‘Did the army give you any information about what happened?’ said Asgard.
The schoolteacher shook her head. ‘No. It was a covert mission, so they couldn’t release any details of the events that led to his death. All they told me was that he was killed alongside three soldiers from another battalion, during an ambush by the enemy. His body was flown to Fort Benning two days later, on Christmas Eve. He had a military funeral the next day.’ She swallowed. ‘I moved to Carson City the week after.’
‘Did you see the body?’ asked Madeleine gently.
The woman shook her head. ‘It was a closed-casket ceremony, as many of these funerals are.’ Her voice trembled slightly. ‘I was told his body had been…ripped apart by an explosion.’
Madeleine shared a troubled glance with Asgard. ‘I’m sorry we had to ask you to relive that painful memory, Mrs. Hofstadter.’
The widow wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. ‘It’s all right. If this helps you find out what happened to all those soldiers, including Mason, then I can relive those moments a thousand times more.’
Madeleine waited a beat before voicing the question they had come to Carson City to ask. ‘You said in the interview you gave to the newspaper a few years ago that you thought you heard from your husband shortly after his death?’
Gillian Hofstadter’s gaze dropped to Madeleine’s left hand briefly. ‘Are you married?’
Madeleine startled. ‘Er, no.’
The schoolteacher’s expression softened. ‘Have you ever been in love?’
Madeleine hesitated before shaking her head, acutely conscious of the immortal sitting a few feet from her. ‘Not really.’
‘Oh.’ Surprise flashed across Gillian Hofstadter’s face. She recovered and clasped her hands in her lap. ‘Then you’ll have to trust me when I tell you that there’s no way you wouldn’t recognize the voice of the man you loved, even in your dying moments.’ She looked at Asgard then. ‘Your partner appears to understand what I’m talking about.’
Madeleine’s breath caught in her throat at the sad light darkening the immortal’s beautiful eyes.
‘Exactly four weeks after Mason’s funeral, I received a phone call late at night,’ the schoolteacher continued in a hard voice. ‘It wasn’t the greatest connection, but I knew it was Mason straight away. He spoke for only a couple of minutes.’ She frowned at her hands. ‘He told me he’d been enlisted in some kind of secret government program and that the army had faked his death as part of the enrollment. From the way he spoke, I think he regretted his decision.’ She looked up then, her face pale. ‘He sounded scared, like he was being forced into something he didn’t want to do.’ Her gaze switched from Madeleine to Asgard and back again. ‘In all the years I had been with Mason, I had never known him be afraid of anything.’ She closed her eyes briefly. ‘He told me he loved me and that he was sorry. The call ended after that.’
‘You told the army about this?’ said Asgard in the stilted silence that followed.
‘Yes. I had a friend who works at the phone company trace the call first.’ The schoolteacher scowled. ‘It was a good thing I did. Once I informed Mason’s superiors at Fort Benning of the incident, details of that call disappeared from my phone records.’
Madeleine knitted her brow. If what the widow said was true, then the US Army was engaging in activities that breached the fundamental rights of its serving soldiers. And, so far, she had no reason to doubt the woman sitting across the room from her. Gillian Hofstadter looked to be in full possession of her faculties and did not seem the type to come up with fanciful tales.
‘Was that when you asked the army to exhume your husband’s body?’ she said quietly.
‘It was my last resort,’ said the widow. Anger underscored her words. ‘After weeks and months of getting nowhere with the guys at Fort Benning, I went to the DoD. They were just as unforthcoming with information. My requests in the last three years seem to have become mired in a maze of bureaucratic tape that has no end. My lawyers say they’ve never seen anything like it.’
She faltered then. Madeleine narrowed her eyes at the nervous look that darted across Gillian Hofstadter’s face.
Asgard straightened in his chair. ‘What is it?’
‘David, one of my lawyers, was involved in a near-fatal crash last year,’ said the schoolteacher in a subdued voice. ‘Although we have no evidence to prove our suspicions, the firm he works for believed it was a deliberate act of sabotage—and I agree. The truck that drove into David belonged to a private transport company that has contracts with the DoD.’ She rubbed her forehead with trembling fingers. ‘My husband’s case files were in the rental car at the time. David had flown to Washington to have a meeting with the Attorney General. The paramedics dragged him out of the wreckage minutes before the vehicle blew up.’
Madeleine bunched her hands before relaxing them slowly. She glanced at Asgard and saw her anger reflected in his brooding gaze. She had no doubt Jonah Krondike and his army friends were behind the incident Gillian Hofstadter had just recounted. It sounded like the kind of thing they’d do.
‘Where did you trace the phone call to?’ said Asgard.
Chapter Twenty-One
Olivia stirred and blinked.
A man’s naked chest appeared before her in the soft daylight washing through the windows of the bedroom. She tensed and looked up into a sultry blue gaze.
‘Hey,’ Ethan said softly.
Olivia registered the intimate way she was curled up against him and felt his ribcage move with his breathing. The sensations electrified her and brought back sensuous memories of the previous night.
‘Hi,’ she whispered.
‘How do you feel?’
