Mimics of Rune 02- Surrender (23 page)

“You need nine, Lil,” Charley said.

A left and a right gave her no clue as to which direction to go. She wandered farther in.

“Left,” Wyatt said.

Lily couldn’t see him through the mass of people she’d entered with, but once through, the pace slowed. Orange chairs formed rows for people to sit and relax as they waited. Across the room, doors exited to the buses, red lights shining on the rears of some of the massive vehicles as people filed inside.

The huge, Roman numeral clock above the reservations counter showed one minute until eight o’clock.

Maggie yipped.

Lily patted her head through the bag as she went left.

She passed door number thirteen.

Twelve.

Eleven.

A cluster of people waited in line within the frame of door ten.

At nine, Lily stopped.

The two metal, windowless doors hadn’t yet been opened. Lily took a seat across from them as a chime clanged through the room.

A second followed.

The third another second later.

At the eighth sound, people streamed in, milling all around her, in and out of all sorts of doors, the noise of engines revving and the whine of buses lurching forward with their thousands of pounds filling the space.

A turn to the right showed nothing new.

To the left gave her nothing, either.

A tap on her shoulder made her jump up and spin around.

Roy stood behind her.

Maggie barked a puny, useless, little sound as Lily firmed her stance.

“You came.” Roy took her arm and turned her toward the doors under the ‘9’.

Lily tucked Maggie’s bag behind her shoulder. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” His nose twitched. “You have a dog?”

Has he ever seen me with a dog? Should have picked a hamster or something I could have fit into my purse.
“Actually, this is Leigh’s dog. I figured if you were trying to play me or something, she could … uh … ensure you were giving me the right girl.”

Roy didn’t say anything for a few beats. “Okay.” He hustled Lily toward the doors again and pushed the two panels apart, whisking her out to the bus area and into the near-dark evening.

He continued on past the first row of vehicles and to the second.

“Wyatt’s following you guys,” James said.

At the third, Roy took them left, out to a fourth line of parked buses.

Geez, there are a lot of these things here.

Along the fourth row, he took them to the back of a big silver monstrosity, but rather than enter, he passed it.

A helicopter waited between the buses and the police station, its blades whipping around in long swishes.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” James said.

“He really is one step ahead,” Wyatt said.

Lily hesitated.

“We’re right here with you, Lily,” Charley said.

Roy tugged her forward. “Not afraid to fly are you?”

Helicopters can’t glide if they run out of fuel or lose an engine.
Maggie yipped again. Lily clutched the bag to her chest as if the little dog would ease her fear.

“Move the bag, Lil or we can’t see,” James said.

Lily lowered the bag a notch, ensuring the locket she wore around her neck had an unencumbered view.

“It’s not a terribly long trip. Just a quick stop in Atlanta before we pop over Florida and land on a private island right off the coast.”

“Where?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yeah. I just … wonder if I’ve been there before.”

“Good catch, Lil.” Charley’s encouragement bolstered Lily’s confidence.

Roy took her hand. She prepared for his placation. “Darling, Lily. You’ve been there before. For five years, in fact.”

“I was in California.”

“That’s what they hoped you’d believe. You were in the Bahamas the whole time. Where else could they get away with international conspiracy without the United States’ oversight or rules?”

“But, they dropped me in the desert.”

“Of course they did. How better to confuse you? They did the same to me, remember?” His hand slid to her fingers. He tilted down before looking back up at her. “You’re wearing it?” One finger caressed her left ring finger.

Cael’s groan came through clearly.

Lily pinched back the smile, forcing herself not to shiver at Roy’s touch. “It’s … pretty.”

A half-smile formed as he gave her a small nod. “Well, then. We’re ready.”

Lily followed him to the helicopter. Someone marched around the side and held open the door. Roy boosted her up as Maggie added more miniature barks.

“Here goes nothing, Lily,” James said.

“Be careful, Lil,” Charley and Wyatt said.

“I love you, Lily,” Cael said.

“Aw, Cael, why didn’t you tell me it was mutual?” An excited little giggle broke through from Charley.

