Master No (38 page)

“Sorry, it’s Satan’s night out and Si and I got left with the demonlings. Did you know they don’t sleep? I thought babies slept a lot. Also, they really like to hit keys on the computer. No, Kala. Auntie Chelsea needs that computer.”

“Chelsea, this is really not a good time,” Hutch said.

“No,” Chelsea replied. “It is not. I wouldn’t call this a good time at all. This one is a total poop machine, but apparently Si wants a couple of tiny humans, so I’m supposed to keep the demonlings alive and happy. Luckily they are really cute. Don’t. Why do you want to eat that pen? Go back to eating your own foot.”

Erin leaned in. “Chelsea, we’re in the middle of an op. Could you can the baby talk?”

A long sigh came over the line. “Fine. Everyone’s cranky. All right. I’ll get to the good stuff. So I was showing Kala here around the Dark Web because what else am I going to do with a baby this late at night. That’s when I found the auction. The closed auction. When were you guys going to mention that someone nabbed Ten? Because the Chinese paid thirty million for him, and according to the chatter baby girl and I found, the pickup is tonight.”

The upper right-hand box caught Faith’s eye. There was a light streaming up from the road, a car approaching the front gate.

“Shit and shit and fucking shit.” Hutch closed his eyes and got back on his headset. “Theo, I need you to get back to the vehicles right fucking now. MSS is on the way and they will not be alone.”

It was a little like watching a horror film. It was right there on the screen and there was nothing she could do about it. She could shout at the screen, but it wouldn’t fix the problem.

A large SUV was waved through the gates followed by a second SUV.

“I’m not kidding, Theo. There are potentially ten to fifteen MSS agents on their way to you and they will be backed up by McDonald’s guards. Get your ass out of there now.”

Erin shook her head. “He’ll just move faster. He won’t stop.” She opened the door to the van and hopped out. “I’m going to back them up.”

Faith watched as her father stepped out to greet the newcomers. He had a phalanx of heavily armed guards and her sister at his side. The guards had traded their elegant handguns for assault rifles.

Something serious was going down.

Her father had sold a CIA operative to the Chinese?

Tennessee Smith was alive, but her father wasn’t planning on that lasting forever. He was going to sell Ten into torture and death at the hands of his enemies, and Faith couldn’t allow that to happen. She followed Erin out of the van.

A loud blast shook the air around them.

“Damn it,” Erin cursed. “Stubborn man.”

She took off running and Faith followed, praying they would get there in time.

* * * *

The sound of the world exploding barely brought Ten out of his stupor.

How long had it been? Days? It felt like days. A lot of days. Maybe even weeks. He’d been tied up in this position for what felt like forever. No food. No water. At some point they’d cut the clothes off him so they could torture every inch of his body.

He was nothing more than an animal now, and not one looking to survive. He had one mission. Keep his mouth shut. Don’t give away secrets. The Agency might have given up on him, but that didn’t mean he could betray his country, his friends.

So long. Did his friends even remember him now?

“What the hell?”

He heard the guard. There were two of them. It seemed like more, but now that he forced his eyes to open, he could plainly see only two men were in the room.

And he wasn’t naked anymore. He was dressed in some sort of scrubs. When had that happened?

“Shit. Is he coming out of it? Doc said the drugs wouldn’t wear off until the Chinese had him.”

The words started to penetrate. Also, gunfire. Yeah, that was in play, too. There was the rapid blast of a gun firing through the building.

Drugs. He’d been given drugs. Something psychotropic.

His hands were bound in front of him, locked in a set of cuffs. He wasn’t where he thought he was. In the building, yes. He recognized the walls around him, but he wasn’t hanging off that hook.

How much time had passed? His senses deceived him. It had been the drugs.

“Come on, asshole. You’ve got a plane to catch. Bill, let’s take him out the back. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it. I’m not going out into the courtyard as long as there’s gunfire going on.” The second guard hauled Ten up.

He swayed on his feet. Someone had blown the main door. There was only one party who would blow that door.

Focus. Use the tools he had. That was what he had to do. He would concentrate on the pain later, but for now he pushed it aside. There was no ache in his shoulders, no burning along every inch of his skin. There was no weakness in his muscles from what felt like days of electrical torture.

