Authors: Allie K. Adams
JT couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. Where was she and why was it so dark? There was something on her face. She tried to lift her hands to remove the dark cover only to discover they were tied to her feet.
She was so screwed. Peck had seen her. She didn't have the earrings. Without the earrings, Dan had no way to track her, no way to find her. Without Dan, she had no back up. And that brought her back to being screwed.
Peck no doubt filled Mercado in on JT's true identity and how she was sent to assassinate him. Worse yet, Mercado now had
Something skittered across her legs. Oh God. Not rodents. She hated rodents. Especially when she couldn't see them. And it smelled dirty. And greasy. She struggled, pushed herself upright against a wall. Working her head against the wall, she slid the cover off her face. With a deep breath to fill her lungs with fresh air, she looked around.
From what she could see, she didn't recognize her surroundings. It was an underground railway cave of some kind, like a subway. There was a hint of a light at the end of the tracks to her right, just enough for her to see the shadows around her. The walls were rock, as well as the ceiling. There were railway tracks disappearing into the black abyss to her left, and fading into nothing to her right. Directly above her, a flashlight tied to a ladder fastened into the rock.
Nice try. Mercado wanted her to take the easy out. And he'd be on the other side waiting for her. Then he'd kill her. Not today.
She worked her hands until her wrists were raw and bleeding, but she got them loose. After untying her feet, she stood and looked around for another escape route. Chances are if a ladder existed here, then there would be another one down the tracks.
Either way looked dark and daunting. "No time like the present." She grabbed the flashlight off the ladder and tried the switch. Of course. It didn't work. JT muttered one of Dan's favorite curses and almost threw it, but stopped.
She shook the light. It felt way too light. Why would Mercado leave her a flashlight and not the batteries? She unscrewed the top and peeked in. There was something near the bottom, but she couldn't get her fingers inside to retrieve it.
Turning the canister upside down, JT gave it a good shake. A folded up piece of paper fell out. She knelt down, grabbed it and unfolded it.
One end is your path to freedom, the other your demise. I suggest you choose carefully, Miss Turner. Hollywood isn't there to save you this time.
Peck. She really hated that man. She read the note over and over, trying to decipher what it meant. One end is the path to freedom. She looked in either direction. They had to lead somewhere. Why else would there be tracks?
She brought her gaze back to the ladder. The other would be her demise. Where did that ladder go? Would Peck be there waiting for her? Something told her he wouldn't. He came down here to deal with Mercado, not play games with NASSD.
Or would he?
Of course he would!
JT almost swallowed her tongue at the realization. The whole thing had to be a set up. Could Peck hate Dan so much he'd go to such elaborate lengths to draw him back into the organization? Only one thing would pull Dan back, he said so himself.
JT yelled out a very unladylike curse. There was only one person who had the power to bring Dan back into NASSD. Only one man who could possibly have pulled something like this off. He sent Dan down to Colombia, away from any of his connections. Relying on nothing more than a screw up. A rookie. Away from any backup. And away from any chance of Dan telling NASSD the mole's identity.
Donovan.
Who better to run the mission to uncover the mole than the mole himself? He knew Dan would go down to Colombia alone. He also knew JT was hungry to prove herself. Dan would come to the aid of the rookie agent, go with her to cover her ass. Again and again.
It was all her fault. Dan was down here because of her. If she wouldn't have accepted that assignment from Peck; if only she used her brain before bursting in with no holds barred; if only she stopped and thought about the mission for one nano-second, she would have been able to see all of the connections. If only.
A faint whistle broke her thoughts. What was that? It sounded again, this time a bit louder. And then she saw the light.
A train.
JT grabbed the bottom bar of the metal ladder and pulled herself up. One by one. Faster, faster. The train's whistle screeched through the tunnel as it approached, the echo deafening. The light grew brighter and brighter.
She could see it. She could also see she wasn't going to clear the top of the train unless she moved faster. Another screech of the whistle. Her arms and legs burned. She reached the top and pulled with all her strength to get the rest of her body up.
The train whooshed by, the top only inches from the bottom of her bare feet. JT closed her eyes and said a silent prayer. At least she knew which choice would have been her demise.
That left the ladder as her only option. Turning the handle, she pushed the heavy door up and stepped out of the tunnel.
