Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,31
door and then kicked down the stopper on the kitchen door. He and Jenna joined Jim, sitting at the table, the uneaten bowl of pasta in front of him.
Guess Sonia wasn’t such a great cook, after all.
Cade sat in the chair across from Jim and stretched his legs in front of him. “Do you have any news?”
“Not about Zendaris.” Jim pinched the bridge of his nose. “We do have a pile of Korans picked up along the border, but ICE hasn’t brought anyone in who can claim ownership.”
“You said Miyata’s at the border? Is that what he’s looking at?”
“Yes. He’s inspecting some items the Border Patrol agents confiscated. He does that a lot.”
“We need a place to stay for the night, anyway.” Cade folded his hands behind his head. “Maybe Sonia can help us, too. She’s an analyst like Miyata, right? I’m figuring you for the computer geek.”
Jim straightened his glasses. “I am the computer tech. I think you should wait for Miyata’s return, though. You know him from before and he can work with Beth Warren.”
“Can you call him on your secure cell?”
“We don’t get any reception out here. It’s not only the location but the thick walls of the compound.”
“So Miyata doesn’t know we’re here?”
“No. Sonia and I were the only ones here when we got the message of your arrival. I didn’t even attempt to contact Miyata. Despite what you experienced when you walked into the hallway, we try to follow protocol out here. We have to. The other side is always watching, always ready.”
Cade scraped the label from his beer bottle. “Have you heard anything about the missing plans? Any chatter?”
“We figured you still had them.” Jim’s eyes, magnified by his thick lenses, blinked.
Jenna gasped, echoing Cade’s own sentiments precisely.
“Really?” Cade had to catch the bottle before it toppled to the table. “Who’s we? Who believes that?”
Jim’s gaze darted back and forth between him and Jenna, a dangerous glitter in her eyes. Good to know she still believed in him.
Jim licked his lips before he spoke. “A lot of people. Some are saying you still have the plans and are trying to throw Zendaris off.”
“If I had the plans—” Cade planted his clammy palms on the table in front of him “—I would’ve turned them over to the government by now. Why would I hold on to them?”
“Why does Zendaris think you’re holding on to them? Let’s face it, once the U.S. government has those plans, Zendaris’s cause is lost. He’s not going to get them back from the government. So he must believe you have them and intend to keep or sell them.”
Cade’s hands curled into fists. “It’s one thing for Zendaris to think I have other intentions for those plans, but why would anyone in Prospero think I do?”
“I’m just the messenger.” Jim held up his soft, uncalloused hands.
Cade growled his response. “The next time you hear that garbage, set ’em straight.”
“How did you lose those plans?”
Jenna slapped the table. “He didn’t lose them. Someone stole them.”
Jenna’s defense of him acted like a cool salve to his thumping, hot anger. His wife really did have his back.
“How did it happen?” Jim shrugged apologetically as Cade shifted forward in his seat. “We don’t hear much out in the boonies.”
“I lifted the plans, which were on a flash drive, from Zendaris’s courier in an alley in Zurich. I brought the drive back to my hotel, plugged it into my laptop—my secure government laptop—and two hours later, they had disappeared from that same laptop.”
Jenna’s jaw dropped, and Jim’s eyes got even bigger behind his glasses.
Jenna recovered first. “I didn’t realize you’d had them for only two hours.”
“It was probably less than two hours if you want to know the truth.”
“Who knew you were going to lift those plans?” Jim hunched forward as if conducting his own interrogation.
“When I intercepted the courier, I think he recognized me. Maybe Zendaris had alerted him to all of us—those of us on Prospero Team Three. Anyway, I left him in the alley.”
“Dead?”
“No. I had what I wanted.”
Jim snapped his fingers. “If you didn’t kill the courier, maybe he’s the one who hacked into your laptop.”
“Two hours later? I don’t think so. I said I didn’t leave him for dead.” Cade raised one brow. “That doesn’t mean all his parts and faculties were in working order.”
Jenna crossed her arms and hunched her shoulders, digging her fingertips into her upper arms.
Cade bit the inside of his cheek. He didn’t like exposing Jenna to