“They did.”
“Who is they?” Michelle asked.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Ryan continued. “Dade hasn’t been able to figure that out. Chances are Meredith never knew either. Every time anyone has managed to track down a source for any of the incidents that have happened, they hit a dead end. Someone higher up pays a lot of people to do the dirty job of collecting information. It trickles down the pipe, but the person or people on top are never discovered.”
Michelle shuddered.
“So my bitch of an ex-wife set up this particular scam.”
“Yes. And on top of that, we can’t tell anyone because who the hell would we reveal as our source?”
Zeke gritted his teeth. “Fuck. This is a disaster.”
Ryan agreed. “Yep. And we need to stay on this path because we can’t out Dade. Besides, any information we provided with regard to this incident would likely once again lead to a dead end. As if whoever is pulling the strings is one step ahead of all of us. It’s better if we remain mute and let Dade keep working. If and when something pans out from him, then we’ll consider letting Temple know. Until then, it’s better if everyone believes he’s on his deathbed somewhere.”
Emily spoke again. “We wanted you to know because it involved Meredith, which unfortunately may blow back on you.”
“Yeah. That’s an important detail. Maybe in the end we can have her arrested for taking bribe money to thwart a classified government project.”
“Let’s hope.” Ryan stood. “We’ll get out of here. Sorry about this,” he told Michelle. “I know you’ve had a shit day, and you didn’t need one more thing, but it couldn’t be helped.”
Emily rushed to the door with Ryan, but she turned around to give Michelle a hug. “So sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’ll get over it after I wrap my mind around it. My brain can’t keep up with everything that’s happened today.”
Emily gave her a warm smile, and then she and Ryan left.
Zeke locked the deadbolt and turned around. He grabbed a still-stunned Michelle and pulled her into his chest. There were no words. All he could do was hold her for now. She needed time. She needed comfort. There was nothing else to do.
Chapter 16
It took several hours for Michelle to calm down enough to fall asleep. Zeke was right next to her, holding her in his arms. They hadn’t resumed where they’d left off with his quest to draw more orgasms out of her. The mood had been shattered. She had been exhausted.
He had silently cleaned up her toys and put them back in the drawer while she’d brushed her teeth and moisturized her face. Usually she didn’t wear much to bed because she hated getting tangled in clothes while she slept, but tonight of all nights, she’d put on sleep shorts over her panties and a T-shirt.
Zeke hadn’t said a word. Normally, with him in her bed, she would rather be naked against his bare chest. But not tonight. Tonight, she felt like she was tempting fate if she fell asleep without enough clothing to escape a fire.
She had only been asleep what seemed like two hours before a loud boom sounded, shaking the entire suite and sending both her and Zeke to their feet. “What was that?”
Zeke flipped on the lights and rushed across the room just as the fire alarm went off. Seriously? This couldn’t be happening. Not after she’d gone to sleep absurdly worried about a fire.
She was still frozen in her spot, heart racing, when Zeke opened the door and peered into the hallway. Red lights were spinning, filling the room with flashes of fear. The sirens were louder with the door open. He released the door and rushed back into the bedroom.
Michelle was still disoriented and confused. Not enough sleep. Too many incidents of insanity.
Zeke tugged his pants on and cinched the string at the top while she watched him, frozen. After glancing at her, he turned toward her dressers, yanked two of them open, and returned with a fresh set of scrubs. “Put these on. Michelle.” He shouted her name and shook the pink material in front of her.
She finally came out of her trance and grabbed the clothing, shrugging into it as fast as possible right over her shorts and T-shirt. When she saw him tying his shoes, she did the same.
He grabbed her hand and dragged her into the hallway where dozens of people were rushing past the door, all of them as confused-looking as she felt.
As they hurried toward the main section of the bunker, Temple’s voice came on the loudspeaker, filling the hallway with her urgency. “Everyone, please make your way to the cafeteria. There’s been an explosion at the gate. I’ll update you when we’re gathered.”
