Code Name: Luminous (11 page)

“Base Command this is Alpha One,” Ghost
transmitted. “Standby for AC
deploy
.”

“Roger, Alpha One.”

Two helicopters were standing by for the
SEALs. The teams’ SUVs slowed and converged at the airport, remaining in the
shadows.

Ghost threw the vehicle into park. Without
turning his head, he said, “You made the right call, Petty Officer Bale, but
you better hope to
fucking
God we don’t lose them, or
you’re going to learn how to fly from ten thousand feet.”

“Sir.”

“Kayla is pregnant,” Ghost said
,
his eyes fixed out the front windshield. “It’s a girl.”

Tony’s guts rolled. Damn her. Why the hell
hadn’t she said anything? “I didn’t know, sir.”

Ghost’s blue eyes glittered with the light
from a nearby building. “We’re calling her Sloane.”

Mace trusted him, but Tony could see he was
scared shitless. When Kayla and Nina approached them with their plan, Mace was
dead against it, but they couldn’t talk Nina or Kayla out of it.

Fox called in. “
Niner
Mike Lima four eight five.
Lear jet.”

Ghost relayed the information to Base Command
and ordered, “Find out who owns that aircraft.” The SUV doors opened and
closed, the SEALs darting for the darkness and the tarmac where the helicopters
waited.

* * * *

“Buckle up ladies, wouldn’t want anything to
happen to you,” the dark-skinned man who Lumin heard the others call
Azeel
ordered.

“Do we get champagne on this flight?” Nina
asked, taking the window seat of the small corporate jet they’d been herded
into.

“Red, you got a mouth on you.”

“Course I do, part of the human anatomy. You
have one too, even though you’re missing a brain,” she said, grabbing the buckle
and clicking it into place.

“Shut it.”
Azeel
waved the gun he’d been pointing at them since they’d been taken.

Lumin couldn’t keep from shaking, but Kayla
and Nina seemed as cool as could be.
Azeel
took the
seat across from them. “It’s a short flight, but we have time to talk.”

“About the weather?”
Nina asked, crossing her long legs.

Azeel’s
eyes ran down her trim pipes to her ankles and back up again.
Lumin and she were about the same height and built almost the same way. She
couldn’t help the thought that Tony liked his women tall, trim and physically
fit. Kayla was a small woman with delicate features, and her skin had a hint of
olive with big dark eyes that sucked you in when she gazed at you. She probably
already knew what
Azeel
liked for dinner and what he
was planning on having tomorrow for breakfast. She remained quiet while Nina
took up the slack with one-liners.

“One or all of you have information that we
need. Let’s start with you,” he said pointing the gun at her. Her pulse kicked
up into scared rabbit beats.

“If you’re looking for a certain wayward
scientist, you’re pointing that gun at the wrong person,” Nina said, fiddling
with the arm rest. “Does this seat recline?” She searched until she found it,
and pushed back.

“She was with Dr. Carmichael, not you,”
Azeel
said, resting back in his seat.

“Means squat.
You know
women,
we have this knack of
sharing everything.” She paused. “Do we at least get peanuts?”

Azeel’s
mouth seamed into an angry slit.
“I’m going to have a good time pounding some manners into you
while I get the information I want.”

Nina scratched her chin with the tip of her
fingernail. “No peanuts then.”

Kayla pursed a grin. “Dr. Bjornson won’t be
found if he doesn’t want to be found,” she said. “Don’t you think he would have
gotten the hell out of Dodge with you on his tail? He’s not exactly happy with
what you made him do.”

“I didn’t make him do anything,
it’s
Dafoe’s party, I just get paid well to give him what he
wants,”
Azeel
said. “And one of you has information
on Bjornson’s location. At least you better, or all three of you are dead.”

The jet engine on the Leer began to wind up,
and the aircraft slowly turned toward the runway.

Nina eyed him. “
Ya
know,
Azeel
, we headed out to see a movie and ended
up on your fancy Leer jet for destinations unknown. It’s all pretty exciting.”
She gave him a blinding smile and he scowled. “
Gonna
give us a hint as to where we’re going? I didn’t pack my swimsuit.”

“You won’t need it buried in the desert.”

“Desert, huh?” She turned a look on Kayla.
“Least I’ll get a tan.”

Kayla chuckled. Lumin looked out the window
and prayed to God that Tony and his SEALs were out there. Soon these guys were
going to get mean, and she didn’t know how long she could take a beating before
cracking.

Once the aircraft left the ground and leveled
off Lumin asked, “Could I have some water, please?” Fear had turned her tongue
into sandpaper.

“Sure,”
Azeel
said,
unsnapping his belt. He nodded to one of the other men and then went to
retrieve a bottle. He waved it in front of her when he returned. “All you have
to do is tell me where Bjornson went.”

Nina watched her carefully. She should have
known better. Engaging them, asking them anything would have strings attached.
“Do you even know what you’re a part of?” she asked. “No reason is good enough
to release a plague.”

Azeel
sat back in his chair. “Ah, so you do know something.
Too much by the sounds of it.”
He unscrewed the cap and took
a drink, smacking his lips with pleasure. “I have nothing to worry about. At
the end of the day, I can live in a mansion in Florida, or take over the
Taj
Mahal
if I want.” He
shrugged. “Everyone else will be dead.”

“And you want to live in a world with decaying
bodies and canned food you manage to scrounge up? The world as we know it will
end. What kind of world is that to live in?”

Azeel
dropped the bottle of water in the seat beside him, and leaned
over.
“One without three hundred million Americans.”

