“What does he want with her?” Marg asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Find her, Thane. She’s so young and naïve. Don’t let her die too.” Marg choked off a gasp of emotion. Her voice tightened. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that—”
He had to hold himself in check, her words fed the guilt weighing heavy in his chest. Could he have saved his friend? Tinman wore every bit of the accident, but Thane couldn’t put the blame at anyone’s feet except Murphy’s Law. “I know you didn’t.” He cleared the tight ball from his throat. “We’ll find her. I’ll send someone from Lieutenant Manchester’s NCIS office to investigate.”
“I have to do something. I just can’t sit here. Maybe I should ask the neighbors if they saw anything.”
“Stay until someone from NCIS shows up, and then I want you to take the girls and go to our place. You remember where I keep the spare key?”
“Yes.”
“Call me when you’re about to leave.”
“Thane—are you going to tell Tony?”
“I don’t know, Marg.”
“Oh shit.”
“What’s wrong?” The hackles stood up on his neck. Marg and the girls were his responsibility now that Pat was gone. He was too far away from them. His gut twisted.
“Kayla and Nina just walked in.”
“Don’t tell her,” he ordered.
“You want me to lie to her? Thane, I can’t—”
“Yes, you bloody can or she’ll be putting her nose to the ground to find Lumin.”
“Morning, ladies,” Marg greeted them with a steady voice.
He heard Kayla ask where Lumin was.
“I gotta go, Thane.”
“Don’t tell them.” He hung up.
Why would Dafoe want Lumin? Dafoe knew Bjornson was dead. Kayla had said he’d stolen his notes from the university. What more was there, unless Dafoe thought he could trade Lumin for the vaccine?
Five minutes later he got off the phone with Manchester, who agreed to send two of his agents to Tony’s apartment. He gave him the summarized version, and Manchester listened quietly without going into cop mode and asking a thousand questions. Thane also hoped like hell his wife would be gone when they showed up or she’d be on high alert instantly.
The desert wind rippled the canvas at the edge of the tent, his team sitting in quiet reflection. They’d had two days waiting on Jake Ackerman’s team to find leads to Dafoe’s hiding place. Base Command rooted through Dafoe’s background looking for a direction. Just a single crumb of information to find his trail, that’s all they needed. The United States was a big country, but DEVGRU’s skills could reduce that to quadrants and cut away the edges narrowing the search.
Walking into the group of grieving men, he snagged a chair and sat amongst them, clutching his hands together.
“Any word, sir?” Tony asked solemnly to break the silence.
“Yes, but I’m waiting for a report from Lieutenant Manchester.”
“Manchester?” Tony’s gaze landed on him. “Why Manchester?”
Thane breathed out a shallow gust of air. “He’s sent two men to your apartment, T-man.”
“What?” Tony stiffened.
“Petty Officer Bale, Lumin is gone, we—”
Tony jumped to his feet. “Gone!” he shouted, his hazel eyes sparking with alarm.
“Sit, T-man.”
“Where’s Lumin?”
“We don’t know. Marg went to wake her up this morning and she was gone.”
Tony’s shoulders relaxed a little. “She probably just went for a walk, or to get groceries.”
Thane struggled with the right words. “No, I’m afraid not. There were signs that indicate she was taken.”
“When did this happen?” Tony’s anger radiated out of every pore, his fists clenching.
“A few minutes ago.” His cell rang with the Canadian anthem and he answered it, keeping a wary eye on Tony. “Kayla.”
“Lumin has been taken. Lieutenant Manchester’s officers are here.”
“And I want you to let them do their job. You stay with Marg. I told her she could stay at our place. Take her and the girls there.”
“She’s knows the way. I’m going—”
“No, you will not,” he growled into the phone. Tony leaned over and said something to Mace. Mace shook his head, but Tony had already turned away from him and was running for the clutch of pilots standing near the helos parked in the desert. “Bale! Shit.”
“What’s going on?” Kayla asked.
“What do ya think? The guy’s lost his focus. He’s coming.”
“Could anyone have stopped you when you were looking for me? Let him go.”
