Blood Oath (32 page)

Wyman could believe what he wanted. It was no longer Griff’s job to convince him of the true shape of the world.

His hand dropped away from his sidearm.

“May I go now, Mr. Vice President?”

Wyman still looked confused. He frowned, then waved Griff off as if washing his hands of him.

“You’re a fool,” he said, and stalked back to the protection detail.

Griff started for the gate. He figured he could have gotten at least two shots in when he had Wyman off by himself. Head and heart, for sure. Maybe even three, before the agents would have taken him down.

He wasn’t convinced Wyman didn’t deserve it. It was still possible the little worm was dangerous and needed to be stomped flat before he could do real harm.

But the worst part was, Griff didn’t feel like it was his job anymore.

H
elen went to the office after the emergency room, even though it wasn’t yet five a.m. Ken tried to help her into her chair. She shook him off irritably. She was not in a good mood. Despite the painkillers and two pints of blood pumped into her, the stitches in her neck hurt like hell.

Cade must have tripped the alarm on his way out, because Ken was in her apartment before she could bleed to death. He took her to the closest hospital just in time. Unfortunately, it was not the Company-controlled clinic. Her black ops status was useless when dealing with bureaucracy. She spent six hours stuck behind a curtain as gunshot wounds, drug ODs and heart attacks were treated all around her.

Around three in the morning, the cops showed up at the ER to question her about her possible “suicide attempt.” Her badge was finally useful; she was able to flash it at the officers and get released.

Ken took her home, then back to the office. She didn’t know what she was going to do. Cade was still alive. Which meant she was fucked. Konrad would never give her the Elixir now, would never trust her to deal with Cade again.

Her phone kept ringing. Ken finally answered it.

“Reyes,” he said, after he’d hung up. “Says he’s got some good news for us.”

“Isn’t that fucking peachy.”

Ken shut up after that.

A few minutes later, Reyes entered the office. He looked at the gauze on her neck, but knew better than to say anything.

“Well?” she asked.

“We have the kid,” he said.

Helen’s jaw unclenched. Maybe the painkillers were working after all. Things were looking up.

 

 

HELEN ENTERED the interrogation room, where Zach was shackled to a chair behind a table, both bolted to the floor.

He’d fallen asleep, facedown on the wood, like a freshman pulling his first all-nighter.

“Morning,” she said cheerfully.

He sat up quickly, blinking. He looked at the bandage around her throat. “You must have had a fun night.”

Helen smiled even wider. “Nothing compared to the fun we’re going to have today. Coffee?” she asked. She had two cups in her hand from the kitchen on the second floor.

She put the cup in his shackled hands. He had just enough play in the chain to bring it to his lips. Then stopped. He looked at her, and set the cup down.

“No, thanks,” he said.

So. Not as dumb as he looked. Or as any of his actions up to this point would indicate.

Helen sat down at the table and sipped, taking her time.

“Don’t I get a phone call?” he asked.

“Zach,” she said, a scolding tone in her voice. “You’re not under arrest. In fact, you’re not even here. You don’t exist.”

She leaned back, let that sink in. “And if you don’t exist ... well, who would you call? You can see the problem.”

Zach glared. “You can’t do that.”

“Oh, poor baby. We already did. You’re an enemy combatant, Zach. None of the rules apply to you.”

“I work for the President of the United States—”

“That was back when you existed.”

Zach closed his mouth and glared at her.

“Where’s Cade?”

He shrugged. “How the hell should I know? I don’t exist.”

“You are adorable. I have such fun talking to you.”

“Yeah, me too. Shame you tried to kill me.”

“The bomb? You’re taking that way too seriously.”

“I’m funny that way.”

“You’ve been keeping bad company. If you weren’t hanging out with Cade, you never would have been in danger. I told you, you’re on the wrong side.”

“Oh, I see. You tried to blow me up for my own good.”

“You’re safe now.”

Zach looked down at his cuffed hands, then at the locked steel door. “Yeah. I feel safe.”

“Don’t call me a liar, Zach,” Helen said, her voice flat. “There’s nothing to stop me from putting your brains all over that wall. You’re safe as long as I say.”

Zach stared at her like he was trying to see the inside of her head. “Who are you people anyway?”

“We keep everyone safe. That’s all you need to know. But in order to do that, we need you to tell us where to find Cade. We need your help. I need your help, Zach.”

Zach shrugged. He was breaking down. She could feel it.

He reached for the coffee. Brought it up to his lips.

Helen smiled.

He threw the cup at her, aiming for her eyes.

She was faster, of course. She was out of her chair as soon as he twitched, and, anyway, the coffee had cooled. All Zach managed to do was splash her suit jacket.

Her
brand-new
suit jacket.

Her pretty face twisted into a feral snarl. “You little shit,” she hissed. She reached for her pistol, drew it back, ready to beat him across the face with it.

Then she froze. Remembered the cameras in the ceiling. Thought about Control, how he could be watching, even now. She tamped down her rage and considered her options.

Zach, still alive, and still a threat if he got back to D.C. And even more of a threat if someone higher up came to question him. She couldn’t let him go, couldn’t keep him.

Cade. Still out there. Konrad would never meet his end of the deal if he found out. And he would find out eventually, because Cade was a fucking mad dog, he just wouldn’t stop. He’d be back on Konrad by nightfall, if he wasn’t at the doctor’s house already.

The very existence of Zach in this room, the continued survival of Cade out in the world, they were evidence of her betrayal of the Company. She couldn’t let them live. But she couldn’t kill Zach, not without bringing down the wrath of both the Company and the White House. And without the Shadow Company’s resources, she had no hope in hell of destroying Cade.

Then there was Reyes and Ken, and they knew everything she’d been doing. Control would find out she’d triggered the bomb at the safe house, despite his orders.

