The Agent's Surrender (21 page)

Holden was slipping into a black mood, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He was tired of dead ends and cryptic clues that sent him running in the opposite direction. Was this what it had been like for Miko, trying to stay one step ahead of whoever was after him? Things would’ve been different if Miko had trusted him enough to just level with him. Maybe he’d still be alive. Or maybe they’d both be dead. Who knew?

Jane touched his arm. “I have a feeling there’s something on this thumb drive that’s going to be worth our while. Nobody keeps junk in their safety deposit box.”

“Maybe.”

“No maybe about it,” she disagreed firmly, not letting him lose hope. “Listen, I know we’ve hit a brick wall a time or two, but we must be getting close if people are starting to shoot at us, right?”

A small smile found him. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Okay, then. No more pity parties. We got this. Let’s head back to the office, fire up this thumb drive and see what was so important that Miko had to hide it in a bank box.”

Holden nodded, thankful for Jane’s cool head when he got stuck in his own loop of despair. She was a good partner. Hell, she was a good person. “You know, I really underestimated you before,” he admitted. “I mean, I didn’t try to see beyond the surface, and I’m sorry. I wish I had sooner. I couldn’t have done this without you.” She blushed prettily and he was gripped by the urge to plant a kiss on her pouty, sensual-without-even-trying lips. He held back. Now was not the time. But later, he promised himself. “How about dinner tonight? Let me take you out to a nice restaurant. Like a date.”

Her smile faded. She tucked a chunk of hair behind her ear, her gaze clearing with no-nonsense seriousness, and he knew whatever ground he’d gained he’d just lost. “I’m not sure we should. Already things have gotten muddied, and please don’t take this the wrong way because you’ve been there for me when I needed someone, but everything in our lives is such a mess that I don’t think we need to add to it, okay?”

“Jane, when are you going to admit you want to be with me? It’d save us both a lot of energy if you’d stop fighting what you feel.”

Her blush deepened and she scowled. “Can we focus on the case, please? I don’t want to get into it right now. My dad is going to want to talk to me after I blew up at him in the chief’s office and I don’t want to have to explain you, too.”

Ah...so he was going to remain her dirty little secret. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t bother him because he rarely stuck around long enough to care. But with Jane, he cared.

He cared a lot.

They continued the rest of the drive in silence. Back at the office, they immediately headed to Holden’s computer to open the thumb drive. Encrypted password protection stonewalled them. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered, sliding his hand through his hair and wanting to scream. “C’mon, Miko. Cut me some slack, will ya?”

“We can give it to IT,” Jane said. “They can probably jail break it.”

“I don’t trust anyone with this thumb drive. For all I know, my brother died protecting whatever is on it.” He leaned back in his chair, thinking hard. All lines pointed in one direction. He swore under his breath and knew he didn’t have a choice. “James Cotton.”

Jane nodded and lifted her shoulder. “Well, at least you’ve got some more disposable cash to offer the little tech mercenary.”

“True enough.”

“All right, so we’ll table that for later tonight. In the meantime, we’ll visit Dr. Odgers at the Department of Defense. We need to talk with her anyway.”

He nodded, knowing Jane was right. Besides, what could he do but wait and see what James’s asking price would be for cracking into the thumb drive? Not much. Better to be active than sit on his ass doing nothing. He tucked the drive in his pocket and gestured as he swung his jacket back onto his shoulders. “Saddle up. Let’s go talk to Kat.”

* * *

Jane had heard a few things about Dr. Odgers, but she’d never actually met the supposedly brilliant scientist. Honestly, Jane found the idea of meeting with a genius intimidating, even though she wasn’t dumb by any means.

When they arrived, they were cleared by security and then escorted through several more levels of clearance before they reached the state-of-the-art lab where Dr. Odgers worked.

Impeccably clean glass doors opened with a whisper at their arrival, and they passed through to find a willowy woman with her hair tucked into a messy bun wearing a lab coat and talking to an assistant. “Dr. Odgers?” Jane ventured, and the woman startled, pushing her glasses farther up the bridge of her nose. She smiled uncertainly until she saw Holden. “Oh! I heard you were coming. I’m so glad to see you!” She went straight to him and shook his hand vigorously. “You know, I never really got the chance to properly thank you for all your help in rescuing Jake during that whole abysmal situation with MCX-209. Horrid. Absolutely horrid. I still have nightmares about it all.”

