Blaze

by Joan Swan

  “He’s looking at a map, too.”

  “A map of what?” Keira asked.

  Panos asked the question, then said, “The Castle and the compound. Now, he’s putting the map away and he’s going to the door of his room and calling through the window with bars.”

  “This is like twenty freaking questions,” Keira said. “Who is he talking to?”

  “A guard,” Panos said, “who takes him from his room to the lab where he works.”

  “He is a prisoner,” Keira said, one part of her shocked, the other relieved. “Can’t remote viewers hear, too? What are they saying?

  “He doesn’t know the language. He can’t understand what they’re saying.” Panos said something to Mateo, then translated his response. “He doesn’t understand the concept of prison. Only knows his father was taken there after his mother was killed and the boy sent to the ranch to live.”

  “But he couldn’t have been more than two at that time,” Keira said. “How could he know? How could he remember?”

  “How can any of us do what we do?” Seth pointed out.

  “Motherfucking—” Kai started, then cut himself off. “I can’t believe this. We have to get him out of there.”

  Always the warrior, Kai spoke as if there were no doubt, no alternative.

  “I’m going to use another phone.” Mitch handed his cell to Keira.

  “For what?” she asked.

  “To get intel on this location.”

  “Keira,” Luke said. “If he can see by touching that spot, maybe you can hear by touching it.”

  She handed the phone to Luke and stepped up to the table. Keira reached over the suspected location, closed her eyes, and lowered her hand to touch that spot on the map.

  Silence.

  She dragged in another breath through her nose, let it out slowly past her lips, moved her fingers over the red sticker, and listened.

  With a shake of her head, she opened her eyes. “I’m getting nothing.”

  Before she pulled away, Mateo’s palm covered the back of her hand. An eruption of sound burst in her head. So much at once, Keira jerked her hand back.

  “Oh, my God.” She curled her fingers into her palm. “That’s . . .” creepy. “Oh, my God.”

  “What?” Luke asked, eyes darting between Keira and Mateo. “What happened?”

  “When he touched me.” She paused, swallowed. “I could hear.”

  “Then why’d you stop?” Seth asked.

  “It just . . . scared me.”

  “Well, get over it,” Kai barked, “and get your hand back on that map.”

  “Shut up,” she snarled back. “You live with voices in your head, then try telling me to get over it.”

  But she returned her hand to the map, took Mateo’s, and placed it on top of hers.

  She didn’t even need to concentrate. Sounds spilled through her head like water through an open faucet. And they kept coming.

  “There’s so much. I can’t make anything out.”

  “Focus,” Luke said. “Channel them into groups, then threads.”

  “Since when did you become an expert on clairaudience?” she said. “I couldn’t even get you to talk about it for more than two minutes before I left.”

  “I studied up.” His blue eyes pierced hers. “Some of us learn from our mistakes.”

  Ouch.

  Channel. Fine, she’d channel him right out of her mind.

  Keira closed her eyes and started separating like sounds into groups, then homing in on one group at a time. “Sounds echo, as if inside a large, industrial building. Concrete. Brick, maybe. The clop of boots on a hard, solid surface. A sliding or scraping sound, a loud click. Metal maybe.”

  “Cell door,” Teague said, his voice somber. “He’s in a cell. Concrete. Echoes. Boots. I would know.”

  “Panos,” Keira said. “Can you ask Mateo about his father’s location, his surroundings, without giving him the idea that it’s a prison?”

  Panos spoke to Mateo, who nodded and replied.

  “The boy called it a jail on his own. I just asked what kind of building it was. A jail that looks like a castle.”

  Keira’s body temperature heated and kept rising. “This is unbelievable. Whatever usefulness Cash had for them is over, so they just dump him and grab another. Nothing matters to them but the end result. They don’t care how they get there, who they use, who they hurt, who they kill.”

  “We know why they want Mateo,” Luke said, “but you and Mateo gained your abilities through chemical exposure. It’s not like you were born with them. What would they want with Cash?”

