Hidden Impact (13 page)

“It’s how and what they choose to do.” Harte stood and headed for the small bar setup. “You need anything?”

“Nah.” It wasn’t that Gabe didn’t drink. He just didn’t need one right now.

“Here’s some rocks in a glass so I didn’t feel like an asshole drinking by myself.” Harte returned holding the promised tumbler out. “What the hell is their acronym again? It’s some long ass thing.”

Gabe took the tumbler. “
Edict
is an acronym?”

Well, shit, he’d have to do some digging. Never occurred to him to look.

“Not officially. One of the boys came up with it one night after a particularly irritating scrape with them. I think we’d need to be shit-faced drunk to remember it.” Harte took a sip of his scotch. “It was funny as hell at the time.”

Not much humor in the current situation, though. “The added bad news is Jewel is working for Edict now and directly involved in this situation.”

Harte stared at Gabe, took another drink, and stared at Gabe again. “Didn’t she shoot you?”

“Yeah. But I got better.” And he didn’t plan to give Jewel the opportunity to do it again.

“She’s not carrying around her AK, is she?”

Gabe shook his head. “Not unless she’s got a creative way to hide it.”

Jewel hadn’t been dressed to seduce when she’d approached Maylin, but the mercenary had still been wearing a sleek power suit emphasizing all things female. Maybe it’d been intended to intimidate Maylin, but as far as Gabe could tell Jewel hadn’t phased her. His girl had tread with a healthy dose of wariness once he’d arrived, but only because she’d been sensitive to his tension. When it came to self-confidence, Maylin was very comfortable in her own skin, and it’d take more than Jewel to shake that.

He liked it. A lot. Even if it would be safer if Maylin backed down when it came to confronting Jewel one-on-one.

“I’ll have Caleb update the file on her and run a search on any additional info we might not have from her recent adventures.” Harte leaned back in the chair. “With Edict involved, this is a bigger job than one or two fire teams can take. Especially with your members in recovery, you included.”

It was important for a person to know his own limits. So far, this mission had been well within his. If they had to go head-to-head with Edict in a serious engagement, he might be more of a liability than a leader. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

“It’s somewhat more complicated than what I had in mind when I recommended we take on a few smaller domestic jobs before heading back overseas.” Gabe tried to keep neutral. Take his time. Harte was taking his temperature on the situation every bit as much as Gabe was assessing Harte.

“I liked the initial recommendation.” Harte chuckled. “There’s an email sitting in your inbox regarding the idea in general, by the way.”

“That the one with ‘Safeguard Project’ in the subject line?” Gabe struggled to remember. “I’ve got it flagged to read as soon as I catch a minute to spare.”

“No worries. I’d want to see how all of this pans out in any case.” Harte shook his glass. “What do we know about the funding behind Edict currently?”

“Not as much as we need.” Gabe had Marc and Lizzy gathering intel but corporate headquarters might have more immediate information. “So far, the trail leads to a small biotech out in California. Apparently they’ve invited Miss An-mei Cheng to do research for them.”

“Doesn’t sound like the kind of company to have the funds to back Edict. What kind of research?”

“Need more details on that too, but my contact had the impression her research had some creative military applications.”

“What sort of research does this girl do?”

“Genetic. Maylin says her sister is at the forefront of her field in gene therapy and recombinant DNA, working with gene-editing proteins and how they get into human cells. Potential treatment for genetic disorders in live patients.” And wasn’t that a mouthful? Gabe had spoken to Maylin at length on the flight from Seattle to be sure he could say it all without stuttering. For a woman with a completely different career, Maylin had a far more thorough understanding of her sister’s research than expected. Gabe had no doubt his girl was every bit as intelligent as her little sister.

Considering how many people trapped themselves in a miserable job because the job description reflected their intelligence level, Gabe thought Maylin was a whole lot wiser than most in choosing what would be right for her even if her family didn’t respect what she did.

Maylin had built a challenging, fulfilling career for herself with her catering company and she was
happy
.

