Night Watch

17

KENDRA HEARD FOOTSTEPS in the hall outside the lab.

She tensed, she’d been expecting it, but it still caused her heart to speed up.

They were coming for her.

Her time was up, and Dyle’s men were now unlocking the door. Her hand closed behind her around the bump key she’d identified as most likely to work on the door. Her palms were sweating, and her pulse was erratic as she stared at the door. She murmured to Waldridge standing next to her at the table. “Here we go.” She moistened her lips. “Good luck.”

“You, too.” He picked up two corked flasks filled with water. “Even if this goes horribly wrong, it’s better than the alternative.”

“Gouging my eyes out, you mean?” Her gaze never left the door. “Can’t argue with that.”

The door swung open, and the same two gunmen as before entered. Dyle wasn’t with them. Too bad, Kendra thought.

She shared a quick glance with Waldridge.

Almost time.

The two gunmen moved forward. The larger of the two men, a muscular man with a handlebar moustache, gestured toward Kendra. “Time’s up, lady. Unless Waldridge has changed his mind and decided-” He broke off as his gaze went down to the floor. The two men had stopped warily as their shoes crunched on a gritty mixture of potassium permanganate and glycerin that Waldridge had carefully spread on the floor. “What’s this shit?”

Waldridge walked toward them with his water-filled flasks. “Only a science experiment. After all, Dyle ordered me to get to work.”

He hurled the flasks toward the floor.

The flasks shattered.

The two men were instantly engulfed in flames!

Kendra and Waldridge dodged behind the nearest table.

Screams! The man with the handlebar moustache squeezed off a barrage of shots before he dropped his gun as his arm was engulfed in flames. Within seconds, the other gunman was on his knees, yelling as he tried in vain to extinguish the chemical fire on his clothes.

Waldridge whirled around. “Now, Kendra! Those screams are going to bring them running.”

She was already at the smaller door, working the bump key as she’d practiced with Jessie. She positioned the key and tapped it with the mallet she had taken from the lab equipment.

Strike, twist, repeat…

Strike, twist, repeat…

It wasn’t working!

The men’s screams had become lower-pitched wails, and she realized that the horrible scene behind her was pulling her focus.

Detach. Concentrate.

Strike, twist…

The lock turned! She pushed open the door, and bright sunlight flooded into the lab. Beyond the door there was sand, only sand for as far as the eye could see.

She turned back at a crash from the other side of the lab. Biers, Jaden, and the other guard had burst through the primary door with fire extinguishers. Biers pointed toward Kendra. “Stop her!”

Waldridge picked up two larger flasks he had ready, and yelled to her, “Run!”

Kendra bolted out the open door and a heartbeat later Waldridge was there. He whirled around and tossed the flasks toward the second, wider strip of potassium permanganate and glycerin he’d laid down.

Foom!

Flames roared over the entire lab.

Waldridge leaped through the open door and bolted across the rough sand after Kendra as a series of small explosions rocked the lab behind them.

“What’s that?” Kendra shouted.

“Ammonium nitrate,” Waldridge replied. “And perhaps a few vials of zinc powder. I used everything I could find.”

Kendra glanced over her shoulder at the complex that had been their prison. It was smaller than she had imagined, with beige coloring that would make it invisible from the sky. The lab was joined by a walkway to smaller structures, which must be the quarters section Waldridge mentioned.

Another explosion shook the lab.

Kendra’s gaze was flying over the trucks and vehicles parked in the area.

No time to hot-wire anything.

Kendra pointed to a three-wheel all-terrain vehicle parked several yards away. “There!”

Waldridge gave it a doubtful look. “Will your bump key work on that?”

“No.” She was running toward the ATV. “But it’s a sport model, so we may not need a key.” She practically flew onto the seat and checked the console. Relief. “We’re good to go. Hop on!”

Blue flames shot from the open door.

Waldridge jumped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Kendra had already started the ATV and was gunning the engine. She pulled back on the throttle. The back wheels kicked up sand as the ATV bounded over a small dune and headed out into the open desert.

DYLE SHIELDED HIS FACE from the white-hot chemical fire that had completely enveloped the lab. The strong desert wind had sent the flames leaping totally out of control. His hands clenched in fury as he turned back to the two badly burned men who had been dragged out just before the entire building went up in flames.