  “Chemistry.” Mitch wandered out of the office, eyes on a handful of papers. “Just got another faxed report from my buddy at Langley.”

  Keira lifted her hand from the map. “You have a friend at Langley? Who is it?”

  “Yeah, baby. Hate to tell you, but you’re not the only Fed in my back pocket.” His hazel eyes darted up, his mouth twisted in a sexy grin. “But I’d rather have you in my front pocket, so if you want to move, just say the word.”

  “Stop.” She wasn’t in the mood. “What about Cash?”

  “He’s a chem-head. When he went into the army, they saw a diamond in the rough, trained him in chemistry, then in covert ops, then put him in a lab where he did research. Biological weapons, nuclear fission. Way under-the-radar-classified shit.” He turned a page and let out a low whistle from between his teeth. “Boy was a genius. IQ off the charts.” One eyebrow dipped as he looked at Keira again. “What happened to you?”

  “You’re such an ass.”

  “But I’m a lovable ass.”

  “That’s debatable.” Keira refocused on the map. She darted a look at Mateo. “Ready to try again?”

  She wasn’t sure if he understood or if he was merely trying to please, but when Keira placed her hand on the map, he pressed his over the top.

  Got the explosive putty out of the lab. Just told Mario I felt sick, was going to puke, and they didn’t search me.

  A man’s voice. According to Mateo, her brother’s voice. But it didn’t sound familiar.

  Study that map I gave you. I’ve marked off three different routes and numbered them. This was another voice. Deeper. Darker. Far more languid than the first man’s. It’s simple, Sci-Fi, number one is your first choice. You hit a snag, move on to number two. Think you can handle it?

  “Someone’s with him.” Keira’s eyes popped open and searched for the phone as if she were looking at a person. “Panos, ask Mateo who’s with him.”

  “The boy says it’s his father’s neighbor,” Panos said. “His name is Q.”

  “What kind of name is Q?” Seth mumbled.

  “What can Mateo tell us about him?” Keira asked.

  “Q is his father’s friend.” Panos and Mateo exchanged dialogue. “Q has always been there, since his father has been there. Sometimes he goes away and his father is very lonely.”

  “Is Q a prisoner or a guard?” Keira asked.

  “A prisoner,” Panos said.

  “How many do they have?” Kai raged. “Mitch, what do you have on this place? Let’s start planning the breach. I’ve got enough equipment and ammo in the plane to blow Norway into the Indian Ocean.”

  “Consulting, my ass.” Seth crossed his arms. “Who the hell are you working for, Kai? A Colombian cartel?”

  “The arms are mine. Call me a collector.”

  “Your boss know you’re transporting guns and ammo in his jet?”

  “Get off my ass. You won’t be so judgmental when you’ve got Kevlar covering your chest.”

  “Guys,” Alyssa murmured. “Be quiet. Let her work.”

  Panos and Mateo maintained a discussion separate from Kai and Seth. Panos said, “Those are the only two Mateo has seen, but the Castle is very big. He only sees the area where his father lives and the lab where he works.”

  Keira tuned into the voices again.

  I want you to come with me, Cash said.
I’ll come back after I blow the holding cell.

  I’m telling you, I can’t make that run. I’ll just bring you down. Now listen. Timing is everything. When you break tonight, you have to do it at the hour mark so you hit the change of the guard.

  I got it. Cash again. Come on, Q. I’ll carry you if I have to. I can’t just leave you in this hellhole.

  “They’re planning an escape.” Keira lifted her shaking hand from the map. “Tonight.”

  “Yeah?” Mitch looked up from his paperwork. “Good. ’Cause without help from the inside, this motherfucker would be nearly impossible to penetrate. Teague, grab me a pen. Keira, tell me everything you hear. Those two don’t know it yet, but they’re going to help us plot their rescue.”

  Jocelyn strode down the cement corridor, ceilings soaring above her like one of those cavernous museums Jason had dragged her to on their last trip to Rome.

