Revealed (The Found Book 1) (10 page)

“What’s your success rate for drop outs, compared to other teacher’s students?”

“It can’t be measured because the students all have multiple teachers. It’s not like they have one teacher.”

“Yeah, but you teach social studies and algebra. Of the ones taking both of your classes, how many dropped out last year?”

“Zero.”

“What’s the drop out percentage for ninth graders in your school?”

“Eight percent.”

“Fantastic. You have 180 kids going through your classes on average?”

“More like 120 individual students.”

“That’s ten kids you saved from dropping out of high school. Do you know how much of a difference you made? If it wasn’t the e-mail thing, it was you. You did it Kelly.”

Once more Kali found herself looking down at her plate of food.

“You’re still planning on going into school administration, right?” Michelle asked.

“It’s the plan. I love teaching don’t get me wrong. But I think I can make more of a difference at a higher level.”

“I agree,” Lynne said, as she waved at the waiter for another round of drinks.

“This has to be the last round for me. I’ve got to get home to Chris and Jeffrey.”

“How is Chris doing? Does she like being pregnant again?”

“She loves it,” Lexi said talking about her partner. “I’m just lucky I have a partner who wanted to give birth. I wanted kids, but I gotta tell you, the idea of spending nine months pregnant and then giving birth never really held much appeal.” They all laughed. “So I’m going to go home, put our son to bed, and pamper my best girl.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Get out! Get out now!”

“What are you talking about?” Noah slammed his beer on the coffee table and ran to the guest bedroom to grab his duffel. He pressed the speaker on his phone and threw it on the bed as he started unplugging his laptop.

“Mai. Her kidnapping was an inside job. One of Sakuro’s men was in on it. I just got done interrogating him,” Rydell said.

“Fuck.” Noah made sure his passport, gun and knife were stashed, and then picked up his bag and phone and ran into Kali’s room, and riflled through her lingerie drawer. “Keep talking Dave. Who can I trust?”

“Sakuro and our team, but they’re all still deployed. That’s it. You’re going to have to get Sarah. Sakuro said he’d find someone to take care of Niko.”

Noah closed his eyes. He didn’t care about Sarah, he only cared about Kali. There was no fucking way he was going to allow somebody to torture her ever again.

“What else did the man you interrogated say?”

“It was bad Sam. They think that the
found
are a race of superior beings. They intend to interbreed them with the highest bidders.”

Noah thought he was going to throw up. “Is this the same group that kidnapped Kali?”

“It was just like we thought, he didn’t know what I was talking about.”

“Just how many of these fucking groups are there?” Finally! Noah grabbed her passport and went to the dining room table and picked up Kali’s laptop.

“Jesus Sam, I just don’t know.” Dave Rydell sounded exhausted.

“When was the last time you slept?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does, you know it does. You’re of no use to Mai if you can’t think.” Noah was out the door and in his truck. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back.”

Tires screeched as he left the quiet complex. He voice dialed and kept the phone in his lap. “Rose, I need to talk to Mike.”

“Okay, he’s in the garage. I’ll get him.” God love a cop’s wife. No questions, just an immediate response.

“What do you need, Son?” Mike’s reassuring voice answered.

“Tell the two cops on Kali to get up and personal. I’m going to be there in less than fifteen, and then we’re going off the grid.”

“Oh shit, you’ve been infiltrated.”

“Yeah. I’m
so
sorry Mike.” He hated it was his people who might have been responsible for Kali’s kidnapping.

“Not your fault Son, you can’t be responsible for other people’s actions, only your own. I’m going to get a burner cell and call you. How secure is yours?”

“Nothing is secure anymore. Absolutely fucking nothing. You get your phone, but I’ll get ahold of you through your precinct somehow not through a direct line.”

“You take care of my daughter.” It wasn’t a request, it was a demand. Mike Wachowski hung up.

It was the longest twelve minutes of Noah’s life.

* * *

There were four ambulances outside the restaurant when Noah pulled up. He never met Kali’s friends, but it was easy to assume they were the three other women beside Kali who were on stretchers. Kali was being put into one of the rigs, and two men were arguing with the EMT. As he got closer he recognized one of the men as Chief Petty Officer Riggs, the other he had to assume was one of the CPD officers Mike assigned to Kali. Since the EMT was just waiting, he had to assume Kali wasn’t in life-threatening danger.

“Gentlemen, do we have a problem here? What is delaying Miss Wachowski from being taken to the hospital?” He kept his voice calm, not singling out Riggs.

“Hey Noah, I knew since you weren’t here, you’d want me to go with Kali,” Riggs said smoothly.

The cop gave him a hard look and didn’t say anything. Noah didn’t know his name, so he decided to wing it. “Bob, I figure you were thinking the same thing?”

“Yep.”

Noah looked over to the EMT. “Well this is easy enough, since I’m here, I’m going to the hospital with Kali.”

“As I told your two friends, everybody needs to follow. Them’s the rules.” The EMT finished loading her into the rig, and Noah grabbed his arm. “What’s wrong with her?”

“All of the women were given an overdose of GHP. Look, this is serious man, we have to get them to the hospital, now.” Jesus. He turned to the two idiots, and realized Riggs was gone. Fuck!

“Did you see which way he went?”

“It’s okay, he and his partner came in one car and we have back-up on them. They’re not getting out of our sight.” But it still left whoever slipped the women the drugs. He had to get to the hospital. He looked up the street and saw the ambulance take a left instead of the right towards the hospital.

“The ambulance. It’s going the wrong way.” He ran towards his truck. The cop followed him. They got in, and the cop called in the ambulance’s coordinates and description.

“It’ll be easy enough to spot, it has a blue truck tailgating it,” the cop yelled into his radio.

