Reach For the Spy (31 page)

“I was gettin’ into the
party scene pretty good by the time we graduated,” he continued. He
raised the beer bottle in an ironic toast and had another swig.
“Dunno where I woulda ended up if John hadn’t dared me to join the
army.”

He gave a faint,
humourless chuckle. “So I hadta do it. He was always buggin’ me,
‘Ya can’t take it. Bet ya quit before I do’. Next thing I know, I
got my twenty years in. Kept me outta trouble. Mosta the time.”

He grinned, then
sobered again. “I stayed in a year after he got out, just to prove
the point. An’ when I got out, John’s the one that got me into
bein’ a PI.”

He took another drink
of beer. “When I was kid, I swore I’d never be like the ol’ man.
An’ I ain’t,” he said quietly. “John an’ his folks, they saved
me.”

I gently pried the
bottle out of his hand and used the beer to swallow the enormous
lump in my throat. As an afterthought, I poured the rest down as
well. Then I sat and held his hand in silence.

A couple more beers and
some rambling reminiscences of Kane later, I pulled Arnie up off
the couch and guided him into the bedroom. I got him undressed and
into bed and crept in beside him. His arms closed around me, and
within seconds he was snoring softly.

Sleep eluded me for a
long time.

Kane stood in front of
me, his clothes plastered with mud. He raised his gun and aimed it
at me. Then he fell, his body collapsing bonelessly. His outflung
arm bounced as it hit the ground. The gun slid out of his slack
fingers to lie on the muddy grass. Stemp smiled at my screams. His
gun pointed at my forehead, and his finger tightened on the
trigger…

“Aydan! Stop, darlin’,
shhh, it was just a dream.”

I opened my eyes to
Arnie’s anxious face hovering above me in the semi-darkness.
“Aydan. It’s okay. It was just a dream.”

I curled into an aching
ball of misery. “No. It wasn’t.”

He sighed and curled
himself around me, stroking my hair.

I opened my eyes to see
Arnie watching me in the morning light. “Mornin’, darlin’,” he
murmured.

“Good morning. How’s
the head?”

“Been better. Been a
long time since I tied one on like that.”

“Go back to sleep.”

“Can’t.”

“I’ll get you some
painkillers.” I rolled over with a groan and sat up slowly. Every
inch of my body hurt.

“Stop, darlin’, you’re
in worse shape than I am. Stay here an’ I’ll get the pills.”

He rolled out of bed
and returned in a few moments with a pill bottle and a glass of
water. He froze as he came around my side of the bed.

“Aydan, what the hell’s
that?”

I followed his gaze to
the nightstand. “Glock G26.”

“Yeah, I can see that.
I meant, what’s it doin’ here?”

“It’s not officially
here. You never saw it.”

He sat slowly on the
edge of the bed and handed me the water and pills. “Darlin’, ya
know ya need a permit for that.” He leaned closer to examine it.
“That’s a concealed holster, too. Ya do know that’s illegal, don’t
ya?” He eyed me with concern.

“I have a permit. And a
license to carry a concealed weapon. And you never saw that gun,
because nobody is supposed to know I have it. Which is the whole
point of a concealed weapon.”

He looked from me to
the gun and back again. “Back in March, Kane told me ya were a
civilian. I wondered about that.” He paused. “I told Dad ya were
Kane’s partner ‘cause I didn’t know what else to say. But ya were,
weren’t ya? Ya really were his partner.”

“No. I’m just a
civilian. We were just working together on this one thing.”

He frowned, and I could
see him considering and discarding possibilities. “But Kane got the
gun for ya?”

“Yes.”

“So maybe he knew he
wasn’t gonna be around to protect ya?”

I almost doubled over
at the sudden pain. I barely managed a whisper. “Maybe.”

“Aw, darlin’.” My pain
was mirrored on his face when he took my hand.

Suddenly, I just
couldn’t think about it anymore. I put the glass on the nightstand
and pulled him to me. I kissed him hard, ignoring the pain from my
bruised lips. “Arnie, I’ll understand if you’re not in the mood,” I
whispered. “But I really need to forget about everything for a
while. If you can.”

He kissed me gently.
“But you’re so beat up. I can’t even touch ya without hurtin’
ya.”

