“Do you think Dad will come?” Kendra asked after a while.
“Oh, he will definitely come for you, baby.” She knew with every fiber of her being that Wayne was already on his way.
**
He sat staring at the two females through the camera feed. They were talking, but he could not hear what they were saying. Not that it mattered. There was no way they were getting out of there till he let them go.
“Was it really necessary to tie them up that way?” a voice said behind him.
“Yes.”
“But they are harmless. We have top notch security here, tying them up is just futile.”
He lifted an eyebrow. The woman was becoming more vocal. Less timid. Challenging him subtly. Was that disapproval he heard in her voice? He would need to do something about her soon.
“Well, you let me worry about the futility of that then,” he said shortly.
Something in his voice must have communicated itself to her because he felt her tense up. She was silent for a few minutes.
“How did the video call go?”
He turned around to look at her and thought again how pretty and innocent she was. If he were someone else, a different kind of person, she would have been the perfect woman for him. Her large doe eyes tugged at something deeper, somewhere inside him, calling to the man he used to be—except he was no longer that man. And the man he was now would chew her up and spit her out. That man was only fit for the Mila Mayers of the world.
“Jack, are you okay?”
He focused his intense gaze on her. “Yeah.”
“I was asking how the video call went.” She sounded nervous.
“It went as expected,” he said with a shrug.
“Will they meet our demands?”
“No doubt.”
She smiled then. “That’s a relief. Then we can let those two go once the demands are met, right?”
He glanced at the screen she was pointing to and shrugged once more.
“Who said anything about letting them go?”
Very slowly, her face leeched of color as she turned pale.
“You said no one was going to get hurt,” she said tight-lipped.
“I said a lot of things,” he said with a wry smile. “I lied.”
She stumbled backward and sank into a hard-backed chair.
“Oh my god.” She raised a trembling hand to her forehead. “Jack, these are innocent people. You…you can’t…oh gosh. You’ve got to let them go!”
She really was so innocent. It would be a shame to waste her, but what choice did he have? She knew too much.
“Jack? This is all industrial espionage, right? You’re not using it for any terrorist shit, are you?”
Yet another lie he’d told her.
“I’m using it to make money, baby, that’s all.” He gave her his most sincere look as he lied to her yet again.
He had no idea why he even bothered to tell her lies. She was not going to leave that lab, not alive anyway. There was no one she could tell. He could have shared all his more sinister plans with her without fear, knowing full well that she would not live to repeat anything she’d heard. Yet, he held back. He held her gaze and the slight hurt he saw in the depth of hers told him why he kept lying to her.
He had become addicted to the adoration in her eyes. Its absence made him feel hollow inside. So he opened his mouth and uttered one more lie.
“Of course I’ll let them go.”
Her eyes lit up with the adoration he so craved. She got up and walked towards him, then leaned down and kissed him.
“You may not believe me, but you are a good man, Jack,” she murmured against his lips before straightening up and walking out.
He watched her walk away and knew that letting her go was going to be harder than he’d thought. But he did not have a choice. If he kept her around much longer, he would start believing her and thinking that there was a good person somewhere inside. That would be a great self-deception. And no matter how many lies he told other people, he never lied to himself. Jack Chance was all bad and there was nothing to redeem. Unfortunately, by the time she found that out, it would be too late for her.
“You still have that mouse there with you?”
Jack swore. He had forgotten that he’d been on a call with Mila when the other woman walked in. He had forgotten to take the call off speaker. He checked to be sure that the woman had left the room. Satisfied, he turned his back to the door.
“What mouse?” he asked, stalling for time
“Don’t be deliberately obtuse, you know I’m talking about the scientist.”
“She’s an engineer, Mila.”
Jack grimaced at the impatient growl in his ear. There were several things he admired, maybe even loved about Mila; her temper was not one of the them.
“Be nice, you know she’s been useful.”
“Yes, but she is no longer of use, is she? Or have you become attached, mon ami?”
Jack stiffened as her words hit their mark. He was at risk of becoming attached. Hell, if he was being brutally honest with himself, he had to admit that he’d developed feelings for the slender woman that had helped him achieve some part of his dreams. Not that it mattered, because it didn’t. She would have to go.
“Stop worrying about her. When the time is right, I’ll get rid of the little engineer.”
“You’d better. Any news from Wayne Carter? Is he coming?”
“He’ll be here.”
“The wife and kid?”
“They’re okay for now.”
“Once we get the microchips we get rid of them all, right?”
“Right. They’re too much of a complication.”
“Exactly.”
**
She stepped out of the room and leaned against the wall. She could feel her heart beating against her ribcage. How could she have gotten it so wrong? She struggled to get air into her lungs. She could feel her chest burning with the effort. Very slowly, she straightened up and took the short steps up to the living quarters. Below was the lab and above the living quarters was the abandoned warehouse, chosen because it did not draw a lot of attention to them.
