CL Hart -From A Distance (44 page)

"You need to eat first, so you can take your antibiotics. Please," Cori said as she pulled their dinner from the plastic bags. "Please."

Kenzie looked at the phone, and then slid it into her pocket. "Does that mean you need to change my bandages?"

"You need food," Cori said with a bright blush.

"You're easy to read, but sometimes hard to understand," Kenzie said with a chuckle as she accepted her take-out from Cori, pecking a quick kiss on her cheek. They ate in relative silence, watching the news on the TV. When they were finished, Kenzie turned the volume down and pulled out the phone. She hesitated for a moment, but then flipped it open and began dialing the judge's home number.

Cori reached out and snapped the phone shut. "What are you doing? You can't just call him. What if they have his phone bugged or wired or whatever?"

"I can guarantee that they do. But don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Kenzie flipped open the phone and dialed the number. Putting the phone to her ear, she let it ring once and then quickly closed the phone, disconnecting the line.

"Was it busy?"

"No. It rang once and that's all I need. The line was never connected so they can't trace the call, but I'm counting on him to have call display."

Cori let the information absorb. She considered herself very computer and tech savvy, but this was something new. "So he can get your number from call display but they can't trace the call because he didn't pick up, meaning the connection was never made?"

"Basically." She redialed the number, let it ring once and then hung up again. "The judge is a smart man, he'll figure it out." The phone in her hand vibrated.

She looked at the displayed number of the call coming in. It was not the judge's home number. "Hello?" she said guardedly. "Katherine." His voice was hushed, the concern for her clear. "Is this a safe line?"

"Yes." He sighed with relief. "Thank God you're okay. I've been worried about you. I tried the other number you gave me, but it was no longer in service."

"It's a long story. I'd love to tell you all about it over a chess game, but now isn't the time. What did you find out for me?"

"Just hold on a second. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She looked over at Cori, who raised an eyebrow in question. "A little beat up around the edges, but that's normal," Kenzie said truthfully.

"Where are you?"

"I don't want to say right now, but we're close."

"What's going on, Katherine?"

"I don't know. I'm hoping you can tell me." Kenzie looked at Cori who was listening to her every word. "Who was in charge of this mission? Who ordered the hit?"

"As far as I've been able to find out, there was no mission, there was no hit."

"Are you sure?" Her brow furrowed. "I saw the orders."

"Not according to those in the know. There was no mission. I even had them check flight logs...nothing. They've been wiped clean."

"That's not possible. I saw the orders, and I know I didn't walk to Mexico." A cold chill seeped through Kenzie as her mind raced with questions. "It was black ops, so you can't be sure. I need to talk to Colonel Manuck."

"Katherine...I'm sure. There is no one running anything in Guadalajara, nothing in Mexico. There wasn't even a record of your being there. As a matter of fact, there isn't even-"

"But I had orders," Kenzie said. "Somebody okayed those orders. Colonel Manuck has to answer to someone."

"Katherine...listen to me."

Cori watched with rising fear as Kenzie's expression and body language changed.

"Judge...maybe you missed it? I mean - you don't understand. This is high level security stuff. Maybe you..." Kenzie was beginning to feel the desperation of uncertainty. None of it made sense, and that was scaring her.

"I'm a federal judge, with some friends in very high places. I understand national security. I know about black ops and some of what they do. Katherine, you need to listen to me. There was no mission in Mexico, there is no record of you being sent down there. There's no record of you - period." He paused, giving her a chance to digest what he'd said. "Are you listening, Katherine? There's no government record that you even exist. You died several years ago in the line of duty."

Kenzie shook her head. "I know that," she answered with a shrug. "That was part of the deal. That's what I'm saying...we were running under the radar of even black ops. We were a kill squad. I knew that, I accepted that."

Cori studied Kenzie's face. She didn't like what she was hearing.
Kill squad, black ops? What have I gotten myself into?

Kenzie suddenly leapt to her feet, her hand balled tightly into a fist. "That was part of the deal. If I didn't exist, and I was caught somewhere that someone like me shouldn't have been, then I was on my own. I had no backup, no government ties, and no country to blame."

"I understand all that. I understand why we need operatives that don't exist. What I don't understand is why somebody went to all the trouble of making your flight to Mexico disappear. What about this Colonel Manuck?"

"I don't know. He has to answer to someone. Somebody in the military had to okay this." Despite her protest, her words no longer had the strength of her convictions. "Somebody in the government had to know what was going on-"

"Katherine," the judge interrupted quietly.

"I had my orders. Colonel Manuck gave me my orders." The answers sounded hollow, even to her, as she contemplated what he was telling her.

Cori watched in growing apprehension as Kenzie lowered herself onto the bed.

