Betrayal (7 page)

Seeing it made the whole thing terrifyingly real. Someone had…
shot
…this thing into her. So the mercenaries could find her.

No. Find her body. Kai hadn’t said as much, but she knew it was the truth. They’d intended her to drown.

She reached out to touch the menacing speck, then withdrew her finger before she made contact. She didn’t want to risk some of its evil rubbing off on her.

Kai’s fingers closed over his palm, hiding the transmitter. He turned away and she heard more rustling, as if he’d placed both dart and transmitter into a baggie.

“Tell me about this microchip. What’s so important that those men want me dead?”

Kai sighed. A moment later, he came to sit beside her on the log. “Your father was working on a top-secret government research project. He encoded his notes onto a microchip and had it implanted in your abdomen during that appendectomy you had two years ago.”

“No.” Susana pushed to her feet. “That’s not possible. My father didn’t know where I was. My mother was very careful to hide us from him. Besides, he died when I was ten.” Then she remembered the letter from the lawyers. “Or maybe not. The letter said he was alive until…” Oh, hell. “…two years ago.”

“What letter? When?” Kai’s voice was sharp. He stood up so quickly, she stepped back in alarm.

“From some lawyers in Russia. It arrived the day I was pushed into the river. They said my father was dead. There was a letter from him enclosed, but I didn’t have a chance to read it. We had another incident at camp and I ran out to help.”

“What—” Kai shook his head. “Never mind.” He pushed his sleeve back, revealing a watch with several dials. “What are the coordinates of your dig?”

“What? Why?”

“I need to call for a helicopter to get you out of here. I want you safely back at headquarters. Your dig is the closest habitation. You do have a working radio, right?”

“Yeah.” She gave him the coordinates and he punched them into his watch. “My father really had his microchip put inside me? Like I’m some kind of human filing cabinet?”

“More like a safe deposit box,” Kai muttered.

Susana snorted in amusement. Then her hand crept to her abdomen, touching her appendectomy scar. For two years she’d been carrying an alien object in her body.

Her stomach turned over. Her knees wobbled and she sank onto the log. “How did he find me? I didn’t even know his name until the letter arrived.” She’d never wanted to know the man her mother only spoke of in frightened whispers. “My mother ran from that tarantula spawn…” She turned her head and spat to the side. “…when I was only a few months old.”

“His name is on your birth certificate. Anyone with strong research skills could find you. And your father was very smart.”

She shuddered, unable to comprehend why her father would even think to use her in such a way.

“Are you cold? Here, let me help you with your shirt.”

The last thing she wanted was for Kai to touch her again and raise that pointless desire, but all her strength had vanished with her anger. She barely found the energy to push her arms through the sleeves as lethargy slammed into her. Fastening the front was beyond her abilities, her fingers too stiff and clumsy to work the buttons.

Kai moved in front of her and pushed her fumbling hands away.

She watched, oddly fascinated by the ease with which his fingers placed the buttons in their holes. He had very nicely shaped fingers, despite the scarred and calloused skin. His fingers were larger than hers, of course. Long. Yet almost graceful.

Beautiful.

Her vision blurred as if she were looking at his hands through a rain-fogged window. Her eyelids drooped and she slid off the log onto the ground, wincing only slightly when the movement jarred her wound. “Got to rest a moment,” she murmured. A second later, she was out cold.

Chapter 6

Saturday, Afternoon

Washington, D.C.

“I
have a team for you.” Dr. Kaufmann announced when he called.

“Finally.” Jamieson refused to let any of his fierce satisfaction show in his voice. Being thought emotionless carried great power.

“Do you have an assignment for them?” Kaufmann asked.

“I want your team to retrieve the microchip from Susana Dias,” he told Kaufmann. “And eliminate anyone who gets in the way, particularly the SSU’s Kai Paterson.”

The silence from the scientist wasn’t what Jamieson had expected. “Is that a problem?” he demanded.

“My men lack finesse,” Kaufmann reminded him. “The chip is too sensitive to risk in such clumsy hands. They’re as likely to destroy it as bring it back safely.”

“I thought the conditioning held up well at the beginning, giving them more subtlety.”

