Code Name: Luminous (14 page)

Mace’s chest heaved. He jerked his head in a nod and stared
into the heavens.

* * * *

Lumin backed away, feeling like she didn’t
belong. Tony hadn’t even spared her a glance. At the moment she probably
couldn’t look herself in the mirror. She thought about what Nina and Kayla told
her, but they’d been wrong. If only she’d called the CDC and dropped it in
their lap, Nina wouldn’t be in the back of a truck. She pondered her mistake
until she reached the factory and sat down against the wall. The hot metal
burned the skin on her shoulder blades. There had to be a way she could help.
She stared up into the sky. The night she and Star went out with the two men
played itself over and over again. The SEALs needed more pieces of the puzzle.
She bolted upright with a thought, and reached for her phone, forgetting
Azeel’s
men had taken it from her, but someone had to have
one. She saw Nathan milling about and approached him. He gave up his phone
without question, and she quickly put distance between them as she dialed.

“Hello?”

“Star?”

“Where the hell have you been, Lumin?”

“Are you okay? Do you feel all right?”

“I don’t know if I’d call being held against
my will in some fucking hole in the ground, okay.”

“Lumin Edenridge,” a man’s voice said calmly
into the phone.

“Yes, is this Mr. Dafoe?”

“So you know who I am. That is a problem.”

“It isn’t a problem if you let Star go. She
wasn’t with Dr. Carmichael, I was.” Lumin watched as Dafoe’s men were herded
into another truck with armed SEALs making sure all of them stayed in line.

“And did the good doctor tell you where
Clifford Bjornson is hiding?”

“Yes, and I’ll tell you if you let Star go.”

“I sent men to collect you, but it seems
you’ve brought the Navy SEALs along for the ride.”

“I’ll do what you want, just let Star go. When
she calls me telling me she’s safe, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

“I have a better plan. I want you to come to
me without the SEALs, and if I see one sign of them Star will have twelve hours
to exist on this earth.”

She nodded. “All right,” she said and listened
carefully. She finished the call and approached Nathan. “Nathan, the Admiral
says he doesn’t need me anymore. Do you think I could borrow that Jeep? I’m
going to go into town and get a room and some rest.”

“I’ll drive you, Lumin. Ghost isn’t finished
interrogating the prisoner, and Fox hasn’t gotten very far with Billings,
either.”

Small pebbles and sand ground beneath her
sneakers as she turned. “It looks like you have enough transportation. I just
want to get a shower and deal with some...you
know,
lady things.”

Nathan shuffled, looking quite uncomfortable.
“I see.”

It never
failed,
single guys never liked talking about a woman’s monthly issues. “Here’s your
phone.”

“Keep it,” Nathan said. “Tony will want to be
in contact.”

Doubt that.
“Will Mace be okay?”

Nathan adjusted his weapon, cradling his
forearms on it. “He’ll hold it together. If anything, he’ll do it for Nina.”
Nathan said, “Keys are in the ignition. I’ll let Tinman know where you are.”

“He knows,” she lied. She needed time to widen
the distance between them, and time to find the antiserum. She just needed to get
it and get out without being killed.

She waited outside, watching the movements of
the team of SEALs. Her pulse skipped with nervous beats. Most of them had
filtered into the building for some shade. She stayed away from them and
skirted to the shady side of the building. There she waited, hoping they would
forget about her. She heard the crunch of pebbles under a heavy foot.

“Lumin?”

Stupid.
She wanted to look up and see Tony, but instead Ed knelt down on
one knee in front of her. He removed his helmet and set it on the ground. A
concerned look penetrated his blue eyes and a taut jawline edged his handsome
features.

“Stop beating
yourself
up,” he ordered gently. “What happened to Nina is not your fault. It could have
been any or all of you who ended up with the same fate.” He covered her hand.
“I would have never drawn you into this mission. Even if it meant losing a lead
on the cell, you shouldn’t have been involved in this.”

She shook her head. “You know more now, and
that’s the only good thing that came out of it. I hope you find Dafoe.”

“That’s what we’re trained to do and we will.”
He brushed her hair aside and said, “Why don’t you come inside and we’ll get a
drink of water. It’s too hot out here, even in the shade.”

“I’m fine.” She snagged a stone from the
ground and clutched it, wishing it was magic and she could cast a spell to end
all this. The crunch of pebbles made them both look up. Tony appeared,
then
stopped, seeing them. His hazel gaze tore into Ed.

“Fox wants you,” he said sharply.

“Trying to convince Lumin to come inside,” Ed
said. “Come on, Lumin.” He pulled on her hand.

