An Unlikely Hero (1) (11 page)

Chase looked over at the librarian for confirmation. He then nodded up at Tessa without expression. “Be quick about it, Mrs. Scott.”

“Tessa. Call me Tessa.”

Once again he nodded and turned away to speak quietly with the librarian.

Captain Chase Hunter moved from room to room looking for clues as to why the terrorists thought the bomb would be here. Distracted by toys, mementos, a photo of Tessa and her husband in a loving embrace at a Chinese restaurant, forced Chase to tug at his own ghosts that remained buried most of the time. Concentration wavered as he shook off the feeling of regret that threatened his focus. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, remembering his missionary parents helping others, his older sister singing like an angel in the church choir. Another breath. His grandfather on the Qualla Reservation teaching him to hunt and fish entered his thoughts, followed by the memories of his first kiss, his first love, his first….

“Captain?” It was the librarian. His eyes narrowed angrily as they landed on the small black woman who still stared at her computer screen. She wasn’t very good at visual clues to people’s mood. Being diagnosed with a mild form of autism, Claudia carefully compartmentalized every scrap of information discovered on a wide range of topics and persons of interest. She managed to win a special place on the Enigma team with this gift. Due to her inability to interrupt Chase’s moods, Claudia usually acquired the job of bringing news he might not want to hear. “You better look at this.” She turned the screen around and lifted it up so he could clearly read the information.

He did so without touching the computer. Claudia didn’t appreciate anyone touching her baby. His eyes scanned the information as his arms folded across his broad chest. When he finished he looked sharply at the librarian. “I’ll download everything to your hand held, Captain. There’s more. She’s been busy. I’ve never heard you laugh before,” she added as a look of confusion met Chase’s hard glare at his phone.

“Thank you, Claudia. Continue.” Ignoring the comment he turned to leave, then stopped. “Gather up all the computers, games, etc. before…”

“Already packed, Captain.” Claudia tried to smile. She wasn’t very good at chit chat. “I’ll be sure Vernon has a look at everything.”

“Well done!” he snapped, knowing she would appreciate the praise in her own way. He left her and started up the stairs. Tessa was taking too long. Taking the stairs two at a time, Chase quickly moved toward the master bedroom. He’d been in there earlier in the day when he’d pretended to be a plumber. The image of the white and ivory décor jogged his memory as he remembered the tranquil, uncluttered room that Tessa shared with her lawyer husband. Just as he grasped the doorknob, the door flung open and Tessa barreled into his chest, causing her to stumble backwards. Chase did not offer to catch her as he drank in the site before him.

Tessa had transformed herself into the image of the girl next door. Her still wet hair pulled up into a ponytail, made her soft pale features look much younger than he’d noticed earlier. Dressed in a plain white blouse and blue jeans, that was rolled up into a cuff above the ankle made Tessa look anything but dangerous as her bio had suggested.

Catching her breath, Tessa smiled innocently at the frowning captain. “Think I’d run off?” When he didn’t respond Tessa realized his eyes were slowly taking in the room, evaluating some obscure information he must think relevant to the day’s activities. Or maybe he was trying to figure her out. That thought amused her. What was to figure out? Her life paralleled paint drying. “I was able to get a message off after all,” she teased.

Chase’s eyes quickly returned to Tessa like a laser. His forehead furrowed with anger. “How did you do that?”

Tessa sat down on the edge of the bed and began putting on the tennis shoes she’d held in her hand. They were new so the bright white seemed to glow. She finished tying the strings and looked up to see that Chase had moved closer, this time with a menacing glare aimed at her. “I keep carrier pigeons in the bathroom. Your team hadn’t been up here to find them so I took advantage of my one opportunity to reach my contacts at CNN. You’re in trouble now.” Tessa sighed and bounced up with a teasing smile.

“Funny.” Chase grumbled as he moved toward the window and moved back the sheer white curtains to view the backyard full of flowers, swings and bicycles. A home. A home he’d never have. “Get your bag,” he said flatly. “I’ll take you to a safe house.”

