Crash and Burn (12 page)

There was a taxi rank across the street and a cab pulled up to the curb as she arrived, letting out a passenger.

Thank you, God!

Beth raced over and jumped in, slamming the door behind her. She turned as the taxi sped off in the direction of the hotel and saw a man run out of the shop, looking both ways down the street.
That was too close.

She retrieved the phone and dialed Daniel.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Good,” he said curtly before he hung up on her.

Beth got out of the cab around the corner from the hotel. She slowly walked across the road at the pedestrian lights, trying to check out each person she passed without causing suspicion. Any one of them could be following her. How had someone found her? How had she been recognized? The disguise was good. She knew it was. She’d been certain even her parents, if they were alive, would have had a hard time knowing it was her. If not her looks, then what was it that gave her away? She felt the laptop bump her thigh through the bag she had slung over her shoulder. The laptop? No, it couldn’t be. They’d had it with them the whole time. She’d have to ask Daniel if that were possible.

Think
. If not the laptop itself, maybe the site she was searching. The appointment diary. It had to be. They must have picked up the signal while she was plugged in at the Internet café. That
had
to be how they’d found her.

She needed to get to Daniel and fast.

As inconspicuously as she could, she raced through the lobby and took the first elevator up to their suite. Trepidation filled her as she reached the room. She knew Daniel was angry with her and she really couldn’t blame him. Taking a deep breath, she slipped the card in the slot and placed her hand on the doorknob.

The door jerked open and away from her hand. Daniel dragged her into the room and closed the door firmly.

“What the fuck did you think you were doing?” barked Daniel.

Yep, he’s angry all right. May as well tell him the good news now.

“We have to get out of here right away. I’ll explain as we go,” said Beth as she headed for the bedroom with every intention of packing.

Daniel grabbed her arm again and held her in place. “I’ve already packed. You can explain in the car. We need to hit the road.”

Too stunned to do anything else, Beth nodded and took the bag Daniel handed to her as they headed out of the door. The lift doors opened as they reached the hallway. Signaling her to be silent, Daniel grabbed Beth’s hand and pulled her the other way down the corridor and through the fire escape door. Surprising Beth, Daniel led them up the stairs instead of down.

“Where are we going?”

“Up to the walkway to the other tower. We can get to the garage without going through the lobby from there.”

Of course,
thought Beth.
First rule of secret agents—know your escape routes
. She followed him as best she could, trying not to slow their progress, but her leg had started to ache again. Her limp was getting more marked as they drew closer to the elevators in the adjacent tower. Daniel watched as she rubbed her thigh while they waited for the car to arrive, although he seemed more irritated than concerned.
Boy, he’s still mad.

“Your leg hurting you?”

“It’ll be all right. I can manage. We are going for another car trip, right? I can rest it while you drive.”

“It’ll be a long drive. We can’t afford to stop for some time.”

“Where are we going? No, scratch that. Surprise me.”

Daniel arched his eyebrow and his eyes crinkled at the edges. For a second there Beth thought he was smiling, but it passed as quickly as it started and his face became a mask of determination. Not a smile in sight.

* * * *

Daniel drove carefully around the outskirts of the city. The lunchtime traffic wasn’t heavy, but busy enough that he needed to be alert.

How had they been made? Damn stubborn woman! Why hadn’t she just stayed put?
He’d trusted her, even when he’d known she was giving in too easily. It wouldn’t happen again. From now on they’d be joined at the hip. He had to keep her safe, and that was damn near impossible if she went charging off on her own.

But first he had to figure out how they’d been located. He had to admit Beth’s disguise had been pretty good. If he hadn’t known it was her coming through the door, he wouldn’t have recognized her. He needed some answers. She was sitting slumped in the passenger seat and he felt a twinge of guilt. If they’d taken her into protective custody from the start, this wouldn’t have happened.

