he muttered as his thoughts went back to the one man she’d reached out to, the man who had been the catalyst to send Erin Kelley Argon on her five-month flight.
“Mike Olesk, we finally meet.”
He held out his hand.
“I don’t have time for this,” the grizzle-faced burnout said.
“You used to be a city cop,” Josh said.
“What’s it to you?”
“I’m with the CIA.” He held out his identification.
“And you want to know about Erin.”
Josh’s lips tightened. “I didn’t expect it would be this easy,” he said drily. He seriously hadn’t thought the man would admit to knowing her, never mind that he would just blurt out her name.
“That’s about all I’m going to tell you,” he said with a surly edge to his voice.
“She’s in danger,” Josh said. “And you have the power to help me find her.”
“How do I know you are who you say you are?”
“I could get a warrant,” he said, but it was only a mild threat.
“You don’t have time now, do you? The trial begins in a little more than a month. They need Erin, and the Anarchists need her dead. She’s the witness that can put them all away.” Mike shook his head.
“Why?”
“As if you don’t know. She witnessed a murder, and it wasn’t just any murder, was it? No, the gang leader up and shoots what looks like the gang’s link to crime-based money out of Europe.” He ran a hand through hair that shone with grease. “You’re not the only one in the know, and you’re not the only one hunting Erin.”
“How well do you know her?” Josh asked quietly. There was something else going on here or at least he suspected so. Information was flowing too quickly, and that, he had learned during his six years in the field, was always suspect.
Mike looked surprised and there was a secretive cast to his bloodshot brown eyes. “Not that well. I knew her as a kid when her father and I worked together. As an adult, we lost touch until... Well, until she came to me for help.”
“And you helped her disappear.”
“Something like that. But I don’t know where she is now. I haven’t heard from her in months.”
“Fourteen days,” he muttered as outside the traffic continued to flash by. That was the number of days since he had spoken to Mike Olesk, and then had cobbled together her flight path that had taken him to Singapore and finally to this point.
Mulu Caves in Gunung Mulu National Park. He opened the brochure. The glossy pictures would have been enticing in another situation. The information gave the usual condensed and carefully edited descriptions, all of it what he already knew. The park was isolated and accessible only by a ten-hour boat ride or a small plane. It was the perfect place to hide, but it was also the perfect place for a trap. He suspected she hadn’t thought of that; she hadn’t had time.
He looked out the window and smiled.
She was in his sights. He wasn’t in hers.
In the past hour Josh had laid a false trail from Miri, Malaysia, through Beijing and then to Hong Kong, a hotel registration here in Erin Kelley’s name, a car rental there. But that trail would delay the men who were after her only for so long—a day, maybe two.
“They’re offering ten million for the kill, Josh.” Vern folded his arms, his feet propped on the desk, his florid skin at odds with his blond hair. “Fortunately, the first man out of the gate isn’t one of the best.”
The passage of time since that conversation seemed nominal considering all that had transpired. Josh shifted his pack and artfully dodged milling passengers in Miri’s airport, all the while taking in the change in her appearance. Despite the fact that her new hair color gleamed a startling blue black and wire-rimmed glasses glinted beneath the artificial light and hid her vivid blue eyes, he still recognized her. Her frame was thinner, more fragile than her pictures had indicated, and the blue-black wig made her delicate skin look pale and gave the illusion of fragility. It was an amateurish attempt at a quick disguise, but it was effective for now. In fact, the black hair color was genius in a population where the average person was dark haired and dark skinned. It made her blend in just a bit more. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had time or hadn’t thought of the pallor of her skin accentuated against the unnaturally dark hair.
He shrugged. It would do and sometimes on the run, that was all you had. He imagined she’d be pulling out hair dye when they reached the Gunung Mulu National Park. It wasn’t a bad idea and it was all he had or, he amended, she had, at least until he developed some kind of rapport with her.
Erin Kelley Argon.
He had followed her flight halfway across the world and watched her survive despite the odds. Her path hadn’t been as simple to pick up as he’d first thought it would be. He’d been surprised at every turn. At times she’d shown gut intelligence for flight, as if she had done this at some other time in her life. Despite having help and advice from Mike Olesk, alone she had still gone through the steps with a polish that hadn’t left one misstep. That was evident in the fact that the Anarchists hadn’t expanded their search off the continental United States until shortly before he’d been deployed.
Yet nothing in the history he had gone over said she had ever had a reason to run, to hide. Until the murder, she’d led a normal life.
He was still in awe of those initial moments of her disappearance. Her flight had been brilliant, classic even. She’d put everything in place before running. She’d left San Diego and legally changed her name, dropped her last name while still in the country and in a matter of weeks had obtained a passport in her new name and country. And when she’d run, she hadn’t flown but instead had zigzagged north into Canada and taken a train across that country. But what he’d least expected was the creativity that followed. She’d jumped a container ship and taken a convoluted path before finally arriving in Eastern Europe. He had followed her journey as he had prepared for this assignment with an almost morbid fascination. She had kept him awake nights as he’d admired the ingenuity this woman had put into her escape.
A movement caught his eye.
She was at the ticket counter. He took a step forward, his gaze locked on her and then veered left. He had to transform from Josh Sedovich, CIA agent, to just Josh, tourist. He headed to the washroom and his own change of appearance.
* * *
ERIN TOOK A deep breath as she tried to portray a casual traveler. It wasn’t easy considering everything that had happened. This was the third flight since this morning’s tragedy. She was lucky there had been room on the flight to Miri, and now she hoped her luck would hold out again on the flight to the Gunung Mulu National Park and its legendary caves.
“Just made it.”
The
