Triple Threat (3 page)

“It's OK, Kaykay,” the boy, who looked about three, tugged on Katie's tank top.

“Yeah,” the little girl echoed. “Only the bad man got hurt. Mom kicked him to kingdom come.”

“Probably to the other place, Gracie.” The tall FBI agent stood shaking his head.

The boy frowned up at the FBI agent. “That's a bad, bad place.”

A weak smile tweaked the corners of the agent's mouth. “A bad, bad place for a bad, bad man, Grady.”

Josh heard the arrest being made over the din of the crowd, a crowd being pushed away from the scene by members of the SWAT team.

“Katie,” Kate's mom looked from Kate to him. “Are you going to introduce me to whomever it is you had your arms around?”

Kate's face turned pink. “Mom, this is Joshua West, the man who just saved my life.”

“After I put you at risk.” Josh gave her a quick glance.

“Josh, meet my mom, Jennifer Brandt.”

Jennifer Brandt? He had never made the connection. “Glad to meet you, ma'am. I've heard a lot about you at the U.”

“Don't believe it all, Joshua.” She gave him a thin-lipped smile.

“Are you gonna introduce us too, Kaykay?” The boy, Grady, according to the FBI agent, tugged on Kate's arm.

“Yeah, us too, Kaykay,” the girl echoed.

The twins' eyes were big, brown and so bright looking. They seem to take in everything, digest it, and file it away. The two looked about three, but their eyes appeared much older, all seeing, all-knowing.

Kate's family was…unusual. Weird. But a wonderful sort of weird.

Kate pulled Josh down to his knees as she knelt in front of the twins. “This is Josh. Without him, this might have been a really bad day. Josh, meet Grace and Grady, my little brother and sister.”

He took their tiny hands in his. “Hello, Grace. Hi, Grady.”

“You're a good man, Josh.” Grady's big brown eyes studied his face.

“Well, I hope so, Grady.”

“I know you are. Kaykay hugged you. She never does that, ‘cept with Dad and Grampa.”

Josh glanced at Kate and, for the second time, saw her tan cheeks turn pink.

The tall FBI agent cleared his throat.

Kate stood, pulling Josh with her. “And this is Special Agent Peterson…but he's not always so special.”

“I would watch what I say if I were you, young lady. You're not out of the woods, yet.”

“Peterson, this is Joshua West. He's the guy—”

“I've already heard about him, courtesy of the Seattle Police Department. He's the reckless driver.”

“But I'm the one who made him drive that way. And I told him I'd pay for any fines.”

“And do his jail time?” Peterson raised his eyebrows.

“Told you, Kate. I get locked up along with the shooter, not you.”

The FBI agent folded his arms and looked from Kate to Josh. “Before I decide what to do with you both—”

“You mean with us three.” Jennifer interjected.

“You, too? What about the twins?” Peterson glanced down at them, dropping his arms to his side.

“We can come, too.” Grady took Peterson's hand.

Grace took his other hand. “Yeah. You our Godfather. You gotta take us too when you ask all dose questions.”

“OK.” Peterson nodded. “You five follow me to the van. The team can stay and secure the area for the crime scene guys and ride herd on the crowd. We're going over to the field office, where
you
, Katie, have one heck of a lot of explaining to do.”

 

 

 

 

3

 

Grace and Grady ran into the arms of Agent Davidson. It wouldn't be the first time the young woman had babysat the twins at the field office.

With Josh at Katie's side, she followed Peterson down the hallway to a conference room.

“You seem almost at home here, Kate. Like this is sort of…family?”

She looked down at Josh's big hand and took it in hers. “This is the place where I found my home and, yes, some of these people are almost family. Even though we argue a lot and threaten each other. That includes Peterson.”

Peterson swung the door of the conference room open. “After you.”

Katie pulled Josh to one side, allowing her mom to enter first. “Brace yourself, Josh. Things might get a little…interesting.”

When she led Josh into the room, Agent Ruska, Peterson's partner, was seated on the far side of the long table.

