A Highlander for Christmas

by Christina Skye

  Maggie took a sharp breath. This description fit a gift she knew full well. But was there some connection between Jared and this woman?

  “Yes, Ms. Kincade, I was certain that you would recognize the skill. Commander MacNeill is similarly gifted, though his abilities came from genetics and physical trauma, while mine came from training and careful chemical enhancements. His gift is far less reliable, I might add.” Her pistol angled up, pointed directly at Daniel’s chest. “So don’t overestimate your value to us, and don’t assume that because I’m a woman, I won’t act effectively. If you take one more step, I’ll drop you cold.”

  Outside a car labored over the rocky hillside.

  “Excellent.” The woman smoothed the fur at the collar of her parka. “Exactly on schedule. As a psychiatrist, I value punctuality.” She smiled, a gesture of cool, striking beauty. “And I find I’m quite looking forward to seeing Commander MacNeill again.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “What are you doing here?” Perpetua glared at Morwenna, who was clambering over the drifting snow.

  “I’ve come to tell you that I found Gideon. He was down by the loch.” She smiled calmly. “And to tell you that Maggie’s father arrived. I let him go inside so they could talk.” She clucked her tongue. “So many questions she must have after all these months. And they won’t have much time. He was trying to explain, saying something about a ring when the woman came.”

  Perpetua stiffened, one foot on a snowdrift. “What woman?”

  “One in a yellow parka. From London, I expect, considering her accent.”

  “You let her pass?”

  Morwenna’s face fell. “I should have stopped her? You said only to watch for men, Pet. I never thought that…”

  But Perpetua didn’t answer. She was already crossing the snow, her stride remarkably swift for a woman of such advanced age.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  A car grumbled in the distance.

  Daniel Kincade lunged sharply and grabbed the woman’s wrist.

  “Bloody fool,” the psychiatrist snarled. Two shots left red stains blooming across Daniel Kincade’s chest.

  Maggie reached out blindly. “No!”

  The Englishwoman scowled. “I warned him.” She felt his wrist for a pulse, then bent closer, frowning. “He’s hiding something.”

  She shoved Daniel onto his back and dug at his shirt and coat.

  Beneath her father’s arm, Maggie saw her precious ring. Maybe she could distract the woman before she realized exactly what Daniel had dropped.

  She stumbled to her feet. “I’m going for a doctor.”

  Instantly, the pistol swung up toward Maggie. “That would be a very bad idea, Ms. Kincade. At one time, you had use to us as bait to find your father. I urged Preston to rummage through your bags and leave that camisole with a note. Delivering that box to the abbey was also my idea. With enough pressure on you, we knew that your father would eventually emerge from hiding to help you. But now your usefulness is over, and there is no reason I shouldn’t shoot you here and now.”

  “I don’t care. I’m still going for a doctor.”

  Daniel Kincade gave a loud groan. “Don’t, Maggie.”

  “Prop him up,” the psychiatrist snapped. Her pistol leveled on Maggie. “And don’t do anything stupid.”

  Carefully, Maggie maneuvered Daniel forward, resting his back against a chair. “How do you feel?”

  “Lousy. I’m sorry, love. I’d hoped to spare you this.” His body shook with a savage cough. “Meet the people who plan to save the world.” He glared up at the psychiatrist. “If they have their way, everyone will be remade in their likeness. Or they will die.”

  “Not if,” the psychiatrist muttered. “When. Any truly advanced society demands loyalty.”

  “Loyalty to what?” Daniel asked.

  “To superior minds. Decisions have been left to the mediocre long enough.” She smiled as a motor whined outside.

  “You can’t succeed,” the bleeding man muttered. “No matter how many of you there are, there will always be more of us.”

  The woman’s voice was cool and detached as she tossed a roll of white fabric to Maggie. “Bandage his chest. We don’t want him to die quite yet.”

  “It makes no difference. I’ll tell you nothing.”

  The woman in the parka smiled “With your daughter as a hostage? Oh, I think you’ll tell us everything we want to know, Mr. Kincade.”

  “Animals, that’s what you are.”

