by Powers, Jade
When the operator answered, Sven said, “I need to talk to Lee. Fast.”
Within moments Lee was on the phone with a hesitant, “Yes?”
“Did someone blackmail or threaten you recently? I need an honest answer. A woman’s life depends on it.”
“Shit.” Lee said. Sven heard the guilt in his voice when he said, “It just doesn’t stop. They showed up at Beth’s school as CPS. Pulled her out of school under the pretext that we had been abusing her. They had all the answers. They told the principal that we had been notified, so she wouldn’t contact us. By the time Jamie went to pick her up, she had been gone three hours. I’m sorry, Sven. They said if I ever told...I couldn’t let them hurt my baby girl.”
“I get that. What did they want? What did they do to Beth?”
“They needed me to look the other way when Tom stole the sphere. I was to help him gain entrance according to protocol and cover for him.” Lee cleared his throat, “They said that they could get to Beth at any time and place. I went to work the next day and let Tom turn off the sphere’s tracking code. I knew what he was doing. They returned Beth, but said that I had to keep helping them or they would kill her. They knew where my wife worked, Beth’s schedule, even our parents’ addresses. God, how many people are they going to come after?”
“They took someone I care about, too. If I do as they say, will they give her back unharmed?” Sven held the cord of the phone in a fist that pushed his fingernails into his palm. He wanted to punch something, but there was nothing to hit.
“They’ve given Beth back. I don’t know who else they approached or how deep it goes, but they know things. My advice is to help them.”
“Thanks, Lee.” Two days ago Sven would have blamed Lee for letting Tom walk out with company technology. Today, he was willing to do the same.
Sven hung up and waited. It was a long fifteen minutes, punctuated by pacing and worry. Every footstep brought another image of Minka; Minka smiling in the theater, her hair falling over her shoulder as they stood in the winter sun at Riverfront Park, her laughter as they played laser tag.
When the phone rang, Sven pounced on it. “Okay. Tell me what to do.”
Drake answered, “Am I that hard of a taskmaster?”
Sven forced a laugh and ignored the question. Instead he said, “Anyway, I’m ready.” Sven needed to get him off the phone. It would be just his luck if Drake talked to him right through the kidnapper’s phone call.
“I just heard from McFarland. I’ll pick you up in ten.” Drake said.
Sven reached for the bed covers and sat down, biting back the impulse to tell Drake everything. Best friends or not, Sven couldn’t tell Drake about the extortion, not over an unsecured line. Remembering the warning that he was to keep Drake off Tom, Sven said, “I think we should leave Miami, make it look like we’ve given up.”
“I’m not leaving until I find Tom. Is there something I’m missing here?”
“Bryce is free. They have the tech. They should release Tom without anything else. We can talk in the car,” Sven said. He ended the call with a deep sense of foreboding. Drake wasn’t about to leave Miami until the situation was resolved.
The phone immediately rang. The voice said, “Get Drake out of town.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“Find a way.”
The call ended abruptly with no more promises made. Sven had a new enemy. This time, it was personal.
BRYCE RAN UP THE LONG stairs to the student unions, passing a pair of skateboarders who used the rail to glide down the steps with their boards on the rail. The orange and green logo for the University of Miami splattered across a banner above the student union building. Bryce couldn’t believe that his dad had picked this spot to hide the sphere. There were people everywhere.
He found the bookstore and the shelves his dad mentioned. At least his dad was smart enough to hide the single dragon figurine on the bottom shelf amidst a series of coffee cups, because it was seriously out of place.
Now Bryce had a secondary problem. He couldn’t just carry something out of the store. Everyone would think he was stealing. But he also couldn’t pay for it, because the dragon had no tag. If he took it to the front desk, they might not allow him to buy it.
He decided against asking for a price. It would be just his luck if the cashier took the figurine away for pricing and decided it wasn’t for sale.
He tucked it into one of the mugs and waited for a group to walk by. He followed the group on the way out, took the figurine out of the cup, set the mug on top of one of the clothing stands and kept walking.
The little dragon didn’t seem so special. It was just like the one his dad got him for Christmas, but in blue and green instead of black and red. Bryce looked over his shoulder as he pocketed the dragon, not just to see if anyone thought he had shoplifted it...funny to shoplift your own item, but also because he had that feeling of being watched.
Before he could confirm that anyone was following, Bryce took off, running through the student union and zigzagging between groups of students. He ducked out through a side entrance, watching and waiting. After several minutes he breathed a sigh of relief. False alarm.
Then he saw them. Two men. In a sprint, he fled. As he ran, one hand held the statuette. On the path outside the lake, he turned his head, to watch for his pursuers. Somehow he misjudged the distance while he was running to the student walking in his direction. They went sprawling.
Bryce didn’t have any time to think. No time to plan. Removing the statuette from his pocket, he shoved it into the girl’s backpack while he helped her up. He said, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Then the men chasing him rounded the corner. Bryce didn’t have time to stick around. He took off running.
WHEN SHE PULLED INTO a rest stop, four men subdued Minka, dragging her into the car. They wore masks and used a black cover over the license plate of their own car.
