Chapter 46

I wasn't expecting that and wasn't too sure what Ranger would learn from that unless of course the handler did know more and was willing to tell him.

"I want to be there with you"

I knew it wasn't what he expected me to say and to be honest I surprised myself by blurting it out. But now I'd said it I really did want to be there.

"I can talk to him, how I talk to people, and maybe together we can work out if he's telling us the truth. Please"

Ranger sat back in his chair and never said a word. Just from that movement I could tell that he disagreed with me and was probably trying to come up with a good reason for me not to be there. After a few more minutes I picked up my plate and started to get up to walk over to the sink. I heard Ranger's chair move back and expected him to place his plate in the sink as well but instead he came up behind me and pulled me back into his chest,

"Okay"

I had no idea whether he was asking me if I was okay or not, so turned in his arms to ask him what he meant.

"Maybe you'll pick up something that I miss or ask a question that I wouldn't think of. But. We'll have a team with us at all times and we'll be in and out very quickly"

I knew I was smiling as what he'd said sank in.

"Thank you"

"I've changed our travel plans so that we can fly direct from here to Washington"

"When will we be leaving?"

"The meeting's planned for 0830, so we'll be leaving here at 0600hrs."

I worked out in my head that I'd need to be up by 5 in the morning, early for me but probably not Ranger.

I wasn't at my best being woken up at 5 in the morning but remembering what was happening today spurred me into action. I wasn't going to shower again but my hair definitely needed taming and there was no way I could manage using curling tongs. I walked through to the kitchen wearing a wrap around woolen dress. Not the style that I would have chosen myself but once on I could appreciate it as it fitted around my waist and hips perfectly. It ended mid calf and looked perfect with the ankle high boots.

My eyes landed on Ranger dressed in a black suit, black shirt and tie. He looked edible and I was finding it hard not to drool at the sight of him. As I walked up to him, I handed him a hair brush and then turned around so that he was behind me. Without a word I felt him brushing my hair surprised when he seemed to be brushing it up toward the top of my head. A few minutes later he handed me the brush and tapped my backside.

"Fifteen minutes Babe"

I hadn't put on much makeup, just some mascara and lip gloss so returned the brush to the bathroom curious as to what Ranger had done to my hair. It had been twisted onto the top of my head and then tied round with a leather tie, all I needed to do was to free a few curls to frame my face. Okay now I was ready and walked back to where Ranger was waiting. He had a long black coat in his hands and held it open for me to slide my free arm inside while it draped over my other shoulder. I took a small bag from his hand, curious as to what was inside but never got the chance to look, as his hand was at my back guiding me through the door.

Once in the back of a black SUV I watched as two other cars exited the garage before we did. As a convoy of three cars I was surprised, did that mean there were a lot of guys coming with us? That's when I noticed each of the cars taking a different direction and turned to Les who was sat with me.

"What's going on?"

"We've had some cars cruising past the office"

Shit, that meant they had followed me here and were thinking that they could still get their hands on me. While being inside the Boston office I'd forgotten all about a group finding my trail here to Boston. I suppose it would be logical for me to go to Rangeman in order to hide. I wondered if they knew that Ranger was here with me.

"Where's Bobby?"

Because I'd just assumed that he was in one of the other cars.

"He headed back to Trenton last night. Oh, that reminds me, he told me to remind you to take the pain meds"

I hadn't because I hated taken them, but I suppose if this was going to be a long day then I might have to resort to taking them. I was half tempted to look through the bag that Ranger had given to me, but I was too curious with where we were going. Looking forward to Ranger driving and Hector sat next to him I could see a map on the console with circles on it and thought that perhaps they were the other two SUVs.

Ranger was making lots of turns so looking behind me through the rear window I was hopeful that we didn't have anyone behind us. It was as I looked forward that I saw that we were driving through some gates and ahead of us were several small planes. I'd never really thought about how we'd travel down to Washington. Okay, I knew we wouldn't be driving but was thinking more along the lines of a large commercial plane.

I jumped when my door opened and was still looking at the plane sat in front of us when Ranger took my hand and pulled me from my seat. For once I was speechless and was starting to feel a little bit nervous. I didn't really like flying at the best of times, but I wasn't sure if I was nervous because the plane looked so small or because it looked so awesome.

From the streamlined black body to the luxurious seats inside, I'd never known anything so opulent before. I was so busy looking around I was hardly aware that my coat had been removed before Ranger led me to one of the leather seats and leaning over me, he fastened the seat belt.

"Babe, are you alright?"

I nodded my head as I saw Les pull the door into place and felt the throb of the engines as they started up. My eyes closed as we started to move, okay I knew we still had to reach the end of the runway before the really bad part came. I was ready though, I had to be because it was my idea that I came, no way was I going to let Ranger down. I think I spent the next ten minutes with my eyes closed and free hand gripping the arm rest.

