Just when she was about to have herself a good, old-fashioned panic attack, the slope changed and instead of going down, they were headed up. To her astonishment, they soon popped out of the tunnel and into an empty parking garage.
Scratch that.
It was empty except for a baby-blue Saab parked in a slot at the other end. The car was covered in an inch of dust. Proof it’d been sitting in the same spot for months. Maybe years.
She dragged in a desperate breath of air that, blessedly, no longer smelled of damp concrete and the slimy creatures that called the bottom of the Chicago River home.
Not that the parking garage smelledgreat.There were triple scents of car exhaust, motor oil, and urine. But those wereabove groundsmells which she would take any day of the week and twice on Sunday overundergroundsmells.
Hunter was quick to hit the gas and, just that easily, they were off. As they took the first curve, she looked back and was astonished to see nothing but a blank wall where there should’ve been an opening to the tunnel.
She squinted and realized it was an optical illusion.
The wall wasn’t one solid structure. It was two walls, one built about eight feet in front of the other. But the concrete blocks had been painted so their horizontal lines matched up and made it look like one wall.
Ingenious,she thought. And then immediately followed that up with,Who the hell are you really, Hunter Jackson? Double-Oh-Seven?
9
“Shewashere, Misters Men in Black,” Sam told the three dudes spread out in front of him. Each of them wore a suit and tie and sported the traditional G-Men haircuts. Two of them had donned aviator sunglasses.
Straight outta central casting.He stifled a grin.
“But she’s gone now,” he added.
“Where to?” The taller of the three Feds demanded. He’d introduced himself as Agent Greenlee. Sam assumed he was the lead agent since he’d been the one asking all the questions.
“Dunno.” He shrugged, leaning back against the closed gate. “She said she needs to clear her name. As the Federal Bureau of Investigations, you guys probably know how she’d go about doing that better’n me.”
“We’ll need to come inside to make sure you’re not lying to us.” Greenlee placed his hands on his hips. The move pushed back the sides of his suit jacket, revealing the service weapon he kept in a shoulder holster.
An intentional gesture. A wordless threat.
Sam had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from braying like a donkey.
He’d lost count of the number of times he’d come face-to-face with fuckers fifty times more intimidating than Greenlee. And only about half of those encounters had been in parts of the world racked by war or conflict. The other half had occurred right there on the mean streets of Chicago when Green Bay Packer fans came into town to play against the Bears.
Cheeseheads were scary sonsofbitches. And in a bar brawl, they never fought fair.
“Sure thing.” He bobbed his chin. “Problem is, I’m a stickler for protocol. You’re gonna need a warrant to get through this gate.” As if to put punction to his point, he patted the wrought iron at his back.
Greenlee snapped his fingers at the man standing next to him and the dude immediately reached into his breast pocket to pull out a sheaf of papers. With a flourish, he handed the papers to Sam.
“Wow.” Sam chuckled. “You guys are quite the trio. Who does your choreography? Will you break into harmony next? If you’re taking requests, I choose Green Day. “American Idiot.”Annnnd, go.”
A muscle ticked in Greenlee’s jaw, but that was the only indication he gave that Sam’s jibe had found its mark.
“As you can see”—Greenlee lifted his chin at an arrogant angle—“we have the authority to search this entire area.” He waved at the expanse of the BKI compound.
“Not so fast!” called a strident female voice. “Let me see that warrant.”
Sam looked up to find a vision stepping off the sidewalk and heading in his direction.
Hurricane Hannah.The snot-nosed kid with the mouthful of metal who’d always hung out with him on the front porch of her parents’ house while he waited for her older sister to finish getting ready for one of their dates.
Except, Hannah wasn’t a kid anymore. She was…
He searched for the right word. The only thing that came to mind wasspectacular.
