiece from Rivers’ body and put it on. He washed the blood from his victims off his hands and quickly left the bathroom.