Hidden Impact (17 page)

And Centurion Corporation would want to come after them, avenge them. But Harte wouldn’t go to war for them when they’d gone ahead of their own accord.

“But you’re the best.” It was the first time he’d heard Maylin raise her voice. Heat flushed her cheeks and her mouth twisted with pain and anger.

“We’re the best because we know how to prepare for the situations we’ll encounter and we’re good enough to recognize what we can and can’t do.” God, he hated himself for what he was saying. But it was truth and he always gave her the bitter truth. “We. Can’t. Do. This. You need to walk away.”

She stared at him. Shock. Pain. Despair flashed in her eyes.

“
Qù nĭ mā de!
Oh wait, let me translate that one for you. Fuck off!” Maylin balled up her fists. “From the very beginning you’ve told me ‘no.’ Won’t help me. Can’t help me. I am so done with dragging you all along against your pathetic practicality!”

Gabe held his peace. He couldn’t be angry in return. Couldn’t find anything to refute her because she was right. It’d been her indomitable will that brought them this far. The rest of them had only been caught up in her wake.

“How good am I when I admit I can’t do this without you?” Maylin continued to rage, tears falling down her cheeks. “Does it make me any better to admit what I can’t do? Will it bring my sister back safely?”

“No.” He had to give her the word again. It was the only answer he had to give and it ripped apart his heart to do it.

Maylin’s nostrils flared as she breathed in deep, pulling all of her spectacular temper back into herself. When she spoke again, her voice trembled with contained anger. “What can I do?”

Stay with me.

He wanted to say it, but he’d shoot himself before hurting her even worse with the selfishness of that statement. He was failing her. “I don’t know yet. I’m looking for more options for us.”

“But your Centurions won’t help us?” Still so carefully controlled.

He shook his head. “The kind of resources we’d need to do this infiltration and extraction would put most companies in the red for years. A single person with your income? You could mortgage the rest of your life and your first-born child to us, and it still wouldn’t be enough to cover the cost. We wouldn’t let you sign a contract for it.”

And she would’ve. No doubt. She’d give her life for her sister.

Wouldn’t he give his for Maylin? Yes, but it wouldn’t be enough.

She pushed past him, the kettle still screaming on the stove. He reached out and switched off the burner. When he turned around, she was standing at the front door. “Did you tell me because there was no hiding from it anymore? The way you told me about Jewel? Is this what you do with every important piece of information in your life?”

He opened his mouth and nothing came out. To say he wasn’t the type to share was too flippant, but he couldn’t think of a way to properly explain. Probably because any explanation was really an excuse.

Her back became poker straight and she brushed her hair off her shoulder so it fell in a cascade down her back. Perfectly composed from this perspective. None of the turmoil he’d seen a second ago visible. He was effectively shut out.

“How is Centurion Corporation supposed to be better than Edict?” Her voice was low and measured, cool and distant. “How could you let me hope?”

She put her hand on the doorknob.

“Don’t go, Maylin.” He didn’t try to stop her physically. All he could do was ask, and he didn’t even have the right to that anymore. “Please let me keep you safe. Your sister would want you safe.”

It cut her and he hated himself for it. But Maylin could be used as leverage to make An-mei do the research she’d been taken to do. It was another reason Jewel wouldn’t have blown up the car. Maylin was valuable.

“I need air.” Maylin turned the doorknob. “I’ll be outside. When I come back in, I’d rather sleep alone.”

Chapter Sixteen

Gabe winced but didn’t try to change her mind. As she stepped outside, his phone rang. Hell of a time, but damn, it’d be better to answer it and distract himself than to stand by the window like a creep and watch Maylin put walls up between them. He hit the answer button. “Diaz.”

“Is your girl still with you?” asked Harte. The man did not sound chipper.

But Gabe wasn’t the type to guess what anyone was about to say. He’d answer and deal with what came next. “Yeah.”

“Good. We’re going to need to talk to her again. And review the reconnaissance information from your team.”

“Something change?” Centurion Corporation policy wasn’t about Harte and his decision. He’d stand by it if it was the right thing for the corporation. But if new developments became a concern, Harte would reevaluate as needed. It was what made him a good CO. So whatever was going on had to be a true game changer.

“Some of the feelers you put out turned up interesting information.” Harte didn’t sound irritated, but Gabe figured they’d have a discussion about how he’d continued to investigate a disapproved contract after all this was over. Harte had a long memory.

“Yeah? It came straight to HQ?” Not what Gabe was expecting, but whatever it was, it’d moved Harte to call him.

“Contracts information comes to me.” Harte made it a simple statement of fact. “I’m not familiar with the exact wording of your inquiry, but your source decided it’d be prudent to send it through to me first.”

“Okay.” Gabe wasn’t going to argue.

