Betrayal (25 page)

Jamieson’s temple began to throb and he rubbed the spot with his fingers.

“Paterson was once a close friend to Andros,” Dr. Kaufmann continued. “We want to determine if outside of the lab Andros will obey our order to kill anyone who gets in his way, even a friend. If anyone can pick up Dias’s trail, Andros can.”

From her position slightly above his desk, the Mona Lisa appeared to mock Jamieson. He turned away from the smile that suddenly seemed smug, rather than sly.

Over the years he’d worked with dozens of fools. None of them had outlasted him. This oblivious scientist would not be his downfall.

“What you failed to take into account in your excruciatingly poor planning, is that Rafe Andros has a brother, Niko,” Jamieson said. “Niko is also an SSU agent. And he’s married to Kai Paterson’s sister. So Paterson is family to Rafe Andros. Do you really think he’ll be able to kill Paterson?”

“Perfect.” Kaufmann sounded excited. Delighted.

Blind, crazy fool. This was a disaster.

“It’s the ultimate test of our imprinting,” Kaufmann continued. “Better than we expected.”

“Get your head out of the lab and think of the big picture.” Jamieson pushed to his feet. “What if the Brazilian authorities catch Andros and question him? Or Paterson turns the tables and captures him? Are you sure Andros’s programming is strong enough to prevent him from telling everything he knows about the lab?”

Heavy silence on the other end of the line indicated that Kaufmann had finally comprehended the extent of the danger.

“Do you finally understand what you’ve done?” Jamieson demanded.

“The risk of detection by the authorities is statistically small—”

Fucking scientists. Jamieson disconnected the call.

Kaufmann was fast becoming a liability.

Chapter 20

Monday, Mid-morning

Amazon Jungle

“I
f you ask me one more time if I’m okay, I’m going to throttle you!” Susana snarled. “I’m not made of glass, Kai. I’m fine.”

Kai watched Susana stomp behind a rock to take care of personal needs, her hands waving as she muttered to herself. He couldn’t stop a smile. He liked her mouthy anger much better than her silent grief.

Hell, he liked her, period. She was smart and strong and, despite this show of temper, she was holding up remarkably well.

He rubbed the back of his neck. Hopefully, Susana had more reserves left, because the hardest part was ahead of them. Rescue by the SSU was a distant hope. The odds were slim that anyone had heard his message last night. So he and Susana were on their own.

A helicopter had flown over a couple hours ago, quartering the area to the west. The canopy directly overhead was thick enough to conceal them, and the warmth of the air should make infrared unreliable.

Still, the helicopter’s pass-over was a sign that someone believed there were survivors of last night’s attack. Kai suspected there’d already been a team on the ground watching for him and Susana. How else would they know they’d run deeper into the jungle rather than toward the river?

So he had to assume there were men on foot following them. A simple thing to do, since he and Susana had crashed through the damn jungle, carelessly breaking branches and crushing vegetation underfoot. Leaving behind a trail that screamed, “Find us!”

“Kai.”

He glanced up, alerted by Susana’s tone that something had changed. Her anger was gone. The trepidation on her face had him reaching for his knife. “What’s wrong?”

She held up several crumpled sheets of paper. “I found these in my pocket. I’d forgotten all about them.”

“What?” Then realization hit like a boxer’s glove. “Your father’s letter.”

“Yeah.”

He glanced around. Listened hard for any sounds indicating the helicopter’s return or that men waited in the bushes to ambush them.

Nothing.

Still, his instincts insisted that they keep moving.

At the same time, he needed to know what her father had said. “If I lead, can you read and walk at the same time?”

She nodded. “Just go slow.”

Slow was better than stopped. “Okay.”

“Dear Daughter,” she began as he headed into the trees. A trace of anger struggled to overthrow her carefully neutral monotone.

Kai commended her control.

“…My name is Dr. Mikhail Nevsky and I am your father. Perhaps your mother has mentioned me to you. Or perhaps bitterness has kept her silent. Whichever the case, it does not matter. Without me, you would not have life. That creates a bond of obligation and rights between us. I had need of a safe place to store my research notes, and your appendectomy was the perfect opportunity. Who would think to look for my microchip inside a human being? Let alone inside a daughter no one knows I have. These notes are the sum of my life’s work. Work that, once finalized, will make the world a more easily controlled place.”

