Chapter 48
Unwilling to face my fate, I closed myself into a cubicle in the ladies’ washroom for the entire ten minutes. When I couldn’t delay any longer, I sucked in my gut, squared my shoulders, and tottered to the sink to wash my hands.
Dammit, I wouldn’t go out snivelling.
I would stand tall while they delivered my sentence.
And I would find a way to die if they locked me up.
The white-faced woman in the mirror stared back at me with haunted eyes.
I straightened, anger warming my belly. No, dammit, I wouldn’t die. I would fight for my freedom. I would fight to remain an agent.
And I would damn well win.
Head high, I strode out into the hallway.
In the doorway of the meeting room my stride faltered. I had expected Stemp, Holt, and Spider.
I hadn’t expected Kane. At least not without an armed guard.
Hope quickened in my chest, but I squashed it. They probably just wanted to squeeze as much information out of him as possible before they imprisoned him.
Or maybe this was one more of Stemp’s manipulation tactics.
Holding my face expressionless, I slid into a chair with my back to the wall.
Stemp acknowledged my presence with a fractional nod, then turned to Kane. “You may begin.”
“All right,” Kane said, and I let myself sink into the warm velvet of his voice. It might be my last chance…
“Aydan had used me for a distraction when she first spotted Riel in Nichele’s office,” he began. “So I was aware of the situation with James Helmand and all the other players. What I didn’t know was that Helmand had come to my… uh, Alicia’s… house a couple of days earlier and introduced himself to Alicia; undoubtedly hoping I’d take his visit as an implied threat to my family. Alicia forgot to mention it to me until late Saturday morning. That was the ‘situation’ I called you about around noon…”
My heart sank as my imaginary scenario played out in my head again. James appearing unanticipated at the door, Kane reacting instinctively…
“…so when Tawny Harchman arrived at two o’clock on Saturday to warn me that James Helmand intended to cause trouble, it was completely unexpected,” Kane finished.
“Wait, Tawny showed up at your door?” I demanded. “Was she doing her bubblehead bimbo act?”
“Yes. She said if I came with her to their home, she would mediate between Helmand and me, and we could resolve our issues peacefully.”
“Well, sign the girl up for a Nobel Peace Prize,” I muttered.
“I played along,” Kane went on. “Which was why I missed my check-in with you. I’m sorry about that.”
I managed a feeble nod, and he continued, “I accepted her invitation and told her I would be there shortly. As soon as she left I called Hellhound to take Daniel and Alicia into hiding, and I set up surveillance cameras in the house.”
He gave us a thin smile. “Cameras which subsequently recorded footage of Labelle’s men dumping Helmand’s body in the living room. I discovered later that Riel had hired a hit on Helmand, who was becoming increasingly unbalanced and threatening his transaction with Arlene Widdenback. Framing me for Helmand’s murder was his backup plan, to force me to help him acquire the weapon if Arlene Widdenback didn’t deliver.”
“So that’s why you were at Harchman’s,” I said. “Waiting for Helmand, who never showed up because he was already dead. Did Tawny know?”
“She seemed puzzled and annoyed that Helmand was a no-show.” Kane shrugged. “But she’s a very good actress, so who knows?”
“And the bug?”
“It belonged to Riel, I figured out later. At the time I assumed it was Tawny’s, so I didn’t want her to know we’d found it. Then later I discovered that Riel had asked Tawny to come and collect me, and the bug was his. I didn’t dare compromise it because I wanted him to be convinced I’d turned against you.” His lips twisted. “I didn’t realize Labelle was planning to double-cross him and kill both of you to take the weapon for himself.”
“He must have found another buyer who paid better than Riel,” I guessed. “That must have been why he was stalling our deal.”
“So where the hell did you get the other weapon?” Holt demanded. “I asked Reggie Chow, and our weapon never left the lab.”
“I didn’t have another weapon. That’s what I was doing Sunday afternoon.” Kane smiled. “Building a fake weapon out of a Malibu coconut rum bottle and some aluminium foil. It took forever to sand off the glaze and label, and to get the foil looking right.”
