by Vanessa Kier
Rafe looked quickly around the lab, trying to find what he needed on his own, but there were too many bottles to choose from and he didn’t understand the scientific labeling. He turned to Kai. “He’s afraid to give me the drugs. So you do it. Give me the highest dose you can.”
Kai looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Are you crazy? You know the danger.”
Rafe got up in Kai’s face. “I don’t fucking care about the danger,” he snarled. “Kaufmann. Has. Gabby.” The anger and fear inside him was a thick, swirling cloud that threatened to choke him. “I can’t rescue her if I don’t remember the location of the lab, and I can’t do that until this damn mental block is gone. The drugs she gave me last time helped. I can almost remember. So give me more.”
“Rafe, that’s too dangerous,” Kai protested. “Nevsky’s subjects went insane on high doses of these drugs. Gabby has made some alterations, but even she doesn’t know the potential side effects.”
Rafe swallowed back words that would turn this into a fight, wasting time he couldn’t afford, and clenched his fists. “If I do nothing, Gabby is lost. She’s not a fucking SSU agent, so she hasn’t been chipped. How the hell are we supposed to find her unless I remember? No one else has a goddamned clue where Kaufmann is.”
Gabby was alone. Scared. Probably hurt. Rafe wanted to tear Kaufmann apart with his bare hands, but first he had to rescue Gabby.
“Do you have any fucking idea what Kaufmann will do to her?” Rafe shouted. “Do you know what it feels like to have his needles slide into you? When the drugs are injected into your blood they burn like acid. The pain goes on and on, until you’re lucky you don’t lose your mind trying to escape it.” Even thinking about it had his heart racing in fear. “When the pain finally stops you discover that you did lose your mind, because you’re now under Kaufmann’s control.”
How much worse would it be for Gabby? Rafe knew she wouldn’t willingly work with Kaufmann again, which meant the scientist would have to use drugs to force her cooperation. Yet all of Kaufmann’s subjects were male. Would the scientist calibrate the drugs for a woman’s body? Even if he did, how could Gabby survive such treatment?
“Every second we stand here arguing is a second more that Kaufmann has to hurt Gabby. It took Kaufmann weeks to break me, but I had training. Strong as Gabby is, her mind won’t survive long.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I have to do everything in my power to help her. If I go insane, fine. At least there’s a chance I’ll reveal the lab’s location before I flip out.”
Uh-oh. The room had fallen so quiet, he could hear the faint ticking of the clock. Ryker and Kai stared at him with identical looks of pity.
“What?” Rafe demanded.
“That’s the first time you’ve talked to us about what happened,” Kai said gruffly. His expression was nearly impassive thanks to years of undercover work, but Rafe sensed his friend’s shock.
On second thought, maybe it wasn’t a hint of pity Rafe saw in Kai’s eyes. Kai had been tortured recently. He knew about pain and helplessness. Maybe his eyes held understanding.
“Can we find an acceptable dose to give Rafe?” Ryker asked.
Kai looked over Rafe’s shoulder to the assistant. What he saw there must have reassured him. “Yes,” he said.
“But Rafe, there’s no guarantee this is going to lower your mental barrier,” Kai warned. “We don’t know all the steps Kaufmann took to block the memories.”
Rafe crossed his arms over his chest. “Hypnosis didn’t work. Regression didn’t work. Psychotherapy didn’t work. The barrier feels thinner since Gabby gave me the drugs. It will work.”
“If it doesn’t,” Ryker said, “that doesn’t mean Gabby is lost. We’re actively searching the region where the helicopter disappeared from radar. We will find her.”
Rafe gritted his teeth. Finding her wasn’t good enough. He needed her unharmed. Unfortunately, every second in Kaufmann’s presence equalled agony.
Chapter 22
Later That Night
Kaufmann’s Lab
Blue Ridge Mountains
“Why isn’t she awake yet? I need to question her.”
Floating between consciousness and unconsciousness, Gabby froze at the sound of Kaufmann’s arrogant voice.
