Tall, Dark and Lethal (13 page)

That should be her first priority—her hands. Her arms were going numb from the way her shoulders had been twisted back. She rolled up into a ball and squeezed her legs through the loop of her arms. Then she could finally roll her shoulders to get some blood circulating. Better.

She tried the door. Locked, of course. Looked at the lightbulb. Too high to reach. Although even if she could have reached it, gotten it out and broken it, she might still not have been able to cut the hard plastic cuff they’d tied her with.

She fought not to give in to desperation. If there was nothing she could do now, she would wait until they came for her again. With her hands in front of her, she’d have a better chance. All she needed was one lucky break, to be able to grab a gun. And then she could go find Zak.

He could be as close as the next room and she wouldn’t know it. That gave her an idea. She moved to the vent on the wall and pressed her mouth against it. “Zak?” she whispered. “Zak?”

No response came.

But she could see light at the other end of the duct, which was short, leading to another room close by. Maybe she could stick her head in and see what was there. She ran her hand over the dried paint that clogged the slight crack between the vent cover and the wall, then pushed a fingernail in and tried to pry the damn thing loose.

Other than nearly ripping her nail off, nothing happened. She tried again. This time she felt a slight movement. She began to pull harder.

When the cover was finally off, she realized that the duct between the rooms was much larger than the metal grating that closed it off. A single line of bricks narrowed it down around the edges. She began to work on those. When it was clear that the mortar wouldn’t give under her hands, she lay on her side and kicked at the bricks.

She could have shouted in triumph when the first brick moved. But she didn’t stop to celebrate. She got it out and moved on to work on the next, and the next.

When the duct was unblocked at last, she wiggled through, headfirst. She figured if someone was in the other room, they would have already responded to all the noise she’d made.

The room was empty and smaller than her own. And the door was open. That was where the light had come from. The main area of the basement spread before her, filled with pipes and heaters and all manner of industrial equipment which she couldn’t have identified if her life depended on it. Nor did she have to. All she had to do was to find Zak and then get out of here.

A path led to a stairway straight ahead, but she didn’t want to leave the basement until she’d searched it fully. She hustled forward with her feet tied together, her shuffling footsteps echoing in the empty space, aware that they could be back for her at any moment. She had to be quick and stay out of sight. No unnecessary heroics, either. She would be no use to Zak dead.

T
HE PLACE WAS CRAWLING
with tangos. Cade could hear several of them talking behind the front entry. All other entries were security-grade steel. Nothing but an explosion could have gotten him in, which he could have provided, but if the tangos thought they were under attack, they might kill Zak and Bailey outright.
If
they were even in the building. That he didn’t know for sure was driving him crazy.

From what he’d seen so far—reinforced doors and plenty of men on guard duty—all signs pointed to the abandoned factory being tango headquarters. If they thought this was where they were the safest, it made sense that they would bring Zak and Bailey here.

He stole around the whole building and eyed the first-floor windows. The fact that they were at least eight feet off the ground wasn’t much of an obstacle to him. The windows’ thick iron bars were, however. Same with the smaller basement windows at ground level. But he did find one in the back that was broken. He got down onto his stomach to look in through the bars. He couldn’t see anything but machinery in there.

He had to get inside. He stood. His only chance was through the front door. But he wouldn’t make it through with the arsenal he carried. He opened the bag and pulled out a ratty old watch, then searched around the bottom and found a thin, naked blade. He pressed that into the bottom of his shoe. He set his cell phone to transmit a locator signal and then stashed it in the bag’s hidden pocket. Even if someone found his bag and took it away, the cell would still transmit the location to the Colonel in case they had trouble finding the place. The building was out in the middle of an abandoned industrial area, not a street sign in sight. He’d only been able to give an approximate location when they’d talked.

He checked his gun in the back of his waistband. If he went completely unarmed, they’d be suspicious.

He was about to shove his bag through the bars when his phone buzzed. The Colonel.

“Good. You’re staying put,” the man said. “A team will be there in an hour, tops. I’m on my way to JFK. There was an Air Africana flight this morning. The number you had was the departure time. Unfortunately, it took off half an hour ago. The plane is in the air.”

Cade swore. The Colonel didn’t tolerate a foul mouth. But for once, he didn’t chastise him.

“It gets worse. The Sub-Saharan Security Council is on board. If something happens to them, all hell is going to break lose in the Sudan.”

Joey Tanner was Cade’s first thought, and the woman he’d gone there to save. No way he could have reached her yet.

