They were led into what looked like a meeting room, almost similar to the one at the Silver Shield headquarters. There were large screens covering all the walls but one.
“Sit. The boss will be with you,” they were told and then were left alone. Well, as alone as they could be when there were cameras monitoring them.
Emily met Ace’s gaze across the table. He was also alert. At the first opportunity they got, they were busting out of the place. She scanned around the room, there were no windows so whatever escape they planned would have to be through the door. They had no firearms, but that was no deterrent. She glanced at Wayne and wondered briefly if he would be able to keep up, then something struck her. He did not seem the least bit worried. For a guy whose life was in danger, he did not seem as nervous and anxious as he should be, definitely not the way he’d been when he had come to her for help.
Just then the door opened and three people walked in. Two men and one woman. Emily looked from one face to the other and recognized them immediately. The men were both tall and handsome and from their skin it was obvious to see that they spent a lot of time outdoors. Actually, the woman as well, only she was about the same height as Emily.
The dark haired one was Asher Banks, the owner of the charter flight. He smiled at them and said without preamble, “Sorry for the reception, we needed to be sure you were clear.”
She recognized the voice as well, he was the one who had given the orders at the airfield.
“Why? We only needed your space for landing,” Emily said, not a bit amused. “If we’re clear now, we’ll need to be on our way.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” the woman said.
Emily turned her gaze to the woman, Jasmine Winter. She was an extreme sports champion and owned a line of sporting gear for women that was insanely popular because of how versatile they were. Emily owned a few things from her Xtreme Jaz line. They were stretchy, tough and stylish.
“I need an explanation, Ms. Winter,” Emily said in a calm and patient tone that was far from how she felt.
She saw the flicker of surprise in the woman’s face. One gift Emily had was the ability to recognize faces even after seeing them just once. She had a photographic memory when it came to faces and names. She never forgot one.
“Do you know who we all are?” Asher asked.
“I know you, Mr. Banks, as well as Jasmine Winter.” She pointed to the third man with intense sky blue eyes and blonde hair. He had been silent until then, giving her a penetrating stare that was slightly disturbing. “This is Simeon Jansen.” He was a retired jockey, but he bred race horses in a large spread somewhere in the south. She knew who they all were on an individual level, but what she didn’t understand was what they were all doing there. Together.
She guessed that it had something to do with Wayne. Maybe they had heard about the weapon and wanted to get their hands on it to sell it on the black market. She made a mental note to get a background check done on them.
“I guess you’re wondering why we’re here,” Asher said.
“No, why on earth would I be wondering that?” Seriously she did not have time for this bullshit.
She saw humor flash in Simeon’s eyes, but it was gone in an instant. Asher paused, then said mildly, “There’s no need for sarcasm, Sarge.”
“There is no need for this bullshit, Banks. You’re wasting my time and we both know it. Now either you explain to me what this is all about or you get the hell out of my way.”
She was done playing nice.
“I think you should explain to her, Carter,” Asher said with a small smile as they all took their seats around the table.
Emily turned to Wayne, her impatience clear.
“I did tell you that Asher and I go way back. Actually, we all do.”
“How far back?” she wanted to know.
“Thirteen years ago we were part of a covert team that operated in the Middle East. We were called the Shadow Force.”
“Bullshit!”
Ace’s quietly spoken words drew their attention to him.
“Ace?” Emily wanted to know what he was thinking, even though she had a good idea.
“Shadow Force does not exist. It was only legend. There is no existing record of that team and no one has ever met a member of the Shadow Force.”
Back in the army, Emily had heard about the Shadow Force. A covert military team that was so secret they did not exist. There was nothing on record about them. So deep in the shadows were they that they struck and were out before anyone knew what was going on. There had been a running debate as to whether they existed or not. Most people felt it was just military legend. Emily had always had her doubts.
“That is what everyone was supposed to think,” Jasmine said. “There are eight of us and we all retired seven years ago. There are just five of us left.” She paused for a moment as a cloud of melancholy settled on her face. Then she shook it off and went on. “A few days ago, we were called out of retirement. Four of us signed up.”
“What about the last one?” Emily asked.
Jasmine shrugged. “She has other priorities to consider now. A family to protect. Anyway, she opted out.”
Emily nodded. She could understand that.
“I still don’t understand. There are several covert missions that were attributed to Shadow Force, like the sudden death of the military head of state of a certain North African country.”
“Or the sudden disappearance of the leader of the extremist group in Syria,” Ace added. “But I searched the records and there is absolutely no reference to the Shadow Force. There is no way you can exist.”
They exchanged amused glances. “The United States government does not like to get its hands dirty,” Wayne said with a wry smile. “There are certain things that cannot be traced back to the government, yet they must be handled. That’s where we come in.”