  “Professionals,” she corrected. “Just as you were. And once we are in control, social and efficiency and mass unrest will end.”

  Kincade hunched forward, dragging an arm across his chest. “Where I come from, it’s called democracy.”

  The psychiatrist ran a hand over the thick fur at her collar. “Inefficiency cannot be tolerated. The world’s resources are growing too limited for that. Meanwhile, the population must be contained and controlled. Any intelligent person knows that.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Outside the motor grew louder. Maggie inched closer to her father and slid her fingers into his.

  The door swung open.

  Jared scanned the room. Preston was one step behind him, his gun leveled.

  Jared took in the identity of the woman in the yellow parka. Revulsion filled him as a dozen puzzle pieces slipped into place. As an official government psychiatrist, no doubt Elizabeth McNamara knew every detail of his medical files.

  He prayed that she hadn’t yet discovered the full extent of his gift.

  He made a calculated decision to let the shock show on his face, fueling her sense of superiority. “Dr. McNamara? You’re part of this?” He made his turn slow and careful. Preston was still too close for a lunge, but the time to act would soon come.

  “Of course. We’ve known of Nicholas Draycott’s grand plans for some time now, and his invitation to Ms. Kincade helped us immeasurably. Her presence offered us the perfect bait for her father.”

  He stiffened at the sight of Maggie with her hand on a bearded man with blood spreading over his chest. He recognized the Dutchman Maggie had met in London. But this was actually Maggie’s father?

  Proof came in Maggie’s pale, tight features as she bent over the wounded man.

  “What’s happened here?” Jared feigned confusion, moving closer.

  “Meet Anders van Leiden.” The woman in the parka laughed in a way that was completely chill. “Or at least the man who looks like Anders van Leiden. But of course, he is actually Daniel Kincade, presumed dead in Northern Sumatra but very much alive.”

  Kincade struggled upright. He coughed hoarsely, one hand to his chest, his face gray and his hands shaking. Jared had no doubt that his wound was serious. He wanted to push past Preston to Maggie, but he couldn’t risk any provocation. One wrong move would get Maggie shot.

  “He needs a doctor,” Jared said tightly.

  “So it would appear.” Preston stepped inside and kicked the door shut, never taking his gaze from Jared. “If you want your daughter to live, Kincade, you’ll tell us where your stones are.”

  “Stones?”

  “The ones you were working on when you vanished. The ones with the singular new facets. We have your reports and the eyewitness accounts of your two lab assistants. In fact, they told us everything they knew before we shot them.”

  The words seemed to make Daniel Kincade collapse in on himself. “You killed Sanders? Amy Masterson, too?”

  Preston shrugged. “They knew the dangers.”

  “Not from their own side.” Kincade grimaced as fresh blood fell onto his open hand. “You bastard.”

  “I believe you had better start talking,” Preston said icily. “That is, if you wish to stay alive long enough to help your daughter.”

  “Release Maggie and the Scotsman. Then I’ll talk,” Kincade said weakly.

  Jared watched and waited, knowing there would come a moment when he could act. When people wanted something as badly as McNamara a
nd Preston did, when they turned into zealots blinded by greed for power, they made grave mistakes.

  Preston’s head tilted. “Give us something first.” His lips curved in an unpleasant smile. “As a sign of good faith, shall we say?”

  “You don’t think I keep the bloody stones with me, do you?”

  “Of course not, Mr. Kincade.” Preston’s eyes glinted. “After all, you’ve eluded us for over a year, so your intelligence is not in question.” He glanced down at his watch. “You have sixty seconds to tell me something I want to hear.”

  Jared saw the wounded man shudder and run a hand across his sweaty forehead, then look at Maggie, the pain clear in his eyes. When he spoke, the words seemed to be torn from him. “I’ve gone beyond my early blueprints. Last month I finished a new prototype.”

  Preston hunched forward eagerly. “Where is it?”

  “I’ll tell you everything once you’ve let my daughter go.”

  Preston shook his head grimly.

  Maggie looked at Jared, pain filling her eyes. Jared shook his head tightly.

