Hidden Impact (5 page)

Guilt washed over her, combining with her worry. For a few minutes, there was silence as she poured egg into the pan and carefully created layers.

“The invitation came from the conference coordinators, then?” Gabe’s voice came to her, gentle but insistent.

She spooned salsa verde across the surface of the omelet and sprinkled in baby spinach, giving it a chance to wilt just a little. “Actually, a colleague in the same academic circle extended the invitation. He’s a chair on the programming committee.”

“Do you remember his name?” Lizzy’s question was sharp.

Carefully rolling the omelet, Maylin slid it out onto a plate and turned off the flame. Picking up a knife, she studied its edge. “Porter van Lumanee. He hasn’t returned my calls, but according to his out-of-office email notification, he should have returned at the same time An-mei was supposed to.”

Perhaps he was missing too. But she doubted it. More than one scientist unaccounted for would have bothered the police more.

She cut the rolled omelet crosswise, serving the slices out onto small plates so the spiral of egg and green showed. To one side, she arranged fresh-cut apple slices. As she placed a plate in front of each of them, she caught sight of Lizzy’s suddenly blank expression.

“You know something about him.” No need to make it a question.

Lizzy picked up a fork. “His name popped in the search, but he’s not missing.”

Lizzy was watching her, and Maylin blinked, then put the knife down.

Deliberately taking a bite out of an apple slice, Lizzy chewed before answering. “He’s on record as the last person to see your sister. He said she went out sightseeing, possibly to meet up with some new friends for some end-of-conference celebration before heading back to the States.”

“That’s not like An-mei.” Maylin wiped down the counter, unsettled. “The sightseeing, maybe. But she’d have sent me a text about it. She loved to share those things and I was getting multiple texts through the day on everything she was experiencing. She didn’t mention plans to meet with anyone there.”

“People do make new friends,” Victoria said gently.

It’d do no good to get defensive. Maylin took a bite of omelet as she considered how to explain best. The salsa verde was sweet with a touch of spice to it, and the feta cheese she’d added took the omelet roulette over to the savory flavor profile she’d been hoping for. Complex but not over the top. Not bad for leftovers. “An-mei is mostly introverted. She prefers the privacy of a lab, her own apartment. Her idea of a wild night is staying up all night online playing a game app we both have installed on our smartphones.”

“She chats online in a video game?” Marc started chuckling.

The concept of video games wasn’t all that unusual, but An-mei’s games weren’t the type people usually thought of when someone mentioned staying up playing all night.

Maylin shook her head. “This game has no chat functionality, just a simple message inbox, and she doesn’t answer in-game messages from people she doesn’t know. She only accepts friend invitations based on rank so she can use the person’s monsters on her teams to defeat stronger dungeons.”

“Huh.” Marc popped an entire omelet slice into his mouth and chewed. “So I’ll look into this Porter guy’s story. If he’s back in the States and not answering you, probably best to check out his office in person to see if he’s ignoring just you or everyone. This...whatever it is...is incredible, by the way.”

Maylin smiled. It was why she’d built a catering business. Cooking for people made her happy. “You had good supplies in the refrigerator.”

Lizzy snorted. “We had shit for leftovers. I don’t know how you managed to put this together from all that.”

“What was the last you heard from your sister?” Gabe placed a cleaned plate on the counter next to her. He’d eaten every bit.

Her stepmother would’ve been insulted. Some Chinese felt an empty plate was a silent criticism indicating not enough food had been served. It wouldn’t have mattered to her stepmother that American custom considered cleaning one’s plate a good practice and a compliment to the chef.

Maylin wondered if he’d liked it or if he’d only eaten out of politeness.

“We used a free voice mail and texting service so she could send me texts without using an international data plan. As long as she was in the hotel or somewhere with free Wi-Fi, I got texts almost every hour she was awake.” She gathered the dirtied plates and bowls in the sink.

“Leave the dishes. House rules are if someone cooks, someone else cleans.” Gabe placed his hands on her shoulders and eased her back to face the rest of the team.

