She almost crashed into high-and-tight, who had stopped dead in his tracks. He spun to face her. “Did you say the pilot is in danger?”

20

Pismo Beach, California

Chen had completed her brief SDR and returned to the highway without spotting anything amiss. All around her, she saw only the normal flow of traffic for an early Friday morning, but she wasn’t willing to ignore the warning Mantis had sent her and resolved to be more observant. Twice more, she exited the highway and completed an abbreviated SDR before returning to the freeway and continuing south.

The clouds had retreated entirely back out to sea, and the sky overhead was a deep, smog-free blue. Every few minutes, she craned her neck forward to look up through the windshield, trying to spot an airplane that might be orbiting overhead. Each time, she leaned back in her seat, frustrated that she still hadn’t seen the signs she was being followed.

When a notification appeared on her phone, she unlocked it and opened the calculator app. She entered her passkey, then clicked on “Receive” and waited to see if the Marine had come through for her. She moved into the left lane, giving a wide berth around a car parked on the shoulder, when her phone chirped.

She felt a nervous excitement and tapped on the icon to download it, then glanced up to complete a scan of her mirrors and surrounding traffic. When nothing triggered her acutely honed sense of awareness, she moved back into the right lane and forced herself to continue driving just below the speed limit.

2. ABOARD COD FOR NORTH ISLAND.

She still needed to shake her tail and get out from under whoever was surveilling her, but now she had a name. She had a target she could prosecute. If the pilot wasn’t already on the ground in San Diego, he would be soon. And she needed to make sure that’s as far as he got. She abandoned caution and switched from the encrypted messaging application to Signal, found the number for her man in San Diego, and placed a voice call.

When he answered, she said, “We have a problem.”

“I’m listening.”

She took a deep breath and considered her break from protocol. The urgency of the situation necessitated that she forgo her normal coded communication methods in favor of an expedient solution. “Colt Bancroft,” she said at last. “He is a Navy lieutenant with information that could jeopardize our operation. I need you to kill him.”

“Where and when?”

Chen tapped up on the cruise control to increase her speed. “He is flying to North Island from the carrier. I don’t know when.”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said, then ended the call.

She should have felt relief that the Marine had come through for her and given her what she had asked for, but she couldn’t shake the nagging sensation that events were spiraling out of her control. Chen was meticulous in how she ran her operations, and she was unaccustomed to playing back on her heels. She tapped up to increase her speed further, succumbing to her subconscious need to play offense.

With her men taking care of this Colt Bancroft, she could focus on what troubled her most.

* * *

Rick sat on the side of the road while trying Punky’s phone again. When it went to voicemail for the third consecutive time, he cursed and switched back to the tracker application to check on TANDY’s location.

“Oh, shit!”

The flashing blue beacon was less than half a mile behind him, and he quickly glanced into his side-view mirror as he put the BMW in drive and prepared to pull out behind her. Within seconds, he spotted the Jeep Wrangler he had been following all night and watched it move into the left lane to pass him. He turned and watched the SUV move back into the right lane and continue south on the highway.

Dammit.

He knew it had been a bad idea to pull off on the side of the road, but after noticing the beacon exit the highway twice more since leaving Avila Beach, he began to wonder if the increase in SDRs meant she had somehow detected him. Without air support, he needed to ensure she didn’t ditch the vehicle, and the only way of doing that was by getting eyes on. Still, he knew she had seen his car now and would become suspicious if she spotted it a second time.

Rick waited until the Jeep had gone half a mile, then pulled out into traffic and quickly accelerated to match her speed. He tried reaching Punky again but was met with the same frustrating result, so he put the phone down and focused on maintaining his surveillance. Now that he was in view of the subject, he couldn’t afford to become complacent and make careless errors.

He saw the Jeep’s turn signal flash, and he eased his foot off the gas. Here we go again.