Double-Back (Jake Waters Book 3) (15 page)

Wednesday, May 11

The day when Laney returned home, expecting to find Clarissa in the hands of the four kidnappers, he found her reading through a stack of briefs for the case she was working.

"You look worried," she said.  "What happened today?"

"I'll explain later," he said.  "I've got to call Jake."

Jake hadn't told them until today what was supposed to happen this evening, not wanting Jim to have to hide his feelings from Clarissa for several days.  Now, it appeared, the past few hours of worry were for nothing.  Those they sought had apparently discovered that their plan had been discovered, and had elected not to proceed.  He pulled out his cell, and immediately called Jake and Susan, who were sitting in Jake's rental a couple of blocks away.

"You might as well come over," he said.  "There's no one here."

"We wondered why you didn't activate the link," Jake said.  "We were starting to worry."

"What went wrong?" Susan asked.  She and Jake were using the speakerphone function on his cell.

"I have to assume they learned about us somehow.  Whoever it is in their group who can Back-Track must have done so, and had them call off the attempt."

"How much do you think they know?" Jim asked.

"That depends on how smart they are," Jake said.  "They certainly know that once again we were in place in advance of one of their ops.  That will tell them something.  Somehow I think they may have learned more.  I'd be willing to bet they now suspect that we know about them, and have the same ability as their Back-Tracker."

"That's going to make things complicated," Susan said.

"You have no idea," Jake said.  "At least there is some good news."

"What would that be?" Susan asked sarcastically.

"We are still here.  That suggests for some reason they haven't been able to go back far enough to clear our memories of these events.  They have some limitations on their actions.  We'll have to think through what it might mean."

The next morning they gathered in Susan's office to discuss how to proceed.

"I think they learned more than we did," Jake groused.  "We are back to where we only have the two sketches, their move against us a bust, and they must almost certainly realize they can't move against us without things going wrong.  I'd bet by now their Back-Tracker is aware, or at least suspects that we have someone just like him," Jake said, repeating the comment he'd made to Susan the night before.

"They are going to think it's one of us," Jim said.  "They'll be busy trying to decide who, and how to take that person out.  Until they can remove our Back-Tracker, they can't hope to end this."

"Maybe," Susan said.  "We don't know how much they know about us.  You and me have both been targets, but we are known to be partners.  Are they even aware of Jake at this point?  How they view our situation, assuming they have concluded we have someone with the ability to Back-Track might depend on how they operate.  If their Back-Tracker is integral to their team, then they might believe we operate the same, but if he stays in the background, perhaps well removed from their actual activities, they might think whoever we have is someone hidden away."

"They might attempt to simply eliminate the lot of us and see if that works," Jim warned.  "They might even wonder if it could be Clarissa and target her as well.  Given the abort, and if we accept Jake's explanation how this works, they probably made the attempt, have met Clarissa and me face to face, or at least their Back-Tracker has, so they might wonder."

"It's probably a reasonable move to have Clarissa take that trip to her friend's place out of the area," Jake agreed.  "We can't know who they might target."

"I think we need to start being more careful ourselves," Susan said.  "Norm will be back this afternoon, and I think I'll be staying with him.  That keeps me away from my place and with another agent."

"Jake can stay with me," Jim said.  "Clarissa will be gone, and we can back one another up."

Susan shook her head.  "Your place is a normal home, and is not really very secure against a determined attack.  I don't think you should stay there, nor should Jake.  In fact, the more I think about this, the more I think Jake should move out of Washington."

"How can I help if I'm not here?" Jake said.

"Think about it," Carlson said.  "You are our best protection.  If anything happens, you can Back-Track, warn us, and undo what happened.  You've already done that twice in my defense in the past couple weeks.  We can hope they haven't stumbled onto you, but even if they have, if they can't find you, Jim and I are far safer.  We can set up a secure link so you can continue to stay in touch, and review whatever Shaun turns up.  Until we find out who these people are, I think that might be our best move."

"It makes no sense for me to return to California," Jake said.  "If they know about me, they could have discovered where I live, but more importantly, being that far away makes it cumbersome if I need to Back-Track. I'd have to spend a lot of time on planes.  If I move, it should be somewhere in the area, at a location that takes no more than an hour to get where I'm in Back-Track range."

Susan nodded.

"I agree with that.  And, I think I know just the solution to our problem.  You and Tony have worked together in the past.  I think I need to pair you two up again.  He will have locations that the rest of us aren't aware of where you can hide relatively close.  Between him and Shaun they can provide a secure link so you can examine any hits the computer spits out."

