Colby Core (6 page)

He turned to her. “Seat belt,” he echoed.

Releasing her bag, she tugged the belt into place
and snapped it securely. Her arms went immediately around her bag once more.

There was plenty she wanted to say, rant mostly, but she couldn't do that. The Master could be listening. The vehicle was likely equipped with a tracking device as well as listening devices. Possibly even a camera.

She had to remain calm. To keep Smith under control…to figure out a way to breach Renwick's security and to do whatever the Master had tasked Smith to accomplish.

Her eyes closed to hold back the tears.

Impossible.

Smith was going to die.

She was going to die.

And the children would have no one to save them.

Fury roared inside her. She forced her eyes open. No. She turned to the man behind the wheel. He would have to help her.

As far as Tessa knew, Smith was just another horrible man who helped abduct young women and children. Whatever he was or had been in his life, he was about to step into a new role.

One way or another, she needed him to be a hero.

10:10 a.m.—47 hours, 50 minutes remaining

The security gates opened and allowed him to pass.

Riley stopped the SUV at the end of the long, winding drive. “Which way to the city?”

Tessa stared at him as if she hadn't understood the words.

“Which way?” he repeated.

Her mouth worked a moment before she said, “Left.”

Riley pulled out onto the road, heading left. It had been too dark for him to determine the route they had taken but he had marked the time. About thirty minutes from the bar to the compound.

Until they were out of the vehicle he couldn't risk asking any questions. Their conversation would likely be monitored. The whole damned SUV was probably rigged with tracking and monitoring devices.

He touched the contraption around his neck. It was tight but that didn't bother him. It was the promised
charge set to go off in forty-seven hours and fifty minutes. His first task would be to get this thing removed. For that he needed Stark…and a bomb expert. He hoped like hell the New Orleans Bureau office had ready access to that kind of support.

The so-called Master was up to something. It was possible he wanted to test Riley before welcoming him into his family. But Riley had a bad, bad feeling that this whole extreme exercise was about distraction. Something else was going down.

The half hour it took to reach the outskirts of New Orleans felt like a lifetime.

Tessa hadn't uttered a word since telling him to go left. Judging by her posture, she was terrified.

She was another aspect of this situation he hadn't figured out. Why would she be sent with him?

Riley doubted she represented much of a physical threat. Her alliance to the man who called himself the Master appeared solid.

Except she had given him the information that had ultimately set in motion his survival and escape.

Had to be a setup.

The whole scenario was far too pat.

Riley turned into the parking lot of the first convenience store they reached. He parked directly in front of the entrance and turned to his passenger. “Stay put. I'm going in for coffee.”

She blinked but said nothing.

Taking the keys with him, he entered the store. The cashier glanced at him but didn't bother with
a greeting. Early twenties, he guessed. A slash of purple brightened her black hair and caked-on dark eye shadow along with the black clothes gave her a goth appearance. He stopped at the counter and hoped like hell she was friendlier than she looked.

“Excuse me. I know this is going to sound like a strange request—”

She laughed. “Man, this is New Orleans, everything is strange.”

At least she had a sense of humor. “Do you have a cell phone I could use to make just one phone call?”

Her gaze narrowed. “Why would I let you use my cell phone?”

Riley didn't miss the way she assessed his battered face. “I got into a little trouble last night and I need to call a friend. It's really important.”

She pursed her lips and thought about his request a moment. “All right.” She pushed the cell phone she'd been tinkering with across the counter. “But if you walk out that door with it I'm calling the cops.”

He grabbed up the phone, careful to keep it out of view of the front store windows. “Thanks.”

Riley headed to the far side of the store where the coffee maker was stationed. He entered Stark's cell number and checked to ensure Tessa remained in the SUV as he waited through two rings. He needed to be able to see her but he didn't want her to see him using a phone.

“Stark.”

“It's Porter,” he said, relieved to hear his colleague's voice.

“Where are you? We lost you at—”

“I know,” Riley interrupted. “I'll explain everything when we rendezvous. Right now I need you and a bomb tech. One who knows high-tech devices.”

