Blowback (The Black Cipher Files Book 1) (25 page)

“How come?”

“I....” I’d been tired, coming off of a two week stint of listening to tapes, analyzing data. The mission details had been sketchy, due to the security clearance there was information I hadn’t been given. “I had a weird feeling about the job.”

Lucas made an encouraging noise and took out the clothes from my duffel. He kept the ‘older man’ clothes and tossed the ‘teenager’ clothes to me. “Why?”

I paused. This was a moment of truth.

Consulting with Barb and Zeke, I’d only given them pieces of the data with no way to put it all together unless they collaborated.

When I took the mission data out of headquarters, it had been cause for suspension, an intermediate to serious infraction.

Associating with Lucas, same thing.

But, telling Lucas about this mission was career suicide.

My mission was VRK. Very Restricted Knowledge. Only four or five people in the world had access. One was the President. Revealing this information went against everything I’d been taught, against every rule I lived by.

But something was wrong. Most importantly, Bella could be in trouble. And no one else was telling me the truth.

“Jamie?”

I carefully laid out the makeup and other items on the dresser in front of the mirror, then related all of the facts and information about the mission before I could change my mind.

Lucas stopped threading his belt through the khaki loops. “Other agents have been kidnapped?”

“Yeah.”

“So why were you impersonating Staci?”

“There was chatter about Staci but my handler wouldn’t specify beyond that. Staci’s dead, but only a few people know that. So there I was.”

“Don’t leave out any detail.”

Lucas knew about Bella. No other secret was worth keeping. “My handler lied to me.”

“What a surprise. Someone in the espionage world lying.”

He could mock all he wanted but to my knowledge it was the first time Carson had lied to me. Although he’d evaded answering a few times before.

“How did he lie?”

Before answering, I popped in contacts, changing my eye color from hazel to bright blue. “I asked about intelligence and he told me it was classified beyond my clearance level.”

“Is that normal?”

“Depends on the mission. This particular mission has a very high clearance level.”

“How high?” Lucas’s eyebrows rose.

“Pretty much the highest.” To ignore his dawning understanding, I picked up the black eye liner pencil and outlined my eyes in kohl, Goth-style.

Of course, Lucas didn’t let it drop. “Thank you.”

I shrugged him off.

“I know what happened before you were abducted.” Lucas sent me a heated look. “What went on in the warehouse?”

In my mind, I went over everything that happened from waking up in the Suburban to busting out the delivery door. “Two people in lab coats, man and woman. They both said they wouldn’t hurt me. She seemed determined. He came off as fanatical.”

Lucas wound a tie around his neck and began the process of knotting it.

Never influence the data with your own conclusions. You taught me that...obviously Agent Hunt’s physical abilities are fantastic. Can’t wait to get her in the lab, run some tests.

“Their words indicated scientific research.” The idea of being a lab rat made me shudder.

“Research for who or what?”

Do you feel you have any weaknesses?

“The old guy wanted to know what it would take to betray my country.” At least...that’s what I’d assumed from his comments about women’s weaknesses.

Lucas snorted. “With you? Nothing.”

As long as they didn’t know about Bella, he was right. Although technically, I was betraying my country right now. Focus on what you can control.

I layered my lashes with mascara until they were thick. “They tried to use you.”
We won’t hurt Lucas, as long as you come out.

“Me?”

“Yeah. They told me they had you...wait, they had Lucas Smith.”

“So, they didn’t know my real name.” Lucas tossed me a pair of jeans. “But they knew I existed.”

I thought back to that moment. They had known about Lucas and wanted me to give up, to come out, to keep him safe.

Our research shows that a woman’s weakness is caring about the fate of others, most especially a threat to someone they care about. Why isn’t this working with you?

“They threatened to hurt you.”

“Good thing I wasn’t really captured.” He smiled.

As I wiggled into the tight jeans, I agreed. I hadn’t had any proof that they would not hurt Lucas. I hadn’t hesitated. I would have let him die before I betrayed my country. The thought settled in my stomach like a lead weight.

