The Spy Is Cast (42 page)

“Will three o’clock
work?”

“Fine. See you then.
Bye.”

I hung up, wondering
what our meeting would be about. Maybe they had more information
about the operation at Harchman’s, although I didn’t think they’d
share it with me. The less I knew, the better. Or maybe they needed
some more information from me. I shrugged and went out the
door.

I was smiling when I
left Up & Coming after a session of off-colour banter with
Lola. The previous evening’s sense of foreboding had vanished, and
tired as I was, buoyant optimism filled me. I had escaped Fuzzy
Bunny unscathed, and my stint as an unwilling spy was over. The
summer stretched ahead of me, ripe with the promise of happy time
spent drinking ice-cold beer, tinkering with my cars and working in
my garden. I could go back to enjoying my new home, my delightful
new clients, and my safe, peaceful life.

When I arrived at
Kane’s office, Spider looked up from his desk with a haggard
expression. His stubble had resolved itself into a patchy beard. He
did look older, but I thought it had more to do with his eyes than
with the growth on his chin.

“Spider, are you
okay?” I asked. “You look exhausted.”

“I’m… not great,” he
admitted slowly. “I…”

Kane walked in, and
Spider clammed up. My ‘uh-oh’ detector registered red alert. As far
as I knew, Spider and Kane had no secrets between them.

“Hi, Aydan,” Kane
greeted me pleasantly. “Oh.” He reached into his pocket. “Here’s
your watch. Minus a certain piece of technology.” He turned to
Spider. “What’s up?”

“Let’s go into the
meeting room,” Spider said tensely.

Kane and I exchanged
glances. Good, I wasn’t the only one who thought something was out
of the ordinary. We followed Spider down the hall and took our
places at the table.

“Did you get all the
prisoners sorted out at Harchman’s?” I asked.

“Yes. There weren’t as
many of Fuzzy Bunny’s people as we’d originally thought,” Kane
responded. “We did some pretty intense questioning, and Webb’s been
dividing his time working on the network there as well as digging
for information on the prisoners.” He shot an appreciative look at
Spider, and Spider returned a jerky smile.

“It turned out Maria
was the mastermind,” Kane continued. “She’d been playing Harchman
for years. She set him up with enough business to keep herself
valuable to him, so they stayed married. And she was able to carry
on her own business dealings with Fuzzy Bunny under the cover of
his activities. She had a few of her trusted associates planted in
the regular rotation of guards and staff at the house. Harchman
never had a clue.”

“What about the two
guys that kidnapped Hellhound?” I asked.

“We got both of them.
They were among the group we picked up at the house.”

I relaxed back in my
chair. “Clean sweep. Sweet.”

“Looks like it.” He
returned my smile.

A movement at the door
made us both jerk our heads up. I froze at the sight of two men
wearing shoulder holsters. Kane was already on his feet and
reaching for his gun when Stemp appeared behind them.

Stemp moved into the
room to sit at the table, his reptilian face impassive. The two men
took up positions standing at opposite walls of the meeting
room.

“What’s going on?”
Kane asked evenly.

“Sit.” Stemp gestured
to the chairs.

Kane moved warily to
the seat beside me. I could tell he was looking for a position that
wouldn’t place his back to either of the armed men. I caught his
eye, and he gave me an almost imperceptible lift of his eyebrow as
we faced Stemp.

“Webb has some
fascinating information,” Stemp informed us expressionlessly.
“Webb, go ahead.”

Spider cleared his
throat. His eyes flickered to me, and then to the tabletop as he
spoke. “Aydan, we’ve discovered something… unusual in the network
out at Harchman’s.”

Oh God. My heart sped
up.

“Unusual, how?” I was
pleased that my voice came out sounding calm and level.

Spider glanced at
Stemp, then down at the table again. “We can’t access any of the
files. Everything is heavily encrypted. They’re using an encryption
system called Blowfish.”

“Okay…” I tensed. Now
I was definitely waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“It’s completely
secure. There’s no known way to crack the encryption without
knowing the code phrase that was used to encrypt it.”

“Okay…”

“Aydan, you could read
all the files.”

“Well, yeah.” I
shrugged. “I had the network key.”

