Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) Page 3

  * * * * *

  Later that night, Sam couldn’t help but notice that Jason hadn’t called, and she was still pretty much in the dark about what she was supposed to be doing. I have his number for emergencies, but I doubt this actually qualifies as anything close to an emergency, she thought. The truth was that Sam wasn’t usually this impatient. Normally, she would be able to wait a few hours for information without freaking out and calling an emergency phone number, but honestly, she was a little bored. She had found the hotel room to be to her liking, but she could only sit in the small room for so long and flip through television channels before her mind began to wonder. This was her first opportunity to work in the field, after all. It was probably a bit normal to be anxious in a situation such as this one. Without any more hesitation, she picked up the phone and made the call to Jason.

  Jason awoke to the ringing sound of his phone. He reached for his cell and saw who was calling. He thought that it was almost ironic. He, the one who had always called and woke this kid up at very early hours, was now getting the favor repaid to him. He slowly hit the talk button and placed the phone up to his ear.

  “Hello,” Jason said sleepily.

  “Are you asleep this early?”

  “No, I was asleep,” he responded sarcastically.

  “Oh, don’t be like that. Besides, I thought you were supposed to fill me in on some details when I got here.”

  “Don’t you ever check your email? It’s all there,” he said, sounding aggravated.

  He didn’t mean to sound so upset, but over the last few weeks he had spent as Sam’s handler, he had learned two things from their conversations. One was that she was brilliant when it came to the most complicated matters, and the second was that the simplest things like checking an email, or waking up on time seemed to elude her. In fact, over the last few weeks he had come to think of her as his genius little sister, who was also a little odd.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Sam said.

  “It’s okay. I probably needed to get back to work anyway, and besides that, I guess you did kind of owe me for this morning.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, I’m glad that you’re not mad. I’ll let you get back to it then.”

  “All right. I’ll make sure to call you later, like around five in the morning later!”

  “You better not!”

  “All right then. Bye,” he said while chuckling to himself.

  As Sam heard the click on the other line, she too hung up the phone. She felt pretty bad about waking Jason up. He always seemed to be working into the late hours of the night. After some time, she pushed the thought of it from her mind. After all, she was excited to see what it was that she would be doing here in Memphis. She quickly opened her email on her phone. After waiting a few moments to receive Jason’s email, she saw two new messages. One of them was from Jason, and the other one said something about natural male enhancement. Yes, even government agent’s email addresses receive these odd and often troubling junk mails.

  “No enhancement needed for me,” Sam said as she quickly hit the delete button. How would I have gotten on a mailing list like that anyway, she wondered. She then opened the email from Jason. She read and reread the plan over and over again until she had memorized every little detail of it. There was just one thing that bothered her. This plan is just too simple. Well, hopefully this Driver guy will come through with an adequate distraction. It could take quite a bit of time to transfer all the important files from Fields’ computer, she thought. She eventually decided that there was really no need to fret over the little details of this operation. If the guys back in Washington thought this was good enough, then it must be, she concluded. She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. I should go scope this solar plant out tomorrow morning, she thought. Sam opened her eyes back up and reached for the remote. It was still too early to sleep. She watched a few television shows before drifting off. That night, like she had on many of the nights that preceded it, Sam dreamt. Only this time the dream would be more vivid, and for once, she would remember it.

  Chapter 4

  Sam found that she was in the back seat of a large SUV. She looked forward to the front of the vehicle where she saw a young woman who was probably only a little older than Sam was at her current age in real life. The woman smiled back at her the way a mother normally would. In fact, this was her mother. Why would I be seeing this moment, she wondered. It was clear to her that she was fast asleep, but this was more like a memory than a dream. It was a memory she would rather have forgotten a long time ago. She knew what came next. What happened didn’t surprise her one bit, but in spite of that, the next few moments still stung in both a mental and physical way. She looked to her left, and all she could see were headlights. Then she felt the impact. She didn’t have her seat belt on, so her body was thrown around like a rag doll in the car. The whole scene played out in slow motion. She could feel the debris flying throughout the car, hear the terrified scream of her mother, and smack! A blow to her head. Upon realizing where she had landed, she glanced over to her left. There lay her mother unconscious and possibly dead. She felt helpless. Yes, this was simply a dream, and yes, this memory was from a very long time ago, but now that she was back in this moment, she couldn’t help but feel like the same desperate scared little girl that she was so many years ago. She laid her head back and stared into the night sky. She felt the familiar feeling of scratching glass in her eyes, and then the blinding and desperate sensation that can only be associated with the realization that you’re probably going to die. Blood was running into her eyes. She remembered that her head had been split open, and with all the broken bones mixed with the obvious concussion sustained, she really had been lucky to even survive the crash, but she didn’t feel lucky in that moment. A crowd had gathered at the scene. She could see the silhouettes of people and hear their voices. They were cruel, but pretending to be concerned. Instead of helping her, they seemed to only give a play by play commentary of what had happened. Although they all acted concerned, there was no one who dared to do a thing to help the situation in front of them. It sickened her to know how alone and how helpless she had been in that moment. Sam was finished with this dream. Enough was enough, and it was time to wake up. She willed herself to wake.

