Authors: Kelly Abell
“
Yeah,” Jack said without looking up. “A regular winter wonderland out there. I’ve been waiting to see if the temperature would warm up enough to melt most of it, but it doesn’t look like we will be going anywhere today. By the time we got started what has melted will refreeze again and the roads will be worse than they were last night.
“
I don’t like staying here, but with this weather, I don’t have much choice. You still might want to get that shower though. Might make those sore muscles of yours feel a little better.”
Caroline’s brows shot up in surprise. He had noticed. Well, of course he had noticed her face, that was obvious, but he had also noticed how slowly she had approached the table. She couldn’t imagine why he would comment on it. Why would he care? She was nothing more to him than a hostage. A way to get Warren to do whatever it was he wanted him to do. She just hoped for her own sake that Warren cared enough about her to do it.
She yawned and covered her mouth with the back of her hand. Caroline was surprised she slept at all. Adrenaline is a powerful substance with strong after effects. When she had discovered Jack Weaver’s identity the panic had surged through her. Then, when she almost got caught snooping, she nearly had a stroke. All that combined with what she went through with Warren only hours before completely short-circuited her system.
She glanced at the small double bed and gave an involuntary shudder. Had he slept with her? Oh God. This was just too much.
He was staring at her again and must have read her mind. “I slept on the floor. In case you were wondering.”
She forced herself to look at him. He was watching her intently for her reaction. There were those deep dark eyes again, but this time she saw a small flicker of warmth. It seemed to matter to him what she thought about him not sleeping in the same bed with her, only she couldn’t imagine why.
“
Okay.” That was the best she could come out with. She didn’t know what he expected her to say, but he seemed satisfied with that. He turned his attention back to the laptop.
She finished up the fries and rose to go into the bathroom. A hot shower would feel good, even if she had to put on the same clothes. Stopping at the doorway, she turned and looked over her shoulder at her captor. He is a very scary man, but as she watched him staring intently at the computer screen, she could not help but appreciate how ruggedly handsome he looked. His shoulders were broad and she watched how the tendons rippled in his powerful forearms as he continued typing, faster now that he wasn’t shoving French fries in his mouth. Sarah had told her he was a cold-blooded killer, but she didn’t see that when she’d looked into those dark eyes a moment ago. For a brief moment his eyes held compassion and warmth, and that comforted her, a little.
It seemed he’d forgotten she was even in the room, so intent was he on his work. She heard him mumbling something under his breath and cursing every few minutes. What was that computer program he was so engrossed in? It looked like an encryption decoding program of some sort. She was surprised she remembered anything from her college days. Before she married Warren, she was quite the computer whiz. It was her minor, not her major, but she knew how to work her own magic with a keyboard. She didn’t recognize the symbols on the screen as anything closely resembling any programming language she’d seen before. It looked like a series of numbers, letters and various other characters, some of which she’d never used or seen in any computer program.
What was he decoding? Were those the discs from Warren’s safe? She was suddenly over taken by an intense sense of foreboding. She knew her husband better than most people and he there is dark side to his nature. If a highly trained, undercover CIA assassin was looking so hard for something in discs that belonged to Warren, it meant something bad. She was no fool. When this ordeal she was mired in ended, it would not end well. She closed and locked the bathroom door.
Once Caroline was in the bathroom, Jack leaned back in his chair. He’d felt her watching him and his curiosity was aroused. What was she thinking about him? What was she thinking about the predicament she found herself in? It had not escaped his attention how slowly she moved when she rose from the bed and came over to the table. Her injuries must hurt like hell. He certainly hadn’t helped matters by cuffing her wrists over her head all night but he didn’t have any other choice. The ends of his mouth curved downward slightly when he remembered her reaction when she thought he’d slept in the same bed with her. She must really think he was a total piece of dog shit. Men were definitely not high on her A list right now. Poor woman looked like she had gone to hell and back.
Jack knew he was an imposing figure of a man. The reputation he developed over the last several years with the CIA pegged him as an assassin without a conscience. He was the stone cold killer. When it needed doing, call on Jack Weaver and it got done. He could slip in and out undetected, take out his quarry, and disappear like the fog. He valued that reputation. He worked hard to build up people’s image of him as a man to be feared and dreaded. It got him answers when he needed answers. So why now, all of a sudden, did he care about what Caroline Walters thought of him. Why was it so important to him to let her know that he slept on the floor? She was nothing to him. She was only an unfortunate mistake that he would now use as a means to an end.
He glanced at the closed bathroom door when he heard the spray of the shower. She was really going to be more trouble than she was worth. She needed more clothes and she needed to change her appearance some how. She was far too recognizable and by now there were APB’s out on both of them throughout Virginia and the continental United States. Yep, she was going to be a royal pain in his ass. His feelings ran from annoyance to sympathy. Now matter how he looked at this, he must proceed with caution. Because of years of training, he could blend into any environment. Caroline Walters, on the other hand, would stick out like a peach in a bowl of oranges. With Warren’s recent election victory, her face was in every newspaper, on every TV news station, and splashed on the covers of more magazines than he cared to count.
He knew Warren Walters, and he knew that Warren would not take his little stunt sitting down. Jack needed to be on his toes 24 hours a day. He turned his attention to the CD currently in his laptop. The files were encrypted with an entirely different code than Cortez used on his files. It was similar, but each time he thought the program he created would solve the mystery, he ran into another roadblock. It was a highly unusual code but Jack was familiar with parts of it. Anyone with a military background is familiar with it, but only those with special training could crack it. From what Jack could tell so far, someone derived a few twists to confuse a person with that special training.
