Betrayal (33 page)

No man deserved that.

Mark’s mouth dried up. What were the odds that the U.S. government had more than one super soldier program? Not good. Besides, Mark didn’t believe in coincidences. Which meant Jamieson was involved with the program that captured Rafe.

God, what had he gotten himself involved with? Breaking the law to protect his country was one thing. Changing a man’s humanity by turning him into an animalistic mind-slave was abhorrent.

“Come, let us return to my office.” Dr. Ivanov’s voice still rang with pride as he ushered Mark through an exit that led into the office corridor.

Mark made certain he didn’t look back as he left the exhibit hall.

“I am excited to begin work on Nevsky’s daughter,” Ivanov commented. “She is the first embryo he genetically altered. Although the private investigators he hired claimed she showed no signs of extraordinary intelligence or immunity, I look forward to testing her myself.”

Every cell in Mark’s body froze. Susana’s father had done
what
?

Dr. Ivanov nodded. “I see that you are shocked. Dr. Nevsky eventually gave up embryonic manipulation, because he never achieved the results he wanted. His daughter is the only such subject to survive, perhaps because he’d given her such low doses of the drugs. He injected her mother with chemicals intended to change the genetic makeup of the fetus. Then, once the child was born, he worked on further gene manipulations. He was furious when her mother stole the girl away before she was even three months old.”

Mark couldn’t breathe. “What—” He cleared his throat and tried again. “What was her father’s goal?”

“The same as he was working on when he died. A strengthened immune system, extraordinary intelligence, limitless endurance. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, he never did achieve success with embryonic manipulation.” Dr. Ivanov scratched his chin, his gaze focused on some point behind the wall. “Nevsky later married, but the woman died in childbirth due to side effects of the drugs he’d used on her. He never tried again.” Ivanov shook his head. “Well, it is a pity he won’t be here to see his first experiment finally studied.”

“Stop. What do you mean?” Ivanov had made a similar allusion before.

“The woman, of course. Once I extract the chip, she will become part of our research program. She is the only fetus that survived. I need to see how she differs from normal humans. How her body responds to our treatments.” He strode down the corridor, arms waving. “She could be the answer we have been looking for. Just as crucial as the data on the chip.” He turned toward Mark, face aglow with possibilities. “With the data we learn from her, perhaps our treatments will take without destroying the host. We could finally create the perfect human!”

Mark stopped, immobilized by the words. Something shifted inside him.

It felt remarkably like his long-lost conscience.

Susana was going to be used as a test subject? She would end up like those men back there? Locked in a cage? Her vitality stolen until she was a mindless killing machine?

Not if Mark could help it.

Thursday, Midday

Moscow, Russia

K
ai was about to step out of the plane onto the portable steps, when three black town cars came racing across the tarmac.

Shit. He had a feeling these weren’t reinforcements from the SSU. He shifted back inside, out of sight, but it was too late to move the stairs away and they couldn’t close the door with the stairs in position.

The cars fanned out nose first, then screeched to a synchronized halt, forming a perfect half-circle around the base of the stairs. A moment later the doors on the sedans opened, cutting off all exits.

Trapped.

Kai glanced over his shoulder. Jim stood just a few feet away. His hands dangled at his sides, making him seem relaxed…if you didn’t notice the Glock nestled in his left palm. “Your call,” he said.

“We cooperate. But first, see if you can get hold of Ryker.”

Jim nodded and pulled out his satellite phone.

Kai checked outside. Four shooters with assault rifles had taken up positions within the formation of cars. Two men in dark suits strode toward the plane.

“Kai Paterson!” the heavyset man in front called, his Russian accent barely noticeable. “You and your pilot are under arrest for smuggling. Please exit the plane with your hands above your head.”

Smuggling. Ri-ight. If he were stupid enough to let the men into the plane, he was certain they’d “find” a packet or two of hastily planted contraband.

Both sides knew the charges wouldn’t stick. They were just a delaying tactic. Kai raised one brow as he met Jim’s gaze.

The pilot nodded. “Ryker’s on it,” he said quietly.