Cade hesitated only a second. “Tanner is in the Sudan, sir.”

“He’s on vacation. Let’s focus on the trouble we have on hand here.”

He didn’t contradict the Colonel. After a moment, he could hear a deep breath being drawn on the other end. “In the Sudan where?”

“Some refugee camp.”

“
You
stay put,” the Colonel said.

As he hung up, Cade knew that the Colonel was getting back on the phone, ordering help for Tanner. A plane would show up, or a UN convoy would be diverted. And when Tanner got back, he’d get a chewing out he wouldn’t soon forget.

Cade put the phone back into the bag, dropping it to the floor inside. When he heard no further sound, he got up and ran around the building to the front.

He didn’t go in with guns blazing. He didn’t want to be shot before he had a chance to put his plan in motion. That was the trick, the most dangerous part of his dangerous plan. But he had no other choice and time was of the essence. He held his weapon in hand as he pushed the heavy front door in. A half dozen rifles were pointed at his head instantly. Cade swore, then made a show of fighting with himself about whether or not to give up. After a tense moment, he dropped his gun.

A rifle butt slammed into his side, then another one into his face. He went down, curled up to protect his vital organs and waited for them to be done with the introductory beating before they would take him inside.

“What are you doing?” someone shouted in Arabic over the melee.

The kicking stopped. The men were talking over each other, offering explanations about how he’d shown up.

“Who are you?” The man came closer and, as a way of greeting, kicked Cade in the face. Wasn’t too bad. Unlike the others, who had military boots on, this guy wore sandals.

Cade spit blood from his mouth. “I’m looking for a woman and a boy. I’ll pay for them.” He spoke in English. If they thought he was just a boyfriend, they’d be less vigilant than if they thought him some sort of military man or law enforcement.

“I don’t have time for this. Take him downstairs,” the man said to the others in Arabic.

Someone produced a length of plastic rope, and they tied his hands. Two men pulled him up, roughly, and marched him down the corridor, pointing their rifles at his head. There were only six of them. There was a ninety-nine percent probability that he could take them out without suffering serious damage himself. But since there were other lives at stake, he wasn’t willing to take that one percent chance. Instead, he bided his time as they shoved him through the door and down a set of stairs.

Bingo. His weapons were somewhere down here. Hopefully, they wouldn’t tumble right over them. But the tangos shoved him along one of the many paths that zigzagged through the maze of machinery, never going anywhere near the outer walls.

He kept an eye out for Bailey or Zak, but saw no sign of either. He was led to a cell-like room. One of the men hit him in the side of the head, hard. He went down, figuring that was what they wanted. No point in showing his strength. They tied his feet together and locked him in.

He didn’t even wait a full minute before starting to work on getting out. The blade in the bottom of his shoe was easy enough to reach. He freed his hands first, then his feet. He popped the back off his watch and took out his picks. He was through the door in seconds.

He found the quickest way to the outer wall and moved to the back, keeping an eye out for his bag. Not there.

What the hell?

He could have really used that damn thing. His cell phone, the machine gun, the two hand grenades. He found the broken window and jumped up to look out, confirming that this was the right one. Sure was. His bag had disappeared. No time to cry over it. He moved on silently. He could see a few doors down here that probably led to closed-off areas like the one he’d been kept in. Weapons or no weapons, he had to find Bailey and Zak.

He tapped on the first door. No sound. Then again, if anyone was in there, he or she could be unconscious, or gagged. He used his picks to get in. Nobody. He went to the next door. Same result.

He was about to move on when an acrid smell hit his nose. He straightened and smelled the air. Smoke, somewhere in the far corner. Fire? Something cold slithered across his skin. He hated fire. Smoke seeped into you and stayed with you forever.

Could be just some machinery breaking down. But what would be running in an abandoned building, and why? He moved to investigate, but before he could go around a giant industrial transformer, the barrel of a machine gun popped out, aimed straight at him.

A guard must have been posted down here. When he hadn’t seen anyone outside his cell, he’d thought he was in the clear. Nobody had come down while he searched—he would have heard the door or steps on the stairs. He’d been listening for that. Damn.

He was in a narrow aisle with no place to go. He was too far away to grab for the barrel of the weapon, but close enough that if whoever held the semiautomatic squeezed off a barrage of bullets, he couldn’t miss.

“Stop!”

“Bailey?” His knees went weak with relief. Damn funny thing to happen in the middle of a mission. Good thing he was retired.

