Past Sins Read Online Free PDF Page A

plunge toward disaster before Jeffrey got hurt.
    She closed her eyes and summoned the image of the target Ned Soderbaum had given her a ten-thousand-dollar retainer to eliminate.
    Why on earth would anyone want Jeffrey dead?

Chapter 3

    U nable to sleep, by 4:00 a.m. Olivia was on the Internet attempting to track down one Ned Soderbaum. It wasn’t easy since she had to do this the hard way, without any useful contacts.
    She tugged up the shoulder of her silk robe, annoyed that it kept slipping down. Or maybe just annoyed. Who would have thought that after three years she would need this kind of information? It wasn’t as if a dead woman could attempt to log into the CIA’s database without causing a stir.
    Nope. She was on her own. Even if her old user name and password worked, she wouldn’t risk revealing herself. Not if she wanted to stay alive. Apparently one too many people already knew she was alive. Why contact her now? After three years? She was too much of a realist to believe that the resurrection of her old persona was simply a coincidence, especially considering the target.
    Olivia shifted the mouse and clicked, sending Google into yet another search. While she waited for the results she glanced at her weapon lying on the desk in front of the flat-panel monitor.
    A cold sweat formed on her skin. Her heart rate jumped into a faster rhythm.
    She hadn’t taken a human life in over three years. Could she still do it if the necessity presented itself?
    A shaky breath rushed past her lips, making her doubt her ability to accomplish the feat she had once performed with scarcely a thought. That had been a different life…she’d been a different person.
    The search results spilled across the screen, drawing her attention back to her task. One or two Soderbaums. Lots of Neds. But no Ned Soderbaum of Chicago. Her gut told her the guy didn’t exist. But she had to be sure. The proof was right in front of her. No businessman with enough clout to own his own jet would be thriving without at least one hit on Google.
    She could hack into the Social Security Administration’s system as one final stab. She’d already looked at the Illinois DMV database and found nothing. What was one more infraction? She would cover her tracks pretty well, going through an anonymous user ID on Hotmail. Still, a state-level intrusion like the DMV records wouldn’t readily evoke an all-out search for the perpetrator, but a federal breach would bring on the big dogs. Homeland Security’s Net Defense Unit would follow the inevitable tracks until they located this very computer.
    It was a chance she’d have to take.
    A few more clicks of the keys and she had her answer. No Ned Soderbaum in Illinois, period.
    The man had either lied about his name or he didn’t exist. If he’d simply lied about his name, that wasn’t such a big deal, but if he was using an alias, that was a whole different matter. Not using his real name at the moment she asked would have been about fear. Using an alias carried the idea of premeditation, a strategic maneuver to mislead her. Which screamed of a setup.
    Still, if this was an Agency-sanctioned operation, why hadn’t they done their homework and given the guy a history to go with the alias? Ensuring a cover was verifiable was Spy 101 stuff.
    There was only one answer. Because they wanted her to know she’d been made.
    Or…the real threat could be to Jeffrey, and whoever had sanctioned the operation had no idea that research scientist Dr. Jeffrey Scott lived with a former CIA assassin. That didn’t make sense, either, since Soderbaum, or whoever the hell he was, had used her former code name…had mentioned an old enemy. Not to mention that in order for that concept to fly, she was back to the idea of a coincidence and she was a total nonbeliever in the theory. Not when she was the hired assassin.
    She knew of only one way to get to the bottom of this.
    Olivia leaned back in her chair and let go a heavy