Beth’s unruly curls were translucent as the afternoon sun shone through the windscreen, showing sparkling golden highlights. Her green eyes were dull and tired and he noticed the dark circles that were more apparent now, due to the light. She might be a bit reckless, but she was certainly not a shrinking violet. It was an impossible situation, but she had been handling it like a pro—if he discounted her idiocy this morning. She shifted in her seat and took in a deep breath. Her breasts rose and the T-shirt she was wearing stretched tightly, outlining her nipples.

Heat and awareness flooded through Daniel as he remembered the previous night. Those breasts were damn near perfect. He shook his head in a vain attempt to shift the erotic images of his mouth claiming a taut nipple and grazing it with his teeth. He turned his head quickly back to the road, but not quite quickly enough. He saw Beth flush as he heard a catch in her breath. Her eyes widened as she stared at the not-so-subtle bulge in his jeans before jerking her head in the opposite direction.

Good one, Daniel. This is not the time for fantasizing. Get over it.
They needed a plan.

* * * *

“So, now would be a good time to fill me in on why you thought it was a good idea to disregard my orders,” said Daniel as they sat at the picnic table, eating the burgers they’d bought for lunch.

Beth stopped mid-bite and swallowed. Her face was flushed. She really was beautiful, he thought. Annoying, exasperating, but still beautiful. He had to stop thinking like that—he knew it was dangerous. After the distress he’d seen in her eyes last night, he knew he didn’t want to hurt her again.

She turned back, this time making eye contact with him. He didn’t see the repentant face he was expecting, but a fierce determination.

“Well, it was lucky I did, because if I’d stayed in the hotel, I would have been a sitting duck,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“He traced me somehow. I think it must have been when I was logged in to the email account. If I’d been in the hotel, I wouldn’t have been able to give him the slip.”

“Go on…” said Daniel.

“Look, I took precautions. I had myself so well disguised that even my own family wouldn’t have recognized me, but
he
did.”

“How do you know it was one of the bad guys? It could have just been someone who fancied you.”

“I don’t think so. An admirer doesn’t chase you through a back lane and follow you through a shop out onto the street. I think I can tell the difference.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. What about the person in the hall at the hotel? How did they find us if it wasn’t a tracking device?”

Daniel paused to think. He took another bite of his burger and visualized the equipment they had with them. Maybe he missed something, but he wasn’t convinced. “It’s possible. But I don’t think it’s from the website. I was working on that most of the night and they didn’t find us then. It has to be something else. What did you take with you?”

“The laptop, your phone, the wig and cap. The shoulder bag, my purse…”

All those items were secure, thought Daniel. It had to be something else. He reached for his cola and took a sip before placing it back on the table. “How about you start from the beginning…from when you decided to leave the hotel? Tell me everything that happened—where you went, who you saw. Don’t leave anything out.”

Beth blinked and stared down at the empty wrapper in front of her. She wiped her fingers and mouth with the napkin, and leaned forward onto the table with her elbows.

“I started to get claustrophobic in that room and I knew I had to get out before I suffocated. I just wanted a change of scenery, Daniel. I didn’t mean to stay out long.”

Daniel frowned at her but remained silent. Gulping, she continued.

“So I took a wig and hat from your backpack, packed up the laptop and went out.”

“Where did you go?”

“I went to that Internet café in the hotel lobby, where I found a private cubicle and plugged in the laptop. Then I logged into the diary again.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes. How the hell did she do that? He’d had to hack in. It wasn’t an easy task, he knew from first-hand experience. He opened his mouth to speak but she raised her hand for him to let her continue.

“I’ve been studying computer programming with Open Universities and it seems I have a talent for it.”

“I’ll say. That site has top-level security attached to it.”

Beth blushed again and shifted in her seat. “I remembered what you’d done this morning and tried to reproduce it. It worked. Anyway, I didn’t stay logged on for long.”

“How long?’

“About fifteen or twenty minutes. I decided I needed fresh air, so I copied the file, packed up and went outside. That’s when I found the park.”

