Chapter 8
Kam had been on the run before from the FSB, but he couldn't be sure that was who tried to get their hands on the drive at the airport. The woman who attacked Taylor, twice, a fact that still turned his blood cold, looked familiar but he couldn't be certain.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, but it could wait until they got back to the safety of the truck.
Paul would have to get a ride from one of the many FBI agents that would be flooding the place soon enough.
Taylor hadn't said a word since they left the corridor.
He wasn't sure if she was simply mission focused or she was processing the loss of her best bet of getting out of this mess sooner than later.
The beep of the doors unlocking echoed in the relatively empty parking garage. Kam opened the door for Taylor which earned him a small smile. Taylor reached for her seatbelt. "Kam," she paused. "Thanks for saving me. More than once."
"I'll always be there for you."
Hurt and uncertainty flashed in her eyes. Years of absence would be hard to overcome. He reached for her cheek. She leaned into his touch. "Now that I have you back, I'm never letting you go."
His words might have been a bit strong given that they hadn't really worked through all of the trust and hurt, but it didn't make them untrue, at least not for him.
"You better not." She clicked her seatbelt closed. "I won't survive your death again."
Kam closed the door and felt the crush of her words deep in his bones. The ones he loved had suffered so much in their grief over losing him. For what? So the government could gain a ghost? Someone who didn't exist to go into places they could never send any intelligence agent.
Kam pulled his phone out of his pocket. There was a message from his handler. It did not take her long to find him again which didn't surprise him.
"Did Max send you a message?"
"Worse, Monica found me."
Taylor's brows scrunched together. "Who’s Monica? A girlfriend from within Spartak?"
A chuckle slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. Monica was far from his type and he didn't trust her. Not like he trusted Taylor or even Paul and Davin.
Taylor narrowed her eyes at him, waiting for him to answer her. "Monica is my handler. She's the whole reason I'm in this mess. And before you ask, there isn't anything between us, nor was there ever anything." Kam flexed his fingers. "I only trust her as much as I have to."
They settled into a silence which gave him time to think. They'd have to get to the person who took the fake USB drive to see where that trail ended. He couldn't be sure that the two Russians were working with the person that got to Nixon or not.
Kam handed his phone to Taylor. "Pull up the tracking app and see where our trackers are headed."
"One is headed towards downtown and the other is still at the airport." Taylor reported.
"Be my eyes and let me know where that first tracker is headed.
" Kam headed away from the airport and towards downtown Anchorage. To many visitors, Anchorage didn’t seem like that big of a city, but for Alaska standards, it was big enough.
Taller buildings gave way to houses, shops, and smaller hotels.
There wasn't an impressive skyline or enormous skyscrapers, but Anchorage blended the wildness of Alaska with modern city conveniences.
"Looks like he is stopping at Moose Hotel," Taylor announced.
Kam made another right and went past the hotel so that they could park where they wouldn't be easily spotted. "Are you hungry?"
"How can you possibly want to eat at a time like this? My one shot at clearing my name just died and we are chasing a Russian spy who'll never talk."
Kam put his hand on Taylor's knee. "Hey. We'll figure this out. Even if it's the last thing I do. Okay?" He waited for her to nod. "Now, we should eat something. How do you like reindeer dogs?"
She looked towards the hotel and understanding dawned on her face. "I haven't had one in months, but one is sounding really good right now."
"Here." Kam handed her the cap she had thrown on the floor. "You'll want to keep your head down and resist looking higher than you need to. This is the big city and traffic cameras are a thing here."
Taylor snorted. "You know, when I got transferred to Alaska, I thought Anchorage wasn't all that much of a city. Then I got placed in Seward and I learned that Anchorage indeed was the Alaskan version of the big city."
Taylor met Kam on the sidewalk and slipped her hand into his.
The move sent a jolt through him. They had shared a few kisses, but that was in the heat of the moment and then to protect a cover.
This felt like more. He squeezed her hand three times then she squeezed twice in return.
This was a move they did many times before that last deployment when their worlds literally blew apart.
He was going to hold on to her until they were both out of this whirlwind.
