thoughts of kissing disappeared and his ire rose. The snarky scientist was popping up again. Ms. Gallagher was nothing if not unpredictable. “You should call me by my first name if you’re going to accuse me of something so terrible.”
She didn’t miss a beat. “Cal, are you a traitor?”
His jaw tightened “Always quick thinking. I see why they call you the wonder kid.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Leaning back against the wall, he shook his head. “No. I’m not a traitor. In fact, the consensus with my team was that you were the traitor.”
“Me? Why in the world would they suspect me?”
“You made it easy with your disregard for protocol and careless attitude toward security. Information was leaking out and the biggest holes in the safety net were around you.”
She hung her head. “I never took it seriously until...”
“Until it almost got you killed.”
She looked away. “I never meant for that to happen.”
Regret was deep in her tone. It struck a chord with Cal. “You know, I believe you mean that. But it doesn’t change the fact that we’re here because of your carelessness.”
“My work... My project means everything to me.”
Irritation filtered through him. “It better. You almost lost your life over it.”
Her gaze darted to the backpack lying beside them, but she said nothing more. For the first time he realized she’d had the nerve to retrieve her computer...and the money. His respect for her rose a little, but it didn’t change their situation.
“Maybe someday you’ll tell me why your work means so much you’d willingly risk your life and the lives of others. But right now we need to concentrate on getting out of here alive.”
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and plugged in the password. Bright light filled the small booth. He heard a small sigh of what sounded like relief...until he started to power the phone down.
“What are you doing? Why don’t you call for help?”
“Because I’m not sure who to call. We knew—”
“Hold on. Who is we? Your security team at the base?”
“No. I’m an undercover agent for the CIA.”
“CIA?” Her expression phased through several emotions in an instant—shock, confusion and then disgust. Cal couldn’t tell if the last was directed at him or his company.
She frowned. “That can’t be. You’re head of base security.”
“Security chief is my cover. I’m the field operator for a team in Washington. We’ve been following the activities of an arms dealer by the name of Alexi Gorkoff, trying to find his source. He’s been buying top secret weapons on the black market for several years. We finally narrowed his contacts down to someone on the inside. A person at your home lab or here on the support team of the base has been selling plans even before they’re completed.”
“Bill, my boss, mentioned something to me about a security problem a while back. But I thought it was in the aeronautics department, not mine.”
“It’s all departments and all projects, which indicates someone high up in the chain of command. The CIA planted me in the base’s security force to find the leak. We created a background for me, which included a substantial gambling debt. I let it be known that I was willing to do anything to pay it off. A man approached me and we started feeding him information. After two years of work, I was finally going to meet the boss.”
“Whitson and Carter were talking about their leader. They said he gave the order to kidnap me.”
“Whoever he is, he’s clever about covering his tracks. He throws suspicion onto unsuspecting people like you. We... I wasted months tracking down the wrong people. Every time I’d get close to the truth, he’d disappear again.”
“So when you walked in and saw me lying there, you had to make a choice between meeting the boss and saving my life.” Her voice was low and raspy.
His jaw tightened unit it was almost painful. “You didn’t leave me much choice, Drina. I thought they might have already finished you off and dropped your body down an abandoned mine shaft somewhere out here in the desert. It’s happened before.”
An image of the young man who disappeared flashed into his mind. He was a computer geek with glasses...much like Drina’s. He had serious social issues and hadn’t been very popular with his coworkers. The CIA had already pegged him as a potential spy before Cal came on the scene. But in Cal’s quest to convince the members of the black market ring that he was willing to do anything for money, he’d fed them erroneous information. The leaked info countered real intel from the young computer geek. He’d disappeared two days later, never to be found, his body probably dumped down one of the many abandoned mine shafts in the endless desert floor.
Cal had taken the kid’s disappearance personally. He would have felt the same about Drina if he’d found her dead. Still...
He shook his head in a sharp movement. “If you’d just followed the protocols, we wouldn’t be here now.”
His words seemed to make Drina aware of her disheveled state. She sifted fingers through her short hair—hair that, in spite of all she’d been through, was still shiny black, tousled but touchable. A twig or leaf had wedged itself into a lock near the top. He remembered its silky feel against his lips and itched to pull the leaf loose just to feel that shiny curl.
“You don’t know anything about me. You don’t know how important my work is.”
Her words squelched his soft feelings. “I know your work was important enough to try to protect it. Besides, I’ve made it my business to know about you. MIT graduate after only three years. Top honors. Recruited by Aero Electronics right out of school.”
Her lips parted in surprise. After a moment she looked away. “And that’s where the interesting part ends. Now my life is all work.”
“True, but you were a social butterfly in college. Served on the board of every club you joined. You even volunteered with Boston’s poorest, in soup kitchens and eventually in hospice, serving the aged and dying. That really intrigued me. To be honest, it filled me with admiration.”
He leaned his head back against the wall. “A young woman like you, taking on the most difficult situations life has to offer. But something happened. You changed. Dropped your volunteer work to focus on your studies, graduated earlier and went on to a career in electronic warfare. What happened, Drina?”
Maybe shock had loosened Drina’s previously tight-lipped attitude. To Cal’s surprise she answered him.
“I fell in love.”
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