Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(14)

“You’re an idiot,” Jason said, smacking Thurmond’s head hard with his hand.

“Where’s the research you did for her?” Humphrey asked, hardly able to sit still. He had to act quickly.

“On my computer.” Thurmond glanced at his car.

“Give me the keys.” Humphrey snatched them and headed straight for the car. Oh God, this was bad, very bad. Humphrey opened the car and reached for the messenger bag on the passenger seat. Rushing back to Thurmond, he opened the laptop. “What’s the password?”

“I’ll—”

Humphrey slapped Thurmond’s hand away. “No, I’ll do it. What’s the password?”

Thurmond pouted before mumbling, “President Thurmond, all one word.”

Humphrey typed it in and the computer lit up. “Is that your SOS password, too?”

“Yes,” Thurmond sighed. “Look, I told you everything. I swear, I didn’t know—”

“But you knew what Mollia Domini is. It’s a group set on overthrowing the government. That’s treason. Jason, take him away, but don’t kill him. I’m sure the president will want to deal with him publicly.”

Thurmond began to struggle, but Jason used one hand to hold him and another to stab a needle into Thurmond’s neck. Thurmond collapsed in the blink of an eye.

“He won’t remember a thing. Where do you want me to take him?”

“We need a secret jail. I have a feeling we are going to be filling it.”

“Here in DC?” Jason asked.

“Yes. We need these people quickly accessible. Do you have any ideas?”

“I do. I have a buddy who’s a CIA SOG. He’d know where the US black sites are, or were. Usually they’re visible and easy to get to—a home, an office park, something like that. Something you drive by every day and never think anything of it. If we can find an old one, maybe it’s still set up to hold prisoners.”

Humphrey nodded. “Good idea. But you can’t tell them why.”

“Nah, I’ll buy him a beer and shoot the shit with him. I’ll call you when I have more information. In the meantime, I’ll keep this asshole unconscious.”

“And I have to warn the president we are looking at potential attacks to the very foundation of America.”

Humphrey took off with the laptop as Jason stuffed Thurmond in the trunk of Thurmond’s car. Sleep was going to have to wait. With Jason’s delivery of Fitz and Hugo’s bodies via coolers to Stanworth’s front door, Mollia Domini was ready to make a statement. Humphrey just hoped Lizzy and Dalton could stop them before it was too late.





7





It was quickly approaching nighttime when Valeria noticed land. She also noticed she was running out of gas. She looked down at the plastic-coated map. “Madre de hijo de la chingada!” Valeria cursed as she looked at the map. She wasn’t going to make it to Cabo San Lucas. She turned the boat toward the heavily tree-lined Parque Nacional Cabo Pulmo.

It was the flash of light that caught her attention first. Valeria looked over her shoulder at the lone spotlight a good distance back. The light was on a very fast speedboat and was scanning the water. Valeria watched as it swung to the right and to the left before landing right on her and freezing. “Mierda!”

She heard their engines roar to full throttle as she pushed her old boat to the limit. Their light grew brighter as the faster, more powerful boat rushed toward her. The shore was growing nearer. The national park seemed dark just a short ways from the beachside resort. Valeria angled the boat away from the lights. Darkness was her friend tonight as the sky turned from blue to black as the sun sank deeper from the horizon.

Val cut the engine a second before the boat careened onto the beach. She already had her limited supplies of weapons, a compass, and a map stuffed in her pockets and waistband as she leapt from the boat. Her boots hit the soft sand as she took off for the woods. She looked at her watch. She was supposed to be meeting her extraction at this time. She hoped whoever he was, he would quickly figure out she wasn’t there and make his way to the secondary location. Val looked up at the mountaintop that would be her extraction point, if she made it there alive. There was only so much hiding she could do, and come morning, she feared her time would be over.



* * *



Grant looked down at the extraction location. Nothing. No one. Not even some drunk kids on summer vacation. He hovered low and used night vision to see if the woman he was supposed to be rescuing was in hiding. Nothing. Grant felt it in the pit of his stomach. She’d never made it there.

As a PJ, decisions were made in a split second. That was the difference between life and death. And in that one split second, Grant was heading full speed to the second extraction site sixty miles away. He’d be there in under twenty minutes.

Grant flew low over the ocean and just far enough out that people from shore wouldn’t be able to see or hear him. He wouldn’t show on the Mexican radar, but it also meant his extraction target had no idea he was coming. Grant followed the coastline keeping an eye on the GPS tracker that showed him the exact extraction point on the top of a small mountain two-thirds of a mile from the beach. Fifteen minutes. His target just needed to hold on for fifteen more minutes.