Double-Back (Jake Waters Book 3) (13 page)

Sunday, May 8

"Exactly who is this Bob Trask?" Jeff asked.  Paul had used some people who owed him to do some checking into Carlson and those around her.  It had taken longer, but he hadn't had to use his uncle's resources and place them at risk.

"My source tells me he is a contractor that the FBI uses from time to time," Paul explained.  "Carlson must have brought him in to help out with this special White House project the Director assigned her to.  Maybe he was part of whatever project they are preparing to brief the White House on."

"Maybe he should be the one we go after?" Jeff suggested.

"I don't think so," Natalie objected.  "For one thing, he wasn't even on this coast when we made our first attempts at Carlson.  I can't see where he'd know anything that might help us."

"Also, he's probably staying in one of the better hotels," Paul pointed out.  "It would be a lot harder to pull off a snatch under those conditions.  I think we go after this Jim Laney fellow.  He's been her partner for a number of years, and if anyone knows anything, I'd guess it would be him."

"I still don't see exactly what we are trying to accomplish," Jeff asked.  "According to Natalie, since she did this BackSliding thing of hers, Carlson and the Feds aren't aware of either of the attempts we made against her.  So, they don't know we exist, and are after her.  What are we going to learn?"

"They may not know about us exactly, but they may have some preliminary indication that someone is up to something.  I couldn't Backslide back far enough to prevent some of the early planning you and Paul were engaged in.  We want to know if they have any hints of that early planning, which might help us understand how they knew about our final plans.  I also want to know what she might have done to follow up on Anne's phone call to her."

"I thought you said that she hadn't contacted Anne?" Jeff asked.

"As far as we know, but we don't know everything that might have taken place since that initial call.  Anne might have called her again while she was away from work, or they might have met, and we don't know about it.  We need to understand what's going on from their side.  Right now, I can't see how we can make another attempt against Carlson and hope it works this time until we know more, and we can't simply walk away."

"There's other advantages to grabbing her partner," Paul pointed out.  "More than anyone else, he ought to know what she knows.  We might learn something we simply don't know enough to consider at this point, and by taking this agent, whatever they have heard might be construed to mean the plans were being made against him and not specifically targeting Carlson.  It'll certainly stir matters up, and might give us a shot at her that wouldn't otherwise exist.  She's pretty much locked away inside their Headquarters with this special assignment.  Having her partner killed ought to get her out trying to find out why and by whom.  Opportunity, right?"

"So, we plan to kill this guy once we're done with him?" Jeff asked.

"Of course," Natalie replied.  "We can't leave him around to tell the others what he might recall.  Right now there's nothing to link us to anything, and we want to make sure it stays that way."

"Yeah, but now you want to kill a second FBI agent," Jeff complained.

"Maybe not," Paul injected into the exchange.  "A lot depends on how things work out and how well your sister can actually work this special ability.  Holding one of theirs might get us a shot at Carlson, and it might not.  Depending on what we learn, how things work out, and whether Natalie can really perform this loopback, we might decide it's best to let her do that and allow the guy to live.  That has the advantage of them not knowing what we have learned."

"When do we decide this?" Natalie asked.

"Once we have the guy and see what he knows," Paul said.  "My uncle indicated he wouldn't mind seeing something happen to Carlson, but I don't think he'd be too happy if we start a major war with the Feds.  If killing one more Fed is required to remove her, I can probably sell it, but I'd rather not have to."

"When do we do this?" Jeff asked.

"We know enough about where he lives and the schedule his wife follows, right?" Paul said.  "We still have that empty hunting cabin we can use for any questioning.  If you can come up with a couple of reliable men to help out, I'd say we make our move tomorrow night."

"We don't tell anyone else," Natalie insisted.

"Not even the two men Jeff is going to round up for us," Paul agreed.  "All they need to know is what we tell them to do as it's going down.  Jeff will bring them to this Laney's home when we're ready."

"We use his wife for leverage," Natalie said, nodding her head.  "We can be in place when he arrives home.  Hopefully he'll come alone.  Jeff said sometimes he brings that consultant with him.  They appear to be friends."

