Page 17

An hour and a half later, Felicity and Metal joined Jacko and John and Douglas, at headquarters.

It was Metal’s suggestion and she was quick to agree. It was miserable weather, but she wanted to be at Metal’s company—maybe her company one day. Used to fighting her own battles, it comforted her to know that many heads were working together.

“Any pings on hotels?” was the first thing Metal had asked. Via their Portland PD homicide detective friend an APB had been put out against Anatoli Lagoshin checking into any hotel in the area.

John Huntington shook his head. “Nope. And we widened it to include motels and boarding houses and B & Bs within a thirty-mile radius. We figured he’d want to stick close to Portland.”

“Did you check HomeBnb?” Felicity asked as she drew her coat together. Metal had taken his parka and hoodie off and was only in a tee shirt, as was Jacko. As if they were perpetually hot. She knew the premises were heated but she felt cold. The cold of fear and anxiety.

“Check what?” John asked.

“Homebnb. It’s the service where you can rent a room or an entire apartment, anywhere in the world. Never mind, I’ll check.”

She’d brought her laptop and opened it. Maybe doing some proactive detecting would help her forget her worries. She dug around a little in the Portland section. She glanced up at the three men then back again at the screen. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, unmoving.

“These aren’t technically commercial establishments, they are private homes. And the site is arranged as a series of exchanges, not rentals. The owners of the rooms or apartments don’t have a legal obligation to report arrivals. Renting an apartment through the service would be a good way to avoid scrutiny. However, there is no way I can check without hacking into the service.”

Silence.

“Guys?”

“Hack,” Metal growled. John didn’t look happy but he nodded.

She entered the Homebnb back office and probed, delicately. She didn’t want to leave any trace of intrusion. Finally, she sat back, disappointed. “Nothing. It’s a slow night for tourism and there are only seven apartments rented out tonight, all by families. And I checked the past two nights which were even slower. Three families and two women. I don’t know?—”

Metal’s cell ring. He checked the screen and glanced at her. “Nick,” he said.

Felicity’s heart thumped as she moved closer to him. He put the cell down and put it on video and speakerphone. Jacko and John moved close, too.

His friend Nick was on screen next to Kay, white as ice. Behind them a living room. Felicity leaned closer and recognized a series of photographs of seasides and the corner of a bookcase. Al’s home. She’d visited him several times while being interviewed by the FBI for the freelance work. It looked like he had changed nothing in his living room over the past five years.

“Sitrep!” Metal barked.

Nick’s face was grim. He looked to his left at a clearly distraught Kay and appeared to weigh his words. “There are signs of a struggle and—blood.”

Kay’s face was shiny with tear tracks. She nodded. “There was a broken lamp and a chair on the floor. There was blood on the floor and the walls. Oh God!” She buried her face in her hands. Nick hooked an arm around her shoulders as she broke into sobs.

He looked straight into his cellphone. “I called it in and forensics will be arriving soon. Goodkind’s DNA is on record and we’ll do a match. Goodkind’s not a pushover, though. And there’s no body, so we can assume he’s been taken. This is a federal crime and the FBI and LEOs are going to pull out all the stops.”

Felicity leaned forward. “Did you find his cell?”

“No. Presumably he has it with him.”

“Can you trace it? Or I can.”

Nick grimaced. “He was given one of our new SpecPhones. Untraceable unless you switch the transponder on. I already checked. His transponder is off. Which would make sense if he was taken by surprise and had his hands cuffed.”

Next to him, Kay gave a brief sob, then covered her mouth with her hand. Nick held the phone away from him and whispered something to her. She nodded, eyes closed.

Felicity wanted to sob too. Whatever had happened to Al, it was connected to her. She was responsible for this.

“What do they want? ” she asked. “What could possibly be worth attacking me and kidnapping a retired FBI Special Agent?” If they hadn’t killed him. And maybe they hadn’t been attempting to kidnap her. Maybe it was a murder attempt. Take her outside the airport to do the deed. She looked up at the men. “I can’t understand what this is about. None of it makes sense.”

“Well, it makes sense to somebody,” Metal growled. “Or we wouldn’t be here. I vote we catch the fuckers and find out why later.”

John and Douglas nodded. Jacko mumbled something profane.

