Double Agent (15 page)

There was a rush of movement behind her and the guy went limp. They both fell to the floor. She slammed into him, and her breath whooshed out.

A hand was stretched out in front of her face. Beyond it, Doug smiled. Sabine shoved the guard’s arms from around her middle and let Doug haul her to her feet.

There was the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked. All sign of life bled from Doug’s face, and his eyes turned to the eyes of a warrior. Something small and unyielding touched the back of her head, and she froze.

“You move and she dies.”

SIXTEEN

“H
ello, Raven.” Doug stared at the woman who had destroyed Sabine’s family, most likely had killed a respected major general and was either a conspirator or accessory to so many other crimes that it would take all day to list them. It wasn’t his life that flashed before his eyes in that moment; it was the life he might have had with Sabine. It was the
maybe.

The older version of Sabine snarled. “Clever boy.”

Doug stepped back and put one foot of space between him and the two women. The Raven had been outside. Doug had been so intent on saving Sabine that he’d let his guard down, and now she was going to pay for it.

Sabine’s eyes flashed, but Doug simply couldn’t stand to lose the promise that he saw when he looked at her. There was no way he was going to let her die. His entire world had been thrown upside down by a beautiful woman. Ben’s sister. She had become more to him than he’d ever imagined, a vital part of his life.

“Now—” the Raven’s eyes tracked his retreat “—my daughter and I are going to walk out of here. You don’t follow us, and I don’t catch even a scent of you, or she’s dead. Understand me?”

Doug nodded.

Tears streamed down Sabine’s face and blood soaked the fabric of her shirt on her upper arm. Doug shook his head, tried to communicate to her that everything was going to be fine. He would find her. He loved her.

Anything other than her safety was unacceptable. And it would destroy him.

God, go with her.

It took everything he had not to run down the cabin steps and tackle the Raven, but he couldn’t put Sabine in that kind of risk. He had to wait. He’d thought the Raven intended to kill Sabine. From their conversation, it had sounded like the older woman planned to kill both him and Sabine. So why take her now? It made no sense. Far worse than a cold and calculating enemy was one who acted irrationally and without logic.

Doug stood immobilized while Sabine’s mom marched her from the cabin to the SUV parked outside. As part of his heart got farther and farther away, he reached for every ounce of training he’d ever had. He needed his team if he was going to pull off the biggest mission of his life. If he was going to have any hope of getting her back.

The Raven, her gun still at Sabine’s temple, pulled out a cell phone. Doug’s brain spun, like wheels that suddenly found traction. She’d been outside doing something.

There was a shimmer in the air. Wind rushed through the open door, and he started to run for the back of the cabin. He launched himself through a window, over the rear porch, with a wall of hot air behind him, and hit the grass with a grunt.

* * *

Wind whipped Sabine’s hair as a roar launched from the space behind her. The cabin exploded into a fireball that launched flames and smoke into the air. Her mother spurred her to the car.

“Maybe you do have your uses. After all, you saved me the trouble of having to plant the evidence you killed those two Italian idiots and your boyfriend. I’d already set the explosive charges when you decided to play hero-spy-escapes-the-evil-abductors. Even if you did ruin the plan that you die in there with them.” She shrugged. “Oh, well.”

Hands gripped Sabine under the arms. “In we go.”

She cried aloud and almost passed out as the pain radiated from the gunshot wound in her shoulder. She stumbled but her mom held her weight, hauled Sabine’s limbs onto the front passenger seat and slammed the door.

“No.” Sabine’s voice was barely a whisper. She tried to grab the door handle, but her fingers wouldn’t cooperate. Nothing was working. Where were they going? What was her mom going to do with her?

Her mom slammed the driver’s door and started the engine. A feral noise emerged from Sabine’s throat. Doug had been in the cabin. He was dead. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed away the rush of tears.

Her mom grabbed her around the shoulders. Her hand pressed directly on the bullet wound on Sabine’s upper arm. “Don’t worry, darling. We’re together now.”

Sabine didn’t have time to cry out before the world went black.

* * *

Hours later Doug sat on a crate in a Baltimore warehouse. He wanted to pace out his frustration, but the team was all giving him the same look—the one that said,
Sit down already. You’re making us crazy.

