Dangerous in Motion

by Sidney Bristol

  “What did the others say about the people? Cindy and John saw them, right?” Adam glanced at the two clients.

  “Only that it was two men wearing masks.”

  “Hey, guys.” Grant approached them. “Riley told me about the warehouse and the hostages. I think we need to inform someone about all this. It’s too big for just us to deal with.”

  “We told Zain. He’s handling it. We need to find Heidi.” Adam had failed her. “Where did the tracker last register her location?”

  “Hey?” Riley stepped between Grant and Kyle. “We’ll find her, and when we do—you want to be able to tell her we found Laranya, and she’s getting help. Come on.”

  Adam let the others herd him toward the SUV. With all the equipment and six people, it was a tight fit. Especially with Adam riding in the back instead of driving.

  He got it.

  He’d never been distraction free since this began. His focus would always be on Heidi’s well being, but up until now he’d had a goal, something to point his will at. Now, with Heidi in the wind, he had nothing.

  “Where are we going again?” Cindy leaned forward, directing her question at Kyle in the front seat.

  “Mumbai CDC offices,” he replied.

  “But, they’re closed.”

  “Our people back home are going to round up someone to start working on this. They found Laranya and some other sick people left behind,” Kyle said.

  “They found her? That’s wonderful,” John said.

  “It does us no good to sit in a car outside an empty building.” Cindy huffed and held out her hand. “I have a contact here. Let me call them.”

  “I’ve worked with a few doctors on malaria epidemics. I bet I could get a hold of someone, too,” John said. “What’s our plan?”

  “We go to the CDC office, inform them about the sick people and wait for news from our guys back home. They’re working on where these people might take Heidi,” Kyle said.

  Adam stared out the window. This was all too big, too dangerous for Heidi to be involved. She belonged somewhere safe, in a lab, helping people. Not out here. Why didn’t he insist she get packed home immediately? Damn her reservations about returning home. He could have gone with her. They could have let someone else do this part, someone that wasn’t her.

  Deep down he knew that would never fly. Heidi would have insisted on being part of the team digging into it. That was who she was. And he was terrified for her. What if she got sick? Would they leave her behind to die, or would they burn her corpse?

  TUESDAY. WESTERN EXPRESS Hwy, Mumbai, India.

  Léo stared at the lump of a woman in the back seat.

  He could kill her and claim the infection was too much for her under all this stress. That they’d tried to cure her too late, and the sickness was already too far progressed. The boss wouldn’t like it, but Léo didn’t care. He was losing the boss, slowly and surely, to his obsessions. During the brief moments he’d seen the boss outside the Sorkin building he hadn’t liked what he saw. Tonight it was worse. The boss’ focus was narrowing and the only thing that mattered was Heidi Novak.

  He glanced at Crane navigating the streets like a pro.

  Could Léo trust Crane to not say anything?

  “Something on your mind?” Crane asked.

  Léo stared out of the window. No, he couldn’t trust anyone to have the boss’ best interest at heart. He was the only one who had this kind of relationship with the boss. Crane wouldn’t understand. Which was why Léo had allowed himself to go so far down this path.

  At first it was just a body. One dead man, nothing too big.

  Then another and another.

  If Léo didn’t take care of them, if he didn’t make them go away, the police would take the boss and Léo would be alone in the world again.

  He didn’t want to be alone.

  So what was Léo going to do about Heidi Novak?

  He’d worked with enough hostages and forced labor to know that this stint of being rescued would have undone all the work on her they’d managed in Peru. She’d be more defiant and less cooperative, but the bottom line was that the boss wanted her and they needed someone with her talent.

  The injection had worked well. She was hallucinating and losing consciousness, which made her docile and easy to manage. They would have to give her the vaccine soon or else she would enter the contagious phase and he couldn’t allow that. They had work to do, and they were behind schedule.

  His phone vibrated.

  The number was unknown, but the coded message sent warning bells ringing in his head.

  The boss had made contact.

  Léo stared at the message for a moment.

  “Fucking hell. Turn around,” he barked.

  Crane glanced at him once, then took the next exit. The vehicle behind them did the same.

  “What’s the problem?” he asked.

  “Those damned Americans are going to the CDC. They found the quarantined house.” Léo had insisted they stop using mercenaries after that job. They were in a showdown with them, and no one had yet to blink.

  “What are our orders?”

  “Stop them from reaching the CDC. Killing the bodyguards is a bonus.” Léo wouldn’t mind adding another scientist to his roster.

  “What about her?”

  “She has to come with us. There’s not time to secure her.”

  HEIDI HATED STROBE lights and what they did to her head. Always had. It was why she hated when Adam went through his bar phase. They were always loud, smelly and without a doubt, there’d be a strobe light on the dance floor.

  She glared up at the one going off above her head. Why the hell was that there?

  Actually...

  The lights sped by. They weren’t blinking.

  She lifted her head and stared across the width of a car. Two men sat in the front seat, one of whom was Léo.

  Shit.

  Now she remembered.

