“You know what this is?”
Nico spat more blood. “No, but I’ll bet a penny you’re gonna tell me anyway.” He tried to sound braver than he was. The thing looked like… well, he wasn’t going to think about that.
“Aren’t you sweet?” she said, continuing to twirl the thing between her thumb and index finger. “No guesses?”
“Surprise me.”
She pouted again. “Oh poo. You’re no fun, mister…” She drew out the question as if he was going to fill in the blank.
“Fuck you,” Nico filled in.
“Fuck you? What a strange name.” She giggled and walked closer. “Well, I really didn’t want to have to try this out on you but you really aren’t leaving me much choice now, are you?” She pointed to his good right eye with the sharpened tip of the spoon. “Such pretty eyes.”
A chill went through Nico as he realized what she intended.
“Don’t do that,” Nico said. “It would be a mistake.”
She chuckled. “Oh, I do like you. So optimistic. Did you call your friends before we found and disabled your com?”
The tip of the spoon was only about four inches from his eye and it terrified him.
“You do know there are currently four hundred highly-trained personnel in this building. When the day shift arrives, those numbers will swell to almost three thousand. Did Colonel Archer tell you that even the secretarial pool is trained in tactical warfare?” she drawled. “I must say, you’re in quite a bad situation but then again, you haven’t answered any of my questions. I suggest you answer the first.”
“Sorry, I nodded off through all that bullshit. What was the first question?” Nico tried to sound bored.
Her smile disappeared and she turned to the silent goon who stood sentinel silent behind her. “Step behind him and hold his head, just don’t crush it in those giant hands of yours. I need his mouth to tell me what he was doing with those disks and who he’s been talking to.”
Nico felt panic wash over him as the man moved to do as he was asked. He began to twist his head back and forth but his movements were limited by the chair they had him strapped down to. If she was planning on taking out an eye, Nico was going to lose it. His heart hammered in his chest as the guy grabbed his head and held him steady, facing her as she stepped closer, holding the spoon out at him. It was inches from his eye and he looked up at her.
“I’ll give you one last chance. Tell me who you are and who sent you and you won’t have to lose your eye. I’m losing patience though.”
Nico swallowed. “I told you. I’m Josiah Flynn, Stryker-Dunn’s head of IT. I came here at Drake Archer’s request to work on security and make sure we don’t have any leaks.”
“Lies. Colonel Archer says Josiah Flynn is missing and you are an imposter,” she said.
So, she knows. Fuck.
She smiled again and Nico couldn’t decide why. She’d obviously been sent in here to get information, maybe force a confession out of him. So why the fuck was the bitch smiling? Bitch loved her work, that was clear.
“Now tell me why you stole those disks. What did you see on them?” she pressed.
“I didn’t steal them,” Nico said. “I was looking for something that I knew Colonel Archer had on the disks. I knew he wouldn’t show it to me so I went searching for it on my own.”
Boudreaux lowered the spoon, nodding at the goon behind him, and stepping back. The goon let go of his head and Nico sucked in a sigh of relief. “Well, now we’re getting somewhere. Why don’t you tell us what Colonel Archer wants to know?”
“Which is?”
“What were you looking for on the disks that you were so certain Colonel Archer wouldn’t show you?”
“I don’t know exactly. Anything, I suppose,” Nico said, quickly. “I was sure he had his emails with important communiques on them because I’m the one who told him to put them on there but I thought there must be something else important on them or why would he bother copying it and saving it onto the disks. I guess I was just curious.”
“That’s bullshit and you and I both know it, Mr. Whatever. I had hoped you’d be more cooperative.”
“I’m trying to cooperate. You think I want you to take out my eye?” Nico asked, sounding scared even to his own ears.
“How did you know where to look for the disks?” she asked.
Nico tried to regulate his breathing. “He told me that he’d moved the disks out of his vault for safekeeping and I knew he wouldn’t take them out of the building since they might not be safe, so I looked around his office for somewhere he might stash them to keep them close.” He shrugged as he stared at her. “It wasn’t hard to figure out where they were.”
She nodded, crossing her arms again, still holding the spoon. Nico couldn’t take his eyes off it. He shuddered.
“Fine. Then tell me how you figured out which albums he’d hidden them in.”
“I hacked his iTunes account and didn’t find a playlist there so I figured the list had to be on his office computer. Once I broke into his office, his computer firewalls were easy enough to get into. I set them up, as you know.” The lie rolled easily off his tongue. The truth was that Nico was just a really good hacker and getting through Archer’s firewalls had been a piece of cake.
“Go on,” Boudreaux said.
“Once I got into his computer, I looked for the list of albums. It was easy enough to find. I printed it and pulled as many disks as I could,” he finished.
“How is it, the control room didn’t pick you up on camera? Colonel Archer’s office and all the corridors in the building are wired with cameras.”
Nico swallowed. He knew if he told the truth about this part, Adael would be in trouble. If Mac had been captured and he was being interrogated elsewhere in the building, he might tell a different story. He swallowed again and opted for a believable lie.
“I hacked into the security cameras and set them on a loop. If you don’t believe me, check the feed for the time of the break in. You’ll catch the loop if you know what to look for.”