“Have a seat.” Peterson motioned for the three to sit on the other side.

An adversarial seating arrangement.

She had hoped for something better than this.

Katie sat between Josh and her mom and waited for Peterson to show his hand.

After Peterson sat down and leaned forward on his forearms, he slung his cards onto the table. “I want to know everything you know about the shooter and how you learned it.” He paused, glaring into her eyes. “You're not leaving here until you've spilled it all, Katie. So I would suggest you start right now. Who is our shooter?”

While she didn't mind getting grilled for her research findings, Katie would not knowingly tread on classified sod. If she did that, even Peterson's father-like protection might not be able to save her from serious repercussions.

“How long do I have to wait, Katie?”

Time to get focused. “The man is an African.”

Peterson stared at her, his eyebrows raised. “You could've fooled me.” The sarcastic tone of his voice said Peterson wanted the salient stuff, and he wanted it now.

“OK. He's Nigerian and I suspect he's a member of Boko Haram, who was funded and manipulated into the suicide shooting attempt by Al Qaeda.”

Ruska whistled through his teeth. “We've only had suspicions, but this could confirm that—”

“Ruska, need I remind you that these two students do not have security clearances? They can tell us everything
they
know, but
we
cannot reciprocate.”

“Yes, sir.” Ruska slumped in his chair.

Peterson slapped his palm on the table. “While we're on the subject of clearances, and your lack of one, how did you identify the terrorist groups without access to some classified database?”

She wouldn't lie to Peterson, but she wasn't going to allow him to end her dissertation research. “When I needed to, I hacked email servers.”

“That's illegal—”

She cut him off. “No. It depends on who you're spying on and where they are. You know that no one is going to sign a treaty to stop cyber espionage. Everybody who can do it, does do it, and they're not about to stop.”

“Katie—”

She talked over Peterson. “If I hack a terrorist organization's mail server in a terrorist country, who's going to prosecute me?” As Katie stared into her mentor's eyes, she saw something she had never seen before…fear.

“Katie, you are incredibly gifted. You are poised to advance the state of the art in several important areas. Just because the United States will not prosecute you, does not mean you won't be tried, convicted, and executed by the terrorists' own justice system. If they see what a threat you are, they will kill you. Jennifer knows that danger all too well.”

Peterson's concern and the tone of his voice pricked Katie's heart. “I didn't intend to endanger anyone.” She turned to Josh. “I'm sorry for involving you, Josh. But this guy would've shot Jennifer and the twins, and I was the only one who knew about it and could respond quickly enough. Even the Seattle police wouldn't have been able to stop him before the shooting began.”

“Peterson,” Josh stole Peterson's gaze. “She's right,” he said forcefully. “And she was the right person at the right time. If anyone else had tried…” Josh shook his head as he stared Peterson down. Josh hadn't said it.

But they all obviously knew. Anyone else, a few seconds later—the outcome was unthinkable.

Josh had passionately defended her. With a few words, in the blink of an eye, he had stolen her heart. No other guy had ever done that, and she wasn't at all sure what to think about that, or the strange new emotions that warmed her heart, excited her, yet frightened her. Her cheeks grew hot. “Thanks, Josh. Somehow you got us there on time, got me on the roof, and caught me when I fell off.”

Peterson's brow furled. “You fell off Key Arena?”

She took Josh's hand. “I got a little carried away with my kick. Slid off the roof and…”

Peterson cleared his throat and focused on the interlaced fingers of her and Josh's hands. “I see…but you still need to tell me how you knew which email server to hack.”

A shrewdly worded question. Once on a trail, Peterson was hard to shake. How could she explain this without giving away too much information? She wouldn't lie to him, but the whole truth could shut down her research at this critical juncture. “It's not hard to look up IP addresses associated with some terrorist organizations. You can obtain quite a few from their online magazines, blogs, and blog comments. I followed the communication chain until one link led me to Nigeria, Boko Haram, and then to a motel in Seattle.” She took a deep breath and waited, hoping she would not have to disclose her database until the time was right, when NSA, or the FBI, could benefit from the data and the software that used it.