Noah concentrated on his driving, navigating the streets of Chicago, avoiding pedestrians, and following the ambulance with its lights and sirens going. It took a corner at breakneck speed.

God, the damn transport almost tipped over, and Kali would roll around like a pinball. “What is he trying to do? I have to back off or he’ll wreck.” Noah slammed his hand on his steering wheel.

“They’re setting up a roadblock about a mile up ahead,” the cop explained.

“What makes you think he’ll be at the roadblock?” Noah yelled.

“This is a one way street, it’s the main thoroughfare to the freeway.” Okay, it sounded promising.

Noah eased off the gas even more not wanting the ambulance to speed any more than it was already. Now he was sweating bullets about the drug coursing through Kali’s system, but he realized they wanted her alive, so they couldn’t have given her too much, unless someone fucked up. God knew it happened often enough. Look at the stupid asshole who was driving the ambulance.

“They’ve got a doctor waiting at the roadblock, Sir. They’ll take care of Mike’s daughter.” Noah could hear the respect in the man’s voice. He could see where Mike Wachowski would garner that from the men he worked with.

Noah watched as the driver came up to the roadblock and slowed down before stopping. He got out of the driver’s door and got on his knees with his hands behind his head. “Don’t shoot.” Either he watched a lot of cop shows or he had been in this type of situation before. Cops immediately swarmed him. Noah and the cop, who had ridden with him, were opening the EMT doors.

“I’m a doctor, let me through.”

Noah heard the man behind him, but he didn’t wait, he saw Kali propped up on her elbows on the gurney and he climbed into the ambulance.

“Noah, I think I’m going to be sick.” Then she leaned over and threw up all over the floor.

A man elbowed his way past Noah and held Kali’s head, while Noah grabbed her hand. The man grinned at Noah. “Best thing for her. It’ll clean the garbage right out of her system.”

* * *

They didn’t take Kali to the hospital, instead there was a free clinic nearby, where the doctor worked. They kept her there until four in the morning. Mike snuck in and gave his baby girl a hug good-bye, and dropped off the suitcase Rose had packed. He also explained the other three women were doing well, before handing Noah a set of car keys.

“The car’s clean, I just bought it for cash.”

“Where in the hell can you buy a car for cash at three in the morning?” Noah asked.

“If a cop doesn’t know the best places to buy cars at three a.m., then he hasn’t been paying attention to his city,” Mike chuckled.

Noah had to agree.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any cash to give you. Rose and I used everything we had, and we went to her sister, and my brothers to get the cash for the car.”

“Don’t worry, I have some, and Admiral Sakuro has this project funded. There are lockers and safety deposit boxes loaded with cash across the world for us. He knew this could get bad.”

“I don’t get it, why is the Navy so invested in the
found
?”

“Sakuro convinced them as soon as he became an admiral seven years ago and the first terrorist group popped up. Niko had already graduated from college and was on his way to a masters in engineering, and Nelson knew about me. There are six others that different countries have quietly admitted to, and everyone, besides me, is moving up in their chosen fields.” Mike gave a grunt of laughter.

“What?”

“I’ve looked you up Lieutenant Commander. I’m sure they give out bronze stars and silver stars to just anyone.” Heat creeped up Noah’s neck, he hated talking about his medals.

“It’s me not doing anything to contribute. I’m the square peg in the round hole.” Both men turned around to see Kali, looking paler than her hair if even possible. This time both Noah and Mike laughed.

“Sure go ahead and laugh at the sick girl.”

“Little girl, you don’t listen to those administrators at all, do you?” Noah saw her genuinely perplexed look and he couldn’t understand how she was unable to see herself. Her father continued, “You have only been teaching for four years since you got your masters, and the school board stepped in to make sure you got hired back even though you were so late in applying.”

“They probably thought all the publicity surrounding my name would somehow get them more funding.”

“They wanted you because of the ideas you’ve been implementing. You’re being fast-tracked up the ranks. Your contribution is going to be education.” She still didn’t look convinced.

“The two of you are a great match. I wonder if this is a side effect of all of the
found
. You don’t think you’re doing anything special,” Mike speculated. “Oh well, you better get moving. I talked to Chang at the front desk. If you call in, just ask for Firearms Regulations Department, he’ll call me over to the main phone line.”

“Got it. Come on, Beautiful, time for us to go.” Noah watched as Kali looked down at herself and grimaced. Mike grabbed her in a big hug.

“You look wonderful, little girl. Take care of Navy boy.”

She laughed.

Mike patted him on the back and gave him a meaningful look, Noah understood it. He was to take care of his daughter and he intended to.

He reached for Kali’s hand, and she took it like it was the most natural thing in the world. He had a flashback to another time, another world, and smiled. She looked up, startled, and then gave him a blinding smile. They were on their way, just like they had been all those years ago.

Chapter Sixteen

Kali laughed at the bagful of junk food Noah managed to acquire at the 7-11 the first time they stopped for gas.

“Really? Are you planning for the Zombie Apocalypse? Are we having a slumber party for fourteen year olds? Maybe we’re going to ComiCon? Noah, do you really eat like this?” She pulled out three Hostess products, four candy bars, Nutter Butters, beef jerky, toffee peanuts, toffee cashews, pretzels, yogurt covered pretzels and the two cans of diet soda.

“Hey, that’s my bag. Your bag is here.” Snatching his bag back, he handed hers over. It was supposed to contain an orange juice and a breakfast sandwich. Instead she found three of each.

“Hungry much?”

“Give me my breakfast woman.” He opened the console between them, and dumped the contents of the plastic sack, then held out his hand. “Gimme.”

She giggled. She had found herself doing it a lot since he came into her life. She unwrapped his sandwich and handed it to him, then uncapped the juice and held onto it until he handed the sandwich back to her. Never once did his eyes leave the road. His training was obvious.