“Yeah. Nothing there. See? So great, the spies and soldiers of the Team. So great, you couldn’t track a few children. So clever, to bully those children and turn them out of their home.”
Murderous children. Abused children. Children whose idea of “home” was twisted way out of the normal.
I held out my hand to Greg, palm upward, as if to offer friendship. I took a step forward, away from the wall. Sheri’s eyes followed my movements. Her pupils were hugely dilated with her fright.
“But you joined us,” I said. “You joined the very Team that had closed down your enterprise. The Team you’re so disgusted by.”
There was that smile again; the creep of insanity, the curve of cruelty. It was a shocking contrast against the pale youthfulness of his face. “Yes, I did, didn’t I? And it was so fucking easy. Easy to smile and open my eyes wide and show gratitude for the chance to work with you all. But it was all for my own reasons. If I couldn’t be with Kes, I’d join the very organization that had ripped us apart. To do the same in return.”
“You were always planning something?” Niall sounded amazed.
Greg shrugged, like that was the least of it. “From the day of my induction. I just needed to find the right time. Just some minor sabotage and confusion to start it all off… then some deliberate attacks on the precious Project Team.” He was looking at us, but his eyes had glazed over. “I’d make you all feel the same pain and misery. Make you see how stupid you were, how arrogant. And how easy it was to destroy it all, just as you did for me and Kes.”
I drew a deep breath without seeming to. My eyes darted to Sheri, hoping my slight frown warned her to stay still. “And Simon? You worked so well with him, Greg. You may be a fine actor, but I think you had some reluctant admiration for us. I think you were proud to be associated with the Team.” I made my tone conciliatory. “I always saw Simon as your friend and mentor.”
Greg looked at me warily. “He’s the only one of you that deserves any credit at all. The only one who gives a thought for the victims, who cares for anyone beyond Team directives.” I’d been right; he had one hell of a crush on his boss. “I don’t hold him specifically responsible for the raid. I found out who was there, you see. I know the main Team members, and I know those who took Kes away.”
Niall glanced at me. “I don’t understand how Simon could have been so misled by someone who worked closely with him.”
I shook my head. “Greg genuinely admires Simon.” Cares for him. “Isn’t that true, Greg?” I watched the young man flush slightly and his brow crease. “That’s what Simon would have sensed when he worked with him. He’d have assessed the loyalty, not suspecting the underlying treachery.”
“Simon found me invaluable.” Greg showed pride again “And I found his protection and his knowledge also invaluable.” His smile was softer, but still chilling me. “Yes, maybe I did enjoy my time there. You all seem to consider each other a family of sorts. But that’s not important to me, is it, because I have my own family already.”
“You let us suspect him, though,” Niall said. “You let us think, however briefly, that he might have had involvement in the attacks. You encouraged us to think that.”
“Niall,” I said, my tone warning. “I’m sure Greg didn’t—”
“But he’s right,” Greg interrupted me. “Whatever I think about Simon personally, he’s still one of you, isn’t he? One of the Project Team.”
“Yes, he is,” Niall said. “Tell us where he is.”
Greg just laughed. “I’ve been watching and following the whole bunch of you for months now. At last I know exactly where every one of you is—and it’s information that you don’t have yourselves! That’s a good feeling, Niall Sutherland.” His eyes darkened and he brought the gun around to point towards me again. “And now I can deal with you both. Properly.”
I WAS measuring the distance between us and the gun—thinking how I might distract Greg, how I might keep him from going for the others first—when Niall’s words startled me.
“What makes you think you’re going to be any more successful now, Greg? I mean, we all still seem to be around, despite your efforts. All those attempts… all that planning. And we’re still alive.”
“Niall.” What the hell was he doing?
Greg flushed with anger this time. “Fuck off, Sutherland. I can still kill the girl, you know. I can still kill you all.”
Niall shrugged. He’d also taken one step away from the alcove, moving back into the room to stand beside me. “But you haven’t managed it so far.”