  “That’s my price, Preston. The stones no longer matter to me. All I want is my daughter’s safety.”

  Maggie gripped his shoulder. “You can’t trust him. You’ve seen what they’re like.”

  With an angry sound Elizabeth McNamara moved closer to Preston. “There’s no need to bargain with him. Kincade is irrelevant. Let’s get on with business.” She crossed to Kincade and pressed one hand roughly to his forehead. Her eyes fluttered, then opened on a gleam of cold satisfaction. “I told you I could do it.”

  “Such impatience, my dear.” Preston gave a soft sigh.

  “Kill him. We can make our own prototype with what I’ve just pulled out of his head.”

  Jared felt a stab of revulsion. She acted with the confidence of someone who could scan a mind with touch, but how was it possible? And exactly how much did Elizabeth McNamara know about him?

  “What is she talking about?” he snapped angrily.

  “I should think it was obvious, Commander. Your Dr. McNamara has a unique skill, the same one you acquired in that box in Thailand.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  Preston shrugged. “What you believe is no interest to me.”

  Jared tried to dismiss this as a desperate bluff by Preston, but the smug smile on Elizabeth McNamara’s lips told him otherwise. Her skills could have given them access to every sort of government secret. No doubt she had also made it her business to follow every detail of the activities at Draycott Abbey and the continuing search for Daniel Kincade. Her information would have been invaluable.

  Preston looked at Maggie’s father. “Those refaceted stones will save us a great deal of time. The sooner we can move to our final phase, the better.”

  “There’s no need for that,” the doctor hissed. “I know the angles of dispersal and which stones make a superior medium. I also know about the warehouse space he leased outside Cheltenham. That’s where he’s keeping his newest prototype. He had a dozen stones ready to prepare.”

  “You’re wrong,” Daniel said.

  But Jared knew it was a lie. One look at Preston’s face showed that he knew it, too. The doctor’s skill was painfully clear.

  “She is very seldom wrong, Mr. Kincade. It’s part of the reason Elizabeth is so valuable to us. Now, my dear, you will sheathe your weapon. All command decisions come from me.”

  But her Browning did not fall. “Why are we wasting time like this? Give me the Scotsman. With his skills we can read anyone. I already have a dozen experiments I mean to run on him.”

  “Experiments?” Maggie whispered. “What kind of animals are you?”

  “Very successful animals,” the doctor said coldly. “Before I’m done with Jared MacNeill, I’ll know every synapse inside that amazing brain of his.” Her eyes glinted, possessed with a strange heat. “We will have no need for you or your father, I assure you.”

  She didn’t notice Preston turn until it was too late.

  His military pistol coughed out a bullet to her shoulder. There was no emotion in his eyes as he watched her jerk sharply, then crumple to the floor beside Daniel Kincade, moaning.

  “A pity,” he murmured. “She was convinced she could not be replaced, but the same technique that produced her skill has produced a dozen others, and their abilities have already surpassed hers. She was also showing a personal interest in you, Commander, and that was becoming most troublesome.” His mouth hardened. “The new leadership will not include women. Their skills are too often unreliable. Her wound is not fatal, but I trust it will teach her that it is unwise to disobey my orders.”

  He targeted his pistol on Maggie. “And now, Kincade, I want answers. Otherwise, your lovely daughter will lose the front of her cranium.”

  Jared’s muscles tensed as he prepared to launch himself at Preston. With luck, he could take the officer’s gun before Preston could fire.

  “Pointless to try, Commander. You couldn’t possibly reach me in time. Ms. Kincade’s skull will be gone before you’ve taken a single step.”

  Kincade gave a broken cough. “I’ll tell you whatever you want, Preston. Don’t shoot her.”

  Jared saw his chance and moved in front of Maggie. “Kincade might lie, but I won’t. And I have the skill to read him.”

  After a moment Preston nodded. “Do it. But remember— one misstep and the woman dies.”

  Jared crouched beside Kincade, frowning at the red stain that now covered the front of his shirt. He took a hard breath, then ran a hand across the man’s forehead.

  Instantly pain chewed up his arm to his chest. Kincade’s wound was grave, his pain nearly overwhelming. He didn’t have much time left, Jared realized. “He’s in bad shape.”