He exhaled, but it didn’t help to dissipate the pain in his limbs. His head still throbbed from when he hit the ground after jumping through the back window of the cabin. He didn’t even want to think about the glass cuts on his hands.

Colonel Hiller sat across from Doug, his pressed suit and combed hair a contrast against the dust and grime of the warehouse. “Perkins’s job is to get everything he can from Ben’s computer. Everyone else knows what to do. And regardless of what some people think—” he shot Doug a look “—I’m not giving you the runaround. We will find her.”

Doug tried to believe that. He had to believe it, because he was scared to death that, if he didn’t, there wouldn’t be anything left for him.

Father, I need Your help.

He loved her, more than anything. More than his job even. She’d walked away at the airport because of it. Now, after he’d found her, she was gone again. Like sand falling between his fingertips. The missions his team undertook might be important work, but her life meant so much more to him than any of it. Sabine was everything. And it was tearing him apart that he’d realized it too late.

Please don’t let it be too late.

Colonel Hiller was still talking. Doug tuned in to what he was saying.

“—can’t forget this woman is a trained agent. She can take care of herself. We want to save her for Ben’s sake, because she’s his sister. It’s tempting for us to think we’re the only ones who can get her out of this because of who we are. We know what we’re capable of, but Sabine is good. I read her CIA file. Even six years ago she showed excellent promise.”

Doug had fallen back on his training. He’d tracked her across the airport and still hadn’t been able to save her from being taken by those two Italian bodyguards. Guys he’d last seen working for Christophe Parelli; guys who’d died, unconscious, in the cabin fire.

Another puzzle piece in the mystery of the Raven had fallen into place.

The two Italians had become reemployed entirely too fast not to have had close ties with the Raven even before Parelli’s death. A good lead, one that could prove useful, but it didn’t wash away the sting of Sabine being taken...again.

Mistakes piled on top of mistakes. He hadn’t thought he could take any more failure, and here it was again. All that reliance on his training had been useless. Doug’s instincts were of no help. Sabine was gone, and the way it sliced at him left him wide open, tasting bitter defeat.

A piece of paper was shoved into his hands. Doug looked up. Hanning’s movie-star looks held a distinct shadow. “This wasn’t your fault.”

Doug saw differently in his friend’s eyes. “That doesn’t get her back.”

“You know what will?” Colonel Hiller stepped into view beside Hanning. “We run this down like any kidnap victim we’re going after. Stop moping around, and let’s get to work.”

Doug looked at the paper in his hand. “Wasting our time with phone records?” He stood up and got in the colonel’s face. “And pep talks? Like a motivational speech is going to help. Sabine could be dead already, and you think we’re going to find her by sitting here?”

“We know you love her.” The colonel’s voice was measured, as if he held back what he really wanted to say—probably a reprimand for talking that way to a superior.

Doug sat down. There was a time when he had lived to run down the target and save the life of the innocent person stuck in the middle. But no more. The love he had for his life disappeared around the same time as Sabine. Now he had a new dream, one that featured that very same woman as a key player. He needed to find her so he could tell her. So he could apologize for failing and promise it would never happen again.

He put his face in his hands, vaguely aware of the team and the colonel discussing repeated numbers on Major General Taylor’s phone records.

“I got an interesting delivery this morning. From Steve Adams.”

Doug lifted his head. “CIA agent Adams?”

The colonel nodded. “Disappeared three days ago. Flew to the south of France and vanished.”

“The south of France again. What was in the package?”

“It was one of those ‘in the event something has happened to me’ deals. Full of records, such as a copy of a passport for Neil Larson with Taylor’s picture.”

Doug’s eyes widened. “Larson?”

“Major General Taylor’s wife’s maiden name, of all things. Not very original, if you ask me, but there you have it.”

“What else?”

The colonel held up a grainy photograph. “Copies of call records for Neil Larson’s cell phone, listing some very interesting numbers, including your girl and a Brenda Sanders.”

Doug’s breath caught. “The Raven. Sabine’s mom.”

“One and the same.”

“I told you all this already! How does this help us find her? The woman killed her husband and Ben. Who’s to say she won’t just shoot Sabine and disappear?”