Released tension folded me into a slump of relief. “So you never had another weapon at all.”
“No, of course not.” Kane frowned. “If I’d had an active weapon, I wouldn’t have pointed it at you. I knew you’d know that.”
“Right,” I said faintly.
Holt leaned back in his chair. “Huh. Lucky I’m a top agent. When I saw you pointing that thing at Kelly, I came this close…” He held up his fingers millimetres apart. “…to ventilating your brain for real.”
Kane touched the reddened scab on his forehead. “You almost did anyway. I’m glad you trusted me enough not to use real bullets, but it’s a good thing I trusted you enough to hold still and let you take the shot.”
Holt snorted. “I didn’t trust you at all. I just wanted answers before I blew your brains out. And I could have made that shot even if you were running across the room.”
Kane didn’t dignify his boast with a response. Instead, he turned back to me. “I was hoping to catch Labelle off guard with our infighting. I could see you were ready to take him, and I wasn’t expecting Holt to show up shooting.” He turned to Stemp. “Didn’t you find the report I left for you last night? I was sure you’d see it on the windshield of your car this morning.”
“Of course I saw it,” Stemp said imperturbably. “I watched you break into my garage and leave it there when you triggered my silent alarms at zero three thirty. Your lock-picking was nicely done, by the way. I must upgrade my locks again.”
Kane inclined his head in acknowledgement of the compliment, and Stemp went on, “However, I decided not to share all the details of your report with the team. Instead, I told Holt to expect you at Labelle’s, and ordered him to bring you back alive and uninjured for interrogation. I thought everyone’s actions would be considerably more… revealing… that way. And so they were.”
My blood chilled with the realization of exactly how dangerous our situation had been. Holt had been right. Stemp had been testing us, with potentially fatal consequences for failure.
Kane, Holt, and I exchanged an uncomfortable glance and Kane cleared his throat. “Is there any word on who faked the terrorist attack?” he asked.
Spider sat up eagerly. “Yes! You’re not going to believe this…” He paused dramatically. “It was Lawrence Harchman.”
“What?” I stared at him, slack-jawed. “Why?”
“It was publicity for his new app. He wanted to scare people into thinking they needed it. He didn’t have a clue that a weapon like ours actually existed; he just made up a weapon that didn’t leave a mark because it was easier than simulating bomb injuries in a crowd. So he hired a programmer to use last year’s footage from the Remembrance Day service…”
“That’s why Hellhound and Miss Lacey were there!” I exclaimed. “It was last year’s footage! Goddamn Harchman, that slimy little shit! I’ll twist that pimple of a head right off his shoulders…”
Suddenly realizing I’d just uttered the intent to commit murder in a room full of law-enforcement personnel, I backtracked hurriedly. “I mean, I won’t really, but I’d sure as hell love to-”
Spider saved me by interrupting, “So anyway, he hired James Helmand as an explosives consultant because he wanted convincing footage of himself getting blown up. He thought nobody would suspect him if it looked as though he was the intended victim. Then he had his programmer set up everything to splice the altered footage into the live news feeds, and gave the programmer an all-expenses-paid vacation in his Montreal home so the programmer could take the threat letter with him and mail it from there to deflect suspicion from Calgary.”
“That’s why Harchman was so pissed when they cancelled his speech,” I deduced. “He wasn’t going to get his dramatic death and all the associated publicity.”
“Yes, and that’s how we caught him.” Spider grinned, the predatory look out of place on his boyish features. “He phoned the programmer to tell him to cut his murder out of the faked footage, and if it had ended there he would have gotten away with the whole thing because we weren’t monitoring his phone. But after the altered footage went live, the programmer emailed Harchman the updated video file, and my back-door program caught the email. It’s a lucky thing you installed the program on all his servers, not just the sim server.”
