Operation Stealing Christmas Page 19

  “Well, thank God for your instincts, Will. I’m glad you followed them.”

  “Under the circumstances, me, too.”

  Maggie nodded at the door. “Put a guard on that elevator. No one uses it.”

  Will issued the order and a skinny, redheaded woman about thirty, named Cindy Pratt, took the post. Maggie recalled Donald Freeman telling her that Judy Meyer and Cindy Pratt had taken shifts at the round near Grimes and Stokes.

  “Maggie,” Justin said. “I’m smelling orange now. It’s stronger than the other scents were.”

  “Darcy, get maintenance to check the heating filters.”

  “We just did. They’re clear.”

  Maggie and Will ran, rounded the Macy’s corner. A man stepped into Maggie’s path, shot out his arm. It slammed against Maggie’s throat. She flew backward, fell on the tile floor and skidded across its slick surface.

  A barrel-chested man attacked Will, landed a powerful right cross to his jaw that lifted Will off his feet. He was out cold before he hit the floor.

  “Will’s down. Will’s down. Two attackers.” Maggie scrambled, spun—and got hosed full in the face with pepper spray. She gasped. “Darcy? Help me. I can’t see!”

  “Urgent assist. Urgent assist,” Darcy put out an All-Call for help. “Corner of Macy’s and Center Court, Level One. Will’s out. Maggie’s been pepper sprayed. Zero visibility,” Darcy relayed, responding to anxious queries. “Urgent assist.”

  “Hold positions on Center Court.” Kunz would use this opening to launch the DR-27. “Darcy!” Maggie cried.

  “Forget rules,” Colonel Drake insisted. “Go with your instincts, Maggie.”

  “Number One is at three o’clock—four feet out,” Darcy said. “Number Two is hanging back—twelve feet at eight o’clock. Move right, thirty degrees and kick straight out, waist-high.”

  Maggie did exactly what Darcy said, felt her foot collide with his body, followed rushed instructions to feign left, fall back, move in, jab, hook, kick and duck.

  He clipped her chin, jabbed her shoulder, but failed to land a solid punch.

  “Back off!” Justin shouted, swooshing by her and slamming into the man.

  Maggie had no idea what happened then; she couldn’t see, couldn’t distinguish the flurry of movements sensed. “Darcy? What’s going on? What’s going on?”

  “They’ve hauled tail, Maggie. Just disappeared off the monitor. Justin, too. He’s gone after them.”

  “God, I hope he doesn’t catch them,” Maggie said, her voice shaking. “They’re pros.” She fumbled in her fanny pack for her eye drops.

  “You got your wish. They’re outside, Darcy,” Justin stated.

  “Thanks, Dr. Crowe,” Darcy said. “Relaying to locals.”

  A man rushed up to Maggie, breathing hard and heavy. “Are you okay?”

  “Justin?” Relief washed over her. “No, I can’t find my neutralizing solution. Help me.”

  “Describe the solution. What’s it in?” He dug through the pack, his heaved breaths mixing with hers.

  “Small, round, frosty-white. Green label.”

  “Got it.” He pulled out the little bottle. “Tilt your head back.”

  She did, and he held her chin, put the drops in her eyes that would negate the effects of the spray. “’Ow, that hurts.”

  “I’m sorry. Any better?”

  “Yes.” She blinked hard several times and her eyes finally cleared. “Thank you, Justin.” Her voice sounded ragged and raw.

  “Thanks for trusting me.” He seemed pleased about that, but then worry tensed his face again. “You really are okay, right?”

  She nodded. “My throat hurts, but I’m okay.” She rubbed at her neck, soothing the area clotheslined by that jerk, which would definitely be bruised, and looked around. Will was sprawled on the floor. A security guard bent over him. “Oh, God, Will!” She ran over, asked the guard, “Is he—”

  “He’s fine, ma’am. Just getting his wits back. He took a hard fall. Cracked his head.”

  “Does he need it checked out?” Maggie asked.

  “Darn right, he does,” Kate chimed in, sounding worried sick.

  “I probably do.” Will answered for himself. He grunted and grumbled and gained his feet. “But there’s no reason to check it now. I’ll do it later.”

