Vote Then Read: Volume II

by Lauren Blakely

  At the rear of the lab, there was a short tunnel that cut through the permafrost, connecting the secret room to the forest beyond the concertina-wire-topped fence that circled the compound. Officer Westover had his own entrance and exit into the building that completely bypassed all compound security measures, which explained how he was able to attack both Chase and Isabel and escape without notice while Nicole remained in full view at her desk.

  As far as the FBI agent was concerned, the most important find was the lab computer, which had information on infrasound development. As they’d guessed, testing had started under Beck. Westover, already versed in enhanced interrogation techniques during his stint in the DIA, had been in the process of developing tests to determine its uses when Beck was arrested. Godfrey, who’d been a medic in the Army, had been brought on board for his medical knowledge.

  There was so much data as they tested different variables and refined the weapon, they’d had to store the information somewhere, and odds were, Nicole wasn’t about to give Westover complete control of the data, nor could she keep it on a computer in her quarters or office.

  That Nicole didn’t grab the computer before leaving meant either she didn’t expect them to find the lab, or she didn’t care.

  Matt had called his superiors at the FBI the moment Isabel went missing, but with the data found in the lab, he’d included the DIA and CIA in the investigation. All agencies would be converging on the compound in a matter of hours, but unless they could help pinpoint Isabel’s location, Alec didn’t really give a damn.

  She was out there with Westover and Nicole, and all the barriers to his memory had crumbled. He knew exactly what they were doing to her.

  He’d spent the first two hours after she was taken searching the woods and compound assets where Nicole was likely to take her, while Keith led the search for the lab inside the main building.

  After all the shoot houses and training center buildings had been cleared, he’d had no choice but to return to the center of operations. He needed to do what he did best. Strategize. Plan. Run scenarios and predict outcomes.

  Nicole’s final act before she left the facility was to crash the computer system, using the lab terminal. Apparently, she was the one who’d been attacking the system for months, making it look like it was an external hack that came from Isabel. Now all the camera feeds to God’s Eye were offline, and the older security cameras were down as well. They couldn’t monitor the shoot houses. They couldn’t even access the stored data.

  Thank God, Lee had already landed in Fairbanks when Nicole crashed the system. He’d arrived with Sean and Josh an hour later and had slowly been bringing each system back online.

  Alec paced the length of God’s Eye while Lee worked, fighting the urge to go back outside and search for Isabel.

  There were too many places to hide in Alaska.

  There was an unsolved Rubik’s Cube on the console, part of his ongoing bet with Keith. He had to solve the puzzle in less than five minutes. They’d made the bet four or five years before, and he’d yet to lose—the initial wager was a pitcher of beer, but the double-or-nothing additions over the years probably amounted to Keith owing him a brewery by now. He picked it up. Stared at the squares.

  For the first time in decades, they made no sense. He should know exactly the moves it took to shift the orange, blue, and white corner into place without switching any other squares. But his mind was blank. He couldn’t visualize the sequence.

  He closed his eyes, but that didn’t help. All he could see was Isabel. In the firing range. Beautiful, sexy, warm.

  With a sharp yell, he threw the cube across the room. It hit one of the dozens of monitors, shattering the screen.

  To his credit, Lee said nothing. Other than Alec’s ragged breathing, the only sound was the tap of Lee’s fingers on the keyboard.

  Alec resumed pacing. As far as he knew, they had the numbers advantage. With Godfrey dead, it was only Westover and Nicole they had to deal with, while Alec had Raptor’s top operatives on his side. He also had Ethan Quinault, who might not be an operative, but he was an expert marksman. And then there was Keith, former SEAL sniper. He’d rehired Brad, who’d been a Green Beret. Both Josh and Sean had been SEALs.

  Hell, even Lee was a fifth degree black belt.

  Nicole Markwell and Lieutenant Paul Westover didn’t stand a chance.

  Except they had a hostage. A woman who meant everything to him.

