Читать книгу The Stranger and I - Carol Ericson - Страница 7

“He’s gone.” The woman’s arms flailed in the air as she looked up and down the street, as if expecting her “dead man” to suddenly materialize.

Justin crossed his arms and watched her dive into the trunk again. Chad must’ve been out of his mind picking up this woman. Chad was dead. His throat tightened. Why’d the impulsive fool go it alone? And why did Molina choose that moment to go to Costa Rica?

Chad must’ve discovered something after he placed that call from Mexico City, but the note held no clues unless Chad left him something in the car. Did the woman know more than she’d revealed? Who were the Mexicans who came onto the scene? Were they working with Chad? Chad’s killers would’ve pursued her and killed her—unless they died at the scene themselves.

Trust Chad to involve a woman. He probably slept with her. Chad could just about get any woman to do anything for him after he took her to bed. In their line of work that talent definitely had its uses.

Justin eyed her slender form half buried in the trunk as she clawed through its contents, probably searching for the dead man. Chad always did have good taste in women.

Her head popped up, a tangled mass of blond curls framing her flushed face. “He was in here. I swear.”

He said, “Maybe he wasn’t dead. Maybe he just walked away. Did you see any wounds on the body, any blood? You check his pulse?”

Her deep blue eyes mirrored her confusion. “No, I didn’t want to touch him.”

He shot back, “Then how’d you know he was dead?”

She raked her hand through her hair. “I—I…He was in the trunk,” she finished lamely.

“So?” The woman had about as much sense as a kitten in the rain. He squelched an urge to brush a lock of hair from her eye. The sooner he sent her on her way, the better.

Glancing back down at the gaping trunk now disgorging its contents, she asked, “Why would he be in the trunk otherwise?”

He surveyed the fins, oxygen tank and mask spilling out of the car. Chad didn’t dive. “A man in the trunk of a car close to the U.S.–Mexican border isn’t all that unusual. Maybe he climbed into the trunk when you stopped for food.”

Her brow cleared as she nodded. “I get it. You and Chad aren’t drug smugglers, you’re people smugglers.”

“We are not,” he snapped. Actually, he had a sinking suspicion that the man in the trunk was Chad’s informant. If so, they walked right into a trap. Did the informant somehow escape from the trunk? He had to find him, get information from him.

She smoothed her hands over her face and emerged with a frown tugging at the corners of her full lips. Ever since she’d intruded on his space, her emotions had been galloping across her face in an everchanging kaleidoscope. An unwelcome stab of guilt pricked Justin’s conscience, and an even more unwelcome jolt of desire knotted his gut.

“The less you know about us, the safer it is for you. I’ll help you collect your things from Chad’s car and give you a lift home. Your role in this little drama is over.”

He examined the trunk’s broken lock, which showed signs of tampering. Did the informant escape or did someone follow the woman here and remove him from the trunk? Icy fingers tripped up his spine.

“There’s a trace of blood in here.” As he ran his hands over the inside of the trunk, he heard the rumble of an engine build, its low roar coming closer until tires screeched around the corner. His head shot up. A dark sedan rocketed down the street toward them.

He yelled, “Get down.”

Dragging a bag out of the trunk, she looked up, mouth agape. He tackled her. The car slowed down. He stuffed her under Chad’s car with one hand, reaching for his Glock with the other. A bullet pierced the air, slamming into the curb beside him. He leveled his weapon at the hooded figure leaning out the car window and shot back.

Another bullet whizzed past his ear and clanged against the bumper. The soft body beneath him jerked. He fired once more at the retreating car before it sped around the corner, choking the air with exhaust.

The woman raised her head, her eyes occupying half her face. “Who was that? What’s going on?”

He pulled her up. “Looks like you were followed after all or picked up at the border. Or that’s your dead man taking revenge for his mode of transportation. You okay?”

Before she could answer, a man stepped out on his porch and yelled, “What the hell is going on out here?”

Justin waved his arm. “Just some kids lighting some leftover firecrackers. I chased them off.”

“Damn kids.” The man retreated, banging his screen door behind him.

