Cherry Adair - T-flac 03 (21 page)

"Jesus," he said, almost to himself. "I can't go on like this." He reached over and took her chin in a gentle, but inexorable hold.

She had no difficulty at all interpreting what was stamped into the hard map of his face. Exasperation and a good dose of pure male frustration. Poor baby.

"I hope you don't need your right hand for anything important," she said sweetly," 'cause it's about to be bitten."

"Lord, woman, you are bloodthirsty, aren't you?" He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before removing his hand. He looked at her a moment longer. "I can't believe I'm blowing my—" He paused, dragging air through his nose. "Palacios
isn't
dead, Delanie."

She raised both eyebrows. "Did you tell that to all those guys shooting at you?"

He stared up at the ceiling, as if asking for divine intervention. "I'm not what you think I am." He seemed
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to choose his words with care.

"What's that?" she asked bitingly. "A lowlife, drug-dealing assassin?"

"Delanie, I don't work for Montero, it's a cover. I work for an international antiterrorist organization called T-FLAC. And have been for the last ten years."

"Oh, really? Then why did you tell me you were a doctor?"

"I
am
a doctor. Look, I told you I was considerably younger than my peers, right? Well, I finished my medical residency when I was barely twenty. Nobody wanted a kid for a doctor, no matter how damn bright he was. So to take up some time while I waited for my face to get old enough to practice medicine, I went into research and specialized in epidemiology."

Delanie frowned her confusion.

"I research infectious diseases," he explained briefly. "I was working freelance, on the cult Aum Shinrikyo's sarin gas contamination in Japan for the CDC in Atlanta, when T-FLAC approached and recruited me. Terrorists are leaning toward biochemical weapons more and more, but the labs are damned hard to track down and conclusively identify simply because most could be legitimate medical labs. With my background I was perfect for the job.

"Put it this way. I've been busy ever since."

"You're a good guy." She stared at him narrow-eyed. "And it never occurred to you to tell me this rather important piece of information?" she demanded.

Kyle snorted. She wasn't sure if he was holding back manic laughter or holding onto the last thread of his temper. "You'd prefer I was a—what was that? Oh yeah, a lowlife, drug-dealing assassin?"

She searched his face in the water-wavering light. "
Is
this the truth?"

"Four years ago, if you remember, we didn't waste time
talking
. And on Izquierdo I had no idea just what role you were playing with Montero. If you were what you were pretending to be, four years of deep cover could have been blown."

"What's this got to do with Montero? I thought he was a drug dealer."

"The biggest. But his real pleasure comes from the thought of controlling the world by using biochemical weapons." His eyes hardened. "In this case, the virus for smallpox. And that's just a start."

She covered her throat with her hand. "God…"

"No weapon on earth is more capable of wiping out millions of people instantly. Montero is determined to have that power in his hands. He approached me, just before you and I met in San Francisco, to go into full-scale production of the virus. He plans to sell it on the world market. Bidding for the first batch opens on Thursday. A nice hefty infusion of cash. After that it's whoever has the bucks. Trust me, the phone will ring off the hook."

"Who… ?"

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"Warring nations will pay big to get their hands on a missile filled with viruses. They could detonate it above a city, spreading the virus quickly and efficiently. An entire unvaccinated population could be wiped out. No fuss, no muss."

"He's insane," Delanie whispered, absolutely horrified. "Surely it would be easier just to use bombs to the same effect?"

"Not only are viral weapons considerably less expensive to produce, but a virus doesn't destroy buildings and vegetation. Besides, it would take hundreds of scientist-years and billions of dollars to develop working nuclear technology. Montero already had top-of-the-line equipment in his pharmaceuticals labs. So it only took
me
, and a
fraction
of that amount of money, and a matter of
months

."

"Why would you even pretend to help a man like that?"

"Because if I didn't, he'd've gone to someone else. And since, and I say this with utmost modesty, I'm the best in my field, we knew he'd want
me
. We banked on it."

Delanie rubbed her hand absently on her midriff. "That's why you didn't want me up there."

"You're damn right I don't want you there."

She bit her lip. "Damn it, Kyle, I'm sorry I didn't cooperate. I had no idea. I'm sort of used to being in charge—"

"
Sort
of?" Kyle smiled slightly.

Delanie leaned forward, her heart in her throat. "Do you have any idea where Lauren is, Kyle? Is she—is she being used for some godawful experiment or something up there?"

He reached over and covered her hands, which were clenched in her lap. "I haven't seen or heard of her. And I'm
damn
sure Montero would have bragged about her if she was up there. I swear, I'll put some of my people on it when they arrive. I won't let anything happen to Lauren if she is there. And if she isn't, we'll find her together when this is over."

"When is it going to be over?"

"Saturday."

"Four days from now. God. So much could happen to Lauren in the meantime."

"Yeah," Kyle said without prevarication. "It could. But unless I can find her before the raid, there's nothing I can do about it."

Oh, God. Lauren.

"As soon as the rain lets up I'll get you back to town and have one of my people escort you to the airport. I'll contact you at home when this is over."

"Home?"

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"Sacramento."

"Could I at least wait for her in San Cristobal?
Please
, Kyle?"

He hesitated a beat too long. "Sure," he rubbed a hand across his face.

"She's my top priority."

"Tell me, where does your own safety come in? Or is your whole life one of blithe self-sacrifice and denial?"

"My reason for being here is to find my sister."

"And how can you possibly help her if you're dead?"

"I'm not going to die."

"How comforting it must be to be so utterly self-confident."

"I'm holding you to your word that you'll help me find her." Delanie didn't for a moment believe he'd put her sister's safety before the job he was here to do. A job, if what he was saying was true, that was gigantically more important than the fate of one young woman he didn't even know. She had no intention of putting all her faith in a man who found lying as easy as brushing his teeth.

