Tactical Rescue

by Maggie K. Black

  “Thanks.” Mark laughed. “Took us by surprise. Katie’s taking it all in stride better than I am.”

  “How’s your family taking it?”

  “Dad’s thrilled. My sister, Sunny—the busy CEO—is still not really talking to me. But Katie’s doing her best to keep the lines of communication with her open.”

  Zack reached the living room. Rebecca was sitting at the computer. Katie was leaning over her shoulder. “Hey, Katie. It’s your husband.”

  “Thanks.” She took the phone and disappeared down the hallway.

  “Everything okay?” Zack sat down beside Rebecca.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Seth locked the blog but he left me a message.” Her fingers typed furiously, and Zack saw a series of asterisk stars. “Now look.”

  She hit Enter. The screen flashed.

  Incorrect Password.

  Hey, Becs. Really am sorry. Remember, you’re a winner.

  “He left me a clue. He expects me to crack it. But I don’t know what it means.”

  “Can I help?” Zack asked.

  “Absolutely, you can try. But knowing him, he’ll have chosen something personal. Something he thinks nobody else will know. And I’ve tried everything I can think of.”

  “It’s okay.” He slid his chair over beside her. “You’ll get this. I believe in you.”

  His fingers brushed the back of her neck. He could feel her tension dissolving under his fingertips. Her head fell into the palm of his hand, and for a moment he felt her hair slipping through his fingers.

  Did she have any idea how much she affected him?

  “I’m so sorry I brought you into all this,” she said.

  “Hey, none of this is your fault. I went looking for you, remember? I brought myself into this. What’s more, I’m not even the least bit sorry I’m in it.”

  She turned her face toward his. His fingers brushed her cheek.

  “But you could go to jail,” she said.

  “I could. But it’s not the first set of bars I’ve ever been behind. At least this time I’ll be in my home country, in a place that believes in courts, lawyers and due process. I’ll be fine. I’ll be straight with you. If I’m charged with anything, the charges will be secret. If I go to court, it’ll be a classified court and if I’m incarcerated, you won’t know where. But when I can and the dust clears, I’ll get in touch and let you know I’m okay. I’m just sorry I won’t get more time with you now. I’m sorry it took your stupid brother to give me the push I needed to contact you. Most of all, I’m sorry I didn’t have the courage to take you to that sports banquet, way back when. I just couldn’t believe you actually liked me.”

  “Zack.” She whispered his name. His chest grew tighter, as if his heart had gotten too big to fit in his rib cage. He felt himself look away. But then her fingers brushed his jawline, pulling his face toward her, until his eyes were staring straight into hers. “Listen to me. You were the most amazing, incredible, gorgeous person I’d ever met. I more than liked you back then. I loved you.”

  The pressure in his chest grew, until it seemed to move up into his throat. He swallowed hard. “Well, I thought I’d fallen in love with you.”

  “Then you should’ve told me that,” she said. “You should’ve apologized. You should’ve kissed me goodbye.”

  “I know,” he murmured. He pulled her face closer. Her eyes closed. He felt her breath on his skin.

  “You should’ve known you mattered more to me than any stupid trophy— Trophy!” Rebecca’s eyes jerked open. She jumped back, ran for his bag and yanked out the broken base of the trophy. “‘Technically Flawless.’ Try that. ‘Rebecca Miles, Technically Flawless.’”

  He entered the words into the password box and hit Enter.

  The box disappeared. Rebecca landed on the seat beside him.

  A video feed filled the screen. It looked as if it was shot from a computer webcam. Seth was sitting alone at a computer facing the screen in a large empty room. There were colored blocks of peeling paint on the crumbling walls. Faded lines ran across the dirt-covered floor. A heavily tattooed man stood behind him. Dmitry.

  He nudged Seth with the barrel of the gun. “What are you doing? Keep typing.”