“I’d rather stay here. Thanks, Ed.”

He nodded. “Convo,” he said to Tony, but Tony
didn’t move.

“Later.”

Ed stalled, but then carried on around the
corner.

She stared out at the endless desert instead
of Tony.

“Have some water,” he said, offering her his
canteen.

“No thanks.” She wanted him gone so she could
get to the Jeep and on the road.

“Ed’s right. I should have never allowed them
to use you.”

“And then Nina wouldn’t be infected. I know.”

“Lumin, I’m going to call Steven Porter. All
our resources are tied up right now. I want him to come and get you.”

“No,” she said sharply. “I don’t want them to
know.”

“He can protect you. Stay with them until this
is over.”

Finally, she lifted her gaze to meet his. If
she argued, he might take away her chance to help Star.
“Fine.
I’ll do that. He can send someone to get me. Bye, Tony.”

His brows shot together with concern for a
quick second, and then he nodded as if coming to the same conclusion as her.
Once again it was like that
night
when he left her on
the Porters’ steps. This time, she’d never see him again. Quite unlikely she’d
get sucked into a terrorist plot for a second time, she thought sarcastically.

The desert air wasn’t only hot, it was stiff
with meaning. She’d ended up on the cutting room floor just like all the other
women Tony had taken to his bed, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t help her
country. Her friend Star was in trouble and she could find the vaccine to help Nina.

“Lumin, look—”

She raised her hand and centered the courtroom
stare that she’d learned from practicing in the mirror. “You have a job to do.
Go do it.” She pushed herself to her feet. Tony opened his mouth to say
something, and then closed it again, looking pensive. She swallowed deeply, but
didn’t veer from his gaze.

He pulled his phone out.

“Don’t need it. I have Nathan’s.”

Tony’s jaw flexed. “When this is over…”

“Don’t do that,” she said, trying to hold her
emotions in check. “We both know I won’t see you again. Don’t try to placate
me.”

His gaze dropped to the ground and he took a
step back. “I won’t.”

It was a bittersweet moment. One she knew
she’d remember her whole life. He’d always be the man of her dreams and her
hero, but he also played the lead role in who knew how many other women’s
memories. She mentally placed the love story she’d created for her and Tony
back on the bookshelf as she walked away.

Chapter Ten

Tony watched Lumin round the corner of the
building, and every instinct told him to run after her. She’d asked him what he
would do after being a SEAL, but there was no
after
. He would always be a SEAL. Missions, duty, training,
dragging her into his world meant she’d be left alone for months on end. Lumin
deserved the white picket fence.
A family.
She was a
beautiful young woman with the potential to change the world and have a normal
life. SEALs didn’t have normal, so he let her walk away and reminded himself it
was the right thing to do. He rubbed his chest as he entered the factory. It
hurt. His heart actually hurt.

Two hours passed with the squad hanging over
the maps. Options and ideas were contemplated as they put their attention on
finding Dafoe’s lab. Kayla paced the floor, deep in thought. He needed a break.
As soon as he didn’t focus, his mind leaped to Lumin. He should talk to her
before Steven Porter sent someone. He left the room and looked around the
factory floor. All he saw was camouflage. Was she outside again?

“Hey, Tadpole!”
Nathan stopped his conversation with Stitch and turned to him.
“Where’s Lumin? Did a chopper come in for her?”

Nathan looked at him strangely.
“Chopper?
Did you arrange a pickup instead of her taking the
Jeep into town?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Admiral knows
,
he
gave her permission to take a Jeep and head into town.”

Ghost spoke with Captain Cobbs near the
factory entryway. “Sir, when did Lumin leave?”

Ghost gave him a shrug.
“Left?
Where’d she go?”

A sickening feeling ebbed inside Tony’s gut.
“You didn’t clear her to take a Jeep and head into town?”

“No, why the hell would I do that?”

Tony ran outside, pulling his phone. He dialed
Nathan’s number, but no one answered. “Hey,” he yelled at one of the guys from
DEVGRU. “Have you seen Lumin?”

“The blonde gal?
She left a couple hours ago.”

“Oh, fuck.” He dialed Nathan’s number again as
he ran back into the factory. “Nathan,” he yelled. “Does she still have your
phone?”

“Guess so. I told her to keep it. What the
fuck’s the matter?”

Kayla appeared. “What’s going on, Tony?”

“She’s gone.”

“Said she was heading into town to stay at a
hotel,” Nathan added, joining them.

“Kayla, will you check the local hotels in
Kingman?” She nodded and headed toward Ditz, who was always attached to his
mobile computer.

