by D. L. Line
Well, maybe feigned innocence wasn’t going to work. “No, Bulldog, you’re right. You’re involved now, so I should probably just tell you about it. It’s like this, plain and simple. Terrorism is hot right now, and there’s shitloads of money to be made. So, yeah, I wanted in on it.”
Skip could tell, from the look of shock on his old buddy’s face, that he had actually surprised Bulldog, who said nothing as he stared out the windshield of the car. “So, Bulldog, what do we do now?”
“We, as you just pointed out, have a huge problem. I can’t just let this go, but I’m not sure what else I can do. I can’t gag my agents, but I suppose I could lose their paperwork. Shit! Skip, I’ve always tried to be there for you, but I just don’t know what I can do this time. Maybe if you destroy your research...”
Play along, Skip. Say whatever it takes to get out of the car.
“I could do that. I’ll tear it all up, I can lose this drive”—he patted his pocket for emphasis—“and we can just let the hacker and the babe on the bike deal with each other.”
“I don’t know, Skip. There’s still Kraft and McKinnon to worry about. They’re going to know that something’s up if I don’t do anything. You’ve made a huge mess here, and I just don’t know what to do.”
Skip reached out a hand and clapped McNally on the shoulder. “You know something, Bulldog? I don’t know if the answers are coming tonight, but we’ll figure it out. Hey, you never know. I might have an attack of conscience first thing tomorrow morning, walk into your office, and confess everything.”
“Yeah, right. And I might sprout wings and fly to the moon. But I think you’re right about sleeping on it. Might make more sense tomorrow. So I’ll call you around lunch time. I need to get home, and none of this makes any sense right now.”
Almost there, Skip.
“Good idea, Bulldog. I need to leave too.” Skip pulled the door handle and let himself out of the cramped little Ford. He leaned back into the car for a last word, “It’s going to be fine, Bulldog. You know, it always is.”
Skip took another look at McNally as he slammed the passenger door. Crossing around the back of the car, Skip reached under the back of his jacket and came around to the driver’s side door. He tapped lightly on the glass and waited for McNally to roll the window down, as he slid his Glock out from the back of his pants. “Just one more thing...”
“What’s that, Skip?”
As McNally leaned his elbow on the doorframe, Skip reached up, left-handed, offering a companionable squeeze to the forearm. “You’ve always been a great friend, Bulldog.” The warm smile on his McNally’s face almost made Skip hesitate.
Almost.
When McNally looked down to turn the key in the ignition, Skip pulled the Glock up level with the side of his head, gently squeezed the trigger, and relieved Bulldog of the problem of what he needed to do next. One more small pat to the forearm with a gloved hand and Skip turned to leave.
That solved part of his problem. He patted the USB drive safely tucked into his pocket and realized that the rest of it could be dealt with tomorrow. He slipped the Porsche into gear, pulled out of the parking space, and left the garage without looking back.
Chapter Seventeen
Terri sat at the kitchen table, waiting patiently while Jen got her a drink from the refrigerator. Despite the jumble of thoughts in her head, Terri’s ride home with Bobby had been silent. He had tried to talk to her, but she had deflected the conversation by telling him that she wanted to wait until they got home so she could talk to Jen at the same time and not have to explain everything twice. Explaining it once was going to be hard enough.
Terri looked up as Jen set two bottles of beer on the table. In that one glance, she found everything she needed. Jen’s support, trust, love, all of it. Everything she needed to get through whatever it was that the next few hours or days would bring. Despite any misgivings she might have had about Jen’s past, Terri knew that this wonderful, goofy person was her rock, and boy, did she need something solid to hang onto right now.
Terri accepted the offered bottle of beer. Jen touched her lightly on the temple.“Still pretty busy up there, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, Jen, it is.”
As she looked down to pick at the label of her beer, Terri noticed the hand sliding its way toward her thigh. She welcomed the comforting touch, as Jen asked, “So, you’ve already told me about the big chase scene. Do you want to tell me what happened in the office? Bobby is out in the other room. It sounds like he’s canceling a date with the boy toy du jour, so if you’d rather...”
