“So, tonight should be the night, then,” Siron said. “If those tracked drives work, we should be able to determine the whereabouts of Dufor’s drive and retrieve it. Good work, everyone.”
After leaving the conference room, I went to look at blueprints of the suspected clearinghouse and surveillance tapes with Ace for a little bit before noticing that Siron, Jeremy, and Summer were still in the briefing room discussing something.
I frowned. I hated that Summer was in there with both of them, probably undermining me. But I knew there was nothing I could do about it.
I was about to leave headquarters when Halluis said, “Siron wants you back in the conference room.”
I lifted an eyebrow. So they had been talking about me. I fought back a sudden desire to stomp into the room. He took my arm. “Don’t make any assumptions. Ace told me what you said about Summer. We’re watching her, so don’t worry. Play by the rules and everything will work out.” He smiled softly and I returned it.
“Thanks for that.”
“Anytime.”
As I walked in, Director Siron said, “Check other agencies and see if anyone else is working pickpocket cases right now. I mean, they’re always working them, but see if there’s a connection with Agent Hadden.”
“I already did,” Jeremy spoke up. “No one is working on anything that has to do with our girl.”
“Okay, then. Glad you’re back, Jeremy. Maybe you can knock some sense into this rogue agent.” Siron’s eyes fell on me.
Summer curled her lips into a conniving smile and said, “Maybe we should pull her until we find out who they are.”
I was sure she said that just to annoy me. I ignored it.
“That’s really not practical.” Siron’s eyes searched mine. “As much as I don’t want to reward Agent Hadden’s insubordination, we are on a time crunch here. We need her to continue.”
Summer stood just to the left and slightly behind Siron. She gave me a mocking smile.
“What were you talking about just now? What’s going on?”
“You’re being followed.” Jeremy ran a hand through his hair.
“I know. Summer is following me.”
“Someone other than Summer,” Siron angled her head toward her shoulder and then looked at the huge monitor on the wall. Two surveillance photos of two different men filled the screen. One was bulkier than the other, but both wore big black glasses.
“Those guys are following me? How did—”
“Summer took these pictures today. She spotted these two taking turns watching you. What do you know about them?”
I stared hard at the faces. “Nothing. The bulky one on the right looks slightly familiar, but I have no idea why.” Along with the huge black glasses, both men wore caps. They obviously didn’t want to be recognized. “But why would they be watching me? No one made me the other night at Dufor’s office, right?”
“Not that we know of. Summer saw them follow you through the museum this afternoon. Could they be the henchmen for Kamal’s boss?”
Summer put her hand over her mouth and coughed. She loved making me look bad.
I stayed calm and asked, “Do we have anyone following them?”
“Not yet. We just found out. I’ll put someone on it.” Siron nodded. “It may be nothing to worry about, anyway, especially if we can recover that drive tonight.”
“It’s been seven days since Christy lost that drive. What are the chances that the drive hasn’t already been compromised?” Summer asked.
I shook my head. “No, Kamal said his drive guy would be out of town for a week. That should give us three more days before the handoff. That means he probably still has it—we just need to figure out where he’s keeping it.”
“What if the tracked drives don’t work?” Jeremy insisted. A line of worry creased the space between his eyes. “The last ones didn’t—these may not either. We can’t count on that. What’s the backup plan?”
Siron pursed her lips, then turned to me. “Well, as a last resort, we can bring Kamal in, possibly use that girlfriend of his against him.”
I chafed at that. I’d hated having to tell Siron about Marni, but once the contents of Kamal’s laptop had been given to the analysts, it couldn’t be kept from her. Marni was completely innocent in all this, and most likely suffering enough already. I’d do everything I could to keep Kamal and Marni out of this.
Siron went on, “We’ll get our best agents working to discover the identity of the men following you, as well as tracking the drives you gave Kamal. I have a team ready to steal into the building you suspect is the clearinghouse tonight. Maybe the drive is there, who knows? One of these avenues is bound to lead us to the information. In the meantime, see if you can’t put a little bit of a squeeze on Kamal. Try to get him to tell you more about how he runs his business. Maybe he’ll give us some kind of clue.”
I nodded. I knew how to get Kamal to spill his guts—the perfect thing. I knew he was pocketing all my profits, rather than taking them to his boss. He was making a lot of money off of me—if I threatened to leave, he’d have to pull out something spectacular to get me to stay. It was risky, but it could work. If we had any luck on our side, the drive would be in the building Kamal had dropped some stuff off at, and the craziness would end. I huffed. That would be too easy. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day if
