Extrasensory (36 page)

“The demonstration is set up at a remote location. If you’ll watch any of the screens in the room, you’ll be able to see everything.”

The room darkened and the screens lit up. Chase sat down next to Joy and Mark heard her say, “Please don’t be too upset if something goes wrong, honey. Whatever it is, we’ll fix it and do this again.”

“Don’t you understand,” he hissed at her. “There is no second chance here. They won’t trust us next time.”

“Then I’ll just cross my fingers.”

“Damn it, Joy. It will take a lot more than some stupid good luck symbol to fix this if I fall flat on my face. Don’t you know that?” He moved slightly in his chair, as if trying to put distance between the two of them.

Mark saw her glance at Lucas, before she turned her gaze back to the screens.

Everyone stared at the abandoned adobe house and the rock-strewn yard. Then, without warning, one of the rocks began to move, bumping along. Suddenly the image of a computer screen replaced the scene and the audience could see hot spots where people were identified. But more than that, they heard conversations coming through the speakers and a closed caption program printed out the conversation at the bottom of the screen.

Then the picture switched again to show black-clad warriors breaching the house quietly, capturing the occupants and signaling a successful mission. The screens darkened, the lights in the room came on again and thunderous applause greeted Chase as he mounted the stage again.

“That, ladies and gentlemen, is Oscar. For obvious reasons we didn’t print brochures.” A ripple of laughter ran through the room. “But I’ll be happy to answer any questions and make appointments to meet with you individually. Meanwhile, please help yourself to coffee and refreshments at the back of the room.” Mark and Rick were especially interested in Joy and Lucas, who looked at each other with shocked expressions on their faces. Mark had managed to plant a tiny transmitter under the lapel of Joy’s suit jacket when he ushered her to her seat. Now he and Rick stood at the back of the room, miniature receiving buds in their ears, pretending to study the crowd as they listened to the conversation between Joy and Lucas.

“What the hell happened?” Joy demanded. “I thought you switched the robots and put the dummy in Oscar’s place.”

“I did,” Lucas answered through clenched teeth. “I handled it myself.”

“So how did the real Oscar get here? How did Dan Romeo get him and bring him back? How did anyone even find the damn boat?”

Lucas pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, punched in a number and put the phone to his ear. His frown told Mark and Rick that no one was answering on the other end. And with good reason, as they knew.

“Something’s not right,” Lucas told Joy, his jaw tightening. “Jesus isn’t answering.”

“What do you mean he’s not answering? He’s supposed to be right there in the salon with the crate. Stupid ass. I told you we couldn’t trust him.” Her voice quivered with rage and something else. Fear.

“We have to get there right away.”

“Exactly what do we tell that idiot Chase about why we’re running off on his big day?” she demanded.

“Tell him we’re going to the site to make sure they pack up properly and we’ll be back soon. Then run like hell.”

“They’re on their way,” Rick commented, as he watched the couple moved quickly from the room.

“I’ll stay here with Chase,” Mark said. “Someone’s got to hold his hand, especially when this all comes down. Call Dan and have Mike take you and him to Galveston.”

“I’m on it.”

* * * * *

Rick snapped his phone shut and climbed into the helicopter on the roof of the Carpenter building. “Tolbert’s dead. Our man found him and I told him to call Holcomb. I also asked him to keep a lid on things until we can wrap up all the loose ends.”

“Jesus,” Dan said. “They don’t mind piling up the bodies.”

“Holcomb also said they’ve got shadowy footage from some of the security cameras at the airport. The person who parked next to Nate Wilson and got into his car was a woman. Short. With a ponytail.”

“I don’t think we have to wonder who that is. Okay. Mike? Let’s make tracks. I want to be there waiting for them. We don’t need this to play out in a roomful of bigwigs.”

The day shift man was there when they landed at Block House Marina. He poked his head out the door but when he saw the men climb out wearing their NODT jackets, he moved all the curiosity-seekers away, mumbling something about the government, then went back into his little shack. Luckily two other helicopters were there, having delivered their high dollar passengers, so there shouldn’t be any warning signals to their prey.

They were ready, guns locked and loaded, when they heard running footsteps on the pier and voices arguing, coming through the ear buds.

