Code Name: Aries by Janie Crouch

4

Ian

“Landon, talk to me. What’s going on?”

“We tripped some sort of alarm. Simmons freaked out. I had to tranq him. You’re busted.”

I was still recording with the tablet and my phone. “I need a few more minutes.”

Every second I stayed now would give us more data.

“You don’t have a few more minutes, man,” Landon said. “You need to get out now. I’m going to have to head up to the roof like Kendrick and Neo did, but there’s no way you’re going to make it up there.”

The tablet pinged. I took it down to read it but kept my phone up recording.

Second door in the hallway is an exit that leads underground away from the building. Go now. Incoming guards.

“Do what they’re telling you, Ian,” Landon said. Evidently the same message had gone to him. “We won’t get any intel at all if you get caught. Leave now.”

“Fuck. Roger that,” I told him. “I’m on my way.”

I kept my phone up a few more seconds, but when an alarm blasted through the building, I really was out of time. I turned off my camera and ran out the door, pointing the tablet toward the door the team had said led to an exit. By the time I reached it, they were already providing a code.

Not a moment too soon. The elevator opened and the guards inside began firing at me as soon as they saw me.

I dove through the door and slammed it shut behind me, hoping my team of brainiacs was smart enough to know they needed to change that electronic combination if they could. If not, this wasn’t going to end well.

I didn’t stop. I ran through the dim maze, not sure which direction to go. And I didn’t want to give up any speed while I figured it out. I looked down at the tablet but there was nothing—no signal. The tech team wasn’t going to be able to help me down here, so I ran, trying every door I came to.

Behind me, a door slammed open as the guards made it into the tunnel. They weren’t far behind me. I swung left and found a dead end.

Fuck.

These tunnels were old, built way before the building itself. Mosaic had probably realized it, and that’s why they used this building. I shot back the other direction as men yelled behind me. They were trying doors too, looking for me.

I finally found a door that didn’t have an electronic lock and kicked it open. Inside was a small room with a metal ladder heading up toward street level. I had no idea what street, but that was fine with me.

I didn’t care where I ended up, as long as it wasn’t here.

I climbed quickly, not sure when the armed guards would catch up, and came to a grate at the top. I pushed on it as hard as I could but it barely budged. Damn it, those men and their guns were getting closer.

I couldn’t get the leverage I needed while holding the tablet. I tucked it into my waistband and used my shoulder to push, gritting my teeth as it took all my strength to get the grate unstuck. But finally, it moved. I hefted with my legs and got it the rest of the way open.

I felt the tablet shift and start to fall, but there was nothing I could do. If I reached for it now, I wouldn’t get the grate back open in time. The tablet crashed to the ground below me. I pushed the grate the rest of the way up and crawled through. A second later, bullets struck behind me.

Jesus, that had been close. I looked around. I was in the middle of Reddington City, but where exactly? I had moved west from where I’d started back in their computer room. That put me on the opposite side of where Landon and I had parked.

I touched the comm unit in my ear. “Landon, are you okay? Report.”

There was a long moment of silence, and I let out a relieved breath when he finally responded. “I’m out, but I can’t make it back to the car.”

“Me neither,” I said. “I’m on the west side of the building, a few blocks away.”

“Shit. They’re heading right for you. You need to get off the street quick. Don’t try to blend. Run.”

I did. I didn’t know which way to head and veered right when I saw men dressed in suits running toward me. They weren’t shooting, but I had no doubt they would if that became their only option. They’d spotted me.

I had no idea how to get away from them without running directly into innocents, and I wasn’t willing to take the chance on collateral damage. So I cut down an alley, pushing myself for speed to get through to the next block. But when I came out of the alley, two more Mosaic guards were waiting across the street.

Shit, I’d done exactly what they’d hoped I would.

And now they’d take the shot and nobody would be any the wiser. The guys up the block smiled with the knowledge that they had me trapped. They weren’t even rushing anymore.

A car turned down the street. Could I get away if they waited to shoot until it passed? I kept my eyes on the men as the vehicle rolled toward me, knowing the guards from the tunnel would be coming up behind me any second. When the car passed, I would run beside it and take my chances. I already knew what happened when Mosaic took people alive, and I didn’t want to experience it again.

Time to run.

Except the car didn’t pass. It stopped right in front of me, and a window rolled down.

“Hey, Ian. Um, do you need a ride?”

What the hell? “Wavy?”

* * *

Wavy

As soon as Ian got in my car, I started driving. Reddington City wasn’t a big crime haven but this alley felt pretty sketchy. I’d been a little surprised a couple of minutes ago when I’d seen him cut through it. I’d circled around the block and tried to seem casual, pulling up next to him and offering a ride.

I didn’t want to ask him what he was doing here because he might turn around and ask me the same thing.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

Or he might ask anyway.

“Um.” I’d practiced this. “I was picking up some supplies at the art store.” That was relatively close to the truth. “How about you? Out saving the world?” My laugh was so awkward, I wanted to cringe. “Or maybe doing some shopping?”

I wasn’t sure exactly which way to go now that I had him in the car, so I took a left at the next light. I hadn’t been sure I would actually find him. It had been a stupid plan from the beginning, to come to Reddington City on the off chance that I’d run into Ian here.

I’d dreamed of painting him last night. Which wasn’t unusual for me—I dreamed about painting nearly everyone and everything. Ian DeRose had been naked, but that wasn’t the problem. That sort of painting would be classified as acceptable dream fodder for any artist.