Left with nothing to keep her hands busy and flustered by the unexpected zing his touch sent through her, Maylin grabbed a dish towel and wiped down the counter. “Most of the texts were about what the hotel looked like or what she had to eat.”

“She send pictures?” Marc was still grinning.

“Text service doesn’t allow for pictures. She just wanted to reassure me she was eating.” Maylin might have been nagging her a little. Okay, a lot. “She always forgets to eat.”

“You said
most
—what was unusual?” Lizzy hopped off her stool and brought her plate to the sink, where Gabe was making quick work of washing the dishes.

Maylin backed up so she could see them all, leaned back against the refrigerator and started twisting the dish towel in her hands. “A few texts. She said her presentation went well. Then there was a text that someone made a job offer but she wasn’t going to take it. Then she said she wanted to come home. Now.”

Anxiety rose up, her heart starting to beat harder. Something was wrong, wrong, wrong. In a way that she hadn’t been able to explain to the police. But she had to get this right here, with these people. And to convince them her gut feeling was real.

“Only one or two texts after that, along the same lines of looking forward to coming home. No updates about getting to the airport or confirming when her flights were. She’d have checked with me to make sure there were no schedule changes so I could pick her up from the airport.” And that was an awful twist in her stomach too. Because Maylin had always been so busy, she hadn’t been reliable. Even if An-mei had been on the flight home, An-mei would’ve checked to be sure Maylin hadn’t got caught up with something work related.

“This text service, you access it via a web browser?” Lizzy asked quietly, wiping dishes as Gabe handed them to her.

“Yes.”

“Will you share it with us so we can take a look through the texts?”

Maylin nodded. “I’ll give you my password for the account. And hers.”

“You know her passwords?” Marc dropped his forehead into his hand.

Maylin shrugged. “An-mei was a little absent-minded, so she asked me to remember them for her after I told her not to put them on a Post-it note. She doesn’t know mine, though.”

“Well, it’ll help if we can take a look through those texts—and her recent email too, if the passwords you know access that.” Lizzy tossed the towel she’d been using on the counter. “Is that it? You didn’t hear anything else?”

Maylin sighed. “The only thing that happened next was me sitting at the airport, waiting for her for hours. No one at the airport could tell me anything but that she hadn’t boarded in China. The police said to wait a few days. My calls to the Chinese embassy said the same. I was researching private investigators and contractors with international affiliates when my job last night came up. Your corporation’s name came up in my research and was on the list of vendors as private security. The best of the best. That client doesn’t hire anything less. So I figured if anyone could help me, you could.”

“It’s not our usual type of mission.” Gabe crossed his arms, leaning back against the counter in front of the sink. “Our fire team is a part of a bigger squadron and we usually go in to cause a lot of damage and get out. Extraction is not our primary objective.”

“Not usually, no.” Victoria tapped her lips. “But not unheard of.”

Gabe nodded in acknowledgment. Maylin’s heart jumped. Hope. They were listening to her.

And she wanted to know about them, about what they might be able to do. “How many of you are there?”

“I lead a fire team of four soldiers—me, Lizzy, Marc and Victoria. We’re one of four to five fire teams in a particular squadron. Depending on the contract, fire teams can get moved around in the squadrons based on the needed skill sets for the mission at hand.” Gabe’s jaw flexed, as if he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. Bad habit, or maybe the echoes of an old one already given up. Her dad used to chew tobacco and did that for years after he’d quit. “Our entire current squadron is back on US soil, but only two of the fire teams came west for recovery here in Washington. Otherwise, we’d be at the corporate headquarters in the DC area.”

She couldn’t help looking back over the others. None of them looked injured. In fact, every one of them looked more fit than anyone she’d encountered either at work or walking on the street. It was in the way they stood, the way they moved smooth and soundless. There was a potential for action there, keeping Maylin on edge even before she’d thought to put a definition to it.

“Dislocated shoulder.” Lizzy tapped her left and gave her a feral grin. “Not fit for the kind of rough and ready duty we usually do, but more than fine for the simple bodyguard duty we were doing last night.”