  “Will, no,” Kate’s voice insisted through her two-way. “You get Medical to look you over.”

  “I’m okay, Katie. You’ve my word on it.”

  He looked charmed by her fussing over him, and Maggie imagined he was. Will was a widower and he had no children or other living relatives. But it seemed he now had a Katie—and a Katie now had him. Maggie smiled.

  “Dang it.” The befuddled expression left Will’s face and he frowned. “They got away from us, didn’t they?”

  “Security picked them up outside,” Darcy said. “FBI will be taking custody of them momentarily.” Maggie relayed the message to Will.

  “Do I dare hope we’ve gotten a break?” Maggie then asked.

  “I wouldn’t,” Amanda said. “Thomas Kunz doesn’t give breaks. His backup plan to his backup plan just kicks in.”

  Kate groaned her agreement, then added, “Mystery solved on the scents. The bakery near the food court busted the ban on adding scents to the vents positioned near their registers. We’ve been attacked by aromatherapy. Hot cinnamon buns and apple cider. Employee didn’t get the word.” There was always that ten percent who didn’t get the word, or who weren’t paying attention when they had.

  “What about the lime and orange?” Those were the scents that most worried Maggie. Citrus scents were often used to mask biological contaminates.

  “Those, too,” Kate said. “The filters have been removed, and the scents are fading fast.”

  “Good news is always welcome,” Maggie said.

  “Will?” Kate called him.

  “Yes, Katie?”

  “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

  “My most humble apologies, Katie girl.”

  “You’re really okay, right?” Kate asked, sounding totally vulnerable in a way Maggie never before had heard her sound. “You’re not just spewing bull to me to get out of seeing a doc?”

  “I’m fine. I gave you my word.”

  Concern and reassurance. So tender and touching, and humbling to receive. This was a rare privilege for a S.A.S.S. operative to see, much less experience. The secretive nature of their work made intimate relationships very difficult, and observing moments like this were so unique they were treasured. A little hitch settled in Maggie’s heart.

  Justin curled an arm around her waist. “Come on, Maggie.”

  Given what was sure to be a short moment without crises, Maggie and Justin walked to Center Court. Watching the Olympians pelt the Special Forces with hand-packed snowballs brought a smile even to the most cynical of faces. Maggie felt her lips curl and spread, and she risked a sideways glance at Justin, not at all surprised to see him smiling, too. She elbowed him lightly. “You’re a soft touch.”

  He grunted and touched her face. “Only where you’re concerned,” he said. “Then, yeah, I guess, I am.”

  Far happier about that than she should be, Maggie bit back a smile. Her heart tripped over its own beat. A tingle started at the base of her spine and shot up through her shoulders. “That’s a pretty strong statement to make to a woman, Justin.” It would be if it was true. And God help her, she wanted it to be true. But he didn’t keep promises to women, and this was no time to forget that.

  “Strong or weak, what is just is,” he said softly. “Sometimes, we can’t dictate what we feel. Smart or stupid, logical or insane, we just have to accept what we feel as real and valid.”

  “I’m not sure I find that flattering.” She looked up into his eyes, risked saying out loud the fears deepest in her mind. So deep they left their imprint on her soul. “I trusted my heart and it betrayed me. I’m not sure even now that it’s recovered. The head has to rul
e the heart, Justin. I learned that much. Emotions can turn on a dime.”

  “I know what you mean.” He sent her a sympathetic look. “But life just doesn’t work that way. The sooner you accept it, the happier you’ll be.”

  She swallowed hard, inspired to believe him, tempted to act. She opened her mouth to tell him, but fear bit her hard. “I—I can’t live any other way.”

  “Because you choose not to, Maggie,” he said. “It is your choice to make.”

  “Control is power. Don’t you see that I can’t ever again relinquish control?”

  “You sound as if you did, you’d be lining yourself up for an execution.”

  “More or less.” Her throat hurt. “I don’t want to be crushed again.”

  “Neither do I, and I well might be.” He shrugged. “I’ve been clear about my interest. I care about you, Maggie. The only clues I’ve had about your feelings for me are that you asked for my opinion, and you allowed me to put drops in your eyes. That’s not a lot for a man to hang his heart on.”

