Deny Tomorrow Read online

  “As I said, you worry too much. I’ll be fine. But right now, I need to get to the airport and get a flight out of here so drive on, please.”

  Hi, sweetie. I was just thinking about you,” a surprised Kathryn Garrett said at hearing Arianna’s voice on the phone. “Where are you?”

  “I’m in Milwaukee, Mom, and I have a lot to tell you, but it will have to wait until I see you.”

  “Great! I’m just in the process of closing up the office. Are you on your way home?”

  “Uh, well, not quite. See, I’m only going to be in town overnight, and I’m staying at a hotel. Can you meet me somewhere for dinner?”

  “What? You’re staying at a hotel? Why not at home?”

  “Well… it’s a long story. I’ll tell you when I see you. How about meeting me at Fridays at Keystone Mall, maybe around seven o’clock? Also, I need you to go home and grab some clothes for me. Nothing too fancy. Some jeans, underwear, and t-shirts will be fine.”

  There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Finally, Kathryn asked, “Arianna, why am I bringing you some clothes, and why are you staying in a hotel? What is going on? Are you okay?”

  “I know this all sounds weird, Mom, but trust me. I’ll explain everything when I see you, and Mom, don’t tell anyone I’m in town, okay? It’s very important you not tell a soul I’m here.”

  “Arianna—”

  “Really, Mom. Trust me. I can’t answer any questions now. I’ll fill you in when I see you. Seven o’clock at Fridays.” She hung up before her mom could ask any more questions.

  She knew her mother had to be very confused, but it couldn’t be helped. How would she even begin to tell her all she’d been through in the last six months in one short phone call? Leaving the phone booth, she walked across the street to Walmart. She wanted to purchase some toiletries and get a prepaid cell phone. In order to do some investigation on her own, she would need a phone… one nobody could trace. By draining her bank account in Costa Luna, she had been paying cash for everything. She didn’t want anyone to be able to trace either her phone calls or to leave a credit card trail.

  Next, she went to the Hyatt Regency next to the mall and reserved a room. She knew she couldn’t go to her mom’s house since Zach said it was being watched. She hoped her mother would spend the night with her. She had missed her, and they had a lot to talk about. She also needed a ride to the airport in the morning. She was catching a flight to New Jersey where she would connect with her old boss, Harold Major. He had contacts who might be able to help her get to the bottom of all this. She was tired of this death threat hanging over her head and instead of sitting idly by as a victim, she was determined to try to do her part to resolve the situation.

  After completing her room reservation, she left the hotel, went to Fridays, and took a seat at the bar to wait for her mother. As she sipped on a glass of merlot, she felt her body relax for the first time since she had left Zach’s house that morning. Not totally relax, however. Doubts began to creep in.

  Thinking things through now, it occurred to her how flawed this plan really was. Plan was probably too strong a word actually. This move was more like an impulsive, knee-jerk reaction to seeing an open gate… a gate that spoke of quick freedom and had drawn her through it like someone sucked into a vortex. Sure, she told herself this was the chance to go home, connect with her mother, and have some time to relax. To think her situation through. Once she found a secure place to stay, the plan was to call Zach with her location and everything would be wonderful. After all, he wasn’t even home right now himself. It would be hard for him to miss her.

  Only problem was, she now realized she didn’t even know Zach’s phone number…or email address. Nothing. She had no way to contact him. How stupid was that? Not hopeless… she figured André could get a message through to Zach, but this move rated right up there with one of the more impulsive, irrational, stupid things she’d ever done. As the sun faded, a feeling of trepidation crept over her, and she began to question her decision to leave. No going back now, however. She needed to forge ahead, stay out of sight, and be safe.

  She saw her mother enter the restaurant, so she threw some money down for the bar tab and then rushed over to meet her. As they embraced, tears began to form in her eyes. She didn’t want to break down, but something about finally being with her mother again, caused her to nearly fall to pieces.