One of the men, Aaron French, was clearly dead. His crispy face was a bloody scab only barely recognizable as a human being. Incredibly, the remnants of his handlebar mustache were still visible.

The other man, Dan Brill, wasn’t faring much better. He screamed in pain as Jaden and Nathan, the other security man, tried to peel off his black fatigues. He quieted only after he was injected with a heavy sedative.

Biers grimaced at the sight of the two charred men. “That could have been us, Dyle. For God’s sake, you know Waldridge is a chemical genius. Why wasn’t he more closely watched?”

“Are you criticizing me?” Dyle asked coldly. “Taken alone, none of those chemicals could have caused this chaos.”

Biers immediately backed down. “No, you’re right, of course. I’m just concerned.”

“And so you should be. We’ll get them back. All of my men are damn good in the desert. Jaden ran my security detail for me in Egypt.” He turned to the remaining security men, Jaden and Eric Nathan, who were approaching them. “Why aren’t you on the road? What do I pay you for?”

“We have two men down,” Jaden said. “French is gone, but Brill stands a chance. We need to get him to a hospital.”

“Later,” Dyle said. “Right now we have to catch Waldridge and the woman.”

“Brill is going to die if we don’t get him to a hospital now,” Nathan said.

Dyle looked down at the burned man, who was struggling to breathe. “He’s going to die anyway. You and I both know that. The nearest hospital is a hundred miles from here.”

“We have to try,” Nathan said. “I’m not leaving him. We’ve been through a lot of shit together.”

“You can try when you get back if he’s still alive.”

“That’s not the way we do things, sir.”

Dyle smothered his rage. He wanted to shoot the son of a bitch. But he had to work with these idiots. He had no one else at the moment. “Honorable. But two people have escaped on your watch, and they have to be retrieved.” Hell, let Jaden handle it. They were his men. He turned to Jaden. “What do you think?”

“I think Nathan is right. Nathan and Brill were buddies.” He looked down at the moaning man with no expression. “And compensation should be made for violating his feelings in the matter.” His gaze shifted to Dyle. “Considerable compensation.”

Whatever. Anything to get them moving. “Look, then suppose I give each of you a bonus of $50,000 when you bring them back.”

That got Nathan’s attention, Dyle noticed. Cash always did. “That’s a lot of money.” Nathan paused. “But you’re actually paying me to let him die.”

“He’ll die anyway. I’m paying you to keep the mission on track.”

“Fifty thousand apiece?” Jaden repeated.

He wanted to make certain his assistance in the matter was going to show a profit. Jaden never did anything without a paycheck. “Absolutely.”

Jaden turned to Nathan. “We’ve got to look out for ourselves. That’s a lot of money.”

“Time’s wasting,” Dyle said.

Jaden said to Nathan, “In the same situation, Brill would take the money and leave our asses. You know that.”

Nathan shrugged. “Okay. Maybe you’re right.”

Jaden turned to Dyle. “We’ll leave Brill and start tracking Waldridge, but this is a big area. We’ll need help. I want your okay to call down to Mexico for reinforcements from Koppel’s team to come up here to give us support.”

“No, how many times do I have to tell you, this mission is confidential.”

“It won’t be confidential if we can’t find Waldridge before they make it out of this desert.”

“We’ll probably find them before Koppel’s team can get up here to help.”

“Then you can send them back. But it will only take a few hours for Koppel to cross the border and get here. It will make the difference if we have trouble locating Waldridge and Michaels.”

“Are you telling me what to do?”

“I’m telling you I’m not losing that bonus if they manage to get away. I want help.” He shrugged. “Take it or leave it.”

Dyle muttered a curse. “I’ll take it. But if any of those men talk, I won’t be shy about taking a contract out on you, Jaden.”

“Expected,” Jaden said. “But no one talks if I tell them not to.” He reached for his phone. “Now how do you want to work this?”

“How do you think? We stop talking, get moving, and find them. You and I will go in my Range Rover. Nathan, you take Biers in the Jeep.”

Biers looked startled. “Me? I thought I’d stay and watch over this poor fellow.”