“Cade?” Her head popped out.

All weakness disappeared, and the urge to kill swept over him. Her beautiful face was bruised; smudges of blood were on her lips. Whoever was responsible for this was a dead man.

Deep breath.
She was alive. That was the most important thing. They had worked her over, but she was alive. Nothing else was going to happen to her. He could guarantee that—even if he had to rip apart the sons of bitches with his own hands. He tamped down his anger, and when he could speak without growling, he said, “You okay?”

She trembled a little, pressed her lips together and immediately winced. Then she lowered the gun and stepped into his arms. “Oh, God, Cade.”

“Hey, you’re gonna be fine. I’m taking you out of this place.” He didn’t dare hold her too tight, unsure how bad her injuries might be. She was back in his arms. He’d found her. The powerful emotions that swirled through him caught him off guard. He had to bury them away and focus on getting out. For now. “Did you find Zak?”

She pulled away, worry taking over her momentarily relieved expression. “Not yet. He’s not in the basement. But I found this.” She smiled and pulled up the gun again. “And a knife, and a whole bunch of other stuff I have no idea what to do with.”

She had his bag. They had everything. He kissed her without even thinking about it. Just a quick light brush of his lips against hers. He had the pleasure of watching her eyes fill with surprise.

That acrid smell reached him again, stronger this time. He glanced around but couldn’t yet see the smoke anywhere. Not that it meant much. He’d seen places go from smoky to completely engulfed in flames in under ten minutes. Waiting around for reinforcements was now unequivocally ruled out. Not that that option had ever played heavily into his plans.

“We have to get out. I think there’s a fire somewhere down here.”

She drew herself straight, resting the butt of the machine gun against her hip in some “Lara Croft, Tomb Raider” pose, as her battered lips widened into a brilliant smile.

“I know. I started it,” she said.

“Why?” The look on his face made it clear that he failed to recognize her brilliance. He looked dark and more than a little angry.

Men.

“I have to get them out of this place so I can go up and look for Zak.” She was pretty sure that the universe favored her plan and that was why it sent Cade and his bag of weapons to help. She didn’t think it would be any use pointing that out to him. With the cold light in his eyes and the tight expression on his face, he didn’t look like he was completely in tune with the universe at this moment.

“How many people have you seen?” He took his attention from her at last and was scanning the place as if he were trying to memorize it.

“About a dozen.”
Please, please dear God, don’t let there be more.
A dozen men were enough to bury the two of them ten times over.

“I figure there are at least double,” he said, nixing her hopes just like that. Where was
his
positive thinking? “What do you know about the floors above?” he asked.

“I’ve only been to the first floor.” Not the land of happy memories, for sure. The interrogation chamber was up there. “Other than the lobby, it’s all giant rooms with rows of workstations and one small office in the back.”

He moved toward the stairs, pulling her behind him. “They hurt you bad?” He wouldn’t look at her.

“What are you talking about?” She could joke now that he was here. “Those weasel bastards breaking me? Never.”

He squeezed her hand but kept on moving. His chest expanded with a deep breath. She noticed because she’d been staring at his wide shoulders that rose like a shield in front of her.

He let go of her hand when they reached the stairs, motioned her to stay silent and went first, machine gun drawn. She kept her own weapon at the ready, appreciating that he hadn’t asked her to stay behind. Her nephew was up there. At least she hoped he was.

“If anything goes wrong…” The words slipped from her lips unbidden. Lord, what was wrong with her? Where was
her
positive thinking?

He halted and turned back. “Nothing’s going to go wrong.” And then he drew her into his arms.

She didn’t protest when he dipped his head to hers and their lips met in a quick kiss that, despite its brevity, was sure potent enough.

She felt her body relax a little and a small smile spread on her face as he pulled back, his caramel eyes full with emotion. “Thank you for coming after me. I’m really glad that you’re here.”

He held her gaze for a long moment before he nodded. “Let’s find Zak.”

They didn’t stop again until they were at the top of the stairs. He tried the door. Locked. He took off his watch, flipped it over and shook out a couple of picks that were about as long as a needle, flexible enough to be bent at any angle he needed. The man came prepared.

Before she had a chance to comment, however, he’d mastered the lock and was already checking outside.

“All clear.” His voice was barely audible.

She stepped out into the empty hallway after him. He moved silently and she did her best to copy him. She didn’t exactly succeed, but she was good enough that nobody would hear her coming from a mile away.

