Kate Donovan - Exit Strategy

“What’s this about?” Kell asked her, more with curiosity than suspicion.

“You’ll see,” she told him. Then she gave him a quick hug and said, “I think you’ll like it. I hope so.”

She would have hugged Ortega, too, if it didn’t seem so silly, so she settled for giving him another smile. Then she sprinted out of the drawing room and up the stairs, laughing as she heard the men discussing her with words that sounded a lot like “crazy” and “humor her.”

The vial of Night Arrow was just where she had hidden it-inside an otherwise empty shampoo bottle, undetected by the search Kell’s guards had conducted. She had regretted not being able to use it, but once she had decided to masquerade as Jennifer Aguilar, call girl, rather than Jennifer Aguilar, industrial spy, there had been no way to show it to Kell without totally confusing things.

But as Miranda Cutler, CIA operative, she could offer it up, both as a lead-in to Ortega’s horrifying revelation about Carerra, and as a consolation prize-a new project for Kell to explore after the Brigade fantasy was ripped from him.

Hurrying back downstairs, she found the men waiting for her in the lab as directed. Kell’s expression showed anticipation, while Ortega was looking a little annoyed around the edges. She gave him a quick, confident wink, then placed the vial on the stainless steel workbench at which they were seated. “There,” she announced mischievously. “Three guesses what that is.”

Kell picked up the vial and examined it. “Is it safe to open? Remember my allergies.”

“Come on, Jonathan.” She rolled her eyes for emphasis. “Live a little.”

He frowned, but twisted the cap, then carefully sniffed the vial’s contents. “Some sort of resin?”

“Be more specific.”

“Miranda,” Ortega said with a growl. “What’s going on?”

“Let Jonathan guess. I’ll give you a hint,” she added, her voice softening as she smiled at the scientist. “I got it in South America. Last week. When I went to BioGeniSystems to sneak a peek at your old personnel files.”

“What?”

Ortega leaned back and folded his arms across his chest, finally seeing where she was going, although she imagined he still didn’t quite understand where the vial fit in. But at least she could see he approved of the way she was handling this, breaking it to Kell so gently.

She took a deep breath, then explained. “Like Ortega said, I wanted to move my career out of the sex kitten business and into something a little more valuable. The CIA sent me to his cabin for information about you, and when he didn’t tell me anything we didn’t already know, I decided to do some more snooping on my own. Your old files seemed like a good place to start. With my training, breaking into a drug company wasn’t much of a challenge. I got what I needed, but decided to poke around a little more. That’s when I found this.”

Kell sniffed the vial again. “What is it? A new drug?”

“Not a drug. A weapon.”

“Huh?”

“They call it HeetSeek. But you and I call it Night Arrow.”

Kell stared at her in disbelief, while Ortega muttered, “What the hell…?”

“I know,” she said, pleased with their reactions. “Isn’t it amazing? I was interrupted before I could steal their research, but at least I got this sample. You can analyze it, right, Jonathan? Duplicate it, test it, improve on it. At least we finally know it exists.”

“Night Arrow? Those bastards actually were developing it? Do you have any idea…?” Kell shook his head in disgust. “They almost got me killed, withholding this from me.”

“No, no, Jonathan. I don’t think they were researching it back then. According to the files I saw, the experiments have only been running over the last five years or so. They probably did the same thing you did, looked into it after Carerra raised the issue during your, well, your ordeal.”

Ortega cleared his throat. “Speaking of your ordeal-”

“Wait!” Miranda smiled to downplay the interruption. “My point is, Jonathan, that you can use this sample to reinvigorate your own research. BioGeniSystems got some interesting results. Inconclusive, but still interesting.”

“It isn’t even red,” Kell observed, shrugging. “Probably a dead end.”

“They locked it in a safe. Doesn’t that mean they thought they were on to something?”

“Miranda?” Ortega eyed her sternly. “You said you were interrupted before you could steal the research. Tell Jonathan who interrupted you.”

She sighed, knowing he was correct. It was time to break the news, so she walked around the table and took Kell’s hand. “It was Angelina Carerra and a bunch of armed guards. And a doctor of some sort.”

Kell gave her a blank stare. “Carerra’s widow? What was she doing there?”

“That’s a good question. I assumed they were doing some sort of research for her. Maybe about cocaine purity or whatever. But now that I’ve talked to Ortega, I don’t think that was it.” She squeezed Kell’s hand. “Angelina was so confident. So in control. Like she thought she was invincible.”

“Invincible? Her? People always said she was timid.”

“I think maybe she is. I think maybe that night, she was testing out your power pill.”

Kell licked his lips, visibly confused. “How would she get her hands on it? Only one sample ever left my control. The one I gave Ortega.”

“No,” Ortega told him quietly. “The one you gave the Brigadier.”

Kell frowned, still confused, and Miranda was about to offer further explanation, but Ortega held up his hand, silencing her. And because she trusted his instincts on such things, she decided to wait. And watch. And hope their sensitive friend was going to work this through on his own without getting too upset.

“I don’t understand,” Kell said finally.

“I think you do,” Ortega told him. “Deep inside, you know I’m not the Brigadier. Isn’t that so?”

Kell stared.

“It was the only way I could get in here. To rescue Miranda, who clearly didn’t need rescuing. It was an act, Jonathan. I apologize, but at the time, I thought it was necessary.”

“He did it for me,” Miranda agreed. “And then I convinced him we should stay.”

“To get information from me?” Kell whispered. “To bring down the Brigade? And I was so stupid. I trusted you. Now I’m a dead man. The real Brigadier will kill me for betraying him.”

“The real Brigadier.” Ortega nodded. “The one who used the sample on his own wife, transforming her from a battered woman to a confident, independent female for a few hours.”

Kell’s hand went to his throat, and Miranda knew he thought it was closing up. And maybe it was! She had felt that way for a few seconds on the airplane, and she didn’t scare easily. For Kell, this nightmare had to be unbearable.

“Jonathan-”

“Don’t!” He pushed her away, then took a few steps backward. “You lied to me. You were never my friend. Don’t touch me! Get out of my house!”

“Jonathan,” Ortega told him. “You need to breathe.”

“Shut up! I don’t take orders from you! You’re not the fucking Brigadier, remember?” He gasped for air, but managed to insist, “And neither is Benito Carerra. You killed him, Ortega. I saw you. We left his dead carcass nailed to a tree in the jungle like the animal he was.”

“Actually, my old friend,” said a voice from the narrow doorway that led to the back hallway. “That’s not entirely accurate.”

As a dozen guards poured into the room from doorways at either end, the distinctive sounds of semiautomatic rifles being readied for firing filled the air. Hammers being cocked, bolts being slid, cartridges being fed into chambers-metal slamming metal-all executed with absolute precision.