Conspiracy (Alex and Cassidy Book 4) Read online

  “Something funny?” Krause asked.

  “Not really,” McCollum said.

  “Well? What do you think?” Krause wanted to know. “Who do you think beat us here?”

  “Only one way to find out,” McCollum said.

  ***

  “I wish I knew what we were looking for,” Fallon said more to himself than to his compatriots.

  “Nothing good,” Alex commented absently. “This is like looking for a needle in a haystack. If they want to take out Carecom, there are millions of ways and a million places they could do that.” Alex stopped at looked at Brady. “Why here? If it’s me that they want, why Natick? This isn’t my home base anymore,” she told Brady.

  “But, it is. How often are you still here, Alex?” Brady asked. “Where does Krause spend most of his time? Eleana? Where do you converge? They will want to see and hear before they make any move. You know that. It’s the first rule of operations—listen first.”

  Alex heard his comment and understood his meaning. “In that case, follow me,” she said.

  “Alex? Do you think we should be…” Fallon began to address his friend.

  Alex kept moving confidently. “This is my home. I’m not sneaking around in it,” she said flatly.

  Fallon looked at Brady to convey his concern. Brady shrugged. He agreed with Alex’s tactic. This was indeed her turf. Anyone here, whether physically present or electronically listening was an uninvited guest. Alex needed to be confident and deliberate. She would not bend to anyone’s will nor their threats. That had never been Alex’s nature. The best defense was often a stellar offense. That was clearly the path Alex had chosen.

  “Your call, Alex,” Brady said.

  “Yes, it is.”

  ***

  “Shhh,” Claire warned Anderson.

  “Is it Dmitri?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Who is he with?”

  “Don’t recognize them,” Claire whispered. She ducked behind a cubicle.

  “Why here?” Anderson asked. “Seems like the warehouse would…”

  Claire shook her head. “No, this is not just about taking out Carecom,” she noted. “It’s about taking from Carecom…Taking from Toles, if I had to guess.”

  “You think there is something personal here? That isn’t…”

  “It’s always personal, Marcus,” Claire said dryly.

  Anderson stood behind Claire, staring at her curiously. She was completely focused on the scene unfolding ahead. Until now, Claire Brackett had always remained aloof, maintaining that there was nothing personal in her line of work. He wondered what had shifted and when the shift in her thinking had occurred.

  Claire kept a close eye on Dmitri Kargen as one of his men deftly picked a lock to what seemed to be the executive offices. Claire’s trained eye scanned upward and caught sight of the mirror she was certain she would find. Just to the side of it lay a camera. “We need to get closer. I need you to keep an eye out for me,” she said, gesturing to the mirror. “Watch my back.” Claire adjusted the piece in her ear. “This thing had better work, Marcus,” she said.

  “It works.”

  “Well, we will find out soon enough, won’t we? You see anyone approaching, you…”

  “I got it. What are you going to do?” he asked.

  “Depends on what I see,” Claire said. With that, she was on the move toward the offices a few yards away.

  Anderson watched in rapt fascination. The doors and windows of what had been the executive offices of Carecom were all made of frosted glass. He had little doubt that more could be seen from the inside than from Claire’s vantage point. She would need to gain access to the area if she hoped to gauge Kargen’s actions.

  Anderson had worked with Claire on numerous occasions. He had always admired her abilities as much as he often questioned her judgment. She was far more intelligent than many gave her credit for. Impulsive? At times, Claire’s impulsivity was a danger to herself and those around her. He hated to admit it, but at times, Claire’s willingness to act on sheer curiosity and instinct proved to be what was needed. Recklessness and fearlessness were sometimes necessary to achieve results. It was a reality that Anderson loathed. That did not make it any less true.

  Claire navigated her way to the door and opened it slightly. She took a deep breath and held up a hand to Anderson. With a quick thumbs up, she disappeared. “Don’t lose sight in that mirror,” Anderson heard Claire’s voice whisper.

