Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie) (2 page)

Once I saw him, the hustle and bustle of the airport fell away. It was just me and Will. Pure joy rose in my chest, danced around my heart, and nearly lifted me from the floor as I broke into an all-out run.

Will took a few steps, and then I reached him, throwing my arms around his neck. He squeezed me tight against his hard chest.

“Amanda,” he said, amusement in his voice.

“I missed you,” I said, squeezing him tight once more and then releasing him. “I didn’t know you were picking me up.”

He put his arm around me and leaned in to kiss me on the lips. “I missed you too.”

I was about to ask him to kiss me again when I spotted Christie over his shoulder.

“Hey, Girlie! You look great!”  

Will stepped back so Christie could hug me. Her hair was several inches longer and a lighter brown color. Her natural color was a darker brown than mine.

“You look different,” I said.

“Yeah, there are going to be some changes. We have time to talk about that later though. Let’s grab your luggage and get this show on the road.”

Will took my hand as we followed her toward the escalator. With all the texting and Skyping and talking on the phone, we’d really gotten to know each other. I wasn’t sure which was harder to believe, that I was about to go on my second spy mission or that I was walking hand-in-hand through the airport with somebody I liked and who liked me back.

I fought the urge to turn my head and stare at him as we walked. First, it would unmask me as a lovesick fool. And second, I’d probably trip over my feet and look like an idiot. So I squeezed his hand, and he squeezed mine back.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Will said.

“I know. This is going to be amazing.”  I wanted to ask what he knew about our mission, but I knew we shouldn’t talk about it here.

We caught up to Christie who’d already secured my bag.

“We have a lot to do today.”

I was seriously hoping that Will had driven, but my luck didn’t hold. Christie’s driving had not improved. I had hoped the sports car had contributed to the bone-chilling high speeds and aggressive maneuvering in October. Unfortunately, the Nissan Murano, despite masquerading as a family car, responded to Christie’s aggressive commands. I had a white knuckled grip on the “assist” handle, you know, the safety bar that usually went by a less polite name. I risked a glance at Will in the back seat.

The color had drained out of his face. His eyes held a plea and I suspected that like me, he was praying we’d survive my aunt’s crazy driving. How did the woman avoid getting her license revoked?

“Nic’s driving to New York, right?” I asked hopefully. “You’ll be busy briefing us.”

“We’ll see,” Christie said. Then she glanced at me. “I really have no idea why you and Nic make such a big deal about my driving.”

“Because you are scary,” I accused as she rounded a corner without slowing down. “Tell her Will!”

“Yeah, Amanda,” he said. “I’m not comfortable enough yet for brutal honesty.”

“See, Amanda. Will doesn’t agree.”

“Uh, yeah. That’s not what he said at all, Christie.”

We pulled into the parking garage at a large hotel. I had expected to go to Will’s or to the condo.

“This is us,” my aunt said.

Will opened the door for me. Christie grabbed my suitcase.

“Shouldn’t we leave that here?” I asked. “Aren’t we taking this car?”

“Oh no. Plus we have to approve everything you pack.”

“They already went through my stuff,” Will admitted. “And they switched out all of my clothes.”

“Oh great.”

He took my hand again, and I smiled up at him.

“And cut that out,” Christie called from ahead of us. “No hand-holding.”

Wow. You’d think we could get away with something that innocent.

“Starting now, we’re a nice happy family,” she added. “Me and my adorable husband, and our two teens.”

Will laughed. “Did she just choke on the word adorable?”

I leaned in to whisper in his ear. “There’s no way they are going to pull off being married. Have you seen them together?”

“Not really,” he admitted.

“I guess we are about to see how good they are, or aren’t, at their jobs.”

Chapter Two

As the elevator doors slid closed, Christie said, “It would have been easier to pull off a troubled marriage, but we didn’t want to complicate the family dynamics any more than they already are.”

Since Will and I both had divorced parents, I suspected they were trying to avoid stressing us out with issues from our real lives. They probably had a psychologist on staff at GASI.

We got off on the eleventh floor of the hotel, and Christie swiped a key to open the door to a suite. The large upscale living area was cluttered with luggage, clothing, and odds and ends of just about everything. A half dozen makeup kits covered the coffee table. Make up?