  Seth faked a laugh. “You’re asking us to revitalize a deactivated computer decryption program and set it up to take out eighteen separate targets around the world. Banks. Government sites. Technology and weapons companies. And you want it done by twelve noon. That’s a pretty tall order.”

  Seth leaned back and stretched his hands over his head. Sun slanted through the dusty, cracked windows. There was some kind of tower outside. The lettering was faint.

  “Only two people in the whole wide world have the power to pull off something of this level, you know that?” he said, as if he was talking to Dmitry. “Me and my little sister. Well, my half sister. You know how she found me? Online. She’d grown up in some horrible orphanage and all she wanted was proof that our father was really her father. But he refused to even talk to her. So she came and found me. We thought that together we could use her program to see if we could find what really happened to my mother, find out if we had other siblings and expose all of our father’s lies. I did my best to help her. Unlimited power to unlock any password on the internet, eh? But it didn’t quite go that way. Then again, I’ve never been much of a brother.”

  Seth nudged the screen further. Then she saw her. A young woman with pale blond hair, bound and gagged to the chair behind Seth.

  Zack gasped. Rebecca grabbed Zack’s hand.

  “That’s Maria Snow,” Zack said, his voice grave. “She’s the woman who created the decryption program, who I rescued from Eastern Europe a few months ago.”

  Tears were pushing into the corners of Rebecca’s eyes.

  “If Seth’s right, she’s also my little sister.”

  THIRTEEN

  Zack held Rebecca’s hand tightly and felt her body lean against his shoulder.

  Maria’s head lolled on her chest. She looked unconscious.

  So, Maria had traded in her plea deal with the Canadian government, to try to prove her father’s identity and contact Seth, then talked Seth into stealing the program she’d traded them for her life, and then ended up back in the clutches of the very people she’d fled to Canada to escape. Anger burned in his chest. As someone who’d lost both parents, he couldn’t say he didn’t understand the ache that had pushed her to do it. But that didn’t mean he liked it.

  Seth nudged the camera back to his face.

  “You talk, I shoot her,” a heavily accented voice barked. “You move, I shoot her. You do anything, I shoot her.”

  Seth’s eyes flickered to the screen.

  “Sorry, Becs. Guess I messed this up pretty bad. Goodbye.”

  He touched a key. The screen went black. The password screen popped up again. Zack quickly retyped the password. The video restarted from the beginning.

  “It’s not a live video feed,” Rebecca said quietly. She leaned her elbows on the desk. “He used the computer’s webcam to record a quick video message and uploaded it for me. He wanted me to know they had him and Maria, that Maria was my half sister, and that whatever havoc came because of what her decryption program did, they were doing it under duress. He wanted to say goodbye before they killed him.”

  He couldn’t imagine how she was feeling, suddenly discovering she had two half siblings, both fathered by General Miles, who were now in the clutches of criminals who were going to kill them. What’s worse was he knew there was nothing he could do about it.

  Zack leaned back and crossed his arms. “I’m going to have to call it in, but really we’ve got no information. We don’t know what the targets are, where they’re being held or even when this video was made.”

  “We can’t
answer the first question, but we can answer the second two.” She leaned past him, pulled up a list of computer programs.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Looking for a video-editing program.” She selected one. The program opened. Moments later the video opened up inside the new window. Her fingers were typing so fast he could barely keep up. Her lips quivered and he could see where tears had been glistening in her eyes moments before, but her hands were steady. She pulled up an audio mixer and played with sliding levels. “Based on background noise, they’re somewhere pretty isolated. I can hear some footsteps outside on what sounds like concrete. But no road traffic, city noise or electricity humming. My best guess is there are five or six people guarding an old building, somewhere that’s not near a main road.”

  “You can tell all that from that tiny bit of video?”

  “Oh, you’d be amazed at what I can tell from video.” She flipped back to the video and zoomed in on the window, then she adjusted the colors until shadows appeared. “The glass on the window is cracked, but not broken. So the place is abandoned but not vandalized. There are stripes on the floor, a water tower outside the window—” She sat back, and exhaled so sharply it was as if she’d just been socked in the gut. “They’re in our old gym, at our old high school, on our old base at Remi Lake. But I thought they closed that place down decades ago.”

