Aelia nodded slightly to herself and left the room, leaving them to lay out a plan. She walked along the corridor and back up to the main house, aware of her people stopping to watch her as she walked by.
The plane ride was strained. Aelia stared out of the window, but saw nothing except the clouds they were flying through, clouds that reflected the haze of worry over her heart.
Adam, Rolly and Aeterna's elite defense unit, fully armed, were up front going over their plan. Basically it came down to her and Adam being the bait. They were what Jennison was aiming for, and everyone on that flight knew that. And their plan was ultimately designed to achieve one goal, and one goal only—get her in and out of there and back to Aeterna safely.
Hers was somewhat different. She was going to get Stan Shell away from Jennison, and she wasn't going to return to Aeterna without Adam, Rolly, and each and every one of her people, people she was responsible for, returning safely with her. No life was expendable. That was not what she was about, and the sooner her people understood that, the better.
She closed her eyes and listened to them, in more ways than one, then opened her eyes again when Adam came and sat opposite her. She met his gaze. This was a far stretch from their flight in the opposite direction just days before. They now had their answers. But they also had more responsibility than they had ever imagined they would, and right now that responsibility just happened to involve a human who had done nothing but look out for a girl who had no one and who needed his help. He was an innocent victim.
And Aelia was not about to accept that either, an innocent victim.
Jennison was antsy. The time of the exchange was almost here, and soon he would finally have them. The men he had chosen were already in place—six in this building, eight around it, ready to move if the targets brought any of them as reinforcements or to join their peers in the building if the meet turned messy, and a damn good sniper. None of them knew the truth, all thought they were after a rogue operative who had betrayed the organization. He would have liked to use more people, employ a more elaborate plan that would leave nothing to chance, but time was short and, in any case, that's all he could risk. As it was, other than the sniper and two of these men, the others weren't the caliber he would have preferred to take for such a mission.
Still, these were a lot of people for one man—even if it was Kyle—and a woman who had no training at all, all the more so since they wanted his prisoner alive, while he himself couldn't care less. He had no intention of keeping the terms of the exchange. He was holding the guy alive only for leverage and was planning to silence him when this was all over anyway. He figured Kyle would guess that by now, but what the hell, he had still agreed to the exchange. That had always been the problem with Kyle, his stupid weakness. Best killer ever but he never touched anyone except his target, taking too much care to plan his missions so that no innocents would be around.
Jennison checked his gun for the hundredth time. If all went well, by the end of this thing the woman would be in the organization’s hands again and Kyle would be dead. Or better yet, maybe they would both be dead. He felt no remorse about Kyle. He was one of them, after all, and Jennison had never forgotten that, not even when Kyle was just a child, and even after all the years Kyle had been with him, virtually a part of his family. Kyle had to go. He was no longer useful for the purpose Jennison had taken him for, and the organization couldn't risk having him on their side.
And Jennison was tired of him getting in the way.
Jennison had chosen a neighborhood that had never quite become that, a live-in neighborhood. Under different circumstances it might have become another proud cluster of family-friendly apartment buildings interspersed with playgrounds and parks on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, but after yet another in a line of too frequent recessions hit, it ended up as nothing more than ghost buildings at different stages of their finishing.
Aelia looked through the passenger-side window of the reinforced SUV she was in, flown in from Aeterna. The buildings looked forlorn, shadowy giants against the dark sky, but then perhaps that was what made them such a fitting meeting place for this. Beside her, Adam maneuvered the vehicle to the rear of the outermost building and parked close to its wall, using it for cover. There were no other structures anywhere around them on this side of the building, only barren land that was originally supposed to be a park, the city’s optimistic master plan had shown. It would allow a quick getaway if need be, Adam had explained to Aelia, and was better than parking on the other side, in the midst of the neighborhood, between buildings that could be used for hiding by Jennison’s men. Not ideal, he said, but then that’s precisely why Jennison would pick this place.
As they were instructed to do by Jennison, they were alone in the SUV. Nor did they see anyone around them, although Adam had warned Aelia that Jennison’s people would not hesitate to try to get to her, and asked her to stay close to him, and certainly not to assume they were safe at any point. She didn't need the warning, not with everything that had happened around her, and not with the knowledge that her people could be hurt by her actions, that they would jump in to protect her without heeding their own safety. But she had acknowledged Adam’s worry. She knew he needed to know she was safe to be able to operate freely.
“We're here,” Adam said quietly, and Aelia heard Rolly confirm in her earpiece. It was time. Adam got out of the vehicle and walked around it, looking around as he did, his gun in his hand down by his side. He opened the passenger door, and Aelia got out. He motioned her to walk between him and the wall, and they walked into the building through what might have been the back entrance to its lobby. The concrete under their feet was bare, sadly covered in mud and littered.
