Her Baby's Bodyguard (21 page)

Eva was torn between a laugh and a sob. She took one of Katya’s hands. If she went with Jack, she might not survive the trip. She would be saying goodbye to her baby sooner than she needed to. These next few days could be all the time she’d get with her child, and she wanted to savor every second.

But if she stayed, Jack might not survive. And she would have no hope of it, either. Dammit, she wanted to see Jack grow old as much as she wanted to see Katya grow up. There really was no other choice. Keeping one hand on her daughter, she reached for Jack’s fingers.

The connection was more than physical. Something bright flowed from both Katya and Jack, tingling through Eva’s skin and into her bones. It was as if the love she felt for them was reflecting back to her and renewing her strength. “You said you wanted to give me a fighting chance, Jack.”

“I do.”

“Then prove it.”

“Eva…”

“You can’t truly expect me to stay here and wait to die. Not when I have so much to live for.”

Chapter 12

T
he rush of cold air took Eva’s breath away, slicing through the jumpsuit that flapped against her legs. She pressed her back to Jack’s warmth and watched the stars creep past the opening in the side of the plane’s fuselage.

“Last chance,” he said from behind her. “Give the word, and we’ll unbuckle you.”

She couldn’t twist her head because of her helmet. The wide straps of the harness that held her securely to the front of Jack’s body didn’t allow her much movement. But he didn’t need to see her face to know her answer. He could probably feel her resolve in the tension of her body. “No way!” she said. “I’m coming with you.”

“Twenty seconds to the drop, Jack.”

Eva turned her attention to the large man who stood opposite the hatch. Starlight gleamed on the side of Rafe Marek’s face, revealing a network of deep scars from his cheekbone to his jaw. Though his fair hair was far longer than military regulation would dictate, his proud bearing left no doubt as to his former profession. He saw her looking at him and tapped her helmet. “We’ll see you later.”

“Try not to make it too much later,” Flynn O’Toole said as he checked the strap of her goggles. Unlike his companion, there were no imperfections in Flynn’s face. Even in the shadows his handsomeness was startling. He grinned at Jack. “We’ve got a pool going.”

“Count me in,” Jack said. “Twenty says we’re out of there by oh-four-hundred.”

The light beside the hatch went from red to green. Flynn stepped back and gave them a thumbs-up.

Jack extended his hand to return the gesture, then wrapped his arm in front of Eva’s waist, swung her to the edge of the opening and tipped them out of the plane.

He’d warned her what to expect. Both of his friends had, too, as they had helped her fasten the harness. They’d assured her that doing a tandem parachute jump was the fastest and simplest way to get into the complex. It would eliminate the need for a long walk, which could have been problematic in her condition. Also, the security system was geared to detect movement on the ground, not infiltration from the air. As Jack had put it, the only difficult part would be the really big first step.

She’d thought she would be terrified, but she wasn’t. Once again, she was trusting this man with her life. She’d seen for herself the array of weapons he’d strapped to his body, so she knew he was prepared for anything. Most of all, though, she was certain he wouldn’t have agreed to bring her along unless he’d believed he could keep her safe.

The lights of the complex glowed beneath them, growing brighter with alarming speed. Jack pulled the rip cord, jerking them both backward. The noise of the wind eased as the black parachute billowed open. Eva clutched the straps of her harness, doing her best to remain motionless so she didn’t interfere while Jack worked the lines on the chute. They drifted in silence, invisible against the darkness, until their descent took them past the perimeter fence. Jack tugged on the lines, expertly spiraling them toward the square structure near the center. Within seconds they were over the roof of the building that housed the laboratories.

Jack flexed his legs and ran a few steps along the roof to dispel the momentum from their landing. While he stowed the parachute and their jumping gear at the base of a ventilation shaft, she took a few moments to get her bearings. Off to her left was the garage where the complex’s fleet of armored SUVs were stored. Jack planned to steal one and disable the rest when they were ready to leave. It was another simple plan, but its success depended on them remaining undetected.

