Code of Honor

63

JTTF?” Sophie Li exhaled quickly, like a startled doe. “What exactly is that?”

“Joint Terrorism Task Force,” Li said. “They’re set up all over the U.S.”

The kids were asleep, or at least pretending to be. Peter’s friend John Clark had arranged for Peter and his family to stay in an apartment in downtown Chicago that was undoubtedly a CIA safe house. Four well-armed men, presumably with the Agency, and definitely Clark’s friends, were in the two adjoining rooms. So far, no one but Clark had asked any questions. Li had just finished downloading the Signal encryption app to Sophie’s and the kids’ cell phones, and all the devices lay on the dining room table between him and his wife.

“So we’re just supposed to stay in Chicago?”

“That’s the plan,” Li said.

Sophie’s eyes went wide. “This has got to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. People tried to murder us less than fifty miles from here. We need to leave. Now.”

“We’ll be fine,” Peter said.

“Really?” Sophie said. “You believe that? I heard you talking. I know they found that girl from your office murdered.”

Peter nodded. “Cecily Lung. She was involved in this. A loose end they needed to clean up.”

“Peter,” Sophie said. “Don’t you see? We are loose ends. All of us.”

“We’ll be fine,” Peter said. “Chicago has twelve thousand cops, and that’s not counting all the Feds.”

Sophie’s face fell slack. She shook her head slowly, the situation becoming clear to her now. “So… We’re bait? Oh, no. No, no, no.”

Li scooted his chair around to her side of the table, taking her hands in his. He kept his voice soft, steady. “He has people to make sure we’re safe. Turns out that the JTTF is working on this very thing. Triad involvement and the like. No one will know we’re at the meeting but people at the Federal Building.”

“Do you think they targeted you because of…”

“Because my parents were Chinese?”

She nodded.

“Believe me,” Li said. “That’s a reality I’ve had to think about with every conversation I’ve had with the FBI. But no, I was targeted because of the work I do, not my genetics.”

“Good,” Sophie said. “I still think it would be better to leave Chicago. The JTTF guys can come to us.”

“There are a load of agencies involved,” Li said. “Bureau, CIA, DEA, ATF, U.S. Attorney. And I’m just getting started. There are a lot of people who want to talk to us.”

“This is crazy.”

“It’s part and parcel of what goes on when we call the authorities.”

“What happens if somebody from one of these triads is watching the Federal Building?” Sophie’s head snapped up. “God forbid, what if they’ve paid someone off inside and they know we’re coming?”

“Unlikely,” Peter said. “But we’re meeting at an off-site location. We’ll look at some photographs of known offenders, people they suspect, and then get right out of there.”

“Then what?” Sophie looked across the room at the sofa bed where the kids were sleeping. Though teenagers, they’d reverted to clinging to each other like small children after the violence in their home, a place that should have been their ultimate sanctuary. “Tell me the truth. Are we going to have to stay in hiding? Change our names? What?”

“The truth,” Li said, “is that I have no idea. What I do know is that we have to be proactive about our own safety.”

Sophie sat up straighter, pulling her hand away. She stared up at the ceiling, eyes closed. “I’m so scared.”

“Things will work out,” Li said.

But they might not. Both of them knew it. Each of them had lost the person they’d planned to grow old with. Sometimes people you loved died for no good reason. Things did not always work out.

But they had to pretend or risk going insane.

“Peter, they almost killed us,” she said. “You remember that action movie, where the man’s wife and daughter are murdered and he goes on a revenge spree?”

Peter groaned. “That’s pretty much every action movie.”

“I… I’m afraid that’s what you would do.”

“How about you?” Peter asked. “You would fight like a tiger to protect the kids, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course,” Sophie said.

He laid his hand tenderly on the side of her belly. “Then you can imagine what I’d do to protect you and this baby.”

“I don’t have to imagine,” Sophie said. “I saw it firsthand.”