I hoped the makeup wasn’t for me.

Nic walked in from one of the bedrooms. “Hey, Amanda!” He gave me a big hug. “Hi, Nic. Got a girl-fiend yet?”

He scowled as he caught my reference to our conversation about Christie last fall. “Watch yourself, little girl.”

I winked at him. I was pretty sure he and my aunt were going to end up married and having babies one day.

“Do I look older?” Nic moved back for me and Will to get a better view.

He had grey in his hair now, around the temples. I studied him a minute. “Yeah. You do.”  He had dressed like a bartender last time I'd seen him. Today, he wore an entirely different kind of “casual” clothing. He wore what I could see was an expensive heather grey sweater. His pants had the same pricey look to them.

I glanced over at Christie. “She doesn’t look older.”

“We haven’t finished with her yet,” Nic said.

Christie wore upscale, conservative clothes. I hadn’t noticed at the airport because I was so distracted by Will. Christie looked like a page out of the Talbot’s catalog.

“What do you mean you haven’t finished with her yet?” I asked.

My aunt snorted. “Nic has to apply some wrinkles around my eyes. We aren’t sure he can get the right effect.”

“She isn’t sure,” Nic clarified. Then he held a hand over his mouth as if to hide his comment from her. “She doesn’t seem to be able to come to terms with aging.”

Will laughed.

“Nic, I should apologize.” Her grin turned almost evil. “As you both know, Nic has infinite experience with cosmetics. I should never have questioned his skill considering his affinity for wearing makeup.”

“I don’t wear makeup,” Nic protested. “Except when the mission calls for it.”

“You know, Nicky, we really should see what they think about that other matter.”

“What other matter?” Will asked.

Nic shook his head vigorously. “Nothing.”

“We’re trying to age appropriately, so we should look like ourselves in ten years. I kind of have an idea about how I’ll age based on your mother and grandmother.”  She grinned as she motioned to Nic. “He also has an idea of how he’ll age based on his brothers and his father.”

I wasn’t getting it.

“Shall I show them, Nic, or would you prefer to tell them?”

Nic sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “The rest of the men in my family are bald. I’m not sure why I have my hair, but in ten years, I probably… definitely won’t.”  

“So what’s the big deal?” Will asked.

“He should be bald for this mission, but he’s too vain.”

“Uh, like he said, what’s the big deal?” I looked at Nic. “You’d still be handsome without hair.”

“Thanks, Amanda. But my beloved partner isn’t being honest. The real reason we can’t do it for the mission is that there’s a risk of someone noticing the hair growth during the day, even if I did shave parts of my head.”

“He’d have to shave, and if he applied some ointment to retard the growth of hair…”  

“I like the grey,” I said.

“Me too.”  Will looked at Nic for a minute. “It’s easier than the shaving, and it works. He looks older.”

“I offered to do it,” Nic said. “I would have if my lovely bride did as well.”

“Women don’t get male pattern baldness.”

“Some do,” Nic said, a challenge in his eyes.

Christie stood and walked over to get in his face. “If I wake up with my head shaved, I’ll be doing some redesigning of your anatomy.”  

“Gee Mom and Dad,” Will said with exaggerated enthusiasm. “When I grow up, I want a marriage just like yours.”

“True love,” I said with a sniffle. “It gets me every time.”

Nic laughed. “Let’s get some wrinkles on my old lady.”

Christie swatted at his shoulder. Nic caught her arm, and after what seemed like a tiny bit too long, Christie moved away from him and returned to the couch.

I shot Will a questioning look, and he raised a brow to indicate he’d noticed it too.

Interesting.

“Once we finish this, we can talk more about the mission,” my aunt said. Nic had pulled back the coffee table and sat on it facing Christie. He opened a small case and unscrewed the cap of a tiny bottle.

“Glue,” he said. “We had these prosthetics made for wrinkles around her eyes. I just have to get them correctly positioned and add makeup to blend them with her skin.”

Will and I watched as he carefully applied the wrinkles and then began smoothing on some thick base the shade of her skin. He held her cheek in one hand as he worked on the other side. His movements were gentle, tender, and I noticed my aunt’s discomfort with his proximity.

