by Ciana Stone
Lucas stared at him for a moment then turned to Senna. “Have you regained your memories?”
“Yes.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Then you understand the Sumer project.”
“Yes.”
He looked at Konnor for a moment. “And you?”
Konnor nodded but didn’t speak and Lucas sighed. “I thought I had considered every possibility. The notes were encrypted, Marcus’s notes were altered, the information had been successfully downloaded with multiple keys required to break through the locks. I had only to destroy the prototype and the information would be safe.”
He turned to Senna. “But that is not what you want… No, it’s not what you need to hear.” He took her hands in his. “I lied to you, about so many things. I wish now I could go back and do it over. But it’s too late.”
“Lied? About what?”
“Everything—who you are, where you came from. I thought I was doing what was right for you—for all of us. I was wrong.”
“What are you saying?” She felt a stabbing sensation in her stomach.
“Marcus and I were working for Slater. It was Slater who arranged for everything. Otherwise I would never have made the discovery. I was in Egypt and received a message to meet someone in Cairo. When I arrived at the meeting place a man was there. He gave me an address and directions. Following those directions I went to a large and luxurious private home. That’s when I found out that Marcus was alive. He was already working for Slater. He was the one who had stumbled onto the device. But neither he nor the scientists they hired could figure out what it was. I recognized it as something I had seen but for a time could not remember what. Then it came to me. It was from some ancient scrolls. I contacted Marcus again and Slater arranged for Andrea and I to go to Iraq. I didn’t know at the time that she had been working for Slater since before I met her.”
He paused and cast a look at Slater before continuing. “I truly believed that he was a good and decent man. That was my biggest mistake. He never intended on anything except seeing the project to completion then killing all of us. It was by blind luck that I discovered Andrea’s deception and that led me to finding out the truth. That’s why I staged my death in Iraq.”
“Then why did we go with Marcus to South America if you knew he was working for Slater all along?”
“Marcus somehow found out about my deception and got word to me. He said that he was in hiding because he had found out the truth about Slater and Andrea, and Slater had tried to kill him. I suspected he was lying but…but I was so caught up in my obsession with the plans by then that my arrogance overrode my judgment. I thought I could trick both him and Slater and use them to finish my work. That’s why I used the device and transferred the data into your mind. It was part of my plan to double-cross them.”
“It didn’t exactly work out, did it?” Konnor asked in an angry tone. “You used your own…you used Senna, to further your ambitions without a thought of what the risks were to her.”
“You’re right,” Lucas agreed and fell silent.
“Just what am I to you?” Senna asked. If neither Lucas nor Marcus was her father, then she wanted to know just who she really was before Slater killed them all.
Minora looked at Lucas in surprise. “But you said…” Her eyes darted to Slater then back at Lucas. “Oh, god, no. Not you, Lucas.”
Senna didn’t have the slightest idea what Min was referring to but apparently Lucas did for he looked nervously at Slater. Slater shrugged and motioned Lucas to stand beside him. “Well, I suppose the ruse would have been detected sooner or later so why not give them the truth.”
He looked at Minora. “Yes, he is working for me.”
Minora’s eyes carried her hurt but her face was filled with anger. “How could you? All these years I kept your secrets and it was all for nothing!”
“Hardly,” he argued. “You did exactly as I expected you to do, as you always do. You were, after all, the only honest one among us, weren’t you, Min?”
She looked away from him and he looked at Senna. “Sorry to disappoint you, but as Bruce said, sooner or later you would have known. I personally would have preferred it to be later, but things don’t always work out the way we want.”
Senna’s mind was in a whirl. If Lucas was working for Slater then why didn’t Slater have all the facts? Unless he’s still trying to trick Slater, she considered. It made sense. If he really were working for Slater they would have had the project completed and in use by now. She decided to follow that assumption for the time being and opened her mouth to make a hateful comment. Before she could get one word out the door burst open. Gunfire erupted and Slater was pitched forward, knocking Minora to one side as he fell. Everyone froze as the man walked into the room then Minora ran and flung herself into his arms.
“Come on,” the man said. “We don’t have much time.”
“Lucas betrayed us,” Minora said. “He’s working for Slater.”
The man gave Lucas a look hard enough to kill. “Take his belt and bind his hands,” he directed Konnor.
“Who are you?” Konnor didn’t make a move but eyed the man suspiciously.
Minora turned and looked at him and Senna. “Please, we can trust him.”
“Konnor, please,” Senna added.
He nodded and lashed Lucas’ hands behind his back with his belt and pushed Lucas ahead of him as they followed the man out of the room.
“Where are we?” Senna asked as he led them through a maze of hallways.
“Underground,” he said over his shoulder. “The Sumer Project research center.”
Senna looked up at Konnor as they hurried along. The man led them to a stairwell and they ran up four flights. Everyone was breathing hard when they reached the top. The man opened the door and looked out then jerked his head for them to follow him.
