“Don’t worry. I don’t want anything to do with you in my head, either. Consider it done.” Lifting her chin, she turned away from him.
A princess dismissing her peasant.
And that really grated.
Chapter Twenty
He should have let it go, but he couldn’t. Her ignorance put their lives in danger. Worse, it put hers in danger. And he couldn’t stomach the thought of her being hurt because of it.
“Have you heard of Friday Jones?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Have you heard of her or not?”
“Of course I’ve heard of her. She’s the scientist who ran away with CommTECH secrets a few months ago. She tried to sell them to one of our competitors, but the Bolivian government intervened, a firefight broke out, and she died in the fray.”
“Friday Jones didn’t steal secrets, and she sure as hell didn’t die in South America.” He snorted. “She’s alive and well, married to our team leader, Striker.”
The color drained from her face. “That isn’t possible. Are you sure it’s the same person?”
“Oh, I’m sure. She ran from CommTECH when she witnessed a meeting between the world’s leaders that she shouldn’t have. And what did your perfect CommTECH do? They sent mercenaries and Enforcement after her to kill her. Until, finally, they sent in Kane Duggan, who locked her in a cell in an illegal mine in La Paz and waited for her to die. Fortunately, we got her out before that happened, but Kane didn’t make it in the process.”
“No,” she said as her eyes widened. “That can’t be right. I gave the press release on his death. We were told he died in the same firefight that killed Friday Jones. He died protecting company secrets.”
“He died protecting company secrets, all right, just not the ones you think he was protecting. CommTECH is mining ladmium in La Paz, a shit ton of the stuff, all ripped out of the earth illegally, and with the blessing of the Bolivian president. That’s one of the secrets Miriam’s security chief was protecting. That and the fact Friday was in the wrong place at the wrong time, saw something she shouldn’t, and they wanted her dead because of it.”
“It doesn’t make sense…” she muttered almost to herself, but he could see she was wavering.
That was why he opened his mouth and said the very last thing he should have said to CommTECH’s press secretary. “What if I could prove Friday is alive?”
Her dark eyes held his, and there was a plea in them. Her world was crumbling around her, and she was torn between remaining in ignorance and knowing the truth. And for some reason, he just couldn’t let her stay in the dark. It was a dangerous place, filled with the secrets and machinations of CommTECH’s leaders. She wasn’t safe there.
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his handheld datapad. This mission had been a series of screwups since it’d started, and one of them was his forgetting to wipe the information from the datapad after Friday had taken control of it on the terrace. He tapped the screen, telling it to replay last actions, and then he handed it to Keiko.
The screen burst into life with an image of Friday’s frowning face and Keiko gasped.
“I’m taking remote control of your datapad,” Friday said as her image appeared in the top right-hand corner of the screen, frowning. “See this box?” A dialogue box appeared on the screen. “You type in the release command, and the injector will pop out of the datapad. From the time it emerges, you only have about fifteen seconds to inject it into our target, otherwise it will be useless. So don’t release it until you know you’re going to use it.” She let out a long-suffering sigh. “When you get back to base, I’m making you take a Technology for Beginners course. Your ignorance makes you a danger to the team. And it’s embarrassing.”
“I know enough for what I need to do,” Mace’s voice rang out.
“Obviously not, or you’d be doing it.” She turned to her husband, who appeared behind her on the screen. “Is it too late to swap him out and put someone more capable in there? I’m worried he’s going to screw everything up and we won’t get the information we need. This is too important to let Mace loose on it. Millions of people could die if that chip is implanted in their heads.”
“Yeah, it’s too late to swap him out,” Striker said. “But don’t worry about it none. Mace’ll get the job done—he ain’t screwed up a mission yet. Take a deep breath and leave him be. You can fight it out with him once this is over.”
“Fine,” she huffed, “but if we ever have to infiltrate a research facility again, we send in someone who understands how to use a datapad. There are days I’m not even sure Mace can walk and talk at the same time.”
“Hey,” Mace said. “Still here.”
“I know,” Friday said. “I’m finished with your datapad. You can have control back. Do you think you can manage to wipe its memory once I log out, or do I need to talk you through that, too?”
“Why did we rescue her again?” Mace said.
“She’s great in bed,” Striker joked, earning a slap on the back of his head from his wife.
The screen went blank.
Keiko’s hands were shaking as she looked up at him. “That was Friday Jones.”
“I know.”
“She’s alive.”
“Yup.”
“Miriam lied.”
“It’s one of her main skills.”
“I need to think about this.” She sank to the floor and started the recording from the beginning again.
Mace considered her for a moment. Had he pushed her too far? “Are you gonna be okay?” he found himself asking, even though he knew it was probably a stupid question.
She looked up at him. “I have to be, don’t I?”
There was nothing he could say to that, so he turned his attention to finding a way out of the building for the both of them.