Still clutching his gun at his side, Justin propelled the woman across the street and into his house. He yanked a duffel bag out of the closet and started shoveling clothes into it.

He said over his shoulder, “We have to get out of here.” Turning, he saw her standing in the middle of the room knotting her hands in front of her.

He had no intention of becoming this woman’s white knight, but he could show her a little courtesy for her trouble. He stopped packing. “Sit down. I’ll get you a soda or something.”

She shot a glance at the window, her breath coming in short spurts. “Will they come back?”

“Not now. They’ll be afraid the gunshots will attract the police, but they won’t stay away for long.” He handed her a can of soda, and she gulped it. He studied her face, its delicate planes creased with anxiety. Damn Chad.

She lifted her eyes to his and the trust shining from them chipped at a hard corner of his heart. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“To safety. Is there anyone expecting you, family, husband?” He held his breath.

Her long, golden lashes swept down to veil her eyes for a moment. “No, I’m not expected back from Mexico for another week.” A grin twisted her lips. “I left early to get a jump on recording my research.”

He returned the grin then finished packing. After dropping his bag by the door, he disconnected his laptop and stowed it in its case. He gave the small house a final glance. He’d have to abandon it, just as he had a few others along the way.

His gaze shifted to the woman on his couch, her feet curled beneath her long tanned legs. She held the can of soda pressed against her cheek, her eyes closed. He realized with a start he didn’t even know her name. How did Chad address her in the letter? Lisa? Lily?

They had a long drive ahead of them, and he had to call her something. “What’s your name?”

She drained the can of soda and answered, “Lila Monroe.” She hesitated. “Justin, why do I have to come with you? Why can’t you just take me home?”

The sound of his name on her lips touched him, and he felt his face shutting down, his barriers rising. He wouldn’t allow himself any messy emotional attachments. He just had a job to do. “We’re not dealing with ordinary criminals here. You don’t want these people discovering who you are, where you live, where your family lives. If I dropped you off at your home now and they followed us, you’d never be safe.”

She breathed out, “I’m scared.”

He stood rooted to the floor, fighting impulses he’d long held at bay. The sincerity of her emotions touched a core within him, a core he guarded and protected with a hardened shell. How had she insinuated herself there so easily?

He picked up his bags. “We need to leave, Lila. You’ll be safe where I’m taking you. Get another soda for the road, and grab one for me, too. We’ll get something to eat along the way.”

Stowing his bags in the bed of his truck along with the camping gear he always kept there, he ordered Lila to climb in the cab and wait. He stole out to Chad’s car, keeping his weapon ready, and grabbed the gear from the open trunk. He swept the contents of the glove compartment into a bag and then loaded everything into his truck.

Lila sat in the passenger seat staring ahead at nothing, her face pale beneath sun-kissed skin. Justin cursed Chad and his lust, not for the first time. It was, however, the last. His breath hitched in his throat.

Starting the engine, he looked at his silent companion. “You ready?”

She closed her eyes and nodded. He expelled a breath, relaxing the muscles of his face. The eyes were supposed to be windows to the soul, and she seemed to peer right into his. The clear blue light from her eyes probed his inner depths, peeling back one layer of his defenses at a time. From the moment she appeared on his doorstep, he felt transparent under her gaze. And worse, she seemed to understand his defects and pity him for them.

Did she realize Chad’s death lay at his door? Justin should’ve been a better mentor, should’ve been more forceful in telling Chad to hold tight until he got down there. He failed Chad just when Chad needed him most. That thought burned behind his eyes until he doused it. Better not go down that road.

After an hour’s sleep, Lila stirred. Those impossible golden curls shielded one half of her face. Her long lashes with their dark tips lay like a curve of velvet on her cheek. Her lips, even in repose, turned up at the corners.

A Pollyanna, that fit her perfectly, trusting, gullible. Fortunately this experience would cure her of that fatal flaw. Better to be on your guard.

She shoved her hair back from her face, blinking rapidly. Looking out the window, she asked, “Where are we?”

He answered, “Heading north on the I-15.”

Turning her head toward him, she said, “The desert?”

“That’s right. Do you mind driving for a while? I need to make a phone call and sort through Chad’s stuff.”

