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I SIMPLY WATCHED CLARK and the Dark Sparrow operative have their moment. I didn’t have to ask; she opened up about their past soon enough. With the enemy sitting on his bed, a bemused expression on his face, Clark told me the story about how she became The Sleeper.
“My parents were killed when I was two or three; I don’t really remember them,” she began. “A man named Hector Ashcroft took me in, just like he took in Lukas and Ryan, my fiancé. We were all trained to become assassins. When I graduated from the ‘school’ Mr. Ashcroft ran, I joined the CIA. It only seemed natural to use my skills where they were needed, and I thought I could make a difference.”
She paused, checking to see whether I was following. I gave her a quick nod to let her know she could continue. She drew a deep breath, checking to make sure Lukas hadn’t moved. “They put me into some tight situations, and I started sleeping with the enemy to gain access. That’s not something Ashcroft taught, just something I picked up in the field. It was easy to kill my marks that way, and I guess I developed a reputation.”
I swung my gaze to Lukas and found him smiling. I wanted to wipe that smile off his face, but I knew Clark wasn’t finished.
“I know Lukas from way back. He came up through the same training program. What I don’t understand is why he’s now working for Dark Sparrow,” she concluded.
“May I speak?” Lukas asked.
I saw Clark’s fist tighten, but she held her ground. “What?”
“You’ve been given faulty information,” Lukas said. “I’m pleased to see you, and I can assure you that I’m not responsible for your missing agents.”
“What do you know about that?” I demanded.
“Only that Dark Sparrow has been the scapegoat for at least half a dozen missing agents,” Lukas said. “I had nothing to do with that, and I can’t help you find your people.”
“Why should we believe you?” I demanded, crossing the room to push my gun up to his chin. I didn’t appreciate the smug look on his face or the way he simply assumed that we would take his word for anything.
“Dark Sparrow is an environmental organization,” Lukas claimed. “I got tired of waiting for the politicians to make inroads into the climate crisis and decided to take action myself. We are responsible for the attack on the German pipeline and for the shutdown of the Euro Automobile Factory.”
I released his collar, standing back to consider his confession. Both of those attacks were big news when they happened. There was wild speculation about who might have been at fault. The governments traded blame back and forth, and the resulting chaos set the global economy back weeks.
“You’re saying that MI6 and the CIA are pinning these disappearing agents on you to take you out of the picture?” Clark guessed. I could tell she was having a hard time swallowing the new information. I was also struggling to fit all the pieces together, and it didn’t help that the man providing them was our main suspect.
“We may have been acting outside the law, but our intentions were good,” Lukas continued. “No one was ever hurt. We wanted to send a message to the greedy corporations that are profiting off the planet’s destruction.”
“Easy now,” I cautioned him. “We don’t need this interrogation to turn into an environmental campaign.”
“Whether you agree with me or not, that’s all I’m guilty of,” Lukas grumbled.
I glanced at Clark, wondering what our next move was. Just then, the door flew back on its hinges, and two bodyguards rushed in. Both Clark and I put our backs to the suspect, raising our weapons. But Lukas defused the situation by rising to his feet and barking orders.
“Relax!” he shouted. “These are my friends.”
The guards seemed confused, but they lowered their guns. I drew a deep breath, realizing my mistake. If Lukas was half the operative that Clark was, he could have easily taken advantage of my misdirected attention. I half expected him to attack from behind, with or without the use of his arms. Instead, he was defusing the situation with words, calling off his men before anyone else got hurt.
“Give us a minute,” Lukas asked patiently.
The guards gave us the stink eye but retreated, closing the door behind them.
“Do you think you could take these cuffs off?” Lukas suggested, twisting so that we could see his bound hands.
“No,” Clark snapped. “I don’t care what you were into previously. You killed Ryan.”
“I had nothing to do with Ryan’s death,” Lukas assured her. “That was another thing they hung on me.”
“Who hung it on you?” Clark demanded.
“Rogue agents within MI6.”
That hit home. I was already worried about Regg and Southie; now this accusation about multiple people chipping away at the integrity of my organization didn’t sit well. I couldn’t rage against the accusation like some troubled teen, but neither could I ignore the implications.
“Do you have any proof?” I asked.
“I grew up with Ryan,” Lukas said, dodging the question. “I never would have hurt him.”
I could see that Clark wanted to believe him. She’d been wound tight ever since she heard the name ‘Lukas’ in conjunction with our case. But wanting to believe was a dangerous thing. Unscrupulous people could take advantage of that and make you work against your own interests. I had to be sure.
“But do you have proof?” I repeated.
Lukas shook his head. “I don’t know when Ryan was killed, so I can’t give you an alibi. All I know is that he was in contact with me. He said he had a lead on who the infiltrators were. That was the last I heard from him.”