"This isn't right, Judge. This isn't right." She swallowed hard as the dryness of her mouth thickened her tongue. "If there's no record of the mission in Mexico, then who ordered the hit? Who's calling the shots?"

"Katherine, have you talked to this Colonel Manuck?"

Kenzie wiped hard at her face. "No," she answered with an anxious sigh.

"No communication with him whatsoever?"

"No."

"Why not?" the judge asked.

It was not the first time that question had crossed her mind. Colonel Manuck was her superior, she answered to him, but he was much more than that to her - he was her mentor. Kenzie had trusted him like she had trusted no other. He was to have her back, so why had he not been there for her this time? "I don't know. I wouldn't know how to...he's always contacted me."

Judge Woodward listened to her words, letting them sink in before he commented, "Then why didn't he contact you when the mission failed?"

"I don't know. He couldn't. He had no way to." The truth was, she didn't want to know the real reason, because if Manuck was not with her, he was against her. That meant Kenzie really was out there all alone.

"Have you tried to contact anyone else?"

"Manuck was the only one I ever talked to. He was my only contact."

"There was no one else? What about in the case of an emergency? There had to be a number or a least a name of someone to call."

Frustrated, Kenzie lashed out. "No. I told you! I was to have no connection with the military or the government whatsoever! I was on my own."

Regretting that he'd had to push her into thinking beyond the familiar parameters under which she operated, the judge sighed. "Exactly."

The phone on Deputy Director Bucannon's desk warbled, echoing loudly inside the quiet office. "Bucannon," he answered curtly.

"Sir, its Agent Bisby. We just had something interesting on the asset's tap."

"Talk to me," he answered impatiently as he picked up a pencil and put it to paper. The asset referred to was the judge. It made their jobs less complicated if no one used names.

"A call came in a few minutes ago, but there was no connection. He didn't pick up the phone."

"He's home?" Bucannon queried.

"Affirmative, sir."

"So what...he was busy and he didn't want to answer the phone."

"It happened twice, both calls coming in within seconds. He didn't answer either of them, sir. It was out of the ordinary so I thought I would let you know."

"What was the number?"

"There was no number, sir, because there was no connection. No connection, no trace."

It was her.
Bucannon was certain. "What did he do?"

"That's just it. He didn't do anything. He never picked up the phone. He didn't try calling the number back, nothing."

"What about his cell phone?"

"Inactive, sir." Agent Bisby waited. He was unsure whether he had done the right thing by disturbing the Deputy Director, even though it was his asset and his operation.

Bucannon's mind was racing with possibilities.
What is she doing? Trying to reach the judge, but why? Maybe we should get rid of him.
"Shit, he's a goddamn federal judge," he muttered to himself in disbelief at the thought that had crossed his mind.

"Sir?" Agent Bisby questioned in confusion.

"Just a minute, I'm thinking." Bucannon rubbed his temple and then began to tap lightly on his forehead. "What is he doing right now?" The agents had no idea who the judge was or why he was targeted. It was not their job to know, it was his.

Bucannon listened as Agent Bisby asked his surveillance partner. There was a long moment of silence before the other agent spoke, and the Deputy Director strained to hear what was said, but he couldn't make it out.

"He's what?" Clearly even Agent Bisby was startled by his partner's comment. "But we don't have anything on that-"

"Agent Bisby, what the hell is going on?" Bucannon angrily interrupted the two agents' discussion.

"Ah, sir, it would appear that the asset is on a cell phone, one we were not aware he had," Agent Bisby said.

"Well, whose phone is it? Where did he get another phone?" The fact that the judge had gone out of his way to acquire a spare phone confirmed what he suspected: the judge had been in contact with them.

"I don't know, sir. We've checked our records and as far as we know, he only had the one cell phone."

"Well, I would say you missed one! Get a patch on that other phone." Bucannon rose to his feet. "I want to know who the hell he's talking to!"

"We aren't set up for that, sir. We just have a mobile," Agent Bisby said, referring to the minivan they were crammed into.

"Son of a bitch!" the Deputy Director yelled as he paced. They had her, goddamn it, but he couldn't find her unless they could trace the call. "Do you have a cone?"

"A cone?"

"What exactly are they teaching you these days?" Bucannon fired off in annoyance. "A cone...a parabolic microphone."

"Negative, sir."

"I need audio! I need to know what he's saying!"

"Do you want us to break shadow?"

"No. We don't need that," Bucannon said, not wanting his agents to leave the anonymity of the vehicle. Then again, if the judge knew what was going on, he knew too much already. "Do you have the ability to acquire the asset?"

The question caught Agent Bisby off guard. They were there as surveillance not as a scoop squad, though he would do whatever was ordered. "We aren't set up for it, but if that's what you need, sir."