Well, that sealed it. She’d just have to venture out of the suite. She’d tried to comply. Really. She took a deep breath and left Alec’s quarters, hoping she wouldn’t get hopelessly lost in the labyrinth.
“That brings us to the next topic,” Alec said to Nicole and Keith. “I want an operative assigned to Isabel.”
“Babysitting duty? No one’s going to like that. Especially not Isabel.” Nicole sighed. “I don’t know if her staying inside the compound is a good idea.”
Alec studied his top employee, confused by her attitude. “I thought you were friends.”
Keith grabbed the solved Rubik’s Cube from the corner of Alec’s desk and twisted the squares, his gaze on Nicole.
“We are,” she said. “But right now, I’m on the clock. I’m the sheepdog, and you’ve brought the wolf into the pasture.
He smiled at that. “I think she sees herself as the sheepdog.”
“Yeah, well, I sure as hell am not the wolf.” She frowned at Alec. “She’s wanted nothing more than to get inside this place for months, and now she’s here, as your guest.” She paused. “I hate to say it, but someone has to. We only have her word anything happened in her cabin the other night. How do we know she didn’t read the news article about Airwave and make up the whole ‘inside earthquake’ story?” She pursed her lips. “Isabel is my friend, and I want to believe her, but her proof—a broken window and a cracked picture? Isn’t it convenient that it happened to be a picture you said you’d looked at just hours before?”
Keith frowned. “Nicole’s argument has merit, Rav.” He tossed the now thoroughly scrambled cube to Alec.
Alec caught it with one hand and glanced at it distractedly before he began twisting to solve it as he considered Nicole’s statement. “I was with Isabel when we were hit by infrasound yesterday. I felt it.”
“She could have an accomplice,” Nicole said.
“Swimming down the river is a risky-as-hell move. And what would the attack gain her? She was already here, on the compound. I’d already taken her to the one place she wanted to go.”
“Your trust,” Nicole said simply. “Look. I’m not saying this is what I believe, I’m just saying we have to consider it. If your trust is what she’s after, don’t give it to her.”
He frowned. Nicole had a point. But trust wasn’t a commodity that could be easily given and withdrawn. Trust was all about gut-level instinct. However, he wasn’t entirely certain his gut was the part of his anatomy that believed Isabel was innocent. “I’ll admit it’s possible. Another reason to assign an operative to watch over her.”
Nicole nodded. “I won’t put anyone from Falcon on Isabel guard duty. We’re stretched too thin as it is, what with Godfrey’s resignation.”
“Understood.” He paused. “Speaking of, we need to promote someone from security to Falcon to replace him. Who’s your top pick?”
“Shauna Wells.”
Alec had three sides of the cube solved and began the turns that would complete the fourth. “Good choice. About time we had a woman on Falcon.”
“She’s more than qualified—” Nicole quickly added.
“I know she is. That wasn’t a crack about her qualifications. Merely an observation that Falcon has been a boy’s club too long.”
Nicole smiled. “I’m tired of the fart jokes.”
Alec hit the button on his phone for security and requested Wells come to his office immediately.
Keith leaned forward. “Rav, I have a temporary solution for the two remaining spots on Falcon.”
Alec set down the solved cube and nodded for Keith to continue.
“Sean Logan and Josh Warner.”
Sean was the top operative based in the DC area, and Josh Warner was Keith’s first hire—one of his former SEAL team members. With the addition of those two men to Falcon, maybe the coming training would succeed. The run-through yesterday had been hampered by the short staff. “How soon can they get here?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Do it,” Alec said.
“I approve of Logan—I’ve been trying to lure him out here for months,” Nicole said. “But I’ve never heard of Warner. I’d like to review his personnel file before he’s assigned to my team.”
Alec waited for Keith’s response. He’d known Nicole would attempt to assert power in this meeting, to establish herself as the sole leader at the Alaska compound. It was what any alpha dog would do in the face of a major power shift, and Nicole was as alpha as any Raptor employee.
