Chapter 22

Opening the door, she peered out the crack down the hallway and saw the coast was clear, so she stepped out the door and walked down the hallway slowly, looking behind, just to make sure there was nobody there. Approaching the elevators, she heard the doors open and the sound of male voices coming from inside. “You take that side and we'll take this side.” a man said. Luckily, the stairwell was only steps away, so she quickly slipped inside the door and kept the it open a crack and watched two officers walk past. “Who is she?” one man asked the other. “I don't know, her name's Ryder.” she heard the other say as their voices trailed off. Turning and heading down the stairs about 3 floors, she heard more voices in the stairwell below her. “We're checking the south stairwell.” a man spoke into his radio. 

Opening the door to the sixteenth floor, she looked down both sides the hallway. There was a maid with a cart, so Deborah ran over to her and asked if there was a service elevator. The maid pointed down the hall and off she ran towards it with Carlos swaying left and right as her breasts reacted to her long powerful strides. Reaching the elevator, she pushed down, then ducked into a doorway and waited. “Come on. Come on.” she muttered, waiting for the doors to open. A pair of NYPD officers appeared at the end of the hall and started walking towards where she was standing. She unzipped a pocket on the front of her jacket and took out her glasses. She put them on, then took her tablet out of the bag at her feet. The officers saw the glow from the tablet on her face as they approached. “On the sixteenth. No sign yet.” one of them spoke into his radio. “Good morning ma'am.” one of them said.
“Good morning.” she replied.
“Are you waiting for someone?” he asked.
“Yes, my husband. He's talking to someone on the phone in the room.” she said. “All work and no play.”
“Okay.” he said. “Sorry to bother you.”

He turned and started to walk away, but his partner stopped him and said something to him quietly. Deborah knew he had recognized her from the day before. He turned back and asked “Aren't you the detective we gave a ride to yesterday?”
“Detective?” She said with a chuckle. “I think you have me confused with someone else.”
Can I see some ID?” he asked.
Putting the tablet down in the top of her bag, she said “Of course. Is everything okay?”
“Yes ma'am, just a routine check.” he replied.
Deborah could see the other officer had his hand on his gun. “I think I left it in my room.” she said. “Why don't I go get it?”
He drew his gun and said “Hands where I can seem them.” he shouted at her. “Call it in O'Brien.” he told his partner, but before he even had a chance to move, Deborah grabbed his hand and swung him around, holding his gun to his head. “Don't even think about it.” she told the other officer. “Put it down on the floor.” she told him.
He hesitated and just stood there, staring her down. “I'm not joking O'Brien.” she said.
“Just do it!” Di Paolo yelled, feeling her tighten her hold.

He dropped his gun on the floor. Deborah spun the first officer around and pushed him back, then popped the clip from his gun and tossed the empty gun down the hall. “Kick the other one over here.” she told them, pulling her glock from the holster. He did what she said. Deborah bent down and picked up his gun , uploaded the clip and tossed the gun aside. “I'm going to get into that elevator and you two boys aren't going to follow me.” she told them. She backed up, grabbed her bag just as the door opened and got into the elevator, pressed the basement button, then the close door button.

“She's in the service elevator at the south end.” the Di Paolo spoke into his radio as the both retrieved their guns off the floor. “I knew it was her.” O'Brien said. “I'll never forget that face.” Back in the elevator, Deborah was watching the floors light up on the elevator panel impatiently and pressed the first floor button, not wanting to get stuck in the basement. When the elevator finally stopped, she put her gun back in the holster and stood to the side, waiting for the doors to open. She looked out and saw there was nobody there and headed for the stairwell. If she was lucky, she could head down to the parking garage undetected and make a clean getaway. Just before the stairs, an officer turned the corner and came face to face with her. Startled, he tried to hit his radio with his cheek, but she gave him a fast, hard shot to the gut, then grabbed his head and slammed it into her knee. He went down like a sack of potatoes, out cold. She continued to the stairwell and headed down to the garage, but just her luck, this stairwell only went to the lobby. She looked out the small rectangular window to see a bunch of NYPD uniforms. “Shit.” she said, standing back against the wall. Speaking down to Carlos, she said “Carlos sweetheart. Brace yourself. I have to make a run for it.”

She opened the door and quietly stepped into the lobby, hoping nobody would notice her, which worked for the first few seconds, until she heard Morris yell “Ryder.”
Turning around, she saw about ten uniforms with their guns drawn walking slowly toward her. Morris said “Give it up Ryder. You got nowhere to go.”, but she took them by surprise when she turned and ran the opposite way, down a corridor of shops.
“Nobody fire.” Morris yelled as the uniforms took off after her.