He could learn a lot from her.

“Considering the potential applications, I’m doubting this biotech company is so interested in the girl for humanitarian reasons. If they have her, they’ll have some real security around her. Otherwise, it’d be awkward to explain to the US authorities if she somehow finds her way home. You’re not going to walk into a research lab and find her there holding test tubes, chained to a lab bench. There’s going to be layers of security and personnel to get past. Even if all we have to worry about is Edict, it’ll be a challenge.” Harte leaned forward and set his half-drunk glass on the low table between them. “Your girl can’t have the funds to pay for the kind of operation it will take to get her sister back.”

And here was the difficult part.

“No.” It killed him to say it. But resources, ammunition, equipment, they all came with a high price tag. Maylin was not independently wealthy. “At the beginning I’d hoped once we found the sister, it would be something doable with a four-man fire team. The more we find out, the bigger this whole thing is looking.”

Harte shook his head. “What made you take this on in the first place?”

“Someone tried to run her down right in front of me.” Gabe clamped his mouth shut. Swallowed arguments that’d only waste time. This wasn’t going well, and he wasn’t going to be able to change Harte’s mind if he came across like a man gone soft. Practical reasoning was what he needed.

Harte sighed. “Knight in shining armor syndrome. Every fucking one of us falls victim to it.”

“It’s why we work for Centurion and not Edict.” It was petty to say. Gabe did anyway.

The difference between Centurion and Edict was a set of ethics. A moral code. The members of Centurion Corporation had one and were willing to sacrifice profit for it. They were also pickier about what contracts they took in the first place. It meant they suffered through some complicated decisions.

Edict kept things straightforward. Pay them and they got the job done. No matter how wrong it was.

“You hinted there was good news in here somewhere.” Harte peered mournfully into his glass.

“Since the biotech sponsor does have offices in Tianjin, I initially thought we’d need to go there to locate and extract An-mei Cheng.” Gabe sipped some of the melted ice water in his glass. “Our little run-in with Jewel included a slip of the tongue. Indicates the sister is actually in the States.”

“No shit?” Harte raised an eyebrow.

Gabe nodded. “Worth checking out their facility in California and any other sizable holdings they have domestically before taking the search to the other side of the world.”

“Keep me posted.” Harte stood. “Can’t give you additional resources right now, and I’m guessing you knew it walking in here. We’re good men but we’re running a business, not a charity. It’s my job to keep us business-minded enough to stay well into the black every year when the books are balanced, even if I have to be the asshole.”

There’d been a small hope. But the decision was made and communicated. Gabe didn’t waste time or emotion on disappointment. “Our team has decided to move forward with locating the girl. We’ll renegotiate once the initial goal is achieved.”

Harte nodded. “You do that.”

Chapter Twelve

Gabe took himself out of Harte’s office and strode down the hallway. He wanted to get outside and take a run or head to the nearest gym and pound a punching bag. Do something to take the edge off his temper when there wasn’t anything he could do about the hard news he had to give. Neither of those was a good option at the moment, with limited time and Maylin waiting for him.

Still, he ducked inside a conference room at the other end of the suite and starting pacing. He wasn’t ready to give the update to Maylin yet. Too many things didn’t fit.

He’d have been fine if he’d never had to deal with Jewel again. Some part of him had known he would have to, though. The business of private military contractors had a high turnover rate but it was a small world. They’d have ended up on a multi-contractor job together—or ended up like this, set to go head-to-head. All things said and done, it was less complicated as it stood.

Still, a couple of questions were hanging out there and he didn’t like letting them go unanswered. Jewel wasn’t as good a distance shooter as Lizzy, but she could’ve made a head shot in that last mission. She could have killed him. He’d spent his recovery rapidly progressing through the shock and betrayal, setting those aside and dismissing the whole thing, assuming she’d decided leaving him crippled was worse than dead. He’d gotten good and angry then and used it to fuel his temper and get himself back on his feet.