The smells from the International House of Hot Dogs made his stomach rumble. Food was definitely the right choice. Taylor tilted her head towards him, still having the bill of her hat cover most of her face.
She smirked. "You always could eat."
Kam laughed. "Always. And some things will never change."
The smirk slipped from her lips and Kam gave himself a mental slap on the back of the head. Time for a subject change. "As a kid, I'd always get the Mac n' Cheese Dog."
"Sounds intriguing." She slipped her hand from his as they approached the order window.
They sat at the picnic tables next to the food truck as they waited for their food to finish.
Kam kept an eye on the hotel doors at the other end of the narrow parking lot.
The windows and doors to the lobby were slightly tinted, which made it difficult to see inside too far.
Who exactly were they following? Was this an FSB agent?
Or someone from Spartak like they suspected?
"Got eyes on our target?" Taylor's question brought him out of the spiral of questions in his head.
Kam lifted his chin to the phone Taylor held. "Has the tracker moved?"
"The one inside is still there, but the other one is moving towards the parking garage at the airport now."
Great. Soon they'd have to deal with the Russians, too. Kam tapped his fingers on the table. "Do you want to know what your handler had to say?" His fingers stilled at Taylor's question.
He gave her a curt nod. Taylor cleared her throat. "Bring in the mole and I'll try to stop the ghost protocol. What exactly does that mean?"
Kam fisted his hand on the table. "They want me to trade your freedom to prevent them from burning me."
"To be clear, what will they do to you?"
Kam reached across the table and took her hand in his. "I'm a ghost. Even though they will deny my existence, they still offer protections to keep me invisible. They want me to turn you in so that I can keep those protections."
"And without those protections?" Taylor swallowed hard.
"Let's just say that the FSB would love to eliminate me. Not to mention that Spartak blames me for Ian's capture."
She squeezed his fingers, "Then turn me in. You can't possibly live a life without those protections."
Kam sat forward and leaned toward her. "I will never turn you in. I would rather live my life on the run than know that you will never see the outside of a prison cell again." He touched her cheek. "I just got you back, I'm not going to let you go."
Taylor closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. He stayed there a moment and pulled strength from her contact.
Kam sat back in his chair as their food was called for pick up. Taylor stood before he could to retrieve it though. He took his phone from the table where Taylor had left it and sent back a message.
Mole is dead. Getting the buyer. When this is done, I'm done. You'll let us both go.
Monica's response was almost immediate.
clean up your mess. 48 hours until protocol starts.
Kam opened the tracking app as Taylor sat back down beside him. "What happened?"
She could always detect changes in his mood. That sparked a bit of joy inside. He had been alone for so long, it was refreshing to be with someone that knew him so well.
"We've got two days to bring the buyers in before they pull the trigger."
"I'd like to tell them where they can put their protocols," Taylor grumbled.
"Woah there, Tiger." Kam chuckled. "Let's follow the bread crumbs and catch us the big fish. Yes?"
"They're on the move again." Taylor picked up the phone. "Both of them. The Russians are heading in our direction and the other should be coming out that door any second."
Kam took a bite of his food while watching the hotel doors. When the woman in all black walked out, Kam's blood ran ice cold. Katarina Sidorov. He should have known Spartak would have sent someone to do their dirty work.
"Do you know her?" Dread pooled in Taylor's stomach given how still and calculated Kam's expression just became.
Kam took another bite of his reindeer dog, but tracked the woman to the dark colored car parked in the corner of the parking lot.
When she pulled away, Kam stood abruptly and headed toward the truck without saying any words.
Taylor gathered the food she had barely touched and followed behind him.
If he was going to shut her out now, he had a fight coming his way.
It wasn't only his freedom on the line here.
She thought they were a team again. She thought that he trusted her.
She slammed the door shut and Kam looked at her with his lips in a grim line. Well, she was mad too. Kam pulled them into traffic and she held on to the phone watching both trackers make their way through town.
She refused to ask him again. If he wouldn't let her in, then she had her answer to whether he would try to make this work between them.
"Katarina Sidorov." Kam's low voice brimmed with anger.