Christmas Witness Protection

“What can you tell me about the Imposters?” Noah asked.

“They’re cyber terrorists,” Seth said. “In it for the money and not ideology. It’s believed there are only two of them. The huge hulking one who manhandles and hurts people goes by the handle the Ghoul. The other is a lot smaller and goes by the Wraith. They say he’s Canada’s second best hacker.”

No guess who Seth thought the best was.

“They go after very large-scale targets,” Seth added. “Hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. They’re ruthless and mercenary. In it for money and destruction. They’ve been known to both wear disguises and kidnap people to use online as proxies, before killing them. It’s said that no one has ever seen either of their faces and lived.”

The typing stopped.

“Okay, I think I’ve got you,” Seth said. “Skipped the street cameras and went for piggybacking on a satellite. Just zooming in. Now I can see you. What do you need?”

“Everyone. Local police, RCMP, ambulance and our missing whistle-blower,” Noah said. “Any hostiles in the area?”

“Nope, you’re all clear,” Seth said. “I’m trying to track where the Imposters took Holly now.”

Hopefully, they were still on foot and hadn’t gotten far. In the meantime, Noah would go old-school.

“I’ve got footprints,” he said, “and I’m going to follow them. If you see anyone or anything coming my way, let me know.”

“Will do.” Seth kept typing.

Noah started toward the footprints, weapon at the ready, following the faint and fading indentations in the snow. How had they managed to take her alive? When he’d been parked down the road from her safe house, he’d watched as she walked out to Elias’s car and insisted on doing a visual sweep of it herself, like a pro. Then she’d glanced his way and for one fleeting moment, her eyes had locked on his face, and it was like someone had sucked all the air from his lungs. Corporal Holly Asher was beautiful in a way he’d never expected from her file, with cropped black hair that perfectly framed her face and a strong, straight, almost regal bearing. Her military file alone had been enough to catch his eye. She was brilliant, talented, decorated and brave. But there was something else to her, too, a quality that had made it hard to look away.

Just keep fighting, Holly. Wherever you are, just keep fighting until I can get to you.

“Give me something!” Noah reached the end of the alley and looked around. The snow fell heavier now, wiping out any hint of footprints there might have been. He heard more keyboard taps. Each second ticked by, longer than he could stand.

“Got her,” Seth said. “Warehouse. One street over to your right and three doors down.”

“On it.” Noah started running. “I need you to call this in for me. Call everyone. Toronto cops. RCMP. The whole shebang.”

“Already done.” Seth sounded worried. “But those aren’t secure lines. Anyone good enough to pull this off can hack into them.”

“I know.” Noah reached the next corner and dived into an alley. Dirty red and gray brick hemmed him in on either side. “But we have to do this by the book the best we can.”

A row of doors appeared to his right.

“I just can’t guarantee who you’re going to get showing up,” Seth said, “and whether they’re going to be real or Imposters. Also, I think there could be a leak within the RCMP. Either that or someone in the military who happened to know everything about Holly’s protection detail and Elias’s movements. I just can’t see any other way the Imposters would’ve gotten enough information to set this up and kidnap her this way. There has to be a mole. Or some other way the RCMP has been infiltrated.”

“I figured,” Noah said. “That’s why I’m also going to need an extraction team.”

Fellow undercover RCMP detectives, who he knew were in the city, people he trusted with his life, who’d been through their own tricky and dangerous assignments and survived. Officers who, like him, were currently off active duty or on leave, so couldn’t have been tainted by whatever mole or leak there might be inside the RCMP. “Get me Mack Gray, Jessica Eddington and Liam Bearsmith.”

“Assemble the renegade detectives,” Seth said. “I like it. Should I worry that none are currently on active duty?”

“No,” Noah said. It was none of his business, any more than the personal reasons he was technically on vacation were theirs. Liam was on six months medical leave after being beaten into a short-term coma when his cover was blown. He looked as strong as an ox on the outside, but Noah suspected that whatever had happened had left lingering scars. As for Mack and Jess, all he knew was that both were facing some kind of review for something that had happened on a past assignment. “Just be thankful we have three of the best cops in the entire world available to help us out of this mess.”

