by Gini Koch
“What else?”
“That’s it. Other than making your enemies pay for their part in it. Which you do all the time. But Jeff and the others aren’t our enemies, and I know you know that, no matter how upset with them you are.”
Took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ve never been this mad at Jeff or the others before, but you’re right. I don’t really want to never speak to them again or anything. I want to yell at them a lot, though. I just never want anything like this to happen to anyone on my team.”
“I know you get told this all the time, but that’s both your strength and your weakness. And as someone who’s willingly followed you since pretty much you started, I follow you because you care and you’ve never not cared. But I don’t want you turning to hate. I don’t want you to become like the people we despise. I want you to be angry because someone on our side or an innocent was hurt. But I don’t want you to want to hurt the people who love you, even if they really screwed the pooch on this one.”
Managed a laugh. “They really did. And I really wonder why.”
“Camilla said fear. I’m sure she’s right. I have to think that whatever they were told, it terrified not just Jeff, but Chuck, James, and Tim, too. So that has to be pretty bad, because those guys don’t terrify easily.” Randy and Rhee returned. “So, let’s keep on saving who we can, Commander, and we’ll deal with the fallout once we have all of our people back, whether it’s safely or to bury them with honor.”
Didn’t care, hugged Joe, body armor and weapons and all. “Thanks. I really needed that little talk.” Heaved a sigh. “Let’s get to the next one, folks.”
“There are only ten of these,” Rhee said as we went to the next door.
“Right, and we’ve done six of them, so only four more to go.”
“And only one to a cell.”
“Thank goodness—it’s barely wide enough for one.”
“Yes, but we had thirteen missing, if I counted correctly.”
Did the math fast in my head. “You did count correctly. So, either we find people doubled up, or when we’re done here we’re not actually done. Always the way. Let’s get these last four out, then, as fast as we can do it.”
The only change was that Rhee and Rahmi switched, so Rhee had the door and Rahmi had the excitement, so to speak. The next cell didn’t have a dead body in it, for which I was hugely thankful. It had Manfred, who looked even worse than Buchanan had. Figured he’d tried to game the Roomba of Evil with hyperspeed and it hadn’t worked. At least he was alive, for which I was even more hugely thankful.
We did what was now actually feeling a little like a routine maneuver and got him out without issue, with Randy prepped to take the shrapnel hits.
Joe took Manfred off to the others, and Christopher came back with him. “We’ve found things I think you’re going to be interested in. Need my help here?”
“I’d say yes but if Rhee is right, and so far there’s no reason to think that she isn’t, we’re still going to be missing people when we’re done. Need you to search around here for anything that could be a door or something we’ve missed. Take your dad with you—he’s got the most exposure to my methods, and I can guarantee that you both need to be thinking like me and trying to spot what a sneaky person would have created to hide the rest of our team.”
“Will do.” Christopher zipped off and we got into position again.
This one was another tragic discovery. Another agent, another head blown off. Joe was right—I needed to focus my anger on the people who’d done this, not on Jeff and the others. Which I sincerely planned to, once we could figure out who they were.
Joe and Rahmi took this corpse, who again might or might not have been Siler, to the others. “It’ll be okay, Kitty,” Randy said. “We’ll make them pay.”
“What if one of these guys is Nightcrawler? Then Lizzie’s out another parent. Of course, whoever’s dead probably had family who are now going to get the lame letter that doesn’t bring your loved one back.”
Randy nodded. “Just like Bill’s parents did.” He hugged me. “And just like way back then, that you care about people you may not even know and are angered by their death and mourn their loss means you’re still the person I’ll follow to Hell and back.”
“Thanks.” Hugged him back as Joe and Rahmi returned. “Already went into Hell to get you guys. So, technically, does that make this place Purgatory?”
“No,” Joe said. “It’s too clean and sterile to be either Purgatory or Hell.”
“We say that Hell is an absence of anything,” Rahmi shared. “There is nothing to do, and you will never interact with anyone ever again.”
We all agreed that sounded horrible. As we went to the ninth cell, considered that this was the fate that awaited Algar should he ever be caught by the Black Hole People’s Police Force. Didn’t feel he deserved it, but then again, that was because he was on my side. Something to remember—the bad guys rarely saw themselves as evil. They saw themselves as in the right and being expedient.
This cell had our first female—Colette was inside. “God am I glad to see you.”
She was sitting on the bench and looked far less beaten up than the men. “I’m glad to see you, too. Don’t enter the room—”
“We know about the Roomba of Evil.”
“I have more than that.” She pointed up, so Rahmi, Rhee, and I all looked.
Colette did indeed have more going on. There was what looked like strong netting hovering at the ceiling. And it was hovering, as in staying up under its own power.
“Wow. What is that?”
“It’s a stun net. If I try to get away or try to hurt myself, it’ll come down and wrap around me, stunning me into unconsciousness.”
“And you know this how?”
“Our captors explained it to me. And, sadly, I saw it work. Evalyne and Phoebe didn’t believe them.”
“Are they still alive?”
“As far as I know, but I have no idea if anyone other than me is alive.”
“Many are.”
“But not all.” She looked ready to cry and to kill something, both. I could relate.