“I can drive, but can we pull over at a rest stop or something? I feel like I’ve just run a marathon, barefoot, and with wild beasts in pursuit.”

His eyes roamed over her lithe body, and his hands itched to follow. He shook his head and laughed. “Looks like one of those wild beasts caught up with you.”

She cocked her head at him. “You have a nice laugh. You should use it more often.”

He gripped the steering wheel. “Not much to laugh at these days.”

“You’re wrong. The world holds a lot of laughter.”

Not his world. He cut off her homily. “There’s a rest area two miles ahead.”

He maneuvered the car off the interstate and pulled in to the parking lot. While Lila slung a small bag over her shoulder and headed for the restrooms, he leaned against the truck facing the highway.

The flat desert landscape offered safety. An occasional Joshua tree reached up to the sky, proclaiming its indomitability against the suffocating desert heat, but most of the plant life crouched in the hot sand, allowing the naked eye to see for miles.

A couple of truckers hogged several parking spaces between them, and a family with three kids ducked in and out of a large cooler, pulling out sandwiches and drinks. Justin’s chest contracted as the father swung the youngest boy up on his shoulders for a trip to the vending machines.

Lila emerged from the restroom, her dusty denim shorts and wrinkled T-shirt replaced by a pair of khaki hiking shorts and a blue tank top, which exposed her toned arms. A tortoiseshell headband swept her hair off her face, although a few of those riotous curls found freedom. As she stood in front of him, he suppressed an urge to capture one of those ringlets and wrap it around his finger.

She held out her hand. “Keys?” He dropped them into her palm and tossed her bag in the back of the truck. He brought his laptop and the bag containing the contents of Chad’s glove compartment into the front.

Adjusting the seat and starting the engine, she asked, “Same direction for a while?”

He nodded and flipped open his cell phone. Someone picked up after two rings.

He recited, “This is Lone Wolf 58634.” Those searching blue eyes skimmed his profile, so he turned to look out the window at the lunarlike landscape.

The voice on the other end responded, “Hi, Justin, this is Prasad. I mean, Warrior Sheikh 28221. What’s the word, my man? When are you going to Mexico?”

Justin took a deep breath. “Sooner than I planned. Chad’s dead.”

Prasad choked out, “How’d it happen?”

“They shot him. Thank God they didn’t do worse. I think he might’ve discovered something. Can’t think why else he’d plow ahead like that without me.”

“Where was Molina?”

“Following a lead in Costa Rica.”

Justin could hear Prasad measuring his words. “Nobody’s going to blame you. We all know how impulsive he is…was. How’d you find out? We haven’t heard a word here.”

Justin slid his eyes over to Lila, concentrating on the road in front of her. She didn’t fool him. She’d been soaking up every word. “He picked up a woman. She witnessed the murder, then hightailed it out of there.”

Prasad gasped and then chuckled. “Figures there’d be a woman in the mix. Is she hot?”

Justin avoided taking inventory of the lovely lady in the driver’s seat and grunted, “Yeah.” He turned up the air-conditioning.

Prasad continued, “How’d she find you?”

“Chad left her a note with my name and address.”

Prasad exclaimed, “And she actually came straight to you instead of the Federales? Wow, Chad must’ve really done a number on her. You gotta admire the guy. I’m glad he went out in a blaze of glory. We should all be so lucky.”

Shifting in his seat, Justin redirected the conversation, telling Prasad the rest of the story about the two Mexicans who arrived on the scene, the missing body in the trunk and the shoot-out in the street.

Prasad whistled. “You’ve had a busy morning, and all I’ve been doing is monitoring a couple of databases. What do you think happened to the guy in the trunk?”

“Not sure. I think he may have been Chad’s informant. They probably met and got ambushed. If he walked away from that trunk, I have to track him down.”

“Yeah, good luck with that. Do you think the Mexicans who showed up on the scene were working with Chad? Did they kill his murderers?”

“Probably and maybe. The witness claims she wasn’t followed, which only makes sense if the killers are dead.”

“Then how’d their associates find your place?”

“They made Chad’s car and picked it up at the border. She’s lucky…” Lila aimed a sharp glance at him and he trailed off.