“What do I tell them?” Seth asked.

“To get somewhere close and stand by.”

“And what do I say if they ask about my connection to all this?” Seth asked. “You know I don’t work for you.”

Like Seth hadn’t volunteered for this the moment he’d brought it to Noah’s attention.

“Tell them you’re that famous hacker guy I once rescued from the trunk of a car and dragged safely through a hail of bullets.”

Seth chuckled. “Do they know you’re not on active duty?”

Noah didn’t answer. He’d landed an important promotion within witness protection, only to discover there was a glitch in gaining the necessary higher level security clearance due to a major financial mess his foster brother Caleb had gotten him into. It had left him in a bit of a limbo and, for now, he was using up vacation time and not being assigned any new cases until he decided what to do about it. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t cleared to work.

On the plus side, being off the clock had given him the freedom to take a personal interest in Elias’s transfer of Holly, when Seth had tipped him off that there might be a problem. And while Elias clearly hadn’t wanted Noah butting his nose in his assignment—let alone showing up in person when Elias hadn’t taken him seriously—he was really thankful he had.

Noah reached the third door. His gloved hand grabbed the industrial handle and pulled. It didn’t budge. “Am I at the right door?”

“Yup,” Seth said.

“Got it.” Noah reared back and kicked hard. The door flew open. A long dark hallway lay before him.

“Just to be clear,” Seth said. “Once you go in there, I won’t have eyes. I might not even have ears, depending on how deep the building goes and if it has a signal jammer. You’ll be on your own.”

“Got it,” Noah repeated. He’d never minded working alone, and he didn’t want the sound of him talking on the phone, or even listening to someone on the other end, potentially alerting anyone he might want to sneak up on. “Put me on hold, assemble the troops, stay ready and I’ll get back to you soon.”

“Sounds good. Stay safe.”

“I’ll try.” Noah ended the call, put his phone on silent and slid it into his pocket. Then he raised his weapon high. Help me, Lord. I don’t know what I’m walking into.

Noah stepped into the warehouse. Darkness enveloped him. He crept down the hallway, following the lines of the walls as they curved and twisted deeper into the building. His rubber-soled boots moved silently on the concrete floor.

The gray, rectangular outline of a slightly open door finally appeared ahead. Noah sucked in a breath and prayed, eased the door open and stepped through slowly. He emerged onto a catwalk overlooking a warehouse. Cardboard boxes and tarp-covered pallets filled the space below and were piled high around him.

And then he saw Holly.

The corporal sat in a chair facing him, alone in a gap in the middle of the warehouse. Her hands seemed bound behind her back, but her legs were free. She looked up at him, her face full of strength and determination. His heart lurched.

Then her eyes darted to her right and she gave a slight nod, as if acknowledging he was there and indicating she wanted him to see something. He stepped forward, following her gaze, and dread surged inside his core as he saw what she was gesturing to.

It was a video camera.

TWO

A large man stepped into view, blocking Noah’s sight of Holly and the camera. He was huge, tall and broad, dressed in a dark navy police uniform with a hat pulled low. This would be the Ghoul, Noah guessed. He felt his breath tighten in his chest, willing the man to move. He had to see Holly’s face for just a moment longer. He had to know she’d seen him and that she knew he was there. He needed her to know that he would help her, even if he didn’t yet know how he was going to do that.

Holly was at least two stories below him and several rows of boxes and shipping containers away. Noah’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He stepped back and reached for it, thankful he’d put his usual ringtone on silent and expecting to see Seth’s name or that of a fellow officer. Instead the name Dr. Anne Reed filled the screen. He hesitated. While he was growing up, his family had fostered over a dozen children for different lengths of time.

