Loe raamatut: «Christmas Witness Protection»

ONE

It was a week until Christmas, and the early morning sky was every bit as cold and gray as the icy waters of Lake Ontario and the concrete loading docks that surrounded the car now transporting Corporal Holly Asher to her new life in witness protection. Her eyes flickered to the passenger-side mirror as another car came into view on the empty road behind them.

A tremor of warning brushed her spine.

“That looks like the same car I saw parked outside the safe house this morning,” Holly said. “I think we’re being followed.”

Officer Elias Crane, the gray-haired witness protection officer in the driver’s seat beside her, cut a glance to the rearview mirror. He frowned. “It’s fine.”

No, it really wasn’t. Her gut told her something was wrong—very wrong—and after surviving two tours of duty overseas on a combination of faith and intuition, she wasn’t about to start ignoring either now. Something about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detective had had Holly on edge ever since Elias had woken her up at the safe house before dawn and given her exactly five minutes to get into the car. She’d done it in four, including an external sweep of the vehicle, which he’d told her wasn’t necessary considering it was unlikely “anyone would go to too much trouble to stop someone from testifying in some government inquiry about a handful of misplaced weapons.”

That was the moment she’d first felt her jaw set. It had been far more than just a handful of weapons and they hadn’t been misplaced so much as illegally bartered, sold and given to warring factions by one of the most respected generals in the Canadian military. It was an international scandal, one that had the potential to ruin General Alberto “Bertie” Frey’s career. Holly had grown up in a military family and dedicated her life to serving her country. After a decade of exemplary service, she’d agreed to come forward, testify in the upcoming inquiry against her former mentor and explain the best she could exactly how a man as beloved as General Bertie had somehow allowed dozens of Canadian military firearms to end up in the hands of warring desert families in a remote area of the world where the Canadian military was deployed. For that, she’d been treated like a pariah by some of the people she’d served alongside and had her reputation dragged through the mud online. Then had come the final breaking point—three thugs had jumped her one night in downtown Ottawa and tried to intimidate her, later claiming to police that some stranger had paid them to show her just how bad her life could get if she didn’t keep her mouth shut. But they’d clearly underestimated the strength and power of the woman they were trying to scare out of testifying.

Even then she wouldn’t have delayed deployment on a third tour of duty or gone into witness protection if the RCMP hadn’t insisted and the inquiry hadn’t wanted to risk losing their star witness.

“I’m telling you it’s the same car.” She opened the sun visor mirror and took a better look, glancing past her own short-cropped black hair and the dark shadows that framed her green eyes. She couldn’t see the driver’s face in the darkness, but something about the sense of alert tension that seemed to radiate through his muscular arms and broad shoulders was anything but forgettable. “Could be a potential hostile.”

“This is Canada, not Afghanistan.” A chuckle slipped from Elias’s lips, and Holly felt her spine stiffen. He gestured to the rearview mirror. “And that’s just Detective Wilder. He’s got a bit of a burr stuck in his fur about our drive.”

“Why is he concerned?” she asked. “Has he been assigned to me, as well? Is there something wrong with my new temporary identity?”

The irritation that flashed in Elias’s eyes told her the answer to the third question at least was no.

“Look, Corporal, it’s fine,” he said. “Can I call you Hildy?”

“No.” Because it wasn’t her name and she’d never been one for being called anything other than who or what she was. Her given first name was Hildegard, an old-fashioned family name shared by both her mother and grandmother. Her parents and very closest friends had always called her Holly, in part because she was born on Christmas Day. For everyone else in her life Asher would do. “Either Asher or Corporal is fine.”

“Well, then, just learn to relax, Corporal, or it’s gonna be a really long drive.”

But how could she relax when something inside kept telling her something was wrong?

Help me, Lord. Something’s not right. I can feel it. Help me know what it is and what to do about it.

A phone began to ring. She reached in vain for the cell that used to be in her pocket before she’d entered witness protection, and then realized it had to be Elias’s. The officer yanked his phone from his own pocket and her eyes barely caught the name on the screen before he held it to his ear. Det. Noah Wilder.

“Back off, Wilder,” Elias said. “I’ve got it covered. I don’t need your help. I’ve been doing this since before you were in diapers and you’re not even supposed to be on active duty!”

She didn’t hear whatever answer Detective Wilder gave, but it seemed to be taking him a long time to say it. Elias was still driving with his phone to his ear and one hand on the steering wheel. Then he wedged the phone into his shoulder and his left hand darted out of sight. A loud and sudden click resounded through the car. Officer Elias had activated the child safety locks. He’d locked her in? Why had he locked her in? Elias swerved up an on-ramp and onto the elevated highway that ran through Toronto’s downtown core. For a moment, the city spread out below her and skyscrapers pressed in around them. Then he darted down another ramp and back into a maze of docks and warehouses. Green and red cardboard letters in the windows of an ugly brick building wished her a Merry Christmas. She glanced back. The blue car had stayed on the highway and was now traveling parallel to them on the road above.

