Chapter Fourteen
Summer barely slept, disturbing dreams making her restless and fitful. At six o’clock, she finally gave up the effort, got up, and took a shower. A thick terry-cloth robe hung on a hook in the bathroom, so she wrapped herself in it, trying to infuse some warmth into her body. She’d been cold ever since she arrived at this expensive prison, a chill caused more by anxiety than anything else.
The file on her computer was extensive. She’d give Olberman credit for being thorough. The patient he wanted her to heal was a young boy, nine years old, the son of the ruler of a well-known island in the South Pacific. He was born with a defective valve in his heart. Apparently, surgery had been performed when he was an infant, and the doctors thought they’d repaired it. But when the boy turned eight, he began to have problems again. His father took him to many specialists, and a month ago surgery had again been performed. The problem was the boy wasn’t healing.
The father had flown the boy home and retained around-the-clock nurses to attend to him. He continued to use his extensive resources to bring in doctors that he hoped would make his son well, but the child continued to fail day by day. The man said he would pay any sum of money if someone could help his son.
Apparently Olberman had already contacted him to make preliminary arrangements to fly Summer to the island as soon as she was available.
Available!
Summer snorted. She wouldn’t exactly call what she was “available.”
The file contained copies of the boy’s extensive medical records, along with notes made by various doctors. She kept the reality of her situation at bay by studying all of them and focusing only on the patient. But for all the sleep she got, she could have stayed up all night.
In the pantry closet she found a Keurig coffee machine with a variety of K-Cups. Selecting a flavored one, she brewed a single cup, took it into the other room with her, and booted up the computer. She had noticed a number of medical books on the shelves and, with the file open, took down the most promising ones and began to research the boy’s medical condition.
She was engrossed in the reading when a knock sounded on her door and she froze. Reid again? Now what?
“Miss Cahill?” A woman’s voice. “This is Vivian. Mr. Olberman’s assistant. May I speak with you for a moment?”
Lord. She wasn’t even dressed yet.
“Can you come back later?”
“I need to speak with you now. I’m going to open the door.”
Right. Because everyone had a key to the door except her.
“Fine.” As if she had a choice.
The door opened, and the woman she’d barely glimpsed yesterday walked in. She was taller and was dressed in a business pantsuit. Her blonde hair was ruthlessly pulled back in a French twist, and she wore only the bare minimum of makeup. Summer grudgingly admitted the woman was very attractive. She supposed Olberman wouldn’t want to waste his money looking at an ugly woman.
She studied the woman’s face, hoping to see a little compassion for her situation, but the woman’s hazel eyes were glacial, her features set in an expressionless mask.
What is it with the people here? Are their faces frozen?
“Your breakfast tray will be up shortly,” Vivian announced. “Since this is your first morning here, we had no idea of your preferences. We’ve given you a rather large selection.”
“My breakfast tray? I was under the impression I was having a command performance with Mr. Olberman at breakfast.”
Vivian gave her a condescending look. “He’s had something come up, and I assume you don’t plan to starve yourself to death. There is a program loaded onto your laptop that will allow you to select each day’s menu in advance. It’s hooked to the internal server. You will use it for all your meals, beginning with lunch today.”
“A program?” Summer felt like an idiot parroting the woman’s words back to her, but she was trying to take it all in.
“Mr. Olberman expects you to join him each evening for dinner.” She took in every inch of Summer’s body with an assessing gaze. “Properly attired, of course.”
“Of course.” She spat the words out. “We wouldn’t want to upset Mr. Olberman.”
Vivian gave her another of those assessing looks, as if studying a bug under a microscope. “I’d learn to be a bit more accommodating if I were you. I’m sure Mr. Olberman has explained that any negative actions on your part will have consequences.”
Consequences. So. Apparently Vivian was as cold and ruthless as her employer. If Summer had hoped to find help with her, she realized that was an unrealistic expectation.
“Is there anything else?” She wanted this woman gone as soon as possible. She needed to get back to reading the medical books as well as trying to figure a way out of this impossible situation.
Where are you, Troy?
“Yes. Mr. Olberman would like you to inventory everything he’s provided for you and let me know if there’s something you need that isn’t there.” She pointed to a telephone on the credenza. “Just dial my extension, and I’ll take care of it for you.”
“What if I want to get it myself? Go to a store?”
The look Vivian gave her was just short of pitying. “Now, you know that’s not an option, right?”
Summer stared at the woman, trying to find a clue to her personality. “Are you aware of what your boss intends to do with me?”
Vivian’s expression bordered on a sneer. “I know everything that goes on with Mr. Olberman.”
