Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (10 page)

Dan hadn’t eaten since he was imprisoned
, and he was truly starving.

“This look
s like a good spot,” Zane said.

“For what?
” Dan asked.

“We’
re throwing him out of the van. Do you want to do the honors?” Nathan asked.

“Oh
, hell yes!”

Dan
really wanted to hurt this man. In fact, he wanted to kill him for what he had put him through the day before.

“Here, put this in your pocket,
” Nathan said while handing Fields the flash drive.

As the van got slower
, Nathan opened the side door.

“You aren’t actually going to do this
, are you?” Fields asked fearfully.

“Wait just a litt
le bit lon . . . ” Nathan said before being interrupted by Field’s screaming.

Nathan tur
ned to see the man flying out the door.

“I don’t think
we were slow enough,” Sam said.

“So?
” Dan said with a smirk.

After a minute
, the rest area where they planned to change cars was in sight.

“When
we get there, Driver, you’ll go with me in the Escalade, and you two will take the car next to the Escalade,” Zane said.

“Wait
, we’re splitting up? That wasn’t the plan,” Sam said.

“We’ll stand a better chance if we split up
, and besides, don’t you two have somewhere to be?”

“I
suppose so.”

As they pulled into a parking space
, Zane grabbed a set of keys from his pocket and handed them to Sam. “Take care of her,” Zane said.

The statement was puzzling
to Sam until she saw what was parked next to the Escalade. It was Zane’s Corvette.

“But that’
s your car.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m too old for it
, and you seemed to really like it before. Besides, it’s my job to help agents. Just consider this my way of going above and beyond the call of duty,” Zane said with a wink.

“Thank you so much
for everything, Zane. I’ll try to get it back to you safely,” Sam said.

She
and Nathan then made their way to the beautiful car and got in.

“To Georgia then,” Sam
said to Nathan as she cranked the car.

* * * * *

Later
, in the early morning hours, Fields awoke. He was in a ton of pain, but the only thing on his mind was the flash drive. He turned his head to the right. Trish had apparently been waiting beside his bed, and she was asleep.

“M
s. Morris, wake up,” he commanded.

She slowly stirred. She was glad to see that her boss was
okay, but not too thrilled that he had just woken her up.

“I need you to get me a laptop
, and where are my pants?”

“
I’ll let you use my laptop, and your pants are right over here. Why?” Trish asked in confusion.

Surely he wasn’t going to try
to leave the hospital in the shape he was in. How strong are these pain meds, she wondered.

“The flash drive
is in my right pocket. Get it for me.”

She retrieved the flash drive
and placed the laptop on his chest.

“Here,” sh
e said while handing him the flash drive.

He inserted it
and waited for it to load. Something was wrong. There was absolutely nothing on it. He angrily cursed at the computer that was lying on his chest. Not only had they injured him, but they had also made a fool of him. Everyone involved in making a fool out of him would die, and if he had his way about it, they would die soon.

Chapter 10

Nathan and Sam had been driving for a few minutes in silence when Nathan suddenly broke the uncomfortable silence.

“
So I just realized that I really don’t know very much about you.  Can you to tell me some things about yourself?”

“There isn’t a whole lot
to tell. What do you want to know?” Sam asked.

“Let’s see, how about your childhood?”

“What about it?”

“T
ell me about your parents, your friends, where you grew up. You know, those kinds of things.”

“My parents are deceased,
I have no friends, and Boston is where I grew up, if I remember correctly.”

“Oh
, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject.”

“It’s all right. There’s nothing sore abou
t it. That’s just the way it is. There’s no need to dwell on the past. Everything’s fine in the present,” Sam said in a matter of fact tone.

“What did you mean by
‘as far as I can remember’?” Nathan asked.

“I was very young when my parents passed away
, and I don’t specifically remember Boston being where I lived. That’s just where my first foster family told me I was from when I asked them. My parents died in a car crash, and afterward I bounced around from foster home to foster home for a few years. I buried myself in books during the latter part of that time, and then I got a better opportunity ‘to pursue a higher purpose,” Sam said sarcastically.

“
A better opportunity?” Nathan asked in a puzzled voice.

“I’m tired of talking about me.
What about you?”

“Well
, I grew up just outside of Silver Springs, and I have pretty much lived there my entire life. I’ve always loved music, but not the kind you may have heard in our area. I collect college degrees and have some of the most useful friends you will ever meet, but also some of the strangest ones.”

