Never Say Spy (22 page)

She nodded satisfaction.  “You can go.  Your only potentially serious injury is that hit to the stomach, and I don’t think it’s anything more than a bruise.”

“No, I tensed up really hard before he hit me.”

“Lucky you’re in good shape,” she replied.  “I’ll get Linda to bring the paperwork.”

“Thanks.  I’ll try to avoid being your best customer in the future.”

She smiled.  “You’d better.  Get out of here.”

Hellhound had insisted on giving me his jacket, and he hovered closely on the way to the door.  I turned to him with a smile.  “Relax, I’ve had my food.  I’m not going to hit the deck.”

“That’s what ya said right before ya hit the deck last time,” he growled.

“No, I just said I was fine,” I argued cheerfully.  “And I was.  Would I lie to you?”

“Hell, yeah.”

I laughed, and his shoulders relaxed at the sound.

The lights were on when we arrived at the small house-cum-office.  Spider sprang up from his desk as we entered.

“Aydan, thank God you’re okay,” he blurted, but faltered when he took in my dishevelled appearance.  I hadn’t looked in a mirror, but I guessed that my nose was red and puffy again, and my hair felt crispy around my face.

“You are okay, aren’t you?” he added uncertainly.

I nodded.  “I’m fine, no worries.”

“Thank God,” he repeated.

“Thanks for driving,” Kane told Hellhound.  “You saved our butts.  You can call it a night now.”

Hellhound grinned.  “Yeah, same old, same old.”

I held out a restraining hand as he turned to go.  “Wait, you need your jacket.”

He waved it away.  “Give it back to me later.”

“Arnie, it’s minus ten out.  You need your jacket.”  I eased it off, babying my aching muscles, and held it out to him.  “Thanks.”

He eyed me, his face set in hard lines.  My injuries were even more livid against my pale skin with most of the blood cleaned away.  I followed his gaze and offered him a reassuring smile.  “Don’t worry, you know my Princess skin.  It’ll be all better tomorrow.”

“Take your jacket, Hellhound,” Spider said from behind me.  “I brought Aydan’s jacket with me from Blue Eddy’s.”

I turned to take it from him.  “Thanks, Spider.”

The young man’s eyes widened as he took in my scratches and bruises and the slashed, blood-soaked shirt.

“Oh my God,” he gasped.  “Oh my God.”  He dropped into his chair and hid his face in his hands.

I slipped on my jacket to hide the mess.  “Hey, Spider,” I said gently.  “It’s okay, it only looks scary.  I just had a nosebleed.  Same as at Sirius.”

“They…”  He lifted a pallid face out of his hands, his eyes dark with distress.  “They tortured you.”

“Hey, Spider.  Buddy.  Relax,” I comforted him.  “I’ve been hurt worse than that playing basketball.  With friends.”

Germain frowned disbelief.  “That sounds like a different kind of basketball than I used to play.”

I grinned.  “Yeah, we weren’t too hung up on the rules.”  I held out my left hand and showed them the short, ragged scars on the back.  “This is what happens when you try to steal the ball from a 250-pound steroid-fuelled ex-football player.”

I was pleased to see Spider was becoming distracted by my story.  “What happened?” he asked, examining my hand.  “How did you get the scars?”

“Those were from his fingernails.”

He gazed at me, open-mouthed.  “He did that?  Because you tried to steal the ball?”

I grinned.  “It was an accident.  He felt really badly afterward.”  I paused for comic timing.  “At least I think he did.  It was hard to tell under that low, steroid-induced brow ridge.”  I mimed an ape-like gait, arms swinging, knuckles dragging.

Spider let out a half-hearted laugh.  “You’re crazy.”

The other three men had been watching while I told my story, and Germain diverted Spider’s attention with a question.  As they turned away, I braced myself on the corner of Spider’s desk, straightening slowly.  That little show had cost me in pain, but it was worth it to see the colour returning to Spider’s face.

Hellhound stepped to my side to wrap a strong arm around me, supporting me while I unbent.  When I stood upright again, he moved away.

“I’m outta here.”  He jabbed a finger at Kane.  “I told ya to take care of her.  Don’t fuck up this time.  Anythin’ else happens to Aydan, an’ I’m gonna do some serious ass-kickin’.”

Kane glowered at him.  “Nothing else is going to happen.”

“Better not,” Hellhound growled, and went out the door, closing it with unnecessary firmness.