In my dream, instead of him posing and me painting him at my easel, I’d been using my brushes all over his body. I’d been painting him. He’d stood there watching me with those smoldering brown eyes as I’d painted him all the colors and patterns flowing through my mind.

All the colors. All of him.

Then he’d showed back up at the diner this morning. I’d tried to be friendly and talkative—although his friend Landon was much more talkative than Ian himself—but I couldn’t stop thinking about painting him. About the hard muscle I’d felt under my fingers when I’d been brushing pie off him the night before.

How it had felt when he’d backed me up against that wall in the alley.

So when I’d found out Ian was going to be in Reddington City, I decided to come here and see if I could “accidentally” run into him.

He wasn’t talking. He was looking out the side-view mirror behind us. Oh crap. What if he really had been on some sort of world-saving mission?

I was such an idiot.

“Is there anywhere I can drive you?” I glanced in the rearview mirror, but no one seemed to be following us.

He looked over at me. “Where are you heading?”

I shrugged. “I guess back to Oak Creek now that I’m done shopping.”

“Okay, Wavy Bollinger. I will go back to Oak Creek with you.”

All right, that was a bit weird. I glanced over at him, but he was still looking in the mirror. “Yes, Ian DeRose,” I said in the same serious tone, “I will give you a ride back to Oak Creek.”

I gripped the steering wheel tighter and got on the road that would lead us out of town. This had been a mistake. Could things be any more awkward between us? As we got farther out of town, he stopped looking in the mirror so much. Instead, he was looking at me.

But not in a Wow, how fortuitous is it that we ran into each other? sort of way like I’d been hoping. Instead, those endless brown eyes were pinning me. Studying me.

“What sort of supplies were you picking up again?” he asked.

“Oh, some art stuff. Stuff I didn’t need. I like to come to the shop here in Reddington City. It’s the biggest one around. A great shop.” Shit, I was babbling.

I didn’t so much as glance at him because as soon as I did, he would know the truth. That I was here because of him. I drove past the on-ramp for the highway, planning to take the back roads to Oak Creek. It would give us a little more time together—although right now that might be prolonging the awkwardness. He wouldn’t notice the difference.

Of course he noticed. “Something wrong with the highway?” he asked.

How exactly was I supposed to answer that? That I wanted to spend more time with him, so I thought I’d take the slower route?

My slight laugh couldn’t be described as anything but awkward. “Yeah. I don’t like driving on fast roads. They make me nervous.”

He seemed to relax a little. “Sure. I understand.”

He pulled out his phone and typed something. Great. Maybe he didn’t want to talk to me at all and this had all been a stupid mistake on my part. That seemed to keep happening when it came to him.

“That art store you were at.” He glanced at me. “Would that be Brickman’s?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Have you heard of it?” Why would he have heard of it? It was a small chain store that sold basic supplies.

“No, but I see it here on my phone. My signal seems to be going in and out.”

“Oh yeah.” I laughed that stupid nervous laugh again. “We’re kind of entering a dead zone for about twenty square miles. No cell phone coverage at all.”

“Right.” He relaxed a little bit more, which was good since I was getting more nervous and stupid with each minute. “Got to love Wyoming mountains.”

“Yes, exactly.” He did understand. He did—

I let out a scream as he grabbed the steering wheel, jerking us off the road. I slammed on the brakes. “What are you doing?”

“Turn off the engine, Wavy.”

Oh God. The calmer he got, the more dangerous he was. I saw that now. I turned off the engine and immediately found my head pinned against the window—his hand on my neck, long fingers spread out across my skull. I let out a whimper at the feel of the cold glass against my face.

“What were you doing in Reddington City?”

“I told you. Art supplies.”

“Okay. Let me rephrase. What were you doing near me in Reddington City? Brickman’s Art Supply is on the opposite side of town.”

Oh God. I didn’t want to tell him. “It was just a coincidence. Really.”

His hand pushed me more firmly against the window. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to know that if he decided to smash my face through it, it wouldn’t require much effort on his part. “In my line of work, I don’t believe in coincidences. So, you’re going to have to be more specific. What were you doing near the Hemingway building?”

Maybe if I stuck to my original line, he might believe me. “I was there by accident. I got turned around.”

More pressure against the window. “Are you working for them?”

“What?” He was firing off questions too fast to understand. “Who?”

“Mosaic, Wavy. I have to admit you had me fooled with the whole tray and all the friendly talking this morning at the diner. But there’s no way I can believe that you just happened to be near the Hemingway building today.”

God, I was going to have to tell him the truth. I’d almost rather be branded a part of a terrorist organization than tell him the truth. But more pressure against my head and neck told me I didn’t have any choice. “I was talking to my brother Finn. I asked him where you were staying, and he mentioned that you were going into Reddington City.”

“And Finn spilled my plans to you?”

I tried to shake my head but couldn’t move. “No, all I could get out of him was Reddington City. But then I snooped on his phone and saw the address. I decided to take a chance.”

“What?”

I knew it sounded preposterous. “I decided to come out here to get my art supplies early and thought maybe if I found you, I could pretend like it was happenstance and see if you wanted to go to dinner.”

The pressure against my head eased the slightest bit. “Dinner.”

I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt more like an idiot in my entire life. “Look, I live in a small town. I’ve lived there my entire life. I know every single person. So I meet this guy who’s pretty interesting and isn’t threatened when I nearly knock him unconscious. So yeah, dinner.”

He released me.

I turned as he shook his head. “I’m sorry. It’s that you’re… never quite what I expect.”

“Well, that’s a first because I feel like my life has become stagnant and I never—”

The windshield shattered in front of us, and I screamed.