SECRETS AND SPIES

Chapter Twenty-Three

Edward

We're heading down the quieter back roads towards Redwood City but I'm hardly noticing the lush green landscape we're driving through. Too much is going on in my head to be a sightseer which is a shame as when I do glance out the window, this part of the State looks very beautiful compared to the city we're escaping.

"We need gas," Yorkie announces as we're passing through Edgewood. I only know it's Edgewood as we pass a signpost with directions towards a Nature Preserve. To be honest I had no idea there was anywhere called Edgewood this close to San Francisco. He swings off the road and pulls into a gas station.

"I need to pee," Bella says as she shoves the gun in her backpack and zips it up. "I'll get water too. Anything else?" she asks.

"I'm fine," I reply even though I'm still feeling car sick from being flung around on the back seat. I could do with some fresh air only a gas station is not the ideal place for that. I try opening the window but the button doesn't work, and then I remember I'm in a police car. Felons can escape that way.

Yorkie pulls up at a pump and after getting out, opens the door for Bella. She slides out and heads straight for the restrooms. She's taken her backpack with her which I shouldn't be paranoid about but I am. I'm tempted to follow and check whether she's calling anyone, but lurking outside the women's restroom isn't really advisable. I could get arrested for being a pervert. Instead, I stay in the car because whether she's betraying me or not I'm in her hands now. The CIA, the FBI and Mulder and Scully could be out there searching for me, but I'm in no position to do anything about it.

Looking around at other folks pulling in and out of the gas station, I wonder whether any of them are escaping from sharp-shooting Rastafarians, or in an unmarked police car, or on the run from the police, like us. Chances are they're not, and no-one would suspect we were either, other than a shattered back window and a rifle shell embedded in the headrest of the front passenger seat. I can still hear the noise it made as it whizzed past my ear and thwacked into the fake leather. Rather it hit the seat than ending up in one of us.

Yorkie saunters back to the car after paying for the gas with his SFPD credit card. I can't help smirking when I realize the government is paying for our ride. I genuinely hope Yorkie gets away with helping us escape and doesn't lose out on his job or pension. I'm guessing the bullet hole will be difficult to explain away when he goes back to the precinct though. I would normally think, 'that's his problem', but it isn't. All this is my problem and I'm grateful that he's helping me, even though I think he's doing it to ease his conscience.

At this moment, I can't foresee how the situation I'm in is going to end. I have a strange feeling though we're heading towards some sort of conclusion and it will end for good or ill tonight. Why do I think this? I have absolutely no idea.

Bella is taking a long time in the restroom which of course makes me doubly suspicious. Eventually, she emerges waving cheerily and points at the store, coming back five minutes later carrying water, candy and bananas. I hate the smell of bananas so hope she doesn't eat one anywhere near me. I feel sick enough as it is.

After giving Yorkie a water bottle, some chewing gum and what looks like a bag of Starburst, which I can't recall him asking for, she throws everything else she purchased on the back seat, climbs in and hands me a bottle. The water is ice cold and revives me enough to eat a Snickers bar. I can almost feel the sugar exploding in my bloodstream so by the time we're heading away from the town I'm beginning to feel normal again.

"We're not far from the villa," Yorkie announces as we're driving through rolling farmland towards a dense patch of woodland. As the road becomes enveloped by the trees, here and there I spot huge houses built behind the treeline or up high on the hills. Most of the properties are centered on a cleared piece of land; a few are almost concealed by the trees. I expected to be surrounded by Redwoods because of the name of the area. Instead, nine out of ten trees are Oaks which makes me wonder why this place isn't called Oakwood.

I'd lived in San Francisco for the first twenty-two years of my life yet I'd never had cause to visit this part of the Bay Area before. Even though it's in the Santa Clara Valley, which is better known to the rest of the world as Silicon Valley, dad very rarely visited any of the Tech companies here. They almost always came to see him at the house. There are not many kids who'd come home from school to find Bill Gates sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. I'd say, 'Hi, Mr Gates' while I raided the fridge, and then disappear up to my room as though this was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Nice part of the world," Bella comments as we drive past a beautiful property set a long way back from the road. I have to agree with her as it seems idyllic compared to my neighborhood. I would've preferred living here when I was growing up, only I wouldn't have had Sue as a neighbor.

"What's the plan?" Yorkie asks as we turn onto a poorly maintained track leading deep into another clump of trees.

"Drop us as near to the villa as possible," Bella says. "We'll take a look and check out their security. We'll be about half an hour. Have a drive around the neighborhood and we'll call you when we're done."