Lily banked the sigh.
At least someone got to say it. I love you, too, Cael.

19

One hour in a helicopter led to a Gulfstream G5. Roy had let Lily know, in no uncertain terms, that he owned both. Despite the soft, milk-coffee colored, suede seats and plush carpeted interior, Lily couldn’t have cared less. His attempt to impress her only irritated her more.

Once in the clouds, her connection with the team broke. They’d promised her that when she landed they’d be in her ear and would be on Charley’s plane, heading her way. Lily had decided the only way to relax would be through sleep, and since her lids had already begun to droop, she let her mind comply.

• • •

As the wheels screeched their connection to a runway, Lily woke and peeked through the window. Lights from inside a three-story facility gleamed against a solid black, night sky. Of course, he’d had to bring her in through the darkness where the camera in her locket would show nothing of their surroundings.

Always two steps ahead.

“Lily?” Roy bumped against the arm of her seat.

She turned to him as Charley’s voice came through the earpiece with a ‘hello again’. “Yeah?”

“We’re here. Are you hungry?”

Maggie whimpered.

“I think my dog needs to pee.”

The plane slowed, coming to a full stop just a few minutes later.

“There’s a small clearing just around the corner of the building. I’ll take you.”

The outer door opened on a gush, letting hot, moist air into the plane. Their captain waved them out as Lily tucked Maggie in the crook of her arm. She let her out of her bag, but to change back into Maggie form would be too dangerous.

Lily stepped into the night, inhaling the scent of the ocean mixed with another flavor she didn’t recognize—a sweet, sickly smell that had her twitching her nose as Maggie yipped and snarled.

Great, something else I don’t understand, and she does.

Roy motioned her to follow, taking them both to the side of the building. “You can let him out here.”

Maggie barked again as Lily set her on the concrete. The moment she let go, Maggie ran to Roy and bit at the hem of his pants.

Lily hid the smile.
Should have let me put that bow in your hair.
For three hours, he’d called Maggie a ‘he’.

Maggie trotted to the closest bush with a little saunter in her step.

Roy tapped his toe. “Now, remember, Lily. You agreed to come with me to verify our blood lines. That’s our story. They know who we are, but they don’t know what else I’ve told you. And they don’t know of our ulterior motive.”

“To break up the whole system?”

Roy’s head jerked to the side, a small enough action that Lily would have missed it if she’d not been staring right at him. “Yes. Right.”

Lily scanned the area, turning her body all around in an attempt to give her team a view of the surroundings despite the black of night.

“We have your coordinates, Lily. We’ll be local in a few hours. Hang tough,” Charley said.

No one else commented, which worried Lily. Then again, she worried about most everything except what to wear, how to wear it and how to ensure a disguise worked flawlessly.

Maggie trotted back over, scratched up dirt onto Roy’s feet when he looked away, and sat at Lily’s toes.

“Ready?” Roy asked.

• • •

With Maggie tucked back in Lily’s arm, they followed Roy toward a set of doors with a red light above the frame. It blinked green as they approached, and they entered to another door. Beyond that one stretched a long, stark white hall with dozens of doors on either side, each with a light over the top frame. Some red. Some green. Some inactivated.

Roy slid an access card into the second door, just as he had the first, and it buzzed, letting the three of them through.

Lily froze again.

Even Maggie stayed silent.

In Lily’s ear, no one said a word.

“Come on.” Roy took her hand, guiding her along the corridor to yet another door. A second card swipe, and she continued on through a third opening and onto a balcony that overlooked a room the size of an airplane hangar.

At least a dozen small, box-like structures with flat roofs, each no more than a single story tall, dotted the center space, each with a variety of textures—brick, thatch, wood—but all of them white, like a miniature city with its color erased. Airconditioning duct work draped across beams and down into each square. Electrical lines ran across and back, a spider web of silver above each of the miniature buildings.

Do people live in there?

Maggie’s bark echoed through the otherwise empty space.

“What is this place?”