Eva continued to look around. Was it only the different vantage point that made the complex look smaller? The long apartment building where she’d moved after Katya was born seemed squat and ugly. The sloping lines of the library were more graceful, but the pale brick it was constructed of appeared bleak. It was the same with the building that held her office. Though light shone from a handful of the windows, it seemed devoid of life. Round streetlamps glowed along the empty sidewalks and lanes. The lawns were yellowed and dead, the flower beds slashes of dark earth.

She’d once thought it looked like a university campus. That could have been wishful thinking so that she would feel at home here. The only truly good memory she had of this place was Katya’s birth. She put one hand on her chest, feeling her daughter’s absence more strongly than ever. But the baby was fine, she reminded herself. The medical staff on the carrier knew how to take care of her. The rest of Eagle Squadron had promised to look out for her, too.

“Does it hurt?” Jack asked softly.

“No, I’m okay.”

“I meant seeing the place again. You never thought you’d be back.”

“It seems different. Or maybe I’m different. It’s hard to believe it’s been less than a week.”

“It’s been a busy week.”

Her chin trembled. “That’s one way to put it.”

“But I don’t think you’re different. I think maybe all the stuff that’s happened just let you find out more about yourself.” He touched his fingertip to her chin. “That’s the thing about danger. It helps straighten out priorities.”

“Like survival.”

“That’s why we’re here,” he said, sliding his fingers to her neck to check her pulse. He took a water bottle from his belt. “Time for your next dose.”

With the help of the water, she swallowed the handful of pills he gave her and then leaned on his arm as they went to the access door to the roof. He spent more time disabling the alarm than he needed for opening the lock itself. Once in the stairwell, she followed him down three flights and then directed him through the network of corridors to Burian’s private laboratory. Its door had an electronic lock that presented more of a challenge. Eva had used her access card to open it when she’d been here before, but she had left the card behind when she’d fled. Even if she hadn’t, she couldn’t be sure it would still function. She watched the other doors along the corridor as Jack worked. No light showed from beneath any of them. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if someone did show up.

Many of the people who worked here had been her friends. She wouldn’t want Jack to hurt them. For all she knew, some of them could have been as ignorant of the Chameleon program as she had been.

The lock finally clicked. Jack motioned for her to stay back as he swung the door open. He pulled a silenced pistol from the holster that was strapped to his thigh, activated the lamp on the headband he wore and stepped inside.

The narrow beam illuminated a long workbench stacked with a skeletal forest of glassware. Jack advanced methodically, directing the light around the room as he checked behind the bench. Storage cupboards for chemicals and equipment stood against the far wall beside a fume hood and a glass-fronted, refrigerated cabinet. In one corner sat the same massive oak desk that had once been in Burian’s office at Moscow University. Jack beckoned Eva to come in.

She closed the laboratory door behind her. Her heart was beating harder now than it had during the parachute jump. Like the complex, Burian’s lab also looked different from the last time she’d seen it. Maybe it was the darkness that made it seem so sinister. Or the glint of glass from the shadows.

Jack pointed to the computer that sat on a console beside the desk. “If you fire up that thing, I’ll check the cold storage.”

“Be careful,” she reminded him. She switched on the desk lamp and tilted it low so the illumination wouldn’t be seen beneath the door. “This office is where I could have been infected.”

He laid his gun on top of the refrigerated cabinet and pulled a pair of latex gloves from one of his pockets, along with the paper where she’d written Russian words for him to look for. As Jack sprang the cabinet lock, Eva sat in front of Burian’s computer. She tried to ignore the enormity of what they were doing. And the stakes. The last time she’d been here, she’d been looking for information that would guarantee a new life. Now she simply wanted to live.

She fought to keep her fingers steady as she typed commands into the keyboard. A list of files from the Chameleon program filled the screen. She scrolled through them, trying to find what she might have missed the last time. Given Burian’s desire for control, any detail pertaining to the project should be here. For the same reason, if a vaccine had been produced, Burian would want to keep a sample in this lab, just as he kept all the drugs that had been produced at the complex. The difficult part would be identifying it.

