Saint/Sinner

Chapter 4

The woman was staring at him in a way that unnerved Jack as he stepped into the room, but he didn’t let it show on his face — or, at least, he didn’t think he did — and said, “Time to go to work.”

She sat against the far wall, the teenager in her lap. The man sat next to them, and he tensed noticeably as Jack entered the room and rested his hand on the butt of his holstered sidearm. It wasn’t exactly the most subtle of moves, but Jack was aiming for effectiveness.

“What do you want?” the woman asked.

He ignored her question and pointed at Walter. “You. Come with me.”

“Why?” Walter stammered.

“Don’t make me tell you twice,” Jack said. While the man staggered to his feet, Jack fixed the woman with a hard look. “I’m leaving your arms and legs free as a sign of good faith. Make me regret it, and I’ll have both of you tied up and gagged. Understand?”

“That’s very decent of you,” the woman, Allie, said.

He smirked. “You’re his secretary, right?”

“That’s right.”

“You don’t look like a secretary.”

“What’s a secretary look like?”

“Not like you.”

“Maybe you just haven’t been around enough secretaries,” she said. “You don’t strike me as someone who spends a lot of time in offices…Jack.”

He smiled. Of course she knew his real name wasn’t Jack. A woman like her…

Which was what, exactly?

Jack flipped through what he remembered of the woman’s file in his head. It wasn’t much, just a couple pages including a list of surviving family members (none) and jobs (probably more than the average early-thirty-something, but nothing that really stood out), and the last year at Gorman and Smith as an executive assistant for one of the higher-ups. Dan something. There was nothing about her life that had set off any alarms, to him or the client; or, at least, nothing that would explain why she wasn’t more afraid of him or what was happening to her at the moment.

And that, more than anything, disturbed him.

He knew a problem when he saw one, and Allie Krycek was giving off all the signs of a troublemaker. The smart thing would be to remove her now before he was proven right, but he couldn’t do that. Not yet. There was a chance — a small one, but a chance nonetheless — that Walter might not cooperate the way they needed him to. When that happened, they’d need incentives. Like a daughter…or a girlfriend. He could make do with just the daughter, but why settle for one when he had the option of two? If one insurance policy was good, two was better.

Still, maybe he was making a mistake. This woman, staring back at him right now without an ounce of fear, might be more trouble than she was worth.

Or was he overthinking things again?

“Come on,” Jack said, and beckoned for Walter to move faster across the room — the man kept looking back at Allie and the girl, Lucy. “They’ll still be here when you get back.”

“What do you want with me?” Walter asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“I want to know—”

Walter was close enough that when he got the word “know” out, Jack was able to lean into the punch, sinking a balled fist into the other man’s gut.

“Dad!” the girl screamed and tried to get up, but Allie grabbed her and held her back.

He ignored them and grabbed Walter as he was falling to his knees. He caught the man halfway down and pulled him up again, Walter’s body trembling, his breath coming out in short, labored gasps.

“Take it easy,” Jack said, patting Walter on the back. “In and out, in and out. There you go.”

When Walter’s breathing had (mostly) returned to normal, Jack looked across at the fifteen-year-old glaring at him from Allie’s lap.

“Relax; he’ll be fine,” Jack said. “He’ll do a little work for us, then the three of you can go back to your vacation. You want that, don’t you?”

The girl didn’t answer him and instead leaned against the woman. Allie slipped one arm around her smaller shoulders in a protective move.

“The daughter and girlfriend don’t get along,” someone had noted in the files. “You should probably keep them apart so they don’t cause you unnecessary problems.”

They’re getting along pretty damned well now, Jack thought.

He heard footsteps behind him and glanced back as Jones and Jerry filled up the doorframe.

“Take him next door,” he said, and pushed Walter toward the two men.

“Come on, you, time to make me rich,” Jones said as he clamped one massive hand around Walter’s arm.

“Shut up,” Jerry said.

“What?”

“Need to know.”

“Oh, relax; gonna be over by morning anyway,” Jones said as the three of them disappeared down the hallway.

Jack looked back into the room at Allie. She hadn’t made any attempts to get up or tried to stop him from taking Walter. In fact, she didn’t seem to have moved from her spot at all, and had just sat there processing everything.

“You’re no secretary,” he said.

“Aren’t I?” she said.

He shook his head. “Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”

“Then I must have imagined the last year of my life.”

“Oh, I’m sure that was a real job at Gorman and Smith. But I have a feeling you were settling.”

“That’s an interesting theory. Would you mind telling my boss? Maybe I’ll finally get that raise so I can move out of my shitty one-bedroom apartment.”