“No, not all. Hang on while we confer on how to handle this.”
“I’m faster than the net, but there’s nowhere to go,” Colette shared. “And the, ah, Roomba of Evil is set to block me and slow me down.”
Rahmi and I looked at each other. “I’m willing to risk it,” she said.
“I don’t know.” Rhee looked into the room. “The issue isn’t beating it out of the room. The issue is getting the door closed before the net can escape.”
“Good point.” Had a thought. “Did anyone happen to bring a flamethrower?”
Randy pulled a small tube out of his back pocket. “I did. At least, that’s what I think it is.”
The tube was marked as Personal Flamethrower. “Only one way to find out.” Pointed it away from everyone and anything and hit the red button with my thumb. A long flame shot out. “Okey dokey, Randy, great call. Rahmi, I’m going to shoot the Roomba of Evil and then flame the net. Get ready, because this one’s going to be a lot harder.”
We were in position. I shot the Roomba of Evil, no issues. Rahmi ran in and grabbed Colette while I shot the flamethrower at the net.
Had to keep the button down to keep the flames going. Fire was good because it was definitely hurting the net and it also melted the shrapnel, though some of it still made it out and hit Randy and me, too, this time since I hadn’t jumped back and out of the way. The guys were right—the body armor was great. Still not as good as what Alfred in Bizarro World made, but pretty damned awesome otherwise.
Fire wasn’t as good, however, because even flaming the net could fly and follow its target. Which it did, just managing to slip past the closing door.
Was ready to scream and st
art running when someone came up behind us and blasted the net with a fire extinguisher. The net crumbled.
“Wow. Nicely done.” Turned to see Adriana grinning at me. “Got tired of playing Florence Nightingale?”
She shrugged. “Someone saw you testing your flamethrower. I just went to the logical assumption.”
“Great. Let’s open our last cell and see what we’ve got.”
Opened the cell and felt my jaw drop. Wasn’t sure who was more shocked—me or the prisoner.
CHAPTER 81
JANELLE GARDINER stared at me, as openmouthed as I was. I recovered quickest. “Wow, you’re still alive. Up until these past few days I wouldn’t have thought I’d say this—but thank God.”
“Who are you?” She sounded exhausted and frightened.
“Um, sorry, though we’ve met I guess we haven’t actually talked a lot and I know we’re all hard to see with the gear on. I’m Kitty Katt-Martini.” Figured now wasn’t the time to play the FLOTUS Card.
She jerked. “It’s really you?”
“Last time I checked.”
“Last time I checked I was watching you lying in wait for the President while my so-called friends were telling me that I should be honored that I was chosen to be one of the three main prototypes of Personal Robotic Anti-Terrorism Units.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t me. It’s what I like to call the Kitty-Bot. There’s a Janelle-Bot, too. I’ve already tangled with her and ran away so as to live another day and all that jazz. So, you want out of this cell or are you content to hang around until your ‘friends’ kill you?”
“I want out. Please.”
“Okay, gang, it’s the usual fun. Adriana, please have that fire extinguisher ready.”
We did the same maneuver as we had for Colette. Worked better this time because we’d done it once before and because Adriana was a lot closer to the flaming net and put it out of its misery and ours before it could get through the door.
We all took Gardiner to our impromptu medical area. The A-Cs had found water bottles, and everyone was having some, the prisoners in particular. While Camilla checked Gardiner for injuries and everyone had a water and a smile, we conferred about the rest of our missing team.
“Siler’s not here, and neither is Wruck,” Buchanan said. “I did the approach here, because we thought it was a government agency.”
“It is, but it’s an illegal one.”
“We’ll argue semantics later, Missus Executive Chief. I was literally dragged inside by four guys. I have no idea where Siler and Wruck are, but I’d imagine Siler did his blending thing and ensured the two of them disappeared.”
“Huh. I have no idea where they went, but they sure didn’t come over to visit us at the insane asylum.”
Buchanan nodded. “Wruck literally refused to set foot on those grounds. That’s why I tried this place to see if you’d come in here. I had no idea the others were here, but I think they got here before we did, because I didn’t even get a ‘hey, how are you’ out before I was grabbed.”
“We followed Adriana,” Len said. “As well as we could, anyway. I was tracking her on GPS but her signal was going in and out and then disappeared. Manfred and Colette searched all the businesses in this area.”
“We overheard someone talking about the insane asylum,” Manfred said. “So we figured that could be a good hiding place.”
“Right you were. But why didn’t you go there first?”
“We thought the newer building was a school or a detention center,” Kyle said. “It seemed like a good spot to go to get help, and we figured we’d need it.” He shrugged. “We got in the door, explained who we worked for, and were knocked out fast. I woke up in the cell.”
“Same story for the rest of you?” Everyone nodded, other than Colette.
“They spent some time with me, Evalyne, and Phoebe, after we woke up. That’s how I knew the net was dangerous. Otherwise, I woke up in the room where the cells are and was shoved into one because I chose not to fight after seeing what happened to the others.”
“Lovely. Did they plan to ransom you guys or anything?”
