A Highlander for Christmas (48 page)

“But there were other bodies found in the wreckage. What happened to them? You didn’t—”

“Kill them?” He shook his head grimly. “There are ways, my love.” Her father touched her face gently. “That bit of jungle isn’t the easiest area to search, and the local teams had almost no equipment. Thanks to incessant rains and two mudslides, the physical evidence was nearly useless. I’d planned it that way, of course.”

Something warm dropped onto Maggie’s hand. She realized it was a tear. Whether hers or her father’s she could not say.

He was alive. He was here.

And he hadn’t trusted her with the truth.

Her throat tightened, burning painfully. “But why? Was it all some game?”

“I’m sorry, Maggie. God help me, I wish I could have done things differently. But these men have no morals. An enemy to one of them is an enemy to all of them. They are very powerful and my death was the only way to keep you safe.”

She pulled away from him, struggling to understand. He must have planned his disappearance for months. “What do they want from you?”

“What men have always wanted. Power, information. Control over other men.” He caught her hands, frowning at the red welt along her palm. “This is new?”

She nodded, too confused by emotion to speak.

“You’ve got to be more careful. I’ve always warned you to be careful, but you never listened.”

Nothing had changed, Maggie thought. Her father was still the genius, still teaching, badgering, and controlling her.

Except now he’d put her life and a dozen others into danger At that moment Maggie saw Daniel Kincade exactly as he was—a passionate man with great weaknesses.

His eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You have the ring I gave you in London?”

Maggie nodded slowly.

“You studied the facets, I take it?”

She frowned. “They were badly formed. I couldn’t understand why Anders—or you—would have called it beautiful. For some reason there was an extra row of facets just above the crown.”

He looked pleased at her answer. “And another row at the base. Too small for beauty, but for my purpose they were perfect. It’s all about light, Maggie.” His hands closed urgently. “If a focused beam is sent through those rows of facets at the proper angle, the light is distorted.”

“Distorted how?”

“A complete shift. With proper tools that light can disrupt all nearby electromagnetic fields. Do you understand what that means?”

“No radios. No televisions,” she slowly.

“That and a thousand other things. It changes our world and all of our communications. With that new microwave technology, everything changes, Maggie. Do you understand? It strengthens us—and it cripples our enemies. But I’d only been able to produce a limited area of distortion. I needed a different facet arrangement to broaden the angle and enhance the effect. I’ve been working on the arrangement for a long time.” When she didn’t answer, he frowned at her. “Don’t you understand what this could mean, Maggie? It would be the ultimate power. Can’t you realize the advantage it would give an attacking army in war?”

Maggie’s whole body felt stiff and cold. She pushed away from him, locking her arms over her waist. “Who
are
you?” she whispered. “All you talk about is war and power and control. I don’t know you. I see now that I never did.”

His face hardened. “My design work was real enough. I loved the jewels and their history. But I always wanted to see more, to understand everything. That’s how I was recruited twenty-five years ago, because I was smart and tough and curious. I used all my friendships and my contacts, and I won’t apologize for it,” he said coldly. “I believe in everything I did and the country I did it for.”

“And just what country was that?” Maggie whispered.

“You can ask me such a question?” His body stiffened sharply. “You think I would betray my own government?”

“I don’t know anything about you. How could I when you never told me the truth?”

“I
couldn’t
,” he said urgently. “All my research was kept secret, closely monitored by a military team. But three years ago things began to change. The reports I wrote were taken away unread, and the chain of command changed. I was ordered to report to one man. I learned that he was part of a group—determined to control my discoveries. I played along at first, hoping for a look at their complete network. It is staggering, Maggie. They have believers in a dozen continents and a dozen armies, and their loyalty borders on madness.” He made an impatient sound, achingly like the sound she had heard him make on a dozen occasions when he was inspecting a flawed stone or a carelessly formed setting.

That single sound told Maggie more than hours of explanations.
This
was the father she remembered, a man always quick to criticize a competitor’s work. The same father who had never had time for his lonely daughter.

“I couldn’t take the chance of telling you, Maggie. The less you knew, the safer you would be. I believed that then and I believe it now.”

She tried to harden her heart. She tried to hate him for the cold-blooded decisions he had made. “Then why are you here?”

“Because I need the ring. I knew they were watching me in London, and I couldn’t chance it falling into the wrong hands. And when you appeared, I gave it to you. I knew the Scotsman would keep you safe. Otherwise, I’d never have taken such a risk. In case they found me, I wanted to be certain you would have the stones, Maggie. Perhaps someday you would unlock the full value of all I’d discovered.” He pulled off his glasses and bent forward urgently. “It’s in the stones, little peach. The power is in the cut. The right facets and gem material can do things beyond imagining.”

The stones.

Of course, that was the reason. If not for them she might never have known he was still alive. But Maggie couldn’t care about stones and their powers. She could only care about the man. “How did you change your face?” she whispered, seeing all that was familiar blurred over all that was different.

“Surgery. Exercises. Cosmetic implants. It’s not as difficult as you might imagine. I had access to a world which specializes in such things, remember? The trick was in seeing that my
real
identity was never revealed to those who did the surgical corrections. Then I had to make the exchange exactly at the moment Anders died. Everyone was astounded at his miraculous recovery, I can assure you. I had to substitute my own medical records, of course. The timing was everything. Now enough about the past,” he said grimly. “I have very little time before they trace me here. I have five names of those in London who are active at high levels, but I’m going to need the ring when I take my evidence to the authorities. It will be crucial to making my case believable.”