Tessa’s smile faded. “Why? I did what you ask. I’m not going anywhere with you,” she complained as she lifted her small leopard overnight bag and a wallet from the bed. She moved toward the door with determination and head held high.

“Why did you go to Morocco four years ago?” Chase said folding his arms across his chest. Watching her stop suddenly and turn to face him gave Chase suspicions that he was about to hear a lie coming from the mouth of an angel.

This time Tessa didn’t offer a teasing smile. She looked tired and confused at the whole day’s experience. “Why don’t you ask Claudia? I’m sure she can tell you. That’s what she really does isn’t it? She’s a cyber-cop who spies on innocent people’s lives, assumes the worst, transfers the benign to fit some kind of conspiracy to cover your mistakes at Enigma?”

Chase eyed her from head to toe. How could someone with angelic looks be this clever and quick? Was she fooling him with this innocent routine? “Why?” He had a way of demanding quietly.

“Robert took me there because my favorite Bogart movie is Casablanca. If Claudia will dig a little deeper she’ll see that’s where we went on our anniversary!” she said in a low, condescending voice. “And if you’ll check hospital records you’ll see my daughter was born nine months later.” Tessa pulled back her shoulders and readjusted her grip on the overnight bag. “It was a surprise. Robert saved for two years to take me there. Trust me as tight as Robert is with money that was a real treat for me.”

She didn’t think it was important to include that Robert had an international conference in Rabat on the future of disputed territories and lands of the 21
^st
century. His taking her meant that he only had to pay for half of the trip. Mostly she had sat by the pool and read a book. The trip to Casablanca had been a side trip offered to the attendees to make their trip to Morocco a memorial one. Nine months later Tessa gave birth to a seven pound baby girl. She’d wanted to name her Ingrid after the actress that starred in Casablanca but Robert had thought that was too boring for his beautiful little girl.

“All in my file,” she said flippantly. “Or it will be when Claudia finishes. Pretty boring stuff. However, I’m sure you guys will do a good job embellishing it so it can fit a specific need or target. Am I in trouble?” Tessa kept her voice steady. She missed her family.

Chase stormed past her as he relieved her of the faux leopard bag. “You are trouble, Tessa Scott.”

At the foot of the stairs Chase observed Claudia and two other Enigma personnel watching a computer screen they’d collected from the family room. The small lap top sat precariously atop a broken vase on the dining room table. A desperate voice asking for help reached his ears as he pushed aside the men. The screen had been a video email sent earlier in the day.

“Mrs. Scott!” the old man pleaded. He held up his hands to show they‘d been tied at the wrist with clothesline cord. A ripped, brown grocery bag partially covered his head. Somehow he‘d managed to contact Tessa Scott. “Please you’ve got to get out of town. There are men here,” he looked behind him as if listening carefully, then back at the screen. “Middle Eastern, radicals. They want me to activate a bomb. They have plans to…” There were voices in the background. Anxious. Rapid. “I think it’s a dirty bomb. They think I …” Several men burst into the room where the old man spoke, shouting and waving handguns. One stood in the background, observing. He moved forward and looked into the computer screen smiling next to Mr. Crawley. Suddenly the old man landed a shoulder into the man, spun around and hit send. The screen went dark. Silence ensued as all eyes turned to Tessa Scott, standing wide eyed on the bottom stair, her hands covering her mouth in horror.

“Mr. Crawley! My neighbor!”

Within minutes of Tessa’s identification of the man on the computer screen twenty Enigma personnel had invaded the home of Mr. Jericho Crawley. The reason the terrorists had decided to invade the Scott home now had clearly been defined. If the old man had not tried to warn Tessa, none of this would have occurred. Claudia left her team to finish up at the Scott house so she could get started on the neighbor’s. Ordered to follow, Tessa stayed with Chase as he entered the Crawley home. A wealth of fingerprints revealed four men, two of which were now dead in a ravine near the Yuba River, a third escaped from an Enigma jail and then this fourth man who turned off the computer. Essid.