I sidled over to Kane.  “Do you have a T-shirt I can borrow?  I’m cooking in this coat, but I don’t want to take it off.”  I nodded in Spider’s direction.

“I’ve got some downstairs,” he replied quietly.  He spoke up so Germain and Spider could hear him.  “We’ll debrief downstairs.  I’ve had enough surprises for one night.”  They both looked startled, but nodded and fell in behind as he led the way.

We followed Kane down the stairs into a cramped basement.  The ceiling was so low that both Kane and Spider had to duck to avoid some of the beams.  Kane headed for what looked like a furnace room at the back of the basement, the rest of us following single file.  Nobody else looked as curious as I felt, so I assumed it was new only to me.

Kane went directly to the electrical panel, and I was surprised to see it was a 200 amp service, unusual for such a little old house.  He threw some breakers in a seemingly random pattern, and as he pressed the last one, he put his face close to the panel.  Light beamed across his face.  Moments later, a door-sized section of the concrete basement wall swung soundlessly aside.

This only happened in spy movies.  It couldn’t be happening in real life.  I caught myself gawking and closed my open mouth.

Kane motioned us ahead, and we all went through the opening while he brought up the rear.  As soon as we were all inside, he activated a switch, and the panel closed behind us.  Spider and Germain were already on their way down the enclosed stairway, so I followed, my heart twitching into a hurried rhythm in the enclosed space.

Stay calm.  Belly breathe.  I eased out a long, slow breath, hiding a wince when my bruised muscles contracted.

At the bottom of the stairwell, Spider punched a code into a keypad and placed his face next to the scanner.  The door released, and we all stepped into a large, brightly lit room with a table and chairs in the middle.  Video screens lined the walls, and there was a lot of electronic equipment.

I gaped up at Kane.  “Well, hello, James Bond.”

Kane’s mouth crooked up.  “James Bond is a fictional character.  And if you ask at any level in any department of our government or military, you will be assured that Canada doesn’t employ anybody remotely like James Bond.”

I surveyed him.  “I have to agree.  You’re not remotely like James Bond.  You’re too tall, and he never wore jeans.  And I’m sure there’s a perfectly plausible explanation for a secret underground spy cave.”

“Fortunately, it’s secret,” he rejoined.  “No explanation required, plausible or otherwise.”

We shared a smile, and I cocked an eyebrow.  “I have a feeling there’s a really big non-disclosure agreement coming my way.”

“The same one applies.  And I’m not going to lecture you about it again.”  He gave me a grim smile.  “After what I saw tonight, I’m inclined to believe you take non-disclosure seriously.  Let’s get something to drink, and then we can start debriefing.”  He led the way around the corner to a small kitchenette.  “Coffee?” he asked as he went inside.

I waited outside the door of the tiny room.  “Just a glass of water, please.”

He filled a glass for me and a mug for himself before coming out so that the other two could help themselves.  As they moved toward the kitchen, he guided me a short distance down the hall and opened a locker, handing me a neatly folded black T-shirt.

I eased out of my jacket and dropped the shirt over my head, covering the disaster that used to be one of my better T-shirts.  His shirt was ridiculously big on me, drooping off my shoulders and hanging down to my thighs, but at least it covered most of the evidence of my misadventures.

When I slipped into a chair at the meeting table, Webb’s face paled again as his gaze strayed to the red and purple marks around my wrists, but he made no further comment.

“Let’s get started,” Kane said.  “Aydan, you go first.  Tell us exactly what happened.”

I gathered my thoughts.  “I went into the bathroom.  Wheeler was standing right outside the door, in the hallway.  I was washing my hands when these two tall women came in.  I thought they were crowding me, so I tried to move away, and they hit me with a Taser or something.  It felt like getting pinned on an electric fence.  My muscles went completely haywire, couldn’t do a thing.”

“Stun gun,” Kane explained.  “Same idea as a Taser, but it’s only good for close range.”

I nodded.  “Then things got a little mixed up.  One of them called out to Wheeler and said I’d fallen.  He came in and they knocked him out, too.  They dragged me out, threw me in a van, and took off.  They were actually men dressed as women.  Carried me into the warehouse, tied me up, and the rest you know.  Your timing was perfect, by the way.  He was just about to get frisky with that knife.  Thanks.”

I had deliberately left out the gory details, and when I noticed Spider’s face go even paler at the mention of the knife, I was glad I had.  For Germain’s and Spider’s benefit, I filled in the rest.