As the Russians reached the stairs, Kai stepped out to meet them. He crossed his hands on top of his head and felt his stomach pitch as if he was about to skydive without a parachute.

Please let me reach Susana in time.

Thursday, Midday

Dr. Ivanov’s Compound, Russia

S
usana’s hand shook with such violence, the next page of her father’s journal slipped out from between her clumsy fingers. Almost an hour ago a male nurse had brought her to this tiny examination room, ordered her to change into the gown, handed her the journals, then disappeared.

Deus.
She’d thought she’d understood the type of man her father had been, and what he might have done to her.

She’d been wrong. A combination of scientific logbooks and diaries, the four journals detailed his experiments into creating perfect humans. Through a combination of gene manipulation and drugs, he’d originally strived for advancements in four areas. Intelligence. Strength. Speed. Immunity.

He’d given her mother drugs while she was pregnant, hoping to influence Susana’s development. Put the chemicals into her mother’s food and drink, given her “vitamins” and even injections, all in the name of good prenatal care. Her mother hadn’t known the truth.

Then, after her birth, her father had extracted samples of Susana’s DNA, added to them, and introduced the improved strands back into her body. Her mother had found him sticking a needle into three-month-old Susana, realized what was going on, and fled in horror.

A tear dropped onto the page and Susana dabbed at it with the edge of her hospital gown.

Her mother’s dying words came back to her. “What he did to you…so wrong…unnatural.”

Susana had always assumed her mother meant her father had molested her when she’d been too young to remember. It explained the hatred her mother had for the man she refused to even name, no matter how many times Susana asked, desperate to have some piece of her daddy to hold in her heart.

Susana tried to swallow, but something hard and painful seemed lodged in her throat. Now she understood why her mother had always looked at her with a combination of admiration and revulsion. Why Susana could count on her fingers the number of times her mother had hugged her.

Susana put her hand to her mouth, willing herself not to be sick.

The door swung open. Her hands jerked in surprise, knocking the journals to the floor.

“Hello, Susana, I am Dr. Ivanov.” It was a man’s voice, speaking heavily accented English.

She jumped down from the examination table and faced the door, her shoulders tight with wariness. Her gaze bounced from the tense features of Mark Tonelli, to Dr. Ivanov, an older gentleman with the sophisticated appearance of the head of a Fortune 500 company.

His eyes roved over her with such cold calculation, she shivered. Dammit, she wished she had more covering her than this flimsy cotton gown. He was a colleague of her father’s, mentioned often in the latter part of the journals. She didn’t trust him.

Not that she trusted Mark either.

“Excellent,” she thought she heard Dr. Ivanov mutter. “A prime specimen.”

Ignoring the goose bumps on her arms, Susana held out her hand. “Thank you for seeing us, Dr. Ivanov.”

“The pleasure is entirely mine.” Dr. Ivanov bowed over her hand.

His touch was even worse than Mark’s. She had the fleeting thought that if she didn’t remove her hand promptly, her skin would freeze.

“If you’re ready, I need to give you the antidote. After that, I’ll run an x-ray to see exactly where the implant resides,” Ivanov said.

“You know how to disable the booby-trap?”

His smile was all wolf-meets-Little-Red-Riding-Hood. “But of course. I created the mechanism. Your father borrowed the technique from me. And I created the poison. Once you’ve been given the antidote, you’ll be safe in case the vial breaks prematurely during surgery.”

She knew his words were meant to reassure her. But they didn’t. After reading the journals, all she wanted was to get far away from here. To find a place where nobody had heard of the chip.

God, what if she was like the other subjects, with a predetermined self-termination date? So what if she’d lived longer than any of the other subjects, maybe her time was rapidly approaching. She could start losing her mind any day now.

Snap out of it!

She cleared her throat. “Will you personally be performing the surgery?” she asked.
Mãe de Deus
, she did not want this man cutting into her. He looked at her like she was a specimen under a microscope. One he couldn’t wait to dissect.

“Most definitely. I could not entrust the daughter of my dearest colleague to another.”

A woman poked her head into the room. “We’re ready, doctor.”

