CHAPTER THREE

When Ryan answered the phone, Riley wasted no time getting to the point.

“Are you seeing someone else, Ryan?” she asked.

“Why?”

“A woman called here asking for you.”

Ryan hesitated before asking, “Did you get her name?”

“No. I hung up.”

“I wish you hadn’t. She might have been a client.”

“She was drunk, Ryan. And it was personal. I could hear it in her voice.”

Ryan didn’t seem to know what to say.

Riley repeated her question, “Are you seeing someone else?”

“I – I’m sorry,” Ryan stammered. “I don’t know how she got your number. It must have been some kind of mistake.”

Oh, there’s been a mistake, all right, Riley thought.

“You’re not answering my question,” she said.

Ryan was starting to sound angry now.

“What if I am seeing someone else? Riley, we never made any agreement to be exclusive.”

Riley was stunned. No, she couldn’t remember them making any such agreement. But even so …

“I just assumed – ” she began.

“Maybe you assumed too much,” Ryan interrupted.

Riley tried to fight down her temper.

“What’s her name?” she asked.

“Lina.”

“Is it serious?”

“I don’t know.”

The phone was shaking in Riley’s hand.

She said, “Don’t you think it’s about time you made up your mind?”

A silence fell.

Finally, Ryan said, “Riley, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this. I need some space. This whole family thing – I thought I was ready for it, but I wasn’t. I want to enjoy my life. You should take some time to enjoy your life too.”

Riley could hear an all-too-familiar tone in his voice.

He’s back in playboy mode again, she thought.

He was relishing his new liaison, pulling away from Riley and his family. He’d seemed like a changed man recently – more committed and responsible. She should have realized all along that it wouldn’t last. He hadn’t changed at all.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

Ryan sounded relieved to be getting his feelings out at last.

“Look, this whole thing of going back and forth between your house and mine – it’s not really working for me. It feels too temporary. I think I’d better leave.”

“April’s going to be upset,” Riley said.

“I know. But we’ll work something out. I’ll keep spending time with her. And she’ll be OK. She’s been through worse.”

Ryan’s glibness was making Riley angrier by the second. She felt ready to explode.

“And what about Jilly?” Riley said. “She’s become very fond of you. She’s come to count on you. You help her with lots of things, like her homework. She needs you. She’s going through so many changes, and it’s hard for her.”

There was another pause. Riley knew that Ryan was getting ready to say something she really wasn’t going to like.

“Riley, Jilly was your decision. I admire you for it. But I never signed up for it. Somebody else’s troubled teenager is too much for me. It’s not fair.”

For a moment, Riley was too furious to speak.

Ryan was back to thinking about no one’s feelings but his own.

The whole thing was hopeless.

“Come over here and get your things,” she said through clenched teeth. “Be sure to come when the girls are in school. I want everything of yours out of here as soon as possible.”

She hung up the phone.

She got up from her desk and paced the room, seething with anger.

She wished she had some outlet for her rage, but there wasn’t a thing she could do right now. She was in for a sleepless night of it.

But tomorrow, she could do something to let off steam.

CHAPTER FOUR

Riley knew that an attack was coming, and it was going be up close and sudden. And it could come from anywhere in these labyrinthine spaces. She worked her way carefully along a narrow hallway of the abandoned building.

But memories from last night kept intruding …

“I need some space,” Ryan had said.

“This whole family thing – I thought I was ready for it, but I wasn’t.”

“I want to enjoy my life.”

Riley was angry – not just with Ryan, but with herself for letting such thoughts distract her.

Stay focused, she told herself. You’ve got a bad guy to take down.

And the situation was grim. Riley’s younger colleague Lucy Vargas had already been wounded. Riley’s longtime partner Bill Jeffreys had stayed with Lucy. They were both around a corner behind Riley, holding off approaching shooters. Riley heard a three-round burst from Bill’s rifle.

With danger lurking ahead of her, she couldn’t look back to see what was happening.

“What’s your situation, Bill?” she called out.

Now she heard a series of semiautomatic shots.

“One down, two more to go,” Bill called to her. “I’ll take these guys out, no problem. And I’ve got Lucy covered, she’ll be OK. You keep your eyes forward. That guy in front is good. Real good.”

Bill was right. Riley couldn’t see the shooter up ahead, but he’d already hit Lucy, who was an excellent markswoman herself. If Riley didn’t take him out, he was likely to kill all three of them.

She kept her M4 carbine raised and ready. She hadn’t handled an assault weapon in a long time, so she was still getting used to its bulk and weight.

Before her lay the hallway with all its doors standing open. The shooter could be in any one of those rooms. She was determined to find him, to blow him away before he could do any more damage.

Riley crept along near the wall, moving toward the first doorway. Hoping he was in there, she stood clear of the opening, reached out with the weapon, and fired a three-round burst inside. The gun jerked sharply in her hands. Then she stepped in front of the doorway and fired another three-round burst. This time she pressed the stock against her shoulder, which absorbed the recoil.

She lowered her weapon and saw that the room was empty. She whirled to make sure the hallway was still clear, then stood there for a moment considering her next move. Aside from being dangerous, checking from room to room like this was going to cost precious ammo. But right now, she seemed to have no choice. If the shooter was in one of those rooms, he was poised to kill whoever tried to pass the open doorway.