She ran all out and made it out the doors onto the street, then looked to her right and saw the parking garage entrance. She ran to the entrance and had to slide right across the hood of a car that had stopped in the entrance. The driver got out and yelled at her, but got back in his car pretty quick when he saw several uniforms in pursuit. Making it past the attendants booth, she crouched down between some cars and caught her breath. “We're okay.” she told Carlos. “We're good.”
He had been bounced around a bit, but was still pretty snug.

Peering over the cars, she saw the area where her bike was parked about two hundred feet or so away.  Carefully making her way between the cars towards the bike, she could hear officers calling out to each other as they looked for her. It took about ten minutes of moving from car to car, row to row and she was able to avoid detection and was now only about twenty feet away from her Ducati on the other side of the access lane. There were three uniforms walking down the lane between rows with their flashlights. Deborah crouched down and waited until they passed, moving around the front of a car to avoid being seen. When they were five of six cars down, she scurried across to her bike. She clipped the bag onto the tank and quietly saddled the seat. She adjusted Carlos a bit, then put on her helmet, ant started the motor. The three officers turned around and shone their flashlights at her. She put the bike in gear and gunned it, speeding right past them, almost knocking them over. Within seconds, she was up the ramp, breaking right through the barrier with the front wheel.

Morris, still on the sidewalk, saw her speed away and flagged down his driver and got in. “Follow her.” he shouted. He grabbed the radio and spoke “All units. Ryder in on a black motorcycle heading south on 8th at 54th. Do not fire unless I give the go ahead. I repeat. Do not use your weapons unless I give the go ahead.”
NYPD cruisers joined in the chase one by one following her as she weaved through traffic on 8th. She was gaining on them, but two more cars joined in ahead of her, trying to cut her off. She slammed on the brakes and turned down an alley, gunning the bike's engine past a bunch of garbage containers. Reaching the end of the alley at 9th, she slowed down and saw a police car to her left with it's lights and siren on coming towards her. Gunshots rang out from the approaching car as she took off north on 9th. Ricocheting bullets rang out as the uniforms in the car behind were continuing to fire. “Stupid ass holes are going to kill somebody!”  she shouted out loud.

With the car right on her tail. She shifted right, then hit the brakes, letting the patrol car pass her as the driver slammed on the brakes. Grabbing her Glock from the holster she pumped two bullets into the front tire of the police car, blowing it out, then sped down 9th ripping right through an intersection of cross traffic, narrowly missing a taxi.  Her bike screamed past two black SUVs parked on the side of the street. “Follow her.” the passenger said as she took her phone and made a call.
“We have a situation.” she said “Someone has tipped of the NYPD that she's a murder suspect. We intercepted the call to Captain Morris.”
“How did this happen?” the man on the phone asked.
“The only way was someone on the inside sir.” she replied.
“We are loosing control of this.” he said. “We have no way of knowing who's involved at this point.”
“I agree sir.” she replied. “What do you want me to do?”
“Does she have the second carrier?” he asked.
“I can't be certain.” she replied.
After a short pause, he replied “Extract her.”
“Yes sir.” she said.
“And Claire.” he said.
“Yes sir.” she replied. “You need to contain this. We have to move on Mitchell and I don't want anything tipping her off.”
“I understand sir.” She replied. “I'll take care of it.”
Ending the call, she told the driver “Don't loose her.”
“I'll try. She's really fast.” he said, weaving in and out of traffic behind Deborah.

She took her phone and called another number and spoke as soon as there was an answer. “This is a priority operation. Notify the NYPD to stand down in the chase involving a Deborah Ryder. Notify them that they are in pursuit of one of our agents who is undercover. Authorization Alpha one three seven delta five five four.”
“Code has been verified.” the person responded. “Notifying NYPD now.”
Morris looked at his driver as they both heard dispatch over the radio. “Be advised that we have been ordered to break off pursuit of Deborah Ryder and stand down.”
“Who ordered this?” Morris asked, after picking up the radio mic.
“We were told she is under cover and it is a matter of national security,  and now federal jurisdiction.” dispatch replied.
Her put the radio mic back on the holder and shook his head. “National security.” he said, exhaling loudly.  She was a plant under my command. Do you believe it? The fucking CIA or NSA put her in there.”
“How do you know it's them?” the driver asked.
“Who else would have someone inside for five years?” he replied. “And I'll bet you Munoz is involved in this too. Well I'm not letting this go, I'll tell you that.”