“Phoenix Biotech has put out a request for proposal on a contract. Security for an extremely sensitive shipment of biohazard material. The RFP is by invitation only, so we wouldn’t have known about it without your inquiry as we were not invited to submit a proposal.”

Ah. And that probably chapped Harte’s ass some. Centurion Corporation prided itself on being in demand.

“This shipment is not headed for any standard disposal location and in fact is to be ‘handed off’ to another unit for the next leg of transportation.” Harte maintained a pleasant tone.

Pleasant wasn’t a natural state of being for Harte. Someone, somewhere, was in for a world of hurt.

“Interesting.” Generally, any shipment intended for not-so-legit destinations was easier to hide from surveillance when a corporate sponsor hired multiple paramilitary contractors to move the cargo in segments along an unpredictable course. Each contractor team only knew where to pick it up and where to drop it off. No knowledge of where it came from or where it was going next meant chain of custody was fairly easy to document, but it wasn’t so easy to be sure the actual contents had remained intact from the true beginning of the journey to the final destination.

“I made some friendly inquiries of my own,” Harte continued. “Your recent playmates are on the roster as one of the already contracted teams, but the others? Not really any players we’ve worked with in the past.”

The paramilitary-contractor industry was fairly large considering the sheer turnover rate of people entering the military in the US alone, and subsequently leaving with specialized skill sets. The number fluctuated from year to year but hovered easily around the six-digit range across the various armed forces. That was a lot of people with the potential to become private contractors. But few had the business acumen to exist as solo contractors, and the actual number of organized corporations was significantly reduced. Players as efficient or successful as Centurion Corporation or Edict were limited to a small circle of elite, and each of them had high standards for working with others.

“Edict isn’t likely to play nice with other teams.” Gabe doubted Centurion Corporation would work with them at all unless they were new and being given a chance to prove themselves.

“I know at least two of them have a reputation for not playing well at all.” Harte barked out a laugh. “It’s a train wreck waiting to happen.”

Meaning the cargo was intended to go missing.

There were a couple of possibilities for where the shipment was actually meant to end up. The most likely destination was into the hands of a buyer.

“What kind of research was your missing scientist doing again?”

Gabe wasn’t liking where this was going. “An-mei Cheng is a geneticist.”

“Do we know more?”

“She lives and breathes gene sequences. She’s immersed so completely the sisters send each other family notes in DNA-based codes.” Which still boggled Gabe’s mind a little. He was familiar with codes and had basic experience in reading them, even breaking them. But it’d been an added layer to Maylin’s intelligence he hadn’t anticipated.

“Your girl owns a catering company, right?” Harte was obviously caught off guard too.

Gabe grinned. “Apparently Maylin was pre-med. Her best course of study was developmental biology before she decided she wouldn’t be happy in a medical career. She followed her heart, built herself the kind of business she wanted.”

And he was more and more impressed with every new thing he learned about her.

“Interesting family.” Harte grew serious. “I’ve got a couple of guesses lined up here, but the actual answer depends on exactly what kind of research An-mei Cheng was doing. Quick internet search goes into genetics. But there’s one article catching my eye.”

Gabe strode over to the small desk in the corner. He’d left most of the research files Lizzy had pulled together in the beginning there. Retrieving the folder, he spread the files and quickly scanned them. “Gene-editing therapy.”

“In adult test subjects. Not in petri dishes.”

The applications were broad, and in his line of work, they were the stuff of nightmares. Biological warfare went beyond the definition of horrific and straight to unspeakable.

“Phoenix Biotech is not a US government–contracted research company,” Harte pointed out. This was mostly good news. They wouldn’t be going against the country they loved. “But we can assume they’re not going to appreciate us retrieving a wayward geneticist. We’ll need to crack them wide open so they’re too busy dealing with the US authorities to even try to reacquire the girl.”

“We.” Gabe zeroed in on the key point. It changed everything.

“It is in Centurion Corporation’s best interest to aid in the investigation of potential criminal activity when we have literally been invited into a unique position of observation. The US government is more than willing to have us on point in their already established investigation.”

“I thought you said we weren’t invited to submit a proposal.” And yet, Gabe was really beginning to enjoy where this was going.

“Well, we might have made contact with Phoenix Biotech and presented a strong proposal for high caliber services they did not yet have. Phoenix Biotech was more than happy to open up their RFP and offer a handsome advance for a proof of concept demonstration.” Of course they did. Harte was very good at presenting the services Centurion Corporation could offer. Over the course of several years, his shrewd business sense had grown the company into one of the best. “Being the mercenaries we are, we couldn’t very well resist. Could we?”

“You’re funding our mission with Phoenix Biotech’s money.” Gabe knew Harte was good, but this was above and beyond.

“Call me Robin Hood.” Harte continued, “The US government is also offering a substantial bonus for any information we may acquire regarding the nature of biological weapons being developed.”