Roy scowled in Maggie’s direction. “This is a testing facility, Lily.”

“Testing? Like what?”

“You think it up; they do it. How else are they going to know what we can and can’t do with our bodies?”

She followed him down a set of stairs to yet another set of double doors. To her left, white brick surrounded what looked to be a giant box. Just in front of it, another had been sheathed in some sort of white metallic lining.

This place is eerily creepy.

“How many people—” Lily started.

Roy shook his head as he swiped his card. “Not right now. I just wanted you to see it. Remember, you’re here on your own. The more they think you’re cooperating, the less risk there’ll be. Just do what they say. Let them get what they need, and take them down.”

The door buzzed open.

Lily walked from the testing area into absolute opulence.

Marble floors, gilded mirrors, deep browns and reds on the walls, the solid colors broken up by Ansel Adams prints. Light, classical music played through the speakers as they advanced through the hall toward a chestnut, double door.

Roy stopped her in front of it. “You know nothing of what I’ve told you.” He tapped his temple.

Lily nodded.

The doors beeped and clicked until they slid into hidden recesses and revealed a space that resembled any home’s entry foyer. That opened into a living room with a huge television set, along with a white leather couch and furniture straight from an Ethan Allen catalog.

The smell of barbecued chicken had Lily raising her nose, and her stomach grumbled at the flavorful essence.

A man appeared, his black slacks swishing with his leg swings. His black button down hung open at the collar. “Good evening, or should I say morning.” He reached out a hand.

Lily took it, warm and soft around her own palm.

He leaned forward, added a kiss to each of her cheeks, but backed away at Maggie’s growl. “Miss Crane. So nice to see you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Lily withheld the shiver. “Um, hi …” She recognized the face, but couldn’t place where or why. A simple niggle of history tickled the base of her neck.

He opened his arms. “Welcome … home.”

• • •

“
That’s Kevin.” Charley’s memory never failed the team. She would hear what none of them could have seen. “Why is he there?”

“Someone get Stuart on the phone,” Wyatt said, his voice more bark and bite than his normal calm. “And get me my records from our trip last month.” Wyatt typed away on his laptop, pulling data as fast as the air would allow. “Why isn’t our video working? And how did Kevin … from my Montreal op, get where Lily and Roy are?”

Cael needed to pace. He wanted to stomp, hit and punch something, but the cabin of their seven-seater barely let him stand. “What if Kevin remembers her?”

“He won’t,” James said. “She was in the other room, watching by monitor, when we took him down.” James handed Wyatt the phone. “Stuart’s on and briefed.”

“How is he connected to this?” Charley asked for the fourth time.

Wyatt and James held up their hands silencing her.

“So, like I said to James … Kevin Barber was one of my contacts for the US and Canada child trafficking project we broke up a month ago.”

• • •

Home? Whose home? His? If he lives somewhere in the middle of the ocean, I can’t have met him before. Right? Why do I think I know you?

Maggie growled in Lily’s arms.

Kevin’s blue eyes sparkled, as dangerous as Cael’s could be. “I’m sorry to have asked you to join me so late … or rather early in the day, but safety precautions were necessary.”

“Oh … of course. It’s okay.” Lily eyed Roy, hoping for support, encouragement or something.

Roy’s brows moved to the center just enough that Lily noticed, but she didn’t understand the expression.

“We have a lot to do before we begin,” Kevin said.

• • •

Charley held up a finger. “There was a third guy in the bar … he never gave me his name.”

“Jagger,” Stuart said. “He’s a pussy, excuse my French.”

Both Cael and Charley jerked back at Stuart’s uncharacteristic language. “That’s not Fr—” Charley started.

“I know. So, anyway …” Stuart’s voice broke in and out as their satellite phone connected and disconnected. “Jagger was the guy who blabbed and started the whole mess that brought you guys up there.” A thump came before Stuart sighed.

“What happened?”

“Just hit my head against the wall. I should have seen this. I mean the guy was a prick. A genuine dickhead.”

“Wow, Stuart, you’re all about the colorful language today,” Charley said.