Chapter 26
Wednesday after work, EOD headquarters
A fter work, Gabby walked into HQ to meet Valentina for shooting lessons with the same feeling she had going for a Pap smear. Gabby had never wanted a gun. Once, she’d found one in the park. Too scared to touch it, she’d poked it with a stick and then called the authorities. A very polite officer had informed her that it was a cap gun. Better safe than sorry, though.
“Better safe than sorry” meant something new this week. She still didn’t want a gun, even a little—but she needed a gun. She sure as hell wasn’t going to count on the EOD to save her ass.
She found Valentina in the clean room, talking quietly with Alice about some important work things. What wasn’t important at the EOD, though? Everything involved national security. Working at the EOD was like being part of a dysfunctional family with a ramped-up drama level.
Gabby said, “Nice to see you, Alice. How’s your week going?”
“Agent Greene.” Alice gave her a nod in greeting and cut to the chase. “I heard about the laptop in Kramer’s office. We need a plan to get our hands on it ASAP.”
Gabby brightened at the sound of the word “we.” Were they going to help her?
“He keeps the computer behind a painting of a Bugatti,” she reported. Kramer was an overgrown little boy. “All we have to do is break in. I assume one of you is going to crack the safe?” She glanced at Valentina. “Do you know how to do that?” In the movies it was always a beautiful girl in a black catsuit listening to the pins in the safe like a lover’s heartbeat. Valentina fit the bill.
“No, Agent Greene,” Valentina said. “That’s your job.”
“Umm… are you kidding me?” She hadn’t even been able to get in to her high school locker with a code. All those “turn right” and “two spins to the left” directions were too much for her.
“You might not have to open the safe. Just distract him while he has the computer out. Much simpler, don’t you think?”
“You all told me that I was just going to be making coffee,” she said, her voice strident with frustration. “You said this was a low-stakes mission.”
Valentina sidestepped the criticism. “We’re not sending you on any night ops or asking you to leave the office. This can happen during business hours while everyone is in the office with you.”
Bad things happening during the light of day were even scarier. “It’s not low stakes. Do I need to remind you that Darcy died on this mission? Now you want me to steal files from a guy who is working with the Mafia, maybe is Mafia himself. What if he catches me?” She looked around the room. “What is the matter with you two?”
Valentina repeated herself. “It’s a low-risk operation. We’re not putting you in the same position Darcy was in. You just need to get Kramer out of his office and get into the safe.”
“Easier said than done. That man never leaves his office. If he needs something, he calls me. If I’m not available, it’s Fran’s job. In three days, he hasn’t moved. He has an attached bathroom so he barely even leaves to pee. I tried to stay late tonight, and he kicked me out.”
Valentina shrugged. “There must be something that will get him out of his chair.”
Gabby shook her head. “You’ve got me.” She blew out a frustrated breath and glanced at the clock. “I don’t mean to be pushy, but can we do the shooting lesson? I would like to see my kids before bed tonight. It’s been a long week.”
Alice made a quasi growl noise in the back of her throat. “I don’t like the idea of you with a gun.”
Neither did Gabby, but how else was she going to protect herself? “I don’t feel safe,” Gabby said loud and slow, trying to communicate her real fear with intonation. She sure as hell couldn’t explain the Smirnov issue. For all she knew, Alice was the mole.
“Let’s see how the lesson goes, and then we’ll talk,” said Alice.
Why was the EOD so eager to throw her to the wolves with no protection? She set her jaw, determined to come up with some way to defend herself. She didn’t want to be the only one bringing a leaky bag of trash to a gun fight—again.
Ten minutes later, they were in the EOD gun range. Four stories belowground, it was colder than anywhere else in the building, all concrete, all business. Before they entered the range itself, Valentina handed her ear protection and adjusted the volume knob on the side. Somehow, the gun shots were muffled but the voices were amplified.
Another agent was practicing.
Boom.
Boom
Boom.
Even with the ear protection, every shot reverberated through Gabby’s body, the danger and power of the weapon shaking her all the way to her core. Gunpowder burned her nose and strengthened her resolve. She didn’t have a choice.
Last time she’d been down here, it was different. She had been nervous, but not scared for her children’s lives. This time, it wasn’t theoretical—it was life or death.
