Page 25 of Tiger on the Prowl

Yankee shrugged. “Risky was Fox breaking into Langley to get behind their firewall. At least this time, he’s staying outside. They’re installing the cameras on all the roads leading into Langley. And once we get the feeds from those cameras, we can cross-reference the cars with data from the DMV.”

“Not everybody at the CIA will have a license plate that can be traced. Some of them will have blocked plates.”

“Yeah, but mostly the covert agents. Smith strikes me more as a guy who’s in management. So with some luck, his license plate won’t be blocked.”

“I hope they know what they’re doing,” Jay said.

“We can’t just sit around and wait until Smith shows up in Olivia’s house. You know as well as I do that you can’t know when your premonition will come true.”

He knew that, which made everything even more frustrating. Having to watch Olivia’s cottage day-in and day-out to wait for Smith to show up was like pouring salt into an open wound. Every time he looked at the feed from the cottage, he was reminded of what had passed between him and Olivia, and what an idiot he’d been, letting her catch him while searching her office.

“I know,” Jay admitted. “Go, take a break. I’ll hold down the fort.”

“We’ll be out on the terrace if you need us,” Yankee said. “Just use the intercom if you need me to come back in.”

“No problem.”

Yankee and Lilly left and closed the door behind them. Silence fell over the room. Jay directed his eyes back to the computer monitor where the screen was split into four squares, each of them showing a different room in the cottage. In a way he was grateful that Olivia was at the wedding and not at home. When he’d watched the monitor during the night, he’d felt like a dirty voyeur, and guilty even though he knew he couldn’t remove the cameras before Smith showed his face and they could track him to wherever he lived. Until then, he would have to continue watching Olivia’s house, and by extension, Olivia herself as she went about her life. Until then, there was no use in even trying to forget Olivia. Being reminded of her on a daily basis made that as impossible as forgetting to breathe.

For a moment, he wondered what it would have been like to accompany Olivia to her sister’s wedding, holding her hand while they watched the happy couple say their vows, dancing with Olivia, and holding her in his arms. But that was just a pipe dream, something that would never come true, no matter how much he wished for it.

Jay took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind, when he suddenly saw bouquets of flowers appear in front of him. He blinked, but the pink and white flowers were still there, and now mixed with green leaves and pink bows, white candles, and silver ribbons. As the picture zoomed out, he realized he was looking at a decorated table. White linen covered the round table, and on the chairs that surrounded it, well-dressed women and men chatted and laughed, and drank from their champagne glasses. More tables with more well-dressed guests appeared, and Jay realized that this was a wedding reception. He let his eyes roam to see if he recognized anybody and if he could figure out where this event was taking place.

Dance music suddenly drifted to his ears, and people started to rise from their seats. At first, Jay couldn’t see where they were heading, but then, for a moment he had a clear view of a bridal gown, though he couldn’t see the bride’s face. Around her neck hung a lei. Was this wedding taking place in Hawaii? He looked at the other guests, but it appeared that the bride was the only one wearing a lei.

A man in his late fifties, early sixties took the bride’s hand, and Jay caught a glimpse of his face. He was definitely Asian, most likely Japanese. Yet most of the guests were white. When the Japanese man turned the bride toward him, Jay could finally see her face. She was Japanese too. Was this man the father of the bride? Very likely. Jay looked more closely at the bride. He’d seen her before. Not too long ago in fact, though not in person. He’d seen a photo of her: in Olivia’s cottage.

This was Grace, Olivia’s sister. And this was her wedding. Grace began dancing with her father, the eyes of all the guests on them, while a young man in a tuxedo danced with an older white woman, which Jay assumed was the groom’s mother. As they twirled to the music, Jay suddenly perceived a different movement at the right lower edge of the scene playing out in front of his mental eye. His trained eye recognized the gun immediately. But he could only see the sleeve of the man holding it. He fired into the crowd, sending the guests scrambling for cover, paving a clear path to the two dancing couples.

The next bullet hit the bride in the chest, and blood seeped through the virginal white bustier. Her father, still holding his daughter in his arms, trying to shield her, was struck by the next bullet. It hit him in the neck, and both father and daughter tumbled to the ground. More shots were fired amidst the screams of the guests, and just then, he saw Olivia, dressed in the blue-green-pastel dress he’d seen on the surveillance tape, running onto the dance floor.

The scream that burst from Olivia’s lips tore his heart into a thousand pieces. She crouched down to her father and her sister, and pressed her bare hands onto their bleeding wounds trying to stem the blood loss, but there was no movement, no breath left in either of them. They were both gone.

She turned her head suddenly, and Jay saw that the groom held the older woman he’d danced with in his arms. She was shot in the back, and the groom had been hit in the shoulder.

“Mom!” Olivia screamed and ran toward the older woman, tears streaming down her face. “No, Mom, no!!!”

Jay’s heart clenched in pain. He’d been wrong when he’d assumed that the groom had been dancing with his own mother. He’d been dancing with the bride’s mother. As he dropped to his knees to lower her onto the ground, Jay saw the older woman’s face and recognized that there was no life left in her eyes.

In the space of ten seconds, Olivia was left with nothing. Everybody she loved was gone.

As the premonition blurred, Jay knew that no matter the cost to himself, he had to prevent this tragedy. If he didn’t, he would never be able to live with this guilt. He owed her.