by Maya Banks
Summer rains. A good book in a hammock. A day of fishing on the lake. Hanging out with his brothers. Seeing his mom and dad again. Knowing that Nathan was alive and coming home.
Then he forced that comfort to Shea and once again spoke to her.
Nathan is with me. Try to remain calm. Don’t speak back to me yet. Just listen. Gather your strength. Focus on the one thing that will help us the most in finding you.
Focus, Shea. Will the pain to go away. You’re strong. You can do this. Nathan and I are coming for you. Do you understand me? We’re going to get you back and then we’re going to take apart those sons of bitches who hurt you.
Breathe, baby girl. Breathe and calm yourself. And then I want you to think about the one thing you can tell me. Don’t even say it through your mind. Just picture it. Close your eyes and imagine what it looks like. I’ll see what you see.
She closed her eyes, shutting off his vision of her surroundings. She relaxed and some of the pain faded away, leaving her weak and shaky. Her nerve endings twitched and her fingers jumped spasmodically. Those fucking bastards. He’d take great pleasure in making them suffer for what they had done to her.
Slowly, the blackness drifted away and he got the sense of being outside. He bobbed up and down. It felt like someone was carrying him and then he realized he was reliving Shea’s memory. What she wanted to show him.
The surroundings came into view. Mountains. Crisp, clean air. The scent of pine. Cool temperatures. He shivered as the chill crept over his skin. Gravel crunched underneath the feet of the man carrying her. A doorway. Slowly her gaze drifted higher, above the door.
UFV5591
Then everything went black again.
“Uniform, Foxtrot, Victor, five, five, niner, one,” he said urgently. Then he repeated it again until he heard Swanny say from seemingly a mile away that he’d gotten it down.
I’ve got it, Shea, he said gently. Rest now. Save your strength. We’ll find you. Cooperate with them. Don’t do anything to anger them. Stay alive. We’ll come for you.
He wiped his face and took several deep breaths in an effort to clear his mind. He felt so goddamn weak. He didn’t know how Nathan managed to maintain any lengthy communication with her.
Swanny and Nathan hauled him to his feet, and he sank into the chair that Donovan had shoved forward. He put his face forward into his hands and leaned over, still trying to put it all together.
Nathan took the chair next to him and pushed it so he sat face-to-face with his brother. Joe was pale and shaking. He finally raised his head so that his gaze met Nathan’s, and Nathan saw something there he didn’t like. Worry.
“Tell me,” Nathan bit out.
The others gathered silently, all waiting for Joe to relate what he’d discovered.
Joe looked pissed. Angrier than Nathan had seen him in a long time. But he also looked raw and worried. Nathan’s gut knotted because he was scared to death to know what Joe had found out.
Joe lifted his gaze to Nathan, pain still reflected in his eyes. “They have her in some goddamn cage. It’s like some futuristic cryotube or something. It’s narrow and long, plastic or glass. See-through and it opens from the top.
“She can’t move. She has clamps around her wrists and ankles and also at her neck. That’s the one that causes her panic because she feels like she’s constantly choking.”
Rage exploded in Nathan’s mind until he shook worse than Joe did. Swanny put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder in an effort to calm him.
“It’s worse, man,” Joe said in a low voice. “They have electrodes attached to her head that monitor her brain wave activity. That’s why when you try to talk to her, she suffers so horribly. She gets an electrical shock every time her brain activity spikes above a certain level. They’ve tried to disable her ability to speak to anyone. To ask for help.”
Nathan upended his chair and he shot upward. “Son of a bitch!” Tears burned his eyelids. He was so furious and so damn scared for her that he didn’t even know what to do. He was unraveling at the seams as fear choked the breath out of him.
Oh God, the thought of her in such pain, and the awful fear she experienced every waking moment, was more than he could bear. He had to get to her. Whatever it took.
He turned back to Joe, his fingers balled, seething with rage and sorrow. “What are those numbers? What do they mean?”
Joe didn’t look any better. Now that he’d had that connection with Shea, he’d experienced everything she was going through, and you only had to look at Joe to know it was hell.
“I told her to close her eyes and try to remember anything that would help us locate her. I didn’t want her to try and say anything telepathically. I just wanted her to remember something, anything, and hopefully I would be able to pick up on it through my link to her.
“She remembered being carried. She was dimly aware of her surroundings. Mountains. Scent of pine. Cooler temperatures. And then she looked at the door leading into the building and those letters and numbers I recited were above the door.”
“That’s it?” Nathan asked in frustration.
“It might be enough,” Resnick said slowly.
Nathan jerked his head in Resnick’s direction. “What do you mean?”
Resnick walked over to his computer and rapidly typed in a series of commands. In a moment, he brought up a picture of what looked to be a compound carved into the side of a mountain.
“That’s it!” Joe said excitedly. He lunged toward the monitor and pointed as he looked back at Nathan. “That’s it. See the numbers above the door?”
“Okay, so what the fuck is it?” Sam asked, for the first time pushing into the conversation.
Resnick clutched the back of his neck and rested the curled length of his arm against the side of his head.
“It’s where this all began.”