They moved carefully, Adam guiding Aelia through the safest path, and ducked through a broken doorway into the staircase. Adam was vigilant, but no one approached them. The building was dark and deceptively quiet. They walked silently up to the first floor, where Adam stopped and listened, then exchanged a look with Aelia. They turned left, as Jennison had instructed, and followed a wide corridor until they came through the doorway of what would have been an apartment, to a living room that was lighted with mobile lamps. All lights were directed at Stan Shell, who was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, his arms and legs bound. The elderly man looked tired and scared. Behind him, Jennison was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed on his chest. His eyes were on them as they approached, and there was unveiled hatred on his face.
Adam and Aelia stopped several steps from the professor. Aelia disregarded Jennison, her eyes on the prisoner.
Her old friend looked horrified at the sight of her. “No, Aelia, go, run, he'll kill you!” he called out in a hoarse voice and Aelia's heart broke. Even now he was looking out for her.
“Enough!” Jennison's voice boomed and Stan winced visibly.
Not heeding Jennison, Aelia walked over and kneeled before her friend. “Stan, it's okay, we'll get you back home—”
Jennison's voice rang with anger. “I said—”
He fell quiet as Aelia stood up slowly and met his eyes. He had expected her to be afraid. He'd monitored her over the years, saw with astonishment how she came through the cruel life he had placed her in, wondered about her. But still, who he was, he had always been sure that when it came down to it, she would be intimidated by him. Except that the woman who was standing before him, her eyes gray ice, wasn’t the least bit afraid of him. No, he realized, it was more than that, more than him. She had no fear in her at all. And there was something about her, something different. Something that hadn't been in the woman he had sent Kyle after, the woman who had always seemed withdrawn, hesitant in a way.
His eyes moved to Kyle. He'd changed too, but then Jennison had already realized that when Kyle broke into his office. Jennison had been scared that day, the first time ever he'd actually had to face the killer he himself had created. There had been a moment back there when he had thought he would not get out
of his office alive, and had been relieved when Kyle simply left without killing him. Still, this, now, this was worse. Kyle was clearly with her, and one of them. Jennison went chilly with the realization of what he had done, bringing Kyle into the heart of the organization and making him its best trained operative, and then sending him straight into their hands, inadvertently creating the perfect weapon against himself and the organization.
This thought made him focus. He took a step toward Aelia. “It's you, all this is over you. Walk away from this, from the Firsts, from who they believe you to be, and we'll leave them alone, them and him.” He indicated Adam. “You don’t even have to come with me now, and I won't come after you or go anywhere near anyone you know. Just walk away.”
Aelia's eyes never wavered from his, and she remained silent.
Jennison was stunned to feel a pang of fear. He took a step back, then forced himself to stop, to calm down. There was no choice, then. These two had to die. With a renewed sense of urgency, he called out, “Now!”
Four of his men charged the room with their guns drawn. Adam, who'd easily known where they were hiding, shot two, disabling both, before either of them even got a shot out, and the third got a shot out that nearly grazed Adam's arm before Adam shot him, injuring but not killing him either. The fourth found himself being tackled and thrown at two more who were coming through the door, and they tumbled back, getting up dazed to find themselves looking at the barrel of Adam’s gun as he motioned them to stay down. Not a word was uttered.
All that time Aelia did not move. She remained standing in the same spot, her eyes on Jennison, throughout the entire commotion around her. She felt it all through Adam without having to look—the position of every person in the room, their moves, their reactions. He stopped them. He stopped them and he wasn't hurt. Rolly and the defense unit were not hurt, either. Eight more, yes, there were eight more of the organization’s men who they intercepted outside the building. Her people she could read easily and knew they had acted efficiently and safely.
And there was the last one.
The guy in the opposite building. The sniper.
She closed her eyes and focused on him, and Adam turned to look at her as several members of the defense unit ran in and took over the captives he had kneeling at gunpoint. He felt it. He asked and without turning to him, without a word, she let him know. He ran to her and placed himself between her and the unglazed window through which the sniper was aiming, keeping an eye on Jennison, who looked dazed.
In the opposite building the sniper had the woman on his sight. He saw what happened in the room, and knew he was up. He began pulling the trigger, and then Kyle Rhys, the operative tagged by Jennison as rogue, moved in, hiding the primary target, but almost immediately she moved half a step to the side, raised her head, and looked at him.
Which was impossible because there was no way she could have seen him, no way at all, it was not humanly possible, it was—
The blinding light came out of nowhere, filling his eyes, flooding his mind. Pain shot through him and he gasped, confused, disoriented.
He passed out.
“Shoot, dammit, do it, take the shot, take it!” Jennison shouted, realizing he was losing his chance to get what he wanted. At least she would die, he thought, waiting, but his earpiece remained silent. In a final, desperate act of rage, he drew his gun and was about to aim it at Aelia when the weapon was wrenched out of his hand and he was thrown against the wall. He crumpled against it in defeat, Adam standing above him.
Aelia untied her friend and helped him to his feet. She supported him out of the room, while Adam took one last look at the man he had grown up believing was his family, and left him with three unconscious operatives, motioning the defense unit to follow him with the remaining captives.
