29° (Twenty-Nine Degrees) (Twenty Nine Book 3)

by Nancy Pennick

  “How is she?”

  “That’s why Nate’s been looking for you. Ashley wants to see you. She begged him to find you. Not an easy task in this city.”

  “Let’s go see her now.” I started to get up, and Rosanne pulled me back down.

  “They won’t let you in. But how about tomorrow?”

  “Okay, but where are you staying?”

  “In a cramped one-bedroom apartment down the street from the hospital. I’ll give you the address if we can find some pen and paper.”

  “You don’t have to. Just tell me.”

  Rosanne gave me a strange look, and I held up my arm. She raised her eyebrows as she got the meaning. I brought up a screen only she and I could see.

  “How did you manage that?” she whispered.

  "Long story.”

  We entered the information, and I looked at her with sad eyes. “But what about Nate? Why is he working at the TV station? For Doug?”

  “To pay Ashley’s medical bills. Word came down that if he did, she’d be well taken care of.”

  Carol came bursting through the door. “This is so exciting. I was sent in to tell you girls to come out as soon as you can.” She rubbed her hands together. “A covert operation. I love it.”

  “Carol,” I said as I rolled my eyes and shook my head, hoping she’d give up thinking there was anything going on.

  “Will’s out there, Allie. He can’t wait to see you. Although,” she said as she stared at my low cut gown. “Maybe I need to keep you away from him.” She winked and pulled me up from the sofa. “Coming?” she asked Rosanne over her shoulder.

  “That’s my friend, Rosanne,” I told her.

  Will greeted us as we came out of the bathroom. “Allie! It’s so good to see you. How’s my little guy, Zak?”

  I took Will in my arms, holding him close. He smelled the same, of citrus and summer. “Will, I’m fine and Zak is, too. You probably wouldn’t recognize him. He’s more like a little boy than a baby.”

  “I'm sorry to leave you so soon, but I’ve been asked to bring Carol to the stage. Talk later?” He pointed at me, and I nodded.

  The men stood a few feet away. Nate’s face reminded me of a sad puppy dog, and my heart broke.

  “I’m sorry,” I said as I fell into his arms when I reached him.

  “Lucas told me everything. I can see why you thought what you did.” He leaned back. “But we’re still not sure about Sean and Kim. What the hell happened in those two weeks after they left Montana?”

  “We’ve been saying the same thing.” I shook my head. “But as Lucas said, we won’t judge until we know the facts.”

  “Allie,” Lucas said and tapped my arm. “I talked to Oliver and he's fine with the plan, but there’s a catch.”

  “Now what?” A waiter stopped by with champagne-filled flutes on a tray. “Thank you.” I said as I took one.

  We stepped farther away from the crowd. Oliver looked at me with sorry brown eyes. “I have it under lock and key in the bio lab back in Montana.” Oliver, like all Niner men, was ruggedly handsome. His brown hair was combed back for the evening, making him look like someone who had stepped out of one of those old classic movies I loved.

  “Darn!” I sipped from the glass. I turned to Lucas. “Is there any way I can get back to Montana? A van hidden somewhere in the woods so I can fly back there? We’d have to figure a way to get me out of the city, but it’s doable.”

  “No.” He went silent.

  “Tell her, Lucas.” Nate nudged him.

  “Tell me what?”

  “There’s an easy way to get there,” Lucas said. “But we need access to Patriot Village.”

  I crossed my brows, stumped. “Okay … but I still don’t understand.”

  “Allie,” Nate said. “Remember right before your wedding when Julian went to Pennsylvania to help with the STF attack? He was gone two days, but made it back in time for the wedding.”

  “Yeah, but the van can transform into a fast jet. I thought nothing of it.”

  “Well, he didn’t travel that way,” Lucas said.

  I looked at the men, wanting to pull my hair and scream. “Just tell me,” I hissed.

  “He transported, from our Headquarters to theirs. It’s the first step in transporting people from place to place.” Lucas looked around. “We shouldn’t be talking about it here.”