“But I’m telling you, I saw a black helicopter over there with the other two.” Joy, edgy and angry. “Just like the one Phoenix has.”

“You think that’s the only black helicopter in the world? Honest to Christ, Joy.

People fly out here in choppers all the time. We’ve done it ourselves.”

“But what if they know?”

“About us? The boat? Oscar? Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no way they could possibly know anything.” Lucas, abrupt and just as angry. “If they did, they’d have been all over us today.”

“So where’s Jesus? And where did they get the real Oscar?”

“We’re about to find out.” He clambered up the ladder, Joy behind him and slammed open the glass door to the salon. “Well, the crate’s still there. Come on, let’s open it.”

But as he moved down into the room, Dan and Rick moved from where they’d been hidden, guns in hand, tight smiles on their faces.

“I think you’ll find that crate a little empty, Lucas,” Dan told him. “Uh-uh-uh,” he admonished, when Lucas reached for his gun at the small of his back. “Nice and easy, please. If you just sit down over there we’ll all be very happy. You too, Miss Rivers.” Joy had paused at the open door. Now she turned to back away, only to find Mike at her back holding his own gun. He reached under her jacket and pulled the gun from the small of her back, then patted all her pockets. Then he nudged her with his gun.

“Nice to finally meet you, Miss Rivers. How about joining our little party?” She stopped, looked down into the salon, back at Mike and started down the stairs.

At the bottom she looked as if she’d tripped and bent to catch herself but when she straightened up she had a small gun in her hand. Quickly she backed herself against a corner and her eyes moved from one man to another.

“Ankle holster.” Her smile was evil. Her gun was leveled at Mike’s crotch.

“Well, shame on me,” Mike said in his slow drawl. “To think a nice lady like you would want to shoot me.”

“Put the gun down, Joy.” Dan’s voice was like steel. “You won’t be going anywhere. You can’t shoot all of us at the same time.”

“But Lucas can get his gun and then we’ll be a little more even. So all of you put your weapons down before this gentleman here has permanent birth control.” But Dan was quicker than Joy Rivers ever thought of being. As he dropped his hand to lower the gun he fired upward, shattering her hand that held the gun. She screamed in pain and began swearing in three different languages.

“You bastards,” she spat out. “How about some help here?”

“Let me go to her.” Lucas tried to get up from the couch.

“She’ll live.” Rick had his gun pressed against Lucas’ temple. “Don’t move or both of you will need help.”

Mike grabbed dish towels from the galley and wrapped them around Joy’s hand.

Dan pulled out his cell phone and punched a number. “Holcomb? Tell the guys here to come on in and pick up the trash. And we need a medic.”

“What’s in that crate if it’s not Oscar?” Lucas demanded.

“Nothing,” Dan told him. “We emptied it last night. Oscar’s been at a different location since then waiting for his big performance.”

“And where the hell is Obregon?”

“Sitting very comfortably in a motel with one of our men, ready to sing whatever sweet song we ask him to.”

Joy was sitting in a chair now, cradling her hand, her face pale but rage flashing in her eyes.

“How did you figure it out?” she asked. “We thought we covered all our bases.” Dan shrugged. “A lot of hard work and a great computer expert. You were smart but we were smarter. We know everything now. And I mean everything.”

“Lucas?” Joy’s voice was little more than a whisper now.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“The buyer. He’ll kill us.”

“He’ll have to get to you first,” Mike told them. “And here comes the cavalry to save you. You might want to decide which of your choices is the lesser of two evils.” Six men flashing Department of Homeland Security badges boarded the boat, the team leader introducing them as he shook hands with Dan.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” he said with a wry grin.

“No kidding. Well, they’re all yours. My guess is someone wants them badly enough that they’d prefer your company. Pump them for all you can. Give me your email and we’ll send you everything we’ve dug up on them.” The man, who introduced himself to the others as Jack Henry, handed Dan a small card. “This will come directly to me.” He nodded at everyone else. “Nice meeting you, gentlemen.”

They escorted Lucas, in handcuffs and Joy, still moaning in pain, up the steps and off the boat. Dan climbed up to the deck with Rick and Mike and watched three black SUVs pull out of the parking lot.

