by Steve Hadden
“Why do you say that?”
“Because the assassin who’s after us keeps showing up at places where we are. She has better intelligence than the FBI.”
Sienna’s eyes flashed. “She? You mentioned that on the phone. Are you sure the assassin is a woman?”
“One of them is. I think she’s the leader. She was at Harrison’s house and Sergio’s shop.”
“How would you describe her?”
“A little taller than me. Thicker.” Kayla remembered her hair, then suddenly made the connection and looked over to Harrison. “Hair like mine. Same color. Same style.”
“You think she intentionally looks like you?”
“I hadn’t thought about that until now.”
“What happened to Sergio Martinez?”
Kayla glanced at Harrison again. He continued to gape out the kitchen window. “He’s gone. His boat went down off Dana Point. We barely made it back.”
“The assassin?”
“No. The storm.”
Sienna glanced at the tablet. “There are reports that this can be weaponized.”
“Unfortunately, that’s right. But I want to stop that. I want to get the treatment and all of the data back under our control.” Kayla paused. She wanted to explain herself. She decided to go ahead. “If you’ve done your research on me, you’ve seen that I lived my professional life by the motto ‘Science on the Side of the Angels.’ I’d never use any of my work to harm another human being.”
Sienna’s smile said she got it. “I saw that was the title of one of your STEM talks.” Sienna gazed at Kayla while moving the tablet back to the table. “You said you needed my help. How?”
“We need you to get this story out. Tell the world what’s going on. Get the FBI’s focus back on whoever did this. Whoever took the treatments and the data.”
“Will you turn yourself in?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have the time. I need to get or re-create the treatment that stops the process in less than three days. The FBI would detain me, and it would take them twice that long to sort things out and verify my story. I’d be dead by then.”
“How do you plan to get the treatment?”
Kayla knew that if she told Sienna her plan and Sienna wasn’t fully on her side, she’d be writing her own death sentence. “I plan to—”
The lights flickered and went out.
Harrison yelled, “Get down!”
CHAPTER 44
Kayla hit the floor at the same time Sienna did. Kayla’s muscles went rigid as she listened for the assassin’s footsteps on the stairs outside. In the light from the fire, she watched Sienna reach up and grab her iPhone and stuff it into the backpack next to Sienna’s chair. Kayla rolled onto her back and pulled out her gun. She heard Harrison sliding along the floor toward the kitchen window. She rolled back onto her stomach and crawled along the sofa toward the kitchen. Peering around the sofa’s corner, she saw Harrison peek outside, then drop to the floor again.
“They’re coming up the stairs. If you hear glass break and something hit the ground, look away and cover your ears.” He cocked his Glock. “We’ll have to get out of here.”
Sienna moved up next to Kayla.
Harrison spotted her and nodded to the back doors. “Can we get off the back deck?”
“If … if you jump,” Sienna said. “The snow is deep enough to do it.”
“Okay. Let’s go. Stay low.”
Harrison crawled toward the doors. Sienna inched back to her chair, pulled on her coat and shrugged her backpack over her shoulders. Kayla followed Sienna as they crawled to Harrison. At the doors, he lifted the corner of the blinds and checked outside. Then he reached up and unlocked the knob. Kayla reminded herself to breathe as she checked the front door over her shoulder, then nodded back at Harrison. He waved Sienna around him as he opened the door and she jumped over the railing and disappeared. Snow flooded inside and Kayla heard a creak on the front stairs. The window beside the door shattered and something hit the wood floor. Kayla turned away and covered her ears and closed her eyes. The blast sent a shockwave through her chest and the flash tried to burn through her eyelids.
“Go. Go!” Harrison said.