"It is about time, Miss Jessica." JT whirled around. Mercado stood there leaning on his cane, his gold pocket watch out. He studied it and then snapped it closed. "You disappoint me. A NASSD agent such as yourself should have taken no longer than fifteen minutes."
"Life's full of disappointments," she countered acidly, trying to ignore her heart hammering in her chest. She didn't want to be scared. A NASSD agent faced fear every day. It was their job. This was what she'd been trained for.
Agent up, Turner
.
Now she understood how one path led to her freedom. She could have been sliced in half by the train. That would have at least killed her quickly, freeing her from whatever Hell he had planned. She had a sneaking suspicion what Mercado had in mind wouldn't nearly be over as fast.
"I truly am saddened I have not had the opportunity to pleasure you,
bonita
. That, of course, will change."
"Come near me and I'll kill you with my bare hands."
His wicked smile made the black in his eyes shimmer. "I so love the passion in you. Come, we are late."
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
He didn't even have a gun, at least not that she could see. The man had balls, but no brain. She mentally listed off all the different ways she should kill him, and trying to decide which one would be the most unpleasant.
"If you wish to see Agent Weber again, you will follow me."
"I don't know who you are talking about."
Please, God. Let Dan be somewhere safe. Don't let him die because of me.
Mercado wore a bemused smirk. "Allow me to remind you. You came to Colombia together to kill me, did you not? Unfortunately for the both of you, I still live. I do not appreciate you arrogant Americans thinking you can come into my country in an attempt to spread your disease."
"Sorry, Santos. Never heard of him." Maybe, just maybe if she could convince him she came alone to Colombia, he'd leave Dan alone. Sure. And maybe she'd sprout wings and fly away.
"Then perhaps I should remind you on more of a personal level. He is your lover. You allow him to touch you, to love you as I soon will. For you, Miss Jessica, are my prize."
"For what?"
"Mr. Peck wants Agent Weber. He doesn't want you. I, however, do." His lip curled and he licked his lips. "And I shall truly enjoy having you."
"I don't think so." JT decided a kick to the throat would drop him. She'd then crush his windpipe with her knee. Not as painful and drawn-out as she would have liked, but it would at least accomplish her task.
She took a step toward him. Mercado snapped his fingers and men sprouted out from the shadows. Of course they did. He wouldn't go anywhere without his groupies. God forbid he actually face JT one on one.
There were only five of them. She could still take them all. Okay six. Now seven. Her heart started to sink to the depths of her stomach. Ten. Eleven. And they just kept multiplying.
Okay, she got it. Knowing she couldn't take on an entire army, she conceded. "After you."
Dan felt like he'd been run through a meat grinder. Every fiber of his very being hurt. It even hurt to breathe. He regained consciousness as two guards dragged his broken body down a long metal hall. He remained still so not to alarm them until he sprang into action.
If he could still spring.
His right eye had swelled completely shut again and he could only see through his left eye by a sliver. He wiggled his toes inside his boots and nearly lost consciousness again. Did they have to blow out his knee? Judging by the fact the other one hurt even worse, he could tell it wasn't broken. Swell. Now how was he going to find JT and get them the hell out of here? Hop?
He still had use of his arms. He moved his fingers slightly. Whoa. That hurt, but neither arm seemed broken, just brutally beaten. It was safe to say Dan had been
FUBARed,
big time.
What kind of men would beat a man unconscious and if that wasn't satisfactory, keep going after he'd passed out? Dan remembered big men, small men, fat men, skinny men. Mercado didn't show any prejudice when it came to his hired muscles.
Where did they come from? What about Snyder? Did they beat him unconscious as well? Or worse? Which led Dan to another question plaguing his thoughts. Why didn't they just kill him? Why draw it out?
His answer came then. The guards dropped Dan's limp body at the feet of Jason Peck. "A gift from Mr. Mercado," one of the guards said in Spanish.
Peck kicked Dan in the ribs. Hard. The air whooshed out of Dan's lungs and he coughed up blood as he doubled up. The excruciating pain as Peck's boot connected with Dan's broken ribs almost blinded him, but not as much as his rage.
"Get up."
Dan would love to, but with a useless leg, and the fact he could barely breathe after the bastard kicked him, that would prove some difficulty. "Go to Hell, you traitorous bastard."