  His cell phone buzzed. He expected it was a message from Keith down in the lab, but the message was from Nicole.

  She’d sent a video.

  Lee uploaded the video to the large monitor in the main conference room, and the team gathered to watch.

  Alec had seen it on his phone several times already, and now he forced himself to watch on the eighty-inch screen as larger-than life Isabel begged for the pain to stop.

  Each shriek was a blow.

  My fault.

  He’d suggested the Tamarack lockup. He’d delivered her right into Westover’s hands. He should have let Upton take her to Anchorage. He should have run off with her himself. There were a thousand things he should’ve—could’ve—done, and he’d chosen the single worst option.

  Around the room, the men were silent as they watched, most seeing the two-minute-and-fourteen-second video for the first time. At the end, a man wearing a mask and voice distorter demanded ransom. Every asset Alec could turn into cash in twenty-four hours was to be deposited into a numbered foreign bank account. Then Isabel would be released. If Alec paid in less than twelve hours, they’d be kind enough to ensure Isabel would have no memory of her ordeal.

  “If you pay late,” the masked man said, “she’ll live—we aren’t killers. Not like you. But the torture will get worse with each hour.” He paused and adjusted the speaker on his mask, so the eerie, distorted words became sharp and clear. “I know how to break a mind, Ravissant. I will destroy her.”

  If what Alec suspected of Westover’s service with the DIA was true, the man spoke the truth.

  Alec would tear him apart.

  Isabel jolted awake, unsure what had pulled her from sleep. Then she heard it again. The song was playing. Someone was calling her. Not just someone. Alec. That was his ringtone.

  She was in a curved walled room, with small windows in a row along the sides. An airplane. Was she flying somewhere?

  Something wasn’t right, but it was familiar. This was no déjà vu. Her head throbbed. Her abdomen ached as if she’d heaved every ounce of fluid from her body, twice.

  She probably had.

  She tried to sit up but discovered she was strapped to the cot. One strap crossed her shoulders. Her wrists were cinched down at her hips. Her ankles were bound as well. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  A woman sat in front of the bulkhead. When Isabel’s gaze landed on her, she smiled and stood, crossing the cabin to the side of the cot. “Oh good. You’re awake. Do you want to play twenty questions again, or just cut to the chase?”

  “You’ve been torturing me. Repeatedly.” She didn’t remember, exactly. It was more the aches in her body and gaps in her memory that told her.

  “I have to admit, it’s been quite fascinating,” Nicole said. “Usually the infrasound testing was Westover and Godfrey’s deal. I never even watched. All I cared about were the results. But you, Isabel, you’ve been special. I wonder if it’s because you’re a woman. We’re made of stronger stuff, you know. We can take higher levels of pain. Westover says your pain threshold is off the charts compared to the men.”

  Isabel wanted to glare at Nicole, but even that hurt. Blinking hurt. Breathing hurt. “Are we flying somewhere?”

  A corner of her mouth kicked up. “No. We’re in the airplane hostage simulator. This jet hasn’t flown in years.”

  They were still on the compound. Alec could find her. There was hope. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “I’m getting tired of going over that with you. We’re ransoming you. I fi
gure at this point you’re worth a lot to Alec, and the more you scream, the more he’ll pay. You scream very well.”

  “Ransom. Wait. You were interrogating him. You were after his money all along. You wanted access to his accounts.”

  “Very good! You do remember!” Nicole gave her a look worthy of a proud mother. If Isabel could lift her arm, she’d punch the bitch, pain or no pain.

  “Alec killed Godfrey, and Westover dumped Alec in the woods so I’d find him. Why? Your plan had gone to hell. Why not just kill him?”

  “Oh. That’s a good question. You haven’t asked that one already. Glad to see your brain is holding up after repeated rounds of infrasound.”

  Repeated? How many times had they done this to her? How many times had they had this conversation?

