Chapter Seventeen
Alex had just opened the safe when he heard the engines start.
“Masook is on the move. Jane is safely on the quay with Reilly.” The words came through his earpiece, courtesy of Noah.
Shit.
Inside the safe was a bright red, waterproof case. Alex retrieved it and carefully opened the lid.
Five, small, glass vials were nestled alongside an array of hypodermics and surgical gloves. Four vials were filled with powder the color of bleached bone and labeled Bacillus anthracis.
Alex frowned. Anthrax?
Presumably the fifth vial of liquid was the vaccine.
Alex had received anthrax vaccinations during his military service, and yearly boosters while working for the CIA. He hadn’t had an injection in a few years but he should have some immunity left over, which may or may not keep him alive if he was exposed. Not that he wanted to test that hypothesis.
As deadly as anthrax undoubtedly was—a Category A biological agent, posing the highest potential risk—it didn’t make sense for this many buyers to be vying for this particular organism of death, considering so many countries had their own biological weapons programs. Unless it had been weaponized in some way…
Great.
Through the guard’s stolen headphones Alex could hear a commotion going on. He quickly snapped closed the bright red, waterproof box and shut the safe, replacing the painting that hid it. He picked up Masook’s laptop, placed it inside two, large, sealable, plastic bags. He stuffed the whole thing into a laptop bag that sat on the floor and attached a glow stick to the strap. The hard, waterproof case wouldn’t fit inside the laptop bag’s zip pocket so he attached it via the strap and slung the whole thing over his back. He pulled his SIG Sauer with his right hand and headed to the door.
If he could toss the anthrax and the laptop over the side, Matt could retrieve it from the water. Then Alex would grab the kid and swim them both to shore. The French authorities could pick up Masook and anyone else involved from the boat at their convenience. And at their own peril. Alex had a wedding to attend. He pushed Charles Salamander out of his head. He had better things to think about than revenge.
Maybe he wasn’t quite as black inside as he sometimes feared.
He slipped out of the office but heard footsteps coming down the stairs at the end of the corridor. He ducked into a dark cabin that was thankfully empty and listened at the door. There was a lot of jabbering in Arabic in his ear from Masook’s security team. Then the sound of suppressed gunfire came clearly across the feed.
Shit.
Someone was shooting.
Alex looked around and tried the porthole, but it didn’t open. They were moving out of the harbor and into the Med.
Raised voices in the hallway outside made him freeze. They spoke in Arabic but he understood every word.
“You’ll never work again.” Masook. Who was he talking to?
“Ah, my friend, of course I will.” Salamander. Shit. Alex stilled as that familiar hatred and revulsion rose up inside him. “If you’re smart you’ll work with me.”
“With you?” Masook’s tone was hostile. “For you, you mean.” He was no fool.
“Working for me beats being dead, yes?” said Salamander.
“Why are you doing this? This is not how we work. Your client should have paid more,” Masook complained.
“My client doesn’t just want what you are offering. He wants the supplier, too.”
So did Alex, but he’d find them with or without Masook.
Masook laughed sourly. “If I give you that you’ll kill me for sure.”
Salamander’s oily reply snaked under the door. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
More indistinct noises as if someone else was joining them.
“But if you don’t tell me, I will kill your daughter.”
Alex drew in a sharp breath.
“How sloppy to bring a child on a business trip.”
Taylor shrieked. Alex closed his eyes. This op had suddenly gone to shit, and all because Charles Salamander was a treacherous backstabber. If only Alex had pulled the trigger all those years ago…
“Let me go!” Taylor Masook’s yelp of pain had Alex stretching his neck from side to side. The chance of making his own wedding was getting slimmer, but Mallory wouldn’t stand on this side of the door while a child was in danger.
Salamander’s voice grew patronizing, and he switched to English even though Taylor spoke Arabic. “I won’t hurt you, little girl. I just want something your father has.”
“That’s stealing! You’re a bad man. Ouch, you’re hurting me.” She squealed again.
“Your daddy is a bad man, too. He likes to sell deadly weapons to terrorists, but you live with your delusions, child.”
“You’re lying. My daddy wouldn’t do something like that!”