He’d gotten to know Anne as a teenager, when she’d started dating his foster brother Caleb. Due to her own rough family life, she’d quickly become a nearly permanent fixture in the Wilder home. Anne and Caleb had had a baby together at eighteen and been married at nineteen. She was the closest thing Noah had ever had to a sister, and he considered their children his niece and nephew. But while Anne had excelled in school and become a medical doctor in her midtwenties, Caleb had careened through life, squandering away every cent and advantage he’d been given, relapsing after two stints in rehab for a gambling addiction and bouncing from one personal mistake to the next. His relationship with Anne was strained. He’d left her and the kids more than once, before always deciding to come back and give it another try. Caleb had also cut off all contact with Noah almost a year ago thanks to a joint business venture that Noah had invested his life savings in to help keep Caleb from gambling away the money Noah’s parents had left him and get his life back on track, only to have Caleb mismanage it so badly, it might cost Noah his higher level security clearance.

If Anne was phoning him now, before seven in the morning, after almost a year of estrangement, it had to be urgent. He needed to take the call. Just not immediately.

One emergency at a time. Noah breathed a prayer that Caleb, Anne and the kids were safe, and then declined the call.

A light switched on below him and suddenly the space where Holly sat was bathed in a pool of light, but he still couldn’t see past the large man blocking his view of her face. Noah stepped closer to the railing. A cable came into view, then a tripod and finally a video camera that the Ghoul seemed to be fiddling with.

Dread surged up inside Noah’s core like a geyser. He steeled himself and stepped to the very edge of the catwalk. A second figure in police uniform came into view, this one slender and smaller, sitting at a folding table with a laptop in front of him. Noah guessed that would be the Wraith. Then, as he watched, the hulking form between him and Holly stepped aside and for one long moment revealed her face again. Holly’s eyes looked up, directly at Noah, seeming to latch onto his gaze just as directly as they had earlier that morning in front of the safe house.

She knew he was there.

He wasn’t sure how well she could see his features at this distance, or if she had any idea that he was there to help her. But he felt the need to let her know that she could trust him, that he was safe, had her back and would help her—even if he still didn’t know how. He flashed her a quick thumbs-up and smiled. A goofy gesture, maybe, but one he hoped would let her know he was on her side. She nodded ever so slightly in response. Her eyes were on his face, keen and intent, as if they were asking him a question. They were asking him for something, and he knew that no matter what, he wasn’t going to let her down.

He nodded back. Yeah, Holly, I’m here. I’m on your side. And with God’s help we’re going to get out of here alive.

The faintest glimmer of a grin crossed Holly’s lips. Then she shouted, “Hey! Who’s that behind you on the catwalk?”

Holly had told her kidnappers he was there? Why? What reason could she possibly have for tipping them off and blowing his cover? The Ghoul glanced back toward Noah, skeptically at first, but his eyes quickly widening as he realized someone actually was there. Yeah, me. The Wraith slammed the laptop closed and took off running into the rows of boxes and shipping pallets. The Ghoul yanked a gun from his belt, raised his weapon and fixed Noah in his sights.

Holly struck before the thug could fire, leaping to her feet like a fury and spinning, swinging the folding chair around behind her like a weapon. The metal legs caught the criminal in the back of his knees and sent him stumbling forward onto the ground. The gun misfired, and the bullet flew somewhere high above their heads.

Had Holly really been so confident in her ability to disarm the criminal before he could get off a shot that she’d taken the risk of using Noah as a diversion? And a “hey, look behind you!” trick at that? The Ghoul turned back and lunged for her. But Holly was ready for him, with a swift roundhouse kick that sent him stumbling to the floor and the gun flying from his hands. Noah’s heart jolted as if someone had just sent an electric current shooting through it. She was fighting back, against an armed kidnapper, with her hands still tied to a chair, even as he could see her strength and energy flagging.

Noah was beyond shocked. He was even beyond impressed.

Above all, he was determined that she wouldn’t fight alone. The metal catwalk stretched out on either side of him. Staircases descended into the warehouse at opposite ends. It would take him too long to reach either one, and Holly had been alone without backup long enough.

He vaulted over the railing and let his body drop down into the boxes below.