Prasad asked, “You discover yet what Chad was in such a fever pitch to find down there that it got him killed? Anything to do with this chatter we’re hearing about a terrorist attack on our soil?”

“I don’t know, but I have a computer disk from his car, and I’m going to pop it in my laptop once I get off the phone. One more thing, Prasad, I’m coming in, and I’m bringing the woman with me. I didn’t want to risk taking her home when we might be followed, but you guys can safely drop her back in. They don’t know who she is.”

Prasad assured him they’d be there for the rest of the night and could resettle the witness.

Justin set up his laptop and inserted the disk, ignoring Lila’s penetrating gaze.

She said, “Are you going to tell me who you are now…Lone Wolf?”

He stopped tapping the keyboard. She had a point. She’d been on the express train to hell and back and deserved to know. “You’ve heard of the Department of Homeland Security?”

She waved her tapered fingers. “Of course, the department that brought us color-coded threat levels.”

“Right. We’re a covert offshoot of that department called Homeland Intelligence Agency or ‘hiya’ as we fondly call ourselves.”

Those lovely lips tightened into a smirk. “As in, ‘Hiya, we’re just a bunch of friendly guys and gals’?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, something like that. We’re your best friend if you can give us information about terrorists slipping across our borders.”

Her mouth formed a perfect O, which was way too kissable for comfort. “You’re kidding. That’s what Chad was doing in Mexico?”

“Working undercover…disguised as a surfer. Good disguise, huh?”

Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she turned to him. “Yeah, that long blond hair, tanned body, devil-may-care attitude. Perfect disguise.”

Her voice broke, and his gut clenched. Oh, yeah, Chad really did a number on her. Justin left her alone with her grief.

After a few moments and a few sniffles, she tilted her chin toward the laptop. “You find anything yet?”

He’d been scanning the files on the disk, but they contained old news. “No, nothing we hadn’t already gone through together. He called me from Mexico City. Must’ve been a few days before he picked you up. We’ve been searching for a tunnel from Mexico to the U.S., and he made contact with some coyotes down there.”

Her brow creased, and he continued. “The guys who help illegals cross the border. But the illegals we’re after aren’t the ones scrambling to get here to find work. We’re looking for the ones intent on exploding bombs in our shopping malls or on trains or buses.”

She squinted at the asphalt in front of her, chewing her lip. A tunnel? A memory she’d been trying to suppress began solidifying in her mind. Chad kneeling in the dirt. The brutal whip slicing his body. The blood. His long hair swinging back. The gunshot. And before the gunshot? El túnel está aquí.

She jerked the steering wheel, and Justin clutched at the computer. “Hey, watch the road. The highway still kills more people than terrorists do.”

She whispered, “El túnel.”

His eyes glinted as they bored into her. “What did you say?”

She repeated, “Túnel, el túnel está aquí. That’s why he spoke in Spanish. They didn’t understand Spanish. He shouted that to me.”

Justin snapped the laptop shut and turned to her. “Are you telling me Chad yelled out ‘The tunnel is here’ before those men executed him?”

Bobbing her head up and down, she exclaimed, “That’s exactly what I mean. He found this tunnel you’re looking for. It must’ve been right there where they killed him. Maybe he didn’t know that when he wrote me the note. He discovered it, or his contact told him, and they surprised them and killed them.”

His tiger eyes formed two slits as he watched her. Now what? Was he going to get mad at her again? Just when he started to thaw out. He actually laughed…twice.

He spit out, “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

She tossed her hair. “You’re unbelievable. I just solved your case for you, and you’re mad because I didn’t do it sooner.”

He inclined his head and compressed his lips before stating, “You haven’t solved the case, and this is no TV cop show.”

Scowling at him, she said, “I didn’t remember what he said because I’ve been trying to forget what I saw and heard in that clearing.”

The deep lines at the sides of his mouth retreated. “I’m sorry. Thanks for telling me what you remembered, and you’re probably right. He discovered the tunnel, and they discovered him.”

