She pulled out her phone and the business card from Frank Gibson to dial his cell.
“This is Gibson,” he answered.
“Frank, it’s Layla Karam.”
“I just got a report from our team that you haven’t been to the safe house since early this morning.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Things got heated.”
“How so?” Frank asked.
“We had three different cars come at us in a planned tactical assault. Finally we dumped Hunter’s SUV and got on the Metro. We believe his vehicle has a GPS tracking device on it, because there’s no way they could have located us so quickly each time we shook one of their vehicles.”
“And who, exactly, do you think is after you?”
She had to bite her tongue not to lash out. “Well, honestly, my first thought was that there was some Agency surveillance on me, but as the aggressive nature of the pursuit continued, it became clear that it probably wasn’t from Langley.”
“It’s still your contention that this is all related to the cartel?”
“Yes, sir, it is. They fired at us. I returned fire, taking out one of their tires, but we could use some help at least getting coverage back to the safe house.”
“Where are you now?”
She rattled off their exact location and prayed that he would act.
“We’ll send someone. Standard extraction protocol. Stay alert.”
She sighed. “Thank you.”
“Just for the record, I don’t think this means you’re innocent. In my mind, there could be a threat against you from the cartel, and you could be in with Al-Nidal. But if I’m wrong, the consequences for an operative of your caliber are far too high, and I’m not the reckless type.”
She wanted to correct him and say that she wasn’t technically an operative, but she let that one go. If he was going to help, then that was the biggest thing she needed, and there was no point in picking a stupid fight. “We’ll be standing by.”
The call ended, and she turned to Hunter, who was continually looking around.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t I be the one telling you that?”
She smiled. Even in the midst of this danger, they complemented each other. “We’re a team, remember?”
“You’ve been the team leader today, Layla. MVP all the way.”
It was nice to hear that he had confidence in her, because sometimes she didn’t in herself. Everything today had been about training and pure instinct and, most importantly, God’s strong hand guiding her when she wasn’t sure what to do.
Hunter squeezed her hand. “How long do you think it’ll take them to get here?”
“If he puts in a priority call, we can have a team here in ten to fifteen minutes. There are a lot of internal Agency assets in this area. That plays in our favor. Stay alert, though.”
“Understood. How did Frank seem?”
“He doesn’t believe this means I’m innocent. He thinks I could be guilty and still have the cartel threat. I can’t really blame him. If I were in his shoes, evaluating the file, I’d probably think I was guilty too—or at least I’d have a strong suspicion that I’d want to run down completely before any exoneration could occur. Those pictures are unsettling.”
For the next fifteen minutes, they walked briskly but not so fast as to call attention to themselves.
Hunter nodded his head forward. “Those two guys at twelve o’clock. Do you think they’re yours?”
She looked to where he had indicated and saw two men dressed casually but walking with purpose. When one of them made eye contact with her, she knew it was their way out. “Yeah. That’s them. Let’s cross the street.”
“But why? Shouldn’t they come to us?”
“No. Now that we’ve made contact, we’ll meet up about two blocks from here. Just follow me.”
Hunter did as she instructed, and they walked in silence until they reached the rendezvous point, where a gray SUV with tinted windows was waiting.
“Get in,” one of the men told her.
She must have gotten through to Frank for him to send a three-man team to extract them. She jumped in the back seat and slid over for Hunter to get in. The last man, the one who had spoken to her, got in and hopped over their seats into the third row of the Durango.
“I’m Sawyer,” he said. “And that’s Ace and Dax up front. Do you think you were followed here?”
She shook her head. “No. I think we were able to shake them on the Metro.”
The tall blond nodded and then turned to Hunter. “You dumped your car?”
“Yeah, near the Clarendon stop. I think it has a GPS device on it somewhere.”
Sawyer looked over his shoulder and then back at them. “We’ll have it picked up and cleaned and taken to the new safe house. We can’t take a chance that the cartel knows the original location, since Hunter’s vehicle was there.”
“I don’t know when they put on the device,” Hunter said.
“Another reason we have to be cautious.” Sawyer’s light brown eyes focused on her. “I read your file—or at least what they were willing to give me.”
She could only imagine what that contained. “Did they tell you about the investigation?”
“Yeah,” Sawyer said. “Seems like you’ve gotten yourself into a bit of trouble.” He smiled.
His reaction let her know that he didn’t really think she was guilty, and she wanted to reiterate that. “I haven’t done anything wrong. Someone is trying to set me up.”
Sawyer chuckled. “For an analyst, you sure do have a lot of problems.”
“Tell me about it,” she muttered.
Sawyer leaned forward. “But that’s the thing, right? Your personnel file has you working in the DA, but that doesn’t line up.”
“I am an analyst. I want to be an analyst.” Maybe if she said it enough, someone would finally listen.
“But the Agency has other thoughts on her career,” Hunter piped up.
“They have a way of finding people’s talents and putting them in the right
