by Vikki Romano
This was far more aberrant than the experience in his rig. It felt as if he hovered in midair. Numbers, symbols, and bytes floated around him, each of them with a different texture. Some sharp, some soft, some electric and tingling. When he reached out, it wasn’t with an arm or a hand, but with his mind, like a dark, amorphous bubble shifting effortlessly to envelop the shapes he saw before him.
The information moved through him on a warm, ethereal breeze as if they passed through him like ghosts. And as he absorbed them, his mind burst with imagery and meaning. Sent off on a plane of thought he could not comprehend. Flying at top speed, but not moving, he felt as if he were exploding, expanding, becoming the information he sought to decode.
And as if slapped in the face, he fell out of this electronic trance in an instant, one thought in his mind. GenMed.
It didn’t surprise him, but the whine in the background, the hum he could not identify, was one he’d heard before. Made by a generator in the building where they were holding Sierra when he found her on the roof.
Wiping his sweat-covered face in his hands, Calder bolted from Gage’s office and ran to the control room.
“They have her at GenMed, at the building where we rescued her,” he blurted loudly as he rushed into the room, and after a brief pause in activity, the techs at the monitors went into a frenzy, pulling data, looking at digital coverage.
Gage got his attention and waved him to a monitor across the room.
“We just found this as you came in with the news,” he said, tapping the screen to replay the digital feed they were looking at. “We followed her as she left here earlier. She went down the street to a coffee shop. She was there for an hour and then…” He pointed. “He shows up. She must have called him.”
“Shit!” Calder said.
“Len ran some underlying scans and was able to pinpoint the time she made that recording, which was about a half-hour after she left the coffee shop with him.”
“So he took her to GenMed from there? Can we get a read on that?” Calder asked, looking down hopefully at Len, who tapped at the screen a few more times.
“GenMed has pretty stiff surveillance,” he said with a grimace. “They use jammers and hold the data on a storage unit at a satellite. Very high-level clearance.”
“So we can’t get in?” Calder asked, looking at Gage. Gage smirked.
“We’ll get in,” he said, then tapped his ear. “Can you ask Steven to come down here? Yeah, OK.”
“Steven? From my team?” Calder asked. The thought that he’d see someone he knew while this was going on was an odd relief.
“Yeah, we made him an offer and he was more than happy to join us.”
“Cooper?”
“He needed a little more convincing, but he’s here too. I have them working upstairs in recon.”
Calder blinked at his response and grinned broadly, slapping him on the shoulder in thanks.
Moments later, Steven came barreling into the room, wide-eyed and out of breath.
“McKenna!” He offered with a grin of his own.
“Good to see you again, Jay.” Calder smiled. “If anyone could help with this, I know you can.”
Steven looked from him to the monitor, a look of immediate interest on his face as he pulled up a chair.
“What did you find?” Steven asked, looking back at Calder over his shoulder.
“GenMed has Sierra again. She’s in there with her boyfriend.” Mentioning that little fact had the bile rising in Calder’s throat. “I don’t care about him, but we need to get her back out. Can you access their digital feed so we can see where she is?”
Steven blinked a few times and pursed his lips, whistling briefly.
“Wow, GenMed, yeah, their security is really tight.” He turned back to the monitor and started to tap on the screen, then engaged the VR keyboard with a wave and began typing code into a secondary screen. His eyes moved back and forth between the two monitors as he continued to type, and he stopped for a few seconds and shook his head.
“Well?” Calder asked, then turned a questioning glance to Gage.
“Well, shit, McKenna. I have to get into their mainframe first. Give me a minute,” Steven scoffed.
Calder smirked in spite of the gravity of the situation, grabbed a chair from a nearby desk, and wheeled it to sit next to him.
After a few more minutes of keying information into the system, Steven turned to him and blinked.
“Are you going to sit there and watch me? You’re making me nervous.”
“Sorry, just anxious,” Calder said with a shrug.
Steven eyed him again, and Calder knew that look.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “Though you know, while you’re doing this, I have a few things to discuss with Jordan. Is he around?”
“He’s up in recon too.”
Calder stood with a nod, and stopped momentarily and turned back to Gage.
“Jimmy?”
Gage nodded. “We can’t seem to convince him to leave his little sanctuary. He’s a good soldier, but he’s a bit tweaked. Not sure he’d be good here anyway.”
Calder sighed. They could use a man like Jimmy on their team, but he understood what Gage was warning him against. It was something he would have to think about. Perhaps he’d go out and talk to Jimmy after this whole ordeal with GenMed was done, get him out of his woodland cocoon.
But for now, getting Sierra back was utmost in his mind.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Sierra wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, especially Eric. To see him walk in just as she was about to be pissed off over a caramel latte just pissed her off more.
“What are you doing here?” she said, setting her cup down. Her words were loud, and several patrons turned to look in her direction. Fuck them.
Eric held up a hand as he passed her table, ordered a coffee of his own, then came back, taking a seat across from her.