The Admiral and Captain Cobbs walked up to
him. “What’s going on?” the Admiral asked.

“I think Lumin has gone to find Dafoe on her
own.”

“How the hell is she going to do that? We
don’t know where he is.”

“Maybe she does,” Tony said, fear grinding its
gears in his belly.

The Admiral and Cobbs shared a look. “You
think she held something back from us?”

“No.” He scrubbed his face with his hands in
frustration. He’d missed something. Dafoe couldn’t contact her. She had
Nathan’s phone. Who did she know? He paced back and forth while the men watched
him.

“Maybe she’s in town, let Kayla find out,”
Nathan offered.

“Not in town,” Kayla said walking up to join
the circle after a few minutes passed. “I just called all the hotels. She’s not
there.”

He grabbed Kayla’s shoulder. “Help me, Kayla.
Who are we missing in all this?”

Kayla shot a harried look at her husband. “Ah,
we have one dead scientist.
One missing scientist.
Um,
Lumin was in Las Vegas when this all started. Dafoe wouldn’t be able to contact
her. The only other people are her friend Star and Dr. Carmichael’s friend from
Lebanon.”

Tony’s head shot up.
“Star.
Her friend!”

“We don’t know where she is,” Kayla said.

“No, but Lumin could get hold of her. We
protected Lumin. We didn’t protect Star.” Everyone was silent. “He’s got her.
Dafoe has got Star. Lumin must have called her. She’s going to Dafoe. It’s the
only possibility.”

“Oh, no, she wouldn’t be that stupid,” Kayla
said, shaking her head.

Tony dialed Nathan’s cell again. “Shit,” he
yelled, and stormed away from the squad. “Don’t do this, Lumin,” he said to
himself as he stepped into the sunlight. A hand landed on his shoulder and he
whipped around. Kayla stared at him with big eyes. “This is my fault.
From the word go.
I never should have let Ghost use her.”
Kayla remained silent while he raved about his stupidity. He should have known
better. Lumin felt responsible and he’d done nothing, absolutely nothing to
squelch her thoughts.

“Are you done beating yourself up?” Kayla
asked quietly.

“No.” He sucked in a stuttered breath.

“Maybe she’s driving back to Las Vegas. She’s
probably fine.”

“She’s not fine,” he yelled. “Fuck.” He
whirled around.

“Tony, what is this really about?”

“I’m an idiot. I got scared, Kayla. Mace, he—”
he clamped his eyes shut. “He might lose Nina, and he knows it. It’s tearing
him apart because he loves her so much.”

“Of course he does,” Kayla said. She gave him
a quirk of a smile. “And you’re falling in love with Lumin and it scared you.”

He jerked his head with a nod. “I think I am.
At least I can’t get her out of my head. I nearly lost it when Ghost brought
her out of that room draped in his arms. I thought…I thought…”

“I know what you thought. Did you talk to her?
Does she know any of this?”

He rammed the cell in his pocket. He shook his
head. “I held her back. I shut her out because—”

“Because you don’t want to feel like Mace,”
Kayla finished for him. “Love doesn’t make you vulnerable, Tony. It gives you
strength.”

Kayla wrapped her arms around him and gave him
a hug, and he crushed Ghost’s wife to him for support. “She’s all alone.”

Kayla palmed his cheeks and looked into his
eyes. “Until she makes contact, there’s no way to find her. If she’s doing what
you suggested, she’ll have dumped the GPS tracker. If she does call, you better
do some fast talking. Now send her a text, and keep sending them.”

“A text?
Oh fuck, duh.” He pulled the phone and did just that.

Kayla rested a hand on his shoulder. “God
takes care of the innocent.”

His breath stuck in his throat. “But she’s
not. I took that from her,
then
I let her go.”

“Have you?” She smiled at him and returned to
the factory.

Tony walked a trench into the desert floor,
sending text after text, but she didn’t answer. After thirty minutes of trying,
he rejoined the squad. They had to find Dafoe, and if they could find him they
would find Lumin.

* * * *

Tony’s cell rang and he answered it without
looking at the caller ID, hoping it was Lumin.

“Petty Officer Bale, it’s Gord. I think I’ve
found something. Is Kayla there?”

“Wait one, Gord. You’re on speaker, go ahead.”
Tony sat his cell on the table. His guts twisted tight with fear. Lumin was
sticking her head into the lion’s mouth, and she was going to die. He had to
find her. Both Billings and
Azeel
were extremists and
refused to give up information.
Azeel
took the
beating of his life, and was barely hanging onto it after Ghost had lost his
cool.