Keith turned to the compound director, showing he knew exactly how to face down challenge to his authority—one of the reasons Alec had selected him to take the top spot. “I’ll send you his personnel file, but there’s no time to dick around with this decision. The training starts in three days, and you need a full team to run it. Warner is coming. He’s more than qualified and has my complete trust.”
“Yes, but I don’t know him, and I have full and final say in the makeup of Falcon team,” Nicole said.
“Not anymore. You’ve lost seven operatives to Apex in twelve months. That warrants intervention from the home office.” Keith dropped a file on Alec’s desk in front of Nicole. “And I want to know why a rookie like Chase Johnston is even on Falcon team. Nothing in his file shows he has the skills to warrant being named to the elite team.”
Alec sat back and smiled. He should have known Keith would review all the personnel files before arriving and flag the discordant notes. Keith Hatcher might not have gone to college, but he believed in doing his homework.
“Johnston is fully skilled. He’s just light on experience,” Nicole responded with a defiant tilt to her chin. “I haven’t had the luxury of being picky with Apex poaching our best operatives.”
“I’ve looked at the numbers, and sixty-five percent of the employees who’ve taken a job with Apex came from the Alaska compound, yet Alaska makes up only thirty-two percent of the company,” Keith said.
Nicole’s bristled, but not in an angry way. “We’re in Alaska. How many men has Barstow snatched from the Hawaii compound? None?”
Keith nodded.
“There’s a reason for that. Have you ever spent a winter in Alaska? The aurora borealis is pretty, but it doesn’t make up for forty below. It takes a special sort of person to make the transition from chechaquo to sourdough. I’ve been telling Rav from the start we need to rotate operatives in and have fewer permanent Alaska employees. We’ll have better retention if people know they aren’t stuck here forever.”
Keith turned to Alec. “Why haven’t you rotated operatives?”
“Consistency. We haven’t been able to work out a rotation schedule that allows for operatives to learn the training scenarios and build a cohesive team. Ideally, I’d like four sourdoughs,” he said, copying Nicole’s use of Alaskan slang for a person who’d acclimated to the subarctic climate, “and six operatives on rotation to run each training session, but we need to rebuild our core Alaskan staff first. It doesn’t help that we’ve been shut down, and therefore lightly staffed, during the summer—the best months weatherwise.”
To Nicole, Keith said, “My plan is to have Logan and Warner stay on here for the next six months. That’ll get you through the worst of winter, and neither operative will be tempted by Apex.”
“I get Logan for six months?” Nicole said, excitement in her voice. “What the hell did you promise him?”
Keith grinned. “I won a wager.”
Alec laughed. The Rubik’s cube was part of an ongoing wager between Alec and Keith, a bet Keith refused to concede. “What did you bet on?”
“He figured I was too old and too far removed from my glory days to kick his ass in a football-throwing contest.”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “Men are so easily manipulated by their egos. Too bad my sport was swimming.”
Outside his office, Alec heard Hans raise his voice in alarm. “You weren’t supposed to leave Mr. Ravissant’s suite.”
“I forgot to tel
l Alec I’m allergic to marble,” Isabel said. “And I’m seriously considering suing Raptor over the labyrinthine layout. I might have died if GI Jane here hadn’t found me and led me this way.”
“I didn’t lead her,” said a woman—probably Shauna Wells—in a defensive tone. “She followed me. I told her specifically to return to Rav’s quarters and not to follow me.” She paused. “You’re every bit the pain in the ass I’ve heard.”
“And here I was, hoping for this month’s congeniality award.”
Wells laughed. “Try again next month.”
“I find it difficult to string together thirty days of good behavior,” Isabel said.
Alec stood, leaving Nicole and Keith to argue over the power structure of the coming training, and opened his office door. He crossed his arms over his chest but couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Isabel’s gorgeous damp curls. “You can’t even manage one hour.”
