Facing Fear by Gennita Low

never envied the man, just hated him for it. Yet Rick didn’t live under the illusion that he was the better guy. In many ways he was just as dangerous as his former deputy director. After all, he had stood by and let all this happen, hadn’t he? And what did that make him? He didn’t like what he had become but there was no going back.
    Unless it was of the highest national security, there was a camera looking in on most of the conference rooms. It was a way of life everyone in the building didn’t even think much about. There was not much privacy around but those who worked there long enough knew where the safest places were.
    At his level, there weren’t many things Rick couldn’t find out. This was his domain, even though no one saw it that way. In the last decade Gorman had taken credit for the successes, and Rick hadn’t cared. Instead he concentrated on rebuilding his file. In those days, after his demotion, no one had wanted Rick in his department, and his only option was Gorman’s offer.
    Looking back, he should have walked away. Instead he had shaken hands with his enemy, knowing full well that he would be used and tossed away. He had been arrogant and foolhardy, believing that he could just prove to everyone that he was a changed person, that he could transfer out when people saw him as a yes-man, someone with whom they could work. And so Hard On emerged from the ashes of his dead-end career. Bureaucrat instead of operative. Paper Intel instead of field cowboy.
    That thought filled him with self-disgust. His gaze returned to the screen to watch Nikki with Agent Jones and Denise. He had used that power to manipulate the three of them together. There was a connection between them somehow, and he meant to find out what it was.
    Watching Denise suddenly stalk off, he wondered what Nikki had said to cause the woman to betray herself with her body language so easily. After all, she was a trained operative, and not easily flustered by words. Even in the throes of passionate sex, she hadn’t given away her cover. Nikki had gotten a reaction without even raising her voice.
    Power. Rick pondered the word as he studied the small figure on the screen. There was a woman who pretended to watch but had made enough moves to put someone like Denise to shame. In the last week Nikki Taylor, had gotten closer to him than any of these other agents I.I. had thrown at him. She hadn’t taken him for granted, hadn’t bought into his yes-man image, and certainly hadn’t been predictable.
    He drew the cell phone from his pocket and punched the numbers without taking his eyes off the screen. A few seconds later he watched Nikki pull a cell phone from her purse, a small frown on her face.
    He was tired of watching. Once upon a time, he had been a doer, a man of action. This investigation might be his final battle, but he would not go down as a damn bureaucrat. Nikki Taylor was the key. Her fear of him was the key. And he would push her into giving him what he wanted.
    “Hello?” Her voice was clear and had a calming effect on his raging emptiness.
    “You know you look like her, don’t you?” he said to the woman in the screen, and enjoyed the small start she gave at the sound of his voice. When she didn’t answer, he continued, “You’re going to ask me questions about her, aren’t you?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Rule number two. I get to ask you personal questions afterward. Since you are into balance, I should have a right to your private space too. And since I’m helping with your research your way, you have to answer my questions my way.”
    Her expression didn’t change. “And if I refuse?”
    “But you wouldn’t.” Just like him, she was after something, too. “I take it the silence means yes?”
    “Yes,” she said, so softly he could barely make out the word.
    The way she said it tugged at something inside him, causing him to give her one chance to escape. “You have talked with Agent Denise Lorens,