Running won out, but she wondered if she’d shaken Bronson or if he was still pursuing her. Maybe, she thought, he’d been confused by her zigzagging, but just to hedge the bet, she broke left at the next driveway and doubled back toward the street she’d just crossed, all but diving behind a tall hedge in someone’s front lawn and trying to squelch her heavy breathing as she watched for any sign of him.
There was no one, at least no one running or in obvious pursuit. There was a helicopter overhead a few blocks away, obviously searching for them.
She thought of her cell phone. Maybe it was time for a 911 call? Or would what’s-his-name be tied into that network as well?
I don’t even know who I’m running from! she thought.
A sudden sound to her left caused her heart to leap, and she turned to find a thankfully calm and curious Labrador who had ambled over to see who was hiding behind his owner’s hedge. Still on guard, she petted him, listening for footsteps that weren’t there.
Maybe, she thought, the home she was crouching beside had a Wi-Fi she could use, but then the glow of her computer screen would be a dead giveaway.
The dog was licking her ear and whining, and she reached to the left to push him away only to have her wrist grabbed as Will Bronson whirled her around to face him and slammed her back onto the ground, straddling her.
“Scream and I swear I’ll strangle you right here,” he hissed, a strong hand on each wrist, penning her arms to the damp ground.
“What are you going to do, rape me? Have at it, bastard.”
“Rape… what? Seriously?”
“What else should I conclude? You’re straddling me, and you just threatened to strangle me!”
“Why did you run? We need to stay together!” he asked.
“Why did I run? You’re the one driving like a maniac! Why? We’ve got cops shooting at us! Who are we running from anyway?”
His head was on a swivel, looking in all directions, then back at her, speaking tersely and low.
“Our agents. The cops. Federal police. I don’t know, but I’ll bet there’s what they used to call an all-points bulletin out for us and not getting us caught, killed, or locked up seemed to serve the interests of saving that planeload of people. But answer me, Jenny. Please. Why are you running from me?”
“Because, apparently, you’re not who you claim to be.”
“Aha! According to whom?”
“Seth, my boss, and the CIA. So, who are you, really?”
“It was that message, then?”
“What?”
“You got a text in the car and got all cold and silent.”
“Yes. That text. It said to get away from you. I’m beginning to see why. How the hell did you find me, by the way?”
“Your ‘Find my iPhone’ function. Comes in handy.”
“Shit.”
He sighed, a bit too loudly. “All right. You know my name, but… there’s more.”
“Of course there is!”
“I’m not an operative… a spy, Jenny.”
“Right. And I’m not really female. Yank my panties off and you’ll find out.”
“What?”
He looked almost comically perplexed, she noted, as if she’d flung another language at him. He was shaking his head as if to rid it of whatever cobwebs had filtered her words.
“What is it with you women and sex, Jenny?”
“We women? WE women? What kind of sexist nonsense is that?”
“Just what it sounds like! Yes, you women! Jeez! Rape? Pulling off panties? We’re in the middle of a freaking crisis here, and that’s all you can think of?”
“Not all. But you have to admit that some of my most sensitive lady parts are in rather intimate and vulnerable proximity to you at the moment.”
“Oh, yeah.” He raised up on his knees, taking the pressure off her hips. “Listen to me. I am with DIA, but I’m just an analyst who stumbled onto what appeared to me to be a suspicious operation. I’ve seen several before in my department and have always felt guilty for doing nothing. This time I had to act.”
“An analyst? Whoa, wait… an analyst?”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”
“No, I just thought…”
“I’m an analyst just like you, Jenny! I have no training as a spy.”
For a few seconds she found herself forgetting the bizarre nature of their little chat, he astride her in a flower bed, and she stared at him before responding.
“Well… it’s true you sure as hell don’t drive like a spy, you know, someone with… with…”
“High performance driver training?”
“Yes. That. Wait… what operation are you talking about?”
“Yours. I intercepted your call for help this morning. I was supposed to notify an entire chain of people, but I didn’t. Apparently someone found out, or overheard the call, I’m not sure how. But I happen to know DIA has been setting up some very secretive satellite networks, and I’m very suspicious of what they’re doing because no other part of even DIA itself is supposed to know. We don’t operate like the old clandestine cell system, yet that’s the kind of stuff I’ve been picking up. When your call came in, it seemed like an example of precisely what they’ve been whispering about. I thought it might give me a chance to confirm my suspicions and do something about it.”
“What in tarnation are you talking about?”
“The ability to remotely control airliners. Maybe crash them on cue. At least that’s what I think it’s about.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because I thought you were working with them, okay? You wrote the code, as I said.”
The code again, she thought, feeling a flash of guilt and foreboding. But who would have had access to that code, and how could she have prevented it? That was years back!
“Let me up, dammit!”
He got to his feet and pulled her up until they stood together between the hedge and the house as she brushed herself off.
“There’s still an airliner…” she began.
“Sh-h-h!” he cautioned. “Keep it low!”
“There’s an airliner about to be toast because of all this,” she continued.
“I know.”
“So, were you trying to keep me from transmitting?”
“No. Hell no! I was trying to find a way to make it work without getting arrested.”
“Okay, well… Will… why don’t we motor on over to 1600 Pennsylvania and let the big guys sort it out. No time for much else.”
“Okay,” he said, defeat in his voice.
“Okay? Really, just… okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fresh out of clever ideas.”
“I have no reason to trust you, y’know. I mean, no fucking reason!”
“I know it.”
“But I have no time to figure it out, either.”
“I don’t know how we can make it to the White House or anywhere else with everyone looking for us.
“We have to try.”
“True.”
“Maybe we could flag down a cab?”
He shook his head, his eyes cast in the direction of what had to be three helicopters now crisscrossing several blocks distant, the powerful light beams of the police helicopter cutting through the trees and the shrubs they were hiding behind.
“A cab’s not possible. They’ll all be alerted by now.”
“We have less than forty-five minutes, and the release sequence I came up with may be garbage, but if this is as big a crisis as I think it is, they’ll have to listen. If we can get there, that is.”
“There’s a car in the driveway,” Will said, almost under his breath.