Now there was only adrenaline coursing through his system, and he meant to ride that wave.

Hands. They were in front of him. Idiots.

“Let’s go,” the guard said as that gunfire got closer.

Ten brought his hands up, catching the fucker in the chin and sending him back on his ass. Ten propelled up from where he sat and found the world spinning. It made him nauseous, but he forced himself to move. He needed to find the keys, needed to get out and figure out where his team was, and he suddenly found himself in the middle of a war zone.

His vision was out of whack. He got clear sight of concrete and industrial walls before it went fuzzy again.

“Hey,” a deep voice growled and there was a volley of cursing. “I’m going to need backup here. All hell’s broken loose and our prize isn’t as sleepy as promised. Get the doc down here now.”

The doc. Not his sweet doc. Not Faith. The other one. The evil one. He hated that woman. She was the one with the drugs. The pain he could handle. That feeling of endlessness was another thing altogether.

He had to make his legs work. The muscle in his right thigh seized and he hit the concrete with a thud.

A hand found the back of his neck and started hauling him up. There was nothing he could do. His leg was twitching uncontrollably. His spine started to bow.

A loud crack sounded through the room and he fell back to the floor.

“I got you,” a familiar voice said. “Can you stand?”

For a second he thought Big Tag was here. Saving him again. It took a moment to realize the man hauling his ass up this time wasn’t quite as big as Ian, though he was proving just as stubborn.

“Theo, what are you doing here?”

“Saving you, boss. Des, clear a path for me. Tell Nick and Brody we’re going to have to carry Ten out of here. I don’t think his legs are working right now. Also, tell them we have incoming. We should expect to have to fight our way out.”

Ten caught sight of the lovely Brit. She was wearing all black and looking perfectly competent as she raised her SIG Sauer and started moving back through the complex toward the stairs and the door that would lead them outside.

“Let’s go. We’ve got a small army of MSS agents on the way in. Apparently they love you in Beijing.” Theo wrapped Ten’s arm around his broad shoulders. “Can you manage this?”

He could shuffle along now that the spasm had subsided. It would be back. “Leave me. Get the fuck out of here, Taggart. We don’t have enough men and not a single one of you is wearing body armor.”

They hadn’t brought any along. It was supposed to be a quick get in, get out operation.

Theo gave him a reckless smile. “Body armor’s for wimps. I’ve got two cars waiting. We’ll make it.”

God, he wished his head would stop spinning. He needed to think. He needed to know the odds. MSS was here to pick him up. They wouldn’t have sent a single man or even two or three. They would send a contingent, and they wouldn’t want to let him go without a fight. McDonald had a small army of guards here himself.

If they could have done it quietly, it could have been done. If they had more men, it could have been done.

“Theo, get your people out of here this instant.” The words felt dumb on his tongue. He was sending away his only way out, but he couldn’t live with the consequences. He wasn’t about to trade his life for any of theirs. “That’s an order.”

Theo moved forward, dragging him along. “I can’t obey that order, sir. You’re incapacitated and incapable of making proper decisions. You can fire me later, but I’m saving you tonight.”

A little flare of panic seemed to wake his system up. His legs started moving, stumbling along at a brisker pace. “No. This is going to go south and it’s going to go quickly. Dump me. Let MSS take me. Big Tag can find me later. Get our people off this island. Goddamn it, Theo, get Faith out of here.”

Where was she? Was she inside the big house? Did she have any idea what was going on? He had to pray that McDonald cared enough about his daughter to keep her out of whatever the hell he was doing. Making deals with China’s spy organization could be a double-edged sword. Unfortunately, Ten was fairly certain he would be gutted with that sword one way or another. He had to make sure no one else got hurt.

He tried to stop Theo’s progress as they headed for the door, but he was weak again, his muscles drained. Useless. He was fucking useless.

“Stop this right now, Taggart,” he said, using his best boss voice. “I order you to stand down and retreat.”

“I am retreating.” Theo kept right on moving into the hallway and began hauling him up the stairs.

