by J. M. Madden
The address that Officer Rose had given them was actually in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And it was a bitch to get to. Finding a place to park his vehicle was an even bigger bitch. He finally gave in and parked in a public garage across the street, handing over the Silverstone Collaborative credit card. Raine’s eyes widened comically when she saw how much he had to pay, but she shrugged fatalistically. What else could they do?
They walked down the street side by side while Noah scanned the area for threats. When he realized what he was doing he checked himself, but then it hit him. He wasn’t worried about his safety. He was worried about Raine’s. He shook his head, wondering when he’d accepted the responsibility of protecting her.
Maybe it was because of the fact that they were meeting the CIA. Last time he’d been in Rose’s presence he’d just rescued Blake from Cameron Hall’s Florida playground and been shot in the back. Apparently, he was connecting the pain and injury to the CIA. Probably not a big leap.
Raine paused at the door of a white marble building and glanced at him. “I think this is it,” she said.
There was a doorman at the door, and they seemed to be expected. Noah wondered if he was CIA, or if he knew about the people that ‘lived’ in the apartment above his head. The doorman guided them to the elevator, and they punched the button to get on. Raine looked at Noah and he could see the worry in her expression. “Don’t worry about anything. These guys will have answers for us, that’s all.”
She nodded and scraped her fingers into her hair, over and over again until it was bunched into a tail at the base of her head. Then she produced a black elastic from somewhere and knotted it up. Again, he realized he was just watching her. What the hell was the fascination? Yes, she was beautiful. And she had an incredible heart. Those were things anyone could see if they talked with her or watched her long enough.
Something about her kept pulling him to her.
The elevator door dinged and they stepped out. The apartment address they had been given was right and down the hallway. Noah knocked on the door and it was answered immediately. They’d probably been watched the entire way up here.
Noah recognized the woman that answered the door, but he couldn’t remember her name. Or if he’d even heard it. The man sitting on the couch was Forbes or something. Noah thought he’d been in on the debrief when everything had gone to hell in Florida. Officer Kevin Rose was in the next room, a living area, sitting in a leather chair. He stood when they entered, setting a file aside. He shook Raine’s hand first, then Noah’s.
“How’s the shoulder, Mr. Cross?”
“Fine,” Noah said shortly, not removing his earbuds. He felt the weight of Raine’s gaze on him, but he didn’t acknowledge her.
“What have you found out?” He asked, guiding the conversation back to the purpose of the meeting.
Rose led them over to a man at a long dining room table. He was typing into a computer and barely glanced up when they stopped beside him.
“This is Casey Poole. He’s been… an asset we’ve used for a while, and he’s kept pretty steady eyes on your man since we picked him up on CCTV in Washington.”
“Yeah,” the guy finally looked up with a grin. Noah hated to stereotype but Mr. Poole was the epitome of slacker, college dropout hacker. The guy’s black, unwashed hair was flying around his face and Noah doubted he’d eaten any actual food in the past day. Scratch that. There were taco wrappers on the floor beneath his feet.
His gray eyes gleamed with intelligence, though. “What’s this guy’s name? Haven? He came onboard the train in sweats and a blue trench coat, like you said, but at some point, he’s changed into a more casual outfit. He has a black leather jacket over jeans and a t-shirt. I looked for the trench coat but I don’t know who he swapped with.”
Poole flicked through a few different screens, stopping on one that had been paused. “He just sat in the chair for the most part, but then he did this.”
He hit a button and the video played. In it, Noah could see the train take off, rocking, and Haven leaned over. It was obvious he was throwing up. On the right-hand portion of the screen an armed soldier coalesced, weapon at shoulder, ready to protect Haven.
“Oh, poor Haven,” Raine breathed. “The movement must have upset him. And when he threw up, he created a guardian. I’ve never seen it happen, like that.”
Noah looked at Rose. “That is a very dangerous piece of footage you have right there. If anyone else sees it…”
Rose held up a hand, his eyes flashing angrily. “You don’t think I know that? This entire situation is fucked up ten ways to Sunday and now I have to find a diamond in the rough not contaminated by greed and glory to hand it over to you people. I’m enjoying this as much as you are, believe me, and I’m so far over my jurisdiction lines it isn’t even funny. Deputy Director Dumont likes Elizabeth Cole a lot, so he’s giving me some leeway. At some point I will clothesline myself on the end of the rope, though.”
Yeah, Noah could see that the man was frazzled.
“So, where is he now?” he asked, turning back to Poole.
“He got off at Grand Central and now he’s heading in this general direction.”
“Where is Hall?” Raine asked. “Did he make to the city?”
Rose nodded, looking a little calmer. “He did. He has a penthouse overlooking Central Park and he’s been there for an hour. The same people that left DC with him were seen with him walking into the building.”
“Do we know who the woman is yet?” Noah asked.
“No, WE don’t,” Rose said, glaring a little. “We can’t find anything on her. She’s a ghost.”
“Haven called her Belladonna, at one point.”
Rose looked at Poole, who started tapping into the computer. They all watched Poole’s face move through a series of expressions, ending on quizzical as he finally paused. “I have a Donna that looks kind of similar. She was a former Army nurse. Is this her?”
