Dark Deceptions (27 page)

It was all so twisted. Or maybe that was the problem. Maybe twisted was the norm, part and parcel of who they all really were,
damaged individuals who chose danger and adrenaline in an effort to avoid anything at all resembling real life.

He stepped off the elevator and slapped his hand against Aaron Thomas and walked through the open door. To the left, in one
of the computer rooms, he could see Adam, feet swinging off the floor as he concentrated on something on the screen.

“Hey, dude, whatcha up to?” he asked, stepping past the security guard to look over Adam’s shoulder at the fight on the screen.
“Pretty bad-ass dragon.”

“I know, but he isn’t that hard to defeat.” Adam hit a key and then another and the dragon bellowed fire and then disappeared.
“See?”

“You’re really good,” Nash said.

“Nah.” Adam shook his head. “It’s an easy game. I’ve beat it a couple of times. There’s a sequel out, Wings of the Dragon
II, but Mom won’t buy it for me. She thinks I play too much.”

“Moms can be like that.” Nash shrugged.

“Did your mom let you play computer games?” The boy tilted his head to one side, considering the idea of Nash as a gamer.

Nash laughed. “She did, but our games weren’t nearly as good as yours. I started with something called Space Quest. The graphics
sucked but the game was pretty fun. There was this one part where if you let a monster kiss you, then later on, a monster
jumps out of your stomach.”

“Cool,” Adam said. “Like
Alien
.”

“Yeah, only not as scary. I’m surprised you’ve seen it.”

“I wasn’t supposed to. Mom watched it on Halloween. She likes scary movies. And I snuck to the top of the stairs and watched
from there.” He stopped, clearly regretting the admission. “You won’t tell her, will you?”

“No way.” Nash held out a fisted hand. “Swear.” They bumped knuckles and Adam grinned, the first true smile Nash had seen
from the boy. He looked so damn much like his mother.

“You want to try?” Adam said, hopping up from the chair. “I can coach you.”

Nash nodded, sliding in front of the computer screen.

“Okay,” Adam continued, leaning close. “The arrow buttons move you right and left. And the space bar makes you jump. The up
button is your sword. All you got to do is remember that dragons have really mushy bellies.”

The dragon roared, and Nash started swiping the air with his sword, jumping to miss the dragon’s bursts of fire.

“Careful,” Adam warned as Nash moved too close to the dragon’s claws.

Nash swung again, hitting the dragon on the chin. The beast howled and the green life bar above his head dropped down to halfway.
Adrenaline surged as Nash focused in on the fight, parrying to the left, then faking the dragon to move right.

“Go,” Adam cheered. “You’re almost there. Now.”

Nash thrust upward, pressing the appropriate computer key for everything it was worth. “Come on, buddy, die already.” He moved
to the side, then thrust again, this time cutting into the beast’s leathery hide.

“Just a little more to the left,” Adam counseled.

Nash lunged right, then struck left, his sword slicing through the soft belly of the beast. The dragon roared, then burst
into flames and disappeared.

“See,” Adam said. “I told you it was easy.”

“No way I could have done it without your help,” Nash said, feeling his beeper vibrate against his thigh. He reached into
his pocket and checked the message.

“You gotta go?” Adam asked, looking disappointed.

“Afraid so. I’ve got to go to a meeting, but I’d like to play again later if you’re up for it.”

“And in the meantime,” Jason said, appearing in the doorway, “you can play with me.”

“Cool,” Adam said, hopping on one foot with excitement. “Jason’s really good.”

“Which I guess puts me in my place.” Nash laughed, surprised at how at ease he felt—and how much he hated to break the mood.
“But I learn pretty quickly.”

“You did great,” the boy added supportively. “Honest, you did.”

“Thanks.” Nash smiled. “But now I’m afraid I’ve got to go to work.”

The kid’s expression sobered. “To help my mom.”

“Yeah. And to keep you safe.”

Adam nodded solemnly, his eyes looking way too old. “You gotta kill the dragon.”

“Exactly,” Nash said. “But first we’ve got to find him.”

