Effective immediately, p.25
Effective Immediately, page 25
part #3 of The Agency Files Series
“Then why do I have to leave forever!” Sara’s eyes returned to Keith, as if she knew he couldn’t lie to her.
It was a judgment call he hated to make, but Keith did it. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “Retaliation.”
She crumbled into a puddle of despair and tears. Keith glared at Ernie, who seemed torn between the urge to comfort her and the understanding that her association with him had brought them to this place. With more force than necessary, Keith jabbed a finger in her direction and mouthed, “Go!” The moment Ernie moved, Keith stepped outside the door.
After a few seconds, Keith peered around the doorjamb and relaxed as he saw Ernie holding Sara—weeping with Sara. Either he’s lying to himself or to her, but he shouldn’t put it past the Kasimirs to take out revenge on her family.
That thought prompted him to send a quick text message. WHAT ARE ODDS THAT K’s WOULD GO AFTER SARA’S FAMILY AFTER TRIAL—REVENGE MOTIVATION IN PARTICULAR?
The wait drove him crazy, and the awkwardness of having to spy on a couple in crisis didn’t help. Keith occasionally walked past the doorway, leaned against the wall opposite, and even went outside and walked the perimeter, checking the window too often for safety. Bad decision, Auger. Check the back corner now. Idiot.
The reply came just after he reached the dining room—again. SLIM AFTER I’M DONE. I’LL MAKE IT CLEAR THAT SHE WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM. KILLING THEM WILL ONLY MAKE IT EASIER TO PUT MORE OF THE GANG AWAY.
That gave Keith confidence to go back into the room and reassure Sara again. He stepped in the door, leaned against a couch, and cleared his throat. Ernie and Sara hardly shifted, but their eyes met his. “Just talked to Mark. Mark says he’ll make sure that the Kasimirs know that you won’t know if any of your family is hurt, and any attempt on any of them will ensure that more of their members make it into jail. If Mark says that, it’ll happen. I think your family is good.”
The text came three hours later. ACTIVATE NEW PHONE. DESTROY THIS. TELL ERNIE TO USE PROTOCOL 3.
Keith beckoned Ernie over and pointed to the text. “Do you know what that means?”
“Got it. Go get the other phone. I’ll take care of this one.”
Sara, seemingly engrossed in a reality TV show, said without moving her eyes from the screen, “Are we in danger again?”
As he passed the couch to retrieve the phone from the backpack, Keith patted her shoulder. “Nope. Absolutely normal. No worries.”
At the sound of plastic crunching, Sara winced. “I don’t get—”
Though she pushed back, Keith noticed a change in her—that resignation that always meant the possibility a client wouldn’t fight for life. It took everything he had to keep going and retrieve the phone. He made it back to the couch and called to Ernie. “Hey, catch!”
Ernie dropped the mangled bits onto the counter and reached for the flying package. “Got it.”
Duh. Couldn’t see that for myself. Conscience overrode frustration. Quit with the sarcasm. Do your job. He hunkered down on his heels in front of her and waited until he saw she was truly listening. “There are dozens of monitors on things. If they get a wrong number, the phone gets destroyed. If it comes up on rotation, it gets destroyed—even if it’s brand new. If we find out it’s too close to another number, it’s destroyed—”
“That’s usually fixed immediately though,” Ernie interjected as he destroyed the packaging in his attempts to retrieve the phone.
“Just giving her the scenarios, Ernie…” Don’t foul it up now. “We’re going to do a lot of things that seem either like we’re overreacting or like we’re about to die. Most of the time, it’s neither. Just listen to what we say. If things truly are bad, we’ll usually tell you.”
From the corner of his eye, Keith saw Ernie approach. The temptation to tackle the guy just to break the tension arose, but he squelched it. Instead, he said, “Trying to sneak up on me?”
“Just testing your reflexes. Never know if you’ve gotten lazy in your old age.”
The dig should have hurt—would have—but Keith’s continual self-flaggelative habits had numbed him. He grabbed the phone to test it, but seeing mARK on the screen stopped him. “What—oh.” His laughter filled the room. Ernie and Sara exchanged confused glances until Keith showed Ernie the screen. “Force of habit?”
