Spy High (6 page)

I turned, nearly tripping over Peaches
as she wound around my ankles, and ducked back into my tent.
Successfully resisting the urge to kick the stacked wooden boxes
that served as my shelving unit, I dropped to my knees and shoved
my hand back into the duffel to retrieve the stupid bracelet. Its
hemp cord had broken, and I rose scowling at it just as Peaches
padded in again and made a beeline for the bag. Outside, Orion
scratched lightly at my tent flap, the commune’s version of a
knock.

I scooped Peaches up and shot a hurried
glance at my cot to be sure the phone bag was completely concealed
before saying, “Come in.”

Orion pushed through the tent flap, his
eyes anxious. “Did you find it?” His shoulders relaxed at the sight
of the chunky wooden beads in my hand. “Oh, good. Put it on,
then.”

“It’s broken. I’ll fix it later.” I
showed him the frayed cord.

“No, I’ll help you now. Here, hold out
your wrist.”

Resigned, I shifted Peaches to my other
arm and obeyed.

Orion knotted the cord carefully, his
brow furrowed with concentration. “There.” He gave me that
irresistible dimpled smile again, his fingertips caressing my
wrist. The feather-light touch ignited nerves all the way up my arm
and his voice deepened as he stepped closer. “How does that
feel?”

Somehow I suspected he didn’t mean the
bracelet.

I gulped at the dryness in my throat.
“Um… it’s a little…” I swallowed again. “…constricting,” I
finished, and stepped back. “You’d better hurry. Your shower time
is almost used up. And if there’s a cougar around, you should take
Peaches back to the main building with you.” I transferred her
carefully into the crook of his arm and tucked the hand towel
around her.

He looked nonplussed for only a moment
before his smile returned. “You’re right. Enjoy your walk, and be
careful. See you later.”

He ducked out the tent flap and an
involuntary sigh escaped me at the sight of that fine ass
disappearing, unappreciated by my hands. Then I shook myself into
duty mode and followed him out to hurry down the path before
anybody else could accost me.

Striding toward the main road, I
unzipped my jacket and flapped it a few times. God, either I was
starting to get hot flashes, or else Orion’s touch was enough to
cause spontaneous human combustion. Tingly sensations in
interesting areas of my body strongly suggested it was the
latter.

Just my luck. Only I would get assigned
to watch the hottest guy in the whole commune, but be forbidden to
do anything more than that.

Hell, after four months of abstinence I
was almost ready to reconsider the other men at the commune, and
they were nothing to write home about. Nichele’s crack about skinny
granola-fed guys was a little too close to the truth. Some women
might go for those fragile artsy-looking types, but my tastes ran
more toward hard muscle and bulk. Like Kane and Hellhound…

Or Orion.

Yanking my wayward mind back to the job
at hand with a sigh, I cast a casual glance around me as though
enjoying the rainy landscape. In all the times I’d reported to
Stemp I’d never met anybody else walking along the road to town,
and nearly twenty minutes of brisk hiking had carried me far beyond
where I might be accidentally overheard. But by now my paranoia had
become ingrained. Funny how a year of dicing with death could do
that.

My visual survey returned nothing more
threatening than the usual dripping trees and ferns, and I pulled
out my secured phone and pressed the speed dial.

“Stemp.” He answered on the first ring
as always, his crisp diction a welcome change from the drowsy tones
of the commune’s residents.

“It’s Aydan.” Neither expecting nor
receiving a greeting, I launched into my report. “I’ve noticed a
couple of things this week, and I’m not sure how relevant they
might be. Orion Moonjava has started paying unusual attention to
me, so I played along and asked a couple of questions.”

I paused, expecting censure, but
Stemp’s silence encouraged me to continue, “I mentioned his accent
and asked where he was from, and he seemed…” I fell silent again,
recalling his response and trying to quantify it. “He seemed…
uncomfortable. As if he’d been trying to hide it. I don’t know why
he’d do that; lots of people have British accents here on the
coast. You know, ‘British Columbia’ and all…”

Stemp didn’t respond to my attempt at
humour, so I went on, “Anyway, it just seemed odd. And then he
seemed evasive when I asked him how he knew so much about the
commune. But that might have been my imagination; it would be
normal for him to want to know everything about it since he’s so
deep into this bizarro Earth Spirit thing…”

I bit off my words too late. Damn,
Karma and Moonbeam were the high priest and priestess of the
bizarro Earth Spirit thing. Nothing like insulting your boss’s
parents.

