High Ground

by Madelon Smid

  Fighting nausea and the feeling he was about to faint like a Victorian maiden, Josh pulled his thoughts away from the blood and into a meditative state.

  Leaving two of his men in charge to wait for the arrival of the sheriff and his men from the county office, RG signaled the others on board. The helicopter rose into the sky and headed north into the gathering dusk.

  The chopper set down at a private airport in Miami, where Jake’s Gulf Stream 5 waited. RG informed them he’d leave them there, while he investigated the raid on the island and looked for evidence. They took turns showering in the on-board lavatory right after take-off. Cat settled into one of the luxurious leather chairs, still in her dirty clothes. Fleecy clouds lazed against a midnight-blue sky.

  Josh walked into the forward cabin, his wet hair slicked back off his forehead, his lean body encased in the clean jeans and a gray sweatshirt he’d taken from his gym bag.

  “Did RG tell you anything before he left?”

  “No. But this could be a break. If he can identify the bodies of the men who attacked us, we may know who is after you and why.”

  “There must be something we can do from here.” He lowered his injured arm gingerly onto the arm rest. “My gut says Maddox doesn’t have the means or connections to hire professional help. It’s more probable he’s a tool for someone up the ladder.”

  “Up what ladder? The terrorist cell, CIA, Homeland? Even the Bureau has taken a need to know on this. If anybody needs to know, we do.” Cat ran her hands over her hair, pressing the damp strands down. In seconds, curls rioted around her face again.

  “We’ll get the answers, Cat.” Through the cotton of his sweatshirt, Josh stroked the slight bump on his upper arm. “Good thing RG planted this on me.” He rested his head against the back of the seat, woozy from blood loss and analgesics.

  Flying private had its advantages. When they pulled up in front of the Fixed Base Operator at Pearson airport in Toronto, a custom officer came out to the plane. In seconds, their passports were cleared and they were escorted to a limousine parked in front of the FBO.

  Jake strode out the door of his country home the second they’d made it through his estate gates. After the horror his stalker had inflicted on his life through Siree, he’d upgraded security to the nth degree. Josh had helped him design the system, integrated back-ups to back-ups. They were as safe here as at the White House.

  “Any word from RG?” Cat asked, striding into the house beside Jake.

  “Nothing yet. I sent the plane back for him. When he has what he wants, he’ll be here.”

  Siree stepped out of a huge lounge lit by streaming sunlight. “Cat, Josh.” She hugged them in turn. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

  Cat grasped his arm and led him into the great room. A leather sectional wrapped two sides of the huge expanse. “For God’s sake, sit down before you fall down.”

  Floor to ceiling glass doors opened to the light and the scents of fall leaves. A stand of maples in the distance wore a scarlet cloak. He tried to focus on the beauty, sank onto the leather seat when his knees threatened to buckle.

  Cat felt his clammy forehead. She perched beside him, as if hoping to bolster his strength. “You’re green as an unripe tomato. Going to make it?”

  He nodded, loving the caring he read in her eyes.

  “Josh needs medical help.” She stood, paced to the windows, and back to Josh.

  “Already done. I have a surgeon coming.” Jake flicked a look at his watch. “Meanwhile, you look like you need a stiff drink.”

  “Already done.” Siree mimicked her husband with a saucy look. Ice tinkled against the sides of a highball glass. “Scotch on ice, just how you like.” She handed Josh the glass. “And for you, Cat, vodka and lime.”

  “I thought you’d be a bourbon lady,” Josh teased, hoping her expression would lighten, her shoulders loosen.

  “I only drink bourbon when I want to get wasted. Now’s not the time.” She took a sip of her drink, put it down. She stared out the doors as if willing the MD’s arrival.

  “He’s on his way. I’ve doctored Josh a few times myself and can tell you he’s one tough guy. You don’t need to worry.”

  Cat snapped upright. “I’m not worried. I just want a damage assessment on my principal.”

  Siree gasped. Jake’s face hardened into dangerous lines.