She flashed him a sheepish grin. “I was going insane in your concubine palace. Rococo is really not my thing.”
“I need to work, Iz.”
She nodded. “I know that. I just want a computer. If you’d given me your password, I might have been a good little girl and stayed in the suite.”
Alec frowned, considering her request. If she were given a computer, she’d have access to the network. They still didn’t know who’d hacked into the system over the summer. Lee had fixed the leak, and he’d said the job was sophisticated—probably too sophisticated for the troublemaker who’d gotten the compound shut down. But still, he didn’t know for certain it wasn’t Isabel. And Nicole’s argument did have merit, dammit.
Much as he wanted to, he shouldn’t trust Isabel Dawson. Not completely.
Well, that answered the gut question, didn’t it? “No,” he said.
“Fine.” She pivoted on her heel and headed for the front door of the compound. “Then I’m going home.”
18
Isabel felt Alec’s distrust as a blow to the gut. She couldn’t even explain why it hurt so much, considering she’d made it clear she didn’t trust him. All she knew was that it rankled. Did he believe she’d actually been the person who assaulted him? Was he back to believing she’d abducted him?
Everything she’d done in the months since Vin’s death was for one purpose: to prove he’d been murdered. During their hike yesterday, Alec witnessed firsthand what it meant to her. For him to doubt her now took the wind out of her, made her question what she’d thought was a budding alliance.
She reached the glass partition that separated the stark foyer from the secure interior of the training complex.
“Iz, wait!”
She stopped with her hand on the door and asked herself why.
“You’re being a fool. Someone attacked you—twice. It’s not safe to leave,” Alec said.
She whirled to face him. “Since I was probably attacked by your men, I think it’s not safe for me to stay.”
Her voice echoed down the short corridor. Odds were, GI Jane, Hans, Nicole, and the new guy whom she hadn’t even met yet, all heard her accusation. Another reason she should probably leave.
Alec’s gaze narrowed. He pointed to the dome-enclosed camera mounted to the ceiling. “They don’t record sound, but if you shout, there’s not much we can do to keep the people we want to investigate ignorant of our suspicions.”
“Our suspicions. You say that like we’re a team, yet you just made it clear you don’t trust me.”
He crossed his arms. “You don’t trust me either.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
She was about to point out that she’d spent the last year believing he’d covered up her brother’s murder, but stopped. He’d likely spent the last year believing she wanted to sue him because she was greedy.
“Exactly,” Alec said as if he could read her mind.
“So what do we do?” she asked.
“Why do you want a computer?”
“I want to google infrasound. I still don’t even know what it is. And I want to know what Robert Beck was hiding here that required a stupid labyrinthine layout. And I want to know the shelf life of condoms.”
Alec startled at the last item on her list.
She pursed her lips. “Forget I said that last one.”
“I don’t think I will.” He raised a brow in question.
“You have a box of condoms in your nightstand.”
“So?”
She looked down. “I just wondered how long they’ve been there.”
Alec grinned. “Probably since I took over Raptor. I’m not even sure who stocked the suite, but it would be part of the standard kit.”
“Standard kit?”
“Raptor has five compounds. I have a suite at each one. But, similar to not wasting time with redecorating, I didn’t spend time stocking my quarters with toiletries. I have employees for that.”
“You have people whose job it is to keep you supplied with condoms?” Jesus, she’d known the guy was rich, but her brain was just starting to wrap around exactly how privileged he was.
He laughed. “Not condoms specifically. There’s a list of basic supplies. They go into everyone’s quarters. Much like the condoms that were in the prove-up cabin. Why are you so fascinated by the condoms?” His eyes lit with heat. “Are they a particularly kinky style or something?”
“I just sort of wondered… You said you’ve taken women to Paris to impress them. I wondered if you’d ever brought a woman here.”
