“It will all come back to you, even the parts about Gabe.” Uneasiness tightened the knots in her belly even as she uttered the cheery words. Why couldn’t Jack remember where he’d stashed Gabe? Maybe Gabe had gone off that cliff with Jack and hadn’t been as lucky.
Drowning his cereal in milk, Jack jerked his chin toward her cell phone charging on the kitchen counter. “Why don’t you call the computer shop and see what time they’re going to be done transferring the info on Gabe’s hard drive to the new computer?”
“If it’s done before your meeting with Colonel Scripps, you can turn the formula over to him.” She popped a raisin in her mouth and scooted her chair back from the table.
She called the shop and gave Jack a thumbs-up sign. When she ended the call, she spun around, clapping her hands. “It’s going to be ready in an hour. They’re just running some tests on the new computer.”
“Good.” Jack folded his hands behind his head and stretched his long legs in front of him. “The sooner we get rid of that file, the safer you’ll be. Farouk’s guys won’t have any reason to come after you once they know the formula is with the U.S. government.”
“Then all we need to do is find and rescue Gabe. If the terrorists do have him, he won’t be any use to them once the formula is secured.” Lola rubbed the goose bumps that freckled her arms. “Of course, if he’s no longer valuable to them…”
“Stop.” Jack made a cross with his two index fingers. “Gabe’s safe. I rescued him.”
Lola’s lower lip trembled but she nodded her head. She trusted Jack. She believed in him. Hadn’t he kept her safe, too? Hadn’t he rescued her?
He pushed out of his chair and reached across the counter to grab her hand. “Hold on a little longer, Lola. Now let’s get ready to pick up that computer, and if everything goes as planned, we can give the formula to Colonel Scripps and let him and the CIA handle it from there.”
If everything goes as planned. Had anything gone as planned yet? When she’d been rudely accosted by Jack in her car, she’d hoped he would regain his memory quickly and send Gabe back home. Instead, she’d been terrorized, found a dead body, and had fallen for the most dangerous sort of man…one who couldn’t commit.
An hour later, she and Jack pushed through the front door of the computer shop. The bell on the door jangled when Jack closed it, and the sound lingered in the silence.
“Hello?” Lola clung to the strap of her purse and nestled closer to Jack. “Anyone here?”
Jack shot her a glance, his brows drawn over his nose.
She didn’t want to admit to him she half-expected to find a dead body behind the counter. When a live person poked his head out from the back, she jumped.
“Be right with you.”
“Are you okay?” Jack hung an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze.
She whispered. “Don’t tell me I’m the only one happy to see that guy alive.”
“I don’t blame you for being on edge, but it’s almost over.”
“Who are you trying to convince?”
The shop owner came from the back with a laptop tucked under his arm. He set it on the counter and tapped the top. “Everything from the old hard drive is on here. Like I mentioned when you dropped it off, the password is intact and you’ll need it to access the folder that contains the old files.”
“We’re good.” Jack pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket. “How much do we owe you?”
Jack had insisted on paying for everything out of the million-dollar retainer she’d given him when he took the job. He figured it was all related to the case. She didn’t care. The money had come from her father’s ill-gotten gains—maybe that was why the mission had been plagued with bad luck from the get-go.
Jack paid the bill and Lola held the door open for him as he carried the new computer outside.
On the drive back to the house, it felt as if the laptop were burning a hole in the trunk of her car. Could it really be this easy to end the nightmare of the past week?
When they got back to the house, Jack powered on the computer while Lola retrieved Gabe’s letter from the wall safe behind a portrait of her parents. She slapped the piece of paper on the table next to the new laptop.
“Is this thing up and running?”
“Almost.” He shifted his chair to the side. “Do you want to do the honors?”
“That’s okay. I’ll read it off to you.”
Jack clicked open the folder from Gabe’s damaged computer, and a password-protected log-in screen appeared. Lola read off the password in Jack’s letter and held her breath as Jack typed it into the spaces.
Several seconds later the folder opened, displaying a list of numbered files. Lola poked her finger at the screen. “It’s that one.”
Jack clicked open the file, displaying several pages of complex calculations along with notes on trials. Gabe had been working on this for quite a while.
Jack scrolled through the entire document. The last page contained a tree of symbols and numbers. He twisted his mouth into a frown. “Does that look right?”
Peering at the screen, Lola nodded. “The symbols represent a chemical composition of the final vaccine. If Gabe claims this combination will slow down that virus, I believe him.”
Jack whistled. “Smart guy, your brother. What’s next, a cure for the common cold?”
“I think he’ll be happy if this formula can just slow down the progression of the virus in children. It’s like any flu vaccine—doesn’t cure you but lessens the symptoms.”
Jack closed the file and opened the receptacle for the CD. “Do you have a disc? A flash drive?”
“Better yet, I have both.” She held up her finger as she scrambled for her briefcase on the floor by the front door.
Jack copied the file to the disc and the flash drive, and Lola secured the disc in the safe along with Gabe’s letter. Jack shoved the flash drive into his pocket.
Lola slumped against the deep cushions of the couch. “Now what?”
