Jonah rushed at her, his channels open at full strength. He would suck everything from her. He would find a way to hurt her back. He had nothing to lose.
“DRAGAN DILAVER IS NOlonger an asset,” Jed told Hawk McMillan, giving permission to the SEAL to do what he’d been wanting to do with the drug lord before cutting off the video transmission.
Dragan Dilaver had only been useful as long as he was the only one who could give them the coordinates to the missing explosive trigger. But Hawk had found the crates and the trigger was no longer in it. The SEALs’ newest information was also worrisome. A sleeper agent, Llallana Noretski, had it, and Jed had a feeling she was heading to Skopje, and not back to Dilaver, looking to use it at one of the venues where the international visitors and diplomats were congregating.
Dilaver wasn’t running this particular show back in Velesta. He wasn’t interested in assassinations when there was no profit involved. No, he was just someone who was to keep that particular weapon for a while and now the person had set his or her plan in motion.
It made sense. A decoy to distract from the real target. Not during the most obvious day—today, with its significant treaty-signing and speeches—but on one that was less suspicious, when a few of the more influential VIPs would be gathered. Like a photo-op during an art exhibit, for instance, that was coming up in a few days. Everyone would be more relaxed because they’d be thinking that the main danger had been taken care of, and with the treaty already signed, the danger was passed.
A sleeper cell program connected to the CIA, ran by rogue operatives for the last ten years, activated. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. They could activate any number of cells to do their bidding, especially now when the traitors were on the run. They’d had ten years to set up a complex system in D.C., invading the very heart of the CIA HQ, before they were caught. And Jed and his team had—what—these four months to play catch up with just a fucking list of the missing weapons.
Providence had brought Elena to them. Jed could guess how much time she’d saved COMCEN. She, her skills, and the COMCEN Total Immersive VR program had come together at exactly the right time.
He pulled out his cell phone. So many more details to take care of now. He couldn’t possibly leave; he had a sleeper cell to take care of. Elena was going to fight tooth and nail to stay, but he was going to send her back to Center. Her headaches and spontaneous remote viewing worried him. And now there were flashes of colors, she’d said. He frowned. He remembered her talking about some beautiful colors in the last RV session they had together, when he had trouble getting her attention to return from the ether. He wasn’t liking all these incidents one bit. Elena needed to be in a controlled environment, under the watchful eye of her doctors and COMCEN scientists. He wanted to be with her, but he had a bomb to stop. He’d be back at Center immediately after he’d done his job.
He paused outside the connecting door, mentally getting ready for a fight. It was just a matter of compartmentalizing his desire to be with her, that was all. He was under no illusion she would figure out immediately that she was taken off an assignment not because of performance, but because of his personal wish. It wouldn’t sit well with her competitive spirit. But it had to be done. If necessary, he’d manipulate her to do what he wanted. She would hate him all over again. Couldn’t be helped. He’d just have to make it up to her somehow.
He opened the door. All thought froze.
Elena was on the floor, in a seizure. Her body flopped about helplessly and he could see the white of her eyes and her mouth open, silently screaming.
“Elena!”
Jed rushed to her and fell on his knees. He reached out to hold her but she was violently flailing now and her pants came out in a strange monotonic syllable, like an old vinyl record skipping over a scratch.
“Elena!”
He pulled her into his arms and the shaking died a little. Her eyes came back down and he could feel her struggling for control.
“Elena!”
For once, Jed couldn’t pull his thoughts together, couldn’t string any sentences. He looked up and found Heath staring from the doorway.
“Get a doctor,” he breathed out through his clenched throat, then stood with Helen in his arms. “Get help.”
Heath disappeared. A low animalistic growl came from the back of Helen’s throat, chilling Jed to the bone. It kept on going, becoming a howl, as if some form of possessed spirit was inhabiting her body. The sound was heart-wrenching, a desperate cry for help. He’d never felt so helpless in his life.
“Elena! It’s me, Jed. Hold on. Hold on!”
Her awful howling stopped. Her dull eyes lit up at the sound of his voice.
“Jed!” she gasped.
“Yes, it’s me.” He pulled her higher in his arms, her head rolling back against his racing heart. “Hang on for me, Elena.”
“Something smashed. Into...me. Taking over. Ea...eating...eating my brain.” Her hand fisted, hitting him on the shoulder. “Stop it! Stop him! Inside. Jed! I...fighting him...”
Jed leaned forward, trying to catch all her words. Smashed into her? Like the incident in the stairwell? “Get him, then, Elena,” he urged. “Don’t let him win. Go get that fucker. Kill him.””
“I can’t hear. He...screaming...in my head. Pain.”
The rumbling growl started again. Helen’s body shook uncontrollably. Where the hell was Heath? His inability to do anything shredded Jed like a knife. All he could do was rock her, trying to absorb whatever it was that was hurting her.
“Jed!”
“I’m here.” She seemed to be fighting herself and something else and he couldn’t help her.
“Jed!”