"Don't you want me to come with you?" Yorkie asks as he slows down.

"Nope. There's no point all of us going. If James Hunter really is behind this and we're captured, no-one will know where we are? If I don't call in an hour it's up to you whether you tell your boss what you've done. You can say you followed us here. We'll back you up on the story."

"If we're captured!" I choke. "We've been trying to avoid these fuckers, Bella. Not walk up to their door and ring the bell."

"We're not going to be captured as long as you do as I say," Bella replies in a sing-song voice as if I'm an idiot. "Do you want to find your father or not?"

I don't reply. Bella knows I do only this is a bigger risk than I was prepared to take without thinking it through. I feel like I'm being rushed into making decisions, and I don't like it.

Yorkie pulls up on a wide section of the road which I guess is used as a turning spot for trucks. The unmade track leading off it is only wide enough for one standard vehicle's width so this is probably where delivery drivers park.

"I estimate there's about three hundred yards of track before you see the villa," Yorkie says as he points into a tunnel of green. "When I drove down there, there was one security guard at the end of the track. I couldn't see any fences or gates. I admitted I was a cop and said I was lost looking for another house."

"Let's do this," I say and go to get out of the car forgetting the door can only be opened from the outside, but Bella grabs my arm and holds me back.

"Remember, Edward, I'm in charge now. You have to trust me. Okay?"

"Okay," I say, and shake her hand away. I want to trust her but an overwhelming feeling has come over me that I'm walking into a trap. The only thing that's giving me a smidge of confidence is that Laurent could've killed her when he shot at the car. If he is working for James, this one fact alone could be taken as proof that Bella is now perceived as not working in their best interests anymore.

Yorkie gets out and opens our doors for us and gives me a reassuring pat on my arm. "Good luck," he says and nods at Bella for some reason. Bella slings her backpack over her shoulder as Yorkie pulls away.

"Do you want me to take that?" I ask as it looks heavy. I'm not carrying anything and it seems like the gentlemanly thing to do.

"Nah, I'm good. Let's go," she says and heads towards the house.

I'm expecting her to stick to the track, only Bella turns off into the woodland. I follow without question, recalling the night we pushed the dirt bike through the trees after she rescued me from the SUVs. That night I was overwhelmed by what was happening around me. I'm more used to intrigue and dangerous situations now. Experience doesn't make it any easier though.

As we trudge uphill through the tinder-dry undergrowth I ask myself whether us being here brings me any closer to finding out what happened to dad. It's still unclear whether James is really involved or has been an innocent party all along, meaning this could be a wasted journey. If dad is in the villa though, how are we or the police going to prove it without a warrant, unless we trample all over James's civil rights?

It occurs to me that if Bella had been hired by dad through James to protect me, I really should have fronted James up about it yesterday after Bella told me about him in the hideout. I was stupid not to call him as soon as I got to work and demand to know what the fuck was going on, including why he hadn't had the courtesy to call me after dad died? Also, if James believes he's so good at his job, why wasn't he or his people able to stop the assholes in the SUVs coming up to my cabin in the first place? I answer my own question as usual. 'I didn't ask, because I trusted Bella, that's why.' I ask myself again, 'am I just blindly taking her words as gospel because I've fallen for her?'

The other thing that bothers me about James is that Bella was only hired for six weeks. Why six weeks? Was James expecting something to happen during that time and the situation to be resolved by sometime next week? If the protection contract was to do with dad's work, no-one would've been able to put a time limit on when the supposed danger would be over.

The South African tech company as well. I should've made an effort to find out who they were and contact them as soon as I read dad's note. Somebody there may have been able to shed light on what happened to him. This makes me wonder why they didn't contact me when his death was announced? If they were working closely with him, they could've easily tracked me down, even if it was just to offer their condolences. There's something fundamentally suspicious about this part of the story, but I can't put my finger on what.

I should've called Jenks as well and asked him to check whether dad was paying for protection. I've been so useless in following up what to me are obvious leads now. I'd be the crappest detective in the world if I worked for the police or the FBI. I've never won at 'Clue', so that's an indication of how shit I am. I've expected any clues to present themselves to me without doing any of the groundwork myself.

The police conspiracy is my biggest concern though. Yorkie's confession on the Headlands that he'd been ordered to sell me a story about dad's body and the autopsy that followed is mind-blowing. Why would the police and these 'government people' do this? I haven't had a chance to think this through yet. Whatever excuse the police come up with after all this is over is going to be bad, really bad.

