by Liz Wolfe
“I knew he was with Jill and Victor.” Shannon clamped her lips into a thin line.
“I understand you can communicate with Sam?”
“You know?”
“Dr. McRae told me. That’s how I knew you were still at The Center. Sam told us.”
“Dear God, this has been such a nightmare.”
“It’s over now. We’re going to a safe house, and tomorrow we’ll make plans to get you to the FSA. They’ll take care of you and Sam until we can close down The Center.”
“They took you and your son?” the other woman asked from the backseat.
“Who are you?” Shelby asked, catching her eye in the rearview mirror.
“Zoe.”
“Shelby Parker.” Shelby introduced herself to the two women.
Shannon leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Tears streamed down her face.
“It really is going to be okay,” Shelby tried to assure her.
“They have Chase.”
“Chase Harmon?” Shelby asked. She remembered him from the first day she’d gone to The Center.
“He tried to rescue me tonight, and they caught him.” Shannon gave Shelby a quizzical look. “How did you know his name?”
“I ran into him at The Center. Is he family or a friend?”
“Both, I guess. Chase is Sam’s father, although he doesn’t know that.”
“Sam doesn’t know who his father is?” Shelby asked, slightly confused.
“No—yes.” Shannon shook her head. “I mean, Sam doesn’t know, but also, Chase doesn’t know that he has a son.”
Oh, boy. Shelby had read about this kind of thing in confession magazines that some of her dad’s girlfriends had lying around. But, even back then she’d known that those stories weren’t true. Did women really not tell men that they were carrying their children? Well, evidently, it happened.
This man obviously still cared enough about Shannon to try to rescue her. There was surely an interesting story behind all this, but right now Shelby had other things to concentrate on.
“We’ll get Chase out too.”
“How can you do that?” Shannon’s eyes were clouded with fear and hope. “I doubt they even have him at The Center.”
“I got you, didn’t I?”
Shannon seemed to relax at that reassurance.
“What were you doing at The Center, Zoe?” Shelby asked.
“It’s kind of a long story. I don’t know why they had me there. All I know is that I couldn’t get out, and I was nauseous all the time. God knows what they’re up to there.”
Shelby decided she could get Zoe’s story later. “Can you tell me why they were holding you, Shannon? Were they doing anything to you?”
“I don’t really know. The entire time I was there, I was kept in that small room. They’d come in and take blood samples and ask for urine specimens.” Shannon started to shake again. “Sometimes, they’d give me something, and I’d go to sleep and not wake up for hours. I don’t know what they were doing. Sometimes, afterwards, I’d find something. Like some adhesive stuck to me, or once I had a bandage on my hip. I didn’t know why, and they wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“I know it’s been really hard on you. We can go over this later. The good news is that you’ll see your son in less than half an hour.”
Shannon collapsed into tears again. Happy ones, Shelby assumed—or hoped.
“Anything yet?” Dr. Carlson asked.
“Nope.” Frank typed in another command and punched the enter key.
“I thought this tracking system was supposed to work.”
“It works, it just has limits,” Frank explained.
“We don’t have time for limits.”
“Well, you got ’em anyway. Here’s the thing. The GPS tracking device is accurate within twenty miles. Up to thirty miles, we might or might not get something on it.”
“So, you’re telling me the tracking device is at least twenty miles away?” Dr. Carlson asked.
“Exactly. If you want to find it, you need to get one of the portable receivers within twenty miles of the thing.”
“Damn!”
“It’s a good system, Dr. Carlson. But it ain’t Star Trek,” Frank said.
“How many portable receivers do we have?”
“Half a dozen.”
“Give them to me,” she said.
“I have to get them all activated first.”
“I’ll have someone pick them up within an hour.” Dr. Carlson ran her hand through her hair. “You can do that in an hour, right?”
“No problem. So, I take it this isn’t just a test?” Frank asked.
“Hardly.” Her cell phone beeped, and she pulled it off her belt clip.
“Ruth, what’s going on?” Jonah’s soft voice irritated her even more.
“We have a problem.” Ruth walked away from Frank so she wouldn’t be overheard.
“I assumed that. You rarely call me at one in the morning.”
“Someone took the Masterson woman tonight and your new surrogate.”
“What?”
“Frank’s getting the mobile tracking devices ready, and I’m about to check the security tapes to see who was in here. The night nurse was found knocked out with a bruise on her chin. One of the guards was found in a similar condition at the rear wall. There was a grappling hook and rope left attached to the wall. I assume that’s how they left.”
“Dear God. We can’t lose her now, Ruth!”
“I know that, Jonah.” Did the man think she was stupid? The pregnancy test had just come back—positive.
“I assume there’s been no word on Sam?”
“No. I’ll call you as soon as I hear something.”
“No need. I’m coming down now.”
“Fine.” Ruth punched the end button on her cell phone and returned it to her belt clip. Losing Sam had been bad enough. Why the hell had McRae taken Sam anyway? Chris told them that he was just there to gather information. What had caused him to run off with Sam? Jonah had been trying to call Chris all day, but she hadn’t answered. And it appeared that Cathy Silvers had helped McRae. She didn’t know what to make of that.