"What about Jim?" Jake asked.

"Jim needs to be here with me, otherwise those behind this will know for certain we have something in the works.  If they haven't tumbled onto you, they won't even realize you are missing.  If they have, they might believe you were here for another reason.  I think Jim needs to stay with Norm and me.  Norm's place is in a secure building, and by that I mean one that takes security seriously.  It's not the kind of place that these people would find susceptible to a kidnapping or attack."

"You are going to have to explain all of this to Norm," Jake said. 

"Norm isn't part of this," Susan said firmly.  "If he is, then I'm the world's worst investigator.  If he is, and we tell him, your secret will be out and that will be a giveaway.  You can Back-Track and we'll deal with it."

"I was thinking more that this will be a shock to him, and I won't be there to help make him see it's true.  He's going to have issues about why he wasn't told before."

"I'll be there," Jim said.  "I can explain how I wasn't in the loop for more than a year while you and Susan worked together and the reasons for doing it that way."

Jake though quietly for a few minutes.

"Okay," he said finally.  "I like the idea of having Tony aboard.  He is extremely resourceful, and he already knows about me.  I guess we should leave as soon as it can be arranged.  Jim needs to get Clarissa moving.  It would be best if she simply left early from her work and didn't even go home to pack.  You and Jim stay inside Headquarters until Norm arrives and you tell him what is up.  What about the searches?"

"The Director has already requested information of your John Smith from people in New York.  He is being sought in connection with an unexplained murder from two days ago as cover.  The picture the computer spit out is being circulated throughout the New York Police Departments, and the FBI agents there.  We'll see what turns up.  I also had Shaun begin a DMV search in New York State for the two suspects.  If one of them is from that area, odds are the other is as well."

"I don't see what else we can do for the moment," Jake agreed.  "It's difficult to imagine just what move they will make at this point.  It could be a while if they are trying to understand who among us is their real threat."

"You don't think they'll simply walk away?" Jim asked.  "We really don't have anything to tie them into anything.  In fact, they really haven't committed any crime."

"I think they have, and we just don't know about it yet," Susan said.  "That's why they are so anxious to get to me.  They want to stop me before we realize what they have done and have a real link to them.  Go and call your wife," Susan said.  "I'm going to see if I can reach Tony."

Thursday, May 12

Anne cursed angrily as she pushed the powerful German motorcar to go even faster.  She had been forced to move infuriatingly slowly the first several miles from the company facilities as she moved through the crowded and narrow streets of the older section of Washington in which they were located.  It always irked her that there was such impossible traffic when there was really very little in the way of businesses and shops in the area around the company.  Even with the tax breaks offered by the city, many of the blocks remained old deserted buildings that were worthless to anyone.

Moments earlier she had finally reached the wide thoroughfare that would take her away from the city and out into the country where the residential community she had moved into mere months earlier was located.  The traffic was always lighter here, and this time of day there was almost no one on the wide, two lane divided highway that led away from the capital.  With a sigh of relief, she'd pressed down on the accelerator, and now blasted down the road well above posted speed limits.  If a cop caught her, she could afford the ticket.

Anne Barker was rich.  And, given the latest test results for the serum they were developing, she was likely to soon be very much richer.  She was also forty-seven years old, with brown hair rapidly changing to gray, and recently divorced.  She couldn't hide that some of her frustration was derived from her current situation and a bit of jealousy toward the young, extremely beautiful, and gifted young woman she'd just finished fighting with her boss over.  For months she had tried to convince Karl that there was something about Natalie that didn't ring true.  Even some of her fellow scientists had made careful remarks to her.  It wasn't that she wasn't smart as a whip.  She quickly understood the ramifications of anything brought to her attention.  But some items she should have already been aware of, at least in the opinion of some of those she worked with.  As a result, and because of something she couldn't identify, she didn't trust the woman.  When she had learned Karl, their CEO, had granted her a full third in the company ownership, twice her own, she'd become very annoyed.  Karl had claimed she was simply jealous of the other, and refused to discuss the matter in any serious way.  Today, when Anne had stupidly suggested he was hot for the younger woman, they'd had the strongest words ever in their long relationship.

