by Dale Mayer
She stared through the window in the door but couldn’t see anything. No one was inside. Frowning, she turned. Most of the others milled around her. “The alarm went off, so somebody entered this floor.” She pointed at the chemical room. “That room is the concern, but it’s still secure. I don’t see anybody in there.”
“Could they have left already?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.” Her phone rang. “Carmelita?”
“Your father is missing.”
She groaned. “Okay, I’ll look for him.” She glanced around at the others. “My father’s gone missing. This is his lab. Can you guys spread out and see if you can find him?”
They all went into this crazy stealth mode and disappeared. She’d never seen this many men move so quietly in her life.
She keyed in her passcode and stepped into her father’s lab. “Father, are you here?”
Silence. If he hadn’t recognized her this morning, then he likely wouldn’t now. But she could always hope. She headed straight for his office, pushed open the door, and with Devlin behind her, she stepped inside.
Someone blasted past her, pushing her out of the way. She barely caught sight of the man in black as he slammed up against the brick wall named Devlin.
Instantly the man was on the ground, and Devlin was on top of him.
She leaned against the wall, hand to her chest. Thank God it wasn’t her father.
She looked around, then down at the man struggling to breathe under Devlin’s knee. “Find out if that guy did anything with my father.”
Devlin shot her a look and nodded. “Look inside the office. Maybe he’s in there.”
She checked but found no sign of him. “No, he’s not here.” She called Carmelita back. “Any sign of him?”
Her housekeeper answered in a tearful cry, “No.” Then she started apologizing. “I was cleaning all the rooms. I never thought to check on him. So many people are here, it never occurred to me that he could leave without someone seeing him.”
“When did you last see him?” Bristol rubbed her temple. Her father had disappeared before but not for a long time. Normally he never got as far as the front door. If he did, he couldn’t get out of the grounds. That was one of the things she counted on.
As the men collected around the intruder, she said, “He’s still missing. Could you please go out and search the grounds?”
Again they all disappeared.
“Let’s take him out of here.” He quickly hooked handcuffs on the man’s wrists behind him, pulled him up on his feet. “Recognize him?”
She glanced at the man’s face, then shook her head. He looked more of a bruiser than an intruder. She walked up to him. “Why are you here?”
He gave her a sideways glance but didn’t answer.
She was such a fool. These guys never talked. She said to Devlin, “Maybe you could just run his prints, and we’ll figure out who he is. Then we can call the military and see if they want to talk to him.”
“Military?” the man asked. “Why would you hand me over to them?”
“Because I’m ultimately working on military defense weapons here,” she said quietly, “and you breaking into my place means you’re either after my material or to sabotage my work. In that case the military might be very interested in you.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he snapped. “No way am I getting into that. I was just sent here to determine how far along you are, then to get the hell out. I saw the drone demonstration outside. While you were all there, I came in. But no way in hell are you handing me over to the military.”
She studied him carefully. “If you saw the demonstration, who the hell do you think I’m working for?”
He glanced nervously from Devlin to her. “I heard you stole the information. And you have a contract you won’t be able to make. They want to know how much you’ve done.”
“So you work for Brent?”
“I have no idea who that is.”
She believed him. Brent wouldn’t have hired this guy himself. He would’ve gotten somebody else to do the dirty work.
“Do you work for another company that’s building drones?” Devlin asked. When the guy pinched his lips together, Devlin nodded. “These are military-grade weapons. You’ll pay the price no matter who it is you work for.”
The man shook his head rapidly. “I told you. I’ve got nothing to do with the military.”
“I don’t care what you say,” she snapped. “I don’t have time for this. Devlin, call the DOD. They can do whatever the hell they want with him, including throw away the goddamn key. For all I know, they still line up guys like you and shoot them with a firing squad.”
She turned and headed back toward the elevator, intent on going upstairs. The priority at the moment was her father. She trusted Devlin to keep this asshole in check. She didn’t believe all the intruder had said, but half of her realized he’d been told only part of her story. She had no idea how he’d gotten onto the property, though getting inside had been easy. She’d left the rear entrance open while working in the backyard. That guy had no idea how lucky he was, considering the chemical lab was down here. She didn’t even know what to do with most of them. Her father had walked out one day, and she’d never caught him in a lucid state since. For all she knew, working with those chemicals had brought on her father’s mental condition.
And it sucked. Big time. But that level was locked off for that reason. She needed to get a chemical engineer to go through the place and ensure it was safe. Her father had had several accidents. When they’d actually found him, wandering around with full-blown dementia, she’d been out of town for several weeks. She’d seen the onset coming but only in a minor way. She hadn’t realized how bad it was until she came back and saw him, still in his lab coat, obviously distressed after an accident of some kind.
Immediately afterward she’d gone downstairs, locked up all the rooms, set up security passcodes on the dangerous lab, and that had been the end of it. She’d forgotten about it. She’d do away with it at some point because it was a ticking time bomb. But at least one safely locked up for now.