My muscles were so tense that my shoulder started aching. It was a hand on my cheek that turned my head and the soft touch of lips on mine before I decided to open my eyes. Of course, Ranger was looking at me with a slight smile on his face. He leant down and picked up my bag, taking out the pain meds that must have been inside and then handed me a couple with a bottle of water.

Once the tablets were swallowed, I looked back to Ranger and watched as he raised the armrest between us and pulled me into his side with his arm around me. Seeing as it was my left side against him, I felt comfortable to snuggle up against his chest. I knew it wouldn't take us long before we reached Washington so decided now was the only opportunity to get some more details of our meeting from Ranger.

"Who exactly are we meeting with?"

"A man called Fred Charnley. He's about ten years older than me but certainly a desk man"

"Is he always your handler?"

Wanting to know how well Ranger would know him.

"No. The handler depends on which part of the world you're going to. Each one has expertise in an area"

Hell, it was like trying to draw teeth to get information from Ranger, so I continued with my questions.

"Have you worked with him before?"

"No. I'm not usually sent to Asia"

This time I was going to wait until Ranger said something, hoping that those initial questions would spur him to offer up something more. I waited, yeah, not usual for me but I could almost feel Ranger smile as his face settled on my head.

"I met him at the first meeting when he laid out what it was that needed to be done. I asked around about him from other operatives to try to get a feel for how he worked. They were surprised that he'd asked me to do the job but told me that he was curt and to the point, only giving out details that he thought were needed"

That had my senses tingling, I mean who was to say what was pertinent information for a job especially seeing as he had never worked in the field.

"Will he be on his own?"

"He should be, but I have a feeling there'll be other people around. We're meeting in the lounge area of a hotel. It provides quiet areas so should be empty"

I wasn't too sure now if me being with Ranger was a good idea and was sat thinking through how to overcome that.

"Babe, I don't really want him to see you. If he is involved in what happened, then bringing attention to you wouldn't be a good idea"

I could see why Ranger would think that. I'd be encouraging the idea that I was also involved, but why was I here then?
"Hear me out Babe. We'll both be wearing mics and buds so you'll hear the conversation and can suggest questions for me to ask. Hector will be with you, he shouldn't know who Hector is, so if you sit with him then you'd look like a couple relaxing with a coffee"

As I nodded my head in agreement, I felt the plane begin its descent. Hector was suddenly next to us and handed a box to Ranger before he disappeared behind us again.

So here I was sat in the corner of a lounge area of the hotel with Hector. We'd been dropped off a few blocks away and taken a taxi to the hotel to give the illusion of being a couple and not having anything to do with Ranger. I had no idea where Les or any men who were backup were as we'd arrived before the meeting was due to take place. We'd ordered some pastries and coffee on entering so were waiting for those to arrive.

I was looking through brochures that I'd picked up in the lobby to give the illusion of us being tourists. As someone started to place plates and cups on the table, I looked up to smile, shocked at seeing Arlo stood in front me, dressed as a waiter, knowing not to say anything to give him away. As he placed the tray with a coffee pot on the table, he winked at me before leaving us.

I was stopped from watching his retreating back by Hector speaking so turned to look at him.

"Where would you like to visit today my darling?"

Okay that was the cue that Ranger was here so picking up a brochure I looked over the top to watch as Ranger entered the room.

"Well, I'd like to visit the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument along with the Reflecting Pool, but it says here that seeing it in the evening is best"

"I agree, so how about we spend some time at The National Air and Space Museum and after lunch head toward there?"

I found the information on the museum that Hector was suggesting and was caught by surprise as his arm came around my shoulder and his head came close to mine. I suppose to anyone looking we were reading the brochure together, but it didn't stop me from seeing a man approach Ranger and sit down at the table with him. He did look older than Ranger for more reasons than one. His hair was thinning out on the top of his head and he'd taken out glasses to read the menu. The suit he was wearing looked expensive, but it didn't do anything to distract from the weight that he was carrying.

Yeah, he looked like a typical office worker. Ranger was seated so that he was facing us but I watched as the man cast an eye around the room. As he looked at us, I turned slightly and kissed Hector on his jaw and giggled slightly. I wasn't sure if Hector expected that from me, but he soon got into the swing of it as he gently kissed the side of my head.

"Good distraction Estefania"

To be honest it wasn't hard to do. It wasn't like the distractions that I did for Rangeman where the thought of the man we were after made my stomach roll. Hector was a good looking guy. Smaller than some of the Rangemen and he didn't have the muscles that they had. I knew though that he had other skills to make up for it. It also helped that I knew that Hector was gay and that made any interaction that I had with Hector feel comfortable and none threatening.