  Kathryn took a step back and began to wipe Arianna’s tears. “Hey, sweetie, what’s wrong? I know something’s wrong, Arianna. This whole arrangement is crazy. What’s going on?”

  Arianna snuffed up her tears and did her best to pull herself together. “I have a lot to tell you, Mom, but first, let’s get a table. We can talk over dinner.”

  The hostess led them to a table, and a waitress welcomed them and took their order.

  “I’ve been following you on Facebook,” Kathryn said as the waitress left. “The last posting I saw said you were in London working on a story. When did you get back to the States?”

  Arianna shook her head. Someone had sure done a good job of fabricating her life to all her Facebook friends. Not even her mother thought she was missing.

  “No, Mom. That was all made up.”

  “What? You just made that up? Why would you do that?”

  Ahh! Where to begin? As they sipped their drinks and waited for their food to arrive, Arianna began to share the Cliff note’s version of all that had transpired since she’d been in Kervistan. Kathryn’s mouth was agape from the moment Arianna first said the word kidnapped until her last words about leaving Costa Luna earlier in the day.

  “Wow! This is unbelievable, Arianna. Also quite scary. Thank God for your friend Zach. Seems like he saved your life. I can’t wait to meet him.”

  Arianna’s heart caught in her throat. Yes, she indeed owed him her life and yes, she too couldn’t wait for her mother to meet him. But it was just too difficult for her to think about him right now.

  “From what you’ve told me though, I don’t think he’ll be very happy to have you running around all by yourself,” she heard her mother say. “Is it even safe for you to be here? You said someone is watching my house.”

  Arianna sighed. There was a definite risk to her being in the city, but she didn’t want to scare her mom by expressing any personal concerns she had.

  “As long as no one knows where I am, I’ll be safe. I’m flying to New Jersey tomorrow to connect with my old boss. I’m pretty sure he’ll hide me out, and I know he has some connections that can help resolve this. In the meantime, I’m hoping you can stay with me tonight so we can spend more time together.”

  Kathryn yawned and nodded. They had been talking for almost three hours. “I’d love to. It’s getting late to drive home anyway. Shall we take some dessert to go? I think there’s more to discuss. Let’s settle in for the night and continue this discussion over coffee and cheese cake.”

  They left the restaurant and proceeded to Kathryn’s car to retrieve Arianna’s clothing. Out of nowhere, a van came skidding to a stop beside them. Two masked men jumped out, grabbed them, threw them into the van, and then, sped off. A cloth with a strange odor covered Arianna’s face, and in seconds, she blacked out.

  When she came to, she found herself on the floor of an office in what looked like an abandoned warehouse with her mother lying beside her, still passed out. Two men were sitting at a nearby table, guns lying prominently in front of them. Her worst nightmare had just come true. One of the men was Dan Jeffers, the FBI agent. The man Zach said wished to do her great bodily harm.

  Arianna reached over to check her mother, gently shaking her, trying to rouse her. God! What had she gotten her into? What had she gotten herself into? Fear such as she’d never known before, gripped her. Leaving Zach’s house had been a terrible mistake. She didn’t know how these men had found her so fast, but at this point, it didn’t matter. They had, and she knew it would take a miracle for her to make it out of this predicament alive.<
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  A hand grabbed her and dragged her up and into a chair. “Ah, Miss Garrett. We meet again,” Jeffers, aka Karl Reichter-CIA mole, snarled. “We need to finish our little talk which was so rudely interrupted on the beach.”

  Arianna just glared at him.

  “I have many questions, and I think if you value your mother’s life, you’ll tell me everything I want to know.”

  Yes, she’d do anything to protect her mother, but she was smart enough to know once he got the information he wanted from her, he’d kill her and her mother. The only hope for one or both of them getting out of here unharmed was to try to negotiate with him. She’d promise to give them the information he wanted in exchange for her mother’s safe return home. Once she knew her mother was safe, she’d give him the information he wanted. She didn’t know how she’d get out alive, but at least her mother would live.

