Striking Distance

She shot him a cheeky smile and disappeared, allowing the door to close with a slow whoosh behind her.

He couldn’t risk detection of this meeting. Complete secrecy was crucial. If Leberman or any of his people—and he could only assume that the assassin might be one of several—saw Lucas with Victoria’s most-trusted investigators, they would know he was on to them. He didn’t want that to happen any sooner than necessary. Nor could he risk that any part of the Colby Agency offices were bugged. It was a long shot since the offices were swept for foreign electronics on a regular basis, but one he wasn’t willing to chance. As long as Leberman thought they were one step behind, he wouldn’t get nervous and perhaps do something rash, like giving the final execution order.

The door opened again and Ian Michaels entered the room followed closely by Simon Ruhl. They were the kind of spit-and-polish guys who epitomized the term spy. But Lucas knew the gritty, less glamorous side of the business. He couldn’t be deputy director of Mission Recovery without having been exposed to the worst that man was capable of. The highly trained Specialists in Mission Recovery were only called in when all else failed.

Ian acknowledged Lucas with a mere nod while Simon commented, “Nice place for a meeting.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Lucas had used a physician’s office for a clandestine meeting, but it had been a long time. Not since his surgery after bringing down the traitor who’d almost destroyed Mission Recovery before Casey came on the scene as director. Had it been four years already? At any rate, this physician was an old friend from his military days. His Chicago clinic, situated mere blocks from the Colby Agency’s location just off the Magnificent Mile, was a perfect front for conducting covert ops.

“You have any trouble with the transportation?” His lips twitched when he noted the slightest flinch in Ian’s carefully controlled exterior.

“Not if you discount the siren,” Ian commented dryly.

Though Lucas had walked into the office like any paying patient, Ian and Simon had arrived by ambulance and were hustled in through the rear emergency entrance. Anyone watching Lucas enter the clinic would never know that two Colby agents had arrived via the back door.

“So, what’s going on, Lucas?” Simon was the first to call the meeting to order. Ian remained occupied with sizing up Lucas and his intentions. The man was good at that. Could tell more by watching his prey for mere minutes than from listening to hours of interrogation. Victoria had bragged to Lucas long ago about Ian. He was good at the business of peeling away the outer layers and getting to the bottom of things.

“I told you two weeks ago that I suspected Victoria was being watched.” He spread his hands in a speculative gesture. “I couldn’t be sure of the source of the problem—still can’t be absolutely certain. But we now have reason to believe that this man may be connected to Leberman. He may be on the verge of making a move.”

Silence reigned briefly while the two men absorbed the ramifications of that bit of information. Anyone who had been with the Colby Agency for any length of time knew about Leberman. The bastard had made it his life’s mission to destroy Victoria Colby and all that she stood for. Lucas was certain he’d killed James Colby as well as the boy, Victoria’s only child. But even that wasn’t enough for the devil. He just kept coming back for more. Playing his sick games and then going back into hiding. He hybernated for years...until it was safe to surface again. Then he’d strike.

But this time was going to be different. This time Leberman was going to die.

“We don’t have any real evidence to support our assessment, of course,” Lucas went on pushing the disturbing memories away, “but I’m certain enough to take the appropriate action. I’ve put a security detail in place.”

“We’ve reviewed every case that might carry enough significance to warrant this sort of vengeance,” Simon informed him, bringing him up to speed on their end and lending even more credence to Lucas’s conclusion. “There simply isn’t anyone out there related to a Colby Agency case who we have reason to suspect at this time.”

Lucas stroked his chin as he considered how to broach the next step. Neither of these gentlemen was going to like his strategy, and their cooperation was essential.

“What is it you’re not telling us?” Ian cut to the chase.

Lucas almost smiled. Two minutes and the guy had nailed him to the floor. Judging by the fierce glare he had trained on Lucas at that moment there was no way around giving him a straight answer.

“The man watching Victoria may be a professional assassin hired by Leberman. I believe his mission is to complete what Leberman started on that island.”