Ruth rubbed her eyes and ran a hand through her hair. Now Shannon was gone as well. And the new surrogate. That the thief Jonah had caught carried the recessive gene had been a stroke of luck. The people funding the program were not going to be pleased about this.
“What the hell is going on, Ruth?” Jonah rushed into the control room.
“Why don’t you ask your friend Chris?” Ruth shot back. Jonah’s cell phone beeped, and he pulled it out, glancing at the number.
“I will.” He flipped the phone open. “Chris. I certainly hope you have something to tell me.”
“I got your voice mail that McRae had run off with Sam. I haven’t heard from him.”
“That’s only part of what’s happened. Now Shannon is missing too. Someone broke into The Center and tried to take her. We have that bastard. But a few hours later, someone else managed to get her out.”
Chris wanted to ask Jonah why Shannon and Sam were so important to him, but she didn’t dare. “Shelby Parker,” Chris said. “Ex-FSA agent. You know her as Cathy Silvers.”
“And you just found this out?” he demanded. “Where did the information come from?”
“I won’t implicate my source, Jonah.”
“The hell you won’t!”
Chris ignored his outburst. “I have more information for you. Parker and McRae took Shannon and Sam to a safe house.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. But since they took Sam several hours before they took Shannon, I’d assume it’s not far away.”
“I need more than that, Chris.”
“I checked the records. There’s an old FSA safe house a little outside of Tucson, on the northwest side. I don’t have an address.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“You want a beer?” Shelby asked Mac.
“Sure. Sounds good.”
She poured a water glass half full of wine for herself, and one for Shannon, and popped the cap off a bottle of beer for Mac. She didn’t normally drink during an op unless it was part of her cover, but it had been a really rough day, and there was no way The Center knew where they were tonight. She handed the beer to Mac and set the glass of wine for Shannon on the coffee table.
Zoe was already asleep on the twin bed in the second bedroom. Shelby figured she could question her in the morning. They’d probably both feel more like talking then.
“He’s asleep, finally.” Shannon pulled the door to the bedroom closed and joined them, sinking down on the sofa. “He’s exhausted.”
“You look pretty tired yourself,” Shelby said, handing her the glass of wine.
“Wine.” Shannon looked pleasantly surprised. “Thanks.”
Shelby didn’t think Shannon even looked old enough to drink wine, dressed as she was in cotton pajamas with her hair pulled back in a ponytail.
“I thought you could use it. And I figured you for more of a wine drinker than a beer guzzler.”
“True.” Shannon smiled, looked down the hallway, and shook her head. “God, I want to run back to the bedroom and look at him again. It’s been so long.”
“Just over two months, right?”
“Seems like years, but yes, just over two months.” Shannon gulped, then gasped. Shelby thought she was going to start crying again until she put the glass down, clamped a hand over her mouth, and ran for the bathroom.
They could hear the retching from the front room. Mac and Shelby exchanged glances. She scowled at him.
He shrugged at her. Evidently, his expertise didn’t extend to sick women. Shelby took a healthy slug of her wine and went to the bathroom. Shannon was running water on a washcloth.
“Sorry about that.” Her voice sounded shaky.
“You okay?” Shelby asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Maybe it was the wine on top of all the excitement today.”
“God, I hope so.”
“Huh?” Shelby asked.
“Just a joke.” Shannon shook her head and pressed the washcloth to her neck. She then ran it under cold water and wiped her face. “When I got pregnant with Sam, I was puking three times a day within a week.”
“You know exactly when you got pregnant?”
“Down to the day and hour. Chase and I had decided not to see each other. I knew that he was leaving for the Marines. Anyway, I ran into him at a bookstore. He was leaving the next day.” Shannon shrugged. “Well, one thing led to another, and a week later I was pregnant and puking. I figured if he didn’t have room in his life for a relationship, he certainly didn’t have room for a child.”
“Men really have the easy part of procreation.”
“Tell me about it.” Shannon rinsed out the washcloth. “I’m probably just a little too tired and too stressed to drink wine right now. I think I’ll just go to bed.”
“Good idea. See you in the morning.” Shelby stepped out of the bathroom. “Oh, sorry you have to share a bed with your son. I didn’t expect the house to be so small.”
“No problem. I’d sleep with him anyway tonight. But where are you and Mac going to sleep?”
“We’ll manage. Just get some rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”
“Is she all right?” Mac asked when Shelby came back to the front room.
“Yeah, just tired, I think. She’s going to bed now. I think mostly she just wants to be close to Sam right now.” Shelby sipped her wine and considered Mac. He looked tired and worried. His hair was sticking up in places, and the lines on his forehead seemed deeper.
“You were saying earlier that you had to beg for this assignment?”
Mac grinned. “Yes. The director wasn’t keen on the idea of a psychiatrist going undercover at The Center. But I convinced him that it was the only way we’d get in there.”
“Why did you think they were at The Center?”
“Shannon and I emailed each other after she left DC. The last couple of emails I’d gotten from her mentioned The Center. She said she was taking Sam there for IQ testing, and she was going to be counseled on how to deal with a genius child. She was very positive about it.”