“No, he was there so I’ll fill you in. I decided to tell McNally everything.”
“Oh, shit. I don’t even need to ask if he blew a gasket.”
“Yeah, that would be a nice way to put it. But he did the strangest thing, and I’m still trying to figure out what he meant. Not only did he not eviscerate me on the spot, he actually gave Bobby and me two days off to, as he said, think about how badly we screwed up.” Terri could see that Jen was just as confused by this piece of information as she was, “Yeah, I’m right there with you, sweetie. He didn’t tell us to go look for her, nothing. And I have no clue what that means.”
“So, let me get this straight. You’ve been following someone around for a few days, but you don’t know why, right? Then you freak out, run off, and lose her down the Metro. And for all of this, you get two free days off? What the hell does that mean?”
Terri shrugged and tried to answer. “I wish I knew. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he was trying to hide something.”
“Are you sure he’s not?”
“Jen, this is McNally we’re talking about. Mr. Thirty-years-with-the-Bureau, college football hero, ex-Marine, gruff, honest to a fault. That guy?”
“Yeah, but you’re the cop. Do the math.”
Terri crossed her arms over her chest and offered Jen another puzzled look. “But McNally? I could believe that about almost anyone else, but...”
“Baby, he should have put you back on restriction, no discussion, no questions asked, and you know that as well as I do. I just don’t see any other explanation.”
“Explanation for what?” Bobby asked as he returned to the kitchen and pulled a beer out of the refrigerator, twisted off the cap, and took a long drink.
“Why McNally didn’t rip Terri’s head off for freaking out the way she did.” Terri shot a quick glance of displeasure toward Jen, who tried to amend her statement to something a little gentler. “I mean, well, you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean, and it’s okay. You’re right, I did freak out, and I should have gotten into trouble for it.”
“But hey,” Bobby interjected, tone dripping with sarcasm, “we got two days off. Woohoo!”
“Yeah, great,” Terri offered in response. “We got two days off, no suspect, our boss is apparently losing his marbles, and we’ve still got a hacker to deal with.” Terri stopped to look around. “By the way, where is she?”
“Oh. Denny,” Jen answered after she took another long swallow of beer, “She was still pretty shaky when we got home, so I gave her a beer and set her up with the TV upstairs. Last time I checked, she’d fallen asleep on the sofa watching South Park.”
“South Park?” Terri scrunched her nose in disgust. “Eww.”
“What? It’s funny.” Jen hesitated at the look of disbelief on Terri’s face. “Or so I’ve heard.”
Terri arched one eyebrow and put on her best “you’re busted” face, and said, her tone low and slightly menacing, “Jen...”
“Okay, I might have seen it once or twice.”
Bobby piped in quietly, “I like it. I mean, c’mon. Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Animal Sanctuary. That’s funny shit.”
Jen jumped all over Bobby’s comment, as she pointed at him and started to laugh. “Yeah, that was funny. And that weird guy with the puppet?”
“Yeah,” Bobby answered, pointing back. “C’mon, Jen, say it with me.
”
In perfect unison, Jen and Bobby offered up a hearty, “Oh my God, they killed Kenny!” and broke into paroxysms of laughter.
All Terri could do was stare in utter disbelief, as she shook her head and said, “You two scare me sometimes.” Her comment was greeted with a chorus of giggles and muttered apologies. “We really do need to figure some things out. Anybody have any thoughts?”
Jen sheepishly raised her hand. “What about Denny?”
“What about her?”
“I mean Faith is gone, right? But does that mean that she’s out of the picture? I assume she’ll still try to hook up. Well, not hook up as in hook up as such, especially considering what Denny told us, but I have to assume that she still needs the USB drive and the information. Is Denny still in some kind of danger?”