“If you call it subtle to differentiate between shooting a man once in the head and pummeling him to a bloody pulp, then yes, they’re more subtle in the early stages. We’ve never tested them successfully on such a delicate, sensitive mission.”

“You will this time.” Jamieson had to work hard to stop any hint of anger from leaching into his tone. “The man I currently have searching for the chip may no longer be trustworthy.”

Tonelli had been a useful tool to date. His thirst for revenge had made him easy to manipulate. But Tonelli couldn’t be allowed to tell anyone about Jamieson’s interest in the chip. No one knew that his secret black-ops group, Kerberos, was depending on the chip to create mind-controlled superhumans. He’d already decided to send one of his special assassination teams after Tonelli once the man had turned over the chip. But now that Tonelli had missed his last check-in and left his hotel, Jamieson had to wonder what Tonelli was up to.

Jamieson well knew Tonelli’s finicky nature. The man wouldn’t have risked getting dirty and sweaty by going into the jungle after Dias. Which meant he was in hiding. If Tonelli was simply hiding because Kai Paterson had shown up, he wouldn’t have missed his check-in. Which meant he was hiding from Jamieson.

He ran his thumb down the sleek leather border of his desktop blotter. Tonelli’s death would have to wait. Assassination teams didn’t come out of Kaufmann’s lab. That skill set was too specialized yet for the scientist’s program. Unfortunately, Kerberos’s team of assassins was currently on assignment elsewhere.

Soon Kaufmann’s lab would create subjects to specification. Mind controlled soldiers with enhanced strength and endurance. Spies with superior speed and intelligence. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to put this newest group of Kaufmann’s men to work.

“I need your team as backup.”

“Very well,” Kaufmann replied. “Give me the details.”

Saturday, Afternoon

Amazon Jungle

U
nderneath the lean-to he’d quickly constructed out of leafy branches, Kai checked Susana’s pulse. Assured she was just sleeping, he indulged himself and just watched her for a few moments.

She’d been through hell the past twenty-four hours and she looked it. Her hair, which was a shiny, flowing mass in her modeling photos, was now a dull, tangled mess, sticking to her face and shoulders in sweaty clumps. She was filthy. Her skin was covered with scratches and bruises. And she stank of river water, mud and sweat.

Yet she still managed to be incredibly sexy. And it had nothing to do with her clothes or her appearance.

It was the vibrant, utterly female energy she gave off that pulled his eyes toward her. The angry flash of her eyes. Her muttered self-pep talks. And it was her unpredictability that kept him watching her, fascinated to see what she’d do next.

Despite knowing that as an archaeologist she’d worked in some of the roughest, end-of-the-earth places, he’d still expected more silk and fashion from the ex-model, instead of practical, high-tech working clothes.

He bit back a smile. There were hundreds of men who’d be disappointed to learn that the woman once voted one of the top ten sexiest women alive wore a plain black sports bra. And was so modest, she kept her shirt in front of her the entire time he’d worked on her.

Or maybe it was just a sign of how uneasy she was around Kai.

He rubbed the back of his neck, annoyed to discover that he didn’t like the idea. His mission didn’t depend upon her liking him. With the jungle and the mercenaries bringing out the violence in him, it was probably safer if she didn’t fully trust him.

Yet he wanted not just her trust. He wanted her to like him.

Hell.

A bee flew toward Susana’s face and Kai waved it away. He didn’t want her waking up. She needed sleep.

And he needed to get the tracking device the hell away from her, so the other mercenaries couldn’t find her. He grabbed the baggie with the device in it and crawled out of their hiding place. In the distance he heard men shouting. Shit. The second group of mercenaries had found their comrades sooner than he’d expected.

Memorizing landmarks so he could find Susana again, Kai headed toward the river. He wanted the mercenaries to think he and Susana had been flushed out of hiding and were making a break for it.

But Kai didn’t make it more than several hundred feet before he broke into a sweat, the world tilted, and his stomach heaved.

Not now, dammit!

His body ignored him. Kai fell to his knees and vomited into the bushes. From experience, he knew the sickness would be gone in less than five minutes. Until then, he shook and heaved as his body tried to clear itself of the memory of death.