Screaming, Minka kicked and fought as they dragged her to the trunk of the car. She felt complete disorientation when they threw her into the back and slammed the lid down, leaving her alone in the dark.
Minka itched to fight back. After everything with Joe and finally getting the strength to leave and then ultimately killing him to defend herself and Sven, Minka was determined to set herself free. Four men dragged her into a farm house that looked more like a military outpost than a ranch. At least a dozen other men in military garb waited inside.
They spoke in clipped sentences and said, “Yes, Sir” “No, Sir”. Wearing black clothes and armed with knives and guns on thick belts, the men occupied the house with a precision and professionalism that robbed Minka of hope.
Her prison was a chair. The men didn’t bother to tie or restrain her in any way. Instead two guards stood directly behind her.
No one said a word to her. As if they had all taken a vow of silence and refused to speak to her. Minka thought back to everything that had happened and came to one damning conclusion.
She asked, “Isn’t someone going to read me my rights? You didn’t have to bother with all of this. I would have turned myself in had I known you were looking for me.”
A whole SWAT team just for her. What a waste! The taxpayers were paying a lot of money for a bunch of men to guard one woman who really wasn’t a threat at all.
A few of the men chortled, exchanging amused glances. Minka sat in the farmhouse kitchen, her attention flickering from hard, firm body to hard, firm body. If they weren’t police, they were some kind of military or paramilitary group. Washington State didn’t have any of the paramilitary variety, at least none that Minka had heard about.
An older man balding on top with a ring of silver hair above his ears sat at the table across from Minka. His bearing was rigid, as if he’d spent his whole life in the pursuit of a straight spine.
“Ms. Rook, we’re not the police. Where were you headed when we stopped you?” His question was too much to the point. Surely the militar
y would know her mother lived in Ellensburg . Still, it wasn’t a revelation Minka cared to share.
The wallpaper in the kitchen of the farmhouse was tearing a little in the corner, and the house gave off an abandoned feel, short of being fully occupied with soldiers. When she sought information by looking out the window, Minka found a hill of dirt and brown grass, a hill like a thousand others in the Palouse. A person could get lost in those hills, murdered and buried next to a decrepit shack.
Minka shivered.
“Don’t feel like talking?” He was a smart-ass, this silver-haired soldier. He pulled a chair up to Minka and turned it backwards. The chair was ancient, like the house. It creaked when he lowered himself into it, going for a casual friendliness that was too suave to be believed. He was messing with her, a predator with too much time on his hands.
“You’re going to bury me in a shallow grave thirty feet from the house and no one will ever see me again. What does it matter where I was going?” Minka held her arms tightly on her lap. She didn’t dare move suddenly or use her normal hand gestures. Too many weapons at her back.
Leaning his chin on his arms, the silver-haired soldier’s eyes pierced her own. A liar came up with the notion that only a truth-teller could look in someone’s eyes. What a farce. Alpha-predators looked into people’s eyes. Businessmen, too. It was all down to training and whether you were taught as a youngster to be an alpha and stake your claim by staring directly into another’s gaze or whether you were trained to look down and back off. Of course an alpha will judge another man or woman by their gaze, even if it’s a foolish idea.
Minka stared the soldier down, even while he said, “Not at all. You’ll be released as soon as we have what we want.” His eyes didn’t flicker, his gaze didn’t betray him.
“I have nothing to give you.” Minka hoped her statement was true.
“Where were you going? Is Sven sending you to Yakima?”
A piece of vital information. So this was about Sven. Minka thought back to all of her conversations with him. Yakima. Maybe Sven was a drug-runner. Given her prior history in choosing men, it didn’t surprise Minka in the least that once again she had chosen wrong. Still, she wasn’t going to give these jerks anything. They had plenty of money from what she could see.
One thing for sure, she would never tell them she was going home to her family.
“I’m heading to Seattle, and Sven has nothing to do with it.” Minka retorted. Just the sound of Sven’s name in this abandoned farmhouse with these soldiers felt like a betrayal.
“Of course not,” the soldier said in a smooth, sarcastic tone. He didn’t believe her.
Minka flushed. Her jaw clenched, and she lifted her head. “He ditched me. Left town when things got too complicated.”
“I’m sure a man sends flowers to ditch his new girlfriend,” scoffed Silver.
“It was his way of letting me off easy. Trust me, he had no intention of sticking around after our last date.” Minka hated the easy manner of this guy, the way he acted as if she were his confidant. She hated the way he talked softly to her as if he didn’t have an entire army behind him. But most of all, she hated that he knew that Sven sent her flowers. For him to have that kind of information suggested a breach of intimacy that was too abhorrent to fathom.
“It’s a little too convenient you leaving town just as we get close.”
Before the guy could say another word, Minka leaned forward, “Wait a minute. Did Sven put you up to this? How did you know I got flowers? That was only a few days ago. Did Sven have me kidnapped?” Her voice rose on a hysterical high note. Given her history with Joe, Minka was perfectly capable of believing that Sven might kidnap her, that he might be a monster instead of a gentleman.
Minka was perfectly aware of what monsters lay behind charming smiles and kind gestures. She knew to look deep under the layers of civilization to the animal within.
