SECRET IDENTITY (22 page)

“There’s no time. I have to confront him while he still
thinks I’m dead.”

“Not by yourself!”

“I’m not by myself!” she assured him. “I’ll have friends
with me.”

Luke started to say more when she added, “We’re here. I
gotta go. ’Bye Luke. Love to you and Lee, too!”

And the connection was broken, but not before Lorne had
flown up and away through the exit tunnel.

Chapter 29

Plan

Brenda closed the cell as Samra pulled into the underground
parking garage at Dobbling Enterprises. The sense of relief she felt, knowing
Lorne was safe and well, made her more determined to face Wilson Wagner and
demand to know why someone had painted a target on her body.

But she had another reason why she had risked seeing if the
Palmer’s home phone number still worked. She wanted as many people as possible
to know where she was headed, in case Wagner tried to pull something. The more
people who knew her intentions and why, the safer she felt approaching Wagner,
especially if she let him know about her precautions.

She only wished Lorne could be here with her when she
approached the man.

Thinking of Lorne gave her a warm feeling in the pit of her
stomach. Why hadn’t they come to realize they were meant for each other before
now? Why had she wasted all those years trying to find that “someone special”,
instead of acknowledging that the only person who made her happy, who made her
laugh amid her tears, had been living less than thirty feet away?

Samra parked the car. “We’re here. Want me to go with you?”

“No. No thanks.” Brenda gave her a grateful smile.

“Are you sure? I don’t mind offering a little moral support.
Besides, didn’t you tell your friend you’d have me along with you?”

“I know, Sam, and I appreciate it, but this is something I
need to do on my own. He isn’t going to be happy when I hand in my resignation.
Oh, but I may need you to run me back to the apartment when it’s over. Would
you mind?”

“Not a problem.” The pert redhead smiled.

Brenda handed back the borrowed phone, then wiped her sweaty
palms on her pants. “I hope this goes better than I expect.”

“Pish. What’s the worse he can do?”

They walked to the elevators together. Samra punched the
up
button. “You know, I wish I had the balls to up and quit the company just like
that. I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could get another job offer that could
bring in enough to pay the bills. Where did you say you were going?”

“I didn’t,” Brenda admitted as they stepped into the
elevator car.

Samra gave her a wide-eyed look of disbelief. “Are you
shitting me? You’re handing in your resignation without having another job
waiting in the wings? Why?”

Biting her lower lip, Brenda wondered how much to tell her,
then figured there was no reason to hold anything back. Eventually the truth
would come out…hopefully. Better her friend heard it straight from her.

“Sam, I think Wagner’s put out a contract on me. I think he’s
trying to have me killed.”

She waited for her friend’s response, fully expecting the
woman to either blow it off like some bad joke, or to come to the company’s
defense. Instead, Samra gave her another are-you-shitting-me look.

“Have you gone to the police about this?”

The woman believed her. Without question, without doubt, the
woman believed her.

“No.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I don’t have any proof! All I have are suppositions
and too many damn coincidences!”

The elevator doors dinged as the car came to a gradual halt.
They opened up to an almost deserted foyer. Samra quickly pulled Brenda over to
a small waiting area which contained a few stuffed chairs and a coffee table
piled with magazines.

“So you’re going in and handing over your letter of
resignation? You’re just giving up? You’re letting that bastard win?” she
hissed, grabbing Brenda by the shoulders and giving her a little shake. “Bren,
if you do that, you’re giving that son of a bitch carte blanche to go through
with it! And once he has you killed, he’ll go after someone else! Hell, no
telling how much blood he already has on his hands!”

“Which is why I’ve told people I trust what I’m going to do,”
Brenda said. “If anything happens to me, others will know ahead of time.” She
gave her friend what she hoped looked like a confident smile and took back the
cell phone. “Now show me how to record on this model.”

Samra showed her, then pressed her lips together in what
Brenda knew was her obstinate face.

“I’m not letting you face this alone, Bren. I’m going with
you.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

“No.” Brushing the woman’s hands away, Brenda firmly
whispered, “No. You’re not. What I want you to do is go to my office and start
clearing it out for me, all right? After I’m done, I’m going to get my things
and leave this building, and I’m not coming back. So if you’ll do that for me,
I can get out of this place that much sooner.”

The two women stood facing each other for several long
moments. Finally, Samra murmured, “I hope to hell you know what you’re doing.”

Then she gave Brenda a hard hug before heading down the
hallway toward Brenda’s office.

Chapter 30

Confrontation

Taking a deep breath, Brenda crossed her fingers and walked
up to the receptionist sitting in her little horseshoe-shaped cubicle. After
all this planning, it would be just her luck the man would be out.

“Hi, Miss McKay. How can I help you?”

“I need to speak with Mister Wagner, please. It’s about the
factory explosion in Fullerton.”

“Go right ahead, Miss McKay. I know Mister Wagner isn’t
expecting you, but I know he’s been keeping an eye on the project since the
accident.”

She started to reach for the button on her console to notify
him, but Brenda held out a hand to stop her.

“That’s okay. I think he’s going to want to hear what I have
to say,” she said, and hurried through the double doors without waiting for an
answer.

Wilson Wagner was seated behind his massive, hand-carved
wooden desk. His face was partially obscured by the enormous flat screen
computer monitor. Brenda watched him work for a few moments, then moved further
into the office to attract his attention. The man’s eyes lifted to her, dropped
back to the screen, then jerked back to her. She had the satisfaction of
watching his face go several shades paler. She also saw a flash of doubt in his
expression when he wondered if she was real or a figment of his imagination.

“What’s the matter, Wilson? Think you’re seeing a ghost?”

She no longer cared about her tone of voice. All respect for
the man was gone. He deserved nothing from her other than her disdain.

