Wrong Time (6 page)

“All right, I would like to offer you
all something different. Ms. Morris, I want you to work with us as a
consultant. Your knowledge of our enemy would make you an irreplaceable part of
my team. Mr. Higgins, given your ability to work with electronics and your
ability to forge passports and IDs, I believe that you would be an asset to us
in our tech department. Michael, you had an aim that was rivaled by no one else
back in the army, but you also had some mental issues that drove you from the
service. I would like to give you an opportunity to work in the field, as long
as between missions you’ll talk to a professional located here in Washington.
Finally, Ms. Rogers, I have examined your record throughout your school life.
You were the valedictorian of your high school class, you scored in the top one
percent on the ACT, and then you graduated nursing school with a perfect grade
point average. While none of that qualifies you to be an agent, I believe that
given your extreme intelligence, you and Ms. Morris should work together to
give us advice on our next move,” Campbell said.

Everyone stared at Jess in surprise.
She had never told anyone how smart she was because she really didn’t like to
be in the spotlight.

“There is another scenario, however. Any
one of you can simply be put into a witness protection program until this is over
if you don’t wish to offer your services. No one would blame you if you wanted
out now. You’ve all been through a lot.”

“I would like to serve,” Michael said.

“Me, too,” Trish said.

Very soon after, Lee and Jess also
agreed.

“Great, then! Lee, have Mr. Ellis show
you to the floor where you’ll be working. Jess and Trish, ask Mr. Jones to get
both of you an office, and Michael, I would like for you to join Mr. Green and
Mr. Driver’s operation.”

Jess shot Michael a worried look. She
didn’t like the idea of him going into combat. The truth was that Michael was a
little shocked, also. He hadn’t expected all this to move so quickly. They all
left his office and found their way to their next destinations.

Jason walked Lee downstairs to the
eighth floor.

“This is where you’ll be working,”
Jason said as the elevator door opened.

What Lee saw was absolutely amazing.
There was tech as far as the eye could see.

“What do people do down here?”
 

“Oh, you know. They look through files,
listen to chatter, develop new programs, and make exploding pens,” Jason said.

“Exploding pens? Are you serious?”

“No. That’s just a joke around here,”
Jason said and laughed.

The two of them walked across the large
floor until they were at the front door of an office. The doorplate read Megan
Roberts. As they knocked and entered, Lee found that the woman sitting inside
looked equally as beautiful as she was intelligent.

“I’ve got a new one for you,” Jason
said and started walking away.

Lee turned and looked at him with a
surprised expression.

“Don’t worry. She’ll take care of you,”
Jason said.

Lee turned to look at his new boss. She
was tall with long brown hair and gentle blue eyes. If looks could kill, Lee
would have been dead in that moment because he was completely stunned. He only
stood there and stared. Megan couldn’t help but blush a little, even if his
behavior was inappropriate in the work place.

“I’m Megan Roberts, and I’ll be showing
you how everything works. Don’t worry too much. We like to keep things as light
and fun as possible around here,” Megan said.

“I’m Lee Higgins.” That’s all Lee could
manage to get out of his mouth.

“Okay, Lee. Let me show you where
you’ll be working,” Megan said as they walked toward Lee’s new workstation.

There are plenty of people like me
around, and the most beautiful woman I have ever seen is here. I think that I’m
going to love this, Lee thought to himself and smiled.

* * * * *

Michael found Zane and Dan sitting in
their office making phone calls. As he entered, Zane was just getting off the
phone.

“What can I help you with, Michael?”
Zane asked.

Michael explained how he had been
assigned a position on their team. Zane felt bad about the situation. He didn’t
want Michael to be walking into what they were about to be walking into. Zane
explained the whole situation to him.

“I have a lot of doubts about this op.
I don’t know if we’ll be coming back from this one,” Zane said.

Michael was a little troubled by Zane’s
doubts, but he knew the risk of any combat mission from personal experience.

