Randi coughed and jerked her limbs to show them she was awake and conscious. Alive. They still ignored her.
Dr. Murdoch presented a clipboard to Jessup, stabbing the paper on top with her finger. “We should go with the truth serum first.”
Jessup grunted. “Does that stuff really work? It’s just a bunch of babbling. We might not get anything useful out of it.”
Randi cleared her throat. “Why are you doing this? I’ll help you. I promise I’ll help you once I regain my memory.”
Dr. Murdoch clicked her tongue. “And what do you propose? We have some leeway here, but the girl is an American citizen.”
“Is she? She’s a criminal with known associations to an arms dealer, the biggest arms dealer in the world and a scourge on society. We have a lot of leeway here.”
Fear sent a rush of adrenaline coursing through her body, which morphed to anger—white-hot rage. She bucked against her restraints and yelled. “Let me go! Get me outta here!”
Dr. Murdoch reached over and almost casually delivered another stinging slap to Randi’s cheek. “Shut up or we’ll add a gag. Or—” she leaned over Randi until the badge around her neck scraped Randi’s breastbone “—you can start talking right now and tell us all about Zendaris.”
Tears had sprung to Randi’s eyes when Dr. Murdoch’s hand had made contact, but she wouldn’t give these two the satisfaction of spilling tears. “I told you before. I lost my memory in the fall, but I don’t think I’m Zendaris’s girlfriend. Ask Gage. Gage believes me.”
Did he? If so, where was he? Why was he allowing these people to torment her?
Jessup joined Dr. Murdoch at the table, and his frosty blue eyes drilled into her skull. “You don’t belong to Prospero. You’re our property now.”
She didn’t know or care what Prospero was, but she didn’t belong to anyone. “I’m not property. I’m a human being and an American citizen, and when I get out of this there’s going to be hell to pay.”
Jessup loomed above her and spittle formed at the corners of his mouth. “Are you making terrorist threats against the United States government? Do you think you’re going to get your sleazy boyfriend to come after us?”
Terrorist threats? “I’m telling you, I don’t have a sleazy boyfriend. If you would just help me regain my memory, I could help you.”
She had no intention of helping the CIA anymore, if that’s who these people really were. She’d help Gage...or maybe not.
Jessup wiped a hand across his mouth and turned his back on Randi. “I think we can use her to bring him in.”
“How are we going to do that? He left her for dead according to Agent Booker. Though I don’t know how much we can trust him.”
“Use your head, Helen. Isn’t Dr. Coolidge running a pregnancy test?”
“He is. You think if she’s pregnant, we can use that to lure him out?”
“Exactly.”
Randi’s stomach rolled. These people were insane.
“But what are the chances of a pregnancy? That would be a stroke of luck, but too much to hope for.”
“Who says there actually has to be a pregnancy? Do you have a problem lying to Zendaris?”
Dr. Murdoch shoved her glasses into her fluffy hair and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Zendaris didn’t get to his position by being an idiot or naive. He’ll require some proof.”
“She’s here. She’s under our control. We can always make sure she’s pregnant even if she’s not in that happy state right now.”
Randi choked and thrashed her head from side to side. They would actually go that far? They’d use her body as some kind of weapon against Zendaris?
They’d hit her, drugged her and tied her to a table. Why would they have any problem implanting an embryo in her womb?
She screamed again from pure frustration.
Dr. Murdoch snatched a handkerchief from the pocket of her lab coat and stuffed it into Randi’s mouth. “Do you want to go under again? Because I’d be happy to oblige, and I have a syringe in my pocket that will do the trick.”
Randi gagged on the cloth that smelled of oranges.
“Where is Dr. Coolidge with those lab results? Is he even on board here?” Jessup paced the length of the room and hit the door with his fist.
“He’s not on board. He does what he’s told but never given any explanations. We can’t risk it. That’s why I don’t want to make a big deal out of getting the results of the pregnancy test. The lab is testing her blood and urine for all sorts of things. If we show particular interest in the HCG results, Dr. Coolidge might get suspicious.”
