Whispers in the Dark (KGI #4)(96)

Donovan grimaced. “Well, f**k it all. I was going to take great joy out of letting Nathan nail your sorry ass to the wall and now we’re going to have to protect you too? You sure know how to ruin a man’s day.”

Sam stepped forward and Resnick and Donovan went silent. It always awed Nathan how much respect Sam commanded.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. Resnick said there are two entrances into the facility. The front door and the not so obvious back door. We can find the front door. We’ll need Resnick’s help to find the back entrance. So he’s going to go with Steele and his team. Except P.J. I want her positioned at the front entrance and Cole at the back entrance. If things go to shit, I want the two of you to take out anyone who isn’t us or Shea Peterson and provide cover for us.

“The rest of us will go in, take out any threats, locate Shea and get the hell out as quickly as possible. I’ve already given you all the GPS points of our rendezvous point. We’re on a tight time line. I want this to be a quick in and out. Clean and smooth. Just another day at the office. The chopper will be waiting to get us the f**k out of here. Don’t be late.”

“With all due respect, sir, where exactly do we fit into this extrication plan of yours?” Kyle Phillips asked as he stepped forward.

The Marine didn’t look at all happy not to have received orders and for all practical purposes had been ignored from the start.

Sam’s eyes narrowed. “The very last thing we need is for you to be the one who finds Shea. In her mind you’re responsible for where she is right now. What I need for you and your team to do is back P.J. and Cole up. Make sure no one comes in or goes out of this place except my team and Steele’s. And be our backup if things go bad inside.”

Phillips’s lips tightened, but Nathan had to hand it to the man. He obeyed orders. Without question. Without hesitation. Phillips gave a quick nod, took a step back and then signaled his men to fall back. In a moment’s time, they’d melted into the trees surrounding the facility buried in the mountain.

Sam gave the signal for Steele and his team to take position. P.J. remained with the Kellys while the rest of her team disappeared over a rise with Resnick to circle around back.

“Let’s go,” Sam said.

They paralleled the dirt road for the mile in, and when they reached the turnoff, they kept farther into the trees and picked up their pace for the last half mile.

Even though they knew where to look for the entrance, it was still difficult to find. It was very well disguised and surrounded by aspens and pine.

“Are you in position, Steele?” Sam asked into the radio.

After Steele responded in the affirmative, Sam ordered everyone to check in and confirm their positions. P.J. slung her rifle over her shoulder and climbed up a steep, rocky rise that overlooked the front.

Then Sam turned to his brothers. “Okay, you know what to do. Let’s get in, get out and get the f**k back home.”

Donovan hurried forward, ducking low to remain below the surveillance cameras aimed at the front. The others quickly followed suit until they were all hunkered down, plastered to the wall, waiting for Donovan to gain access.

He took out his handheld unit that hooked to a key card and swiped it through the security keypad. Within seconds, the door slid open and they rushed in, guns up.

As Resnick had warned, there were three hallways, one to the left, one to the right and one down the middle.

Sam pointed at Donovan and Joe and motioned for them to take the right hall. He directed Garrett and Nathan to take the middle and then jerked his thumb at Ethan to come with him to the left.

Garrett glanced at Nathan as they started down the hallway. “We’ll find her, man. We’ll get her out of here.”

CHAPTER 40

A tear slid down Shea’s temple and disappeared into her hair. It worried her that she seemed to slip away with each passing hour. She was beyond the pain. She didn’t really feel it any longer. But she had a hard time conjuring up the simplest of things.

Her mind was a vast landscape of nothingness. Every once in a while she would try hard to remember what her purpose was. There was something she had to do. But when she did so, she was immediately assaulted with more pain and so she let herself slide farther into the abyss because there the pain wasn’t present. Her fear and anxiety faded to nothing. And she floated. Free.

Even as she knew this was all wrong, she was helpless to change it because she no longer had the strength to fight. She’d been brought to this place to be poked and prodded. Studied and observed. A nameless, faceless test subject with no feelings or rights. Her humanity had been wiped away as if it had never existed. Here, she mattered to no one.

She heard whispers in her mind. They called her name, but she desperately shoved them away and closed herself off, wanting to avoid the inevitable crush of pain if she allowed them to grow louder or, God forbid, she responded.

What did these people ultimately want? Did they already have Grace? Was it why they weren’t questioning her about her sister? It was Shea’s worst fear, that everything she’d done in the last year was for nothing.

A distant explosion rocked the tube she was imprisoned in. It shook one of the electrodes free, but there were still three attached, and fire sizzled through her body as fear spiked her brain waves. Above her one of the fluorescent lights crashed to the floor, just missing her makeshift prison.