She felt a warm glow. That’s more like it. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “How do you think that guy got in the trunk?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “The terrorists ambushed them and killed him first before you woke up. What I don’t understand is how they stashed the body in the trunk without waking you up or seeing you.”

She snapped her fingers. “Chad covered me with a blanket. The night was pretty warm and I didn’t remember having a blanket, but when I woke up I was completely covered. Maybe Chad hid me on purpose.”

Clapping her hand over her mouth, she uttered, “Oh my God, what if they had found me in that car?”

He touched her shoulder. A current sizzled from his fingertips to her bare skin. She searched his face to see if he felt it, too.

His amber eyes flickered, and then he drew back. “You must lead a charmed life. Could you find that spot again?”

“Are you letting me in?”

He pressed his back against the truck’s door. “Letting you in?”

The man had more nerve endings than an exposed tooth. She held up one hand. “I mean, are you allowing me to help?”

He relaxed. “If you can get me as close as possible to that spot, that’d be a big help.”

“I think I can do that.” She mentally converted the hours she drove into miles, and remembered the little town where she stopped for food and gas. Yeah, she could give him that.

Then maybe they could get her home, and she could call Mom and Tyler. She’d leave them out of this until the HIA could get her safely back to her apartment in San Diego. Then this strange, bottled-up man could get back to his job alone, and she could get back to her life.

She’d have to start pulling back on the strings that attached her to him. He was a wounded bird if she ever saw one, as damaged as any sea creature she helped to restore to its habitat. He had his own habitat, that sterile house where he took tea with anger and fear. He couldn’t even express sadness at the death of his colleague, even though she could read the pain haunting his eyes. Was he afraid if he let go he’d never find his way back to that barren shore he called a life?

Some people were past saving, better to concentrate on the ones who still had hope. She heard Gareth’s mocking voice whisper, “Sap.” Where he was concerned, she’d been a sap. And in that incident with Adam. She shuddered.

She hadn’t been wrong about Chad, though. In the end, she couldn’t save him, but she’d helped him. Shifting her eyes to the silent man next to her intent on the computer screen, she wondered if she was wrong about him. To save him would be a challenge beyond even her abilities.

They’d been on the road for nearly three hours. The moist ocean breezes of San Diego had long since been replaced by arid gusts that needled their flesh. Justin told her to pull over so he could take over driving duty once more. Before changing places, they stretched their legs outside the truck.

The shimmering heat rose like seaweed from the desert floor. Justin, hands on hips, drilled the horizon with his piercing gaze. He carried himself with the loose-limbed grace of an athlete. He’d deceived her with his strength when he’d yanked her into his house, impressing her as a huge, powerful figure. He had power all right and stood over six feet tall. But even though his body was taut, he was no bulging muscleman.

As if sensing her scrutiny, he turned and grinned. “You ready for the last leg of the trip?” His smile banished all the pain and disillusionment from his face. What put it there?

“Yeah, I’m ready to say ‘hiya’ to hiya.”

He shook his head as he climbed back into the truck. “This heat’s getting to you.”

Their last stop had been in Twentynine Palms where they fueled up and downed a couple of sports drinks along with some sandwiches. Justin promised her a shower and some rest at the HIA facility. She needed both.

They hurtled over the blazing asphalt of Highway 62, leaving Twentynine Palms and civilization in the dust. Justin turned down a road heading south. A gated structure, the color of the encroaching sand, took shape in the glimmering heat.

Lila quipped, “Will you have to kill me after I see the secret compound?”

A shadow passed over his face. “Don’t joke about it.”

They inched up to the gate, and he inserted a key card into a slot. The gate rolled back on squeaking wheels. He parked the truck and stepped out onto concrete, glittering with particles of sand. The facility looked deserted, but most of the agents parked their cars in the back.

His jaw tightened, and a pulse throbbed in his throat. All his senses danced on the head of a pin. He sniffed the air, his nostrils flaring at the faint, acrid odor of gunpowder. Range practice?

Lila chirped, “Is it always so quiet here?”

He felt for the gun he’d just shoved into his gun bag along with his backup and ascended the steps to the entrance. He punched the intercom. No answer. Swiping his sweaty hand across his T-shirt, he flipped open the print reader with his other hand. He pressed his thumb against the reader and said, “Lone Wolf 58634.”

