The Defender (The Carrier Series Book 2) (28 page)

“Get your hands off her,” I whispered through gritted teeth.

Myers continued to stroke her hair. “Mr. Hill is a lucky man.
Very lucky indeed.”

So Myers had no idea her memory had been wiped.

Then he dropped her hair and looked up quickly as if another
thought popped into his brain. “Or perhaps there is someone else who’s been
enjoying your beauty lately. Someone who I thought was one of mine, but
recently has proven differently.”

Adam shifted his weight slightly but otherwise showed no change
in demeanor.

Drew interrupted, “No drugs…well, I can’t be one hundred percent
sure. It looks like there is some type of synthetic agent in her body, but it’s
not matching with any of the molecular compositions of the chemicals programmed
in this machine.” Drew looked confused. “I guess we’ll only know if we can take
a sample of her blood and run it through the lab back at headquarters.” He
looked up. “Nine minutes. What are we going to do in nine minutes?”

Still standing behind Ava, Myers continued his speech. “Miss
Gardner, you possess something that I want. Something that I need to complete
my very reason for existence. Forty-nine years ago my parents were murdered for
a small vial of medicine—a prototype my father had been experimenting with.” He
addressed Ava as if she were the only person in the room. “I have some of the
best chemists in the world trying to re-create the formula, yet they all tell
me something is missing.” He stroked her hair again, and Ava tried to pull
loose from the straps holding her wrists down. She began to sob when she
realized it was no use. Then Ethan laughed under his breath. “Funny how the
very person I want desperately to destroy is the very person I need desperately
to keep alive. If only I had known before.” He shook the thought out of his
mind.

Then he lowered his head down to her ear and spoke quietly. “A
slice of your DNA from a single cell deep within your brain. This won’t hurt a
bit.” She closed her eyes tightly, squeezing tears out of her eyes as his loud,
repulsive laugh filled the room.

I clenched my teeth together, trying to hold back my urge to
bust through the windows. “Drew,” I said, my leg shaking. “I can’t wait much
longer.”

“Cabinets,” Drew muttered. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him
get up and start walking the perimeter of the room, but I couldn’t peel my eyes
from looking through the glass in front of me. Myers was careful to stay where
Ava couldn’t get a good look at him. “I have to say, Miss Gardner, my track
record hasn’t been too successful thus far. Those young ladies weren’t meant to
die. You, on the other hand…” Myers showed his teeth, but he was not smiling.
“I guess you’re lucky I’ve assigned Agent Raddemann to do the honors.”

He turned to face Adam, “Now’s the time. Let’s begin.”

But Adam stood, not moving.

“That’s it, I’m going in.” I stood up from my crouching position
on the floor when Drew startled me.

“I know what the countdown means!” He rushed over to my side,
speaking quickly, only inches from my face. “One night in Dublin, Darcy told me
about a mission where she followed a lead on a Belgian freelance bomb-maker the
IIA had been searching for. She was hoping to lure him into custody by posing
as a client interested in his work.”

Drew left my side again and quickly returned to the cabinets
stuck on the opposite wall. He frantically searched through them while he
spoke. “She met up with him deep in the underground club scene of Brussels.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to catch him that night because the guy had
created a special watch that emitted high-frequency ultraviolet rays he’d
engineered in a lab.”

Myers’s voice came over the intercom again, sounding a much like
a disgruntled parent. “Agent Raddemann, do as I say. Begin the surgery.”

My attention turned back into the operating room—Adam was still
holding his ground. Myers was going to blow soon.

“Yes!” Drew had found some type of spray can and pulled it off
the shelf. “Everyone in a two mile radius was suddenly hit with an intense dose
of UV rays and—”

“They all got sunburned?” I snapped, perhaps due to my current
state of stress.

“No, smart ass. UV radiation has so much energy it is able to
actually knock electrons away from their atoms, causing molecules to split.” He
walked over to me and looked at his watch. “In three minutes this watch is
going to send out a micro-blast of UV radiation and cause everyone in a half a
mile radius to fall unconscious and possibly suffer some serious cell damage.”

“Not much better than a bomb on your wrist,” I said, concerned.
“What do we do about it?”

He stared me in the eye, and held up the can. “She left us an
aerosol can of ozone in the cabinet!”

