Chapter 4: Establishing Trust
Nyssa parked the Indian a block away from the house. She casually walked around the area glancing at every house before she came to her Mother's doorstep. She reached for the knob when she heard her Mother's voice through the nearby window.
"Nyssa, darling, I'm so happy you could pop in for a visit," Marilyn said holding a cigarette in her left hand. "I was watching you. Why are you wandering around the street like that?"
"Just having a look around the neighborhood. You called me to come over. Remember!" Nyssa commented as she opened the door and walked inside.
"Oh, yes, I did. Want some coffee, dear?"
Marilyn headed for the kitchen as Nyssa closed the door and followed her.
"Mom, have you seen anything or anybody in the neighborhood that seems suspicious to you? A new neighbor who seems nosey, or a service van that just sits in the street?" Nyssa glanced out the window while her mother worked in the kitchen brewing coffee.
"I don't know, darling. I don't pay that much attention."
That's a new one!
"Mom, you know everything that goes on in this neighborhood. Don't give me that."
"Well, there were two men who were quite interested in this house, as a matter of fact. They were very nice."
"So, you talked to them? They were in this house?"
"Yes, I served them tea and sandwiches. They said they were with the government."
At the mention of government, Nyssa's eyes snapped to her mother, and her breath caught in her throat. She rushed to the kitchen and stood at the entrance.
"Government? British government? Who do they work for?"
"I'm not sure, sweetheart. In all the years, I've never known who you worked for. You and Lucy traveled the world always telling me that you can't talk about it. It was always a mystery with you two. Here is your coffee." Marilyn passed a full cup across the counter to Nyssa. "One of them was very interested in that old car of your father's. I took him in the garage to see it. Which reminds me…"
"Wait…. You left one of them alone in here?" Nyssa lowered her voice as she asked interrupting her mother. "For how long?"
"I don't know. Ten minutes, I suppose. Oh, I do remember what I want you to do. I have a friend who has a son who needs some help…. Nyssa, what are you doing?"
Nyssa was no longer listening to Marilyn. She ran her hands over the edges of the furniture and under lamp shades. She was checking under the dining room table when she glanced across the room and noticed the electrical socket. Something did not seem right about it.
Marilyn watched her daughter in confusion as Nyssa crawled across the floor to examine the socket. She pulled a pocket knife from her jeans and used the blade as a screw driver to open the socket.
The socket looked as though it was tampered with. She knew enough about listening devices to know that there were certain surveillance transmitters that used the electricity from a house. Wiring these transmitters into the house power system, the device could transmit at least a full city block away.
Nyssa instantly saw the transmitter as soon as she removed the socket plate. She carefully disconnected it from the wires and pulled it out of the wall.
"Mom, are there any houses on this street that are vacant?" Nyssa stood up and examined the device.
"Across the street, three doors to the left." Marilyn pointed.
"Wait here. I'll be right back."
Nyssa rushed out of the house and ran down the street until she came to the house that Marilyn talked about. She rushed up the stairs and kicked the door in.
When she entered the house, she was immediately met with a pungent odor of smoke and burning plastic. Nyssa saw smoke trailing into the hallway on the second floor. She ran up the stairs and kicked another door down into a bedroom that was on fire.
There were recording equipment, cameras, even a couple of laptops that were already burning. Nyssa threw a floor rug over some of the equipment in an attempt to save what she could, but it was quickly becoming useless.
The fire began to spread to the walls. The smoke and heat from the fire was becoming too much for Nyssa, so she backed out of the room and ran down the stairs as fast as she could.
She heard a door slam toward the back of the house, so she followed. Two men ran from the house through the back gardens toward another street. A third man had a car waiting for his friends to make their escape.
Nyssa followed them as far as the back door and made a note of the car. It was a silver Ford Taurus. The men wore plain clothes, one was heavy set, and all three had dark hair.
After they drove away, Nyssa heard the sirens of fire engines and made her escape the same way that they did, through the gardens and doubled back to her mother's street.
Nyssa walked into her mother's house smelling like she had been fighting a fire. She met Marilyn at the door with a concerned look on her face.
"You smell of burnt plastic, Nyssa. What happened?" Marilyn asked.
"Oh, there's a fire down the street. The smoke must have drifted," Nyssa said in a raspy voice.
She continued coughing and trying to catch her breath as she walked through the house toward the kitchen. She washed and dried her hands then turned to face her mother.
"Mom, we need to talk about the men who came to the house. It's important."
"Well, I don't know, dear. This problem with my friend has me very upset. I can't think about anything else."
Nyssa rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Okay, then let's talk about your friend." The frustration was clear in her voice. Marilyn smiled and chose to ignore it.
"Her name is Karen, and her son's been living with her ever since she was diagnosed with cancer. Just four months ago, she completed her last set of treatments, and the cancer has gone into remission. But, there are all of these medical bills that took all of her savings. That's why her son is there, to help with the finances."
"Can we get to the 'in trouble' part?"
"He borrowed money from a loan shark, and now they want it back."
"What do you want me to do about it? He needs to call the police."
"Oh, the police can't help with something like that. Each time they see him, they beat on him. They need your help, Nyssa."
Nyssa watched as her mother did that pouting face that would guilt Nyssa into doing whatever she asked.
All this training I've had in the army. Combat skills and weapons grade with anything that can shoot or hold an edge, and I still can't fight against my mother's sad eyes routine.
"Okay, Mom, I'll talk to your friend. Let me take a quick shower first, then I'll go over there." Marilyn smiled after Nyssa agreed. "After I help your friend, we need to talk about those men who came to the house."
"Of course, dear. I'll wash your clothes too. They smell of smoke." Marilyn wrinkled her nose as Nyssa walked past her toward the bathroom.