The lock on the gunmetal-gray door clicked. He withdrew a badge and flashed it at the reader. A second click. Shoving the door open, he stepped over the threshold. The familiar whirring and buzzing noises filtered out from the data lab in the back.

Victoria Lang sauntered into the hallway holding a pink-frosted cupcake, an overnight bag slung over one shoulder. “Oh, it’s you. Prasad said you were coming in. Guess we didn’t hear the intercom.”

Justin expelled a breath and eyed the cupcake. Lifting one eyebrow, he asked, “One of your creations?”

Victoria scooped at the icing with a long, manicured fingernail and licked it. “Yeah, it’s Dave’s birthday. There’s more in the back.”

He gestured to her bag. “Are you off?”

She lifted the shoulder with the bag. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning, taking R & R in Vegas for a few days. Is this the witness?”

Before he could answer, she extended a sticky hand to Lila. “I’m Victoria Lang. Glad you came forward.”

Justin made a terse introduction. “This is Lila.” Victoria didn’t need to know Lila’s last name. Nobody did.

Lila said, “I don’t think I had a choice.”

Victoria shook her head so that her sleek black hair rippled over her shoulders. “We all have choices. Looks like Chad made a dumb one.”

Justin clenched his teeth. Was she blaming him for Chad’s failure? She couldn’t blame him any more than he blamed himself. “He was on the scent.”

Waving her cupcake in the air, Victoria said, “Yeah, yeah, but you’d never put anyone else in danger, Justin, except maybe yourself.”

He asked, “Anyone hear from Molina yet?”

She lifted her dark sculpted brows. “Nope. You think he’d know about Chad’s death. They were partners down there, albeit reluctant ones.”

Prasad joined them in the hallway, his face drawn and too gaunt for a man his age.

Justin nodded to the younger man. “You okay?”

Prasad shrugged thin shoulders that masked a tensile strength. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Chad always did take more risks than anyone else.”

The “except you” hung in the air.

Justin brushed it away with the sweep of his arm. “You learn from his mistakes and go on, but it can happen to any one of us, even you, Warrior Sheikh.”

Victoria snorted. “You still using that code name, Prasad? Dream on.”

He countered, “Yeah, okay, Amazon Goddess.”

“Wow, would you be S.O.L. if you were out in the field and needed assistance from me? I’ll have you know, I’m now Lady Hawk.”

Dropping a curve of long dark lashes over one eye, she winked at Lila and said, “Our boss has an exaggerated flair for the dramatic.”

Justin grumbled, “Or the ridiculous.” He gestured toward Lila, “Prasad, this is Lila, the witness I told you about.”

Lila’s cheeks grew pink under Prasad’s scrutiny, and Justin stepped between them. Prasad didn’t need to know any details, either. Justin asked, “Is Leo in?”

Victoria answered, “No, he hasn’t been around much. Phones in from San Diego, gives us orders. You know Leo.”

Justin knew his boss hankered after a promotion. More office work. More money. Less danger. Hell, the man had a family, two teenagers ready to start college soon. He deserved a breather.

Prasad said, “I called him about Chad. The news hit him hard.”

“Leo always has his favorites.” Victoria directed a pointed glance at Justin.

He turned his back on her. Leo had been his mentor in the early days, but Justin didn’t need him now. Just complicated things, like Justin’s own mentoring relationship with Chad and Prasad complicated things. His own father had failed as a role model, so what business did he have trying to guide others?

They all walked together into the data lab where three agents tapped away at keyboards in front of computer screens with one hand, balancing cupcakes in the other. They looked up at Justin’s entrance and crowded around him to glean the details of Chad’s murder.

He revealed only the basics as he intercepted Lila’s puzzled look and finished, “Lila’s going to show me the site of Chad’s execution on the interactive map in the back and I’ll go down to Mexico in the next few days to check it out.”

Dave, the birthday boy, asked, “So you think they followed her?”