“The network key
doesn’t crack encryption,” Spider said. “You’re doing that.”

“But you said this
Blowfish couldn’t be cracked.”

“It can’t.”

I shook my head
impatiently. “What are you trying to say?”

“What he’s trying to
say,” Stemp said smoothly, “Is that you’ve just become the world’s
most dangerous weapon.”

“What?” I stared at
him. “How… how do you figure that?”

“There is no known way
to crack Blowfish,” Stemp repeated patiently. “Everyone in the
world knows that. It’s used for virtually all clandestine
communications. But we’ve just discovered that what everyone in the
world knows… is wrong.
You
can crack it. In real-time. You
can read encrypted documents as easily as if they were plain text.
Do you have any idea what that means from a security
standpoint?”

I glanced from
Spider’s drawn face to Kane’s growing frown. “I’m going to take a
wild-ass guess and say it would be disastrous in the wrong
hands.”

“Yes.” Stemp leaned
back in his chair. “Which is why we now have to take drastic steps
to safeguard you. You are our ultimate secret weapon. With your
skills, we can crack almost every scrap of digital data in the
world.”

Kane shifted suddenly
beside me. I glanced over at him, and fear swept over me at his
expression. I mentally replayed what Stemp had just said. My mouth
went dry. “Define… drastic.”

Stemp crossed his arms
and tilted his chair back a fraction on its back legs. “You will go
directly from here to a secured underground facility. We will
notify the appropriate authorities that you have died, and we will
dispose of your home, business, and other assets. You will be given
a new identity, and the proceeds from the disposal of your assets
will, of course, be transferred to your new identity. Kane will be
your handler.”

He gave a short nod,
as if satisfied with the utter destruction of my life. “If you have
no further questions, we’ll leave immediately.”

“H…hold on.” I
couldn’t seem to draw enough air into my lungs. “What… underground
facility? You mean… literally… underground?”

“Of course,” he said,
as if addressing a particularly backward child.

Adrenaline spiked
through my bloodstream. I made a sudden move to push my chair back
and the armed men snapped to alertness, their hands on their
weapons.

“Stay calm,” Kane
murmured.

I gasped a couple of
shallow breaths. “You know I can’t do this,” I implored Kane.

“Is there a problem?”
Stemp inquired.

“Yes,” Kane said
firmly. “Aydan is claustrophobic. You can’t expect her to stay
underground.”

Stemp eyed us both
with contempt. “That’s ridiculous. Kane, deal with your asset.”

Anger started to
trickle through my terror. Asset. An object, not a person. No
discussion. No rights. My beautiful farm. My cars. My clients. My
friends. My entire life to be discarded like a used tissue. On
Stemp’s whim. Who the hell died and made him God?

I drew a deep breath
as the trickle of anger turned into a torrent. My hands clenched
with the urge to rip Stemp’s snakelike head off and shit down the
hole.

Kane turned to me, and
his eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “Stay calm,” he repeated
warningly.

I turned back to
Stemp. “And if I refuse?” I was proud that my voice was dead
level.

He fixed me with his
expressionless gaze as he leaned forward slightly. “You won’t.”

“Because…?” I
inquired.

“Because it’s your
duty to do this. And I know you feel strongly about duty.”

“Sorry,” I said
flatly. “You’re confusing me with Kane. He’s the one that’s all
about duty. Me? Not so much.”

“Nonsense,” Stemp
said. “You were willing to give up your life to protect national
security. Several times. You’ll do it again.”

“No.” My voice was
beginning to sound dangerous. “I was willing to die. That’s
different than giving up my life.”

Stemp’s emotionless
eyes held mine. “Let me put this another way. I also happen to know
you’re very loyal. You go to great lengths to protect the people
you care about. Let’s just say that if you refuse, there will be
consequences.” He looked pointedly at Kane and Spider.

I froze. Pure red rage
suffused my soul. “Did I just hear you threaten my team?” My voice
vibrated with suppressed violence.

Stemp’s impassive face
faltered for a split second as he sat back in his chair.

His mask firmly in
place again, he waved an airy hand. “Threaten is such an ugly
word.”

I took a deep breath
and held my voice steady. “I’m going to say this in small words so
you can understand.”

