Radclyffe - Oath of Honor

They blended in with the morning business crowd and neighborhood

diners, and Wes doubted even someone looking for it would pick up

their constant survey of anyone coming in the door.

“Here comes the subject,” Block murmured, and Wes swiveled

on her stool to get a view of his monitor. Jennifer Pattee, a large black

leather bag over one shoulder, walked briskly up to the diner door and

inside. The kitchen feed picked her up as she walked a few feet down

the aisle and then slowed as if searching for someone she planned to

meet. With a sudden smile, she hurried on and sat down across from a

single man in a Redskins cap drinking coffee in a booth. Wes had looked

at him a half dozen times and noted nothing out of the ordinary—mid-

thirties, possibly older, rugged outdoor type in a flannel shirt with faint

dark stubble along his jaw. He half rose as Jennifer sat, and Block

adjusted the audio receiver for maximum reception.

“Hi,” Jennifer said as she settled across from the man. “You must

be Tom.”

“And you’re Jennifer. Ellie’s told me so much about you.”

“She hasn’t told me nearly enough about you,” Jennifer said. “It’s

great to finally meet you. I’m sorry you won’t be able to stay longer in

the city. I could play tour guide.”

He smiled, sipped his coffee, and said nothing while a waitress

approached. Jennifer asked for coffee and a plain croissant.

“Maybe next time I’m through,” he said.

“That would be great.” Jennifer picked at the pastry, although she

didn’t appear nervous. She glanced at her watch several times while her

contact passed on a refill on his coffee and watched the door as other

customers came and went.

“Excuse me,” he said, fishing his cell phone from his pocket. “I’m

expecting a message.”

“Please—go ahead,” Jennifer said quickly.

He checked the readout and grimaced. “I’m so sorry, a business

message from a client overseas. They’re available now and I have to get

back to them. It may take a while. I hate to have gotten you all the way

out here only to run out on you.”

“That’s okay—if you can get free for lunch or dinner in the next

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day or so, you have my number. If not, maybe I’ll see you the next time

I visit Ellie.”

“Absolutely.” He started to rise and paused. “Oh, I almost

forgot…” He reached into a backpack beside him and drew out a small

narrow box. “Ellie asked me to give you this. A Christmas present. She

said she didn’t get her shopping done in time to mail it to you.”

Laughing, Jennifer slid the small box into her oversized bag. “That

sounds like her. Thanks for bringing it along.”

“No problem. Well—I should go.”

“All right. Hopefully we’ll meet again sometime soon.”

He held her gaze a moment. “I hope so too. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Jennifer said softly.

v

Roberts’s voice came over the COM. “Team one, subject is on his

way out. Take him at the corner…Go.”

Wes watched as two men closed in from either side and a woman

stepped from a parked SUV into his path, forcing him to slow. The

subject’s expression went from surprised to wary, and he quickly scanned

up and down the street as if considering his chances of escaping. Within

seconds, the two male agents each grabbed an arm and the trio pushed

him forward into the back of the idling SUV. The agents followed him

in, and the vehicle sped away. The whole thing was over in less than a

minute.

Wes scanned all the monitors for Evyn and didn’t see her

anywhere. Her mouth went dry but her pulse stayed steady. She glanced

at the masks and hazmat suits stacked by the van door. Evyn knew her

job, and she knew hers. No matter what happened out there, she’d find

Evyn.Inside the diner, Jennifer searched through the large shoulder

bag and came out with bills that she laid on the table next to her

uneaten croissant and nearly full cup of coffee. Wes wondered if she’d

transferred the stolen sample to another container inside the bag. Any

unnecessary handling risked rupturing the seal on the tube or, even

worse, breakage.

“Showtime,” Block muttered as Jennifer stood and pulled on her

topcoat, slipped the strap of her black leather bag securely onto her

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shoulder, and strode directly toward the front door. The next second,

she stepped out into the morning.

v

“Go,” Roberts said over the COM.

Evyn pushed away from the side of the diner and strode around

the corner to the front. Jennifer was thirty feet away, one hand in the

pocket of her coat, the other on top of her bag.

“Hi, Jen,” Evyn said brightly, watching the hand on the bag. As far

as she could tell, the bag was closed. She looked past Jennifer down the

block, saw Paula Stark intercept a woman with a stroller and redirect

her back the way she had come. The sidewalk right in front of the diner

was clear—the inside team would have prevented anyone from exiting

until the intercept was over and the area secured. Directly across from

Jennifer, Roberts stepped out of a parked SUV.

“Oh hi, Evyn.”

Twenty-five feet.

“How about I give you a ride to work.”

Twenty feet.

Jennifer’s friendly smile dimmed. “I’m not due in for another hour

or so. Thanks anyhow.”

Fifteen feet.

