Ramon swallowed. All of it was a play. A pretty elaborate scheme to get Holmberg to believe they were going to kill him—that he’d die either way. By Bear’s hand, or in a fiery plane crash courtesy ofDominatus.
And it had worked. He’d given up the information.
Holmberg started to chuckle under his breath, and it bubbled up into laughter that spilled out of his mouth.
Ramon’s ears popped. The plane dropped out of the clouds, and he spotted a mountain range topped with plenty of snow. On the wing, the moisture from the clouds started to harden into ice but didn’t stick around and wound up running off in streams.
It took less than fifteen minutes to descend, and then the flaps lifted on the wings. He heard the landing gear deploy and tried to guess their location from the terrain. Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, so past the Midwest. Maybe Montana, or Wyoming more likely, given how long they had been going south.
The plane bumped onto an asphalt airstrip with only a handful of buildings in the surrounding valley. All around the plane was a wall of mountain peaks, making him feel like they had landed in a bowl that occurred naturally in this part of the country. Wide enough at the base for a facility. Or a military installation.
“Where are we?” Ramon looked at Bear. “What is this place?”
“One of Schnell’s installations. We relieved him of it and dispatched his men right after he was arrested. But before he dropped off the radar.” Bear tipped his head. “You don’t happen to know what the president did with him, do you?”
“Why? You need a pen pal?”
Bear chuckled. “Just curious. I know they’ve got black sites where they hold dangerous enemies of the state. I figure he’s in one of those, and we’ll never see him again.”
“So along you come to scoop up his assets. Just like at the platform.”
“You make that sound like it’s a bad thing.” Bear shrugged.
“You have a cell around here for this guy?” Ramon motioned at Holmberg.
Bear just lifted his brows.
Ramon shook his head and looked out the window. Three military-style Humvees headed across the grass toward the runway.
When they were able to open the door, cool air rushed in from outside.
Definitely high altitude. High in the Rocky Mountains, at a secret base formerly occupied by the military.
He definitely needed his phone back. The rest of the Banbury Investigations team was going to be interested in this.
Bear’s phone rang, and Ramon descended the stairs, listening to the guy behind him say, “Uh-huh,” and “Nuh-uh,” over and over. Then, “Got it.”
When they stepped off the bottom step, facing off with the private security guys who had approached in their vehicles, Ramon finally got a look at the whole place. This was a massive military training facility, no doubt about it. They’d scored huge in getting their hands on it.
But how had they even known it was here?
Bear dragged Holmberg forward and said to one of the men, “Get a secure video connection set up. The president wants to talk to this guy.”
Ramon turned to him. “That’s who was on the phone?”
Bear ignored him.
Ramon dragged his shoulder around, making everyone around them—except their captive—reach for their weapon. Ramon lifted his hands. “We’re cool. But I want an answer to my question.” This was unbelievable. “You guys are taking orders from the president?”
Bear said, “Welcome to MSI.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Salt Lake City, Utah
Kenna paced up and down the center aisle of the RV, doing a poor job of waiting. Reciting random verses from various psalms to herself, working on what she had memorized so that she would always be able to recall it. “I’m driving you crazy.”
“Are you sure?” Maizie didn’t pause typing on the keyboard. “Because it seems to me like you care about this girl.”
