Free Agent Hill: Reboot by James Hunt Page B

rings, a woman’s voice answered.
    “Chicago Plumbing. How can I help you?”
    Becca flipped the card over to the phrase that was written on the back. “I’m looking for a new water heater, preferably something around six hundred gallons.”
    “One moment, please.”
    A series of clicks and beeps followed. Another voice she didn’t recognize answered. “Are you alone?”
    Becca paused a moment before she answered, “Yes.”
    “What happened?”
    “A few CIA agents just came by the house, asking questions about Sarah and my husband.”
    “Okay, what did they ask?”
    Becca shook her head. “Who am I speaking with?” A pause followed on the other end of the line. “I want to speak to whoever is in charge. I want to speak with them now!” Another pause.
    “Hold, please.”
    A few rings later, another voice answered. “Mrs. Hill? This is Mack Farr, operations manager for GSF. I apologize for all the secrecy, but I’ll need you to tell me everything that just happened.”
    Becca looked down at the phone then turned it off. She was done with secret phone calls, agents, and lies. All that mattered now was her children, and she didn’t believe they were safe in Chicago anymore.

 
    ***
    Agent Grimes and Agent Mallory moved their black sedan down the road and out of view from Becca’s house. Grimes sat in the passenger seat, his phone glued to his ear, watching the house. “I don’t care what you need to do to wire that house, I just want it done… No, make it an outside team. I don’t want any potential blowback to land on the agency.” Grimes flipped the phone shut, and his partner looked over at him from behind the wheel.
    “You want to check out the other names while they’re getting everything settled?” Mallory asked.
    “No, this is the one. The sudden death of the husband, the sister that’s never around, the obscure job. That woman was spooked. I’d bet my last dollar that she’s reaching out to whoever her sister works for right now.”
    “You think she’s going to run?”
    “No, but I think she’ll do something stupid.” Grimes looked down at Sarah’s file, thumbing through the different pages until he came upon the Chicago Packing Company address. “Let’s go check out the woman’s work, see what we can dig up. I’ll have CPD put a marker on the house to keep an eye on her.”
    Grimes studied Sarah’s file front to back and looked over every square inch of data to make sure he didn’t miss a thing. The CIA had intelligence on everyone, and he had the highest security clearance in the nation. And even with all that, with everything they knew and were capable of knowing, this woman was still a mystery to him. Whatever agency she worked for had shattered that invisible protective shield with which Grimes had surrounded himself.
    When Mallory pulled up to the outside gate of the Chicago Packing Company, Grimes slammed Sarah’s file shut. A “closed” sign was strung up on the outside of the gate along with “hazardous materials” and “do not trespass” signs. Grimes grabbed a bolt cutter out of the sedan’s trunk and snapped the lock keeping the gate shut in half, dropping it to the ground with a thud. Grimes pushed the gate open, its rusty bottom scraping against the concrete. He and Mallory left the car parked on the perimeter and walked up to the abandoned building.
    Most of the building had collapsed, with only a few structures remaining. The report on file said the damage had been caused by a gas leak that exploded during the power outages. With the power out, one of the safety valves had stopped working and triggered the leak. According to the police report, there hadn’t been any casualties, as the explosion happened days after the power outage, which gave the gas lines enough time to seep through most of the property. All the workers who had been questioned after the incident had moved away, scattered, with no forwarding addresses and no other contact