Kai couldn’t stop a snort of disbelief.

Susana cleared her throat, then continued, “But there are men and governments who wish my notes for their own. So I hid the microchip in your abdomen, with a transmitter that allows it to update whenever I make significant changes.”

Susana cursed vehemently in Portuguese. “Since you have received this letter, I am no longer alive to carry out my important research. However, I have a colleague in Moscow, Dr. Pieter Ivanov, who is conducting similar research. You must go to Moscow and let Dr. Ivanov remove the microchip so that he can continue my work.”

Now it was Kai’s turn to swear. The last thing they needed was more of these damned inhuman labs destroying people’s lives.

“But perhaps you are wondering why you should obey the order of the father you’ve never met? Particularly if your mother has shared her opinion of me. To make certain of your obedience, I have set a self-destruct on the glass vial surrounding the microchip. Inside the vial is a dose of deadly poison.”

Kai halted and spun to face Susana. He had to hold out his hands to stop her from walking into him. “Wait. Read that part again.”

She did.

“Son of a bitch.” Sweet Jesus, she’d fallen on her belly more than once. What if the vial had burst?

He could picture it all too well. Susana on the ground, writhing in excruciating pain as her muscles contracted and her internal organs failed. Bleeding from her mouth. Eyes wide and terrified in death. Betrayed by the man who should have given her unconditional love.

Kai rubbed his arms. When did the temperature drop to arctic levels?

“Kai?”

He could barely move his lips. “Go on.”

Giving him a puzzled look, she continued. “By holding the paper of this letter, you have allowed tiny microbes to enter your system. They will interact with the outer coating of the vial, eroding it. You now have fourteen days to get to Moscow and Dr. Ivanov before the microbes dissolve the vial, releasing the poison into your system.” Her voice trembled to a halt and her gaze jumped from the page to Kai. Her pupils dilated with alarm.

Kai barely resisted the need to pull her into his arms. “Go on, sweetheart. We need to know what else your father planned.”

She cleared her throat twice and resumed reading. “Should you decide to have someone else remove the vial, know that it is booby-trapped. Only Dr. Ivanov has the instructions to safely remove the vial. Improperly handled, the vial will self-destruct, releasing the poison. You will die and the microchip will dissolve.”

Susana’s hand spasmed on the paper. She licked her lips. “Kai. Is it possible? About…the poison? And the microbes?”

Seeing her fear gave him the strength to lock away his own terror. She needed him to be strong. To be calm. “Yeah. He had scientists working with him on all sorts of chemical and biological substances, poisons included.” Her father had even used low doses of poison to break down his subject’s minds and bodies before giving them a treatment.

“
Mãe de Deus
. Kai, I touched the letter when it arrived. That means…” Her lips moved as she counted. “I’ve only got five more days.” Her voice climbed the rickety scale into hysteria. “Kai, if we don’t find transport, it will take us nearly that amount of time to reach Boa Vista!”

“Then we’d better move it.” He hesitated, then nodded at the letter. “Is that all?”

She glanced down. “Yeah, pretty much. He gives the address and contact information for the guy in Moscow. There’s even a code word I’m supposed to use.” She rolled her eyes. “Very James Bond.”

He wanted to kiss her for trying to find some humor in the situation. But they needed to keep moving. He started walking.

No.

To hell with it. He needed to touch her. To feel her vitality.

He turned back. Clamped his hands on her shoulders and yanked her against his body as his mouth captured hers.

Susana wrapped her hands around his head and pulled him closer with a whimper of need. She bit his lip, and he damn near came right then.

The sound of the helicopter returning broke through the sexual fog. He pushed Susana away. “Helicopter,” he gasped.

Looking down into her befuddled eyes, he almost didn’t care if they moved on. But the rational side of his brain kicked in, reminding him that the helicopter could start shooting at any moment.

He dropped his hands away from her shoulders. Gave her one last brush of his lips. Then took her hand and urged her deeper into the jungle.