…
Keiko watched the recording of Friday several more times as she let the reality of her situation sink in. There was no doubt in her mind she was watching the same scientist that CommTECH had labeled a traitor before telling the world she’d died. Yet here she was, alive and well and part of the team that desperately wanted to get into the research facility.
The same research facility that was working on a top-secret project—a state-of-the-art datachip that would wipe out the competition. Keiko didn’t know anything about the chip except the company was rushing it to the market. Were they so desperate to get it out ahead of their competitors that they were using unrefined ladmium? Her stomach lurched at the thought, and she had to fight back nausea. If ladmium wasn’t processed properly, it would leach into people’s systems and kill them for sure.
She watched Mace as he studied the feeds from the security cameras that were still functioning. It felt like the world had been turned on its head. Her parents were fighting against CommTECH’s rule. Mace was trying to stop CommTECH from killing people for profit. And what had she been doing? Blindly believing every single thing they said to her. She’d never questioned anything. She’d never wondered why Freedom was fighting against the government; she just assumed they were wrong, because her insider view of the company had to be right. But what if CommTECH was doing everything Mace said it was? What if everything he said was true?
She looked at Friday’s face, frozen on the screen in front of her. She was alive. Healthy. Worried about a mission that needed to succeed. The mission Mace had taken. The mission that had caused them to hold her parents, just so they could get inside the building.
She cleared her throat. “You really were never here to steal company secrets and sell them, were you?”
He kept his eyes on the screen, but his shoulders tensed. “Don’t make me out to be a hero. I’m here because my team thought this was a good idea. I’m here to do my job, and yeah, that job involves stealing company secrets.”
“The injector Friday talked about. What is it?”
“Nano virus. It’ll copy the research information
on the CommTECH server. Copy their secrets.” He gave her a dark look. “Still think I’m here for a noble cause?”
The only person he was trying to fool was himself. She knew who he was, now. His actions revealed his true heart over and over again. Mace saved people—her included. That’s who he was.
“I think trying to stop people from having the faulty chip implanted is a noble cause.”
“Like I said, I don’t much care what people implant or don’t implant.”
She rolled her eyes at the infuriating man before looking back down at the datapad. It was tempting to smack Mace with it, but she didn’t. Instead, she considered the image of Friday, frozen in the middle of telling Mace to wipe the datapad clean. To get rid of her image and any evidence that she was still alive. To make sure information about her never got out.
As she stared at Friday’s face, it occurred to Keiko that she had the perfect weapon in her hands. All she had to do was transfer the recording in front of her to her internal chips, and she had all the ammunition she needed to make sure that Mace and his team never blackmailed her again. But more than that, she could use the information to barter with CommTECH, ensuring her parents were never arrested and her job was secure. She could carry on living her life the way she’d always lived it—with her head in the sand, ignoring everything she’d learned about the company she represented.
It was tempting. Denial. Pretending. All for an easy life.
All she had to do was hand Friday over to Miriam Shepherd, and her life would return to normal.
Mace had handed her the answer to her problems.
It was sitting in her lap.
Literally.
Slowly, she moved her fingertip up to the conduit used to transfer data. She didn’t even hesitate. All it took was a second.
With trembling hands, she stared at the blank screen. She’d made her decision.
Standing, she padded over to Mace on her bare feet. “Here’s your datapad.”
Without looking at her, he took it and slipped it into his back pocket. He didn’t even check to make sure she hadn’t made a copy of the file. Friday was right—he was useless with tech.
“I wiped it clean for you,” she said.
He grunted.
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I copied the file proving Friday’s alive?”
His shoulders tensed as he realized the weapon he’d handed her. “Did you?”
She sighed. “I should have.”
His shoulders relaxed. But he wasn’t off the hook yet.
“There’s still the issue of my parents,” she reminded him.
He ran a hand through his hair, a sure sign that he was uncomfortable with the conversation. “They were never in danger. It was all a bluff.”
“What?” The word barely made it past her lips.
“My team would never hurt them. Striker arranged for them to be held while this mission was taking place, but even if you hadn’t agreed to help us, they would have walked free anyway. Unharmed.”
She’d been conned? It was adding insult to injury, and she reacted without thinking, striking out and kicking him hard. Only, her feet were bare, and his leg was made of titanium.
“Argh!” She sat down hard to cradle her bruised toes.
“What the hell, Keiko?” Mace crouched beside her to check out the damage. “Isn’t it bad enough that other people are out to hurt you? Do you have to add to it yourself? You need to think before you do things, woman.”
And this was the man who’d been trying to convince her that he didn’t care. “I could seriously use a hug.”
With a shake of his head, he pulled her into his arms. “You drive me nuts. Never met anybody who just asks for what they want the way you do.”
And she’d never met anyone who confused her as much as Mace. He said one thing but did another, trying to convince her that he was the bad guy while looking out for her at every turn. He’d even risked his team to give her the truth. And back in the hotel, he’d been furious at Striker for using her parents against her, yet he’d still taken the mission his team had given him. He was a bundle of contradictions that would take a lifetime to unravel. But, right now, it felt like he was the only calm port in the storm, and she desperately needed to hold on to him.
