Betrayal (36 page)

Mark eagerly followed the woman farther into the building through eerily silent halls. None of the noises from the assault team’s movements carried this far, a testament to excellent soundproofing.

The woman’s heels clicked rapidly on the tile as she scurried along. Tonelli lengthened his stride to keep up with her, but stopped himself from breaking into a run. He didn’t want to make the woman suspicious.

“There,” the woman said, pointing toward a half-open door at the end of the corridor. “That’s the preparation room. You don’t need anything else?”

Tonelli shook his head, all his attention on the door.

“Then…I will return to my friends, yes?”

“Yes, thank you,” he murmured.

He reached the door and stepped inside.

Empty.

Before disappointment had a chance to settle in, he heard voices on the other side of the door leading into the next room.

He put his hand on the door and cautiously opened it.

K
ai sprinted down the hall, driven by the urgent sense that time had run out. His fear and anger fed on each other, increasing his need to hurry. If Susana was dead, he didn’t know how he’d…how he’d…

Hell. He loved her so much he couldn’t even think straight.

Push the fear aside. Focus.

After a quick glance at the map, he turned right at the next corner. Yes. This was the corridor where he’d seen the gurney via the monitor.

Kai forced himself into a walk. He gently opened each door he encountered. If he burst into a room and Ivanov was in the middle of surgery, he might scare the man into making an accidental cut on Susana. And her skin was so smooth, so fragile. It would tear quickly under a finely-honed scalpel.

Just as it had yielded easily under his own knife when he’d removed the tracking device.

Kai closed his eyes and willed away the image of her blood on his hands before it triggered darker memories. Tried to convince himself that when he found Susana, she would be alive.

The next door opened onto the anteroom of an operating room. On the other side of the observation window, a man in hospital scrubs lifted a scalpel from a shiny array on a portable tray.

Ivanov.

Susana lay on the table. All Kai could see was her face and her bare legs, but it was enough to weaken his knees with relief.

Kai hurried forward. The doctor appeared to be alone. No nurses. No anesthesiologist. God, was the man about to operate while Susana was awake?

As he pushed open the door to the operating room, a man stepped out from the shadowy corner.

Mark Tonelli had beat him to the scene.

Chapter 29

K
ai wanted to rip Dr. Ivanov away from Susana. But fear bound him in iron shackles, keeping him immobile two feet away from the operating table, barely daring to breathe.

Dr. Ivanov shot Kai an annoyed, dismissive glance. “Do not come any closer or the woman dies,” he warned, before lowering a scalpel to Susana’s skin. At the moment of incision, Kai sank his teeth into his tongue, stifling a bellow of protest.

As blood flowed out of the cut, Kai took one lurching step forward. A growl rolled out of his mouth as he waited for Ivanov to finish. The second the chip left Susana’s body, Kai would snatch her away from the scientist.

“Don’t move.”

At Tonelli’s command, Kai looked up. The man’s gun was pointed at Kai’s chest, but Tonelli’s eyes kept straying to Susana.

Kai dismissed him with a glance, and returned his attention to what was important. Watching Ivanov. Protecting Susana. If anything went wrong with the procedure, Dr. Ivanov wouldn’t make it out of the room alive.

Kai would see to it.

Ivanov’s tweezers began to rise out of the cut in Susana. Kai stepped closer.

Ivanov’s hand stilled. He picked up another set of tweezers with his other hand and carefully probed the incision. Searching for the booby-trap.

Kai waited for Ivanov to disarm the trap, breath suspended. Memories of his time with Susana flashing before his eyes.

Her laugh. Her curses. The way she smelled.

Her taste.

The look on her face as he’d walked away, leaving her with Niko.

Ivanov’s hand twisted sharply. He yanked and the tweezers pulled out a thin wire attached to a pea-sized box.

He tossed them onto the floor. The box exploded with the force of a miniature firecracker.

Next Ivanov removed a blood-smeared glass vial about the size of Kai’s thumb from his knuckle to nail. Ivanov dropped the vial onto the surgical tray.

Finally, after two years, the chip was within reach.

Kai didn’t give a damn. Fresh bruises in the shape of fingers purpled Susana’s arms and calves. Blood seeped out from under the straps restraining her, indicating she’d struggled. Been afraid.