“I’ll give you a lift home, then.” And focused on shoulder bag, on

Jennifer’s fingers gripping the zipper along its top edge.

Jennifer glanced over her shoulder. Stark strode rapidly toward her.

Her gaze cut across the street. Cam, joined by another agent, arrowed

toward her. Jennifer’s eyes widened.

Ten feet.

“You’ll want to say yes, Jen,” Evyn said, watching Jennifer’s hand

ease toward the now open bag. “Make this easy.”

Jennifer’s other hand came out of her pocket. The Sig looked

huge.“Gun!” Evyn shouted and launched herself across the last eight

feet. The sharp crack split the air, heat flashed over her, and the rage in

Jennifer’s eyes swallowed her.

v

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Evyn went down and Wes jumped to her feet. The COM lines

flooded with shouts.

Shots fired.

Agent down.

Medics. We need medics.

Wes grabbed the hazmat container, shoved the rear door of the

van open, and shouldered through. Block was beside her, running. Her

breath tore from her chest—shards of pain shredded her throat. Half a

block seemed like an eternity. A clot of agents hovered over the prone

figures. Jennifer’s shoulder bag lay on the sidewalk, its contents strewn

around it. The box Jennifer had received from her contact lay half in

and half out of the bag.

“Get away from the bag,” Wes shouted. “Everyone—back away

from the bag.”

Roberts materialized from the huddle of bodies and jogged toward

her. “Subject is contained. We’ve got an agent down.”

Evyn. Evyn was hurt. Wes clamped down on her panic. “The

specimen could be compromised. This area is a hot zone—get everyone

out, cordon off the street.”

“Already gave the order.”

“How is she?”

“Gunshot—close range. She’s shocky.”

“Evacuate her—tell them to put her in isolation. Everyone else

goes into lockdown until I know what we’re dealing with.”

“I have to interrogate the subject,” Roberts said.

“Then you’ll have to do it in an isolation cell.” Wes kept her

focus on the bag and what it contained. Her duty, her obligation, was

to neutralize that biological agent, a substance every bit as lethal as a

dirty bomb and capable of killing far more. They didn’t know what they

were dealing with, and every member of the team had potentially been

exposed. Her heart demanded she find Evyn, protect her, aid her above

all others, but her duty drove her toward the open bag. Kneeling, she

flipped the lid on the biohazard chest filled with dry ice and pulled on

a pair of gloves. She extracted the suspect package from Jennifer’s bag

and dropped it into the chest. The package appeared to be intact. After

stripping off her gloves and depositing them in a red biohazard bag, she

donned another pair of protective gloves, pushed the spilled contents

back inside the bag, zipped it, and dropped that into the biohazard bag

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as well. Using yet another pair of gloves, she sealed the red bag and

carried it and the hazmat chest to the SUV idling half up on the curb

next to her. She climbed into the back, and as the agent inside pulled the

doors closed, she looked back at the group on the sidewalk.

Jennifer Pattee was facedown with her hands cuffed behind her

back. Hernandez, the medic assigned to Stark’s team, and Stark knelt

over Evyn. Wes couldn’t see Evyn’s face. She stared at the plain white

chest with the iridescent green biohazard sign stamped on the front

resting at her feet. The SUV sped up, leaving the scene on the sidewalk

farther and farther behind. Leaving Evyn behind. Wes concentrated

on the job that needed to be done, ignoring the pain that made every

heartbeat as agonizing as a bullet tearing her flesh. She’d had to

abandon her wounded in the field again, and this time, she’d left her

heart behind.

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chapter thirty-three

They made it the eight miles to the army research lab in Silver

Spring in under twenty minutes. When Wes climbed out of

the SUV with the white ice chest in her hand, three uniformed soldiers

converged on her.

“Captain Masters?” the female major asked.

“That’s right.”

“Come with us, please.”

The silent escorts led her directly through the building to an

elevator and down one floor. A fortyish African American woman with

short black hair and luminous mahogany eyes in a disposable cover

gown and gloves met Wes as she stepped out of the elevator. The

hallway in front of the air lock to the Level 4 lab was empty, save for

the slowly panning security cameras mounted at intervals along the

stark white corridor.

“I’m Dr. Felice Glover,” the woman said. “What’s the status of

the specimen?”

“Contained at this point,” Wes said, handing over the chest. “I

don’t know if we have a viable virus. I doubt it’s been kept at optimal

conditions since it went missing from the original lab. If the vial is

compromised, widespread contamination isn’t likely, but we’re taking

precautions.”

The scientist nodded briskly. “We’ll know soon enough about

exposure risks. We’ll scan the container for any leaks and I’ll call you

and Director Roberts.”

“Thank you,” Wes said, feeling caught up in the surreal. They

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were casually discussing a potentially lethal contagion while Evyn was