“I’m sure you did,” Dyle said sarcastically. “But you’re no longer on a free ride, Biers. We need all hands on deck. You’ll earn that fat check I gave you. If Waldridge and Michaels get away, you have everything to lose.” He turned to Nathan. “Give Dr. Biers a gun.”

“What?” Biers said.

But Dyle was ignoring him and already running toward the Range Rover.

KENDRA PUT ON AN EXTRA BURST of speed on the ATV. There was nothing even remotely resembling a road, but the desert was reasonably flat. She dodged a line of scrub brush, noticing at the last moment that it hid large boulders that could have been fatal if struck at her present high rate of speed.

“Do you know where we’re going?” Waldridge shouted over the engine.

She nodded toward the sun. “West. I can’t get any more specific than that.” She checked the rearview mirror. They had already put about six miles between them and the complex, with still no indication that they were being pursued. But she expected that to change at any minute.

A small dune appeared suddenly ahead of her.

“Hang on!” she yelled.

She jumped the dune, which launched them into the air. They skidded on the landing. Kendra tightened her hold on the handlebar grips, wishing that Jessie was the one driving. The wind was so strong that the ATV was being buffeted as if it were a toy, and it was nearly impossible to keep it steady.

The ATV engine sputtered.

It sputtered again.

No. No-no-no-no-no…

The engine sputtered out completely.

“What’s happening?” Waldridge yelled.

Kendra was cursing. “I think we’ve run out of gas.”

They rolled to a stop.

“What now?” Waldridge asked.

Kendra hopped off the ATV and squinted against the strong sun as she gazed into the distance. Heat. Overpowering heat. The skin of her face had no protective covering, and she already felt it drying out, burning, as the hot wind blew against it. “The only thing we can do. We walk. There’s a ridge up ahead, so maybe we can stop there and get out of the sun.” She started toward the ridge. “We’ll take shelter there and start again after dark.”

“And hope they’re not heading this way.”

Kendra nodded. “We got one break. This wind is so strong that any tracks disappear as soon as we make them. Help me push this ATV into the scrub brush. It will be better if they don’t know we’re on foot. They’d limit and concentrate their search range if they did.”

Delta 1904

Atlantic Ocean

It took five calls for Lynch to get through to Griffin when he was finally in the air and heading for the U.S. By that time he was halfway across the ocean, and his nerves were raw. His mood had started out that way, and the iciness of his tone reflected it. “What the hell is happening, Griffin? I don’t appreciate being kept in the dark.”

“Tell me about it,” Griffin said sourly. “Get off my back, Lynch. I’m having enough trouble without you giving me grief. I don’t have time to hand out bulletins to everyone when I’m trying to find your damn doctor.”

“You’d better rethink that. Kendra is with that ‘damn’ doctor. I want her found.”

“So do I.” He paused. “Sorry. I’m worried about Kendra, too. But my director, John Howell is giving me hell about Waldridge. He’s being almost as big a pain in the ass as you are about his disappearing.”

“I’m only giving you hell about Kendra. Waldridge doesn’t matter to me.”

“Well, he matters to Howell. You could have told me about that new research Waldridge is doing. When the director read my last report, he jumped on me with both feet. There are two hot-ticket political items in Washington, defense and health care these days. He didn’t like it that I’d lost a researcher who’s work could sway millions of votes.”

“I didn’t know about it,” Lynch said impatiently. “You found out about the research the same time I did. And I don’t care about your damn director. I want to know what leads you’ve got on where they took Kendra.”

Silence.

“Griffin.”

“We found the truck that fits the description of the one that hit Kendra’s car in Sweet Water, California. It’s a tiny town due east of San Diego. That’s where they must have changed vehicles.” He paused. “Well, actually, it was Jessie Mercado who found it. She was scouring through all the towns along that highway asking questions and tapping her contacts. One of them paid off.” He went on brusquely, “And that was where they also removed the GPS tracker. Jessie found a pad that had a little blood on it in the back of the truck. She was mad as hell. She said that someone must have known about the GPS to locate it that soon. She thinks that it might have been Biers and told us to go pick him up. We haven’t found him yet. But we’re checking traffic and security cams in all of the small towns around that location and seeing what kind of vehicles went through them for the entire day. I’ve sent out agents to interview citizens, and we’re hoping for-”

Lynch was swearing. “Nothing. You know nothing. If Jessie hadn’t been there, you’d know less than nothing.” His hand clinched on his phone. “Don’t tell me about hope. Give me results.”