“Kayla, I think I might have found something.
I did what you asked using the satellite data and went back for an entire month
in the history.”

“Spill it,” Kayla said, leaning over the map.
She pointed to the northeast corner of Nevada before Gord said a word.

“There’s nothing there,” Ghost muttered.

“I watched a southbound delivery truck take
Route 93 and then head west along a back road to a point almost due south of
Humboldt National Forest. It made the trip every Wednesday, arriving at fifteen
hundred hours from Twin Falls, Idaho.”

Tinman shook his head. Kayla’s finger was
pinned less than an inch from that spot.

“A delivery of supplies,” Captain Cobbs
suggested.

“Possibly, but there’s nothing
there.
No homes. No structures.
Nothing.
The truck disappears from view for one hour and then reappears,” Gord added.

“They’re underground,” Kayla said absently.

“There’s something else,” Gord said, and all
eyes swayed to the cell. “I checked the subterranean water systems. There is a
large one.
A very large one that reaches the Colorado River.”

“Let me guess,” Tony stated. “It runs past
that point.”

“Underneath it,” Gord confirmed.

“But the doctor developed an airborne contagion,”
Mace said.

“Just something to note.
It may have nothing to do with disseminating the Plague,” Gord
added.

“Or everything to do with it. Dr. Carmichael
said he was developing the airborne virus. He didn’t explain Dr. Bjornson’s
role. We assumed he was his partner.”

“We need intel on Dr. Bjornson and what his
specialty was,” Tony said.
“Ditz?”
Ditz was already
tapping furiously on the keyboard. Everyone waited. It didn’t take long.

“Shit.” The Admiral groaned, reading over his
shoulder. “Dr. Bjornson, marine bio scientist specializing in disease and viral
microbiology.”

“They’re covering their bases,” Ed said with
his slow, southern twang. “One by air, two by water—”

“Gord, where exactly did the
truck go in Idaho?”
Kayla asked, staring intently
at the map.

“A wholesale food factory.”

Kayla’s gaze rose to her husband. “It’s not
delivering supplies. It’s taking them.”

“Probably both,” Ghost said. “That’s the
cover. Deliver food, and return with the Plague.” Ghost pointed sharply to the
map. “He’s right fucking there. Let’s move. Ditz, call in
a
security
quarantine around that wholesale food factory.”

“Yes, sir.”

Twenty-five SEALs jumped into two helicopters.
It wouldn’t take long to reach the location, but five minutes was too long. The
wind snapped through the open doors of the Black Hawks as they whirled their
way on a beeline for northern Nevada. The team fast-roped to the ground and
broke into five squads as they neared the point Gord had seen the truck deliver
the supplies. The topography grew with gentle slopes. No structures were
evident.

“Fox, what do you see?” Tony asked.

“Nothing.
No movement.”

Ghost stepped up to his right side. “
Spidey
sense is going off. Something’s not right about
this.”

“Captain Cobbs, approach the area from the
north with your team.”

“This smells bad,” Cobbs came back in their
headsets.

Ghost agreed. “I’m going to take my squad to
the south. Watch your step.”

“Roger, out.”

“Nathan, Ed, Mace, Stitch, you’re with me.
Nathan
take
point,” Ghost ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Tony remained with the rest of the men
ordering a one hundred meter clearance. They watched Cobbs and Ghost approach
with extreme caution. The minutes ticked on with limited chatter from both
leaders to the men following them, using mostly hand signals to communicate.

“Found an entrance,” Cobbs reported.

“Standby,” Tony instructed.
“Admiral?”

“We’ve found it all right. Nobody breaches the
facility.
Tinman, south side.”

Tony worked his way toward Ghost’s team,
keeping low and watching the ground for IEDs. He rounded the slope and saw
Ghost gesturing to someone. Was it Lumin? He ran the last few steps. “What the
fuck?”

The squad gazed into a comfortable, but sparse
living quarter. The window had been shaped and fit into the sandstone hill with
a twenty foot wide and ten foot high view of the plateau they were on. One dim
light shone over a woman who’d been trussed to a chair. At her feet sat a
cooler. With a sick sense of humor, the word
Antiserum
had been penned across the side.

“You can bet this is wired.” Ed said what they
all surmised.

“Is there anyone left in there with you?”
Ghost
asked,
and only loud enough to reach her, but
not wake the dead or any lingering security.

The young woman with dark hair shook her head
slowly. They didn’t have to read lips like Ghost to make out the word, “Bomb”
as she mouthed it.