Reckoning

Raines sat in the king’s chair in the conference room. It was slightly higher, slightly bigger and at the head of the table so everyone else in the meeting would have to look up at him. The decorator who’d done this building and Omicron’s office in Colorado hadn’t understood the necessity of the king’s chair until Leland had explained it to him. Men need to know who’s boss, who has the final say. In this pansy-ass age of political correctness, it wasn’t words that communicated, it was body language, position, the king’s seat.

Raines brought in the money. Therefore, he was the king pin. He’d called the meeting for 7:00 a.m., knowing it would be difficult for the managers to get here so early. When Leland’s secretary had proposed bringing in coffee and Danish, Raines had given an emphatic no. It was all games. Games with damned high stakes.

Leland himself was the Prince Regent and soon the dynamic was going to shift in his favor. Not today. Today there were going to be fireworks. Nonetheless when the shipment went out and Leland put the money in Omicron’s secret offshore account, Raines would have to give Leland his due.

“Thank you, gentlemen,” the senator said, leaning back in his chair.

That’s all that needed to be said. The underlings moved out in an orderly fashion, taking BlackBerrys and PDAs with them, leaving Ingram to hear the private word.

When the door to the conference room closed, Leland prepared by focusing his gaze on the bridge of Raines’s nose. It would appear, from the king’s seat, as if his eyes were slightly downcast, but not subservient. That he might be receiving a dressing-down, but he wasn’t a toady.

“We didn’t get the chemist,” Raines said, his voice muted. “We didn’t get her data. And we lost three men.”

“We found her once, we’ll find her again. We know she’s still in L.A. And we destroyed the lab.”

“You found her and lost her. She could be anywhere by now. And the lab was never the problem.”

“We’re on it.”

“You’re on it?”

That was about fifteen decibels louder. By the end of the conversation, Leland fully expected to hear him roar with rage.

“What the fuck does that mean, you’re on it? Do you know where she is at this moment? Do you know if she’s still connected to that Delta Force bunch? Where’s the soldier who escaped from Colorado? What the hell kind of operation is this, that you can’t find a few grunts and a chemist?”

There it was. The roar. The voice that carried across the senate floor. Now Leland’s gaze moved down a half inch and he let his shoulders sag by the same degree. “Senator, I’ve replaced the man in charge and I believe the new man will have the Delta team within the week.”

“Based on what, exactly?”

“We’re meeting later to go over the details. I’ll give you an update first thing tomorrow.”

“I’d better have answers I can count on, Leland. We cannot have this situation exposed. The American people have a great need for the money we’re bringing in with this weapon. A great need, indeed. I will not disappoint the American people, are we clear?”

“Yes, Senator. Completely.”

“I want that update by seven.”

“Yes, sir.”

Raines leaned back and his posture eased. “Bring me up to speed on the plant.”

This was the part of the meeting Leland had been waiting for. He had no idea how in hell they were going to find the scientist or the soldiers. Eventually, they’d make a mistake and that would be that. Of course, he couldn’t say that to Raines, but he wasn’t too worried. Not yet.

Now, the plant, on the other hand, had exceeded his expectations. Putting it inside the Air Force base had been a stroke of genius, particularly as even the road leading to the perimeter fence was restricted.

Leland felt the same obligation to the citizens of this country as Raines. He wasn’t about to let the godless liberals and pantywaists put his country at risk. This country, his country, would not be subject to terrorism again. Not while he still breathed.

3

TAMARA’S GASP WOKE NATE from the first sleep he’d had in twenty-two hours, but he was instantly alert. He turned on the bedside lamp to find her eyes were wide open, her mouth, too, and she looked as panicked as a person could be and live through it.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and raised her to a sitting position. When she still didn’t look at him, he shook her gently, then not so gently. Finally, she focused, recognized him. Fell completely apart.

It killed him to hear her sobs. In all the time he’d known her, in all the horrendous situations she’d been in, she’d never wept, not like this. It was as if he were listening to a heart shatter, to a world come apart at the seams. Which, of course, it was.

She’d worked so goddamn hard on the dispersal system for the antidote to the gas. When it hadn’t worked, something had broken inside her. Although he’d tried to get her to talk about it, she wouldn’t. All he knew for sure was that she blamed herself for the failure. Shit, it would have been a miracle if it had worked.

He took her into his arms and comforted her the only way he knew how. He wasn’t accustomed to this role, well, not unless he was trying to get laid. Then he had no trouble offering up a shoulder to cry on. This was different.

As far as he was concerned, she was a soldier under his command. He didn’t take the responsibility lightly. He’d have given anything to have kept her safe. If there was anyone in the room who’d failed, it was him. He hadn’t been at the lab to protect her. His precautions weren’t sufficient. “How did they know?”

She pushed away from his shoulder to look at him through tear-filled eyes. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, then sniffed again. “I had a bad dream.”

“I could tell,” he said, wanting to touch her, but painfully aware that she was naked and that the comforter had fallen to her waist. “Want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” she said, “but I probably should.” She gazed around the room, stopping at the window. He’d made sure the blackout curtains were closed, knowing how badly she needed to sleep. “What time is it?”

He looked at his watch. “Almost eleven.”

“In the morning, right?”

“Yeah.”

When she was settled, she pulled the comforter up, covering her breasts. He dragged his gaze up to her face. He tended to think of her as delicate because she was so petite. Though her long hair was black and straight and her eyes were darkly Asian, her skin was creamy pale, as if she’d never been in the sun. But he knew she was tough, stronger than she even realized.

“I heard someone coming down the stairs, but you hadn’t called. So I got the gun and the flash drive and I hid, you know, in that fake closet.”

The previous tenants had thought of everything, including false walls and trick doors.

“They searched the place for a long time. I heard them breaking things and cursing. I just stayed as quiet as I could.”

The words were so easily spoken, but he could just imagine how terrified she must have been. He should have been there. “When did you call me?”

She looked at him quizzically. “I didn’t have the phone. I was so busy thinking about the data, I forgot it.”

“But I got a call. From your cell.”

“Who was it?”

“That was just it. No one spoke. I answered, then I heard a gunshot.”

“There was a fire. I couldn’t stay hidden or I would have burned to death and taken the data with me. When I pushed out the wall, the man was standing right in front of me. I shot him.”

He liked to think of her as his soldier, but the truth was, she wasn’t. Before they’d met, she’d never even held a gun.