CHAPTER 39
“I guess what they say is true. Anything the government wants to hide, they stick in New Mexico,” Garrett muttered.
Nathan didn’t say anything. He was staring out the window of the SUV as they sped the remaining distance from where they’d landed toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range. Wheeler Peak was the highest mountain in the range and the highest peak in New Mexico, but it was one of the lesser mountains that housed the top-secret research facility.
While hikers flocked to the more popular areas, the research facility was in a nondescript, hard-to-find valley, and access was only available from the south.
According to Resnick, the facility had been closed for years and the project had been shelved after the Petersons escaped with Grace and Shea. But now Nathan doubted just how much Resnick really knew.
“I think we’re idiots for trusting him,” Ethan said, not even bothering to disguise his hostility as he stared Resnick down.
Resnick fiddled with a cigarette but didn’t light it, probably because Sam was giving him an “I dare you” look.
“I’m probably going to lose my job over this,” Resnick snapped. “I don’t give a goddamn if you trust me or not. I’ll be lucky if I don’t do jail time for this shit. Depending on how far up the line this goes, I might have already signed my death warrant. Now if you think that’s dramatic, fuck you. People have been silenced for far less. You’ll need to watch your asses after this.”
A sick knot formed in Nathan’s stomach. He didn’t want this for his family. He didn’t want them to have to worry that in a week or a month or even a year they or the people they loved could be taken out all because they got involved in this thing with him and Shea.
Nathan looked up to see Sam’s gaze boring a hole through him. There was reprimand in that stare, almost as if he knew exactly what Nathan was thinking.
“I don’t give a goddamn if it means we have to move to some remote island that’s not even on the map. There is no fucking way I’m going to lie down while someone in my family needs my help. I’d do it for Sophie, Rachel and Sarah. I’d sure as hell do it for the woman you
’re going to marry.”
“You are going to marry her, aren’t you?” Donovan asked dryly. “Tell me I’m not busting my ass here and you end up not having the balls to propose.”
“Swear to God, you two need to shut the fuck up,” Nathan said around the knot in his throat.
He was overwhelmed by the unwavering support of his family. Even when he’d done his best to push them away. Even when he didn’t deserve the sacrifices they made for him. They were still there. Always there. No conditions. No questions asked.
“I expect a goddamn invitation,” Resnick cut in. “I’ll be out of a job. I’ll want the free booze.”
“Holy shit, did he just make a joke?” Donovan asked. “Mr. Uptight, makes Garrett look like a poster child for serenity, made a joke?”
“Fuck you,” Resnick said in disgust. “I’ve put up with your shit for years. The upside of unemployment is that I won’t have to see any of your sorry asses again.”
“Make that a double fuck you,” Garrett said darkly. “I’m sure there was an insult aimed at me somewhere in all that.”
“Resnick’s missing us already,” Ethan said solemnly. “I think I might have a tear or two.”
The vehicles pulled to a stop and silence fell. Expressions went completely serious. Tension vibrated through the SUV holding Nathan, Resnick and his brothers.
SUVs pulled up on either side of them. One carrying Kyle Phillips and his team. The other carried Steele and his team along with Swanny.
They got out and, after conducting a weapons check, gathered at the front of the vehicles. Resnick stood with Sam in front of the three groups.
Resnick held up a topo map and pointed to a low-lying area that led north into an area surrounded by three higher peaks on all sides. “We’re here. We could drive in. This road goes on for another mile before you turn off onto a dirt road leading to the compound. It used to be heavily monitored. Video surveillance. Iron gate. Lots of no trespassing, dire warnings, property of the U.S. government, et cetera, et cetera, all the usual ‘keep the fuck away from here or we’ll shoot your ass’ type of stuff.
“If it’s being used again, I can’t imagine they aren’t employing the same security measures and I’d imagine they’ve beefed them up.”
“I still don’t get it,” Garrett said. “It seems awfully stupid to go back to the same facility they used before. Risky at best.”
Resnick shook his head. “Who would know? The Petersons are dead. Grace and Shea were too young to remember this place much less get anyone back to it. They have Shea. They may even have Grace. We don’t know. Two of the scientists are dead. Two others went back to Russia. I know because I immediately did a search of everyone who was involved in this whole thing.
“All that’s left is me. And the few members within the government who okayed funding and got reports on the research findings, and believe me, none of those people are going to be lining up to do anything that would bring attention to this project or their involvement in it.
“If they’re getting this program up and running again and are using Grace and Shea as the basis of their research, they don’t want their dirty laundry aired, which is why they took out the Petersons and went after Grace and Shea. If they’ve made the connection between me and the Petersons, I’ll be next,” Resnick said quietly.
Donovan grimaced. “Well, fuck it all. I was going to take great joy out of letting Nathan nail your sorry ass to the wall and now we’re going to have to protect you too? You sure know how to ruin a man’s day.”
Sam stepped forward and Resnick and Donovan went silent. It always awed Nathan how much respect Sam commanded.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. Resnick said there are two entrances into the facility. The front door and the not so obvious back door. We can find the front door. We’ll need Resnick’s help to find the back entrance. So he’s going to go with Steele and his team. Except P.J. I want her positioned at the front entrance and Cole at the back entrance. If things go to shit, I want the two of you to take out anyone who isn’t us or Shea Peterson and provide cover for us.