His knowing grin made her face flush. It was irritating how easily she blushed. “I said when rich guys want to impress a woman. I’ve never actually done the private-jet-date-thing. I’ve never had someone I wanted to impress that much. And no, I’ve never brought a woman here. When I come to Alaska, it’s for work, not play.” He frowned. “Speaking of. I really need to get back to it. I’ll have Mothman set up a login for you and you can use the computer in my suite. Then you can google me and condoms all you want.”
“I googled you months ago.”
“Learn anything good?”
She smiled. “Just that there aren’t enough shirtless photos of you on the web.”
Alec grinned and ran his knuckles along her jawline. “I’ll give you a private viewing later, if you want.”
“In front of the fire. And I want a mug of hot chocolate.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “It’s a date.”
“Excuse me, boss, but this isn’t the time,” Nicole’s voice carried down the short corridor. “Wells is waiting, and I need to rework the shifts for the training now that Logan and Warner are coming.”
Alec turned to face Nicole. Isabel grinned at her from around his shoulder. “Sorry, Nic. It’s my fault.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.” She huffed out a sigh. “You should know, Isabel, security is always watching the public spaces inside the compound.” She pointed to the same security camera Alec had indicated earlier.
Isabel pushed Alec back and met Nicole’s gaze with her chin raised. “Thanks for the tip.”
Nicole cracked a smile. “Jesus, what am I going to do with you?”
Alec draped an arm around Isabel’s shoulder and headed down the corridor. “She’s my problem, Nic. Not yours.”
Outside Alec’s office, which was adjacent to Nicole’s, Hans sat behind his desk facing the tall African-American woman Isabel had dubbed GI Jane when the woman refused to give her name. Another man Isabel didn’t recognize stood in the doorway to Alec’s office. He was speaking with the others but broke off midsentence when Alec returned.
Alec promptly introduced Isabel to Keith Hatcher, who gave her an assessing look as he shook her hand, but his words were friendly. “Thanks for saving Rav’s life. He’s an ungrateful bastard, but the rest of us are thankful.” He winked at her.
She couldn’t help but smile at the future CEO. “He was pretty whiney when injured too.”
“Rangers.” Keith scoffed. “SEALs know h
ow to take an ass-kicking without complaint.”
Behind her, Alec laughed. To Hans, he said, “Call Mothman and tell him to set up a login for Isabel, then inform Quinault he’s giving Isabel shooting lessons in the firing range in an hour.”
“Shooting lessons?” She turned and gave Alec a skeptical gaze. “This is Alaska. They issue new residents a gun and NRA membership at the border. I know how to shoot.”
“Are you any good?”
“No.”
“Then you need a lesson. Ethan Quinault is my best firearms instructor.”
“Were you hoping I wouldn’t realize he’s my babysitter?”
“A little,” he admitted.
“I don’t need a sitter.”
“But you do need to learn how to shoot. You should probably carry a gun from now on.” He smiled. “And bear spray too, I think.”
Isabel started with the definition in the American Heritage online dictionary: in·fra·sound (ĭn'frə-sound′) n. A wave phenomenon sharing the physical nature of sound but with a range of frequencies below that of human hearing.
It was a start, but rather inadequate for her needs. A general search turned up the information that elephants, whales, hippopotami, giraffes, rhinoceroses, and alligators use infrasound to communicate over distances. Interesting, certainly, but not exactly the information she was looking for. She typed infrasound weapons in the search bar and hit pay dirt. Most of the articles were speculative, and some included conspiracy theories, but even the most respectable sources indicated that infrasound could be used as a weapon as certain frequencies caused headaches, nausea, and people subjected to intense infrasound had been known to pass out. It was believed but not confirmed that the Nazis had tested infrasound on human subjects during World War II.
Information on infrasound and memory loss was less reliable. Not surprisingly, given the harsh effects, documented tests on human subjects were inadvertent, and not in a controlled laboratory environment, making it impossible to track the effect on human memory.
Vote Then Read: Volume II Page 253