Holly watched from the corner of her eye as the man on the catwalk dropped out of sight into the piles of boxes. Was she right? Had it been Detective Noah Wilder? She didn’t know for sure. But friend or foe, he’d been a distraction she could use to draw enemy attention while she fought for her survival. And thankfully, she’d disarmed the bigger of the two criminals before he could fire at him.

But now what? Pain still pounded through her head and seemed to radiate through her body. The headache was steadily growing worse. She stumbled forward, feeling the weight of the chair straining her arms and nearly yanking her shoulders out of their sockets. The apparently fake police officer who’d kidnapped her lunged at her once more. She swung the chair around again hard, using the metal frame attached to her wrists as both a weapon and a shield. It made impact, she heard a crack and then—thank God—the weight of the chair fell from her arms as the bottom of the metal frame gave way. She shook herself free.

Okay, her hands were still tied, but at least she’d gotten rid of the chair. Now what?

The dull, worrying ache in her skull was like nothing she’d ever felt before and seemed to radiate through her mind, clouding her ability to think. The big guy was down on the ground now, but even though she’d gotten in a few good blows, she didn’t expect him to stay there for long. The small guy was nowhere to be seen. She spun back, and the room began to spin with her, sliding in and out of focus like a scene from an old-fashioned projector movie that wasn’t sitting right in its frame.

Something was very wrong. Help me, God! Prayers beat like a drum through Holly’s aching mind. She had to get out of there. She ran, darting down the closest aisle in the maze of towering pallets. Shipping containers and plastic-wrapped boxes rose around her, seeming to wave and move as she passed, like seaweed shimmering underwater. She pressed on, looking for an exit and pushing herself deeper into the labyrinthine maze, hearing her kidnappers pelting down the rows behind her, growing closer with every step.

Too late, she saw a man leap down in front of her. He landed in a crouching position, on the balls of his feet. Then he unfurled to his full height, filling the space ahead of her and blocking her way. She was trapped. She couldn’t turn around. There was nowhere to run. The only way out was through.

The man in front of her raised his hands, and all her mind could focus on was that there was a gun in his right one. She didn’t wait to give him the opportunity to point it at her. Holly squared her shoulders, lowered her head and ran right at him, like he was nothing but a tackling dummy back in basic training. Help me, Lord!

“Corporal Asher!” His voice, deep and warm, spoke her name. “Holly!”

Detective Noah Wilder? She knew his voice. How did he know her real name? But it was too late for her to stop. She crashed into him, keeping her head low and her body strong. But instead of knocking him out of the way, she felt his arms part, as if to catch and receive her. She landed against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. They tumbled onto the ground, with him on his back and her on top of him, her hands still tied behind her.

Two sets of footsteps were coming toward them now.

“I’m sorry,” Noah started. “Are you hurt?”

Sorry for what? Startling her? Catching her?

“You with them?” she asked.

“No—”

“Then let’s get out of here before they kill us.”

“Hang on.” He didn’t even hesitate. “We’re going to roll.”

Hang on how? And to what? He holstered his gun, tucked her head into the crook of his neck and lowered his own head over hers. His arms clasped tighter and then he rolled, taking her with him and sliding their bodies under the shelter of a thick blue tarp covering a pallet nearby. Footsteps and voices grew closer. He yanked the tarp down, covering them like the flap of a tent.

“You’re Wilder, right?” she whispered into his ear.

“Yeah. But I told you to call me Noah.” His voice seemed to surround her in the darkness. “I’m an RCMP detective specializing in witness protection, and I’m here to get you out of this alive.” Got it. “Is it okay if I call you Holly?”

“Sure.” Right now that was the least of her worries. Her kidnappers grew closer, until she heard them pass just inches away from where they hid.

“Where did she go?” The man’s voice was thin, whiny and matched his slight frame.

“I don’t know!” the larger one snapped back.

“She saw our faces! She can identify us! We can’t let her out of here alive!”

THREE

They were right that she’d seen her kidnappers’ faces, and yet, as the pain pounded through her brain, somehow she couldn’t seem to draw a clear picture of them in her mind. She held her breath and prayed silently as the sound of their footsteps faded into the distance. Then she turned her attention back to the strong man who was lying beside her and still holding her in his arms.