“You were wrong, plain and simple,” Elias said. “The safe house was clean, the route wasn’t contaminated and—Yes, I’m sure it’s really her! I’m not about to pick up some imposter!”

He said the last word so loudly it seemed to reverberate inside the car. Warehouses hemmed them in on either side. Fleeting glimpses of ships docked in Toronto’s harbor rose to her right, through the narrow, vertical slits between buildings. He turned down another, even narrower street, and though the man was old enough to be her grandfather, her own years of tactical experience made the hair stand up at the back of her neck. Not only did he not take her, or apparently Detective Wilder, seriously, he’d chosen a route with terrible lines of sight.

“You know, Corporal,” Elias started, and it took her a second to realize he was now talking to her, “sometimes you’ve got to ask yourself if whatever stand you’re trying to make is really worth all the trouble it’s gonna put you through.”

Gunshots split the air to their left, taking out the tires and shattering the driver’s and back seat windows in a spray of bullets and broken glass. The phone fell from Elias’s hand. His lifeless body slumped over the steering wheel. The vehicle swerved wildly.

No one was driving the car!

“Help me, God!” The words flew from her lips as she lunged for the wheel and fought to straighten the car. But the vehicle began to speed faster, as the pressure of Elias’s full weight landed hard on the accelerator. She yanked her seat belt off, then threw her leg over the center console, kicking his foot off the pedal and pressing her own on the brake. The car spun on the icy ground. She clenched her jaw and tried to force the wheels to the right. But they reached a lamppost first, taking out the front of the hood as the vehicle slid into it. Her head slammed against the dashboard, then her body landed back against the seat. Pain filled her skull. The sound of a horn filled her ears as Elias fell against it.

“Hello? Hello?” A male’s voice, deep and disjointed, floated up from somewhere below her. “Are you there?”

She pulled herself back into the passenger seat, checked Elias’s neck for a pulse and couldn’t find one. Lord, have mercy on Elias and those who love him. Then she felt around on the floor behind her for the phone.

“Hello?” She’d snatched it to her ear so quickly nausea swept over her. “Hello?”

“Corporal Hildegard Asher?” Detective Wilder’s voice was warm and concerned, with just the faintest hint of a growl, and for some reason made her think of the protective wolf character from a book she’d loved as a kid.

“Speaking,” she said. She slid the phone into the crook of her neck and carefully pulled Elias’s service weapon from his holster.

“I’m Detective Noah Wilder,” he said. “You can call me Noah. Are you okay? Where are you? Where’s Detective Crane?”

“Detective Crane was shot and appears to be deceased.”

She heard Noah whisper a prayer as she looked around. Her head was pounding, and it seemed to be affecting her ability to focus. Brick buildings and gray empty streets filled her gaze through the maze of broken glass. Noah’s blue car was nowhere to be seen.

“Our vehicle was shot, and we crashed,” she added. “I’m as okay as can be expected. But I can’t see any street signs. Hang on, I’ll go search the area.”

“No, stay in the car,” he said. “Wait there, until I can find you and assess the situation.”

Her eyes rolled. She was just fine assessing the situation on her own, thank you very much, and then she could help him locate her and brief him better on his arrival. If only her head would stop pounding.

“Don’t worry,” Noah added. His voice softened. “It’s all going to be okay. What happened?”

She opened her mouth to tell him, then closed it again. It had all happened just seconds before and yet somehow her mind was fuzzy.

“Gunshots came from our left,” she said. “I didn’t see the shooter.”

“And then?” he asked.

“Then the vehicle lost control. I had to grab the wheel and force it to stop. We crashed.”

And she’d hit her head. Motion dragged her attention back to the window. She looked up. A white cop car was pulling into the alley in front of her. A slim, uniformed officer sat behind the wheel. In recent years, Toronto police had slowly started swapping out their signature white cars for nondescript gray cruisers that blended perfectly into the dreary city streets in winter. But this one was an older model, its white hood reflecting the dim street light against the predawn sky. She glanced to the mirror. A second police vehicle was pulling up behind. It, too, contained just one officer—a large figure in a peaked uniform cap. “The cops are here. I’m going to go talk to them.”

She grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.

“Wait! No! Stay in the car!” Noah’s voice rose. “They might not be cops!”

What? What did he mean by that?

“What do they look like?”

“The cops?” she asked. “One’s big. One’s skinny. I can’t really see their faces or give you much of a description from this distance.”