This special derivation confused Jack. Warren lacked training in advanced computer skills, yet the code was on these discs. Someone else did the coding and Jack suspected he wasn’t going to like it when he found out who that was. He only knew two people that could develop a program like this. One was dead and the other was the fourth member of his SEAL team, Hutch Armstrong. He was beginning to feel like Alice in the Rabbit Hole. Things were becoming "curiouser" and "curiouser".
Time was of the essence and precious little of it was left. He had less than two months to uncover enough information about this plot to clear his name. At the same time he needed to get the evidence he discovered about the cartel into safe hands. That was where Lucy would be invaluable. She would be able to safe guard the information he mailed to himself from Colombia while he derived a conclusion with this mess. Once all the pieces fit into the puzzle, he was sure he could save Michael Hardy’s life, as long as he didn’t get himself killed in the process. He glanced up and out the window. This blasted weather was not helping matters. They were stuck here tonight like it or not.
Jack leaned back and put his arms behind his head. The hard wood of the cheap desk chair pressed into his back. He stretched out his injured leg and winced at its pain and stiffness. He’d been sitting there for hours so he rose and paced the small square room. He was going to need help. He needed a safe hidey-hole and he needed resources. He needed help from inside the Agency but he needed to be extremely careful. He knew of only two people he could call on. One was still in the Agency and one was retired military. If he trusted the wrong person the DEA or the CIA would hunt him down like a rabid fox, shoot first, and ask questions later. What he did to Kent Larson would see to that.
On the inside, Lucy Chavez was his only choice. He was fortunate that Lucy still loved him after all the shit he put her through over the years. It came in handy to have a big sister in the FBI. She was the SAC out of the Northern Virginia office and she would retrieve all the evidence from his post office box in downtown D.C. She also had contacts he could only dream about. She would know what the CIA and the Bureau were doing to hunt him down. He needed that information if he was going to stay one step ahead of all the dogs on his trail.
The good news was, only the top brass knew they were related. When Jack joined the CIA after his military career, he’d had to disclose his relationship to Lucy, but he made sure the information was classified. The fewer people who knew of their relationship the better Jack liked it. The guilt squeezed his heart because he knew dragging Lucy into this mess would endanger not only her career but also her life. He smiled, picturing her standing before him. “I’m a big girl, Jack,” she would say. “I can take care of myself.”
He pushed away the guilt. He didn’t have a choice. She was the only person he completely trusted to watch his back. When all this broke wide open he would make it up to her.
The other person he needed, much to his regret, was Hutch Armstrong. Once Jack discovered the encryption code on Warren’s discs wasn’t normal, his thoughts turned to Hutch. It had his signature written all over it. At one time, Jack had trusted his life to Hutch, but now he was wary. It was hard to believe his old friend could be a part of something like this, but intuition told Jack he was. What it didn’t say was how deep.
Hutch was “The Thing” in the Fantastic 4, a black man built solid as a rock wall and big as a house. No one messed with Hutch. He now ran a private security business down in the Keys. Hutch had the special training needed for an encryption program like the one on Warren’s discs. He would complete the circle of the team. But why? Jack couldn’t answer this question, yet. Another, more important, unanswered question was the identity of the Emperor. So far, that remained a complete mystery.
There were more than a few problems with letting Hutch in on his plans. Jack hoped the plusses on the left side would outweigh the minuses on the right, on his mental chart. Hutch still had friends in high places and they could be helpful or deadly. Hutch specialized in kidnap prevention and recovery. His company protected corporate executives in other parts of the world. If he were in on this, then Hutch would know who the Emperor might be. Hell, for all Jack really knew Hutch could be the Emperor.
Damn, what a mess this was turning out to be. Jack rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. He was in a very precarious situation. He was going to need both Hutch and Luce, but he had to proceed with caution.
Chapter 17
The signal on the GPS screen beeped loudly as the Hummer slid into the convenience store parking lot. The weather had deteriorated throughout their journey and the roads were extremely icy.
“
They’re here. Right in that Motel 8 across the street.”
The driver glanced from the GPS locator over at his passenger. “Yep, looks like.”
“
How are we going to find out what room they’re in? Ask at the office?” The passenger was a squat little man with beady black eyes set deep into a puffy face. His alcoholic’s nose looked like a road map of tiny red broken capillaries and the whites of his eyes were yellow from his failing liver. He was anxious to get this job done and over with. As far as he was concerned, he was late for his date with a bottle.
The driver was more patient. He was a tall well-built man with blond hair and clear blue eyes. His partner disgusted him. Anyone who did not respect his body enough to take care of it deserved to die. He didn’t like this slimy worm of a man the Senator Walters paired him up with but, he readily admitted to himself, the guy was highly skilled with a knife and a decent shot when he was sober. The money was good so he didn’t complain.
“
No, I think that would attract attention. Besides, he may have tipped the guy to warn him if anyone comes around asking about him. I say we wait. We’ve got the heat sensing binoculars and the telescopic goggles. We should be able to see them from here if the curtains are open. They can’t go anywhere in this ice anyway. For now we watch and wait.”
“
Shit, Marx, I need a drink and I gotta piss. Can’t we just ask the clerk and get this over with?”
The man called Marx rolled his eyes. “If you have to go that bad, slip into the store, but no booze until we get the job done. I need you sober and thinking clearly when we take down Jack Weaver. According to the Senator this man is a highly skilled assassin. You don’t want to be on anything less than your game when we start fooling with him. We need to get in there and take him out fast, without harming the Senator’s wife.