  He’d hung his heart? He’d thought about hanging his heart? Her own heart beat hard and fast, thumping against her ribs. She didn’t know how to respond to that. Wasn’t sure she wanted to think about that just now, much less talk about it. The thing was, she had to be honest with herself, and what she was feeling. Boy, was she feeling. He’d released a whole barrage in her, and her emotions ran full spectrum from fabulous to frightening.

  “Be brave, Maggie. It’s your nature.”

  With her life, yes, maybe. But this was her heart. She stared hard at him, blinked. “I think this talk would be best saved for later.”

  “Coward.”

  She had been, and she deserved better from herself. He deserved better from her, too. Her mouth turned as dry as dust. She pulled up her courage and faced him. “It seems as if we’re a team, Crowe. I haven’t figured out why, or what that means yet. Maybe you’ve got it all sorted out.”

  He let out a shuddery sigh and the tension in his face turned to relief. “Later, when every word isn’t being heard by half the county, I’m going to do what I’ve wanted to do every time you get that look on your face.”

  “Shoot,” Kate said. “Inquiring minds want to know.”

  “Shut up, Kate,” Darcy said. “This is private.”

  Private? Maggie doubted they knew the meaning of the word.

  “Well, it’s all been private, Darcy,” Kate came back at her. “This is the good part.”

  “Maybe so, Kate,” Colonel Drake said. “But we’ve been officially excluded. Accept it.”

  “Hardly seems fair, Colonel,” Mark Cross, who’d had the good sense to keep his mouth shut until now, chimed in.

  “Mark?” Justin sounded shocked. “You’ve been listening in, too?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Mark said. “I just have enough smarts to keep my mouth closed—so I don’t get shut out of the good parts.”

  “Careful, Cross,” Amanda said. “You’re treading on dangerous territory with those kinds of remarks.”

  Totally exasperated, Maggie had to control herself to keep from screaming. “Will you guys shut up and butt out?”

  “We apologize,” Kate said. “Everyone means it but me. I’d be lying, so I’m holding out.”

  “Whatever, Kate.” Maggie turned her focus to Justin. “What look was that you were talking about, Justin?”

  He let out a little chuckle. “The adorable one that says you have plenty to say but are too afraid to let yourself say it.” A twinkle lighted his eyes.

  That was true about at least half her professional work and about nearly everything in personal life. “I look forward to exploring that...later.”

  Disappointed groans from the others tied up transmissions. Almost shy, Justin smiled, checked his watch, then ordered a sound-off from all the undercover medical personnel.

  “Dr. Crowe,” a man said in a rushed voice.

  “Yes?” Justin said.

  “Dr. Crowe, this is Mike Mapleton on Level Three. It’s gone, sir. I don’t know how, but it’s gone. I haven’t left my station—but it’s all gone.”

  Justin tensed. “What’s gone, Mike?”

  “The antidote, sir.” Mike sounded panicked. “It’s gone, sir. Every vial of the antidote is gone. All that’s left are the empty boxes.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Justin?” Maggie stood at Center Court. Hundreds of people were crammed in and around the pit, and the noise level was deafening, the mood light and gay, in stark contrast to that of those in the need-to-know loop. They were hyperalert. “Run a full verification on the antidote vials,” Maggie said, “Do it now.”

  He immediately called for a sound-off, adding, “Check the boxes. I want an eyes-on the actual vials.”

  “Level Three, Station One. Oh, no. It’s gone. All of it is gone!”

  Maggie’s stomach knotted. She looked across the pit. Amanda, Kate and Mark were at their posts, scanning for signs of trouble, certainly as disturbed by the findings as Maggie.

  “Level Three, Station Two. Gone, sir.”

  “Level Three, Station Three. I—I can’t believe it. Gone, sir. Every single vial. Dr. Crowe, I haven’t moved from this station. I swear it. How could this happen?”

  “Later, Three-Three,” Justin said. “Right now, we need to focus on total status. What’s your report, Three-Four?” Justin sounded as impatient and stunned as Maggie felt.

  “Empty, Dr. Crowe. I haven’t taken my eyes off these boxes but every single one of them is empty.”