Michelle shuddered. An explosion? Granted, she could have surmised that much. She’d felt it rock the entire bunker just before the alarms sounded.
Seconds later, at a jog, they entered the cafeteria to find it crowded with people. Apparently everyone she worked with was capable of jumping to action faster than her.
Temple stood at the front of the room with Trish and Tushar close to her side. She was shockingly dressed in her usual attire—black slacks and a white button-down blouse. Her hair was pulled back in its usual bun. Michelle wondered if the woman ever slept.
When Temple gave a long whistle to get everyone’s attention, the room fell into a hush.
Michelle suddenly noticed there were armed guards at the front and back entrances. Several of them. Dressed in fatigues and carrying serious weapons. A few others came and went.
Temple spoke in a loud voice. “As I’m sure you noticed, there was an explosion. It was a car bomb that exploded when a vehicle slammed into the front gates. The gates were not completely breached but they have been compromised. All nonessential personnel will be evacuated from this facility until we can be certain it’s safe to return.”
Michelle sucked in a breath and held it as Zeke set his hand on her lower back.
Temple continued, “Multiple vehicles will be arriving shortly. Please return to your suites and pack a bag. I can’t guarantee how long you might be gone. If I call your name, please stay here to receive further instructions.” She listed more than a dozen people, including Zeke and Michelle.
As everyone else filed out of the room, the remaining people came in closer.
Temple began to hand out sheets of paper to everyone in the room. “These are your personal assignments.”
“How the hell do you have this ready?” Ryan asked her, frowning.
“It’s my job. I have evacuation procedures for any eventuality ready at all times. I update them at least once a week. I did so late last night as a matter of fact.” She handed Ryan his paper and turned to the next person.
Michelle took her assignment with shaky hands. She blinked several times as she read the important details. She and Zeke and Kate had been assigned to leave in an ambulance with Graham Wentz.
Zeke pressed a hand to her back. “Let’s go.”
Right. They needed to pack.
Graham Wentz. She processed this detail as she rushed back to her room. Graham had moved from the reanimation chamber to a temporary state of induced coma just days ago. He needed four weeks in that state. How the hell were they going to move him?
She realized Zeke was talking to her. “Will you be okay?”
She nodded. “Yes. Fine.” He needed to go gather his own belongings.
His eyes bore into her.
“I’m okay. Come get me when you’re ready.”
He stopped at his door. She kept going.
It took her ten minutes to fill a suitcase and a bag. She gathered all her important papers and enough clothes to last a week. As she opened the door to the suite, Zeke was just walking up. His brow was furrowed. “You ready?”
“Yes.” She followed him through the halls until they reached the medical wing where Graham was in an induced coma. This entire situation made her nervous. She wasn’t a medical doctor. Neither was Zeke. Kate, however, was.
As they entered the room and found Kate pacing, Michelle finally reme
mbered Kate also had a thing for Graham. Shit. No wonder she was stressed. Although any one of them would be at the prospect of moving a patient in his condition anywhere.
Zeke dropped his suitcase and made his way to the machines surrounding Graham’s bed. “Jesus. How the hell are we going to transport all this?”
Kate joined him. “We don’t need everything. We just need the essentials. We have backup batteries. And extras. We can plug into the ambulance during transport.”
“Do we know where we’re going yet?”
Kate shook her head. “Temple is working something out.”
“Hopefully not from scratch,” Zeke murmured.
Temple stepped into the room at that moment. “Holleran, give me some credit. As I said earlier, I have contingencies for everything.”
He jerked his gaze around to face her, cringing. “Sorry.”
She waved a hand through the air. “No worries.” She handed him an envelope. “Here’s your destination. An ambulance will be pulling up shortly.”
“How did you get enough of them on such short notice?” he asked.
“Only needed four. Those who woke up three days ago are going to get into SUVs.”
“And the two in the reanimation chambers?” Michelle asked, causing everyone to turn toward her.