Tires screeched. The vehicles ahead and behind her surged forward, as if both drivers were mashing their accelerators at once. They were coming up fast on either side, trapping her in the middle. She leaped from Crane’s ruined car and started to run, feeling another wave of nausea sweep over her. Help me, Lord! The cruisers roared closer. She rolled, tucking her body tight and desperately hurling herself out of the way. The phone fell from her hand. She heard the screech of metal smashing hard against metal. Slush and dirt flew, spraying over her.

She lay still for a moment, shivering on the cold ground, urging her body to rise. Then she heard footsteps running toward her.

“I’ll grab the phone and laptop, you grab the girl.” The voice was thin, high-pitched, and made her think of a weasel. Then large, rough hands grabbed Holly. “We can use her.”

RCMP Detective Noah Wilder scanned the cold, dark Toronto streets for any sign of Elias’s car. The officer’s phone was dead, Corporal Asher was gone and he’d lost sight of the vehicle when the overpass had turned slightly to the north. But he’d heard the sound of gunshots, and a car crash had split the morning air.

He never should’ve done what Crane wanted and backed off. Yes, the old officer had served for so long he’d twice declined retirement and now chose his own assignments. But he was also too set in his ways and didn’t understand the nature of dark web threats. Not that Noah was exactly an expert, but he had an excellent source. One that had told him there’d been chatter in the seedier corners of the internet that a pair of cyber terrorists, called the Imposters, was going to hijack Corporal Asher’s witness protection transfer.

But why? And what for? What would a pair of notorious dark web hackers and thieves want with a military corporal? He still had no idea. He just wished he was wrong.

Noah opened his window. Cold wind and the smell of burning fuel assailed him at once. For a moment the sound of the crash still seemed to bounce and echo off deserted buildings in the frosty morning air. Then they faded, and silence descended again. He pulled up one street and down another. Three cars came into view, mashed and tangled together. There were two white cop cars, with Crane’s vehicle in the middle.

Noah stopped the engine, pulled his weapon from its holster, thankful he’d maintained his authorization to carry a handgun. Then he leaped out and ran toward the wreck. Thick snow swirled down from the sky above him. The passenger door and trunk of Elias’s vehicle were open. The elderly officer lay against the steering wheel, and even at a glance Noah could tell he hadn’t made it. Corporal Asher was nowhere to be seen. Sets of footprints spread across the ground were quickly disappearing in the blanketing snow.

God, please help me find her.

He grabbed his phone and hit a number. Seth Miles answered before it had even rung once. “Hey, Noah? I’m getting intel that the Imposters might be posing as cops.”

Seth was what was known in the tech industry as a “white hat” computer hacker because he only used his considerable powers for good. He was notorious for taking down and exposing abuse and corruption in places of power, starting with his own violent military general father. For years Seth had tried to be more of a heroic outlaw, hacking at will, infiltrating various criminal organizations and tipping off law enforcement, while skirting laws that got in his way. Then some violent criminals, linked to organized crime, had kidnapped him, hoping to use him for their own purposes, and Noah had saved his life.

“Too late,” Noah said. “Looks like they already found Officer Crane and Corporal Asher. Are you tapped into whatever area surveillance you can get of the Port Lands around the water filtration plants—”

“That would mean bending the terms of my witness protection agreement—” Seth started.

“Understood,” Noah cut him off. He’d been responsible for Seth’s protection for eighteen months and knew all too well the terms he’d agreed to, as well as his habit of skirting them. Noah didn’t much like it, but that was a battle he’d have to save for another day. “But you already opened this can of worms when you tipped me off and I’m asking not instructing. Right now you’re an informant in a possible murder and possible kidnapping. I’m looking at a car crash, a missing whistle-blower and a dead RCMP officer. I think the Imposters took Hildegard.”

“Sorry, on it.” Seth took a sharp breath. Then came the sounds of typing. “I think her friends call her Holly, by the way. I’m guessing it’s because she was born on Christmas.”

Holly.

Noah’s mind flashed to the image of the strong, slender and attractive woman with dark hair and piercing green eyes he’d seen in her file. Yes, that name suited her better.

“Rumor is she hates being called Hildegard,” Seth added.

“You know her personally?” Noah asked.

“I know of her,” he said. “We both grew up military, went to the same high school for a year and even as a teenager she had a reputation for being exceptionally talented at both precision shooting and hand-to-hand combat.”

“What can you tell me about the Imposters?” Noah asked.

“They’re cyber terrorists,” Seth said. “In it for the money and not ideology. It’s believed there are only two of them. The huge hulking one who manhandles and hurts people goes by the handle the Ghoul. The other is a lot smaller and goes by the Wraith. They say he’s Canada’s second best hacker.”

No guess who Seth thought the best was.

