Reach For the Spy (34 page)

“How about two,” Spider
broke in. “I need to spend some time over at the office...” His
voice wavered, and we met each other’s eyes miserably. The office
he’d shared with Kane.

“Okay, two o’clock it
is,” I agreed, trying to avoid the thought. “Come on. I’ll wait for
you in the lobby and then I’ll drop you at home.”

“Thanks.” He trudged
out the door, his shoulders sagging.

I had the same dream
about Kane again and woke up screaming. Sex and death. I knew it
was only my subconscious mind replaying my husband’s final moments,
but I felt very alone while I lay shivering in bed.

In the morning, I
dragged myself into the shower. The bruises and scrapes were still
tender, but the stiffness was gone from my muscles. I stood for a
long time in the hot spray, wishing it could ease the ache in my
heart.

There was still an hour
before I needed to leave for the Greenhorn, so I carried my guns
out to the firing range for a bit more practice in the morning. I
concentrated on drawing the Glock quickly to make fast, smooth
shots. If I got another chance, I wouldn’t waste it.

It was another
beautiful, hot day and I had time to kill before meeting Spider at
two o’clock. I parked at Sirius intending to wait for him there,
but on impulse I wandered over to the ice cream shop in the next
block and took my place in the lineup. I’d just taken a seat at one
of the sidewalk tables when I spotted Mike Connor strolling along
the sidewalk toward Sirius.

I waved, and he did a
double-take. Consternation filled his face as he made his way
rapidly to my side. “Aydan! How did you... How are you holding up?”
He examined my bruises. “Are you okay?”

“Fine, thanks, Mike,” I
assured him, touched by his obvious concern. I could see why he and
Spider had hit it off so well. They were both so gentle and
warm-hearted. We chatted for a few minutes before he strode off,
and I finished my ice cream cone and headed for Sirius.

Spider and Smith were
already waiting for me in my office, and I drew in a deep breath
before entering Smith’s noxious aura. At least he saw no need to
follow me into the network, and I settled down to my decryption
with relief.

I had only been working
for a few minutes when Spider’s tense voice interrupted me. “Aydan!
I just got an alert!”

I dove for the filter
program and quickly decrypted the message. Fury, relief, and fear
churned in my gut. That motherfucker Stemp had killed an innocent
man. A good man. Kane was definitely in the clear now.

But I was in serious
danger, and I didn’t have Kane to watch my back anymore.

I spoke through the
network interface. “Our guy’s at it again.” I bit off a more
detailed explanation. “Spider, could you please ask Smith to let
Stemp know right away?”

“Sure.” There was a
pause before his voice came tensely through the interface again.
“Aydan, I need a break. I’m going to go over to the Melted Spoon.
Want to come?”

“I’ll be right there.”
I folded sim-space and stepped out the portal, holding my head
together with both hands. By the time I’d finished swearing, Spider
was jittering in the doorway.

Anxiety scuttled down
my back on icy feet, and I stood a little more briskly than I would
have under normal circumstances. I swore some more when I staggered
into the coffee table and bruised my shin.

Spider eyed me with
concern. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. Just stood up
too fast. Let’s go.”

I didn’t have to tell
him twice. He strode down the hall at a pace I’d never seen him use
before. In the lobby, I turned in my security fob while I waited
for him to emerge from the secured facility. When he did, he made a
beeline for the exit, and I had to remind him to drop off his own
fob before leaving.

Once on the sidewalk,
he set a hurried pace for the Melted Spoon. I hadn’t realized how
fast those lanky legs could move.

“What’s the hurry?” I
panted as I trotted beside him.

I got the distinct
impression he was grinding his teeth. “Stemp,” he gritted. “He
showed up late today at the internet cafe, wouldn’t you know it? He
was just getting started when I had to leave to meet you.”

He shot through the
door of the Melted Spoon and had his laptop open on the table
before his butt hit the chair. His face was intent while his
fingers flew.

Trying to maintain some
semblance of casual behaviour, I went up to the counter and ordered
us each a cup of tea. I sipped mine while Spider sat engrossed.
Finally, he glanced up with a wolfish grin. “Ha! Katya!”

He ducked back behind
the screen. At last, he resurfaced with a sigh, rubbing his
eyes.