Kane caught my eye and
shook his head. I ignored him.

“You will not notify
anyone that I’m dead. You will not sell my assets. I will not take
on a new identity in an underground facility. I will live where and
how I please. I will do business with whomever I please. Whenever I
please.”

I drew another hissing
breath. “And you will not, repeat,
not
, cause any
consequences
,” I made vicious air quotes around the word,
“…for anyone. And that means anyone that I’ve ever even said hello
to. Clients. Neighbours. Team members. Friends. Friends of friends.
Any. Fucking. Person. I. Know. On the contrary, you will protect
them to the best of your ability. In return, I will aid you with
your encryption issues.”

Stemp eyed me
expressionlessly. “This is not a negotiation. I know where your
friends live. I direct your team. I know you’ll do whatever is
necessary to protect them all. I hold all the cards.”

I jerked forward
across the table.

“Yes, I can see you
hold all the cards,” I ground out. “It’s really too bad that while
you were busy gloating over your cards, you forgot to look under
the poker table. Because I’ve got a .45 aimed at your nuts.”

The armed men made a
twitchy grab for their weapons, but since both my hands were
clearly visible, they apparently realized I was speaking
metaphorically and stood down, watching me warily.

In my peripheral
vision, I could see Spider’s mouth hanging open. I focused on Stemp
and recognized the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.

“And you’re right,” I
continued in the same deadly voice. “It’s not a negotiation. Before
you decided to threaten me, it could have been. Now, I’ve stated my
terms. You will abide by them.”

Stemp leaned back,
adjusting the knot of his tie. His eyes darted to the armed men,
then back to me. When he spoke, his voice was as flat as ever.
“What makes you think I’ll agree to your terms?”

I locked eyes with
him. “Because it’s your duty to acquire the world’s most dangerous
weapon.” I spat his own words back. “And I know you feel strongly
about duty.”

“You have exactly two
choices,” I continued coldly. “You can agree to my terms, and I
will do my best to help you with the decryption. Or you can shoot
me. Right here and now.” I ignored Spider’s gasp. “Because if you
don’t agree to my terms, that’s the only safe thing you can
do.”

“And why would I do
either of those things?” Stemp inquired.

I stood, and the
guards clutched their weapons again as I glowered down at Stemp.
“Because you can drag me underground and destroy my identity and
threaten the people I care about, but you can’t make me accurately
decrypt files.”

I leaned my fists on
the table and glared into his face. “I get tense when I feel
threatened. That might cause me to accidentally make a critical
mistake when I decrypt your files. And you’d never know. Until it
was too late.”

I shoved my face
within inches of his. His bland expression slipped as my voice came
out in a menacing hiss. “If you hurt someone I care about, you’ll
find out exactly how dangerous I am.”

I gave that a second
to sink in while I glared at him from close range. Then I sat in
the chair again and leaned it onto its back legs. I spread my hands
and gave him a poisonous smile.

“Your choice. Abide by
my terms, and reap the benefits. Or don’t. Delude yourself that I’m
under your control, and find out later how much damage I can do. Or
kill me where I sit. Either way, you’ll lose the most valuable
weapon you’ll ever have access to.”

I felt my face twist
into a snarl. “Do your
duty
,” I spat.

There was a prolonged
silence. Nobody moved or spoke as my eyes burned into Stemp’s.

Finally, Stemp dropped
his gaze. “How do I know you won’t sabotage the decryption even if
we do agree to your terms?”

I felt my lip curl.
“You wouldn’t have even had to ask that question if you hadn’t
threatened me in the first place. But I’ll give you my word that I
won’t sabotage it as long as you abide by my terms. You can ask
Kane if he thinks that’s sufficient assurance. I’ll wait outside so
you can discuss it.” I stood.

Kane laid his hand on
my arm. “Stay here.” He turned to Stemp as I sat again. “Aydan’s
word is sufficient,” he said, his voice rock-hard.

Stemp’s eyes bored
into him. “Fine,” Stemp said, without changing expression. He
turned to me. “Give me your word.”

I gave him a sharp
nod. “I will do my absolute best to accurately decrypt your files.
If you abide by my terms. To the letter. You have my word.”