It all made her feel better. These were pro active men. Her specialty was analysis. They all looked perfectly capable of analytical thinking but more than that, they were men of action.

But she had her own contributions to make. “Uh, guys? You know what Nick said about Al’s cell being untraceable if the transponder isn’t turned on?”

“Yeah?” Metal looked at her with slitted eyes. “I think I know where you’re going with this. Is it illegal?”

Felicity thought. “Well, ‘illegal’ is a fluid concept. It’s a new system and presumably the laws?—”

“Do it.” John nodded decisively. “We’re not federal agents like Nick is. Presumably he’d have to leave the room if he were here, though I don’t doubt that if you have a way of tracking Goodkind, he’d say go for it. He was a Navy SEAL before he was a Special Agent. As SEALs, we used whatever got the job done. So do it.”

She entered the code for her cellphone servers, automatically checking for incoming calls. She froze. “Guys?” she whispered. “Metal?”

Four male heads swiveled to her. Metal put a big hand on her shoulder. “What is it honey?”

“The nightmare’s over.” She looked up at him and drew in a deep breath. “It’s Al. He just called me a few minutes ago. Thank God!”

They weren’t looking relieved. As a matter of fact, the four men looked grimmer than ever. “What?”

“When you call back, put him on speakerphone,” John ordered.

“Okay.” She used VOIP. Finding her cell, putting in the battery, switching it on—it would all take too much time. She put through the call and sighed when it made a connection on the other end. “Al! I’m so glad?—”

“Not Goodkind,” a male voice answered, in Russian. “But no need to worry about where he is. We have your friend.”

It was Al’s kidnapper. Another Russian. Metal and the others needed to understand what he was saying.

“I’m sorry,” she said coolly in English. “I don’t understand you. You’ll have to speak English.”

He answered in Russian. “You understand me well enough, Darinova. Listen carefully, because I won’t repeat myself.”

The voice was cool, calm, deep. Elegant Russian, the kind her mother had spoken. The voice of a man used to command. Definitely not her would-be attacker. Felicity chanced it.

She kept her own voice cool though her heart was racing. “How did you get Al Goodkind’s cellphone, Gospodin Borodin?”

He didn’t miss a beat. “Very clever. You are definitely your father’s daughter. But at this very moment Vladimir Borodin is in Moscow, attending business meetings late in the night. There are twenty people willing to swear to that. In answer to your question, I have Goodkind’s cellphone because he gave it to me.”

“He didn’t give it to you, you took it!” Suddenly the coolness was gone and white-hot rage flashed through her. “And how dare you even mention my father? He risked his life to get away from men just like you . You aren’t fit to talk about him. And you aren’t fit to tie Al Goodkind’s shoelaces.”

She paused, gasping, trembling. A lifetime of repressed words geysering up.

The sound of hands clapping came over the speaker. “Bravo, Darinova. But you have your facts wrong. Your father didn’t risk his life, he defected . He betrayed his country! He was a traitor! He should have been found and executed!”

The voice wasn’t so cold and calm anymore. Metal and the others felt that, too, even though they couldn’t understand what he was saying. They were leaning tensely forward. John had pressed something the instant Borodin had come online. The conversation was being recorded.

“But enough of that.” The deep voice became calm again. Now that he was quiet again Felicity could hear something, some kind of dull noise in the background, growing in intensity. “All of that is in the past. But in the present, my dear Darinova, we have someone you might be interested in speaking to. Do you have videophone capabilities?”

She accessed an app and a small square appeared on the screen. She could see him but she wasn’t about to let him see her. “Yes.”

“Look at your friend,” he commanded and Felicity suppressed a gasp. Al Goodkind, duct taped to a chair. One eye was swollen shut. The side of his face was bloody and there was blood on his white dress shirt. His mouth was duct taped too.

He was in some kind of upholstered office chair with a white sheet behind him.

Metal made a low rumbling sound in his throat.

“Al!” Her heart broke at seeing her dear friend trussed up like an animal. A wounded animal.

“As you see, my dear, your friend is fine.” Borodin said, indifference in his voice.

“He’s bleeding, you monster!” Felicity bunched her fist, wanting to punch Borodin in the mouth.

