Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie) (19 page)

“How long before they know something more concrete?” I asked.

“Hard to say, but I would guess in the morning. If it is the AM, we only know the identity and whereabouts of three or four of them. An arrest may be difficult. We'd have a media circus if we have to go through extradition.”

We talked for a few more minutes and then Nic finally got up and took the laptop over to my aunt. “Have you ever seen her before?”

Christie said no.

“Neither have I.”

He walked back to the table with us, and Christie sat staring off into space.

Nic sat down. “The woman has obviously been trained. For your aunt to be taken down by just two people... She could easily take on four. I think we have to assume that this woman has some serious training, possibly military training.”

“Should we assume she's not American?” Will asked. “The mercenary isn't.”

“I don't know, Will. She could be anybody. We need to trace her affiliations, but we can't do that without more to go on.”

“There sure is a lot we don't know,” I said.

“We know a thousand times more than we did yesterday,” Nic pointed out. “And we have Christie back with us.”

The door opened and Grandma came in.

“You're home,” I said, jumping up to go hug her.

She hugged me tight, and then Will, who'd been right behind me.

She glanced over at Christie. “How's she doing?”

“She had a bath, a little dinner, and she's slept some,” I said.

Grandma took off her heavy wool coat and hung it on the hook on the wall. “I am exhausted.”  She made her way over to Christie. Then she leaned down to hug her.

I couldn't hear what they said to each other, but Christie held onto Grandma like she was drowning.

When Grandma made her way over to the table, she put her hand on Nic's arm. “Jobson says you can come down and touch base for an hour or two, but only if you feel comfortable leaving your partner.”

He nodded. “I'm chomping at the bit to question the mercenary myself, but it will keep until morning.”

Grandma and Nic kept eye contact for a few moments as if conveying more information than they wanted us to hear.

Finally, she looked at us, and said, “We should all get some shuteye. These old bones need a good warm soak, and then I'm going to set my alarm for seven hours of sleep. Nobody leaves the loft, and no more communication with anybody on the outside tonight. Not even your friends next door. Just shut down your phones and get some sleep. I'll wake you if there are any pressing developments.”

“What about Christie?” I asked. “Should I put her to bed?”

“I need a few more answers from her first.”  Nic looked over where she sat on the couch. “I'll get her upstairs and stay until she sleeps. In fact, I'll just drag that air mattress into her room. I don't want her to wake without someone there.”

“I can sleep in there with her,” I said. “If it would help.”

Nic shook his head. “Not tonight. If she has nightmares, I'd rather you weren't the one getting the brunt of them. We'll revisit the idea tomorrow night, okay?”

“Yes. I'll go say goodnight.” I walked over to the sofa and hugged Christie. “You come get me if you need me, Christie. You can stay in my room if you want. The bed is huge.”

“Thanks, sweetie.”

I told everyone else goodnight and went up to take a hot shower. I washed my hair and scrubbed off any residual filth from the motel. That place was nasty, and I couldn't believe people actually lived there.

My bed was heaven after two days of stress and a night on the couch. I pulled the comforter up to my chin and went to sleep.

I didn't remember dreaming. When Christie woke me the next morning, I thought it was still the middle of the night.

“What's wrong?” I asked quickly.

“It's morning. Everything's fine. I feel like myself again. We're all going into Headquarters for a while. They need to debrief me. Nic and Grandma have plenty to do, and they plan to have you two sort through some of the audio we're getting from the new surveillance. There's a lot to do.”

I sat up and stretched. I wanted to ask if she was faking it, but I didn't want to make her cry. If she was faking being okay, she must have a good reason. Like maybe this was the only way she was going to be able to deal with things. “I'll be down in a minute.”

GASI hadn't found any signs that Bill Smith was involved. He'd been home alone since leaving the gym. They'd managed to hack into his computer through his internet service provider, a risky approach they generally tried to avoid. They hadn't found anything to connect him to Christie's disappearance or the assassination plot.

