Kade checked his mirrors repeatedly as he left the motel and made a series of turns over the course of the next hour. Once he was certain no one was following them, he pulled into a rest stop.
“Why are we stopping?” Renee asked.
Kade looked over at her, more surprised by Renee’s presence than by the question. Though she had been riding beside him the whole time, she hadn’t spoken, and he’d nearly forgotten she was there. He reached for the door handle. “Stay here. I need to check something.”
He retrieved a signal scanner from behind his seat and climbed out of the cab. He slowly circled the vehicle, watching the monitor for any indication that a tracking device might be present. As soon as he was satisfied that the truck was clean, he replaced the scanner, trading it for a medium-sized toolbox.
“Now what are you doing?” Renee asked.
“Swapping our license plates in case someone took notice of my rig at the motel.” He climbed back down and made sure no one was watching while he quickly traded his license plate for one of a dozen secured in his toolbox.
When he climbed back beside Renee, she asked, “What happens now?”
The woman was blissfully quiet for more than an hour, and now she was full of questions. Kade hoped his answer would open the door to another hour of peace. “We’re going to find a new home base for the next week or two near your apartment. I want to set up surveillance at your place to see if anyone shows up looking for you.”
“What about my work? My boss knows I was out of the office yesterday, but I need to call in today, or someone is going to come looking for me.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s almost nine. I’m normally at the office by now.”
“I’ll call Hannah and see what she can do about that.” Kade retrieved his phone from his pocket and dialed. Hannah answered on the third ring. “Hannah, I need a favor.”
“Are you and Renee okay?” she asked, concern weighing heavily in her voice.
“Yeah, we’re fine. I need you to do something for us though. We need a way to let Renee’s office know she isn’t coming into work without giving anyone a chance to trace her signal.”
“I already took care of that,” Hannah said. “I put in a TDY order for her so it looks like she’s on short-term travel.”
“Exactly where is she supposed to be going?”
“Training.”
“The CIA will know if she isn’t there.”
“Which is why I hacked into the training facility’s visitor logs and inserted an entry that shows her arriving yesterday. She even has temporary housing assigned to her.”
“In that case, is there any surveillance equipment we can tap into where she’s supposed to be staying?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Because we think someone from her office put a tracking device on her purse. We found it after some guys showed up looking for her this morning.”
Again, concern rang through the line. “You’re both okay?”
Certain he’d already answered that question, Kade ignored it and pressed on. “Find out if you can get video feed where Renee’s supposed to be staying, and if you can’t, see if the Saint Squad can set some up. We may not have a lot of time to narrow down our search field before these guys disappear on us again.”
“I’ll look into it.”
“Thanks.” He hung up the phone without bothering to say good-bye.
“What was that all about?” Renee asked.
“You sure ask a lot of questions,” Kade muttered.
“I’m an analyst for the CIA. Asking questions is part of the job description.”
“Right.” Kade repeated his conversation with Hannah and was met by another question.
“Where exactly do you plan on setting up this new home base?”
“Don’t worry. I have a few ideas.”
“You keep telling me not to worry, yet I keep getting shot at.”
“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” He spared her a quick glance before starting the engine. The flash of emotion on her face made him instinctively gentle his voice. “I’ll keep you that way.”
As the woman beside him fell silent, Kade pulled out of the rest area. Clearly fieldwork was as new to Renee as working with a partner was to him. He supposed they didn’t have a choice but to make the best of the situation.
He glanced over again. Her legs were curled under her, the baggy clothes doing nothing to hide the fact that she was a very attractive woman. The realization that she hadn’t complained about her lack of wardrobe struck him, and he pressed his lips together. Maybe working with Renee wouldn’t be as bad as he first thought.
* * *
Brent watched his teammates file into his office. As soon as Tristan closed the door behind him, Brent asked, “Did anyone find anything on the José Perez shooting?”
“The police file didn’t say much,” Jay said. “Single, long-range shot. No witnesses.”
“What about the name Ghost sent us to check out? Any chance he’s our guy?”
“Oh, there’s a chance, all right.” Quinn dropped several pieces of paper on Brent’s desk. “He was in the country, but all of his electronic signatures were masked or absent at the time of the shooting.”
“GPS on his car?”
“It was parked at his apartment in Bethesda.”
“Which is more than a half hour from the crime scene.” Brent considered the information. “What about a metro card? Does he have one?”
Quinn shook his head. “If he does, it isn’t registered in his name.”
“The guy is CIA,” Seth said. “It isn’t surprising that he wouldn’t have one that’s traceable.”
“True.” Brent paused for a moment. “Where is he now?”
“We don’t know. It looks like he’s gone dark again,” Quinn said.
“There’s no record of him leaving the country,” Seth added. “Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any sign of movement at his apartment, with his car, or his phone. Phone records show there hasn’t been any activity for over three weeks.”
“Tristan, any luck with hacking into his bank records?”
“Yeah, but there wasn’t anything there that screamed ‘I’m a hired assassin who just killed somebody.’” Tristan held up a hand. “One more thing. Why am I always the one who ends up doing the stuff that could be considered illegal?”