Murderer.

God, how did field operators like Rafe and his brother Niko handle the death that was part of their jobs? Every time Kai killed, he got sick. Yet he could never predict how long it would take for the vomiting to hit.

It was a damn good thing Rafe wasn’t here to watch, because his friend would laugh his ass off. Then tease him about it for the rest of Kai’s life.

His stomach gave one more lurch, then settled down. He could almost hear the damn thing saying, okay, all done now. Carry on.

Right.

And a guy whose body parts started talking to him was one hair shy of a straightjacket.

He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and pushed to his feet.

From the sound of muted conversation and snapping branches, the mercenaries were somewhere to his right, approaching fast. Just great. He was still feeling wobbly from his little episode. Not up to running through the jungle.

Kai put his hand out to steady himself on the branch of a tree. His skin met something warm and furry instead of cold bark.

The screech of an enraged monkey shattered the air.

Uh-oh. He’d somehow grabbed its tail.

The monkey met his eyes and leaped. Kai raised his arm to protect his head and the miniature creature latched onto his forearm, still screaming madly. Its claws dug into Kai’s arm and its black, furry tail whipped Kai in the face.

Before it could escape, Kai grabbed the creature by the scruff of its neck. This was the answer to his dilemma. “Sorry, fella,” he said. Holding the squirming monkey with his left hand, he pulled the baggie containing the tracking device out of his pocket with his right. Then, using his thumb, he forced the monkey’s jaws apart and shook the tiny transmitter out of the baggie and into the monkey’s open mouth.

The monkey glared at him and struggled to turn his head, but Kai held the creature’s jaw shut and waited until it swallowed. Kai then opened its mouth to check that the tracker was indeed gone. Yep.

“Okay, you’re free.” He released the critter up a tree.

It scampered up the closest branch, then turned and hurled monkey curses at him, before disappearing further into the canopy.

The monkey was moving in the direction of the river. Leading their pursuers away from them.

Perfect.

Kai smiled and faded into the trees. He made one stop at a sluggish creek to fill the canteens, set the ultraviolet purifiers to work, then returned to Susana.

Saturday, Afternoon

Santarém, Brazil

“W
hat do you mean, you’ve lost the woman?” Mark Tonelli demanded into the phone. “You said she was secure.” Which was the only reason he’d left Belém and traveled further up the river to Santarém. He was supposed to be taking over control of Susana. Not learning she was gone.

“Yeah, well, see…she escaped. Went out the window and into the water, even though she was tied up.” The lead mercenary didn’t sound so much apologetic, as admiring of Susana’s courage. “Some guy on a boat pulled her out of the river. They both survived the rocket attack.”

“Rocket attack? I told you I need her alive.”

“Yeah, but the other men said it didn’t matter. Dead or alive, it’s all the same.”

Mark barely restrained himself from yelling. But the walls were thin in this cheap hotel and he couldn’t afford to draw attention to himself. “Other men? I thought you said there was one man and he was with Dias.” It had to be Paterson. The bastard.

“Well, yeah. But the guy who rescued her shot up our boat. We were sinking. Then this gunboat comes up, with a dozen men onboard. Mercenaries, but outfitted real well, like soldiers. They fired an RPG at the guy’s boat. After, they pulled us aboard. Said they were hired to bring back the woman’s body. They had a monitor for this tracking device their boss had shot into the woman.” The man paused, and Mark could hear the sound of voices arguing on the other end of the line.

“But…uh…the guy and the woman made it to land. Now, the group that followed them are dead. And the tracking signal is out of range.”

Shit. Mark rubbed between his eyes, but it didn’t lessen the growing headache. The only person with close enough access to Susana to shoot a tracking device into her was his contact at the dig. He should never have partnered with someone holding such a grudge against her, but at the time he’d been desperate for information.

Unless he found Susana, he’d just lost his one chance at getting the name he needed from Jamieson. He winced at another stab of pain behind his eyes. He just wanted his revenge over with. He needed that damn chip.

And these imbeciles had managed to lose her.

“Where are you now?” he asked the mercenary.

“On the gunboat. They’ve got a team searching for the woman.”