Smokescreen (39 page)

DOUBLE VISION
by
Vicki Hinze

On sale June 2005 from
Silhouette Bombshell

Every month Silhouette Bombshell has four fresh, unique, satisfying reads to tempt you into something new…

Here’s an exclusive excerpt from one of this month’s releases, DOUBLE VISION by Vicki Hinze.

“O
kay, Home Base.” Staring through her diving mask, Captain Katherine Kane swam toward the rocks above the newly discovered underwater cave. Cold water swirled around her. “I’m almost there.”

“Roger that, Bluefish.” Considering the distance between Kate and Home Base, Captain Maggie Holt’s voice sounded surprisingly clear through the earpiece. “I don’t like the idea of you diving alone. The boss would have a fit.”

The boss, Colonel Sally Drake, would understand completely. “Sorry, no choice.” Captain Douglas and his tactical team had been diverted. “If we want to find GRID’s weapon cache, then I’ve got to do this now—before they have time to move it.”

Douglas and his men had assisted Kate on a former mission, intercepting GRID—Group Resources for Individual Development—assets, and when he’d summoned Kate to the Persian Gulf, she’d known he suspected a GRID presence and needed help. All the key players in the Black World community knew that pursuing GRID, the largest black-market sellers of U.S. intelligence and weapons in the world, was
Kate’s organization’s top priority. And it had been designated such by presidential order.

“I still think we should follow the usual chain of command,” Maggie said. “If the boss were here, you know she would agree with me.”

If Colonel Sally Drake were there and not at the intelligence community summit meeting coordinating the war on terror, Kate and Maggie wouldn’t be having this conversation and there would be no debate. Kate resisted a sigh.

Maggie was new to their level of covert operations and still adjusting to tossing out standard operating procedure and assuming command in critical circumstances. But she had all the right stuff; she’d grow into the job eventually. Nothing taught operatives better than experience, and she’d get plenty in their unit. Still, for everyone’s sake, including her own, Kate hoped Maggie adjusted and grew into it soon.

“Look,” Kate said, speeding the process along, “ordinarily Douglas would have worked up the chain. This time he came straight to the S.A.S.S.” Secret Assignment Security Specialists were the last resort, and Douglas respected that. “I know this man and he knows us. He’s got a fix on GRID.” Kate couldn’t resist an impatient huff. “No offense intended, Home Base, but you’ve got to learn to trust your allies.” That included Douglas, his team and Kate.

“Yeah, well. I’m gun-shy. You have to prove you deserve it.”

That response surprised Kate. “How?”

“Don’t get yourself killed today. Do you realize how much paperwork I’d have to do?”

Kate smiled. Okay, she’d cut Maggie a little slack. The woman was trying. “Waking up dead isn’t my idea of a fun way to start the day, either, Home Base.” She reached the finger of rocky land jutting out into the gulf and, treading water, removed the black box from her tool bag.

Stiff-fingered from the cold chill, she flipped the switch to activate the C-273 communications device and then affixed it to the rock just below the waterline. If this leading-edge technology worked as advertised, she would still be able to communicate with Maggie at Home Base via satellite. Supposedly the water would conduct the signal from Kate inside the cave to this box and then transmit via satellite to Home Base, completing the link to Maggie. Kate hoped to spit it worked. “Okay, C-273 is seated. We’re good to go.”

Looking up, she again checked the face of the rock above the waterline. Worn smooth
and
scarred by deep gouges.
Definitely signs of traffic.

That oddity had caught her eye initially and led her to dive here for a closer look. Otherwise she never would have found the cave—and she seriously doubted anyone short of an oceanographer charting the gulf’s floor would have, either.

“Bluefish?” Worry filled Maggie’s voice. “The guys at the lab swear this device will work, but if it doesn’t and we lose contact, I want you out of there pronto. I mean it.”

“Here we go again. Trust a little. Remember, no guts, no glory.” Kate adjusted her diving headgear, checked to make sure her knife was secure in its sheath
strapped to her thigh, pulled her flashlight from her tool belt, turned it on and then dove.

“Glory?” Maggie’s sigh crackled static through Kate’s earpiece. “What glory? You’re a phantom. Less than three hundred people know you exist.”

The S.A.S.S. was a highly skilled, special detail unit of covert operatives assigned to the Office of Special Investigations and buried in the Office of Personnel Management for the United States Air Force. The unit didn’t exist on paper, its missions didn’t exist on paper—the unit’s name even changed every six months for security purposes, which is why those who knew of the S.A.S.S. operatives referred to them by what they did and not by their official organizational name. If more than a couple hundred people knew S.A.S.S. existed, Kate would be shocked. “Personal power, Home Base.” Kate had learned from the cradle to expect no other kind. “Doesn’t matter a damn who else knows it as long as I do.”

At the mouth of the cave, she paused to scan the rock. More of the same: worn smooth and deep gouges. Even considering tidal fluxes, too many deep gouges rimmed the actual opening. Water action alone couldn’t explain them. She swam on, entering the cave.

“Are you inside now?”

“Yes.” Snake-curved, the inner cave was about three feet wide. Kate swam close to its ceiling. Suddenly the width expanded to nearly ten feet. “The cave’s opened up.” She lifted her head above water, cranked her neck back and shone the light above her. “Now this is bizarre.”

“What?”

“I dove a solid twenty feet to get to the mouth, then swam a couple football fields to get to this point. The water rode the cave ceiling the whole way. Now I’m seeing a stretch of wall that’s exposed a good nine feet above the waterline.” She stopped treading water and tested for bottom. Her fin swiped the sand, and she stood up. “Water level’s dropped. It’s chest-deep.”

“I’m plotting your GPS,” Maggie said.

“Good, because even considering an umbrella effect, this shouldn’t be possible.” Kate kept her diving mask on in case she was standing on a shelf or sand bar—false bottoms had proven common in her explorations—then looked down the throat of the cave. A diffused light emanated from somewhere far ahead, creating a haze. The rocks jutting out from the cave walls cast deep shadows. Must be reflections shining through the water, or cracks in the rock. Neither seemed possible, but the alternative… “Oh, man.”

“What is it?” Anxiety etched Maggie’s voice. “Bluefish?”

“This is more than we bargained for.” Kate’s heart beat hard and fast. “A whole lot more.”

…NOT THE END…

Look for DOUBLE VISION by Vicki Hinze, on sale June 2005 at your favorite retail outlet.