Kayla launched herself through the door and into the deep snow on the deck. Harrison fired six shots in the direction of the front door. Kayla headed for the waist-high wooden railing, aiming to the left of the spot where Sienna had knocked the snow off the rail going over. Kayla shoved her gun into her jacket and launched herself over the railing, not knowing how far she’d drop. She hit the snow and it engulfed her. She heard Harrison hit next to her. She scrambled to her feet and looked up. The light from the fireplace silhouetted the railing. She turned to Harrison, grabbed for Sienna’s arm, and together they started down a steep grade behind the cabin. They stopped at a small creek.
“Okay, this only works if we separate,” Harrison said.
Kayla didn’t like the sound of that. She wagged her head. “I won’t—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll lead them down the hill.” He pointed down the stream to the left. “You guys head that way. Stay in the stream. Then double back to the car. Be sure it’s safe, then take the car and meet me at that hut.”
Sienna hesitated, but Kayla grabbed her and took off, pulling Sienna with her. “We’ll see you there.”
The creek was shallow, and the frigid water soaked her shoes. The rocky bottom was slippery and slowed their speed. Sienna ran right behind Kayla now and the darkness surrounded them. Kayla couldn’t see more than a yard or two in front of her. The snow was still falling, and her feet were getting numb.
“Oh no,” Sienna said. Kayla looked back and saw two flashlights. One going down the hill, the second heading straight for them. Fast.
“Faster,” Kayla yelled in a whisper.
Kayla sped up, then heard Sienna splash in the water. She turned back and found her on all fours in the creek.
“My foot,” Sienna said, looking back at the bobbing flashlight closing fast. “It’s stuck.”
Kayla ran her hands down Sienna’s leg into the water and found the top of her ankle wedged between two rocks. One larger and one smaller. She grabbed the smaller one and began tugging. The flashlight was now less than a football field away.
“You go, Kayla.”
“No way.” Kayla sucked in the cold air, then pulled with everything she had. The rock popped out and Sienna broke free. Kayla tossed the rock aside and grabbed Sienna by the arm, and they continued running.
Moments later, Kayla heard Sienna call out in a whisper. “Kayla. Stop. Stop!”
Sienna pulled back on Kayla’s arm, stopping her momentum. “What are you doing?”
Sienna pointed ahead. Kayla squinted and saw the creek disappear. Between her breaths, she could hear the water from the creek running over the cliff. Its edge ran into the darkness in both directions.
“Here,” Sienna said.
Kayla followed her along the cliff to the left until they reached a huge rugged granite formation.
“Around here.”
She followed Sienna, feeling her way along the granite face. They moved past an opening and around a curve. Sienna pulled her inside a second small cave that faced the first. It was just deep enough for both to huddle inside. Kayla thought about Harrison. He’d need her help. She knew what she had to do. Shivering from both the cold and the reality of her imminent death, she sensed the assassin closing in. She pulled her gun and cocked it, then slowed her breathing, looked up, and sent a prayer to whoever might be up there. Sienna seemed to understand and silently did the same.
In seconds, light from a flashlight flickered against the opposite wall of the cave. Then it disappeared. Kayla heard the killer’s steps slow in the crunching snow and pressed Sienna deeper into the shallow opening with her free hand. She felt Sienna trembling and it sent an angry jolt through her body. If the killer caught them in the cave, Kayla would be
killed or captured, but Sienna would be dead for sure. She wouldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t let that happen. Even if it meant her own death. She had to try something. Now.
Kayla put her shivering finger to her lips. Sienna held her breath. Kayla heard one more crunch, much closer than the last. She blindly sprang from the cave, turned and fired two shots in the direction of the noise. In the second muzzle flash, she saw the assassin’s shocked expression before she fell to the snow.
For a moment, Kayla was stunned. Then she yelled, “Come on!”
Kayla grabbed Sienna and they headed back uphill in the direction of the car. When they reached the edge of the driveway, they waited behind a thick pine, laboring to catch their breaths. There was no other vehicle. They must have parked on the road. No sign of another mercenary.
“We gotta go get Harrison.” Kayla headed to the car. Sienna followed and they both got in.
Kayla started the SUV.