“Park? That’s quite a way from the hotel.”

“I needed the exercise. I have to compensate for my appetite somehow.” She smiled slightly but Daniel ignored it and continued firing questions.

“Okay, so you went to the park. What happened next?”

“I was sitting on the grass working from the laptop for about fifteen minutes when I started to feel uneasy. I was sure someone was watching me, but I couldn’t see anyone.”

“I know that feeling. I’ve learned to trust my instincts.”

“Yes, well, I didn’t want to take any chances so I headed out the other side of the park. I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being followed so I ducked into a coffee shop and slipped out the back door.”

Daniel stared at her now. She was smart, but she shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Shrugging his shoulders, he resumed his interrogation.

“Did anyone follow you out of the coffee shop?”

Beth’s breathing became shorter. Her eyes flashed and for an instant Daniel thought he saw fear, but they cleared quickly as she exhaled deeply.

“I hid in a dark doorway. By this stage my leg was really killing me and I couldn’t run. That’s when I saw a man searching the alleyway near the coffee shop.”

Holy Shit!
She could have been killed
. He continued to be amazed at her cool head. Gripping his fists under the table, he waited for her to continue.

“So I knocked on the door and raced through the shop into the street. I jumped in a cab and headed back to the hotel. You know the rest.”

Daniel swore under his breath and unclenched his fists, splaying his fingers over his thighs. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Did you see him after that?”

“I saw someone run out of the same shop and look up and down the street. It could have been him, but by that time I was already driving off in the taxi.”

Shit
. He had to figure out how they’d been found…and fast. Someone could be already on their tail.

“I think it’s the laptop,” said Beth.

Daniel turned his head, quickly searching her eyes, which were wide and maybe just a little bit frightened.

“You think it has a detection device?”

“I don’t know. We’ve had it all along and they didn’t find us at the hotel. Maybe it’s the diary website. It could trigger an alarm that enables the server to track the users. They can do that through the ISP.”

Daniel stared out over the paddock next to the picnic table.
Maybe she’s right. It’s certainly possible. But why now and not last night?

“I accessed that site last night. We weren’t tracked then.”

Beth shifted forward and brushed an errant red curl behind her ear. “Maybe it took that long to persuade the ISP to cooperate. Don’t they need a court order or something?”

Yes, they do
. And it would take someone high up in the Federal Police to get one through that quickly.
Damn.
He had to call Addison. It was time he had a talk with him. He needed to find out if there was any new information. Time was running out.

Daniel crushed the empty food containers and stood. “I’ve got a call to make. Hang about; I won’t be long.” He threw the rubbish into the bin and continued walking past the table into the bush track behind the picnic area. He pulled out his phone and plugged in the scrambler before punching in a few numbers.

“Addison.”

“It’s me.”

“Wyatt, you’re late again. But I trust you have a good excuse.”

Daniel hesitated before continuing. “Someone made us.”

“What? Is the girl okay?”

“Yes, but only because she’s smart.” Not smart enough to follow orders though, he added silently. “It could have been a lot worse.”

“So, are you clear now?”

He turned back to make sure Beth was still in sight. She was, thankfully. “Yeah, for the moment. I need you to find out something for me.”

“Shoot.”

Turning away again, he shifted his weight to one leg and leaned against a ghost gum, partially obscuring himself from Beth’s view to ensure she couldn’t hear the conversation. “Someone got clearance to trace a website to an ISP. I need to know who.”

“Is that how they found you?”

“It seems likely, but I’m not sure. I need you to check it out anyway. At the moment, it’s our only lead.”

“Consider it done. In the meantime, I think you should come in. It’s not safe out there for you anymore.”

Daniel took the phone from his ear and turned his head back to where Beth sat. He raised it to his ear again and spoke quietly into the phone. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. We’ve managed to lose them for the time being and whoever this is might be watching our safe houses. Considering they already found us at one.”