“Kane came in and took out all three guys, cut me loose, and got me out.  We made it to the parking lot, and then the cavalry showed up.”  I smiled at Germain.  “Thanks for the fireworks.”

He grinned back, his eyes crinkling.  “I don’t get much chance to play with that baby.”

I turned to Kane.  “How did you find me so fast?  I thought I was toast for sure.”

Kane smiled.  “You can thank Webb and Blue Eddy for that.  You remember I told you earlier about Fuzzy Bunny, and how they seem to have tentacles everywhere.  When Webb was doing his research last night, he came across the fact that Fuzzy Bunny is the owner of that warehouse.  They’re buried multiple layers deep in shell companies, but he dug them out.  So we already knew there was a connection there.”

He took a swallow of coffee and continued.  “And you can thank Blue Eddy’s sharp eyes.  I was sitting at the table eating when I saw Eddy dash for the back door.  You and Wheeler weren’t back, so Webb and I followed Eddy in a hurry.  He had recognized your hair, and he knew something was wrong when he saw you getting dragged out.  He made it out to the parking lot in time to get a description of the van.  He told me what direction it was headed, so I was reasonably sure about the warehouse.”

Webb broke in.  “Kane took off after you, and I called Germain right away for backup.  Blue Eddy called the police.  Then some lady went into the bathroom and found Wheeler, so I went to the hospital with him.”

Kane took up the story again.  “I got to the warehouse, and their van was there.  Luckily.”

I shuddered, thinking of what would have happened to me if he’d been wrong.

“I called Webb to let him know we were on target.  I got in without too much trouble,” he continued.  “I’d hoped to be able to wait for Germain’s backup, but when I got close enough to hear what was happening, I knew you were out of time.  So I went for it.”

“Thanks,” I repeated.

Germain picked up the thread.  “As soon as Webb called me, I scrambled JTF2.  But I didn’t know exactly how long it would take for them to get there, so I called Hellhound for my wheelman and we headed out.”

I held up a questioning hand.  “Who, or what, is JTF2?”

“JTF2 stands for Joint Task Force 2,” Germain explained.

“Well, that clears things up,” I said with perhaps a touch of sarcasm.

Germain’s eyes twinkled.  “JTF2 is the counterterrorism unit of the Canadian Special Forces.”

“Oh.  Thanks.”

He turned to Kane.  “I talked to Blue Leader about half an hour ago.  They’ve secured the warehouse and they’re starting the cleanup outside.  They’ve notified the RCMP that they’re on a training exercise.  That explains away the helicopter and the weapons fire.”

Kane nodded.  “Good.  At least it’s night.  They shouldn’t attract too much civilian attention, and the exterior cleanup should be done by morning.”

“Will they do the parking lot, too?” I asked.  “I dropped the gun there when you grabbed me to get in the van.”

Spider looked up sharply and his mouth opened, but Kane talked over him.  “By morning, there won’t be a sign that anybody was ever there tonight.  That leaves us with our own cleanup.  Blue Eddy is a witness, and so is the woman who found Wheeler in the women’s washroom.  We need a cover story.”

Webb spoke up.  “Eddy thinks Wheeler got drunk and attacked Aydan in the bathroom and then passed out.”

Kane and Germain both winced.  “It’s plausible, but it leaves Wheeler in a bad situation,” Kane observed grimly.  “I don’t see how else we can explain it, though.  Why else would he be unconscious in the women’s washroom?  And we still need a story for who abducted Aydan.  We can’t explain that away as a misunderstanding.  Not after Eddy called the police.”  He massaged his forehead.  “I suppose the search is still on.”

“No,” Webb said.  “I called them as soon as Germain called me and said you had her.  I told them you were an RCMP officer, and that you’d taken her to the hospital and you’d file a report with them later.  So the search is called off.  Oh, and I called Eddy and told him Aydan was safe and in the hospital.  That’s all I told him.  And I brought the Expedition back from the warehouse.”

“Thanks,” Kane said.  “At least that’s covered.  But what about the rest of it?  We still need a story about the abduction, and why I took off like a bat out of hell after the van, too.  Blue Eddy thinks I’m an energy consultant.  That won’t fly.”

They all fell silent, frowning.

