Damn, he hated when his father was right.
●●●
At the door to Lev’s office, Jimmy shifted nervously from one foot to the other. He’d informed Ivan that it was an emergency, and Ivan was tapping quietly at a screen.
“Mr. Quintan said you just returned from seeing Mr. Forrest onto his ship. Is it related to that?” Ivan questioned politely. Jimmy shook his head. “No, just tell him . . .” Jimmy hesitated. Lilah’s warning rang in his mind. “Just tell him it’s urgent and private.”
There was another minute of Ivan conferring by text comm, presumably with Lev, about Jimmy’s demand. For a moment, Jimmy was tempted to bypass all of this hassle and hire a taxi willing to go into the Red Zone. It wouldn’t be as safe as an armored Quintan transport, but at least he’d know it wasn’t going to randomly explode on him. He sighed heavily. He’d decided to trust Quintan. He just needed to get on with it.
“All right, Mr. James. You may enter now.” Ivan waved him toward the door.
Inside, Jimmy found Lev standing in front of his desk and staring at a tablet, his brow furrowed. His shoulders were slumped, and he looked the most defeated Jimmy had ever seen him. Lev looked up and straightened his posture, his mask of calm smoothing out the lines on his face.
“What can I do for you, James?” he asked politely.
“I know where Lilah and Erik are,” Jimmy said without preamble. Lev raised an eyebrow and glanced back down at the tablet in his hand for just a second before setting it down and giving Jimmy his full attention. “Well, I don’t know where specifically,” Jimmy clarified. “But she commed me from some number I’ve never seen before. She must have lost her flipcom.”
Lev nodded, unsurprised. “One of the recovery detail men found it—or what remains of it—in an alley near the square,” he confirmed. Jimmy frowned. Lev had found proof that Lilah had escaped the kidnappers and hadn’t shared it with him?
“You’ve been busy,” Lev reminded, no doubt recognizing Jimmy’s suspicion. “There wasn’t time to let you know what the recovery team found.” Jimmy bit back a retort about how that bit of information would have taken all of ten seconds to give him. Instead, he jabbed back in return.
“Well, her message said that one of your security officers tried to kill her already.”
Lev’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not possible. I personally vetted everyone who went out on that protection detail. I knew we’d been infiltrated. Everyone on that task force was above reproach.”
Jimmy shrugged. “She warned me to be careful of who I trust. I think this is bigger than you realize.”
Lev started to pace, his footsteps growing quicker with each turn. “We also found the body of one of our own security officers near the flipcom. It’s quite possible they were attacked by a third party and in the confusion she thought she was being attacked by the officer.”
Or it could have been one of the rogue security officers attacking the other one for trying to protect Lilah, Jimmy added mentally. He didn’t bother arguing with Lev, though. This was only slowing him down, and he needed to get to Erik and Lilah now. Jimmy watched Lev make another turn and pace back toward him.
Without hesitating, he plunged into the whole point of his visit to Lev in the first place. “I need a transport,” he said. “I’m going to go get them myself.”
That got Lev’s attention. He froze in midstride.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We have your wife, all three of your children, Ms. Armenta, and now Zane missing and at risk. All I need is for you to disappear also.”
Jimmy listened impassively, shaking his head before Lev even finished speaking. “I don’t trust your men,” he said simply. Lev started pacing again. “Grier will go with me. I won’t be alone. All your hordes of security couldn’t protect Lilah and Erik—or even Zane—before.”
Lev shot him an icy glare.
Suddenly, the tablet on the table squawked.
Jimmy winced, covering his ears. “What is that pit-awful sound?”
Lev snatched up the tablet and tapped at it. “It’s my last-chance alarm,” he said, his voice brittle. He continued to tap at the screen.
“Your last chance alarm? It sounds like a poisoned rooster in its death throes.” Jimmy shuddered. “What does it mean?”
“It means that Zane is dying,” Lev said quietly.
