Mr. Spreck nods once. “Despite what everyone thinks, we are people, too. I love my daughter as much as your father loves you. I will do anything for her. That is why I asked to be assigned to this case. I wanted to get you and your father back together. I have a vested interest in seeing you succeed and I will do everything I can to help you.”
“Yet, you would have let Ryker kill my father.”
“I ordered Ryker to kill your father if he couldn’t extract him, yes. As much as I love my daughter, her life isn’t worth millions.” Mr. Spreck looks at Ronnie for a moment then looks at Julian. “Thank you both,” he says before rising and walking out of the room.
“So Ryker was going to kill me if he couldn’t get me out? As he should,” Julian murmurs softly.
“What?” Ronnie asks loudly in surprise.
“Ronnie, Spreck is right. My life is not worth millions. I would have killed myself before I created a weapon for them.”
“I told them that!”
“So what’s the difference? Would it matter who pulled the trigger?”
“It would have mattered to me!”
“Ronnie… I would be just as dead. I would rather have someone like Ryker kill me cleanly, with one shot, than have to try to do it by hanging myself… or use some other equally gruesome means.”
Ronnie is flabbergasted that her own father would say something like that. “And what if it had been me that had been kidnapped?”
Julian pauses, tears welling in his eyes. “I would have grieved for you forever.”
Ronnie can feel her mouth fall open. “You would have let them kill me?” she asks in shock.
“Yes,” Julian says softly, his eyes swimming in tears. “You are my single greatest achievement. I would pray it wouldn’t come to that, but if it did, even you, Ronnie, are not worth the lives of millions.”
Ronnie sits in stunned silence. Her own father would sit back and allow her to be killed? “I can’t believe you said that,” she breathes softly.
“Do you want to be the cause of the death of millions?”
“No, of course not. But…”
“Nor would I. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing that I had perverted our work and made something designed to cure disease into something that can be used to kill millions. Maybe billions. I would rather die.”
Ronnie sits and thinks about what her father said. He’s right, of course, in the abstract. But that doesn’t make it any easier to hear. “You’re right,” she finally says softly. “But I can’t bear the thought of you being killed. Of being shot down in cold blood.”
“We all die eventually, Ronnie. I would rather go before my name is placed in the history books with Pol Pot and Hitler.” Julian pauses for a moment. “Is that what happened between you and Ryker?”
Ronnie feels her face harden. “That was nothing Dad.”
Julian smiles softly. “It was obviously something to Ryker. I noticed it the moment you walked into the lab. How he looks at you. Then again, in the infirmary. He is trying hard to hide it, but he cares for you.”
“He can go fuck himself!” Ronnie snaps, surprising herself at the heat contained in her words.
Julian pats his daughter on the hand, then rises. “Okay. Just don’t make a decision that you will later regret.”
Ronnie watches her father walk out of the room, the door swinging closed behind him. She spends a long time sitting silent and alone in the room, staring into space and thinking.
CHAPTER THREE
Ryker walks out of Hargraves’ office, his mood dark and brooding. He is proud of his service to his country, but the Navy is asking a lot of him. A hell of a lot. He is walking by one of the debrief rooms when the door opens and Julian steps out, admonishing someone inside about regrets.
“Good morning Dr. Baker,” Ryker says.
Julian falls into step with Ryker. “Are you ever going to call me Julian?”
Ryker smiles as he slows his pace in deference to Dr. Baker. “Someday, maybe. I haven’t seen you around.”
“Yeah. The CIA has been grilling me pretty hard. For a while there I thought they believed I had something to do with my own kidnapping. Those guys, I don’t know why, but they make me nervous.”
Ryker chuckles. “Yeah. They can be intense sometimes. I understand they have asked you to stay and help with the search for the virus.”
“I offered to stay but Ronnie talked me out of it. She’s staying instead.”
Ryker can feel his heart sink even lower, but he nods. “That’s good. I need the help. I don’t even know which end of a microscope to look through.”
Julian smiles and puts his hand on Ryker’s shoulder. “Can I talk to you a minute? In private.”
“Sure… so long as you understand that there is no truly private place in the building. Do you want to go outside?”
“No. I understand the need for security. This isn’t secret. It’s more… personal.”
“Okay. You want to follow me to my room or would you like me to come to yours? Yours is probably nicer.”
“Then let’s go to my room,” Julian says.
Ryker follows Julian and notes he is in the guest suite directly across from Ronnie’s. Julian swipes his card and opens the door, stepping aside and holding it until Ryker enters.
“What can I do for you, Doc?”
“I had an interesting discussion with Ronnie this morning. Is it true that you had been ordered to shoot me if you couldn’t rescue me?”