I gave him a raised
eyebrow. “What language was that?”

“Bulgarian.”

“Say what?”

“Katya. That’s the name
of Stemp’s contact. In Bulgaria. That’s who he contacted this
morning and this afternoon.”

“Bulgaria?” I frowned
at him. “Does that mean anything to you?”

“Maybe,” he said
slowly. “Fuzzy Bunny does a lot of business in the eastern
countries. But it wouldn’t make sense for Stemp to be contacting
them there, when we’re here.”

He smiled, and I
recognized the look of the hunter. “But he’s definitely hiding
something. He went to a lot of effort to cover his tracks to Katya,
whoever she is. If it is a she.”

“We’d better get back,”
I told him. “Smith is going to wonder what the hell we’re doing.
Let’s talk while we walk.”

He packed up his
laptop, and we meandered down the sidewalk toward Sirius.

I glanced around to be
sure nobody was in earshot before speaking. “Spider, this latest
message was a request from Stemp for Fuzzy Bunny to contact
him.”

His jaw dropped. “Stemp
contacted them? You caught him?”

“No. I mean, our guy.
I’m just sure it’s Stemp.”

“If you’re sure it’s
Stemp, why did you tell Smith to tell him you’d detected a
message?”

I shrugged. “Because if
he sent the message himself, and if he knew we were monitoring the
network, he’d be suspicious if I didn’t.”

“But why would he do
that?” His brow furrowed. “Aydan, it doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, he’d have to,
wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t want to arouse suspicion if he wanted to
stay in his position as director.”

“But... Aydan, he told
everybody Kane was the traitor. If he wanted to maintain that
story, he wouldn’t send another message he knew we’d catch.”

I groaned and hugged my
aching head. “I don’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing, but he’s
a lying slimeball. And he murdered an innocent man. That’s all I
need to know.”

Spider paced along
beside me frowning. “You didn’t mention the contents of the message
to Smith.”

“I didn’t want to give
anybody more information than necessary. Because I have an
idea.”

“What?” He eyed me with
interest.

“I think Stemp...” I
caught Spider’s eye. “Okay,
our guy
, whoever he is, will get
suspicious if he doesn’t get a response. But this could really work
for us. What if we pretend to be Fuzzy Bunny? Tell him this method
of contact isn’t secure anymore, and set him up to communicate with
us directly? He wouldn’t know it was us; he’d think he was talking
to Fuzzy Bunny.”

“A sting!” Spider
grinned at me. “That’s brilliant! I love it!”

“Okay, then.” I grinned
back at him as we walked into Sirius. “Let’s do it.”

I pulled up short when
we came face to face with Stemp in the lobby. The sight of his
reptilian features sent pure red rage surging through my veins and
I gulped it back, holding onto control by its ragged edges. I felt
my fists clench and my shoulders bunch as I took a single step
toward him, my eyes locked on his detestable face.

“Aydan...?” Spider’s
quavering voice barely penetrated my consciousness. I brushed his
restraining hand off and took another step.

Stemp stood his ground,
watching me expressionlessly. Another step. He was only about an
inch taller than I was, and I glared into his eyes from close
range.

“Looks like you were
wrong about John.” I was fighting so hard to restrain myself that
it came out barely above a whisper. Apparently the menace came
through loud and clear, though. His impassive face never changed,
but his eyes twitched sideways just a fraction.

Do it, asshole. Make a
sudden move. Give me a reason.

We stared at each other
in silence.

“Maybe,” he said at
last, his voice almost as quiet as mine.

“Aydan!” I became dimly
aware that Spider was tugging on my arm, almost whimpering. “Aydan,
come on. Let’s go.”

I spared him a glance
and as soon as our eye contact was broken, Stemp took a couple of
slow, smooth steps backward. Then he turned and strolled away.

I stared holes in his
back, my breath hissing through my clenched teeth.

“Aydan, stop. You’re
scaring me,” Spider pleaded.

“Sorry.” The word
rasped from my constricted throat. I swallowed again and tried to
unclench my muscles. Violent tremors shook me.

“Come and sit down.”
Spider tugged me gently toward one of the reception chairs.

I sat stiffly and
stared into middle distance while I imposed yoga breathing,
struggling to calm down.

