HeatedMatch (24 page)

“Don’t be an ass,” Xander said. “You probably have broken
ribs and who knows what else.”

Loren caught a glimpse of Rowan’s face. He was frowning
slightly, but didn’t offer to carry her. He had to hate that his handicap
didn’t let him play the hero in this instance, despite all he had done to get
them this far.

Xander scooped her up easily. “Rowan, take the tail. Your
gun still have shots?”

“Yeah.” But he didn’t move.

“You okay?” Xander asked.

Rowan’s shoulders half shrugged. “Dunno. Never killed a
person before.”

Adam got in close to Rowan, placing a comforting hand on his
brother’s shoulder. “It’s never an easy thing. There will be time to deal with
it later. For now we need to move.” His words seemed to calm Rowan, who took a
deep breath.

“Let’s go,” Rowan said after a moment.

The four of them formed an odd parade, with Adam leading
them down a confusing maze of corridors. Not another human came into view, but
that didn’t stop all three men from hyperawareness and caution. It only took a
few minutes, but it seemed like an hour when Adam finally stopped in front of a
metal door with no handle.

“Emma.” Adam banged on the door. “Emma, it’s Adam. Your
rescue party is here.”

“It’s a finger scan,” Xander said in a low voice. He and Adam
exchanged a look and then Xander carefully set her down on the ground, slumped
against the wall. “Keep fighting the meds and trying to stand,” he said, then
took off in a fast sprint toward the direction they’d just come.

“What’s taking so long?” A woman’s voice came through the
door.

“My buddy’s getting the key.”

Key? Loren wondered how Xander knew where to find a key and
wished she hadn’t been curious because he returned shortly holding a slightly
bloody object in a gloved hand. Her stomach flopped over causing bile to rise.
She breathed it back, trying to remain as strong as possible.

Xander had the door open in a second and soon a young woman
with long brown hair in a braid down the center of her back rushed out of the
room. She wore nothing other than a long white undershirt and green scrubs
rolled at the ankles. The red on her toenails was chipped and peeling. “Adam!”
she cried and rushed into Xander’s arms. He held her gently, looking
discomfited at having to comfort a woman, especially in the middle of an op.

“
I’m
Adam, Emma.”

She raised her tear-streaked face from Xander’s chest and
smiled at Adam. “You did it. You’re the first bloke I’ve ever met who kept a
promise.” Then she looked up at the man who held her. “Who are you?”

“Xander.”

Everyone waited for him to add to his introduction, but he
was obviously a man of few words and shut his mouth after the one-word
introduction.

Adam leaned in a little closer to Emma. “Emma, in your
months here, did you ever hear Paulson mention children or babies? We think
Paulson has at least four children hidden somewhere on the grounds.”

She bit her lip. “They never spoke to me about anything, but
I did hear children’s cries on occasion through the window. I think the
building may have a courtyard.”

Xander nodded where he stood with his arms wrapped around
Emma. Loren thought it strange he hadn’t released her yet. He hadn’t struck her
as the touchy-feely type. “From the surveillance mapping we did, you’re correct
about the building shape. We’re currently in the basement on the east side of
the building.”

“We don’t leave without Christenson’s kid,” Adam said in a
hard voice. “Rowan, can you take Loren and Emma out of the building?”

“Emma stays with me,” Xander said.

“What?” Adam spun to look at his friend, but something in
Xander’s expression stopped any further protest. “Fine. We don’t have time to
argue. For all we know, Paulson has an entire army looking for us.”

Emma shook her head. “I only ever saw his two bullies. You
said he was trying to build an army. I don’t think he has one yet.”

Loren decided she liked this sensible young woman. She’d
obviously been through some trauma, but she was coping and already contributing
to the mission.

“Loren, how are your legs doing?” Adam asked.

She gave them a wiggle and pushed to a standing position
leaning heavily on the wall. “I can walk if I can lean on someone.”

Adam scowled. “It will have to be you, Ro. I’m still feeling
like I might fall over. Xander, you and Emma take east and south. Loren, Rowan
and I will take the north and west. Meet back here in fifteen.”