“Yeah… I guess.”
Sara’s eyes ping-ponged back and forth before she threw up her hands and demanded, “What?”
“Kasimir trick,” Ernie began.
“Ernie…”
“What? It’s not like I’m going to be doing that again.” Before Keith could stop him, Ernie explained. “I always had two phones. Kept contact names the same on both, but I did all caps except one letter for The Agency. Each person I had to contact in The Agency got a code name that corresponded with the Kasimirs. That way it looked like a typo but the names were right. Wouldn’t hold up for long if they compared numbers, but it might be enough if they were just sneaking a peek or to give me a minute to get out if they were really on to me.”
“Wow! Mark’s thorough!”
“That’s all Ernie,” Keith muttered. “Genius with ideas. Idiot with secrets.”
“She’s not going to tell! She’s under protection now. She’s safe! I’m not going back in, so—”
Keith’s glare cut off Ernie’s protest. He grabbed Sara’s hand and led her toward the stairs. “Let’s go get changed and take a swim. The neighbors would think we’re nuts to be here on a gorgeous day like this and not go in the water.”
Yeah. Go swimming. Ignore the fact that she’ll never be safe until these guys are behind bars. No one can guarantee that ever. And you know it, Ernie. He could hear Ernie demanding only his services.
“You’re the best, Keith. You know it, even if you won’t admit it. So I want you. I want your promise that if something goes wrong, I’ll get you. Promise me!”
And he had. “I broke that promise, too.” Truth hit him hard and fast. “And I’m a hypocrite.” He swallowed a lump of pride and called out for Ernie. “Can you come back down here?”
“I don’t want to—”
“Seriously, Ernie. Just for a minute.”
Ernie appeared defensive and ready for battle. “What?”
“I owe you an apology.”
“Wha—”
“Just let me do this while I can admit it. I made a promise and I broke it. I hope you can forgive me.” Each word stuck in his throat as he tried to speak, but Keith forced himself to add, “It was so wrong of me.”
His friend watched him—stared at him until Keith’s skin crawled and he wanted to demand “Enough already!” But he didn’t. He waited—waited and tried not to let his discomfort show.
“That’s why I respect you. This is the Keith I know. The whining’s gone. The self-doubt is gone.” Ernie grinned. “Good to have you back.”
Keith just shook his head and walked away.
Tyler stepped into the office and sensed the change. At first, nothing looked out of place. Nothing looked changed. Yet something felt different—improved perhaps. A girl breezed in—one too cute to take seriously and, if her driven expression meant anything, too terrifying not to. “Can I help you? You shouldn’t be in here without an appointment.”
“I’m Tyler—”
“Oh, Mark’s waiting for you. Go in. Oh, and congratulations. I heard you like totally rocked your first tests.”
“Thanks…” He allowed his voice to trail off as he waited for her to tell him her name.
“Go in! He doesn’t have all day. Busy guy, y’know. Geez, people. Get with the program.” The girl’s tone screamed, “Don’t mess with me, you twerp,” but the twinkle in her eye and the wink she gave before she plopped down in her chair and began typing told a different story.
Tyler hesitated but decided not to press the issue of learning her name. “Yeah… going in.”
“I’ll alert the media.”
As he knocked and entered the office, Mark looked up from a tablet. “Flynne said you’d arrived.”
“Already? She’s fast.”
“Crazy efficient.” The moment the door shut, Mark added, “She’d never be able to handle the inefficiency of the field, but she’ll keep this office ‘totes amaze’ if I give her half a chance.”
“She didn’t…”
Mark nodded. “Oh, yeah. In fact, I overheard her tell someone the other day, ‘I just like totally puffy heart pho.’”
“Puffy heart…”
“Yeah… the really crazy thing is, it’s growing on me. I can’t imagine ever using the ‘totes pop’ phrases she uses, but she’s redefined the office with them. She’s just revolutionized the place.”
Tyler couldn’t help himself. Laughter bubbled over until he choked out a few chortles. “Do you hear yourself? You just said, ‘I can’t ever imagine using the ‘totes pop’ phrases.’ Um, you used them anyway.”