He backed a few inches away from the monitor, but he
remained sitting in his enormous stuffed chair. “May I ask how you escaped?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know, but first I need to know
why. Why did you blow up the factory and labs in Fullerton? Why was I framed?
Why, Wilson,
why
?”

Her fists were clenched so hard, her fingernails dug into
her palms. The pain helped to keep her focused, but it couldn’t stop the tears
from rolling down her cheeks.

“What have I done to you that made you target me? Huh?
Answer me, you sorry
fuck
!”

Wagner casually laced his fingers behind his head and leaned
back. He no longer appeared to be shocked to see her standing there, but it was
obvious he wasn’t happy, either.

“Who’s with you?” he finally spoke.

“No one.” The moment she said it, she wished she hadn’t.
Then again, maybe it was the only answer he would accept before he opened up.

The man nodded, satisfied. Satisfied she was alone, or
satisfied he could tell her the truth without witnesses, she couldn’t tell.
Brenda resisted the urge to pat the cell phone in her jeans pocket.

“Unguindene is a bust, no pun intended,” he stated without a
trace of humor. “All the money Dobbling spent on its development, wasted.”

She frowned. “What are you talking about? Unguindene is the
most powerful explosive ever created.”

“True.” He gave a slight nod. “It’s also the most unstable
substance ever created. We’ve tried to freeze it, liquefy it
¼
we’ve done everything we can think of, but
the stuff can explode without warning and without provocation. We can’t
regulate it. We can’t package it. We can’t ship it. We can’t control it, no
matter what we do.”

“So?”

“So…” Bringing his laced fingers forward, he placed them on
top of his desk.

The action reminded her of a principal patiently berating an
errant student.

“It’s too dangerous. The military, who was to pay us
billions upon delivery, pulled their contracts. After sinking millions into its
creation, the loss of those contracts is more than a major blow to Dobbling.”

Brenda felt her mouth hanging open. “The company’s bankrupt.”

“Worse. Not only is it financially ruined, it’s sitting on a
cache of explosives that makes nitroglycerine look like popcorn, and we can’t
sell it.”

“But that doesn’t explain why—”

“Dobbling insured all of its factories producing the
chemicals to make unguindene to the max, including higher indemnities for acts
of terrorism or sabotage.” He twiddled his thumbs. “The little bit we’d gain
from blowing up the factories wouldn’t make up for what we’d lost, but it would
at least keep the wolves from the door for a while.”

Wagner added a smile that was completely devoid of warmth or
humor. “There was an additional bonus that presented itself that we never saw
coming. Once we were able to prove the explosion at the Fullerton factory was
caused by an act of terrorism, the government got back into the picture. There’s
a remote, granted it’s a very slight chance, but it’s possible the military may
reissue a new contract for the unguindene. Of course, it won’t be but a
fraction of the original contract, but at this point…” He opened up his hands
to show Dobbling was willing to accept any crumbs the military could offer.

“And you needed someone to take the blame. You needed me to
be your saboteur,” Brenda bitterly spat out.

“You’re a small-town girl. Miss Fresh Face, prom queen,
homecoming queen. You’re naive, eager to please. You have a huge welcome mat
practically tattooed across your forehead.” He ran a thumb and forefinger over
his own forehead to demonstrate. “Setting you up to take the fall was child’s
play. But don’t pat yourself on the back, Miss McKay. You weren’t the only one.
We’d made arrangements for several people to take part in this play, one person
for each factory and lab. All we had to come up with was a valid reason why all
of you were working together to take them down.”

“Your plan is flawed. I’m not as innocent or as stupid as
you take me for.”

“I can see that,” Wagner acquiesced. “You managed to escape
the cell phone I had arranged to have planted in your purse. Regardless, I
could map out every move you’d make. You are as predictable as A to B to C, which
is why you were perfect.”

He stood, and Brenda felt her body go rigid with fear at the
sight of the pistol in his hand. She’d never seen him reach for it. She didn’t
even know he had one here at the office. Taking a half-step back, she wondered
if she could make it out the door before he fired.

“Relax, Miss McKay. It’s not for you.”

To her shock, Wagner placed the end of the muzzle under his
chin.

“Do you think I’d tell you everything without any
consequences?”

Brenda slowly shook her head. “I…uhh…”

He sounded resigned, as if he had known it would come to
this. As if he had planned for this. She was lost as to why he chose to make
her his confessor.

“If I know you as well as I think I do, you’ve probably told
a lot of people you were coming here, right? They know you’re upset, which is
why they might believe my last email I’ve just finished sending out to my
associates.”

“What do you mean, believe your last email?”

“The one where I said the terrorists or saboteurs would
probably try to target people here at the main offices.”

A loud crash drew their attention to the bank of windows
along the outer wall of the office. The Defender stepped through the hole he’d
created, and froze at the sight of Wagner holding the pistol to his throat.
Brenda stood almost directly between the windows and Wagner’s desk.

Wagner glanced from the black-clad man to Brenda, and back.

“You were ridiculously easy to predict,” he repeated, and
suddenly stretched out his arm to aim the gun in Brenda’s direction.

The Defender made a gesture in her direction.

“But
he
was an element I never considered,” Wagner
stated, and fired.

The gunshot sounded like a loud firecracker going off.
Brenda screamed, ready to feel the bullet plowing into her body. Instead, there
was a grunt, and to her horror The Defender fell backwards from the impact.

Chapter 31

Fear

Her scream tore through from her throat as The Defender took
the bullet directly in the chest. She started to go to him, no longer caring if
Wagner fired at her or not, when a black shadow seemed to detach itself from
The Defender’s unconscious body. It oozed across the carpet like a puddle of
thick oil, then suddenly it formed into the figure of a man, also dressed in
black. It rose from the carpet so suddenly, she didn’t have time to notice any
details about it.