So if the guys on the Headlands were some type of Secret Service agents, what was their interest? How and why were they involved with my dad? How did they get to the Headland's first before Yorkie or any other SFPD officers arrived? If the body in the car wasn't dad's body, why are they covering this up, and, more importantly, how are they able to cover it up without trampling over a thousand laws connected with a US citizen's death?

The whole situation doesn't make any sense to me unless the police, and I presume the Secret Service, are after a bigger prize, and my family has been caught up in a totally separate investigation. I stop walking when this occurs to me. This needs to be thought through. When though?

I can feel myself getting worked up as it's slowly becoming more clear to me there is definitely something going on behind the scenes, and I, and maybe even Bella, have been kept in the dark by whoever is running the show. From the moment I received the phone call saying dad was dead, I've been trying to deal with the day to day happenings affecting me instead of looking at the whole picture. Am I being paranoid again? I don't think so because dad's note said Game of Thrones had nothing on this. Okay, he could've been over-dramatic, but he knows more than anybody that there are trillions of dollars at stake when you're talking about new developments in the technology industry. Whatever is going on that I'm not a party to, I'm in the middle of something much more complicated than a dead man's body in a burnt-out car.

Yorkie's confession had made it clear that I'm dealing with more than one group or enemy. I need to think logically so I make a mental list of who they are.

There's James Hunter and his organization, who may or may not be behind some or all this. Bella suspects he's trying to make money out of his association with dad, whether or not he was involved with his abduction.

Then there's the South African laboratory who may or may not be involved. They are definitely worth following up.

There's the 'Asians' that dumped Jake outside the hospital; I've got to presume they're connected to the SUVs at the cabin and possibly the guys who were watching us at the hotel.

The gang who drugged Jake? That's a total mystery.

San Francisco police are definitely hiding something, hence the warrant to arrest me and get me off the streets.

Now, Yorkie has told me there are other players in the background; the Secret Service guys who took charge of the burned body who are connected to an unnamed government agency.

'Edward, you need to think, think, think.'

Bella is still striding ahead which is good as this has given me time to go over today's events, which started with the revelation in the dentist. Then there was the first car chase, Yorkie's confession and almost being arrested, ending with Laurent shooting at us in the car. And the day's not over yet. It's impossible to take it all in. Too much is happening at once. Now Bella has led me here, but why? I could've stayed with Yorkie in the car while she 'reckkied' the place. I'm not needed here. I'm not an expert at storming hideouts either. Is this why I have the feeling I'm walking into a trap?

'Think, think, think!'

Go back to the beginning again, Edward.

James told Bella my dad hired his company to protect me and probably him too. I know this isn't true as dad would've mentioned this in his letter. But if James is 'protecting us', who hired him? More important though, who is he protecting us from? Microsoft? Apple? A whizz-kid nut job who thinks he's the next Bill Gates? This is all bullshit. Either James was hired by someone who was genuinely worried about our safety because of what dad was working on, or James is working for a rival computer company who wanted to steal dad's work. This could mean dad wasn't being protected at all and Bella is an innocent stooge put in The Yard to ensure someone else doesn't grab me to be used as a bargaining chip?

This could also explain why James didn't contact the police after the car fire? Of course, if he genuinely was looking after us he wouldn't want to admit he cocked up. Also, if he grabbed the opportunity to clean out dad's study and sell the contents, I can understand why he kept quiet.

The South Africans could've hired James, which would make sense. Hopefully, Mike can track down who they are today so I can contact them when I get back to the house. Maybe they'd already been victims of industrial spies and wanted to protect dad until they got the device? James could've got greedy and decided to steal dad's work for himself and sell it on. Jesus! It could be any one of these scenarios.

Bella – what about Bella? She says she's my bodyguard and she's on my side, but is she? She's been feeding me ideas about dad. What if she's actually known all along that he's alive and James has him? If that's true, is she knowingly keeping me from being captured by other interested parties so that James can use me to taunt dad if he doesn't cooperate, which is why she's bringing me here? It's been eighteen days since dad was last seen alive? Could he have stalled them for this long?

Bella could genuinely be unaware that James has dad of course, but if that's the case why are we creeping through the forest? Bella must have a reason why she's suspicious of him. She's fed me a line that she thinks he may be behind dad's abduction or knows more than he's letting on, but …..

"You're quiet?" Bella says, interrupting my thought processes. We've reached what seems to be the highest point and she's stopped walking.