“Now we get some lunch and wait for Colonel Scripps’s call.”
They didn’t have to wait much longer. Lola had taken one bite of her sandwich when her cell phone vibrated. She swallowed and answered on the third buzz.
“Hello?”
“I need to speak to Jack.”
Lola held out the phone to Jack with a slightly trembling hand. As he took it from her he pressed the speaker button, and a zing of pleasure shot to her toes. He really did want her to be a part of this thing.
“Yeah?”
“Jack, it’s me, Colonel Scripps. I made it to Miami. Let’s bring you in.”
“I’m ready.”
“And you have the formula for the vaccine?”
Jack’s fingers traced the outline of the flash drive in his pocket. “We’ll discuss it.”
“Where do you want to meet?”
Lola gestured at the floor with both index fingers. They’d been secure enough at this house, but Jack shook his head back and forth briskly.
He mouthed the words in public.
These spies sure played it close to the vest. She snatched an envelope from the coffee table and scribbled, Maximo Gomez Domino Park, Calle Ocho, surprising herself. Her father and his associates—associates he didn’t trust—had often met in this location to discuss business.
Jack repeated the location over the phone to Colonel Scripps. “Meet me there at three o’clock this afternoon.”
“We’ll take care of you, Jack.”
Jack ended the call and checked the time on the display. “It’s one-thirty. How long does it take to get to Calle Ocho?”
“Not long, about a half an hour.”
“Give me directions or punch the location into the GPS.”
Lola braced her feet against the edge of the coffee table. “I’m coming with you.”
“No. What if someone’s following the Colonel? What if someone follows us? This is a dangerous meeting, Lola, and I don’t want you any
where near it.”
“I won’t be there with you and the Colonel, but I want to be nearby. I deserve to be nearby. Gabe’s my brother, and if Colonel Scripps has any information about him, I want to hear it as soon as possible. Besides, what if…”
She dropped her gaze to her clasped hands, fingers twisting nervously.
“What if?”
“What if the Colonel whisks you away somewhere to deprogram you? What if I never see you again?”
He scooped up her hands in his, cradling them. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“Please, Jack. I need to be there, even if it’s in the background. We can go early and I can find an inconspicuous spot in the park. The Colonel doesn’t know what I look like, anyway.”
“Yeah, but the bad guys do, and they don’t know yet that we’ve already retrieved the formula.”
“Believe me. I’m at home in that park, among those people. Nothing’s going to happen to me there.”
His taut muscles seemed to relax, and she knew she’d convinced him. She disentangled her fingers from his and grabbed her sandwich. “Let’s eat.”
JACK PATTED THE WEAPON in the waistband of his jeans beneath his loose-fitting shirt. “If anything goes down, get out of the park, hop in your car and drive out of here. And don’t look back.”
“I can handle myself.”
“I know you can.” Jack’s gaze darted across the street and down the sidewalk, tripping over the bold, bright mural painted on the side of a building. Uneasiness simmered beneath his skin, like a pot on the verge of boiling over the edge.
Why had Lola envisioned a scenario where Colonel Scripps would haul him away for deprogramming? Was it that far-fetched? The U.S. military and the CIA would want a handle on any information he’d picked up in Afghanistan. He’d gone out there to secure the release of a hostage, but had stumbled upon something much greater, much more vital to the interests of the U.S. government.
And he could remember only about eighty percent of it. The powers that be in Washington would want that remaining twenty percent…and their methods wouldn’t be as benign as Lesley’s.
He grabbed Lola by the shoulders and landed a hard kiss against her soft mouth. “Stay out of sight. And be careful.”
Those tempting lips formed an O before she spun around and melted into a crowd of people gathered around a circle of drummers thumping out a Latin beat.
Jack slipped into the park and meandered past tables of old men playing dominoes or chess. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a figure bearing down on him. The stiff, military posture could belong to only one man—Colonel Frank Scripps.
Jack turned to face him. The Colonel nodded once and veered toward a bench that backed up to a swath of dense foliage. Jack swallowed hard and edged toward the bench, facing it and then balancing one foot on its edge.
The Colonel reached him and thrust out a hand. “Good to see you alive, Jack.”
“Good to be alive.” Jack gripped the older man’s long, bony fingers that still vibrated with vitality and action.
“Have a seat.” The Colonel gestured toward the green bench scattered with leaves from the overhanging ficus tree.
Jack lowered himself to the bench, wedging his back against the wrought-iron arm curving along the side.
Colonel Scripps scratched his chin. “What the hell happened out there?”
“I rescued the hostage, secured him and went back to collect some intel. A few of Farouk’s guys caught me eavesdropping, took offense and forced me over the side of a mountain.”
“Farouk?” The Colonel’s shaggy, gray brows shot up. “He’s involved in this?”
“Absolutely.”
“What did you hear before you went off the cliff? I mean, you already knew terrorists had kidnapped the good doctor because he was working on a formula to combat the virus they’d developed out there.” He lifted one shoulder. “I got that from the CIA boys.”
“I did know that, only because the doctor told me when I sprang him from his prison cell. That’s why I went back. By then I knew Farouk was involved, and I couldn’t resist an opportunity to stick it to Prospero’s old nemesis.”