Enough was enough.  She had tried to call Susan earlier from the office, but had no luck reaching her.  Apparently she was in a meeting and not to be disturbed.  The woman on the phone offered to take a message, and Anne had almost left one, but then decided against it.  She would try again from home, and if that didn't work she knew she had Susan's home number stashed away somewhere.  When they had talked more than three weeks ago, Susan had indicated it might be a couple of weeks before she'd be able to get back to her.  Anne had agreed it wasn't immediately urgent, but now that time had passed, and she believed Susan had simply forgotten about her call.  It was time to try again, and get some action.  It was too bad there wasn't something about Natalie Rineri where she could file a formal official complaint, but as hard as she had looked, there simply wasn't anything she could point to.  Part of her feared that Susan might simply dismiss her fears, and not be willing to use her position to at least perform a background check on the woman.

Rubbing her temples, Anne cruised down the road, steering with one hand as she fumbled in her purse for the bottle of pain pills she always seemed to need these days.  She glanced in her mirror, half expecting to see the flashing lights of an approaching police cruiser, but all she could spot was the dirty white van that had been back there almost since she left work.

"This seems too remote and uncertain," Natalie said when Paul finished explaining that Aaron was at the moment following Anne home.  She was going home early, and almost as if she was working to help them, was driving far faster than was safe.  It was almost unfortunate that there weren't more drivers on the road to provide witness to her unsafe speed.  "I was hoping for something more direct and positive.  I don't want to take any chance that she somehow survives to make trouble later."

"You wanted whatever happened to look like an accident," Paul reminded her.  "Accidents are tricky things, and a good cop can often see those that are faked.  This has the beauty of leaving no traces that might hint at foul play, and she is alone in her car when she losses control."

"What if she lives through it somehow?" Natalie asked.  "She might be able to tell the police something that would result in an investigation."

"That's what's great about the situation," Paul said.  "Under normal circumstances there might be a small chance she would survive, but with your special ability, if anything goes wrong, we simply go back and do it again.  It's as foolproof as anything I've ever seen."

"And if Carlson hears of her death?"

"Again, unlikely.  They aren't that close.  From what we have learned they are old college friends, but seldom connect more than once a year.  Her phone records show only that one call.  We've checked her office, home and cellular phones.  Unless she has been being tricky and used a phone we don't know about, then she hasn't talked to her more than that once.  Remember that today is the morning after the attack they expected against Agent Laney, which never materialized.  They have almost certainly tried to understand what went wrong, and how they are to move forward now.  We've had three days to prepare, but for them, they just learned last night that the attack wasn't going to happen."

"I'd like to know how you gained access to all Anne's phone information so easily," Natalie said.

"Everything is available a price," Paul responded.  "It's a common practice for us to check people's phones, and I have several contacts within the various providers for just that purpose."

"I hope you are right," Natalie said finally.  "Tell me again how this is supposed to work."

"Your friend drives one of the top end cars.  Also her car is new, so it has all the latest features.  More and more with luxury vehicles in particular, but even the lower class cars of late, software is key to the operation of the vehicle.  One wouldn't think that software would have access to the functions it does, but it provides an access many people wouldn't ever suspect.  There have been cases of hackers demonstrating what they can do, and the car companies have made a superficial attempt to modify the codes to prevent hacking, but they haven't gotten serious as yet.  They won't until it becomes an issue that costs them money."

"And your friend Aaron knows how to hack into this code?"

"He's one of the best.  He told me about doing this for fun, and with the thought it might be useful someday.  The car companies have fixed some of their security breaches, but they haven't really looked hard to understand just how vulnerable they are.  He has a self-generated App on his iPad which allows him to remotely link into your friend's car, and when he wants he will be able to override her actions and take control of the car himself.  On her way to work this morning he followed her and verified he was linked into her system, even causing a couple of minor glitches as a test of his ability that she probably never noticed."

"And he's going to cause her to crash?" Natalie asked.

"Not just crash.  Aaron will see to it that she drives headlong into one of the many concrete supports for the overpasses along the route at what the police like to refer to as 'excessive speed'.  You can rest assured that your CFO won't walk away from it.  The crash will be quite impressive and a few airbags aren't going to be sufficient to protect her."

Paul's look was intense as he carefully examined Natalie's face after explaining the plan for the elimination of her co-worker.  She had been the one to approach him with the need for the killing, but now that they were about to embark on a very brutal slaying of the woman, he wanted to be certain she would be okay with it.  He saw nothing to concern him.  Natalie's own eyes were bright, and if anything, he sensed an urgency in her for the murder to be completed and the problem the woman represented finally ended.  Well, she had been resolute in the past when they had planned the kidnapping and the shooting, so he hadn't really expected anything else.  What he'd learned about his girlfriend in the last few days made him wonder if she was far more hardened to what they had planned than even he was.

