Curie Motors Facility | Round Rock, Texas
“So… they just… left?” Mayher asked.
Symon and Mayher had finally arrived at the Curie Motors facility, after high-tailing to Oklahoma City to catch a flight into Austin, then rushing to Round Rock in a rental car. Agents from the local FBI offices had already scoured the facility, top to bottom, with the help of the Curie Motors security team.
“Yes, ma’am,” one of the local agents said with a slight drawl. A native Texan, Symon figured. Though, he knew, a “Texas accent” was more of a spectrum than an objective phenomenon. Locals in the Austin area didn’t typically sound any different from the general public in LA or New York or almost anywhere else in the country, in his experience.
Studying accents was a part of Symon’s training as a profiler, and one thing he had learned over the years was that accents were not always an indicator of region. Some people adapted an accent as an affect, as a way to sort of hide in plain sight. A laid back, country-boy accent could do a lot to diffuse both tension and suspicion, under certain circumstances, merely by encouraging the listener to fall back on stereotypes and assumptions. If you sounded simple and harmless, people assumed you were simple and harmless. Verbal camouflage.
“Once we arrived on the scene,” the agent continued, “security gave us full access. We have video of Ms. Kayne, after she entered a stairwell on the East end of the building. It was shot with a camera aimed at a live monitor. For some reason, she’s missing from all the other footage.”
Symon glanced at Mayher. “QuIEK,” he said.
“Isn’t that the same trick she used in Boston?”
Symon nodded. “Live masking. A new trick.” He turned to the agent. “She has… software. The official name for it is the Quantum Integrated Encryption Key. She calls it ‘quake,’ and it’s very powerful.”
“Sounds like it,” the agent said, nodding.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” Mayher said.
“Daniels,” the agent replied, reaching out a hand and smiling. “Agent Christian Daniels.”
Symon watched as Mayher shook his hand and noticed a slight blush in his partner’s cheeks.
It surprised him.
Not because she might find Daniels attractive—he was a pretty clean-cut and fit guy, with classic good looks. Even Symon thought the guy was attractive. But it was more because he felt a kind of annoyance over seeing her preen for the guy, and that was unexpected.
Mayher had been Symon’s partner for a few years now. There was nothing romantic between them. But spending so much time together, facing so many challenges, including nearly dying numerous times, it did tend to bond people. Maybe, subconsciously, he’d started thinking of her in a more… possessive way.
Well, if that was the case, he needed to watch it. And shake it off. As his partner, Mayher was off limits. Whatever shadow of a feeling he might have for her, his own personal ethics wouldn’t let it go anywhere.
“Do we have any footage of Kayne and Eckhart together?” Symon asked.
Daniels shook his head. “Nothing. We have shots of Eckhart leaving the building by himself.”
“Show me,” Symon said.
Daniels brought up a tablet and ran through a series of clips. Sure enough, each shot showed Eckhart walking along by himself, through the facility and out into a parking garage.
“Run that back,” Symon said, leaning in. “There,” he said, motioning to the video.
“What is it?” Mayher asked.
“He’s talking to himself,” Symon said. He looked up to Daniels. “Any audio?”
Daniels shook his head. “Video only on most of the security feeds. The company has a strict privacy policy.”
Symon nodded, returning his attention to the video. “He’s not talking to himself,” he finally said. “He’s talking to Kayne. See? He looks over to her. Then here, he holds the door for her. QuIEk is making her out, but leaving him in the shot.”
Daniels whistled. “That’s some software. If it weren’t for Mr. Eckhart’s movements, you’d never guess anyone else was there.”
“That’s the kind of thing you come to expect from Alex Kayne,” Mayher said.
Symon looked up to see the exchange of smiles between them.
“Send me this footage,” Symon said, a little more abruptly than he’d intended. “And anything else you have. Do we know where they went, when they left?”
“San Francisco,” Daniels said. “I’ve already reached out to the local Bureau offices there, and they’re posting agents at the private airport where Eckhart’s plane landed.”
“No word on where they went, from the airport?” Symon asked.
Daniels shook his head. “We didn’t have eyes on them when they left. Eckhart had a car waiting, and the service doesn’t keep records of destinations. Client privilege. But if they come back to the airport, we’ll have them.”
Symon nodded. He wasn’t quite as confident as Daniels, regarding how firm their grasp on Kayne could get. She had a history of being slippery, even when the noose was already around her neck. They couldn’t count on her stepping into a trap as obvious as going back to the airport.
He could reach out to her.
Since she’d been working as a CI for Historic Crimes, she’d given him a means of reaching her if he ever needed her. It was untraceable—routing and rerouting through networks and systems all over the planet. There was no chance of backtracking to find out where she was. But if any of the Historic Crimes caseload could use her particular skills, she was usually responsive and helpful.
It was part of a plan, on the direction of Director Ludlum, to create some grace for Kayne, and potentially remove her from the Most Wanted list. So far, the goodwill Kayne was generating hadn’t amounted to much leeway among the decision makers in Washington. But it was still early days. As her numbers grew, and she helped close more cases and take down more bad guys, she was getting a growing, positive reputation. The hope was that it would be enough to bring her in out of the cold, maybe with a full pardon.
The standing directive, though, was that Kayne was still a fugitive, and she would still be apprehended on sight. And for three years now, Symon had been determined to do exactly that, regardless of her status as a CI, or any goodwill he or anyone else felt toward her.
He liked Kayne. He was convinced she was innocent of the crimes she was accused of—but he would do his job. He would do everything he could to put her in cuffs and lock her away, because those were the orders. Like them or not.
So far, though, he hadn’t leveraged the relationship he had with her, as her handler, to lure her into a trap. Mostly because he’d always assumed it would never work. She was too clever, too paranoid, to fall for it. And trying it would only damage their relationship, make her less likely to trust him, and possibly result in losing her as an asset. Too much risk for too small of a shot at arresting her.
But maybe there was an opportunity here.
“Tell your people at the airport to pull back, stay out of sight,” Symon said.
“Sir?” Daniels asked.
“What?” Mayher added.
“I want to know if they get back on that plane. I want the flight plan. And any transport they arrange for when they land. I want one of our people in the driver’s seat.”
Mayher caught on. “You’re setting a trap,” she said.
He thought he caught a tone in her voice—surprise, maybe. She knew him. And she knew Kayne. She was not exactly Kayne’s biggest fan, and had always found the CI arrangement to be questionable at best. But it was clear to Symon that Mayher must have always assumed he was only pretending to be after Kayne. She must have assumed he was deliberately throwing the race, every time Kayne had slipped through his fingers.
He was not.
He did like Kayne. He did believe she was innocent. He sincerely hoped they could find a way to clear her name, and bring her in out of the cold.
But he would put the cuffs on her himself, and drag her into a cell, if he was able. Because that was the job.
The trouble was, Mayher was wrong.
He wasn’t setting a trap for Kayne, because he knew she’d see right through it. And knowing that, the opportunity was something different.
He wasn’t setting a trap. He was sending a message.
Kayne wouldn’t set foot in that airport. She wouldn’t board that plane. And they’d never be able to catch her on the other side, with an agent planted as Eckhart’s driver. Kayne would see all of that.
What was important as that Symon where Kayne was right now. In general terms, maybe. But they’d get specifics somehow.
Symon assumed Kayne would know immediately that the FBI was on to her location. That would put her on high alert. She’d be monitoring for everything.
What he wanted was for her to see the plan. He wanted her to see that they were counting on her getting on that plane and stepping off into custody. She’d avoid that like a nuclear hotspot.
But she might just stay put, for now. She might relax, just enough, that he could catch up to her.
He might just have her this time.