Until Midnight (12 page)

But the corner of the building was as far as they seemed to look.

“No place for them to go,” Ray-Bans shouted to his friend.

“They didn’t just disappear,” Neon Tennis Shoes retorted.

“I guarantee you they went the other way,” Ray-Bans insisted, just as Nicki had

figured he would. “Neither of them is in condition to go clambering over rocks and through bushes. Come on. Let’s check over here.”

As soon as they’d moved far enough away, Nicki released the breath she didn’t

even realize she’d been holding.

“Okay, tough guy.” She helped Adam get to his feet as best she could, supporting

his weight again. “Let’s see if you can make it the last mile.”

She blessed all the overgrown flora that offered them concealment as they made

their way up the embankment and onto the road. Helping Adam over the guard rail

was a little tricky, but then they were on solid ground. Cars whizzed past them as they stumbled along the shoulder of the road. State Route 657 declared a black and white sign. Virginia. And there across the street was a dinky, dingy convenience store.

They were both sweating profusely, but Nicki thought that might be a good thing.

Helping to flush the drug out of their systems. She didn’t want to leave Adam alone 88

Until Midnight

while she went inside, but she also didn’t think he’d be able to stand up long enough for her to make a phone call. And she was not interested in creating any more questions than she knew the store owner would have just by looking at her. A tiny copse of oaks and pines grew at the back of the store, so she helped him to sit down and lean against one of the tree trunks. They offered as much concealment as they were going to get, and anyway, they weren’t in the line of sight of the cars driving by.

The man behind the counter eyed her suspiciously when she walked inside. She

was well aware that her appearance left a great deal to be desired, but she’d pulled together a cover story that sounded somewhat plausible.

“Could I use your phone to make a call and reverse the charges?” she asked the

man. “My friend and I were kayaking on the Bay and a speedboat sideswiped us.

Smashed the kayak all to hell.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? How come your clothes aren’t wet?”

“Do you have any idea how hot it is out there? They dried in the sun while we

climbed up to the road.”

“Where’s your friend?’ he asked suspiciously.

“Waiting outside. Still trying to dry off. He got a bit rattled. I just need to call a friend in Washington to come pick us up and I lost my cell in the Bay.”

She waited while the man debated the issue, keeping an eye on the traffic outside.

Finally he nodded.

“All right. You can use the store phone. But the call better be collect.”

She sighed with relief. “No problem. I’ll be quick.”

She almost cried with relief when she got Maddie on the phone. “Don’t ask for

details right now,” she told the woman. “Here’s where we are.” She gave her the

location and description of the store. “Someone has to pick us up. Quick. And I do mean quick. Who have we got in the Virginia area that you can poke with a hot nail and get on their way?”

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“Just a sec.” She could hear the clack of fingers on a computer keyboard. “Lane

Hallowell is just finishing an assignment. I talked to him twenty minutes ago. Hold on.”

Nicki tried to hang onto her patience while she waited, but she expected Ray-Bans and Neon Tennis Shoes to burst into the store any minute.

Then Maddie was back. “Okay. He knows exactly where you are. He’ll be there in

fifteen.”

“Tell him we’re at the back of the store. He should make sure he doesn’t see anyone wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses or neon tennis shoes, then honk for us. Bring water and a few bananas and yogurts. We’re dehydrated and starving. But not injured.”

To Maddie’s credit she didn’t ask any of the questions Nicki knew had to be on the tip of her tongue. She’d save those for later.

“Thank you,” she told the store owner. “Someone’s coming to pick us up.”

“You should be careful on the Bay,” he warned her. “Not everyone pays attention

out there.”

“I know. Thanks for your concern.”

She found Adam still propped against the tree where she’d left him. His eyes were

closed and for a moment she felt a fist clenching around her heart. Then he opened his eyes and gave her a halfhearted smile.

“I’m never walking home from a date with you again,” he joked, in a lame attempt

at humor.

“And I’ll make sure it never happens again,” she told him and brushed her lips

against his.