Now? He wasn’t so sure. She might not have adjusted her shot out of spite.

He and his teammates didn’t pry into each other’s backgrounds much. They had all met as they’d joined the Centurions. All any of them had ever needed to know about their teammates was who they were as Centurions: skill sets, abilities, anything lending to the completion of a given mission. Strengths and weaknesses were reviewed in terms of performance.

But none of those things gave insight into why people did the shit they did. Gabe wasn’t particularly fond of psyches, but he saw the value in a therapy session if it helped a person get their head back on straight. With Jewel and her fire team leaving the Centurions, he’d assumed they’d made a simple choice: money.

Her having chosen not to kill him added a twist to the logic. And her showing up now mucked things up. Made it more difficult. Because he didn’t want to wonder if she was going to take him out this time, or worse, kill Maylin.

Gabe dragged a hand through his hair and cursed.

He’d always been a no-strings-attached kind of guy. When he mixed it up with a woman, it was for mutual enjoyment and lasted only as long as convenient. No regrets when it came time to walk away.

He halted and planted his hands on the windowsill, looking out and not seeing anything. He couldn’t walk away from Maylin the same way. It wasn’t just about missing her. Even considering leaving her opened up a hole inside him.

No idea what it meant, but the thought of Jewel or her team doing anything to Maylin filled him with ice cold fear.

Fear slowed a man down, made him hesitate, second guess. If he couldn’t see clearly, he was going to make a mistake. He needed to decide how to move forward with the least amount of damage.

His phone rang. Yanking it out of his pocket, he growled, “Diaz.”

“Lykke here. You okay? You sound pissed.”

Gabe sighed. “Nah. Just working through some reality over here.”

“Ah.” Marc probably had a good idea of what the reality was, but he’d wait until Gabe briefed the team. “Well, I got some bad news to add.”

“Sure.” Great. Fantastic. “Better now than later. Go ahead.”

“Porter van Lumanee died. Diagnosis still indicates food poisoning as the root cause.” Marc didn’t sound too broken up about it. “I managed to find a few different email accounts for the guy in addition to his work email. An-mei Cheng was the first scientist he was tasked with approaching and acquiring, but if it had gone successfully, she wouldn’t have been the last. There’s one or two other emails with information on other scientists. None of them are missing.”

“Yet.” Gabe pushed away from the windowsill and started pacing again.

“I’ll get an anonymous tip in to the universities they do research for and to the local authorities.”

Gabe nodded. It’d keep any other players distracted. “Good. Anything else?”

“He had some interesting deposits to an overseas banking account. I’m trying to track the source but it’s going to take a while.” Marc was typing away as he spoke. “Best I can tell you is that it wasn’t the biotech firm—Phoenix Biotech—and it wasn’t Edict.”

“So we’re looking at an anonymous sponsor.” Gabe frowned.

“If we make some judicious assumptions, it’d be a good guess that the same sponsor is giving the orders to Phoenix Biotech and Edict.”

Gabe didn’t disagree. It made sense. The biotech company would have a board of directors, but this sort of activity required a more direct line of decision making. “Take a close look at the board of directors for Phoenix Biotech. Could be one of them or a connection.”

“In progress.” Marc hesitated then added, “The email about An-mei is pretty concise. Just includes her photograph and bio, some instructions to invite her to the conference and offer her the opportunity to do cutting-edge research for a private organization. There’s not even a mention of Phoenix Biotech. Definitely no information on who picked up the next part of the job. Van Lumanee’s instructions left him in a silo, separate from other players.”

So Porter van Lumanee was a dead end.

“Smart sponsor.” And where did that leave Gabe and his team? “Keep digging, but proceed with caution. It’d be good to figure out if this is potentially a government program or a private interest.”

They really didn’t need to get mixed up in government activity. The US government had a different way of approaching its intellectual resources, more ethical. And a foreign government wouldn’t likely have facilities on US soil where they couldn’t have absolute control. So it wasn’t likely, but it was best to confirm.