He turned the screen. The woman looked similar, but none of them could say definitively that it was her. The hair was different, both in color and cut. Body shape was similar. If they had a better facial picture to compare…
“Go ahead and research her,” Rose told him. “We don’t have any other leads.”
Haven stepped into an alleyway and looked back at the mass of people moving around him. The sheer numbers…
Leaning against the brick, he looked at the tourist map in his hands, recalibrating. He had an idea where the woman was, a direction, but he hadn’t been able narrow it down other than Northwest. He could feel power, but he couldn’t articulate exactly what kind of power. He just knew that he needed to find her.
When he’d created the disturbances in Washington, he’d hoped she would feel him like he could feel her, but apparently it didn’t work that way. Or maybe she was unable to react to what he’d done. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t respond to him like she had in his room.
Hunger gnawed at his gut. Once he’d come out of his fugue and started eating, his body had begun to demand more and more sustenance. It had been hours since he’d eaten anything. He hated to steal but if he had to, he would. Maybe he could create just a small disturbance, enough to snag something from one of the food vendors littered along the street. When he’d tried to hand the cabbie a stack of torn newspaper, the man had known immediately it wasn’t cash. Either the cabbie had had a very strong mind or Haven’s manifestations weren’t as good close up like that. He didn’t know. If he got hungry enough, he might have to try the fake money thing again.
Pushing away from the wall, Haven looked up and down the street. Every single person out here looked like they would rather kill you than help you, so he knew there would be no sense asking for help. There were a good many homeless people on the streets, but it didn’t look like they were getting a lot of help either. He fought his anxiety, hanging onto his purpose by a fingernail.
Turning in the direction of the power source he’d been bot
hered by for the past few days, he started walking again. People jostled him and he cringed away, his fear ratcheting up. What he wouldn’t give for one of Nurse Raine’s sedative-laced Cokes right now.
Chapter 5
“I think we have something,” Poole murmured. “Donna Frame. She was in the Army as a nurse, but was honorably discharged four years ago. Since then she’s dropped off the grid. No bills, no last known locations. But it looks like the same woman.”
He blew up a few pictures on the screen and Raine leaned in close. Yes, it did look like the same woman. “So, what’s she been doing for four years?”
No one answered her. They didn’t have any idea.
Raine sighed, moving to look out the windows. All the way down the street to the right she thought she could see a glimpse of green and brown. Or maybe that was her imagination. Pulling out her phone she looked up their spot on the map. Oh! Central Park was in that direction. Maybe it actually was there.
Moving to one of the padded chairs she sat down, ready to wait. The men were leaning over Poole, looking at something else on the screen. Her eyes kept drifting back to Noah’s looming shape. He was taller and broader than any of the men in the room, and she had to wonder if Agent Rose, or Officer, whatever, was feeling a little defensive. He wasn’t a small man, by any means, but Noah was just more physically imposing. The guy could probably bench press his own SUV.
Raine’s phone rang and she dug it out of her pocket. Elizabeth.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Are you with Rose?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Put me on speaker phone.”
Raine punched a button on her screen. “Go ahead.”
“Okay, hello everyone. Aiden and Duncan have been talking to a couple of their contacts, and given what information Noah gave us, we might have someone to help us out. Noah, do you remember if the guy who refused to deal with Damon was General Alan Holtman, Air Force. He’s…”
“…the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
There was a moment of silence as the name sank in. “I’m sorry,” Raine asked. “Is he pretty high up?”
Noah looked at her, frowning. “Second highest military official in the country.”
Her mouth dropped open and she felt incredibly stupid. Way to go showing your country, Raine.
“I do think that’s the name,” Noah said, nodding once. “I wasn’t there at the time, I just overheard a phone call between Anton and his assistant.”
“Okay. We’re researching him and we might approach him. Rose? What are your thoughts?”
“I think we’re taking a risk by approaching anyone in government.” Officer Rose sighed and folded his arms over his chest. “Holtman is a pain in my ass. But only because he’s such a stickler for the rules. He wouldn’t be my first choice as a champion but he’s not the worst, either. He’s definitely in a position to pull strings for your group. And he supports veterans' causes every chance he gets.”
“What are my chances of getting a meeting with him?” Wulfe asked, German accent thick.
Rose shifted, folding his arms over his chest. “Slim to none. I believe he’s in-country but I don’t know if you can get anywhere near him.”
“Damn…”
“Sounds like a challenge. I’ll take care of it,” Wulfe said, voice tinny on the other end of the line.
There was hissed murmuring and Raine had a feeling Elizabeth might be reading Wulfe the riot act. The thought made her smile and she looked at Noah. There was humor in his expression as well, though he was a little more guarded. They waited for the doctor and her husband to finish. “You know I’m right, Elizabeth,” they heard Wulfe say.
There was a huff or agreement, and she came back on the line. “Aiden is listening for unusual calls to the PD, but they’re a little harder to wade through.”
