Vortex by Catherine Coulter

Olivia

23 Swan Court

CIA Safe House

Washington, D.C.

Tuesday night

Whomp, whomp, whomp—the helicopter blades were vicious loud, the vibrations scoring through her head. Olivia felt hands on her, felt a needle slide into her wrist, but oddly, she didn’t feel any pain, but she knew it was there, waiting. She heard voices speaking quietly above her, but they were only meaningless sounds. Then she heard Mike’s voice, low and harsh, close to her face, she’d recognize it anywhere. He sounded upset. Were those his fingers stroking her cheek? Was he afraid she’d die? She wished she could understand what he was saying, but even so close she felt his warm breath on her face, she couldn’t understand. She wanted desperately to reassure him, to tell him everything would be all right, but she couldn’t. She could only lie there, huddled deep inside herself, and wait.

Olivia jerked with a start at the sound of her cell phone buzzing. Her heart was beating so fast, it took a moment for the images to fade, longer to realize she’d been dreaming about her half-conscious helicopter ride to Balad Military Hospital. As she fumbled for her cell, Helmut licked her face, gave a gentle woof. “Hello?”

“Olivia, it’s Andi.”

She was instantly awake. “Andi, what’s going on? Are you okay? No, Helmut, it’s Andi, go back to sleep.”

“Give Mr. Gorgeous a hug for me. Olivia, I was worried about you. Why haven’t you called me? I had to hear about what happened to you last night from Mr. Grace.”

Olivia looked over at her iWatch. It was a little past ten, not late at all. “I’m sorry, I should have called, but the truth is I hardly got any sleep last night and I was exhausted. I’m really okay, Andi, I’m fine.” She knew Andi was afraid for her, so Olivia tried to lighten it up a bit. “I looked at myself in the mirror and knew I needed more beauty sleep so I went to bed early after eating take-out Chinese with Agent Gaylin, my babysitter. You know him, don’t you?”

She heard Andi take a deep breath, smooth out. “Sure, he’s an old warhorse, tough as my desert boots, and always needs to shave.”

“That’s Gay. Found out tonight he loves Szechwan beef. Since I’m trusting him with my life, I’m glad he’s as tough as he looks.”

“Olivia, Mr. Grace only gave me the bare bones of what happened to you. He told me to leave my house, go to a hotel, and make sure I wasn’t followed, and, of course, to keep him informed. I asked him about Higgs and he said Higgs went off to Canada on his motorcycle, as if it isn’t cold enough for him in Maine.

“Tell me exactly what happened, Olivia. Mr. Grace said two men came to your house and you had to shoot one of them. I couldn’t pry anything else out of him. You promise you weren’t hurt?”

“No, I’m fine. If you strip all the bark away, yes, that’s about exactly what happened. The one I killed, he was speaking Farsi. No ID on him, so no one knows who he was.”

“Mr. Grace didn’t bother to mention that, either. Of course they’re searching high and low for Mike, but again, Mr. Grace made it clear he didn’t want us involved. I sometimes wish they didn’t keep everything so compartmentalized, feed us little cubes of knowledge to keep us begging for more. I know, it’s CIA, no way that’s going to change.”

“You’re right about that. Did Mr. Grace tell you about our meeting with the FBI?”

“What? You were all at the FBI? You’re kidding me. No, wait, of course they’d be involved with a shooting on American soil. Okay, walk me through it.”

“Well, Mr. Grace and I were escorted to the third floor of the Hoover Building into an interview room, you know the kind, a long scarred table, uncomfortable chairs, plain white walls, and we met with Special Agent Savich, who’s in charge of the investigation. Mr. Lodner made a late entrance and he was obviously pissed at having to come to the enemy encampment. They were both tight-lipped, but Agent Savich got most everything he wanted out of Mr. Lodner, even got them both to leave so we could talk privately. He seems very smart, and I think I might even trust him. He promised he’s going to find out who the man I shot last night was, and that he’s going to find Mike. Of course he agrees all this is connected to our mission, and that flash drive Hashem gave Mike that disappeared with him.”

