Get Blondie

It had been explained to Cassie at her recruitment that because much of what SPACE did pertained to national security and many of the agents found it necessary to work outside of the law, the agency was top secret.

The agency had been dealing more and more with domestic matters following 9/11, while other agencies like the CIA and FBI focused more on terrorists.

Cassie didn’t know where the home office of the agency was, but she suspected it was somewhere in Washington, D.C. She’d always worked out of mobile offices like the one she had just left.

In truth, she knew very little about the agency, although Kane had once told her part of the history. It had begun in the mid-eighties as one of many covert agencies run by the government to deal with problems both foreign and domestic that might need special handling. The agents didn’t have to worry about the restrictions that often bound the hands of law enforcement and were highly trained both physically and mentally for all circumstances.

Cassie wasn’t sure how their recruitment ordinarily worked. She’d come to the attention of somebody because of her stunt work in several movies. Apparently an extensive background check had been run on her and they liked what they saw. It didn’t hurt that she had no family. In fact, Kane had told her the agency preferred their operatives to have no families.

Ancient history and in a few minutes she would be back in the fold of the agency she’d left behind.

She remained in the car for a long moment, staring at the old brick building. It wasn’t too late to change her mind, to turn her car around and forget everything that Kane had told her the night before.

She could go back to her ordinary life, arresting bad guys, bickering with her cantankerous neighbor and having breakfast with Max.

All she’d have to worry about were the nightmares that would plague her as she thought of the danger hitting the streets in the form of a deadly drug.

In truth, she had no choice. She hated nightmares.

She got out of her car and approached the building, aware that once she opened the door and walked inside the relatively peaceful life she’d built for herself would be transformed into something much different.

The interior looked like a hundred other employment agencies. Plastic orange chairs lined one wall, a table provided a place to fill out applications and a water cooler occasionally gurgled from its position in one corner.

A receptionist at a small metal desk looked up from the magazine she’d been reading. “Hi, can I help you?”

“I’d like to fill out an application,” Cassie said.

At that moment a door behind the receptionist’s desk opened and a tall gray-haired man stepped into view. “Cassie, it’s good to see you.”

“Hello, Greg.” Cassie smiled at Greg Cole, the man who had recruited her into the agency years ago.

“Why don’t you come on back. I’ve been hoping you’d show up.”

A sense of déjà vu filled Cassie as she followed him down a long hallway and into a private office. He motioned her into one of the two chairs that faced a large, mahogany desk.

She sank down in one of the chairs, suddenly feeling much like she had nine years ago when she’d had her first private meeting with Greg. Excitement and anxiety battled each other inside her as she waited for Greg to get settled in the chair behind the desk.

Once he was seated, he smiled at her again. “You look good, Cassie.”

“It’s all that good, clean normal living I’ve been doing,” she replied and felt herself begin to relax. The old, familiar excitement was quickly taking over the anxiety. She recognized that she was not only back with the agency physically, but emotionally as well.

Greg Cole was a distinguished-looking man about fifty years old. With his steel-gray hair and blue eyes, clad in a three-piece tailored pale gray suit he looked like he’d come from the same mold as a thousand other successful businessmen.

But Cassie had seen Greg put a bullet between the eyes of a paid assassin yards away. She’d seen him scale a twenty-foot fence like a monkey climbing a tree. Greg was much more than a man behind a desk pushing papers.

“Something is agreeing with you,” he said. “We’ve heard good things about you since you’ve been away

from us. Eight commendations, a folder full of civilian praise for you and a stellar record that proves you’re better than most police officers.”

So they’d kept tabs on her since she’d left the agency. Somehow she wasn’t surprised. “I try to be the best at what I do.”

“You were one of the best agents we ever had when it came to working the streets.”

That had been Cassie’s specialty. Her early experiences on the streets of L.A. had given her an insight into the language, the nuances, the underbelly of that world that few people truly understood.

It was something that couldn’t be taught, but had to be experienced and it was part of what had made her valuable to the agency. She’d been useful in information gathering from the streets, able to tap into gangs, drug dealers and weapon deals by knowing who to listen to and what to say.

“You know what they say, you can take the girl off the street, but you can’t take the street out of the girl,” she said.

“I don’t know about that, you manage to clean up pretty well.” Greg’s smile not only held genuine affection, but respect as well.

During the time she had worked for the agency, Greg had always been the superior she reported to and she’d never doubted the man’s integrity and belief in all the agency stood for. She hadn’t left because she didn’t believe in their work. She’d left before she could completely destroy one of their top men.

However, she also knew that Greg’s loyalty was to the agency and agents were expendable when it came to protecting SPACE.

He leaned back in the chair and patted his breast pocket absently. Cassie smiled, realizing the pocket that had always held a pack of cigarettes was empty. “How long since you quit?”

“Six months, but old habits die hard. Kane filled you in?” She nodded and Greg continued. “It’s an insidious plot devised by a devious man.”

“Sounds like a nutcase with a nutty plan,” she said.

“Perhaps, but it’s a mistake to go into this and think Adam Mercer is just your garden variety nut. He’s far too intelligent, far too resourceful to be written off so easily.”

A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. “Come in,” Greg called and Cassie half turned in her chair to see Kane enter the room.

Instantly she felt every muscle in her body tense. She hadn’t expected him to be here.

“Cassie,” he said and nodded in her direction, then took the chair next to hers. She nodded back at him, then returned her attention to Greg.

Shock had gotten her through last night’s unexpected meeting with him but seeing him again now brought forth feelings she hadn’t expected…or wanted.

There was that initial blaze of physical attraction that had always burned inside her for him. It was an attraction built not only on the mysterious forces that worked between a man and a woman, but also on memories of their explosive lovemaking and the intimacies they had once shared. But she also felt guilt…for what had happened on their last assignment. And for leaving him and the agency behind.

“Kane, now that you’re here we can all go over the game plan,” Greg said.

She shot a quick glance at Kane who, despite being seated, radiated with an underlying taut energy. He didn’t return her gaze. Kane smelled the same as she remembered, a wonderful blend of wildness and spice. But she didn’t remember his eyes being as dark, as brooding as they were now.

“We have to stop this shipment.” Greg looked at Kane, then to Cassie.

She shook her head ruefully. “It seems strange. You’re asking me to save the people who under normal circumstances I’d be arresting…drug users and dealers.”

“That’s true and yes, we find ourselves in an unusual position here. But it isn’t just the guilty we’re trying to protect. Innocent lives will be affected if this drug gets on the market. We’re talking about first-time users, college students who succumb to peer pressure, even kids who mistakenly get hold of it.”

“We can worry about the dope dealers and users later,” Kane said. “Right now the man we need to get off the streets is Adam Mercer.”

“Why aren’t the local authorities taking care of this?” Cassie asked. She’d never been certain what criteria were used to determine if the agency would get involved.

“We took it over due to the special circumstances of the potential for thousands of deaths,” Greg explained. “We’re coordinating with DEA.”