“Who cares if he does? You just said he does what he’s told.”
“Within reason, Larry. He very well might balk at being ordered to artificially inseminate an unwilling patient.”
“Even if it’s a matter of national security?”
“Coolidge might be persuaded, but let’s just keep this between us for the time being. What are you doing about Booker? The tranquilizer I slipped him in his coffee will be wearing off soon if it already hasn’t. He’s one fine specimen. I should’ve given him a larger dose.”
Randi’s heart skipped a beat. If they’d had to sedate Gage, maybe that meant he was still on her side.
Jessup scratched his clean-shaven chin. “He’s another matter. It’s one thing to play fast and loose with a terrorist associate but quite another to harm a Prospero agent. The director won’t want to sever ties with Jack Coburn. Prospero is too valuable to us.”
“Then what are we going to tell him?”
“We’ll tell him Dr. Coolidge found something in her lab results that required immediate airlifting to a hospital in the United States. We’ll tell him she’s no longer here.”
“He’s not going to believe that. He was hovering over her like she was some jewel in the crown.”
“What choice does he have? He’ll never find her down here.”
“So we wait for the lab results and if she’s positive, we get the word out to Zendaris that we have his baby hostage. And if she’s negative...?”
Jessup patted the side of Randi’s bare hip. “Then we make her positive.”
Randi twisted her body to get away from Jessup’s touch as her gut knotted.
This was really happening. They were going to force a pregnancy on her by way of some unknown sperm donor.
But Gage didn’t know. They’d kept Gage in the dark. And that gave her hope.
Dr. Murdoch pulled the gag from Randi’s mouth and got in her face. “Ready to talk yet? Because this is going down. If you’re not already carrying Zendaris’s spawn, you’ll soon be carrying someone’s. And we’re a patient bunch. We’ll keep you here for nine long months and fatten you up until you’re nice and ripe, and then we’ll lure that scum out of hiding.”
“Even if I knew Zendaris’s exact location, his birth date, his social security number and his mother’s maiden name, I wouldn’t give you one piece of information. You’re no better than he is.” Randi mustered what saliva she had in her dry mouth and spit in the bitch’s face.
This earned her another slap, accompanied by a short bark of laughter. “I knew it. You never were going to give him up, even though he left you behind like a piece of trash.”
Cocking her head, Dr. Murdoch stepped back and crossed her arms. “You should be thanking me, Randi. I’m more benevolent than Jessup. If he had his way, he’d do more than have you impregnated. As long as I’m here you’ll be one very pampered mother-to-be.”
Dr. Murdoch picked up her clipboard. “I’ll send in an attendant with some food, and you can have bathroom privileges, but no clothing. If you happen to escape, which will be next to impossible, we want you to...uh...stand out.”
“No.” Jessup barred the door. “Not yet. She stays like this until we get Agent Booker off the compound. If it takes more than a day, because he’s a stubborn SOB, she can have water and maybe some liquid food and a bedpan. I want her secured.”
Dr. Murdoc
h bobbed her head and they exited the room, locking the door behind them.
A sob bubbled from Randi’s throat, and the tears she’d been holding in check leaked from her eyes and ran into her ears.
Once they sent Gage away, she didn’t stand a chance. They’d impregnate her, because she knew damn well she wasn’t carrying Zendaris’s or anyone else’s baby, and imprison her for the duration of her pregnancy.
And then what? What if their plan to lure Zendaris out of hiding didn’t work? What if it did work and they took him into custody? What would happen to her? What would happen to the baby?
She’d not only lost her memory, she’d slipped into some alternate universe peopled by Dr. Frankensteins with crazy schemes. How could this happen to a citizen of the United States? She’d done nothing wrong. Even if she was Zendaris’s mistress, which she still doubted, they had no right to take control of her body and hold her captive for nine months.