Brent nearly smiled. “Because your mom is an admiral in the navy and she’s married to a U.S. congressman.”
“So you figure between the two of them, they can protect me?”
“Yep.” Brent noticed the way Tristan’s brows drew together. “Besides, no judge would prosecute something like this if they know we’re investigating an intelligence breach.”
“But you wouldn’t want to inform some random judge of that fact.”
“Exactly.” Brent turned his attention to Damian and Craig, the two newest members of the squad. “How are the relocation efforts going?”
“Damian and I have everything ready for our trip to the safe house in New York,” Craig said.
“Sounds like it’s time for everyone to pack.” The words were barely out of his mouth when a knock sounded on the door. The door opened before Brent had the opportunity to respond.
Vanessa poked her head inside. The moment she saw the entire squad present, she said, “Oh, good. You’re all here.” She continued forward and closed the door behind her.
“What are you doing here?” Seth asked. “You’re supposed to be packing.”
“I just got a message from the guardians. They want to know if we can set up some surveillance cameras on our way to the safe house.”
“Why did they contact you instead of me?” Brent asked.
“Because they know I have access to the CIA’s training facility where they want them placed.”
“I already said I don’t want you in danger,” Seth said.
“I won’t be in danger,” Vanessa looked straight at him. “I can sign a couple of you in and tell you where the cameras need to be planted.”
Seth turned to Brent. “If Vanessa has to sign someone in, I volunteer for the job.”
“I’ll go with him,” Damian offered, his native Spanish coloring his words. “Since my wife is CIA too, Seth and I are the least likely to raise suspicions.”
“I agree.” Brent motioned toward the door. “Go take care of that now, and report back when you’re done. I want to make sure everything is in place before we head north tomorrow.”
“Roger that.” Seth took his wife’s hand. “Let’s get this over with.”
She beamed up at him. “I thought you’d never ask.”
* * *
Renee examined the wooded campsite Kade had chosen, surprised she hadn’t realized it was here. Her apartment was located six miles away, yet she felt like she was out in the middle of the country rather than in a slice of wilderness cutting along the edge of the suburbs of Great Falls.
During their circuitous journey through the Virginia countryside, Kade had stopped at a Walmart long enough for her to pick up some basics—a few changes of clothing, some toiletries, a pair of tennis shoes, some spiral notebooks, and pens.
Kade’s eyebrows had lifted at the last selection, but he hadn’t said anything other than to usher her to the checkout to pay for the items with cash.
She carried the shopping bags now, not sure why he had told her to bring them with her. Kade toted the items he had taken with him into the hotel room last night, a backpack over one shoulder and a second in his hand.
He led her from the cab of the truck to the side of the trailer and ducked beneath it. Renee glanced around again. Satisfied that they were alone, she followed Kade underneath the trailer and through a hidden opening.
She straightened as Kade closed the hatch, and she stared, stunned. This couldn’t be the inside of a trailer. Everything in front of her looked like the interior of a custom bus for a star musician on tour. Paneled walls, tiled and carpeted floors.
A series of windows ran the length of the roof, allowing sunlight to pour onto the cream-colored interior. The streamlined kitchen included a stovetop and a narrow refrigerator. A flat-screen television hung over the kitchen sink, and maple cabinets provided kitchen storage. Floor-to-ceiling cabinets, also in maple, flanked both sides of a short, narrow hallway.
Kade switched on a bank of overhead lights that revealed the far side of the open space—a work counter to her left, a well-equipped office beside it. A series of flat-screen surveillance monitors hung on the wall in front of her and had been arranged to look like a unique decor piece where one might hang art.
With the lights on, she could see down the hallway and through an open door to where a queen-sized bed was shoved into the corner of a narrow bedroom. Built-in cabinets lined the wall above the bed, and a wardrobe was situated in the corner.
Kade moved past her and pressed a button that looked like another light switch. A piece of paneling on the wall in front of her rolled upward to reveal a rack laden with weapons ranging from handguns to automatic rifles. He removed the pistol strapped to his ankle and placed it in the rack. She noted that he left the weapon holstered in the back of his waistband. She hoped he wouldn’t need it.
Closing the gun cabinet, he then turned to the office area and began unloading the equipment from his backpack.
Finally regaining her ability to speak, Renee turned to face him. “I don’t understand. What is all of this?”
He nodded at the desk. “This is my office.” With a wave toward the bedroom, he added, “That’s where I live.”
“You live in the back of a tractor trailer?”
“The bathroom is there on the left if you need it.”
“You live in the back of a trailer?” Renee repeated.
“I think we already established that.” He set one of his backpacks down and fished out a laptop. Within moments, he had it on his desk and was running facial recognition on the two men who had shown up at the motel. Placing the towel-wrapped cell phone on a workbench, along with the attacker’s gun, Kade finished unpacking and stored his backpack in a narrow cabinet. “I’m going to hook up our water and electric. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Aren’t you worried someone will notice us here?”
He shook his head. “We’re on the far edge of the campground, and I overrode all of the reservations for this section. No one should bother us.”