Gabe peered out the window, straining to catch sight of Maylin. She’d quit pacing on the porch and begun wandering through the trees between the guest cabin and the main house, weaving back and forth instead of heading for one building or the other. In the grey mist of the day, she was going to end up chilled and damp. “How are we going to proceed?”

And then he’d figure out how to make things right with Maylin.

Harte cleared his throat. “You continue your angle. Send me an updated status report and an estimated breakdown of the support you’ll need by morning. We’ll send you reinforcements by EOB tomorrow. I’ll work my end with a separate team. Get the girl out, and any of her research you can retrieve safely while you’re at it.”

“The girl is the primary objective.”

“Confirmed.”

Relieved, Gabe grabbed a jacket for Maylin and took a step toward the door. Jesus. If he’d waited minutes longer, they wouldn’t have had to have that fight.

No. That was cowardice speaking. He should have had the conversation with her back in DC. And if delaying it had damaged what was between them permanently, then he’d own it. What mattered more was doing what he could for her now, whether she forgave him or not.

“An-mei Cheng may not be the only scientist in their custody.” Harte brought him up short. “She is the objective for this mission, and her research is secondary. Any additional intel on the number of other projects in the facility would be extremely helpful for us to move forward.”

And they’d need to move fast. If all of the scientists were off the radar the way An-mei was, whoever was making the big decisions at Phoenix Biotech might decide to shut down the facility after Centurion Corporation retrieved her, and the people still in the facility might not get out in time.

* * *

No amount of cooking was going to help her find her way past this roadblock. Maylin stumbled between the trees, reaching out to press her palms against the trunks until the bark bit into her skin. The mist had settled under the trees and darkness chased the sunset until the only light came from the external lamps on the main house and guest cabin. She didn’t want to go to either one, and there was no light leading the way to the answers she was looking for.

Drops ran down her cheeks, hot tears and cold rain. This wasn’t her. She never admitted there were no other options. She kept working toward a solution until she found a path forward. Even her parents had said it was her strength. When they couldn’t see where her life would lead after she’d quit her pre-medical course of study, they said they’d learned to give her time to find her way.

But it’d always been for
her
. Her troubles and her solutions.

This time An-mei was lost, and what was needed to bring her back was beyond any individual’s means. Hell, as good as Gabe and his team were, Maylin had known she was asking for more than they could do too. And she’d let herself hide from the obvious when they’d returned from Centurion Corporation’s corporate headquarters on their own. She was angry and embarrassed because she’d set herself—and them—up for failure. She was as mad at herself as Gabe.

What good was being independent if the only person she could keep safe was herself? And even to do that, she needed to hide amongst others.

“Hating every part of me right now,” she muttered into the rain.

But what decisions could she have made differently? Even...even if she hadn’t become intimate with Gabe, things wouldn’t have come out another way.

Would she take it back if she could?

“
Coração.
Should I translate it for you?” The weight of a jacket settled around her shoulders. Gabe sneaking up on her should’ve scared her, at least made her jump. Instead she fought the urge to lean back into the shelter of his arms. “My heart.”

Hers skipped a beat.

Warmth spread through her even as she tried to keep it stuffed away. Her anger simmered, but she couldn’t bring back the flash of rage she’d had earlier. It was too hard to scream at him for something he couldn’t change.

“I don’t know where we go from here.” Saying it out loud buried her under sadness. What was she going to do?

“I broke something between us,
coração
, and I am sorry.” Gabe grasped her shoulders and gently turned her to face him. In the dark, he was backlit by the light from the guest cabin, but she could still see his face in the fainter light from the main house. “Won’t ask you to forgive me right away.”

“Good.” She bit her lip. Why did she have to sound so petty?

“But I have news.” His hands squeezed as he spoke, like he wanted to be sure she listened. “I got a call from my CO. We’ll have the reinforcements we need. We are going to get your sister back.”

“Just like that?” She whispered her question, blinking away the mist and rain.

“Come inside. Let me get you warmed and dry. And I’ll tell you about the call.”

Her brain stuttered as relief blanked everything. “We still need to find her.”

Gabe nodded. “But you were right. We’re on the brink of something and I don’t think it’s finished yet. Last thing we need is for you to come down with pneumonia.”

She didn’t know what to say.

“Let me take care of you.” He murmured the request. “At least this much. Let me take the lead.”

Trusting him again. Seemed like she was continually taking a leap of faith for him. But he was An-mei’s best chance.

She nodded, afraid to open her mouth and say something she’d regret later. Whether it started another argument or sparked a step back toward intimacy, she wasn’t ready for either one. Instead, she let him pull her in to his side and guide her back to the guest house.

One step at a time, she’d decide how much trust she could give him again. They’d start back at the beginning, with finding An-mei.