While Gabby was on edge, Valentina moved smoothly, seemingly at ease with all-or-nothing stakes. “How are you so casual?” Gabby commented more than asked. All she could think of was the implications of this practice: death. Either the threat of death or causing death.
Valentina gave her a look that said, “Chill out.”
Together, they crowded into a single lane, Valentina’s musky floral perfume competing with the gunpowder for dominance. Valentina set the gun down in front of her with intent. “Do you know how to load the magazine and insert the clip?”
Markus had done that for her last time, so she shook her head no.
Valentina muttered, “Men. You can’t ask them to do anything,” and demonstrated how to put one bullet in the clip before ordering Gabby to do the rest. Gabby fumbled the bullet and it clattered onto the countertop. Her mind clouded with dark thoughts.
“Get out of your head, Agent Greene,” Valentina barked. “You are an agent for the Elite Operatives Department, and this weapon is nothing but a tool.” In a quiet but powerful tone, she said, “Load the damn gun.”
Gabby took a breath. Valentina was right. She focused and shoved the clip in with a metallic clunk. At the same time, something inside of her shifted. The gun was ready, and so was she.
“You’re right-handed, correct?” Valentina asked. When Gabby nodded, she said, “Pick up the gun with your right hand. Keep the finger off the trigger. Point the gun downrange.” She demonstrated with her own gun how to hold it.
Less emotionally than before, Gabby picked up the gun. Valentina showed her how to adjust her grip so the slide didn’t hit her thumb when the gun ejected the bullet casing.
“What happened last time? Was that the first time you had ever shot a gun?”
Gabby nodded. Guns were a ubiquitous part of life—squirt guns, Nerf guns, guns in the movies, guns on the news, but before the lesson with Markus, she had never held an actual gun, one that could take someone’s life. Heavy in her hand, cold and unfeeling metal, the harsh recoil, it had served to freak her out. Too much power. That’s why dudes wanted to be strapped—the power to take away life itself—and it was exactly why she had never wanted one.
Valentina nodded. “Markus should have had you try again right away.”
That was probably true.
“Your gun isn’t ready to fire until you chamber a bullet. Do you remember how to do that?”
Gabby pulled back on the slide. In the movies, guys were ka-chunking their guns all the time, pulling back the slides like they were toys. In reality, the slide was difficult to pull back, like getting a tough lid off a pickle jar, and the metal of the slide bit into her tender palm. Just chambering the bullet, she was slow and clumsy. In the field, she would probably already be dead.
“The more you practice, the easier it will be. When you’re ready, aim and pull the trigger gently.”
Just a week ago, she’d been in this exact spot, aiming at an identical paper target of a man with a bull’s-eye over his sternum. Last week had been one thing—she had been scared, but unfocused. Her kids hadn’t been in danger.
Gabby had been frustrated by life plenty of times—her marriage that fizzled, lack of respect at home and in the office, lack of respect for herself. With all her feelings of disappointment and frustration, she had never burned with an anger so hot that she could take a man’s life. It wasn’t in her nature, but she grabbed onto her anger and stoked it.
Smirnov had threatened her kids. She held the gun firmly, took a deep breath, and released it as she slowly squeezed the trigger.
In the chaos—it was just all noise and recoil—she couldn’t tell if she’d hit the target. All she knew was that there wasn’t steam coming from the pipes. “Did I hit it?” she asked, squinting at the target.
Valentina gave her a slow nod. “Almost a bull’s-eye. Good work.”
Gabby whooped as Valentina yelled, “Finger off the trigger. Aim it downrange.”
An hour of practice later, the range was filled with the smoke from her shots, and there was a sickly-sweet taste in the back of her mouth.
“What is that taste, or am I imagining it?”
“Violence has an aftertaste, doesn’t it?” said Valentina dramatically.
“No really, what is that? Is it in my head?”
“It’s lead.”
Gabby blanched. That couldn’t be good for them. “How do I pack this thing up? Is this a self-checkout situation or do I sign out?”
“You sign out.”
“Gotcha.” So it was basically like checking out a library book.
Valentina looked her dead in the eye. “You’re doing much better, but you haven’t had any practice in the field. Shooting in a real situation at a real person is different.”