“I was going to find you at work, see if you were free,” he said, then sipped his coffee. He had his usual smug expression that just made her simmer at a higher temperature.
“Why didn’t you just call or text me?” she asked, then took a sip of her own coffee when she realized how nasty her voice sounded.
“I wanted to surprise you,” he said. “I have some great news.”
“News?” Christ, she didn’t need any more news.
“Yeah, I got a job offer and they asked me to come in for a minute to pick up some paperwork. I told them about our news and they asked that I bring you with me,” he said, smiling.
Our news? She didn’t think there was any news to be telling anyone. She hadn’t agreed to the engagement, and the fact that he assumed she had made her want to deny it all the more. And what company asked employees to bring family in? What were they trying to do, stroke his ego? It wasn’t that hard to do. She’d been doing it long enough to know.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, and brought her cup up to her lips again, letting the coffee burn down her throat, soothing her.
“What, that I bring you?”
“No, that you take a new job. Where is it?”
“Well, Jesus, Sierra, you just took a new job without so much as a nod from me.”
OK, he had a point, but it wasn’t like the commute was that bad. Gage had mentioned housing in the area, as they had a special deal with a local development firm, took care of their security so they got apartments in a great area with pretty low rents. She was going to mention it to Eric the previous week, but things got out of hand with the kidnapping and then trying to cover it so he wouldn’t ask questions. God, her life was getting complicated.
“It’s not so much a new job. It was more like a transfer,” she said, looking away from him, trying to sound convincing.
“Bullshit. Besides, this new offer is exactly what I was looking for, and the salary and benefits are prime. We could sell the house
and move if you wanted.”
Go ahead, sell the house, she thought. She hated that place. In a better world, she would never have lived there. It was way out in the suburbs and was nothing like the style she would ever want, but it was his, and when he had asked her to move in, it was convenient. She was about to lose the lease on her place and didn’t want to stay there. Now, she wished she hadn’t moved in.
“Do whatever you want,” she said, and finished off her latte.
“What’s with the mood?” he asked, sitting back in his seat, looking at her skeptically.
“Sorry. I had a shit day. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”
Eric finished off his coffee and stood, holding out his hand.
“Come with me. I’ll show you off at my new company and then take you to dinner. We can go to that sushi place that you love in town.”
“But you hate sushi,” she said, standing to take his hand. God, why was she baiting him? Going was the least she could do. He didn’t deserve her derisiveness. For once, she wasn’t mad at him--she was mad at Calder.
“Jesus, can’t I be nice to you?” he asked, taking her hand and pulling her out of the café.
Sierra smirked grudgingly as he pulled her along the sidewalk and, once at his car, let her hand go, and she got inside.
“So where is this company?” she asked as he poked at some buttons on the dash, preparing the car for departure.
Finally strapping himself in, he hit the ignition and sped out into the street traffic.
“Westchester.”
“New York?” she asked, and he turned a sour face to her as if she had asked a dumb question.
He didn’t answer.
“They offered a pretty sweet signing bonus. I’ll see how it goes, and if I don’t like it, it’s not like I can’t leave.”
“Yeah, but if they give you a signing bonus, doesn’t that mean you’re locked in?”
“There are ways around everything,” he said with another one of his looks.
And it was probably at that very minute that she decided her answer was no. How could she marry a man who thought she was an idiot? And perhaps Calder was right--maybe he did push her around a bit too much. The verbal arguments were nothing new, but when he started physically slapping and punching her, she should have put her foot down. It wasn’t like he’d ever really hurt her. She was so used to getting banged up at work that the few bruises he caused never even registered to her. And it wasn’t like she never hit back. She wasn’t some frail victim in this relationship, not like that night that Calder had interrupted. That was the only time she’d felt outmatched by him, beaten, and Calder had witnessed the entire ordeal.
Eric had been pissed off about her working so many hours, that she was never home and the house was a wreck, and it was, but it wasn’t like he didn’t have time to clean while he was sitting around waiting for her. Domestic fights between them always got out of hand, always ended with one of them getting slapped or knocked down, because although she didn’t mind doing the cleaning for the most part, it was the fact that he saw it as a woman’s duty that bugged her. Especially since he had more time off than she did.
And the fact that some of those long nights were on purpose should have been a sign that she had had enough, but she couldn’t bring herself to cut him off, because in the scheme of things, she always had someone to come home to. She couldn’t deal with being alone.
Had Calder even given her the slightest inclination that he was interested, she would have happily gone in that direction, so for him to suddenly come out and spew all that crap about how much he cared after years of disinterest…
“What kind of job are they offering?” She had to keep the direction of her thoughts from making her more upset than she already was.
Eric continued to stare ahead as he dodged traffic, but he smiled, apparently happy about her curiosity.
“Biomedical engineering,” he said, proud of himself. “It’s a far cry from the aeronautics I’ve had to deal with in my last few contracts, but this place is up there. Cutting-edge prosthetics and joint replacement. I won’t be working in design at all, probably will be dealing more with the spec end. Materials and such.”
