Momentum (33 page)

He handed Dan the cell phone with the video recording. “You know what to do. Don’t come back without the prints.”

“I’m only going to transport you there and back. I’m not getting involved in any other dealings,” Madison said sourly.

“Yes, ma’am. Let’s go.”

O
f course, I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by
ready
. I knew I was ready to go and rescue Kellan and Harry, though. And that’s what I assumed we were about to do.

The plan was a little complicated. Thankfully, all the intelligence had already been gathered, and Trina had done an excellent job of cataloguing the information so that we could make sense of it all. She made sure that everyone knew of her essential involvement.

We all gathered in the situation room, and she took to the floor after bowing to Dad and curtly nodding in my direction. She slid her hand into her pocket and pulled out her pipe on her way to the podium, which was set up with a display board. When she turned around to face the crowd–there were about twenty Sigma-Ws, including my grandparents–she blew out a thick cloud of smoke from her slightly open mouth. She picked up a pointer with her free hand and snapped it sharply against the board to get everyone’s attention. The low murmur immediately ceased, and everyone sat up straight. She beamed at the instant reaction. “His Highness has asked me to outline the plan,” she said, sounding all puffed up. “I’ve
collated
all the information, and the council came up with the following strategy. Group one will rescue Kellan Fox. We have confirmed that he is being held by Raj in the Bahamas. At least five people are guarding him; we suspect at least two of them are Sigma-W-Pi. The council feels that, under those circumstances, a simple extraction will be impossible, which is why group one will consist of mainly our alpha troop.”

“Is Kellan all right?” I blurted, interrupting her flow.

She took another drag of her pipe and glared at me. “If I knew, I’d have said so.”

“Trina!” Dad bellowed in warning.

“Sorry, sir.” She threw me a spiteful look and continued. “Of course, we have no idea what we’ll find once we get there. For all we know, Kellan’s already dead.”

David curled his fingers through mine as I winced. “Ignore her. She’s being a pain in the ass.”

“That’s enough, Trina! Go sit down. I’ll deal with you later.” Dad got up and marched to the front taking the pointer from Trina, who rolled her eyes and sat down.

Dad nodded apologetically. “Okay. Group one will rescue Kellan. Group two will continue to search for Harry. Our intelligence is still trying to locate him. I can only assume he’s being held by Potomal somewhere….”

“Then we don’t have to worry too much,” Gramadea chirped. “Potomal would never hurt Harry. Kellan is the one we need to concentrate on first. Raj is quite unstable.”

Dad nodded. “Group one, stay here, and group two, go with Bruno to the other conference room. He’ll brief you. Keep me in the loop.” He looked at Bruno, who nodded.

“Trina, go to my office and continue following up leads from the intelligence team and cataloguing and analyzing the data.”

She coughed and started to say something, but Dad swiftly stopped her. “Trina. Just go. I will check in with you later.”

She looked unhappy, glowering as she got up and left.

“Arizona, David, you should join group two,” Dad instructed.

I felt conflicted. I wanted to be in both places. The agony in Kellan’s face as he’d faded away from my vision at the casino kept flashing through my mind. It sent waves of nausea through me, and I felt my chest tighten. David’s grip around my hand stiffened, and I looked up at him.

“I know you can’t understand your emotions, but you should go and find Kellan.”

“Will you come with me?”

“Yeah, I’ll stay with you, Poppet.”

I heard Dad sigh. “I guess you both are staying. So, let’s get on with it. Arizona, I am assigning Mitch to you. Mitch, could you stand up?” A young man in his mid-twenties stood up. He was wearing a uniform of black leather pants and a jacket with red epaulettes and the red Sigma-W insignia. An image of Kellan wearing that same uniform suddenly flashed in my mind. I shook my head. Mitch must have been one of the troops Trina had mentioned.

“You
must
stay with him at all times. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“And you, David, must stay with Hensen at all times.” He pointed to another young man getting up to stand next to Mitch.

David nodded.

“Group one has already received instructions, and we will deploy in exactly twenty minutes. Arizona and David, go with Mitch and Hensen and get suited up. Meet us back here in ten minutes.”

I hoped for black leather as well. I stayed away from that sort of attire usually, but it would be kind of cool to try it on. Hensen handed David and me a bag each and pointed us to the changing rooms.

Safely locked inside, I spilled the contents of the bag onto the floor, since time was of the essence. I was pleased to see the heap of black leather bundled on the carpet. I hoped they fit….

 
They did, like a glove. And I felt strangely
at home
in them. I slipped my feet into the black combat boots feeling a sense of excitement rush through me. Then I went back into the hallway to come face to face with leather-clad David. One word–hot. Like knock-your-socks-off hot. Then I remembered that he belonged to someone else and turned to Mitch. “Let’s go.”