42. Red Zone Risks
The gang hit right as Dania reached the front door. Lilah had been expecting them sooner. The rough hands grabbed her jumpbag, yanking her backward. She dropped the rucksack and let her momentum carry her along, colliding with the body behind her. Within seconds she had her gun pressed to the side of her assailant, and she fired. Immediately, his hands were gone, and she stumbled, going down hard on one knee. Her eyes were already scanning, ready for the next attack. There were four of them still standing, and they clearly hadn’t been expecting a fight. Lilah swept her leg out low, knocking the nearest one off his feet and firing at the third who had started to move toward her. The fourth hopped up the steps after Dania, snatching her jumpbag and yanking it hard. Lilah turned back to the guy she had knocked off his feet. He was scrambling toward her, a knife in hand. He was barely older than Dania, but his eyes blazed with feral rage, and Lilah didn’t hesitate. She fired several shots at him too. He pitched forward at her feet, and she leaped over him. Dania was on the ground at the bottom of the stairs, screaming, and the man trying to wrestle the bag off her shoulders cursed. Lilah’s shot took him right in the shoulder. He cried out and dropped the bag straps.
Lilah held her aim steady. If he made one more move toward either of them, he was dead. His eyes flicked nervously over the bodies of his accomplices, and then he turned and dashed off. Lilah let him go. It was just as well. Maybe he would spread the word that Luzia’s kids were not easy pickings. If she was really lucky, he might decide that Vincze had arranged for the house to be defended personally.
Stepping over the body nearest to her, she pulled Dania up off the ground. Dania had stopped screaming and was staring at Lilah in open-mouthed awe.
“We need to get inside quickly,” Lilah reminded. Dania closed her mouth and nodded, darting back up the steps and rapping her code on the door. It slid open just enough for Dania to shove her laden jumpbag through first and then slide in afterward. Lilah backed up the steps, her eyes on the empty street around them. Just because one threat had been neutralized didn’t mean there weren’t others. When she reached the door, she pulled off her jumpbag and passed it through to the eager hands that hauled it in. She was just about to retrieve the rucksack and slip inside herself when the skinny young man with the straggly black hair whose flipcom she’d borrowed earlier came running full speed around the corner.
“Wait!” he called. Lilah popped another cartridge into her gun and held it ready as the young man came closer. Had he followed her back here? Or had he known where to go by listening to her message to Jimmy? Either way, it was suspicious.
He raised both his hands, palms splayed open. They were empty of weapons, but Lilah didn’t drop her guard. She kept her gun ready.
“Stop right there,” she ordered. “What do you want?”
He skidded to a halt and looked up at her. “You got a return comm. From that guy you messaged?”
“And you followed me out of the goodness of your heart?” she asked with a snort.
The kid shrugged at her. “He sounded desperate. Said he’d make it worth my while.” Surely Jimmy wouldn’t have been so stupid as to try and message her back through a stranger? But what if he was desperate to make contact with her and he had no other options?
“What did he say?” Lilah asked, still keeping the weapon trained on the kid.
“He said to stay where you are. He’ll be here in two hours,” the kid relayed nervously. Lilah held her position and considered for a moment. That was too vague a message. It
could be from anyone.
“Was it a text comm or a message?” she asked suspiciously.
“It was a message. Do you want to listen to it?” he offered, holding up his flipcom.
This was exactly what Lilah didn’t need. Something to distract her, right outside the house. It would make her very vulnerable to join that boy and listen to the message just to confirm whether or not it was Jimmy’s voice.
“No.” Her answer was curt, and she edged backward, feeling for the door behind her with one hand. It was still cracked open.
“Aw, come on,” the boy whined. “I won’t get paid if you don’t get the message. I’m not gonna hurt you. Just tell me what to say back to him so he knows you got the message.” Lilah paused, exasperated, debating what message she could send to Jimmy again to let him know she got the message. Assuming he had sent a message in the first place. Assuming this kid hadn’t invented the whole message thing in order to mug her. He stared at her with a hungry, pleading look, and she couldn’t help but remember her own days living in the zone when she had been desperate and willing to do most any little job people would give her for a few coins. “All right,” she began, when suddenly a trio of fully armed men strode into view from the main street.
