Wrong Time (3 page)

“Oh, I was there all right. I can tell
you all the details of the op and everything.”

“So if I went through some files on
missions in Iran, I wouldn’t find a file that matched your story, only with
another agent’s name on it?”

“We’ve been over this before. I went by
a different name back when I was an agent.”

“Okay. Whatever you say,” Jason said
and grinned.

He really had to give it to Burt. He
might have been a liar, but he was definitely a committed one. Once he told a
story, he stuck to it forever.

Nathan and Sam were still staring at
Markus’s profile, but so far, absolutely nothing stood out to them.

“How in the world are we supposed to
project where he is just based on this?” Sam asked.

“I have no idea. It would be so much
easier if we could find someone who worked with him and had direct contact with
him.”
 

“That’s it! Nathan, you’re a genius!”

“Yeah, I know. Wait, why am I a genius?”

“Sandusky. Jeffery Sandusky. He ran an
entire portion of Markus’s company. Don’t you think that he had plenty of
contact with Markus over the years?”
 

“Yeah, you’re right. Do we know where
he is now, though?”

“No, but I can find out,” Sam said as
she got up and started walking to Campbell’s office.

Nathan followed her.

“Where is Jeffery Sandusky right now?”
Sam asked.

“Why?” Campbell asked.

“Because we need to know where Markus
has gone, and we believe that he may know,” Nathan answered.

“He’s in a secret CIA prison in
Houston.”

 
“Secret prison? How do you keep something
as big as a prison a secret?” Nathan asked.

“I don’t know. It just looks like a normal
prison, but no normal criminals are housed there.”

“Well, I need you to authorize us to go
to Houston and ask Jeffery Sandusky some questions,” Sam said.

“Consider it done, and by the way, it’s
nice to have you back. You did some great work out there, even without the
support of your agency,” Campbell said in an almost apologetic tone.

“Thank you, sir,” Sam responded, and
then she and Nathan exited the room.

“So are you ready to get on a plane
again?” Nathan asked sleepily.

“Not really. We haven’t slept in what
feels like forever, but maybe we can both catch a little bit of a nap on the
plane.”
 

* * * * *

Back in Lee’s hospital room, evening
was quickly approaching, and Michael and Lee had fallen asleep. Jess, on the
other hand, decided that now would be a good time for a shower. She made her
way into the bathroom and started to turn the water on. As she reached for the shower
knob, she heard the hospital room door open. Chloe was walking straight up to
Lee. She had walked right past the hospital staff. At this point, the staff had
given up on limiting the visitors in Lee’s room. As Jess took a peek out from
behind the bathroom door, she saw Chloe raise a small pistol and aim it at
Lee’s head. Jess didn’t have time to think. She only had time to act. She slung
the door open and jumped onto the girl’s back, effectively tackling her to the
ground. As Michael and Lee woke from their sleep, they saw the horrifying sight
of Jess and Chloe wrestling on the floor for control over the gun, and that’s
when it happened. In the struggle for control over the weapon, it went off.

Chapter 3

The gun went off, but much to everyone’s
relief, the bullet didn’t hit anyone. It went straight through the ceiling and into
a supply closet. If the gun hadn’t been silenced, it would have attracted the
attention of the entire hospital. Chloe threw Jess off her, and just before she
could get on top of Jess, Michael grabbed her and threw her across the floor.
Chloe jumped to her feet and retreated out of the room. Rapid footsteps could
be heard in the hallway coming toward Lee’s room. Michael quickly grabbed the
gun from the floor and concealed it. A nurse ran into the room and looked at
the obvious debris that had fallen from the ceiling. Then she looked very puzzled
at the three of them.

“What happened here?” she asked.

Michael didn’t know what to say, so he
just spouted off the first thing that came to his mind.

“I don’t know, but it seems like the
ceiling is about to come down. Someone should really have a look at it,”
Michael said while desperately trying to keep a straight face.

The nurse only gave him a strange look
and slowly said, “Yeah, okay. I’ll call housekeeping.” Then she walked out of
the room.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Jess
asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think that
they’re going to buy my lame excuse for very long,” Michael said.

“I say that it’s time for an early
checkout,” Lee said as he got up from the bed.

“No. You’re still extremely sick,” Jess
said.

“I feel much better than I did
yesterday, and I’m sure that they’ll give me plenty of care in Washington. Plus,
we need protection from whoever is trying to kill us. I won’t feel safe here,
so we have to go.”
 