Lucas touched me briefly, gently. “Hey. I’m fine.”

I looked into his eyes. I wouldn’t make the same decision today. Another frightening thought. I would come up with a creative solution instead.

I strapped a black leather, metal-spiked bracelet around my wrist. “There might have been collateral damage from the other kidnappings.”

“Collateral damage, meaning other people related to the kidnap victims are killed?” Lucas responded slowly.

“Yeah.” I thought about it for a moment. “Except, nothing in the mission file indicated that was the case.”

I thought over the facts I did know about the kidnappings. “There were two events that happened prior to the known kidnappings. Staci Grant was killed in Afghanistan and Brad Johnson was murdered by a suspected double agent. I made the assumption that Staci and Brad Johnson hadn’t been kidnapped.”

“They could have been the first victims and you just didn’t know it because they died.”

Except that Staci Grant was captured long before the kidnappings started. And Agent Johnson died a week ago, again before the kidnappings started. “Those events happened before the kidnappings started,” I said again.

“Unless you don’t have an accurate start date.” Lucas said, “Maybe there have been other victims who haven’t admitted to being kidnapped.”

I mulled that over. It was possible. Strict procedures were followed if an agent thought they might have been compromised. But what if they didn’t tell anyone?

Lucas snapped his fingers. “What if the agents weren’t killed because of the kidnappings but because of the original drug?”

“Something in the original drug causes them to get killed? That doesn’t make any sense either.” I went through their words again. “Huh.”

“What?”

“The man in the warehouse referenced weaknesses. Twice.” Lucas would qualify now.

Why hadn’t I picked up on that earlier? The guy kept talking about weaknesses.
Do you feel you have any weakness?

Lucas snapped his fingers. “Trying to find the weakness caused by or enhanced by the original drug.”

It made a scary kind of sense. “A gene manipulation drug that enhances a person’s weakness?” I shuddered. Knowledge of a specific agent’s weakness would take the guesswork out of trying to find ways to compromise or capture the agent. If that information became available for sale, the potential for exploitation in the espionage world was huge.

“How could a drug be administered without agents’ knowledge?” I strapped another leather and spike accessory to my right wrist.

I came up with various delivery methods and then discarded them while I methodically packed away the dye boxes and the plastic bottles, tying everything into the plastic CVS bag and shoving it in the duffel. I’d dump the bag away from the hotel.

Lucas packed clothes into his duffel as he worked out his thoughts. Neatly and efficiently. “Shots.”

“Possibly.”

“How often do you get vaccinated?”

“I get standard inoculations once every three months.”

“How many?”

“Since I never know where I’m going or when, it’s like a cocktail....”

“That’s what Barb called the liquid in the syringe.”

A cocktail. It made a sort of crazy sense. “Why not wait, give the second injection, the antidote in the next round of vaccinations?”

“Exactly. Administer the antidote the same way as the original drug.” Lucas mused aloud. He pulled the instant camera from the side pocket of the duffel. “Lower profile. No one would have ever known.”

“But if the side effects of the initial drug were that catastrophic, wouldn’t you want to eliminate the problem, inject the antidote, right away?”

Catastrophic effects...like being killed by a suspected double agent as Brad Johnson had? Carson had insisted that Agent Johnson didn’t have anything to do with this problem. But I’d already determined Carson wasn’t being truthful.

“But who knew about the weakness? And how did they find out?” I wondered.

Lucas tossed me a black leather dog collar and a belt of chainlinks. “Mission debriefs.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” My voice was muffled as I tried to fasten the dog collar around my neck. “But that’s more of an autopsy of what went right and what went wrong. If several agents were doing something wrong don’t you think there’d be more rumors about it?”

“Maybe.” Lucas’s fingers brushed the back of my neck as he took the body decoration from me. “What happens after a mission goes wrong?”

“Easy. Just like today....” I trailed off. The shrink. Dr. Fitzhugh who used a phrase similar to the one the man in the warehouse had used. “Psych evals.”

