Reckoning (5 page)

They smelled of smoke and fear. It was just a T-shirt and jeans, and they would be fine after a wash, but she wanted more than anything to throw them away. She didn’t even have clean underwear. She had ditched those, choosing to go commando, and she’d turned her socks inside out, but it all felt wrong.

Was there money to get her new things? Probably not after they paid for the hotel room. Why had he brought her here? This place had to cost at least a hundred a night.

She wiped a clear spot on the mirror, and sighed as she got a load of her hair. She had no brush. No toothbrush. Nothing except the clothes on her back and a flash drive.

Using her fingers, she tried to make her hair obey, but it was no use. Then she rinsed her mouth out with water, and scrubbed her teeth with her finger, and that was even less successful than her finger comb.

She left the bathroom, and there was Nate standing by the door. He seemed impatient, and she felt the heat rise in her cheeks. She wasn’t sure why she was embarrassed. It wasn’t because of what they’d done. No, that had been the best thing she’d done in ages. Something else was going on, but she couldn’t pinpoint it. Not yet.

“You ready?”

She nodded. “I’d really appreciate it if we could stop at a gas station with a mini-mart. I need a toothbrush and a few other things.”

“You got it.”

She looked at him again, at his businesslike tone and she had to know. “Are you sorry?”

His shoulders sagged and he walked right up to her. He lifted her chin so he could look her straight in the eyes. “No. Don’t ever think that. I haven’t felt that wonderful in so long, I can’t even tell you. But I should have called the team. They were worried.”

“I understand.”

He hesitated, then he leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I’ll never forget this.”

She smiled, but his words didn’t comfort. She would have pressed, but they needed to go. And she needed to think.

What did she want from him? She’d asked him to help her forget, and he’d done just that. She’d figured since it had been so great that they’d do it again. But that was an assumption she needed to examine.

He opened the door and she knew the moment she stepped into the hallway that she had to give up her little fantasy. She wasn’t at all sure what would come next, just that what had prompted her to proposition him in the first place was still true. She didn’t want to die alone.

Now she had to wonder if she’d meant she needed someone, or if she’d meant she’d needed Nate.

Since the night she’d realized she had to face up to her situation, she’d had revelation after revelation, most of them good. She’d accepted that through no fault of her own she was part of this. She was being hunted by Omicron, and if she didn’t do something about it, she would be killed. There was no use pretending she hadn’t seen an entire village in Serbia wiped out by the lethal gas. That she didn’t know exactly who was responsible for those deaths.

She’d also come to accept that even though it wasn’t easy for her, she needed to trust the people around her. Seth was her biggest breakthrough. She’d never believed that someone could love her, that she could love someone in return, but then he’d come into her life. Who would have guessed that while he was healing from having his hand blown off, he’d be the one to heal her heart? She wasn’t a sappy person, not by a long shot, but even she couldn’t deny that something miraculous had taken place during the worst of situations.

Going to work each day at the truck stop wasn’t that bad. The money was ludicrously low, but it helped. It was a damn shame, however, that she couldn’t use her medical degree. They could have all used the money.

Christie, who’d gotten her the job, had been anxious all afternoon. Boone had called her, filling her in about Nate and Tam not showing up. But, like Harper, Christie couldn’t afford to miss even an hour of work, so she’d soldiered on. Harper had tried to tell her that her brother was fine, that he was too smart to get caught, but Christie wouldn’t be satisfied until she saw Nate.

It would have been great if they’d walked into Christie’s room at the motel and found that Nate and Tam had arrived, but no. It was still good to see Kate and Vince. And here was Cade, whom she’d heard about but never met.

He was quite large. Conan large. But he had a shy smile and his sandy brown hair had a cowlick in the back, reminiscent of Dennis the Menace. She wondered if the guys in his unit had given him hell for it, but then he’d probably had a crew cut back then.

“I’m Harper,” she said, extending her hand.

He shook it almost too gently, as if he knew he could easily hurt her. “Ma’am.”

“How was your trip?”

He shrugged. “Okay, I suppose. It was tricky getting the boxes on board. Security is tighter now, even at the bus stations.”

“Boxes?”

“Weapons,” he said. “We’ve collected quite a few, and we couldn’t afford to leave them behind.”

“Of course,” she said. She’d been told he was a sniper. An excellent one. She shivered, still not used to the nearness of death.

Even being together in one room like this was incredibly dangerous. But, then so was everything else. They would either come up with a way to defeat Omicron, or they wouldn’t. Right now all she could do was spend as much time as possible with Seth.