All trails had led to the Avaritia Militia. One of the members, a Canadian, had been contacted. In exchange for keeping this quiet for a day or two, he had agreed to come to New York and turn himself in at our office. The morning crept by slowly as we all worked with one eye on the clock.

When he did arrive, they whisked him away and we didn't hear anything for hours. Christie spent five hours getting debriefed. Agent Choo took me and Will out for lunch at a deli down the street. We brought food back for Christie, Nic, and Grandma. Then we each used audio search programs to identify calls that could be related to our mission. Once certain key words were identified, we had to listen to the recordings ourselves to rule out their relevance. It was time consuming. I was glad I was recruited as a field agent and not an analyst.

 Finally, Nic came by to check on us, and we asked about the man from the Avaritia Militia.

“His name is Simon Bankwell. He was raised by affluent parents at locations around the world. He's reportedly a brilliant investor, chess champion, and classically trained pianist. He's also rich enough to buy most of Georgia and New Jersey.”

“Has he admitted anything?” Will asked.

“He has admitted knowledge of the plot against the UN Secretary-General by another group based on conversations recorded through bugging offices at the United Nations. He denies that the AM participated in any attempt on the Secretary-General, and he denies any knowledge of the abduction. He has an attorney with him who keeps telling him to stop talking. The good news is that Mr. Bankwell isn't taking his attorney's advice. He's very interested in sharing enough information to clear his name and that of the AM.

“They've finally finished up with Christie. There was a lot to cover about her abduction. Christie and I are going to try our hand at questioning the mercenary. I don't know if we'll get anything more out of him, but it's worth a shot. Plus, your aunt needs to reassert herself in a position of control.”  

I wouldn't want to be that guy if Christie lost her temper. Although he deserved whatever came to him. And worse.

“Is there any way we could watch? I'd love to see that.” Will looked like he was holding his breath while he waited for an answer.

“Brenda is already observing. You can sit with her.”

“Thanks, Nic!” Will said.

“I'll send for you when we're ready. In the meantime, if you could continue scanning through those calls...”

“Will do,” Will said.

“Good job,” I said to Will. “I never would have thought to ask.”

We sat in a room on the other side of a large glass window and waited to watch Nic and Christie in action.

“The mercenary isn't looking so good,” I said. He was slumped in the chair, his arms pulled up and chained to the table. His face was dark with stubble and he had dark circles under his eyes.

“No, we haven't let him get any rest,” Grandma said. “He's been operating on an international scale for over a decade without a single arrest. He's taking it as an insult to his honor that we arrested him this time. He's also furious with whoever hired him because he believes he was set up.”

“If the Avaritia Militia hired him, why would they set him up to get caught? Once we caught him, it was easy to track them down as the group who hired him.” Will frowned. “It doesn't make sense.”

“Excellent point, grandson. If we accept that someone set him up, then we must question the reason.”

“So you don't think he was set up?” I asked. “You think we caught him because he made mistakes?”

“He did make mistakes,” she said. “And Christie acted quickly to get us the image we needed to identify him. He prides himself on being the best at this work, and now he has egg on his face. He would be likely to blame somebody else.”

I wasn't so sure. “But it wasn't just him that was stupid. I mean, shouldn't the AM have covered their tracks?”

“Yes,” Grandma said. “With infinite resources at their disposal, you would expect more.”

Nic and Christie walked into the room. My aunt had dressed up today. She wore a black pantsuit that carried the message that she was to be taken seriously. Nic had jeans and a black leather jacket. He had a kick butt look about him too. Together, they were intimidating.

They walked into the interrogation room and sat down. The mercenary reacted to Christie's presence by sitting up straighter. His face was devoid of emotion, and his eyes were cold.

Nic didn't exchange any pleasantries before jumping right in. “How did you know to use a focused dose of radiation to disable the subdermal tracking device?”

The man answered with a grunt. “I didn't know. It was the woman.”

“The woman disabled the device?” Nic asked.

“Yes.”

“How did she know?” Nic asked.

The man stared at Nic. “She did not say.”