“And you condone it? His kidnapping me? Threatening me and my family? Using me like this?”
The woman just stared back at her, not saying a word.
Summer blew out a breath. “Is there anything else?”
She needed to get back to reading the medical books, preparing herself just in case Olberman managed to get her to the sick child before Troy found her.
“Not at the moment. But I hope you don’t plan to sit around in that robe all day. Mr. Olberman disapproves of that.”
Vivian closed the door, and Summer heard the lock engage. She dropped into one of the armchairs, consumed by a feeling of hopelessness.
No. I won’t let myself feel this way. I won’t let Olberman defeat me.
He could temporarily have charge of her body, but not her mind or spirit.
Okay, then. Get up. Get dressed. Read. And mostly . . . think.
Because it had been fully dark when Ed Romeo arrived with the helicopter the night before, the decision was made to grab a few hours of sleep and head out at first light. But sleep had been elusive for Troy. Every time he closed his eyes, Summer’s face swam before him, her soft lips so ready for his kiss, her eyes sparkling with merriment. His hands itched to touch her body, his cock ached to thrust inside her.
Finally, at three o’clock, he headed down to the kitchen to make coffee—as if he needed any more—and found all the men except Ed working on their laptops. On the counter sat a rectangular metal box. So ordinary looking for its sophisticated insides. All security systems worked on some kind of radio frequency. It was the only way to get point-to-point signal. The trick was to find something even better that could disrupt that signal.
Dan saw him looking at it. “We brought it back from the airfield with us. I don’t like leaving that baby anyplace except where I can see it.”
“Didn’t you guys ever go to bed?”
Rick glanced up. “I don’t think we’ll get much sleep until we’ve got Summer back. We’ve been exchanging information all night with Andy. Whoever this sonofabitch is, he’s buried himself so deep he could be at the center of the earth.”
“Anything?” Troy asked.
“Working on it. Getting close, I think.”
Troy took in the litter of paper on the table, the tablets sitting next to the laptops, the cell phones, the coffee cups. No matter how long he lived, he’d never be able to thank these men and their wives for this. The five of them had a bond that went far beyond friendship, and he’d never take it for granted. They were all here for him. He knew Kelly, Rick’s wife, would be here, too, except she ran a high-end training program for guard dogs and raised Caucasian Ovcharkas. She was in the middle of something she just couldn’t walk away from.
“We tried to get the women to go home,” Mark told him without looking up, “but they weren’t having any of it. Faith and Mia are in one of the guest rooms.”
“Kat’s napping on the couch in the den,” Dan said. “She got a little more information.” He pointed to a sheet of sketching paper next to him. “More details about the house. Take a look.”
Troy had just picked it up when Dan’s cell phone rang.
“Yeah? What? Okay, hold on. Hold on a minute.” He punched the button for the speaker. “Go ahead, Andy. Everyone’s here.”
“I just sent everything to your tablets.” Andy’s voice was edged with both fatigue and excitement. “This was a damn fucking puzzle within a puzzle, but I finally managed to peel back all the layers.”
“You’ve identified the person behind this?” Troy almost couldn’t breathe.
“Finally. Check your tablets, everyone. I just sent you the file on Kurt Olberman.”
“That’s Mia’s O,” Dan commented, his normally even voice holding a hint of excitement. “Andy, walk us through the info on this guy.”
“He’s about the nastiest dude on the planet.” Excitement was overriding his fatigue. “At fifteen, he was living on the streets. At seventeen, the rumor mill credits eight kills to him, and he’d put together a gang of thugs. Oh, wait, do people say thugs anymore?”
“Keep going,” Dan said.
“You can see for yourselves in the timeline I sent that he progressed from street crimes to something more sophisticated. A man named Harold Deville apparently plucked him from the streets at age twenty. Deville was in the process of building an empire based on drugs and illegal weapons. I guess in Olberman he saw someone who could keep people in line.”
“I guess that didn’t work out so well for Harold,” Rick broke in. “I see here that after five years, Harold’s deader than a doornail and Olberman’s running the organization.”
“That’s right,” Andy agreed. “From there, you can see how he moved on, buying and selling people, companies, countries, whatever. He’s got a law firm that he pays millions just to keep him buried beneath layers of corporate shells. His best friends are drug cartels, international arms dealers, and countries with rich mineral deposits that give him the opportunity to take control. You know, all that shit. We see it all the time, only this guy does it bigger and better than anyone else. He’s worth billions. Mega billions.”
“You’ve got his home location?”
