And he needed to be stopped.
And if she somehow managed to help maybe it would redeem her in Simon’s eyes?
Abandoning her first impulse, which was to leap from the boat while Paul was occupied with untying it and starting the engine, she settled uneasily on the seat and glanced around a little hopefully. They would be following her, she assured herself.
They wouldn’t have left! Not without telling her they were pulling out. She knew they wouldn’t!
It didn’t occur to her that Paul had caught everyone by surprise, not just her.
Neither Simon nor Ian had heard his approach because she’d left the house and was beyond the range of the electronic devices. They hadn’t spotted him until he was upon her because they were watching her place the reader in the paddler. They’d abandoned the sub because they knew they could cover the distance faster swimming than they could starting up the sub and sailing it to her house and then leaping out of it. And they hadn’t reached her to stop Paul because they were five minutes away and he’d walked her from the front yard to the back and pulled away in less than three minutes.
Paul cut through the channel between the houses and rounded Anna’s house when the two of them were still little more than halfway between the sub and Anna’s place. He spotted them in the water just about the time Anna did.
Uttering a snarl, he pushed the boat to full speed and headed directly for them.
For a split second, Anna was too stunned to react. The scream of terror that tore its way from her chest thawed her. She leapt to her feet and made a grab for the wheel, trying to wrestle it from his grip. The boat careened wildly from side to side, nearly pitching Anna out, but she was too intent on trying to turn the wheel to feel the fear she might have otherwise.
Abruptly, Paul ceased trying to pry her fingers loose and backhanded her hard enough she lost her grip and flew backwards, nearly toppling over the side of the boat.
She caught herself instinctively before it even occurred to her that she should’ve seized the opportunity and gone out of the boat. By the time she realized it, though, Paul had grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” he demanded furiously, shaking her. “It was the mutants!”
Anna gaped at him, trying to force her shocked brain into functioning, trying to gather the wits for survival. “It was?” she gasped.
“I missed them! Sit down and try to stay out of the way!”
He flung her toward the seat beside him even as he said it. Anna stumbled, caught herself, and looked back. To her disappointment, she saw that it was too dark to see anything. She couldn’t do anything but take Paul’s word for it that he’d missed them.
She didn’t know he had.
Her teeth began to chatter in reaction as she settled weakly in the seat Paul had shoved her into. It didn’t help that he was going so fast that the air blowing over her felt like arctic air. She didn’t know what to do, but one look at the water racing past the hull was enough to convince her she didn’t want to jump. They were already too far out for her to have any chance of swimming back even if he didn’t turn around and come back for her … and she was afraid he would.
And then it would be impossible to convince him she wasn’t trying to escape. As much difficulty as she was having putting logical thought together, she realized her best hope, now, was to convince Paul that she was going willingly.
“You cold?”
Anna looked at Paul when he spoke and finally nodded jerkily.
“Look in that locker toward the stern. There should be some blankets. That’ll have to do until we reach the rendezvous point.”
Anna half fell out of the seat. Righting herself with an effort, she made her way carefully toward the back, trying to keep her feet under her. The boat was bucking so hard, though, as it slammed into the waves that she sprawled out before she reached the locker, rolling and skidding the rest of the way. She was shaking with terror, not just cold and shock, when she finally managed to catch a hold of the locker and pry it up.
The wind nearly ripped the blanket from her grasp when she pulled it out, but she managed to keep her grip on it.
Deciding not to try to make it to the front of the boat again, she settled with her back against the low stern wall and struggled to get the blanket around her. She thought at first when Paul began to slow the boat that he’d seen her dilemma and slowed to help her. When she glanced toward him, though, she saw he had something in his hand. Her heart skipped several beats when it occurred to her that it was handgun. She was completely unprepared for the sudden explosion behind them. It took her several moments to realize it was behind them. Her heart had squeezed so painfully with fear, she clutched her chest, certain she’d been shot.
It was the ball of fire that drew her around to look. She gaped at the blossoming cloud of fire and smoke that lit up the area like midday without comprehension, with utter disbelief.
“Mutant terrorists just blew up your house and destroyed your research.”
Anna whipped her head around when Paul spoke. The light from the fire, even so far away, made his expression of grim satisfaction perfectly clear to her. Dumbfounded, she watched him toss the device he’d been pointing at her—no, her house—into the sea.
“Bundle up. We’ve got a good ways to go.”
She’d been sitting on a bomb, Anna thought blankly? How long had she been walking around her house without a care in the world while there was a bomb under her just waiting for the right signal to go off?
* * * *
Simon and Ian tumbled out of the emergency tubes and raced toward the console.
Simon strode to the communicator while Ian started the engines. “Watch Center! Watch Center! Priority one!”
“Watch Center! What’s the priority one?”
Simon hesitated. “Terrorist suspect, Paul Warner, has snatched Dr. Blake. Heading ..,” he paused and leaned over to check the radar. “Due south, making around 40 knots. I want every man you can round up. We’re in pursuit!”