Gently Maggie pulled a silken string from beneath her sweater. On the end hung the ring that her father, as Anders, had given her that rainy night in London. “Take it. It’s yours anyway.”

His hands closed over hers almost angrily. “No, I told you the truth. It was meant to be yours. Everything I had was meant to be yours. It broke my heart when you sold my last stones, but you were wonderful. From what I’ve heard, you did a splendid job.”

“Don’t,” she said brokenly, not wanting to remember. She knew nothing of the shadow world he inhabited, and she wanted to remember her father as he had been, flawed but passionate. Honest and generous. Not this cold-eyed stranger with impossible tales of conspiracy and revenge.

“I love you, Maggie, and I loved your mother. My profession had nothing to do with that. But each year the jobs grew longer, the game more complex.”

“A game? Is that what it was to you?” She stared at him, cold and furious. “All those months you were gone and all the days that we missed you were simply a
game
?
”

He shook his head. “I considered it an honor to complete the work I was given. I won’t see everything I’ve discovered fall into the hands of zealots.”

“You came back too late. I’ve gotten over you, Daddy. I don’t think I want you back, not like this.” The words burned in her throat. “I can’t afford the damage you always seem to cause.”

“You can’t mean that.”

Snow swirled at the window as they stared at one another. In the sudden, trembling silence, Maggie heard a soft cough, followed by a knock at the door.

“Morwenna, is that you?”

The door opened, letting in a sprinkling of snow. “Oh, I beg your pardon. I wasn’t sure that anyone was here.” A small woman in a bright yellow ski parka stood on the steps, her shoulders covered with snow. “We’re lost. We were looking for Glenbrae House, but we must have taken the wrong road. You see, we’ve just driven up from Manchester and we couldn’t see anything in the snow.”

Maggie forced her voice to be level and calm. “If you want Glenbrae House, you need to take the next road down the hill.”

Abruptly something moved out in the snow. A gray form shot past the woman’s feet, and she cried out, stumbling against the doorway.

Daniel Kincade rose slowly. “Are you all right?”

“I think so. Whatever it was is gone now.” Snow drifted down over the loch as the woman sat up shakily. Her hand brushed at her temple. “It’s my head.”

“Let me help you.” Daniel Kincade helped her to a chair. “You haven’t hurt yourself, I hope.”

Her hands closed on his arm, and a dreamy, expectant look filled her smooth features. “No, I’m fine now,” she said. “Lovely, in fact.” Her fingers splayed open, working gently across his arm. “I’ll just rest here another moment if I may. I’d like to catch my breath, if that’s all right with you.”

“Of course,” Maggie said.

But her father pulled his hand from beneath the woman’s fingers. “You say you drove up from Manchester? There was bad weather all along that route. I heard that the roads were closed,” he said slowly.

Then he took a step back.

“Did you indeed?” The woman’s green eyes narrowed. “A slip on my part. I should have said we came in by boat. I wasn’t expecting you to notice. I was certain that your reunion with your daughter would distract you.”

His hand dove to his pocket, but her own was faster. Sunlight played over a small pistol as she circled the room carefully. “And now that we’ve established your identity at last, we’ll wait for the others. They have a great many questions to ask you, Mr. Kincade. While we wait, you’ll kindly step away from your daughter.”

“No.” Kincade moved with surprising speed for a man of his age, blocking Maggie with his body.

The woman frowned. “It’s quite pointless, I assure you. Neither of you will be going anywhere.”

“No, you’ve made the mistake,” Kincade said grimly. “You don’t dare to shoot me. Without what I have in my head, you and your ugly group are powerless.”

“Wrong again. Everything you know is now mine. All the details of the facet angles. All the important contacts in your government, and the names of our group whom you’ve discovered.” She smiled slowly. “I have a most unusual gift, you see. Through physical contact, I can register thoughts and emotions. With practice I’ve become quite good, I assure you.”

Maggie took a sharp breath. This description fit a gift she knew full well. But was there some connection between Jared and this woman?

“Yes, Ms. Kincade, I was certain that you would recognize the skill. Commander MacNeill is similarly gifted, though his abilities came from genetics and physical trauma, while mine came from training and careful chemical enhancements. His gift is far less reliable, I might add.” Her pistol angled up, pointed directly at Daniel’s chest. “So don’t overestimate your value to us, and don’t assume that because I’m a woman, I won’t act effectively. If you take one more step, I’ll drop you cold.”

Outside a car labored over the rocky hillside.

“Excellent.” The woman smoothed the fur at the collar of her parka. “Exactly on schedule. As a psychiatrist, I value punctuality.” She smiled, a gesture of cool, striking beauty. “And I find I’m quite looking forward to seeing Commander MacNeill again.”

~ ~ ~

“What are you doing
here
?”
Perpetua
glared at Morwenna, who was clambering over the drifting snow.

“I’ve come to tell you that I found Gideon. He was down by the loch.” She smiled calmly. “And to tell you that Maggie’s father arrived. I let him go inside so they could talk.” She clucked her tongue. “So many questions she must have after all these months. And they won’t have much time. He was trying to explain, saying something about a ring when the woman came.”

Perpetua
stiffened, one foot on a snowdrift. “What woman?”

“One in a yellow parka. From London, I expect, considering her accent.”

“You let her pass?”

Morwenna’s face fell. “I should have stopped her? You said only to watch for men, Pet. I never thought that…”

But Perpetua didn’t answer. She was
already crossing the snow, her stride remarkably swift for a woman of such advanced age.