  “Then you’d better work fast.”

  Jared slid down, sorting through the chaotic emotions of a father reunited with his daughter and his fear for her safety. He picked up a ruined building and tables filled with books and electronic equipment. A locked safe with a dozen rubies.

  The workshop in Cheltenham, no doubt.

  “What do you see?”

  “Don’t bother to block me, Kincade. It won’t work.” As Jared spoke, he turned slightly, cutting off Preston’s view. As his hand moved over Kincade’s face, he had a sharp image of a ring with five faceted stones. These were what Preston wanted, Jared realized. He glanced sidelong at Kincade’s lower pocket and sensed that was where the ring was hidden.

  The old man blinked quickly in assent.

  Jared pushed to his feet. “Kincade lied. He brought three of the faceted stones with him. They aren’t far away.”

  “Where?” Preston snapped.

  “What happens to Elizabeth McNamara?” Jared touched the woman’s clammy forehead, steeling himself against an icy flood of names, dates, and plans. “She needs medical care, too.”

  “As soon as I have those stones.”

  “I’ll tell you when Maggie’s in the car.”

  Maggie’s face was set with determination. “I won’t leave without my father.”

  Kincade groaned. He pushed to one elbow, every breath straining. “Go, little peach. This is the last gift I can give you, and I hope it will be the most valuable. Go.” He gave a harsh cough and then his eyes sank shut.

  “Do as he says, Maggie.” Jared gave her a steadying look and prayed she would trust him. The odds were getting worse fast.

  “You need to leave now.”

  Maggie hesitated, then rose shakily and moved to the door with stiff, angry steps.

  “Nothing happens until she reaches the car,” Jared said tensely. “I’ll be watching.”

  In the same instant, he shoved Maggie through the open door, out into the swirling snow, then whirled to face Preston.

  “I’ll kill her,” Preston rasped, lunging toward the door.

  But Jared was outside one stride before him. “Not while I’m here, you won’t.”

  Their shoulders met. Wrist to wr
ist, flesh met flesh and in that instant Jared saw other details that hadn’t surfaced in the psychiatrist’s mind: a trail of dead on four continents. A secluded farmhouse where twelve men had met to decide the fate of the world they would carve apart between them. Finally he saw the rest of Preston’s plan.

  After all useful information had been squeezed free, Jared would be bound and gagged in the car they had driven from the abbey. Then he would be sent to the bottom of the loch, with Maggie beside him.

  From the corner of his eye Jared saw movements against the stark landscape. A gray shape perched on top of a stone outcrop. Other figures huddled nearby, almost obscured by the heavy veil of snow.

  “Get back,” Preston snapped. A bullet exploded into the snow inches from Maggie’s foot. “Otherwise the next one lands in her stomach, and that’s a damned painful way for anyone to go.”

  Jared heard Maggie cry out at the sound of gunfire. She was nearly at the car, her face white. He felt a wave of relief as she slid behind the wheel, slammed the door and locked it.

  She would be safe for the moment, while he dealt with Preston. And it had to be fast, if he hoped to save Daniel Kincade’s life.

  “I need those stones,” Preston circled warily in the snow. “Give me answers, MacNeill, or I won’t hesitate to take you down. I have a chopper expected any moment, and I’ve sent a man to be sure they find us here.”

  “Stop.” Groaning, Kincade stood braced in the doorway, his face ashen. “I h-had to hide them,” he rasped. “Couldn’t take chances until after I disappeared.” His eyes seemed to glaze.

  Jared knew the old man didn’t have much time left. “The stones are hidden in his car,” he said to Preston. “He’s wrapped them in canvas and jammed them beneath the spare tire.”

  “Where did he leave the car?”

  Jared frowned as he saw Kincade struggle to stay upright He was losing blood fast, and every minute was precious. But their only hope was to keep Preston guessing. “He left his car behind a hedgerow near the northern side of the village. The stones are there.” In a flat voice, Jared gave Preston the detailed location. “But you’ll have one hell of a time finding the car in this snow.”