I concealed my surge of satisfaction in a nod as if I’d planned it that way all along, and sent a psychic message toward Stemp: See? I’m a valuable agent. Please don’t lock me up…
“Well, I hope he and his programmer like prison,” Kane said grimly. “Because they’ll be there for quite a while.”
Slow realization dawned. “And Tawny will take over Harchman’s empire.” I stared at the frowning faces around the table. “She wins in the end. Do think she engineered the whole thing?”
“There’s no evidence of it,” Stemp said. “But if she is as smart as we think, she would have played the bimbo and manipulated Harchman, letting him believe the entire plan had been his own invention. Ms. Harchman may prove to be a formidable adversary, should she choose to act against us.”
My heart sank. Oh God, not a reprise of Fuzzy Bunny…
The rest of the debriefing went by in a blur of fatigue, dread of Stemp’s punishment, and an incongruously buoyant happiness that kept lifting my heart despite the gravity of the meeting.
When the last administrative details had been completed, Stemp’s customary cool demeanor chilled by a few more degrees.
“Now,” he said. “As to the issue of assault and forcible confinement of an agent, resisting arrest, and…” He turned his icy gaze on me. “…insubordination and obstructing justice-”
“Aydan didn’t do anything wrong,” Kane interrupted. “She followed Holt’s orders, and she was tranked the rest of the time.”
“That’s true,” Holt seconded, much to my surprise. “And she saved my life.” Resentment glittered in the glance he shot at Kane. “Kane’s the one who caused the problems. Him and his buddy Hellhound.”
Fear chilled my heart. Oh, God, had I gotten my men back from the dead only to lose them to prison?
“Hellhound didn’t do anything,” Kane snapped. “He only came around the van and asked what was going on.”
“Serving as a distraction,” Holt growled. “And I’m pretty sure he’s the one who chucked the other guys in the back of the van and tied me up while I was unconscious.”
“Enough,” Stemp said in a quiet voice that sent a chill down my spine.
Stemp eyed Holt and Kane in silence. Holt slouched in his chair with the corner of his mouth curled in a cocky smile, but I was pretty sure it was only an act to hide the stinging of his pride. Kane sat ramrod straight, wearing his impassive cop face.
“Holt, can you say definitely that Hellhound attacked or restrained you?” Stemp said after a few moments.
Redness climbed Holt’s neck. “No,” he mumbled. “I was knocked out.”
“Did your team see anything?”
The flush reached Holt’s face. “No. They were knocked out, too.”
“So.” Stemp turned to Kane. “Since Hellhound’s involvement can’t be proven and Holt and his team are uninjured, it is highly unlikely that assault charges against you or Hellhound would be upheld in civilian court. And since you are no longer an agent I have no disciplinary power over you. I see no point in pursuing this matter further.”
He directed a narrow gaze at Holt. “This incident will be classified as a training exercise on your record. You allowed yourself to be distracted and overpowered even though you and your team outnumbered your assailants. Take a lesson from the experience, and be glad the only injury was to your ego. Dismissed.”
He rose and strode out.
Holt muttered “Asshole” under his breath, but he looked relieved.
I turned to face him, my happiness finally bursting out in a grin. “I told you I could trust Kane.” I reached over to squeeze Kane’s hand and was rewarded with a smile and hand-squeeze in return.
“This time, maybe,” Holt grumbled. “But he’s still a spook, just like the rest of us. Spooks will always play you sooner or later.”
“You’re such a cynical prick,” I said cheerfully, joy bubbling up inside me. I turned my smile back to Kane.
Tall, dark, incredibly hot Kane.
My smile widened.
He wasn’t an agent anymore. There were no rules that prevented me from fraternizing with him.
And life was too damn short.
I leaned over and kissed him on the lips.
Holt groaned. “Christ, get a room.” He rose and made for the door, followed by Spider, who gave me a conspiratorial grin.
When only the two of us remained, I turned back to Kane, still clutching his hand. “I knew I could trust you.”
The smile slid off his face. “Aydan… we need to talk.”