“Thank you.” Dr. Ivanov took Susana’s arm. “If you’ll excuse us,” he told Mark. “I need to get my patient started on the x-ray. You will wait here.”

“No. Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear earlier. My government considers the chip a matter of national security. I will stay with Susana during the operation. Afterward, you will hand the chip directly over to me.”

“That is not possible, I am afraid.” Dr. Ivanov opened the door. “Captain.”

Two uniformed men stepped into the room. They positioned themselves on either side of Mark and grabbed his arms. Susana glanced uneasily between Mark and Dr. Ivanov.

“Am I being held prisoner?” Mark demanded, looking down his aristocratic nose at the doctor with icy anger.

Dr. Ivanov bowed his head slightly. “Just until the surgery is complete. You must understand, the data on the chip is crucial to my program. Almost as crucial as the lady herself. I cannot allow your government to interfere.”

“Wait a second!” Susana protested. “What program? What are you talking about?” But she had a sinking feeling she knew.

Ivanov ignored her. He put his hand on her shoulder and nudged her toward the door. “Come, time grows short.”

“But—!” She glanced back at Mark. He seemed resigned to his fate, yet there was some hint of apology in his eyes. Damn him, she didn’t want his apology. She wanted him to do something and get them out of this mess.

“You need have no fear, dear girl,” Ivanov said. “As long as Mr. Tonelli does nothing, he will not be harmed. The guards will merely make certain he stays out of my way.” With that, Ivanov dug his fingers deeper into her shoulder and propelled her out of the room. They were immediately joined by two more uniformed men.

For an instant, Susana thought about fighting free. But the clock on the chip’s self-destruct was ticking down and she didn’t want to die from the poison.

Still, she preferred not to be herded like cattle.

She shrugged her shoulder and dislodged his hand. “After you, doctor,” she said.

She followed him down the corridor on bare feet, her thin hospital gown gaping open in the back and affording their escort a view of her bare skin they didn’t deserve.

It seemed unreal that these might be the last minutes of her life.

Deus,
why hadn’t she told Kai she loved him?

Thursday, Afternoon

Moscow, Russia

K
nowing every move he made in this holding cell inside a Moscow police station was being observed, Kai forced himself to stay still. But inside, he was pacing. Barely holding onto his control. He was moments away from trying to tear down the walls with his bare hands so he could find Susana.

Kai didn’t know if the CIA had decided that they wanted the microchip and had arranged for his arrest, or if one of Tonelli’s private contacts had been responsible. He’d let Ryker sort that out.

All that really mattered was how soon Kai would be free. Tonelli and Susana were probably already at Ivanov’s lab, which meant Tonelli was dangerously close to getting the chip.

And Susana’s value to everyone but Kai was running out.

Kai started to raise his wrist to check the time on his watch, but stopped himself. He had to stay cool. Act like he had nothing better to do than stay here all day. He had to bore his captors to tears by giving them nothing interesting to watch, all the while praying Ryker came through with one of his famous miracles.

Thursday, Afternoon

Dr. Ivanov’s Compound, Russia

M
ark’s guards patted him down, took his two-way radio, satellite phone, and gun, then left the room and took up positions in the hallway on either side of the door. Mark made sure the door didn’t shut completely behind them, allowing him a narrow view of the corridor. That was all he needed to see which direction Ivanov took Susana.

Satisfied he knew where to go when he got out of here, he let the door shut fully.

All right. So he’d been a fool. The leader of Jamieson’s team of soldiers had told him to bring guards, but Mark had been so certain he’d be able to talk Ivanov into turning over the chip he’d refused to let them accompany him. And he’d never suspected the doctor would want to keep Susana.

He paced around the small exam room.

He was willing to make a deal with Ivanov. The scientist could download a copy of the data from the chip onto his computer. Then Mark would take the chip back to Jamieson.

Yet, as Mark’s legs ate up the tiny distance between door, wall, and exam table, an unfamiliar weight pressed on his lungs, nearly suffocating him.

All his dreams of revenge were within reach. All he had to do was give Jamieson the microchip and he’d receive the name of his father’s murderer.