“We’re working on it. All we need is one lead, and we’ll pounce.”

Lynch drew a deep breath. Now wasn’t the time to go on the attack. Griffin would just get stubborn and start avoiding his calls. He was having enough frustration trying to get through this damned flight without going ballistic. “I want to know when that lead comes in. Don’t make me call you.”

“It’s not as if you could do anything right now anyway. But I’ll keep you informed.” He hung up.

Griffin was right, Lynch thought in frustration. There wasn’t anything he could do flying at thirty-five thousand feet above the Atlantic. He needed to be on the ground working those leads himself. Not depending on Griffin’s agents or Jessie to come through for him.

And it would still be hours and hours before he would be able to take control of the hunt.

What could happen to Kendra during those hours?

Anzo-Borrego Desert

As the last tinges of sunlight disappeared in the west, Kendra turned to Waldridge. “Ready?”

“Ready.” His eyes were still closed as they had been for many of the hours they’d spent hiding in this crevasse nestled in a long ridge. He had made no complaints, but Kendra suspected he must still be recovering from those days of torture.

She smiled as she noticed that he’d torn off his shirttail to fashion a sweatband over his forehead. “Hey, what’s this? Rambo?”

“I wouldn’t presume. Though I was pretty good back at that lab, hmm?”

“You were awesome. Rambo, eat your heart out.”

He opened his eyes and leaned forward. “Any idea where they are?”

“No. I haven’t heard the cars in over an hour.” They had barely gotten the ATV hidden and found this crevasse when she’d heard the pursuit she’d expected. Two vehicles, but they hadn’t risked coming out of hiding to see who was in them. They’d just crouched here, trying to blend with the brush surrounding them. Then the vehicles had passed, and they’d heard them only in the distance for the last few hours. “They may be trying a different direction.”

He nodded. “It was probably lucky that our ATV quit on us. It would have given them a dust plume to follow.” He slowly, painfully, stood up and surveyed the desert around them. “I’d hoped we might see a light from a house or building somewhere around here.”

“I already looked. There’s nothing.”

“Too bad.” He moved stiffly across the uneven earth.

She frowned. “Look, if you want to stay here. I can set out on my own and-”

“Absolutely not.” He smiled. “We’re in this together. And don’t worry about my being able to keep up. I told you I could do it, and I will. As soon as I get the kinks out, I’ll leave you in my dust.”

“Okay, Rambo.”

True to his word, Waldridge kept a brisk pace for the next few hours as they made their way across the rough desert terrain. The night sky, free of spill light from any large population center, shone brilliantly with the illumination of thousands of stars. After dark, the wind had died down, and the desert was still, almost silent.

Almost.

A sound, a roar in the distance!

Not good.

Kendra stopped short as she picked up on the sound. Her heart jumped into her throat. She’d hoped that they’d lost them. “Hear that?”

Waldridge listened and turned to look at her. She couldn’t see his expression in the darkness, but his body language spelled out the same tension she was feeling. “Yes. Probably one of the cars that’s been looking for us?”

“I’m pretty sure it is. It sounds like a Jeep. There was a Jeep back at the complex.” Her gaze searched the distance. “But I don’t see headlights yet.”

Waldridge cocked his head. “You’re far better at this than I, but do they sound as if they’re getting closer?”

She took a moment to get her bearings.

She closed her eyes.

Concentrate. Locate. See it.

“I think… they’re near where we ditched the ATV.”

“Do you suppose they’ve found it?”

“They might have run across it. They’re heading in our direction.”

The car was getting closer.

“Because now they can also see our footprints. The minute the wind died down, we were screwed.” Waldridge motioned back to the desert floor behind them, where their prints in the sand were now plainly visible. “Once they found the ATV, it was only a matter of time until they found those prints.”

Right, Kendra thought, as she felt the chill go through her. It was only a matter of time, and their time might be up if she couldn’t think of some way to escape the vehicle bearing down on them.

They had no weapons. There was only flat desert terrain where they were here. No real place to hide. Only cactus and sagebrush that wouldn’t take long to search.

Okay, think. Look at the whole picture. Go back. Remember. Search for options. Pull a plan together.