“I don’t care. You
can’t hurt me more than I’m hurting already.”

He looked deeply into
my eyes. “Well, now, darlin’, I guess that’s true.”

His hands moved softly
over my aching body. When we lay together afterward, the pillow was
damp with tears.

The drive back to
Silverside seemed even longer than the previous day’s trip, and it
was not improved by the knowledge that I’d have to do it again the
next morning. Early.

When I got back to the
house, I found a message from Spider on my answering machine. It
sounded as though his cold was worse. His voice was so hoarse that
if he hadn’t said who it was, I would never have guessed.

When I called his cell
phone, he picked up on the first ring. “Aydan?”

“Yeah, hi, Spider,” I
mumbled. “Sorry I missed your call.”

“Aydan...” His voice
broke. “What... Where are you?”

“I’m home now. I went
down to Calgary to tell Arnie about John.”

He seemed to be having
trouble holding his voice steady. “I’m... glad you went to him.
Stemp said you’d gone on an errand and you’d be back today. I...”
He paused again. “There’s another file in the system. I got an
alert.”

Slow nausea crept
through my stomach. “When?”

“Yesterday morning
about eight o’clock.”

Kane was still alive at
that time. I refused to believe he’d sent it. “I need to see it.
Are you in today?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there in half
an hour.”

Sitting in my office at
Sirius Dynamics, I stared blankly across the room. I couldn’t
believe Kane would never come through that doorway again. His
reassuring presence gone from the sim forever. Who would pour me
into a bucket and carry me out? Who would fight through swamps and
snakes, and pull open the bars of the cage for me?

I sucked in an unsteady
breath and blew it out slowly as I reached for the phone. This
wasn’t helping. I’d always taken care of myself. I’d just have to
get used to it again.

As I dialled Spider’s
extension, he appeared in the doorway. I surveyed him with
horrified sympathy as I hung up the receiver. His eyes were
reddened and deeply shadowed and his shoulders sagged as if their
own weight was more than he could bear.

“Oh, Spider.” Without
thinking, I went to him and held him. He buried his face in my
shoulder and sobbed like a child. I swung the door shut with my
foot to give him some privacy, and my own eyes brimmed with unshed
tears while I stroked his hair and let him cry it out.

When he finally
subsided into hoarse hiccups, I guided him to the couch and sat
beside him with the tissue box. At last, he turned a ravaged face
to me.

“I thought you were
going to die,” he whispered. “And then Kane...” He buried his face
in his hands. “This is awful,” he quavered. “I hate this.”

“I know.” I rubbed his
back gently. “I hate it, too.”

“Stemp said he was a
traitor.” He spoke without looking at me, his voice muffled by his
hands.

“Stemp’s a liar.”

“Really?” This time he
did look at me, his face reflecting desperate hope.

“Spider, I believe with
all my heart that Kane was loyal. I don’t have any proof, but
that’s what I believe. Let’s prove it.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Let’s
look at that new file for starters.”

“Okay.” He handed me
the network key and opened up his laptop. “I’m glad you believe...
believed in him, too. I know it doesn’t matter now, but...” His
voice quavered into silence.

“It matters,” I told
him fiercely. “It still matters.”

The new file turned out
to be exactly what I’d expected. It was marked urgent, and it said
I would be executed at the dump site the previous morning. I spoke
to Spider through the network interface.

“Well, this is actually
good news.”

“Why?” He sounded
thoroughly dejected.

“Because now we know
for sure our leak is somebody with a top-level security clearance.
You only found out I was supposed to be executed yesterday morning,
right?”

“Yes... Just about an
hour before you called me yesterday. The memo was there when I got
in. That’s why I was in such bad shape, and I had to pretend I had
a cold because everybody had strict orders not to discuss it or let
you know anything was going on.”

“So there wouldn’t have
been time for our leak to talk to anybody else. He’d have to have
sent this message himself. And Stemp said he’d put surveillance
cameras in place at the internet cafe the day before yesterday. All
we need is those surveillance records.”

“Right!” Spider’s voice
regained some energy. “I can get those.”

“Now?”

“No, I’ll have to find
out from Stemp where the records are being stored.”

Ugly suspicion reared
its head. “Don’t bother, then, Spider,” I said as casually as I
could. “We can get them later. Right now I need a break and a
snack. I’m coming out.”