“They go after very large-scale targets,” Seth added. “Hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. They’re ruthless and mercenary. In it for money and destruction. They’ve been known to both wear disguises and kidnap people to use online as proxies, before killing them. It’s said that no one has ever seen either of their faces and lived.”

The typing stopped.

“Okay, I think I’ve got you,” Seth said. “Skipped the street cameras and went for piggybacking on a satellite. Just zooming in. Now I can see you. What do you need?”

“Everyone. Local police, RCMP, ambulance and our missing whistle-blower,” Noah said. “Any hostiles in the area?”

“Nope, you’re all clear,” Seth said. “I’m trying to track where the Imposters took Holly now.”

Hopefully, they were still on foot and hadn’t gotten far. In the meantime, Noah would go old-school.

“I’ve got footprints,” he said, “and I’m going to follow them. If you see anyone or anything coming my way, let me know.”

“Will do.” Seth kept typing.

Noah started toward the footprints, weapon at the ready, following the faint and fading indentations in the snow. How had they managed to take her alive? When he’d been parked down the road from her safe house, he’d watched as she walked out to Elias’s car and insisted on doing a visual sweep of it herself, like a pro. Then she’d glanced his way and for one fleeting moment, her eyes had locked on his face, and it was like someone had sucked all the air from his lungs. Corporal Holly Asher was beautiful in a way he’d never expected from her file, with cropped black hair that perfectly framed her face and a strong, straight, almost regal bearing. Her military file alone had been enough to catch his eye. She was brilliant, talented, decorated and brave. But there was something else to her, too, a quality that had made it hard to look away.

Just keep fighting, Holly. Wherever you are, just keep fighting until I can get to you.

“Give me something!” Noah reached the end of the alley and looked around. The snow fell heavier now, wiping out any hint of footprints there might have been. He heard more keyboard taps. Each second ticked by, longer than he could stand.

“Got her,” Seth said. “Warehouse. One street over to your right and three doors down.”

“On it.” Noah started running. “I need you to call this in for me. Call everyone. Toronto cops. RCMP. The whole shebang.”

“Already done.” Seth sounded worried. “But those aren’t secure lines. Anyone good enough to pull this off can hack into them.”

“I know.” Noah reached the next corner and dived into an alley. Dirty red and gray brick hemmed him in on either side. “But we have to do this by the book the best we can.”

A row of doors appeared to his right.

“I just can’t guarantee who you’re going to get showing up,” Seth said, “and whether they’re going to be real or Imposters. Also, I think there could be a leak within the RCMP. Either that or someone in the military who happened to know everything about Holly’s protection detail and Elias’s movements. I just can’t see any other way the Imposters would’ve gotten enough information to set this up and kidnap her this way. There has to be a mole. Or some other way the RCMP has been infiltrated.”

“I figured,” Noah said. “That’s why I’m also going to need an extraction team.”

Fellow undercover RCMP detectives, who he knew were in the city, people he trusted with his life, who’d been through their own tricky and dangerous assignments and survived. Officers who, like him, were currently off active duty or on leave, so couldn’t have been tainted by whatever mole or leak there might be inside the RCMP. “Get me Mack Gray, Jessica Eddington and Liam Bearsmith.”

“Assemble the renegade detectives,” Seth said. “I like it. Should I worry that none are currently on active duty?”

“No,” Noah said. It was none of his business, any more than the personal reasons he was technically on vacation were theirs. Liam was on six months medical leave after being beaten into a short-term coma when his cover was blown. He looked as strong as an ox on the outside, but Noah suspected that whatever had happened had left lingering scars. As for Mack and Jess, all he knew was that both were facing some kind of review for something that had happened on a past assignment. “Just be thankful we have three of the best cops in the entire world available to help us out of this mess.”

“What do I tell them?” Seth asked.

“To get somewhere close and stand by.”

“And what do I say if they ask about my connection to all this?” Seth asked. “You know I don’t work for you.”

Like Seth hadn’t volunteered for this the moment he’d brought it to Noah’s attention.

“Tell them you’re that famous hacker guy I once rescued from the trunk of a car and dragged safely through a hail of bullets.”

Seth chuckled. “Do they know you’re not on active duty?”

Noah didn’t answer. He’d landed an important promotion within witness protection, only to discover there was a glitch in gaining the necessary higher level security clearance due to a major financial mess his foster brother Caleb had gotten him into. It had left him in a bit of a limbo and, for now, he was using up vacation time and not being assigned any new cases until he decided what to do about it. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t cleared to work.

On the plus side, being off the clock had given him the freedom to take a personal interest in Elias’s transfer of Holly, when Seth had tipped him off that there might be a problem. And while Elias clearly hadn’t wanted Noah butting his nose in his assignment—let alone showing up in person when Elias hadn’t taken him seriously—he was really thankful he had.