  Anderson kept focused, watching the empty hallway, wondering why Claire did not want him to follow. He was tempted to abandon the task he had been assigned and trace her footsteps. He jumped when he saw a figure growing larger in the reflection. “Shit!”

  “What?” Claire asked as she moved toward another door that was left slightly ajar.

  “Toles,” he breathed.

  “What?”

  “Toles is headed your way,” he repeated. “With company.”

  “She armed?” Claire asked.

  “I would imagine so. Shit….”

  “Marcus, what? Talk to me.”

  “Brady is with her.”

  “Fuck,” Claire hissed.

  “She’s circling the opposite way. I can’t see them now,” he said.

  “Go, Marcus.”

  “Go?”

  “You heard me. Get the hell out of here now!”

  “I’m not leaving you in the lion’s den alone,” he answered.

  “I’m hardly alone,” Claire chuckled uncomfortably. “Listen to me. You get down to security. Do whatever you have to. You get the footage from these offices.”

  “Claire…”

  “Marcus, do it. You know I’m right. Just go. That might be our only chance to see what they are doing. If Alex gets caught…Just go. I’ll be fine.”

  “And, if you aren’t?”

  Claire laughed in Anderson’s ear. “Starting to like me?” she asked. She heard Anderson’s soft laugh. “Go. I got this. Just trust me.”

  Anderson swallowed hard. Trust and Claire rarely went together in the same sentence. Her decision was selfless, something he knew few would believe. “Just be careful,” he told her.

  “Just get the footage,” she snapped. Claire straightened to her full height and opened the door deliberately. “Boys,” she greeted the men in the room.

  ***

  “Alex, where are you going?” Fallon asked.

  “We’re not alone, Fallon,” Alex responded.

  “You sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “What’s your plan?” Brady asked.

  “Well, Fallon and I will enter the offices from the back corridor. There’s a door to my father’s old office that is adjacent to mine.”

  “You still have an office here?” Fallon asked.

  Alex nodded as she kept moving. “It’s a necessity,” she explained.

  “Anything they can find?” Brady wondered.

  “Not what they are hoping for, no. If they are looking for information on the MyoGen merger or any financial records, they’re going to have a difficult time here. I had the system here taken off the mainframe a few months back.”

  “So why….” Fallon began.

  “No one knows that, Fallon,” Alex said. “No one but Pip and me, that is. There are records. They just are not the right records. They can hack and download for days, all they will get is old data.”

  “Smart,” Brady observed. Alex cocked her head and grinned. “So?” Brady continued. “You and Fallon hit the offices. What about me?”

  “Get down to security on the second level,” Alex said. “Get whatever they have for the last few hours before anyone else can.”

  “Alex, are you sure you…” Brady began.

  “This is my fight, Brady. You know where to find me.”

  “What do you want me to do with the discs from security?” Brady asked.

  Alex faced her old friend. “Well, assuming it matters, I would like them to come to me and only me. I�
�m not that naïve, however.”

  “You still don’t trust me, do you?” Brady asked.

  “I’ll trust you a little more when you put those discs in my hand,” Alex returned. “Go before someone beats you to it. Second floor, room 283 is where the surveillance room is. Take the stairwell over there,” Alex gestured over her shoulder. “It will drop you directly across from that room. You won’t need to go through the security office.”

  Brady nodded. “Watch your back,” he advised Alex.

  “I’ve got it covered,” Fallon replied.

  Brady smiled in acknowledgment. “See you on the other side,” he said to Alex.

  “I hope so,” Alex deadpanned. She watched Brady jog away toward the stairwell and turned to Fallon. “Ready?”

  “Just wish I knew what I was ready for,” he confessed.

  “Be ready for anything,” she said.

  ***

  “Sparrow,” Dmitri Kargen acknowledged Brackett as she entered the room.