She sank unto the side of the bed. The warehouse was several miles away from the nearest town. Hardly anyone ever came that way, not even teenagers looking for a little privacy. No one. It might take years for their bodies to get found. She shuddered at the thought.
Jack Chance.
Was that even his real name? How could she be so totally and absolutely wrong about someone? She had given up everything for him. Her home, her family, her career…everything. And his plan was to dispose of her like unwanted garbage? She loved him, dammit! She loved him so much it ached. She would have done absolutely anything for him.
She was still reeling in shock from the phone call she’d overheard. She’d wanted nothing more than to march in there and confront him, but she knew now that she did not know who he was. The person she’d heard speaking as she’d left the room would not have hesitated to put a bullet through her head. Her words came back to haunt her…
You’re a good man, Jack.
A good man…that was the biggest joke ever. There was nothing good about Jack Chance. He had deceived her from the very beginning, used her to get his hands on the prototype.
She felt her eyes burn with tears and brushed them away impatiently. He was not worth a single drop of her tears. She ran both hands through her hair. What was she going to do? Where would she begin? If she managed to escape Jack, there would be no escaping Wayne, especially if something happened to his wife and kid. He would be like an avenging angel and she had no illusions; he would find out about her and come after her.
She had to come up with a plan, quickly.
She sat up and looked around her. She had to find a way to get out of here before he killed her. And she was taking Wayne’s wife and kid with her. She had caused him enough grief already, she was not going to add this one to her conscience. Be
sides, it might soften his heart towards her. Maybe he wouldn’t come after her if she saved his family. Maybe.
She would have to lay low, play along with Jack and make her move when she got the opportunity. As for what she would do once she got away…she would take it one day at a time.
Chapter Eighteen
4:30 p.m., General Carter’s office at the Pentagon
“You should know him, Sir. His name is Jack Chance.”
General Carter narrowed his gaze and stared at the young man who had spoken. They were in his office trying to figure out a strategy that would get his family out of the bastard’s clutches. The larger meeting had ended. This was a different kind of meeting.
“I know the name,” he said in a level voice.
“You should, he was once part of your elite Shadow Force.”
Carter remained silent, neither confirming nor denying the statement. There weren’t many people alive who knew about the actual existence of the Shadow Force. For most, it had been nothing more than a myth…an urban legend within the armed forces.
But Derek Copeland spoke with the assurance of one who knew exactly what he was speaking about.
He would bear watching. The young upstart knew too damn much. More than most people who had worked in the Pentagon for decades.
“Are you trying to tell me something, Derek?” He held his gaze and did not look away.
After a few moments, Derek lowered his gaze. General Carter felt a faint tinge of satisfaction go through him, but it didn’t last long. The other man lifted his gaze and met his head on.
“Actually, I am, Sir,” he said. “Knowing his motivation would definitely help us in forming a strategy that does not blow up in our collective faces. With all due respect, getting to the bottom of what drives him is my business.”
This time the emotion that went through the older man was respect. Someday, the young man would make a stellar head of one of the intelligence agencies, maybe he would even become the National Security Adviser. He certainly had what it took. If he was still around, he would be glad to give him a recommendation. But on to the matter at hand.
“So you’re telling me that his decision to target my family was not just a coincidence?”
“Remember during the Egyptian revolution in 2011, a certain Silicon Valley entrepreneur went missing on a trip to Cairo.”
General Carter leaned back against his chair and rested his chin on his hand. He remembered the incident as well as the man who went missing. He had been working on some sensitive technology for the US and it was not information they wanted in the hands of any other government.
“Go on,” he said, not because he didn’t know what came next, but because he needed to know just how much the slim man with extremely intelligent eyes knew.
“Well, the Shadow Force was sent in to retrieve him. They got their man, but somewhere along the way, they lost Jack Chance. By the time they realized he was not with them, they were already airborne and their primary assignment was to safely deliver the entrepreneur to American soil.”
“They went back for Jack,” the older man said slowly. He saw the look of surprise on the younger man’s face and could not stop a wry smile from escaping. “You didn’t know that?”
“Ah, no, Sir. It was not in the records.”
“That’s because it was an unauthorized mission. Wayne Carter and Asher Banks went back to Cairo.” He paused as he remembered the heated argument he’d had with his son. He had made it explicitly clear to the young fool that if he chose to go back to Cairo, he would be on his own. The very next day, those two had been on a private charter flight to Egypt.
“What happened?” Derek prompted.
“They did not find him. They were in that country for three weeks and there was no sign of Jack Chance. It almost seemed as though he had disappeared without a trace.” He shook his head at the memory. “The boys mourned him, believing him dead.” But he had always had his doubts. A person did not disappear so completely unless they had planned to do so. At least, that had been his belief.
“You think he sold out?” Derek asked.
General Carter raised an eyebrow. “What do you think, Copeland. You’re the intelligence person.”
Derek leaned back on his chair, his posture unconsciously mirroring that of the general.
“We tried to trace the call but were unable, however, we did find some phone records from several months ago.”