  And so it went, from the top of the facility all the way down to Level One, Station Six.

  Maggie turned clammy cold. “Justin, do you know what in the world happened?”

  “Give me two minutes, Maggie.” He then went back to the sound-off general frequency he’d been using since his first status report check.

  In ninety seconds he reported back. “The last eyes-on vial check was before dinner, Maggie. None of the undercover medical personnel checked the actual vials on returning from their dinner breaks. They just counted boxes.”

  Maggie silently cursed, the taste in her mouth bitter. “And the substitutes covering for the undercover medical personnel during dinner had been arranged by the same person who had arranged for the Red Cross volunteer medical staff in the first place.”

  “That’s right, Maggie,” Justin said. “Linda Diel.”

  “’Unbelievable.” Kate let out a heartfelt huff. “She took it out during the changeover.”

  Darcy piped in. “No one walked out of the facility with vial boxes, Maggie. I’m positive of it.”

  “No, the boxes are all still here,” Justin said.

  “We pulled the handled Krane’s shopping bags off the sales floor when the baggers started bringing them inside empty.”

  That would have been nice for Maggie to know. “Who pulled them, Amanda?”

  “Officially, the Krane’s store manager, but Linda actually secured the bags.”

  “Which means she had access to them to give them to the medical subs to package and remove the vials. But how did she get the bags to them?” Maggie asked. “She’s been missing since right before I issued the order to secure and detain her.”

  “Maggie,” Justin piped in. “I’ve just been told by one of the medical personnel that Linda has been making courtesy calls on every station all afternoon, checking to see if the volunteers need anything.”

  “Yet she’s avoided all of security looking for her?” Kate asked.

  “Easily,” Maggie said. “It’s a madhouse in here.”

  “True,” Darcy said. “If she didn’t want to be seen, she could arrange it.”

  “So she visited each of the stations during the time the subs were manning them,” Kate said. “How did she get the vials out?”

  Maggie covered every potential scenario and landed on a probable explanation. “What about the private elevator?” She could have moved them using it.

  “Definite possibility,” Darcy
said. “We didn’t know about that elevator at that time. There’s no monitor there. It was wide open until you posted Cynthia Pratt on it.”

  Judy Meyer knew the elevator was there. Had she gotten in Linda’s way? Is that what had happened to her? “Will,” Maggie said into her two-way. “Get Cynthia Pratt, STAT.”

  He paged her, but got no response and then tried her again. Still no response.

  Terrified she knew what had happened, Maggie broke through the dense crowd, rushed to the administration wing’s alcove. “That elevator has to be it, Darcy.”

  “Judy could’ve gotten in Linda’s way,” Darcy said.

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing. I’m on my way there now.”

  “Colonel Drake’s reviewing tapes, Maggie. She’s seeing a pattern form.”

  Cutting through Macy’s, Maggie exited right down the thoroughfare from the security office. “What pattern?”

  “After the dinner breaks for our regulars, the substitutes filling in for them left the stations with handled shopping bags. All of them had made purchases, so the bags did hold merchandise. I dismissed them as unimportant.” Recrimination filled her voice. “But all of the subs converged at that darn elevator, Maggie. All of them.”

  “Linda delivered the shopping bags to them at the time they made their purchases. The subs put the vials in the bags and after the regulars returned, the subs delivered the bags to Linda.” Oh, man. This was bad. Really, really bad.

  “That’s highly probable. We don’t have full three-sixty vision on these stations. Being familiar with Santa Bella’s cameras limitations, Linda knows that.”

  Darcy cursed. “I shouldn’t have dismissed that.” Something cracked, as if she’d slammed a fist to her desk. “She had the subs walk right out with the freaking antidote vials.”

  “It’s not your fault, Darcy. Let’s focus and go forward from where we are now.” Frustration and fear mingled in Maggie. The entire mall—everyone in it—was wide open to attack with no defense. “Contact the Threat Integration Center and General Shaw. I want to close the mall immediately.” They were just too vulnerable without the antidote on-site.

  A scant few minutes later Darcy returned. “Colonel Drake’s requesting permission, Maggie.”