Rolly met them on the way and accompanied them to the front of the building, where the vehicles were now standing, including the one Aelia and Adam had arrived in. Her people had positioned themselves, some beside the SUVs, others with the captives. They were still alert, but no one else was coming. Jennison was past trying to go after them.
When they drove away, a line of dark SUVs with solemn Firsts in it, they left behind them the organization's operatives unhurt and tied at the front of the building. When Jennison would come out he would stand looking at some of the organization's best potentials tied in a row on the ground before him, unable to move until he cut their ropes. Which would be after his cry of rage chilled their blood. His only consolation was that these were his men, from the facility he controlled, and who would not want anyone to know of their easy defeat, so in theory he could control this failure.
Yes. Perhaps he could. Or so he thought until he did the final head count.
The sniper was gone.
Chapter Twenty-One
In the SUV that held Adam and a driver in the front, and Aelia and Stan Shell in the back, Aelia turned to her old mentor. Stan looked exhausted, but otherwise he seemed physically unharmed.
“We're taking you to a hospital,” Aelia said with concern.
The older man put his hand on hers and shook his head. “No need, I'm perfectly fine. Those people, they didn’t hurt me.”
“I'm sorry, Stan. They were trying to get to me through you. This is because of me.”
“No,” he said, squeezing her hand in admonishment. “This is because of them. Whatever their reasons, they chose to take me, it was their choice, not yours.”
She looked at him incredulously. “Same old Stan. Ever the wise mentor.”
“Well, someone has to be.” He laughed and winced a little.
“Stan,” she began, but he shook his head.
“I'm fine, really. A bit tired maybe. I would much rather go home, Sarah must be so worried.”
“We'll take you there,” she said.
“Ma'am,” the driver intervened, using the form of address he knew to use with humans around. “I'm afraid we can't go anywhere near the professor’s house. He is considered a missing person, and the police are there.”
Adam turned to look at Aelia. “And you're a missing person too,” he reminded her.
She frowned, but Stan was the next one to speak. “Of course, I didn't think about it. They're right, you'd better drop me somewhere and leave.” He gazed at her for a moment. “Although I must say, Aelia, I would very much like to know what’s going on. Where have you been, what happened to you? Who were those men—and who are they?” He indicated Adam and the driver. “This, all these cars, these people, it looks like . . . like a motorcade. The police think you were kidnapped, but you weren't, were you?” He shook his head. “Why can't you go to the police? Why can't you tell them?”
“I can't, Stan,” Aelia said quietly. “Not while those people are after me. When it's over, when I can, I'll straighten this mess out.” Her eyes were somber on his. “And you can't say anything either, Stan, or tell anyone what happened tonight, no matter what they tell you, what they say about me. You can't even say you saw me.”
The man was quiet, and when he spoke again Adam understood why Aelia trusted him so much. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have helped.”
“I know you would have. But this is simply too complicated, my friend. It's too big. I didn’t want to put you or Sarah in danger or make you accomplices in all this. As it is look how it turned out, they still got to you, you could have been killed.”
“That's what family is for, Aelia. Didn't I teach you that?” And indicating Adam and the driver, he asked her, “Any of them the man who was in your apartment? The man who they say took you?”
“That would be me,” Adam said, catching the professor’s eyes in the rear-view mirror.
“Did you kill that man?”
“No,” Adam said evenly. “The people who took you did.”
“He saved my life, Stan,” Aelia said, “and he has been watching over me ever since.”
Stan contemplated this quietly and then asked, his voice calm, “Will they
come after me again? After Sarah? My kids?”
“No,” Adam answered, and the eyes that held Stan's left no place for doubt.
Stan surprised Aelia by saying simply, “I believe you.” And then he shook his finger at Adam. “You take care of her, you hear?”
“Yes, Sir,” Adam answered, equally serious.
“Good,” Stan said, leaning back and closing his eyes. “But I want to hear all about it when it's over.”
Aelia looked at him quizzically. He was far too calm about this.
“Well,” Stan surprised her again by speaking, still not opening his eyes, “you never were an ordinary kid, were you? I knew long ago I was getting into something there, whatever that would prove to be.”
She smiled, and kissed the old man's cheek affectionately. He responded by hugging her hard. “You keep safe, you hear?” he whispered in her ear with a choked voice.
The convoy split in two, the vehicle with the captive, Jennison’s sniper, moving off with one escort car while the vehicle Aelia and Adam were in, accompanied by the rest of the convoy, drove to let Stan off near a private clinic a friend of his worked in whom he trusted to keep quiet. They then made their way to the small airport they'd used, not far outside the city. The convoy continued directly to the hangar they originally disembarked in, while the SUV Aelia and Adam were in entered the adjacent hangar. Aeterna's official jet stood in its middle, ready to take off, with an Aeterna security detail positioned around it. As the SUV approached the jet, another security detail filed from inside it and surrounded the SUV. Adam and Aelia got out of the car, and Adam walked around it toward her.
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