“You coming?” A voice with a thick Australian accent called down. Brody was here. He would get to die with the rest of them.

Or maybe he was better trained than Theo. Perhaps Damon had done a better job with his men. “Brody, you’re now second in command. Get your men out of here. Leave right this fucking second or I will make sure you never work another day in your life again. Am I understood?”

“Can’t hear much. I think that C-4 blast might have done something to my ears, boss,” the Aussie cracked. “We should move. I can see headlights coming. Maybe a minute and a half out. Des and Nick are in a holding pattern. They’ll make sure the exit is clear.”

Everyone was getting fired.

“You don’t have any time,” a soft voice said.

Theo turned, raising his weapon.

Fuck, his vision was finally clearing and he got to look at Hope McDonald standing at the bottom of the stairs in her crisp white coat. She apparently observed protocol even out here in the jungle. “Kill her.”

Theo had his weapon pointed at her head. “She doesn’t have a gun.”

“That bitch doesn’t need one.” Faith would be safer with her sister dead.

Hope’s hands came up. “Theo won’t kill me. He’s a gentleman. You should move. Father’s men will attack from behind and the Chinese will come up the road.”

“Why would you tell us anything?” Theo asked.

“Because it won’t change the outcome. I really would like for us to work together, Theodore. I find you fascinating. Even more now that I’ve read your records. Mr. Smith was a good subject, but you will be a masterpiece. You should hurry. They’re almost here.”

“Kill her.” Ten couldn’t remember everything that had been done to him, but it had started with her. His true agony had begun with that needle she’d wielded. She wouldn’t stop. She would keep her research going and others would hurt, too.

Theo started to drag him out into the night, leaving Hope at the bottom of the stairwell. “I can’t shoot an unarmed woman, Ten. You can fire me later, but I can’t.”

Ten could kill her. He could do it easily, but right now he couldn’t even grip a damn weapon.

Retribution was going to have to wait because none of his men had the sense to listen to him.

“Faith. Tell me Faith left the island.”

Brody stepped up, peeling away from the shadows. For a massive man, he blended well with the night around him. He was dressed all in black. “I’ll take him. And Faith is safe and sound back at the vehicles with Hutch and Erin.”

He found his whole world upending as the big Aussie tossed him over his shoulder. God, he was going to be sick.

“Why is Faith with Erin?” Erin would watch out for her. Erin wouldn’t let anything happen to Faith. “The last I heard she never wanted to talk to any of us again.”

“I needed her intel,” Theo said. He touched his earpiece. “We’re on the move.”

Brody took a couple of steps forward before stopping again. Ten couldn’t see anything but the big guy’s backside. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you kidding me?” Theo asked. “Fuck. Erin and Faith are on their way in. Hutch is firing up the van and coming after them. It looks like we’re going to have to squeeze into one vehicle. I’m going to have her ass.”

There was the sound of gunfire and a curse.

“I’m going to need you to stand for a minute, Ten. Or at least sit. Keep your head down. Des, Nick, what’s going on?” Brody no longer kept things quiet. It didn’t matter. Hell was raining down around them.

Ten was surprised to find himself fairly steady as Brody set him down. He flattened his back against the side of the building, his palms against the material. Steady. He was going to get out of here and then he would recover and kick everyone’s ass.

He would do it after they got home because this operation was over. He would find another way to take down McDonald.

“We’ve got incoming,” Nick shouted back.

“We’ll let them come in and sneak out when they raid the building. They can’t see us here,” Theo explained. “And Hutch just cut the power. We’ve got the cover of night on our side.”

“Here, mate.” Brody pressed a gun in his hand. “Try to hold on to it.”

He had to admit, he felt better with a gun in his hand. He thought seriously about going back in and killing Hope.

Up ahead, he heard the sound of tires pounding over pavement. Unfortunately, Hutch couldn’t cut the lights on the vehicles.

“Get back,” Theo ordered.

“I can cause some chaos,” he heard Des say. “Get ready to run toward the back. We can go up the trail to where we left the cars.”

She swung out and two shots pierced the night before the vehicle entering the compound lost control and flipped, rolling into another one of the outer buildings.