“How about this,” I offered.  “Tell Eddy my crazed stalker ex-husband and one of his low-life buddies attacked me, drugged me, and abducted me.  Wheeler heard us struggling in the bathroom and ran in trying to save me.  They attacked him and drugged him, too.  You took off after the van so you could relay its position to the police.  The RCMP set up a roadblock and nabbed my ex-husband and rescued me.  I went to the hospital just as a precaution.”

Three faces showed rising hope.  “That might work,” Kane said thoughtfully.

“I think it should,” I agreed.  “Everybody ends up looking like a hero, and you don’t have to panic people with stories of random abductions.  If anybody asks, I can tell them that I moved here to get away from my ex-husband.”

Germain turned to me.  “Do you really have a crazed stalker ex-husband?”

I grinned.  “I have an ex-husband.  But I’m pretty sure he’s not a crazed stalker.  I haven’t seen him in years.  I wouldn’t want to spin a yarn like that in Calgary, but nobody knows him here, so it should be okay.”

 “Why would you worry about telling a story like that in Calgary?”  Kane eyed me with curiosity.  “Is your ex-husband in a prominent position?”

“No.  But just because it was a shitty marriage doesn’t give me the right to spread lies about the guy.”

“That never stopped my ex-wife,” Germain muttered.

Kane returned to the point.  “Okay, that story covers most of our bases, but it’s still a little thin in the part where the energy consultant rushes out after the van.  To do what, exactly?  And why?”

Webb spoke up, his eyes sparkling.  “I know why.  Because you’re in love with Aydan!”  He looked around at our open mouths.  “Well, not really.  Like, you know, as a cover story.”

Kane shook his head slowly.  “That creates all kinds of complications down the road.  Aydan lives here.  I spend half my time here.  It would be too hard to maintain.”

Germain’s eyes crinkled with his mischievous smile.  “You could have a torrid affair, and then have a spectacular fight and end it.  Real Harlequin Romance stuff.”

I made a gagging noise and shook my head.  “Please.  I have to live here.”

There was a short silence.  Then Spider said, “Ouch!”

I followed his gaze to Kane, who was looking a little disconcerted.  “Nothing personal,” I hastened to explain.   “Not that I’d object to a torrid affair...”

Kane’s eyebrows went up, along with the corner of his mouth.  A quiet ‘Oooh’ came from Germain’s end of the table.

“What I meant was...” I felt a blush starting and swung around on Germain, who was laughing openly by now.  “You shut up.”

I took stock of the three grinning faces around the table and started to laugh myself.  “You know damn well what I meant.  You ladies will have to get your fix from the TV.  I don’t do soap operas.”

Kane chuckled.  “Agreed.  The soap opera scenario is off the table.”

“Anyway, why do you have to explain it at all?” I asked.  “So you take off after the van, so what?  Sometimes people do irrational things in the heat of the moment.  Stop thinking like a spy, think like an energy consultant.  You didn’t know it would hamper the police investigation, you were just trying to help.”

Kane looked relieved.  “Good point.  No need to over-analyze this.  We’ve got our story.”

“What about Hellhound?” I asked.  “Doesn’t he need to know the story?  Why isn’t he here, too?”

“We’ll tell him the cover story, but the less Hellhound knows, the better,” Kane replied.  “I told him in the beginning that you were an important witness, and that you were in danger.  That hasn’t changed as far as he’s concerned.”

“Does he know about your underground bunker and the fact that you guys are secret agents?” I asked.

“The bunker, definitely not.  The other part, I’m sure he knows, but he doesn’t ask and we don’t tell.”

“Nice to have a friend who’ll turn a blind eye to spraying down a building with automatic weapons fire,” I commented.

Germain grinned.  “You’ve got that right.  Speaking of which, are we done here?  I need to check in with Blue Leader again.”

“One more thing,” Kane said.  “We need to ID everybody from the warehouse.  We need to know who was there and how they’re connected.  Until we get this unravelled, we can’t afford to take any chances.  Aydan, you’ll stay here tonight.  We’ve seen how badly things can go wrong in an unsecured location.”

He turned to the others.  “I’ll stay here, too.  Germain, after you finish at the warehouse, get some sleep and then come and spell me off here around four A.M.  By morning, Wheeler should be back in action.  We’ll meet here at ten o’clock tomorrow morning to strategize.”

Spider looked up from his laptop.  “What about me?”

“Get some sleep.  Once the IDs from the warehouse start coming in, we’re going to need your full concentration on putting the pieces together.”