“Ozone? Like the layer of gases up in our atmosphere?”

“Exactly. Seconds before the freelance bomb maker set off his
watch, he sprayed a dome of synthetic ozone around his body, intending to
scatter and absorb the UV and protect himself.”

“So in a few minutes that watch will knock out everyone in
Myers’s headquarters, except for us?”

“Only for several minutes, and only those who aren’t protected
by the ozone spray.”

“What about Ava?” I turned to look through the observation
window, but heard a loud click behind me. A gun cocked right behind my head.
“How useful. I’ll take that, Agent Smith.”

Dammit
! Harper. Of course—he was still
Myers’s right-hand man.

He yanked the can out of Drew’s hands. “Put your hands up and
slowly turn around, both of you.”

Myer’s voice boomed from the intercom. “Fine then. Darcy, hand
me the scalpel. It’s time for me to finally take my revenge, with or without
you, Agent Raddemann.”

“No!” Adam and I yelled at the same time. I turned from Harper
to look through the window.

Harper kicked Drew in the stomach, and then grabbed my right hand
and twisted it behind my back, holding me captive. I struggled while we heard
Myers over the intercom.

“Just as I suspected, Agent Raddemann. I concluded a short time
ago that you haven’t exactly been loyal to me.” He looked calm, yet irritated.
“Perhaps your loyalties lie with someone very near us.”

Drew popped up from the ground, kicking Harper’s gun from his
hand and catching it in midair. The trick startled Harper enough to loosen his
grip, and I twisted around until I had him in the same position he had just
held me in. I slammed his face up against the glass hard and stared through the
window, over Harper’s shoulder, holding him hostage while he struggled to get
loose.

Myers stood only a few inches from Adam’s face. “Do you love
her, Adam? Have you fallen for the very stink of this earth?”

He didn’t have to say a word—his eyes told the truth of his
heart.

With my own heart in my throat I went right to Ava’s face. Did
she love him, too?

No!

There it was, right in her eyes. The end to us. The end to my
existence. I involuntarily released my hold on Harper and fell to my knees,
hunched over with excruciating pain in my chest.

Drew kicked Harper in the jaw but he bounced up quickly and
threw a punch back at Drew. I couldn’t move. My world had started spinning.

Ava
!

That British demon stole my sweet Ava! My stomach turned sour,
my head pounded, and my heart was on fire. I suddenly felt like I couldn’t
breathe, like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

“Two minutes, Nolan!” Drew yelled, but it sounded like he was at
the end of a long tunnel. Harper growled and I barely heard items breaking
around the room as Drew battled Harper.

This was all Myers’s fault. Not caring about everything around
me, I stood and wandered toward the door, planning on busting through and
ending Myers right then and there. But I only made it about three steps when I
fell to the floor, dizzy and disoriented. My body had given up.

“Nolan, get up! I need you!” Drew’s ragged voice called for help
behind me. “My Glock!”
Harper
and Drew still in combat, faces bloody and looking exhausted.

My mind went back to the old bartender in Dublin—
“
The man who is worthwhile is the one who can smile when everything
is dead wrong
.”

Was I really ready to give up on Ava? In Ireland I swore I would
fight for her, even if I died trying.

“Thirty seconds, Nolan!”

I lifted my head off the ground and looked through the window at
the most captivating woman I had ever met, lying helpless on the table. A woman
who had shown me the true beauty of life. She had offered me comfort and
ecstasy, and given my life real meaning. She held every inch of my heart.

As if she could hear, I pressed my hands up against the window
and spoke to her. “I’ll be the one who loves you the most.”

And then as if I had just downed a can of adrenaline, I took the
Glock from my waistband and pulled the trigger. Harper fell to the ground
instantly. Drew ran over to me.

“Ten seconds!” We huddled together and watched Drew’s watch
counting down. “I’m going to spray the ozone,” Drew said. ”Hold your breath and
close your eyes!”

Drew sprayed a cloud of gas around us, and then held his wrist
with the watch as far from his body as he could. I counted down in my head,
hoping Drew was right about all this.

A series of high-pitched beeps rang out just as a massive burst
of invisible energy sent three successive waves through the room, blowing
papers, blasting pictures off the wall, and shattering the glass windows of the
observation room.