"Aw. Is that any way to talk to a member of your team? A fellow NASSD agent?"
Dan lifted his head to peer up at Peck with his one good eye. "Ex-NASSD."
"See, that's where you'd be wrong. I've been working with HQ to get back into the good graces of NASSD. I find that I can do so much more from the inside."
Dan muttered a curse through his swollen lips. "You really are insane. They'd never let you back in."
"Wrong again," Peck sang.
Dan's blood stilled. He widened his left eye to focus on the figure as it hobbled into the room. "I should have killed you when I had the chance."
"I'm sorry about this, Weber. I truly am."
"No, you're not."
Donovan limped over and stood next to Peck. "You said you'd make it quick. You promised he wouldn't suffer."
Peck shrugged. "I lied."
"Damn you, Peck. You gave me your word. First the scientist and his assistant, then your team. Now Weber? When will it be enough?"
"Don't you get it, Donovan?" Dan broke in. "The man's word is shit. What did he promise you that could possibly be worth betraying your country like this?"
"I have my reasons."
"About five million of them," Peck added.
Dan grunted. "Money? That's what this all boils down to?"
"It's my retirement. And it doesn't stop with this payoff. With Peck's connections on the outside, and my connections on the inside, we'll be able to play both sides of the field."
"You're willing to risk WWIII for a few bucks?"
"No," Donovan replied quickly, as if whatever he had to say would make a shit bit of difference. "We sell the weapons and gadgets off, and then send NASSD in to stop them before they can use them. We aren't really doing anything wrong. We're just cashing in on some of the profit before we shut them down."
Dan rested a lethal glare on what used to be a man. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. You're a traitor, bottom line. You betrayed your country. You betrayed your friends. You betrayed yourself."
"After everything I've been through, it's the least NASSD could do for me."
"For you? You're the head of the entire western region. What more do you want?"
He hobbled over to Dan, leaned down with the help of his cane. "Payback, my friend. I gave twenty years of my life to this agency. I was willing to use my own body to prove
"I'm getting a pretty good idea of how useless you are
now
." Dan spat on the floor at Donovan's feet.
Peck nodded and the two men who dragged Dan to Peck lifted him up into a chair. They then cuffed his hands behind him. He winced as the pain shot through his body. Peck knelt down in front of him. "Here's the kicker. Donovan here actually contacted me. You want to know how?"
"Raven."
"Very good. Raven is a hitter, did you know that? Hired to take out an agent who'd gotten too close." He narrowed his eyes. "You remember that day, don't you Hollywood? Tell me, how did it feel to have your heart ripped apart emotionally, physically, and mentally all at the same time? And to witness the woman you love kill your partner like that."
Peck paused, smiling. When Dan blinked, Peck's smile grew. "Wow. You
did
love her, didn't you? You sorry son-of-a-bitch. I'll admit she can be quite mesmerizing. But for the great Dan Weber to fall? Must have been tough."
"Fuck you."
Peck laughed and straightened up. "You probably think I'm a monster, don't you?"
"The thought had crossed my mind."
"I'm no monster. And I'm no different than you. I'm simply an agent following orders."
Dan turned his lethal glare on Donovan, who straightened and took an unsteady step back in response, catching himself with his cane. "
You
ordered the hit on me? Didn't have the balls to do it yourself?"
Donovan lowered his eyes in shame. "I brought Raven onboard right after they shut down
"Bullshit," Dan retorted as he lifted his head. "You wouldn't have called me back if that were true."
He started to work the locks of the cuffs and winced when he shifted to gain better access. Any slight movement sent shockwaves of pain through his body. He fought against the urge to allow the peaceful blackness to consume him. He'd live from the beating, but he'd have to remain awake to ensure that remained the case. Discovering the man he'd trusted with his life wanted it ended electrified his emotions on top of it all.
"You see? You were always too damned observant! You were the only one I couldn't control. With you out of the way, Gessler would have fallen in line. The rest of the unit didn't even know I'd been controlling them. But you? You picked up on too many things, started questioning too much. If you raised too much suspicion, the rest would have followed your lead. They always followed you. I had to get rid of you before you had me figured out."