Mace and the rest of the team sat like sprung coils ready to follow Tony. “Fox. Ed, Mace. Go with him,” he ordered. All three of them vaulted out of their chairs. “Anything from Manchester’s men?”
“No, but Lumin definitely put up a struggle,” Kayla said.
He heard Kelsey in the background as Kayla walked through Tony’s condo. “It has to be Dafoe, but why does he want her? All I can think of is a trade, Lumin for the vaccine.”
“Will you? If it comes to that?”
“I will, because if that’s what he wants, he’ll have to come out of hiding and that’s when I’m going to kill him.”
Kayla began to say something and then stopped herself. “I’ll call you later.”
* * * *
Tony threw open the front door of his condo and thundered inside. Kayla stood in his living room with Manchester.
“Tony, what—” Kayla took a step toward him but stopped. His gaze pinned itself to the hallway and that’s where his feet took him. He faltered at the entry to his bedroom. The lamp was broken and lay in pieces on the floor. One curtain was ripped from its rings and sat limp against the window frame. His gaze settled on the bed sheets. They lay strung out from the bed to the window. He read the room. She’d clung to them as her only salvation. Right here, last night, he’d made love to her. Hundreds of miles apart, but he was here with her. Loving her. When had they taken her? She didn’t have a chance to call out for help.
Mace pulled him from his thoughts, brushing by him and entering the room. Ed and Fox remained in the hallway.
“Petty Officer Bale,” Manchester queried as he joined them. “Don’t get involved in this. You have a bigger mission. I will find Lumin.”
He stared at the bed sheets, his mind working on what he saw before him. There was no other mission, but he didn’t voice it.
“Admiral Austen sent us to assist if we could,” Mace said. “Kayla, where are Marg and the girls?”
“Nina took them to our place. She’ll stay with them.”
Anger seeped between the cracks of numbness, bringing him back to life and giving him a direction. Tony grabbed Kayla’s hand and drew her into the room. “Where—is—she?”
“Tony.” She looked to Mace for help. “I don’t know. There’s no clue. Manchester’s men searched the grounds and in here. They took prints from the lamp, but it’s probably only going to be yours and Lumin’s.”
“Mace, what do you see?” he demanded.
Mace crossed his arms and let out a long, slow breath. “A struggle.” He darted a wary glance at him. “She was probably sleeping and they came in quietly this time.” He wandered to the window and leaned over it. His head cranked to look at Manchester. “Is this blood?”
“What?” Tony vaulted across the room and looked at the frame.
Manchester nodded. “We’ve taken a sample. If we’re lucky, it will belong to one of her abductors. The lab is working on it now.”
Tony’s anger peaked and he smashed a fist through the drywall, slamming into a metal stud.
Fox squatted by the broken lamp. He didn’t touch anything, just surveyed the shattered shards of ceramic. He turned his attention to the bed, then up to him. “Is everyone who was here a sound sleeper? This would have made a racket when it broke on t
he wooden floor.”
Lieutenant Manchester’s eyes narrowed. “Marg is under a lot of duress.”
Fox put his hands on his thighs and pushed himself to his feet. “T-man, is anything missing?”
He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate over the thunder of his pulse. Opening them again, he glanced at every surface. He had the typical “guys” bedroom, the bare essentials and a couple pictures on the wall. His dresser held a few framed photos of him and Mace graduating from SEAL training, and a picture of him, Nina, Mace and Squirt at the beach. He pulled the drawer open on the bedside table. Nothing was missing, there were a couple books and the case with his SEAL trident. He swallowed deeply and remembered when Kayla began wearing Ghost’s. Nina wore Mace’s. Any brother knew when they saw a woman wearing it, she had given her heart to a SEAL.
“Everything is here,” he said, closing the drawer. He walked to his closet and slid open the door. His clothes hung undisturbed on the hangers, jeans, shirts, his shoes on the floor where he left them. His dress uniform hanging neatly pressed, reminded him he’d soon wear it again to his captain’s funeral. Three spare sets of fatigues, except…he pulled the hangers apart. Where was his third cammo jacket? He hadn’t packed it.