  Josh laughed, preventing them from criticizing Cat for her attitude. “She talks like that when she’s especially scared for me. You should have heard her ream me out after the collision.” He reached for Cat’s hand as she paced past. She let him keep it, play with her fingers. He couldn’t read her mood, but guessed a lot of self-flagellation was going on in her head.

  Jake softened his stance. Siree tucked herself under her husband’s shoulder and whispered.

  “We’ll go see what’s keeping the specialist.” He walked her out of the room.

  “I’m fine, you know,” Josh reassured Cat. When she didn’t respond, he tucked a finger under her chin and raised her face. “Quit blaming yourself for a random act. No way could you anticipate he’d fire into the trees and hit me.”

  “Anticipating every scenario is my job.”

  “Under the circumstances, I think you did your job superbly. We’re both still here, and the fact you are gives me enormous relief.” He leaned forward, whispered his lips across her forehead, down her nose, and along her jawline. She raised a finger and touched the raw patch where his teeth had torn through his bottom lip. Her gaze met his. Her finger stroked the spot. He could see tears glistening at the back of her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. Edging away, she blinked rapidly.

  Jake walked back into the room with a distinguished looking man carrying a medical case. “Doctor Jagga, Joshua Chandler. What’s the best place for your examination—bathroom, bedroom, kitchen?”

  “Let’s get him to a bedroom. After I’m done, he’ll want to lie down,” the doctor answered.

  Josh blanched. He’d almost fainted in the cave at the sight of his blood. He felt like a wimp.

  ****

  They paraded up a grand staircase to a second level. At the door to the guestroom, Jake followed Josh and the surgeon in and closed it on Cat. She stood outside fuming. Josh was her principal. She should be in there, too.

  “Come with me.” Siree took her hand and led her down the hall to a second bedroom. “They’re adjoining, so you can keep a close eye on him. Why don’t you tell me what—”

  The sound of a high-pitched siren cut off her words. Startled, Cat drew her gun from her shoulder holster, and facing the door, pushed Siree behind her. Running footsteps in the hall ended when Jake burst into the room. Cat dropped the nose of her Glock, steadied her breathing. She’d almost fired on him.

  He crossed to Siree instantly. “It’s an alarm, warning me there’s a listening device on the premises.” He pulled out his phone, tapped, tapped again. “It’s in the front hall.” He hugged Siree close. “Are you all right? The baby? This didn’t scare you into labor?” His hand covered the ones she’d placed over her prominent belly.

  “We’re good, just startled. Hmm, maybe you could turn the alarm off.”

  Jake pulled his hand back. “Right.” He keyed a code into his phone and the noise ceased.

  Cat left the minute she knew Siree was safe. She raced down the stairs. The chauffeur stood frozen in the front hall, her backpack and Josh’s gym bag in hand.

  “I was just bringing in the luggage and all hell broke loose,” he addressed Jake who stepped off the last step behind her.

  Cat relieved the driver of the bags and dumped them on the tiled floor.

  Siree came down the stairs, her hand bracing her back. “I told Josh and the doctor what happened, so they wouldn’t think we were under attack.” She stopped by Jake’s side.

  Jake pressed buttons on his smart phone, brought up his app for a scanner, and traced the gym bag. Nothing happened. He traced Cat’s backpack. The scanner started beeping. S
he emptied the contents of her bag on the floor. Jake scanned the pack, the scanner went quiet.

  “I’d guess a concealed eavesdropping device.” Jake bent over her belongings, scanning one thing after another. “The Swiss army knife?” A low beeping began, but slowed as he moved the scanner closer. Cat picked up one of the three pens. “I used them at the Senate hearing.” She lifted them toward the detector, one by one. The third pen sped the beeping into frenzy.

  Jake turned the app off and pocketed it, reaching for the pen.

  Josh came down the steps, his gait a trifle slow, his face pasty. “What is it?”

  “You probably know better than I.” Jake handed him the pen. “There’s some kind of listening device planted in here.”

