Astrid may be a skinny bitch, but those nails of hers can really dig in. I let her pull me over to the corner of the room before she draws blood with her claws.
“Mr. Anselm, I am needed for that video meeting with the Pan-Pacific investors, I must absent myself.”She’s all things hospitable and demure, that one.
“Of course,” he says, “I’m sure you’re already prepared for the meeting.”
“I’ll instruct your security detail to attend to her.” She doesn’t bother to grace me with another look as she sashays out of the room.
Sitting in my chair in the corner, I look at every face in the crowd, trying to memorize them. I’m going to get out of here, and when I do, I’m going to make sure everyone in law enforcement knows who was at Anselm’s little Aryan Nation soiree tonight.
It takes maybe five minutes for my thoughts to skitter back to what he said to me, what my brain refused the register at the time.
Patient 1518.
Young, healthy, an excellent donor option.
Oh, sweet Mother Mary and all the Saints. He’s really going to harvest my organs.
Tucking my shaking hands under my thighs, I blink rapidly. I count to fifty slowly, then backwards to one. I’ve been through worse things than-
No.
Actually, this is the worst thing I can imagine.
It dinnae matter. I’m not going to lose it. Sucking in a deep breath, and then coughing it back out, I try to think. What would I tell my kids, my students right now? Keep sharp. Stay focused. There’s always another way out.
I learned a long time ago not to depend on other people to save me. But right now, I’m hoping with every fiber of my being that Logan MacTavish is coming to rescue me.
Childishly, I cross my fingers and I hope.
Chapter Ten
In which we learn that Logan plans to kill a lot of people and he’s totally cool with it.
Logan…
Anselm’s helicopter pad and marina were busy all afternoon, dropping off expensively dressed guests. Part of me is torn. What if some of the guests are innocents? The other, more savage part argues that if they’re mates with that son of a bitch, they’re just as foul.
This fecking compound is going up in flames.
After I find Arabella.
My Nautica SeaScooter is a J-Class, and it can go deeper than the other underwater engines I’ve tested. Approaching the underwater cavern and breaching it is going to be the riskiest part of this plan for me. Anselm’s got an impressively complicated security grid that sets off with any movement bigger than the average mackerel, so I have to dive deeper. Before the rest of MacTavishes wreak havoc on the island, I must get through the cavern first.
Anselm knows we’re coming. Kidnapping Arabella was an engraved invitation. I intend to have my lass in hand before the rest of the family launches their assault. Knowing more about the man than I want to, I’m sure he’ll be keeping her close.
Even this deep in the water, lights from above slice through the darkness, the compound’s security is on high alert. Funny thing though; the guards will clog the most obvious entry points. No one ever looks at the maintenance tunnels, like the one below the underwater port.
The tunnel plans we’d researched dinnae show all the steel plating that I’m encountering, and cutting through it is slowing me down. By the time I cut through the last piece and pull myself out of the water and onto the machinery deck, I’m behind by ten minutes. Stripping off my wetsuit between two of the huge, humming HVAC systems, I stash it and my scuba gear and pull on the uniform Anselm’s guards wear. The prick loves seeing his men strutting around with guns, so no need to hide most of mine. Thoughtful of him.
Last touch, a pair of glasses that lets Xenia see everything in real time and with a much wider range of vision than I have. She sends her confirmation with a subtle click in my earpiece. The true beauty of these glasses is the disruption signal they sent to Anselm’s facial recognition software. The likelihood of anyone recognizing me without it is slim.
He’ll be on the second floor. The cavernous main room he uses for big meetings is there; an enormous glass box built into the side of the mansion, suspended over the water. The thought of how all that glass breaking will sound puts a grin on my face ye couldn’t take off with a shovel.
Exchanging nods with an armed patrol, I climb the back staircase. Unfortunately, the three guards standing sentry at the front of the hall need to go. Stepping up behind the first man and snapping his neck is easy, they’re too fecking confident on this level, thinking no one will get past the first line of defense.
Fecking eejits.
The other two guards require some finesse. The thud of their bodies hitting the floor after I shoot them both in the head isn’t loud enough to alert anyone, but I waste another ninety seconds dragging the dead guards into an empty room and mopping up the blood. Leaving any trace for the security cameras to find is a rookie mistake.