“No pictures yet, but yes, he’s in Colorado. About a fifteen-minute helicopter ride from Grand Junction. Word is the place is more than a hundred acres and protected like a fortress.”
“What about his security?” Mark wanted to know.
“That took a lot of digging and finagling. I’m telling you, this guy invented the word secret.”
“And we appreciate your efforts, as always,” Dan said. “So what’s the deal?”
“I’m sending you all the specs on his security system. It’s easier than trying to talk you through it. But it’s way past anything we’ve met up with before.”
“And human protection?” Troy asked.
“My source on that tells me he’s hired all former Special Forces guys. I hate thinking that men who were out there protecting our country are now working for a piece of shit like him.”
“Unfortunately,” Mark put in, “not everyone in the military has the highest set of morals. I wish it was different, but that’s the sad fact of it. So he’s got guys who are trained in just about everything, right?”
“You got it. Look over everything else I sent, and if you’ve got questions I’ll be here.” He cleared his throat. “I’m not going home until Miss Cahill is back. Safe.”
Troy’s throat closed up. This was the kind of loyalty you couldn’t buy with money. And maybe that was their secret weapon. Men like those who worked for Olberman could be bought and sold, but not Phoenix. Not even their extended staff.
Andy’s voice came through the speaker again. “Sending his picture right now. Andy out.”
Troy looked at the photo as it unrolled on Dan’s tablet screen. It wasn’t so much that the man was ugly as that he had an oily look to him. Dark hair shot with gray framed a face that wore what Troy could only call a smirk. A look that said, “World, go fuck yourself.” The eyes that looked out through rimless glasses seemed to carry the same message.
“Living, breathing evil,” Mark said.
“Okay, everyone.” Dan’s voice cut into the air. “Let’s get our shit together here. Andy included more specific coordinates, so I’m giving the information to Kat to see what she can come up with. We need to study the specs on the crazy-ass security system and figure out which of our toys will work most effectively against it.”
Mark was already scrolling through his tablet again.
“When we get that together, I’ll wake Ed. We need to do a high-altitude flyover to get visuals on the place before firming things up.”
“And we have to figure out where the fuck he’s keeping Summer,” Troy spat out. He rubbed his hands over his face. “God, God, God. How the hell can we find her?”
“Troy.” Dan rose from his chair to face him. “We’ll do it. We always do. It’s what we do. Go take a shower and get your shit together. You can fall apart after this is over. Right now, we need you to be at the top of your game. Summer needs that. So go. Shower and change. We’ve got this.”
Troy was torn between hovering and knowing what Dan said made sense. “And you’ll give the new info to Kat?”
“We may have something by the time you get back down here.”
The shower actually did him more good than he expected. It rinsed away the fatigue and got his blood flowing again, especially after he turned it to ice cold for two minutes. He didn’t bother to shave. Later, when he had Summer back with him, he’d make himself presentable. For her.
Pulling on jeans and a T-shirt, he headed toward the stairs, bumping into Faith and Mia just coming out of one of the guest rooms. Faith had apparently raided Summer’s dresser drawers for sleep shirts for them.
“Troy?” Faith touched his arm. “It’s going to be okay. I promise you.”
“I know. I just . . . I know.” He hurried down the stairs.
Dan was leaning against the counter, studying a sketch when he walked into the kitchen. Kat sat at the table, a glass of orange juice in her hands, fatigue lining her face. But she managed a smile for him.
“I got you a really good image, Troy. The guys said it’s as good as a photo.”
He looked over Dan’s shoulder and had to agree. He knew Kat would have gone through a series of sketches, some of them more symbols than anything else, to finally get to this one. But what they had now was a drawing of a massive house rising in a forest, the hint of landscaping around it sketched in, and the suggestion of a wall that surrounded the perimeter.
Holy shit!
He could barely wrap his mind around what it had cost for a place like this. The Phoenix partners had seen their share of opulence and wealth, but this setup trumped everything else. This would take careful planning, and they had a limited amount of time to accomplish that.
“There’s more,” she added. “I also saw a balcony and armed men. Four. Summer’s on the second floor of the house. The rooms she’s in have that balcony, but I saw armed men on the ground below her. Two, but there may be more.” She let out a deep sigh. “I’d hoped to get you a better visual like I did with the scene in Mexico, but that’s as much as I could pull into my brain.”
Troy hugged her to his side. “Thanks, Kat.” He cleared his throat, rough with emotion. “You don’t know how much I appreciate this. And this is a lot more than we had.”
“We’re all family, right?” she reminded him.
“Yes. And the best family a person could have.” He looked at Dan. “So what’s next?”
“Now we get moving.”