My ears felt like I was deep underwater and my head experienced
an uncomfortable squeeze of pressure, but I otherwise felt alright.

A few seconds later Drew told me to open my eyes. “It worked! Let’s
go!”

I looked through the window inside the operating room. Two of
Myer’s men and Adam lay on the floor unconscious, but no one else was in the
room. Cabinets, furniture and medical supplies had toppled over and a large
metal cabinet has shifted in front of the exit to the operating room.

“Where’s Ava?” I screamed. “Was she affected by the UV?”

Drew used his pistol to shoot out the door and then entered the
room, yelling for Darcy. I crouched down and felt Adam’s pulse. He was alive.

“Adam! Where did they go?” I slapped his cheeks, hoping he would
come to quickly.

“Darcy’s gone, too.” Drew tried to move the cabinet
unsuccessfully and began carefully tracing the perimeter of the room with
another one of his tech gadgets.

“When will they wake up?”

“Probably a few minutes.” Drew stopped at a black box that
looked like a thermostat stuck to the wall. He lifted a false front to display
a touch-sensitive screen. “I bet this opens a secret outlet.” He tried to guess
the code with no success.

The more time we wasted, the farther Myers would get with Ava. I
filled a metal container partway with cold water from the sink, and then
splashed it on Adam’s face. He opened his eyes and sat up, gasping for air.

“What the bloody hell?” He looked around still breathing heavily.
“Owe! My head! What happened?”

“It’s a long story that we don’t have time for right now.”

Adam rubbed his eyes and looked around the room quizzically. A
line of blood dripped down from his nose as he sat up.

I moved in closer. “Adam, focus! Where did they go?”

“I can’t hear well.” He pulled on his ear lobes and moved his
jaw back and forth. “Who?”

“Ava! Where did Myers take her?”

I pulled Adam to his feet as he stumbled over his words, looking
stunned. “I…I don’t know. I have no ruddy idea.”

Drew turned from the box and said calmly, “Adam, you don’t
happen to know the code to this thing, do ya?”

“No,” Adam replied as he continued groaning and rubbing his
head. He grabbed a stack of paper towels and pressed it to his nose. “Oh hell,
I’m bleeding from the ears, too!”

With a hiss, a section of the tiled wall cracked open and swung
out to reveal a dark tunnel behind it. Drew smiled and said, “
Caducuspetra
Morbus
.”

“Come on, Adam,” I said. “You know your way around here better
than us. You’ve got to get us to that girl.”

Adam made his way down the tunnel, Drew and I desperately
following.

The hospital gown flew back behind me as I ran insanely through
the parking garage, following the directions the pretty strawberry-blond lady
had whispered to me. “Adam!” I yelled through tears, wondering if whatever that
strange blast was had killed him. I knew Myers and his men must be only steps
behind me, but I had no idea where I was or where I was going.

My muscles were weak and I felt nauseous from the drugs Adam had
given me. Only a few cars were scattered throughout the lot so I could see out
over the railings. The sun was just barely rising between the skyscrapers.

Skyscrapers? There are no skyscrapers in Stevens Point. Where am
I?

“Ava! Stop!” someone yelled behind me. I turned to look and
tripped over my clumsy feet. I fell hard, scraping my knee, wrist, and palm on
the pavement. A wicked sting proved I had peeled a few layers of skin back in
all three places. I screamed in pain and then in terror as I looked behind me,
spotting a man dressed all in black running after me.

I forced my legs to stand and run up the ramp, blood dripping
down my shins and toward my bare feet. I had nowhere to go. I was freezing.

This was definitely the last day of my life.  

A bullet flew by my legs. “Adam!” I desperately cried out,
hoping he’d magically jump out from behind the nearest car and whisk me away to
safety. I was crying so intensely that mucus was pouring out of my nose and
tears were blocking my view.

Suddenly a long, black car came roaring down the ramp ahead of
me. It swung around, screeching its tires and coming to rest within ten feet of
my body. The passenger side window rolled down and the person in the driver’s
seat pointed a gun right out the window.

“Get down!” he yelled.

I collapsed to the ground and covered my head just as three
shots— louder than anything I had ever heard in my life—rang out through the
parking garage.

When the noise stopped echoing, I heard my name. “Ava,
sweetheart. Get in!”