  Her throat was sore, and she was hot all over. She seemed to remember being sick and the room spinning earlier. What was wrong with her? Something was most assuredly not right—besides being kidnapped.

  “Where are you taking me?” She sat up and wrapped her arms around herself.

  Fever. Chills. She was sick with something, but what?

  “Cold still?” Léo asked.

  “No.”

  “Shit,” he said.

  “Want me to pull over?” the driver asked.

  “No, keep going.”

  “Where are you taking me?” She gripped the door handle and pulled, but it wouldn’t budge. God, she was tired.

  Léo leaned back and jabbed her arm, sinking a needle into the meat of her bicep.

  “Ouch! Hey—what are you—?”

  “This will make you better.” Léo leaned between the seats and pressed the plunger on a thick needle.

  She watched in horror as he shoved something into her. The burning sensation knocked her out of the stupor and she pressed against the door.

  “It’s a vaccine. My boss injected you with a specialized cocktail. You don’t want to become a vector, do you?” Léo pulled the needle from her arm.

  “Your...boss?”

  “Sit there and shut up.” Léo turned back toward the front of the car.

  They were speeding down a commercial street, the sidewalks mostly empty this time of night.

  Where were they going? What were they going to do with her? And what had they done to Adam and the others?

  TUESDAY. LOWER PAREL, Mumbai, India.

  Adam watched the glitzy buildings mixed with darkened slums roll by as they made their way into Lower Parel, a suburb of the city undergoing extensive construction. They’d passed half a dozen construction sites on the way here. Clearly the CDC paid well if the head of their office could afford to be put up here.

  “It’s a reddish, cream colored building.” John sat forward, leaning between the two front seats.

  Cindy hadn’t been able to get her
Mumbai contact on the phone, but John had come through. With any luck, local health services would converge on the warehouse soon. That didn’t do anything for Heidi.

  She could be on a boat or a plane out of the country by now. They wouldn’t drive her north. It would take too long. They also wouldn’t want to keep her in the country. Her pale skin and auburn hair would stand out. Then again, he doubted they would let her stroll around especially after escaping once.

  Cindy twisted to face him. In the dark interior of the SUV it was hard to make out her features.

  “How well do you know your wife?” she asked.

  Adam stared at her. He couldn’t really respond to that in any constructive manner. Truth was, they hardly knew each other anymore.

  “I’m beginning to wonder if... If she’s not involved in all of this. Tell me I’m wrong?”

  Adam turned to stare out of the window.

  “I’ve been turning this around. She’s the one who identified the outbreaks, which made both John and I open our labs and examine our records. What if she was using us? He and I can both make the kind of changes we saw. What if she’s been playing us this whole time?”

  “That’s not Heidi.”

  “Maybe it’s not the Heidi you knew, but how well do you know her now? My impression has always been that she wants attention and recognition. Perhaps she wanted us to know about all of this?”

  Adam shook his head.

  In some ways he knew Heidi all too well. Her parents had practically ignored her, which made her hungry for someone to see her, spend time with her. There’d been times when they were younger when she’d get on his every last nerve, but somehow they’d managed to get on well enough.

  Then there was her drive to succeed. Of course she’d want someone to notice. He used to get a play-by-play of all her grades when he came home when she’d gone on to college. She’d done well, and he had been proud of her.

  Neither made her a criminal.

  She’d been violently upset at the idea of the Reddy family dying. That wasn’t the kind of person who’d do something like this. No, whoever was in the CDC working against them was someone else.

  Cindy kept staring at him.

  “Heidi is a victim,” he said.

  “Okay. Fine.” She turned to face forward.

  The SUV pulled to the side of the road. Muttered curses filtered back to Adam.

  “Hey.” Riley turned to face the back of the SUV. “You good to drive?”

  “Yeah.”

  “These signs mean nothing to me. We’re driving in circles.”

  Riley got out and after some trading seats, Adam was back behind the wheel. He felt better about having something to do even if he wasn’t pointed in Heidi’s direction. Once they were plugged in with the CDC, Cindy and John could hand over their short list of suspects and Zain could facilitate the intel sharing. They’d have to cross how they got the data when they came to that bridge. For now, they knew what they knew.

  “You good?” Kyle asked, keeping his voice low.

  “Better. This our destination?” He pointed at a red dot on the on-board navigation.

  “Yeah.” Kyle glanced away.

  Adam would no doubt get a rundown of how they’d chased their tail once they were off the highway later. At least it was late at night and the streets mostly empty.

  It felt good being back behind the wheel. More like himself.

  He shifted into drive and peered at the signs. Though he didn’t understand the script, he could at least match it to what was on the GPS.

  “We’re only a mile and a half out,” Adam said.

  “Just get us there?” Kyle grimaced.

  “Copy that.”

  They drove through another cluster of rundown buildings butted up against a construction site then an upscale building that appeared to be condos or office buildings. It was hard to tell what with the local affinity for sky rise living.

  A few construction signs indicated the problem. Riley had attempted to approach the building following the navigation, which no longer lined up to the current streets. Adam stopped in the middle of the road and examined the options.