"If he does that, we'll just have to adapt.  Two would make matters much more difficult, so perhaps we need to monitor whether they are coming home before we make the move on the wife."

"I can follow him home and let you know if he's alone," Natalie said. 

"Then I believe we are set," Paul said.  "Jeff, you should go and verify the men you said you can get will actually be available.  Call me if there are any problems."

Natalie watched Paul as he escorted her brother out of the apartment.  It was almost as if it were his place, the way he moved confidently, with complete familiarity with the place.  She felt a shiver of sexual anticipation.  She knew what would be on Paul's mind once her brother was gone.  Sometimes she wondered how she had ended up with someone like him.

On the surface, he was a cultured professional.  He was an experienced corporate lawyer with impressive credentials from Harvard, her own alma mater.  That was something they had in common, and one of the things they'd been able to share in the beginning.  Just as her father had made certain she could go to the best, consistent with her superior intelligence, Paul's family had made a point of seeing him groomed, to be of maximum use to the Organization, and be someone to some day be able to step into a top level, if not the very top position in the Organization.

She was drawn to this image of him, yet she knew the hidden violence that he held suppressed also appealed to her.  Clearly, she was her father's daughter.  She had learned through her brother that Paul had wheedled some of the old school types that had kept his uncle in power all these years into exposing him to the darker side of the Organization, and he'd earned the respect he commanded by his actions there as well.  Paul had killed before, and not just once.  That was why she had known she could approach him with the Carlson problem.

She heard Paul enter the bedroom where she had gone to prepare, knowing that was where they would end up.  He smiled as he closed the door and began to unbutton his own shirt.

Wednesday Evening, May 11

"I'm home," Jim hollered as he closed the door behind him, placing the bundle of keys into the woven bowl along the hallway as he walked back toward the kitchen area.  He was less than halfway down the hall when a man who he recognized from Jake's sketch stepped into view, a small shiny revolver pressed to side of Clarissa's head.  She looked totally terrified.

"My god!" Jim exclaimed.  He had considered the possibility he might be a target, and maybe even Clarissa, but for some reason he hadn't believed anything would happen this quickly.  He'd planned to have a talk with his wife about visiting her family out of state for a couple of days.  Slowly, so as not to excite the man, he raised his hands above his shoulders.

"Your gun," the man said sternly.

"No problem," Jim agreed.  "It's on my hip.  Do you want to get it, or should I take it out?"

"Slowly, or you know what happens," the man warned.

Jim did as asked, slowly pushing aside his suit jacket, and reaching back for the weapon.  As he unsnapped the Glock, he let his fingers grab the butt of the composite frame and slowly withdrew the weapon between his thumb and first finger, setting it on the counter off to one side, then stepping away from it.

"Well done," the man said.  "Are there any other weapons?  You know the consequences if there are."

Jim shook his head and did as he was told.  Two other men, one with a beard who could be the other person they had a sketch of, waited with guns drawn.  An extremely attractive young woman sat off to one side watching him carefully.  He had no idea who she might be.  Jake hadn't mentioned a woman at any point up to now.

"Jacket off," the man he didn't recognize ordered.

Jim stripped off the jacket and handed it over as ordered.  Then he stepped forward to be searched.

The one who had held the gun to Clarissa's head pushed her into the room, and watched with his gun ready while Jim was searched.

"He's clean," the clean-shaven older man said after carefully checking Jim, relieving him of his spare magazine and the handcuffs.  From the care with which he made his search, Jim was surprised that Tony's special belt had gone unnoticed.  If everything worked as Tony had promised, when Jim had removed his gun from the holster, he had also moved the small magnet stuck to the Glock's slide far enough away from the triggering mechanism in the belt to activate it.  Jake and Susan should have received an alert when he did so, and so would be aware of what was happening.

"Sit," the man he'd encountered in the hallway ordered.  Apparently he was in charge.  "Over there, in that easy chair."

Jim carefully slid into the overstuffed chair.  He'd have liked to sit next to Clarissa, but she was across the room, next to the one with a beard who was holding a copy of the Colt Government Model with a long suppressor screwed onto the barrel in his left hand.  A south paw.  Something to remember.  While Clarissa looked scared, Jim was pleased to see a spark of anger and determination showing in the depths of her eyes.  That might come in handy along the way.