All the chairs and tables in the conference room had been moved to the side by the time we got back. I nearly didn’t recognize Dad in the crowd. He’d changed into a uniform as well. I counted the bodies in the room. There were twelve of us, including David and me. So, that meant that there were only seven real fighters because Dad hadn’t been involved in this before. Actually, I wasn’t even sure that he could wander, which meant that maybe one of the seven was needed to babysit him.

“Arizona, are you sure you want to do this?” Dad asked, looking at me severely.

“Totally.”

“Mitch and Hensen will keep you out of direct action. If they’re needed, you will stand back with David. Is that clear?”

“No worries, Mr. Darley.” David nodded stoically. “Are you going to explain what’s going to happen, or do you just want us to go with the flow?”

“We’re going to be winging it, to some extent,” Dad admitted. “We’re going to land on the beach, and then walk over to the motel at around two in the morning, when the surroundings will be quiet. Then we’ll head up to Raj’s motel room and try to get a feel for who’s in there and what’s going on. We’ll then decide what to do next.”

“It’s time, sir,” announced a boy who didn’t look much older than me. Mitch put his hands on my shoulders, and we were off.

I closed my eyes even before they were closed shut for me. I needed the little time I had to focus my thoughts, though I wasn’t quite sure what to think. I thought back to the beach in the Bahamas. That was where we were supposed to make the landing. I wished I had made an effort to have a peek at where Raj was staying the last time I had been there. Then I would have at least been of some use. As it was, I was just preventing Mitch from fully participating in the rescue by having him babysit me. Nothing in his demeanor revealed it, but I bet he wasn’t pleased about not being able to take part in the actual rescue.

I tried hard to keep images of Kellan from my mind; I was so conflicted about him. Every facet of our recent interactions elicited strong emotional responses, and I couldn’t explain it. Even just thinking of him made me light-headed and, at the moment, sick with fear. There was nothing I wanted more right now than to see him safe and unhurt. However, all I could see flashing through my mind were images of him lying hurt and still. All because of me. My stomach was tied in knots.

Then I felt the soft sand under my shoes and steadied myself by holding on to Mitch. I opened my eyes. It was dark, but the moonlight offered a view of the glimmering water in front of me. Dad was already there, his expression grave and carefully guarded. One by one, the rest of the team appeared. Hensen appeared with David, and they both walked over to Mitch and me.

No one said anything. David quietly coiled his fingers through mine as we followed the others away from the water, up the beach, and toward the road. Apart from David and me, everyone moved in a single file ahead of us. Mitch and Hensen stayed behind. In front of me, Dad glanced back every so often, to make sure I was keeping up, no doubt. We didn’t get too close to the road, darting and ducking around the trees instead to keep hidden–not that we saw any signs of life.

The Sigma-W trooper at the front brought us to a halt. We gathered around him. He turned and pointed through the trees across the road. I peered through, vaguely detecting a building of some sort with one or two dimly lit windows.

“The motel,” David whispered so softly that I barely heard him. We slithered across the road into the parking lot and hid between the cars and vans. I had a good view of a stairwell leading up to the upper floor of the motel from where David and I stood sandwiched between two vans.

At the sound of a car engine, Mitch pulled me from David and pushed me down, shoving me under the van next to me. I was taken by surprise and yelped a little, causing him to put his hand over my mouth. I fought the urge to bite him and glared at him instead. He just smirked in return, so I pinched him. His eyes widened in surprise, then they suddenly darted to the front as the lights from a car flashed past and stopped a few car spaces away. I wriggled my mouth out of his hand, and he turned to give me a warning look. I raised my eyebrows and widened my eyes to let him know that I wasn’t totally stupid.

At the sound of a car door opening, I stopped breathing. I glanced underneath the van next to us where David was lying still, staring straight ahead. I heard some voices, but couldn’t quite make out what was being said. David’s eyes looked like dark balls of fear. I was too afraid to make a sound, to ask him what was going on. I turned to Mitch instead, whose face was so close to mine, I could feel his every breath. “Who was that?” I whispered softly right into his ear, causing him to rub it.

He shrugged, putting his finger to his lips.

Whoever it was, it was a man; I could tell from the shape of the jeans and the sneakers, not the kind Dad would wear, but really hideous ones. The man–or legs, as that was all I could see–made his way up the stairs. Then the car left, a taxi, I guessed. I heard a knocking sound, followed by the creak of a door opening. That was the end of the quiet. A lot of angry-sounding shouting ensued. I could clearly make out Raj’s voice, and the other voice–male–sounded vaguely familiar, but it was too hard to make out from under the van. The shouting became muffled as the door slammed shut with the people obviously inside the room.

David rolled over to my van, and I pushed Mitch over so we could all fit. David’s arm encircled my waist, drawing me close to him. I wanted to ask him what was going on; he definitely seemed to know something. But like Mitch’s finger, his was over his lips as well telling me to hush. I heard a rustle of bodies slip by the van and spotted two pairs of Sigma-W combat boots slinking up the stairs. I was dying to know what was up there, but lying sandwiched between David and Mitch made a quick escape impossible. “What’s happening?” I whispered.