“And,” he said, dabbing at her eyes with a makeup sponge, “that should do it.”

Christie cleared her throat as she turned to face us. “Well, what do you think?”

“He did a good job,” Will said. “They look real.”

“I’m not sure if you look old enough,” I said.

“There’s a couple more steps. I use this wax pencil to age my lips a little before adding lipstick. With the lighter hair color to wash me out a little…”

The color wasn’t as flattering as the dark brown she usually wore. “It doesn’t look like the exact right hair color.”

“Does it look like I’m going gray and was trying to color over it?”

I cocked my head and looked again. “That’s exactly what it looks like.”

“Good. Let me do my lips while Nic briefs you.”

Nic moved from the table to a nearby chair. “Okay. Thanks for being available on such short notice. We did have some concerns about pairing the two of you. We would have preferred to avoid using Amanda for a few more months since she just finished one mission. And of course, your relationship complicates things. Unfortunately, the program has come to the attention of the Agency’s legal department, and they are mucking up the works as they issue opinion after opinion on the legality, constitutionality, and liability involved in using minors. Luckily, you two are fair game between your aunt and your grandmother working for GASI.”

Will leaned over and fist-bumped Nic.

“So you two win,” Nic said.

“What are we working on exactly?” I asked.

“There has been an attempt on the life of the UN Secretary-General,” Nic explained. “Vicente Vargas, a Chilean National, and his family live here in New York most of the year. We need to apprehend the people behind the plot on his life before New Year's Eve. The Secretary-General is scheduled to make a grand gesture at the celebration in Times Square.”

“With all of those people? How could you possibly keep him safe?”  The place would be nuts. Justin Timberlake was performing live.

“The local and national agencies work hard to ensure heightened security at the site for the New Year's Eve celebration. However, with nearly a million people crowding in to watch the ball drop, we don't want to risk his safety. We need to eliminate the threat before the event begins. Otherwise, the special appearance will be canceled.”  Nic looked over at Christie.

“We are in a particularly awkward position this year with the UN,” she said. “The recent revelations about the US monitoring communications has led to strained relations with other nations and unfortunately, with the United Nations. Because of this negative publicity, the various US agencies had backed off on electronic surveillance to an unprecedented degree, especially as far as the UN is concerned. Now, we are presented with a threat and we don't have the intelligence that we would normally be able to rely on. We were lucky that the gunman failed. He died, and we weren't able to get any information from him. We had an anonymous tip that would tie the attempt to a group called the Avaritia Militia. We get tips all the time, and this one wasn't particularly credible. But we cannot rule out the involvement of that group or one like it—a third party, a non-governmental private interest group.”

Nic nodded. “We don't know much about the AM at all,” he said. “There has been some chatter about a consortium operating on an international scale for a decade. Recently, there have been incidents, interference with politics in various countries, that we haven't been able to pin on any country.”

“Avaritia would mean greed,” Christie interjected. “And militia implies that they are military in nature, perhaps violent, and most likely willing to use force to further their interests.”

“Their interests of greed?” I asked.

“Do you think they tried to kill the Secretary-General?” Will asked.

“GASI has a team working on the Avaritia Militia now. They are charged with finding out the people and ideology behind the group as well as what they have done in the past.”

“How do we fit in?” I asked. “Are we protecting the Secretary-General?”

“No. We have a team assigned to protect him and others assigned to work various angles on the threat. Likely enemies on a personal level, professional level, etc. Our role is to get eyes and ears on the ground and to determine whether the plans for Times Square have spread outside the circle of trusted employees.”

“So we're planting bugs?” I asked. “What if we get caught? Won't the world criticize us if they catch us spying on the UN again?”

“There is nothing to show we ever spied on the UN in the past,” Christie said as if programmed to deliver the legalese at the end of a commercial. “We have the cooperation of the Secretary-General, um, to some extent. We need to be discreet, but we also need this intel. We won't be planting bugs exactly. Nic will be driving a Town Car in the motor pool assigned to high level UN officials. He can hack their devices, phones, laptops, tablets, easily and without their knowledge by offering various chargers so they can recharge while they ride. GASI has developed these special chargers that will upload a virus to allow us access to the devices.”