“Broken thumb. Doesn’t seem serious, but you need your thumb to operate a lot of equipment.” Marc scowled as Victoria snickered. “Look. If the other squadron leader hadn’t seen me fumble my weapon on the way into the pisser, he’d have never known.”

“We were already headed here anyway,” Gabe interjected. “No reason to hide it, and better to get it splinted and taken care of.”

“Ah.” Maylin didn’t know what to say.

Was Gabe injured in some way? They all had looked at him, to him, to follow his lead in how much to share. She might not be super-secret military, but she could recognize at least those signs.

“Regardless, we’re all mended and more than capable of investigating your sister’s disappearance.” Lizzy cut the air with her right hand.

“And you have a contract for the hiring of your services?” Maylin could grasp the formalities, and they were there to protect all involved parties. She’d learned that the hard way running her own business.

“Caleb can draw one up. He’s the squadron’s ops person back at HQ.” Gabe didn’t sound worried.

“For investigation into her disappearance and...extraction? Is that what you call it?” Maylin pushed because none of them had committed yet. And she needed it, in writing.

Gabe pushed away from the counter, then hesitated. She lifted her chin and refused to look away from his considering gaze. Finally, he said, “One step at a time. There may be no one to retrieve.”

Not a single one of their faces gave her any encouragement.

Fine. She’d have enough hope for them all. “If she’s out there and we find evidence she is, will you help me get her back?”

She watched as Gabe exchanged a look with each of his people. There was nothing she could read between any of them. But she waited anyway. There were no other options.

“If.” Gabe ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Fine,
if
. Then yes, we will talk about what it will take to get her back for you.”

* * *

There were too many unknown variables.

Gabe watched Maylin continue to chat with his team. Considering the way they were already warming up to her, a lot of the investigation work could be done pro bono. If asked, his team members would likely say it was better than being bored.

It was what he would say too.

His fire team might be out of rotation, on leave in the US while they healed up from their latest mission overseas, but eventually they’d cycle back and rejoin a squadron for their next contract. The Centurion Corporation had several squadrons deployed around the world, how many and where depended on the contract and the nature of their clients. Where there was conflict, there was a need for private military contractors.

As much as his team needed the rest, every one of them, including him, had been itching to do something after the first couple of weeks hanging around Centurion Corporation’s Seattle base. That was when Gabe had suggested to their leadership that they take on the lighter duty, local bodyguard contracts. Didn’t require as much physical activity and kept them all sharp.

It’d made sense. Then he’d encountered Maylin.

He watched the woman as she made yet another omelet for Marc and Seth, demonstrating how she made layers of cooked egg and rolled it.

His team was already getting engaged, attached to their client. Maylin wasn’t some aloof wealthy personage hiring them for personal security. She was a warm, genuinely nice, dangerously likeable person with a talent for feeding hungry people.

And she was good at what she did. He’d seen her in action last night. She’d managed her catering team with cool efficiency. Her people came to her with issues and she was calm, decisive in handling anything brought to her attention. Always smiled for the guests, never broke a sweat. And the entire time she’d been worried about her sister and recovering from the craptastic rebuff he’d given her.

Yeah. He’d been slick. A real pro way to handle a situation.

And he might choke on the sarcasm of his own thoughts.

Hell.

He sighed and placed his hands on the counter. His team stopped the chatter almost immediately, all of their attention turned to him. Maylin followed their cues, her green eyes wide. Hopeful.

“For starters, we’ll head back to your apartment and try to get some intel on exactly who is after you.”

She frowned. “An-mei is the one who’s missing.”

He nodded. “And for some reason someone tried to run you down last night and took the time to bug your apartment. Unless you’re involved with the Chinese mafia or some other illicit activity, is it safe to say that sort of thing might be related to your inquiries about your sister?”

Her lips pressed into a tight line and her cheeks flushed pink with either embarrassment or anger. Considering the spark in her eyes, he’d guess both. And damn it, he didn’t like it.