“Sorry,” I added. “I didn’t mean…”

“It’s quite all right.” Stemp’s tone
was as emotionless as always. “As I mentioned before, my parents
and I have fundamental ideological differences.”

“Uh, yeah…” I hesitated, wondering
whether I should ask the question that was burning on my lips. I
should probably just shut up about it.

Nope, I had to know.

“Uh, about that. Um… your mom is the
sweetest person ever, but… do you think she can really see auras?”
I asked.

I had expected him to dismiss the idea
with contempt, but Stemp’s momentary silence surprised me.

“I… believe… she perceives… a great
deal,” he said slowly. “If she chooses to name that perception
‘aura’, I’m not inclined to argue.” A hint of humour warmed his
voice. “She always knew when I was lying as a child.”

His unexpected flash of humanity
shocked a laugh out of me. “Most mothers do. But… what exactly did
you tell her about me?”

His tone resumed its clinical
detachment. “Exactly what I reported in the dossier I gave you.
That you were a personal friend who had suffered a traumatic
experience and needed a peaceful environment in which to
recover.”

“Did you tell her about my
hysterectomy?”

“No, of course not. Even if it had been
in your personnel file, which it wasn’t, I certainly wouldn’t
provide that level of personal detail about any of my agents. Not
even to my mother.” His voice grew dry. “Especially not to my
mother.”

I knew that was the truth. He wouldn’t
give out the time of day without a signed affidavit and a
need-to-know.

“Well, then, I’m feeling really creeped
out,” I said. “Because she said she could see it in my aura. So
either she really reads auras or else somebody is feeding her
personal information about me.”

“What are you implying?” His usual
detached tone had morphed into something a little cooler and
stiffer.

I sighed. “Well, I seriously doubt
she’s a spy, and if she was, she’d be too smart to let something
like that slip. So I guess I’m implying that your mother really
reads auras.”

A groan escaped me and I pounded my
forehead with the heel of my hand. “I can’t believe I just said
that. I’ve been here far too long. When can I leave?”

“Soon. All the suspects from the Fuzzy
Bunny case have finally been incarcerated and intel indicates the
situation is settling down. No new threats to my cover have been
identified, so presumably that means the danger to my parents is
diminishing, too. If nothing else develops there at the commune,
you may be clear to leave in a week or two.”

“That’s what you’ve been saying for the
last two months.” I scowled at a giant banana slug oozing along the
shoulder of the road. Just as slimy as Stemp. “That audit cover is
starting to wear thin,” I added. “One of my friends from Calgary
questioned me about it today. And what about my bookkeeping clients
back in Silverside?”

“Your clients are well taken care of by
the temporary bookkeeper I engaged. And I realize this has taken
longer than we had originally hoped, but I truly believe we’re
nearing the end now.”

“Thank God.” I hesitated, balancing my
heartfelt desire to escape the commune against the guilt I’d feel
if I didn’t provide a full report and something bad happened to
Moonbeam and Karma.

I sighed. No contest there. “There are
a couple of other things.”

“Yes?” His voice sharpened.

“I’ve discovered there’s a group
renting the commune’s land across the river, and one of their
members has me worried. He seems to have a violent temper. I’ve
named him Ratboy because I don’t know his real name. Orion doesn’t
know I saw him and Ratboy talking, and when I asked Orion about
Ratboy later he acted as though he didn’t know him. It just seems…
off.”

I repeated their conversation as close
to verbatim as I could remember, and silence hummed on the line for
a moment before Stemp spoke.

“But this is the first time you’ve
noticed this Ratboy anywhere on the commune or near my
parents.”

“Yes. Orion has been around your mom
and dad, but no more so than any of the other commune members. And
his behaviour around them hasn’t raised any red flags for me.” I
sighed. “I’ll keep watching him, though. And one more thing: I’m
suspicious of Skidmark.”

