“Vadim’s the one who gave you your life, so you’d better watch your mouth,” Sergei replied. “If she isn’t better when he arrives tomorrow, he may just decide to kill you after all.”
“So you better enjoy your honeymoon tonight,” Ivan said, with a laugh. “Hey, she would be lying in bed anyway. If I were Vadim, I’d have her on her back instead of working in a lab on a fucking ship.”
Nadia felt the slight tension in Walker’s arm against which she was resting. She was impressed with how good he was at getting information. Now they know there was a ship somewhere with a lab in it.
She felt the car slowing down. The road was bumpy and jostled them about. Letting out a soft moan, she opened her eyes. Straightening up was a bit more difficult. Her head was swimming, like car-sickness. She put her hand against her chest.
“Shit, not again! Hold it in!” The stupid Russian beside yelled at her. “We’re here and you can vomit all night when we get out of the car.”
Nadine peered out of the window. Ahead looked like a huge farm house of some sort. It looked scenic outside, with miles of country and nothing in sight. Sergei turned around from the front seat.
“It looks nice, but in case you’re thinking of escaping, the place is heavily guarded. The housekeeper and everybody here are under our employ. Vadim will be here later tonight but said you can rest until morning before showing him what you have. He’s especially interested in your work in the suit for injured soldiers. Dr. Kantor will be present to confirm what you’re showing.” His gaze hardened. “You better work on feeling better. Vadim doesn’t sound happy with how things have been turning out recently.”
Sergei turned back and ordered the driver in Russian, “Guard them. I’ll go check on the status of the ship. Contact me if the woman gets any sicker. If I have to get a doctor, I will. According to Vadim, she’s essential.”
Nadine noted there was no mention about what to do with Walker. She must make contingency plans to save his ass if she had to leave him by himself. She sniffed the air outside.
“The smell of horse manure is making me sick,” she announced.
* * *
“Baby Cakes, I’ve left a message for Jed McNeil. If he calls back, patch him through to me. I’ll just have to get to Walker’s position and play this by ear.”
Jared would prefer his other operatives to do the job because this was his vacation time after all, but they were hours away from the location where the tracker was indicating and as luck would have it, his and Sugar’s love nest was just under an hour away. Why were these guys in a vacation spot?
He hadn’t quite knitted out the big picture of what exactly was happening, but something certainly stinks. If McNeil was in it, it usually involved international espionage. Yet the Feds were determined to keep it zipped. That the man would know anyway wasn’t exactly a surprise. He and Jed went way back and there wasn’t a more capable fighting machine he’d trained than the young McNeil.
“Parker,” Jared said to the open link in his laptop, “can you patch the zoomed up pics to the number I gave you? It’ll let McNeil know exactly what info I’m after.”
“Doing it right now.”
He remembered how Jed liked to work. The man was an intuitive operative. He had been trained to dissect information quickly and one of his most interesting traits was the ability to pare down the most complicated topics to just the relevant bullets. Not to mention, a very useful skill to have as the assassin of his group of commandos. A fucking efficient commander and killer. Yeah, he’d had a part in training that SOB.
“Everything you need is in the back seat,” Sugar said. “You’ll have back up coming and will be on standby for further instructions.”
Jared nodded. “Keep watch on the satellite feed and keep updating me. I’ll let you know my plans when I get to the target area.”
“Will do,” Sugar said, shaking a baby bottle at him. “The things you do to get away from diaper changes.”
Parker and Lexi’s chuckles were heard through the link.
Jared smiled. “I’m great at changing diapers and you know it.”
“A video or there ain’t no truth in that boast,” Lexi quipped.
“And here I thought our gift to you guys was some sexy times together,” Parker chimed in.
“What, did you think the baby was going to clean herself?” Lexi asked.
“You tell him, girlfriend,” Sugar said, with a grin. “Men and their tunnel vision.” She handed Jared the car keys and added, “After your fun with guns, bring back more food for your patiently waiting wife. And if you talk to that GEM operative, ask her where she bought her fuck-me shoes.”
Jared shook his head. “You were supposed to look at the video for car tags and important things.”
“Hey, shoes are important. Also, the twin sister was on her game. When one of the thugs grabbed and shoved her, she had tagged him just under the collar. The other one, she did the same as they were getting into the vehicle. Smooth. You have to be really good to be able to do that without being caught. Bet you she has some kind of device on her to track them. I need to learn more about this agency.”
“GEM mostly does international work, like interpreting or middlemen for negotiations,” Jared told her. “They have UN contracts, for example, to work with women and children in refugee camps. That’s their main front, anyway.”
“And what else?” Sugar asked, eyebrows lifted. “Do they spy on foreign governments?”
