Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(64)
Still not sure she was doing exactly the right thing, she opened an app on her phone and set it to record, then she dialed Charlie’s number. She’d done it in the past to be sure she recalled details when planning an event, but this time, it mattered a lot more.
Before she bothered Gabe, she’d find out more about who had Charlie and what they wanted.
“Maylin, it took you this long to answer your friend’s call for help?”
Jewel’s voice came across the line, crystal clear.
Maylin fought to modulate her voice to calm and cool. “What do you want?”
“He told you.” Jewel chuckled. “Just allow us to come get you. We’ll let him go back to his life and we’ll take you to your sister. And everyone goes on into happy-ever-after.”
“If you know where I am, you know I can’t just walk out to the sidewalk and hop in a car. And I don’t know why I’d be of use to you anyway.” An-mei was the scientist, the brilliant resource. The closest Maylin could come to creating a biological warfare weapon was cooking up a devastatingly spicy batch of curry. Why, why, why were they after her?
Maylin started to wander back through the cabin, taking stock of what was actually tucked away. People like Gabe and his team had useful things at hand squirreled away in every nook and cranny. Even in their own base of operations, they didn’t seem like the types to keep everything in the obvious locations. Not that she’d know where they kept their weapons or anything anyway. But they all walked around with something on them. Harness, knife, sometimes even their guns. They were always ready for something to happen.
How likely was it there would be something in every building? She was betting they had small caches stashed everywhere in preparation for the worst-case scenario, including the guest cabin. And well, the mystery duffel bag she’d seen earlier wasn’t likely to be extra toilet paper.
“I’m sure Gabe’s told you by now. We have history.” Jewel said it in a way that left a million things implied. But Gabe had already told Maylin, so it irritated her but it didn’t catch her flat-footed. “I used to be a Centurion and I know the area and their security precautions quite well.”
“As if they wouldn’t change things.” Maylin didn’t know for sure but it sounded good.
The duffel bag was heavier than she anticipated as she hauled it out of the closet. With no idea what was in it, she handled it carefully and placed it gently on the bed.
Jewel sighed. “Change, yes, but they’re so predictable.”
Unzipping the bag, Maylin pushed it wide open so she could survey the contents and try to figure out what might help her. If—and this was a very tiny if—she ended up going with Jewel and the Edict team, she wanted something with her.
There were several guns and boxes of ammunition, but she’d never fired one and didn’t even know what ammunition went with what gun. Besides, she’d read articles about how women carrying guns usually had the very weapons they carried for self-defense used against them. Probably not her best option.
Some of the weapons were unidentifiable to her eyes. The letters and numbers printed on the sides didn’t help, either.
Then there were the canisters. “Flash Bang” was printed on the side of each one, along with a delay time. Simple pictures for directions. It didn’t take much to get the idea. Recognition and relief. Those could buy her time.
“We’ll manufacture a distraction. All you have to do is come along quietly and your friend lives.” There was ambient noise on the call, but Jewel was raising her voice to cover it. “Are we agreed?”
Maylin’s mind raced. “You haven’t asked me not to tell Gabe.”
“Oh, honey.” Jewel laughed. “I wouldn’t give you time to do that.”
In the background, someone said, “Location confirmed.”
Panic gripped Maylin. She was out of time. She didn’t know how, but it was a fact.
*
The explosion sent Gabe and his entire team crouching for cover and moving. Gabe headed for the front door, staying low, with Victoria right behind him. Both of them had handguns drawn and ready. Marc was two steps ahead, breaking off into the surveillance room. Lizzy had headed in the opposite direction, toward her room.
Gabe called out, “Anyone get a visual?”
Lizzy answered first, leaning out the doorway of her room as she slung her sniper rifle over her shoulder. “Came from the training side.”
“Contacting Training now to see if it was a misfire,” Marc called out from the surveillance room.
“Not likely! That was an ASM.” Victoria spat out a curse. “Heard too many overseas. Unless they added the missiles to the training program here, that wasn’t a misfire.”
No. Training hadn’t added to their program or they’d have notified the fire teams on site for rest and rehabilitation.
Marc appeared in the doorway of the surveillance room, tossing Gabe and Victoria portable communications units.
Gabe slapped on the throat mic and threaded the earpiece over his ear, shoving the rest of the receiver into his shoulder harness and giving it a tug to be sure it was clipped securely.
“Need to get eyes on the asset, stat.” Lizzy’s statement was actually a question for Gabe. Who did he want going to secure the asset?
Maylin.
Gabe continued toward the front door. “Victoria is with me. Marc, get reinforcements from Training. Suspected incursion on the guest cabin. Lizzy, go high. We need a bird’s eye view. Everybody count in on the comm in ten.”