  “They decommissioned the base,” Zack said. “And they sold the land to a communications company who set up a huge telecommunication array there. But some of the old buildings are still standing.”

  “According to the hidden time stamp, the video was uploaded to the website seventy-two minutes ago,” Rebecca said, “which means if he’s telling the truth we have a little over thirty-four minutes before he’s supposed to release the virus.”

  He leaned back. His eyes scanned Seth’s eyes through the screen. “Do you believe he’s telling the truth this time?”

  She nodded. “I do.”

  “Okay.” He stood up. “I’m going to call Jeff and tell him everything I know.”

  Her hand grabbed his. “Are you sure we can trust him?”

  “We need to trust somebody,” he said, “and yes, I trust Jeff. I just hope he can get somebody deployed to the old base in time.”

  “And if they can’t?” she asked.

  Zack ran his hand over his eyes. He’d risked his life on a rather dangerous military mission to pluck Maria from danger and she’d thrown it all away to team up with Seth. Now they had to rescue her again?

  And what about Seth?

  For a moment all Zack could see was the inside of his own palm. Then he pictured himself standing back on the mats. Feeling overweight and alone.

  Shaking. Angry. Humiliated.

  Hurting. Hating Seth with every fiber of his being.

  Lord, what would You do? What should I do?

  He knew the answer before he’d even finished breathing the prayer.

  “Then I’m going to save them.” He dropped his hand from his face and looked at Rebecca. “Both of them. If the military can’t get there in time, I’ll go in after them. I’m not going to let them die without a fight.”

  Then he ran toward the bedroom door. “Katie? You there? I need your encrypted phone back and I’ve got to borrow a vehicle.”

  Katie appeared in the hallway. Her face was pale.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  “No.” Rebecca crossed the floor toward her. “My brother and a woman he says is my sister are being held captive at gunpoint and they’re going to unlock a bunch of highly sensitive financial and government websites, within the hour.”

  Zack dialed Jeff Lyons. It rang twice. Then a click.

  “Hello?”

  “Major Lyons, it’s Sergeant Keats. I’ve received new intel that both Seth Miles and Maria Snow are being held at the decommissioned Remi Lake military base.” He looked up. Rebecca and Katie were already heading for the door. “They’re being held by members of Black Talon who’ve given them thirty minutes to simultaneously unlock eighteen different government, military and financial institutions. I’m sorry, I don’t know the exact targets for the decryption.”

  “How do you know this?” Jeff asked.

  “Seth planted a video on his blog for his sister. The password is ‘Rebecca Miles comma Technically Flawless.’” Zack slung his bag over this shoulder and grabbed Katie’s rifle. “I’m on my way to the Remi Lake base now.”

  “Stand down. We’ll assemble a team and get them out to Remi.”

  “There isn’t time.” The door swung shut behind him. “Tell me straight, do I really have a warrant out for my arrest?”

  “No, I’ve just been able to confirm that there isn’t a warrant out for your arrest or for Rebecca Miles’s,” Jeff said. “Although you’re both wanted for questioning, obviously. But somebody leaked false information to the press, including the claim of a warrant. Just one of a whole bunch of leaks we’re trying to stem here.”

  Zack’s feet ran down the path toward the boat, hoping that Jeff was telling the truth and they weren’t going to be arrested by the first cop they passed.

  “There’s going to be a huge investigation into this whole mess when it’s done,” Jeff added. “For now, just stay low, come back to base and let the higher-ups coordinate an actual mission.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Zack reached the dock. Rebecca and Katie were already in the boat. Rebecca was in the driver’s seat. He covered the phone with his hand for a moment, glanced at Rebecca and said, “You two wait here. I’m going alone.”