“When do we leave?” Michael asked.

“We’re leaving tonight, so if there’s
anything that you’ve always wanted to do, then you need to do it now.”

Michael thought for a minute and exited
the office. He walked straight to Jess in her new office and pulled her up from
her chair. Then he kissed her. She quickly pulled away from him.

“What are you doing?” Jess asked.

“I’m leaving tonight, and just in case
anything happens, I wanted to do that at least once.”

Jess was sad. She didn’t want him to go,
and she feared what would happen if he did leave. She leaned in and gently kissed
Michael again.

“If you don’t come back, you’ll never
be able to do that again,” Jess said after she pulled her lips back from his.

“If that’s the case, I’ll definitely be
coming back,” Michael said and smiled.

* * * * *

That evening, Jason gathered all of
them back together, and they got into his car.

“I’ve got a surprise for you three,”
Jason said.

Jess was in no mood for surprises
because she was worried about Michael. Suddenly, the car stopped in front of a
house.

“What are we stopping for?” Trish
asked.

“This is where you three, and when
Michael gets back, four, will be staying,” Jason said.

They all piled out of the car and made
their way into their new home. It was a three bedroom home, so now no one would
ever have to sleep on the floor, much to Lee and Trish’s relief.

“Oh, and there’s also a car in the garage,
so I don’t have to keep coming to get you guys.”
 

“Thank you,” Jess said.

“Don’t thank me. The agency needs your
help. It’s their responsibility to make sure that you have a place to stay and
a car to drive.”

After a short while, Jason left them to
their new house. Jess went straight to her bedroom because she was the perfect
mixture of tired and worried that makes a person just want to go straight to
sleep. Lee and Trish, however, made their way to the kitchen.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m
starving,” Lee said while searching through the pantry where he found several
different types of food.

“I am, too. What did you have in mind?”
Trish asked.

“How about some spaghetti?” Lee asked while
holding up some noodles that he found.

“That sounds good. So how is your new
job?”

 
“It’s absolutely wonderful! I’m working
with people who are just like me, and I think that I may have met someone who
fits the description of exactly the type of woman I was talking about last night.”

“Really? What’s she like?”

“She’s beautiful, and most of all, very
intelligent. She’s probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

 
Trish got really quiet after hearing this,
and her mind began to wander. So she’s the most beautiful woman he has ever
seen? What am I, she wondered. The truth was that she was a little offended,
and maybe even a little jealous, but she really didn’t know why. Lee noticed
her silence and the look of irritation coming from her eyes.

“I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear
about my relationship issues. It was nice enough that you listened to me last
night,” Lee said.

The night went on, and the two friends
made small talk, but no matter how much she tried to, Trish just couldn’t shake
off the feeling of jealousy that she had for a woman she had never even met.
What is happening to me, Trish wondered.

* * * * *

Back in Houston, night had fallen, and
Chloe had been discharged from the hospital.

“We aren’t going to have a transport ready
for her until tomorrow morning,” Sam said as the three of them rode in the car.

“I have a name,” Chloe said in
irritation.

In truth, she was already irritated
enough by the fact that she was handcuffed to Sam in the backseat.

“So I guess that we’re going back to
the hotel then?” Nathan asked.

“Yeah, unfortunately. I don’t know
where we’re going to put you, though,” Sam said while glancing over at Chloe.

 
As they arrived at the hotel and took the
elevator to their top floor room, Chloe broke the silence.

“Just so you two know, I am
not
sleeping on the floor or in a
bathroom. I’m sleeping in a bed, and I’m not wearing these handcuffs all night
long,” Chloe said.

“What makes you think that you have a
say in any of that?” Sam asked.

“If I don’t get to sleep normally, I’m
going to make enough noise to get all of us kicked out of this place, and then
none of us will be able to sleep.”

“Fine. We’ll sleep in shifts and watch
you,” Sam said.