They wore Quintan Security uniforms.
The boy on the street stared at them for one frightened second and then turned and sprinted away.
“Hey!” shouted one of the security officers. She recognized Rigo Parulan, one of her friends. She opened her mouth to call out to him, and then recognized the man at his side. It was Kozel. The security officer who had killed one of his comrades and had probably intended to kill Lilah and Erik as well. He glanced up and caught her eyes, his lip curling.
She turned and squeezed back through the door.
“Lilah! Wait!” she heard Rigo shout as she slid the heavy door shut. One of the kids was waiting right behind her. She bolted the door, and Lilah lowered the heavy bar into place.
“I have to go, now!” she hissed. “Where is Erik?” The child pointed wordlessly down the hall.
Lilah started forward only to run nearly full speed into Luzia, who was painfully making her way down the hallway.
“You made it back safely!” the woman welcomed warmly. Lilah shook her head.
“There’s a man—I have to go—escape—he’s out front,” she said breathlessly.
Luzia’s smile faded. “The food?” she asked haltingly. Lilah waved toward her loaded jumpbag still sitting near the door. Where had Dania disappeared to? She needed Erik, and she needed another way out of the building before they trapped her in here.
The hollow pounding on the front door made her jump.
“Don’t open it!” Lilah urged. “No matter what they say. They probably won’t hurt you or the children, but I must leave. He’ll kill me and Erik if he finds us.” Luzia’s sharp eyes narrowed.
“He is after both of you?”
“Yes, though I don’t know why,” Lilah admitted. Her eyes darted down the hallway. She could hear the high voices of children through one of the closed doors. Someone was giggling.
“If they are already watching the building, you will not get away safely with a young boy to care for,” Luzia said.
“I know it’s risky, but what else am I going to do? Can you hold them off indefinitely outside? Is there someone who will come to help?” Lilah thought of the message that Jimmy would arrive in two hours. If it was a genuine message—and that was a big if—would he come prepared to fight off Quintan Security officers? And was it just Kozel, or were all three of them traitors? Was her own friend Rigo a traitor? Her chest tightened and she fought to breathe.
“We have no defenses beyond the building itself and a few weapons that the children can handle,” Luzia reported gravely. “If they are determined, they will get in, sooner or later.”
The pounding on the door grew more insistent.
“You must leave Erik here,” Luzia determined.
“What?” Lilah exclaimed, aghast.
“It is the safest option for him. Here, he is only one young boy among several. Will they recognize him?”
“Maybe,” Lilah said. “I don’t know.”
“It is a chance. You running with him is no chance at all,” Luzia said.
Lilah’s thoughts raced down several paths. If she left Erik, what options did she have? What would give Erik the best chance to survive?
“Do you have a back door?” she asked.
43. Out of Time
“How do you know Zane is dying?” Jimmy asked Lev.
Lev ran a hand through his hair and looked over at Jimmy. They were hurrying down the hall, on the way to the parking garage that housed the Quintans’ personal transports. “It’s a special tracker. Everyone in our family has a jewel implant now, of course, so I can track them through that if they choose to activate it. It can be switched off by the host,” here Lev’s mouth quirked upward, “since no one wants a parent to be able to track them everywhere. But I’ve always known that any kind of professional would recognize it for what it was and disable it, as it seems happened in Zane’s case. So with the children’s consent, we implanted a backup: the last-resort tracker, we called it.”
“That sounds pleasant.” Jimmy didn’t bother to hide his sarcasm.
“It’s an implanted transmitter that only activates when certain vital signs drop below a threshold. Stasis in a medical capsule will activate it.” He paused for a moment, drawing in a breath. “Dying will activate it also.”
