Girl Takes The Oath (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 5) by Jacques Antoine Read Free Book Online Page B

how’s about you tell me who you really are, and what you want from me.”
    “It’ll be easier for everyone if you just come with us now,” Braswell finally managed to say between clenched teeth.
    “You’re gonna have to do better than that, Ed.”
    “Fine,” he said after an agonizing deliberation, “we’re with the Diplomatic Security Service, you know, from the State Department.”
    “And what’s the DSS want with me?” she asked, though she’d already begun to develop a notion of what they might be after.
    “We just want to talk, to avoid a diplomatic incident.”
    “If you just want to talk, then what’s with the cuffs?”
    “Why’d you run? We thought you’d made us.”
    “I did spot you. But, as you can see, I didn’t run. And anyway, I’m in the Navy. Where am I supposed to run to?”
    “We still need to talk.”
    “Here I am,” she said, and released the wrist of Braswell’s partner. “Let’s talk right now.” She took her foot off the cuffs and helped them up from their knees. Off in the distance, a shadowy figure caught her eye, standing in a doorway on the previous block. The two DSS agents were too busy undoing the cuffs to notice what she noticed. It might be Kano, but she couldn’t be certain from this distance.
    “Put that away,” Braswell hissed at his partner, when he tried to point his gun at her again, tipping his head toward the gatehouse. “Look, Miss, headquarters would be more… private.”
    “So would the Commandant’s office,” she said, well aware the Commandant would point out their lack of jurisdiction. “I’d be much more comfortable there.”
    She glowered at Braswell with all the anger and self-doubt she felt bubbling just below the surface of her eyes. He blanched at the sight, and took a step back.
    “Fine,” he said, after another moment. “The Chinese Security Services are looking for you, Miss Tenno, and we’d like to know why.”
    “For me?” she asked with as much surprise as she could muster. “What do they want with me? And how do they even know who I am?”
    “Don’t play the innocent with us,” Braswell said. “We know you met with Commander Leone and Dr. Kagami, and they must have told you about the extradition request.”
    “I just had dinner with my mom and uncle Theo,” she huffed at them. “We talked about my niece and nephew. Now what’s this about an extradition? What on earth would the charge be? Are the Chinese really trying to extradite me?”
    “Well, not exactly,” Braswell admitted. “But we’re reasonably certain there will be a valid request soon.”
    “So, there isn’t an extradition request? You’re way too subtle for me, Ed. What exactly is going on here?”
    “They made a request for someone we believe to be an alias of yours.”
    “I have no alias. My name is Michiko Tenno, though my cousins used to call me Emily Kane, ’cause my Dad was named Kane.”
    “That’s what any search of official records will show…”
    “I should hope so,” Emily said.
    “But those aren’t the only names you’ve ever used, are they, Miss Tenno?”
    For some reason, this question posed a sudden challenge to her skills of dissimulation. Perhaps the reminder of her father’s solicitude in crafting those identities for her made a demand on her heart. Whatever it was, the lie she needed to tell stuck in her throat for just an instant. She hoped Braswell hadn’t noticed.
    ~~~~~~~
    Crossing the bridge at Decatur before dawn always put Emily in a reverie, even more now with CJ, Stacie and Zaki following behind. Her breath went in and out, humid and chilly at the same time, just enough of a temperature differential to make steam as it left her nostrils. The rhythm was faster than when she sat in one of the windows in Bancroft with her legs folded under her, but not so fast that it couldn’t carry her away with it. Soon the padding of her feet against the pavement reinforced the whole experience. Thump, thump,