“And?”
“Well, Sir, there was a number that kept showing up repeatedly. We traced it to a Mila Mayer in the Netherlands.”
“What do we know about this woman?”
“Interestingly, she’s the head of the Center for Lethal Autonomous Weapons. Their office is at The Hague.”
“Hmmm…”
“That’s not all. We ran a quick check on her and discovered that her mother is from Egypt.”
“So there’s definitely a connection there.”
“Definitely,” Derek said with a nod as his phone beeped. “One minute please,” he said to the older man then placed the phone to his ear. He listened for a few seconds then said, “Thanks.”
Placing the phone on the table before him, he lifted his gaze to the other man. “We’ve managed to get a location for the call.”
General Carter nodded, knowing there was only one call on both their minds. “Is it an exact location?”
“Unfortunately, no. But we’ve been able to triangulate the call to a general location outside Dodge City in Kansas.”
“We could deploy Special Forces, but it doesn’t make sense to go in without an exact location. Precious hours could be lost searching for their whereabouts.” Seeing the thoughtful look on Derek’s face he tilted his head to the side and observed the man. “Something running through your mind?”
“We don’t need to figure out the exact location, we just need to find Wayne Carter. Once we do, we’ll have our man.”
“What are you saying?”
Derek had a wry smile on his face. “I’m saying, Sir, that I don’t believe you have no way of tracking down your son.”
General Carter grunted, never taking his eyes off the slender man seated on the other side of his desk. The man was right. He did have a way of tracking Wayne down, but it could take a while because the boy had been careful to get rid of potential bugs.
However, someone else was on his mind and it wasn’t Wayne. Expecting Wayne not to discover the bugs he’d planted on his person as well as on his devices was a stretch and it could take a while. But there was a sure way of getting the exact location of the abductor, but that was if she still wore it on her wrist. He had forgotten about that and since she had no reason to take it off, it was quite reasonable to expect that she still wore it. That meant that he could pinpoint their location in less than a minute. Before he did that, there were a few things he needed to sort out first.
He picked up the phone that connected him with his secretary.
“Pam, place a call to Asher Banks and get Rusty Rosabelle on line two. Thanks.”
**
6:00 p.m., same day.
Wayne sat silently throughout the plane ride from New York to Kansas, lost in his thoughts. He thought of the many ways this could turn out and each one filled him with dread. He knew he would not survive it if anything happened to Emily. All those years he’d stayed away from her because he’d thought it was the only way to keep her safe and once again her life was in danger. Once again, he was to blame. He had given up so much to keep her safe and it had all been for nothing. He felt the anger inside him begin to boil once more. Very deliberately and consciously he reined it in, he was not going to let the anger overwhelm him like it threatened to, instead, he would use the anger to fuel his resolve.
Clenching his hands into fists, he made a promise to himself that if one hair was hurt on Emily or Kendra’s hair, he would personally see to the destruction of whoever was behind this abduction. Hell, he was going to take the person down no matt
er what happened. No one had the right to mess with his family and get away with it. Hell no.
He leaned back against his seat, unclenching his hands as he shut his eyes. It was a small jet, so he sat in front and both Ace and Drew sat at the back. He heard one of their phones beep, but did not pay any attention to the conversation until he sensed someone standing beside him. Opening his eyes, he saw both men staring down at him.
“What’s up, guys?” he asked, sitting up with a slight frown.
“We got some info from Rusty,” Ace said. “I’m putting the call on speaker.”
Wayne nodded.
“Russ, can you repeat what you just told us? We have Wayne here now,” Ace said.
“Yeah, hi Wayne,” Rusty said and went on without waiting for a response. “So I got a phone call from General Cart—”
“Hold up,” Wayne interrupted, immediately going tense at the mention of that name. “I’m not interested in anything the general has to say.”
“I think you will be interested in this,” Drew said in his laid back way.
Wayne felt his hands form into fists once more. He wanted nothing more than to consign his father to the deepest parts of hell. He was responsible for the mess that Wayne found himself in and unless he completely cut off from the man, he was only going to find himself going from one mess to another. However, if they felt he needed to listen to what Rusty had to say, then he knew they were right.
“Sorry, go on, Rosabelle.”
“Sure. So I got a call from the general asking me to trace a signal and get him a location. I was not interested until he mentioned that it would lead to wherever Emily was being held.”
“Her exact location?” Wayne could feel his heart thumping with hope.
“Yeah.”
“How does he figure that out?” Ace asked.
“Apparently, Kendra is wearing a wristwatch that has an advanced tracking system. That way they are able to always monitor her whereabouts from the Pentagon.”
“No shit,” Drew said softly.
“I kid you not.” Rusty replied.
Wayne heard the disgust in their voices and it echoed what he felt inside. All that period in D.C. when they’d gone crazy trying to figure out his daughter’s whereabouts, the damned man had known the entire time. When they got through this, he was going to look for his father and kill him personally.
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