Arlo had left a tray at the table that Ranger was sat at, so I was intent on listening as I started to nibble at a pastry.

"Charnley, thank you for agreeing to see me"

"No problem. You have me curious though. Was there something that you forgot to tell us at your briefing?"

"No. The opposite. I think that there are things that you never told me"

"Really. Why would you think that Manoso?"

Hell, they were into answering a question with another question. This man was being careful, almost reticent with what he was saying.

"How about being followed or people that I know being watched?"

"Do you know who?"

"FBI amongst others"

"I don't know anything about that"

I could almost hear the change in the tone of voice as he said that making me certain that he did know something. The question I wanted answering was if he knew who the others that Ranger implied were.

"So let's look at this from a different direction. Where did you get your intel about the information that was a threat to national security?"

I thought I heard a small laugh from Charnley before he stopped abruptly. Looking over I could see that the look Ranger was giving him was probably responsible for that.

"You know I can't tell you that Manoso"

"So if I said that the rendezvous was compromised, that intel was leaked, putting me and my team in danger?"

"Not by me"

There was silence from the ear bud, and I didn't dare look across the room. Instead, I concentrated on pouring some coffee into the two cups in front of me.

"So if I file a complaint and ask for an enquiry do you think you wouldn't be implicated?"

"You can't do that"

I was aware of Ranger leaning forward toward Charnley and Charnley sitting back in his chair obviously intimidated by Ranger.

"Where did you get your intel from, because you weren't the only one to have that information"

"But, that can't be, I mean he was checked first and everything he told me checked out. All you had to do was collect a damn hard drive at that rendezvous"

And there it was. Charnley knew that the information was on a hard drive. I bent forward toward my mic to suggest a question to Ranger.

"How did he know the information was on a hard drive?"

"Hard drive Charnley? I didn't know that"

"There wasn't supposed to be a problem. Okay, we knew other people were after it, but you're supposed to be one of the best. How could you fuck up such a simple hand over?"

"As I said at the debrief, we were ambushed with gunfire and explosions. So who did you get the info from because he may well be the one who double crossed us"

"Shit"

I was surprised that Charnley hadn't thought about that but then had another question for Ranger.

"Why send you when you don't usually work out of Asia?"

"Why me Charnley? You have other operatives that work out of Asia"

"He asked for you"

Okay that had the word shit forming in my head. Why Ranger?

"You owe me then if I was asked for personally. Who was it?"

Silence was all I heard after Ranger had asked that to the point where I could almost feel the tension over on this side of the room. I heard the rustle of material and from the corner of my eye saw that Ranger was making to stand up.

"I'll file that complaint then"

"No, wait. That would finish me, they'd never trust me again"

I could almost imagine Ranger raising an eyebrow as he stood watching Charnley and heard as Ranger sat down again.

"Talk"

"I got a message through from a contact in Cambodia to accept a conversation with a man claiming to be a Doctor Seang. I had nothing to lose doing that so the first conversation by computer told me about the program he wanted us to secure. That's when he asked for you to head the team so that's when I called you in. I had a face to face meeting with him later when he told me the details of the exchange. That's all I know"

"What did he look like?"

Came from me without thinking pleased when Ranger repeated my question. At least then we'd have an idea of who it wasn't.

"Old, long grey hair. He wasn't unfit and was probably quite a big man when he was younger. He wore those round spectacles on the end of his nose and spoke without an accent"

"You met him here in Washington?"

"No, New York City. He said he was flying back out again"

"Why didn't he bring the damn thing with him then?"

I could hear the annoyance in Ranger's voice as that little bit of information was dropped on us.

"He said he needed to organize getting it out of the lab that he worked in. That was why there was a time delay before you eventually went out there"

"Did he say why it had to be me?"

"No"

I watched as Charnley got up from the table and bent down to talk in Ranger's ear. Unfortunately, it was away from the mic so I couldn't pick up what he had said. Once he'd finished talking, he stood up and walked away from Ranger through the door and I assume left the hotel. Ranger didn't move and when I made to stand up Hector held me in place with a hand on my leg.

"Wait Estefania"

What were we waiting for? That's when I heard Ranger talking quietly not realizing that his message was for us.

"Take Steph upstairs to the bedroom"

I had no idea what was going on or that there was a room booked here at the hotel. It didn't surprise me though being something that Ranger would do. As Hector and I stood up he placed an arm around my waist and pulled me close to him as we started to walk out of the lounge area. Once inside the lobby Hector directed us to the elevator and seemed to relax when the doors slid open. As the elevator rose, I was dying of curiosity wanting Hector to tell me why we were going upstairs. All too soon we were walking into a hotel suite on the first floor. A short time to get there but I was bursting to know what had just happened for this to be necessary. As Hector closed the door, I turned around to face him.

"Hector?"