“He’s a good man. I was happy to be a part of that mission,” Holden said with the solemn integrity that was as part of him as breath. Jane waited to be properly introduced, and Holden did so a heartbeat later. “Dr. Odgers—”

“Please call me Kat. Dr. Odgers is way too formal for what we went through together. Facing certain death has a way of making you realize that all that silly formality is just for show.”

He acquiesced with a slight tip of his head and began again. “Kat, I would like you to meet CIA agent Jane Fallon.”

“A pleasure,” Kat said, pushing her glasses again and shaking Jane’s hand just as vigorously as she had Holden’s. “What’s the occasion? Want a tour of the lab? It’s mind-blowing what the government has in resources. I would’ve died and gone to heaven at Tessara if I’d had access to such state-of-the-art equipment.”

“Wasn’t Tessara well funded?”

“Oh, yes, but I was a lower-level scientist so it’s not as if I got the corner office, if you know what I mean.”

“I guess that all changed the minute you created the Game Changer,” Jane said, and Kat’s expression darkened into a scowl.

“Please don’t call it that. MCX-209 was an embarrassing failure and only that psychopath, Miles Jogan, and his bimbo, Camille, called it that.”

Miles and Camille, formerly of the Defense Intelligence Agency, currently serving time for a host of crimes against the nation—and human beings in general—had been the ringleaders behind the plot to weaponize and consequently sell MCX-209 to the highest bidder. But in the process, they’d made Kat test the drug on human subjects, most of whom had died, with the exception of Kat’s husband, Jake.

“Not exactly,” Jane corrected, taking Kat aback. “Did you know Penny Winslow was monitoring your progress on that particular drug way before you started administering your drug trials?”

“What are you talking about?”

Holden held up his hand and said, “Is there someplace we can talk in private? This is a sensitive topic and we’re not sure who all is listening, if you catch my drift.”

“Oh, great. More secret government spy stuff,” Kat grumbled. She motioned for them to follow her into her office. Once they were safely closed inside, she dropped into a leather-backed chair and said, “All right, now start again. Penny Winslow was watching my experiments?”

“Yes. It appears she also dubbed MCX-209 the Game Changer, possibly before Miles Jogan did. In fact, it might’ve been Penny who christened the drug in the first place. Did you ever have any contact with her?”

Kat shook her head. “No. All my contact was with my supervisor—”

“Hector Olonzo,” Jane supplied. As Kat nodded, Jane added, “He’s dead.”

Kat’s stare widened and she gasped in shock. “What happened? Hector was so sweet. On Tuesdays he always brought me caramel cookies from the snack cart.”

“He was killed in a mugging gone wrong, but I’ll be honest, I don’t think it was an accident,” Holden admitted.

“What do you mean?”

Jane held the woman’s gaze. “He means we think someone may have killed Hector to keep him quiet. He was a loose end that someone needed to snip.”

Kat’s hand flew to her throat as she realized what they were saying. “Do you mean...I’m a loose end, too?”

“Potentially,” Holden said. “But not yet. You’re the only one with knowledge of how MCX-209 works. But, honestly, we don’t even know if that’s what this is all about. My brother killed himself and left behind a lot of unanswered questions that all seem to circle back to Tessara in one form or another.”

“I understand,” Kat murmured with a nod. “But MCX-209 has been shut down. The whole reason I agreed to come to work here was so I could be assured that no one else would get their hands on the formula.”

“So you would know if anyone was poking around?”

Kat nodded. “Heck yes. I’m the lead scientist here. I answer directly to Director Michelle Rainier, and she answers to the president. I made sure of it. I don’t want anyone ever getting their hands on that horrid drug.”

“How is Jake holding up?” Holden asked quietly.

At the mention of her husband and the one person still recovering from an injection of the drug, Kat brightened. “Oh, he’s doing so well! I’d say almost recovered and still going strong. He has minor gaps in his memory, but it seems to correlate with his interest in whatever he’s doing, such as not doing the dishes when I ask him.”

Jane and Holden chuckled. “Glad to hear he’s on the mend,” Holden said. “He’s a good man.”

Kat grinned, eyes sparkling behind her glasses. “I think so, too.”