“So what have we got?” Nash asked as he walked into the war room, dropping down into a chair next to Drake. Annie was sitting
across the table. Their gazes met briefly, but she turned away. Hannah, who was sitting at the head of the table next to Emmett,
raised an eyebrow, and Nash shrugged. No one said working with Annie was going to be easy.

Tyler sat at the other end of the table, next to Lara. The only ones missing in action were Avery, who was working on arrangements
for their meeting with Tom, and Jason, who, having drawn the lucky straw, was still playing computer games with Adam.

“I was just telling everyone that I’d managed to ID the two bodies Annie and Drake took out. And it looks like the stakes
are getting higher. These men are both players. Antoine Marcel is a French mercenary. International connections. No political
agenda. Just follows the money.”

“And the other one?” Drake asked.

“Yuri Atomov. Russian dissident with ties to radical communist splinter groups. No known relationship with Ashad. And nothing
to connect him to Kim or Rivon. But he’s definitely got a history of providing muscle when the price is right. So my guess
is that they were both just hired guns.”

“What about the scene?” Nash asked Tyler. “You guys find anything?”

“Nothing concrete. The car was clean. And there was nothing on the bodies except a couple of cell phones.”

“Both throwaways,” Emmett said.

“So nothing at all to help clear my name.” Annie’s tone was bitter and she still kept her gaze averted from his.

“I wouldn’t say that.” Drake shrugged. “I did find corroboration that you were at the Sweet Rest. The name on the register
was just as you said it would be and the manager identified your picture.”

“I told you I was telling the truth,” Annie said, her chin lifting as her eyes met Nash’s.

“It wasn’t enough, Annie,” Lara said. “Nothing the manager said changes the timeline. You could easily have checked in and
then driven on to Dominico’s.”

“What about the room?” she asked. “There should have been prints. Something to prove we were there? The White Castle trash?”

“The room had been wiped clean.” Emmett shook his head. “Professionally, if I had to call it. So either you did it, or someone
wanted it to look that way. Jason and I went over the phone Rivon gave you again, and there was still nothing. Which leaves
us, I’m afraid, with a hell of a lot of questions.”

“You’ve all been briefed, I take it, on what happened in Lebanon?” Nash asked.

“Yes.” Hannah nodded. “And I’ve been working up some information on Kim Sun.”

“So what did you find?” Annie’s hands clenched and unclenched, her nails biting into her skin as she struggled against her
demons.

“The guy pretty much disappeared after his son was killed,” Hannah said, flashing a picture up on the overhead screen. “The
notoriety surrounding Jin’s death and the resulting investigation pretty much doomed his career. He resigned his post, but
there’s evidence he was actually forced out of the diplomatic corps.”

“For a time,” Drake said, taking up the story, “he worked as a consultant. But there are at least some indications that his
dealings began to move toward the political fringes.”

“We can’t substantiate this, of course.” Hannah shrugged. “But there have been indications that Kim has become a key player
in the effort for Korean reunification.”

“But he’s South Korean,” Annie said with a confused frown. “I thought they were happy with their freedom.”

“Most of them are,” Nash agreed. “But there are those who feel the country was better off united. And communist.”

“Like the pro-Soviet movement in Russia,” Tyler added.

“Exactly.” Hannah nodded. “Part of it is nationalistic pride, and part of it is the belief that the communist path is the
right way. Anyway, bottom line is that we believe Kim Sun is involved in clandestine operations to work toward reunification
of Korea under communist rule. Actions that certainly wouldn’t endear him to the United States. And worse, Kim’s political
proclivities have led to involvement with other, more violent fringe groups, primarily Asian. Although there is some reason
to believe that he’s also had contact with several Arabic extremist groups as well.”

“All of which makes him a dangerous man with even more dangerous friends,” Annie acknowledged, “but I don’t see how it relates
to his vendetta against me.”

“It doesn’t.” Emmett shook his head. “At least not directly. But it does mean that Kim is tied in to a pretty evolved underground
network, which will make it all that much easier for him to stay under the radar.”

“Meaning it could be impossible to find him,” Annie said.

“No. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that our work is going to be cut out for us.”

“When was the last time he was seen in the United States?” Lara asked.

“Five years ago,” Hannah said, punching up another photograph, this one more recent. “He attended an international peace conference.
After that, nothing shows up in current immigration or airport security records. So if he’s here, he’s under an assumed name.”

