Lucy stared, dumbfounded. Do you two know each other?
We do now, Mrs. Pfluger said. He came to my door, and when he explained you were in danger from some terrorists, and that he needed my help so you could escape She shrugged helplessly, as if to say, Well, you know how these things are. Like they happened every day.
But the wall. He ruined your wall, Lucy said.
He handed me a wad of cash to pay for it. She turned back to Casanova. Now, while you were busy searching Lucys apartment, I gathered the things you would need. She gestured toward an old shopping bag. Theyre clothes and other things from my fat days. I wont need them back.
Casanova inspected the contents of the shopping bag, then grinned and looked at Lucy. Excellent. Lucy, put these things on. Youre about to become Bessie Pfluger.
Bryan Elliott, aka Casanova, tried not to grin as he watched Lucy Miller wiggle into a pair of huge orange polyester stretch pants and pin them at the waist. Shed turned out to be a surprise.
He already knew a lot about her from the background information hed obtainedwhere she grew up, where shed gone to school, her employment history. Hed pegged her as the perfect mole to work inside Alliance where the embezzling was taking placedutiful, conscientious, intelligent. And she was all those things. Over the past few weeks she had proved amazingly helpful, downloading tons of information onto the supercapacity memory stick, following his instructions without question.
In person, though, she was surprisingly feistyand damned efficient at defending herself. With the proper trainingNo, he shouldnt even think about that. Hed let himself get sucked into a life of lies and shadows, and he was in so deep now he could never lead a normal life. He didnt wish that on sweet Lucy Miller, who, by all accounts, was ignorant of the uglier side of life.
But she was no longer ignorant about the ugliest clothes in the universe. Shed topped the orange pants with a tentlike housecoat with rainbows all over it. Shed tucked her hair up into a silver, curly-haired wig and donned an old pair of Mrs. Pflugers glasses, which had red frames and were only slightly uglier than Lucys own.
My old walker is over there. Mrs. Pfluger gestured toward a corner of her living room.
This will never work, Lucy said on a moan. No one will believe Im eighty years old.
Eighty-two, Mrs. Pfluger said.
Trust me, if anyone is watching the place, they wont look past the obvious at the place next door. He unfolded the portable walker and set it in front of Lucy. Lets see you do an old-lady walk.
Lucy hunched over the walker and did a creditable imitation of an arthritic senior citizen inching along.
Oh, heavens, Mrs. Pfluger said. Please dont tell me I look like that when I walk.
Im exaggerating, Lucy said. Then she turned to her neighbor and gave her a spontaneous hug. Oh, Mrs. Pfluger, I cant thank you enough for helping us out like this. I mean, you dont even know this guy.
He showed me a badge, Mrs. Pfluger said innocently, having no clue the badge hed shown her was fake and could be bought on any street corner in D.C. Anyway, he has trustworthy eyes. Hell take care of you.
Im counting on it, Lucy said, giving Bryan a meaningful look. Can we go now?
Bryan thanked Lucys elderly neighbor, too, then helped Lucy out the door and down the wheelchair ramp.
Keep your head down. Thats it, he whispered. Youre doing great. If I didnt know better, Id swear you were someones grandmother. But he did know better. The body that had been pressed against his when shed fallen on him was not the slightest bit grandmotherly. In fact, hed been surprised at how slim and firm she was beneath the frumpy suit shed worn.
His Mercedes was parked at the curb. Knowing the town house might be under surveillance, hed made no attempt to be stealthy, walking right up to the neighbors door and ringing the bell. Hed known she would be home. Hed also known shed been an army nurse in Korea and her husband had been a World War II veteran. Hed been counting on her patriotism to make her willing to help him out, and hed been right.
As he usually was. He liked to cover all the bases.
As soon as the motor started and the car was underway, he relaxed slightly. If anyone had been watching, Lucys old-lady act had fooled them. No one was following.
Bryan drove to a mall parking lot and pulled the Mercedes into a spot fairly close to where hed found it.
Why are we stopping here? Lucy asked.