“And then you stopped hearing from her?”
“Exactly. Shortly after that, her uncle contacted us.”
“Her aunt contacted the FSA. That’s basically why I’m here.”
“Don’t we have a conflict of interest or something here?” Mac asked.
“Not technically.” Shelby considered Mac for a moment. “I’m not with the FSA.”
“You said you were an FSA agent.”
Shelby shrugged. “I lied.”
“I have a feeling that you lie easily.”
“Depends on what I’m lying about. Actually, I was an FSA agent until a little over a year ago. I left and started my own investigation and security firm.”
“So, how do you happen to be here?”
“My former handler called me in on this. It’s complicated.”
“So you really are working for the FSA.”
“I guess.” Shelby suppressed a sigh. Her first big case. But it felt like a step back. “Now that we have Shannon and Sam, I have to do something about Chase.”
“Chase Harmon?”
“You know him?” Shelby asked.
Mac nodded. “He was being tested at The Center for psychic ability. But why was he rescuing Shannon?”
“Chase is Sam’s father, although he doesn’t know it.”
“Really?” Mac lifted his eyebrows. “Shannon pretty much refused to speak about Sam’s father. I assumed they’d had a falling out at some point.”
“Well, he cared enough about her to break into The Center and try to get her out.”
“He always seemed out of place at The Center. I just assumed that he wanted to find out if he had any psychic ability. He’d volunteered for the research program.” Mac shook his head. “And now he’s there?”
“They caught him, and the night nurse said the doctors took him somewhere to talk to him.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Earlier you said that you originally thought they wanted to test Shannon and Sam.”
“That was before Sam gave me some papers from his chart.”
“How did he get papers from his chart?”
Mac shrugged. “The papers indicated that The Center was about to perform some strange experiment on him.”
“Experiment? Like a lab animal?”
“Exactly. I’m not sure what the entire experiment was, but it included the use of some very powerful and dangerous drugs.”
“On a child?”
“Horrifying, I know.” Mac shook his head. “There were also indications of some brainwashing techniques.”
“What the hell are these people up to?”
“I can’t imagine. But it’s bad. It’s really bad.”
“And how did Chase Harmon know that Shannon was there? I couldn’t even be sure she was there,” Shelby asked.
“No idea.” Mac shrugged. “Perhaps she was able to get word to him.”
“Mac, why did you take Sam out by yourself? It sounds like you were just there to gather information.”
“That was the original plan.” Mac took a swig of beer and leaned his head back, closing his eyes. “I’m probably going to be in big trouble.”
“You mean you didn’t tell the FBI what you were doing?”
“Worse. I told my SAC, and she instructed me to do nothing.”
“Oh.”
“She said they’d come in and take Sam in a few days.” Mac lifted his head and grinned. “I didn’t find that acceptable.”
“I see.”
“They were going to start the experiment immediately. I couldn’t leave him there knowing that.
“I’d have done the same thing.” Shelby nodded.
“Thanks. That helps. Can I use you as a reference on m
y resume?”
“I doubt you’ll need to start looking for another job. Probably your SAC will just yell at you for a while. Threaten to demote you to the mailroom, or possibly the janitorial staff. That’s what usually happened when I ignored direct orders. They don’t threaten to fire you until at least the fifth or sixth time.”
“You sound like it happened regularly.” Mac grinned at her.
“Often enough.” Shelby grinned back at him.
“I’m exhausted.”
“It’s been a long day. We need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll call Ethan and tell him where we stand.”
“We seem to be a little short on sleeping space.”
“The sofa pulls out to a bed. If you don’t mind sharing, we can both sleep on it.”
“I’ve never turned down an invitation to sleep with a beautiful woman.”
“Sleep is the operative word here,” Shelby warned him.
Shelby woke up at five, all senses alert. Someone was coming into the safe house.
Crap.
Mac was snoring softly beside her, and she realized that their legs were intertwined. She gently disengaged hers and sat up. The noise was coming from the kitchen. Shelby put her hand over Mac’s mouth and shook his shoulder. Mac’s eyes flew open, wide with fear, tinged with panic. She put her finger to her lips and then whispered to him.
“Someone’s breaking into the house. Keep quiet and stay here.”
Mac nodded. Shelby swung her legs off the bed and slipped her feet into the boots she’d left on the floor. She quickly zipped them up, grabbed her gun from the end table, and stepped silently to the doorway leading to the kitchen. They must have chosen the kitchen window because it was the only one without bars on it.
How the hell had anyone found them? No one had followed her when she left The Center. That left only two options. Either Mac told someone where they were, or there was a leak at FSA headquarters. She’d left Ethan a voice mail telling him where they were, but little else.
Two men had entered the kitchen now. That was good. She could certainly handle two. Of course, there could be more outside. The moon was shining through the kitchen window casting their shadows on the wall as they moved about. She glanced back at the sofa bed. Mac wasn’t there, and Shelby figured he’d gone to alert Zoe, Shannon, and Sam. Although she’d told him to stay put and stay quiet.