“What the fuck are you trying to do?” Greg sounded amazed at Niall’s rash behavior. Chances were we all agreed with that. “The whole Team’s in chaos! I think I’ve caused enough damage so far to impress even you. Lam’s lost a leg—”
Niall sighed, as if the whole thing was starting to bore him. “No, he hasn’t. He’ll soon be walking again. He’s a very resilient man, you see.”
Greg’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t know whether to believe Niall or not. Judith was now playing things very close to her chest, and obviously the news from the hospital hadn’t filtered back to base yet. “You’re just saying that. I know how you’ve all fawned over Judith and her relentless climb to power. Not anymore! There’s failure and disaster written all over her precious Team. If she survives, she’ll never be allowed on anything more than junior field work again. What has her loyalty for her people done for her? The silly, devoted Cissy—”
“She had nothing to do with Dove!” It burst out of me before I could stop myself.
“Yes she did, as much as any of the Team’s personnel. She was Judith’s right hand, wouldn’t you say?” His mouth slid up into a smile again. “And what worse thing can you do to a leader than disable their right hand?”
Disable… his vicious little bomb had killed Cissy, whether the strike had been aimed at Judith or not. It had hurt Judith more than she’d ever admit to us. I had to say that I’d never felt I could kill a person in cold blood before, but staring at Greg then, I felt the first glimmer of a pure, white-hot hatred.
“And Brad Richards….” Greg was continuing. It was like some hideous litany of his, his resume of sadism. “The mysterious Brad, closeted away with his gadgets and his secrets. Hanging around Simon, thinking he’ll share his life and affection, thinking he’s a match for him, when he’s only got half the brains and nowhere near the charm.”
His expression twisted with the jealousy he probably thought he’d kept well hidden. I wanted to rip his fucking head off for what he’d done and what he was saying about my friends and colleagues! Greg had no idea of Brad’s strengths and resourcefulness. He’d seen the attraction between Brad and Simon, but he’d underestimated its depth and devotion. Or chosen to ignore it. He accused us of arrogance, but who the hell was he to talk?
“So will Brad be the one to chase after his partner? After my elusive boss?” He caught the flash of shock on my face, and knew he’d guessed that right. “Maybe he’s on the way even now, trying to find out where he is. How he is. So let’s see what happens if he finds him. That’ll be nothing but useful for me.”
My face felt drained of blood.
Niall stepped forward again, arms held out at his side to try to reassure Greg he wasn’t threatening him. But from the clench of his fists, it looked like he was barely holding himself back. He spoke through gritted teeth. “All right, so Judith is devastated, but she’s still leading this Team. We’ll still follow her; you can’t destroy that loyalty. You’re a fool if you think we’re so easily swayed. Joe will recover eventually. Brad will find Simon and release him and your whole vendetta will crumble around you, a catalog of inefficiency and clumsiness that the whole Team will pick over in years to come as a study of how spectacularly you failed—”
“No!” Greg raised the gun. Sheri shrank back on the couch.
“Shit, Niall!” I gasped.
“I think you’re jealous,” Niall persisted. He stood a little way in f
ront of me now, and I could see the glint in his eyes. “You probably wanted to be on the Project Team yourself. You spent all your time pretending you were no kind of a field agent, just happy to be on the support side, loyal and unassuming and amenable to others. But that would mean you’d never get a chance to move on up the organization. You’d never be anything more than an assistant.”
“I don’t need the Team!” Greg’s eyes looked wild. “I don’t need your praise, your contempt means nothing to me. I’m the one who wrecked your homes and your lives, remember? I’m the one in charge. I’m the one with the gun.”
My heartbeat doubled.
“So who’s to be first?” He hadn’t slipped the safety yet, but surely it’d only be a matter of seconds before he did. “You, Tanner? Or maybe Niall, the guy with all the brave talk tonight?” He took a step toward us.
We both stood transfixed, but only for a second.
Then I stepped in front of Niall.
Wednesday 22:40
“TANNER, YOU stupid bastard!” Niall’s snarl was vicious.