"Just thinking," I reply. "There's so much that doesn't add up. I'm trying to make sense of it all."

"Like what?"

"If it wasn't my dad's body in the car, why are the police covering this up? Yorkie said the guys dealing with the wreck didn't identify themselves other than having government ID, so who were they?"

"I've no idea. What else doesn't add up?"

"James Hunter. If my dad hired him for protection and to look after me, why didn't he contact the police after the car fire?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if it was to protect his business reputation."

"So he cocked up and didn't want anyone to know about it."

"Possibly, and to be fair, I wasn't being paid to watch you 24/7. Much as I would've liked to, I wasn't living in your cabin or staked outside. I doubt whether your dad was being watched 24/7 either. Maybe he was being followed when he was out and about in the city but not when he was at home. I'd have to ask James."

"So what did he ask you to do when you came to work for me?"

"He just said, 'keep watch,' especially if new people were sniffing around. Track your vehicle and cell obviously. Check out any places you were planning to visit. All low-key stuff. To be honest I genuinely think James wasn't expecting anything to happen to you when he hired me. When I contacted him after you got the call to go to San Francisco he sounded surprised that your dad was dead. He could've been acting I suppose."

"What do you think now?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes, honestly. Do you think my dad is in that villa?"

"I don't know. I'm certain Hunter knows more than he's letting on though."

"Why?"

"When I reported to him that you'd been threatened at the cabin, he wasn't shocked or concerned. He brushed it off saying you weren't his problem anymore. That was the first inkling I had that he knew something he wasn't telling me."

"How did you leave it?"

"I told him I was going to carry on protecting you, whether I was paid or not."

"So what do you think he's not telling you?"

"That he's found out who else is after your dad's work. If he's got hold of all your dad's papers from his study, he could be trying to sell them to the highest bidder. It could be anything."

"If that's true I'll kill him."

"Don't say that. You're a good guy. Don't do anything to change my opinion of you."

"I'm a good guy, eh! I should take that as a compliment but somehow it makes me feel inadequate."

"You're definitely not that, Edward. You've just been dragged into a world you shouldn't be any part of and I don't want to be a part of anymore. We've got to see this through to the end now."

"I suppose so."

"Do you trust me, Edward?"

"Ninety-nine percent, yes."

"I suppose I'll have to accept that. C'mon. Let's have a look at this villa and see what we're up against."

We creep forward to where we can see down the slope. We're not far from the building but not close enough to see inside the windows. I don't know what I was expecting, but a run-down, flat-roofed wreck of a building isn't it. The undulating land surrounding the house is barren in parts and overgrown in others; the only tidy area is by a raised concrete helicopter pad. I guess the only reason Yorkie described it as a villa is that the walls are dirty white and the windows and doors arched, other than that it's just a boring box.

"Not very impressive, is it?" Bella comments dryly.

"No, but the land is probably worth a fortune. What do you think?"

"About the land?"

"No, about storming it to find out whether my dad's inside."

"I can't see any security, but that doesn't mean they're not here. I don't know, Edward."

"So what's our next move? What's the point of coming up here unless …

I hear a click and instinctively know it's a gun. Bella puts her finger to her lips and begins to unzip her backpack I presume to get her own gun out but it's too late. Bodies are flying at us from several directions and within seconds men in combat fatigues pointing pistols at our heads have surrounded us. I drop to my knees, my hands automatically shoot in the air and my eyes close. I'm expecting to feel the sting of a bullet, but my first, completely ridiculous thought which flashes through my head is at least I'm going to die in a forest and not in a hospital bed with my arms full of wires.

As I wait for the inevitable shot I realize the people around me are laughing. Gingerly I open my eyes to see Bella standing in the middle of a circle of men who are all smiling broadly. One of them nods toward me.

"Is this the guy, Bella?"

"Yeah, go easy, Drew. Hunter's expecting him in one piece. I don't know why he wants him but I'm hoping to get a bonus for this, so kid gloves, eh."

Two guys come over to me and roughly pull me onto my feet. "Walk," one of them orders and pushes me down the incline. I lose my balance and fall against a tree which scuffs my cheek and elbow.

"I said, go easy!" Bella yells.

Common sense tells me to keep my mouth shut but this isn't the time to be sensible or sane. My instincts though have been justified. I've walked into a trap, meaning Bella has sold me down the river. This guy, Drew, gets hold of my arm but I shake it away and forcefully shove him in the chest knocking him backward.

"Get your fucking hands off me," I yell and take two steps towards Bella before I'm restrained. I put up a struggle but this time I'm not going anywhere.