She ran to her father’s bedroom, found it empty, then checked his bath and on to her room. By the time she went through all the guestrooms and back to the living room, she found no sign of him. She headed out to the garage.
Once before her father had tried to drive away in his car. Somehow he had gotten into the vehicle, turned it on and hit the garage door but hadn’t even closed the driver’s door. He had still been prepared to drive out nonetheless. He’d also been in his pyjamas and bare feet.
No sign of him in the garage. She raced outside and checked the front. On the driveway she caught sight of his robe belt. The one that always hung askew from his bathrobe. But as she raced to the gate and saw the security system was off and the gate hung slightly ajar, she realized the truth.
He was gone.
And not likely by choice.
*
Devlin pulled out his phone and called Mason. His friend answered and he quickly explained the situation.
“An intruder? Jesus, she’s got her hands full of trouble already.”
“Yeah. I don’t know anything about the intruder yet. He’s here beside me. I’ll send you a picture.” He quickly took a snapshot of the man’s face and sent it to Mason. “Her father’s still missing too. Everybody’s searching the grounds, so I can’t say at this moment just what the problem is, but it could be bad news.”
“Right. Let me hear as soon as you know something. I got the photo. I’ll run it through facial recognition.” His voice slowed as he said, “I don’t think I recognize this guy. I’ll call you back if I find anything.”
Pocketing his phone, Devlin took the prisoner to the garage—a safer space for a little more interrogation—taking him closer to the workbench, where Devlin grabbed several bungee cords and a chair, and sat the guy down away from the workbench off to the side. Then he quickly wrapped one of the cords aroun
d the man’s ankles. He wasn’t going anywhere. Then he looped one around his handcuffed wrists and the chair. “Now you stay here,” Devlin said with a chuckle.
The man struggled and said, “You can’t keep me here.”
“You’re the one who trespassed on Bristol’s home and property, intent on corporate espionage, finding military secrets.”
“I told you how it’s all a mistake. The company’s just worried she can’t fulfil her contract.”
“You mean, the company is worried she can, and they want to know how far along she is because they want to replace her.” At the guy’s startled jerk and his darting glance to the side, Devlin realized he’d hit the nail on the head. “So as soon as we can pinpoint who your company is, we’ll know exactly who is behind the sabotage going on in her world.”
“Hey, I haven’t done any kind of sabotage,” he said. “I’m just here looking for information.”
Just then the garage door burst open, and Bristol raced toward the intruder. She reached back and with a heavy hand, smacked the guy across the face. Distraught, her voice breaking, she said, “No, you’re not. You’re the diversion. Somebody took my father.” Tears were in her eyes. “He barely knows his own name. How could you do something like that to him?”
The man shook his head. “No. No, I’m not part of that.”
“That?” Devlin asked in a hard voice. “So you knew about the kidnapping?”
The guy shook his head wildly, as if understanding finally just how dangerous a position he was in.
She glared at him. “If he won’t talk to us, take him out back and shoot him. Better yet, let him run. I’ll test my drones out for real.”
“Whoa, whoa! You can’t do that. That’s not legal to do something like that,” he protested. “That’s inhumane.”
She shoved her face into his, grabbed his ear and twisted it hard in a circle. When he yelled, she said, “So was taking my father, asshole.” She belted him again.
Devlin caught her in his arms and held her close. “We’ll find your father. Take it easy. This guy, he’s nothing.”
“He’s garbage.” She glared at him. “Just kill him.” She turned and walked into the house.
“Hey, man, I didn’t have anything to do with her father’s kidnapping,” the intruder protested in a panic.
“Yeah, but we don’t believe you, so I guess I’ll do what the lady asked.” Devlin kept his voice calm, quiet, unconcerned. Enough that it sounded like this guy was just one more irritant Devlin didn’t need.
“I’m serious, man. Okay, so the company asked me to come and check to see how far along she was because they were concerned she might actually make the contract. I don’t know anything about sabotage or kidnapping. I was asked to come here, take videos, and figure out how well she was doing. That’s it.”
“Then what the hell were you doing downstairs in the chemical room?”
He shook his head. “It’s not where I wanted to end up, I tell you. I thought her lab was on the bottom floor. When I made it that far and saw the warning signs, Jesus, I thought for sure I’d walked into something out of a horror movie,” he cried. “Then I couldn’t figure out how to get the hell out without setting off more alarms.”
“But you were outside watching her demonstration?”
He nodded. “Yeah. The company just wanted to make sure she couldn’t make her contract.” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t even say that much.”
“Well, you’d better keep talking,” Devlin said. “I have a lot more questions.”
Chapter 13
Bristol had her father’s bathrobe belt wrapped around her hands in the middle of the driveway, staring at the damaged gate. Her mind couldn’t quite compute the evidence in front of her. She wanted to believe her father had left on his own. But no way could he damage the gate. Not unless he had taken a vehicle. She spun and stared at the garage, her mind mentally cataloguing the vehicles there. He had a classic he liked to drive in good weather. But he was also protective of that baby. It was hard to imagine he could have damaged the gate with the classic car. But she had to check and make sure. She raced to the second garage on the far side.
