The radio kicked in, playing a song from the eighties. She didn’t know where they were going, and he didn’t say. She studied his profile, admiring the clean, strong line of his jaw. He wasn’t handsome, but he had something better: a sharp but solid appeal that said he could weather anything. She liked his eyes. Mostly, they were like cool mountain water, steady and calm in a crisis. Right now, she was glad of that.
“I wish you hadn’t gotten involved in this,” he said, after ten minutes of driving.
The neighborhood had become suburban, and her nerves were prickling. But maybe he’d asked a friend to shelter her for the night. She obviously couldn’t stay at his place. Based on past precedent, she could only surmise that they were watching him as well.
“Me, too. Where are we going?”
In answer, he pulled into the driveway of an ordinary house. The windows were dark, and she saw no sign of welcome within. Her misgivings flared to life.
“I’m sorry.” The regret in his storm-cloud eyes puzzled her. “But there’s nothing else I can do.” He leaned over as if to touch her cheek, but he pulled his fingers away at the last moment, contact aborted. “I wanted that kiss, by the way. More than you know.”
Her cheeks fired, and his words confused her enough that she spent precious seconds weighing the wrong comment. “Nothing you can do about
what
?”
“They won’t hurt you. Just keep calm, do as they ask, and everything will be fine.”
“They
who
?” she demanded, her voice gone shrill.
But he turned away, hands firmly on the wheel. Whatever came next, Foster made it clear he wouldn’t help her.
Someone jerked the passenger door open, and then a masked man pulled her from the car.
CHAPTER 1
PRESENT DAY, VIRGINIA
“I understand your
father was Iranian,” the interviewer said delicately. “And you still have relatives there, including your grandfather and numerous cousins.”
He was a silver-haired man, clad in a navy blue suit. His pale blue shirt and gray tie said he was conservative, somewhat lacking in imagination. Mia had learned to read people, based on the clothing they chose.
The hotel conference room was nearly as nondescript as her interviewer. Looking around at the beige paint and the faux-wood theme, she could have been in any hotel in any part of the country. There were no windows to distract her from the inappropriate question.
She had impeccable references. At first she hadn’t doubted Micor Technologies would select her, even from a large pool of qualified candidates. Her track record for ferreting out the truth made her the ideal choice. And indeed, everything had been going well until the management had run across her ethnic background.
Mia raised a brow. “How is that relevant?” Oh, he didn’t come right out and say it. But she knew what he was trying to imply. “May I remind you that discrimination is still illegal in the United States?”
Collins was a smart man; he could read between the lines, and he knew that after asking about her father’s country of origin, she had a case, should she wish to pursue the matter. If he didn’t want to hire her, he shouldn’t have asked.
His mouth was tight when he offered the contract, standard terms. She had ninety days to unearth evidence of who was misappropriating company funds. They thought it was someone in Accounting but couldn’t be sure because the culprit was clever.
“I’ll come in under the pretext of updating the company software.” Fortunately, she knew enough about computers to make that fiction convincing.
“I’m afraid that won’t do,” Collins said, shaking his head.
She paused, pen hovering above the pristine white contract. “What won’t?”
“We can’t have word getting out that we’ve hired a consultant. No, Miss Sauter, we need you on the payroll as an official employee. Otherwise, it will raise eyebrows. Our work is so sensitive that we never bring in contractors. Fortunately, we have an IT opening at the moment. Since a monkey could do it, I am sure you will have no trouble balancing that workload against your investigation.”
Gazing into his eyes, she had the uncanny sensation he wanted her to fail. That offended her on so many levels that she couldn’t begin to tabulate them. And considering her math aptitude, that was saying something.
“No problem at all,” she said coolly and scrawled her signature on the contract.
This particular job required an extensive background check and the signing of a nondisclosure agreement. Collins showed his displeasure every step of the way. He was one who thought dark hair and eyes meant secret ties to Al Qaeda.
They concluded their business with a forced civility that left her angry. Mia went from the conference room to her hotel room, changed into workout clothes, and then spent an hour pummeling a target at the gym. She didn’t often lose her temper, but few things set her off as much as bigotry.
Then she wrapped up negotiations with the old couple, sealing the deal on their arrangement. Their condo would do nicely, it seemed.
It was under
less than ideal circumstances that she got ready for work on Monday. Last night, the nightmares had come before she enjoyed more than a couple hours’ sleep. Mia loathed herself for being so weak, but she couldn’t seem to shake the trauma of how helpless she’d felt, tied to a chair with a dirty rag in her mouth. It seemed as if she should be over it, since she’d come to no physical harm.
To offset that sense of vulnerability, she dressed in a black suit with a blue, lace-trimmed camisole beneath it: strength underscored with softness. Mia knew what men saw when they looked at her; she planned that reaction, from her coral-frosted mouth to the matching lacquer on her nails. She had long since learned to make the exterior camouflage the computer within. Men were never impressed that she could add a column of twelve four-digit numbers in her head in less than ten seconds.
Mia took a last look around the place she would call home for the next three months. Unlike most of her contracts, this job wasn’t situated in a city large enough to offer corporate housing, but she’d gotten lucky with a snowbird couple heading to Arizona for the winter. Mia didn’t think Virginia winters were terrible, but the old folks did.
They’d given her a great deal on the place—almost no rent at all—saying she was doing them a favor and they could rest easy knowing someone would water their plants and look after their fat, lazy cat. Mia wasn’t a pet person, but she figured she could handle food and water for three months. The ginger tabby glared at her from its hiding spot beneath the coffee table.
“I’ll be back by six, Peaches.”
The cat looked remarkably indifferent.
Mia stepped out into the brisk morning air and turned her face up to the sky. It promised to be a glorious day, clear, cool, and lovely. Too bad she would spend it trying to figure out who was the biggest liar.