Andi heaved out a breath. “Makes sense, obviously. This Agent Savich sounds interesting. I’ve never heard of anyone having his way with Lodner, Mr. Stiff Lip himself. But, Olivia, I don’t see how this FBI agent, however smart he is, could possibly find Mike when we can’t even identify a foreign agent.”

“You might think I’m crazy, but I think he will.”

“Of course I wish him well, finding Mike and that flash drive. I remember Higgs asked Mike on our flight to Balad if Hashem told him what was on the flash drive before he died, but Mike only shook his head and didn’t say anything. I’ll tell you, Olivia, the way it’s looking now, you can hardly say the mission was a success—Hashem died, you were hurt, Mike’s missing, and no flash drive. And now you were almost killed again. There’s got to be lots of stuff going on we don’t know about, Olivia, bad stuff.”

Andi drew a deep breath. “I don’t know if you remember, but I tried to get over to help Mike when Hashem was shot, but Higgs shouted to me. He needed cover. I remember you were close to them. Did you hear Hashem tell Mike anything when he gave him the flash drive, something that could help us?”

Olivia said, “I remember he spoke to Mike before he died, but if I heard what Hashem said to him, it didn’t register, or that RPG blew it out of my brain. The doctors don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fill in all the blanks from that day.

“Andi, tell me again you’re tucked away where no one can find you.”

“Yes, I am, and I was ordered not to tell anyone, even you. If things get dicey, I’ll call you if I want to come over, all right?”

“I’d still prefer we were together. We could protect each other.” Olivia heard the tension, the fear, in Andi’s voice and made her own voice light. “Like we did those insane two days outside of Kirkuk, remember? Holding off a dozen insurgents? We had tea at the Baba Gurgur Hotel that day after the army showed up.”

“Insane is right. That was a time, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, good times. I remember we were sitting behind this mud wall when you told me about the lawyer you nearly married until you realized he bored you brainless, and it was after that you joined the CIA.”

Andi laughed. “Let’s say I didn’t want to disappoint my parents, so I let him cancel the wedding.”

“How did you manage that?”

Andi laughed again. “I went joyriding on his teenage brother’s motorcycle, nearly killed myself, and came out laughing, and he was well and truly shocked, called me crazy. My mom told me he married a paralegal. He has two kids and lives in the New Jersey burbs.”

Olivia chuckled. It felt good, but it lasted only until Andi threw a bucket of cold water. “Listen, Olivia, we have to consider someone at Langley could have been involved in the attempt on your life, maybe Mr. Grace, maybe Mr. Lodner, maybe someone we don’t even know. And we have to face up to it, Mike could be dead. The possibilities are so endless, I’m nearly ready to believe Putin’s turned Christian.”

Olivia said without hesitation, “No. I’d know if Mike were dead.” She believed her words, but Olivia wished she could take them back. It was too raw, too personal.

Andi said matter-of-factly, “I know you and Mike have been involved the past several years. When the RPG hit close to you, you were slammed back against a boulder, unconscious, maybe dead, and Mike went nuts, cursed a blue streak. He was a wild man, throwing rocks off you, pulling you over his shoulder and running back toward the plateau. It was insane, the gunfire, the RPGs landing around us. He yelled to us to carry out Hashem. And we did.” She paused a moment. “I think that was the closest either of us has come to getting blown up. We were lucky, Olivia. We could all have been killed. Yeah, I’d say Mike really cares about you, as much as you care about him.”

Mike already knows I’m crazy.The thought brought a fleeting smile, and then Olivia thought of what Mike had done and swallowed hard. “Thanks for telling me that, Andi. I still think we can find him, and so does Agent Savich. Check with me every day, and whenever you like, I’ll clear your joining us here at the safe house. Please come if you don’t feel safe where you are.”

“Sure I will, but as I said, I’m well hidden. And unless Mr. Grace orders me to come in, I’d rather be out here than in a safe house. I have some sources and plan to use them. Hey, don’t worry, I’m CIA, I know how to take care of myself.”

Olivia tapped end on her cell, saw it was nearly eleven o’clock. Too late to call Dillon Savich. She snuggled against Helmut, pressing her face against his soft fur.