Switching cars. He turned off the engine and pulled his Multi-Key from the ignition.
What is that? Lucy asked, pointing to the strange-looking device. Then she gasped. Oh my God, you stole this car!
Just borrowed it. The owner is blissfully shopping at Marshall Fields. Shell never know.
That is really scary, Lucy said. That such a device even exists, and that our government employees steal cars.
Government employees do a lot worse than steal cars, Im afraid, he said as they exited the Mercedes. Unfortunately, hed just found out the hard way what certain government employees were capable of.
Lucy grabbed the walker from the back seat, but she didnt use it. She walked beside him with a spring in her step, lithe and graceful. He led her to the car hed arrived in, a silver Jaguar XJE. Since hed been driving his personal wheels and not a company car, he hadnt wanted to risk it being identified. Thus the switcheroo.
Hmm, I liked this even better than the Mercedes, she commented as she put the walker in the trunk. Is this one stolen, too?
No, this ones mine.
I hadnt realized government employees earned enough money to afford a Jag.
We dont. My government salary isnt my only source of income. Hed never imagined his cover business, the one he set up to satisfy friends and family, would turn so lucrative. He opened the passenger door for her. You can ditch the disguise, now. Were safe.
Thank God. She pulled off the wig. Her real hair pulled loose from its bun in the process, spilling over her shoulders in a rich chestnut cascade. Hed never found brown hair all that exciting before, but Lucys was thick and luscious.
By the time hed made it around to the drivers side, Lucy was out of her housecoat, which shed thrown on over her white tailored blouse. Then she cursed. I forgot my jeans.
No, I put them in Then he stopped. Hed been so fascinated watching Lucy shimmy out of them, revealing a glimpse of her sensible white panties, that he had forgotten to bring the jeans along. Well get you some clothes, dont worry.
He had no business thinking about Lucys panties, sensible or otherwise. He had a helluva problem here.
Finding the listening devices was disturbing enough. Hed been sure Lucy was exaggerating, that no one was following her or sneaking into her home. But she hadnt installed those listening devices herself.
In fact, once hed examined the bug in her telephone, the list of suspects who could have planted it had shrunk to a handful. That bug was the latest technology, purchased from Russia. So new, in fact, that only his agency had access to it. Besides the Russians, of course. And he didnt think the Russians were involved in this.
In fact, once hed examined the bug in her telephone, the list of suspects who could have planted it had shrunk to a handful. That bug was the latest technology, purchased from Russia. So new, in fact, that only his agency had access to it. Besides the Russians, of course. And he didnt think the Russians were involved in this.
Someone in his own organization had betrayed him, which meant his life and Lucys werent worth a used teabag unless he found out which agent was the Benedict Arnoldand neutralized him or her, fast.
Two
They drove in silence for a few minutes. Bryan took a circuitous route out of the city, darting on and off the freeway to be absolutely certain they werent being followed. Then he headed north on Interstate 95 as a plan slowly formed.
Are you okay? he asked Lucy. She was awfully quiet. Hed expected her to be peppering him with questions about where they were going and what would happen next, questions to which he didnt have all the answers.
Im fine.
Im sorry I put you in danger.
I knew what I was getting into when I signed on for this gig. You told me there would be some risk.
She didnt know the half of it. Hed never expected the risk to come from his own people. You did great. I wish we could have finished the job, though.
I did.
Pardon me?
After I talked to you, I knew I wouldnt be returning to Alliance Trust. So I threw caution out the window. Before, I was careful to cover my tracks when I downloaded information. I figured that didnt matter anymore. So I just downloaded everything in sight. Practically the whole computer system. I cant believe how much that little memory stick holds.
You downloaded everything? he asked, hardly able to believe it.
Everything Ill need. It will take some time to go through it all. Whoever was embezzling from the retirement funds was very sneaky. But Ive got calendars, phone lists, log-on and log-off times, passwords, who attended what meeting when. Using a process of elimination, I can figure out who made the illicit withdrawalsI know I can.