Before she could ask any more questions, he disappeared back through the hatch in the floor. Left alone, she turned to study the interior more closely. A few well-placed mirrors gave the narrow space a more open feel. She was a little surprised at how tidy everything was and wondered if he spent most of his time back here or if he normally slept in the bunk in his cab. Now that she thought of it, even the interior of his truck was remarkably organized and clean.
She crossed to the refrigerator and pulled it open. Lettuce, two tomatoes, and half a cucumber occupied the crisper drawer. Several kinds of cheese and lunch meats were organized in another drawer, and the top shelf contained a bottle of orange juice and a half gallon of milk. The second shelf was empty except for a carton of eggs.
The condiments in the door were limited to a jar each of mustard and mayonnaise, two kinds of salad dressing, and a bottle of soy sauce. She closed the fridge and began exploring the two kitchen cabinets. One contained plates, bowls, and glasses. The other was stocked with canned goods, rice, oatmeal, and a few spices. Though the ingredients were limited, she supposed Kade would be able to make quite a few meals with the basics he kept here.
She closed the cabinet and took another look around the living space. Though small, it had everything necessary for basic comfort. This trailer was certainly several steps up from the double-wide she had lived in during high school with the last of her foster families.
And what had transpired in his past for him to choose this lifestyle and career? As much as she loved to travel and experience new places, growing up in the foster-care system had given her a deep-seated desire to find a place of her own, a home base she could always come back to. Did Kade have no such need? And what about friends? He said he didn’t like people, yet he had certainly been convincing when he had slipped his arm around her and acted like they were a couple.
Questions continued to swim through her mind as Kade rattled around outside. When he came back in, he turned and looked at her while she was still staring at him.
“What?” he asked.
“I’m just wondering who you really are. Where you came from.”
“Sorry, but that’s need-to-know.” He secured the hatch and crossed to the kitchen sink to wash his hands.
She looked around again. “If you had access to this living space, why did we stay in a hotel last night?”
“Because I hadn’t planned on you seeing any of this.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“I’m pretty sure those guys found us through the tracking device on your purse, but it’s also possible that someone knew how to find the loophole I used to get our rooms last night.”
“What loophole?”
He turned and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “The guardians have a way to access hotel reservation databases. We can see where the open rooms are and override the system to claim them for ourselves.”
He waved toward the computer monitors over his desk. “Whoever is after us clearly has access to a lot of information. If they know some of our methods, they could be tracking us when we use those electronic tools.”
“Which means we might be able to track them using the same tactics.”
“That would require searching through the IP addresses for everyone who accessed the hotel’s reservation system last night,” Kade pointed out. “We use big chains deliberately so we aren’t easy to trace. That makes the task nearly impossible.”
“Nearly impossible,” Renee repeated. “Not impossible.”
“Are you volunteering to do the search yourself?”
“Why not? I don’t have anything else to do unless you can think of another way I can be productive.”
“I guess it can’t hurt.” He pushed away from the counter and retrieved a laptop from the cabinet beside his desk. “You can set up at the kitchen table.”
Renee followed him to the table and watched him power the laptop on and punch in a series of codes to open the screen to change the password.
“Go ahead and reset the password to something you’ll remember.” He shifted aside. “Just do me a favor and make sure it isn’t something obvious. Mothers’ maiden names are too predictable.”
“Since I don’t know my mother’s maiden name, I don’t think that will be a problem.” She thought for a moment and proceeded to type in the eighth through eighteenth digits of pi, reversing the first three digits and using the alphabetic equivalent of the last five.
Kade watched over her shoulder. When she typed it in a second time to confirm it, he said, “I give up. Where did you come up with that?”
“It’s a variation on the digits of pi.” At his blank stare, she added, “I’m a math nerd.”
“You might have the brains of mathematician, but I doubt anyone ever called you a nerd.”
“A compliment.” She lifted her eyes to meet his. “Thanks.”
“Just stating a fact.”
“I like it better when it’s a compliment.” She thought she saw his lips twitch, but he managed to keep a straight face.
He started toward the bedroom. “I’m going to make some space for you in the closet so you can put your clothes away.”
“We’re really going to stay here?” Renee asked. “Together?”
“I’m afraid we’re stuck with each other for the next little while.”
“No offense, but I’m not the type of girl to live with a guy, even under unusual circumstances,” Renee said, suddenly uneasy. “Maybe I can stay in the cab of your truck.”
Kade was shaking his head before she finished her sentence. “It’s not safe for you to be alone.” His eyes narrowed as though anticipating her turning her suggestion around on him. “And don’t think I’m sleeping out there either. You can have the bedroom. I’ll take the couch.”
Recognizing she wasn’t going to win this battle, she said, “If you insist on both of us staying in the trailer, I can sleep on the couch.”
“Thanks for offering, but I’ll be fine out here. The sofa pulls out into a sleeper. Besides, I want to be the one guarding the entrance.”
His last words resonated with her. She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “I don’t think I ever thanked you for saving my life.” His gaze met hers once more, and she said, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”