“The guy’s like a ghost,” Emmett confirmed. “The CIA’s got a file on him, but most of it pertains to the incident in Saida,
most of that limited to the official story.”

“That there was an industrial accident.” Annie nodded.

“Exactly,” Emmett said. “And according to the official record, Jin was touring the area when the explosion occurred, his death
ancillary. There were no charges filed, although there was an official protest by the Korean government on Kim’s behalf.”

“But after doing their own investigation, they ended up satisfied with the official explanation.” Hannah crossed her arms
and frowned. “Kim, however, was never convinced. He was certain there was more to the story.”

“And apparently there was,” Nash acknowledged, surprised that the idea no longer made him feel betrayed.

“How the hell do you think he found out that Annie was involved?” Drake asked. “I mean, our government went to great lengths
to cover up what really happened. And not to blow our own horn, we’re pretty good at that kind of thing. Not to mention that
Annie was totally out of the picture with her defection.”

“It wasn’t a defection,” she protested. “I was supposed to go underground to protect the sanctity of the mission.”

“No way to question the plebes if they’ve left the building,” Emmet said to no one in particular.

“It doesn’t matter how deep they buried it.” Tyler shrugged. “If someone is patient and tenacious, anything is possible. There
had to be people that knew what really went down. Tom for one. But there would have been others as well. Maybe someone spilled
the beans.”

“For the right amount of money.” Drake’s contempt was blatant.

“Hey,” Lara said, “there are all kinds of reasons to release information. Some of them actually understandable. Although I’ll
admit, nine times out of ten it’s about greed.”

“It’s also possible that maybe Annie just slipped up,” Tyler said, shooting Annie an apologetic look.

“No way,” she said, shaking her head. “Not with Adam to think about. If anything, I was overly cautious. Well, whatever the
source, I think we can all agree that Kim knows the truth. It’s the only thing that ties it all together.”

“But why now?” Emmett mused. “I mean, the operation is old news. And Jin’s been dead for a hell of a long time.”

“There’s no statute of limitations on a father’s love,” Tyler said.

“Or on his need for revenge.” Drake’s take, as usual, was the more cynical, but Nash had to agree.

“So somehow Kim finds out the truth about what really happened in Saida, and then with a little digging he figures out that
Annie was the guilty party.”

“But how the hell did he find me?”

“There’s no way to know,” Emmett said. “If he had someone on the inside, maybe they had access to whatever Tom kept from the
original mission. The truth is there are countless ways he could have found you.”

“Anyway, once he did, it was just a matter of planning and executing his revenge,” Drake said. “First he kidnaps your son,
using Adam to maneuver you into killing an American dignitary. But why? What’d he have against Dominico?”

“I don’t think it was ever about Dominico,” Nash said. “Except maybe as a bonus round. Dominico wasn’t exactly pro-Korea,
especially the movement for reunification. But I think the real goal here was to punish Annie.”

“To make her pay for what she’d done to Jin,” Lara prompted.

“That and what she’d done to Kim Sun himself. I mean, for all practical purposes she ruined his life. And I expect he wanted
to ruin hers as well.”

“First by killing her son,” Tyler said. “An eye for an eye.”

“So why not just kill me, too?” Annie asked, her voice cracking as she struggled with the enormity of Kim’s threat and the
reasons behind it.

“Dying would be too easy,” Drake said. “Killing Dominico would mean you’d be charged with treason or murder, take your pick.
Couple that with the loss of your son. Can you think of a better way to ruin someone’s life?”

“Annie’s in particular,” Nash mused, avoiding Annie’s gaze. She’d always prided herself on helping to rid the world of dangerous
men, people determined to take out all vestiges of civilization and democracy.

“And so when things went wrong,” Emmett mused, “and we rescued Adam—”

“—he moved on to plan B,” Drake concluded. “Kill Dominico himself and frame Annie. Same ending, just a different way of getting
there.”

“But then why go after me at the motel?” she asked.

“Maybe the goal was to get you out of there, so they could sanitize. That would explain the phone call. Or maybe it was just
a reaction to your running,” Lara said.