She remembered the photo she’d seen in the Intergaz brochure. Hair just turning gray, strong, confident features. Handsome, in command. He’d been a man used to command all his life. First in the KGB and then as head of a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” The cultivated voice was dismissive. “He probably received worse in training in Quantico. Now enough of this nonsense. All I want is to talk to you, face to face. I sent someone to pick you up at the Portland airport?—”

“ Pick me up! ” Felicity spat. “He nearly sliced me in two!”

“What an exaggeration, my dear. No, he was just offering an incentive to follow him while making sure you didn’t scream and attract attention. But I saw that stronger measures were necessary to attract your attention. Hence, Special Agent Goodkind. All I want is to talk. Your friend will be released and no harm will come to you. I want half an hour of your time.”

On screen, Al was shaking his head wildly, eyes wide and desperate, sweat trickling down his face to become bloody by the time it reached his chin. He was making muffled sounds behind the tape.

A fist came from the side and hit him on the temple. Al’s head hung down, bloody sweat dripping onto his thights.

“You monster!” Felicity cried.

“Just a tap,” Borodin assured her. “I have no desire whatsoever to kill a United States federal agent, believe me. Much more trouble than it is worth. As a matter of fact, when we meet and you talk to me, that is when I release him. Very happy to do so. He has been most troublesome.”

Good! Felicity thought.

“I am not going to put myself in your hands,” she said.

“Ah, my dear,” he said, voice like velvet. “I think you will. You will have to if you wish to save your friend Mr. Goodkind. And I repeat, I have no desire, nor any interest, in killing either of you. I need to talk to you because I have reason to believe you have information that will prove useful to me. Then I will disappear. You will never see me again.”

“What kind of proof would I have that what you say is true?”

“None, Darinova. None. But what choice do you have? So—” the voice turned brisk and businesslike. “This is how it will work. Give me the name of the place where you want to meet.”

“I—” Give him a place? That startled her. “I don’t know Portland.” The four men’s attention sharpened at the name of the city.

“Neither do I. So we’re even. Just name a place and I’ll be there with your friend. I’m giving you the power to choose.” Another of those dull rumbles.

“Ah—” She really didn’t know Portland. She’d only seen a documentary once on its light rail urban transportation system on the net one rainy afternoon when she’d been very bored. One place stuck in her head. “Pioneer Square.”

“Pioneer Square, then. In one hour’s time, at 7 pm exactly, you will be at Pioneer Square, close to a road where I can park and show you your friend. I will come alone, unarmed, and it is snowing too hard for any snipers to be deployed. You will be able to see from a distance that I am unarmed. Your friend will be in a vehicle and you will be able to see him. The vehicle will have a driver. I will stay at a distance from you at all times. Certainly beyond touching distance. Once we have spoken, I will free Special Agent Goodkind and you of course will be free to go. I just want to ask you a few questions. But if do not agree to see me, you will never see Goodkind again. Is that clear? Darinova, is that clear?”

Her throat was tight. “Yes.”

“Da. See you in an hour.”

“Wait!” Felicity shouted but the connection was broken. She called Al’s cell again but it went to voice mail.

“What the fuck was that about?” Metal demanded.

Felicity pushed herself away from the desk and swiveled to meet his eyes. “That was Borodin. He pretended he wasn’t but that was more for show than anything else. He wants me to meet him in Pioneer Square in an hour.”

“Fuck no,” Metal growled.

Metal’s eyes widened like that of a spooked horse. John, Douglas and Jacko looked at him in surprise. They weren’t used to seeing him agitated. He didn’t do agitation, not even in firefights. But the idea of Felicity walking into a trap. Into a trap set by a man who’d been in the fucking KGB—his nervous system simply couldn’t handle it.

“I agree with Metal, Felicity,” John said. “It’s too dangerous. But we’ll be there for the meet, no question. And I’m going to tell our friend in the Portland PD that a criminal will be in Pioneer Square. A man who kidnapped a federal agent. And I should probably call the local FBI Bureau, too. We can do this, there’s no need for you to get involved in any way.”

Thank God Midnight had put this in words. Metal simply couldn’t do it, couldn’t reason. All he could do was shout no at the thought of Felicity walking into danger.

And thank God too that Felicity wasn’t the kind to get her back up. Lots of women—and he’d dated plenty of them—would have bristled and gone out of principle. This wasn’t Metal laying down the law, though. It was simply Metal terrified that something would happen to her.