Deborah was two blocks ahead and had slowed down after looking back to see that the cruisers that were behind her had broken off the chase. She pulled over and stopped and popped up her visor, wondering what was going on. Shortly after, a black SUV pulled up behind her and stopped. The dark haired woman that had been following her for the past couple of days got out and stood on the sidewalk, then started walking toward Deborah, who had taken off her helmet and put it on the mirror. 
“Hello Deborah.” the woman said.
Shaking her head and looking down, she said “I should have known.”
“Let me explain.” the woman said.
“Explain?!!” Deborah raised her voice. “After, what? Five years of not knowing where the fuck you were, or if you were even alive, you want to explain?!!”
“We need to talk.” she replied.  “This a lot more complicated than you realize.”
“Why didn't you contact me? Let me know you were okay?” Deborah asked.
“I couldn't contact you. You know how it is.” she replied.
“Yeah, I know how it is.” Deborah shot back. “My own mother doesn't give a shit about me.”
“That's not true.” she said. “I'm your mother and I love you.”
“Save it Claire.” Deborah told her. “I'll get myself out of this. I don't need your help.”
Claire moved closer, put her hand on Deborah's arm and said “I'll explain everything. Believe me when I tell you that you can do this alone.”

“So you're behind all this?” she asked, shaking her head. “I'll bet you're behind me getting recruited into the agency too?”
Claire exhaled and said “You have your father to thank for that Deborah.”
“Dad is involved in this whole mess too?” she asked, quite shocked.
“He has nothing to do with this.” Claire replied. “He wanted you to go farther than detective and recommended you to Director Wiley.”
“Wiley.” she commented. “And here I was all this time thinking I got in because I was good at what I do.”
She sat on her bike, staring up at the sky, wondering how on earth she could have fallen for it all for so long. She felt so betrayed and used. Her hand stroked her chest as she thought about Carlos, who she had purposely gotten to shrink down to basically, nothing. Now, her plans of getting him back to normal could be thwarted and she could have shrunk him permanently. Carlos could hear some of the conversation, but not all of it. Deborah had pushed her breasts together a number of times and that shut out pretty well all the external sound.

“This is just...so wrong. You couldn't just talk to me, you had to pull all this shit. How can you even call yourself my mother? You're so fucked up.” Deborah said.
“Don't talk like this.” Claire said. “I did what I did to protect my country.”
“You country....how about protecting your daughter?” Deborah shot back, pointing at herself. “Why the fuck did you pull me into this?”
Claire stood still, looking at Deborah, who looked like a taller, younger version of herself. “I see a lot of myself in you Deborah.” she said. “I recommended you for the position because you're strong, smart and beautiful.”
“I'm nothing like you Claire.” Deborah said sternly.
“You might not think you aren't, but you are.” she replied.
“No Claire.” she replied. “I would never abandon my kids and let them grow up without a mother.”
“I did not abandon you Deborah!” Claire said loudly. “I always knew where you and Robbie were.”
“So what.” Deborah replied. “Just because you had your parents raise us, and had your cronies watching, doesn't make that being a mother. I'll bet you were one of the reasons Robbie got killed.”
Looking away for a few seconds, Claire looked back and said “Listen Deborah, we will have to get into this another time. I know I haven't been the best mother, but right now, I need you.”
“You need me.” she replied. “You've got yourself into this mess and now you want me to help get you out of it?”
“I know you're pissed off at me right now, but we need to focus if there's any chance of getting things back to normal.” Claire said.
“Things?” Deborah asked. “You mean Carlos, right?”
“Yes.” Claire replied.
“You see.” Deborah said. “Right off the bat, you're being coy with me. How about you cut the bullshit.”
“Where is he?” Claire asked.
“He's somewhere safe.” Deborah replied. She was not about to volunteer anything that she didn't need to.
“Is he....you know?” Claire asked.
“Fuck off Claire.” Deborah said. “You know damn well that he's been shrunk.”

Claire exhaled, feeling the tension between her and Deborah build. She had to diffuse the situation or it could spell disaster. She had no idea that Paige had already developed the serum and had used it on Wiley. She also had no idea that Deborah had that same serum that she taken from the lab. “Can we go to your place? I don't want to talk here.”
Not seeming very convinced, Deborah looked at her and said “If you want my help, we're going to set some ground rules.”
“Okay.” Claire replied.
“You may know a lot of things from all your surveillance and eavesdropping, but you don't know everything.”  she told her. “If I even smell your bullshit, I'm gone. Are we clear?”
“We're clear.” Claire replied. “Is your place close?”
“Paige has bought off agents left and right.” she told her. “There's no way we're going to my place.”
“Okay, then.” Claire replied. “We can go to my office.”
“No way.” Deborah said as she picked up her helmet. “I have a hotel room nearby. Follow me.”

She put on the helmet, closed the visor and started the engine as Claire headed back to the SUV and got in.
“Can you trust this girl?” the driver asked.
“That girl is my daughter.” Claire replied.
“You daughter?!!!” the driver asked, looking over at Claire. “What do you mean your daughter?”
“Just follow her and stop asking me questions.” she told him.