She was babbling again, she realized. Or maybe she was speaking normally and it just felt like babbling because Ethan was so reserved, so remote.
Still standing by the window, silhouetted against the darkness, he inclined his head in a brief nod. Thanks for telling me. And Im sorry you got caught up in what happened back at PPS. I just need I need to take a walk. He glanced from her to the door and back. Dont go anywhere until I get back.
Where am I going to go? she said, but he was already gone, the door swinging shut at his back, leaving her alone in silence broken by the faint hum of fluorescent lights and ventilation, the sense of movement and activity just beyond the door.
Nic sat for a second, not sure how she felt other than sore everywhere, and unbelievably tired.
Well, that was over. She wasnt sure if she was more relieved or disappointed. She felt hollow, drained of just about everything. Her headache had even subsided, leaving her vaguely restless.
She glanced down, making sure she wasnt hooked to any machines before she sat up in the hospital bed. When that earned her only a long, lazy spin of the room and a thump of the headache, she decided to try using the bathroom. If she could make it there and back under her own steam, she was doing okay. Maybe even okay enough to go home.
Suddenly, she couldnt think of anything more appealing than her four-room apartment with the soft Navajo blanket on the bed.
Bathroom first, she said aloud. Suiting action to word, she threw back the blankets and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her feet were numb and her whole body felt disconnected, as though her head was floating along under its own power as she made it across the room, nearly to the bathroom door.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a dark shadow through the window of the hallway door. The shadow paused, then pushed through.
Nic turned, expecting a lecture from Dr. Eballa. I was just She broke off because it wasnt her doctor. It was an unshaven, heavyset man wearing a white lab coat over a T-shirt, jeans and heavy boots.
He grabbed her before she could react, and covered her mouth with his hand.
Panic spurted as Nic screamed against his palm. She struggled, kicking him with her bare feet and scratching at him with her fingernails. He didnt react, just held on as she felt a prick in her upper arm, then a fiery sizzle in her veins that quickly faded to cool numbness.
Aware of her surroundings but unable to stay upright, she slumped to the floor and hit hard. He pushed through the door for a moment, then returned, pulling a gurney behind him. He grabbed her around the waist, heaved her up onto the gurney and covered her most of the way with the blanket from her bed.
Then he wheeled her out of the room.
Chapter Three
Ethan walked the hospital corridors with no real destination in mind. He simply thought better when he was moving. He always had.
Nicoles child might have half his DNA, but he knew as well as anyone that biology didnt make a father. Character made a man a father. Honesty did, and integrity. Wholeness.
And though Ethan considered himself a logical, honest man, he was anything but whole.
Seeing a knot of people in the hallway up ahead, he detoured down the next offshoot corridor. If hed still believed in the religion his mother had tried to instill in him, he mightve thought it no accident that the hallway dead-ended at the hospital chapel. Since hed long ago renounced faith in a higher power, he thought only that it was a quiet, empty space with padded benches.
He sprawled in one, let his head fall back with a thump and closed his eyes.
Just that morning, everything had been normal. True, the TCM investigation was way beyond PPSs usual cases, but that was work, not personal. Over the past five years hed done his best to insulate himself against letting things get personal. If he wasnt involved, he couldnt be hurt.
More importantly, he couldnt hurt anyone else.
Ethan? Evangelines voice said from nearby. Is everything okay?
Though he normally enjoyed her company, his first thought now was oh, hell.
He cracked his lids and watched her sit in the pew across the aisle from him. She was wearing the top half of a set of scrubs, along with her own pants and shoes. Her right arm was bandaged from shoulder to elbow, and a Band-Aid above her left eyebrow was several shades darker than her pale skin. But she looked steady enough as she said, Whats wrong?
Wheres Robert?
Why, because you and he are both Neanderthal enough to think its his job to keep me under control? She sent him her trademark give-me-a-break look. For your information Ive been treated and released. No hospital room, no observation period. Im fit and ready to get back into the fight. She flexed her good arm, showing a decent muscle, but he noticed that she didnt try it with the bandaged arm. And to answer your other question, Robert is on the phone with one of his police contacts, trying to get an update on what the crime scene analysts and the bomb squad think about the office.