They could hear men talking in the front. Cade moved toward the back, checking every room systematically as he went. The building wasn’t huge—it had a footprint of maybe ten thousand square feet and about a dozen floors. They swept through the ground floor pretty fast, then circled back to the bank of elevators but didn’t take one. Instead, they crept up the staircase.

The next floor was pretty much the same as the one below—large, open work spaces with a few offices along the walls. The search didn’t take long. Unfortunately, they were out in the open when the elevator suddenly dinged and the doors opened.

The two camouflage-clad men inside opened fire immediately. Cade shoved her down behind him and returned fire, hitting both men. The gunshots echoed in the cavernous room, deafening.

Okay, so the stealth part of the mission was over. Everyone in the building would now know that something was up.

Bailey stared at the two dead men. Cade grabbed her hand and dragged her toward the stairs. “Let’s go.”

They ran into another group at the top of the stairs. Four this time. She tried to help, unsure if she hit any of them with the bullets she managed to squeeze off. But they all went down and neither Cade nor she was injured. It all seemed surreal, like one of Zak’s video games she’d tried at the beginning of summer in the hopes that if they did things together, he might open up to her a little. War of the Brechinans II.

But this was the real thing.

When they rushed by the dead bodies, she tried not to look at them this time.

The hallway on the next floor was empty. It had the same setup as the others.

“Want to split up?” she asked. If Zak was here, he’d be in one of the offices that lined the outer walls. They could go twice as fast if they went in opposite directions. The central area of the floor was empty, at least on their side. In the middle, the main supporting walls of the building divided the space into four quarters.

Cade hesitated. “If you need me, fire off a shot.” He ran off to the left.

She went right, reconsidering her bravado as soon as he was out of sight. But she pushed on. His vote of confidence was empowering. He thought she could handle herself. She appreciated that.

None of the offices were locked, because there was nothing in there to protect. They were stripped bare.

She checked door after door and prayed for a knob that wouldn’t turn under her hand, a locked room that might hold Zak. No such luck. She met up with Cade a few minutes later.

“Next floor,” he said.

Suddenly they could hear men near the stairs, shouting.

She glanced around, looking out the nearest window. “Fire escape?”

He flashed her a wide grin and started running toward it.

She went after him, watching as he easily pushed open a metal window that had looked rusted shut. Some dirt smudged his face. His entire being was focused, his gun ready, his shoulders rising like a shield in front of her once again.

If I ever do come to believe in love, this would be the man.

The thought came out of left field and begged further analysis, but they were climbing up a rusty fire escape the next second. Smoke drifted from a basement window way below them. Her muscles clenched as she choked back a cough. But Cade didn’t let her fall behind. He reached for her hand and pulled her after him.

When they reached the next level, he took off his watch again, popped the back and used its super-sharp edge to cut a small hole in the glass. Then he reached in to turn the lock.

“Where do you get stuff like that?” She thumped softly to the floor next to him.

“An old job,” was all he said.

“And here I thought you were a retired programmer,” she joked.

He gave her a practiced, bland smile. “I used to design databases for a bank in Delaware.”

“Right, and I’m Tinker Bell.” She rolled her eyes.

There were no offices on their end of this floor. They crept forward to check out the other side of the divider walls in the middle. “Given the circumstances, don’t you think I should know a little more about you?” Mostly, she needed a distraction. She was running on pure adrenaline, with little to hold her up beyond that.

“All you need to know is that you’re crazy about me.” His eyes glinted dangerously, but a smile hovered on his lips.

“I don’t think so.”

“You’re full of pixie dust, Tinker Bell.” He let loose a full-powered grin then. “You admitted the first week I moved in that I rock your world. No sense going into denial now.”

“I said you’re as hardheaded as a rock,” she responded. They’d had that conversation when he had backed over her favorite garden flag.

“You gonna pick at technicalities at a moment like this?” He was moving forward.

Truth was, she really
was
starting to care about him, and it wasn’t just the way he made her feel every time their lips touched. The thought was not only annoying, it was also untimely and inconvenient. They reached the back wall, and the dozen offices that lined it, and split up. This time she actually welcomed the space between them.

“Do you think Zak might not even be here?” she asked when they met up again.

“It’s possible, but I’m betting that he is.”

“Why?”

“Instinct,” he said.

So this was what it came down to. Trusting the instincts of a man she barely knew, heading into mortal danger with him. Except that Cade wasn’t just any man. The more time she spent with him, the more she realized his strength, his honor, his incredible courage—some of which was somehow rubbing off on her. On her own, she would have never attempted any of this.