“What kind of music do you like
, and why do you collect degrees?” Sam asked.

“I love anything that makes me think. I listen t
o anything from classical music to new or old rock. Lately, I’ve been going back and enjoying The Clash. As for the degrees, how can I say this? I’m very indecisive. I get a degree as fast as I can, and then I move on to pursue another degree. Some people think that I’m fairly smart because I have a few degrees, but I tend to disagree with them. I think I’m just wasting time and money by continually going to school.”

“So why doesn’t an
ything ever stick with you, and who are The Clash?”

“Your guess is as good a
s mine, and you don’t know who The Clash is? Have you been living under a rock or something?”

Is it really so weird not to know
who a simple musical group is, Sam wondered.

“Sometimes I feel like I’
ve been living under one. There’s just so much I don’t seem to know. . . simple things that everyone else seems to automatically know,” Sam said with a hint of doubt in her voice.

“Hey
, it’s okay. Stick with me, and you’ll be more knowledgeable about music than you ever wanted to be,” Nathan said because he sensed her need to not feel clueless in that moment.

Why is she so clueless about things that are n
ormally common knowledge, though? She didn’t even seem to know who Elvis was, Nathan thought. Although Nathan didn’t really care for the music of Elvis Presley, he had never imagined that he could meet anyone who hadn’t even heard of him.

“Thanks, b
ut can I ask you something?”

“Sure
, what is it?”

“What was it like? You know, growing up in a normal circumstance with a normal family
and normal friends?”

“It was b
oring mainly, and I wouldn’t exactly call my friends normal. I doubt my life has been nearly as exciting as your life. You
are
a spy, after all. I’m sure that you’ve seen all types of things.”

If he only
knew how underrated stability and boring old normal could be, Sam thought to herself.

* * * * *

The following morning, Jacob and Trish stood beside Mr. Fields’ hospital bed as he spouted off instructions through his extremely medicated slur.

“I want you to get every cell phone record you can dig up of Mr. Grey’s. I want them found
, and I want them found quickly!” Fields said in an extremely tired but angry tone.

“How are we
supposed to get our hands on his cell phone records?” Jacob asked.

“Go to Marg
aret, and she will get you any credentials you may need to get your hands on them. Just hurry up and get this done, you idiots!”

“Yes
, sir,” Jacob and Trish quickly responded.

The two of them
exited the hospital room, but something was bothering Trish. She couldn’t stand to be called an idiot, and that was the second time Fields had called her one. That kind of treatment almost made her glad he had been thrown out of the back of a van. Trish needed a break, but unfortunately, she wouldn’t be getting one anytime soon. She was going to have to work
for
an idiot who had just been tricked by their enemies, and she was also going to work
with
an idiot who Trish couldn’t believe was ever actually cleared to do anything in the field. Trish had read Jacob’s file, and she was convinced that he was officially a psychopath. The funny thing was that she wasn’t that far off. She sighed and shrugged away the doubts about her colleagues and walked to the car with Jacob.  

* * * * *

Daylight broke in the early morning at Zane’s house. Dan had slept very well the night before, but he knew that he would need to make a call to his superiors that morning and explain what had occurred over the last forty-eight hours. He would then ask them about any further orders they had for him. He made the call from Zane’s landline.

“Yes
, this is Agent Driver. I need to speak to Mr. Campbell,” Dan said to the person on the other line.

“He’s
busy at the moment, sir. Is this an emergency?”

“Yes, this is something
that he’ll definitely want to hear.”

“P
lease hold for one moment.”

After a few seconds
, Campbell came on the line.

“Hello, A
gent Driver. You had us worried over the last few hours. Mr. Ellis was particularly worried about you,” Campbell said in a relieved tone.

Dan
explained everything that had occurred over the last couple of days.

“The mission was canceled. I canceled it myse
lf.”

“In spite of that
, sir, with everything that’s happened over the last few hours, I believe that we have every reason to continue to investigate this matter to the fullest,” Dan said with confidence.

“I’m
telling you to stay away from this one. We will not investigate this matter any further!” Campbell said in an authoritative voice.

“But
, sir, we have reason to believe that these people have been doing everything from selling weapons to our enemies to actually assassinating our own soldiers and agents.”

“
No, we have reason to believe that they have been our fruitful partner for well over a decade, Agent Driver. There’s no need to go around spewing accusations at people. Do we really want such a trusted partner who knows ninety percent of all our secrets to take their business elsewhere?”