  Claire smiled at Kargen and kept her gaze impassive as if she were bored by the entire scene. She was certain her sigh and the slight roll of her eyes convinced him of her general disinterest. In truth, she was expertly noting every detail about the space. She memorized where Kargen’s men stood, any doors, windows, and each piece of furniture. The office was shaped in a typical rectangle, nothing extraordinary about it. Should she need to move quickly, it would be imperative to know her surroundings.

  Directly across from Claire’s position was a desk that both of Kargen’s men stood behind. She could see lights from the street below shining through the blinds that covered the window behind it in slivers. Off to the right, the walls were lined with bookcases. Claire noticed that more pictures seemed to line the shelves than books. She let her eyes roam left and made note of two doors. She imagined that at least one served as some type of exit, though she could not be certain which.

  Claire batted her eyelashes. “Want to tell the goon squad to point those things somewhere else?” she suggested.

  Kargen waved his hand as a signal for his men to lower their weapons. They both complied hesitantly. “Might I guess who sent you?” Kargen asked Claire.

  “You have time for twenty questions?” Claire cooed.

  “Clever,” Kargen replied.

  “Usually,” Claire agreed. “What about you? Still doing Viktor’s dirty laundry, I see.”

  Kargen motioned to one of his men to continue working at Alex’s computer. “What are you doing here, Sparrow?” he asked Claire as he moved away from the desk.

  Claire shrugged, cautiously feeling for the gun at her side. “Maybe I just missed you,” she said flirtatiously.

  Kargen gave a low, throaty laugh. “I’m sure.” He moved toward the far said of the office and opened a closet door.

  Claire chuckled. “Closets, Dmitri? You think Toles is in there? She’s been out of the closet a long time,” she laughed. Dmitri ignored Claire and opened the door and looked inside.

  “Vy khotite vse fayly? (You want all the files)?” Kargen’s man at the computer asked him.

  “No, he just wants whatever girls’ phone numbers you can find,” Claire scoffed. “I can understand you,” she rolled her eyes.

  Kargen seemed interested in whatever contents the closet held and made no response. Claire had never considered Dmitri Kargen an adept operative of any kind. She’d often mused that whoever invented the word ‘goon’ must have been picturing Dmitri Kargen. Kargen was Viktor Ivanov’s nephew. That was his ticket to infamy. He was attractive—rugged and relatively handsome. He was attached to powerful people. That is where Dmitri Kargen’s allure ended for Claire Brackett. He was rough around the edges. Claire herself was often placed in that category by observers and she knew it. The differences between Claire Brackett and Dmitri Kargen, however, were substantial. Claire was not only attractive and physically agile. She was bright, intuitive, and clever. Dmitri was roguish at his best. He did not possess a stunning intellect nor any unique skills that Claire had ever discovered. It did not surprise her that he did not sense the approaching presence that she did.

  Claire’s hearing was not as acute as she would have liked. She had learned to tune her senses even amid noise and chaos. She was positive that someone was close, and she suspected that someone was the owner of this office. Claire understood several things: if Alex Toles were to enter this room, Alex would immediately consider Claire a threat. Dmitri Kargen would not hesitate to kill either Alex or Claire. And, if Claire in any way compromised Alex, Eleana would never forgive her. Claire kept her sight directly on Kargen as her hand reached deliberately for her gun in preparation.

  Kargen’s men were both behind the desk. One was underneath, presumably attempting to place some type of device. Claire made a mental note of his exact position. The other one of Kargen’s men, a short, somewhat stocky man was hovering over the computer on the desk. Claire listened carefully as the second door on the wall began to open. The next few moments passed as though time had sped up and then abruptly came to a screeching halt.

  “Alex!”