  “But you’ll explain later?” I raised my eyebrows. Shocked as I was, I was already forming a plan on how to get to Patriot Village.

  “Could I have your attention?” Carol’s voice came over the speakers. “Let’s all find our seats and get down to business.”

  * * * *

  We were back in our room after the gala and had changed into comfortable clothes. I was too wound up to sleep. Carol had done a wonderful job introducing ways the museum could help in troubled times and overly praised Doug for his vision. The arts needed to be protected, a lesson learned the hard way in other wars. She announced Will would be head of museum security during this time and would step away from working on his start-up business for men’s fashion and modeling. A lot had happened in a short time, and I wondered if Carol had a hand in helping him.

  Lucas gave me a soda. “I’m sure you’re bursting with ideas, but let me go first.” He settled in at the table across from me. “Before I tell you anything, let me assure you I’ve swept the place for listening devices, cameras or any other spyware.”

  “I remember you found something our first day here.”

  “Right, and I check daily. So far, nothing. Since I found the device so fast, maybe Doug didn’t want to make us nervous and decided to back off. He’s got enough surveillance throughout the hotel so maybe he thinks he doesn’t need it.” He shrugged.

  “Ugh. Just think if we hadn't bothered to look then started to make love …” I drifted off, thinking of how sick it sounded. “How could he?” I slammed my palm on the table, then took a breath. “Now where were we? I think you were telling me about how the transporter works.”

  “Our transporter station links all Niner Headquarter facilities,” Lucas said in a quiet voice. “You bring up your screen and tell your chip where you want to go, say Patriot Village. You step through and come out at their Headquarters.”

  “What floor?”

  “We chose the fourth where command central is.”

  “So Julian was the first to try?” I remembered Lucas had told me it could be dangerous.

  “Not before some of the old timers did.” He smiled. “I told you they’d volunteered. Even Tobias went through and visited one of our European villages.”

  “He’s a sneaky one.” I giggled. “Here I thought he was a recluse, and I find out he’s part of the security team. Now he’s used the transporter.”

  “He’s a good agent.” Lucas nodded.

  “Agent? Like in spy?”

  “Yeah, he’s volunteered to fill that role while he’s here. He’s in the perfect place, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, I do. My turn now?” I shifted in my chair, not able to wait any longer. “Remember my mom said Dad visited Patriot Village? We’ll ask Mom to volunteer to be his secretary. Keep track of Dad’s calendar. She can tell us the next time he plans to go with Doug, and how he gets there. Somehow I’ve got to hide in that car so I can tag along.”

  “That sounds easy but doing it?” Lucas shook his head.

  “Not with the invisibility shield. Remember we used them to get into the STF complex in California when we rescued Zak?”

  “All the equipment’s in Montana, Allie. You wore our special protective suit with a coded chip.”

  “Come on, Lucas. I have a chip. There’s got to be a Niner in this building that can alter it and give me invisibility. I only need a few minutes to get in and out of the car.” I crossed my arms. “And besides, I thought the chip would eventually be the only thing we needed, except for weapons. Someone had to be working on that, I’m sure.”

  Lucas rubbed his face. “Ga
rrick and Clint are here. They were two of the main people working on it. I’ll talk to them tomorrow at breakfast.”

  I flew out of the chair and landed in Lucas’ lap. “Thank you.” I kissed him. “But we have to visit Ashley first. I hope everything’s okay and she can come home.” I wrinkled my brow. “Do you think they were assigned to our building? Rosanne said the bus let them out on Ninth.”

  “Maybe, but for now you need your rest. I’m going for a short walk. I promise to be back soon.”

  “Promise?” I hugged him tightly.

  “I always keep my promise.” Lucas kissed me again.

  Lucas was not in our room when I woke in the morning. I panicked, rushed to get ready and flew out the door to look in the atrium, heart pounding wildly. There he sat, at a table with Julian and two other men I didn't recognize.

  "Lucas!"

  He jumped up from the table and rushed to my side. “Allie! I’m sorry. Time got away from me.”

  “You promised!”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. But you’ll forgive me after you talk to Clint and Garrick. We’ve been up all night, never slept.”

