Read Online The Spy Who Saved Christmas by Dana Marton - Free Book Online

already had.
    “Are you the father of those children?” came the next question.
    Okay, so they’d done the math. Maybe it would have been smarter to say no, but he found that he couldn’t deny his boys again. “Yes.” And he needed to get them back ASAP. “I want that CD.”
    “No can do. This is too important.”
    “So are my boys, dammit!”
    Adams wasn’t giving him anything. He’d always been a cold bastard, the type to never bend. Reid had always hated that, but never more than now, when something personal was at stake.
    “You know the drill. It’s two lives against the lives of hundreds or possibly thousands. I’m not going to make any rash decisions here. If there’s an exchange, we’ll be handling it. As I said, we have professional negotiators for times like this. People who aren’t personally involved in the case.”
    The only reason Reid didn’t tell Adams where he could shove his professional negotiators was because he’d expected exactly that answer. Keep cool, come up with another plan.
    “I want those bastards,” he said, because it was the truth, and because Adams would get suspicious if he gave up without protest.
    “And you can’t have them. You’re too emotionally involved in this. You’re off the case.”
    Which wasn’t completely unexpected either. Not that the lack of surprise made accepting the words any easier. But Reid knew the system well enough to know that arguing would be futile. He also knew the system well enough to know how to play it.
    “I want to keep guarding Miss Jordan. She already knows me. She’s comfortable with me. It’ll keep me out of the way.” Remaining civil practically killed him, but he got the words out somehow.
    Adams hesitated. “In light of all that you’ve done for us, okay. Yes.”
    “I appreciate it. I have a place nobody knows about. I’ll take her there once she’s had a chance to settle down a little.” He rolled his shoulders to relax them. “So what’s on the CD?”
    “Being worked on as we speak.”
    “Bob?” He knew the resident code cracker, Bob Barnaby. They’d worked together on the Hopeville case. “Let me know as soon as you have anything.”
    “If you promise to stay put and stay out of trouble.” Silence again. “Look, I know this is hard for you. I have a daughter. I didn’t even know you…”
    “Yeah. Me, neither.”
    “That’s tough. Must have been a hell of a surprise.”
    He wasn’t about to discuss that with Adams. “You just do whatever it takes to get them back.”
    “You bet.”
    He ended that call then rang Adams from Kenny’s phone so the FBI would have that number and could start investigating. Ben must have gotten started on it, but he had no idea what the man had learned so far.
    “Okay, this is it. Whatever you find, let me know,” he told Adams. Then he hung up and took Kenny’s phone apart, found the transmitter, removed it and put it in the ashtray in the middle of the table. He switched to his own phone when he was done with that, and made another call.
    “Hey, Carly. I have a favor to ask.” He didn’t have to identify himself—his SDDU code on Carly’s display would do that. She was also a member of the unit. “Shoot.”
    “The FBI is working on a CD. I need a copy. The guy whose account you’re looking for once you hack into Quantico’s mainframe is Bob Barnaby.”
    “Piece of cake.” Carly chuckled into the phone. “Want me to get the cure for cancer while I’m at it? Have I ever mentioned that I’m kind of attached to the idea of seeing my kids graduate from kindergarten? I mean in person, not from pictures while I sit in federal prison.”
    “I wouldn’t ask if there were another way. My boys were kidnapped.”
    A moment of silence on the other end. “Are you playing with me? Are you dangling an irresistible challenge in front of my nose as a joke? Because if you are, Reid Graham, I’m coming to get you. And you’re not going to like it when I get