She sighed, no longer smiling as she turned to put the grapefruit spoon back in the canvas sheath. She pivoted and walked back over to him.
“I’m going to go and check on the things you told me. You never did give me your actual identity or tell me why you were wearing a com. That, in and of itself, tells me that someone on the outside has been getting information from you while you were in this building. If Colonel Archer wants to let you go, then that’s his decision. I don’t believe a fucking word of it but then again, I’m paid to do the work I specialize in. I didn’t even get to work on you and that pisses me off, if you want the God’s honest truth.” She blinked several times. “And just so that you know, when I get pissed off, I get cranky. That will just make me go even harder at you when I get the chance.” She smiled and leaned close to him, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I really hope you’re lying to me.” With that, she turned and walked out of the room followed by her huge hulking companion.
Nico had bought himself a little time, he just had no idea how long. It scared the shit out of him.
****
Mac was practically vibrating with terror as it coursed through him. By the time he’d returned to his room to contact the others on his com, he’d been awash with fear for Nico. He knew they’d taken him down to the fifth-floor armory, probably to work him over and get him to explain why he’d been caught in Archer’s office holding the stolen Minnow disks in the middle of the night. There was no reasonable explanation for it and Mac knew Nico was in trouble. Why did I just leave him there? To save him, asshole. To try to draw them far away so they wouldn’t catch him until he finished the work we came here to do.
The truth of the thoughts that now cursed Mac didn’t help him feel any better. The man he loved, the man he’d just begun to know, the man who’d trusted Mac to protect him, was now in the hands of ruthless mercenaries who’d torture him to get the truth out of him. How long would
Nico be able to hold out when they worked their magic over his body? Mac had seen guys who’d been subjected to the horrors of torture. It was never pretty. Sometimes they came out of it with healing wounds but sometimes they came out of it with scrambled eggs upstairs.
What would happen to Nico’s brilliant brain if mercenaries decided to pump him full of chemicals to extract the truth? Thayne Wolfe was a man with years of training behind him and his closest friends knew he still went to therapy to help him heal from what Mills Lang had put him through last summer. No one talked about it but they all knew Thayne had been horribly tortured in Arizona. Mac had seen him when they pulled him from Lang’s warehouse, nearly dead from the wounds Lang had inflicted on his body—cuts, phosphorous burns, and stab wounds. He’d taken months to heal but his mind had been affected as well. Thank God his husband, Jarrett, had been there to help him through it. Thayne appeared to be recovered, but every so often, when his friend thought no one was looking, Mac caught a glimpse of the horror of what had happened to him in his clouded blue eyes. The thought of Nico going through that chilled Mac to his bones. The moment he closed his door, he put his hand to his ear to block out external noise.
“They’ve got Devecchio. He’s been taken to the armory on the fifth floor. I can’t get to him alone!” Mac said, feeling helpless.
“They’ve disabled his com,” Jarrett’s voice came through. “You okay, Mac? You hiding?”
When he didn’t answer fast enough, SAC Diaz spoke. “Give us a status update, McCallahan.”
“I’m back in Nico’s quarters where I can talk freely. I need to know what you know,” Mac said, feeling panic rise up, knowing he was all alone. His friends may be on the other side of this com, but he was alone. “Is Nico alive?”
“Yes, as far as we know. We heard them take him to a room and then his com cut out. They must have found it. We don’t think they’ll kill him. They’ll want to know what he knows and why he was after the disks. Mac, do you know if Devecchio was able to retrieve the information from the Minnow disks?” SAC Stanger asked.
“Yeah, he pulled a lot of disks. Not all of them because time was short but he pulled a lot of them. I was standing outside the server room where he was reading them when I heard someone coming. I went down the hall to lead them away from Nico but they must have caught up with him, either as he was leaving, or in Archer’s office when he went back to replace the disks. We gotta get him out of there. They’re gonna torture him. They know he’s not Flynn.” Mac paced in the small room, knowing he couldn’t hide the panic in his voice. “Is anyone coming?” he whimpered, feeling small and helpless.
“Mac…”
That was Thayne’s calm voice. It cut through Mac’s messy panic and helped center him. He sat down on the edge of Nico’s bunk—his still messy bunk—where he and Nico had lain together, earlier that day. Has it only been a few hours?
“Mac, we’re gonna get him out. We’re going to save him before they kill him. Do you hear me, my friend? I need you to focus.”
Thayne’s voice was cool and soothing as he spoke quietly into the com while Mac’s mind was racing, his thoughts going to every conceivable horror he could think of. Abstractly, he knew what Thayne was doing but it didn’t matter. He just wanted him to tell him over and over that Nico would be okay, that there was a plan to get them both out of this place. Why isn’t there a plan to extract us? Calm the fuck down! You’re no help to him like this.
“I’m focused but I don’t know what to do.”
“Mac, listen,” Jarrett said. “Adael Dayan has a plan. He’s on his way to you.”
In all the confusion, Mac had completely forgotten about the Israeli. They weren’t alone at Stryker-Dunn. Possibility bloomed in his chest, flushing him with hope. Maybe they’d get out of here alive after all.