“Ryan was onto MI6?” Clark asked.
“Check my phone,” Lukas said, gesturing awkwardly toward his bedside table.
Clark picked it up, holding it up to Lukas’s face to unlock the screen. Without further instructions, she went straight to the voicemail and found a recording from Ryan. She didn’t bother to put it on speaker; I guess that would have been too painful. Instead, she held the device to her ear and listened, her beautiful features going through a rainbow of difficult emotions as she heard what must have sounded like a voice from beyond the grave. Finally, she lowered the phone and reached for Lukas’s handcuffs.
Unlocking them, she allowed him to rub his wrists. Though he was now free to attack, Lukas did nothing of the sort. He opened his arms and gave Clark a hug. Amazingly, she allowed herself to be held. Apparently, the voicemail was convincing.
I relaxed, Clark’s acceptance of her former classmate proof enough for me. The world might have been turned on its head, but I could sense the trust in the room. It was a powerful force, nearly unheard of in my life. The question became could we identify the culprits behind the missing agents and the person or persons who killed Clark’s fiancé before it was too late?
Clark sat down on the bed, staring at the floor. That kind of apathy made me nervous. It was one thing to trust Lukas not to kill us but another thing entirely to let our guard down. I wanted to be outside of the compound and on the road before really relaxing.
“Come on,” I told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I apologize for my guards,” Lukas said. “Any help you need, I will provide.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly. “We’ll be okay.”
Clark looked up, her eyes rimmed with tears. I could tell that she was emotionally shattered, that she was lost in the wilderness of her own grief and needed help to get back. I knew exactly how to help, but the first thing was to get her somewhere safe.
“Let’s go,” I whispered, helping her to her feet. “You can crash as soon as we’re out of here, but I need your help for a few more minutes.”
She met my eyes with resolve, and I saw the raw, unfiltered strength that coursed through her veins. She was a fighter. She would walk out of Lukas’s place with her head held high. And unless I was mistaken, there would be no further discussion of Ryan.
I wondered where her drive for vengeance had gone. Would it be transferred to the rouge element in MI6? Was our next stop London so that she could wreak havoc on my agency? I hoped she could maintain some level of control at least until we had positively identified the people we were after. If Lukas was right, the missing agents were much closer to home than we had previously realized.
I still hoped that we could rescue them, but that goal seemed less likely. There were more important things at stake. A rotten member of the MI6 leadership could cause unthinkable damage, propping up violent dictatorships or tearing down carefully constructed peace treaties. They could even interfere with global relations, making our best friends into our worst enemies.
Is that what was happening with the CIA? Was America aware of the problem, or were they struggling to catch up just like we were? I helped Clark out of Lukas’s bedroom, down the hall and back through the kitchen. The guards watched us go with evil eyes, frustrated that they couldn’t get revenge for our previous beatings.
I ignored them. Instead of skirting the river and scaling the wall, we walked straight out the front gate. The guard in the gatehouse watched us go with a sense of relief. Though we’d arrived as adversaries, we left as mere curiosities.
We climbed back to where we’d left the car atop the hill overlooking the compound. I slid into the driver’s seat and watched as Clark flopped down beside me. She was running on empty, that much was obvious. I wanted to hug her or give her some additional support beyond merely facilitating her exit from the building. But I knew her well enough to realize that was a dangerous proposition. In her wounded state, she was likely to lash out, and I was the only one there to take the brunt of her attack.
Lucky for me, her phone rang. I didn’t have the strength to turn the car on. It seemed hopeless. I didn’t know where to go or who we could trust. So I just sat there while she took the phone call.
“Did you ask Z to check on your handler?” Clark said when the brief exchange was complete.
“Yes,” I replied. “I borrowed your phone. Did you learn anything?”
“I should be angry with you for hacking into my account,” Clark replied, her voice despondent.
“I apologize,” I said.
“It’s fine,” she grumbled.
“What did you learn?”
“The CIA is looking into him too,” Clark confirmed.
“Do they have any information?” I asked. Suspicions were one thing; I already had plenty of those. I was looking for real facts, something I could use against Regg if it came down to it.
“None that they’re sharing with me,” Clark replied.
“Did Z say why they’re looking at Regg?” I pushed, certain there was more to the story than met the eye.
“He sent up some red flags with some searching,” she answered. “And he has a connection to almost all of the missing agents.”
That was something. In terms of the intelligence community, that simple fact was likely to be all there was to tie Regg to this mole. Whether it was enough, I couldn’t be sure. I turned the car on, gunning the engine and pulling away from Lukas’s compound.
My phone rang as I drove down the narrow road that led back to the highway. Clark picked it up, beyond pretending that it didn’t concern her. She read the name off the screen and gave me a pointed look. Holding the device up where I could see it, I noted the four letters above the classified number: Regg. Speak of the devil.