  Josh unscrewed the top, searched the hollow interior for a hidden cavity. “I need something narrow.” He held out his hand. Jake picked up Cat’s Swiss knife and handed it to him. Josh inserted the screwdriver into the space below the cartridge and pulled delicately. A long, thin strip emerged. Carefully, he separated the two parts making the microphone inoperable.

  “A mike connected to a miniature flash drive. See?” He held up the piece and revolved it, appreciation lighting his eyes. “So they could listen in from a secured position.” Jake took the hardware and examined the workmanship. “Clever.”

  “The listening range would be limited to about one hundred and fifty yards. They’d have to be close or retrieve and play back the flash drive to know what we said.”

  “How did they access my pen?” Cat couldn’t think beyond the horrible realization she had led them to Josh—multiple times. Instead of guarding him, she’d been helping them.”

  Josh passed the pen to her. She compared the size and shape to the other pens she held. “Identical.” Her eyes narrowed. “Foster. He switched it out after the hearing.”

  “He had three days to craft an identical one.” Josh agreed. “You used the same pens throughout the hearing. He probably dropped it into your bag.”

  “No, I did that,” she said in a hard voice. “He approached me on the pretext of saying hi to an old acquaintance, picked up one of my pens, and substituted his while I loaded my pack. I worked with him. I scanned us when we got into the limo.” She looked at Josh, her brow wrinkled with worry. “Why didn’t my scanner pick up the bug?”

  “This little critter would go undetected by a normal scanner. It can only be detected with a different wavelength. We built one into Jake’s system.”

  “I knew he was with CIA at the hearing, but didn’t suspect him of being dirty.”

  “An easy enough switch,” Josh mused. “He drops the pens among the others, picks up one of yours, and distracts you while you dump them into your backpack. You were tagged from that minute. So the CIA tracked us through this device using an FBI vehicle to waylay our suspicions?”

  Cat’s mind raced from one moment with Josh to the next, scrambling around the happenings of the last weeks like a squirrel searching for a stash of nuts. “That explains why they attacked the island to get to Josh, instead of going after his hardware when we left the loft. They heard me tell RG all the safety precautions he had in place.” She grabbed a handful of hair at the nape of her neck, pulled, as if it would make the answer materialize in her brain. “None of this makes sense. If the CIA planted this on me so we’d lead them to Maddox, then who attacked us on the island? Terrorists? But Maddox was there. Why didn’t the CIA come in after him?”

  “You’re right,” Josh nodded. “I think the CIA has been following us using traditional intelligence gathering in hopes of finding Maddox, and through him, this terrorist cell they’re chasing. We lost them with the phone switch at the truck stop, so they didn’t get to the island before whoever Maddox is working with, or for, attacked us.

  “Foster planted this device for someone else. They attacked the island within twenty-four hours because I told them everything.” She looked at Josh in horror.

  “You wouldn’t have found this device no matter how many times you checked us,” Josh reassured her. “That’s why they designed new technology. They knew you were scanning constantly. I should have installed Jake’s extra sensor program in the loft when this started happening. I focused on the spyware instead. Cat, quit blaming yourself. If anybody screwed up, it was me.”

  “I have to report to RG.” She whirled, raced up the staircase, using her boss as her excuse to escape his kindness. She didn’t want understanding and forgiveness. She wanted a verbal slap for her sloppiness. In the solitude of her room, she hit speed dial, arranged her thoughts, while the dial tone sounded in her ear.

  “RG.” His gruff voice ramped up her nerves. “What’s up, Cat.”

  “They found a sophisticated listening device in my backpack. I’ve been feeding someone info since the senatorial committee, placing my principal in jeopardy repeatedly. I am handing in my resignation. I’ll be out of here before you arrive, but feel I owe you an explanation and an apology. Of course, I will forego my pay and write you a formal letter, unless you wish to fire me over the phone.”

  “You will wait right there ’til I arrive. Then you can explain to me more clearly why I should fire you. Understood?”

  She shook her head. She didn’t want to wait for RG, see the condemnation in his eyes, or hear him tell her she’d failed.