“Nate and Tam are on their way,” Boone said. “He called.”

Harper hadn’t even realized how on edge she’d been about them until her shoulders relaxed.

“Thank God,” Christie said. “Let me get something to drink, then catch us up, okay?”

Harper went with her, wishing she could have showered before this meeting.

“Actually,” Boone continued, “there’s good news for you and Harper. Vince here has generously decided to bankroll us, at least for now. So you two won’t have to go back to that truck stop.”

Harper looked at Christie and they both grinned like idiots. “Gee, what a shame,” Harper said. “I’ll so miss coming home smelling like burgers and onion rings.”

“I’m assuming we won’t be laying about eating bonbons,” Christie added.

Boone shook his head. “I wish you could, but no. There’s work to be done.”

Harper poured herself a cold soda and Christie went for iced tea. Boone didn’t wait until they returned. He filled them in on their discovery of the chamber, and the biometric hand scanner that stood in their way.

When she joined the others, she sat on the floor next to Seth. He looked exhausted, but that was nothing new.

“We need to get into that chamber,” Boone said. “We’re pretty sure we have a way, but it hinges on a kidnapping.”

Harper smiled. “Well, as long as it’s not anything illegal.”

Boone grinned back. “That’s not all. The subject can’t know he was kidnapped. And we’re going to need him for at least three hours. Can it be done?”

She thought a moment, then nodded. “There are a couple of drugs that we could use. Rohypnol could work, but there’s even less chance of him remembering with gamma-hydroxybutyrate. GHB is odorless, colorless, tasteless and given the proper dose, it should knock out the subject for several hours. Might be hard to give you just three, though. More like five to eight.”

Boone looked at Seth. “That could work, right?”

“Yeah. Especially if we find the right man leaving the Renegade.”

Harper hadn’t been to the Renegade, but she’d seen the bar every day on her way to work. It was a local hangout, and a lot of people from the base went there. They had pool tables and video poker and lots of cold beer.

Seth squeezed her arm, then turned to Vince. “You’re sure you can get us the Mikrosil?”

Vince nodded. “I’ll have it in a couple of days.”

“What’s Mikrosil?” Christie asked. “And why are we kidnapping someone?”

“We have to get past the scanner,” Seth explained. “The only way to do that is to use the fingerprints of someone with access. We’re going to make a glove out of Mikrosil, using our subject’s hand. We slip on the glove, which has all his fingerprints intact, and voilà. We’re in.”

“Hey,” Cade said. He was standing by the window, peering out between the yellowed blinds. “It’s Nate.”

ELI SAT IN THE MIDDLE of rush hour traffic in his ancient Toyota Camry, praying the car wouldn’t die. It had once been something to be proud of, but that had been fifteen years ago, and the man who’d been proud was his father. Eli had inherited the four-door sedan in high school. Until recently, he’d figured he’d drive it to death, then get another used car to take its place.

It had been a good, if frugal, decision—one his parents were pleased with. Eli had been taught from infancy to save, to be prepared, to have a something socked away for a rainy day. It was in his nature now, and something he’d given little thought to. Until he’d walked into Corky Baker’s house and found the veteran reporter dead. Until, in a moment of sheer insanity, he’d volunteered to continue Baker’s exposé of Omicron. Not to mention the late night phone call warning him that he should sleep with his gun under his pillow.

He inched along the freeway, glancing at his temperature gauge first, then the rearview mirror. As if he’d know if someone was following him. Right. The guy in the Explorer behind him could be an Omicron operative whose sole objective was to take him out.

One thing had become clear since that phone call from Nate. Eli had found his rainy day. If he was going to die, and soon, what did he want to do with his last days? Drive this car? Live in his tiny, ugly apartment? Devote every moment to work, or try to sow whatever wild oats he could when he wasn’t directly risking his life?

Not that he wouldn’t continue digging up dirt on Omicron. His focus at the moment was on Senator Jackson Raines. There was a seemingly impenetrable aura of secrecy surrounding Raines. So far Eli hadn’t found a single person who was willing to say anything about Raines, even off the record. Eli wished his connections were better, but using Baker’s name was at least gaining him some access. He’d just have to be more persistent, that’s all. And a hell of a lot cagier.

As for the rest of it?

He took the next available off-ramp, which happened to be Ventura Boulevard. He knew just where he wanted to go from here, and the closer he got to his destination, the more his decision made sense.