Kai couldn’t control the surge of fury that tore through him. Demanding he act. Ivanov had hurt Susana. So he needed to be hurt.

Every muscle straining, Kai forced himself to wait while Ivanov sewed closed Susana’s incision and swabbed away the blood from the short line of sutures across her belly. When Ivanov pulled down her gown and stepped away from the operating table, Kai struck.

“Y
ou don’t know what you’re doing,” Dr. Ivanov gasped.

“Yes, I do.” Kai had the scientist pinned against the wall. His hand pressed a scalpel to the scientist’s throat. Although he didn’t remember grabbing the scalpel, he was itching to use it.

The scientist reached up and tried to pry Kai’s fingers away. Kai pressed harder with the scalpel blade and was rewarded by a few drops of blood.

“Only I can decode the data on the microchip,” Ivanov gasped. “It was meant for me. Nevsky always said his successes were mine to share.”

Keeping the scalpel at Ivanov’s neck, Kai shuffled close to the tray where the chip sat. With his free hand, he grabbed the vial and stuck it in his pants pocket.

“If you must take the data,” Ivanov continued, his words coming fast with desperation, “at least leave the woman. She is unique. Her genetic code was altered by her father. Studying her DNA will make up for losing the rest of the data.”

Kai’s whole body stilled. “Explain.”

“Ah…”

Kai lightened up slightly on the pressure. “Talk.”

“Dr. Nevsky injected her mother several times with substances meant to enhance the fetus’s genetic code. Strength. Intelligence. Endurance. Extraordinary immune system.”

Christ.

“If I am to succeed in making a super human I must study her to see which alterations took.” Ivanov’s hand groped Kai’s pocket, searching for the chip.

Kai shifted so his forearm pressed under Ivanov’s chin, then lifted so the shorter man’s feet barely touched the floor. “You will—”

Tonelli slammed into Kai from the side. As Kai fell, he felt the scalpel in his hand scrape along the skin on Ivanov’s neck before his arm swung free. Then he lost his grip on the scalpel and it went flying across the room.

He landed on his left side, with Ivanov and Tonelli both piled on top of him. Ivanov’s hands clawed at Kai’s pockets. Tonelli grabbed Kai’s right arm and pulled it behind his back.

Kai’s still-healing shoulder muscles screamed. Fuck. A few more inches and all his hours of physical therapy would go down the drain. He rolled onto his back, pinning Tonelli’s hand beneath him. Then Kai lashed out with his feet, knocking Tonelli into the corner of the operating table.

Tonelli crumpled and lay motionless.

Kai heard a crack, then something sharp jabbed into his left wrist. Damn, that burned. Kai glanced down. The empty vial stuck out of his skin.

Shit. Ivanov had taken the vial, broken it open, and shoved the remainder into his hand. Injecting him with the poison. Kai yanked the glass out and flung it across the room.

Ivanov stood up, his face triumphant. Between his thumb and index fingers he held the microchip. “I have prevailed. You have half an hour before the poison kills you.” He glanced at Tonelli’s inert body. “Leave now and take Mr. Tonelli with you. I will see that you are given the antidote once you are outside these walls.”

Kai raised his hands overhead in surrender position and slowly stood up. The poison burned through his veins like acid, making his mouth water and his stomach churn, but he wasn’t leaving here without Susana and the chip.

The room shook from an explosion farther down the hall.

Ivanov turned his head slightly.

Tonelli launched off the ground, tackling the scientist.

The chip dropped to the floor as Ivanov and Tonelli staggered across the room. Kai scooped up the chip, popped it in his mouth, and swallowed.

Ivanov broke free of Tonelli. He lunged toward Susana.

Kai saw the scalpel in Ivanov’s hand. Saw him aiming at Susana’s throat, and with a roar, Kai charged. He grabbed Ivanov’s wrist, spun the man away from Susana, and twisted, reveling in the crack of breaking bone.

Kai caught the scalpel as it fell from Ivanov’s hand. He pulled Ivanov flush against him, yanked the scientist’s head back, and put the scalpel to the man’s throat.

Susana cried out.

Keeping his grip on Ivanov, Kai met her eyes. Her expression was clouded with pain and fear. “Don’t…kill…him…” she rasped.

No. He needed to do this. It was just. Vengeance for what Ivanov had done to Susana. And what the scientist had done to all the men and women he’d used as test subjects.