She paused for a moment to monitor her own physical reactions.

She was agitated, nervous.

Her pulse was pounding.

She was breathing hard and fast.

But was it from adrenaline or anger from last night?

Again she remembered …

“What if I am seeing someone else?” Ryan had said.

“Riley, we never made any agreement to be exclusive.”

He’d told her the woman’s name was Lina.

Riley wondered how old she was.

Probably too young.

Ryan’s women were always too young.

Damn it, stop thinking about him! She was reacting like some stupid rookie.

She had to remind herself of who she was. She was Riley Paige, and she was respected and admired.

She had years of training and fieldwork under her belt.

She’d been to hell and back over and over again. She’d taken lives and she’d saved lives. She was always cool in the face of danger.

So how could she let Ryan get to her like this?

She physically shook herself, trying to push the distractions out of her head.

She crept toward the next room, fired a burst around the doorframe, then stepped directly into the doorway and pulled the trigger again.

At that very moment, her rifle jammed.

“Damn,” Riley grumbled aloud.

By a stroke of luck, the shooter wasn’t in this room either. But she knew that her luck might run out at any second. She put down the M4 and drew her Glock pistol.

Just then, a flash of motion caught her eye. He was there, in that doorway just ahead, his rifle aimed directly at her. Instinctively, Riley hit the floor and rolled, avoiding his gunfire. Then she came up to a kneeling position and fired three times, bracing herself against the recoil with every round. All three bullets hit the shooter, who fell backward to the floor.

“Got him!” she yelled back at Bill. She watched the figure carefully and saw no sign of life. It was over.

Then Riley stood up and removed her VR helmet with its goggles, headphones, and microphone. The fallen shooter disappeared, along with the maze of hallways. She found herself in a room about the size of a basketball court. Bill was standing nearby, and Lucy was getting to her feet. Bill and Lucy were also taking off their helmets. Like Riley, they were wearing lots of other gear, including straps around their wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles that tracked their movements in the simulation.

Now that her companions weren’t simulated puppets, Riley paused for a moment to appreciate their real-life presence. They seemed like an odd pair – one of them mature and solid, the other young and impulsive.

But they were both among her favorite people in the world.

Riley had already worked with Lucy in the field more than once, and she knew that she could count on her. The dark-skinned, dark-eyed young agent always seemed to sparkle from inside, radiating energy and enthusiasm.

By contrast, Bill was Riley’s age, and although his forty years were slowing him a little, he was still a topnotch field agent.

He’s also still pretty good-looking, she reminded herself.

For a moment she wondered – now that things were tanking between her and Ryan, maybe she and Bill might …?

But no, she knew that was a terrible idea. In the past, she and Bill had both made clumsy efforts to start something serious, and the results had always been a disaster. Bill was a great partner and an even greater friend. It would be stupid to spoil all that.

“Good work,” Bill said to Riley. He was grinning broadly.

“Yeah, you saved my life, Agent Paige,” Lucy said, laughing. “I can’t believe I let myself get shot, though. I missed that guy when he was right in front of me!”

“That’s part of what this system is for,” Bill told Lucy, patting her on the back. “Even very experienced agents tend to miss their targets at close range, within ten feet. VR helps you deal with those kinds of problems.”

Lucy said, “Well, there’s nothing like taking a virtual bullet in the shoulder to teach you that lesson.” She rubbed her shoulder, where the equipment had delivered a slight sting to let her know she was hit.

“It’s better than a real one,” Riley said. “Anyway, I wish you a speedy recovery.”

“Thanks!” Lucy said, laughing again. “I’m feeling better already.”

Riley holstered the model pistol and picked up the fake assault rifle. She remembered the sharp recoil that she’d felt firing both weapons. And the nonexistent abandoned building had been detailed and vivid.

Even so, Riley felt strangely empty and unsatisfied.

But that certainly wasn’t the fault of either Bill or Lucy. And she was grateful that they’d taken some time this morning to join her in this exercise.

“Thanks for agreeing to do this with me,” she said. “I guess I needed to blow off some steam.”

“Feel better?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah,” Riley said.

It wasn’t true, but she figured a little lie wouldn’t hurt.

“How about the three of us go get a cup of coffee?” Bill asked.

“Sounds great!” Lucy said.

Riley shook her head.

“Not today, thanks. Some other time. You two go ahead.”

Bill and Lucy left the huge VR room. For a moment, Riley wondered whether maybe she should go with them after all.

No, I’d be lousy company, she thought.

Ryan’s words kept echoing through her mind …

“Riley, Jilly was your decision.”

Ryan really had some nerve, turning his back on poor Jilly.

But Riley wasn’t angry now. Instead, she felt achingly sad.

But why?

Slowly she realized …

None of it’s real.

My whole life, everything’s fake.

Her hopes for becoming a family again with Ryan and the kids had just been an illusion.

Just like this damned simulation.

She fell to her knees and started to sob.

It took a few minutes for Riley to pull herself together. Grateful that no one had spotted her collapse, she got to her feet and headed back to her office. As soon as she stepped inside, her desk phone started ringing.

She knew who was calling.

She was expecting it.

And she knew that the conversation wasn’t going to be easy.