Glass bottles chinked as Jack pushed the top tray back into the cabinet and slid out the next one. “Most of the smaller ones only have numbers.”

“They could be dates.”

“Okay, that fits. Which ones should I look for?”

She concentrated on the names of the files on the screen. “Look for something within the last month. The research has to be recent. Otherwise, there would have been more information…” She stopped and tilted her head toward the door. Had she heard a scraping noise in the corridor? The guards weren’t due to make their rounds for another thirty minutes at least.

“You’d better get down, Eva,” Jack whispered, retrieving his gun.

The noise hadn’t been her imagination. Her pulse continued to accelerate. She gulped in a few deep breaths; then she grabbed the edge of the desk and slid from the chair to the floor.

He motioned for her to switch off the lamp as he crossed the room. He placed himself behind the door just as it swung open.

A man’s form was silhouetted in the doorway briefly before the overhead lights blinked on. White hair gleamed in the sudden illumination.

Eva put her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. Burian. Oh, God. What was he doing here? Why now? He was an early riser. She’d never known him to work after midnight.

Oddly, he appeared as if he were going to attend a meeting rather than work in the lab. His hair was neatly combed, and his cheeks were gleaming from a fresh shave. The camel overcoat he wore was unbuttoned, revealing a dark gray suit and a crisp white shirt accented by his trademark royal blue tie. Holding a briefcase under his arm, he swung the door shut behind him.

Before he’d gone three steps, Jack moved behind him, fisted one hand in the back of his collar and pressed the muzzle of his gun beneath Burian’s ear. “That’s far enough, Dr. Ryazan.”

Burian froze. His expression went blank with shock. Within seconds the shock gave way to anger. “You are making a grave mistake.” He spoke English with slow precision, his accent adding an edge to his words. “Release me immediately.”

“I can’t do that.” Maintaining the pressure with his gun, Jack reached around to take the briefcase, dropped it to the floor and then patted the sides of Burian’s coat. He withdrew a cell phone, tossed it beside the briefcase and reached into his own pocket to withdraw a thin plastic strap. “Put your hands behind your back.”

“If you do not release me, you will not leave here alive.”

“For a smart guy,” Jack remarked, “that’s a dumb threat. I’m the one holding the gun.”

In movements that were too quick for Eva to follow, Jack jerked Burian’s arms back and fastened the plastic around his wrists. The strap was a bundling tie, she realized. Moments later, Jack had Burian sitting on the floor and had fastened another plastic tie around his ankles.

Burian strained against his bonds. He toppled sideways, his fall halted when he struck his shoulder on the side of the workbench. He used his elbow to push himself upright again and glared at Jack. “Who are you? What do you want?”

Eva felt a twinge of pity. For a man who was accustomed to being in control, it would be humiliating to be physically humbled. She used the desk to pull herself to her feet. “He’s with me, Burian.”

He whipped his head around. A smile lit his face. “Eva! How did you…” His smile faded as he looked from her to Jack. “I see. So it was the Americans who helped you leave me. Who is this thug?”

“He is my friend.”

Burian raked Jack with a dismissive glance. “He has the look of a common soldier. He could not possibly be your friend.”

Jack snorted at the insult. “Is he always this annoying, Eva?”

“Where is my daughter?” Burian demanded.

“She’s safe.”

“You will bring her to me.”

Jack shook his head. “You’re not going to get anywhere near that kid. But as long as you’re here, you might as well make yourself useful and save everyone some time.”

Burian surveyed the room, looking from the open cabinet to the humming computer. His expression smoothed. “Of course. That is why you came back, Eva. I had expected to hear from you when you understood what I had done, but I had not anticipated a move as bold as this.”

His lack of surprise unnerved her. “What you had done?” Eva repeated.

“It was intended as a lesson. I had not wanted to harm you, but you needed to learn that you could not continue to defy me.”

“Burian, what—”

“This would not have happened if you had stayed where you belonged,” he continued. “Now it may be too late. Your color is not good. It is clear the Chameleon Virus has progressed past its first stages.”