Still, you shouldnt be walking around alone, Ethan said.
She sent him a sharp look. I ran PPS by myself for more than two years, during which time, I might add, I hired you. Just because Robert rose from the dead doesnt make me incapable of defending myself.
He shook his head. I didnt say you were, but your name is on the hit list and your office took the brunt of the attack. You have to be careful. We cant afford to lose you.
If Robert had begun to reemerge as the leader of PPS, Evangeline was the glue that held them together. She had drawn Ethan into the organization, giving him the base of support hed so badly needed, along with the freedom to take short-term protection assignments that suited his short-term attention span.
I can take care of myself, Evangeline repeated. Im not going to do anything stupid, though. And dont think I didnt notice you changing the subject. So give. Whyre you sitting in here alone?
I like being alone. But the question brought his mind circling back to Nicole.
She was going to have a baby. His baby.
What the hell was he supposed to do about that? Nothing, he knew. It would be better for everyone involved if he did nothing. His own father had been a sperm donor, his stepfather a savior. Nicole and the baby would be far better off finding a man to complete their family without living the hell his own mother had suffered through to find her Prince Charming.
Besides, a family meant commitment and emotion, neither of which were rational choices for someone like him.
Evangeline waited for him to continue. When he didnt, she said, Its an open-ended offer with no statue of limitations. So if you need a friend to talk to, come find me, okay?
Ethan dipped his chin in a nod. Thanks.
She stood, mostly covering her wince. Robert and I are headed over to the Vault. Her eyes glinted with determination, along with rising anger. PPS will be run from there until this thing is finished.
The Vault? Intrigued despite himself, Ethan climbed to his feet and followed her out of the chapel. I thought that was an in-house urban legend. Rumor had it that PPS maintained a secret underground location, and had spy ware in place to duplicate every piece of information that came and went from the PPS offices, sending it to the Vault.
Evangeline waited for him to continue. When he didnt, she said, Its an open-ended offer with no statue of limitations. So if you need a friend to talk to, come find me, okay?
Ethan dipped his chin in a nod. Thanks.
She stood, mostly covering her wince. Robert and I are headed over to the Vault. Her eyes glinted with determination, along with rising anger. PPS will be run from there until this thing is finished.
The Vault? Intrigued despite himself, Ethan climbed to his feet and followed her out of the chapel. I thought that was an in-house urban legend. Rumor had it that PPS maintained a secret underground location, and had spy ware in place to duplicate every piece of information that came and went from the PPS offices, sending it to the Vault.
Its real, Evangeline said with a small smile. Its located in an old Cold War bunker outside the city. With the main office destroyed, were going to move operations there. A couple of the guys are organizing the support staff, figuring out who we absolutely cant do without, and getting them set up underground. Her lips thinned. Its coming down to the wire, Ethan. Either we take out whoever is behind that list or they take us out.
She pushed through the door leading to the hallway, with Ethan right behind her. Just then, heavy footsteps rang out around the corner, the sound of a big man, moving fast.
Ethan stepped in front of Evangeline, tensing for battle, then relaxing when Robert appeared.
The other mans expression was tight. Is Miss Benedict with you two?
Shes in her room, Ethan said. Second floor, 201A.
Robert shook his head. Her beds empty. And it wasnt a bomb that took out the office. It was a surface-to-air missile, only it wasnt fired from ground levelit was an aerial attack from a dark helicopter with no markings. None of the witnesses were close enough to catch any details. With the way the windows are set up, Miss Benedict is the only person who mightve seen the chopper.
Blood roared through Ethans veins, and he turned and sprinted up the hallway with Robert and Evangeline at his heels, spurred by the knowledge that the TCM conspirators didnt leave witnesses alive.
NICOLE FLICKERED in and out of awareness, sometimes able to process her surroundings, sometimes not.
At first she saw hospital corridors rolling past as her captor wheeled her along. Then she was in an elevator. Another hallway. Then a plain room with gray-green walls and a palpable chill in the air.