The explosion rocked the sub so hard and so unexpectedly it threw Simon and Ian across the deck, slamming them into the walls as if they were ping pong balls.
“Simon! Simon! Do you read? What the hell was that?”
Simon managed to get to his feet and turned to search for the source of the explosion. “What the hell? They blew up her house!” he muttered in shock.
“Simon! Ian? What’s going on? Do you read?”
Moving to the communicator, Simon spoke into it again. “They blew up her house. Water City PD will be swarming all over us inside of five. Simon out!” He turned to Ian. “Get this thing moving!”
He staggered back when Ian abruptly shot forward and began diving. Catching his balance, he lurched toward the front again and fell into a seat, pulling his restraints on and fastening them. “How much of a lead does he have?”
Ian stared hard at the radar for a moment. “Fifteen minutes and gaining steadily. He’s going to break up if he keeps that speed.
Simon swallowed a little sickly. “Let’s hope not.”
“He knows he missed us and we’ll be on his tail,” Ian said grimly. “He’s going to try to lose us.”
He’d missed them because Anna had risked her life fighting him for control of the wheel. He couldn’t remember the last time anything had scared him that badly—or enraged him so much. He was going to break the son-of-a-bitch in half for hitting her when he got his hands on him! “Level out or he won’t have to worry about it!” he growled, watching the depth gauge.
“The bastard!” Ian growled after a few moments. “How the hell did the son-of-a-bitch manage to get the jump on us?”
“He knew we were there,” Simon said after considering it for a moment. “He wouldn’t have risked pulling the boat in on the other side, in plain view of all of her neighbors, if he hadn’t.”
“I don’t understand why she left the house! We would’ve known he was there if she hadn’t left the house.”
That had been bothering him, too. “She put something in the paddler,” he said abruptly. “She was carrying something when she came out. I didn’t see it when he grabbed her, did you?”
“Her research!” Ian said abruptly. “That’s what that crazy dance was all about. She said, ‘I did it.’. That was what she was talking about.”
“I’m still baffled,” Simon growled. “Didn’t she say she was genetically engineering plants? They blew up her house because of her plants?”
Ian frowned. “Maybe and maybe not. If they knew we were there, they could’ve had an entirely different reason for blowing it up—us. If we’d been found floating near the scene, what do you suppose the cops would’ve thought?”
Simon stared at him in disbelief. “That we’re terrorists?”
“Can you think of a better way to turn sentiment completely against us? Possibly even start a war.”
“Jesus!” Simon muttered. “Where do you think he’s heading?”
“Home to papa,” Ian said tightly.
* * * *
Caleb had contemplated murdering Simon throughout the nightmarish trip down the coast to the tiny island where they were currently moored. He didn’t even make any attempt to contain his wrath when he finally boarded the sub. “You planned it, didn’t you!” he growled. “You let that cold-blooded bastard get his hands on her just so you could get to him!”
“Hold it!” Ian bellowed, leaping between the two men before they could launch themselves at one another. “If you’re looking for some-fucking-body to blame, check out the god damned mirror! We didn’t plan this! Simon didn’t plan it! They knew we were there and they outmaneuvered us because they did. And they knew because you didn’t fucking follow orders and Anna came out looking for you!”
Caleb recoiled as if he’d punched him. He stared at Ian in stunned disbelief for several moments as that sank in and then looked around for a place to sit. Landing heavily on the floor when he discovered there was nothing closer, he clasped his head in his hands.
“Forget it!” Simon said harshly. “The important thing is to get her back before anything happens to her.”
Caleb dropped his hands to his knees and looked up at him. “He wouldn’t hurt her,” he said hoarsely.
Ian and Simon exchanged a look, but Simon saw no sense in telling him Paul hadn’t been exactly gentle with her. It wouldn’t help matters and, in any case, Paul was his. “We don’t know. I don’t want her in there when we go in, though. I want to try to extract her before the shooting starts.”
Caleb nodded and glanced guiltily at Joshua, but Joshua refused to meet his gaze.
“We’ll go in,” Caleb volunteered.
“We’ll all go in,” Simon said grimly. “We need to reconnoiter before we launch any kind of assault anyway. Top priority is locating Anna and getting her out if we can.
If it looks like we can’t, we’ll have to try to plan the assault so that we can reach her as quickly as possible and remove her from the line of fire.”
Ian hesitated, but he knew it needed to be said. “There is a possibility that he’s using her to bait a trap for us.”
Even Simon looked like he wanted to take his head off at that comment.
“I didn’t say she was willing. She was fighting like hell when she was kidnapped.
I’m saying that might be what the bastard wanted her for from the beginning. Or she might’ve given herself away—and there’s a good chance she did when she was fighting Paul. He might have decided to seize the day.”
Simon digested that for several moments. “We won’t know until we get in there.”