Michael and Jess looked at each other.
They had both come to the same conclusion. Lee was right. They weren’t going to
be safe here. Neither of them thought it was a good idea to leave because Lee
was so sick, but for lack of a better option, they looked at Lee and nodded.

“Great. So where are my clothes?” Lee
asked.

* * * * *

Nathan and Sam were sitting on a plane going
to Houston, and Nathan was fighting to stay awake.

“Why don’t you take a nap? I’ll wake
you when we arrive,” Sam said.

“That’s okay. I hate trying to sleep on
planes. There’s just something about rocking back and forth in midair that’s a
little unsettling.”

“Don’t tell me that you’re scared of
flying.”

“No, my stomach is just in no shape to
sleep on a plane.”

“Okay. I suppose that I’ll just have to
keep you awake with some questions then.”

“That would be great.”

 
“Well, I was wondering something. When
this is all over, what are you going to do?” Sam asked.

“I haven’t really thought that far
ahead. I suppose that I’ll take a really long vacation or something. I hope
that you’ll come with me. What about you? Do you have any plans?”

“A vacation
does
sound nice. I’ve never even been on a vacation before. Outside
of that, I suppose I’ll just do what I do. I’ll probably continue to be an
agent.”

 
“You don’t have to be an agent, you know.
That vacation I was talking about could be more permanent, if you wanted it to
be.”

“That does sound wonderful. It would
just be us on a beach with no worries. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s even
possible for someone like me. I know a little too much for them to ever let me
walk away.”

“That’s nonsense. Where there’s a will,
there’s a way, and I promise you that when this is all over, I’m going to make
that a reality for you.”

Sam knew that the only way they could
ever be together permanently was for Nathan to join her at the CIA for life,
but she didn’t want to state the obvious. Maybe when he realized the same thing,
he would stay with her, or at least that was what she hoped would happen. Sam
reached over and grabbed his hand.

“I hope you’re right,” she said quietly.

* * * * *

Lee and the others made their way to
the airport and purchased three tickets to Washington. Once they walked to the
waiting area, they saw a familiar person.

“Trish!” Jess called to her.

She had been sitting in the corner by
herself. Trish got up and walked over to them.

“What are you three doing here?” Trish
asked.

They explained what happened back at
the hospital. Trish looked a little out of it for a moment.

“I knew that I should have listened to
my instincts,” Trish said to herself.

“Instincts? What do you mean?” Lee
asked.

“I mean that I saw a woman going into
the hospital as I was leaving, and she gave off a really weird vibe to me. I
ignored it. I didn’t trust my instincts, and it almost got you guys killed.”

“Well, don’t worry about it too much.
We had Jess here to protect us,” Michael said.

“Yeah, seriously, I never knew that you
could be so tough,” Lee said to Jess.

“Oh, I just did what I had to do,” Jess
said while blushing.

“Well, it sounds like you really saved
their butts. Thanks for being there when I should have been,” Trish said.

“We are now boarding first class and
business class passengers,” a voice from over the intercom said.

“All right, that’s me,” Trish said.

“Wait a minute. You’re in first class?
Aren’t those seats normally pretty expensive?” Michael asked in surprise.

“Yeah, but I don’t fly coach. One thing
you should know is that Mr. Boyd paid us very well. Flying first class is
routine for me,” Trish said as she walked away from them and boarded the plane.

“Well, great. I think that we might be
working for the wrong people,” Lee said with a laugh.
 

* * * * *

Later that night, Jason and Burt were
still working on going through every profile possible, but they were having no
luck finding anyone who could be suspected of being a traitor.

“This is ridiculous. All the people
here have impeccable records. How are we supposed to look through all of these
profiles that look equally impressive and expect to see a criminal?” Burt asked.

“I have no idea, but I’m just about ready
to call it a night,” Jason said and yawned.

Jason stood and started walking toward
the door, but a noise stopped him.

“I thought that everyone on this floor
had gone home for the night,” Jason said.

“I did, too.”

Still, he could clearly hear the sound
of footsteps. Jason stepped out of the office and walked around the corner to
see several familiar faces. There stood Lee, Trish, Michael and Jess.

“What are you guys doing here, and how
did you get into the building?” Jason asked.

“Well, we were supposed to come as soon
as Lee got well, and apparently, Nathan and Sam gave the guard at the gate our
names, so we were able to come straight in without any trouble,” Trish said.

“Okay. I get that, but Lee doesn’t
exactly look well. What’s with the early release from the hospital?”

The group explained exactly what had
happened.