Emily was not impressed. In fact, she became even more incensed. “Tell me something, Wayne. How is it that you had all these resources and skills and you let our daughter stay in the hands of her captors for seven years? Why the hell did you do nothing to get her out?”
Wayne sat back in his seat and she could see the defeat outlined all over his face.
“There was nothing I could do, Emily,” he said tiredly.
“Like hell.” She knew what she would have done if she’d had even the slightest hint of her child’s whereabouts. She would have moved heaven and earth.
“As long as I did nothing, she was safe,” Wayne said.
Emily looked away from his gaze to find the others looking at her. She waved a hand to encompass the others.
“You’ve got them. Why did you come to me?” Then the obvious truth hit her. “Wait…it’s because of Kendra, isn’t it?”
“Emily—” Wayne tried to speak, but Emily held up her hand as anger blazed through her.
“I am the only one with the sort of motivation and skills you need for whatever mission you’re up against. You know I would do anything to get my daughter out, even if it means keeping you and your weapon safe.”
He had no response.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She kept her voice even with a lot of effort. “I always knew you were an asshole, Carter, but this…this is too much even for you.”
When he remained silent, she got up and walked out of the room. She had no idea where she was going, but she just knew she needed some privacy to calm the storm that was raging inside. Her eyes burned from unshed tears. But she was all cried out. She had wept like a baby after her daughter had gone missing. Then wept again when she’d noticed her husband slowly withdrawing, leaving her feeling the loneliest she’d ever felt in her life. Her final tears were when her divorce had become final. After that, she’d swore to herself that she was never going to cry again. Crying had not brought her daughter back and it had not stopped Wayne from leaving.
Now she could see that he’d actually done her a favor by leaving.
&nb
sp; She ended up in a garden with a gazebo attached to it. She walked in and leaned against the wall. There was so much to take in, not least of all was the startling revelation that Wayne had been part of the elusive Shadow Force.
How was it possible to have loved someone as much as she’d loved him and yet known so little about him? She shook her head as she fought the pain that threatened to overwhelm her. She was slowly beginning to realize that all those years she’d been married to a stranger.
She heard movement and opened her eyes to find herself staring into the piercing blue eyes of Simeon Jansen. Somehow, he had walked up to her and she hadn’t heard a thing. He was either really good or she was more distressed than she realized. She supposed it was a bit of both.
She folded her arms and watched him in silence. He was the one to approach her so if he had something to say, he needed to get on with it. As though reading her mind, his lips quirked in amusement. Then he sobered up.
“You need to cut him some slack. You don’t know everything,” he said at last.
“If that’s what you came out here to tell me, you can save your breath. I’m not interested.”
He studied her for several moments in silence. “You know, I always wondered why he couldn’t get over you and move on with his life. Now I see why.”
Emily read the appreciation deep in his eyes and stiffened. She frankly did not give a damn about any of them at the moment. As far as she was concerned, they were all complicit.
“If I had a woman as fierce and as beautiful as you, I wouldn’t let her go in a hurry either,” he said quietly. “I’m just saying, you need to listen to Carter. There might be a good reason why he did what he did.”
“There’s never a good reason to break trust.”
Emily saw the pain flash in his eyes for a brief moment, before he looked away. When he looked back, it was gone.
“No, but there’s always a good reason to forgive.”
She watched him walk away with mixed feelings. She did not know what to make of the man, but one thing she did know for sure was that she was never going to forgive Wayne. Never.
Chapter Five
Friday, 11 a.m., Center for Lethal Autonomous Robots, The Hague. Netherlands
“We have a problem on our hands,” Dr. Mila K. Mayer, associate professor of Robotics and head of the Center for Lethal Autonomous Robots, said as she walked into the conference room and addressed the four other people seated at the table. “The project has been leaked and the man has gone missing.”
There was a pause and then she felt the shock ripple across the people in the room.
“What do you mean, missing?” one of the men asked.
Mila directed her icy blue gaze at him. “It means that we lost contact.”
“When was the last time you made contact?” The question was asked with a thick German accent.
Mila glanced at the woman who had asked it. “Over thirty-eight hours ago.”
There was silence.
The situation was bad. It was beyond bad. It was grave.
“The project was about eighty percent complete?” another man asked.
“Actually, it was ninety-eight percent complete,” Mila said. “As you already know, in the wrong hands this could start another world war. Therefore, it is imperative that we get hold of it immediately.”
“I suppose you’ve already made plans?” the German woman asked.
“But of course, Frau Schmidt.” Mila glanced at the slim platinum watch on her slender wrist. “It should be five a.m. in New York now. Our contact will be retrieving the prototype as well as the plans shortly.”
“You believe he has it on his person?” the third man asked.
“I believe it would take a lot of subterfuge to get it off him.”
“Is he married? Does he have children? We could, ah, appeal to him to surrender the prototype for their sakes?” Frau Schmidt asked with an upraised eyebrow.
