His bike’s headlight appeared at the top of the drive. A few seconds later, an explosion underneath the SUV knocked it onto its side. I changed out my infrared goggles for binocular ones. The last remaining hostile was climbing slowly out of the vehicle with Lang’s rifle pointed at his head and the scope light shining in the asshole’s eyes. He lay down on the ground and Lang zip-tied him at the wrists and ankles, then, taking no chances, put a tranq dart in him.
I covered Lang from my perch as he checked the other two hostiles because I wasn’t taking any chances, either. Lang gave me the thumbs up, indicating they were out cold. The invasion was over. The hostiles were contained.
Lang slipped out of his vest and helmet and stashed them and his weapon behind some shrubbery. Kat would have enough to explain when the local cops arrived on the scenewithout having to justify apparent civilians using military gear. Soon enough, the locals would get the order to stand down and hand over custody of the suspects to the feds, but in the meantime, they would have a lot of nosy-Parker questions. We liked to do our part to give our boss as few headaches as possible.
In that spirit, I left my weapons, helmet, and vest in the attic, and climbed back down to the second floor. I went to the bedroom door and pressed my hand against it. “Cami, it’s me. It’s fine now. You’re safe.”
She didn’t answer.
“Cami, I’m coming in, okay?”
“Okay,” she said so softly, I almost missed it.
I used my number code and fingerprint to unlock the doors and enter the owner’s suite, which Cami now knew doubled as a safe room. She sat on the floor at the foot of the bed with Bella curled up in her new dog bed beside Cami. The pup wagged her tail as I approached and nuzzled my hand when I petted her. Cami stared at Bella, not looking at me.
“You’re safe now,” I told her.
“Is anyone hurt or…”
“The hostiles are unconscious in the driveway. Other than a sedative hangover and possible contusions from falling, they’ll be fine.”
“Is sedation an FBI tactic? Or police?”
She was really asking me to explain myself, but I couldn’t. Not yet.
“I can’t tell you what you want to know,” I said.
She glanced at me, then looked away. “I know. I just wish...”
I took her hand and was grateful when she didn’t pull away. “There are protocols in place. I need to run a requestthrough proper channels to get permission. And you’ll have to have a briefing and sign an NDA.”
“Really, you would make that request?”
“I’ll do it tonight. But you’ll have to agree to the terms.”
“I’ll sign the NDA and do whatever it takes to be allowed to hear the truth.”
“Good.”
I hoped it would be. Even as I said the word, I wondered if her learning I was a covert agent for the government would bring us closer together or push us further apart. I didn’t know what I would do if she decided it was all too much and decided to walk away, because I’d already given her my heart.
18
CAMI
Ididn’t know what to expect when Kyle told me he worked for a covert government agency and he’d been authorized to take me with him to HQ on Friday evening. Maybe a phone booth with an elevator to an underground bunker, like in the oldGet Smartmovies Lizzie and I had loved as teenagers. Maybe a maze of hallways with twists, turns, and a series of heavy steel doors like those on bank vaults.
Instead, I entered the Sentinel office building on Garnet Street through a normal office-building front entrance. The lobby was a cozy waiting area with glass-front doors, pale gray carpeting and paler walls, and a handful of white upholstered chairs to the left of the doors. A long white reception desk stretched from the left wall to the right.
The one oddity was that instead of a receptionist stationed out front, like Darla was at the vet clinic, there were two uniformed guards, one on each end of the desk. And it appeared the only access to the rest of the building was by lifting the middle portion of the long desktop and walking between the two sentries. That seemed likeoverkill, even for a security firm. Then again, as Kyle had prepared me, the entire front area was a façade. The real business—and purpose—of his covert agency lay beyond the lobby.
One of the guards nodded to Kyle and motioned for me to take a seat. The man punched something into a computer. A minute later, an attractive woman of Asian heritage emerged from the door behind the desk. She wore her black hair pulled into a tight bun on top of her head and a very expensive black suit. With a glance from her, one of the guards punched a button that snapped the front door locks into place, then both of the guards disappeared into the back.
“Dr. Vaughn.” She held out her hand as she approached me. “X.”
I raised my eyebrows as I took her hand, unsure whether she’d just given me her name. “Ms. X, it’s a pleasure. Please, call me Cami.”
“Call me X, no Ms.” She turned to Kyle. “Rogers, you have a team meeting in the UNCLASS conference room.” She glanced down at Bella, and patted her head once. “Take the dog with you.”