  ***

  Alex took a deep breath and released it slowly. She had divided her father’s sizeable office when she first came to Carecom. After years of bullpens and cubicles that were complimented by long hours of field work, the large space and its decadent furnishings had distracted Alex. She’d left this space largely untouched. Alex looked across the room at the portraits that hung over what had once been her father’s and grandfather’s desk. She smiled at the picture of her grandparents. Her eyes moved slowly until they focused squarely on a framed photo that sat on the bookshelf behind the desk. Alex sighed audibly and closed her eyes for a split second. Who was he? After all this time, Alex still struggled to understand the man she knew as her father. The photo had been taken when Alex was nine. She shook her head ruefully and drew her sidearm. With one more step, Alex had reached the door to the space that still served as her office when she traveled here. “Be ready,” she told Fallon.

  Fallon gave Alex a quick nod and a small smile. He placed his gun firmly at his side, ready to follow her into whatever might lie behind the door. “Ready,” he promised.

  Alex placed her hand on the door handle. She turned her body slightly, hoping to gain a better view of the expanse of her office and maintain some semblance of protection. One more breath and a short exhale and Alex had stepped through the door. Her sight immediately fell on Brackett, more accurately on the gun that Brackett was holding that had swiftly lifted in her direction. Three voices screamed out at once.

  “Drop it!” Alex screamed as she moved forward.

  “Alex!” Brackett yelled.

  “Don’t move!” Fallon called out in warning as his gun trained on the men behind Alex's desk.

  Pop. Pop. Pop.

  Claire felt herself lifted slightly from the ground and thrown backward. Alex started to move forward when a voice stopped her.

  “Priyatno videt' vas, Aleksis. (Nice to see you, Alexis),” Dmitri hissed. He held his bleeding right hand with his left to steady it.

  Claire looked up at Alex, attempting to convey her warning.

  “So? Who should I kill first?” Dmitri asked as he placed the barrel of his Glock to the back of Fallon’s head. “I think it is you who should drop it, Agent Fallon. What do you say, Alexis?” Alex started to pivot.

  Pop.

  “I don’t think so, Dmitri,” an unfamiliar voice said.

  Fallon felt the ringing in his ears and a familiar, unsettling warmth on his neck. “Aww, shit,” he groaned.

  Claire started to move and Alex aimed her gun again. “Jesus! You fucking shot me!” Claire yelled.

  “You were about to shoot me!” Alex reminded Claire.

  “I was aiming for Kargen, you idiot!” Claire declared.

  Eleana flew into the room past Krause and McCollum. “Claire?”

  Alex groaned in recognition of the truth. She turned back and saw Kargen in a heap on
the floor, Fallon wiping Kargen’s blood from his neck, and Krause standing with a familiar looking stranger just inside the door. Alex froze for a moment.

  “Are you okay?” Krause asked as he moved to subdue the other two men in the room.

  “I’m fine,” Alex answered.

  “You’re welcome!” Claire called out.

  Eleana looked down at Claire and shook her head. “Stay still,” she ordered Claire as she tried to assess Claire’s injuries.

  “Jesus Christ!” Steven Brady’s voice called into the office from the front door. “What the hell happened?”

  “Nice to see you, Steven,” McCollum greeted him from the back of the office.

  Brady’s eyes found Alex. “Discs were gone in security.” He looked at Fallon. “You okay?”

  “Better than him,” Fallon gestured to Kargen.

  Eleana looked over at Krause and shook her head. She looked back at Claire. “We need to get her some help.”

  “That’s a newsflash,” Fallon mumbled.

  Alex grabbed the bridge of her nose. “Everyone shut the hell up!” she ordered. Alex looked across the office at her older brother. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you two were looking for our father in Russia?”

  “We were,” he said. “There were unexpected developments.”

  Alex’s gaze narrowed at the older man who was watching the scene unfold silently. She studied him for a moment, feeling that she should be able to place him. “Who the hell are you?” she asked pointedly.

  Krause and Eleana exchanged a fearful glance. “Alex,” Krause began to speak.

  Jim McCollum made his way into the center of the room and stepped directly in front of Alex. He looked her in the eye and nodded slightly. “Hello, Alexis,” he greeted her. “I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances. But, I want to thank you for taking such good care of my family.”