The air thickened with a new level of tension. All three were well aware of the events that had unfolded on St. Gabriel Island in a matter of hours. Events that had been years in the planning. The tiny island off the coast of Georgia had proven the perfect stage for his devious plans.

“Then she is no longer safe in any public setting,” Ian suggested.

“I would have to agree with you.” Evading the issue would be pointless. “To be frank, he’s had ample opportunity already, but has chosen not to take the shot. My conclusion would be that he’s keeping surveillance and waiting for final authorization from Leberman.”

“But you can’t be certain that Leberman is the one behind this,” Simon countered. “You don’t have any actual proof. No factual intelligence.”

“No.” Lucas looked from one to the other, reading the skepticism they wanted to cling to. No one wanted to believe Leberman was back, least of all Lucas. “Everything I have is speculation. But we all know he’s the most logical candidate.”

“Why haven’t you taken out the assassin already?” Ian pressed as his own sense of anticipation obviously moved to the next level. To his way of thinking that would have been the most strategic move. Hell, it made perfect sense, but Lucas had his reasons.

This would be the tricky part. “We all know that Victoria will not hide from this once she’s briefed on the situation. Nothing any of us could say would change her mind. And we also know that she will never be safe as long as Leberman is alive—”

“We’ve had this conversation already,” Simon noted matter-of-factly. His agitation was somewhat more evident than Ian’s. Tension radiated in every aspect of his posture.

“We have,” Lucas agreed. “My stand on the matter has not changed. We need to get Leberman. If this assassin can lead us to him, we have to take the risk.”

“The risk you speak of,” Ian interjected calmly, his subdued tone more lethal than if he’d shouted the words, “involves Victoria’s life, correct?”

Their gazes locked for two beats. “Correct.”

“And you are willing to take this risk?” Ian pushed for finite clarification.

“It’s our only option.”

The two Colby agents exchanged a look.

Simon spoke up first. “Lucas, I’m confident that Victoria’s best interests are your primary concern. I know you’ll do whatever is necessary to protect her, but you must know that we can’t simply pretend this isn’t happening. We have to take some sort of action.”

“The only action that will make a difference requires Victoria’s cooperation, which will compromise our efforts.” He divided his attention between the two somber-faced men. “I have an alternate approach in mind. First I have to persuade her to take a vacation with me. I’ve plotted a destination. She’ll be completely cocooned by my team of Specialists until we can reel this guy in. I won’t allow anything to happen to her, you can rest assured of that.”

“You’ll keep us informed of every step,” Simon persisted.

“I’ll keep the two of you informed.” Lucas gestured from one to the other. “I don’t want anyone else to know the plan. No one, is that understood?”

“Are you implying there might be a traitor inside the Colby Agency?” Ian inquired, one brow raised slightly higher than the other his only outward indication of surprise.

“I’m not implying anything,” Lucas asserted. “I’m simply not taking any risks. No one but the four members assigned to her security will know exactly where she is. And even those four won’t know where they’re going and for what reason until they get there. If there is a breach in security it won’t be on my end.”

“If you spirit her away to safety,” Simon countered, “how is that going to affect the situation with the assassin and his leading you to Leberman?”

Another dicey maneuver. “I’m going to send someone undercover to get close to him.”

“Since complete anonymity is essential, who will you utilize for that assignment?” Ian wanted to know, his tone reflective of his uncommitted stance on the matter.

“I’m going to use someone who isn’t affiliated with my people at Mission Recovery or the Colby Agency. Someone completely out of the game.”

“You think that’s wise considering who we’re up against?” Simon prodded, his arms folded over his chest. He clearly didn’t like this any more than Ian did. For that matter neither did Lucas.

“This agent is a recruit fresh from the CIA’s training facility. Our Forward Research group has been tracking her progress since before she entered the program. She’s good. Damn good. She has a degree in psychology, which could prove useful. And she has no stake in the matter either way.”

“What makes you think she’ll go for this assignment?” Simon looked even more suspicious of the whole strategy. It did sound like a suicide mission, even Lucas had to admit it.