Colonel Hiller’s mouth pressed into a hard line. “She’s had plenty of opportunity. We’re banking on the fact that, since Sabine has worked for the Raven all these years, Sabine will either be valuable to the woman or she’ll be given enough freedom that she’s able to get away to a phone to call for help.”

“If she wants to.”

Everyone turned, and Perkins found himself suddenly the center of attention. Ben’s laptop was perched on his knees.

Barker smacked Perkins on the back of the head. “Why would you say something like that?”

Perkins winced. “The colonel said it. She’s worked for the Raven for six years. Maybe all this is a ploy to go and work for her for real, but she’s making it look like she’s being forced. Do we know for sure she’s legit? All the evidence says Sabine killed her whole team six years ago. Maybe she really did go rogue.”

Doug surged forward. “How can you say that?”

Hanning and the colonel grabbed Doug’s arms.

Perkins shrugged it off. “I’m saying we don’t know for sure. She could be one of them now. I don’t think we should ignore the possibility.”

“We can.” Doug clenched his jaw shut. “And we will. There’s no way Ben’s sister has gone to work for the Raven.”

Perkins put the laptop aside and stood. “Your opinion of Ben is clouding your judgment of this woman.”

“You think I don’t know her? You think I’m not capable of knowing whether someone is being honest or if they’re just stringing me along?”

“She’s a woman. You’re telling me that you’ve never let—”

Doug was ready to explode. “You’d better stop right there, California.”

Perkins was about to shoot something back, but Colonel Hiller got between them. “Perkins, thank you for your incredible distrust of all women everywhere. We will take it under advisement, but your job is that computer and nothing else.” Perkins sat back down.

Barker slapped him on the back of the head again. “Hey!”

Barker scoffed. “Get back to work.”

“I already found something.”

Doug, the colonel and Hanning all surged forward. “Well?” Doug was about to wring it out of him. “What is it?”

Perkins turned the laptop around on the crate so they could see the screen. “Ben had a whole folder labeled
Sabine.
”

“And?”

“You see this?” Perkins pointed to a program icon on screen.

“What is it?” Colonel Hiller looked about ready to lose it.

“A GPS program.”

Doug frowned. “Ben had his sister bugged?”

Perkins nodded.

“The flower necklace. It was a gift from him.”

“If it’s active, then we can find her.” Perkins clicked on the program, and they all stood silent while it loaded.

A map of North America popped up on the screen, a satellite image. A red dot hovered over West Virginia. Doug held his breath while the map zoomed in, closer and closer.

The screen went black.

“What just happened?”

Perkins didn’t answer. He started tapping buttons in what looked to Doug like a frantic panic to get the map back. Nothing happened. A cursor appeared on the screen. It flashed a couple times and words started appearing, like someone typing on the keyboard.

You’ll never find her.

“Perkins—”

“It’s not me. Someone hacked this computer or the GPS program. When we activated the search on Sabine, we tipped them off.”

Doug turned to the colonel. “The Raven.”

“Seems like it.” There was no hope in his senior officer’s eyes. “She’s gone.”

Doug strode from the warehouse to the vehicle he’d rented. He climbed in, slammed the truck door and hung his head until his forehead touched the steering wheel.

His phone rang. “What?”

“Everything okay, son?”

He sighed. “Not really, Dad. I’m kind of busy.”

“I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important. Major General Taylor’s body is arriving tonight. You know he was a friend of mine. I’d be there to greet him myself, but, if I leave the hospital, I’ll never hear the end of it from Jean.”

“You’re not well enough to put yourself under that much stress.” Doug frowned. “Wait...what do you mean the hospital?”

“I might have...sort of...”

“Dad—”

“Had a little issue earlier. But it’s nothing. They’re just adjusting my medication.”

“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll meet Taylor’s body for you.”

Despite everything that was happening, Doug would do this favor for his dad. He didn’t want to think about the old man being anything other than the energetic father he’d always been. The general needed rest so he could get back to being his old self.... Doug couldn’t let his dad find out Dad’s old friend and colleague had been involved with the Raven.

* * *

The sun gave way to the black of night before Sabine allowed herself to comprehend what had happened. She flexed her bound hands and drew her knees up to her chest. The nasty motel headboard wasn’t pleasant to lean against, but that was the least of her worries.