  “Fine! But don’t ever do that to me again,” I said as I took his hand. “This is not the same New York City that I knew, and you scared the hell out of me.”

  “We’re all scared, Allie. Don’t let anyone fool you.” Lucas squeezed my hand. “I’m surprised Doug hasn’t renamed the city New New York City.”

  I had to laugh, and rolled my eyes. “He’s still working on changing the country’s name to New America. Did you hear how he kept slipping the phrase into his speech last night?”

  “I tried not to listen.” Lucas smiled.

  “He’s also trying to manipulate people by reminding them how bad the economy is. With his New America plan he can offer plenty of new jobs.”

  “By bombing the old then building new?” Lucas raised his eyebrows as he guided me to the table. “Clint? Garrick? You haven’t formally met my wife, Allie.”

  I nodded at the handsome men. Both appeared to be in their thirties, although Clint had a balding spot on the top of his head. He’d shaved the rest of the hair around it and had a day’s worth of stubble on his head and face. Garrick was thinner, yet well-muscled with a full head of light brown hair, clean shaven. Both had blue eyes that made me feel welcomed.

  “Allie, please join us.” Garrick pointed to a seat.

  “I’d love to know your histories and learn more about you, but I think we better save that for another time.” I smiled at them.

  “Well, you might get to know us a little better than you’d like,” Garrick chuckled. “Your chip is planted in your arm, and you need to meet with us if we’re going to work on it.”

  “Right.” I smiled. Garrick seemed to be the more talkative of the two. Clint nodded at everything he said but hadn’t spoken.

  “Let’s work around your schedules. Are you here with family?”

  “My wife and two sons are here,” Garrick answered. “Clint’s part of the security team.”

  “Oh.” I stared at my hands. Most of the security Niners didn’t have families. “Come to think of it, you looked familiar, Clint. You’re part of Sean’s team. Or I should say … were.” I swiped at a tear that escaped.

  “Allie,” Clint said in a low voice. “I’m sorry about Sean. I’ve been trying to get in contact with him, but as you know, it’s hard to find people now.”

  I couldn’t answer so I said, “So what’s the plan? How can you get the cloaking device onto my chip? Last time I did this, I pushed a button on a special suit I wore.”

  Garrick cleared his throat. “You may have heard this before, Allie, but we’re always upgrading. The suit was a prototype. We want everything to be on your chip. Imagine not having access to the suit? Then what?” He leaned back in the chair, folding his hands over his stomach. “This may be as simple as accessing our documents stored on the Innovation Lab chip back in Montana. We need to download the information to your chip, make our final adjustments then you try it out.”

  “So,” Lucas said. “I take it you two have continued to work since you arrived here?”

  “Yes, we do what we can,” Garrick said. “I suggest we all get some breakfast then Clint and I will get to work. Can we meet back here before dinner?’

  “That would be perfect. Lucas and I are going to visit Ashley in the hospital.”

  “You found her?” Clint’s eyes lit up.

  “You know her?” My friend Ashley seemed to have more connections in the Niner world than I did.

  “I worked with her and Nate when you …”

  “Go ahead. Say it.” I lowered my eyes. “Ran away.”

  Clint gave me a shy smile. “Yeah. She’s a great kid. And she’s doing a good job with Ryan. She helped him through a tough time. Losing your parents is hard enough, but it’s just the first of many losses.”

  “You’re going to make me cry,” I said. “Ash is great. She deserves the best. We hope she gets to come home to us here.”

  Lucas returned with a tray of food for him, and a bottle of water for me. “I wish you’d have more,” he said, placing the water in my hand.

  “I will … later.” I took the bottle. “I’m going upstairs and call Mom.”

  “Remember, phone may be bugged.” Lucas called after me. “Make sure you check."

  I waved to Greg who always seemed to be stationed at the front desk. “Don’t they ever give you a break?”

  He adjusted the STF cap on his head. “It’s okay. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

  I opened the door to the stairwell and ran up the steps. First, I’d call Tobias and Zak to tell them the plan. Then I’d have Tobias prepare Mom for my call, so she’d play along. With the first call completed, I changed my clothes so I’d be ready to go to the hospital when Lucas returned to our room.