But as Kai held Susana’s eyes, he saw something else. Saw her belief in him. Belief that strengthened into something he’d never expected.

“Love…you…” Her eyes backed up her words with a gentle force his savage side couldn’t fight. Kai sighed as some of the intense rage bled away.

He pressed his thumb against Dr. Ivanov’s carotid artery until the man blacked out, then let the man fall to the ground.

“Thank…you…” Susana’s eyes closed.

Heart in his throat, Kai stepped over Ivanov’s body to reach Susana. He pressed his fingers against her throat, desperate to find a pulse.

His relief at finding the faint beat sent him to his knees. He let his forehead rest against the cool metal operating table.

A sound behind him had him whipping around, scalpel held in attack pose.

Two Tonellis knelt over Dr. Ivanov, tying him up with surgical tubing.

Kai blinked and the double image shimmered into one man. Shit. He’d been so focused on Susana, he’d forgotten about the poison. Kai glanced down at his hand. The skin around the wound was red and puffy.

Tonelli stopped and held his palms out in front of him. “Truce. I’m no threat to Susana.”

When Kai didn’t answer, Tonelli shrugged. He lowered his hands and finished securing Ivanov. “What did you do with the chip?”

“Swallowed it,” Kai rasped.

“Ah.” Tonelli stood up and stepped away from Ivanov. “That complicates matters.”

The burning in Kai’s veins spread. Intensified until it felt like he’d swallowed the sun. Sweat ran down his back and he swayed with dizziness.

Dammit, all Tonelli had to do was let him die, then ship his body off to have the chip removed.

Then what would happen to Susana?

Kai’s legs buckled and he hit the ground on his knees. The scalpel fell from his hand.

“Promise me…she won’t be hurt.”

Tonelli’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “I promise.”

Kai gasped as the poison surged into his heart. The last thing he saw was the floor rising up to meet him.

M
ark stared at the unconscious bodies of Ivanov and Paterson. Should he wake up the scientist and demand the antidote so he could save Paterson? Or just let the bastard die and have Jamieson remove the chip from his corpse?

Susana whimpered. Her eyes opened and immediately found Paterson. “No!” she struggled to sit up, but she was strapped to the table.

Her eyes met Mark’s. “Is he…dead?”

She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. They would have made a perfect couple. Except that her eyes were frantic with worry for Paterson. He could practically feel her willing the SSU agent to move. Damn her, why couldn’t she look at him in that way? Like he was her only hope.

Her love.

He could lie and tell her Paterson was dead. Then take her away and start a new life together.

But he didn’t want secondhand affection.

“No. He’s just unconscious. He’s been poisoned.” Mark moved to the table and began unfastening her restraints.

“Please…help him.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Mark released the last strap. She tried to roll off the table, but he put his hands on her shoulders. “Stay here. I’ll wake Dr. Ivanov and find out where the antidote is.”

The gratitude in her eyes warmed him. He reached out and smoothed her hair back from her forehead. She flinched and he dropped his hand.

He turned away, angry at the hurt he felt at her reaction.

“Hurts,” she murmured.

He glanced back. Her eyes were closed. She was unconscious again.

Good. Because he didn’t want her seeing how he persuaded Dr. Ivanov to talk.

Ivanov succumbed quickly to Mark’s painful persuasion and wasn’t long before Mark had the antidote in hand. Unfortunately, the scientist hadn’t survived.

Mark jabbed the needle into Paterson’s neck and pressed the plunger. He didn’t know how long it would take for Paterson to recover. He’d forgotten to ask Ivanov that.

The room shook under another explosion.

He had to make a decision quickly. Should he pick up Paterson and try to escape with the man’s unconscious body?

Too risky. The last thing he wanted was to be seen as behaving suspiciously and be shot by an overzealous soldier.

He could call the head of his assault team, ask for a rescue, and explain that Paterson had to come with them. But that would involve explaining that Paterson had swallowed the chip. And he didn’t trust that the man in charge wouldn’t have orders from Jamieson to shoot Mark and take Paterson straight to Jamieson.

Mark sighed. He walked over to Paterson and pulled the two-way radio off the man’s belt. The safest option was to trust the SSU.

Chapter 30

Thursday, Morning

Temporary SSU Research Facility