Ryker is quite for a moment, trying to decide how to answer. “Yes. It’s true. Fortunately it didn’t come to that.”
Julian smiles. “No. Fortunately not. Ronnie thinks you would have done it, too. Would you have?”
“Yes.”
Once again Julian smiles. “Thank you for telling me the truth. I wanted to tell you that I understand. I tried to explain to Ronnie that there are things worse than death. Being forced to create a bio-weapon would be one of those things. I wouldn’t have done it, but I suspect my death at the hands of my captors would be far more painful than at yours.”
Ryker holds his tongue. He doesn’t know what to say to that.
“May I ask you a personal question?” Julian asks.
“I might not answer, but you can ask,” Ryker says.
“Do you love Ronnie?”
Ryker doesn’t answer right away, thinking over his answer. “No. But—before—I think I was falling for her. But it’s over now. I’m sorry I hurt her.”
Julian nods. “I’m really sorry for what is about to happen. I know it must be hard. It would be like me having to work with my ex-wife. Except maybe worse. I can’t stand her.”
Ryker smiles slightly. “It’s just a job. I can handle it.”
Julian nods. “I’m sure you can. But Ronnie has been changed by all of this. I don’t know what has happened, but she isn’t the same daughter I left behind in Berkeley. Did you know she is down in the infirmary every day, reading to the Marines?”
“Yes. That is very kind of her.”
“Yes. Yes it is. But she would have never done that before. She wasn’t cruel before, but she seems to have… grown… from this experience. She isn’t as self-centered as she was.”
“Having your life threatened will get your priorities focused.”
“What do you mean?”
Ryker explains to Julian about the attack at the hotel, where he had to use the armored embassy car as a battering ram to escape an attempted kidnapping. He then explains how less than a week later, another attempt was made on her person. The first attack Ryker thought was aimed at him, but when they took Ronnie the second time, that is when it became clear that Ronnie was the actual target of the first attack. A large dollop of luck had been involved in allowing him to snatch her back from her kidnappers the second time.
Julian listens without comment as Ryker lays out the stories in broad strokes. He minimizes how near death Ronnie had come in the second attack, but Julian seems to be ab
le to read between the lines.
“Thank you, Ryker. Thank you for saving my daughter. I feel better, having talked to you, and know that she will continue to be safe under your protection.”
“I will see that nothing happens to her, Julian. I promise.”
“Yes. I know that you will. She is the most important thing in the world to me.”
Ryker smiles sadly. “From the short time I have known her, she seems like she is an amazing woman.”
Julian smiles in return. “That she is, Ryker. That she is.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Ryker walks into the motor pool. Ronnie and Julian are already there, standing in the back of a two-ton box van, peering, pointing, and talking excitedly. Ryker walks up behind them and looks through the door into the cargo box. From the outside the truck looks like any other city delivery van. But the inside of the cargo box is another matter.
Julian feels Ryker’s presence and turns to face him. “This is about the most amazing thing I have never seen. There is a complete genetics lab in the back of this truck. The only thing my lab in Berkeley has that this thing doesn’t is space.”
“Now that everyone is here,” says a fat man with sweat stains on his shirt, “I’m Garland Tomlinson. People just call me Gar. This is little beauty here is something we threw together over the last week or so. We call it the Mobile Genetics Lab--Mogle for short. As you can see it has everything you need to perform a variety of tests on…”
As the man talks, Ryker tunes him out. Two minutes into his orientation with Drs. Baker the tech-speak is so far over his head they may have as well been speaking Mandarin. The Drs. Baker seem immensely impressed with their new toy but the only thing he gets out of it is that that the Mogle is self-contained and has everything Ronnie will need to test for the modified virus they are looking for. He might not understand everything that will be going on in the back of the truck, but it is an impressive bit of kit nonetheless.
“Any questions?” Gar asks ninety minutes later.
Ronnie and Julian look at each other. “Who do we call when something breaks?” Ronnie asks with a grin. “Somehow I don’t think we can have this thing fixed at the local Ford dealer.”
Gar grins. “No. Probably not. We are building another one right now to ship over so you will have a backup. But otherwise, we will have to send out a field tech. Mr. Spreck will know how to reach us.”
Ronnie’s smile quickly fades at the mention of Spreck’s name. In the excitement of learning about the Mogle she had momentarily forgotten what the truck was going to be used for. “Great. The less I have to deal with Mister. Spreck, the better,” Ronnie mutters.
Gar glances at his watch. “If you have no other questions, I have a couple of hours to get some chow and some shuteye before my ride leaves. Where’s the cafeteria?”
“Follow me,” Julian says, taking charge of Gar. Ronnie starts to follow, but Ryker stops her.
“Ronnie… may I speak with you for a moment?” he asks softly.