“You’re not backing out, are you?” Fear gripped Gabby, the kind of visceral, alone-in-a-parking-garage-with-no-one-but-a-guy-in-a-van fear. Valentina was abandoning her, leaving her helpless against Smirnov’s goons.
Valentina shook her head. “Gabby—”
“I can do it.” She said it in the eager way of someone who wants something desperately but clearly cannot do it. “I am a different person than I was last week,” she pleaded.
“Well, that’s good news,” Valentina said dryly. “Still, I am not ready to send you with a gun. Yet.”
Hands in the air, Gabby groaned. “You’re kidding me.”
“You did well tonight, but you’ve had one lesson. I’m not counting that disaster with Markus. I don’t want you bringing a gun into your home. I’ve seen that circus.”
It was her circus. She had to take care of it.
“Val, I… I need protection.”
“Why? Why do you need protection so badly? Is there something you’re not telling me?” Valentina scrutinized Gabby’s expression, leaving her desperate to tell the truth, to ask for help.
Gabby bit her lip. “This is a dangerous job. Darcy died.”
“Nope, not giving it to you.”
Valentina set a small package on the table between them. “But I have something for you. This is a dart gun. The darts can be fired out of the gun like you see on animal shows. Or if you’re in a close-range situation, you can just stab someone. You want to hit them in a big muscle group—ass, thigh, upper arm—to paralyze them for an hour or so.”
A dart gun. What was she, a zookeeper? With a laugh, she realized Valentina had already told her—she was a circus ringmaster. Maybe not even the ringmaster. She was just in the circus.
Valentina continued explaining even though Gabby had shut down. “They’re a paralytic, good for immobilizing someone, and they’ll knock them out for about fifteen minutes. The paralytic effect lasts longer.”
Gabby couldn’t bring herself to care. The EOD wasn’t taking her seriously, wasn’t taking her safety or her children’s safety seriously. And why was Valentina so intent on keeping her from having decent protection? She was starting to seem like the mole.
“You can use them on your ex if you want.” Valentina wagged a tranquilizer dart in the air. “I won’t tell.”
Gabby didn’t crack a smile. Valentina was not going to paper over this disrespect with one comment. “I need protection. For real.”
Valentina held up the dart gun. “This is protection.”
Gabby huffed.
Unimpressed with Gabby’s attitude, Valentina went on. “You’re going to want a holster. If you want this to be useful, you need to have access to it. You can’t be searching around in a closet when a bad guy is coming at you.”
Gabby nodded. “Fine.”
Valentina gave Gabby’s figure a cursory glance. “You’re too hippy for a standard holster that dudes use.”
“What?” Was that an insult?
“So am I. I’m just saying that the gun print will be visible, and staying hidden is the number one priority. A gun would blow your cover.” Valentina pulled out a shoulder holster and helped Gabby slide into it. The dart gun fit along the side of her breast, completely invisible.
“Try drawing it a few times.”
Gabby did as requested. Valentina might be the mole, and she wasn’t going to be chill about being denied the same protection the other EOD agents had, but the dart gun wasn’t bad.
Her mind drifting to tomorrow’s mission, Gabby asked, “What’s Kramer’s family like?”
“You were supposed to read the file,” Valentina said, all of her jokes dried up and back to her normal accusatory self.
“I did read the file.” Gabby flashed an annoyed look. “It says he has a wife and two kids, but the guy is in the office before me every day and he’s always the last to leave. Most of the time when his wife calls, he has me tell her he’s in a meeting. He could be clipping his toenails and he makes an excuse not to talk to her.” Gabby shrugged. “Like how are they still married?”
Valentina nodded. “That tracks.”
“You know what he does love, though?” Gabby raised her eyebrows. “His cars.”
“Your point?”
“Well, he won’t leave the office for his wife. He doesn’t seem interested in his kids. He has a bathroom ten feet from the safe. His cars, though…”
Valentina raised an eyebrow. “I like the direction you’re headed here.”
“I think I have a plan to get the codes,” Gabby said. “But it’ll have to be tomorrow afternoon.”
An hour later, Operation Gabby’s Idea was on the books.