"You fucking bitch!" I scream at Bella. "You've been in Hunter's pay all along and I fell for it. Why'd you do it? What have I done so bad to piss you off? Don't you care what happens to me?"

Bella doesn't answer straight away but stares into my eyes. She's blinking like she's trying not to cry in front of these men? Maybe she genuinely does like me and feels bad about betraying me, but she's still done it. There's no gray area here.

"You haven't done anything, Edward, and I'm sorry you think of me like that," she replies quietly. "I need the money, or should I say my mom needs money. Do you really think I'm enjoying doing this?"

I scoff at her excuses which don't wash with me.

"I don't know anything anymore apart from I've been fucking stupid to have trusted you for so long. I truly hope your mom gets well, but I don't hold out any hope you'll be able to look at yourself in the mirror ever again."

"Maybe not, but what would you do for your dad if our positions were reversed?"

I don't respond as there's no point getting into an argument over who holds the moral high ground. Bella shakes her head and turns away from me. I can tell she doesn't want to look me in the face which is fine by me.

She picks her backpack up and heads off down the slope towards the house. My minders and I fall in behind her followed by two of the hired thugs. The rest disappear into the trees to resume whatever Hunter has hired them to do.

"What's with the hippy clothes, Bella," Drew asks as he fingers Sue's skirt.

"I'm slowly turning into my mother," Bella replies flatly and snatches the skirt from his hand.

Once we're out of the trees and walking towards the house, on the wall facing us a glass door slides open and three people walk out.

Even though I've only seen two of them in a rearview mirror it's obvious who the Rastafarian man and the red-haired woman are. The guy in the middle I'm guessing is James even though he looks nothing like the picture I've had of him in my mind's eye. I was imagining a Jack Nicholson type – along the lines of the role he had in A Few Good Men. This guy looks more like an under-nourished weasel. This surprises me. What happens next surprises me more.

Bella strides up to Laurent and furiously yells in his face.

"You could've fucking killed me," she screams. "I purposely missed your tires. Your shot missed Edward by inches you fucking moron."

Laurent snears at her and even though she's betrayed me, I want to kick him in the balls.

"Victoria swerved the car as I took the shot, Bella, but if I'd really wanted to hit you, you'd be dead by now. To be honest, bitch, if your cop friend had driven over the edge I'd have enjoyed the experience more. There's always a next time."

"Likewise," Bella spits as Hunter positions himself between them.

"Not in front of our guest, children," he says condescendingly. "More important things to consider now, like what happened to the cop who brought you here, Bella?"

"I sent him back to the city. He's supposed to be on duty. I told him we'd get a cab back when we're done."

"But you led him to this place. That wasn't very wise."

"He's already been here, James. He's already reckkied this place twice, including yesterday when he spoke to one of your guards. But if you really want to talk about wisdom in front of our guest, ask that idiot, Laurent, why he used a traceable vehicle to check out Cullen's basement. It was picked up on a neighbor's security camera. I found out an hour ago from this cop the SFPD are already on to you because of that moron's stupidity."

My ears prick up at Bella's explanation about Yorkie's absence. She's lying about the SFPD knowing about Laurent, so if she's lying to James, what else is she lying about?

As I'm bundled through the door into what I presume is James's office, everything that's happened starts to make sense. Bella has used me as bait to flush out James and prove that he's up to no good. If she'd warned me what she was doing, would I have agreed to do this, and would I have poured so much venom into the words I yelled at her? The security men were definitely convinced she'd conned me into coming here. James I'm sure is convinced she's betrayed me.

But she wouldn't have brought me here if she hadn't organized a rescue party? Was that what she was doing in the ladies' room in the gas station? This should mean that the cavalry will be coming over the hill any minute to save the day. If I'm right about Bella, the onus is on me now to act the part like my life depends on it.

As I see hostility in the eyes of the men surrounding me I realize it does. Holy Shit!

Okay, anyone who is used to my writing knows I get delicious pleasure out of leaving cliffies at the end of chapters. I actually couldn't do this to you this time, and leave you thinking Bella had betrayed Edward. For a start, you wouldn't believe me (you wouldn't, would you)? But she's using him as bait though, which is not good news, unless she's arranged some sort of rescue.

Bella has got to have her wits about her now as she's stepped inside the lion's den, but I'm actually leaving the story here for one more chapter. It's about time you knew a bit more about Bella, and how and why she got involved with James Hunter's business before we move on, so over to you Isabella Swan ...

Joan x