As they entered the room and shut the
door, Sam took the handcuffs off of Chloe. Chloe walked straight to the bed and
got in. Sam handed Nathan a gun and followed her.

“What about me?” Nathan asked.

“You get the first shift. Wake me up in
four hours.”

Chloe lay there wide awake, and it
wasn’t long before she could hear that Sam was fast asleep. Chloe raised her
head from the bed and turned toward Nathan. She was going to get to know this
guy. He was compassionate and extremely naive. Chloe knew if she could build some
level of trust with him that she could use that to her advantage later. Yes,
this guy’s stupidity will be my ticket out of here, Chloe thought to herself and
smiled.

Chapter 6

“So you don’t really seem like the
government type. What’s your story?” Chloe asked Nathan.

He was hesitant to tell her anything
about himself. Should I really be telling a prisoner my life story, Nathan
wondered.

“Okay, so you don’t trust me. I
understand that, but maybe if I told you my story it would loosen your tongue a
little bit,” Chloe said in a flirty tone.

“Okay. Who are you exactly?”

This was the perfect opportunity for
Chloe to tell Nathan some sob story, and that’s exactly what she did.

“When I was fourteen, my mother died. I
never really knew my father, so I was all alone in the world. I was about to be
placed into foster care, so I did what I thought was the best thing at the
time. I ran away.”

“Where did you go?”
 

“I lived on the streets.”

“How did you survive? You were only a
kid.”

“I did whatever I had to do to eat. For
three years, I did everything from sleep on the street to work in a number of businesses
that I’m not too proud of. Then one day a man gave me a way out of that life. I
wasn’t qualified, but even Markus Boyd has a heart apparently. He gave me a
chance for a new life. If I had only known where that life would lead me, I might
have stayed on the streets that day, but here I am. I’m imprisoned by two
people who will probably take me straight to some government scum who are going
to torture me, and when that’s all over, Markus is going to find me. When he
does find me, what he does will make whatever your people do to me look like
child’s play.”

 
“I’m not going to let them hurt you or
let Markus find you. I do know what it’s like to be thrust into a way of life
with no real choice or way out,” Nathan said.

“Really? How exactly?” Chloe asked.

Nathan recapped how he had met Sam and
how he was pulled into this whole situation.

“I guess I’m just lucky that I’m in a
situation I actually don’t mind being in,” Nathan said.

“Yeah, you are. I just don’t know what
I’m going to do,” Chloe said as she started to cry. The tears were fake, but
Nathan didn’t know that.

Sam had been pretending to be asleep,
but she was actually awake through Nathan and Chloe’s whole conversation. I can’t
believe he’s actually buying this, Sam thought. Nathan set his gun down and
walked over to Chloe.

“It’s going to be okay. I’m not going
to let anything happen to you,” Nathan said as he stood over her. Just then,
Chloe reached up and grabbed Nathan’s face. She pulled it toward hers. He tried
to pull away, but this girl was much stronger than she looked. All of a sudden,
Sam started hearing some strange noises.

“No, mmm,” was what it sounded like. Then
there was this smacking sound. It almost sounded like two people kissing. She
turned in the bed to see Nathan and Chloe kissing. As Sam’s eyes met Nathan’s,
he placed his hands straight in the air as if to say “I didn’t do anything.” A
rage built up in Sam’s mind that she hadn’t previously known she had, and she
formed a fist and punched. She just grazed Chloe and hit Nathan squarely on the
cheek. He crumbled to the floor. Chloe jumped to her feet and started moving
toward the gun that Nathan had put down.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Sam said as she
stood up on the bed and launched herself onto Chloe’s back.