“Hey.” He caught her gaze. “I’m not leaving here without him. Or without you.”

A door banged open across the floor before she could respond. People started shouting.

They kept low and kept moving, always making sure there was a dividing wall between them and the men. When they reached the window where they’d come in, they exited silently and moved up to the next level.

“How many more?” she asked as she looked up.

“Six,” he said.

The smoke coming from the basement was definitely getting thicker. Looked like the first-floor windows were leaking smoke, too. She moved faster.

The next three floors clearly belonged to production. The floor above those, however, held rows and rows of offices and took three times as long to search through, though they saw no men there.

The next floor was positively crawling with people. Luckily for them, most were on their way down to escape the fire. Only a few remained, standing guard, scattered through the space.

Bailey and Cade managed to avoid them while searching most of the floor before their luck finally ran out. As they turned the next corner, a man was running toward them. Surprise flashed across the guy’s face, his mouth opening. Whatever he was about to shout didn’t amount to more than a stifled groan, however.

She barely saw Cade’s hand move. She would have thought it was a trick of her eyes if it weren’t for the knife buried deep in the man’s chest. He fell to the floor, but neither he nor his rifle made much noise on the industrial carpet.

Cade reached him first, pulled his knife out, wiped it on the man’s shirt, then stepped over him. She kept her gaze on Cade and jumped over the body, trying to avoid contact. And then she couldn’t believe she’d done it—just jumped right on over a dead man. And had to wonder if her life would ever be the same again.

But to have a life of any kind required that they got out of here alive.

“Stick as close to me as you can,” Cade said.

She had no inclination to argue. Her only hope was that the extra security up here might mean that they did have Zak stashed nearby.

The first office Cade pushed into held only two armed men. He took them out with a minimum of firepower, but they could hear others reacting, running toward them. There was no place to hide. He hugged the wall on one side of the door, and she went to the other side.

He yanked her over to him in the last second. “We’d cut each other down in the cross fire.”

“Of course,” she mumbled, embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that. Good thing one of them had experience.

As soon as the first terrorists came through, they fired at will. Cade killed two more when he stepped out from cover. The area outside the office was temporarily clear.

They checked the rest of the offices but found no sign of Zak. As they rushed back to the fire escape, black smoke rose outside the window like a wall, blocking their sight completely.

She could feel the heat of it even through the glass. “I don’t think we should go out in that.”

“Elevators.” Cade was running that way even as he said the word. He pushed the button. Nothing happened. The elevators probably went to the nearest floor and opened, then shut down, the result of an emergency system. The freight elevators at the garden center were like that, a feature always emphasized at their biannual workplace-safety workshop.

“Looks like the staircase is our only option.” He was pulling a hand grenade from his back pocket as he moved toward the staircase door. He opened it and took a step forward until he could look down. He pulled the tab on the grenade and let it go while she contemplated whether to have a stroke or a heart attack.

“Back, get back!” He pushed her out of the staircase and closed the door behind them, stepping to the side and pulling her down with him. “Can’t get out that way, anyway, and I don’t want anyone coming up from the lower floors, getting behind our backs.” He put his arms around her.

The explosion several floors below them was strong enough to slam the door open, dust and smoke billowing all the way up to their level.

“Hold your shirt in front of your nose.” He charged into the staircase without waiting for the air to settle.

She could see little as he moved in front of her. As long as he was there, she told herself, she had hope—even if they were about to search the last floor and still no sign of Zak.

The building was on fire, the elevators didn’t work, the staircase had blown up, the fire escape was smothered in smoke and impassable. She really could have used a sign from the universe that everything was going to turn out just fine.

But when they rushed up the stairs and opened the door to the top floor, they found themselves staring into the face of hell.

The universe wanted her dead.

H
E SHOULD HAVE TAKEN
her out of here, taken her to safety before he came back for Zak, Cade thought, knowing that she wouldn’t have stood for that, not for a second. Still, he should have found a way to avoid bringing her into this. Damn, he was a soldier. He must have known at least two dozen ways to restrain and immobilize any man or woman.

A small army occupied the top floor.

Running back to the staircase wasn’t an option. One, it was now severely damaged. Two, if Zak were in the building, he’d be up here. They had searched every other place. Luckily, the building was made of steel and cement, with no furniture or curtains that easily caught on fire, as there would have been in a residential structure. And the lower floors, with their open spaces, had been easy and quick to search.