“I know how to get there,” Sienna said. “Turn around and go back to the road.”
Kayla floored the SUV, fishtailed around and headed out to the road.
“Left,” Sienna said.
They plowed through the heavy snow, swerving as they made their way up the grade.
“Left here.”
Kayla turned and headed down a narrow road. She thought she heard gravel crunching under the tires.
“There. That’s the warming shed.”
Kayla took the turnout on the left and looked up the hillside toward the back of the cabin. Harrison should have been here. She pounded the steering wheel. She couldn’t lose him again. Sienna’s wide eyes and gaping mouth said Kayla’s behavior was adding to her terror. She reached out and squeezed Sienna’s arm. “It’s ok,” Kayla said. She killed the lights, rolled down her window, grabbed her gun, and waited.
CHAPTER 45
Kayla wiped the sweat from her eyes, looked up the dark hillside, and prayed. There was no sign of Harrison. A nauseating decay seeped into her soul. She may have killed someone. She’d justified the act by bringing up the images of her team being executed. Adding to her stress was the fact that the assassin, a precise well-trained killer, hadn’t fired when Kayla stepped out of the small cave. Surely, the assassin knew they were close, and in every contact Kayla had had with the killer, she’d proved cunning, efficient and deadly. Kayla knew she herself wasn’t that skilled or even that lucky to take out a hit woman without the assassin firing a shot. If anyone should be dead, it was Kayla. The incongruity gnawed at her insides the same way as when she came upon data that didn’t fit a hypothesis.
Kayla pulled her eyes from the hill and examined Sienna shivering in the passenger seat. She was now part of this. Kayla had pulled the one person who believed her and who had the platform to help her into harm’s way. That hadn’t turned out so well for Sergio, and maybe now Harrison. She thought about all the pictures of Sienna and her family from the cabin. Now she had another person to worry about, except this one could save her life.
Sienna was rifling through her backpack. She found what she was looking for and pulled the tablet out, set it on her trembling legs and began typing.
“You’re writing?”
“I might as well. We could both be dead in minutes. But if we’re not, I have the story of the century.”
Two shots rang out in the distance and echoed through Kayla’s open window. She turned away from Sienna and scoured the hillside. Through the heavy snow, a light suddenly appeared about halfway down the slope. A second one appeared behind the first. They bounced rapidly and moved quickly toward them. The shots could have been the end of Harrison. In that case, the two lights were attached to two more mercenaries. Parked in the dim glow of the security light mounted on the corner of the shed, they were easy prey. She brushed the snow off the armrest and rolled the window up halfway. She turned the SUV so it faced back the way they’d come. She rolled just out of the umbra of the security light and stopped. Now Sienna’s side was facing the hillside. Sienna ignored the tablet and watched the flashlights racing toward them.
“If these are bad guys, we’re dead,” Sienna said with a furrowed brow.
Kayla leaned across and looked out Sienna’s window. “It could be Harrison,” she said. “Roll down your window.”
The probability was low, though. The bad guys had the lights. She pegged the probability at less than twenty percent. That meant an eighty percent chance he was already gone. She tried to repel the dark force invading her mind. She eyed Sienna. If indeed Harrison was dead, she was risking the only chance to live by staying. She put the SUV in gear and checked her Glock. The lights were now at the base of the hill.
“Go. It’s not him,” Sienna said.
The sense of loss and loneliness smothered Kayla. She wanted to hit the gas, but her foot wouldn’t do it.
“Go, damn it,” Sienna pleaded.
The lights disappeared behind the shed. Kayla lifted her gun and aimed for the nearest corner of the structure. Every muscle in her body was taut. A figure raced out of the shadows directly toward Sienna.
“Wait. It’s him,” Sienna said, pulling Kayla’s gun down.
Harrison raced up and got into the backseat. “Go. Get the hell out of here.”
Kayla dropped the Glock and hit the gas. She glanced over her shoulder at Harrison huffing and puffing in the back seat. He smiled and reached out, putting his hand on her shoulder. She covered his hand with hers as she drove down the snowy road on their way to Washington—together.