  The majority of people don’t even realize when they’re dreaming, and they would be completely clueless when it comes to developing a technique of how to wake themselves up, but Sam had learned how to do this from a lot of experience. As a child, she had always suffered from extremely bad nightmares, especially after the accident. She would simply try to force her eyes to open while digging her fingernails into her own hands. This had often led to many scratch marks, but it seemed to be very effective. As she felt the pain of her thumbnail digging into her first finger, she felt herself waking, slowly coming back to the real world.

  As Sam woke up, she felt nervous and sweaty. She couldn’t help but notice the tears that were running down her face. I must have been crying in my sleep, she thought. Immediately, she was ashamed. It was normal to have strong emotions about the death of your parents, but she had buried that memory, no, even the thought itself, so deep into a vault at the back of her mind that she truly thought she was over it. She grabbed her phone to check the time. The clock read 4:42. Well, I guess Jason won’t be waking me up today if he actually does call, Sam thought in frustration.

  She shook her frustration off as quickly as she could. She didn’t feel the need to dwell on her dreams or her early awakening. She had things to do and at least one place to scope out. She got up and walked straight to the bathroom. She was very tired. She would need a scalding hot shower to wake up, and then of course, she would move on to the other ingredient that was so important to her for a good morning. Coffee!

  * * * * *

  Later that morning, back in Washington, an older gentlemen was very worried and pacing the floor of his large office. The man was none other than the director of all operations at this facil
ity. His name was John Campbell. He hadn’t slept much the night before because he was very worried about the implications of what they were investigating. They were investigating an off-books company that had only been allowed to exist because they had been so helpful in the past. If the United States military needed any weapons or training tools, they were there for the right price. Not to mention the fact that they could simply hand off any targets they may have and the targets would be eliminated within an extraordinarily quick timeline. In fact, he was convinced that the people who were working for Markus Boyd were better at finding people than any normal government organization could be, and that was saying something because the CIA was very adept at locating people. It was almost as if they had an inside track that told them who was where in the world and what was going on everywhere. What they were accused of troubled him, especially because his close friend, Markus Boyd, had always seemed to be a rather dignified man. He hated to pry into Markus’s private affairs, especially without him even knowing that was what they were doing. He respected this man too much, and that morning he did what he had been thinking about doing all night. He picked up the phone and made a call to Markus. It would be easier to just ask him straight out if the accusations against him and his company were true than to sit there and wonder about it.

  * * * * *

  Back in Memphis, Samantha had just left the hotel. She was finally on the road in her ragged minivan, but after her breakfast, she wasn’t complaining about her van. She found her breakfast to be odd, to say the least. She had driven down the street to a small breakfast place that morning. They were supposed to be famous for their pancakes, but as far as she could tell, what they were calling pancakes were only very greasy flat pieces of bread. Sam was also puzzled by another thing in the restaurant. There were all types of signs hanging on the wall that had to do with barbecue. Did the people in this city have some type of weird obsession with barbecue? She liked barbecue as much as the next person, but what was with the obsession with it in a breakfast place? There was also an unidentifiable food that smelled and looked terrible. Sam was usually open minded, but she didn’t dare try anything new that particular morning.

  As she made her way onto the southbound highway that clearly stated Jackson, Mississippi, she couldn’t help but be aggravated by the most obvious and irritating thing in her view. Cars were at a complete stand still, and after a few moments, it became clear. Traffic was not moving anytime soon. In a quick and angry motion she hit the radio, turning it on. As she flipped through the stations, one thing became apparent. If you didn’t want to hear what “God said,” listen to old country music, or hear about some guy named Elvis, there was nothing on the radio for you here. She flipped the radio off and sighed. Maybe scoping this place out wasn’t worth the trouble after all, she thought.

  * * * * *

  After the third ring, John heard a familiar voice on the other end.

  “Hello,” Markus said.

  “Hey, how have you been, Markus?”

  “I’m doing just fine. How are Stacey and the kids?”

  “Oh, we’re all good. I actually called to ask you about something that’s been troubling me,” John said in a slightly more timid voice than anyone at the CIA would have normally heard him speak with.

  “What is it? What’s been troubling you?”

  “Well you see, we’ve received a lot of information from different sources that are strongly implying that you, and those associated with you, are dealing weapons and training gear to other nations and even to terrorist organizations. We also have reason to believe that some of our best agent’s and soldier’s deaths can be traced back to people within your company. Now, I’m not accusing you of anything, but I just had to hear that something like this couldn’t be true from you. I mean, we’ve been friends for how long?”