As Nathan looked up, he could see Sam
hitting Chloe in the back of the head over and over again. Has she forgotten
how to knock someone out, Nathan wondered. The truth was that Sam hadn’t
forgotten how to do anything. She was simply enjoying every blow that she
delivered to Chloe. Finally, after about a half dozen blows, Sam delivered a
knockout blow. She stood up and grabbed her handcuffs from the hotel dresser.
Then she grabbed a sock from one of her bags and drug Chloe into the bathroom
where she handcuffed her with her hands behind her back to the bathtub railing
and shoved the sock deep into her mouth. As Sam started to exit the bathroom, Nathan
was in a panic. Oh my God. If she did that to her, then what is she going to do
to me? What do I say? Think, Nathan, think, he thought in desperation. Sam was
extremely angry, and she had initially planned to rip Nathan a new one, but
upon seeing his panicked face, she softened a bit. It really wasn’t his fault,
after all.

“Just get in the bed,” Sam snapped.

Nathan immediately complied with her
command.

“I can explain all of this,” Nathan said
after Sam had gotten into the bed.

“I was awake the whole time.”

“Oh, then you know that I was just
trying to help her, right?”

 
“Oh, I get it now. You were trying to
help her, so you stuck your tongue in her mouth,” Sam said sarcastically.

“You know what, never mind,” Nathan
said as he attempted to wrap his arm around her.

Sam swatted his arm away.

“Okay. You’re going to stay on your
side of the bed tonight, and you’re not going to go in the bathroom tonight or
tomorrow morning before I’m awake.”

“What if I have go?”

“I don’t care. How would you feel if
the situation were reversed?”

“Well, if you kissed Chloe I wouldn’t
know how to feel. I guess I would be a little bit confused,” Nathan said as he
held back laughter.

“Oh, come on. You know what I mean. I’m
your girlfriend, and you kissed someone else. How do you expect me to feel
about that?”
 

Nathan knew that the situation was bad,
but he couldn’t help but notice that Sam said she was his girlfriend. She had
actually never done that before, even though they were obviously together. The
sound of those words coming from her was like music to his ears.

“Look, I’m really sorry. I tried to
pull away, but she just caught me by surprise. I would never want to purposely
kiss anyone besides you,” Nathan said while rubbing the small of her back.

“Fine. You can come to my side, but you
still can’t go to the bathroom,” Sam said as she moved closer to Nathan.

Nathan learned something about Sam that
night. She was a deadly spy, but as a jealous girlfriend, her rage was rivaled
by no other. Nathan never kissed another girl after that night.
 

* * * * *

Later that night, Michael was on a
plane with Zane and Dan going to Atlanta.

“Where are we meeting the rest of our
crew?” Michael asked Zane.

“We’re going to meet them a few blocks
away from the facility. They’ll be in armored trucks, and they’ll have plenty
of body armor and firepower, so once we meet them, we’ll get changed.”
 

“Do we have any idea of how to get into
the facility?”

“We think that we do. Dan and I have
had someone spying on the place since yesterday, and I don’t believe that this
facility has an elevator that acts as a transport to the underground like the
other one. My guy has noticed several people going in and out of the back of the
place. I think that there’s either a large lift, or more likely, a simple set
of stairs somewhere in the back.”

With his questions answered, Michael
sat back in his seat. He was worried about what was going to happen. Lately, he
felt like he was in better shape mentally. He had even been able to make an
escape plan back when they were all imprisoned, but he hadn’t fired a weapon
since he was in the army. He didn’t know if he could shoot a rifle without
losing it. I should have just gone into witness protection. I’m going to get
everyone killed with all of my second guessing, Michael thought.

* * * * *

The next morning, Lee was still feeling
a bit under the weather, but he shook the feeling off and started getting ready
as fast as he possibly could. For the first time in his life, he couldn’t wait
to get back to work. He burst into the bathroom where he saw something
extremely unexpected. There stood Trish. She was just stepping out of the
shower, and she was only wearing a towel.

“What . . . what are you doing?” Trish
asked in an angry and very surprised sort of way.

“I’m sorry!” Lee exclaimed as he ran
out of the bathroom.