Groaning, Mark pointed to the chair and said, “Just give me your review. How’d it go?”
“You know—”
“No. I want to know how you think it went. What you think your strengths and weaknesses were.”
This, Tyler hadn’t expected. He was ready to report on the things he knew. He wasn’t prepared to report on what he’d learned. “Well… I was um… well…” He sat in the chair, his mind spinning.
“Just talk to me.”
“Okay, so I got there and I had no idea what to expect. I mean, the place was so much smaller than I expected—and all the training setups—totally cool. Or should that be, ‘totes coolio’?” At Mark’s glare, he continued quickly. “Well, anyway, what surprised me was how much mental and physical stuff there is. I mean, I have a whole workout routine I’m supposed to do for the next six weeks. They pretty much named me a complete wuss.”
“Only six weeks?” The panic in Mark’s voice told Tyler that his weak physique was worse than he’d expected.
“Yeah. Then they’re bumping me up to a ‘real’ one, according to the trainer. Man, Jess is tough.”
“Best one out there, though. She works wonders.” Mark tapped a few things on the screen, smiled, and looked back up at him. “Continue.”
Was that another Flynne—what kind of name is that anyway?—thing or does he have a girlfriend? That totally looks like amusement with a girlfriend. When the delay made Mark raise an eyebrow, Tyler panicked. “Um, where was I?”
“Jess whipped your butt…”
“Yeah. The mental stuff—all really weird. I couldn’t figure out what half of it had to do with the job and then bam!”
“Bam?”
“Yeah! Like in a movie trailer when it’s revealing slow little things that don’t seem related and then bam! The music does this… well, bam!”
“Okay, so what was your ‘bam’ moment?”
“It just all goes to show how your brain connects things. I didn’t get that before. But man, I learned a lot. And it got me thinking…” Tyler hesitated. It wasn’t his job—not anymore. It wasn’t his case. But…
“Spit it out.”
“Well, Keith. The Kim case. He’s in danger. Why aren’t we insisting on protection? They’ll retaliate and he’ll be dead.”
“Except that he’s on a case.”
“That’s my point!” Tyler exclaimed—just a little too loudly. He dropped his tone a little and added, “Isn’t he putting Sara and Ernie in danger?”
“Sounds like you’ve been thinking. That’s good.” Tyler beamed at Mark’s praise but knew something would qualify it. “As long as Keith is protecting someone, he’s safer than if someone’s watching him, and we don’t have the manpower not to have him working.”
“But is it wise to risk two clients because of manpower issues?” When Mark’s eyes narrowed, Tyler almost didn’t continue, but instinct said his boss would respect him more if he didn’t hold back. “I just wondered if combining clients and missions might work as a way to give two people backup and another pair of eyes on Keith.”
“Or risk two unrelated cases…”
“That is a risk, but does it outweigh the risk of one agent being on twenty-four/seven? I don’t see the strength in that.”
The room grew so quiet that Tyler imagined he could hear Mark’s brain turning over ideas. Mark showed no emotion—no thought processes. Nothing. Instead, he sat without moving his eyes from Tyler’s face. At last, he nodded. “It’s a good point. If moving them wouldn’t negate the advantages, I’d consider it. As of now, we can’t, but for next time, that’s a valid point.”
Tyler beamed until he remembered the continued threat. “So… what about Keith? How confident are you that he is safe?”
“Very. First, he knows he’s at risk. We haven’t discussed it, but he knows it and he’s watching. Being on alert for two things makes him extra diligent.”
“And means he can’t sleep—bad for safety,” Tyler interjected.
“He’ll sleep when he needs to. He knows how to get the maximum benefit with the least number of hours, and how to break them up without affecting his clarity.”
“Will I learn that?”
Mark laughed. “Yep—and you’ll hate it. Just warning you.”