Too many loose ends; the slightest tug on any of them, and everything would unravel. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be immortal by now.

Instead, she was trapped.

Then it came to her: she had the solution, right here, in this building. A way to tie it off, staunch the bleeding long enough to get her reward. It would work. It had to work.

Abruptly, she holstered her pistol again, and left the room.

She found Reyes and Ken still sitting in her office.

She snapped her fingers at Reyes. “You got his phone.”

He nodded. She waited half a second, then snapped again. “Well, give it to me.”

He fumbled it out of his jacket, handed it over.

“Get out,” she told them.

Ken hesitated. “What are you going to do?”

She began dialing. “I’m finishing this.”

T
ania checked her watch. Just after six. Sunrise was supposed to be an hour away, but already the sky above was turning pink. In less than sixty minutes, daylight would start burning over the horizon.

The skylight would focus those rays down into the room. There was no corner they wouldn’t reach. She might be able to delay the inevitable, but as the sun progressed across the sky the whole room would eventually be illuminated.

Then she would die. The blood in her body would solidify. Her skin would wither and crack, and draw about her like a vise. Her eyes would turn to dust. Her bones would split like dry kindling.

She would feel every second of it.

She was going to die in agony.

The door to the atrium snapped off its hinges.

Cade stood there, perfectly calm.

Tania felt the urge to rush to him, to put her arms around him, almost like she was the silly little girl who’d first met Cade decades ago.

Then she remembered the collar and stayed put.

“Good timing,” she said, pointing to the skylight. “I thought you might put the grave robbery together with me if I just chose an appropriate body.”

“What are you talking about?” Cade asked.

“I ... Bela Lugosi’s grave. I thought you would—”

“I didn’t come here for you,” Cade said. “Whatever you did, I didn’t hear about it.”

Tania’s mouth dropped open. She closed it quickly. Of course he hadn’t. Stupid of her, to expect him to come charging to her rescue.

He never had. He never would.

“Where is he?” Cade demanded.

“Wish I knew,” Tania said. “He left me here to burn. I would gladly watch you pull his intestines out.”

“Why didn’t you do it yourself? It’s not like you to be so reluctant.”

She flicked the collar with one fingernail. “Six ounces of plastic explosive. It’s actually really humiliating, but he—”

Cade crossed the room before she could finish. He reached his hands to her neck, and while Tania was still frozen with shock, snapped the collar in two.

Tania winced for a moment, waiting for the explosion.

Nothing. The two pieces of the collar, broken cleanly at the lock, sat on the floor. Harmless.

“He lied,” she said, her eyes wide.

“It’s what he does,” Cade said, already walking away.

She caught up with him, feeling the empty spot around her neck.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“I didn’t.”

She stopped. “You didn’t.”

He realized she wasn’t moving, so he turned back to her, completely calm.

“There was no alternative. Either you would have died with it on or died taking it off. Seemed like the best thing to do was get it over with.”

“And you would have made that decision with your own neck on the line?”

“Of course,” Cade said, still damnably calm. “The alternative would be to become Konrad’s slave.”

She glared at him. Unperturbed, he walked away.

Tania considered the facts. Cade was right. And he wasn’t lying. He would have torn the collar off as soon as it was placed around his neck.

She understood, suddenly, why Konrad had said Cade never would have let it happen to him.

Cade was already out of the building. She hurried to catch up.

 

 

OUTSIDE THE CLINIC, Cade looked to the sky. He didn’t have much time. He might be able to make it to Konrad’s house if he hurried.

His diversion with Tania had cost him valuable time, but he justified it to himself by pretending there was a chance Konrad would be at his clinic.

Laughable. He had to admit it now, even if he couldn’t tell her he’d figured out her message. Holt had outplayed him. Now he was reduced to breaking down doors, looking for Konrad like a blind pig rooting for slop.

His phone rang. The call was from Zach. The boy must have been back in D.C. by now.

“This is not a good time,” he said.

“Someone simply must teach you how to answer the phone.”

It was Holt. Alive. And one step ahead of him, again.

Cade didn’t bother asking how she’d gotten Zach’s phone.

“Where is he?”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Holt said. “Even though you ran out on me. A girl could start to feel rejected, Cade.”

Cade was in no mood. She’d timed the call just right. Sunrise in a short while. No chance of finding her before then. “Where is he?”

She dropped the flirty tone. “Nothing for nothing. We want you to come in. Quietly. Your ass for his.”

“Where?”

“Do we have a deal?”

“Can we drop the charade? Tell me where he is. And I will be there. I know you will try to kill me. And you know nothing will stop me from coming for you.”

“Such a suspicious mind,” Holt said. But she gave him the address: the Federal Building, on Wilshire.

“Be here at sundown. Or we’ll send your boy back to the White House in a box.”

Cade hung up. He had no more time. He needed to find a place in the dark.

Tania spoke from behind him. “You look like shit, you know.”

He faced her. She stood there, waiting.

“Why are you still here?”

She thought that over. “Ask me again later.”

He started walking, tried to brush past her. “I’m working,” he said.

She put out a hand, gently, and stopped him.

“Wherever you’re going, you won’t make it,” Tania said. “Almost sunrise.”

Cade hesitated, unsure of what to do.

“And you’re exhausted,” she added. “You have a place to stay?”

Cade shrugged. “I’ll find a spot in an underpass somewhere,” he said. “Plenty of those around.”

Tania gave him a look. “I think we can do better than that.”

H
elen smirked as the phone went dead. She was starting to get the idea that Cade actually disliked her.

Whatever. It wouldn’t be her problem much longer.

She buzzed Ken and Reyes back into the office.

Konrad didn’t know Cade wasn’t dead, and there was no one who would tell him. She might still be able to pull this off.