Determination of Spirit
690 คำ
16
Determination of Spirit
In the men’s department of J. C. Penney, Agent Stone yelled. “You’re going to do what?”
A woman holding up a business suit to her husband turned and stared.
“You heard me,” Jana replied. “Stone, you and I both know that time is running out. Uncle Bill said it himself. Whatever the terrorists are planning is about to happen, and we’ve got to stop it.”
“Jana, listen to me. You can’t go into that penthouse apartment with him. You’re not dealing with some average schmuck from Brooklyn. This guy is sending up red flags everywhere we look. In fact, when we pulled his fingerprints off a restaurant wine glass, we found no match.”
“So what. Are every human being’s prints in the database?”
“Everyone who has a New York state driver’s license has prints in the database, yes. He has a New York license, yet no prints exist for him. Don’t you find that a bit strange?” The sarcasm hung thick. “That means we’re dealing with a false identity. But it’s much worse than that. Under his current identity of Jeffrey Dima, he has been brought in for questioning by the NYPD Special Victims Unit to be interrogated about the three incidents, the one’s where he was accused of using Rohypnol on young women. No charges were ever filed in those cases due to lack of evidence, but my point is, there’s still no prints in the database. That means somehow they’ve been erased. We’re talking about heavy hitters here. You could get really hurt.”
“I can take care of myself.”
Stone placed his hands on his hips and leveled a stern look. “That’s what those other three young women would have said before he assaulted them. It’s not safe, Jana, and I don’t want you doing this.”
“It’s my safety and my decision. The plan is simple. All you have to do is get me a prescription of Rohypnol. I’ll handle the rest.”
“I still think you’re crazy, and I don’t want to see you get hurt. We might have an imminent terrorist threat, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to let you sacrifice yourself.”
Jana walked closer to him. When she looked into his eyes, she saw emotions forming within. “Stone, what’s going on?”
Agent Stone turned his back to prevent her from seeing his face.
“Nothing.”
“There’s something going on.”
He rubbed his eyes. “She was fifteen years old.”
Jana tilted her head. “Who? Who was fifteen years old?”
Stone swallowed. “In high school. My girlfriend, her name was Alyssa. We were both fifteen. Her nude body was found in a dumpster a few days later. She had been murdered.” He turned to face her and she could see the glistening in his eyes. “They threw her away like she was an object to be used, then discarded.”
Jana did not know what to say and the silence punctuated Stone’s hidden grief.
“I’m sorry,” was the best she could muster. “That’s what led you to law enforcement, wasn’t it? To a career as a federal agent. And now you think the same thing is going to happen to me? Is that what this is about?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I feel responsible for you in the same way I felt responsible for Alyssa. I don’t want to see anything happen to you.”
“Having lost my own father at the age of two, I’ve never had anyone say that to me. But, Stone, look at me. I’m not going to get hurt, all right? I’ll wear a wire and you’ll be listening; you and the other agents. If you hear anything going wrong . . .”
“I know, I know. But Jana, if he finds that wire device on you, he could kill you before we would even know something was up. What you are about to do is extremely dangerous, don’t forget that. Don’t let your guard down for a moment.”
Jana smiled and tension eased from his shoulders. “I won’t, Dad.”
Stone laughed. “I still don’t know how you are going to know where his supply is. If you don’t locate it first, he could drug you, and you wouldn’t even be able to alert us that there was a problem.”
“Just leave that to me,” Jana said.
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