  One problem. She remembered Zach said they were after information she couldn’t give them because she didn’t have it. If that was true, she’d have to make up something pretty convincing or there would be no negotiation…only termination for both her and her mom.

  She looked around for possibilities of escape. Things didn’t look promising. Reichter stood over her, breathing down her neck. There were two other men in the room and possibly someone outside the door. Escape seemed impossible.

  Seeing her mother stir, Arianna jumped down from the chair, brushed past Reichter, and went to her side. “Mom, are you okay?” She tried to help her to a sitting position.

  “Mmmm!” Kathryn moaned, holding her head. “Where are we? What happened?”

  “Mom, I’m afraid we’re in some really bad trouble now. This is the guy who has been looking for me,” she said, a slight quiver in her voice.

  “Arianna, you have to try to be brave,” Kathryn said. “Maybe if you tell them the information they came for, they will let us go.”

  “Sure, Mom,” Arianna replied, but she knew it was just the opposite. As soon as she told Reichter what he wanted to know, he would kill both of them. No sense adding to her mother’s concern so she said, “Try to relax, Mom. I’ll handle this.” She looked back at Reichter who was glaring menacingly at her, and repeated, “I’ll handle this.”

  Fuck!” Zach snapped his phone back in its case and signaled to Tony and Juan to break off the operation and move out.

  Tony was the first to catch up to Zach as he threw his gear into the SUV.

  “What the hell? Why are we scrubbing this op?”

  “Arianna’s been kidnapped.”

  “What! How? When?”

  “I have no idea,” Zach fumed, “but someone fucked up. Get in. We need to get to Milwaukee ASAP.”

  The team had been on a stake out, waiting for the CIA mole, Karl Reichter, to come for a meeting with Kevin Baxter. He was already a half an hour late. Now, they knew why. He had gone to Wisconsin to interrogate Arianna. Zach and his team had to play catch up.

  FOR A month, it had been a case of surveillance and counter surveillance. This mole had put local people in place to watch Kathryn Garrett’s house and had monitored her home phone hoping Arianna would either show up or call. On the other hand, Zach had his own people who were watching these people to make sure Kathryn was safe in case they decided to snatch her in an effort to bring Arianna out of hiding.

  So it was thanks to the men working for Zach, that they were able to pick-up right away on the women’s kidnapping. They weren’t quick enough to prevent it, but they were able to follow and see where the kidnappers held the two women. In fact, the local agents had been told to stand down and wait until Zach arrived.

  “How the hell did Arianna get to Milwaukee anyway?” Juan asked.

  “I have no idea,” Zach replied as the SUV sped toward the airport. “Someone fucked up back at the house. Trust me. Heads are going to roll when I get home.”

  “I doubt that, Zach. Whoever was asleep at the switch and let Arianna slip out of there is probably long gone because he knows he’s toast as soon as you get your hands on him.”

  After a two-hour flight, Zach and the team arrived at the warehouse where the women were being held. It was now around two o’clock in the morning. Several men from the Agency met them there. Zach, Tony and Juan had already changed into full camo. No one, not even Arianna would recognize them. There may come a time when he might divulge to her just how he made his living, but not tonight. Veritas had sent some agents to the scene to set up surveillance. All they’d been told was that an elite rescue team would be joining them soon and that this was their op to execute.

  “Here’s what we have,” the lead agent said as he began to brief Zach. “We think there are about seven men inside, identities unknown, weapons unknown. One man arrived alone about an hour before you got here. Don’t know if that’s significant or not.”

  Zach wasn’t sure either. He could only hope it was the mole. He not only wanted Arianna safely out of there but also wanted to eliminate this spy to remove the death threat hanging over her head.

  “All of this information is sketchy,” the agent continued, “because we’ve had to run surveillance from a distance to avoid detection. We’ve got a helo up with infrared thermal-imaging capability. It picked up the images of five people in this room on the second floor,” he said pointing to a rough map of the warehouse. “We think this is where they are holding the girl and her mother. We’ve also got images here, here and here… probably additional guards,” he said pointing to a rough map of the warehouse.

