“Then who were they?” Lori asked.
Jake was concerned now. “Part of the crew who kidnapped me in DC and followed me to Montana. May I use your laptop for a minute?”
Lori’s mother nodded. “It’s on the internet if you need that.”
In just a few seconds he pulled the flash card from his pocket, encrypted the contents, and forwarded them in a zipped folder to his server in Europe. He then sent a copy of the video to a friend at the Agency, along with a few instructions. He set up a meeting for the next day to discuss the weather. His contact would know that meant he had something extremely important to pass along. Then he made sure there was no record of his access on the laptop.
When Jake was done he said, “Mrs. Franks, I hate to say this, but you need to take a little trip.”
“I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
“These people are dangerous, ma’am,” he said.
“You mean like you?”
Lori interjected. “Except Jake is one of the good guys. These are killers.”
“And they won’t think twice about going through you to get to your daughter. You put both yourself and Lori in jeopardy if you don’t take off for a while. You must have someplace to go.”
Lori reached across the table and grasped her mother’s hand. “Mom, go to your sister’s place in Helena.”
Mrs. Franks shook her head. “I don’t know. She smokes like a chimney. And she’s got those two little shitty dogs.”
“You mean shih tzu?” Lori asked.
“No, they pretty much shit all over the place.”
“Better that than a bullet in the head,” Lori said. “Go stay with Aunt April.”
All three of them got up and Lori hugged her mother again. This time Jake actually hugged the woman back. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Franks. And I’m sorry to hear of Bob’s passing.”
The mother looked confused. “You knew Bob?”
“Yes, ma’am. We graduated together.”
Mrs. Franks shook her head. “You’re that Jake Adams? You played football with Bob. You were friends.”
“Yes.”
“Well I’ll be damned.” She turned to Lori. “And you called Bob’s friend to testify before your committee? Shame on you.”
“I didn’t have a choice, mom.”
“It was entertaining. I saw you on O’Reilly that night also. You should come out with a book. You could make a lot of money shilling it on those shows.”
True. But most of what Jake knew would remain classified for a long time. “I don’t know if I have the stomach for that, Mrs. Franks.”
Lori’s mother hugged him again and then pulled away. “I know. And next time I see you, you better be calling me Jane.”
“Okay.” Jake headed outside and got to the SUV, leaving the two women to say their goodbyes. While he sat behind the wheel of the SUV, he sent a quick coded text to one of his contacts at the Agency, saying he was heading to DC today and needed to set up a meeting. Although he had just sent an e-mail with similar info, he should have gotten a response by now.
Lori came over and got into the passenger side, an uncertain expression on her face.
“Everything all right?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. My mom is just…” She struggled for the right word.
“I understand. Will she go visit her sister?”
“Yes. She’ll leave within the hour. Just needs to pack a bag.”
“You want to wait for her? That’s a pretty long drive on bad roads.”
“She’s been driving these roads all her life. And she’s got my dad’s truck.”
“Where is your dad?”
“Don’t get me started.” She let out a heavy sigh. “He’s somewhere in Costa Rica. A whitewater river guide.”
“Seriously? Isn’t he a little old for that?”
“I have no idea. He left my mom about five years ago and I haven’t heard from him since then. Not sure if I want to at this point.”
Knowing not to push the subject any further, Jake turned over the engine and started off toward the airport. On the way there, he first dropped off his weapons at his storage unit. He couldn’t fly with them. While he did so, Lori called the airport and got them each a ticket on a flight to Denver and then on to DC.
19
Jake and Lori had traveled most of the day, getting into DC in late afternoon, just as the sun receded past the Beltway. He said his goodbye to Lori, who was picked up by her wary driver. Jake guessed the guy was still pissed at him for putting him into a sleeper hold and then stuffing him into the trunk of the limo. Lori had seemed somewhat subdued by their separation, saying again that she didn’t really want to spend the rest of her break on an official junket to South Korea. They agreed to stay in touch but Jake didn’t think they would. Sure they had connected on some level. Perhaps that was based on their past. Maybe there had been a spark of some sort. He might never know for sure. She was back to her job in Washington and he was back to… That was the problem. He wasn’t sure about the direction of his life anymore. Despite what had happened in Montana, Jake was certain that this case wasn’t over. Besides having to drop off Professor Tramil’s research to his old friends, he would still have to find out who was trying to steal the man’s work. Who had kidnapped him and killed those people in Montana. He guessed they had only kept him alive in DC so he could lead them to Tramil. And he had. Kind of.
Now, after hanging out and drinking a couple of beers at a Dulles Airport bar, Jake took an airport shuttle bus to the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner by McLean, Virginia. After staying in a remote cabin, he felt the need to pamper himself.
He took a shower and then settled onto the comfortable bed, waiting. But he didn’t have to wait long. He might have caught twenty minutes of rest before he heard someone approach the door. Then there were two quiet knocks, a pause, one more knock, a second pause, and then two quick knocks. He smiled and went to the door, not even looking through the peep hole.
Standing in the hall, a subdued smile on her face, was his old friend Toni Contardo. They had worked together years ago in the CIA, had been lovers on and off, and now were…well, he wasn’t sure. But he guessed they were just friends. Toni was now working special projects directly for the CIA Director, Kurt Jenkins.
Toni glanced in both directions in the hallway. “You gonna let me in?”
He let her pass and she plopped down on the crumpled bed, feeling the sheets. Her eyes scanned the room. She hadn’t lost a step in her training. She was seeing if he was alone.
After closing the door, Jake stood in the center of the large room and asked her what he already knew. “How’d you find me?”
She laughed. “You left a trail of bread crumbs like a civilian.”
“I am a civilian.”
“Yeah, right. You couldn’t be a civilian if you tried.” Hesitating, her eyes bore right into him. “You booked the flight with one of your real Visa cards, and this hotel room with the same card.”
“Which you had flagged.”
Toni shrugged. “You could have just come by my office in Langley.”
“You have an office now? I thought you were just special projects.”
“You know what I meant,” she said.
He paced across the room and stood at the window, checking out the glow of the city in the distance.
She got off the bed and looked in the mini-bar. “Wow, that’s some top shelf booze. You’re living right now, Jake. But I guess you can afford it.”
Jake knew she knew what he had made on a few of his last cases. Yeah, he could afford a nice hotel once in a while, but that really wasn’t him. He preferred a mountain lodge over any city hotel. Which is why he had stayed at his apartment so long in Innsbruck. But now even he wasn’t sure where he belonged.