“Don’t worry,” Noah whispered. “I’ve got you.”

Had he now? Did that mean he had any idea what was going on and how they were going to make it out alive?

“Now,” Noah added, “if it’s okay with you, I’d like you to roll over onto your other side so I can check your wrists and untie your hands.”

He loosened his hold on her body and she rolled away from him. Her head was hurting less now that she was lying down and the world had gotten quieter. The headache was probably nothing and she’d be fine just as soon as she rested.

She felt his fingers move against her wrists. “Hang on... Did you actually ask permission to free my hands?”

“Not a big fan of touching someone who might be upset without asking first,” he said. “Well, anyone, really. Now, I’m going to use my knife, okay?”

“Go for it.” She listened. She couldn’t hear her kidnappers’ footsteps or voices anymore, but that didn’t mean they’d gone far.

“Who are they?” she whispered. “Why were they dressed as cops?”

“They’re cyber terrorists,” Noah said, also keeping his voice low. “They’re called the Imposters. Two-man crew. Big one goes by the handle the Ghoul. The hacker is the Wraith. Really big on staying in the shadows and not being identified. They tend to disguise themselves as law enforcement or emergency services personnel to infiltrate places without being detected. They also kidnap innocent people to do their online missives for them, which I’m guessing is why they set you up in front of the camera.”

Well, that would explain why she’d ended up tied to a chair with a camera in her face.

“Why did they target me?” she asked. “Why did they kill Elias? Does this have something to do with my testifying to the inquiry against General Bertie Frey?”

Her hands fell free. She rolled back toward him.

“I really don’t know.” Noah lifted the tarp a couple inches, enough to let a little light seep through. He was more handsome up close than she’d expected him to be. He had that slightly rugged look of a man who was over thirty and had seen his fair share of battles. His hair was dirty blond, with a short and slightly rumpled cut that, despite his age, made her think of a fresh recruit, and somehow matched the politeness of his tone. “Once I’m sure they’re gone, I’ll get you out of here to safety. We can regroup and reevaluate from there, as well as get you medical attention.”

“I’m okay,” she said reflexively. “I don’t need medical attention.”

She just needed her head to stop pounding.

“Why were you outside the safe house this morning?” she asked. “And why did you follow Elias’s car?”

The niggling in the back of her mind told her there was something else Elias had told her about Noah that she should probably ask about. But her memory of the whole past hour was a little fuzzy.

“According to one of my informants, there’d been some bad internet chatter overnight about the Imposters targeting your route this morning.”

“But why?” she pressed.

“Like I said, I don’t know.”

She suspected Mr. Polite Detective wasn’t used to having rapid-fire questions thrown at him, but now was no time for waffling. They were hidden and whispering in their impromptu foxhole, but they couldn’t stay there forever. Before she made a tactical move, she was going to learn all she could about the situation they were facing.

And the man who’d leaped to her rescue.

“Did they tell you anything?” he asked. “Do you know what they’d wanted you to read?”

“No.” She frowned. They hadn’t said much at all. “But I was left with the distinct impression they hadn’t been planning on leaving me alive when they were done with me.”

His eyes widened. They were gray like the sky before a winter’s storm. She watched as a question floated there.

“What?” she asked.

“You turned down witness protection repeatedly,” he said. “Why?”

“Because I love my life in the military, I love serving my country and didn’t want to give it up. Even temporarily.”

Her frown deepened. But to her surprise he grinned. His smile was warm, cheerful and oddly comforting.

“Now, just in case you were worried, I want to reassure you that I really am a cop,” he said. “Not that I have any way of proving it to you right now, besides flashing my badge.”

To her surprise, she felt a smile curve at the corner of her lips. “It’s okay. I trust you on that.”

“Good.” He lifted the edge of the tarp slowly. “Fortunately, I got a pretty good look at the layout of this place when I was up on the catwalk. So here’s the plan. We get somewhere safe, talk to people I trust, figure out what’s going on and make a plan from there.”