Mila knew what she was asking, of course. She looked around the room at the others and saw various expressions on their faces. While most seemed in agreement with the Frau’s line of thinking, one of them had a slight look of distaste on his face. She was not surprised. He wouldn’t want to get his hands dirty.
She made eye contact with everyone seated around the table. It was important they understood what she was about to say.
“The man is dangerous. He is an intellectual who is also a killing machine, which makes him doubly dangerous. It would be wise to not get him riled up. He has a network with deep tentacles. We would not want to give him a reason to come after us.”
She paused to give her statement a moment to sink in. Once she was sure that they understood what she meant, she nodded.
“We will do everything within our power to ensure that it does not fall into the wrong hands.”
The others stood up.
“I will be wanting updates, Dr. Mayer,” Frau Schmidt said.
“But of course,” Mila said with a slight nod.
She smiled briefly as she saw them out. Once they were gone, she left the conference room and walked into her office.
“There is going to be a bidding on Monday,” a man said, walking in after her.
Mila made no reply. She sat behind her desk before looking up at the tall man standing before her. Pieter De Vries was a young South African who worked closely with her. He was a physicist who studied chaos theory as it applied to artificial intelligence and was one of the most brilliant minds she’d ever worked with. He was also a brilliant lover.
“Where?”
“Washington,” Pieter replied.
“Do we know the organizers?”
He shook his head. “They are not on the usual list of suspects,” he said with a wry smile.
Mila smiled back. “It’s so hard keeping track. A new set spring up practically every day. I take it these ones are just in it for the money, no idealistic or religious goal?”
“None that I know of,” he said, walking towards her.
He sat at the edge of her table facing her and she immediately felt her body react to him. He had a magnetism that pulled her and sucked her in so that she often forgot that she had a good fifteen years on him.
“Get Anna to move our flight to Washington by two days,” she said.
“I will.” He got to his feet and pulled her up.
“What are you doing?” Mila asked, licking her lips nervously. She could feel the table pressing at her from behind.
Pieter dropped to his knees and gently raised the mid-length skirt she was wearing until it was high above her knees.
“I have a desire to taste you, Mila. Are you okay with that?”
She felt the pull deep in her abdomen and was sure she was already wet between her thighs. “Is the door locked?” she asked, her voice deep and throaty.
“Always.”
She gasped as she felt the hot breath from his mouth on her thighs. This was why she’d given up on wearing undies. She spread her legs apart to give him better access then leaned back on the table with a sigh. She could worry about world peace and chaos later, she thought as her mind went blank with pleasure.
Just then her private phone rang. She reached for it and glanced at the ID. She had to take this.
“Should I stop?” Pieter asked.
“Not at all.” She was so close. She moaned as his tongue found a sensitive spot. Taking a deep breath, she answered the call. “Hello?”
“I have the target in my sight,” the voice at the other end said.
“Good.” She sucked in a breath as Pieter’s very creative tongue flicked her clit, sending waves of sensation down her body. She focused on the conversation. “Any leverage?”
“There’s the ex-wife.”
“You think that would be effective?”
“More than was originally estimated.”
Hmm…That information was definitely going to prove useful. She spread her legs a bit more and looked down at Pieter’s face planted
between her thighs. She could feel her orgasm coming, but she held it back.
“There’s going to be an auction on Monday,” she said, her tone clipped from the effort to control her orgasm.
“I know.”
“Once you have it, eliminate the target.”
There was a brief pause then, “Okay.”
“Make sure nothing goes wrong.”
“Okay.”
Just then, she felt Pieter’s hands on her bare ass. He pressed her closer to his mouth and began to do amazing things there. His teeth scraped over her sensitive flesh and she almost screamed at the sharp pleasure she felt.
“I’ll talk to you later,” she said and disconnected the call just in time as a wave of pleasure slammed through her. She bit her lips, moving her hips in time to the rhythm he’d set and allowed herself to crest.
**
Friday, 6:10 a.m., somewhere in New York
“So you’re saying my daughter is right here in this city, you know that for sure?” Emily stared at each of the Shadow Force people.
“We have her exact location,” Asher said.
She kept her face expressionless, but her heart began to beat with hope. The kind that she hadn’t dared to have in a long while. She found it difficult to believe that in as little as a day or two, she could have her little girl back again. She decided to put a lid on the excitement and focus.
“How long do we need to keep you safe, Wayne?” she asked, turning a cold glance at him. She still could not look at him without seeing his treachery.
“Just until the World Convention on Autonomous Weapons in Washington five days from now,” he replied.
“Okay, so we need to get you to Washington.”
“Not just me. I’m speaking there on the project I’ve been working on and I’ll be doing a demonstration. The prototype and the plans need to be safe.”
“That means until you give your talk, we won’t be out of the woods.” They would have to be on their toes the entire time, Emily thought.
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