Rowan wrapped an arm around Loren’s waist and they started
shuffling as fast as they could, opening every door in the hallway. At the
third door, Adam stopped. He entered the room and returned a minute later with
green scrubs tied low on his hips. When he came back, he said, “We’re wasting
time. I slept on this floor last night and didn’t hear a single child or baby
cry. We need to move up a level to the courtyard.”

Loren agreed. “The public face of the clinic is all that
way,” she said and pointed. “Any windows the clients see face the parking lot
or exterior, not the courtyard.”

“Let’s get to the center of the building on any floor and
move from there,” Rowan said. They found a staircase and went up, but found
nothing on the upper level either. It was all routine-looking offices and loads
of filing cabinets. Loren longed to explore, but time was critical. “It’s
amazing,” she murmured.

“What is?” Rowan asked.

“How at first glance this looks like a wonderful clinic
doing much to help families, but it’s a front for evil.”

Adam’s gaze took in the floor-to-ceiling shelf of medical
books and another wall with pictures of newborns and their families. “It’s
almost meet-up time,” he said, turning away from the room. “Let’s get moving to
meet Xander.”

“We’re not giving up, are we?” she asked, noting that her
limbs were moving with more ease and shaking off the effects of the drug.

“Hell no, but maybe Xander got lucky.”

They headed back down the stairs and found Xander and Emma
already there with a third person whose arms were held behind her back.

“Look who we found,” Xander announced. “Emma says this is
the doctor who worked with Paulson.”

The young female doctor’s eyes were filled with tears.
“Under duress,” she said softly.

“Do you know where the kidnapped children are being held?”
Loren asked.

The doctor nodded. “My own son is being held there also. As
soon as I saw Paulson being carried out by one of his guards, I knew it was
time to go.” She struggled against whatever rope or restraint held her arms.
“I’ve been trying to tell them, but they dragged me here.”

“Where are the kids?” Adam asked in a hard voice. “Take us
there.”

She frowned. “First you have to promise me something.”

Xander pulled out a gun and held it to her temple. “We don’t
negotiate with kidnappers.” His voice was icy, but the hand that didn’t hold
the gun was gentle as it clasped Emma’s.

The doctor blinked but didn’t seem to panic at Xander’s
close-range threat. Loren’s heart pounded at seeing a weapon at someone’s head
like in a movie.

“I’m a victim also,” the doctor said. “Paulson kidnapped my
son and forced me to run his illegal clinic.” She turned to look at Emma and
Adam. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Her voice cracked, but then she seemed to
gather strength from thin air and hide her fear once more. “They would have
killed Luca if I didn’t cooperate.”

Loren didn’t know what to think. Here was a woman who’d been
living on fear through a nightmare for an unknown amount of time, yet seemed as
cool and collected as if she’d simply had her lunch reservation mixed up.

“Do they let you visit your son? Is he in this building?”
Adam asked.

“Yes.”

Adam and Xander exchanged a glance, and Xander slowly
lowered his gun.

“Take us to him,” Loren said.

“I need to know we’ll be safe after.” She turned to Adam.
“Did Paulson get away?”

He glowered and nodded.

“Then I won’t be safe. They’ll come to find us again. I
won’t take you to my son until you guarantee our safety.”

“You have our guarantee,” Adam said. “But if we ever find out
you’re playing us, we will kill you.”

“Why you?” Rowan spoke up for the first time since finding
the doctor. “Can’t they pick up any old fertility doctor?”

She shook her head and started to walk down the hallway. “I
am a leading expert in my field of gene therapy and implanting DNA in
incompatible hosts. Without me, they’ll fall behind and I think Paulson’s
accepted money from a terrorist group. They’ll kill him if he doesn’t deliver.”

“He deserves to die,” Emma said. A chorus of agreement
followed her statement.

The doctor led them up the stairs and back to the same
corridor they’d searched before. When they reached a door leading to a
janitor’s closet, she turned to Xander. “I need these off.” She held out her
bound wrists behind her.

Xander scowled, but finally pulled out a wicked-looking
knife and slashed through the plastic ties on the doctor’s arms. As soon as she
was free, she stepped into the tiny room lined with mops and cleaning
detergents. She moved aside a large jug of cleaning fluid on one side,
revealing a small metal panel with keypad. The doctor entered a long series of
numbers. There was a click and then the back wall of the closet shifted.