  “If Rav had died, his accounts would have been frozen. We wouldn’t have been able to raid them. Westover had to find a way for Rav to live, but he couldn’t pull off the car-hitting-a-moose scenario we’d planned, not when Rav had bruises and cuts that couldn’t have been caused by the accident. No one would believe it. Plus we weren’t sure what Rav would remember. So he dumped Rav in your path, figuring you’d bandage him, then go for help. It was the best we could hope for. You surpassed Westover’s expectations by building the travois. Rav might have died if you’d left him—and that would have screwed up our plans big-time. We owe you a debt of thanks. You didn’t just save Rav; you saved our asses.”

  “And now you’re thanking me by torturing me.”

  “Yes, but we’ve been using the frequencies that result in memory loss—our gift to you. Believe me, you don’t want to know what you’ve been through today. Westover is one sick sonofabitch.”

  Nicole had never been a fan of Westover, and her tone indicated the dislike hadn’t been an act to deflect suspicion. Isabel twisted under the restraints, trying to get a glimpse of the main passenger cabin behind her. “Where is he?”

  “He’s setting up our next location. Right now it’s just us girls.”

  Was Nicole more likely to answer her questions without Westover present? Even more important, without Westover, was she safe from being zapped with infrasound? “Why did he shoot Airwave into my cabin?”

  “Westover wanted your computer and notebook. I wanted Rav to bring you inside the compound so I could keep an eye on you—you’d gotten far too close to the cave—plus I wanted to implicate Apex.”

  “Because Barstow never offered you a job?”

  Nicole’s lip curled. “Oh, he offered me a job—but I’m an operative, not a whore.”

  Did Nicole expect Isabel to feel sorry for her? After everything she’d done? Isabel’s body ached too much for her to even fake sympathy. “Why did Westover come after us in the river? We weren’t anywhere near the cave.”

  “That was Westover’s stupid idea to prevent Rav from letting you search for the cave on your own. He figured if he made it clear you were in danger, Rav would insist you stay inside the building while we planned the training, making you a willing prisoner. Westover didn’t expect you both to swim.” She patted Isabel’s hand. “If it makes you feel better, I reamed him when he told me what happened. Rav could have died.”

  Where was the woman Isabel had spent hours with in the Roadhouse? How had she hidden her true self so well, for so long? Isabel stared at her, searching for glimpses of the woman she’d laughed and traded stories with, for the soldier who’d seemed dedicated to her job. Maybe, if she hadn’t been so lonely and desperate for information, she’d have recognized Nicole for what she was months ago. She cleared her throat to ask one more question. “Why was I attacked in the basement?”

  Nicole’s mouth tightened and her brows drew together in disappointment. “As I’ve told you twice already, after Chase failed to grab you, we knew we’d have to take you ourselves. But we could hardly abduct you when Rav had a mercenary army at his disposal. Attacking you in the basement—so blatant after Chase’s collapse—made it clear the compound wasn’t safe. Rav had no choice but to shut it down”—she flashed a cunning grin—“and send everyone on Falcon away.” She picked up Isabel’s cell phone. “That’s enough questions. Let’s see what message Rav left you.” She put the phone on speaker.

  “I never set up voice mail,” Isabel said.

  “Don’t worry, I set it up for you when I disabled the GPS function.”

  That not so secret hope wilted before it could fully blossom. Alec’s phone guru, Lee, wouldn’t be able to locate her based on cell tower pings—because there was only one antenna array in the area—and it was right next to the main compound building.

  Alec’s voice was crisp even through the small speaker. “You win, Nicole. It takes time to turn assets into cash, but I’ve spoken with the presidents of three of my banks and have been assured access to twenty-seven million at eight a.m. Eastern time. I just need the deposit account number to complete the transaction.”