No!
What had happened? Where was she? Her memory was a warm, fuzzy blur, punctuated by bursts of pain from the side of her head. That’s right. Someone had hit her. Yes. Kaufmann’s men had dragged her from bed. When she’d fought back, one of them knocked her out.
Her kidnapping had been so well orchestrated, the SSU must have a spy in its midst. A flare of anger helped burn away some of her lethargy.
“The men gave her too large a dose of the sedative.” The unknown voice was more nasal and less emotional than Kaufmann’s. “They misjudged her weight. We don’t know how long it will take to wear off.”
“So give her something to wake her up,” Kaufmann said.
Oh, God. Gabby wanted desperately to drop back into darkness, but she was too terrified of what Kaufmann might have planned for her. So she kept her eyes closed and let herself continue to drift in semi-consciousness.
“If that’s what you want,” the other voice replied. “However, I have to remind you that she’s been given so much of the drug that forcefully bringing her back to consciousness will expose her to the side effects. Even with wake-up drugs she won’t be sharp enough to interrogate for several hours.”
Kaufmann cursed. “Fine. Let her come out of it naturally. But I want to be alerted the second she’s conscious.”
Gabby heard the door close as Kaufmann left, but the other man continued to move around the room. Gabby kept her breathing shallow, terrified that at any moment the man would discover she was awake and call Kaufmann back.
The scientist muttered under his breath. Gabby heard papers shift, then the click of a retractable pen. Great. Wasn’t he ever going to leave her alone? She didn’t know how much longer she could play possum. The need to move and stretch was becoming increasingly urgent.
She tried to relax. Tried to drift back into the hazy state between awake and asleep. But her body decided it was ready for action. As if trying to force her to move, the center of her right foot started to itch.
The sensation started out mild, so she had no problem ignoring it. But the need to scratch quickly grew. Gabby’s muscles tensed and it became a struggle to keep her breathing deep and even. If the scientist looked at her, he’d surely notice she wasn’t nearly as relaxed as she’d been a few minutes ago.
Finally, the scientist muttered a curse and slapped what sounded like a soft cover notebook against a hard surface. She heard his footsteps cross the room, then the door banged open and slammed shut.
Gabby was too wary to let out the breath she was holding. This could be a trap. If she handled this wrong and bolted awake, she might find herself facing a silent a guard.
Still, she couldn’t do nothing. So she mentally crossed her fingers and cracked her eyelids open.
She was lying on a narrow bed along the right wall of an exam room. Cabinets and counters ringed the other three sides, with a gap only for the door. A microscope sat at the edge of the counter directly to Gabby’s left. To the right of the microscope a spiral notebook lay at a haphazard angle, as if slammed down in anger. Test tubes sat empty in a drying rack. Other tubes filled with unknown substances sat in well organized holders.
Gabby desperately wanted to get up and look through the notebook while she had the chance. She hoped it would show information on what drugs they’d given her. And maybe she’d be able to find a drug to take to counteract the lethargy that still had a grip on her mind.
Yet she hesitated, remembering Kaufmann’s paranoia. Normally he didn’t place security cameras in the labs because he was afraid someone might leak the tape to people on the outside. This was hardly a normal situation, though. He’d made clear that he was impatient to talk with her. She had no doubt he wanted to question
her about Rafe’s progress.
Oh, God. Rafe. Did Kaufmann have him prisoner as well? It would kill Rafe to be back under Kaufmann’s control. No. Kaufmann hadn’t mentioned his name, so she had to believe Rafe was free.
So what should she do? Continue to pretend to be unconscious on the assumption that the room was being monitored? Or take a chance and gather as much information as she could about what was going on?
She gave a mental sigh. Everything she knew about Kaufmann pointed to him having cameras in the room. And if she was caught trying to escape, it might cause Kaufmann to let his subjects go to work on her.