She had one hope and one hope only.
* * *
GAGE’S MUSCLES ACHED as he crouched behind the cabinet in the dispensary. Finally, the door to the outer office opened and someone shuffled through the waiting room whistling a tuneless song.
It sure didn’t sound like Dr. Murdoch.
Gage held his breath, tensing his body. He peered around the corner of the cabinet as Dr. Coolidge walked into the examination room.
Gage sprang at him and backed him into the bathroom where Randi had folded her dirty clothes in a neat pile. With his arm across the doctor’s throat, Gage shoved him against the wall and kicked the door shut.
“Spill. Where did they take her?”
Dr. Coolidge croaked. “Who?”
“The bloody queen. Who do you think?”
“I don’t know.” The doctor clawed at Gage’s arm. “Let up. I’m not the enemy.”
Gage hadn’t believed the enemy would be at a CIA compound in Panama, either. He’d been wrong.
He let up on the doctor’s throat. “What do you know?”
“I got her chart from Dr. Murdoch. She’s a quack, that one. The orders were on the chart—physical and blood and urine. That’s all I did. You watched me.”
“Did you send her samples to the lab yet? What were you ordered to test for?”
“Standard stuff—blood count, anemia, diabetes, HIV.”
“Pregnancy.”
“Asked and answered. I had instructions to test her blood for HCG, the pregnancy hormone. That’s not uncommon, you know. If it turned out I had to prescribe any medication, I’d need to know if she were pregnant.”
“And is she?”
Dr. Coolidge hunched his shoulders, his gaze darting over Gage’s shoulder toward the closed door. “I don’t have the lab results back yet.”
“For the pregnancy test? Doesn’t that take less than an hour?”
“For any of it. I don’t have any results back yet.”
Gage narrowed his eyes, and the blood drained from Dr. Coolidge’s face.
“But you did get the results back and you found something serious, serious enough to have Randi airlifted to the States.”
“Oh.” Coolidge’s eye twitched. “That was Murdoch. She got the results. I didn’t see them. She must’ve found something.”
Gage leaned in, increasing the pressure on the good doctor’s windpipe. “You’re lying.”
“Wait.” His eyes bugged out. “Wait. I wasn’t lying at first. I didn’t get all the results. Nobody said they were in a hurry until...”
“Until what?”
“Until Jessup came by about thirty minutes ago asking for one of the results.”
“Which one?” Gage’s heart thudded against his rib cage so hard he felt his teeth rattle.
“The pregnancy test.”
“And?”
“Negative.”
Gage started breathing again. At least Randi would be spared the misery of carrying the child of some man she didn’t even remember, some man on every country’s most-wanted list.
“What was Jessup’s reaction to that?”
“Asked how accurate it was and how early the blood test would detect a pregnancy.”
“Well?”
“A blood test is about ninety-seven percent accurate, and HCG can show in the blood about twelve days after conception.”
“What did Jessup do with that info?”
“Told me he wanted her tested again in a few weeks.”
Gage rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Is Randi still here? Dr. Murdoch lied to me about the test results. She lied to make me think Randi was no longer here. If Jessup wants you to give her another pregnancy test in a few weeks, she must still be here. They want me out of the way.”
“That Murdoch woman works closely with Jessup. When suspects come through here, I do the physicals and treat their ailments but after that, who knows?”
“Why’d you call Murdoch a quack? Isn’t she a real doctor?”
Dr. Coolidge rubbed the red welts on his neck. “Oh, she’s a real doctor, all right. A mad scientist.”
“What does that mean?”
“She has her own lab here.” Dr. Coolidge looked both ways. “She doesn’t think I know about it, but I do. I’ve seen some reports out of that lab.”
“Are you talking about some kind of biological warfare?”
“It’s more personal than that—mind-altering drugs, genetic work. She collects DNA samples from everyone—hair, blood, sperm.”
“Sperm?”
“I don’t even want to know what she has in her freezers and test tubes. The woman scares me.”