  Nicole frowned and shut off the phone. “By my calculations, his assets—not including Raptor—are worth well over a hundred million, but if the bank is advancing the cash based on stocks and bonds he has yet to sell, they couldn’t give him full value.” She tapped the phone, her gaze taking a distant look. “I suppose twenty-seven mil isn’t bad. I have to split it with Westover, though. Sort of makes me glad Rav took Godfrey out of the picture. It’s enough to make this whole ordeal worthwhile. We’re giving up on eighteen months of testing and development, plus I’ll be forced to leave the US and never come back.” The cunning grin returned. “You must give a helluva blowjob.”

  Isabel bucked against the restraints, more than eager to slug Nicole in the jaw.

  Nicole ignored her and reached for the mask on the tray. “Now, it’s time to make sure you forget this conversation.”

  “Why?” Isabel pleaded, sweat dotting her brow at the prospect of enduring more pain, even if she wouldn’t remember it later. “You just get annoyed when I ask the same questions again.”

  Nicole paused and cocked her head, her expression matching one Isabel had seen many times. “You know what, I’m so happy Rav is coming through with the money, I’ll give you this one.” She winked conspiratorially. “Plus it’ll piss off Westover that I didn’t follow his instructions, which is always a bonus.”

  Relief allowed Isabel to take a deep, shuddering breath. She’d only delayed the next round, but at least she wouldn’t wake up confused again. With this conversation as a baseline, she’d remember what was going on, and why, which might give her a chance to figure out how to escape.

  Nicole gathered items from a cart next to the cot, shoving them into a duffle bag. “It’s time for us to join Westover at the next location. We’ll send the video we took of you here in a few hours. We need to keep Alec on his toes, guessing where we are. I don’t for a moment believe he’s just going to give me the money without doing everything he can to get you back first. He might be a good strategist, but he handed over his game plan months ago, and he doesn’t know this compound nearly as well as I do. He doesn’t really stand a chance.”

  33

  A map of the compound was spread out across the conference table. Lee pointed to three structures in the far northeast of Alec’s holdings. “We can rule out these structures, because while they have generators and electricity, they don’t have Wi-Fi or cell coverage, and they need to be able to access the banks, to be certain the money has gone through.”

  “They could have a satellite phone,” Keith suggested.

  Alec considered what he knew of Nicole. “It’s possible. But Nicole is tech savvy and more comfortable with computers than telephone transactions. She’ll want to see the deposits land and move the money quickly. Plus she probably feels secure knowing she locked us out of the LAN and God’s Eye cameras. She figures Mothman is in Fairbanks and we’re helpless. She has no idea Lee is here.”

  Lee had already defeated Nicole’s bug, but they’d opted to leave it in place until they stormed the position where Isabel was held. Le
t her think she maintained the upper hand until it was too late.

  Four monitors had been set up in the room. Each was paused on a different video.

  Four videos. Four rounds of torture. Each one worse than the last.

  Brad left the table and approached the second monitor. He hit the Play button and fast-forwarded. He stopped and played a small section.

  Isabel’s whispered plea for mercy kicked Alec in the chest.

  “Sorry,” Brad said, and muted the sound.

  Only years of training kept Alec from losing his shit. He had a rescue mission to plan and couldn’t save her if he lost his focus. He was a razor. Sharp and lethal.

  Brad paused the video and zoomed in on the wall behind Isabel. “This bullet pattern. I know it. We ran a training where we hung posters to represent three Tangos in the southeast shoot house a few months ago. We timed how quickly each trainee could get off three headshots. The wall behind the posters was beat to hell after that exercise.” Brad pointed to three heavily chipped areas. “This is that room.”

  Lee studied the map, then pointed. “Is this the southeast shoot house?”

  Brad returned to the map and nodded.

  Lee drew a red circle around the structure on the map. “I can turn on the cameras there. If they’re long gone, it won’t alert Nicole we have computer access, and if they’re there, we’ll see them.”

  Alec considered the possibilities. “I want a team in position to pounce, just in case they’ve returned. It would be like her to double back after a place has been cleared. Like the hostage scenarios we run in the shoot houses. And that was one of the structures I searched first.”