“If she’s got half the fire burning in her belly to impress the brass as it appears, she’ll go for it.”

“But is she good enough to do the job?” Ian voiced the remaining variable.

Lucas smiled as he thought of the hotshot he’d observed steamrolling her peers, female and male alike. He’d been waiting for the right kind of opportunity to bring her onboard. “Oh, yeah. She’s good enough.”

“She’ll try to get close to this guy in hopes that he’ll lead her to Leberman, is that it?” Simon relaxed, but only marginally.

“She’ll get close to him, and then when Victoria vanishes he won’t have any choice but to contact Leberman for additional instructions.” Lucas hoped like hell it would be that easy.

Five seconds lapsed into thirty as the two men closest to Victoria at the Colby Agency considered his proposal.

“I can see how this might work.” Simon was the first to edge toward commitment.

“And what about you, Ian? Do I have your support?” Lucas couldn’t move forward without both these men on board. Timing and synchronized reactions were everything. There couldn’t be a single glitch.

“I have no reason to doubt your loyalty to Victoria,” he said in response, without actually answering at all. “I do, however, have reservations as to the plan you’ve outlined, but I can’t conceive of a better strategy.” His gaze locked fully with Lucas’s. “As you say, Leberman must be stopped. It’s past time we got this done.”

“All right, then. I’ll set things in motion on my end. The only thing I need on yours is full cooperation and complete secrecy.”

“You have that unconditionally,” Ian said with that quiet intensity that would unnerve most men.

Lucas nodded. “I’ll keep you posted.”

With the preliminary plans out of the way there was nothing further to discuss. “We’ll ensure status quo at the office until we hear from you,” Simon offered in parting.

“I don’t want Victoria to suspect anything,” Lucas reiterated as they moved toward the door. “She’s already picked up on my uneasiness.”

“We understand.” This from Ian. He paused before following Simon into the corridor. “Just one more thing.” He looked directly at Lucas. “I have no doubt that you will do all in your power to protect Victoria from this assassin.”

“I will,” Lucas assured him.

“If,” Ian qualified in that low, deadly tone, “you take this risk and fail, it will be the last thing you do.”

Their gazes held for a beat of screaming silence.

“If,” Lucas allowed grimly, “I fail, you can use my gun to do the job.”

Chapter 5

Tasha North tossed her bag into her car and yanked off the confining double-breasted suit coat that had felt like a straitjacket all day. This stuffy attire was just one more thing she hated about her new job. She flung the inside-out garment into the back seat and dropped behind the wheel of her Volkswagen Beetle. She breathed a sigh of pure, unadulterated relief. Whenever she settled into the white leather seat of her little yellow Bug she felt normal...almost.

Jerking the pins loose from her hair, she shook the blond shoulder-length mass free and pushed her sunglasses into place. She cranked and revved the engine. Thank God it was Friday. She couldn’t wait to get out of here.

Tires squealing she rocketed out of her designated parking slot and zoomed toward the exit of the mammoth parking garage. At the security checkpoint she slowed for the guard to ID her, gave him a big, friendly smile, which he returned sheepishly, and then proceeded forward.

Once off Langley property she floored the accelerator and headed home.

Frustration pounded in her brain. She hadn’t joined the elite CIA to sit behind a desk. All day long she did the same thing: reviewed intelligence reports, looking for tidbits others had missed. Oh, she’d found an item here and there, especially the past couple of days. But that wasn’t how she’d seen herself fitting into the agency she’d been in awe of all these years. At any rate, when she’d graduated from training, her superiors had insisted that her battery of assessment tests had determined that this was the best assignment for optimum use of her skills.

In her opinion that was a load of crap.

So what if she had a near-photographic memory and felt like cyberspace was her second home or that she could hack into the Pentagon’s computer system as easily as checking her e-mail? Would they never forget that little incident?

She rolled her eyes as she merged onto the expressway. She’d only done it once. Good grief, she’d been seventeen. Kids did stupid stuff like that. She was more sensible now, played by the rules, thought before she acted... Well, most of the time, anyway.