“Roger that.” Marc ended the call.

Gabe cursed. They’d turned up information but weren’t any closer to finding their missing person. And even when they did, they weren’t going to be able to do anything about it.

He still had too many questions unanswered, and wearing down the carpet in here wasn’t going to do anyone any good, so he headed back to Maylin. At least he’d gotten things organized in his head so he could address them.

As he rounded the corner of a row of cubicles, he had line of sight on Maylin, still sitting in the conference room and playing with the phone he’d given her. She was backlit, the light from the outside windows a bright contrast to her silhouette. Seeing every elegant line, every curve of her stopped him in his tracks. Damn, the woman took his breath away.

And he was about to tell her there wouldn’t be enough help to get her sister back.

She’d waited long enough. He wasn’t going to dodge giving her the bad news. So he got himself walking again and crossed the last few yards.

Maylin looked up as he approached, her face clearing as she caught sight of him. Hope shone in her eyes and he swallowed hard.

“What are you up to?” Okay, he was going to dodge for a minute. He just couldn’t give it to her cold.

“Hmm?” She looked down at the smartphone in her hands. “Oh! I downloaded a game I play. I hope it’s okay. Caleb got me connected to the guest Wi-Fi.”

Gabe leaned forward and got a look at some cartoon-y dragons and a grid of spheres in multiple colors. “Once we return your phone we’ll reset this one back to factory settings, so it’s not going to matter much. What kind of game is it?”

“My sister got me into playing it.” Maylin gave him a sad smile. “It helps when I get more worried about her than I can handle to jump in and play. It’s mostly a pattern recognition
–
based game. Match up spheres of the same color, and the corresponding monster in your team does damage to the monsters in the dungeon.”

“Huh.” Okay then. He wasn’t sure what to say. Video games weren’t his thing.

“There’s a simple messaging system in-game too.” She held up the screen to show him. “This was An-mei’s last message to me before she disappeared. This is how I initially knew something was wrong. She wasn’t logging in to play the game, and she logs in
every
day, multiple times a day. Any time she needs to reset her mind after being too deep in the research. The message freaked me out.”

The message was simple...and weird.

Hey. Miss you. aTaaTaac aTGacTaT aTGaTGcc aTGTaaaa

“What is that?” He’d seen plenty of codes. This one? New to him, and he’d bet Marc would love to take a look at it.

She huffed out a laugh. “It’s a silly thing we started doing after I went through high school biology. You know how kids like to send their notes to each other? This is like leet-speak, but for me and her.”

“But biology-based?” Something familiar about it, but damn, biology class had been a long time ago.

“It’s DNA bases used to indicate binary.” She murmured and pointed to the message. “
T
and
G
equal one, and
A
and
C
equal zero.”

“Then you take the binary to create a message.” He shook his head. Morse code, he had a chance of reading. Binary? Not his strong point.

“An-mei could read this just by looking at it.” Pride filled Maylin’s words. “I got out of practice after college so I need an online translator for the longer messages. This one, though, it’s short and simple. It’s how I knew she needed me.”

DNA and binary. Generally not things a person saw combined. Maylin and her sister had some serious brain power between them.

He stared at the letters. “What does it say?”

“Here?” Maylin pointed to the four groupings of letters on the first line. “It says ‘help.’”

Got it. Definitely alarming. “So it wasn’t just that she wasn’t logging in to play anymore.”

“That’s why I knew to look for her right away and not wait the forty-eight hours the police said I should.” She paused. “I should have shown you and your team. But I didn’t want you to dismiss me because of a kid’s secret code in a game app.”

Some kid’s code. It was pretty complex from where he was standing.

“We’re closer to finding her, aren’t we?”

Her hope just about ripped him up inside. “We’re narrowed down to the continent we’re on. We’ll see.”

They’d take it one step at a time, and hopefully, he wouldn’t have to tell her they’d reached the end of their resources.