Justin replied, “Haven’t figured that out yet, but if the Mexicans killed the two dirtbags who murdered Chad, their accomplices probably waited for Chad’s car at the border.” He felt Lila tense by his side and all his nerve endings tingled with a desire to touch her, smooth away the worry lines between her eyebrows.

He steepled his fingers and shot her a look from beneath his eyelids. “She needs to get home safely. Maybe a helicopter ride into Lindbergh Field.” She’ll be safe and I’ll be safe. The thought nibbled at the edges of his mind. Ridiculous.

Dave shoved his glasses back up his nose and pressed, “Are we debriefing her here? Did Chad say anything before he died?”

Justin quelled the agent’s curiosity with a cold glance from narrowed eyes. “I already did that. Chad said nothing.”

Dave stepped back, holding up his hands. “All right. Enough said.”

Before Justin took Lila to the navigation room, Prasad announced, “I’m going into Twentynine Palms for rations to get us through the rest of the night. Anyone need anything?”

Dave protested, “Hey, it’s not your turn. It’s my turn to go in. You just want to see Janet.”

Victoria explained, “Prasad met a cute Japanese woman who works at the shopping center in Twentynine Palms. A Muslim who practices Islam and a Buddhist. We keep telling him it’s doomed.”

Prasad laughed. “Lust conquers all.”

He began taking orders for beef jerky, microwave popcorn and lattes while Justin and Lila retreated to the back room. A long night loomed ahead of them all.

As he punched the code in for the door, Lila asked, “Is that it? Just the six of you?”

“It varies, depending who’s out in the field. The team’s bigger but some of the agents are on assignment. Danny Molina and I are stationed in Mexico right now. Chad was, too.”

“Why weren’t you down there with him?”

He shoved the door open. “Personal business.”

As they entered the lab, Lila stared, wide-eyed, at the collection of satellite images on the screens around the room. Justin pointed out Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Indonesia before leading her to a lighted map of Mexico.

He handed her the pointer. “If you touch the screen with the pointer and then touch another spot twice quickly, the number of miles between the two distances will flash. Or I can switch it to minutes.”

She held the pointer between two fingers. “Cool.”

“If you press down on a point on the map, the name of the town will flash on the screen, or the name of the nearest town and the distance.”

She caught her full lower lip between her teeth and studied the map. Talking to herself, she said, “Let’s see, I got to the border at around eight o’clock, stopped for forty-five minutes in Loma Vista before that.”

He leaned in, watching her pore over the map. Her musky scent, a combination of tangy salt and stale lilac, enfolded him, weaving a silky web around him. He stepped back to break the threads.

She needed to get home, back to her family and friends. He knew instinctively she had lots of friends. Her warmth would draw people to her, grateful to be included in the glow that floated around her like a cape. God, he was losing it.

She murmured, “I think the site is around this area. It’s south of this little town, Loma Vista. Some dense foliage marked the spot. The rest of the way to Loma Vista was pretty bare.”

Blinking his eyes, he focused on the map where she circled with the wand.

“I can’t be absolutely sure until I see the place again. It was dark, and I was sleeping when we got there and terrified when I left.”

Drawing in closer, he noted the general location but didn’t write it down. He frowned. “Are you sure this is the place?”

She nodded. “I’m figuring it out by hours not miles, and I’m sure I stopped in Loma Vista and it took me another forty-five minutes to the border. Why?”

Scratching his chin, he said, “It seems kind of far from the border to be tunneling in. I expected something closer to the border itself.”

He flipped a switch to erase the entire transaction. “At least it gives me a starting point.”

Handing him the pointer, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell your colleagues out there about the tunnel?”

He shrugged. “It’s only a supposition right now. Something Chad and I worked on, nobody else, except Molina, and I’m not sure how far Chad took him into his confidence.”

She sighed. “I thought government agencies were supposed to be working together now—”

“Shh.” He held up his hand.

She started to speak, and he hissed, “Quiet.”

A hollow puff. A soft thud. A quick footstep.

He prowled toward the door of the navigation room, lifted a chair and lodged it under the door handle.

Her eyes round with fear, a sickly pallor soaking into her skin, Lila choked out, “What’s wrong?”

He spun toward her, regretting his next words. “The facility’s been compromised.”