The car was getting even closer.

Suddenly, she could see the headlights!

“Closer than I thought,” Kendra said. “They’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Then why the hell are we just standing watching them?” Waldridge’s gaze was darting around the terrain, attempting to find an escape route. “Let’s go. We can’t stay here.”

“No, we can’t.”

Because she had the plan. No weapons here, but she’d remembered another possible weapon. Flimsy, at best. She only prayed it would work.

But first she had to go after it.

She didn’t look at Waldridge as she started running forward instead of away. “But we can’t let them run us down either. We’d be even more vulnerable. I have an idea. Go take cover behind that brush. Okay?”

“What? Where are you going?”

She gestured toward the headlights. “There.”

“That’s crazy. I don’t care what kind of-”

“Don’t say another word.” She glanced over her shoulder, and said fiercely, “Stop arguing with me. I don’t have time. I’m going to do this. I can make it work. Now hide. I’ll be right back.”

“Kendra!”

She blocked him out as she sprinted toward the headlights, jumping over brush and cactus plants along the way. She needed to cover three to four hundred yards for her plan to work, but the car could be on top of her before she got there.

What then?

Don’t think about that. Just keep pushing…

The Jeep’s engine revved harder. It was closing the gap fast. Had she been seen?

No. The Jeep was slowly drifting away from her.

Can’t let them get too far off track…

She ran even faster, ignoring her aching ankle and cactus-needle scrapes.

She cut to the right, crossing in front of the Jeep’s high-beam headlights.

As if in response, the car’s engine roared. She’d been spotted!

She turned and ran back in the direction whence she had just come.

No shots. She hadn’t thought there would be. She still had value to Dyle alive. But there had always been the chance…

The Jeep revved even harder.

Damn, she’d cut it close. Maybe too close.

The vehicle bore down on her with the headlights casting her long shadow on the landscape ahead. She nimbly jumped over cactus plants and wild brush. But the car mowed over them even more easily than she had.

And was gaining on her.

Shit. Stupid idea, Kendra… Stupid, stupid.

She leaped over the thick clump of brush she’d seen just minutes before.

Zero in on me. I’m the target. Don’t think of anything, don’t look at anything, but me.

There it was right ahead of her!

She skirted the wild sagebrush with just inches to spare.

Faster.

Faster.

Faster…

Crash!

She whirled. Just fifteen feet behind her, the vehicle had smashed at high speed into a clump of large boulders hidden by that wild sagebrush she’d just skirted.

It had worked!

Maybe.

Kendra kept her distance while she warily tried to assess the damage to the jeep and its occupants. The entire front was pulverized. Smoke poured from the crumpled front end, and the engine noise had been reduced to a series of erratic clicks.

Only one of the headlights was now functional though it was flickering on and off. There was blood on the shattered windshield.

She moved carefully around to the driver’s side. A man was slumped over the steering wheel, his head oozing blood. He was dressed in the same black fatigues as Dyle’s other security men.

She circled around to the other side.

She froze. There was no one in the passenger seat, but the door was now wide open.

Shit.

She whirled around, her gaze flying in every direction. Where in the hell had-

“Hold it right there, Kendra.”

She knew the voice immediately. “Biers.”

“Turn around. Slowly.”

She turned to face him. His lips were cut and bloody, his shirt torn.

And he was holding a handgun aimed at her chest.

“This is what it’s come to?” she asked. “No more brilliant scientist and partner? Dyle’s made you one of his mercenaries?”

He flushed. “For the time being.”

She nodded back toward the jeep. “The job didn’t work out so well for your friend there. Guess he should have worn his seat belt.”

“Where’s Waldridge?”

“We split up hours ago. We figured it would make it more difficult for you.”

“Nice try. We saw two sets of footprints back there. Side by side.”

“You must be mistaken. Want to go back and check again?”

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll find him. Dyle has called for reinforcements. Anytime now, there’s going to be a small army out here.”

“It’s a big desert.”

“But Dyle has you again.” Biers smiled. “Waldridge won’t let you be-”

A belt snapped around his neck!

Waldridge leaped from the darkness and yanked Biers’s head down hard against a boulder.

And again.

And again.

And again.

The gun went flying, and Kendra ran to pick it up. She spun around with the gun aimed at Biers, but he was unconscious, his head and face a bloody mess.