His hand moved on her back, fingers fluttering across her skin. Olivia stretched her legs against his to test the soreness of her muscles and heard him inhale sharply. Heat flooded her face when she saw the desire in his eyes.
She had not known she was capable of such passion until she’d laid her fingers on her soulmate’s body. The hunger that had swamped her consciousness when Ethan touched her almost doubled when she reciprocated in turn. The feel of his hot skin and flesh against hers, the rasp of his breath catching in his throat as she explored his body with her hands, the feverish light in his eyes when he kissed her, the low sounds he made as he moved above her…all had ignited her senses and burned away her fears.
Although the tumultuous events of the last few days had brought about a sea of change inside her, she sensed one more difference this morning. For the first time in her life, she felt…complete, as if a missing part of her she hadn’t even been aware existed had returned to her.
She stared at the man responsible for this latest, earth-shattering transformation and replied to his anxious question the only way she could. She rose up on an elbow, curled a hand around his nape, angled her head, and kissed him.
Her lips twitched in a smile at the groan that rumbled through him. Ethan wrapped one arm around her and flipped her onto her back, his other hand reaching down to grasp her thigh while his tongue parted her mouth to deepen the kiss. She gasped at the feel of his body pressing her into the mattress and clutched desperately at his head.
They froze when a knock sounded at the door.
‘We’re having a council of war,’ said Howard through the wood. ‘Make yourselves decent and come on down.’
Ethan pulled his lips from hers and dropped his face against the side of her neck. ‘Dammit.’
Olivia shivered at the feel of his breath on her skin.
Ethan looked up. His eyes darkened when he saw her face. ‘One day, I’m going to lock us away and we’re going to do this for hours on end.’
She blushed at the explicit images that flashed across her mind.
Ethan grinned. Her pulse stuttered at the dazzling brilliance of his smile. He dropped a swift kiss on her lips, rolled, and scooted out of the bed. Olivia propped herself on her elbows and watched him pull his pajama bottoms
back on. The sight of hard muscles bunching under his naked skin made hunger stir in the pit of her stomach. She bit her lip.
Ethan gave her a smoldering look that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. ‘See you downstairs.’
He strolled out of the bedroom. Olivia dropped back on the pillow and covered her face with her hands. Her heart already ached at his absence. A memory darted through her mind. She hadn’t told him about her latest vision. She took a deep breath, pushed the covers back, and walked into the bathroom.
Asgard, Madeleine, and Howard were talking quietly at the breakfast table when she walked into the kitchen ten minutes later.
Olivia slowed, feeling suddenly flustered.
‘Hello,’ she said hesitantly.
‘Hi,’ Asgard replied in an awkward voice.
Howard grinned and raised his cup at her, blue eyes twinkling mischievously. ‘Sleep well?’
Madeleine nudged the Crovir immortal sharply in the side with her elbow.
‘Ignore him,’ she said in a disgusted tone as he swore and grabbed a towel to dab at his spilled coffee. She looked at Asgard. ‘And what’s wrong with you?’
‘Well, she is my niece,’ Asgard muttered into his coffee.
‘So?’ said Madeleine. ‘This is not the dark ages. And judging from what you’ve told me about this immortal soulmate business, I suspect you weren’t exactly a saint when you were courting your wife.’
Asgard choked on his drink and scowled at Madeleine. She stared back, undaunted.
Olivia’s gaze switched from her uncle to the woman beside him. A precognitive flutter danced across her consciousness. She suppressed a smile.
A warm hand landed on the small of her back and curved around her waist.
‘’Morning,’ said Ethan breezily. He dropped a kiss on Olivia’s head and strolled to the coffee machine. ‘So, what happened in Carson City?’
Ethan frowned. ‘Sierra Vista?’
A satellite map of Arizona occupied the computer screen on the desk in the study. Howard zoomed in on a built-up area some seventy-odd miles southeast of Tucson.
‘Uh-huh,’ said Madeleine with a nod. ‘Gillian Hofstadter traced the call her husband made to her in January 2010 to a public phone booth in that city.’
‘And you believe her?’ said Ethan, still skeptical.
Madeleine glanced at Asgard. ‘We both do. She’s as sane as they come and everything she’s done to date to try and uncover the truth behind her husband’s disappearance shows intelligence and focus. She’s not the type to delude herself into believing something that didn’t happen.’
‘Besides, Sierra Vista makes for an interesting location,’ said Asgard.
Ethan raised an eyebrow. ‘It does?’
Howard smiled. ‘Yep.’
He tapped on the keyboard. The satellite map panned out to the left. About one mile northwest of the city and a similar distance south of an airport was a sprawling complex covering thousands of acres of desert land.
‘What’s that?’ said Ethan.
‘That, my friend, is your next lead,’ drawled Howard. ‘Fort Huachuca.’
Olivia straightened up from where she leaned against the table. ‘A military base?’
‘Yes,’ said Howard. ‘The place has been there in one form or another since the US calvary was still fighting the Apaches. It’s served as a command center, a training ground, and a proving ground for a range of army service branches in the last sixty years. The US Army Intelligence Center and the Network Enterprise Technology Command are among the groups currently located on the site.’