For the first five minutes after Nyssa entered the shower, she did nothing but let the hot water take some of the stress of the day away. She thought back to the moment she woke up that morning. She had woke up alone. Lucas left without a single word or note, not even a phone call or text.
Their night together was wonderful. He was right. They needed this, but she allowed it to get too personal. She expected him to be there and had forgotten what all that was really about. She was a fool to think it could have been more than that, yet she let herself be vulnerable and look at what happened.
Nyssa could feel the tears forming despite the water splashing in her face. She took a few breaths and allowed herself to cry. After the tension left her, she focused on the situation at hand. Lucas would have to wait. She needed to find out what those men were after, and she needed to get that memo that authorized her blacklist.
Nyssa continued to unwind and resumed her shower until she was finished and turned off the water. She dried off and wrapped up in a robe her mother left for her on the counter.
Before she exited the bathroom, she heard distant voices in the house. Who was her mother talking to this time?
Nyssa carefully exited the bathroom into the bedroom. Her mother had taken her clothes to be washed but left her jacket on the bed. She took her gun from the jacket pocket and quietly walked toward the door to the living room.
Like a flash, she pulled the door open and aimed the gun right at Lucas. Marilyn instantly scolded her daughter as Lucas held up his hands in a surrender. Nyssa slowly lowered the gun.
"Nyssa, what do you think you are doing with that gun?" Marilyn was almost hysterical.
"Calm down, Mom. I didn't know who you were with," she said.
"Well, who did you think it was? My God, you scared the life out of me." She turned to Lucas. "I am very sorry for my daughter's behavior. I hope she didn't frighten you."
"Not at all. I'm quite used to these encounters with her." Lucas lowered his hands but did not take his eyes off of Nyssa.
"Mom, I need to speak with Lucas in private. Would you like a cup of tea, Lucas?" asked Nyssa. Her voice was calm and lacking in emotion.
"I could use a cup, Marilyn. Thank you." Lucas sensed the cold tension coming from Nyssa.
After Marilyn left for the kitchen, Lucas moved closer to Nyssa and spoke low so only she could hear.
"I've been looking for you all morning."
"How did you know I was here?"
"I had Malcolm do a facial recognition search on the CCTV cameras. What were you doing at the Savoy this morning?"
Nyssa contemplated lying to him, but she knew that Dolby already told Harry about the incident this morning. She decided to tell him about the men at the house but to keep her hotel motives to herself.
"I went over there to see a friend."
"Don't play me." Lucas stepped closer to her and grabbed her arm. His face was inches from hers.
"Dolby told you and the team I was there, didn't he? That little prick."
"He ordered Harry to arrest you. He wants you extradited back to America. If you set foot in the States, your FBI will have in prison. I'm suppose to bring you back to Thames House to talk to Harry."
"You and Harry would like for me to just sit on the sidelines while these people continue to harass me and my family. I need to know who I'm up against. I need to go on the offensive and not wait for them to get to me."
"Tell me what you know. Let me help."
Nyssa put her finger up to her lips for Lucas to stay quiet. She turned to the bedroom door and opened it. Lucas followed her as far as the doorway while she laid her gun on the bed. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the transmitter. She gestured for Lucas to follow her to the back garden.
"I found this in the electrical outlet in the dining room. It's a surveillance transmitter. Now, my mother told me that two men visited her this week and said that they work for the government. Is this thing one of yours?"
Lucas took the transmitter from her hand and examined it. He had seen things like this before but not for some time. He knew that Harry lifted the surveillance on Nyssa after she dropped that file she made about him on the conference table.
"No. We didn't do this. Did your mother say anything about them? Did she give a description? Who do they work for?"
"She can't remember," said Nyssa sarcastically. "I know what that means. My mother's memory comes and goes with whatever she wants from me. One day, she can name everybody in the Prime Minister's cabinet. The next day, she thinks that I work for the post office."
Lucas looked at her confused. Nyssa smiled and sighed. She was used to explaining about her mother's little quirks.
"She wants me to talk to her friend across the street. Apparently, her son borrowed a large sum of money from a loan shark, and now he's being harassed."
"So, to get her to tell you about those men, you have to take this job?"
Nyssa nodded her head.
"There's something else. Apparently, they had a surveillance station set up in a house down the street. They torched the place before I could find any clues about them," Nyssa said.
Lucas' expression went from supportive to anger in a matter of seconds. She risked her life confronting them without telling him first. Again, she did not trust him enough to help.
"That's the house that's on fire?" He pointed down the street. "You could have been killed. Why didn't you ring for help first?"
"Because the moment I found that transmitter, they were already destroying evidence and out the door. They ran out the back when I got there. Two men with a third behind the wheel of their getaway car."
Lucas took a deep breath and sighed. He was presented with a big decision. Nyssa was finally trusting him to help her with this case, but Harry ordered him to keep her as far away as possible. He knew there was no way to do that. She was headstrong and extremely stubborn. Ros was right. If she continued like this on her own, she would wind up dead.
In order to protect her and keep her close, he would have to get her to trust him, and that meant playing both angles. He would keep what Harry briefed him a secret from her, but he would also keep what he learned about these men from Harry. At least, until he and Nyssa uncovered more about them.
"Let's have a talk with your mother's friend about her problem, and then we will go to Harry. We won't tell Harry about this until we know more. If you will trust me, I want to help you with this job."
He placed a hand on her shoulder as a sign of comfort. He could see her softening a little to his touch.
"We will work things out with Harry and protect your family. It'll be fine."
Nyssa looked into his eyes and smiled as she nodded her head in agreement. They would work together to find out more about these men, but as far as she was concerned, they had a long way to go for anything else.