But at seventeen she’d been impetuous. Still, once the hoopla had settled down, especially the part about no charges being filed, and her parents had stopped having cardiac episodes, she’d actually gotten a little excited about having stepped knee-deep in national security shit. A CIA recruiter had come to see her at high school. It had all been very secretive. Her first covert briefing. He’d told her how impressed he was with her skill and how he’d personally kept her out of trouble. Had said that he’d be watching as she moved through her college career. Then, with a mysterious “I’ll be in touch,” he’d disappeared just like the spy she dreamed of being. And just as he’d promised, on graduation day he’d shown up at the university to recruit her.

And what had they done?

They’d stuck her behind a metal desk reading boring reports all day every day.

Oh, the training program had been great. She’d loved it, kicked ass and taken names, coming out top in her class.

Those intensive weeks had been exhilarating...had felt like the CIA she’d dreamed of joining.

This—she glared at the skirt and low-heeled pumps she wore—was not. She looked just like her mother for heaven’s sake.

Tasha took a breath. Okay, okay. She knew the deal. Paying her dues wasn’t the end of the world. Impatience had always been her most glaring flaw. She was almost twenty-three. It was past time she’d learned how to take the waiting in stride.

“Grow up, Tasha,” she grumbled. “You have to earn your way in the real world.” How many times had her father told her that theatrics didn’t pay off? “Patience is a virtue,” he’d say at least once a day while she was growing up. Be that as it may, in high school she’d gotten noticed by proving she could do what no one else could—like cracking the Pentagon’s cyber security.

Another sigh heaved from her chest. This wasn’t high school. Being slick and cagey and, as bad as she hated to admit it, irreverently arrogant wasn’t going to put her at the top of the food chain when her superiors, those rating her ability, were all replicas of her dear old dad. She had to be patient. Had to prove her worth behind a desk before she graduated to field operations. Hadn’t she learned a good deal about the human psyche in college? A degree in psychology taught her one thing if nothing else—meet the expectations of the humans in charge and life was much easier.

She could do it. Five days a week, eight hours a day, for a while longer. Her time would come...eventually. All she had to do was play it cool and bide her time. She reached to turn up the volume on the CD player just as the sound of her cell phone ringing drew her hand in another direction. Groping around in her bag she fished out the phone and flipped it open.

“North.”

“Tasha, this is Martin.”

Her respiration came to a screeching halt before accelerating into double duty. Her recruiter. A major player amid the powers-that-be at the Agency. Could this be the call she’d hoped for? “Martin, how’s it going?” she asked when she had reclaimed her voice, then moistened her lips in nervous anticipation. Why would he be calling now? She hadn’t heard from him for nearly three months...not since surviving training...and being shackled to that damned desk. She’d all but given up.

“We have to talk. Can you meet me right now?”

A frown worried her brow as she considered the urgency in his tone. What was up with that? “Sure. Where?”

“Take the next exit. There’s a gas station on the right once you’ve cleared the overpass. I’ll be waiting.”

Her frown deepening, she closed her phone and tossed it in the general vicinity of her bag.

What the hell was going on?

She slowed for the upcoming exit ramp and took it as instructed.

But...she glanced at the discarded phone, then back at the expressway she’d veered from...how did he know where she was?

Tracking device. She’d heard rumors that all new agents were injected with the latest technology. A device so small that it could be installed with nothing more than a subcutaneous pin prick. With all the immunizations required in training, she could have been injected with anything and not known the difference.

She shrugged it off. Just part of the business. If they wanted to keep tabs on her comings and goings she didn’t mind. Anything for the job.

She stopped at the end of the exit ramp, then made a sharp left.

The highway that cut beneath the overpass was one of those takes-you-nowhere kind that sprawled off into the woods in either direction. To her surprise there was a gas station up ahead. It looked deserted. As she eased into the parking lot her assumption was confirmed. Not simply closed but out of business.