A cold dread had been sliding across Gage’s flesh as Dr. Coolidge talked about Murdoch. This woman had gotten Randi in her clutches. What had she done with her? And why the interest in whether or not she was pregnant?
He could understand the value of having access to Zendaris’s unborn child, but Randi wasn’t pregnant.
At least not now.
He dug his fingers into Dr. Coolidge’s shoulder. “Where is this lab? Where does Dr. Murdoch conduct this research?”
“It’s in the third building, the one behind this one. But you’ll never get in there. It’s guarded.”
“Do you have an access card?”
Dr. Coolidge held up his hands. “Not me. She doesn’t let me near her so-called work.”
“Who gets in there?”
“Lab rats. Attendants. They keep prisoners there sometimes and there are attendants, jailers really, who look after them.”
Prisoners like Randi?
“I need to get into that building, Dr. Coolidge, and you’re going to help me.”
“Aren’t they following you around to make sure you make it off the compound?”
“They think I’m sound asleep, courtesy of one of Dr. Murdoch’s potions. I figured I fell asleep too quickly and soundly the first time she offered me refreshment. So I pretended to accept the next offering with dinner and spit it out the first chance I got.”
“I wouldn’t take anything from that woman. You might fall asleep a man and wake up a woman.”
“Has one of these attendants or lab rats come in for an appointment lately?”
“Sure, they all do.” He pointed to the bathroom door. “May I?”
Gage moved aside and Dr. Coolidge left the bathroom and crossed the hall to a small office. He sat down at the computer and clicked the keyboard.
“Here’s one. Dominic Cromwell. Had a bad case of stomach upset—some intestinal parasite.”
“Is there any reason for him to come back in here?”
“Sure. I need to give him another dose of medication.”
“Do it.”
After making other arrangements for their escape, Gage returned to the medical building. He hid in the supply closet as Dr. Coolidge’s patient returned for his late-night appointment to pick up his vital medication, but instead of intestinal medication, he got sedated. Gage lifted Cromwell’s badge, but Dr. Coolidge wouldn’t let him take the man’s coveralls.
“If he wakes up stark naked, I’ll have a lot of explaining to do.”
“You need to get out of this facility, Doc, because by the time I’m done with the people who run this freak show, there are going to be some indictments coming down.”
“I’ll take it under advisement. Now go find that poor woman.”
Gage did borrow a lab coat from Dr. Coolidge and slipped it on as he exited through the back door of the medical building, Dominic Cromwell’s badge hanging around his neck.
He knew the place had to have cameras all over, but if Jessup and Dr. Murdoch hoped to keep their secret lab under wraps, they probably wouldn’t want any video record of the so-called patients they took in and out of the lab.
Gage pulled a cap low on his forehead and shoved his hands in the pockets of the coat, clutching his weapon in one hand and a syringe in the other. With his head down he approached the two-story tan stucco building.
A red light on the card reader outside the front door blinked at him. He swiped Cromwell’s card and the door clicked. He pushed it open and a security guard greeted him.
“Who are you?” The security guard stepped back and squinted at the badge around Gage’s neck.
Since Gage looked nothing like Dominic Cromwell, he did the only thing he could do. He lifted the badge with his right hand toward the guard’s face, while bringing the syringe out of his pocket with the left.
While the guard focused on the badge, Gage raised the needle and plunged it into his neck. He caught the guard as he slumped and grabbed him under the arms. He dragged him to the nearest door, which opened into an office, and left him.
He had to work fast. Once someone found the security guard, the alarm bells would go off. Gage poked his head back into the entryway, which remained empty.
He couldn’t just waltz down to the basement and start checking rooms. If he could see into the rooms down there first that would be safer and quicker.
On his way to the staircase, he passed one person who barely nodded at him over his coffee cup. Gage jogged down the single flight of stairs and then slipped into the first room on the floor.
Trap, Secure: Navy SEAL Security Page 9