Why in the world was I ever jealous of
what that pervert thought, Trish wondered.

Trish would have normally beat Lee half
to death for doing such a thing, but he was already beaten up badly enough from
back in Tampa. Oh God, she is going to kill me, Lee thought as he shut the door
to his room. Eventually, the three of them got ready and were on their way to
work. The drive wasn’t as odd as Lee expected it to be. Trish only shot him
some hard looks, but otherwise, she didn’t maim him in the way that he expected
her to. Once Lee arrived at his work floor, he was met by Megan.

“We’re going to have you listen to a
little chatter today,” Megan said.

“Chatter?” Lee asked in confusion.

“Yeah. You listen to people’s
conversations on phones that we have tapped. If they say anything suspicious,
you write down who they are and what they said. Then you can come tell me.”

Lee got to work on his task, but his
enthusiasm quickly faded. For thirty minutes he listened to a man argue with
his wife, and then for an hour he heard a man talking to a tech support person
about his wireless internet. The task he had been given was not only boring,
but as far as he could tell, it was meaningless. Lunch rolled around, and a
thought occurred to Lee. He got up from his chair and walked straight into
Megan’s office.

“Hey, would you like to grab some lunch
with me?” Lee asked Megan as he poked his head into her doorway.

Megan looked a little torn by his
question, but eventually she gave him a smile.

“Sure, why not,” Megan said.

The two of them walked downstairs to
the lunch area where they both sat and ordered.

“So I have to ask. What happened to
you? It looks like you went through quite an ordeal,” Megan said while
motioning toward the bruises on his face.

Lee explained how he had been captured
while leaving out all of the details that he wasn’t sure if she should know or
not.

“Oh, you poor thing,” she said as she
reached across the table and gently touched his bruised jaw.

“What about you? What’s your story?”
Lee asked.

“Well, let’s see. I went to Harvard,
and I was at the top of my class. I was recruited because I can work with
anything or anyone.”

“I wasn’t asking about how qualified you
are. I meant on a more personal level.”

Megan could sense that Lee wanted a
little more from her and that this lunch was obviously an,
I’m interested in you and want to get to know you
kind of lunch.
She didn’t know if she was comfortable with that yet, and because they were
both at work and she was his boss, it made his behavior even more awkward.

“I don’t know what your intent is, but
us meeting here and you getting to know me on a more personal level could be
considered a little inappropriate,” Megan said.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do
anything wrong, but if it’s a problem that we’re meeting and talking here, then
why don’t we do something after work? Then I could get to know you a little better,
and you wouldn’t have to worry about someone else interpreting it the wrong
way.”

She thought for a moment. She knew that
going on what was basically a date with an employee was wrong, but the truth was
that she was working all the time, and there was no time to look for anyone
anywhere else.

“All right. I guess that would be
fine,” Megan said.

Lee got her phone number and address. He
walked away from that lunch happier than he had been in a long while. Finally,
everything is falling into place, Lee thought. He sat back down at his desk and
listened to more meaningless chatter. You’ll be out of here soon, Lee thought
to himself.

* * * * *

That same morning, Trish and Jess were
looking through all of the files that they recovered from the flash drive.

“What are we even looking for?” Jess
asked.

 
“We’re looking for something important
that we can make an easy op out of,” Trish answered.

“Oh, well that’s easy,” Jess said.

“What do you mean?”

 
“The facility in Silver Springs is easily
the smallest and least secure out of all the facilities that we know of. It
would make a statement to Markus if we took that facility, and it would be
fairly easy to do.”

“You’re right, but that facility no
longer has a purpose. It isn’t even a threat.”

“The people inside of the facility are
a threat, and like I said, it’s small and it makes a statement,” Jess said.

“All right, let’s discuss this with Mr.
Campbell,” Trish said.

The two of them walked to Campbell’s
office, and after knocking, they entered.

“Do you have something for me?” Campbell
asked.