CHAPTER 46
Reed sat in his office and watched the video. It had arrived by text at 8:40 p.m. It was now 2:23 a.m. and he was finally watching it. Ms. Welsey’s kindergarten class had formed a semicircle around Jackson, who was facing another little boy and two little girls. Jackson was wearing a wolf’s nose and ears while the three other kindergartners wore pig noses and ears. Jackson’s eyes searched for his mother until he locked in on her. He relaxed for a moment, then stared into the iPhone. He glanced to the right side of the stage at Ms. Wesley and on cue belted out the last of his three lines. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down.” Proudly, he grinned back at the audience. Reed’s pride in his son was quickly devoured by his guilt over missing the event. A knock on his door caused him to close the video and drop the phone into his breast pocket.
“Go,” he said to Agent Connelly, who was standing in the doorway.
“We’re ready.”
Reed rose and overtook Connelly as he strode down the hall to the conference room. He glanced up and bargained with God to deliver any miniscule break in the search for Covington at this briefing. The trail had gone cold after Dana Point, and Director Welch was going nuts. They entered the room and Reed stopped in front of three erasable whiteboards filled with information and diagrams. Agents and other members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force circulated in and out of the room, occasionally updating the whiteboards.
Connelly stepped beside the first board and pointed to the circle around Sienna Fuller’s name and picture. “We ran the cell tower data. A call went out to the Union-Tribune just after ten yesterday morning.”
“And Fuller was out to meet a source when I called her editor.” Reed wrestled his temper into its cage. “She’s meeting with Covington. Did you track her cell phone?”
“We think she’s turned it off and the battery has been removed.”
“Fuller is hiding her location. But Covington and Clarke have been heading north.”
“Fuller is from Bakersfield. Father is still working and mother runs a family restaurant there.”
“Did you pull up everything we can get on the Fullers?”
“Sacramento office is digging in. We should have the first wave of information any minute.”
“Did you get any leads out of the owner of the rental about the vehicle?”
“She’s Sergio Martinez’s second cousin. She says she knows nothing about a vehicle.”
An agent entered the
room with a file in his hands. “Sorry to interrupt. Thought you’d like to see this.” He handed the folder to Connelly.
Connelly read it, then looked up at Reed. “The ERT got a hit on a DNA sample from the boat dealership. They ran it through Interpol.” Connelly read more from the file. “Hair sample matched another sample from a crime scene in Paris. Murder of a suspected terrorist.”
Connelly shot Reed a blank stare.
“You think it was CIA?” Reed asked.
“Maybe.”
Reed had to give more weight to the third-party theory. “I’ll call Welch and ask him to run it by CIA.” He noticed the second board had a detailed diagram with Covington at the center. One line went to a list of bullet points with an NIH heading:
• Injected herself
• Needs second injection or fatal
• Make again or get treatments back?
“Did you confirm with National Institutes of Health that she had to get a second injection or she dies?”
“Yes. Said she has days, not weeks.”
Reed imagined being in Covington’s position. Bright, confident and a scientist first. “Do we know the labs on the West Coast that can make this stuff?”
Connelly searched the group huddled at the back of the conference room and got the attention of one of the agents. He met her halfway down the conference table. After a short conversation, she grabbed a laptop and entered a few keystrokes. Connelly returned with the young agent in tow.
“This is Agent Ruiz.”
“We’ve met. Nice to see you. What do you have?”
She showed him the laptop screen. “There are five, sir. One was Covington’s. One is Dr. Virginia Norris’s lab here in San Diego. There is one at UCSD and two in Washington. One at UW and the other is a private lab.”
“Get surveillance on all of those labs. Send an agent to each one to go over their security. Who leads the private lab in Washington?”
The agent set the laptop on the table and keyed in a search. Her eyes widened and she looked up. “Emily Covington.”