"You received it also I hope," Susan said as she hurried into the conference room where Jake was still working through the latest batch of photos that had been flagged by the computer as it worked through the various DMV files.

"I did," he replied.  "I was just about to Back-Track."

He pointed to the speaker Tony had set up where a number of voices could now be heard.  Jim's home was beyond the range of the tiny transmitter in the belt, but Tony had installed booster transmitters in both Jim and Susan's residences, and in the hotel room where Jake was staying.  The receiving unit in Susan's conference room would trigger a message to their phones, with an App that would allow them to monitor the incoming audio remotely.

"There are a number of them.  Jim has been good with his use of key words to indicate how many.  He's seen both of those we are searching for, and there's another man and a woman we haven't run into before.  From what I've overheard, they were waiting for him with Clarissa as a hostage."

"Go," Susan urged.  "We'll talk this through when you loop back."

Jake Back-Tracked a full ten days, the upper limit he could make in a single jump.  He wanted to retain the knowledge learned should the other side Back-Track to change something, and that mean a long enough time loop to encompass anything the other side might do.  He felt confident somehow that the ten days was enough, even if living through the period again was going to be a nuisance.  At that, going much farther back would mean he'd have to relocate to California, since he hadn't been in Washington long enough to go farther.  Besides, there was no reason for their suspects to be doing any Back-Tracking at the moment.  This was just a precaution.  He hoped.

"They are going to be waiting for me when I get there?" Jim asked, when Jake described what was about to happen that evening when those they sought made their move.  Jake had relived the repeat days and they were almost back to the time Laney would have the encounter at his place.

"That's what Susan and I overheard before I Back-Tracked," Jake agreed.  "We didn't take time to verify much about the situation.  We'll get that this time around."

Tony's equipment had been perfect for alerting them, but they really wanted video that could be used to help identify the suspects.  They might let names drop, but even if they did, there was no way to know if the names were real or something assumed for this crime.  There had been no reasonable way to prepare for every location the suspects might act, but now that they knew where the encounter was to take place, it wouldn't be difficult to plant small cameras in Jim's apartment that would pass the video across Tony's link.

"I'm not certain I want to put Clarissa through this," Jim said unhappily. 

"I doubt you could get her to go without you, and this might be our only chance," Jake reminded Jim.  "Besides, when this is all over, none of this will have happened."

Jim looked unhappy, but finally nodded.

"I'm going to catch hell for this," he said.

"She'll never know," Susan said.

"Yes, she will, because I'll have to tell her afterwards.  It's only fair."

"Okay, but we don't warn her in advance.  That might give us away, and that could ruin our only shot at this."

That afternoon they installed the cameras and tested the video link.  There was not much more to do besides wait.  The two retired FBI agents, Lester and Solly who Susan had contacted for support, would be positioned near Jim's home so they could follow the kidnappers when they left, hoping to remain close enough to pick up any conversation.  It wasn't anticipated a rescue would be required.  Once Jake got some useful information, he would Back-Track and they would avoid this whole encounter entirely.

Jim carefully slid into the overstuffed chair.  He'd have liked to sit next to Clarissa, but she was across the room, next to the one with a beard who was holding a copy of the Colt Government Model in his left hand.  A south paw.  Something to remember.  He knew that Jake and Susan had to be looking at the video which was being fed into the mainframe realtime for analysis thanks to Shaun.  Unfortunately, none of those present had made any personal references that were in any way useful.

There was more to see.  The man with the small S&W revolver who he'd once thought might be a businessman was well groomed.  Jim couldn't say why, but he would guess he was educated.  Something in his speech and the way he moved.  The woman hadn't said anything as yet, but her clothes also indicated she was well off.  Jim would bet her blouse cost several hundred dollars alone, and the watch she wore sparkled with diamonds. 

They contrasted markedly with the remaining two men.  Both of them wore coarser, workmanlike clothing, and looked to be rougher and from their speech less educated.  The bearded one that Jim recognized from the sketches carried a 9mm version of the familiar Colt, and the other a Beretta in the same caliber.  Both were equipped with suppressors, which wouldn't really silence them, but would cut down the report to a level it was doubtful any of the neighbors would notice.  Jim found it interesting that none of them had interchangeability in their reload capability.  Somehow that suggested they hadn't worked together before, or if so, seldom were involved in an actual shooting fight.

