Heather Woodhaven - Covert Christmas Twin

“You’re NCS?” Kendra didn’t bother keeping the surprise from her voice. The National Clandestine Service, the little-known undercover arm of the CIA, served as the primary source of human intelligence in the nation. The NCS operated differently than any other federal agency. Rumored to skip written reports, they were so secret that even the director of the division wasn’t officially disclosed. “Do you think the Pirate works in your division?” The idea seemed logical, as the NCS served as the national authority for all evaluation of undercover operations across the intelligence community.

Beverly offered a half-hearted shrug. “Initially. But, if that was the case, I don’t believe the FBI would’ve succeeded in taking down their communication network, which funded much of their recruiting efforts. And, ever since that takedown, all integral members of Masked have been carefully watched.”

“That’s why you have a gunman following you around?”

“Yes. The organization is wounded and suspicious, but the last thing we want is for them to go underground and rebuild.” Another phone buzzed and Beverly glanced at it. “Masked wants a status report from me about the Fed.”

“Maybe you can stall them,” Kendra offered. “Text a mission-complete status.”

“Won’t do any good. The body has already been found. That man wasn’t the only one that kept tabs on me. They rotate shifts.”

Another buzz. Beverly shook her head. “Great. Now Masked wants me to check in, physically.” She stood. “I need to stay on their good side and stall them. There weren’t any security cameras on that side of the building, but it’s only a matter of time until they realize who you are. As soon as they figure out you and your partner broke up their communications network, they’ll want all of us dead. Joe, I’m afraid that includes you. I figure we only have one shot to take them down, or we’ll need to go underground, permanently.”

“WITSEC?” Joe asked.

“You can’t get witness protection if you don’t know whom you need protection from.” She turned to Kendra. “Can I dare hope you’ve secured your sister’s research?”

Kendra caught herself pulling back her shoulders and pursing her lips, then realized what she was doing and shook her head instead. “What are you talking about?”

Beverly threw up her hands. “I thought it was obvious. I arranged for you to meet your sister. I sent Audrey’s last-minute invite to the conference at Stanford. I had a tip you’d be there.”

The blood felt like it’d left Kendra’s face. “You arranged for us to meet?”

“Of course. There’s no time to explain it all, Kendra. The point is your sister’s research is very important. I thought for sure you’d connect the dots by now.”

She wanted to open her mouth and tell Beverly that she couldn’t play with people’s lives like that—

“Audrey is on the cusp of a breakthrough in the advancement of metamaterials.”

Joe whistled low. “Are we talking cloaking technology? Is she working on upgrades to what the military is using?”

Kendra wanted to roll her eyes at his enthusiasm. Yes, her sister was a genius, big-shot government grant researcher at Caltech. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“I’ve been hearing murmurs that the Pirate is going after Audrey’s research.”

Kendra’s neck tingled. “Are you saying she’s in danger?”

Beverly hesitated before she shook her head. “I don’t believe so. He has no interest in recruiting her personally and won’t want to draw attention. He only wants to obtain and sell the research.” Her phone vibrated again, and she began rushing around the room, gathering items and shoving them in a duffel bag. “He usually asks me to analyze someone for the best way to bribe them, but in this scenario, he said he already knew how to obtain what he wanted.”

“You’re saying the Pirate already knows someone at the lab will hand over the research.”

“Yes. Either he’s already commissioned someone to infiltrate the lab, or, I believe, based on his behavior, that he’s planning to infiltrate the lab himself. It’s in the best interests of our national security that he doesn’t succeed. If he sold it to another country—” Beverly reached a hand out to put on her shoulder but Kendra instinctively took a step backward. “This is probably the only chance to get our hands on the Pirate. You’ve met your sister now. Do you think you could take her place?”

A regular twin swap, just like when Audrey had taken her place on the mission. Only this time it would be Kendra’s turn to pretend she was Audrey. She’d probably have jumped at the idea if she’d been in high school, but now, the request infuriated her. “I’m sure it would’ve been easier had I grown up knowing her.”

“We don’t have time for this!” Beverly’s eyes blazed. “You want to know why you didn’t? Your father was a double agent. Does that make you feel better?” Beverly blinked rapidly. “Obviously, I didn’t know that when I married him,” she said in a softer voice. “Seven months pregnant, I intercepted a message that as soon as you were born, his orders were to kill me and kidnap you and your sister. I ran away, had you two and gave you up for adoption to keep you safe. Because what kind of life could I give you, constantly running away from a double agent?” Her voice wobbled as she raised her chin. “Months later, I knew I made the right decision when he found me.”

Joe stepped forward. “Okay, maybe we should wait to unpack history until—”

Kendra ignored him. She couldn’t take a break from hearing the whole story. This was the reason she’d tracked down Beverly in the first place—to find out the whole truth. Her heart beat so fast she could hardly think straight. “Is he still alive?”

Beverly turned away. “It was either him or me.” Her phone buzzed a third time. “Does the FBI know you’re here?”

Kendra fought to focus on her question when all her mind wanted to do was play the news about her parents on a loop. “No. All the FBI knows is I took a leave of absence.”

Beverly exhaled. “Well, that’s something. It’ll make it harder for Masked to figure out which Fed was here, but we still don’t have much time. Go. Take Audrey’s place in the lab. Secure the research and figure out the Pirate’s identity before anyone in Masked discovers Special Agent Parker is my daughter. Joe, go with her—”

“I’m not so sure—”

Beverly leveled a harsh stare at him. “She can’t trust anyone else. She needs backup and a good analyst to help her. It’s why I’ve been training you.”

He blinked rapidly, and they both turned to Beverly at the same time. Joe’s mouth dropped. “What?”

Joe held up his hands. “What do you mean ‘training’ me?” He replayed every discussion he could remember with Beverly from the past six weeks. “You came to the church after service one day and told me you were having a crisis of faith. You said you thought your classes would be useful to my ministry because—”

“Ever since Kendra shut down the network, the Pirate has become a little neurotic with trust issues,” Beverly said.

“You call it trust issues. I call it fear of being arrested,” Kendra said.

Joe shook his head. “She’s trying to say I’ve been the middle man for her reports to the director of the NCS. I’ve delivered some flash drives to a dead drop at the hospital when I’m making my visiting rounds. It’s why she read me in about her undercover work with NCS.” But he never thought she was trying to train him for anything. She did offer him a lot of extra tutelage in her behavior analysis classes, but he thought she was simply passionate about the field of study.