“And what did you discover when you went back?” The Colonel’s steely blue eyes narrowed.
“Nothing.” Jack shoved a hand through his hair. “Or at least nothing I can remember. I can’t remember where I stashed the doc, either. There are still gaps, holes in my memory.”
“Now that we know you didn’t steal the formula for yourself, we can help you with those gaps, Jack.”
“You know I didn’t steal the formula, but what about your cohorts at the Agency?”
“As long as you turn over the formula, you’ll be golden.”
“And what if I don’t have the formula?” Jack clenched his jaw. Would the Colonel believe him only if he coughed up the formula? Did the man have so little faith in him after all these years? What about Ian, Riley and Buzz? Would his Prospero team members vouch for him?
The nostrils on the Colonel’s patrician nose flared. “You don’t have the formula?”
Jack studied his mentor’s face, looking for a sign that the formula didn’t matter.
Instead the Colonel’s jaw tightened. “What about the girl? The doctor’s sister? Did he send the formula to her?”
A chill crept up Jack’s spine, clenching the back of his neck. How the hell did Colonel Scripps know about Lola?
Chapter Fourteen
Lola skirted the open area of the park where the Cubanos viejos played their games of dominoes and chess. She’d spotted a tall man with a ramrod-straight back wandering through the press of people, out of place among those enjoying an afternoon at the park.
She followed his progress and caught her breath as she noticed something strange. When he passed first one man and then another, the men broke away from the crowd and headed toward the thick foliage that ringed the park.
Had to be a coincidence or her imagination in overdrive. She tracked the two men as they disappeared down separate paths.
The tall man with the gray hair nodded and waved his hand. Jack emerged from the other side of the park and was making his way toward the man, who had to be Colonel Scripps.
Lola crouched behind a table, watching their interaction. Guess these covert ops types didn’t hug it out. Jack seemed stiff, the Colonel reserved.
“Hey, Lolita. Humberto, it’s Lolita.”
Lola jerked her head around and swallowed a curse when she saw a group of men stationed around a dominoes table, men who had been loyal to her father. Men who were still loyal to her and Gabe.
She smiled and still crouching, scurried to their table. “Just the guys I want to see. Can you do something for me?”
“Anything, Lolita.”
“Naturalmente.”
“Sí.”
“I noticed a couple of men on the path through the bushes back there. They were eyeing the little girls playing jump rope. I think they might be perverts or something. Will you check it out?”
She’d barely finished her last sentence when all four of them pushed back from the table, dominoes flying in every direction. The words perverts and little girls in the same sentence had set their blood on fire.
Once they scattered, she turned her attention back to Jack and his colonel. Jack’s body looked coiled and ready to spring. This did not look like a happy meeting between former colleagues.
Lola licked her dry lips and tensed her own muscles. She sensed something terribly wrong and knew she’d have to make a move before things got any worse for Jack.
Yells and curses rose from the bushes behind the bench where Jack and the Colonel sat. Lola vaulted from her hiding place, waving her arms over her head.
“Humberto, Mauricio! Him, too. I saw him, too.” She aimed her finger at the Colonel who had looked up, shock draining his face of all color.
Her aging vigilantes stumbled from the foliage. They had corralled two younger guys to help them, and
they dragged the two “perverts” from the bushes.
Gesturing and yelling, the men surrounded the Colonel.
Lola cupped her hand around her mouth and yelled, “Jack!”
He shot from the bench and flew past the curious people beginning to gather around the arguing men. Grabbing her arm, he hustled her out of the park and onto the sidewalk.
She jogged to keep up with his purposeful stride.
“What was that all about?”
“That meeting didn’t look right to me. You didn’t look right.”
Jack stopped suddenly and Lola stumbled against his back. He turned, steadied her and pinched her chin. “You’re crazy. Get in the car.”
She slid into the driver’s seat and noticed her racing heart for the first time. She was crazy. Who knew how that all could’ve gone down?
She dragged a breath of air through her nose and expelled it in a noisy sigh from her lips. “What happened back there? Not the reunion you’d anticipated?”
Clutching his hair, Jack squeezed his eyes shut. “Colonel Scripps is either in bed with Farouk or he’s lying or both.”
“H-how did you figure that out?”
“He knew your name.”
She lifted her shoulders. “Why is that a sign of anything? He knew Gabe’s name and probably did a little research on the family. It wouldn’t be difficult to link me to Gabe.”
“No.” He shook his head. “He never knew Gabe’s name. Why would he? I’ve been retired from Prospero for years. Colonel Scripps is not privy to my cases.”
She gripped the leather steering wheel with clammy hands. “Is that all? Was that your only sign?”
“I asked him about the other members of Prospero. If anyone can vouch for me, see me through this mess, it’s Ian, Riley and Buzz.” Jack leaned his head against the glass, deep lines etching worry around his eyes. “He told me they were engaged in other pursuits. So either he didn’t tell them, or he told them and they blew me off. I don’t believe it for a minute.”
“And that’s why you think he’s in league with this devil, Farouk?”
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