Chase recognized him instantly. Their first encounter in Afghanistan revealed the cold, calculating terrorist Essid would become. Essid wanted information on why the American soldiers had come to the village. Refusing to accept the Americans had only brought food and medicine to their starving people, Essid decided to send a message to other villages who accepted help from the Americans. He ordered his men to slaughter every man woman and child. When Delta Force entered two days later, only small smoldering fires of death remained. Another village after hearing about the murders refused any help from the Americans but offered a name of the butcher. Essid, a Libyan who enjoyed killing. The calm voice and face of the man turning off the computer was Essid. Chase knew him, of course, from working in Delta Force and his own experience. His men searched for days to find the Libyan.

In those days Chase lived in a mountain village among Afghan freedom fighters who opposed the Taliban. When several young girls went missing Chase led the men out on a search. After two days they were found beaten and raped by Taliban insurgents. Weeks later a Taliban informant pointed the finger at a Libyan named Essid who’d been in the area spreading a little cheer with his deep pockets. His reward had been the two young girls. After tiring of them he’d freely given them to the ruthless Taliban. Chase made it his mission to hunt Essid down so the village could seek their own form of revenge. After six months Essid found himself in a jail in Kandahar, along with several of his followers. After being transferred to Pakistan, where Chase planned to interrogate him, Essid escaped with the help of a Pakistani soldier. Apparently the promise of a bribe bought his freedom. The little justice that survived came when Essid shot the Pakistani for not being true to his job.

“Mr. Crawley must have told them it was in my yard,” Tessa realized. “Last night my little girl said she saw a falling star. It must have been the bomb.” Tessa shivered at the thought of what might have happened if it had exploded.

“Did she say it fell in the yard?” Chase inquired as he moved toward the backyard. He entered Mr. Crawley’s backyard through French doors onto a covered patio. Two lawn chairs, a small charcoal grill and a TV tray was all that occupied the large concrete space. No flowers, little grass, several live oaks that had seen better days, gave the yard an abandoned feel.

Tessa followed quickly after Chase like an anxious puppy. “I donno. Maybe. I thought she’d seen a meteor so I had her make a wish.” She walked to the tall white picket fence where Mr. Crawley had bombarded her with another list of complaints only this morning. She looked over into her beautiful yard full of flowers and felt her heart lurch, remembering her children playing tag and whiffle ball. Silently she said a prayer of thanks that her family was safely in the mountains away from the unfolding nightmare. Just to hold the children and kiss their sweaty little heads would seem like paradise. The touch of Robert’s hand holding hers as they’d strolled into church last Sunday now felt like the most romantic experience of a life time. In her heart she whispered, “I love you, Robert. I’m sorry.”

“Something?” Chase broke through her reverie as he came up close enough to slightly brush against her arm. He quickly stepped aside as if he’d been stung by one of the honeybees floating about the white butterfly bush in the Scott yard. His voice, serious and direct, held little emotion or concern. This appeared to be just another day to him.

Startled, Tessa cleared her throat to explain how Mr. Crawley had seemed crankier than usual when he’d found out she’d not left with her family. There was the list of complaints and finger pointing, but Tessa had, as always, smiled, nodded and promised to do better. “But look,” she pointed down at the ground. “My sprinklers go off around three in the morning. That way by the time the children come out to play they don’t track mud into the house. I never noticed earlier but there are muddy footprints going away from the fence. Someone came over the fence into my yard, tracked in the flower beds then came back. See,” she pointed behind her, “there are several more steps before the grass managed to take it off. I bet you’ll find traces of it on the rug in his mudroom.”

Both turned and traced the footsteps back into the mudroom. “Get a man in here, Claudia to see if there’s any trace of radiation,” ordered Chase. “I bet our little nuisance is buried in Mrs. Scott’s flower garden.”