Poor kid. Her dreams were gonna get shattered one way or another, assuming she lived that long. With the laptop slung across his back Alex put his hand on the knob. Time to get rid of Salamander for good.
“I want the name of the scientist who created it else I’ll put a bullet in your poor, sweet child.”
Alex paused.
“Don’t hurt her! I’ll tell you what I know, but I don’t know the name. Let me get my laptop. I will show you my correspondence and how I make payments. Just let her go. This man is easily spooked. He is terrified the FBI is watching him.”
FBI? What the hell? Was this an American traitor?
“He will only deal with me. Without me you will never find him.” Masook sounded desperate.
Salamander enjoyed other people’s fear.
Alex’s time was up. Once Masook realized the laptop was gone he’d know he’d been robbed. Who knew what Salamander would do to the kid then.
Alex came out of the room and double-tapped the goon closest to him. The nanny he’d been holding hostage slumped against the wall. Alex turned and then, before Taylor had finished drawing in breath to scream, aimed his SIG between Salamander’s wide, brown eyes. He saw the flash of recognition but didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
Click.
For the first time on a mission Alex’s gun jammed. He lunged for the dead bodyguard’s gun and rolled across the passageway, kicking open the nearest door as bullets followed him and peppered the thin walls behind him. Taylor screamed so high Alex thought the windows might shatter.
He cleared the SIG and checked the other gun. Both were locked and loaded.
“Ah, Mr. Parker,” Salamander called. “So good to see you again after all these years. Come out and bring the samples with you and I won’t kill Masook’s child.”
Alex pressed his lips together. All he needed was one, clear shot.
“You have three seconds. Three, two, one…”
Alex had no choice. He came out and aimed his pistol, but Salamander was completely shielded behind the nanny. Another of Salamander’s henchmen held Taylor around the waist like a rag doll. Masook was nowhere to be seen.
Alex tilted his head slightly as he looked down the sights. “Hiding behind a woman, Charles?”
He caught the edge of a smile as the snake ducked back behind the terrified nanny. Maybe she was just the hired help.
“Ah, I missed you, Alex.” Salamander seemed gleeful at this turn of events. “I had heard that you retired from your position at the CIA, but the rumors were obviously exaggerated.”
The excitement in his voice crawled over Alex’s flesh.
“It is a shame that I have to kill you now.”
Salamander raised his pistol, but Alex shot the gun out of the man’s hand. Salamander screamed in pain, but managed to wrap his injured arm around the nanny’s neck, blood running down her chest and dripping onto the cream carpet. The threat was implicit. Come closer, and the nanny died.
The henchman holding Taylor raised his weapon to fire, but Alex shot him right between the eyes. The little girl screamed, and he winced. Jane would probably kill him herself for traumatizing her daughter.
A violent curse erupted from Masook’s office. He was no doubt looking for the bullets to the pistol he kept in his desk drawer. Alex had them in his pocket.
Taylor scrambled away from the dead bodyguard and ran to her father.
Dammit.
Alex walked towards the man he should have killed years ago—and yet, if he had, he might never have met Mallory. Never known true joy. All that suffering had been worth it in the end.
“Let Josette go,” Alex told Salamander calmly. “And I won’t kill you.”
Salamander laughed and glanced behind him as if expecting to be rescued. “You won’t kill me. You and I are connected. In the cosmic universe, you can no more kill me than I can kill you. Why do you think I’ve left you alone all these years?”
“Connected?” Alex sneered. “By the scars on my back, you mean?”
“But they are just scars, my friend. You lived to tell the tale, did you not?”
If that was Salamander’s idea of mercy, fuck him. Alex took a step forward and reached the door of Masook’s office. Masook held a gun pointed at him.
“Put it down if you want to live,” Alex told Masook.
Shakily Masook laid the pistol on the table. Alex hadn’t thought the man was that smart.
The little girl watched him with wide, terrified eyes that reminded Alex of her mother. “It’s okay, Taylor. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Masook’s mouth dropped open. “Jane. You’re working with Jane.”
“Who’s Jane?” Taylor asked.
Masook looked suddenly stricken.