  There was only one way to go to approach their destination, and it wasn’t the most direct route.

  “Something wrong?” Kyle asked.

  “Construction reroutes. Got it.”

  Adam took a turn not on the map. The trees to their left parted, and he glimpsed a reddish building with cream colored balconies right about where he expected they were headed. He turned again and frowned.

  The street lights were out.

  His headlights glinted off a dark colored vehicle sitting across both lanes of traffic.

  Adam stomped on the brakes and shifted into reverse before he completely registered the situation.

  “Behind us, watch out!” Riley called out.

  Another SUV now blocked their exit.

  Bursts of gunfire lit the darkness.

  Kyle and Grant barked orders, but they had nothing but batons and Tazers.

  Adam cranked the wheel, sending them up onto the sidewalk. Bullets pinged off the back of the SUV and the back window cracked. He shifted again and pressed the accelerator to the floor, aiming the vehicle at the narrow gap between a tree and light pole. They soared through, losing one mirror in the process.

  It was supposed to be a blockade. Someone didn’t want them to get to that building. Now, how had those people known they were going there?

  “Get us out of here,” Kyle said.

  “Everyone okay?” Grant called out.

  “Who the hell was that?” Kyle twisted to look behind them.

  “Who do you think?” Cindy said. Adam felt her glare on the back of his head.

  Adam peered in the rearview mirror. A pair of headlights made the turn. Only one follow car? He could work with that.

  HEIDI SUCKED DOWN DEEP breaths of oxygen. She was hyperventilating. Probably a touch dehydrated and delirious if the blurs of memory were anything to go on. Léo stood on the street, some sort of assault rifle in hand.

  She didn’t know what was going on, and she didn’t want to find out.

  She pulled on the door handle again, but the child locks must be in place.

  Léo and his partner were close enough if she so much as flipped a switch, they’d hear her. She couldn’t just sit here and wait for something to happen.

  What could she do? She had to get away from Léo. He was either going to kill her, or take her back to that lab she’d seen in Peru, or worse yet, wherever their next closest lab was. Things were not looking well for her.

  A pair of headlights slashed through the darkness.

  Both Léo and his partner walked toward it.

  Was this her chance?

  She squeezed between the front seats and climbed into the driver’s side. The keys were gone. It was clearly too much to hope for a quick escape.

  Heidi blinked at the two men and the dark SUV. They spoke to the driver, gesturing at a side street, then turned toward the car.

  Shit.

  Heidi hunched down as far as she could, praying the men didn’t see her.

  They were planning something. An attack? Infecting new vectors? What?

  She held her breath as two long shadows stretched through the windows.

  They stopped a few feet away, their voices a low hum.

  Her bones seemed to ache and her muscles felt like goo, thanks to whatever Léo had injected her with. He’d said it was a vaccine to stop the progression of whatever she’d been injected with.

  When had she been injected?

  The mosquito bite.

  It wasn’t a bite at all.

  She’d noticed it when they’d arrived at the safe house. She could have been injected at any point while they were at the Sorkin building or talking to police though it hadn’t been long.

  John had needed to do a blood sugar test in the car. Had any of them looked at it? Did they really know what he was packing in that? Then wha
t about Cindy?

  No, it couldn’t be either of them. They were the ones who’d gone to Adam to save her. They couldn’t be involved in this. Then who? And when?

  God, she wanted a nap on her sofa with her fuzzy blanket. She missed those comforts right about now.

  More headlights came into view.

  How many people did Léo have in India?

  Miniature explosions lit up the night as Léo and his partner fired at the new vehicle.

  Heidi ducked, her heart racking in her throat.

  The car glass didn’t break and nothing hit her.

  This was her chance.

  She peered through the window at the SUV shooting backwards, straight for the other vehicle.

  This was bad.

  Heidi threw herself out the driver’s side of the car and fell to her knees on the asphalt. It was still warm from hours of sunlight.

  She pushed up and ran, glancing over her shoulder at the badly beaten up vehicle flying away.

  She knew that SUV.

  It was Adam and the others—and they were going the other way.

  Heidi threw herself between some decorative shrubberies and sprinted along a ditch framed out for a future sidewalk. Her lungs burned and muscles protested, but she kept going, pumping her arms at her side.

  At the first opportunity, she turned left, trying to go in the vague direction she’d seen Adam turn.

  A voice yelled behind her.

  Léo?

  She ducked across the street and down an alley. The buildings here were run down, barely held together structures.

  Heidi wove through the warren of alleys that voice chasing her the whole way. She stumbled through what she hoped was mud and tripped over debris. In the end, exhaustion won over. She found a little space between some barrels and pallets that created a sort of lean-to. She pulled a large piece of cardboard in front of her and huddled in the darkness, praying Léo didn’t find her.

  WEDNESDAY. LOWER PAREL, Mumbai, India.

  Léo couldn’t believe they’d lost the girl. She was a fucking lab rat. All she did was stare at microscopes and numbers. She shouldn’t be able to give them the slip like this. If he’d just followed his gut and held off on the vaccine, he wouldn’t have to worry about this.