"If you think about it," Peck jumped in, malevolence dripping from his tone. "If you would have just died when you were supposed to, the members of your unit would all still be living.
You
killed your entire unit by remaining amongst the living. That's gotta hurt."
Dan's vision kept blurring. Little black dots danced, keeping his eyes out of focus. No. Please Jesus. Don't let there be an ounce of truth to that statement. He tried to block the thought from planting itself, but it did, nonetheless. The guilt weighed down so profoundly Dan found it even harder to breathe. He was tempted to allow the darkness to consume him knowing it would finally put an end to all his pain. He had nothing left.
That wasn't true. He had one thing left. One person who made him want to fight against the blackness trying to take him. A gorgeous tomboy agent who needed him as much as he needed her. He pulled a fresh fill of air into his lungs.
"Why didn't you just kill me? Why take out the team?"
Donovan jumped in. "That damn rookie agent. Turner. She started tracking down the rest of the unit and asking questions about
"Now the only two left who know who I really am are you and the beautiful rookie agent," Peck added. "If I'm not mistaken, you've taken quite a liking to her. Could it be that the great Dan Weber has fallen once again?"
Dan prayed the hate and fury he felt for the two traitors showed in his eyes.
Eye
. "If you touch her there's nowhere far enough for you to hide. I will find you, and when I do," he stopped and rested his eyes on Donovan. "You'll wish those nanobots in your leg had finished you off."
"And you," Dan rasped and raked his eyes across Peck's face. "I'll do a hell of a lot more than leave you with a scar."
"Yes, yes, yes." Peck waved his hand, blowing off Dan's threat. Too bad, since Dan had one hand free and was now working on the other. "I'm sure you, as Master of the Universe, will somehow find your way out of this and in turn defeat us all."
Peck laughed. "You know, sometimes the good guys don't always win, Weber. Why do you think I left? It's much more fun being on the side that can do this."
He doubled up his fist and threw a punch deep into Dan's midsection. Dan doubled over, but refused to give Peck the satisfaction of a reaction. He lifted his gaze up and looked at him.
"You finished, yet?"
Peck clenched his teeth and threw another punch. And another. Dan coughed and dropped his head, spit more blood onto the floor at Peck's feet. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this. Your righteous attitude drove me nuts. I hated you, hated taking orders from you. I never did understand why the rest of those dim-witted bastards followed your every word."
"It's called respect, and it's something you'll never get."
"You're pathetic. How the mighty have fallen." Peck brushed his hands off and walked toward the long hall Dan had been dragged down. He stopped at the entrance and turned back. "I want you to sit there and think about the shit you've brought down on the world, Weber. I need to prepare for the demonstration and don't want you around. When it's ready to launch, I'll send for you.
No. Not JT. The heartless bastard planned to inject JT with
He had to stop them. "You'll never get the data off the disc."
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't know the passwords."
Peck looked at Dan, then at Donovan. "Is he telling the truth?"
"How in the hell would he know?" Dan jumped back in. "Donovan was never fully part of the
Peck narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
Good, asshole.
Take the bait. Come on.
"Why should I believe you?"
"Leave Turner out of this. It's between you and me. Let me take her place."
"Aw. What a good agent you are. The ultimate NASSD agent. Loyal to the end." Peck mocked Dan's request. "However, I think you're lying."
"Fine," Dan said and shrugged, ignored the excruciating pain as it shot through his system. "Don't believe me. I triggered the disc with a virus, just in case. If you enter the wrong password, the virus executes and wipes out everything. You'll lose your money, and any chance to be taken seriously by players like Mercado."
Sure. It made perfect sense now. Dan wished he had thought about that self-executing virus when he originally worked on the project. He just hoped his bullshit baffled Peck enough to convince him.
"Stay with him," Peck ordered the two men standing behind Dan. He tossed a radio at one of them. "Make sure he stays put. I'll radio when I want you to have him join us. Oh, and go ahead. Have a little fun with him. Just don't kill him."
Peck laughed as they both started cracking their knuckles. "Come on, Donovan. We have a train to catch." He turned and hurried down the hallway, Donovan hobbling as fast as he could behind him.
Damn it. Well, that didn't work. Dan would just have to get to the demonstration the old-fashioned way. As the two men approached, Dan snapped the cuff off his other wrist.
Come and get me, boys.