Ed had joined them by then, nodding to Troy as he helped himself to coffee. “Good day for flying. And for rescuing a beautiful lady.”
“Amen to that.”
In minutes, they were loaded into Dan’s SUV, each man with his own handgun plus extra ammo clips. Everything else they would need was already on the helicopter, locked inside it. No one said a word on the drive. There was nothing left to say. They’d do a recon flyover, land someplace to finalize plans, and kick it into gear.
Every muscle in Troy’s body was tense. If this didn’t work . . .
Don’t even go there.
He had to believe in just a few hours Summer would be back in his arms. Then he’d keep her there. Forever.
Olberman sat behind his desk, his chair turned so he could enjoy his favorite view of the sweeping lawn and thick forest. He got the same thrill from the evidence of his wealth that others derived from sex. He’d had plenty of women in his life, but none of them satisfied him the way this evidence of his achievement did.
And soon his wealth would grow larger, his influence stronger. Before long, he would be the most powerful man in the world, more so than presidents, kings, and sheikhs. Because he had the ultimate prize—someone who could cure the incurable. He salivated at the thought of the money that would roll in and the influence he would acquire. There would hardly be anyone in a position of power who would not be indebted to him.
It annoyed him that Summer Cahill didn’t realize how to make her gift pay off. Or accept the fact that he’d successfully acquired her, and she was now his for as long as he chose. He’d read enough to know that while the rare occasion might occur when her healing gift wouldn’t work, 99 percent of the time it did as long as she poured her energy into it. Threatening him with anything less than that was not acceptable.
He looked forward to dinner that evening, seeing her at the table with him. He even anticipated sparring with her verbally, as long as she still remembered her place.
Vivian had given him her assessment of the woman, and it jibed with his. Tomorrow, when she’d had twenty-four hours to settle in and he’d taken a fuller measure of her, he’d place the call to that island kingdom in the Pacific and move forward with his grand plan.
They flew in from the east, on the chance that anyone might spot them. Whoever it was would have to look directly into the rising sun, and that would distort the image long enough for them to be gone. Everyone inside was strapped in, the cabin doors open on both sides, long-range cameras pointed in each direction. Ed flew the helo, Mark and Troy operated the cameras, and the others crouched behind them with assault rifles at the ready.
The guns were a precaution. They hoped they wouldn’t have to use them. Any kind of gun battle would send a signal to Olberman, who might decide he was better off to kill Summer and dispose of her body. Then he could just claim a bunch of crazy men tried to shoot up his estate for no reason.
Ed had checked with the locals and knew that the weather helicopter flew over the estate sometimes, also the ones with spotters during forest-fire season. So a whirlybird in the air wouldn’t be such an anomaly as to call specific attention to it. Nevertheless, those birds took care of business as quickly as possible and got the hell out of there.
He also apparently knew everyone in the United States who flew anything that could get on the ground. One of his contacts had helped make arrangements for them to set the bird down at a very small, private airfield. That’s where they’d analyze the information and finalize their plan.
Through the magnification viewfinder on the camera he was holding, Troy took in every detail of the landscape below him. The house looked almost exactly as Kat had drawn it, an edifice to Olberman’s ego. It sat amid meticulously landscaped grounds, surrounded on all sides by forest. Even the driveway leading up to it cut through pristine forested land, not emerging until it was almost at the house.
He saw the perimeter wall Kat had sketched, but Mark would get that as well as identify any places they could rappel in and ghost their way to the house. They had a great little gizmo that read heat signatures, pinpointing the location of live bodies. But they needed to be on the ground to do that. It wouldn’t work this high up and so far away.
Ed made one careful pass, then zoomed away. Part of the plan depended on not hanging around in the air long enough to arouse anyone’s curiosity. Ten minutes later they were on the ground at the well-designed little airfield. The runway was long enough for an executive jet, which was either in the air or in the hangar, sitting off to the side.
As soon as Ed shut down the rotors, a side door in the hangar opened, and a short compact man in jeans and an old flight jacket headed out toward them. Ed exited the bird, jumping down to the ground, and held out his hand to the man.
“Ed Romeo,” he introduced himself. “You must be Charlie Wakefield, Hy’s brother.”
The man nodded. “Hy told me not to ask questions, and as far as anyone else is concerned, you’ve never been here.”
“You got it. Thanks a lot for letting us use the facility.”
Charlie grinned. “Are you kidding? Just wondering what’s going on makes my day. Come on into the hangar. I’ve got a big table you can use, and I put on a fresh pot of coffee.”
“Thanks,” Ed told him. “A lot.”