‘It’s also home to a large medical center,’ said Madeleine. ‘My guess is Mason Hofstadter was taken to that place as part of some sort of initial screening and assessment for the research program. The range of dates for the medical data we have on him matches what his wife gave for the phone call.’
‘Before you ask, no, they don’t appear to have any virtual databases that can be mined from here,’ Howard added. ‘Anything they have must be in physical format.’
Ethan stared at the compound on the screen before looking at Asgard. ‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying?’
The Bastian noble dipped his chin. ‘We’re breaking in there.’
Jonah Krondike studied the three test subjects through the glass containment wall separating the observation station from the subterranean firing range below. Spent cartridges littered the ground at the men’s feet. A range of semi-automatic handguns and boxes full of magazines occupied the tables between them. They finished reloading the weapons in their hands, raised their arms, and fired rapidly at the distant targets, their movements perfectly synchronized and their expressions focused.
‘Perfect scores again,’ murmured the sergeant standing next to Jonah.
The immortal looked at the timer on the wall. The soldiers had been on the range for ten minutes and had gone through more than three times as many targets.
A phone buzzed in the background. One of the technicians answered it.
‘Sir?’ he called out to Jonah a moment later. ‘It’s Agent Scoleri on the line.’
Jonah strode to the console and took the receiver. ‘What is it?’
‘I have some news that’s going to make your day,’ said the Crovir immortal without preamble.
Jonah stiffened, thoughts about the test subjects’ superb performance on the firing range vanishing from his mind. ‘You found them?’
‘Not quite,’ drawled Scoleri. ‘We discovered a piece of undamaged hardware from their bunker. Our techs have managed to access some of the data on it. They’ve identified some of Howard Titus’s accomplices in the hacker world. We’re dumping tracers on their connections in case our targets get in touch.’
‘Good. Have a full team ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. This time, I don’t want them to know you’re coming until you’re looking them in the eye.’
Madeleine closed the door and strode across the study, two steaming coffee cups in hand. ‘How are you doing?’
Howard looked up distractedly from the computer screen, blond hair sticking out at odd angles from his head where he’d ran his fingers repeatedly through it. Madeleine hid a smile.
Despite the fact that the man seated at the computer had more than a century on her, she had started to feel like his wiser, older sister. She was still surprised at the easy camaraderie that had developed between her and the immortals she now found herself associated with. Having been alone for most of her adult life, it felt strange to think that she might finally belong somewhere.
‘Not too bad. I got the files from the others about three hours ago.’
He accepted the drink she proffered with a grateful smile and turned back to the computer, worry lines furrowing his brow once more.
Although Howard adopted a casual attitude and indulged in light-hearted banter, Madeleine knew the loss of his estate in the Santa Monica Mountains still weighed heavily on his mind. Her gaze switched to the screen. Her hand froze with the cup halfway to her lips.
‘What the—?’
She put her coffee down on the desk, grabbed a chair, and wheeled herself next to the Crovir immortal.
‘That bad, huh?’ said Howard at her expression. ‘I kinda thought this stuff looked shit scary.’
Madeleine reached across and scrolled down the monitor. ‘Is this everything from the coded data you were working on?’
‘Almost. I’ve got a couple dozen megabytes left to go.’
Madeleine sat back and waited impatiently while Howard decoded the rest of the files, trying not to dwell on the awful truth they seemed to imply. He paused a minute later and looked at her pointedly.
‘What?’ she snapped.
His gaze shifted to her bouncing knee. ‘That’s not helping.’
‘Oh. Sorry.’ She forced herself to relax and reached for the cooling coffee. ‘Any news on the guys?’
Howard dipped his chin curtly. ‘They landed in Tucson about an hour and
a half ago. They should be inside the fort by now.’
Anxiety darted through Madeleine.
It had been six hours since Asgard and Ethan left the safe house to go to Sierra Vista. They had taken a private jet from Sacramento and Asgard had flown the plane across to Arizona. The obvious wealth displayed by the immortals hardly surprised her. After all, they had been around for some time.
When she asked Howard about it, he explained that though the US government had seized STAEGH Corp’s assets and the personal accounts of its CEO and main shareholders, the three men had stashed away enough money and gold in private offshore accounts and bank vaults to last them several more lifetimes.
‘What about your employees?’ said Madeleine.
‘We had a back-up plan in place with our firm’s lawyers,’ the Crovir immortal replied. ‘In case something like this ever happened, they would all receive a significant redundancy package and letters of recommendation for their next employer.’ He grinned. ‘Oh and the offer to come and work for us again if we were to rise from the ashes. Our employees are quite…unconventional in that sense.’
Madeleine rolled her eyes. ‘What, as in they love defying authority and living dangerously?’
Howard chuckled. ‘Why, yes. That’s what made the company so successful in the first place. We only use the best.’
The study door opened, jolting Madeleine back to the present. Olivia walked in with a plate of sandwiches.
Howard grabbed one and chomped down hungrily, crumbs flying everywhere while he continued to type with one hand. ‘Thanks.’
‘I feel like giving him a bib,’ Madeleine muttered.
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