  “This is such bullshit,” she muttered out loud only because she knew it would be drowned by the clomp-clomp-clomp of the boots worn by the five guards accompanying her to Cash’s cell. “Why can’t we control one damn man or one damn team of firefighters when we can annihilate entire Islamic paramilitary regimes?”

  They turned another corner, faced another long, gray corridor. She was so damn over all this bullshit. She wanted all of them dead and gone.

  The lead guard, Domino, paused at the cell door, wrapped one hand around the dull silver rungs of the window at eye level, beyond which everything was black, and pulled a key from his noisy key ring with the other.

  “O’Shay,” he called. “You’ve got company.”

  A tired groan sounded from the dark depths of the cell. “It’s about time.”

  The click of the lock and scrape of metal bounced off the walls, echoed into the heights. A shiver vibrated over Jocelyn’s shoulders. She clenched her fists and entered the cell. With a flick of the wall switch, the five-star-hotel-worthy accommodations were flooded with fluorescence.

  “Does it take all military ops this long to get their act together?” Cash rolled to a sitting position, covering his eyes with his hand. He wore a pair of khaki pants and a white button-down, even still had on his canvas cross-trainers. “Our country must be in a shit storm of trouble since I was last out there.”

  “Sleeping in your clothes is becoming a habit, I see.” Jocelyn had no patience left to dance around this man. The clip-clip-clip of her heels was silenced as she traversed the thick, vibrant area rug in the sleeping area. She paused only feet away.

  “I’m ready to go.” When he uncovered his eyes, he tilted his head up, a strange expression on his face. “Been ready to go. Of course I’m dressed.”

  What was she missing? “And where would you be going, Cash?”

  “Uh, somewhere the fuck out of here.” He pushed to his feet, broadened his shoulders, creating a formidable front. “We had a deal. I create your material, you give me a new life. My son, my sister, included.” His face hardened, teeth clenched as he pointed a rigid finger in her face. “If you are fucking with me, so help me God—”

  “There is no material, because a key part of the lab report is missing. That’s why I’m here. I want it back.”

  “What part?”

  “The Method pages. You know damn well we can’t do anything without those.”

  “Which is why I turned them in with the rest of my report. Have you talked to Abrute? I gave my report mere hours ago. Intact. If anything is missing, that’s your problem. I held up my end of the bargain.”

  “Unfortunately, it is your problem. Because if those Method pages don’t materialize, you’ll have to repeat the experiment and rewrite the report.”

  “That will take weeks.” He advanced, his eyes wide with an edge of insanity she’d seen on the battlefield. The guards stepped in and gripped both his arms, holding him back. “You fucking bitch. I knew you were full of shit. You never planned on coming through. Never planned on letting me out.”

  “Yes, Cash, I did. I still do. But I have to have a full report before that happens. So if you have that Method section in here somewhere, why don’t you just tell me now and we can be done.”

  “I told you where it is. If it’s missing, you should be tracking down Abrute. He’s probably out selling it to the Iraqis right now.”

  “We have soldiers on their way to his house. In the meantime, I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way. Domino,” she said to the guard behind her. “Move Mr. O’Shay to holding and search this room. Top to bottom. Take all the time you need. If I find them in here, Cash, your kid and your sister are dead.”

  “And when you find Abrute is a mole, you’d better plan on doubling the money you’re giving me to live on.”

  As the guards dragged Cash through the cell doorway, Jocelyn called, “Oh, and Cash. The last time I was here, you took my necklace when you attacked me. I want that back. Where is it?”

  He stared back with those icy blue eyes rimmed in lashes as black as his hair. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “If I find it in here, you won’t get a dime to live on outside. Want to change your answer?”

  “No.”

  Jocelyn fumed with a complete sense of impotence.

  “When you’re done in here, Domino,” she said, watching for Cash’s reaction, “secure Q and search his room, too. If you don’t find anything there, go back to the lab and start again.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I’ll be in the command center,” she said. “Call me immediately if you find something.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Just before they dragged Cash down the hall, his expression shifted. And though his mouth didn’t curl in a smile, Jocelyn couldn’t shake the sense that Cash was secretly laughing.

