Secret Agent Under Fire. Geri Krotow

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СКАЧАТЬ as invisible as she could. Her cover as a special contractor to the police department worked but there was no need to push it.

      Only a handful of Silver Valley PD officers knew about the Trail Hikers, and the secret government shadow agency put a capital S in secret. It was easy enough to blend into the police department, though, as it regularly had civilians coming and going. It would be much more difficult to do her work in a fire department without loaded questions regarding her identity. Besides, she didn’t think any Silver Valley FD firefighters had been read into the Trail Hikers or she’d have met them as part of this case. Trail Hikers was so classified that she wasn’t privy to who was a part of the agency and who wasn’t. Abi didn’t care about that, anyhow—she was damn grateful to have this job. It was the perfect transition to her new life, whatever that would be.

      Twigs snapped and a loud thud made the ground quake. Her spine stiffened and she looked through every crack in the fort, taking care to stay as quiet as possible.

      “Crap!” The oath was followed by the sound of heavy steps on the forest floor and jeans-clad legs entered her field of vision.

      Carefully and intentionally, Abi crawled toward the entrance of the fort, her weapon drawn. When the feet began to sound a pattern moving away from her, she burst out of the shed.

      “Police!”

      She made out a tall figure, male, in a hooded sweatshirt. He turned in her direction and revealed a face covered with a ski mask. His single, deliberate hand gesture made his intention clear before he turned and ran. He zigzagged between trees and bushes, eliminating her chance at a clear shot.

      Abi began pursuit.

      * * *

      “We’ve got the building surrounded, Chief.”

      “Roger,” Keith Paruso replied to his team leader over the wireless audio system. The fires were never difficult to put out, as long as they caught them early. In this case they’d narrowed the arsonist’s next target down to three abandoned farmhouses and, sure enough, he’d struck the first one on their list. His team had been here in less than three minutes, pre-positioned on the main highway.

      It was almost too easy.

      If it was up to Keith, the son of a bitch wasn’t going to get away this time. As he scanned the perimeter of the scene, his spine stiffened when he spotted a hooded figure running along the far edge of the farm clearing. “I’ve got a suspect and I’m going after him.” As he spoke he shucked off his gear and then ran straight for his target, grateful he hadn’t donned his firefighting boots. He’d hoped he’d get a shot at capturing the criminal.

      Was it his job to catch and apprehend an arsonist? No. That was for SVPD and other law enforcement. Keith’s job was to run his fire department and make sure they put the fires out and kept Silver Valley citizens safe.

      But this criminal was different; the entire case was different. He was certain, as was his sister’s boyfriend, Rio, that this fire starter was connected to the True Believer Cult. A cult that had been led by Leonard Wise, who’d convinced vulnerable single mothers that he was their savior. That their daughters would be the mothers of the “new community” he envisioned. The cult had been disbanded by arrests and incarcerations two decades ago, after a twelve-year-old girl reached out for help. That girl had grown into Zora Krasny, a woman relocated and raised in Silver Valley under the witness relocation program. Unfortunately, prison terms ended and the perpetrators had regrouped in Silver Valley over the past eighteen months, hundreds of miles from upstate New York, where they’d caused trouble all those years ago. Now the True Believers, still with Leonard Wise at the helm, were calling themselves the New Thought community. Suspicious activity that turned criminal and life-threatening had occurred in the usually quiet town of twenty thousand. As soon as Rio and SVPD could get the needed evidence, they’d take Leonard Wise and his cult down for good. Trail Hikers was involved because of the potential for disaster; the local law-enforcement agencies, or LEA, could handle only so much.

      Keith adjusted his stride to leap over a Civil War–era fence, stomping down on thistles and brambles as he landed. The fence was a keen reminder of the violence central Pennsylvania had endured almost two centuries ago. It was ironic that the peace that emanated from the surrounding Appalachian Mountains was being disturbed again, but this time by a modern-day cult.

      The toe of his running shoe caught on a tree root and he pitched forward but regained his balance quickly. When he did, he noticed a second figure on the run; a woman with her weapon drawn and in the fist of her pumping arm as she chased after the suspect. She wore a Kevlar vest. What the hell?

      Was it an SVPD officer? He personally knew only one female SVPD cop, Nika Pasczenko. He didn’t know the others. Nika was taller, leaner than the definitely feminine figure streaking across the field. This woman was a stranger to him.

      He ran across her path toward the suspect, figuring either he’d catch up to her or they’d corner the arsonist.

      But the bastard disappeared from the horizon, only to be seen again on a dirt bike that roared as he made his escape, holding on to an accomplice who drove the vehicle.

      He kept running, until he was almost even with the woman who stood stock-still, her arms still raised as if she’d get off a shot at the now long-gone bike.

      He slowed to a walk and approached her from behind, and was treated to the most colorful string of epithets he’d experienced since becoming a firefighter. She was speaking to someone, probably mic’d for the stakeout he knew Rio had set up.

      “Yeah, the SOB’s gone. What do you mean there aren’t any SVPD units to cut him off? Why the hell did I just spend the last night using my rudimentary camping skills if you didn’t have backup?”

      His foot snapped a twig and she whirled on him, her pistol in his face.

      “Whoa, there. Hey, I’m on your side. I want to catch the bad guy, too.” He held up his hands and offered a grin, still marveling at her effusive dirty language. Marvel turned to awe as huge doe eyes rounded and, after looking him over, she spoke into the small mic he saw pinned to her bulletproof vest.

      “I’ve got someone here with me. What is your name?” Eyes on him again.

      “Keith Paruso, Silver Valley Fire Department. Chief.”

      Whoever spoke to her in her ear confirmed his identity because she lowered her weapon and holstered it, keeping her dark gaze steady on him.

      “Roger. I’ll meet back up with you in a bit.” She yanked her earpiece out, her gaze steady and sparking the wrath of the devil as she leveled it on him. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting you, Chief.”

      He ignored her insincere apology. “May I ask who you are and what the hell you’re doing at my fire scene?”

      * * *

      Dang, dang, dang, dang.

      It wasn’t like she didn’t have an alibi, a practiced reason for being here. But as a Trail Hiker it would have been better if she hadn’t been tagged by the chief of SVFD, for God’s sake.

      “I’m Abi. Working under contract to SVPD to support the apprehension of this arsonist.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      The studly fire chief didn’t buy it. She could tell from the way his hands, raised СКАЧАТЬ