Months ago, they thought the Blood Shark had bugged them to find Kayla. Manchester’s NCIS team had taken their clothes. The investigators had returned their uniforms and he’d brought his spares home. He’d only kept a couple at the base, and then he remembered. “Kayla,” he said, turning on his heel. It had been Kayla who had bugged the team when they’d gone into Syria for a black op.
“What?” she asked, blinking.
“The satellite tracker you put in our uniforms last year.”
“What about them?” She blushed.
“Did you put them in all of our cammos?”
“Yes,” she said, looking embarrassed. “What about it?”
“My jacket is missing.”
Everyone looked at him with a blank expression. “My jacket is missing. I think Lumin put it on.”
“Not surprised,” she said with a reminiscent smile. “I did the same with Thane’s clothes every time he left.” She shrugged. “His scent was still there.”
Ed, who had been silent, but present said, “You wear our clothes when we’re gone?”
Kayla gave him a look as if it were the stupidest statement she’d ever heard. “Well, duh!”
“I had this set in my locker at the base,” Tony interjected. “Manchester, your agents never found Kayla’s trackers, only the one the Blood Shark had put on her. Kayla, where did you hide it?”
Kayla let out a gasp, catching on. “Under the right hand chest button pocket. It needed to be close to the heart to pick up vitals.”
“Come on,” he shouted, and gripped her arm. “We’re going to the base.”
“Tony, it’s a long shot. I mean we don’t even know if she’s wearing it,” she said, running behind him.
“She is. She has to be.”
Mace put it into double-time beside them. “Would the battery last this long?”
“It’s dormant until it senses motion,” Kayla confirmed. “If it’s been hanging in Tony’s closet, it might still have some life left.”
“You bugged the team?” Ed asked as they crossed the front lawn at a fast clip for Tony’s car.
“Long story,” Kayla said, and hopped in the front seat when Tony unlocked it.
“Wouldn’t mind hearing it some time,” Ed, ever the Casanova, said.
“I’m married, Cracker.” She grabbed the seat belt and clicked it into the buckle.
Ed leaned over to look inside the car while Mace and Fox jumped in. “You’re as hard-assed as we are?”
Kayla gripped the door handle. “Worse,” she replied and slammed the door shut.
* * * *
All of them thundered past Captain Reddings’ office, making him look up. “What the hell is going on?” He rose from his desk, and Ed detoured into the captain’s office to update him.
Kayla hit a chair running, and it rolled fifteen feet to stop in front of the satellite monitoring station. She tapped furiously, entering a sequence of letter and numbers. He and Mace hung over her shoulder while Fox stood back with an intense but hopeful expression. “Barry, any more reports on outbreaks?” she asked at the same time.
Barry nodded.
“Where?” Mace asked.
“San Francisco and Crescent City.”
They all shook their heads. No matter what they did, people would become infected either from the first or second virus. People were going to die and infect more of the population before the CDC gained control of the virus.
The satellite feed blacked out and a new image filled the screen. In the right hand corner Tony saw his name and a blinking green light. He couldn’t breathe. “Is that her?” He leaned even closer, pushing Kayla forward, squishing her against the tabletop. “Sorry,” he said backing off.
Kayla typed more info on the keyboard and the image zoomed in. She looked up and he looked down, meeting her gaze. “The signal is intermittent, but your jacket is traveling at eighty kilometers per hour along the I-5 toward Los Angeles.”
“Yes, it’s her!” He whipped the chair around and planted a huge kiss on Kayla’s cheek. “I love you, woman.” He grabbed Mace by the shoulder and practically dragged him toward the door. “Let’s go get her. Kayla, keep me advised.”
Mace blew her a kiss and Fox winked at her. Kayla leaned back in the chair with a worried expression. “Should I call Manchester and advise him?”
He held the door open, letting Mace and Fox pass him. “No, I’m going in to get her. If we need help, I’ll advise.”
Kayla gave him a salute.
Mace and Fox followed him outside. “I’m going to the Loadout Room first.”
“Right behind you,” Fox said, keeping pace.
