Page 98 of Danger Close
Now I Have A Name
Cobra
Norkus texted me the address to a storage unit not far out of town.
What was it with the CIA and storage units? Why were they always nickel and diming tax payer dollars? They could never spring for an air conditioned office?
Norkus was there, in a suit, as always. Her heeled boots gave her a couple extra inches in height, but she was still a petite menace.
In front of her were three men, hogtied, their heads covered.
“Who are they?” I asked, fairly certain that none of them would be the one I needed. If one of them was, she would have only had one body on the ground, not three.
“The answer to your greatest wish,” she said, tilting her head and giving a dramatic bow.
Yup. She wasjustlike Jericho. A pain in the ass.
“Cut the game show antics. I’m not a 60’s housewife.” Time was of the fucking essence, and the entire ride here, from the second my daughter drove her car out of sight, I had this sinking feeling in my gut that something bad was happening.
Norkus bent down, pulling off the bags on all three heads. “The three men who beat your wife, and that Paradigm spy of yours.Charlotte McClanahan, yes?”
The three men were badly bruised. I wouldn’t be able to pick them out in a lineup after this. They were so badly broken thatI had to take her word for it.
“I was wondering why Beaufort was asking me to run queries for Ray, Anna, and Teresa Guerro. It took days, but when the dots connected, then all seemed to circle around that pretty baby mama of yours.”She made a heart with her hands, peering through them to me with one eye.“Cute, no?”
“Get to the point!” I gritted out.
“You know how it is in the spy game. It’s all about contacts, and as a member of the Company, I always have a bit of an advantage.” She gives me a wink. “Plus, I’m charming. Cute, too.”
“An advantage you’re willing to give up so that you can join Paradigm. Get. To. The. POINT!”
She rolled her eyes, annoyed that I was in the way of her theatrics. “The name you’re looking for is…”
She opened her arms wide, her game show mannerism was about to drive me to murder. Her, specifically.
“Raymond Clark. More specificallySpecial Agent In ChargeRaymond Clark, of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” She looked down at the three. “The Dane Cook of Federal Agencies.” She rolled her eyes again, obviously having no respect for that particular government bureau. “These three agents are his lackeys.”
She paced around, and gave a swift kick to the head of one of the men who tried to shout obscenities through the gag.
“It’s hard to respect them, when I was able to singlehandedly take all three of them down.” Sonia looked at the back of her nails. “I’ve taken down twelve-year-old militants with more bite. Then again, what can I really expect from an agency that arrests people at a courthouse before they get to see a judgein compliancewith the law? I mean, the cops at least bag criminals. You assholes go after those following court orders.”
She shook her head.
“Raymond Clark.” My heel bounced up and down.I wanted to run to wherever her lead would take me. “Where can I find him?”
“I’m getting to that,” she said, her tone likea teenager that was pissed she was being interrupted by a parent. “You Vasilievs really are the biggest buzzkills.”
She sighed, like I’d just ruined all her fun.
“Bottom line up front, Raymond Clark was your neighbor in Barstow, California. The moment you ran off with Paradigm to track down the nuclear warheads in Monaco—oh, yes, I knew why you were in Monaco.Good job on the squid kill, by the way. Very artistic—this guy started weasling in on your lady.”
Monaco. That had been the mission that forced me to leave my newborn and wife. Nuclear Warheads were going into the hands of people who weren’t afraid to use them, and they needed a fresh face to infiltrate the organization. Paradigm wasn’t the organization that it was now. We didn’t have as many agents, and I was the only one with the right qualifications: A degree in engineering, an unknown identity.
The squid kill was the same day I found out I’d received divorce papers.
When one of Sonia’s prisoners tried to roll from his belly to his side, she kicked him like Lionel Messi. He rolled over his tied hands and feet and back around until he was in the same position he’d been before.
“Among his crimes—of which there are many—mail tampering seems to be one of his hobbies. You see, he blackmailed someone at the post office. The postal worker’s wife was of dubious legal status, despite serving in the military. They enlisted for a fast track to citizenship, butCongressman Colley’s bill halted all those programs and they just missed the cut off. Oh, and she was pregnant at the time.” Norkus tsked. “Teresa Guerro’s mail was re-routed to him, prior to it making it to her mailbox.”
