Imposter (23 page)

Burke turned his head slowly and gave Lanski the full force of his gaze.  In a lethal whisper he said, “And you won’t be getting what you came here for if you’ve hurt her.”

  Lanski’s mouth pinched now.  An angry flush stained his cheeks red.

“She can’t stand because I have tied her to the steering wheel.  The rope is too short for her to stand fully. She is unhurt, though.”

“I’ll hear it from her,” Burke said.  “Eve.”

She nodded.

Reluctantly, he took his gaze from her and returned his attention to Lanski. “So you decided to change the meeting place.”

Lanski nodded. 

“You played it down to the wire.  Another minute or two and you would have arrived here after I’d already left.”

“Not down to the wire, I timed it perfectly.” Lanski sneered.  “Just as this transaction is going to go perfectly.  I’ve been patient, allowing you to satisfy yourself as to Dr. Collins’s condition.  She’s unharmed as you can see.  Oh, you’re probably thinking that since she’s okay, you can come up with a way to have both her and the formula.  You underestimated me, again, Burke.   She’s fine at the moment.  But that could change in an instant.”  Lanski reached out and snagged the coat from Eve’s shoulders. 

Burke’s breath held.  Strapped to her waist was a bomb.

Lanski laughed.  “That’s right.  You aren’t mistaken.  That is a bomb on Dr. Collins.” He held up his hand, displaying a detonator.  “Boom!” 

Eve cried out and Lanski laughed again. 

“Oops,” Lanski said.  “Wouldn’t want to set off the bomb by mistake.”

Burke’s fist clenched.  He longed to grab Lanski by the throat even as his own throat constricted. 

“It’s rigged on a three minute timer, Burke. Surely, you can deactivate a bomb in three minutes.” Lanski snapped his fingers.  “Oh, that’s right you can’t.”  Lanski smirked. “
I’m
the bomb expert.”

“Here’s the formula.” Burke removed Richard Patterson’s pages  from his shirt pocket and held them aloft. “Now, give me the detonator.” 

Lanski tapped his index finger to his lips and scrunched up his face as if considering Burke’s words.  Then, he yelled, “Buzz!  No! I won’t be doing that just yet.” 

Lanski was beaming, clearly enjoying his power. 

“Oh. Oh. My hand is starting to sweat, Burke. If you want to get that bomb deactivated before my finger slips to the switch, move this transfer along.” 

“Set the detonator on the ground now and step back from it and we’ll make the trade.”

“To think, after working together for three years, you don’t trust me.” Lanski grinned and shook his head.

“Put the detonator down, Lanski, or the deal is off.”

Lanski took his gun out from beneath his jacket.  “Or, I could just kill her now.”  Lanski pivoted on his heel and turned to Eve.  He aimed the barrel of his gun at her forehead. I’m a crack shot, as you know.  If you’d like a demonstration, I can send the first bullet through her ear lobe.  Would you like to choose which lobe?” 

Burke’s heart pounded.  A silence ensued as both men locked stares.

Finally, Lanski said, “I thought not. Now, you will do as
I
say: Bring me the formula.” Lanski’s eyes went cold.  His voice lowered, became menacing. “I warn you, Burke, make a move against me and I’ll blow her into the next life.” 

Burke forced himself not to look at Eve, to keep his attention on Lanski as he closed the distance between them.  Lanski would not let them leave there alive.  Lanski needed them dead to prevent them from blowing the whistle on him.  He would not give up the detonator once he had the formula. 

Three feet from the other man, Burke held out the formula. As Lanski reached out to snatch the papers from Burke’s loose grasp, Burke clamped his hand around the hand that held both the gun and the detonator.

Burke raised Lanski’s arm skyward as both men grappled for possession of the weapon.

“I’ll kill you, Burke!”  Spittle sprayed from Lanski’s mouth.  “I’ll kill you!”

Slowly, Lanski worked the gun back down.  Grunting and groaning, he aimed it at Burke’s head.  Eve screamed.

As Lanski was about to press the trigger, Burke exerted more pressure, his hand shaking with the effort as he turned the gun away from himself and to Lanski.  It was pressed to Lanski’s shoulder when it went off.

Lanski fell in a heap to the ground.  Blood oozed from the wound.  He was down, but conscious.  The detonator was still clutched in his fist.  Burke lunged for it.  Lanski flicked the switch.

He sneered.  “Boom!”  He lost consciousness.

Burke was still holding Richard’s formula in his fist.  He shoved the pages in his pocket as he vaulted onto the boat. 

“Eve!”

  “The bomb is going to blow! Go!  Leave!”  She reached out and frantically pushed him away. “Get off the boat, John!  Go now!”

Burke did not respond.  He focused on the bomb. The wires connecting the bomb were red, white, and blue.  The irony was not lost on him. 

The colored wires meant nothing to him.  Lanski was right.  Burke did not know how to deactivate it. 