“I don’t know,” Terri answered and looked to Bobby for his opinion. He shrugged in response, letting her know that he was equally clueless, so she began to work the process out loud. “Okay, let’s think about this. Faith was willing to break into Denny’s apartment and even try to catch up with her at school. When she found out that wasn’t going to work, she decided to play with us instead. Agreed?”
Bobby answered, “Yeah, so far so good. Go on.”
“And then, we lost her, but we also know that she didn’t get the USB drive, because Denny gave it to me. I gave it to McNally, so we know the information is firmly in the hands of the Bureau. Still with me? So, maybe it would be all right if Denny got in contact with Faith again and gave her the information just to tie her officially to the crime. I know we don’t have the drive, but it looked to me just like the ones that anyone can buy at Office Depot or Target, right?”
Jen answered.“Um, actually, I have one just like it upstairs. It was a Sandisk, one gig, and they were on sale at Staples a couple of weeks ago, so I bought two or three. Just take one of those.”
“Two or three?” Terri asked. “How many USB drives do you need?”
“Well, I kind of tend to lose them, so I have a couple, you know, a few, maybe four or five or so, not exactly sure...”
“Jen...”
“Okay, there’s eight USB drives in my desk drawer.” Jen turned to look at Bobby, offering him a weak smile in a really lame attempt to defend herself.“I kind of have a thing for computer stuff and office supplies.”
Terri interjected, “Go on, Bobby. Ask her about how many different colored pens she has.”
“Hey.” Jen defended herself. “Color coding is important, you know?”
Bobby just shook his head. “Sounds a little insane to me, Jen.”
“Be nice, Bobby,” Terri said, coming to Jen’s assistance. “She prefers the term quirky. But we’re getting off topic. Denny has her computer with her, right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, so, she can copy the document to the drive, call Faith, and just give it to her.”
Bobby jumped in. “Ooh, then we can follow Denny and get Faith back at the same time. Well, not actually get her back, but we can at least see where she goes after she meets up with Denny and maybe even follow her to meet up with the guy from Kazakhstan. Oh, Terri, do you still have that tracer that you picked up in the Metro?”
Terri checked her pockets for the tracer. “Yes, I do.” She pulled it out and set it on the table. “But we don’t have the receiver, so it’s not much good.”
“Ah, but we can get one,” Bobby answered. “We can call the new guy in supply and check one out. I’d better be the one to call him though, right, Terri?”
Terri looked away sheepishly, prompting Jen to ask, “Do I even want to know why you can’t call the supply guy?”
“Remember last winter, right before we came down to your house, when I yelled at the new guy in the office and told him to go fetch me coffee? Yeah, well, it’s the same guy. He transferred down to supply, and he’s still kind of afraid of me.”
“He thinks she’s nuts, Jen.”
“Thank you so much for that, Bobby. Whatever. Why don’t you go call him right now and see what he has to say?”
Bobby went out into the dining room to make his call, giving Terri a few minutes alone with Jen. “Do you think Denny would be willing to do this?”
“Honestly, baby, I think she’s so freaked out at the moment that she’d probably do anything just to make sure that it’s really over, you know?”
“Yeah, I get that.” The last thing she needed to do right now was go off half cocked and try to chase down Faith, but McNally’s odd behavior really left her, and Bobby for that matter, with little else in the way of options. Of course, the whole operation could become problematic depending on Faith and if she had figured out why the FBI was following her.
Terri stopped musing long enough to recognize Jen’s hand on her arm, offering that same comforting touch that Terri so desperately needed.
“Terri, are you sure about this?”
“No, Jen, I’m not, but I have no idea what else to do.” Terri leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, rubbing small circles at her temples to keep the frustration-fueled headache at bay. It wasn’t working. “I suppose we could call McNally for approval, but that means we’d have to give Denny up, and since we lost Faith in the Metro, it all falls on Denny. I’d hate to see her become the sacrificial lamb in all this mess, but if McNally is hiding something, he won’t hesitate to do that. And since this is all my fault—”
“Baby, stop. This isn’t all your fault.”