“Why?”

“I don’t think he’s as stoned as he
pretends to be. I haven’t really paid much attention to him up to
now, but I’ve noticed lately that he’s making inflammatory remarks
and getting people stirred up. I’m afraid he might be trying to sow
discord and cause trouble for your mom and dad.”

“I see.” Stemp sounded thoughtful.
“What sort of inflammatory remarks?”

“Racial slurs, offensive stuff about
religion, gay-bashing in front of the gay guys, homosexual come-ons
to the straight guys…” I trailed off, dumbfounded by the
unprecedented sound of Stemp chuckling.

When he spoke again, I could still hear
the smile in his voice. “Skidmark is harmless. For decades he has
been a constant irritant to everyone except Mother and Father.
Sowing discord seems to be his sole raison d’être. That and
partaking of cannabis at every possible opportunity. Throughout my
entire childhood, I never saw him sober.”

“You grew up on the commune?” Somehow I
couldn’t reconcile Stemp’s suit-and-tie stiffness with Moonbeam’s
rainbow caftans and Karma’s sarongs.

“Yes.” The flat word was obviously
intended to discourage further discussion. He changed the subject.
“What else do you know about the renters?”

“Nothing yet, but Orion says they’ve
been there nearly a year.”

“That land has been rented to various
groups since before I can remember, so that’s normal. If they’ve
been there that long they’re unlikely to be related to our current
concerns, but keep an eye on Moonjava and Ratboy just the same.”
Stemp hesitated. “And if Moonjava is engaging you, respond as you
deem appropriate.”

“Okay. By the way, do your mom and dad
know about your… job?”

“No. They believe I’m a high-level
manager with the oil and gas research division here at Sirius
Dynamics.”

“All right, that’s what your mom said,
but I wasn’t sure if it was a cover story or what she really
believed.” Now it was my turn to hesitate. I really wanted to ask
him one more thing. It was none of my business, but…

“Is that all?” I inquired, the three
words invoking our secret code.

No one else would have noticed the tiny
edge of tension that knifed into Stemp’s voice. “Yes.”

We disconnected, and I turned to trudge
back to the commune in the rain.

When I arrived at my tent, I glanced at
my watch. Now that I’d uttered the code words, Stemp would be
waiting anxiously for me to contact him via the secret
communication protocol he’d installed on my laptop. Not for the
first time, I wondered how much trouble we’d be in if anybody
discovered we were circumventing the official department reporting
system.

Damn, the guy was paranoid. Even though
his parents’ existence wasn’t a secret like his wife and young
daughter overseas, he still forbade me to discuss any personal
matters during my official check-ins just in case someone in the
chain of command accessed the phone records.

I hesitated, debating. He’d be worried
and expecting a report as soon as possible, but I was chilled under
my still-wet hair and the power would only stay on a little while
longer.

Screw it.

I hurried up to the main building to
find an electrical outlet and blow-dry my hair, then back to my
tent to change into relatively dry clothes before firing up the
laptop.

I sighed as I watched the system boot.
I didn’t even like Stemp. I didn’t want to be the repository of his
personal secrets, and I especially didn’t want the responsibility
of being the only other person in the world who knew about his
little daughter overseas.

As soon as I plugged the laptop into
one of the burner phones to connect to the internet, the tiny white
square began to blink onscreen. I pressed Alt-Shift and clicked on
it, and the text window bloomed into existence.

The cursor zipped across it.
“Report.”

I immediately typed, “Your family’s
fine, don’t worry.”

I imagined Stemp’s tension easing, and
unwilling sympathy touched my heart. He was a ruthless bastard, but
that single-minded dedication to his job was only exceeded by his
devotion to his wife and daughter. He would have been worried sick
waiting for my message.

But the first part of this wasn’t about
Katya and Anna; it was just embarrassing and I didn’t want to
discuss it over official channels.

I hesitated, my fingers poised over the
keys.

Well, just say it.

I typed, “Your mom thinks you’re in
love with me because you sent me to the commune. I tried to
discourage her but I don’t know if I succeeded.”