“Promise me this, Katie.” Peterson met her gaze. “That you won't go chasing after any more terrorists.”

She shook her head.

Peterson pulled his head back and glared at her. But he didn't comment on her refusal.

“I won't unless the stakes are high, like today. There's no way you or anyone else could've stopped me today.”

Peterson's glare melted into a softer look. “Katie, there's a job still waiting for you with the Bureau. I want you to be alive to fill it. I couldn't stand…”

The caring side of Peterson she had seldom seen was clearly on display.

“I'll keep an eye on her.” Josh spoke up, breaking the awkward silence.

“Please do that, Josh.” Jennifer broke her long silence. “You and I need to talk tonight, Katie. You've been staying at the lab ‘til all hours. I want you home for dinner tonight.” She stood, hugged her daughter, and excused herself. “I'd better go rescue Agent Davidson from the twins.”

“I'll be home, Mom. 6:00 PM. Are we through here? We need to rescue Josh's car before it gets towed.”

“It's too late for that.” Peterson stood. “We're through for now. I'll drive you over to the impound lot, unless you've got a spare 150 dollars, young man.”

“If I remember correctly,” Josh smiled at her, “
you
were going to pay any fines, Kate.”

“I said I'd pay for speeding or reckless driving, not reckless parking.”

Peterson circled the table to the door, while she and Josh stood and turned to leave. He put a hand on Josh's shoulder. “You must have been in the line of fire to see Katie on the roof. You be careful too, Joshua.”

“I'll try, sir.”

Peterson opened the door and motioned them toward the lobby, where Jennifer stood holding Grace's and Grady's hands. He turned and walked into the interior of the building to his office.

Katie strode toward the lobby until Josh pulled her to a stop and faced her. “You may have fooled Peterson, Kate. But I have a ton of questions for you.”

 

 

 

 

4

 

Josh turned from the impound lot onto Mercer and headed toward the U. “I got off scot-free, Kate. Thanks to Peterson, my driving record remains unblemished.”

Kate, sitting in the passenger's seat, dipped her head. “We all got off free today. All, but the deluded Boko Haram jihadist. He has a lot to answer for.”

Josh accelerated down a ramp onto I-5. “Our justice system will exact a big price.”

“I wasn't talking about
our
justice system. The shooter will have to answer to God, and He won't be Allah.”

As he surmised, Kate would make her religious beliefs an issue. Maybe for now, he should just avoid the controversy and concentrate on getting to know this gorgeous, talented, scary woman who had invaded his mind and staked her flag on his heart. Well…even if she wasn't officially laying claim to him, that's what it felt like. “Your family…it's rather unusual.”

“Mom's a very gifted person.”

“She looks more like a sister, except for…you know…”

She stared, waiting for him to continue.

He didn't.

“OK. Mom is Japanese Hawaiian, and yes, she's beautiful. My family is a family of five geniuses, even the twins. Moms IQ is about two hundred and the twins might be even higher. I'm adopted. Lee and Jenn rescued me from a group of human traffickers…”

The words ‘human traffickers' shot through him like a charge of electricity.

Kate had noticed. She didn't continue.

“Kate, I'm so sorry. I hope…” He shouldn't have said anything. But the fears that went through his mind wouldn't go away.

She studied his face.

Her expression said she had read his mind.

“No, Josh. They didn't get a chance to sell me. I wasn't…harmed. Just had nightmares for a while.”

He nodded.

She squelched any probing questions.

“Jenn took me home, got custody of me because I was an orphan in the foster care system. After Lee and Jenn married, they adopted me. About Mom, if you hear the FBI mention Miss Universe, that's Jenn's…I mean Mom's nickname with some of the agents, although they don't use it around her.” She paused and peered into his eyes. “So now you know everything.”

When they stopped at a light, he scanned her face, slowly, systematically. “Wow. Two Miss Universes in one family.”

“That's enough. I was going to make you an offer, but if you're only interested in gawking at—”