"Jim, what do they want?" Clarissa pleaded softly.

Before Laney could reply, the man with the beard raised his weapon and pointed it at her.

"No talking," he said, his voice hard and uncompromising.

"Here's how this is going to work," the well dressed one with the revolver said.  "We have some questions we need answered, and so we are going to take you somewhere to discuss the subjects of interest.  It's dinnertime, and your neighbors are all inside eating or watching the news.  I have just signaled one of our associates to bring our transportation into your driveway.  We are going to walk outside, and get into the vehicle, and drive away quietly.  Any trouble, anything at all, and Marty here will shoot Mrs. Laney.  We really only need to talk with Mr. Laney, so the loss of the lady won't restrict our efforts overly much.  Is that understood?"

"Where are we going?" Jim asked, knowing they wouldn't answer, but hoping to extend the conversation as long as possible while they were in range of the video cameras and hope that one of them would slip up and reveal something of importance.

The one in charge merely smiled and pointed toward the woman in the background.  Although she sat quietly, she appeared tense to Jim.  She looked to him as if she expected this whole situation to blow up on them at any time.  Well, according to Jake that had happened twice before, so she had good reason to be worried.

"Is he ready for us?" he asked.

She nodded.  In a cultured voice that supported Jim's assessment, she said, "He's in place.  No one is outside where they will present a problem.  We should go now while the opportunity presents itself."

"Let's go," the man said, indicating that Jim should stand.  Clarissa was pulled to her feet by the thug who had been keeping an eye on her.

"Quiet, and no trouble," the man reminded them.  "That way no one gets hurt."

They were led to the side door of the house, and after another check via the cell phones, led outside.

"A white van," Jim said.  "How original."  Actually he wanted Lester and Solly to know what kind of vehicle they were being taken away in.  They should have an eye on the place, but it never hurt to be certain.  The two retired agents should be able to stay close enough because of the tracker in Jim's belt to be able to hear everything said until something useful was learned.

The comment earned Jim a blow to the head from the barrel of the small revolver, opening a cut in his scalp.  He heard Clarissa start to scream, but realized it was cut off.  Her guard must have clamped a hand over her mouth.  Jim turned toward the man who had struck him, but the man was in control, with the muzzle leveled at Jim.

"I'll shoot her, not you," he promised, and Jim knew he meant it.

"Now get in," he was told.  "No more talking until we get where we are headed."

Moments later they were driving away, and Jim could only hope his friends were aware of the situation.  He took comfort in the fact this all would never happen as Jake liked to say.

Natalie turned around in the front seat and stared at their two captives.  She felt a little better, and if they got a few more miles without a problem she might actually be able to start to relax.  No one had stopped them.  She had expected the FBI to come charging in at any time just as they had when they arrested Paul the last two times.  She'd been impossibly tense the entire time they had been inside the apartment.  This time everything seemed to be going as they hoped. 

"Paul," she said, but then stopped talking when he shook his head.

Damn
!  She realized she had used his name.  She was silent as they drove, and then suddenly had an unexpected idea.  She considered what she was about to attempt, then decided she was right, and with a look at her friends, she triggered a short Backslide to earlier in the day when they were preparing to separate as she watched Laney's car and the others went to his home to grab his wife.  Her Backsliding would correct the slip up where she'd used Paul's name.  She'd be more careful this time around.

Natalie shook her head, and realized suddenly what had just happened.  Her future self had sent back a clear indication that all was going to work out.

"It's going to go well," she told Paul.  "He'll be coming home alone tonight."

"And you know this how?" Paul asked.

"I just Backslid," she said.  "My future self just sent me confirmation that all will go well this time.  We'll grab the two of them, and be on our way to the cabin without a hitch.  We were well away from the house when I sent my memories back."

Natalie was amused and far less stressed the second time they pulled off the kidnapping.  Everything followed just as her memories said they would, and before long they were on their way out of town heading out of town.  It would take almost an hour, but then they would hopefully get some answers.