“Is that
what this is really about, sir? Are we just covering our own butts by protecting our secrets?”

“No
. It’s about not going to war with an enemy who has all the firepower and information to bury you without ever even firing a shot themselves. You do realize that these people could provide any number of our enemies with secrets, soldier locations, and to top it all off, give any number of nations or groups, who would love to do nothing more than put an end to all of western civilization, the weapons of mass destruction to do just that, right?”

Campbell
was in an impossible situation. He truly felt like he was between a rock and a hard place. He wanted to help out Agent Fisher and chase Markus and everyone associated with him to the ends of the earth, but it simply wasn’t possible in the situation he was in.

“
So what are we going to do, sir?”

“I’ll let you
know what we’re going to do when I know,” Campbell said with a sigh. One thing was for sure. Nothing about this situation was going to be simple or easy.

* * * * *

In the late hours of the night before, Nathan and Sam decided to get a hotel room. They were in Birmingham, Alabama.

“A double room
, please,” Nathan said to the man behind the counter.

He then paid th
e man and got the key from him. Nathan and Sam made their way up to the room. Upon entering it, one thing was very obvious. This room was pretty run down.

“I don’t know about this place. Are you sure
that I’m not going to catch something just by sleeping in the bed?” Nathan asked.

He was joking
, but a part of him was dead serious. He wouldn’t have let his dog stay in this place.

“Oh
, don’t be such a girl,” Sam snapped

The truth was
that she didn’t really want to stay in such a ratty old place either. When she had suggested they stop there, it was only because she felt bad that he was having to pay for everything on the trip, and she didn’t want to suggest an expensive hotel. She wished she had suggested it after seeing the inside of the room, though.

“O
kay, but don’t be surprised if a cockroach scares me and I end up in the bed with you.”

Nathan was
trying to joke with her, but he was also testing the boundaries of what he could and couldn’t try with her. He wasn’t the type of guy to jump into the bed with just any woman, but Sam was quite beautiful, and if she didn’t mind, then neither did he. Who would know if he did get in the bed with her, anyway?

“Okay
, I’m going to make this really simple for you. If you end up in this bed for any reason, then cockroaches will be the least of your worries, because you’ll be sleeping below the ground with the worms.”

Sam was smiling
, but Nathan knew that she meant it. His brain told him to leave the subject alone, but he couldn’t help but say at least one more thing on the subject.

“
All right, all right! There’s no need for threats. I’m a gentleman, after all, but if the lady gets scared and needs a strong man, my bed is always open to her,” Nathan said with one eyebrow raised.

“Oh
, so there’s going to be a strong man in your bed?” Sam asked as she laughed.

“Hey
, that’s not even funny. Get to know me a little. You’ll be surprised how strong I can be.”

It is
hard to picture a person as very strong when you have seen them hopping toward you to be rescued with their hands tied to their feet, and wearing only boxers, she thought. Oh, well. If nothing else, his ability to adjust to a terrible situation is amazing, and that plan he came up with to get Driver back actually wasn’t that bad. Maybe he does have a certain mental toughness at least, Sam thought to herself.

“What are you thinking
over there?” Nathan asked, interrupting her train of thought.

“Nothing, ju
st go to sleep, ‘strong man,’” Sam said as she turned the bedside lamp off.

“Ok
ay. Goodnight, Sam.”

He’s
smart and mentally tough. Maybe I could teach him everything else he lacks, but then again, I don’t know that I would really like the guy if he were a capable person in the same areas as I am. It couldn’t hurt to teach him to shoot and the basics of self-defense, though, Sam thought. Sam lay there in the darkness for a few more seconds before something dawned on her. Wait a minute. Did I just think I liked the guy, Sam thought, as she reviewed her previous thoughts. Why am I even thinking about that kind of thing at a time like this, she thought to herself and swiftly turned over. Sam felt stupid for even starting to think of someone in that sort of way when so much else was going on, but most of all, she felt something that she wasn’t accustomed to feeling. Sam was surprisingly starting to get a little bit of a crush on Nathan, and she was clueless as to what she should do about it. Finally, she pushed her thoughts aside and went to sleep.

Upon waking the next morning
, Sam rolled over to see Nathan lying on the adjacent bed. His hair was sticking straight up, and it had formed into a deep frizz. She hadn’t noticed it before, but he definitely had extremely curly hair. She then saw the camera that he had bought back at the store. It was lying on the small table between their beds. She grabbed it and began snapping pictures of him. Without ever opening his eyes, he spoke.