Alex kept an eye on both Masook and Salamander. He didn’t trust either of them. The nanny hadn’t said a word, but she looked suitably frightened. Had he been mistaken about her?
“I’m with a joint FBI/CIA/Interpol task force. But you’re right. Taylor’s mother is the reason I’m here.”
“My mommy is dead,” Taylor said sadly.
“Did you sleep with the whore?” Masook spat.
Whoa. Lots of unresolved anger there.
Taylor’s lip turned down, and she hugged herself tightly.
Alex was about to shake his head when Salamander sneered. “And you have the world believing you’re madly in love with your pretty FBI agent.”
Alex’s world slowed and contracted down to a bullet point.
“What would you know about my pretty FBI agent?” he asked quietly.
Alex watched as Salamander eased down almost in slow motion and reached for the weapon the security guard had dropped on the floor. Alex let him do it, let him touch the cold, dull steel, let him wrap the palm of his hand around the grip.
Maybe the nanny realized Alex would shoot through her if necessary. Or she read the truth in his eyes. She dropped to her knees, and Alex squeezed the trigger in quick succession, sending two bullets through the bastard’s skull. Salamander was dead before he hit the floor.
The sound of another gun going off took him by surprise. The heat of a bullet scored the flesh of his upper arm, hit the laptop on his back.
Damn. Masook must have carried some ammunition on his person.
And there was little Taylor staring up at him, and Alex was left with exactly the same conundrum that had got him into that Moroccan jail the first time—being unable to kill a man in front of his child.
Masook’s finger began squeezing the trigger again, aiming at Alex’s head this time. Alex leapt out of the way before the bullet slammed into the wall opposite.
Shit.
Taylor screamed again. Josette stood uncertainly in the corridor. Why the hell didn’t she run?
“Get in front of me.” He gestured to Josette.
“Are you going to use me as a shield, too?” she asked with an ugly twist to her lips.
“I just want you where I can see you, lady.”
Masook came to the doorway, holding Taylor in front of him. Alex should shoot him just for that.
“Touch that trigger again, and I will put a bullet between your eyes, Masook,” he warned the man.
Masook went white and kept his finger off the trigger which made Alex wonder if he was out of ammo. He was definitely a lousy shot.
Alex had screwed up this op. First his gun jamming, then leaving Masook with a useable weapon.
“It doesn’t matter.” The nanny wet her lips. “We’re all dead already.”
“What?” Alex frowned.
The nanny nodded slowly to his computer bag, and Alex inched the strap around. Sure enough there was a hole where Masook’s bullet had hit the plastic case and a slight dusting of white powder across the black material of the bag.
“What is it?” Alex demanded urgently.
Masook’s eyes went wide, and he swayed slightly, resting his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. “Quickly. Get the vaccine out. There is enough for the three of you.”
“Why not you?” Alex pulled the bag over his head and placed it on the floor.
“I insisted on getting vaccinated before I’d handle the transaction.”
“Anthrax?”
Masook nodded. “But a virulent and fast-acting strain. You have only minutes to live. Inject the vaccine quickly into your bloodstream and you might survive.” Masook looked down at his daughter. “Stay with this man, Taylor. I will come for you one day.” With that Masook turned around and ran.
Alex swore. No matter what, Masook wouldn’t get far.
Taylor went to chase after her father, but Alex snagged her arm.
“Let me give you the injection first, poppet, so you don’t get sick. Then we’ll go find your daddy.” The fucking asshole.
He opened the cracked case.
Time stilled, and a million disjointed thoughts rushed through his head before everything inside him shattered. He stared at the row of glass bottles snug in their foam inserts. The bullet had destroyed a vial of the toxin, but it had also destroyed the vial containing the liquid vaccine. His gaze met the nanny’s and then he stared at the child who was looking at him with trusting, big, blue eyes even though she’d seen him kill three men in the space of a few minutes.
There wasn’t any vaccine left.
He wanted to tell Taylor everything was going to be okay, but he couldn’t force the lie past his lips.
If what Masook said was true, chances were Alex wouldn’t get to marry Mallory this coming Saturday. Chances were he wouldn’t get the opportunity to be a father, or even meet his child.
Alex was a dead man.