“I’m staying with them. As are a few necessary personnel.”
Michelle nodded. “For how long? What if you have to evacuate?”
“We’ll manage. Worry about Graham. The four people in a coma are the most crucial.”
That was true. It made Michelle very nervous. A man’s life was at stake. Four people in fact. She took a deep breath and faced Temple again. “How bad do you think this is?”
“Impossible to say. Depends on if the driver was acting alone or has backup waiting to break into the facility. It will be completely locked down as soon as everyone is out. Well-guarded. No one will get in or out.”
“Okay.”
Zeke had opened the envelope with their instructions and was scanning the information. “How do we know we can trust this woman?” he asked, shaking the page slightly.
Temple shot him another pointed glare. She was losing her patience. “I’ve known Marcie for a long time. She’s well vetted. Trust me. She won’t breathe a word of your existence to anyone.”
Zeke nodded slowly. “Okay then.”
Temple turned back to Michelle. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. You and the other three teams with critical patients are my top priority.”
They all spun around as someone stepped into the room. A guard. “General Levenson,” he said to Temple, “the ambulances are here.”
In a whirlwind of activity, machines were disconnected and reconnected, backup batteries were prepared, and Graham Wentz was moved into the ambulance.
The back was crowded with machines, but Kate and Michelle climbed in with him. Zeke sat in front with the driver. It had been less than a half an hour since the bomb went off.
As the ambulance pulled away from the bunker, Michelle’s phone buzzed. She tipped to one side and slid her cell from her pocket. It was a text from Ryan. She read it twice.
Stop. Have Kate cut the GPS tracker out of Zeke before you leave the grounds. She can show you how to get hers out. Get rid of them. I don’t care how.
“Stop the ambulance,” Michelle called through the window connecting them to the driver.
The driver hit the brakes and turned around. “Something wrong?”
Michelle turned to Kate. “Cut the tracker out of Zeke. You’ll have to show me how, and I’ll do yours.”
Kate’s eyes widened. She blew out a breath and nodded. “Right. Good idea.”
Zeke didn’t even question Michelle. He climbed down from the front of the ambulance, rounded to the back, and stepped inside.
It was cramped. Thank God the lighting was bright.
Kate scrambled to find everything she needed and set several supplies on the few inches of space near the end of the gurney next to Graham’s feet. She put on a pair of blue rubber gloves, grabbed Zeke’s offered arm, and felt for the spot where the GPS would be located just under the skin on the back of his wrist. She swabbed it with an alcohol wipe and picked up the small scalpel.
Michelle leaned closer, paying attention. She could do this, but it wasn’t something she ordinarily did. She was an immunologist, not a medical doctor.
Kate glanced at her. “If you line your thumb up just below the location, you’ll only need a small incision and then we can pull it out with tweezers.”
Zeke looked a little pale, but he tucked his lips under and nodded. “Do it.”
Kate made a precise cut, set the knife down, and picked up the tweezers. In seconds, she had the tracker out. It was much smaller than Michelle would have expected. “Got it?” she asked Michelle.
“Sure. You’re brave letting me cut into your arm,” she joked.
Kate chuckled. “I’d do it myself, if I weren’t right-handed.”
“Or desperate,” Zeke added.
“That too.” Kate set another matching kit next to the first, handed Michelle some gloves, and swiped her own wrist with alcohol.
Michelle forced herself not to shake as she thumbed the tiny tracker and made the incision. Cutting a hole in her coworker’s arm in a hurry in the back of an ambulance wasn’t her idea of fun.
Kate winced, but only for a second, and then she handed Michelle the clean tweezers.
Michelle glanced up to see Kate gritting her teeth. She jerked her gaze back down, pushed on the spot with her thumb, and reached into the small slit to grab the tracker. Thank God she didn’t have to fish for it.
As she set it down next to the first device, she exhaled the deepest breath she’d ever held.