“Has he tried to contact you?” His eyes roved down her body, and Minka felt slimy, like she needed a shower.
She was just about to say ‘no’ when one of the men said, “Wrong question. We already know he contacted you. What did he say?”
“I never spoke to him. He left a message on the machine. That was it.”
“So Sven knew that we were closing in and sent you to safety. You might as well dispense with the act and tell us what we want to know. Where is Sven hiding the mind-control tech?”
“Like I said, I’m going to Seattle, and Sven has nothing to do with it,” Minka said. She straightened in the chair and the bonds tightened around her wrists. “I swear I don’t know anything about mind control.”
“He scared you when he killed your boyfriend?” It was more than a fish for information, at least to the soldier. This man was certain beyond a doubt that it had been Sven and not Minka who killed Joe. She wondered why he would think so. Maybe because she was such a wimp. Really, no one would ever expect Minka to make a killing blow. She would let him continue to think so.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Sven didn’t send me anywhere. Joe died, and the next day Sven was gone with a note and a bouquet of flowers. So I left. Tell me who Sven is. Why am I here? Is he a drug dealer late on his delivery?” Minka took a deep breath, annoyed that this guy would draw even that much out of her.
“Sure. You left because he sent you flowers. That makes a lot of sense.” Suddenly Minka was eyeball to steel. The knife was so close to blur her vision.
Like any sensible person, Minka valued her eyesight. In a rush she said, “He didn’t tell me anything. I left because he had a woman in his hotel. Okay? I hate Spokane. All my bad memories are there, and I’m leaving it and Sven, and that’s all. I told you everything.”
“What’s the phone number?”
“I don’t know. I threw it away.” Minka shuddered. The knife was still far too close. Her breath came like a horse, blowing through its nostrils. “Please don’t take my eyes.”
The knife withdrew. She blinked. Those faded blue eyes jousted with hers, searching for truth. He said, “You’re such a liar. We’ve already contacted Sven with simple instructions. We’ll see if he cares enough to save you.”
Minka shook her head. One and Four. She remembered a couple of numbers from Sven’s phone number, but she told the truth. She hadn’t remembered the whole number. Why would they call her a liar? She asked, “Who is Sven? Why are you holding me? Did he set this up as payback for me leaving?”
After Joe, she could believe that easier than some random kidnapping.
“He’s one of the biggest players in a high-tech spy ring. And he doesn’t date civilians, so you better start talking. Where do they keep the research data?” The chair creaked as he leaned toward Minka.
Minka rolled her eyes and threw up her hands, “I swear. I don’t know anything.”
She would never trust another man again. Never. These bastards better let her go. If she ended up dead because she dated the wrong person... Grrr. That would be ridiculous.
A phone rang in the house. Sliding out of the chair and shoving it under the table in one smooth motion, the man gave hand signals to the guards holding Minka. One of them pulled his gun and rested the barrel against her temple.
Her heart pounded. The feel of death, cold and metallic, terrified her. She could overhear the leader in the other room taking the call. He swore a string of swear words followed by, “Sven told Drake? Are you certain?”
Minka couldn’t hear the reply. But they were giving a lot of information.
“Son of a bitch. That’s better news.”
After a long intense silence, his voice rose, “We’ve got one shot at this. Don’t take any risks.”
Minka heard murmuring on the phone, but couldn’t make out the words.
“Holy hell. I don’t care what you do to Tom. He might be useful if we get into a jam. Just get your ass out of there before Drake and Sven move on you. No. Crate her up and get out of there. We’ve got what we need.”<
br />
The guy with the silver hair stormed back into the kitchen, cold blue eyes sneering in Minka’s direction. She expected at any moment for him to give the command to her guards to shoot her. She wasn’t wrong.
He said, “We offered Sven your life for his help. He chose loyalty to his boss over your life. It’s over now. Take her out back and finish the job.”
Minka swallowed. The guard holstered his weapon and nudged Minka’s shoulder. She couldn’t stand. She tried, but her legs wouldn’t hold, and she sank back down onto the chair. It took both guards to lift her again.
“I can walk. Just give me a second,” Minka said, her whole body pumping adrenaline until she vibrated with a fine tremor.
One soldier separated himself from the others, squeezing her arm until it ached. His eyes were serial-killer cold. He was the executioner. Minka didn’t have to be told, and she didn’t need a memo.
It was all written across his face in cold, hard lines.
Chapter 19
DRAKE AND SVEN HAD been friends a long time. Sven fidgeted in the limo. He kept peering out the window, off into the distance, but his hands played with the locks, skittered across the seat, anything to keep busy.
“What happened?”
The limo driver had top security clearance with the company. He was one of Drake’s most trusted men. It never occurred to Sven that the enemy could get into the depths of Drake’s personal life, into his house, into his car.
So he told Drake the truth.
“They’ve got Minka. They said if you don’t leave Miami, they’ll kill her.” Sven scrubbed his face with his hands. “Drake, I’m tired of this job. I want Minka back. I don’t care if we bargain. I don’t care what we give them. I just want her back.”