He could thank his folks for this, and he would, in a letter they’d receive upon his death. He shivered at the image of his mother weeping, and thought instead about how much he had in his savings account, his CDs, his money market fund. It was a lot. Especially for someone twenty-three.

Mostly, the money had been left to him by his grandparents, and it had been earmarked for his retirement. If he used it, there would be hefty penalties. But since the odds of him actually retiring were damn slim, and, wait—there it was.

He pulled into the first space reserved for clients. Said a quiet goodbye to the trusty Camry, then headed inside. As soon as he walked in the door, he saw it.

A brand-new, just off the assembly line, bright red 911 Turbo Porsche with all-wheel drive, 3.6 liter engine, six cylinders, rain sensors, leather seats, an on-board computer, Bose Surround Sound, PCM with color display, thirteen speakers and a six disc CD auto changer. Oh, yeah.

As he ran his hand over the gleaming top he got a little hard. He’d get nothing from the trade-in, of course, but he’d give them a nice deposit. Maybe ten thousand against one hundred and twenty. With his credit, he’d have no problem. He tried to feel guilty about not being around to pay off the car, but hey, they could repossess it when he croaked.

Two salesmen were coming at him from either side of the showroom. He smiled, waiting to see who would win. Actually, he already knew. Sensible Eli was driving out of here in his very impractical dream car. Tomorrow, he’d find himself a decent place to live. Hell, he might even call Janice Tucker, the girl he’d been in love with since high school. He pictured her expression when he drove up in this stunner.

TAM’S STOMACH WAS IN KNOTS as she got out of the vehicle at the motel. She wasn’t surprised they were staying at such a dive, but it seemed hard to believe the place was still in business. Everything about it was filthy, broken or both.

There weren’t many cars back here, and the parking lot wasn’t visible from the road. Hell, most of the road to this place was hidden by a rotting fence, some scraggly trees and a liquor store.

This was Nevada, though, so she supposed there would be places like this wherever there was gambling. She wondered if there were any other tenants, or if the team alone was keeping the owner solvent for yet another month.

“Everything okay?”

She smiled at Nate, trying to reassure herself more than him. “Sure. Let’s go.”

He held her arm as they walked across the cracked pavement. She’d slept almost all the way from L.A. He’d gotten her a toothbrush and paste, a hairbrush, a sample-size deodorant and they’d eaten a couple of fast food burgers. The next thing she knew he was shaking her awake.

She hadn’t met several of the team yet. Christie, for one. Vince. She knew the Delta guys from Kosovo. Harper and Kate, too. But she barely remembered Cade or Boone. And now she’d be living amongst them.

It should have made her happy being in the real—if often terrifying—aboveground world. In truth it unnerved her. She’d been alone for so long.

Nate didn’t have to knock. The door swung open and they were ushered inside. Nate got the big hellos, starting with a crushing hug from his sister. They all seemed relieved that he’d arrived. She understood that.

Harper and Kate approached her shyly, but gave her hugs nonetheless, which was nice. Clearly they all knew about the lab.

“Coffee?” Christie asked. “Food?”

“Both would be great,” Nate said. “And we need to put together some clothes for Tam. Is there somewhere inexpensive that has the basics?”

Christie nodded. “There’s a Goodwill store in town. We’ll take her, but first, what the hell happened?”

Nate looked at the small couch, then the chairs by the round table. Kate got up and sat down in front of Vince, leaving room for two on the couch. They sat down while Christie and Boone went to the kitchen.

Tam felt Nate’s concern for her. Sideways glances, brief touches on the back or arm. He wanted her to be okay, to feel included, but that was not possible, at least not yet.

Maybe if she hadn’t been wearing her singed, dirty clothes. Or if she’d had a chance to put on a little makeup. This whole group thing was going to take some time, that’s all. For now, she’d let Nate tell whatever story he cared to. She doubted he would include the part where they’d had sex.

Just thinking about it made her blush, and she wished there weren’t so many of them in the cramped space. She wasn’t sure where she was going to sleep, or what she was going to do with herself now that she wasn’t working on the antidote. Would they expect her to get a job? She’d never worked outside of a school or a lab. Never. She hadn’t been a waitress or a babysitter or anything normal. Her parents had insisted that she concentrate on academics. Her mother taught high school mathematics and her father was a physics professor at Berkeley. She’d tried so hard to make them proud. God, she’d screwed that up. And now, here was yet another avenue where she could fail.

She closed her eyes, willing herself not to go down that path. There was too much at stake to dwell in depression. A job that challenged her in new ways might do her some good.