  “Okay, Mom. Time for your call.” I went to the dresser, grabbed the receiver and dialed her number.

  “Allie?”

  “Hi, Mom. How are you?”

  “Oh, still a little bored.” Mom sighed. “As I told you, I don’t have much to do around here. I play with the kids, but they don’t always need me or want me around.”

  “You know what? I have an idea. Why don’t you help Dad? Maybe you could go with him on one of his trips with Doug.” I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep from laughing.

  “I don’t think they’d let me go.” Mom sighed again.

  “I’m sure there’s something you could do. Talk to Dad. Is he home?”

  “No, I don’t know where he is. Sometimes he doesn’t even know his schedule.”

  “Well then, talk to him about that. Maybe you could help keep track of his appointments, be his secretary.”

  “I like that idea, Allie. I’d feel more involved, like I’m helping Doug,” Mom said. If anyone listened in on the call, Mom would have made them a believer. Tobias must have given her good instructions or she was a good actress.

  “I hope Zak’s behaving? I miss him.” Lucas and I tried to make a daily trip to the penthouse to see our son and talk with Tobias. Zak sometimes ignored us, playing with his blocks and babbling away to Tobias. I tried not to get hurt feelings, but couldn’t help it.

  “He’s wonderful, Allie. I guess I’ll see you later today?”

  “We’re going to visit Ashley and may not be able to stop over today. Please let Zak know.” I placed the receiver back in its cradle, cursing the old-fashioned relic. Obviously, the old style cordless phones had been packed away in some dusty storage room of the hotel and when found Doug had them installed in every room.

  “Honey? I’m home!” Lucas called as he entered the apartment.

  “You’ve been watching too many old movies.” I laughed.

  He kissed me on the cheek. “I mapped out our trip to the hospital. We’ll take the bus straight down Thirty-eighth to First Avenue. Transfer there to another one that will drop us off near Bellevue Hospital.”

  “Rosa
nne said their apartment is on East Twenty-ninth Street, close to the hospital.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be with Ashley, but we can go visit them after if they’re not.” Lucas put his arm around me. “Ready?”

  * * * *

  “Ash!” I ran into her hospital room. She looked pale and drawn and looked like she'd lost ten pounds.

  Her eyes lit up when she saw me. “Thank God they found you guys! Nate’s told me everything.” She took Ryan’s hand. “This kid’s been by my side the whole time. He stayed with me while Nate went to that damn mandatory gala thing.” She made a face. “Bad Doug.”

  We laughed as she mimicked Zak. She appeared in good spirits, but I was worried. “Do you have to stay in the hospital or can you come home to our hotel soon?”

  “We’ve all been permanently assigned the apartment we’re staying at,” Rosanne said. “I know Nate wants her home, but I think she’s better off here.”

  “What’s wrong with one bathroom for five people?” Ryan asked sarcastically as he looked at us. “Mom,” he took her hand. “You’d love it.”

  Ash rolled her eyes and smiled. “Very funny.”

  I noticed Lucas and Oliver had gone off to the side of the room to talk. Nate got up from his chair to join them. Ashley nodded toward them. “I heard. Oliver’s not too thrilled, but it’s a decent enough plan.”

  “But for now, it’s just a plan. I have to get back to Montana.”

  “That’s the part I don’t like,” Ashley said with worry in her eyes. “What if Doug catches you? What if you don’t make it back? Or disintegrate?” She pressed her lips together. “Oops. Me and my big mouth.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve already thought of those things, too, but it’s good to have someone to share with.” I sat on the edge of her bed. “I’m so glad we found you.”

  “And you thought Nate was a traitor,” she whispered. “Never. He’s trying to connect with Sean. We think he’s undercover, don’t you?”

  I didn’t have the heart to tell her about our first day meeting with Sean. He'd acted cold and had done nothing to help us. “I hope so.” I squeezed her hand. “We’ll try to come as often as we can to visit.”

  “Do you watch the local news?”