“Meaning?”
“Meaning, your teams will work together to locate your girl. Once Bravo has her secure, the two teams will split up. You guys get Kat to safety. Delta takes out Bukhari.” The man shrugged. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”
The room went silent for a beat while Matt and the others contemplated what Ryker was proposing. With perfect execution, a joint op like that could work. Hell, that’s pretty much how ithadgone the last time they’d joined Ghost’s Delta team.
They’d gone with Nate to Turkey when the country’s crooked—and now dead—president had taken Gracie there. The two teams had come together nicely, working together as if they were one unit.
This could work.
“Turner?” Gabe’s voice snapped him back to the present. “You good with this?”
“You’re the team leader.” Matt swallowed. “Decision should be yours.”
Gabe shook his head. “Your woman. Your call.”
He nodded, grateful his team leader was letting him weigh in. “Ghost and his men did right by Nate and Gracie. I trust them to do the same for Kat.”
To Ryker, Gabe said, “Call their commander.”
The agent nodded. “I’ll make it happen.” Standing, the well-connected man walked to the door. “I’ll be in touch with the details. In the meantime, I suggest Bravo gets their shit in order.” With a parting glance, he added, “I have a feeling it won’t take long for Delta to jump on this. You need to be ready.”
Matt shared a serious look with the other man. “Don’t worry. We will be.”
He prayed Kat could hold on long enough for that to happen.
Hang on, sweetheart. We’re coming for you.
* * *
Kat watchedthe plunger carefully as she pulled the clear serum into the syringe. With as undetectable a move as possible, she secured the plastic tip over the blunt end before hiding it in the elastic waistband of her pants.
Too bad I don’t have a needle to go along with this. I’d jab it in Walker’s eye.Which was probably the reason they’d only provided the syringe, and not the needle.
Doing her best to avoid the camera, Kat pulled the edge of the black scrub top Walker had brought her down to conceal the contraband. She knew if she were caught, she’d most likely be killed. Since death was an inevitability for her here already, she figured it would be better to die trying than not.
After Bukhari and Walker had left her alone that first day, Kat had sat down in her ‘lab’ and cried. Not for herself, but for her father.
Those detectives had claimed he was murdered, but she hadn’t had the chance to learn anything more before Walker and his men had ambushed them.
To learn he’d been killed for the sole purpose of getting to her…Kat still didn’t know what to do with that. Accepting that wasn’t something she’d be able to truly understand or get over anytime soon, she’d pushed it away and did what she had to do to survive.
So far, it was working.
Later, when Bukhari had returned to the lab and demanded a timeline, Kat had called upon her best acting skills in order to fool him. First, she’d downplayed her incredible memory, convincing him it wasn’t as fool proof as he’d been led to believe.
The man had gotten angry, but she’d been able to talk him down before he struck her again, assuring him she would remember the necessary research, but it was going to take some time.
When he asked how much time, she’d reminded him she’d had a team of scientists before, and now she was working alone. She’d also used a lot of big, scientific jargon as she began to explain the complicated process needed to create the serum he was after.
The more she talked, the more his eyes had begun to glaze over until finally, he’d waved his hand in the air impatiently and told her to do what needed to be done.
She promised she’d have it created within the next fourteen days. The dose she’d just hidden in her waistband had taken three days to create.
Three days. That’s how long she’d been stuck in here. Pretending.
Each day, after a meager breakfast of black coffee and two slices of bread, Kat was escorted in here. She’d then go about her day, spending most of those first two days taking scrupulous notes.
Some things she’d written down were real, actual data she remembered from the painstaking research she and her team had completed for this project. Knowing she couldn’t simply write her way out of this, Kat had spent the last half of yesterday to actually begin creating that first dose.