“The rest of us will go in, take out any threats, locate Shea and get the hell out as quickly as possible. I’ve already given you all the GPS points of our rendezvous point. We’re on a tight time line. I want this to be a quick in and out. Clean and smooth. Just another day at the office. The chopper will be waiting to get us the fuck out of here. Don’t be late.”
“With all due respect, sir, where exactly do we fit into this extrication plan of yours?” Kyle Phillips asked as he stepped forward.
The Marine didn’t look at all happy not to have received orders and for all practical purposes had been ignored from the start.
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “The very last thing we need is for you to be the one who finds Shea. In her mind you’re responsible for where she is right now. What I need for you and your team to do is back P.J. and Cole up. Make sure no one comes in or goes out of this place except my team and Steele’s. And be our backup if things go bad inside.”
Phillips’s lips tightened, but Nathan had to hand it to the man. He obeyed orders. Without question. Without hesitation. Phillips gave a quick nod, took a step back and then signaled his men to fall back. In a moment’s time, they’d melted into the trees surrounding the facility buried in the mountain.
Sam gave the signal for Steele and his team to take position. P.J. remained with the Kellys while the rest of her team disappeared over a rise with Resnick to circle around back.
“Let’s go,” Sam said.
They paralleled the dirt road for the mile in, and when they reached the turnoff, they kept farther into the trees and picked up their pace for the last half mile.
Even though they knew where to look for the entrance, it was still difficult to find. It was very well disguised and surrounded by aspens and pine.
“Are you in position, Steele?” Sam asked into the radio.
After Steele responded in the affirmative, Sam ordered everyone to check in and confirm their positions. P.J. slung her rifle over her shoulder and climbed up a steep, rocky rise that overlooked the front.
Then Sam turned to his brothers. “Okay, you know what to do. Let’s get in, get out and get the fuck back home.”
Donovan hurried forward, ducking low to remain below the surveillance cameras aimed at the front. The others quickly followed suit until they were all hunkered down, plastered to the wall, waiting for Donovan to gain access.
He took out his handheld unit that hooked to a key card and swiped it through the security keypad. Within seconds, the door slid open and they rushed in, guns up.
As Resnick had warned, there were three hallways, one to the left, one to the right and one down the middle.
Sam pointed at Donovan and Joe and motioned for them to take the right hall. He directed Garrett and Nathan to take the middle and then jerked his thumb at Ethan to come with him to the left.
Garrett glanced at Nathan as they started down the hallway. “We’ll find her, man. We’ll get her out of here.”
CHAPTER 40
A tear slid down Shea’s temple and disappeared into her hair. It worried her that she seemed to slip away with each passing hour. She was beyond the pain. She didn’t really feel it any longer. But she had a hard time conjuring up the simplest of things.
Her mind was a vast landscape of nothingness. Every once in a while she would try hard to remember what her purpose was. There was something she had to do. But when she did so, she was immediately assaulted with more pain and so she let herself slide farther into the abyss because there the pain wasn’t present. Her fear and anxiety faded to nothing. And she floated. Free.
Even as she knew this was all wrong, she was helpless to change it because she no longer had the strength to fight. She’d been brought to this place to be poked and prodded. Studied and observed. A nameless, faceless test subject with no feelings or rights. Her humanity had been wiped away as if it had never existed. Here, she m
attered to no one.
She heard whispers in her mind. They called her name, but she desperately shoved them away and closed herself off, wanting to avoid the inevitable crush of pain if she allowed them to grow louder or, God forbid, she responded.
What did these people ultimately want? Did they already have Grace? Was it why they weren’t questioning her about her sister? It was Shea’s worst fear, that everything she’d done in the last year was for nothing.
A distant explosion rocked the tube she was imprisoned in. It shook one of the electrodes free, but there were still three attached, and fire sizzled through her body as fear spiked her brain waves. Above her one of the fluorescent lights crashed to the floor, just missing her makeshift prison.
The lab went into chaos. Screams, yells, equipment falling and being turned over as they all scrambled like rats to flee the room.
Shea strained at her bonds but there was no budging the bands. Panic set in and she started hyperventilating as the tube seemed to close in on her. Oh God, she couldn’t breathe. What was happening? Was it an earthquake?
Her mouth opened in a silent scream and then she yelled hoarsely as another electric current bolted through her body. She closed her eyes and retreated back into the void where insanity was the preferable alternative. To a place where there was no pain and no fear while everything around her went to hell.
JOE slammed back against the wall just as Donovan flattened himself against the other. Bullets zinged from the opposing hallway and into the wall a short distance away.
“Motherfuckers,” Donovan swore. “On my count, you go high and I’ll go low. One, two…three!”
Joe turned the corner as Donovan went to the floor, guns up. Joe took out the two armed guys on the left while Donovan downed the remaining one on the right.
“Let’s go,” Donovan barked.
An explosion rocked the building and Joe reached back for the wall to steady himself. “Sounds like Garrett’s already having his fun.”