So, without lifting her head, she lifted her eyelids just enough to let her scope out the room. The door was the only exit. The air vents were too small for her body to squeeze through. The pen on the counter could be used as a weapon, if she could snatch it without being stopped.
Likewise the beakers and test tubes. She could break them and hope she ended up with a shard long enough and sharp enough to serve as a makeshift knife.
She wished she could count on the SSU to come to her rescue, but unless Rafe’s memory had miraculously given up the lab’s coordinates since this morning, or the security team had managed to track the men who brought her here, no one would be able to find her. Gabby needed to stall Kaufmann’s plans long enough to escape. Because once he got his hands on her, she had no illusions. She’d give him exactly what he wanted.
Mark Tonelli called Ryker with the intention of turning over some new information, but the first words out of the man’s mouth were, “Do you know where Kaufmann moved his lab?”
“Not yet.” Jamieson kept the location secret and Mark hadn’t been able to discover the data on his own.
He lined up the pencils on the desk in front of him so all the erasers were side-by-side. “I have more important information, though.” Here it was, his big bargaining chip. But he needed Ryker’s promise first.
“Before I continue, I want your promise that if the SSU gets involved, they’ll leave one of the subjects alone. He’s the brother of a friend of mine and I don’t want him hurt, just contained.”
He had the sudden urge to roll his eyes. Just months ago he would have been horrified to think of being reduced to bargaining with the SSU. Willing to beg to make sure Faith’s brother wasn’t killed if the SSU used force to stop Kaufmann’s men. Before Moscow, Mark had worked with Jamieson to arrange for the SSU’s destruction.
Now he only trusted the SSU.
“I also want the doctor who defected from Kaufmann’s lab to talk to me and my friend,” Mark continued. “We need to understand what’s been done to her brother, what behavior to expect and what the doctor can do to help him.”
If Ryker thought it odd that Mark was making a request on behalf of a friend, he didn’t give any indication. “Done. Unless your man tries to kill one of ours, we won’t use lethal force. My men will defend themselves.”
Mark thought that situation was all too likely. While he understood Ryker’s point, Faith would have a hard time accepting the death of her brother under any circumstances. So he just wouldn’t tell her about Ryker’s condition, and hope that it all turned out all right in the end. “Agreed.”
“We have a problem, though,” Ryker added. “Dr. Montague was kidnapped by Kaufmann’s men.”
Mark cursed. “I’ll do what I can to find the location of the lab for you.”
He took a deep breath, knowing he was about to cross a line that would forever change his future. “I’ve learned that a team of Kaufmann’s subjects is scheduled to carry out an attack on an island in the South Pacific in a few days. By order of the President.”
“The anniversary demonstration,” Ryker said. “Damn, the rumors were right.”
Mark felt a great weight lift off his shoulders. He didn’t have to explain the situation or the consequences to Ryker. In truth, the man probably understood far better than Mark. Which made the next part of his mission even easier.
“I’ve been ordered to distract the SSU,” he said.
“Find me the lab and our assault team will appear suitably distracted. No one expects us to be large enough to stage two nearly simultaneous attacks,” Ryker said. “Can you give me any details that will help us locate the island?”
“My boss claimed that the island is where several of the terrorists grew up, but I’ve been unable to find any information linking the suspected terrorists to any of the regional islands.” As best he could, Mark described the scenery shown in satellite photo. “They’re going to put something in the water that will kill everyone.”
Ryker cursed. “Something they already have access to? Or is a new product from Kaufmann?”
Mark thought back. “I don’t know. My boss said they were very proud of the chemical and that the test runs had been perfect. I think…” He closed his eyes, picturing Jamieson in his mind. “I think he said that after years of trials they’d finally achieved the results they wanted.”
“I need everything you can get me on this chemical so we can create a counteragent,” Ryker said.
“I’ll do my best.” Despite the rapidly approaching anniversary date, Mark had to proceed very carefully or risk being caught.
SSU Laboratories
Georgia
Ryker stared at the e-mail from Gabby sitting in his inbox. The subject line read “In case of my death or disappearance.”
