10. Chapter Ten
Chapter ten
Sam woke to a notification on her phone. There was no grogginess. No sleep fogging the edges of her thoughts. When she woke, she came awake all at once, alert and ready to move. Living under an assumed identity, running covert ops for Mossad, had that effect.
Her bedroom was dark. She pushed the covers off her legs, scooped the phone off the bedside table, and sat up.
The faint white scars of two bullet wounds marked her naked back.
She slept in a pair of black lace boyshorts.
Another habit she’d picked up from the Israelis.
If she woke up and had to fight, at least she wouldn’t be fighting completely naked.
She checked the screen and found a message from Jake. He’d taken the job with Matthew Burke’s private ‘security’ company and he was already on assignment. Landed in Belgrade yesterday, the message read.
Sam sat up a little straighter and ran a hand through her raven black hair.
Belgrade.
Matt had told her he had a job for Jake.
Routine, he said. Just check up on some friends who had gone on vacation and weren’t answering texts.
Probably nothing. Sam hadn’t pried. She and Burke were friends, but they worked on opposite sides now.
Not opposite sides politically. At the end of the day, they both worked for America’s best interests, but Sam was official at the Central Intelligence Agency, and Burke was freelance.
Which meant there was communication, but only so much.
And it was always “give a little to get a little.”
She looked at the message again.
Belgrade.
What were the chances?
The first small kernel of fear took shape in her belly. One of Sam’s mentors, Wizard, had always said, When there’s doubt, there is no doubt. There’s no such thing as coincidence in the world of intelligence.
Sam’s alarm went off. She silenced it.
Jake knew her schedule and he’d sent a message hoping to catch her when she first woke. He’d just been a few minutes early. Sam smiled despite the small nagging fear in her gut. She sent back a thumb’s up. Glad you are making yourself useful. And followed up with a heart emoji.
Miss you, Jake’s reply came moments later.
Miss you more.
You naked?
Sam laughed, shook her head and wrote back; Yes, but not alone.
She grinned wickedly.
His reply was instant: !?!
Other girls might have hurried to reply, let him know they were only joking. But Sam and Jake had a different kind of relationship. Which made sense, they lived in a different kind of world.
Another text came in; Tease. It was followed by a funny face and; Talk soon.
Samantha smiled. He could take a joke without getting jealous. That was a good sign. A very good sign.
She put the phone down, tapped the bedside lamp, spilling some light in the bedroom and padded to the shower.
The little nugget of fear lingered in her belly as she turned on the water.
She slipped out of her underwear, stood under the hot spray and her mind started ordering puzzle pieces.
By the time she’d toweled off and dressed, she’d made a decision.
Too many things were happening in Serbia. Sam didn’t like it, and Kearns didn’t want to do anything. Sam would have to find another way.
She spent the entire commute thinking about how to handle the situation.
When she arrived at the office, Trevor had a cup of green tea and a cherry Danish waiting for her.
He’d dressed in beige slacks, a blue button down, and a knitted tie.
He reminded Sam of a young Robert Redford.
He greeted her with a stack of pages in need of signatures, and several new intelligence briefs.
Sam thanked him. “Did you find the number for Oscar Jankowitz?”
He pointed to a sticky note on her computer. “Sure you want to do an end run around Kearns?”
“No, I’m not.” Sam admitted. She sat down, picked up her secure phone and said, “Sure you want to be privy to this conversation?”
Trevor leaned against the divider wall and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “With you right to the end.”
Sam dialed and waited. A secretary picked up. Sam identified herself, asked for Jankowitz and had to wait several minutes.
When he finally came on the line, Jankowitz asked, “Who am I speaking with?”
Sam switched the phone to her other ear. “My name is Gunn. That’s Gunn with two Ns. I’m pushing paper here at Langley. We’ve got an incident we’d like you to have a look at.”
“What incident? And who’s we?”
“It’s less of a we and more of a me,” Sam admitted. “Listen, Oscar. Can I call you Oscar? There is a village near Belgrade that got struck by some kind of illness. High casualty rates.”
“It’s all over the news here,” Jankowitz said. “World Health Organization has people taking samples and treating the sick, that kind of thing. What about it?”
“I recently picked up some cross talk about a group calling themselves the Kosovo Liberation Front,” Sam explained. “Rumor has it they are buying up elements used in bioweapons. We… I think it’s worth checking into.”
“No offense, Mrs. Gunn, but I don’t know you. How long you been working Eastern Europe?”
“Ms. Gunn,” she corrected. “And about two months now.”
He chuckled. “Okay, well, there might be some things going on over here that you don’t know about and don’t understand, Ms. Gunn. Before pressing the panic button and sending us on a wild goose chase, maybe take some time to learn the reality on the ground here first.”
“No one is panicking,” Sam told him. “All I said was, it’s worth checking into.”
“And does Kearns know about this?”
“I delivered the report to her yesterday?”
“What did she say?”
Sam hesitated. “She doesn’t think it rises to the level of actionable intel, but that—”
“There’s your answer, Gunn. If Kearns doesn’t think it’s actionable intel, then it’s not actionable intel.”
Sam started to say more but the line went dead. She stared at the phone, then looked at Trevor. “He hung up on me.”