The conversation moved to other areas of his training, but Tyler’s mind couldn’t release his concern for Keith. The moment Mark concluded the meeting, Tyler blurted out one last question. “Can I spend my weekend off helping? I could watch while he sleeps, if nothing else. Just be out of the way except for those hours…”
“No, but thanks for offering.” Before Tyler could hide his disappointment, Mark saw it and nodded. He leaned forward. “I’m glad you’re loyal to the team. I can’t tell you everything I know, but I can tell you this much. We haven’t been able to substantiate a threat against Keith. There’s no chatter, no activity—nothing to indicate that what Kim said was true. If he’s telling the truth, it hasn’t been activated yet, but we’re watching and…” Mark fiddled with his stylus for a moment before he looked back up and met Tyler’s gaze. “We have people where the orders would come from—nothing yet.”
“You mean N—”
“Yes.”
As Tyler left the building for forty-eight hours of rest before his next training round, all he could think of was, Wow. How’d they get someone into the North Korean government that fast? The only answer that made any sense to him also sickened him. Surely Mark doesn’t hire people to be professional mistresses! Ugh.
Unusual summer winds buffeted the house, making Keith nervous about tornado warnings. Anyone with half a lick of sense would use a time like that to try to take out a witness. If they know where we are and power goes out, we have to leave. If we have to leave, we’re dead. Another thought followed quickly. Then again, outside means wind will make it almost impossible to get a good shot. Inside means we’re sitting ducks, but we know the house and they have to come to us. I could take them out by sending Ernie and Sara to another part of the house. Maybe the pool. No one would expect someone to be in the pool during a tornado. There’s the lightning risk, but it’s less than guns. Hmm… interesting. I’ll have to run that by Mark. I bet the statistics are far and above in our favor.
As thoughts bombarded his brain, working out each scenario in his mind, Keith stepped into the master bedroom and swept the room with his eyes. Tree branches creaked outside the window. If one breaks off and crashes through, Sara’ll scream—natural response, but then all our attempts to hide the room she’s in are shot. A glance at the bed sent him out again. Lord, I can’t decide if I’m right to be glad they made up, or if it’s further proof that my convictions are weakening. I’ve never liked it when I have to guard unmarried couples living as if they are, but look at me! A second later, he stepped from the room, the accusation, Hypocrite! following with each footfall.
The bedroom opposite had closed windows and blackout curtains. Keith swept the room with his flashlight, even into the open closet, before determining that the floor was clear. He sat on the stairs and pulled out his phone. A quick text to Mark gave him the okay to call Erika. Though late—too late to call, really—Keith knew he had to try while he had a chance.
Erika picked up on the first ring. “You better be someone I know.”
“Hey there.”
“Keith!” If the rustling he heard was what he thought it was, she’d sat up in bed or climbed out.
“Hi.”
“Are you okay? Is Ernie okay?”
“Ernie’s good. We’ve got him and another witness here.” Keith sighed. “Man, it’s good to hear your voice.”
“Yeah, yeah. Tell me all the warm fuzzy stuff in a minute. You said ‘we.’ Does that mean you’re not alone?”
“Just the three of us. Ernie’s technically Agency, so ‘we’ includes him. Confusing, I’m sure, but it works in my brain.”
“Okay. Well, I guess.” Again, rustling—Keith wondered once more if she’d gotten out of bed or something. “So, how are you doing? Do you like being back at work?”
“I do, actually. I—”
The sleepiness dissipated from her voice as Erika demanded more information. “C’mon, spill it, Keith.”
“It’s instinctive. It feels right. I like knowing that I’m between Ernie and a bullet if it comes down to it. I like knowing he’s safe, but then doubts creep in.”
“Well, drive ‘em out again.”
“You make it sound so easy.” Something in his tone sounded a little too close to whining for his comfort. Before he could stop himself, it continued—on a roll. He tried to stifle it—contain his runaway emotional tirade—but once he’d opened that door, nothing seemed to hold him back. “I don’t want to deal with this. It’s rotten and it stinks. This isn’t what I signed up to do!”
“Excrement.”
“What?”
“Fine,” Erika added with what sounded like repressed laughter. “Male bovine excrement to be precise. I didn’t use any inappropriate language, so you can’t complain.”
Keith sat on that top step of a dark house, listening to the wind howl around them, to Erika’s creative vocabulary gymnastics, and grinned. “Okay, what is ‘male bovine excrement’ exactly?”