“I ran the license plate number from their van,” Lucas said.

“Any leads.”

“Fake registration.”

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but couldn’t I catch at least one break? I squirted gel onto my hands and scrunched my hair into short spikes. “Let’s run a check. Maybe the name will connect to something else.”

“It wasn’t a government car,” Lucas said thoughtfully.

I’d picked up on that too. At least not one overtly connected to the government. “Did you get anything from the warehouse?”

“Nothing. I was too busy getting shot at.” His eyes lit up with mischief.

He’d missed being in the field. “Adrenaline rush got to you.”

“Hell yes.” Lucas slid the aviator-style glasses onto his nose. “What about the papers you took from the doctor?”

I slicked black lipstick over my lips. I should have known he’d noticed.

“I only took two.” The top paper she was consulting from and the initial client information file.

“Anything?”

“The paper she was making notes on didn’t look like the other notes in my file. This has specific questions. How did you feel? What kind of response time did you have once the threat perception kicked in? What went through your mind? Any perceived weaknesses?”

I thought for a minute.

“But nothing about vaccination or inoculation dates.” I blew out a breath.

I had to work on the theory that I’d been given the original DNA-altering drug. All the hypotheses in the world were just that, educated guesses.

Lucas motioned for me to sit. “Say cheese.”

I frowned, just as he snapped the picture. He set the developing film on the dresser and handed me the camera.

I thought about the 5491 file. All the people abducted had that designation but I still didn’t know what it meant. I hadn’t looked this morning when Lucas was in the shower. I’d been too busy checking on Bella.

Did I tell Lucas about it? I didn’t think I had a choice.

“Staci Grant has a file on her computer, 5491, that might have something to do with my mission.” I fiddled with the camera, looking at the mechanisms instead of Lucas.

“What does 5491 stand for?”

“I don’t know.”

I looked through the view finder at him sitting on the bed. He’d even used his body language to change his age, hunching his shoulders and putting a sag in his lips. I snapped the picture.

He straightened up immediately. “Let’s see if we can get into that file.”

“Okay.” We accessed Staci’s files, plugged in two levels of passwords, and clicked on file
5491
.

If I could figure out the relationship between the NSA mission file, the scientist file and Staci’s file I might be able to connect them all together.

His computer made a little bell noise. “Access denied.”

Dammit. She had a third level of password.

I wanted to check to see if Bella had uploaded the picture of Donald Christian. “I need to check online.”

Lucas waved me off and started the process of glueing our new pictures onto the fake driver’s licenses.

I checked and sure enough the .jpg file was there. I clicked on the file and the picture began filling in on the screen.

Waiting, I grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge and took a swig.

I turned back to the screen as the picture began to solidify. I took another gulp then choked on the cool liquid.

“Lucas.”

“With you in a minute.” He was bent over the dresser, carefully applying the top layer of covering with the holographic image on it.

“Now.”

Something in my voice must have clued him in and he turned.

“Holy shit. Is that recent?”

“Yesterday.”

“Where’d you get that picture of Johnny?”

“You’re sure that’s him?” The guy wasn’t looking straight at the camera, it was a half front/half side view.

“I’ve known his family for years.”

I gestured toward the screen with the half empty bottle. “That’s Donald Christian.”

I watched realization dawn. Johnny Wishbone and Donald Christian were the same person.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Second story work was not my favorite. I regarded Staci Grant’s bedroom window from the brick walkway and prayed we’d find answers. Some clue to her third-level password. I needed to know what the hell 5491 meant and Lucas needed answers about Johnny.

The sooner we got answers, the sooner I could get Johnny away from Bella. Lucas convinced me Johnny wouldn’t hurt her. So I reluctantly agreed to wait until we could discover why Johnny Wishbone was pretending to be a student at Georgetown before I approached him.

Before I told him to stay the hell away from my sister, before I broke him in half and buried his body where no one would ever find it.

Possibly I hadn’t mentioned that part to Lucas yet.

“Ready?” Lucas murmured into his tiny mouthpiece.