She put her hand on his, looking sad. “I am so sorry, Metal. You’re right but you’re wrong. I don’t have any training to do this but—we’ll never see Al again if I don’t show up in Pioneer Square. He made that clear. And he also said he only wanted to talk.”

John frowned. “Tell us exactly what he said. Everything you can remember. Let’s get a picture of what we’re up against.”

Felicity had a steel trap memory because she recounted their conversation fully. It felt like a word for word rendering and Metal hated every word of it.

“He’s lying,” he said emphatically to her when she’d finished. “He’s fucking lying. Can’t you see that?”

“Oh, of course he’s lying,” Felicity said. “That goes without saying. He’s former KGB. They lie every time their lips move. However, he has laid himself open. He said he’d show himself to be unarmed.” She glanced out the window. “Is it true what he said? That a sniper can’t operate in the snow?”

Metal jerked his thumb at Jacko, who was the expert. Plus, he couldn’t stand that thoughtful expression on her face which meant she was thinking about it.

“Be hard,” Jacko said, ignoring Metal’s glare. Answering in a way that would only encourage her. “They’d have to use thermal scopes, which don’t give as clear a sight view. And the way I understand it is that you picked the venue, right?”

Felicity nodded.

Jacko turned to Metal. “No sniper can set up a nest in an hour in a foreign city. Pioneer Square has high rises, but they don’t have time to figure out the best angle and get rid of the inhabitants of the space. As a matter of fact, I can’t figure out this guy’s angle if he lets her pick the venue.”

“There’s something definitely nefarious,” Felicity said firmly and Metal wanted to kiss her. “It’s the KGB. He has something up his sleeve. But if he is unarmed and I am near to you guys, maybe we can save Al.” Now Metal didn’t want to kiss her he wanted to tie her down.

“There’s something I need to figure out, too. How long will it take us to get to Pioneer Square from here?”

“Five hours,” Metal said. “Pointless going.”

“About twenty minutes.” John looked out the window. “Maybe half an hour in this weather. Men, start suiting up.”

Everyone headed for an innocuous section of wall, undistinguishable except for the fact that it didn’t have artwork. John placed his palm against the wall and the whole section slid away to reveal their armory.

Felicity peeked in. “Are those Hazmat suits?”

“Yeah.” ASI prided itself on being prepared for anything. Midnight and Senior made sure their employees had the best of everything. When Felicity came to work here, they’d get her all the electronics she wanted.

But he had to recognize that he’d lost this battle. Felicity was coming with them.

“While you guys do your thing, I’ll do mine,” she said mysteriously and sat back down at her computer.

Metal put on his vest. He and Jacko and Senior had had to have custom made vests ordered. Vest, Glock 19 in a side holster. Taser. They all decided against rifles, except for Jacko, who was the best shot of the four of them. Particularly Metal didn’t want a rifle. He had no intention of being far enough away from Felicity to need one. He looked around. Everyone was suited up, ready to go.

They exited together, four tough guys, suited up and ready for anything. Something felt tight in his throat. This was his battle, not theirs. And yet here they were, putting their lives on the line for him and for Felicity. Though they were tough and trained and well-equipped…well, shit happens. A lot. And it can happen to the smartest, best equipped son of a bitch around.

Jacko and Midnight and Senior were backing him up because that’s what they did. They were a team and it was why he loved working for ASI so much.

And when he emerged from their armory his throat tightened again because there she was—another teammate. Beautiful and smart and brave, her fingers blurring at the keyboard, weird noises coming from the computer.

She was going to become an ASI teammate, he could feel it, like something inevitable, something that simply had to be. Some Force in the universe had brought her to them.

To him . Because she was his teammate, his special one. The one he’d been waiting for all his life. The one who’d become his family after losing his other one.

She was so concentrated that she didn’t even look up when they emerged. Of course they’d all been trained to move quietly even suited up and ready for action. Especially when suited up. Nothing jingled when they moved, they made sure of it.

“Honey?” Metal said finally.

She looked up, eyes with that unfocused look of someone who’d been concentrating furiously. And she saw him and her face softened and something went thump really hard in his chest. “Metal,” she said and smiled.

Oh God. They were about to embark on a mission, and though they were going to make sure nothing happened to her, nothing was certain. She could be hurt. And she smiled when she saw him.