The next time she surfaced, she was still in the gray-green room, still strapped to the gurney, but the man in the white lab coat was gone and the room was seriously cold. She shivered, realizing that the room wasnt just somebody-turned-up-the-AC-too-high cold, it was all-the-way-to-igloo freezing.
Like a meat locker, she thought, panic kindling as she twisted her head, trying to get a good look around. She didnt see any dead bodiesshe wasnt in the morgue, thank Godbut she didnt see much else. The insulated walls of the bare room were painted gray-green, and the shiny white door bore a freezer handle and a small, fogged window. A refrigerator unit bolted to the ceiling above her hummed, blowing cold air.
Hello? she said, her words emerging on a puff of vapor as her breath met the chilly air. She raised her voice. Can anyone hear me?
The echoes bounced off the walls and door, faint beneath the refrigerators hum.
Breath clogging in her lungs, she tugged frantically at the straps securing her to the gurney, but succeeded only in pressing her body into the thin mattress beneath her. She felt very small and weak and scared. Worse, she realized shed stopped shivering, and when she exhaled, the vapor was faint, warning that her core temperature was falling. She was probably only minutes away from hypothermia, maybe an hour away from death.
She sucked in a breath and screamed, Im in here! Somebody! Anybody, get me out of here!
Her only response was the hum of the cooling unit.
ETHAN STOOD at the main admittance desk, cold anger pounding in his veins. Shes not in the hospital. The bastards took her.
Robert clasped his shoulder briefly. Well find her.
But they both knew that by then it could be too late.
Around them, the admitting area bustled with normal hospital activity, plus the tension of an organized search. All free personnel were on the lookout, and security officers had spread throughout the complex. If shed been transported somewhere else, though, the effort was useless.
Call the cops, Ethan said, possibilities flickering through his mind in a gruesome slide show. Youve got friends there. Theyll look if you push them.
Already done, Robert said. Given that shes the only witness who might have seen
Mr. Moore, Mr. Prescott! A womans hail interrupted and Ethan turned to see Dr. Eballa rushing toward them, followed closely by a tall teenager wearing blue scrubs and a volunteers badge. I may have something. When she reached the men, she urged the teen forward. Tell them.
The dark-haired youth looked at a nearby uniformed security officer, flushed and stared at his feet. There was a guy in the back stairwell.
When he fell silent, Ethan was tempted to grab him and shake the story loose. Instead, he stepped closer and lowered his voice. When he caught the faint scent of pot, he said, Look, kid. Nobody cares what you were doing or where. Just tell me what you saw.
The teen glanced from Ethan to the guard and back, then mumbled, Promise?
You wont get in trouble for smoking in the stairwell, Ethan said. At least not this time. After that, youre on your own.
Kay. The kid nodded. So listen, I was in the back stairwell, okay? And this guy came up from the basement wearing a white coat, okay? Only he wasnt a doctorhis clothes were all wrong and he didnt have a badge. Besides, why would a doctor be coming up from the basement? Aint nothing down there but empty rooms. And he was using a phone, and thats not allowed in here, right?
Robert interjected, What did he say?
Something like, Make up your goddamn mind already. I didnt hear the rest because I took off before he saw me.
Are you sure he didnt see you?
The kid bobbed his head. Positive.
Ethan turned to Dr. Eballa. Where are these stairs?
Ill take you. As they hurried through the hospital corridors, she said, Hes right, theres not much down there. Mostly empty storage rooms we use as overflow during disasters.
Something chilled inside Ethan. If the white-coated guy in the stairwell had taken Nicole, he might have hidden her down there.
Or he might have dumped her corpse.
He swallowed hard. What sort of overflow?
Dr. Eballa pushed through a doorway marked Stairs, then glanced back. Bodies. Two of the rooms are set up as temporary morgues. We only run the refrigerators when we need the space, though.
They reached the bottom of the stairs and pushed through a set of heavy doors. The corridor was dimly lit. The cement walls were painted a muted green and the floor was white laminate, like much of the rest of the building. But down in the basement, the color scheme didnt seem soothing. It felt swampy. Ominous.
Tension vibrating through every fiber of his being, Ethan shouted, Nicole? Are you down here?