“I’ll get right on that as soon as we’re done here.” He winked at her, just to show her that he was still in control — though by her reaction, he wasn’t sure if he actually succeeded — before turning to go. “Until then, be very good girls and sit tight.”

Jerry was waiting for him in the hallway, leaning against the wall between the two rooms, as Jack closed the door and put the padlock back into place.

“Good to go?” Jones asked, keeping his voice low.

“Good to go,” he nodded.

“What’s the deal with her?”

“The woman?”

“Yeah.”

“No deal.”

“That’s not what Jones said. He’s telling me you think she might be trouble.”

“Jones talks too much,” Jack said, and walked past Jerry and into the next room.

Jones was already inside with Walter, who sat in the same chair Jack had occupied earlier, in front of the bulky laptop. He was staring at the screen as if he didn’t know what he was looking at, but of course Jack knew otherwise.

“What is this?” Walter asked.

“I need you to do something for me,” Jack said. He fished a small metal container out of one of his pockets and snapped it open, revealing a flash drive about half the size of his thumb inside. It was metallic and durable, and wouldn’t have cracked if he ran a car over it. “You’re going to need this.”

He tossed it to Walter, who caught it, if just barely. It was like looking at a man who had just learned how to use his hands for the first time, struggling to put it to use. Jack had a hard time reconciling how a woman like Allie had ended up with a doofus like Walter. The whole secretary job (Just a secretary? Fat chance.) notwithstanding, Walter was definitely dating up.

“What’s in here?” Walter asked, staring down at the device in his palm.

Jack didn’t answer him. Instead, he walked over and put a hand on the laptop. “Put it in and find out.”

“That’s what she said,” Jones said from behind Walter.

Walter must not have heard him; he was too busy staring at the laptop. Jack saw fear, confusion, and something that almost looked like…excitement (?) on the man’s face.

“Please,” Walter started to say.

“Please what?”

“I have money,” Walter said. “Whatever they’re paying you, I can pay more.”

Jones chuckled. “Methinks our friend doesn’t actually know what we’re being paid for this job.”

“I don’t think so, either,” Jack said, playing along.

“You’re gonna need a bigger bank account than what you’ve got now, sport,” Jerry said from the open door. “Yes, in case you’re wondering, we know exactly how much you have, just like we know how much this spread of yours costs.”

Their responses were clearly not what Walter was expecting, and Jack almost felt sorry for the guy as his face seemed to crater.

“Please,” Walter said. “My daughter, Allie… Just let them go. I’ll do what you want.”

“I know you will,” Jack said. He tapped the laptop. “Go on. You know you’re dying to find out what’s in there.”

“I’m not,” Walter said, shaking his head.

“Liar. Truth is, you don’t have a choice. So you might as well get it over with.”

Walter sighed and picked up the device with one hand, pinching it between two fingers, and stuck it into the side of the laptop. A light on the metal case blinked once, twice, then stayed green as the computer accepted the connection.

“Oh,” Walter said when he saw the contents of the flash drive.

“They told me you’d know what all those numbers mean,” Jack said.

Walter nodded gravely.

“Okay, then,” Jack said, and clapped his hands together. It was a little harder (and louder) than he had meant to, and Walter jumped in his chair a bit. “Let’s get to work.”

“I…can’t,” Walter said, though Jack noticed he hadn’t looked away from the screen for even one second.

“Do I have to tell you how this is going to work?” Jack sighed, feigning a loss of patience. “We need you, Walter. If you don’t do everything we ask, we’re not going to hurt you. We can’t. But…”

He drew his Ka-Bar knife and laid it on the desk next to the desktop. Walter’s eyes finally left the laptop’s screen and traveled to the weapon. If Walter had been someone else — hell, even if he had been the daughter — Jack would never have laid the knife so close to him. But this was Walter, and Jack had no fear at all he was going to reach for it.

“…your daughter,” Jack continued, “and your girlfriend. Well, they’re a different story. Do I have to keep going?”

Walter shook his head.

“Think of it this way,” Jack said. “The faster we get this done, the faster the six of us can go back to our normal lives. You, me, Jerry, and Jones back there, and Allie and Lucy in the other room. You want that, right?”

Walter nodded. “And you’ll keep your word? You’ll let us go when this is all over?”

“Of course,” Jack said, and had to fight every instinct to shoot Jones, standing over Walter’s shoulder, a menacing response, because the big man had just snickered. Fortunately, he had done it just quietly enough that Walter hadn’t noticed.

Dear God, one semi-professional. I would have been happy with just one semi-professional, but you couldn’t even give me that, could you?

Jack focused on Walter and pushed the laptop a little closer toward the edge of the desk. “Now, let’s get to work. I hear this is going to take some time…”