* * * *
Anna was too numb to really feel the fear beating at the back of her mind. She was aware of it on some levels. She could feel it at the back of her mind like a shadow slithering around in the back of a dark cave. And like that unknown ‘something’, she felt as if it might suddenly erupt from the shadows and envelope her in terror, but the numbness was a blessing she was holding on to as tightly as she could. It allowed her some ability to process thoughts. She knew she wasn’t thinking ‘normally’, but she was at least capable of processing, even though it seemed to take a very long time to do it.
Beyond that, it had shielded her enough that Miles Cavendish didn’t seem to realize that she was terrified of him or that she was as completely opposed to everything he stood for as she could possibly be. He didn’t seem to suspect that she was his enemy.
Paul had carried her miles and miles. They’d been in the boat for hours. She was almost certain of that even though she was aware that she didn’t have a firm grasp on time. The trip alone had been one of the most frightening experiences of her life. If there’d been no threat hanging over her at all, she thought she would still have been traumatized by the terrifying speed he’d maintained, by being surrounded by nothing but black, seething water, and by the sight of the enormous waves that looked like they might swallow the boat at any moment.
She’d always enjoyed looking at the sea from a safe distance. She’d never wanted to set off across it, to find herself completely surrounded by it so that she couldn’t get her mind off of the immensity of it, the dark depths waiting to swallow her up.
She’d been so glad when they’d finally arrived, so eager to get off the tiny, bucking boat and feel something solid and reassuring beneath her that Miles Cavendish, who’d come out to greet them, had gotten the entirely false impression that she was thrilled to have been brought to him. It was purely a stroke of luck that he’d misinterpreted her reaction. She couldn’t have pretended even though she knew her life depended on it.
He’d noticed her face immediately. It had been throbbing since Paul had struck her, but she’d been too distracted by everything else too really feel the pain. He’d examined it with concern she didn’t believe and sent Paul a deadly look she hadn’t had any trouble interpreting. “I fell,” she said shakily, not certain why the lie sprang to her lips but almost immediately glad it had. Tit for tat. Paul couldn’t tell her father she’d fought him to keep him from running Simon and Ian down without admitting he’d hit her and she could see he didn’t want to do that.
“You’re frozen!”
Anna nodded jerkily, her teeth chattering too much to attempt to talk if she’d wanted to and she thought she was better off remaining mute.
“Well! We’ll get you inside and get something for that bruise. A hot bath should take the chill off and you can rest. I can see you’re worn out. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but it can wait a few hours.”
Thank you! Thank you! If she could just put off really talking to him for a while, help might come. If it didn’t … well, it still gave her a little time to prepare herself.
She still didn’t like leaving Paul and her father alone. She didn’t think he would tell her father about the incident, but she couldn’t be sure and if he did she wouldn’t be there to try to cover it with lies.
“Did you take care of the house?”
“Yes,” Paul responded. “Whatever the explosion didn’t get rid of I’m sure the fire did.”
“Good! Excellent!”
He glanced at her, seemed to realize that she wasn’t nearly as happy about it as he was. “I hope you didn’t have anything in it that was special to you.”
Just four years of research, she thought glumly, wondering suddenly if Simon or Ian had seen her put the book in the paddler or had the chance to recover it. It might have gone up when the house did. It seemed unlikely, she realized despairingly, that it hadn’t.
“Well! We can replace whatever you lost with better things,” he said cheerfully when she didn’t say anything. “I’ve got an entire wardrobe waiting for you. I never did particularly care for your taste in clothes, pumpkin. You’re too pretty to go arou
nd looking like you’re wearing someone else’s castoffs.”
She happened to like her clothes! They were practical and comfortable and that was all that was important to her. It wasn’t as if she ever went out!
Her first thought when he showed her the room he’d decided on for her was to wonder if it was bugged like her house had been. Her second, that it looked ostentatious and not the least ‘homey’.
“What do you think?” he asked, beaming at her in obvious expectation that she would be thrilled.
She pasted a smile on and scanned it slowly, searching for any sign of cameras or microphones. “It’s … I’m speechless.”
He chuckled, pulling her close and kissing her forehead. Her skin crawled.
“I’m going to leave you to get cleaned up and settled in. I’ll have a tray brought up for you if you’re hungry. I’m sure the cook could put something together.”
“I’m just cold and tired.” And she wanted to be left alone.
Thankfully, he left and took Paul with him. She still didn’t know if she was being watched, but it didn’t matter at the moment. She had to get warm or her teeth were going to be worn down to nubs and she wasn’t in any shape to consider flight. Any attempt in her current condition was doomed to failure.
Her mind went to her lost research and the bombing of her house while she stood in the shower shivering. Apparently, she thought wryly, she truly was her father’s daughter. She didn’t know how else she might have sensed the need to hide it if she hadn’t had some inkling of the way his mind worked because it certainly wasn’t reasonable or logical.
That being the case, she spent the entire time trying to figure out why it had seemed both reasonable and logical to him to destroy it. Her first thought was that it was planned to get rid of evidence, but what evidence, against him, could there possibly be in her house? To her knowledge, he’d never set foot in it. It belonged to the company, so destroying it changed nothing. There would be records that it did.
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