“Everything okay?”
Germain eyed me with concern on his way through the lobby.

Great. Of course I had
to make a spectacle of myself when everybody was coming back from
lunch. Although come to think of it, he must have taken a late
lunch, too.

“Fine.” I managed a
more civilized tone this time. I stood carefully and made my way to
the security wicket to pick up my fob, avoiding his gaze.

After a couple more
hours of decryption, I took my aching head down to the lobby to
turn in my security fob for the day. Then I loitered outside on the
sidewalk, waiting for Spider to appear.

I was foiled when he
came out the door deep in conversation with Mike Connor.

Shit.

I raised a casual hand.
“See you tomorrow, Spider.”

“Oh, hold on,” he
replied. “Before you go, I want to talk to you for a minute.”

“I guess I should get
going,” Mike told him. “World of Warcraft tonight?”

“Um, no.” A faint flush
appeared on Spider’s cheeks. “I, um, have plans.”

Mike surveyed him
quizzically. “What kind of plans? Remember, we’ve got that big
campaign tonight. It’ll be great. Can’t you do your other stuff
tomorrow?”

“Actually, um...”
Spider studied his feet. “I’m seeing Linda tonight.”

Connor’s face split in
a grin. “Linda Burton? Good luck with that. Half the guys in town
are chasing her.”

Spider raised an
awkward shoulder. “Actually, she asked me.”

Mike’s jaw dropped.
“You lucky...” He glanced quickly at me and apparently decided to
save the guy talk for another time. “Okay, well, that’s a good
enough excuse, I guess. See you tomorrow.” He tossed off a jaunty
salute and strode away.

Spider turned to me,
still slightly pink. I decided to let it lie.

“I have an idea for our
sting,” I murmured as we meandered down the sidewalk. “I have to go
to Blue Eddy’s and Up & Coming tomorrow, so I’ll have time to
sneak into the phone store and get a couple of disposable cell
phones. We can set those up as our communication channels.”

“That should work,” he
agreed. “How are you going to send the message?”

“I thought I could make
it look like it came from Fuzzy Bunny if I generated it from just
outside Fuzzy Bunny’s firewall. Our guy provided contact
information, so it should work.”

“Perfect.” He paused.
“I’ll dig into Katya some more tonight if I have time.”

I patted him on the
shoulder. “Don’t make it a priority. Have fun with Linda.”

He blushed.
“Thanks.”

That night, I dreamed
of Kane again. As before, he stood beside my bed, looking down at
me.

I knew he was dead. I
tried to stop the dream, but he stooped and took my hand.

“Aydan.”

Giving in, I pulled him
closer, pushing the sheets aside and kissing him deeply as I pulled
his hands onto my breasts. I felt his indrawn breath against my
lips.

“Aydan. Oh, God.”

I tugged at his
T-shirt, running hungry hands over the taut muscles beneath. He
stood, and I reached for him.

“Please...” The word
wrenched out of me.

Please don’t go. Please
don’t die this time. I willed the dream to continue with all my
might.

He groaned. “Aydan...
Goddammit...” Then he was stripping off his clothes. His weight
pressed me to the bed. His demanding mouth found my lips, my
throat, my breasts. Fierce heat overwhelmed me.

“Please...”

I spread my legs for
him and clamped my hands on his perfect ass to pull him closer. We
both cried out when he pushed inside me, huge and rock-hard. The
intoxicating not-quite-pain made me arch against him, my nails
raking his back as he began to thrust.

Wild with need, I drove
my hips up to meet him. His bulging biceps and shoulders were hot
steel under my teeth. I dimly realized I was screaming abject pleas
for more, harder, while he pounded into me. My orgasm was so sudden
and intense I utterly lost myself in its blinding ecstasy.

I had known how the
dream would end.

When his body shuddered
and went limp on top of me, I didn’t try CPR. I couldn’t bear to
look into those sightless eyes again. Instead, I held his slack,
still-warm body close, rocking him gently.

When I woke in the
greyness of early dawn, the loss was so profound I curled into a
ball and wept hopelessly.

At the sound of the
voice behind me, I snatched my gun from under the pillow and sprang
from the bed in a single motion. As I whirled to aim with
tear-blurred eyes, my brain caught up.