  “No, we’re going.” She cut her eyes at Katie, who was gripping a life jacket so hard it was as if she was trying to pop it.

  What else was he missing? Whatever it was, there wasn’t time to fight two battles at once. Zack jumped in the motorboat and yanked off the mooring ropes. Rebecca started the motor.

  “Jeff.” His attention snapped back to the phone. “Maria Snow was my mission. I got her back to Canada safely and now she’s in Black Talon hands.”

  “She’s not your mission anymore,” the major said. “She’s now on Canadian soil. This is an RCMP matter now. You know as well as I do, you can’t save every target. Zack, as your friend I’m giving it to you straight. You’re making a big mistake. You’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment. You’re throwing your career away over some girl you haven’t seen in years.”

  Yup. Maybe he was. Zack sat back and watched the wake spreading behind them. “Can you guarantee me that a team will reach the base in time to extract Seth and Maria in the next twenty-eight minutes?”

  “You know I can’t do that.”

  They reached the dock. Rebecca cut the engine. Zack leaped out and tied the boat down. Rebecca tossed him the keys. They ran for the garage and Katie’s black SUV. To his surprise, Rebecca got into the back with Katie.

  “Tell you what.” Zack climbed into the driver’s seat. “I’ll get there, recon the situation and wait for backup. I will only take action if the hostages are in immediate danger and the team doesn’t make it in time.”

  “Sergeant, if you ignore a direct order ordering you back to base, you will face a court-martial.”

  “I know.” Zack started the engine. “So, I’m praying really hard you aren’t going to order me back to base.”

  “Would it make any difference if I did?” Jeff asked.

  Zack put the truck into gear. His eyes glanced at the clock. Twenty-seven minutes left. “I’m not going to answer that question. But I am going to have to hang up soon, because there’s a law against talking on a cell phone while driving.” The major snorted. “But if it’s any help, tell whoever’s breathing down your neck right now that I’m the only soldier trained in counterterrorism and special ops our military has in the area of an imminent interna
tional terrorist plot.”

  The line went dead. Zack put the vehicle in gear. The vehicle peeled off into the woods.

  “Just to warn you, I’m going to have to speed a bit if we have any hope of getting there in time to save Seth and Maria,” Zack said. “Good news is that Jeff Lyons is an excellent CO and will make sure to throw everything he’s got at getting people to that base and getting them out alive. Bad news, they might not make it in time.” No answer. He glanced at the rearview mirror. Katie was leaning against Rebecca’s shoulder. Rebecca was gripping both her hands tightly. Then Katie let go and sat back against the seat. “What don’t I know?”

  “Katie keeps having contractions,” Rebecca said. “And they’ve been getting steadily worse. We don’t know if it’s a false alarm or if something’s actually wrong with the baby. But either way we can’t just leave her stranded alone on the island and take her only mode of transportation. She should really head to a hospital.”

  So that’s why Rebecca had been so insistent about Katie coming with them.

  Okay, Lord, now what? The hospital was over an hour’s drive away.

  “You’re not going to worry,” Rebecca said, firmly. “Either of you. We’re going to stay calm. The contractions will stop. Zack will get to the base. Then we’ll get to the hospital. It’s all going to be okay.”

  Zack’s hands held steady on the steering wheel. How was he even going to disarm at least six foreign terrorists? Katie’s hunting rifle and his pocket knife weren’t much in terms of weapons. Trees flew past. He edged the accelerator. With every breath, he waited for the phone to ring with a direct order commanding him back to base. It didn’t ring.

  “Zack?” It was Katie. “Can I have the phone?”

  “Absolutely.” He passed it back. He could hear her praying as she dialed.

  They passed the faded sign for the former base. Then he could see the remains of the outer fence. He pulled in beside the empty guard post. The road was deserted. Katie was pushing buttons on the phone, as if she was dealing with an automated system. He leaned back between the seats and handed Rebecca the rifle. She hesitated, then took it.