With a mental shrug, Mia made her way to the rental car. She’d long since sold her own vehicle because she worked overseas too often to make it practical. Now she included use of a vehicle as part of her contract fee, and it was surprising how few companies balked. If they needed someone to sort out their financial embarrassment quickly and quietly, they had bigger issues than whether to pay for the long-term rental of a Ford Focus.
This car was blue and nondescript in every way. That was good. She didn’t want to draw attention with flash. In her line of work, it would be best if nobody noticed her at all.
The drive didn’t take long, not that Mia was surprised. Before she’d come to an agreement on the condo, she’d timed the commute. If traffic was good and road conditions favorable, she could cover the distance in fourteen minutes.
Micor Technologies sat outside the city limits, surrounded by acres of woods instead of an industrial park. That struck Mia as more than a little odd, but maybe they did testing here that wouldn’t be safe in a high population center. She had no idea what the company did; that information had no bearing on her task.
She pulled up to the gate, where an armed guard sat inside a glass booth. “Badge,” he said, extending a hand.
“This is my first day. I’m to report to HR to have one made.”
“I’ll need your driver’s license. I’m sure you understand I have to call this in.”
Interesting.
She’d interviewed off-site at a local hotel. Though she’d driven the commute, she’d never come to the gate before. At other facilities where she’d worked, the guards were less attentive. That suggested a curious level of security.
“No problem.” Mia handed her ID over, and the man got on the phone. It took about five minutes for him to confirm her claim.
“You’re to go straight in and park in the west lot. Go directly through those doors, and the corridor will take you to Human Resources. If you don’t comply with these instructions exactly, you may have difficulties.” His face broke into a half smile, softening the sternness of his warning. “And you don’t want to be late on your first day, right?”
“Absolutely not. Thank you.”
Mia pulled forward and followed the drive to the west lot, as instructed. She told herself the warning flags raised by procedure here were none of her business. As with any other job, she’d find the guilty party, deliver the evidence, and move on. She hadn’t taken a vacation since she spent a few weeks in Florida with her friend Kyra last year, so maybe she’d relax a bit before accepting the next job.
No point in getting ahead of herself, though.
She parked and climbed out of the Focus, studying the complex for a moment. It was a sprawling series of interconnected buildings, all gleaming white metal. The structure looked even more out of place since it was surrounded by an electrified fence and miles of trees. Again, not her concern, even if insistent warning bells had started going off.
Her heels clicked as she crossed the parking lot. The door wasn’t secured, but there were cameras at this entrance, tracking her every movement. If she veered right or left, she had no doubt someone would come to collect her. Mia followed instructions and continued down the corridor until she came to a suite of offices.
There, a well-coiffed woman in middle years sat behind the reception desk. The room was elegantly appointed in maroon and gray. Abstract art adorned the walls, but Mia didn’t care for it. To her, it resembled nothing so much as blood spatters.
“May I help you?” the receptionist asked.
“Mia Sauter. I need to have my security badge made up.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’m Glenna Waters. Thomas Strong is the director, but he won’t be able to meet with you today. But no worries, I can handle this.”
“Thanks.”
Mia smiled her appreciation and followed the other woman behind the beige partition, where she stood before a black curtain and had her picture taken. Glenna worked with several different machines, and it took fifteen minutes for her to present a freshly magnetized, freshly laminated card.
“There you are. You’ll want to wear this at all times.” She flicked her own security tag. “I can give you a lanyard or a clip. Which do you prefer?”
“The clip, please.”
Glenna finished the badge and handed it over. “You’re assigned to IT, which is down the hall from Accounting. I’ll give you a map of the facility to help you find your way. This place can be tricky, but as long as you stay in the admin area, you’ll be fine.”
“There are labs on the premises?” Mia couldn’t believe she’d asked that. It was none of her business, nothing to do with the job. Hopefully Glenna would take it as casual interest.
The other woman nodded. “Yes, ma’am. The labs are past the security doors in the east wing.”
“Will off-limits areas be clearly marked?” She tried a smile. “I don’t want to wander the wrong way looking for the lounge.”
“Your mag strip won’t let you wander into restricted areas, don’t worry.”
“Good to know. I’ve never worked anywhere like this before.”
Glenna nodded. “Most of us hadn’t. You’ll find it’s a good place, though. They take care of their employees. Great benefits and retirement plan. I’ll set you up an appointment with Mr. Strong to talk about rollover of your 401(k).”
That would be natural if she worked here for real. But Mia didn’t have a 401(k) plan to transfer. Her money was invested in a varied portfolio.
“That won’t be necessary,” she said. “I had to cash out recently. Family illness.”
Glenna’s face softened in sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Mia offered a wave in acknowledgment as she left HR, badge clipped to the lapel of her jacket. Following the map proved no hard task, and soon she presented herself in IT, ready to begin. She loved this part of her job: the hunt for clues, following the trail, analyzing patterns of data. And she was good at it for reasons nobody had ever discerned.
After all, it took a thief to catch a thief.
Over the years,
he had been known by so many names, he had almost forgotten his own. For the last three months, he had been Thomas Strong. Once the man known as Addison Foster left Vegas, he’d sloughed his old identity like a snake outgrowing its skin. Though he’d always known this last task would require patience, lately he found himself suffering from its lack. Despite his near-perfect disguise, he was no closer to accessing the secure part of the facility than he had been a year ago, right after he orchestrated the death of Gerard Serrano.
As director of Human Resources, he had his fingers on everyone who was hired in and out of the facility. In theory, it sounded good. He thought he’d have access to all employees, even the lab workers. But their nondisclosure agreements prevented them from talking to him about their research, once they commenced in the restricted areas. That meant he’d been reduced to a glorified paper pusher with no promise of ever getting closer than he was.