Zeke was holding a piece of gauze over his incision, and Kate grabbed two butterfly bandages. She handed them to Michelle who took them and calmed herself enough to put one on each of their wounds.
The second she had Zeke’s on, he leaned over, kissed her forehead, and jumped down from the back of the ambulance. He reached back with a hand. “Give me those damn trackers.”
Michelle handed him the light blue paper they were sitting on, careful to make sure they were both still balanced on top. She smiled as Zeke picked up first one and then the other and turned around to launch them into the dirt. “Let’s go.”
It was crazy. Michelle had to close her eyes to concentrate on breathing for several long seconds. They were on the run, but no one was going to be able to track them now from the inside.
“Shit,” Kate exclaimed a few minutes later. “What about Graham?” She grabbed his limp arm.
Zeke twisted around from the front. “He doesn’t have one.”
Michelle frowned. “Why? How do you know that?”
“Ryan got too suspicious after his parents were found in Montana. Me, Kate, Grayson, and Colton were the last group to get them inserted.”
“Seriously?” Michelle frowned. “Are you positive? Everyone’s paperwork indicates they have one.”
“Yep. That’s what the papers say.” He winked at her. “Everyone was assigned a tracker. And there’s a nice bag of them buried in a desk drawer. No one would have noticed it didn’t really happen yet since no one has left the bunker.”
“Someone’s in for a rude awakening today,” Kate pointed out.
Michelle nodded. “Especially if we were intentionally flushed out of the bunker in order to be tracked like caged animals.” She shuddered and leaned back, rubbing the pounding spot behind her temple.
Zeke found himself surprisingly wide awake for the two-hour drive. His adrenaline was pumping so hard he couldn’t have fallen asleep if he wanted to. He wouldn’t be able to relax a muscle until they had Graham settled somewhere with electricity. He didn’t give a single shit that they had multiple backup batteries. The entire thing made him nervous as hell.
The driver seemed to understand his need to be left in peace because after introducing h
imself, he’d left Zeke to himself. He never turned the lights or the siren on during the drive. Zeke was sure he’d been given strict instructions to stay under the radar.
The only reason Zeke trusted the driver was because he was Nicole Salway’s partner, Pierce Titus. They were civilian police. All the ambulance drivers were. While Nicole had been working undercover at the gate, her partner explained that he’d never been far away. Surely Titus wasn’t working for the bad guys. Of course, whoever was working for the enemy would be a huge surprise if Zeke ever found out who it was.
Zeke looked over his shoulder so many times, he would have a crick in his neck. Kate looked like she might vomit. Her face was even tinged green like she had motion sickness, though he was fairly certain she was just worried.
She checked Graham’s vitals a thousand times while Michelle held on to the bottom of the gurney to keep from being tossed around the back. Her arm was going to be sore. And she looked exhausted.
Finally, they pulled up behind a clinic in a small town two hours south of Falling Rock. The back door opened and a woman rushed outside. She was already at the back of the ambulance when Michelle opened the doors.
“I’m Dr. Marcie Brown,” she stated, her gaze focused on the patient as everyone arrived at the back of the ambulance to unload Graham.
It took only two minutes to unload the gurney, all the necessary equipment, and their luggage, and Titus nodded and took off as quickly as possible to avoid anyone in the vicinity noticing he’d ever been there.
Dr. Brown glanced around in the dark before she shut the doors to the clinic. “Welcome. I’m sure you’re all exhausted. Let’s get the patient settled and then I’ll show you around.” She smiled as she pointed at a door on the right just down the hallway.
Zeke dropped his suitcase and glanced at Michelle to find concern etching her brow. He felt exactly the way she looked. Both of them helped wheel Graham to the room and Kate went to work hooking everything up and double- and triple-checking to make sure every machine was plugged in and working properly.
Dr. Brown helped as much as possible, but they worked in silence, and Zeke knew only Kate had any idea what needed to be done.
Reviving Zeke (Project DEEP Book 4) Page 18