I stepped through the
portal slowly, but the pain still made me swear and whimper. When I
finally straightened and let go of my head, I avoided Spider’s
concerned gaze and dragged myself to my feet.

“Come on, Spider, let’s
go to the Melted Spoon.”

“I’m not really
hungry,” he demurred. “I’ll just wait here for you.”

Shit.

I sighed and let my
shoulders sag. It didn’t require much acting skill. “Spider... I’m
sorry to be a pain, but I could really use some company.” I let my
voice tremble a bit, and he looked up with instant sympathy. I knew
I could count on his soft heart.

“I’ll come with you,
then. I could use a walk. I’ll just drop the key off downstairs on
the way.”

At our table at the
Melted Spoon, I pulled out a pen and scribbled on a napkin.
“Spider, I was thinking about making some changes to my program.
What do you think about this?”

I pushed the napkin
over to him, and he frowned at it for a moment while he read my
note. He met my eyes cautiously. “I think that might work.” He
reached into his pocket and withdrew his scanning device. I held my
breath while he activated it.

“Clear.” He leaned
forward over the table. “Why the note? What’s going on?”

“I was afraid we might
be bugged or under surveillance at Sirius. Or here.”

“Surveillance for sure
at Sirius, that’s company policy. Probably bugs, too, and the
network is monitored.”

“I’m afraid to discuss
anything about this leak while we’re inside Sirius. If it’s
somebody with a high-level clearance, they’ll be able to listen in
on everything we say.”

Spider’s eyes widened.
“You’re right. Crap. Oh.” Comprehension dawned on his face. “That’s
why you told me not to bother with the surveillance records.”

“Yes. Can you hack them
instead?”

He sat back smugly in
his chair. “I can hack anything.”

I laughed. “Anybody
else, I’d accuse of boasting. You, I believe. How soon can you get
them?”

“Gee, I just happen to
have my laptop with me.” He set it on the table between us.

“You always have your
laptop with you,” I teased him. “It’s a permanent part of your
body.”

“Uh-huh.” His fingers
flew across the keyboard, and my heart eased as the sparkle came
back into his eyes.

I sipped my tea and
nibbled my muffin while he worked away, utterly absorbed. I was
just draining the last few drops of lukewarm tea when he
straightened.

“Here we go.” He turned
the screen so we could both see, and brought up a surveillance
record. “This is from yesterday morning, starting at seven A.M.
when the cafe opened.”

We watched the
fast-forward intently and my heart plummeted when Kane’s massive
shoulders temporarily blocked the camera. “Stop there!”

Spider punched a key
and we exchanged a sick look as he rewound and then played the
record forward. We watched Kane sit down at a terminal. He worked
for a few minutes before rising to leave.

My hands were shaking.
I peeled my tongue loose from my dry mouth. “What time was that?”
My voice came out in a whisper.

“Seven-thirty.”
Spider’s voice was full of relief. “Too early. The file wasn’t sent
until eight-ten.”

“Oh.” It came out
sounding like a sob, and I quickly added, “Good. Keep going. Go a
little slower now. This is our critical timeframe.”

“This is starting at
eight o’clock. I’ll run it at regular speed.” His fingers flew
across the keyboard again, and we exchanged glances while the video
ran. He paused it at the eight-twenty mark, and we stared at each
other.

“Shit.” I rubbed the
frown wrinkles out of my forehead. “What are the chances that three
top-level Sirius people would be there at the same damn time?”

I peered at the screen
again. “Can you tell what they’re doing?”

“No. But I think Mike
Connor spends most of his waking hours there. He was just getting
into World of Warcraft when I met him in March, and he’s been going
crazy on it ever since. But we investigated him in March, and he
came up clean.”

“Well, I don’t believe
Germain would rat me out,” I said firmly. “It’s got to be Stemp,
dammit, I know it! He’s such a slimy sonuvabitch!”

Spider turned an
anxious face to me. “He’s the director. It can’t be him.”

“Well, it’s got to be
somebody. And I don’t trust him any further than I can throw him. A
lot less, in fact. He’d lie to you as soon as look at you.”

“Yes, but...” Spider’s
voice trailed off. “But I just don’t dare think of the
ramifications if the director himself is corrupt.”