Jen pulled at Terri’s hand, losing the grip quickly as she gave into her frustration and stood up, almost knocking her chair over in the process. “Then whose fault is it, Jen? Tell me.”
Jen stood to approach, but Terri kept her at a distance, raising her hands to push back if necessary. The tension in the room became palpable as Terri tried think clearly and keep the demons at bay long enough to try to make sense of what was happening to her. That wasn’t working either.
“Jen, I screwed everything up because I freaked out. If I would have stayed with Bobby and just called you, we wouldn’t have lost Faith, and we wouldn’t be sitting in the kitchen now, waiting for pizza, cooking up all this half-crazed bullshit. Bobby and I would have gotten relieved, and we could have come home, he could have gone on his date, and none of this would have happened.”
Jen tried to step closer, but Terri’s agitated demeanor held her back. “Okay, yes, that would have all been fine and dandy, but now you have reason to suspect that your boss was using you for something weird, and that there’s some crazy asshole out there cooking up something to kill us all, which, by the way, I think we should all be glad that you found, so a great big woo and hoo for that, and you might just be keeping some poor kid, who deserves nothing more than a swift kick in the pants for being stupid, out of prison.”
Jen tried to approach again, this time with a little more success as Terri relaxed her shoulders and allowed Jen to take her by the hands. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“Yeah, you suppose is right.” Jen visibly brightened. “Hey, and we also found out that my completely insane office supply habit might just save the world from some really ugly biological apocalypse, so we’re all good here. Right?”
Terri warmed to the realization that no matter what happened, even when she was at her worst, that she was never going to be in it alone, as long as she had Jen. That was a nice thought to have. She sniffed a little and wiped at her eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. I still think we should call McNally and—”
“Belay that, Agent McKinnon.” Bobby was back, finished with his phone call, and apparently bringing news. “I think the last person we need to talk to right now is McNally. I talked to your little buddy, Newbie, down in supply, and it would seem that everything we’ve been doing for the last week never happened. There’s no record of any of it. No requisitions, no case numbers, nothing. I don’t know how he did it, because, God knows, we need a requisition for toilet paper in the men’s room, but McNally managed to keep two teams of agents fully outfi
tted for surveillance for close to a week, and there’s not one shred of anything documenting any of it.”
Terri could not believe what she was hearing, “What?”
“You heard me. Nothing, nada, zilch. No wonder he wanted us out of the office.”
“Yeah,” Terri answered as she kept trying to make sense of this last little revelation in her head. Nope, wasn’t working this time either. “Jen, you were right and I still have no idea what that means.”
Bobby piped in, “Oh, but wait. It gets better. No one can find McNally now. He’s not at work, he’s not at home, and he’s not answering his cell phone.”
Terri didn’t even attempt to ask if anyone else was as clueless as she was at the moment. The dumbfounded expressions on their faces told her all she needed to know. Now what?
*
Faith paced and chain-smoked around the tiny efficiency apartment that she had rented to serve as a home base for the duration of the job. The voice on the other end of the phone continued to piss her off, more and more, actually making her contemplate asking for more money. It was, of course, a ridiculous notion since it was now obvious that the cops were on to her, and that fact had a tendency to make people tight with their money. She still wasn’t sure what kind of cops they were, but considering the advanced electronics, in the form of the tracer she had found under the seat of her bike, they weren’t locals. FBI, maybe even Homeland Security. Hell, considering the nature of the information that she had been hired to locate, it could have even been the CIA. Faith just had no way of knowing, and this asshole on the phone wasn’t helping. Not a fucking bit.
“Listen, dude, this situation is getting completely out of hand. You said this operation was watertight, and now my hacker is spooked, I’ve got cops on my ass, and I don’t even know who the fuck they are. I’ll get your information, but I need something from you, and all this cryptic bullshit just isn’t going to cut it.”
Continuing to pace like a caged animal, Faith listened as her employer attempted to explain that he had no idea what was going on.