Waldridge let go of the belt, and Biers fell to the ground.

She drew a deep breath and tried to smile. “Damn. You have become Rambo.” She frowned. “But there’s blood on your cheek.”

“Not mine. Biers’s. He splattered.” He used his sleeve to wipe Biers’s blood away. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, thanks to you.” She walked around the car and with the gun still in front of her, pushed the unconscious driver back in his seat. She unfastened his shoulder holster and pulled out his handgun.

“Is he alive?” Waldridge asked.

“Barely. I don’t know for how long. He’s not going to be giving us any trouble.”

She reached for his phone on the console. The screen read NO SIGNAL.

No surprise there. Few towers in this barren area.

She grabbed the walkie-talkie resting in the cup holder and held it up. “There’s this, but the range is probably only a couple miles.”

“Which makes it only useful if you want to chat with Dyle.”

“Not likely. Too bad we can’t use it to-”

She froze.

“Turn Biers toward the car.”

“What?”

“Do it.”

“I will. But you really shouldn’t order Rambo around like that.” Waldridge turned Biers’s unconscious, bleeding body toward the still-flickering headlight. Kendra knelt beside him and fished through his right pocket.

Let it still be there…

Then she felt it! She dove deep into the pocket and pulled it out. Small, unobtrusive, but as valuable as the Hope Diamond at this moment.

She smiled. “I’ve got it!”

She’d produced the quarter-sized tracking device Biers had taken from her hip. She fished around for another moment until she found the thin battery. It took a few minutes of maneuvering and adjusting, but then she connected both parts together with painstaking care.

“Cross your fingers,” she said. “I think we’re back on the grid.”

“Hallelujah,” Waldridge said softly. “Then we can expect the FBI, the CIA, Interpol, and maybe your friend, Lynch, to be mounting a splendid rescue mission and get us out of here?”

“Not exactly. We’re not entirely certain the tracking message is getting through.” Kendra’s gaze was on the eastern sky. “And if I’m not mistaken, that helicopter on the horizon may be the reinforcements Dyle’s sent for.”

“Shit.” His gaze lifted to follow her own toward the helicopter. “So we run and hide?”

“With all possible speed.” She jumped to her feet. “We definitely run and hide.”

JADEN PUT DOWN THE WALKIE-TALKIE and turned toward Dyle. “Koppel’s team is ten minutes out. Eleven men. A copter and three Hummers.”

Dyle stood next to his Range Rover and turned toward the helicopter’s airborne light in the distance. “It’s about time.”

“I thought you’d be pleased once you got used to the idea. It’s the way to go. They should wrap this thing up in no time. His gaze went to the horizon, where he knew the aircraft and Hummers would soon appear. “You’ve increased the firepower since I was last down there with Koppel. What do you have going on down there below the border that you need all that personnel and equipment?”

“The cartels have been running wild. I need to protect my executives and my interests there. I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to pull them away.” He gave Jaden a sour look. “You spoiled that, didn’t you?”

“Necessary. Don’t worry, it will be daylight soon. After that, it won’t take long to round up Waldridge and Michaels.”

Ten minutes later, the helicopter touched down as three Hummers pulled up and stopped in a tight formation around it.

Koppel’s security team gathered around Dyle as he brought them up to speed. When he finished, Tim Koppel glanced around. “This is all the men you have here? No wonder you gave me a shout. Where’s Nathan, Jaden? I don’t see him.”

“Out there somewhere with Dyle’s pet scientist,” Jaden said. “He hasn’t checked in for the last hour.”

“Are they in a dark-colored Jeep?”

“Yes.”

“We saw it from the copter as we came in. It appears to be disabled a couple of miles due north of here. You want us to check it out?”

“No,” Dyle said quickly. “I didn’t bring you here to play nursemaid to those bunglers. I’ll take Jaden and go myself. I told you, Waldridge and Michaels need to be your top priority. Get moving.”

“WE’VE GOT THE LOCATION,” Griffin said as soon as Lynch picked up. “Jessie Mercado called me five minutes ago, and the GPS tracker just started sending out a signal. Kendra’s in the Anzo-Borrego Desert. That’s all I know, so don’t ask questions. I’ll text you the coordinate app Jessie sent me.”