She crouched beside him, tensely watching in all directions, flinching every time

she heard a car pull into the parking lot. Sore and aching, she didn’t dare close her eyes for fear of attack by their two thugs. At last a tall, lanky familiar figure rounded the corner of the building, and she was so relieved she wanted to cry.

“Someone here call for a taxi?” Lane asked.

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“Oh, god, you are such a sight for sore eyes,” Nicki told him. “Listen, Adam can’t walk too steadily.”

“Not a problem.” He looked at the man next to her. “I assume this is Adam. And

that when we get away from here you’ll tell me what this is about and where we go

from here.”

“First, we’re in need of water and food,” she told him as they each hooked an arm

under one of Adam’s and walked toward the Humvee. “Then we’re up for a little help from a few friendly law enforcement types.”

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“Friends like the FBI,” Lane declared, “require strong evidence to enlist.”

He had listened to their breathless summary of what the two of them had been

through in the past day.

Nicki nodded. “We’ve got it,” she told him as she sank limp as a rag doll into the back seat of one of the Nemesis Humvees.

“We were locked inside one of Henderson’s warehouses,” Adam added as

uncapped his second bottle of water. He needed to flush the remnants of the drug out of his system as fast as possible. “We had oxygen masks fitted to our faces inhaling their so called fragrance, which they apparently store there before shipping it out. The police need to be fast to get there before the two thugs who abducted us go in and clean up the evidence.”

“Lane, call Maddie right now,” Nicki managed as she rubbed her arms and rolled

her head around to relieve the stress. “Tell her to alert the Virginia State Police to illegal trafficking in and out of that warehouse. And maybe the FBI. See if they want Adam and me to come in to press charges or if they can find a way to lock it down without our testimony. Then, tell her to find Henderson’s location. We need to know where he is.

And if he is still on his island, well then…” Her voice drifted off, the exertions of the last few days washing through her system like a typhoon. “And we’ve probably got

only until midnight to get this all done or everyone will scatter. They’ll be out of our reach.”

“We have to figure out who to send in to arrest him there,” Adam worried. Having

downed his third bottle of water he now chomped on a protein bar. “He’s actually out of our territorial jurisdiction, and it could take longer than we’ve got to get international cooperation.”

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Nicki agreed as she peeled down her own energy bar and began to munch on it.

“Not sure who has top jurisdiction on this, but we need all the law enforcement we can get.” Swallowing the last of the bar, she leaned her head back, eyes drifting shut as exhaustion took over.

Two hours later, she startled awake when she heard Maddie’s voice on the speaker

phone. They were crossing over the Potomac when Maddie reported that the Virginia

State Police and the FBI had surrounded the beachside warehouse and secured it.

“Evidence of your abductions intact,” she said with triumph. “What else do you

need?”

Nicki rubbed her eyes, leaned forward and reached for another bottle of water.

“When you called the Bureau, was it Jared Donnelly you talked to?”

“No. He was out. I got his next in line. Why?”

“I need to talk to Jared myself, Maddie. He might need DEA as well on this. But our big fish is Henderson and to hook him, we need to know where he is.”

“Hot damn! Well, for that, my friend, you are in luck.”

From Maddie’s tone, Nicki could envision her friend grinning. “Is that so?”

“Henderson is on his way to a meeting right in D.C.”

Adam swiveled to check Nicki’s gaze. “Do we know where?”

“He flew into Dulles this morning on his own Lear. Due to have lunch in a private

dining room in a small Italian restaurant on Seventeenth Street at one o’clock.”

“How convenient.” Nicki grinned at Adam.

“How the hell did you learn that?” Adam marveled.

“Hold on to your hat,” Maddie said. “He’s meeting my father.”

Nicki began to choke on her water. “You’re kidding? How’d you find out?”

“I happened to call my father on a personal matter and his new secretary is more

incompetent than anyone expected. She told me where he is and how I can find him

without any prompting or prying.”