“I think we’d better go back and let Chase know what’s happening,” Dan said.

“He’s probably ready for a nervous breakdown right about now.”
Chapter Nineteen

They found Chase in his office, mountains of paperwork on his desk, staring out the window with a beaten look on his face.

“It’s as if I lost part of myself,” he told Dan, as the story came out. “Every member of the team is either dead or in jail. Except Paul, who’s gleefully calculating revenue in his office. Thank God for him, I guess.”

“It’s not a pretty story but it could have been a lot worse. They could have actually gotten away with it.”

“I feel like ten kinds of a fool, you know.” Chase just stared at them, the bewildered look on his face laced with pain. “You think you know people, you make them part of your life and then something like this happens… Maybe I should just shut down the company.”

“And let them win after all?” Dan asked. He stood in front of him, forcing him to make eye contact. “Chase, listen to me. I think we’ve all been there before. And you were victimized by some highly sophisticated crooks and killers. But that’s no reason to throw in the towel. Not with what you’ve got going for you here.”

“You still have a terrific staff,” Mark pointed out. “And if their actions today are any indication, they’re still very loyal to you.”

“Mark’s been checking regularly to make sure each department is functioning,” Dan pointed out, “and every single person asks the same question—what can they do to help?”

Chase had a dazed look in his eyes. “I can hardly believe it, either. I hardly know most of them except by name and they’re going out of their way to show me their support.”

“And by the way,” Rick added, “when we left them, your erstwhile partner and fiancée couldn’t talk to the guys from DHS fast enough to buy protection from the Middle Eastern arms dealer who most likely has them in his sights.”

“Pardon my sense of practicality,” Dan continued, “but aside from the company’s reputation, you are about to get a mega-million contracts for Oscar and they know that.

But still, if they didn’t trust you, they’d be out the door.”

“I guess you’re right. It’s myself I’m having trouble with.” He flapped his hands at the air. “I still don’t understand why they killed Stan.”

“They had no intention of using his biometrics. But they knew the system would be down while we reprogrammed it and that you’d insist on checking Oscar’s authenticity.

If you remember, Lucas was the one who offered to get him and take him to the lab.

That’s when he made the switch.”

“So they sacrificed poor Stan for that?”

“Not just for that,” Dan told him. “His death also meant he couldn’t then design something that would even surpass Oscar.”

“So which one of them did it?” Rick asked.

Dan sighed. “You won’t like this but Joy was responsible for all the killings, one way or another. Even the sniper who shot at Mia was an old boyfriend of hers. Except for Ladd. She couldn‘t leave you long enough to get it done so she got Lucas to do it, using her gun. The idiot still had it when he was arrested. They’d planned to dump it when they got out in the Gulf tomorrow.”

“And Ladd? I still don’t know what his role in this was.”

“My guess is he found them out and wanted a piece of the action. Chase, there’s something else I have to tell you that you’ll like even less.”

“Less than being engaged to a cold-blooded killer bitch and having a thief with no conscience for a partner?”

“You and Joy never would have been married.” Dan hated to give him this piece of news but he figured faster was better. Kind of like ripping off an adhesive bandage.

“She was already married to Lucas. Has been for a long time. This whole thing was a setup from the start.”

The three men watched as what little color was left drained from Chase’s face. He turned to stare at the photo of Joy on his desk, then picked it up and hurled it against the wall. The glass splintered and the wood shattered. No one said a word but every man there felt exactly the same way.

“Talk about being unbelievably stupid.” He scrubbed his hands across his face.

“Jesus. She sure played me for a sucker. And what kind of man lets his wife sleep with someone else? Have sex with them? My God, it’s enough to make me throw up.”

“Chase, these people have neither morals nor scruples. They don’t even operate on the same plane as you and I do.”

His face was pinched and pain filled his eyes. He dropped his head into his hands.

“Just look at the situation. My engineer murdered. My attorney a blackmailer and killed for his efforts. And the woman I thought I was going to marry was married all the time to the man I thought was my partner.” He pounded a fist on the desk. “Shit. How much worse could things get? And what a monumental task I’m looking at now, not just with the actual engineering work. I’ll have bids to prepare, contracts to review and all the stuff Lucas used to do…”