You wont have to. The agency has some of the best minds in the country He stopped. Until he knew who had betrayed him, he didnt dare turn this information over to anyone. One keystroke, and all of the evidence Lucy had risked her life for could be erased.
I could do it, Lucy said. Im very good at puzzles. Maybe your organization has experts and high-tech equipment, but I know the people involved. I know how everything worked at that bank. No one is more qualified than me to analyze this data.
She might just be right. What will you need?
A computer powerful enough to handle the amount of data involved. A quiet place to work. Thats it.
The plan hed been working on earlier became a bit firmer in his mind. It was kind of crazy. But he didnt know any other way to keep Lucy safe. He had access to any number of safe houses, but safe from whom? Everyone who was part of this mission knew those houses, tooTarantula, Stungun, Orchid and his immediate supervisor, Siberia. His list of suspects. Four people whom, until an hour ago, he would have trusted with his life.
I think I can accommodate you, he said.
Okay, then. She settled back into her seat, looking satisfied. Where are we going?
Finally. Hed wondered when she would get around to asking that. New York.
Your home turf.
Bryan felt a prickle of apprehension. How did she know that?
Your accent, she said before he had a chance to ask. I went to school with a guy from New York. Long Island. You sound just like him.
Observant little thing, wasnt she? During his training, hed learned to erase every trace of accent from his voice. His safety, and that of his wealthy family, depended on keeping every detail of his personal life separate from his life at the agency. It was like that for all the agents he worked with. They all used their code names, and they never revealed any personal information for any reason.
How had he let his guard down long enough that Lucy had figured out where he was from? Maybe he was slipping. Because of the intense pressure, a lot of agents didnt last long in the field.
You work for the CIA? she asked.
He used to. Theyd recruited him in college, when hed been studying business management with every intention of joining the family business, Elliott Publication Holdings. They said it was because of his straight As and his uncommon athleticism. Hed worked a lot of undercover.
Then a nameless, faceless person had recruited him to a newly formed investigative arm of Homeland Security, an agency so secret it didnt have a name. The agency had no central office, and it wasnt mentioned in the national budget. Basically it didnt exist.
Lying usually came easily to him. But for some reason he didnt want to lie straight-out to Lucy. He settled for a partial truth. I work for Homeland Security.
I didnt know Homeland Security had its own spies.
Things are still evolving there.
How does one become a spy?
Why, are you interested in joining up?
Maybe. Anythings better than what I was doing.
Hed only been kidding, but she was serious. So why did you work at a bank if you didnt like it?
She shrugged. It was expected of me. And the money was pretty good. Id been thinking about doing something else, though.
Like what?
I dunno. Running away and joining the circus, maybe. Id make a good lion tamer.
You? he blurted out, then wished he hadnt, given Lucys reaction. Hed insulted her.
Why couldnt I tame lions?
Im sure you could. You could poke them with umbrellas.
I think youre making fun of me. But you didnt think it was so funny when I had you on the floor. I almost gave you an impromptu tracheotomy with my trusty umbrella. She looked around the car. Oh, we left it behind. I liked that umbrella.
Ill buy you a new one, he said, feeling a bit sorry for her. Her life had been disrupted, and it would never be the same. He didnt think that fact had sunk into her head yet.
We wont be going back, then, she said.
Not in the foreseeable future.
Good. If Id had to spend one more night in that boring town house with its boring white walls, wearing those boring suits, Id have slit my wrists.
Shed surprised him again. Hed done a considerable amount of research on Miss Lucy Miller. She came from a solid Kansas farming family, had attended the state university, got good grades. Shed been working at a job for which she was underqualified, but her employee reviews had come up glowing.
The only mystery about Lucy Miller was a period of about two years shortly after her college graduation, for which Bryan could not unearth much information. Her passport indicated shed done some traveling abroad. The best he could figure, shed been soaking up some culture before tying herself down to a serious career. She had an older brother who lived in Holland, so she might have been staying with him.
My family will be worried, she said.
You wont be able to contact them.
Ever? she asked in a small voice. Am I going into the witness protection program?