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“And who he’s having lunch with.” Lane whistled as he steered the car past the

Lincoln Memorial. “She’ll be on the unemployment line by five o’clock.”

Adam, still a little shaky, bumped Lane on the shoulder. “His loss, our gain.”

“What’s the name of the restaurant?” Nicki asked Maddie and nodded when she

heard the name. “I know the owner.”

“So do I,” Lane put in. “I’ve been dating her, off and on.”

“Is that so?” a chorus of Nicki, Adam and Maddie said together.

Lane shrugged as he turned east to head toward Seventeenth Street. “What can I

say? I love Italian food.”

“And Italian women,” Maddie added in a sultry imitation of the Romance

language.

“If you three will stop ribbing me, I’ll call her,” Lane offered, “and tell her to give the two of them the private room on the first floor. It’s easily accessible by the stairwell and the back entrance to the building.”

“Deal,” said Nicki. “Let us know, Maddie, when you get Jared over at the Bureau

and what their ETA can be at the restaurant. They need to get an arrest warrant from a judge so they had better be quick about it or we lose Henderson on U.S. soil.”

“Will do,” Maddie agreed and clicked off.

Lane meanwhile overshot the restaurant, pretending to search for a parking space

and giving Nicki and Adam a good view of the interior through the glass front.

“Maria’s maître d’ won’t let us in looking like this,” Nicki muttered.

“Lane, my man,” Adam grinned at the big blond guy as if they were old pals,

“looks like you volunteered to see if our two birdies are in the nest yet.”

“Not a problem,” Lane agreed as he swung the Humvee down a side street and

double-parked. “You okay to drive?”

“I can manage,” Adam assured him.

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After the men changed seats, Adam had them circling the block once more. In front

of the restaurant he stopped long enough to allow Lane to get out.

“Just sit here for a while,” Nicki told Adam. “You’ll look like a native disobeying the law.”

He grimaced. “And if a policeman comes and wants to check my driver’s license, I

just turn out my empty pants pockets?”

“And tell him you were abducted,” she finished.

His dark brows danced. “Oh, that’ll work well. Meanwhile, here comes our man.

Do not look left. He just pulled up in back of us. Climbing out. Going around to the street side. Okay, gone.”

“And here’s Lane,” Nicki breathed. “Just in time.”

“We’re good to go,” Lane announced as he climbed inside and kept his face averted

from Henderson who passed him on the sidewalk. “Back private room is on. Drive,

Adam. We’re going to the alley. Turn right. Yes. Then again. Good. Okay, boys and

girls, time to bring out the party favors. Nicki, can you reach the toolbox in the back?”

“Oh, can I!” Nicki exclaimed, having herself proclaimed it company policy that no

Nemesis vehicle was ever without a “tool” box supply of two rifles, two handguns, two hand grenades and two bows and arrows. Taking a brand new LaRue Tactical rifle for herself, she handed a Beretta M9 with two fifteen round clips up to the front. “For you, Adam.”

Lane, who favored a Glock 21 with a thirteen round clip, was checking his own

pistol.

“Ready,” he said.

“Now comes the hard part,” Nicki murmured.

Lane agreed. “Waiting for the FBI posse to arrive is always a nail biter.”

Half an hour later they were still waiting and the three of them were ready to

scream.

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“I’m going to chew my hand off,” Adam said, “if they don’t come soon.”

Lane, whose big broad face was strained with the wait, smacked his lips. “Takes a

while to get a warrant here.”

“In Jerusalem, we work a lot faster.”

Nicki rolled her eyes at Adam in the rearview mirror. “Could you live this way?”

She knew it was a question that had implications for the future.

Could you work with me? Here? For how long?

Suddenly they spotted two black SUVs quietly rolling down the alley, one coming

to a stop in front of their Humvee. One in the back. Two men in each vehicle climbed out.

“Jared!” Nicki greeted her old friend from the Bureau’s Washington office. “Thanks for coming. On short notice, too.”

“Happy to.” The tall man in sunglasses grinned at Nicki, making Adam narrow his