“N
iko,” Jenna called. “Take a look at this.” She held up a pair of night vision goggles. “I found them hanging from that tree.”

Niko’s throat shrunk two sizes, making speech impossible. They had to be Rafe’s. A sign that his brother had enough control to leave a trail any decent tracker could follow.

But only Niko and Jenna would understand the importance of this find.

He glanced down at the tracker in his hands that showed the positions of Rafe and Kai. “I don’t know if not being able to see at night will slow him down enough,” he said. His voice came out harsh. Gravelly as a chain-smoker. “He’s almost caught up with them.”

Jenna hung the strap of the goggles around her neck. “Then we’d better move fast.” She brushed his cheek with her lips.

She started to walk past him, but Niko grabbed her hand and brought it to his mouth. “God, I’d be lost without you, Jenna. I love you so damn much.”

Her eyes glimmered with tears. “I love you, too.” She pulled her hand free and stepped into him, hugging him fiercely.

His arms swept around her and he held her tightly. Then he let go and nudged her away. “Thanks.” He kissed her forehead. “Let’s go get my brother.”

As they walked into the jungle, he put the tracker in his pocket and intertwined the fingers of his free hand with Jenna’s.

He hadn’t taken more than five steps when the earth shook and the sound of an explosion rent the air. Niko dropped to the ground, pulling Jenna with him.

They crossed their hands behind their necks, waiting for fallout.

One minute passed, then another. The jungle was devoid of animal calls. But there also wasn’t any sound of men, bullets, or falling debris.

“What was that?” Jenna asked. She pushed to her feet and brushed herself off.

Niko stood up and stared back in the direction they’d come.

Destroying an archaeological dig and killing nearly two dozen people was enough to start an international incident. If he’d been responsible…

“Best guess?” he replied. “Dynamite. Maybe a plane crash. Something explosive at the archaeological site to make the fire look like an accident.”

“But won’t the accelerant show in soil tests or something?”

“Why would investigators bother if such an obvious reason is presented to them?”

Jenna stared at him, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly open. Then she snapped her teeth together. “If they’re going to such lengths to hide what happened, then Ryker was right.”

Niko nodded. “Whoever is responsible is eliminating all witnesses. We’re all in danger.” He checked his tracking device again, then headed into the brush at a fast jog.

H
er father’s words reverberated in Susana’s skull like shards of pottery being shaken in a sorting tray. Poison. Inside her.

Unable to think past what her father had revealed, she let Kai lead her through the tangle of vegetation.

What if they didn’t make it out of the Amazon in time? What if the vial self-destructed, releasing the poison into her system? They only had five more days and they hadn’t even reached the Branco River yet.

Moscow seemed an eternity away.

She could die. And the chip, so critical to Kai, might be destroyed.

The trees pressed in on her like walls of a prison, cutting off both air and hope. God, if she was going to die, she didn’t want this frantic rush through the jungle to be her last experience. There were so many places she hadn’t been. So many adventures yet to try.

Amerinis to find.
Deus
, she was so close to fulfilling her childhood dream of finding the lost city. She couldn’t bear to consider that someone else would carry on her work after she died.

Get a grip.

She forced herself to take a deep breath. Okay, enough with the negatives. She refused to buy the worst case scenario. Her crew had died because of the chip. Susana would not let their deaths be for nothing. She would survive. The chip would be safely removed and given over to the proper authorities.

Kai halted without warning and she plowed into his back. His right arm shot out to steady her. “Hold up a minute. There’s a snake crossing our path.”

Susana murmured assent, but she wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying. Being in contact with Kai’s body brought all her tangled thoughts and dark fears into focus. No matter what happened in the future, right now she had Kai.

She let her head rest on his shoulder, enjoying the feel of his strength underneath her cheek. Wanting to wrap herself around him and never let go.

“C’mon, it’s gone.”

Susana blinked twice, then realized that Kai was tugging on her arm.

“You all right?” he asked.

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

As she followed the back that had become so dear to her, Susana vowed that tonight she wasn’t going to sleep alone. She’d always been one to seize the moment. Today that meant showing Kai with her body how much he meant to her.