"We are certain that she doesn't have some kind of file put aside that refers to her suspicions about me?  The police are likely to investigate afterwards."

"To begin with, there is almost no chance the police will do much investigating.  This will be an unfortunate auto accident, brought on by your executive's penchant for careless driving.  There will be nothing to suggest otherwise.  Hopefully there will be other motorists along the way to testify to the fact she was driving too fast and that there were no other cars anywhere close to her when she lost control.  The presence of a light rain this morning is even better."

"What if someone finds something by chance when they are clearing out her house?"

"Jeff and a couple of his associates have already made a check of her house today while she was at work.  Fortunately, her early departure was not too soon, and Jeff has reported back that he found nothing to be worried about.  Your CFO is a tidy person, and since moving into the new house after her divorce a few months back, she hasn't had time to accumulate the kind of clutter that might make a detailed search difficult.  Her office might be another matter, but that is something you'll have to deal with."

"Me?"

"For an outsider to get inside will be difficult. There are security precautions, especially since your discovery is potentially a large moneymaker for the firm.  It's about time for you to return to work anyway.  You can express grief at Anne's untimely demise, not so much as to seem inconsistent with your confrontational relationship, and stay longer than normal hours to catch up on progress during your absence.  While you are there, and others have gone home, you will need to search her office for anything incriminating.  Remember, if you are caught at it, you can easily use your ability to loopback around the discovery."

Natalie shuddered slightly.  She didn't mind at all having Anne killed, but the thought of sneaking around her office afterwards gave her the creeps.

"Do you really think it is necessary?" Natalie asked.  "It's likely Chuck would be tasked with clearing out her stuff.  I can handle Chuck, and he'd alert me to anything he might find."

"Use your own judgment," Paul said.  "I think it would be best if you took a look yourself, and perhaps rely on this Chuck as a secondary check.  It's your future, after all."

Natalie took a deep breath.

"This is happening now, or is it already over?"

"One or the other.  I can't really say.  Aaron indicated she was leaving and he was following.  It depends on the traffic and when they reach the location Aaron selected when he was scouting the route yesterday."

Aaron Contreras kept his distance from the speeding sedan almost two hundred yards in front of him.  He was a surprising individual, given his long involvement with Organized Crime.  Other members of his family had been part of the Mob since they were in their early teens, so naturally he followed suit.  A large man, with his head shaved bald, he was comfortable with violence and often assisted his brothers when someone with his size and intimidating presence was required.  More than once he'd been party to the killing of some of those they were sent to deal with.  Unlike his brothers, Aaron was a bit of a genius, especially where electronics and software were concerned.  He took apart every new gadget that came into his possession, and had become an exceptional hacker and wrote many useful programs that would have upset the makers of the devices he used.  It was for that reason that Paul had approached him earlier when they had planned the kidnapping of the FBI agent Carlson. Aaron could easily bypass any security systems she might have had in place.  That had been cancelled, but now he'd been given this more interesting assignment.

When the woman had left the firm where she worked, he'd remained back multiple car lengths, using the traffic to hide his presence.  Now that they were out in the country, there was almost no traffic to use for cover, but by being back as far as he was, he was frequently hidden by turns and twists in the road, making him seem like less of a presence.  He doubted the woman even knew he was there, but also wanted any other traffic they might encounter to separate the two vehicles in their mind.  The sedan would be well past them by the time the van approached. 

The area they were speeding through at the moment was heavily wooded, with green grass covering the contoured ground along the roadway and stands of trees on either side of the road.  The overpass for the cross traffic that he had chosen for the accident was less than a mile ahead, and there had been no traffic for more than ten minutes.  Now as he spotted the over pass approaching, he grinned as he saw an SUV moving along at normal speed ahead, and watched as the woman closed the distance and sped by it.

He already had hacked into the control software for the vehicle, but was allowing her actions to dictate the operation of the vehicle.  Now, he disconnected her brakes, so any action she attempted when he increased the speed would prove fruitless.  He wished he had a visual out of the window of the women's automobile, but he would have to make do from his distant perspective.  Fortunately the road bent slightly toward the right as it approached the underpass, intending to make a slow turn to the east as it merged with traffic from the crossroad above.  He could almost cause her to drive into the central support by maintaining her current heading and not allowing her to track the roadway.  The addition of just a slight leftward turn would ensure she was unable to miss the sharp-edged brown colored concrete wall that jutted out of the grassy covered ground of the center divider.