Tony was punching the code into the door when it swung open. Lieutenant Lewis glanced up then stopped short. “Petty Officer Bale.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Sir.” He went to walk past him and Lewis gripped his shoulder.
“I want to talk to you now, Bale.”
Mace and Fox slid by. “Sir, we’re on Dafoe’s tail. I don’t have time to talk.” He said it respectfully, at least as much as he could muster for the bigoted jerk.
Lewis slammed the door shut, leaving them on the outside. “You set me up. Made me look like a shit in front of Admiral Austen.”
“I’m not the one with racial issues. Unless I go in there, you’ll have double the trouble. You’re already in neck-deep with the Admiral. You’ll never dig your way out.”
“I can draft just about any complaint I want, and it will have to be investigated. In fact, I could call the Men-at-Arms right now and have you detained.”
Tony debated giving him a basis for his complaint and laying him out flat on the cement. “You want to come after me, then do it once we’ve neutralized the threat.”
“I’m riding along with you on this. To keep an eye on you and regain some lost ground with the Admiral.”
“Like fuck you are, sir.” Tony watched as Lewis pulled his phone. He stopped him. “There’s more at risk than just the virus being released by Dafoe.”
“As in?” he asked, eyeing him.
“Dafoe has my fiancée.” Was it his imagination or did a look of ill-disguised satisfaction sprint past his eyes?
“If we find her, we find Dafoe.” Lewis contemplated for a moment. “Do you know where she is?”
The door sprang open and Mace leaned out. “You getting in the saddle or hiding behind a desk? Because it’s time to gear up,” he said.
Lewis gave him a nod and followed Mace into the Loadout Room. Hindrance or help, either way, Tony would not let Lewis stop him from saving Lumin.
Chapter Twenty-One
Five o’clock L.A. traffic jammed seven lanes to the hilt. Even the HOV High-occupancy vehicle lane crawled. Mace drove, and Tony wanted to wrench the w
heel and take the emergency lane. “We gotta get off this.” He pulled his phone.
“Base Command Coronado,” Nina answered.
“Ninja Girl, we’re running slow in traffic. Find us a way around it.”
“You’re on the I-5?”
“Affirmative.”
“I was just going to call you. The vehicle Kayla is tracking just stopped.”
“Where?” Tony took note of the next exit.
“It took Highway 133 toward Laguna Beach.”
“We just passed San Clemente. They had a few hours lead on us. What do you think the delay was?”
“No idea. Maybe they were waiting for someone. Here’s the neighborhood and address. It’s a residence.”
Tony pulled open his glove box and grabbed a gas receipt and a pen, writing down the address she gave him. “Did you give the Admiral a SITREP?”
“Yes.”
“We’ve got one more on this mission,” he said, adding the address into the GPS.
“Who? Wait. Standby.” Nina took a departure report from one of the base vessels then came back on the line. “Who’s with you besides Ed, Fox, and Mace?”
“Lieutenant Abraham Lewis.”
“That’s Alpha Squad’s new lieutenant, right?”
“Roger that.”
“I heard he’s an asshole.”
“Worse. I’ll call you on arrival.”
“Good luck, T-man.”
Lewis hadn’t said much for the last two hours, then again, none of them had. “Was that the Admiral’s wife?” he asked.
Every head in the car turned. If Lewis was about to say something racist, Tony was pretty sure he’d be rolling behind the car’s dust somewhere on the off ramp Mace had taken to get out of the traffic. “No, it was Nina,” Tony said, keeping his eyes ahead.
“Guess I owe the Admiral an apology sometime soon.”
“Why don’t you meet Kayla first before you judge?” Tony suggested.
Lewis cranked his head and stared out the side window. “I’ll make a point of it, but I doubt my opinion will alter much.”
Tony and Mace exchanged a glance. He hadn’t shared Lewis’ misguided opinion of ethnicity with his best friend. Both he and Mace had grown up in San Diego where many different races converged. Mace’s mother was Mexican, but his father’s European roots worked to remove most of his Spanish features. If the lieutenant made a slur now, Mace would probably let him have it with both barrels. Tony wanted to avoid that from happening.
Code Name: Luminous Page 27