“I’m glad that all of you are okay, but
we need to get you some medical attention soon, Lee.”

“I’m fine.”

“I know, but you at least need some
antibiotics or something.”

“That would be best, I suppose.”

 
“All right. I have some connections, and
I’ll get you some medicine first thing in the morning, but for now, do you need
somewhere to lie down?”

“No, I’ll be fine. Besides, we came
here to help.”

“Yeah, we did, but where is everyone?”
Trish asked.

“Well, everyone has gone home for the
night except for Burt and me. If you guys want to help right now, you can help
us look through about a billion profiles.”

“What are we looking for in the
profiles?” Jess asked.

Jason explained what they were looking
for and how he and Burt had been at it for hours with no luck.

“I’m pretty sure that I can help a lot
with that,” Trish said confidently as she walked into the office where Burt was
still working.

Jason walked into the office and
introduced everyone to Burt, and then they began to work.

“What kind of system are you using to
look through these,” Trish asked.

“The one at a time system,” Burt said.

“You should stop looking at their
service records, and only look at what their service was prior to their attempt
to join the CIA. Then group the top twenty most qualified candidates into a
pile, and let me interview them one at a time,” Trish said.

“Okay. First of all, why would we only
look at twenty individuals, and second of all, why would
you
be the one interviewing them,” Jason asked.

“If you wanted to get a mole into the CIA,
what would you do? You would make him overqualified for the job. Also, let’s
just say that I can read people. It would be in your best interest to at least
have me in the room when you conduct the interviews.”

Her reasoning was sound. That much
Jason couldn’t deny.

“All right, our way hasn’t been working,
so we’ll try it your way,” Burt said.

“Great! Then let’s get to work on
sorting these files,” Lee said.

* * * * *

Nathan and Sam had finally arrived in
Houston and had checked into a hotel. The hotel they checked into was gorgeous.
They were on the top floor in a suite that cost Sam a little over four hundred
dollars.

“Are you sure that we should be
spending government money on something this expensive?” Nathan asked.

“I’m hearing this from the man who once
wanted to buy a camera with government money,” Sam said while laughing.

“I know, but it’s just that this place
seems really pricey.”

Nathan had a worried expression on his
face. Earlier that day, he could tell that Mr. Campbell didn’t care for him
very much, or at the very least, he didn’t want Nathan working with them.
Nathan didn’t want to give Campbell an excuse to dislike him even more.
 

“Don’t worry so much. If our government
doesn’t believe in limiting spending, then why should we? Besides, after
everything we’ve been through, I think that they owe us a lot more than this.
Don’t you?” Sam asked.

“I didn’t think of it that way. I
suppose you’re right.”

“Great. Now I don’t know about you, but
I am absolutely beat, so I’m going to bed,” Sam said while jumping onto the
bed.

Nathan joined her soon after. Once they
both got under the covers, and all the lights had been turned off, Nathan’s
mind began to wonder.

“Hey, Sam, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“So am I officially an agent now? Do I
get paid?”

“Yeah, as far as I know. They will
deposit money into an account for you every month. We agents are always on the
move. We move around so much that we hardly ever get a chance to touch any of
that cash.”

“I suppose this is the first official
job I’ve ever had that I actually wanted,” Nathan said.

“Can I ask
you
a question now?” Sam asked.

“Sure. What is it?”

“Were you really serious about us going
away with each other when this is all over?”

“I was dead serious. I wouldn’t joke
about something like that.”

“Okay, but how would we do it? I don’t
think that it would be very easy to get away from the CIA. We would need to
have some type of plan.”

“I could get us some fake IDs and
passports from Lee, and after that, we could just split.”

“That doesn’t sound like a plan that
would actually work. Don’t you think that they would come looking for two rogue
agents?”

 
“I know that it isn’t perfect, but it’s
only the beginning of the plan. More will come to me. All of this will work out
in the end. You’ll see.”

“All right. Just don’t make promises to
a girl that you can’t keep,” Sam said as she turned toward him.

“Never,” Nathan said while leaning in
and gently kissing her lips.

 
Sam didn’t think that his poorly crafted
plan would actually work, but she had to believe in him. He held her and kissed
her in the softest and sweetest way possible. It was as if he thought that she
might break otherwise. Surely someone so loving and gentle would find a way, or
at least that’s what she had come to believe.

“I love you,” he softly whispered as he
pulled her closer to him. There they slept entwined, and while the rest of the
world was in chaos, this moment felt absolutely perfect to Sam.