  “Understood?” He barked his voice a command—First Sergeant to soldier.

  She straightened her shoulders. She owed him this. “Understood, sir. I will have my report ready for your arrival.”

  Hours later, when RG’s helicopter set down on the pad behind Jake’s house, she descended to the lobby. She followed RG into Jake’s study and closed the door. Josh had asked to accompany her, Jake offered, and Siree looked on with sympathy. Cat insisted she see RG alone.

  He heard her out in silence. Took a close look at the flash drive and texted himself a note to have it duplicated. “A useful tool, but limited. They had to be close to hear. Our surveillance made that impossible most of the time.” He tossed the mike onto the desk, leaned back in the chair, and studied Cat. “Take a chair, while I bring you up to speed.”

  She sat.

  “Terrible as the attack on your island was…” He paused, leaning forward in his chair. An actual look of compassion softened his features. “I’m sorry you lost your property, Cat. We’ll fund the replacement of your things, what your insurance doesn’t cover.”

  She froze in surprise. He sounded nothing like the tough First Sergeant who had trained her for her Ranger’s course and challenged her to apply for the experimental women’s unit of the Marines.

  He cleared his throat, leaned back again, all business. “The attack allowed us to eliminate a lot of our suspects and finding this listening device answers a few more questions. Two of the men we killed were CIA agents, using the FBI vehicle to tail you and Josh. We recovered their SUV in the parking lot at the marina. Homeland has ascertained they were working for the NSA. The FBI came out clean. To the best of our knowledge, the CIA is out of it, except for advising Homeland on how to find the terrorists. We are now fairly certain there are none, and that the communications we found on Maddox’s computer were sent to someone within our government.”

  Cat nodded, relief flooding through her. Eliminating several of the threats made finding the real threat much easier, like diminishing a huge pile of straw until a shiny object was easily seen.

  “From the dates on the emails, we can conclude Maddox already worked for this unknown element when he hacked Josh’s programs. When his wife was killed, he probably traded his continued help for a hit on Josh. It explains the attack on your taxi. Possibly the car crash, certainly he joined the hit men on the island, probably for the satisfaction of seeing Josh die.”

  “It makes sense,” Cat agreed.

  “So we sweep a bunch of our theories into a desk drawer and look at what’s left. Maddox is still out there. We haven’t identified who’s running him, or if he has the means to hire muscle and
wet work. We don’t know if the hit on Josh is just about revenge or something bigger. We do know Josh still needs protection, and in my estimation, you’re still the best person for the job.”

  “No.” She stood abruptly. “I’m not. I failed to provide adequate security for my principal. I insist you accept my resignation.”

  “You’re being too hard on yourself,” RG reasoned. “You saved his life three times.”

  “I put his life in danger two of those times.”

  “He could just as easily been killed without the listening device. They planted the flash drive on you because they couldn’t get to him any other way. You kept him safe. And consider this. With the limited listening range on the chip, they couldn’t possibly have heard your destination from you. They would have been out of contact from the minute you left the underground garage. You didn’t lead them to Josh. Maddox got that information some other way.”

  “I won’t change my mind.” She stood, lifted her chin. “I became emotionally involved, distracted and careless,” she confessed. “I’ve thought about changing careers for some time. This is a wake-up call, warning me to get out of the business.”

  “At least think about it overnight. If you’re still adamant in the morning, Jake’s pilot will fly you home.”

  “Thank you. I feel honored to have worked for you.”

  “You’ve done an exemplary job. I will be sorry if you resign. So will Josh. Let me know your decision in the morning.”

  Several hours later, a knock on the door of the guest room she’d been given brought Cat out of the sentient state she’d fallen into. She felt numb—brain, body, heart. Even her soul felt nothing. A second knock, louder and longer, demanded a response. “Come in.”

  Siree stuck her head around the door, found Cat lounging in a chair by the window, and stepped inside the room. She held several dresses over one arm and a shopping bag in the other hand.