“What's going on, Porter?”

“No time.” Riley poured a cup of coffee, keeping a close eye on the SUV. “Just tell me where we can meet ASAP. Someplace neutral in case my movements are being tracked.”

Stark discussed the possibilities with someone on his end. Ross maybe. Riley couldn't make out the muffled voice, but he knew his Colby Agency colleague was in the New Orleans area and working with Ross.

When Stark came back on the line, he asked for Riley's location. “Hey,” he called out to the cashier. She glared at him as if he'd interrupted something important but since there were no more customers in the store that couldn't be the case. “What's the address here?” She rattled it off and he passed it on to Stark.

Stark asked Riley to hold, while he then confirmed the directions he relayed to Riley. “Should take you about fifteen minutes with the lack of traffic this morning.”

“See you in fifteen.” Riley ended the connection and deleted the number from the cell phone. He returned to the counter and reached toward his
back pocket. That was when it hit him that he not only didn't have his wallet, he also had no ID and no money. “Damn.”

The cashier rolled her eyes. “Forget it.” She held out her hand for her cell.

Riley placed the phone in her palm. “Thanks. I'm really sorry.” He hadn't meant to take something he couldn't pay for.

“Don't worry about it.” She waved him off. “Just stay out of trouble.”

Riley thanked her again as he exited the store. He hoped he could do exactly as she'd suggested.

Tessa didn't look at him as he climbed back behind the wheel. He placed the coffee in the cup holder, realizing then that he hadn't asked her if she wanted anything. He was really off his game this morning.

“You want some of my coffee?”

She shook her head.

Feeling like a total heel, he pulled out of the parking lot and headed in the direction Stark had instructed.

Riley wasn't sure he could tolerate another fifteen minutes of silence in her presence. “Have you met Renwick before?” Seemed like a safe enough question to ask.

“No.”

“What's the deal between him and your boss?”

She said nothing.

“I get that they're business competitors,” Riley went on despite her refusal to answer. “Seems
personal though. More than just competition to own the market.” It sickened him considering the market in question.

More silence.

What he really wanted to do was ask her if she remembered who she really was. He wanted to open that line of conversation and just see how deep her alliance to the Master went.

But that couldn't happen until he had some sense of where he stood with her.

She held on to that bag as if she expected a sudden flood and it doubled as a flotation device. Her lack of conversation and the blank expression she maintained prevented him from assessing her state of mind. As they'd left the compound, he'd gotten the impression she was scared, but maybe he'd judged too quickly.

From what he'd seen of the compound, it was an extraordinarily elaborate setup. Howard, Brooks and Krant were the only personnel he'd seen but he felt certain there were others. The large dining table indicated perhaps a dozen on-site.

If there were any captives on the property they, too, had been out of sight. But Tessa would know the answers to all those questions.

Whether or not she would cooperate was the real question in all this.

He had her away from the compound. That was a key element in his operation. But he had no additional details about the organization except the location of
the compound. The urge to call in the feds right now, this minute, was overwhelming.

Somehow the so-called Master was counting on the idea that Riley wouldn't take that step. Riley wasn't so sure that the man had bought that fully into his cover. Yet there was something that gave him confidence. By now the compound could have been evacuated and prepared for burning to the ground.

This Master was way too smart and too cunning to let Riley walk out of there with that knowledge.
Unless
he had an ace up his sleeve.

Riley's attention shifted to the silent woman in the passenger seat. She had to be that ace.

The rendezvous location was the parking lot of an abandoned factory in the Ninth Ward. Riley swallowed hard. If they couldn't disarm this thing around his neck, no need to put lives at risk. A deserted location was best for all concerned.

In the daylight, despite the blanket of snow, the ugly scars of the city's worst natural disaster in the last century remained visible. An unmarked van as well as an SUV waited behind the massive, dilapidated building.

Riley parked the SUV and climbed out. Tessa didn't move. He moved around the hood to her side of the vehicle and opened the door. “Come on,” he prompted.

She didn't look at him, kept her attention straight ahead.

“Get out,” he said a bit more firmly.