  “What about audio?” Zach asked. “You have any ears in place?”

  “Negative. We were told to stand down and let you handle this so that’s what we’ve done.”

  “Roger that,” Zach said and pulled Tony and Juan aside. “I don’t think I have to tell you what’s at stake here,” he said grimly. “We’ve got to get to Arianna and her mother before we’re detected. If they hear or see us coming, those woman are history.”

  The men nodded.

  “I figure they’ll work Arianna over to get the information they think she has. I’m guessing it won’t be pretty,” Zach continued. “If she doesn’t give them the information they want, they’ll kill her. They’ll kill her one way or the other,” he said with a slight catch in his throat. “We’ve got to get to her fast.”

  Zach would use the local agents to get the women safely away after they were rescued, but he only trusted himself and his men to execute the rescue. They were trained for this. This is what they did for a living, but never had the stakes been so personally high. He had to forget who was in the room up there and check his emotions at the front door.

  The building was pitch black, so they needed night vision goggles in order to pick their way quietly to the second floor. They were mic’d though they would maintain strict radio silence. They had enough firepower to blow the building, but that wasn’t even close to being the plan. With luck, it would be a quick bang, bang, bang… bad guys dead. Ladies rescued. Good guys go home.

  “Okay. Time to get your sneak on,” Zach said as they approached the side door.

  Juan slipped the door open while everyone waited, hidden in place. A man came to see who was there. Tony stepped up behind him and snapped his neck, dropping him silently to the ground. Zach tossed a pebble through the doorway and waited for a response. Seeing and hearing nothing, the three of them moved inside and switched to night vision.

  As Zach edged his way through the building, he began to pick up sounds of men yelling and, what seemed like women crying out or screaming, he couldn’t tell which. He knew they must be interrogating Arianna, and if they had her in tears, this was not a good sign. She had to be enduring some pretty rough treatment.

  Zach was on point, and when he turned a corner heading up the stairs, his night vision picked up the image of a man down the hall. He quickly ducked back and waited. Wanting to draw the guy’s attention, he again tossed a pebble across the floor. When the man came to check the noise, Zach grabbed him from behind
, swiftly and silently snapping his neck. Pulling the body back into an alcove, the way was now clear to move to the second floor.

  The sound of yelling and a woman crying was quite distinct as they got to the top of the stairs, and he saw a light coming from a door just down the hall. The three of them moved to the entrance and waited. Zach threaded a thin fiber-optic camera through the crack in the door and what he saw, caused his blood to boil.

  The kidnappers had tied Arianna to a chair with her hands bound behind her and her blouse ripped open. Blood was running down the side of her face. A man Zach did not recognize, but who he hoped was this illusive mole, was leaning over Arianna, barking questions at her as he ran his hands across her chest. Infuriated, Arianna spit in his face causing the guy to rear back and slap her soundly. Kathryn let out a scream and attempted to rush to her aid as Arianna and the chair hit the floor hard.

  Damn, as much as he’d admired Arianna’s courage in the past, he feared it now. This time it would only get her in more trouble than she could handle. The man righted Arianna’s chair and started to interrogate her once more. Zach prayed this time she would just sit there meekly and not piss this guy off again. Probably not going to happen. The Arianna he knew would fight and resist with all her might. As he watched, he struggled to contain himself. Tony’s hand on his shoulder helped him recall his SEAL training. Keep your emotions in check and execute the mission.

  He’d seen enough. It was time to act. Using only sign language, he signaled the plan to Juan and Tony. Tony would blow the door open, and he and Juan would push through. By the time Zach finished with the signals, each man knew exactly how many hostiles were in the room, their location in the room, what kind of weapons everyone had, where Arianna and her mother were located, and which direction each of them would take upon entry. The last signal reminded them they would go as soon as the door was blown and to go loud.