Outside was a military vehicle, a Hummer. They all piled inside and the man got behind the wheel. At a leisurely pace he drove to a small building about a half a mile away. “We’ll be safe here for a while,” he said as he stopped the vehicle.
Everyone went inside. It appeared to be some type of command post. Senna looked around as the man pushed Lucas over to a chair at the table and lashed him to it. Minora stood off to one side, glaring at Lucas. Konnor watched them all suspiciously.
Lucas turned and looked at Senna. “Despite what you believe, I never intended to let Slater gets his hands on a working model. If I had, I could have told him years ago what he wanted to know.”
“Not everything,” she argued. “You don’t have all the data and you can’t operate the system.”
“True, only you and… Only you can do that. But I could have told him how to revive your memories.”
She knew that much was true. What was more, he could have told Slater the truth about the final gate. If he hadn’t then perhaps he really was telling the truth. But she could not know for sure.
“I’m sorry,” she said after consideration. “I want to believe you, but…”
“It’s not important,” he interrupted. “All that matters is that we destroy the project and we only have twelve hours to do it.”
She swallowed nervously but nodded. “What do we do?”
“We don’t do anything right now,” the stranger spoke up. “All of you are going to eat and rest. At nightfall we go in—if conditions hold.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means if we’re still alive,” Konnor replied and pegged the stranger with a hard gaze. “You still haven’t told us who you are.”
“Colton Ryder. United Nations Security.”
Konnor’s eyes narrowed. “Do we have a reason to trust you, Mr. Ryder?”
Colton nodded. “Yes, sir, I think you do.”
Konnor crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. “Convince me.”
* * * * *
Kitaro turned as the door opened. He was not in the best of moo
ds. All of their attempts to reactive the controls he had once initiated in Konnor’s mind had failed. He could not understand it. Years ago he had been successful in causing Konnor to forget what had happened in South America and his involvement. He had thought that the loyalty Konnor had always shown to Slater was his handwork but apparently he was wrong. When the mind control device had failed they had turned to drugs and even physical torture but nothing had worked. If that were not bad enough Slater had interfered.
The woman walked in with a triumphant smile on her face and he turned his thoughts away from Konnor. “Slater’s missing and the others are holed up in a shack on the base.”
He hid his surprise at the news and nodded in acknowledgement. It would not do to let her know that she was one step ahead of him. “Are our people in position?”
“We have everything under control. No one gets on or off the base without our knowledge, and thanks to the intervention of Ryder, the base has been effectively shut down for the next twelve hours. He has executive power over everything until then.”
“How is that possible?” Kitaro was not convinced. “His authority doesn’t extend into the military sector.”
“It does if you’re Colton Ryder,” she retorted.
He didn’t comment but turned away. She walked up behind him and ran her hands down his back then around to circle his body and press against him. “Soon we will have ultimate power,” she cooed excitedly. “And all our enemies will be dead.”
He unwound her hands and turned to face her. “And you have no feelings about their deaths?”
“Why should I? They’re nothing to me. They never were.”
“And yet you shared your bed with Lucas for years.”
“Only as a means to an end.”
“And me?” he asked. “Am I merely another means to that end, Andrea?”
“Of course not!” She looked away as she replied.
He took her arm as she started to move away. “Are you sure about that?”
She looked up at him and he could see the deceit clear in her eyes even though she tried to hide it. “How can you even ask that?” She attempted a hurt tone.
He smiled at her. “Perhaps because I see so much of myself in you.”
A confused frown passed over her face that disappeared as his hand dipped into the pocket of her jacket and emerged. Then fear transformed her beautiful features into a mask of terror.
“Did you think me that big a fool?” he asked, turning the blade back and forth in front of her face. “Ummm, poison, I imagine.”
“Kitaro, listen, you’ve got it all wrong. That wasn’t meant for you. I only had it for—”
“I’ve had enough of your lies,” he cut her off. “In fact, I’ve had enough of you.”
“Kitaro, no!” she begged as he raised the blade. “You need me. How else will you convince her to activate the system?”
The downward motion of the knife stopped. It was possible that she would be useful if Senna proved troublesome. Best to wait until he had control of Sumer 1 before he killed her.
“Very well.” He lowered the knife but didn’t release it. She eyed him warily as he walked over and picked up the phone. “See Andrea to her room and make sure she does not leave until I call for her.”
“I will not be locked up like some—” Her protest was cut short.
“If you want to live you will do exactly as I say!”
She nodded in apparent defeat and let the man who entered escort her out of the room. Kitaro took a seat behind the desk and leaned back to smile at the photograph in the golden frame on his desk. “Soon,” he promised the image of the woman. “Very soon they will all be dead and I will have supreme power. And you, my darling. You will be back where you belong. With me.”
Chapter Eighteen
Everyone waited nervously for Colton to speak. He had insisted that they all eat something and took upon himself the task of cleaning up afterward.