Now that the hidden door was open, the hinges and edges of
it were obvious, but Loren could see how they’d missed it on the first
go-round.

“Impressive,” Rowan commented.

“Actually it’s a pretty standard locking mechanism. The
genius was hiding it in plain sight as a janitor’s closet,” Adam said.

“Kind of like the Program,” Loren said. She stepped past Adam
into the closet and through the doorway where the doctor had already passed.

“What do you mean?” Xander asked.

“I mean that your compound has been in suburban Maryland for
years. Everyone assumed it was a normal office park. People see what they want
to see. No one assumed it was a top-secret government installation.”

“Good point,” Adam said.

They all got quiet again as anticipation built for where the
doctor was leading. Adam and Xander were tense, ready for action. She could
tell they didn’t entirely trust the doctor, but she’d brought them this far. It
could be a trap. Maybe she was leading them to danger, although Loren was going
with her gut and trusting the doctor. Even though she wasn’t a mom yet, Loren
guessed she’d go through nearly any hurdle to ensure her child’s safety,
including doing something unethical.

The closet door led to a small hallway with three connecting
doors. The doctor’s heels echoed off the floor as she walked swiftly to the
middle door and opened it. “Luca,” she called.

A bundle of energy in the body of a four-year-old came
barreling toward the doctor. The professional woman morphed into a tender
mother as she knelt to yank her son to her chest. Tears streamed down her face.
“Luca, darling, it’s time to leave.”

Luca pushed out of his mom’s arms. “Leave? But you said I
had to stay here and be a good boy,” he said.

“I know I did. That was before. My job here is done and we
can leave now.”

Loren could see the doctor was holding on to her control by
a thread, but the boy was going to keep chattering with questions, so she
stepped forward and squatted in front of him. “Hi, Luca. I’m Mommy’s friend,
Loren. I flew over here on a big airplane. Have you ever been on an airplane?”

He nodded, but tears filled his eyes. “When the mens taked me
here. They made me lie down and I didn’t get to look out the window.”

She smiled through her heartbreak for the little boy’s
suffering. “Well, I would let you and your mommy sit next to the window. Would
you like to come on an airplane with us?”

He turned to look at his mother who plastered an encouraging
smile on her face.

“Okay. Can I bring Puppy?”

“Absolutely.”

“No dogs,” Xander said.

Luca giggled. “Silly. Puppy is a stuffed
aminal
.”

Even Xander’s harsh face softened at the boy’s laughter and
mispronunciation of animal. “Puppy can come then.”

Luca dashed off to a small bed and pulled a ratty dog that
was once pale blue but was more gray now. The rest of them scanned the
dormitory-like room for any of the other children. Six cribs lined both walls
of the room and an older woman rocked in a chair by the window knitting,
seemingly oblivious to their presence.

“She’s deaf,” the doctor explained. “And I think she’s from
Afghanistan, but since she seems to be illiterate and can’t speak, I’m not
sure. She was kind to Luca, however. I don’t think she realizes what’s
happening here. All she knows is she has a safe place to sleep and has to watch
the children.”

Adam stalked the length of the room. “Empty,” he muttered
over each crib. Then he got to the last crib, closest to the older woman.
“Bingo. Christenson’s kid.” He leaned over to scoop the sleeping infant out of
the crib, and that jarred the woman out of her quiet. She leaped to her feet
with more speed than her age belied and started vocalizing harsh noises and
poking at Adam with her knitting needles.

“Mine. My baby,” Adam told her loudly.

The woman shook her head, clearly anguished.

“Xander,” he said. “Take care of her.”

Xander strode over and put a hand on the older woman’s
shoulder and did some kind of Jedi move, causing her to crumple on the floor at
his feet.

Adam turned to the doctor. “Have you ever seen any other
children here?”

“Yes. There used to be more babies, but they go away,” Luca
answered for his mother.

“Where do they go?”

Luca hesitated at the roughness of Adam’s tone. He buried
his face against his mother’s legs.

“Luca,” Adam said in a gentler tone. “Do you know where the
other babies went? I want to help their mommies and daddies find them.”