Jane cleared her throat and brought the topic back into focus. “It seems Penny Winslow was actively involved in a few other projects—Switchblade, Carousel, Serenade. Any of those ring a bell?”

Kat pursed her lips as she searched her memory but ultimately shook her head. “No, I was pretty focused on my own project. I truly thought I was on to something big.”

“It was big, all right—just not what you thought it was going to be for,” Holden said. “Do you keep samples of MCX-209 here on the premises?”

“Yes, why?”

“Would you mind checking to see that everything is where it should be?” Holden asked. “MCX-209 and Tessara seem to be the only common denominators, and we’re grasping at straws.”

“Sure. I can’t take you into the restricted area, but I can show you the live feed from the security line.”

“You have a video camera trained on the samples?” Jane asked incredulously. “That must make for some really boring footage.”

“Very. But it’s a clean room and only certain people have enough clearance to even access that portion of the building.” She logged onto her computer and quickly brought up the live feed. Several tubes of blue liquid were suspended in liquid nitrogen, frozen for safekeeping. “See? All good and accounted for. The feed is also time-stamped for additional security. If there’s a single, tiny blip in the time feed, it’ll alert security. And so far, it’s been quiet.”

Jane released a pent-up breath. “That’s good to know. That drug—and the fact that it’s real—freaks me out.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty scary in action, too,” Kat said with a bleak expression. “Anyway, you don’t have to worry about this particular baddie getting out there in the world.”

Holden nodded. “I guess we’ve taken up enough of your time. Listen, watch your back. Until we figure out who’s all behind this, don’t trust anyone.”

Kat smiled nervously. “Boy, and here I thought I was done with dodging people trying to kill me.”

Holden crooked a charming grin and said, “For me, that’s a typical Thursday.”

Jane rolled her eyes and gave him a slight push toward the door. “Okay, Mr. Bond, let’s go. We have to find a way to break into this thumb drive.”

“Oh, I can do that for you,” Kat offered with an unexpected smile, adding shyly, “I’m a bit of a technogeek in my spare time. I could’ve been a hacker in a different life.”

Jane liked this odd scientist woman. For all her admitted geekiness, she had a warmth to her. Holden produced the thumb drive and handed it to Kat. “Good luck. Work your magic. It seems to be encrypted—”

“No offense, but I break encryptions when I can’t sleep at night. Well, it’s either that or memorize formulas. Depends on my mood,” Kat said brightly, accepting the drive and pushing it into the USB port on her computer. “Let’s see how ambitious this encryption is.”

Jane glanced at Holden and saw his anxious expression. They needed a bit of hope today. Within a few minutes, Kat chortled with a happy squee of excitement like a little kid, her feet dancing on the floor as she motioned with a “Ta-da!” for them both to join her behind the desk. “No problem-o. This was easy-peasy. Whoever encrypted it wasn’t really serious about keeping people out. Now, who does this belong to?”

“My brother, Miko. He kept it in a safety deposit box along with some cash,” Holden answered, peering over Kat’s shoulder. He looked to Kat and said, “Mind if I poke around?”

“Be my guest.” She rolled out of the way to give Holden more room. “Do you know what you’re looking for?”

“Not a clue.” But Holden and Jane saw soon enough what was on that drive, and it took Jane’s breath away. Holden doubled-clicked the file marked Insurance Policy, and suddenly everything came into focus. “Am I looking at what I think I’m looking at?”

“It looks like a hit list,” Jane answered under her breath, shocked. “I recognize some of these names from restricted files. These are I.D. hits.”

“That’s a lot of names,” Kat observed with a worried expression. “Why would he keep this?”

“He called it his insurance policy for a reason. Someone doesn’t want this information going public. I suppose Penny Winslow would’ve been pretty threatened by the knowledge that this list exists.”

Jane nodded, pointing. “Click on the file marked Key.”

Holden double-clicked and another set of notes opened on the screen. “You’re kidding me.” He shook his head. “This isn’t good.”

Jane looked to Kat. “Are you sure no one’s been working on MCX-209 without your permission?”

“I’m positive,” Kat answered. “Why?”

“Because according to Miko’s notes, someone authorized another trial of the drug.”

“That’s impossible.” Kat shook her head. “I supervise all experiments in this lab. Nothing gets by without my knowledge.”