“I can do it. I kind of already have,” Poole admitted. “Once I saw the kind of stuff he was doing in DC I started monitoring local calls and tweaked a program to catch the oddballs.”
Raine looked at Poole, impressed. The guy wasn’t much to look at but at least he had a brain in his head.
“There’s only been one kind of curious call,” he continued. “A guy had three hotdogs stolen by what he thinks was a guy in a bear outfit.”
Raine’s eyes widened. “A guy in a bear outfit.”
“Exactly,” Poole said, pointing a finger at her. “It happened just a few minutes ago on the southern edge of Central Park. The bear guy ate the hotdogs and disappeared into thin air.”
Her heart began to race and she pointed out the window. “That Central Park?”
“Yeah.”
She looked at Noah, but he held up a hand. “Don’t get too excited,” he cautioned her. “Central Park is 843 acres of joggers, nannies, bums and pickpockets. It’s not a park you can walk through or around in a day. We need more exact information before we go running off…”
Raine sighed, knowing he was right. Hating he was right. Haven was out there, alone. She had no doubt that the ‘bear’ stealing hotdogs had been him, and she worried about him. If they didn’t find him today, this afternoon, she corrected glancing at her watch, would he have to sleep on the street somewhere? He had no money, otherwise he wouldn’t have risked stealing.
She wished she knew what was going on in his head.
“I think we should find Senator Hall and his mystery woman,” Noah said into the silence. “It’s across the street from the park. We know Haven is trying to get the man’s attention for some reason. I say we stake it out and watch for him. It’s better than sitting here.”
“Yes,” Raine said firmly.
Noah’s mouth lifted in a slight smile. He knew she was ready to get out of the apartment.
“Okay,” Rose said. “I’ve got an angle I’m working on. I’ll meet you back here in a while. Cross.”
Noah glanced at him.
“Don’t get into more trouble than I can get you out of.”
Noah laughed and held a hand out to Raine. “We’ll be fine.”
She moved quickly, taking his huge hand in her own as she snatched up her backpack. Heat flowed through her as she felt the strength in his hard fingers. Without a backward glance they left the apartment.
Raine couldn’t help but giggle a little as they got on the elevator. “We’re off like a herd of turtles. I feel like I’m breaking out of the house and going dancing after my mother told me no.”
Noah chuckled. “Well, it’s hard to tell what we’ll get into with Haven on the loose and behaving the way he is, but I’ll try to fit in some dancing somewhere.”
Raine loved his broad, bright smile. Normally he was pretty somber and intimidating, but she was seeing this side of him just a little more often.
Her mother would have said he had a good heart. Raine wished for the ten millionth time that she was still alive, but it wasn’t to be. Last Christmas when Haven had allowed them to see their loves ones in the Holiday room, it had been…precious. That short half minute of time would live in her heart as one of her favorite memories. Over the years, she’d begun to forget things about her mother. And as she aged, Raine realized that memories became etched more sharply as an adult than as a child. The beautiful moments in life were more poignant.
As they went down the elevator, Raine looked over at Noah. “Thank you for not fighting me about coming. Haven is important to me.”
“I know,” he said softly as they exited.
They hailed a cab and scrambled in. Noah gave the man an idea of where they wanted to go and they took off. Raine watched the traffic and especially the people as they passed, intrigued in spite of herself. “There are so many people,” she breathed. “And they barely look at one another.”
“Approximately twenty-seven thousand people per square mile.”
She looked at Noah, her mouth agape. “Are you serious?”
He nodded, watching out the window. “Thousands of incredibly soft targets just wa
iting to be controlled.”
She looked back out the window, understanding what he meant. All of these people were so busy wrapped up in their own personal bubbles. If some…entity, be it a company or a country, or a flippin’ US senator, managed to create a super soldier, it would be incredibly easy to control these soft targets. Raine didn’t consider herself a soldier or anything, but Daddy had made sure that she knew how to use both long guns and handguns. If she had to, she could go out in the woods and provide for herself. She doubted any of these people could.
The size of the buildings stacked around her was just as incredible as the amount of people. She’d never seen anything so tall. Yeah, they had skyscrapers in Nashville, but nothing this tall, she didn’t think. Then they turned a corner and started driving alongside a park. They drove through probably a dozen intersections before Noah finally indicated to the driver to pull over, but she could tell they were nowhere near the end of the park itself. She glanced at her phone, trying to see if they were closer to Senator Hall’s address, and they were. It was just down the street. If Haven was going to do something again this was probably a very good place to be.
Stepping out of the car she breathed in the scents wafting around her. New York was an incredible place. There were several restaurants every block, it seemed, and right here where they were standing, she could identify several different food carts nearby. There was also the overwhelming scent of people— some with too much perfume or cologne, others with none. Laundry scents. It was such a mélange of everything. She lost track of how many people passed them by talking into the earbud mics on their phones.
Raine jerked when a hand settled on her arm. She looked up at Noah, realizing he’d been talking to her. “Sorry, it’s just all so distracting,” she told him with a smile.
Noah wasn’t smiling, though. “I need you to stick with me. You have just as good as a chance to spot Haven as I do. And we need to figure out what is going on with him.”