“Someone talked to him? He’s been in touch?” Mac asked.
“We talked to him a short time ago. He says he’ll help you get Devecchio out of the building. He has it worked out,” Thayne said, calmly.
Mac was flooded with relief. At least there was someone on their team who could think rationally because he sure wasn’t any help at all. It was embarrassing to think about how his nerves were this affected. You’re a fuckin’ Green Beret, man. You’ve been in worse situations, surrounded by the enemy. Fuck, you’ve been taken by the enemy and been more in control than you are now. But those men were my brothers. Yeah, but you weren’t in love with them, were you, Mac? No, he wasn’t. He would have laid down his life for any one of them but the urgent need to protect one of them had never been as strong as it was with Nico.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll wait for him to contact me.” The words were barely out of his mouth when there was a quiet, insistent tapping on the door to his quarters. Mac’s hand flew to his side, coming up empty as he realized he wasn’t wearing his sidearm. Goddammit! “Someone’s here. Hang on.” Mac walked to the door and put his ear against it. “Who’s there.”
“Adael. Let me in before they pick me up on camera, McCallahan.” The voice was whispering but Mac was certain he recognized the voice. He pulled the door open and Adael looked flustered as he stepped right inside without waiting to be asked. Mac quickly shut the door behind him and then lifted his hand to his ear as he turned to look at the Israeli.
“Dayan is here. We’ll talk and get back to you. I ain’t carrying on a conversation he can’t hear.”
“Use this. It’s an untraceable SAT phone.” He pulled the thing out of his pocket and handed it to Mac.
“Thanks,” Mac said, gratefully. “He’s got a SAT phone. We’ll call you right back.” Mac pulled the com out of his ear and quickly dialed his partner’s phone. Lincoln’s number was the only one he’d memorized. His buddy picked up on the first ring.
“Mac?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Lincoln. You all there?”
“Yeah, hang on. Let me put you on speaker,” Snow said.
Mac held the SAT phone out, searching for a speaker button and Dayan stepped forward, pressing it.
“Thanks,” Mac huffed. He held the phone between them.
“Mac, we’re all here,” Jarrett said.
“Good. Tell us what to do,” Mac said.
“Mac, listen to Adael. He’s got a plan to get you both out of there along with Devecchio,” Lincoln said. “We’re already geared up here. The Bureau has brought in an additional eight twelve-man TAC teams, but you have to be ready when we storm the building because if you’re not in a secure location with Devecchio in hand, we’re not gonna be able to get you out of there before they take you also. The last thing we want is to see you two captured and make your situation worse than it is now.” Snow sounded optimistic and Mac turned to stare hard at Adael.
“You have a plan to free Devecchio and get us all out of here?” Mac was cautious. He knew from the way Jarrett and Thayne had reacted to Adael that the guy wasn’t the most honorable of men. It took a lot to piss his friends off and none of them liked the Israeli. He wondered what had been so goddamned important for Adael to meet Jarrett in private. He speculated about whether they’d ever been involved. That might account for Thayne’s extreme distrust and dislike of the guy.
“Yes. I just left the control center…,” Adael began.
“I thought you met with your friend earlier,” Mac interrupted.
Adael frowned. “Yes, when I looped the camera. But, I went back to get a look at the surveillance. I wanted to make sure that they had taken Nico to the armory as I assumed they would.”
“Did they?” SAC Diaz asked through the phone.
“Yeah,” Adael said. He narrowed his eyes at Mac and then held up a hand as Mac opened his mouth to ask a question. Mac dropped his hand.
“Is he…? Is he…?” Mac couldn’t force the words out; he just couldn’t.
Adael nodded. “He’s alive. He’s been knocked around a bit. Archer sent in goons to soften him up and get him ready to spill his guts. It’s the way he works,” the Israeli said, gr
imly.
Mac gritted his teeth but said nothing, continuing to stare at Adael.
“Their specialist went in after Archer’s men loosened him up with a few punches to the face but she didn’t start in on him. They talked and she left with her tools.”
“What did he tell her?” Mac asked, still not completely trusting what Dayan was telling him.
“He let her believe that maybe Archer was wrong, insisting that he really was Josiah Flynn. Then, he was honest about hacking his computer and getting the list of albums off it before pulling them and taking them down to the reader. He told her that he pulled them to see what was on them out of curiosity… you know… just to see if he could hack Archer’s computer and find the list he was suspected was on there. He told her that after reading them, he was going to put them back but he was intercepted on his way back to the boss’s office. He tried to keep it as believable as he could without admitting he wasn’t actually Josiah Flynn and that he had plans to find a way out of the building. They have no idea he can memorize that much stuff and honestly, I find that part a little bit farfetched myself,” Adael said.
“How did he explain going to incredible lengths to find and read what was on the disks?” Thayne asked. His voice through the phone was as cool as could be.
“Like I told you, he said he was curious. I get the impression he was trying to come off as some nerd who just wanted to hack into his system and get to the disks because he has some sort of irrepressible curiosity.”
“He has an irrepressible death wish, that’s for sure,” Mac grumbled.
Endings and Beginnings (Death and Destruction Book 8) Page 25