Konnor looked over at Senna. She had barely eaten anything. Neither had Minora. He and Lucas both had pointed out that they would need their strength but neither of the women had seemed to pay it much attention.
Finally Colton took a seat at the table with them. “Now, I believe you wanted some reason as to why you should trust me, Mr. Konnor.” He looked at Konnor.
“The name is Chase.”
Colton gave him a penetrating look. “Yes, it is now. But it wasn’t always. Or don’t you remember?”
Konnor frowned at the question. He couldn’t help but notice the way Senna tensed, and looked over at her. She was watching him expectantly. “Think back to South America,” she encouraged him.
He looked across the room, staring blankly out of the window as he called upon the memories of that time. After a few minutes he looked at her in surprise. “My name was Chase Konnor. Slater changed it.”
“And had Marcus and Kitaro alter your memories,” Colton offered.
“Yes,” Konnor agreed. “But that’s hardly reason to put our lives in your hands.”
“Then how about the fact that it was me who convinced Slater not to kill you but to alter your memories instead?”
“What?” Senna blurted. “You were responsible? Why, were you working for Slater, too?”
“Against,” Colton corrected her. “And I did it because of who Chase is. Without him there was never a chance to make sure the project was completed as it should be.”
Konnor’s face was a hard mask of anger. “Well, thanks for saving my life and all that but fuck you, Ryder.”
“Konnor!” Senna exclaimed.
“Well, think about it,” he turned to her. “If he had just let them kill us back then—all of us—then none of this would be happening. There would be no Sumer project and the whole goddamn planet wouldn’t be teetering on the edge of annihilation from lunatics like Slater and Kitaro.”
Senna looked at Colton after a moment. “He has a point.”
Colton looked at Minora before turning his attention to her. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. But consider this. If Lucas hadn’t figured it out, sooner or later someone else would have, possibly someone with far less ethics and morals.”
“So what’s your stake in all this?” Konnor asked. “Just where do you fit in?”
Again Colton looked at Minora before answering. “The Laserian family and I go back a long way. I became involved when Min discovered she was pregnant.”
Senna looked over at Minora. “Pregnant? I didn’t know you had a child.”
Minora looked from her to Lucas then to Colton. At last she sighed. “I suppose this is as good a time as any to be honest. You see as Colton said, I found myself in the position of being pregnant, unmarried and totally unprepared to handle the situation. At the same time, Lucas and Andrea were trying to have a child. They were not having any luck at it, however. As Andrea and I were very close, I went to her with my news. She came up with a solution to all our problems. Lucas had left the country about two months earlier and would not return for six or seven more months. She was supposed to join him in a few weeks. But she proposed that she contact Lucas and tell him she had discovered that she was pregnant but the doctors would not let her travel. She would insist that he continue with his work and say that I had insisted she stay with me until his return. I was to have the child and give it to them. At first I said no. I was torn between wanting to keep the baby myself and being petrified at the idea of being a single mother. But Andrea was very persuasive and finally I agreed. I gave birth to a daughter six-and-a-half months later. Andrea found an attorney to take care of all of the paperwork. There was no way anyone would ever discover our deception. She contacted Lucas and when he arrived three weeks later he met his daughter, Senna.”
Senna looked at her in shock. “You mean you’re my real mother?”
“Yes.”
“And you…” She looked at Lucas. “You thought I was your real daughter?”
“For many years,” he replied. “I
t was not until I began to suspect Andrea that I found out the truth.”
“How did you find out?”
“I told him,” Colton supplied the answer. “I discovered what Andrea and Marcus were up to with Slater and contacted Minora. She gave me permission to tell Lucas the truth.”
Senna shook her head. It was all so convoluted and complicated. “And what about my father?” She directed the question to Minora. “Where was he during all this?”
“I never told your father I was pregnant,” she answered.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want to be a burden. While I had no doubt that he would have done the honorable thing, I also knew that he had duties that overrode his obligation to me.”
“So you never told him?”
“No, I told him. After you were born. He was not happy with what I had done but understood my reasons.”
“And did you ever plan on telling me the truth?”
Minora shook her head. “No.”
Senna considered it for a moment. “Okay, but will you tell me now who my father is?”
“You will know in due time,” she replied.
“I guess that means no?”
“No, it means not right now. When he wants you to know, he’ll tell you himself.”
“And how will I know it’s not just another person lying to me?” Senna asked in frustration.
“You’ll know,” Minora smiled gently.
Senna stared at her for a moment then reached across the table to take her hand. “All these years I’ve thought that if I could have any mother I wanted it would be you. I wish I had known it was you all along.”
“Would it have made any difference in the way you feel?” Minora asked.
A sense of something akin to relief washed over her. It all honesty it would not have made a difference. She had always loved Min like a mother. Giving her the title would not have changed the feelings. “No,” she admitted. “I’m glad to know it now and I’m proud to be your daughter. But…”
Minora eyed her expectantly and Senna continued. “You lied to me, Min. All this time I thought you were cripple. Why did you do that?”