Colette shook her head. “We were told that no one knows this site is here and they want to keep it that way. They wanted the women as prototypes. That’s why we had the nets—it was to prevent us injuring or killing ourselves.” She nodded toward the three dead men.
“Do we know who they all are?” I asked Falk.
“The rest of my team.” He sounded furious. There was a lot of that going around. “They must have been close to getting out.”
Chose not to argue or support this mindset, since I had no idea, and Falk, and Buchanan as well, was already upset enough. The others were, too, but I understood how their chain of command worked, and also how it felt when you lost someone you’d accidentally put into danger.
“So Siler and Wruck are MIA and Evalyne and Phoebe are presumably still in the building?”
Buchanan nodded. “Not that we have any idea of where they are.”
“We do,” Christopher said, indicating the A-Cs. “We also found proof that Monica Strauss was in charge of this.”
“Not a surprise. Anyone else incriminated?”
“Ansom Somerall and Talia Lee,” Gardiner spat. “My colleague and my best friend.”
“Yeah, well, when you side with the bad guys, you get betrayed. That’s in all the rulebooks. Why’d they hook up against you?”
“Ansom’s sleeping with her.” Gardiner shrugged. “It won’t last, his liaisons never do, but Talia thinks she’s special. Ansom wants complete control of Gaultier and it doesn’t matter that I haven’t cramped his style—the moment Quinton died I was no longer protected.”
“Quinton Cross was your guardian and/or benefactor?”
“Yes. He actually had limits. Ansom has none.”
This was a complete reversal of how I’d seen those two men, but it wasn’t that big a surprise, really. Different levels of evil were still evil, when you got right down to it.
“Wow. I’ll contemplate those ramifications later, and you’ll be helping me to do it.” Pondered our options. “Malcolm, are we allowed to treat this site the same way we did the Gaultier black site?”
Noted that Gardiner didn’t look surprised at this question, nor did she look chagrined. She looked like that was old news, which it was. But I did have to remember that she’d most likely been involved in everything Gaultier had done against us since Amy’s father was killed and factor that into things.
“No, the P.T.C.U. needs to take control, because this is a homegrown terrorist operation, and while I’m sure the evidence you’ve found is good, I’m also sure that we’ll find more. And you’re going to need it. While the former Secretary of State is the easy ‘high-ranking individual’ responsible, I’m sure there are others.”
“Monica Strauss’ involvement is confirmed,” White said. “And yes, we’ve found the proof. And a large cache of diamonds.”
“Really? Then why did Strauss and Villanova yank their diamonds from their settings and why did Villanova hide them in her ice cube trays?”
“As you say so frequently, I have no idea who makes these plans up or why, we just have to foil them. And it appears we have the proof to do so.”
“That proof needs to be exposed,” Buchanan said. “If we turn this place to rubble like Missus Chief would like, we lose the proof. And ‘we say so’ doesn’t hold up in courts of law or public opinion.”
“Good points. Here’s the two things I want most right now. One is to find the rest of our missing people. Two is to get whatever cellular dampening and such that this site has running turned off.”
“I can handle the second one,” Camilla said. “Give me a minute to find the source.”
“That source could be anywhere.”
She shook her head. “It’ll be
down here, in the secured area. I was fairly sure I’d found it when you pulled me onto medic duty.” She zipped off.
Turned to Christopher. “Any ideas for where the others are?”
“No, but I think we found an alternate exit. It took us a while to find it, too.”
“Show me.”
He grabbed my hand and we went back toward where the cells had been. Followed that wall along until it looked like we were reaching the far wall and a dead end. Only it wasn’t a dead end. The wall was an optical illusion in this area, with a small L-shaped hall that, due to the white on white of this entire room, didn’t show unless you were right on it.
“Great. Let’s get everyone and check this out.”
“Speaking of everyone, we’re at our time limit. Should I get Devon or just tell him to continue waiting?”
“Depends on how fast Camilla’s working.” Checked my phone. Even this deep underground I had bars. “I think she’s worked fast. Do you have Devon’s number?”
“Yes.” Christopher pulled out his phone and dialed. “Hey, it’s Christopher White. Yeah, we’re all alive and we’ve found most of the missing.” He barked a laugh. “Yeah, I’m amazed, too. Listen, I want you taking command of the facility.”
While Christopher shared the news of what was going on with Devon, I called Jerry. “Commander, it’s amazing to hear your voice via this old-fashioned means.”
“I know. Revel in the wonder. Look, I need you to contact my mother, and only my mother. She needs to call Malcolm so that he can give her his thoughts on what the P.T.C.U. should be doing.”
“Roger that. I see your backup team is heading inside.”
“Yeah, they’re taking over the upper portions. We’re in the secret underground portions.”
“I miss all the fun.”
“Truly.” Filled him in on everything. “I do not want to see any of the men I’m mad at.” Because I needed to stay mad and I wasn’t quite ready to forgive them yet. And because, when I got down to it, I didn’t want them in danger and right now, who knew how safe any of us outside of an A-C protected facility were? “When you share information and request the backup that Devon’s team is going to need to ensure that this facility remains under our control, please make sure that this is extremely clear. None of them will enjoy me right now, and I have a lot of weapons that work really well.”
