I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries, No. 1) (Sophie Green Mystery)

someone all in black yelled, “Freeze!” and aimed a gun at me.
    I swung the pistol at him. “You freeze,” I yelled, at the same instant I took in the hazel eyes, the shiny hair, the expression of disbelief.
    For a second or two we were locked like that, me straddling Wright, aiming at Harvey, while Harvey stood and aimed at me, our eyes on each other, neither quite believing what we saw. Of course, Harvey probably believed it less. I’d sort of guessed who he was; I’d be pretty surprised if he could reconcile “secret agent” and “drunken floozy” with each other.
    Then Wright threw me off, moving with surprising agility for someone so large, and I fumbled to get the safety off and aim after him, but he shoved past Harvey, who rang out a shot, and vanished.
    Harvey ran after him, but by the time I’d got outside, Wright had already driven away. Harvey fired after him but the car swerved and the bullet missed.
    I grabbed the keys from my bag, letting the SO17 door swing shut and lock itself. At least I hope it locked itself. I jumped into Ted and gunned the engine, and to my amazement Harvey banged on the window to be let in.
    “Don’t you have your own car?”
    “Are you going after Wright?”
    I nodded.
    “Then we’ll go together. Two guns are better than one.” He’d hardly shut the door by the time I took off, rattling through the business park as fast as Ted would let me. “By the way, Sophie Green, who the hell are you?”
    “I could ask the same question,” I said, swinging us around a corner, making Harvey wince.
    “James Harvard, CIA,” he said, badging me. I only glanced at it for a second and pretty much had to take it on faith that the badge was real. But I’d pretty much figured him out earlier. He was part of exactly the same game as me.
    “Damn,” I said, “Luke was right.” And also hysterically wrong.
    “Luke?”
    “He said you were James Harvard. He also said you were Wright’s partner…”
    “Seriously?” He shook his head. “How do you even know about this Wright stuff? Who are you?”
    “Sophie Green. I’m not a stewardess.”
    “No shit.”
    “I’m a secret agent.”
    He laughed.
    I swung a corner extra hard.
    “No, really,” Harvey said, smile fading.
    “Yes,” I glared at him, “really. There’s a badge in my bag. Well, a warrant card.”
    He obviously didn’t believe me, because he looked through my bag for my wallet. “In here?”
    “No, on the chain. With my BAA pass.”
    “This says you’re a Passenger Service Agent.”
    “That’s my day job.”
    “Jesus.” He read my warrant card and seemed satisfied, if a little bewildered. “So you’re after this guy too?”
    “We have reason to believe he’s involved in the murder of a hundred and forty-five people,” I said.
    “A hundred forty-five?”
    “Plane crash. Mostly. The other two—” we reached the exit and I craned to see which way he’d gone, before deciding on right, “—were people who got in the way. My boss was one of them.”
    “And who’s your boss? I never heard of SO17.”
    “Lot of people haven’t. We’re very small. Just me and Luke and a couple of others.” I glanced over at him. Black jeans and sweater, gun holstered openly at his side. “So why are you after Wright?”
    “Fraud.”
    “Gee, you Americans take fraud very seriously.”
    “Didn’t you see Catch Me If You Can ? He’s been skimming for years. Wrightbank made masses of money and Wright took most of it.”
    “I thought that was the FBI, not the CIA.”
    “He’s also been involved in some heavy-duty sabotage. You know he has a partner?”
    “Yes,” I said through gritted teeth.
    “You know who it is?”
    “Luke thinks it’s you.”
    Harvey frowned at me, then his face cleared. “That’s why you turned up this afternoon!”
    “Yep.”
    “Were the cocktails part of the plan?”
    “If you mention them again, I’ll have to shoot you.”
    He grinned. “Where are we going?”
    “I’m going after Wright. You can go where you like.”
    “I don’t see him.”
    “My car has many useful attributes. Amazing speed is not one of them.” Zero to sixty took a long while. Top speed meant waiting for next year.
    “No, I mean I don’t see any sign of him. He’s not on the road.” Harvey twisted his head to peer far to the left. “What’s that over there?”
    “Um, the motorway.”
    “I mean on the other side.”
    “The high school?”
    “I see headlights.”
    “Probably just