“Yes!”

“How long before you land in San Diego?”

“Another twenty minutes.”

“Then I’m not going to wait for you. I’m heading out right now. Do you want me to send a car and agent to the airport to bring you to-?”

“Hell, no. I’ll arrange for a helicopter to be waiting the minute this flight hits the ground. Just get to her.”

“On my way,” Griffin said tersely.

Anzo-Borrego Desert

“I couldn’t help it,” Biers whimpered as he gazed up at Dyle, kneeling beside him. “I told you, none of it was my fault. It all happened so fast. And then I thought I had her, but then… my head. You shouldn’t have expected me to do something like this.” He reached up and touched his blood-soaked head. “I’m hurt. I need a doctor.”

“You fool!” Dyle’s eyes were glittering with fury. “You actually had them, and you let them get away?” He looked at the wreckage of the Jeep with the body of Nathan crumpled at the wheel. “Both of you were fools. I thought with Nathan along, you’d be able to function like a real man, but I was wrong.”

“There are footprints leading to that north ridge,” Jaden said as he strode back to the Jeep. “If Waldridge and the woman are on foot, we have a chance of tracking them down if we move fast.”

“You see, nothing I did was that bad,” Biers said. “You can still catch them. But first stop this bleeding, then send me out on that helicopter and get me medical attention. I might have a concussion.”

“And I might need that helicopter pilot to get Waldridge out of here. You think I’d waste time on you?”

“Yes, of course. I’m important to you. You told me so. We’re going to be partners. I need help, Dyle.”

“Partners? That charade is over.” He turned to Jaden. “He needs a doctor just like your man did back at the lab. What’s your answer to that?”

Jaden smiled. “My choice? Then it’s the same answer we gave Brill. That’s only fair.”

“You heard him, Biers,” Dyle said as he turned away. “If I get Waldridge and Michaels back, I have no need of you. And I will get them back.” He glanced up at the helicopter that had just taken off again and was flying low, lights spearing the ground below. “Hurry up with it, Jaden. We need to deal with more important matters.” He moved toward the path leading to the ridge, and called back, “Don’t worry about the concussion, Biers. Jaden will take care of making it go away.”

“What are you-” Biers’s eyes widened in terror as Jaden leveled his gun at his head. “No, it isn’t fair. I was supposed to be-”

Jaden blew his head off.

And it served the stupid fool right, Dyle thought, when he heard the shot. “Done?” he called back to Jaden.

“Maybe not entirely,” Jaden said. “I think you’d better come back here. We may have a problem. Or an opportunity.” He dropped to his knees beside Biers’s body. “He’s been searched.” He was pointing to the lining of Biers’s pocket, which had been half pulled out of Biers’s pants. “You didn’t notice it when you were questioning him?”

“All I noticed was his whining.” Dyle had a sudden thought as he hurried back. “Check those pockets. Now.”

“The tracking device?” Jaden quickly searched Biers’s pockets. “Empty.”

Dyle cursed. “Then Kendra Michaels has her tracking device. If she managed to activate it, this whole area could soon be swarming with Feds.”

“Shit,” Jaden said as he reached for the walkie-talkie. “I’ll need to warn Koppel about it.”

“Wait.” Dyle snatched the walkie-talkie and spoke into it. “Koppel, do you read me?”

Koppel’s voice blasted over the radio, along with the sound of the helicopter rotors. “Roger.”

“I need your communications specialist up there to go to work.”

“Like he hasn’t been working already?”

Prick. Dyle held on to his temper. “Koppel, I need him to scan this area for a signal of some kind. It’s transmitting GPS coordinates.”

“Do you know the frequency?”

“No. It’s coming from a tiny transmitter. Start with the types of tracking signals your people use in your applications, then have him scan other wavelengths that may seem to fit the bill. If you can lock on it, it’ll make your search for Waldridge and Michaels a hell of a lot easier. Time is of the essence because we could have some company here soon.”

Koppel asked warily, “What kind of company? And how soon?”

“Federal law enforcement. And I can’t give you a time frame. You’ve just got to locate Waldridge before they get here. I’ve given you the tool you need, now do it.”

“Damn. Okay, we’ll see what we can do about homing in on that tracking signal. I think we can do it. Stand by.”