“That’s great,” she said, trying to sound supportive. “That field really has a lot of growth. Should be good for you.”
“That’s the plan,” he said, smiling, then he cut off their conversation by turning up the music, tapping along and moronically miming playing guitar on the steering wheel.
Sierra nodded incredulously then turned away to watch the world pass by. Her mind skipped from thought to thought, not settling too long in one spot. She thought about her new job, the new crew, Calder, Gage, and myriad other things, including the proposal from the previous evening.
She hadn’t expected it at all, so when it happened she was certainly taken by surprise. Eric was never one to be romantic or sentimental, so it also didn’t surprise her that he didn’t have a ring to sweeten the deal--not that it would have made up her mind any quicker. She was on the fence about it, and jewelry never did it for her anyway. Knowing him, he would have picked some gaudy thing that looked like he got it off a mob boss’s dead wife.
That he didn’t have a ring made her thought process that much easier. She could take her time and not have it hanging over her head, but right now, there was no reason to stall. She didn’t love him. She didn’t know if she ever had.
He’d intrigued her in the beginning, and he was handsome, but once the dialogue wore off and he stopped trying to impress her, she’d realized his charm was a facade. And it was the facade that had attracted her to him. After that dropped, there was nothing appealing. He had become short-tempered and demanding, and his misogynistic tendencies just became more pronounced as time wore on. The last string of arguments had all but helped her make up her mind to leave--if she only had the nerve to do it.
How would she find the nerve to move out on her own?
Her head in a tailspin, she didn’t react when the car finally came to a stop in a parking lot full of sports cars and expensive sedans. She took his hand as she exited the car, and sighed as she put on a smile and straightened her spine.
The campus of this company was lushly landscaped, the walkway pristine as it curled its way to the smoky-glassed front of the building. Nice, she thought. Clean and sleek.
Eric strode beside her like a king, his head high and his face beaming. It wasn’t until they stepped inside the expansive marble lobby that the breath left her lungs entirely and she stumbled back away from him.
“What is wrong with you?” he growled under his breath, yanking her hand.
Sierra could feel the blood draining from her face, and her heart pounded as she looked upon the huge hexagonal sign boasting the GenMed logo. She grasped his wrist with her free hand and tried to dislodge her other hand from his, but he yanked her up against him and glared at her.
“I can’t go in here! I was supposed to go back to work. They’re waiting for me! I told them I’d be back in an hour,” she said, her voice echoing across the expanse of the lobby. Several employees passing through the area looked over at the commotion she was causing, and spoke to each other under their breath as they looked on with curiosity.
Eric tried to ignore her outburst and smiled broadly as a young man in a crisp, dark suit approached them from across the room.
“Mister Baxter, welcome to GenMed. I’m so glad to finally meet you,” he said, offering a hand, and Eric shook genially.
“This is my fiancée, Sierra,” Eric said, beaming, but behind his eyes, she could see the contempt hovering.
Sierra ignored the extended hand the man offered and continued to back away. He smirked and then nodded cordially.
“Did you bring the information we requested?” he asked Eric, his face a cold, frozen smile.
“Of course,” Eric said, and fished his free hand into his pocket. Moments later, he produced an objec
t that made Sierra’s heart stop dead in her chest.
“Where did you get that?” she cried out, reaching for the small black data stick that was in his hand.
He ignored her and handed it to the man, who quickly pocketed it, drew a weapon, pointed it at Eric’s head, and fired.
Time stood still. She spun toward the doors. She felt them lock under her grip. She shoved her body hard against them, but they did not open. The movement around her then was a chaotic blur. Four men came at her, knocking her to the ground and subduing her while a patch was slapped on her arm, and moments later, she was struggling to keep her eyes open.
Her limbs became numb, her mind buoyant, and she watched helplessly as they lifted her onto a gurney and rushed her down several long, stark hallways. The bright lights overhead passed by in a streak, her grasp on time slipping until she was in a darkening dream state. And then… black.
The pain was excruciating, like a sharp, searing heat crawling beneath her scalp, and she was paralyzed against reaction. Her eyes were covered, or so she prayed, because she could not see. Her legs and arms had been restrained, so she was unable to reach up to find out for herself.
Instinctively, she cried out, but her voice was a raw whisper, her throat dry.
“Please lie still,” a young woman’s voice said beside her, and she flinched.
“Where am I? What’s going on?” Sierra rasped, jerking at her restraints.
“Please don’t struggle. You’ll open the wounds.”
Wounds? Jesus God, what happened? Where was she?
“Let me loose!” Sierra cried out, and pulled against the restraints with all the strength she had left, but it was no use. She tired quickly and, moments later, found herself falling into a deep, hazy sleep.
Upon awakening once more, she was relieved to find she could now see, but her vision was blurry and the room was painfully bright. Her limbs were still restrained, but she was relaxed. Too relaxed. Something was wrong.
A young woman came into view then and checked her pupils. She tapped a few things into a pad as she looked over a screen next to the bed.