"I'll leave because insisting I go with you would not only be useless, it would also be stupid. But I'll only go as far as San Cristobal. I'd be safe there, right?"

"Reasonably," Kyle admitted, not sounding particularly happy about it. "Okay. I'll get you to the Villa D'Este. You can wait at our safe house. If the shit hits the fan, an agent will get you out."

"Thank you." God only knew, she'd prefer being in the thick of things looking for Lauren herself. But she was
way
out of her depth, and knew it. She had no choice.

The rain didn't look as if it was going to stop anytime soon. "What was the deal with pretending to assassinate the president?"

Kyle leaned back, obviously trying to stretch his long legs as best he could in the close confines of the cockpit. "Caesar's the one who red-flagged us in the first place about Montero's latest interest in biological warfare."

"So you 'killed' him to protect him?"

"Yeah. Since Caesar's been in office he's kept relative peace in his country with the covert help of the U.S. military. But Palacios's position here is precarious. It won't matter that the people want Palacios as president. Montero wants someone else. If Caesar were to die, the country would be in an uproar."

"Well Caesar is, for all intents and purposes, dead, and the country is in an uproar. So what was the point, besides saving his butt?"

"Because this way we control what's happening, and when it happens. Ramon Montero has someone more suitable in mind for the presidency. Someone who embraces the same ideology he does.

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Unfortunately, U.S. funding for aid has already been given to Palacios. On Monday Caesar Palacios was to run against Montero's man for reelection."

"So I guess that means if Montero's man were to get in, Montero would have an open money faucet straight from the States."

"You got it. Hence the 'assassination,' " Kyle finished grimly. "We had to keep Palacios under wraps until Montero and all his lieutenants are taken care of."

"Obviously the president's army doesn't know the truth."

"Yeah. That was a bit hairy," Kyle said dryly. "The media has been fed misinformation. There'll be confirmation that the president is in critical condition in the hospital and isn't expected to live. Tomorrow it'll be announced that he's dead."

"Montero's a megalomaniac." Delanie shivered and curled her legs under her to get more comfortable.

"We won't permit this to go any farther. If Montero had his way he'd own the airspace and the sea lanes," Kyle continued, "and since there's no extradition from San Cristobal, he'd do whatever the hell he wants, then scurry back into this convenient little hole on the other side of the world with impunity."

She wished she could see Kyle's eyes, but the rain blurred all his features. "I don't know how you managed to keep up the act for so long." She heard the tinge of acceptance in her own voice. God,
was
he telling the truth this time?

"There was no acting required, jungle girl. I have an unbreakable cover. All I had to do was
be
my job."

The information he'd given her had set a clock ticking in her head. A reminder of how little time she had left.

Three days to find Lauren. She bit her lip.

Kyle touched her shoulder, and she almost jumped out of her skin. She turned to look at him. "What?"

"Let me do that for you," he said huskily and leaned over and kissed her.

She wanted to resist him again, damn it, she really did. But his hand moved from her shoulder to cup the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her hair. There was nothing aggressive about the kiss, only a tenderness that caused her throat to ache.

"Damn you," he said as though they were love words. "Damn you for being so stubborn."

"Hey! I—"

"Shut—" his teeth scraped her lower lip "—up."

«^»

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His tongue slid, moist, hot, seductively determined, between her teeth. His fingers tightened against her scalp. Delanie met his invasion with a challenge of her own and was rewarded with the hoarse sound of his groan as her tongue touched his. A shaft of pure fire shot through her.

She twisted to wrap her arms awkwardly around his neck. His eagerness sent her pulse racing as she met him halfway between the bucket seats. It was impossible to get their bodies aligned the way they were sitting, but she couldn't bear for him to stop kissing her.

She whimpered when he jerked his warm, wonderful mouth away. His face flushed, his chest beneath the crisp shirt heaving as he dragged in oxygen.

"Christ," he said roughly, "I want you so much."

Her breath caught at the heat in his brilliant green eyes.

"I have to touch your skin." He tugged her T-shirt free of her waistband. His large hands skimmed her sides, tantalizingly close to her breasts. She tried to twist her torso into his palm, and he jerked the thin cotton over her head in an impatient move that disengaged her arms from about his neck.

"What are you doing?" she asked huskily when his eyes moved slowly over her, his hands motionless on her upper arms.

"I want to memorize you like this. Your skin's like pearl in this light." His eyes were intent on her body, a visual caress moving like a charge of electricity across her flesh. Her skin prickled deliciously in reaction as anticipation unfurled its petals.

"Kyle—"

"Soft, translucent." Ignoring her moaning entreaty he continued, "Look at your nipples, jungle girl. Look at how they peak, just waiting for my touch."

She felt her face and chest heat with his words. Her nipples strained against the thin lace of her bra.

There was no need to look to see how hard they were.

He ran his thumb gently across one peak, watching her reaction. "Does that feel as good to you as it does to me?"

Her skin burned. "Ye—" She had to clear her throat. "More."

"I want to taste them. Would you like that, little Amazon? Would you like it if I used my tongue on these sweet little buds?" She felt the heavy thrum of her pulse in the very tips of her aroused nipples as she nodded, her mouth too dry to speak.

He bent his dark head. She felt the wet heat of his open mouth through the thin fabric, and closed her eyes tightly as he sucked and lightly bit her through the gossamer-thin material.

She reached for his belt buckle at the same time he popped the top button on her jeans. She shifted her hips so he could pull down her zipper. Her fingers blindly fumbled his belt buckle free.

"God," he said rawly as he slid his cupped hand beneath the thin barrier of her panties and open jeans,

"you're so pretty here." At his intimate touch, she shuddered.

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