She climbed out of the SUV, the bag still gripped tightly in her arms.

“Leave the bag inside,” he said, just in case it was rigged, too.

She stared at him a long, silent moment, then did as he asked.

He shoved the door shut and led the way to where Stark and the others had already emerged from their vehicles. All wore plain clothing, no tell-tale markings of law enforcement.

“Smith,” Stark said, keeping Riley's cover intact.

Riley opened his jacket, easing the collar away from the device locked around his neck.

One of the men stepped forward and visually analyzed the device.

No one spoke as the man continued his assessment. He motioned for one of his colleagues to join him. The two used a handheld X-ray-type gadget to see inside the lethal necklace.

When at last they stepped back, the first man spoke. “This appears to be a T.A.T.P.-type explosive. Two chemicals that when combined detonate. It takes a very small quantity to accomplish the goal apparently intended here. The vials can have a built-in time release breakdown component, but in this case there seems to be a tiny secondary charge that will activate via the timer and shatter the vials unless the timer is stopped. Again, this is speculation to some degree since this portable job—” he waved the machine in
his hand “—doesn't work as well as the one at the lab.”

Sounded bad for him, Riley gathered. “So how do we stop the timer?”

“Can't,” the bomb tech said bluntly. “If the timing or the locking mechanism is hampered with the detonating charge will activate. Has to be removed only after it's unlocked, which deactivates the timer. Any unnecessary vibration could set it off.”

Tension stiffened Riley's spine. “How do we unlock it?” If that was the only route, then he was ready to get on with it. He understood the additional risk involved with tampering with the lock, but his chances with these techs was likely far better than with the Master.

“It's biometric. We'd need whoever's print it recognizes to get it open.” The tech shook his head. “We might be able to override it but that would take serious technology and time.”

“If that's what it takes,” Stark spoke up, “then we'll take him in. Where's the nearest lab?”

This was bad all the way around. A tug at his jacket drew Riley's attention to Tessa.

“We need to talk.” She sent a sideways glance at the other men. “Privately.”

Startled that she'd spoken, Riley said to Stark and the tech, “Give us a minute.”

The tech shrugged. “It's your head.”

No need to remind him of that.

Riley walked a couple of yards away. “What?”

As much as he wanted to question her, there was no time for that now. He needed this thing off.

“We don't have time to waste,” she said, her expression hard with determination.

“No kidding.” Had she missed every word the tech said? “If I don't get this thing off…” She surely understood the ramifications.

She shook her head. “You're not listening.”

Riley cleared his head of thoughts of the ticking bomb wrapped around his neck and took a breath. “Explain to me what I'm not listening to.”

“If you do not contact Renwick and do as you were instructed, there will be devastating consequences.”

No joke. “I got that part.” Though he wasn't entirely convinced this was about him or Renwick. But it was still too early to form a reliable conclusion.

She shook her head again, even more adamantly. “I'm not talking about the bomb. Other, devastating consequences.”

He searched her eyes. “Are there captives at the compound?” His pulse rate jumped into an even faster gallop.

She nodded. “You don't know what he's capable of. The children will pay for your failure.”

That didn't make sense to Riley. Why would the man destroy the very merchandise with which he dealt? “What would he have to gain by doing that? He has no idea whether I would be swayed by such an act.”

“But I would be.”

The picture began to clear. “That's why he sent you with me.” It was that ace up his sleeve Riley had presumed existed. And she was it.

“If you don't do as he said, the children will die.”

He got that part, too. “You know I wasn't sent by Renwick. I don't even know who the hell he is or how to contact him.”

She gazed at the men waiting a few feet away, then settled that fierce gaze back on him. “I think I know who you are now. You're a cop or something.”

Was that relief he heard in her tone? “Something like that,” he confirmed.

“I may know a way to contact Renwick,” she said, her voice turning grave. “But we have to move quickly.”

“All right. Still, I need to at least go by the lab and see if they can get this thing off.” He'd feel a lot more secure without the time constriction.

She shook her head again. “You can go, but I can't do that.”

Frustration rose higher, but he tamped it down. “Why can't you do that?”