Actually it was a three-car garage but with only one vehicle inside. She punched in her security code and went in the side door. The ’69 Mustang was still here.
“Oh, dear God.” She stepped back out, locked it up and pulled out her phone. No way could he have left on his own. Not unless the intruder had raced out, damaging the gate, and her father had seen the opening and walked out. That was just too much of a coincidence. Talk about a comedy of errors.
“Who are you calling?” Tesla asked, racing toward her.
“The police. I don’t know who else to call.” She raised her ravaged gaze to her friend. “Dad’s gone. There’s no sign of him, and the gate’s been damaged. We have an intruder in the other garage. Devlin’s holding him. I want to torture him to tell me where my father is. He says he doesn’t know. But I don’t believe him.” She cried, “I just want whatever information he has.”
“Let’s check the security cams first.”
Bristol stared at her in shock. “Oh, my God! What’s wrong with me? I’m not even thinking straight.” She had trouble putting her phone in her pocket with her shaking hands. “I have to get a hold of myself so I can help him.”
“We’ll find him. Come on. Let’s get to the security camera feed.”
With Tesla at her side, they raced to the security room. The one she hadn’t even shown the others. Of course Tesla knew about it. Bristol quickly unlocked the room, which was barely big enough for all the computer equipment, and stepped inside. The others—except for Devlin, still with the intruder in the garage—had followed and gathered around her.
Once Harrison saw this, he whistled and said, “If you know what you’re doing, great. If you don’t, let me.”
She turned to look at him in confusion.
His voice gentle, he said, “Bristol, let me handle this.”
Tesla gently propelled Bristol out of the small room so Harrison could enter. He sat down at the security camera feed, and within seconds, had the front gate brought up. “You recognize this vehicle?”
Bristol neared to stare at the TV monitor and shook her head. “Black sedan, smoked windows. But no.”
Rhodes, standing out in the hallway, said, “I’m already running the license plate.”
She nodded. “You guys know what to do with this. I haven’t a clue. Please help me get my father back. I presume the same people who did this were sabotaging my work. Just one more distraction to stop me from getting ahead.”
The others froze for a second, contemplating it.
Corey said, “It makes the most sense. We just can’t stop looking at other options.”
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Bristol asked.
Ice shook her head. “Not yet. We will once we know something.”
“How do we track the vehicle? How do we find out who the hell is doing this and where they’ve taken my father?”
“They had the security code for the gate,” Harrison said.
“What?” She watched as he replayed the video, showing where the black car drove up, punched in a number and the gate opened.
“No way should they know that. I just reset it when I got home.”
“It’s easy enough. They took out your system, and they changed the code themselves.”
“But I have a special override.”
She watched in shock as her father was led through the front door and into the back of the car, losing his bathrobe belt in the process.
As the black car sped toward the gate, it started to close. The driver sped up, made it through, but the gate crunched the back end of his car.
Harrison looked at her. “Is that your override protection?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s a rebound call. If after a certain time, I don’t punch another number the gate automatically closes and locks.”
“
Nice.” He nodded in approval.
She shook her head. “But useless. They still got out. They weren’t supposed to.”
“And that means they knew exactly where your father was, got him out and took off before the override. That doesn’t mean they knew about it, they just happened to get lucky. They weren’t here”—he checked the monitors—“even five minutes.”
She sighed. “And the override is set for five.”
“I presume then,” Tesla said, “the asshole Devlin’s holding in the garage knew where your father was. Maybe even helped move him toward the front door so he could be picked up faster.”
“That is the most likely scenario.” Harrison quickly ripped through a series of other cameras and said, “They came in the front door, and look here.”
He pointed to two people walking down the front hall they’d all entered the day before. There she saw her father coming around the corner and yes, a gloved hand on his shoulder. Her father was grabbed roughly, confusion on his face, fear in his eyes, as they moved him when he protested. One of the men bent, picked him up and ran out the front door.
“A snatch and grab. Inside intel. And they were gone.”
“And the plates are coming up stolen.”
“Of course. They knew they’d be inside the compound, and the license plate would be easily seen. They’ll ditch the car as fast as possible because it’s got obvious damage from the gate.”
Bristol leaned back against the doorjamb and sagged. “Oh, my God! My poor father.”
Tesla squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll get him back. Stay strong.”
She nodded, reaching up to rub her temple. “Satellite would track that, wouldn’t it? Could it have seen them as they drove away?”
Harrison turned to stare at her. “You have satellite?” he asked incredulously.
She shook her head. “No, I don’t.” She straightened in shock. “But I might have something better. I have to go to the lab. Now.”
She bolted from the room, ran back down the hallway to the elevator and dashed to her lab. She forgot the security code, having to enter it twice she was so frantic.