“I might need you one of these days. Listen, Hy just gave me a sketch of where you’ll be flying. There’s not much traffic in that airspace, but just to give you some camouflage, a few of my buddies are doing some flight time in their choppers for the next couple of hours. You can get lost in them.”
“I owe you big. You can collect any time.”
“I’m gonna take a short run to my house for a while. Let me give you my cell number. You can call me when you get ready to leave, so I can come back and lock up.”
“That’s a pretty tight fraternity you belong to,” Dan said as they all walked toward the hangar.
Ed nodded. “We all run into dicey situations now and then. We’ve learned to rely on each other.”
“Please thank him for us.” Dan opened the door to the hangar. “Okay, everyone. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.”
They spent the better part of an hour going over every detail and reviewing the video from the cameras.
“Whatever electronic security they’ve got, we can put it out of commission,” Mike said. “You know that to get from point to point, base to site, all systems have to work on radio waves. Something as high-end as this system is bound to be is usually impervious to interference. But . . .”
“Yeah, but,” Rick grinned. “I’m real glad we did that favor for that engineer. He says the baby we’ve got now will jam every possible signal set to transmit to the base inside the house.”
Troy reran the video to a spot he wanted, then slowed it down to frame by frame.
“Here’s the best spot for us to make our landing. For one thing, there’s a small, natural clearing here, so Ed can get down low enough for us to exit the bird. For another, it’s far enough away from the house that we won’t be seen. And Ed’s friend promised us enough cover with some choppers doing some recreational hours, so we won’t stick out like a sore thumb.”
“Just to refresh everyone’s memory,” Dan picked up, “the moment Ed gets us low enough, we’ll turn on the jammer. Once we’re on the ground, I’ll carry it in my pack and keep it on.”
“Mike and I will carry the readers for heat signatures,” Rick added, “and be able to pinpoint where the bodies are. Everyone knows what to do after that.” He turned to Troy. “We’re going to locate exactly where Summer is. When we do, we put the rest of the plan into action and go in and get her. You’ll hold it together, right?”
As best I can.
“No worries. I know what to do.”
“Okay, then.” Mike turned to Ed. “Call your friend and tell him thanks for the hospitality. Everyone else, let’s get our firepower and the C-4 and test our mics. Come on, guys. Let’s roll.”
Olberman disconnected his call and took out one of his ever-present cigars, clipped the end, and rolled it in his fingers. The conversation with the island’s ruler had gone extremely well. The man had not quibbled about the price.
“Twelve million is little enough to pay for someone who can save my son’s life,” he told Olberman.
“I’ll call you back to arrange a definite arrival time. I’ll check flying time with my pilot, but it will be sometime tomorrow.”
“Excellent. I’ll eagerly await your call.”
Now Olberman swiveled to look through the window at his favorite vista. As he did so, something in the sky caught his eye. A tiny black dot, moving swiftly from east to west. Picking up the handheld he used to communicate with his security personnel, he punched a button. He wished Reid was here to oversee things for the moment, but he’d had another major assignment for him. Still, Greg Deluca was almost as good.
“Yes, Mr. Olberman?” Deluca answered.
“What’s that speck I caught sight of in the sky? Anything I should worry about?”
“No, sir. I spotted it, too, and called the local tower. There’s some kind of club for chopper pilots out of Grand Junction. They requested permission to get some practice hours in today, and the air controller gave it to them. That was probably one of them flying into the field where they gather.”
“I don’t like it,” Olberman growled.
“Not much we can do about it, boss. They won’t classify us as restricted airspace without a damn good reason.”
“I need to put some pressure on some of those senators whose campaigns I fund.” He sighed. “All right. Just keep an eye out for things and let me know when they’re done cluttering up my sky.”
Setting the little communicator on his desk, he pressed the intercom button to summon Vivian.
She knocked briefly and entered. “You need me for something?”
“Just checking on how our house guest is doing.”
Vivian’s lips twisted in a gesture of distaste. “The kitchen said she ate part of her breakfast. She’s a snippy little thing, isn’t she?”
Olberman smiled. “I like people with spirit.” The smile disappeared. “As long as she’s compliant and goes along with the program.”
“I’ll do my best to help make that happen,” Vivian assured him. “But you know with human nature, there are no guarantees.”
“Why don’t you have the men watching her parents and her brother and his family send along some photos to me? Maybe that will convince her I’m serious.”
“I’ll call them at once.”
When she had left to return to her desk, Olberman inhaled the aroma of the cigar and closed his eyes. The little bitch had damn well better do what he told her. He didn’t take kindly to failure.