  “We’ve been friends for close to twelve years, and I can’t believe you would even ask me something like this. The answer is no. You can investigate us all you want, but you won’t find what doesn’t exist.”

  “I’m sorry. I just wanted to come to you and let you know what was going on because I felt like you deserved to know. It’s not as if I really think the accusations are true.”

  Suddenly, Markus’s tone changed to a much darker one than John had ever heard from his friend.

  “Well, let’s just say that these informants who are feeding you this information were telling the truth. You would be investigating a man and a company that has friends all over the world. They would be friends who aren’t mutual friends of the United States; the type of friends who would love to have their hands on the many warfare items that we exclusively offer to the United States and their allies. Now, let’s assume that money was no object, and the owner of this organization could move his business anywhere in the world that he needed to. He could support any army and hunt anyone. Now, let’s also review the fact that I, the owner of this extremely powerful company, know the names of many top ranking officials and agents within your own CIA. I also know where you live and where your kids go to school. Am I really someone who you would want to open a full investigation on? You have to ask yourself something. Am I really the person to screw with, John?”

  John’s heart sunk. Sure, he was pretty pissed that this man, a man who he had thought of as a close friend just a minute before, would make such a threat against his people, and more importantly, his family, but everything that he said was true. This was not the type of man that John wanted to go to war with. He had powerful connections, and the money to buy anything that could possibly be needed. He could buy weapons, agents, and if needed, even more powerful connections.

  “No, I suppose that wouldn’t be the best idea,” John said while trying to mask the mixture of anger and defeat in his voice.

  “Well listen, I’ve got to go, but thanks for the heads up on what’s going on.”

  “Goodbye, Markus,” John said and hung up the phone.

  Sitting at his desk, John tried to think through all his options, but knew what he had to do. He was no match for Markus. He didn’t have the funds or friends in the world to fight a war with Markus, and honestly, even if he had the resources that Markus had, he wouldn’t be confident that he could win a fight against such a man. Markus had always come off as kind in their past meetings, but he had also come off as a very educated and driven individual. John’s new enemy was not only rich and powerful but also smart and apparently devious. The operation in Mississippi would have to be called off. John wouldn’t risk the lives of his family in a situation that was simply unwinnable.

  * * * * *

  Sam finally arrived in her target town, and she was stopped at a red light. She looked around in surprise. This place really is small. Why would you put something so important here, she wondered. As the light turned green, she made a left turn, and saw the factory in the distance. It was a very small factory, and as she got closer one thing became obvious. There was no security, and it looked like a two year old could break into the place. There wasn’t even a guard out front. She knew that looks could be deceiving, but as far as she could tell, nothing of interest could possibly be in a place such as this. You would have to be an idiot to try to keep a secret in such an insecure location, she thought. After she passed the factory, she noticed a red light on the dashboard. It was the gas light. Upon finding a gas station, she immediately pulled into it and began to fill the car up. As she was fueling, she couldn’t help but notice that there was a very tall man on the other side of the pump who was also getting fuel. He was having a very loud conversation with someone that he didn’t seem too happy to be talking to.

  “No I can’t do that . . . Well, I don’t know. I’m in Mississippi and not in Georgia. Why do you need a hacked cell phone anyway? I don’t normally do these things for free, you know. Look I’ve got to go . . . I’ll talk to you later, Michael,” the large man said as he hung up the phone.

  The man noticed that Sam was glancing at him and smiled. He then of
fered a short, although not very clear, explanation for what she had just heard.

  “Well, we all have an idiot in our lives that we can’t get rid of, I suppose,” he said.

  All she could think to do was nod. She then hung the hose back up and left the station.

  As soon as she pulled back onto the road, she received a phone call from Jason.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” she asked as she answered the phone.

  “You’re not going to like this.”

  “Oh great! What is it now?”

  “The operation’s off. I don’t really know what happened, but this came down straight from the top. You’re not to investigate anything else to do with that solar panel plant from this point forward.”

  “What? You know this is my first assignment, right? I’m not going to have something on my record that says incomplete right at the start,” Sam said in an irritated voice.

  “Well, technically I don’t think it would go down as an incomplete. It would just be canceled. It would be like it never existed to begin with, so don’t worry about it.”

  “Look, I’m going to go in there and do what I’m supposed to do tomorrow, regardless of what anyone in Washington or anywhere else says. I didn’t come here to sit in a hotel room for two days and then do nothing.”

  “Oh, come on. You wouldn’t have a cover. Driver has already been told that this op is off. What are you going to do? How will you even get any time alone in the office? Just let this one go, and we’ll have you on something new and even more exciting in a few days.”

  “Fine,” Sam said in a not too convincing way.

  “Look, I have to go, but don’t get yourself into too much trouble. I’ll have something for you soon.”