Mouth set in a grim line, he opened the e-mail. Thank God, Rafe wasn’t here with him. The last thing Rafe needed was proof that Gabby had not only anticipated an attack, but hadn’t expected to survive. And it said something about the persistent danger in her life that Gabby hadn’t trusted the SSU to keep her safe.
Five minutes later he pushed out of his office chair and stalked across the room to the window. His office hadn’t suffered anything more than a few cracks in the ceiling during the attack. Several holes had been blown in the exterior walls, and two of the administrative offices had collapsed ceilings, but overall the physical damage had been limited. The assault team had known exactly where to place their explosives for maximum impact. They’d moved in, split up and headed without hesitation toward two locations: The lower level where Rafe had been in one of the treatment rooms, and Gabby’s apartment on the second floor of the staff wing. Whoever had provided the information to Kaufmann not only had detailed knowledge of the inside of the buildings, but knew the schedules for both Gabby and Rafe.
SSU cleanup crews had already patched the walls, and Ryker had put enhanced security measures in place in case another incident occurred. He considered that unlikely. Kaufmann had Gabby and right now, she was more valuable to him than Rafe.
Luckily, Rafe hadn’t been captured. Despite Dr. Steuart’s assurances that Rafe’s mental condition was stable, Ryker didn’t think the man would survive being under Kaufmann’s control again.
Ryker glanced out the window, watching with approval as a pair of security guards walked the perimeter. He didn’t want to believe that another traitor existed within the SSU. He’d hoped that after discovering how Gonzales had worked with Tonelli to turn Susana Dias over to Dr. Ivanov, the SSU was finally clean. Another series of background checks was underway, but so far nothing suspicious had been discovered.
However, thanks to Gabby’s e-mail, he realized that the people behind Kaufmann’s lab were much more powerful than he’d expected. Throwing into question the results of this latest background search. With the right connections, a past could be created that even the SSU’s prime hackers wouldn’t find a hole in.
Rubbing his hand over his jaw, he paced back and forth in front of his desk. Knowing the ramifications of Gabby’s discovery had the potential to destroy lives.
Gabby had found traces of Agent Styx in Kaufmann’s subjects.
Christ. No wonder Rafe’s temper had reminded him of the soldiers he’d seen in Vietnam. According to Gabby, the data on the microchip included evidence that Nevsky had been part of the team that created Agent Styx.
Something Ryker had never even suspected.
Gabby’s email included a transcription of notes from her father detailing his investigation into Agent Styx. He’d been close to uncovering Nevsky’s involvement. Had already determined that two other scientists had been involved in the original program but neither had survived the war. Based on that information, Ryker had to agree with Gabby’s assessment that the car accident that killed her parents had been staged to stop her father’s investigation.
His hand automatically reached out to give a calming spin to his antique globe before he remembered that he wasn’t in his D.C. office. He closed his fingers into a fist and stared out at the front lawn.
Gabby’s email had also included a coded list of people her father suspected had covered up the misuse of Agent Styx during the war. Gabby hadn’t been able to break the code, but Ryker recognized it. The key wasn’t something he could pull accurately from his memory today. Too many years had passed since the special ops units had used this unique code during the war.
But he had the key in a box of wartime paraphernalia he kept in a secure vault in his basement. Part sentimental mementos, part reminders of how wrong things had gone, for once he was glad he’d held onto the items. Because if he was right, then the man or men who funded Kaufmann might very well be on her father’s list.
He sighed. Under the current circumstances, bringing down the powers behind Kaufmann no longer held top priority. Based on Tonelli’s information, Ryker was certain that Kaufmann planned on arming his soldiers with Agent Styx for the upcoming anniversary attack.
He needed Gabby back. Her email explained that she’d worked with samples of the chemical over the years, trying to mitigate its side effects. With the anniversary of the death of the President’s son fast approaching, Gabby was the SSU’s only hope of creating a counteragent in time.