To my surprise—and let’s face it, my momentary relief—Greg laughed. “Tanner, he’s right. You truly are a stupid bastard. If he wants to push me to shoot him, let him, right?”
I dropped my gaze, shaking a stray hair from my eyes. My voice faltered. “Greg. Please. Look, can’t we talk some more? Can’t we make any of this right again for you?”
Greg looked disgusted. “I despise you both. There is no right for me anymore. Niall here is nothing but bluff and aggression, and you, Tanner—well, you’re just pathetic. I can’t believe how eagerly you want to give yourself up for him. Just to give him a few more minutes before I shoot him as well. It’d be touching if it weren’t such a romantic cliché.” He glanced between our faces, curious. “But then you’re close, right? The pair of you. Or at least you used to be. They talked about it at the office. The two of you couldn’t keep your hands off each other. Someone said they caught you once, making out against the vending machine. That there were places in the parking lot that were regular venues for your lunch hour. They said you’d once been living together in that apartment I blew up.”
Greg hadn’t known much about us in the early days of Mission Dove. By the time he joined the Team, we were on our slippery slope toward splitting up, and we were probably nothing more than the subject of scrawled graffiti on the toilet wall.
“That’s got nothing to do with any of this.” I could see Sheri’s gaze on me, fascinated despite her fear.
Greg laughed. I had my eye on his gun. He’d lowered his hand a few inches. “I’m not so sure. I heard you lost the plot for a while. Not as reliable, not as careful. Not as smart. I think your mind must have been someplace else. Maybe down Sutherland’s pants. Wasn’t he interested anymore?”
I frowned, looking angry. “I tried damned hard not to let it compromise anything professionally.”
Greg looked at Niall’s equally angry face, then back at me. He seemed to be enjoying the tension between us. “Maybe Niall doesn’t agree with you. He doesn’t seem to think much of your professionalism here tonight. And you’ve messed up before, haven’t you, Tanner?”
“Fuck off,” I said, but with little energy. Like he said—he was the one with the gun.
“The subject of two internal investigations in three months, Tanner MacKay.” He was taunting me. “They all talked about that. About you.”
“It’s over,” I said shortly. Greg knew I was on suspension. “I’m on my own now, aren’t I? Maybe you’re right. I fucked up one time too many.”
“Tanner, shut up!” Niall hissed behind me. “For God’s sake, he doesn’t need to hear all the sordid details.”
Greg sneered. He seemed to be enjoying our discomfort, especially mine. I shifted in front of him, blocking his view of Niall, demanding he look at me. “Just let Sheri go, Greg. She really is no good to you.” I sneered. “You know how they are, girls. They cry and howl and generally get in the way.”
Even through her tears, I could see Sheri’s eyes glare at me.
Greg seemed to give it some consideration this time. “Why should I? I’ll lose my hostage. Give you and Sutherland the chance to plot some way of fighting back.”
It was my turn to laugh, and there was a hell of a lot more bitterness in it than his. “Me and Sutherland? Don’t talk about us like we’re still an item. Okay, so maybe we had something going once. But you heard all the rumors, didn’t you? How we fucked up a surveillance, fighting like school kids? The bastard punched me! He got me suspended. It’s his fault I’m here in this hole, stuck with its lowlife, scraping up a living, no respect from anyone anymore.”
Greg looked taken aback at my outburst. “Judith talked about you coming back into service.”
I snorted. “She’s a smooth one. She said that to keep the industrial tribunal off her back, didn’t you know? No, there’s no question of it. She wants me out. She blamed me for the debacle at the club when your brother was taken, she blamed me for the fight with Niall when he was the one who started it. He’s the Team’s hero. I’m the villain of the piece.” My breath was short, and I knew my eyes would look wild. Greg certainly looked shocked by me. “Just don’t include me in with him like that. I’ve got no desire to work with him again. Shit, you saw how it was when you brought him here. He can’t stand my guts. He’s only here under sufferance.”
Greg shrugged, but I could see a flicker of relaxation in his eyes. “It makes no difference to me how you two work together.”
