Chapter 17
"Are you leaving?" Sydney asked Tatiana as she and Irina came back in.
"Not until Monday," Tatiana answered with a slight grin. "I'll make it look like I'm leaving tonight, then hang out for a couple of days and leave with Mama on Monday."
"I thought she could stay here, if that's all right, Jack," Irina said.
Jack nodded. "I'm sorry you're leaving so soon," he said to Tatiana. "You sure you don't want to stay a couple more weeks?"
"She needs to leave with me now, before the Covenant finds out she's here," Irina said. Jack and Sydney looked puzzled, and Irina continued, "There's something that Tatiana's going to pick up for me tonight. I'll show it to you tomorrow and explain then."
Jack raised his eyebrows, but knew he'd learn no more tonight. When Irina Derevko decided to be enigmatic, there was no persuading her otherwise. "Well, if Tatiana's here, then you could come over tomorrow too, Sydney."
"Yeah, I'll do that. Maybe I'll even stay the night," Sydney answered. "I guess if we're all going to be here tomorrow, Tatiana and I should get going." Tatiana nodded.
"What time will you get here tomorrow?" Jack asked. The girls looked at each other. "Both of you," he added.
Sydney shrugged. "Nine-ish?" Jack nodded.
"Maybe around three," Tatiana said.
"AM, I presume?" Jack said.
"Of course. It depends on how long it takes me to get everything done."
Jack and Irina looked at each other. "At least one of us will be awake," Irina said.
"Don't try to pick the lock," Jack said. "I've got it rigged. We'll leave the back door unlocked for you."
Tatiana nodded. She helped Sydney gather up the books they had chosen, and they headed out.
***
At 12:47 am, an apparently middle-aged woman with streaks of gray in her brown hair walked openly into the hotel lobby with her luggage, checked out, and left. The two agents who were tailing Kate Brown didn't even give her a second glance.
At 12:52, the middle-aged woman reached Kate Brown's rental car. She quickly found the tracking device on the underside of the car and carefully lowered it to the same position on the concrete. Then she got in the car, where she removed her wig, washed her face, and re-applied her makeup. The surveillance agents would have easily recognized her now.
At 1:05, a young woman walked into Director Dixon's office at JTF headquarters and placed an envelope on his desk. The surveillance camera in his office caught her face, but the cameras monitoring the entrances and exits to the buildings, the ones that were actively monitored at night, didn't see her.
At 1:27, the alarm line at a First National Bank branch was cut. Five minutes later, the cameras in the bank vault recorded a young, blond-haired woman as she walked in, broke into safety deposit box number 47, removed a bulky manila envelope, and walked out. That particular box had not been opened in almost 25 years, but was paid for by regular transfers from a bank in Switzerland.
At 1:41, Kate Brown's rental car was parked at the car agency's airport location and the keys were dropped in the overnight return box. In the international terminal, Kate Brown purchased a ticket to Auckland with her credit card, cleared security with her luggage, and then disappeared.
At 2:47, a brown-haired, brown-eyed young woman in jeans and a hooded sweat jacket, wearing a backpack and carrying a laptop case, stepped off a public bus, walked six blocks, climbed a fence, cut through a hedge, climbed another fence, and stood for a few minutes under a tree in the backyard of a suburban house. She waited until the moon was shadowed by a cloud, then entered the house.
***
Irina heard the soft click as the back door opened and got up from the couch, careful not to disturb her sleeping husband. She went into the kitchen and smiled at her daughter. "That's a good wig," she said, nodding at Tatiana's now brown hair.
"It's not a wig," Tatiana answered. "I un-dyed my hair in an airport restroom. Removable hair dye is great."
Irina smiled. "And with the contacts out, you're actually starting to look like you might be my daughter. Did everything go all right?"
"Perfectly." Tatiana put her backpack down on the table and pulled out the envelope she'd gotten from the bank. She handed it to her mother. "What is it?"
Irina opened the envelope and pulled out a very old book. "My very first Rambaldi manuscript," she said. "I stole it from Arvin Stone twenty-five years ago. But we'll talk more about that tomorrow. Let me show you where you're sleeping."