My attacker lay still on the cement floor. I stood from my
crouched position and looked at my rescuer in the car.

My jaw fell open with shock. “Dad?”

I couldn’t believe it. My father was here, shooting a gun and
swinging his car around like a regular old James Bond.

“Get in the car! Now!” He leaned over and opened the passenger’s
side door.

I quickly slid in as Dad peeled out and zoomed down the parking
ramp and onto the street, breaking through a wooden barricade across the exit.

My mouth hung open, eyes wide, as I tried to take in the truth
of the last few minutes of my life. I stared at my father, not knowing what to
say.

Dad pointed to a bag on the floor at my feet. “I brought you a
change of clothes. There’s also a blanket.”

I couldn’t speak.

He kept his eyes on the road. “Are you okay, sweetie? Did Myers
hurt you in any way?”

“Dad…I’m fine…I just…” Why the hell was my dad here? And how did
he know about Myers?

“Honey, I’ve got a lot to tell you. But—”

“—I’d say,” I interrupted, sharply.

“Fine. You have the right to be upset with me.” He let out a
deep breath. “But please, just listen to the whole story before you…react.”

“First, just tell me the truth: You are actually my father,
right?”

I was completely serious but my dad laughed.

“Yes, dear. I am your father.” He took a deep breath and let it
out loudly. “I’m just not entirely the person you always thought I was.”

“What do you mean?” I was somewhat terrified to hear his answer.

My father looked nervous. “I knew this day would eventually
come. I just didn’t expect the truth to arrive quite in this manner.” He turned
onto the Dan Ryan Expressway heading north toward Wisconsin and sat silently
for a few moments.

“Dad?” Tears began to well up in my eyes and my voice cracked.

“I don’t work for a bank. I never have.”

“Okay…” I said with worry in my voice and tears sliding down my
cheeks.

“I am a special consultant for the FBI.” He looked over at me
but I didn’t react, so he continued. “I spend most of my days working in an
office, conducting research and advising missions. When I was younger I was out
in the field like Nolan.”

“Nolan?” How did my dad know about Nolan? I barely knew about
Nolan.

“That’s right, you don’t have….Oh, Ava, I’m so sorry I haven’t
protected you.”

His concerned stare was unsettling, and I was still frozen with
shock.

My dad was FBI?

“Darling, at least put the blanket on. You’ll catch pneumonia.”

I pulled the blanket onto my lap just to humor him. Right now I
could feel nothing—no pain, no discomfort.

“As you know, your mother and I have been overseas visiting
Laura, but I was also working on a case for the agency.” He reached over to
grab my hand. “We thought Myers got everything he wanted from us last August
and that you’d be safe now. I learned just yesterday that Myers was ready to
launch his assault on you and so I spent most of the night flying back to the
US, sick with worry that you weren’t safe.” Then he stared out the windshield
and muttered to himself, “Bowman assured me you’d be safe.”

I didn’t know much of what he was talking about. “So Mom knows
all about this…life of yours?”

“Yes. Your mother has always been very supportive of my career
choices.”

I closed my eyes and hoped that when I woke up, this entire day
would just be a dream. I’d be in Stevens Point blissfully falling for Adam and
enjoying the feeling of new love.

“Speaking of, I have strict orders to bring you straight home to
your mother. She’s been crazy worried about you, just as I have been.” He
looked over to me for some form of acceptance, but I kept my eyes closed,
begging for sleep to come. “It’s a long way home, and I can imagine you’re
exhausted, honey. But before you rest you have to hear one more thing.”

I didn’t know if I could take any more news, but I opened my
eyes anyway. “Are you sure it can’t wait, Dad?”

“I can’t foresee the future, and I would hate for me to never
have the chance to tell you this again, so I think you better hear this now.”

I couldn’t find any words.

“That scar you have over your heart…”

I instinctively felt my chest with my hand.

“It’s not from when you fell off your bike when you were four.”

“Dad…”

He lowered his voice, even though we were the only two in the
car. “Nineteen years ago your grandmother and I desperately needed a hiding
place.” He stopped for a moment, apparently looking for the right words.
“There’s a secret inside of you, Ava. A secret you need to spend great efforts
to defend, or very soon millions of Americans could find themselves at death’s
door.”