  Luke stood off to the side of one of the pickups that had been left for them at the private airstrip just west of the Alamo Landing Field deep in the Nevada desert near Area 51. He watched Keira shiver in the night air as Kai rummaged through a huge plastic storage container holding a couple dozen Kevlar vests. The rest of their team, consisting of Teague, Seth, and Mitch, were already wearing desert fatigues, bulletproof vests, and helmets with night vision gear attached. Each carried an M14 and had a Glock strapped to their thigh.

  “I don’t know if I have one small enough to fit you,” Kai grumbled.

  “Find one,” Luke ordered across the dark. “Make something work, or she stays here.”

  “Don’t start, Ransom,” Keira said. “You haven’t been my boss for years now.”

  The other men chuckled. It didn’t bother Luke. He was just relieved he’d gotten her to say more than two words to him. She’d been focused during the planning phase, sullen during their flight here. And while she stayed shut off from him psychically, he didn’t need to read her mind to know she was as twisted as he’d ever seen her.

  “Here, try this one.” Kai pulled a vest from the very bottom of the pile and slipped it over her black, long-sleeve shirt, cinching the flank straps. “Yeah. That’ll work.”

  Luke would be the judge of that. Keira slid her arms into her fatigue jacket and buttoned it against the desert cold. Plunked her helmet on, fastened and tugged the tab beneath her chin, and picked up her subgun. When she wandered over to the group, Mitch handed her a Bluetooth, which she positioned in her right ear, one that would patch them into the phone call with Alyssa shortly.

  While the group studied the Castle floor plan, Luke pulled Keira aside under the pretext of checking her vest.

  “Luke, it’s fine.”

  “You whine as well as Kat.” He tugged on the right strap, then the left.

  “Don’t. I can’t breathe.”

  “You won’t be able to breathe if a bullet gets past this Kevlar, either.”

  She indulged his need to fuss with the vest a moment longer.

  He grabbed the curve just below her neck and held. “Talk to me.”

  “Luke.” She sighed in exasperation.

/>   “I think I’ve been plenty patient the last few hours.”

  Irritated blue eyes lifted to his. “This isn’t the time—”

  “Keira.” He jerked on the vest, just enough to convey his seriousness. “You can’t go into this distracted. I can’t go into this worrying about what you’re holding back. What happened in that head of yours between the time you left my bed and the time we got to Teague and Alyssa’s house?”

  Her gaze darted into the darkness over his shoulder. She huffed, shifted her stance, looked toward the team before meeting his eyes again with an apology that sent his stomach dropping toward rock bottom. “I realized I couldn’t . . . I can’t . . .”

  “Just say it. Can’t what?”

  “I can’t . . . do this. You, me. Us. The whole family thing. I mean, part of me wants to . . . with you. For you. But . . .” Pain and guilt sparked in her eyes. She waved an angry hand toward the Castle compound shining in the distance. “They’re everywhere. Crawling into every crevice of our lives, trying to rip it apart.

  “Every family I’ve ever had has been taken from me,” she said. “Cash. Every foster home. The hazmat team. My life has been a pattern of failures. Time after time after time, ugliness has crept in, violence has followed, my family is crushed, and I’m left alone, more damaged than I was to begin with.”

  He searched her eyes, hoping for signs of a panic attack. Then he could tell himself she didn’t mean what she was saying. But her gaze was clear, sharp, determined. Fierce.

  “Keira . . . honey . . .” Jesus, how did he combat what she was saying? His mind wasn’t functioning with the panic welling up inside him. All he knew was that she was closing him out. “I understand what you’re saying. I know this seems overwhelming now, but you’re getting ahead of yourself—”

  “No. I’m not.” She backed away with a look that he knew meant business. “I love you, Luke. More than anything or anyone. I’ve always loved you, will always love you. But what you haven’t learned, what I’ve known my whole life, is that love isn’t always enough. And I can’t survive losing another family.” She sniffled, wiped her nose with her sleeve. “I just can’t.”