Wrapping her arms around his strong body, she breathed in the scent that was uniquely Mace. A scent that she could easily become addicted to. “How else are you supposed to get something if you don’t ask?”
His hand rubbed up and down her back, soothing her. “You’ve got me there.”
“It’s all true, isn’t it? Everything you told me about CommTECH.” The words hurt her heart, but they had to be said.
“Yeah, it’s all true.” His voice was soft, gentle. It was clear he didn’t take any joy in her realization. “I wish it wasn’t. I wish I could have left you in your perfect bubble, believing everything was rosy with the world.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He was quiet for a long minute. “I’d like to say it’s because I’m a contrary asshole, but the truth is, I couldn’t stand the thought of you walking back into CommTECH, believing everything they said, and putting yourself in harm’s way. Working for them isn’t safe. You aren’t safe. And I guess that matters to me.”
A warmth settled inside of her at his words. One she would take out an examine later, when she had time to puzzle all that was Mace. “I don’t understand how I didn’t see any of it.”
“You weren’t meant to see anything.”
“You’ve completely upended my world,” she said against his shirt.
“I’m not sorry,” was the recalcitrant reply.
“I’m still mad that your team scared my parents.”
“I understand.”
“Somebody has to pay for that.” And Keiko was seriously skilled at payback.
“Please, if there’s any justice in the world, let it be Friday,” he muttered.
She couldn’t help but smile. “Was it her idea? The fake blackmail?”
He tensed for a moment, and she could tell he was struggling between the need to tell her the truth and the urge to throw Friday under a bus. At last he sighed. “No, it was the rest of the team. Friday wouldn’t have come up with that or gone along with it if she’d known.”
Keiko made a mental note to ask him about his weird relationship with his team leader’s wife later. Right now, she had another, more burning question. “Who’s the target for the nano virus?”
He didn’t even hesitate to reply. “Rueben Granger.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Couldn’t happen to a nicer person.”
He snorted, and she got the impression he was smiling right along with her, but she didn’t want to lift her head from his chest to check.
There was one more thing she had to know. “Was it fake? Us? Were you just coming on to me because of the mission?”
He gently touched her chin and angled her face up to look at him. What she saw in his eyes stole her breath. “I told you in the car, and I’ll tell you again now. What’s between us has nothing to do with anyone else. That part was real. It was all us.”
For what seemed like forever, they stared into each other’s eyes.
“Okay then,” Keiko whispered before rubbing her face on his shirt. One last snuggle before they got back to reality. “Tell me your plan for getting out of here.”
He kept his hands on her shoulders as he looked down at his shirt with shocked outrage on his face. “Did you just wipe your nose on me?”
And against all odds, Keiko laughed.
Chapter Twenty-One
Private Jet
Somewhere between New York City and Houston, Northern Territory
Daniel Mercer looked up from his handheld datapad, where he was going over the report on the Freedom cell that’d taken over CommTECH’s research facility, to find that his brother was staring at the flight attendant.
“Stop staring at the man.” Daniel kept his voice low.
This was a conversation just between brothers. “You’re making him nervous.”
The emotionless mask that turned toward him had no impact. Daniel had been looking at it since the day they were born. “We need to discuss payment for this job.”
And so it began. The game between twins. The one where Daniel played his part to keep a monster leashed as best he could.
“There will be plenty of people in Houston for you to play with,” Daniel said. “You can have free reign in the building.” The terrorists were going to die anyway. Whether it was from a bullet or at the end of Charles’s knife made no difference.
A small voice whispered in the back of his mind that he was lying to himself. It was a voice he’d been hearing more often over the years, and he suspected it was his long-dead conscience coming back to life. He ignored it and focused on his datapad, telling himself that the agony his brother’s victims would experience was nothing more than they deserved. They were criminals. They caused the death of others.
Usually.
If Daniel managed to keep Charles’s deadly hobby contained by aiming him at the people who needed killing.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t always successful.
“I’ll have the people in the building anyway,” Charles said in the flat, emotionless tone of his. “I choose something else for my payment.”
“No. The Freedom terrorists are enough.”
It was the same argument they went through before every job. Charles thought it amusing to make Daniel feel responsible for every kill he made—by making him approve his choice of victim. It was his payment for Charles allowing him to lead a normal life. As normal as it got, being one half of the Mercer twins.
“I want something more exotic for my knife this time,” Charles said, as though they were discussing the weather and not his need to kill.
A chill went through Daniel. By exotic, Charles meant innocent. “We’ll discuss it on the ground.”
“I will keep you to that, brother.” And then he went back to staring at the flight attendant with a look that caused trained combat professionals to wet themselves and cower.
Red Awakening (Red Zone) Page 15