On the far side of the lot Martin waited, leaning against his shiny black Jaguar. Smiling in spite of the buzz of warning going off in her head, Tasha pulled up next to him and climbed out. This was Martin. The man who’d held the door to the CIA open for her. He’d assured her that he had his eye on her and would see that her future turned out the right way.

Maybe he had news along those lines for her now. A jolt of irritation shot through her. He’d better have good news. She was sick of all talk and no action.

“I’m glad you came,” he said as he removed his dark glasses. “We need to talk.”

She nodded, slipped off her eyewear and tossed the designer sunglasses onto the dash of her car. He was right. They did need to talk. If he didn’t have an offer for her now, he’d better get things in motion. She’d had about all the nine-to-five grind she could tolerate. Moving closer, she propped a hip on the rear quarter panel of his sleek automobile. “I hope you’ve got good news for me.”

He studied her for a moment, then asked the last question she’d expected to hear, “You have the codes, don’t you?”

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. “Codes?” Her posture stiffened before she could stop it. He noticed. Dammit. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“They’re watching you.” He surveyed the wooded area around them. “They know.”

“Who knows?” She straightened, adopted a fight-or-flight stance and did a little surveying of her own.

He reached into an interior pocket of his high-priced suit jacket and pulled out a 9 mm handgun. “Take this. You may need it.”

She stared at the nickel-plated weapon before accepting it. “How do you know?” She’d reported the breach the moment she stumbled upon it while reviewing endless boring text. Someone, inside the agency, had hidden the codes in the documents. She had no idea how or why, she’d simply done her job. But, as Martin said, she had, in fact, uncovered some sort of code. Her supervisor had appeared agitated that she’d made such a discovery. And it wasn’t like she could forget what she’d seen. Once she viewed data—any data, written, visual, whatever—it was in her brain for all time.

“I always know what’s going on with my special students.”

He’d been an excellent mentor. She’d counted on him. Trusted him...but somehow this felt off. The psych evaluators who’d assessed her prior to advancing into the CIA’s training program had called the little sixth sense she possessed elevated precognitive reception. Well, whatever the hell it was, her little precog receptors were humming like mad.

“Is there something else I should know?” Was he only here to warn her to be careful? She resisted the urge to shake her head. It just didn’t make sense.

“You’ll need—” The rest of his words were cut off by screaming tires and a roaring engine.

Tasha dove for the ground, hitting the asphalt hard and rolling behind his car just as a hail of gunfire erupted.

Martin followed suit, their movements like a well-choreographed dance.

She shifted into a crouch and prepared to return fire when the world suddenly went dark.

* * *

Her head ached.

Tasha slowly opened her eyes and surveyed the room around her. Plain white walls. No furniture other than the chair in which she sat.

Where the hell was she? She blinked and even that small movement cost her. The ache in her head sliced through her skull like a machete.

Her hands were secured behind her back. She twisted her wrists, the flesh there burning from the tightness of the ropes.

Martin.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Had he been shot?

The code.

Surely this wasn’t about that code...she didn’t even know what it related to.

The door across the ten-by-ten room suddenly opened, and a man dressed in black combat gear walked in. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it.

“Hello, Agent North.”

She looked up at him from beneath her lashes and told him her position in no uncertain terms. “I don’t know what you want. You’re wasting your time.”

He tugged at first one leather glove and then the other, pulling them firmly into place. “You think so?”

She laughed softly, anticipation already rushing to steady her spinning head. Let him take his best shot. “I know so.”

“We’ll just see about that.”

He started toward her, and Tasha did as she had been trained.

She shut down all nonessential functions.

Closed him out.

Closed everything out.

Chapter 6

They’d covered her head and tied her hands behind her back again. Tasha stayed very still, absorbing the details around her as best she could in her current state of near numbness. The vehicle—a cargo van maybe—she’d been shoved into glided smoothly toward its destination. City streets, well maintained. No back road. Not yet. Wherever they were taking her she had a pretty good idea they planned to execute her and dump the body.