Kim Baldwin - The Gemini Deception

“She’s none of your business.”

Bill kept his focus on the group as they headed into the woods, which gave Jack the opportunity to pull Dratshev’s note out. She unfolded it, but it was too damn dark in the van for any amount of squinting to make it legible. It would have to wait until later.

“Why can’t the Russians off the two women?” she asked, like she didn’t know the answer. She wanted to find out what this idiot had been told, anything to find a way out of having to kill Kennedy. This Wagner she was supposed to kill, on the other hand, should have thought twice before joining TQ’s clan.

“Because TQ wants you to do it.”

“Doesn’t make sense.”

“She’s testing you, genius,” Bill said.

“I see. What else?”

“She doesn’t want these two chicks to come back to bite her.”

“Because she doesn’t trust Dratshev will do it,” Jack said.

Bill nodded. “I don’t know why she trusts him at all.”

“How’s he involved in this deal?”

“Like he said. Business.”

“Doesn’t look like a business transaction to me,” she said. “Looks more like an exchange.”

“It is.”

“The hooded woman for the other two.”

Bill nodded.

“What’s the deal?”

“None of your business.”

“Where are we taking them?”

“There’s an abandoned building an hour away, in Alexandria.”

“Leave the bodies there?”

“Nope. Boss lady likes to play with fire.” He laughed. “She wants them shot, then burned to a crisp. No evidence, no mess.”

Jack’s plans seemed to be headed a bit closer to hell with every minute that passed. Either way, she had to gain time, see if she could improvise a new way out.

“Here they come,” Bill said.

Jack glanced at the side mirror. Dratshev’s men were coming back out of the woods, this time with two women, neither of whose faces was covered.

Bill retrieved his gun. “Get out. It’s go time.”

Jack stood beside the van’s open rear doors while the two women approached. Although it was dark, it was easy enough to make out who was who. Wagner walked with her head stooped, her demeanor submissive and defeated. The op—Kennedy—was alert and on guard, though she seemed more concerned with the woman she was with than the men with guns surrounding them.

*

Shield tried to focus on finding a way out of their predicament, but she had trouble shaking off the disturbing revelation in the tunnel. The woman she’d thought was Thomas walked just ahead of her, two men on either side. She was guarded by two as well, and the fifth masked gunman was directly behind her. The Russians were well armed—two had AK-47s—and all were so precise and coordinated in their actions she suspected they had a military background.

After a short hike through the woods, they emerged into a clearing where two vans and a dark sedan sat waiting. Two people got out of one of the vans—a man and a woman, both dressed in black—and opened the back doors as they approached. The Russians poked them forward with their automatics.

The imposter president, who had kept her head bowed the whole time, stepped into the vehicle first.

She started to follow, but the woman who stood by the door stopped her with a hand on Shield’s back.

“Wait for my signal, Kennedy,” she whispered, before she pushed Shield forward into the van.

Shield, in a crouch, spun around, but the doors slammed shut, leaving them wrapped in darkness.

Why would the woman ask her to wait for a signal?

She could hear the rapid breathing of her companion a couple of feet away to her right. Shield sat beside her, her back against the driver’s side wall, as the van started up and began to move. There was no use fumbling around in the dark to see whether there was anything in here that might be useful. The meticulous planning of this conspiracy was evident. These people left nothing to chance. “Are you all right?”

The woman’s panicky inhalations began to calm. After a long silence, she replied. “Yes.”

“Good. Now, who the hell are you?”

“I told you to leave. I warned you.”

“Who are you?” Shield tried to contain her anger.

“My name’s Ryden Wagner.”

“Why does that sound familiar?”

“My name’s been all over the news.”

“Remind me why.”

“The homicidal florist from Philadelphia.”

Shield flashed back to the news reports. This, all of this, was absurd. “Is there anything else you want to add to your curriculum vitae?”

“I didn’t kill anyone. They set me up.”

“Who did?”

“Some rich woman.”

“And Moore was in on it.”

“I don’t know what his involvement is, exactly,” Wagner replied, “but he works for her. That’s why he was all over me.”

“Why the president?” Shield couldn’t believe any of this. “I mean, this is ludicrous.”

“Apparently Thomas’s agenda against the illegal-weapons trade is inconvenient for this woman who’s behind it all, and she wanted me to take Thomas’s place to stop it.”

“And you simply agreed?” Shield was so exasperated her accent suddenly sounded much more Italian than she allowed when on a job.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Wagner curtly replied. “They were going to give me the death penalty for something I didn’t do.”

“Let me guess. They promised you a get-out-of-jail-free card, money, a new life, and a pony.”

Wagner didn’t answer right away. “I needed to believe them. It was either join them and live or certain death.”

She remembered how Wagner had stared at the news reports about herself. The image of her mug shot sprang to mind. The cute bookworm type with the thick glasses. “The florist in the news looked nothing like you.”

“They had me…altered.”

“But still—”

“It was a bad picture, okay?”

“How long had they been grooming you?” A florist would need plenty of preparation time to pass so effectively and convincingly as the chief executive.

“More than two months of operations and lessons in…everything.”

Who the hell was the woman behind all this? And where did she find the financial and other resources to accomplish such a scheme? “I can’t believe you agreed to this,” Shield finally said. “And I can’t believe you acted the part so well.”

“Look, I’m going to talk to them when we get out, explain to them you—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Don’t you think I wanted to? Moore would have killed us both if he so much as suspected I’d said anything. For the longest time, he even had me believing you were put there to spy on me. I had no idea Jason was the one hired to do that. Moore kept telling me I was surrounded by people involved in the plan.”

“You even fooled Thomas’s family.” That was a weak consolation for Shield’s own failure to see through the guise.

“I almost blew it when the sister got personal, but Moore stepped in.”

“I just can’t believe you didn’t tell me. I could have gotten us out of there. I could’ve exposed Moore and the rest. Instead you lied and lied and led me to believe you…” What was the point? This woman was clearly too involved and too much of a coward to understand a word she was saying. She sighed. “Forget it.”

They sat in darkness and silence for a long while.

“Where are they taking us?” Wagner asked.

“What does it matter?” Shield replied.

“I’m sorry.”

“Really? Because that makes it better.”

“I’m not going to leave you with them,” Wagner said. “I’ll tell them you have nothing to do with this.”

“With what, exactly?”

“The plan. That you were never part of anything, knew nothing about me or Thomas or who’s involved or why they did this.”