“Except that maybe it does.” I moved another step toward him, my whole attitude the embodiment of a man on the edge of panic. “It was Niall who was there in the thick of it at the club. Niall’s threat that your poor brother struck back at. I was just trying to keep the peace, to be honest, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Even then I knew what a psychotic bastard he could be. He saw them all as enemies, even the innocent kids.”
Niall had nothing to offer but a gasp behind me. Sheri went even whiter.
Greg raised an eyebrow. “You were in the Project Team together. You were together off duty too. Lovers, they said.”
I laughed again. “So because he was in the Team I have to respect him? Because I slept with him? Hell, Greg, I can admit I made some bedtime mistakes in my life, and Niall Sutherland was definitely one of them. He treated me like shit, and still hardly has the time of day for me.” I brushed my hands against each other as if I swiped unpleasant dirt from the skin. “But I dropped him just as quickly.”
“Tanner.”
I ignored Niall’s low, urgent grunt. I smiled fully at Greg. “Can’t say he was much good in the sack, either.” I stretched my arms and arched my back, as if remembering physical events of the past. “He comes way too quick. Distinct lack of imagination as well.”
Greg’s lip curled. “So you’re happy to pass the whole blame on to him, trying to save yourself? That’s some kind of betrayal, Tanner.”
I shrugged. “Just know which side my bread’s buttered, that’s all.” I appealed to him again, moving slowly across the room. “I can help you out of here, Greg. I know them all on the site. Let the girl go, and they’ll get you an unregistered car and whatever else you need. You can be away from here before anyone gives the alarm.”
The dynamics of the room had changed quite significantly. Suddenly there were three of us together on one side of the room, gathered around the couch. There was the card table between us and the kitchen, the radio balanced precariously on top of it. And then there was Niall.
All on his own.
Greg looked at me, then at Niall’s face. He seemed to like what he saw there. I was having difficulty facing the man, myself. But then I knew what expression of hatred he’d reserve for me.
“Okay,” Greg said. “You can untie her.”
SHERI WAS still huddled on the couch, trying to get the circulation back into her hands. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and her mouth was marked with a red rash from where the gag had
bitten too deeply into her skin. I’d hunkered down by the side of the couch to reach the ropes that Greg had used to bind her, and now she looked down at me with as much suspicion as she did her abductor.
I rolled the ropes around my hands, aimlessly looping them up. “I can take her out of the trailer—”
“No, you fucking can’t,” Greg snapped. He’d watched me carefully while I untied the knots. My fingers had been pretty clumsy, but he hadn’t moved from his position by the couch. He could cover all three of us with the gun from there. “She shuts up, and she stays here for the moment. I’ll let her out when I choose.”
I straightened up. I made sure not to step any closer to him. “Look, let me help you. I want to show you I’m not here to add to your grief. I can be really useful to you, Greg. I’ve got no loyalty to the Team, after all. Not after the way they’ve treated me. And definitely no loyalty to him.” I dipped my head in Niall’s direction.
“I’m going to kill him. Kill you both. Are you talking about helping me with that?” Greg looked bemused.
I bit my lip. “Okay, whatever. Maybe we can negotiate what you do with me. Maybe not. But if that’s what you need….” I heard Sheri whimper softly behind me. I gave a sly grin. “It’d be rather fitting, wouldn’t it, to have one Team member kill another?”
Greg was aghast. “What crap is this? I don’t know what’s got into you, MacKay, but I don’t believe it. You wouldn’t do it. You’ve lived with him. You’ve fucked him!”
“Jeez…. It was just one of those things, Greg.” I guess I sounded pretty embarrassed about the whole damned business. “A lot of guys go through it, you know? Just an experiment with my sexuality. An immature identity crisis, I expect the headshrinkers would call it. I like girls, too, to be honest. Maybe if I help you out, you’d give me the girl for fun.”
Sheri moved angrily at that, as if to throw herself at me, but I pushed her back on to the couch. I glared at her.
Dreamspinner Press Year Four Greatest Hits Page 96