“So it’s possible that Zane is merely in a medical capsule, then,” Jimmy pointed out. Preparing to leave the planet with his kidnapping cronies? Stored in stasis to be used as a hostage as his family had been? Was Zane behind everything or not? Who else could get supposedly loyal security officers to go against Lev’s interests?
“It’s possible,” Lev conceded. “But unlikely. Either way, we have little time.”
“Where is he?” Jimmy asked, hurrying to keep up with Lev’s brisk pace.
“Somewhere in Zoria.” Jimmy sucked in a breath. Zoria again. Where Jenna and Kendra were. “Ivan is tracking down the specific coordinates for me right now.”
They reached the door that led into the underground parking area, where Grier was waiting for them.
“Mr. Quintan,” he greeted respectfully. Then he turned to Jimmy and shook his head. “This is a terrible idea, you know that?”
Jimmy shrugged. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
“You do have a choice,” Lev reminded impatiently. “You could trust my officers. I have teams searching right now in the area Ms. Armenta was last seen. If you told me where to send them, they could reach her in minutes.”
“And then someone could kill Erik and Lilah within minutes,” Jimmy argued hotly. “We’ve been through this! Your traitor inside security is someone you supposedly vetted! I won’t risk it.” Lev pressed his lips together but didn’t argue the matter any further. He pressed his thumb to the lock, allowing them to enter the family’s private storage area. He strode in the direction of the large, flashy luxury transport with sliding doors on both sides and windows tinted so dark that no one would have the slightest idea who was inside.
“This is going to stand out like a supernova in the middle of the zone,” reminded Grier, jabbing a thumb at it. Lev shrugged.
“It may protect you,” he said. “They will be certain someone powerful—with adequate protection—will be inside. Some may even recognize it as belonging to me. That may bring you a measure of deference.”
Certainly it would inspire a certain amount of fear, Jimmy agreed. No one really wanted Lev Quintan on their block. Lev thumbed the door, accessing the interior computer and inputting the access codes that would allow Grier to drive it. Then he stood up and gestured Jimmy toward the transport.
“Just please, try n
ot to get it destroyed,” Lev said.
Jimmy grinned half-heartedly. “What would a Red Zone rescue be without a little bit of destruction?”
Lev shook his head and then glanced down at his tablet again. “Ivan has our coordinates. I’m heading up to the helipad; a ship and a team are waiting for me. If we find Beryl, we will bring her home safely too,” Lev promised.
“Thank you,” Jimmy said, his voice husky. Then he slid into the front passenger seat of the transport, letting Grier take the driver’s seat. Lev turned and moved briskly back for the lifts. Jimmy strapped himself in and tapped at the computer screen, trying to pull up a map that would show him their destination.
Grier started up the transport, then headed for the shielded door that would let them exit to the street above. “You sure about this, Mr. James?”
Jimmy nodded resolutely.
“All right,” Grier sighed. “Vincze block, here we come.”
●●●
When they reached the area that the map labeled as “Vincze controlled,” Grier slowed to a crawl, and Jimmy started scanning the buildings. How they would know which one was Luzia’s, he had no idea. Grier intended to drive right up to the Vincze storehouse, get out, play the Quintan heavy, and demand to know where Luzia lived. Hopefully the Vincze crew hoods would be sufficiently impressed by the Quintan reputation and just tell Grier what he wanted to know. Jimmy assumed Luzia had to be someone relatively well-known in this area, or Lilah would have given him something else to go on.
He was making a lot of assumptions here.
Again, as he had said to Grier earlier, what other choice did he have?
The transport’s map led them right to the Vincze storehouse. However, here they hit the first roadblock. The crew working the storehouse wouldn’t talk. It wasn’t that they weren’t intimidated. Jimmy could see the fear on their faces as Grier stood in front of them, his massive gun propped on his hip and his smaller laser in his other hand. But whatever fear they had of the Quintans wasn’t enough to overwhelm the fear of their boss.
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