“Hey, smart guy,” Nina spouted. “The Plague
doesn’t stop at twenty-four degrees latitude, you idiot. It will cross every
ocean, infiltrate every country including your own, whatever that is.”

“My family is taken care of.”

“For the first thirty-six hours,” Lumin said,
seeing this moron didn’t have a clue. “Once it mutates, no one is safe. There
is no antiserum for that.”

Azeel’s
expression darkened.

“Ah, your boss forgot to mention that, huh?
Bummer.
Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of real estate to
bury your family,” Nina growled.

“Jihad is not about this life, but the one after.
We fight to the end for our belief. Americans fight for nothing.”

“What does Dafoe believe in?” Kayla asked.

“Justice,”
Azeel
said sharply.

“You’re going to kill us when we tell you what
you want. Why should we?” Kayla persisted.

“Because Mr. Dafoe is like
you.”

“Like me. You mean he’s American?”

“You’re going to die anyway,”
Azeel
said, taking another long, gandering look at Nina.
“Now or later, but if you tell him what he wants to know, then it may be later,
and you can scurry into a hole and hope for the best.” He picked up the bottle
of water and handed it to Lumin. She stared at it, not knowing if she should
take it. Nina swiped it from him and handed it to her. “Let’s start with
something simple. Who’s the blond guy you ran to in San Diego? Obviously he’s
military. What did you tell him?”

Lumin wet her lips, and desperately wanted to
chug back the water, but hesitated when he asked about Tony.
“A
friend.
He has nothing to do with Bjornson.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I needed a place to chill for a while.”

“Is that why he took you to the base for
protection? Come on, Lumin. Lying is an art form. You understand art, being a
dancer.”

“I’m not a dancer.”

“No, you’re a Vegas showgirl. Far less talent,
but you keep a smile on men’s faces, don’t you?
Probably by
spreading your legs.”

Lumin shook her head in disgust.
Azeel’s
hand was lightning fast when he gripped her arm,
digging his fingers into her flesh. “What did you tell him?”

She winced and tried to pull away, but he
pinched harder.

“Does it matter what she told him?” Kayla
intervened, leaning forward and glaring at
Azeel
.
“The United States Special Operations knows what we know. The question is
whether or not you’ll get to Bjornson before they do. What will happen if the
good guys get there first?”

Azeel
dropped her arm and his large frame leaned forward to match
Kayla’s. His deep, black eyes swam with a crazy light. A thin sheen of sweat
layered his dark-skinned brow. “Then we don’t need you anymore, and I’ll have
the pleasure of torturing you the way I want to.”

Lumin’s stomach twisted into a knot.

Kayla didn’t blink, but women can sense danger
and unease like a storm front looming in the distance. “Is torture part of
Jihad? Do you get pleasure from that,
Azeel
? You’re
singing to the wrong bird.”

“Your admiral husband and the rest of the
SEALs will follow us, Kayla. We have something very special waiting for them. I
have a personal vendetta against SEALs, and I can’t wait to see them scream in
pain as the plague turns them into bloated flesh.”

Lumin’s fear skyrocketed. They knew who they
were, and that the SEALs were coming.

Kayla’s voice dropped ten decibels. “You think
you’re smarter than my husband. He’s going to stack you and your men like
cordwood. You’re the ones who will be buzzard bait.”

“I doubt that, Mrs. Austen. Your husband has
power and he wants you back alive. If you tell us what we want to know, he’ll
have you back. Nothing will stop what we have planned. I’d suggest if you know
where Bjornson is, you tell me now, and you won’t have to endure my skills.”

Nina sighed loudly and
Azeel’s
eyes slid to her. “You’re getting boring,
Azeel
. You
sound like every other terrorist playing the same record over and over again.”
She offered him a contemplative gaze. “It’s not the SEALs that will kick your
ass, it’s us. You walked right into the middle of a shit storm, and you don’t
even know you’re neck deep.”

Azeel
sneered at her. “I know everything, Mrs. Callahan, but most
importantly I know where your daughter Gabriella is. I’ll make sure my man sends
me a live feed when he injects your daughter with the plague.”

Nina’s leg shot up so fast it was like a blur,
and so was the ricochet of
Azeel’s
head, with the
pointy end of her boot snapping it back. Blood sprayed from his nose and he
roared with anger, vaulting out of his seat and swinging a powerful fist aimed
for Nina’s face.

Chapter Eight

Date: 07.25.2014

Time: 1200UTC 0400hrs PST

Mission: Code Name Luminous

“Where are they?” Vincent Billings asked,
walking into the abandoned facility outside of Kingman, Arizona. This was a
waste of his time. He should be back at the lab trying to finish Dr. Bjornson’s
work, but disobeying Callum Dafoe was not an option. The man was psychotic
about giving his dead wife and son the justice he believed they were due.

Vincent’s hate for Americans had deep roots as
well. In Iraq, when they’d come in and destroyed everything in their path, he
hoped one day he’d see justice. It hadn’t taken much for Dafoe to convince him
to manage his lab while they re-engineered the Plague. Once upon a time,
Vincent had been
Kasim
Al-
Saadi
.
His parents had been in favor with the ruling power and lived a comfortable
life. They sent him to England for his education, and he received a doctorate
at Stanford for infectious diseases. He didn’t have the experience Carmichael
and Bjornson had, but he knew what they were doing and his role was to keep
progress moving.

“They’re separated,” one of Dafoe’s security
officers informed him. He jerked his head toward the back of the building.

“Which one is Lumin in?”

“Door number two,” the guy said.

When he entered, he saw two security men
standing in opposite corners of the room. One took a long drag on a cigarette and
then flicked it on the ground. “I want to speak with Miss Edenridge—alone.”