“John - please, ple-ase. Just go!”  Her voice broke.  “Go . . . ”

He couldn’t deactivate the bomb so he would have to remove it from Eve. He scanned the boat, looking for something he could use to cut the straps securing the bomb to her. A knife in the bottom of the boat gleamed in the sunlight. 

“Hold still, baby.”  

Burke blinked sweat from his eyes and cut the two straps.  He dropped the knife, yanked the harness from Eve.  Raising his arm high, he flung the bomb into the lake.  As he pushed Eve down, into the boat’s hull, the bomb struck the water and exploded.

Water spurted like a geyser from the lake, spraying them.  Burke picked up the knife, where it lay at his feet, and cut the rope that held her to the steering wheel.  Eve fell forward into his arms. 

He ran his hands over her, checking her for injury.  “You’re okay.  You’re safe.” He said the words as much to assure himself as to assure her.

She was trembling, crying.  Her teeth were chattering.  But she was unhurt.  Alive.  He pressed Eve against him and wrapped his arms around her.  She clutched his neck in a choke-hold.

“I thought I was going to watch you die,” Burke said, his tone fierce.

“I thought you were going to die because of me.  Why didn’t you get off the boat?  Why didn’t you leave?”

He drew back.  Tears streamed down her face.  “Not without you.”  His grip on her tightened.  “Never without you.”    

She held his gaze, her eyes swimming in tears.  Her lips quivered.  “Never without you,” she repeated.

He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her.  Eve clung to him and kissed him back.

Chapter Fifteen
 

In Eve’s lab in Los Angeles. Mozart played softly on a CD set on a table while beside the CD player a white light winked on and off in a plastic jack-o-lantern.

One month had passed since the day Lanski had strapped a bomb to her, put her in a boat and motored off to meet Burke.  She’d thought she was going to die.  But she hadn’t. Burke hadn’t let her die.  He’d saved her life, risking his own in the process.  A shiver coursed through her at the thought of how close they’d both come to losing their lives that day.   

After, she’d accompanied two CIA officials to headquarters in Langley, Virginia to give her accounting of events. All charges against her were dropped and she was free to go.  She’d left Langley without seeing Burke.  She’d asked about him and was told that he was in debriefing. 

In the last weeks she’d done a great deal of thinking.  No doubt a near death experience would do that to a person and she’d come to some decisions about her life.

Eve took an empty box from the floor and as she set it down, knocked a beaker off the counter.  The glass struck the floor and shattered.

Damn.

The lab door opened.  That would be her assistant.  The boy was a College student majoring in chemistry.  He’d proven to have a good nose for blending scents. He was currently working on a blend of jasmine and hyacinth that had him very exited about the outcome.  Eve wondered if he were coming to tell her he’d made the fragrance work.

She bent to attend to the mess she’d made with the beaker.  Over her shoulder she called out, “Tam, would you mind grabbing the broom on your way in?”

She heard the closet door slide open.  Then a man stood over her holding the broom.

Not Tam. It was Burke.

“There were three of them in the closet.”  He lifted the broom. “I took a chance.”

Eve’s heart picked up its pace.  She stared up at him, not blinking, taking him in after the month-long separation.  

He reached down to her, offering his hand.  She placed her hand in his and rose slowly to her feet.

Her heart was pounding and emotion clogged her throat.  It took a moment for her to be confident that her voice would work.  She smiled.  “That one will do.”  She took the broom from him and set it against the counter. 

The instant she had, he drew her into his arms and kissed her as if he’d never let her go.  She held on to him, kissing him back with equal urgency.

He drew back slightly.  He looked leaner than when she’d last seen him.  A little tired.  Her heart stirred in sympathy. 

She brushed her fingertips across his cheek.   “How are you?”

“Missing you.”

He kissed her again.

He stepped back, but not far, keeping his arms around her.  “I thought you’d like to know that the plot has been stopped. Lanski, looking to save himself, revealed the name of the buyer for the formula. The buyer is in custody, as are the members of the terrorist cell he was affiliated with.

Eve closed her eyes briefly in relief.  “That is the best news.”

Burke nodded in obvious satisfaction.  His cell phone rang and he snatched it out of his pocket quickly.  Eve figured he was expecting the call, but when he glanced at the screen, he let the phone continue to ring.

“Dammit, Mallory, where are you?” he said softly.

Mallory.  Eve recalled Burke telling her about his sister.  She stroked his arm.  His muscles were tensed. “John?”

“I’ve left a few messages for Mallory in the last week, but she hasn’t called back. The last time we spoke, she told me she was going undercover.  That she was working on something big.”  His gaze lowered to the phone he was still holding and held there, then, slowly, he returned the phone to his pocket.  He pointed to the two open boxes that were side-by-side on the floor.  “What’s all this?”

“I’ve made a decision.”  She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.  “I’m selling the business.”

“Oh?”

Eve nodded.  “I want to do something more with my life.”  She swallowed, nervous now.  “I’m hoping you’ll support the direction I want to take.”

He pressed her palm to his lips and kissed it.  “I love you.  Whatever you decide, I’m behind you.”

“I want to join your team.”