“What?” Ronnie snaps. She a bit surprised at the venom in her tone.
“Are you okay with this? Are we going to be able to work together or should I tell Hargraves this isn’t going to work? I don’t have any choice, but you do,” Ryker’s says, his tone gentle and non-combative.
Ronnie softens slightly. “No. I can make this work. What about you?”
He smiles somewhat. “To be honest, I would rather have Julian. But you have made your feelings clear so…” he says before trailing off with a slight shrug.
“Let’s just find the virus so we can get the hell out of here,” she says.
“Sounds like a plan,” he agrees softly. “See you in the morning, Dr. Baker.” He looks at her for just a moment then turns and walks away, leaving her alone in the motor pool.
Ronnie watches Ryker leave. For someone she can’t stand, why does she feel disappointed he left without her?
***
Ryker stops by the Marine barracks looking for Sergeant Linda Betts. Sergeant Betts had made her willingness to keep him company known when he started hanging out with the Marines while waiting on new orders. At the time he hadn’t taken her up on her offer of comfort, but tonight he could use some company. Some female company. If Ronnie doesn’t want him, he will find someone that does. The Marines relaxing in the NCO lounge direct him to the gym when he queries them for the Betts location. By the time he finds her in the Marine’s private gym, sweating on an exercise bike, he has changed his mind. He spends a few minutes talking with her, along with a couple of the other Marines there as well, covering his visit by thanking them for making him feel welcome and saying his goodbyes. He and Ronnie will be leaving the next day, on the search for the missing virus. Leaving the gym, Ryker stops back by the lounge and repeats the thanks and goodbyes before returning to his room.
***
“Hello Kenneth,” Ronnie says softly into the phone.
“Veronica! Thank God! I have been worried about you. Why haven’t you called?” Kenneth asks breathlessly.
“I’m sorry. I know I said I would call, but I have been busy. How are you?”
“I’m fine. How about you? Did they find Julian?”
“Yes. He is safe now. He should be leaving to return home in a day or two.”
“Thank God for that. But you said he. Aren’t you coming home, too?”
“No. I have to stay a while longer.”
“Why?” he asks in surprise and annoyance. “I miss you, babe. I want you to come home. There is so much going on right now. I could use your help.”
“Help?”
“Yeah. Remember? We are hosting the group from the Theoretical Astrophysics Center?”
“Oh yeah, I remember. Elliot and you were going to talk about a joint research project, right?”
“Yeah. But with finals and everything, I could use some help getting that all set up. When do you think you might be home?”
“I don’t know, Kenneth. At least several weeks probably.”
“Several weeks! That will be after the symposium! Can’t you get away sooner? Or maybe come home for a while then go back?”
Ronnie rolls her eyes. It’s always about what he wants. “I don’t think so, Kenneth. This is important.”
“So is this symposium!”
“Oh for Christ sake, Kenneth! Get one of your graduate students to help you! Jesus, what are you? Helpless?”
“Fine!” Kenneth snaps. “If I can’t depend on you I…”
“Stop being such a baby!” Ronnie interrupts. “Is that the only reason you want me to come home? So I can get this dinner party set up?”
“Veronica! Of course not! That’s not it at all! What’s wrong with you? Why are you being such a bitch?”
“It’s what it feels like to me! Here I am, stuck in this godforsaken country, and when I call to talk to you, all you can do is bitch at me for not being there to help with some stupid dinner party that doesn’t amount to shit!”
“Veronica! Why are you acting this way? You know how important this is to my career!”
“So is potentially saving millions of lives,” Ronnie says, her voice flat.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing. Sorry. I’m just stressed out, that’s all.”
“Well, it isn’t exactly milk and honey here either, you know.”
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “You’re just going to have to do the best you can, Kenneth. I don’t know when I can get home. It could be a while.”
“That’s just great. Just fucking great,” he says in annoyance.
“I have to go Kenneth.”
“Yeah. Fine. Whatever.”
“Goodbye, Kenneth,” she says before hanging up. She sits looking at the phone for a moment, wondering what she ever saw in him. She can feel tears trying to start, feeling so utterly alone she doesn’t know what to do.
CHAPTER FIVE
“The good news is, one of the prisoners you took in the r
aid on the lab finally cracked last night. The bad news is, the information is compartmentalized,” Mr. Spreck says.
“What does that mean?” Ronnie asks. She and Ryker had been summoned to Hargraves’ office right after breakfast.
“It means, we only have the next link in the chain,” Spreck says. “Or rather, a drop to find the next link in the chain. The prisoner rolled on where and how to make the drop and we have an agent making the drop right now. But you need to be ready to move on a moment’s notice.”
Hot Extraction: SEALs, Marines, and Infantry - A Military Romance Boxed Set Page 18