“She didn't tell you anything about herself?” Christie asked.

“No. I cooperated with you. I sat with your artist and gave you her picture. I know nothing else.”

Wow. He was not a talker.

“Did you shoot the driver last week?” she asked.

He frowned. “The UN driver? No. Why would I bother?”

“Who put the phone under the mattress?” Christie asked.

“I never saw the phone until your people showed it to me last night.”

“You believe that you were set up? Who do you think set you up?”

The man radiated hatred. “I do not know.”

“Have you heard of the Avaritia Militia?” Christie asked.

He paused for a second as if taken off guard. “Yes, of course.”

Christie waited, staring him down.

“Are you saying they are the ones who hired me? Who did this to me?” the man asked, raising his voice for the first time.

Christie and Nic didn't respond.

“These criminals never take responsibility for their actions,” Grandma said.

I couldn't help smiling because Grandma had gotten into some trouble herself for hacking.

The man had started to shake with rage. “The Avaritia Militia set me up!” He pounded his fist on the table, taking full advantage of the five inches of movement the chains allowed.

“Have you made an enemy of the Avaritia Militia?” Christie asked. “Botched an assignment perhaps? Cheated them out of money?”

He bristled with indignation. “I have done no such thing. I have never worked for them as far as I know. And if I had, there would be no complaints about my work.”

She was provoking him on purpose, and she was enjoying it.

“Who else has been unhappy with your work?” she asked.

He didn't answer. He stared her down, his jaw trembling.

Nic pushed a pen and a piece of paper over to the man. “Write down  the names of any enemies you have and we'll check into it.”

“My enemies are not my former employers. My enemies consist solely of the friends and families of the people I have been paid to target. I am not an idiot. I will not implicate myself as you desire.”

Nic grinned. “And yet, the Avaritia Militia has set you up? Have you assassinated someone important to the AM? Perhaps kidnapped someone that the AM holds dear?”

The man growled, “I have not.”

“You realize that you are involved in a terrorist operation on American soil. Targeting the UN Secretary-General has earned you the dubious honor of being handled under the Patriot Act. You'd be halfway to Guantanamo Bay by now if you weren't cooperating.” Nic paused. “Might I suggest that you continue to prove that keeping you here is in our best interests?”

Then he and Christie rose and left the room without so much as a glance back at the prisoner.

“I'm glad they're on our side,” Will said.

“That was nothing,” Grandma told us. “I once saw them talk a man into sawing off his own arm. If they hadn't stopped him, he'd have done it.”  She made a sawing gesture.

I frowned. I didn't want to know any more about that case.

Chapter Eighteen

Nic and Christie came into the room with us. I had to admit that Christie had color in her cheeks and the fire back in her eyes. Maybe she was okay.

“What did you think?” she asked. “He's a slimeball, huh.”

“He's offended that the AM doesn't respect him,” I said. “What a freak.”

“He is, isn't he?” Nic's eyes gleamed with humor.

“Do you think he knows more than he's told you?” Will asked.

“Gut feeling?” Christie asked. “No.”

Nic nodded. “I agree, but he's still here, and there's always a chance we'll get something more.”

“What's next?” I asked.

Nic frowned. “We're trying to get in to question Simon Bankwell, but they have another team on him. So far, we haven't had any luck.”

Christie took my hands and pulled me up. “Can you guys go back to the phone calls? They need a lot of help with those.”

Now I stood eye to eye with her. “Yeah. We can.”

“If we can't get access to Bankwell, we'll leave around six and grab dinner.” She stepped back so Will and Grandma could stand too. “We can take some work back to the loft for all of us.”

“What are they going to do about the Secretary-General tomorrow night? Are they going to let him go to Times Square?” Will asked.

“We can't actually make him stay away, but right now, GASI is leaning towards giving him the all clear.” Nic grimaced. “I'd rather he not go.”

“We have a meeting at ten in the morning to make the final call.”  Christie turned to Nic. “Unfortunately, our voices aren't the loudest at this point.”