Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(86)

Theo shrugged. “I can put a call into Ian and Case. No one knows more about McDonald than my brothers, perhaps with the singular exception of my sister-in-law. Mia’s been dying to write the whole thing as a tell-all. So far Case has managed to keep her under control because of the whole classified-material thing, but she’s never stopped researching. If this Carter guy has a connection to McDonald, she might know about it.”

“I don’t see how.” Owen had gained a lot of knowledge on Carter Adams. “He’s been working at Huisman for the last six years. He’s never been out of the country. He’s spectacularly ordinary. But I definitely think we should look into any possible connections between Carter and McDonald. Sasha and Dante are going to search her office again. They can’t get into her lab. No one is allowed in there, and I’m starting to worry we need to. Apparently her private office in the lab is protected with biometrics. We would need a retinal scan to get in.”

“I can get that for us,” Erin said with a savage grin.

He stared back at her. “Don’t touch her. I’m still the man in charge of handling her and not a one of us is going to physically harm her.”

“I always knew you were soft, Shaw,” Erin said, sitting back. “So what did she say to you about Carter showing up? How did she react?”

There was a knot in his gut that twisted at her words. “She didn’t say a word about it. She told me no one showed up. I was supposed to stay in the back of the museum. She has no idea I was listening in the whole time.”

She’d lied directly to him, and when he’d prodded her, she’d lied some more. Of course he was lying to her as well, but he had his reasons. What were hers? Was she covering up the fact that she’d helped to develop one of the most dangerous drugs in the world?

“I listened in with Ezra,” Ariel began. “If I had to guess, I would say she was afraid and confused. I would like to see the CCTV footage. If I could read her body language that might help enormously. Jax is supposed to be getting it to us soon.”

“Who is still at the foundation this afternoon?” He needed to keep eyes on her. He should have stayed and staked out the foundation building, but Ezra had wanted a report. “I’m supposed to pick her up at eight, but I don’t trust her not to leave the building without me. Not anymore, I don’t.”

“Tucker is there along with Dante and Sasha. Sasha’s on night duty. Dante gets off at six along with Tucker.” Robert’s arm moved casually around the back of Ariel’s chair and it made Owen wonder if the last few days had gone well for those two. Or he would wonder it if his own misery wasn’t twisting his soul. “Dante’s staying after his shift so he can get some pictures and video footage of the labs. It might take some time, but I can’t imagine Chelsea and Hutch can’t figure out a way around those biometrics.”

How much time did they have? It felt like a net was tightening around them.

“I’m going to text Tucker and ask him to stay late, too.” He pulled out his mobile. “I want to know where she is at all times. Have we figured out why Green paid a visit to Canadian intelligence?” He quickly texted Tucker.

“I don’t like it,” Ezra admitted. “Something’s happening and I can’t see it.”

The door came open and Jax rushed in, a piece of paper in his hand. “Guys, you need to see this. I pulled some stills from the CCTV at the museum and Sasha got a couple of pictures, too. He told me he was suspicious of the woman who bumped into Becca.”

“I couldn’t see her.” Owen looked down at the picture. Jax had blown up a shot of the woman’s face. She was stunning, her beauty more obvious than Becca’s subtle loveliness. “Did you find a name?”

“Yes,” Jax said, his voice steady, but there was tension to it. “She’s here under a Chinese passport as Zhang Li Na. She lives in Quebec and surprise surprise, the condo she lives in is owned by Jean Claude Huisman.”

Ezra frowned. “That’s awfully coincidental. And Becca didn’t seem to know her?”

A nasty feeling took root in Owen’s gut. “What else, Jax? There’s something else.”

“Her real name is Zhao Mo Chou and she’s MSS, according to Adam,” Jax said.

The room erupted in discussion about the new information. Before he could start asking his own questions, a text came through from Tucker.

Will do, but something’s going on. I overheard someone talking about security shutting down some doctor’s access. I think it might be our girl. Any thoughts?

Any thoughts? It all fell into place.

“He’s going to arrest her,” Owen said, adrenaline starting to pump through his body. “Green set her up. He went to Canadian intelligence so they’ll facilitate handing her over to the US. I don’t know what’s going on with the money, but I know that Green is going to use it. He’s the one who drew her out today, and it was all to get a picture of her with a known Chinese operative.”

Ezra stood up, cursing under his breath. “He’ll have her accused of selling secrets to the Chinese, and I’m sure Levi has offered the Canadians anything they like if they’ll turn her over quietly. He can take her anywhere. He will not take her back to the States. I promise you that.”

Even though he was blindingly angry, he couldn’t let that happen. In his rational brain he told himself it was because if they lost Rebecca, they lost her knowledge and the possibility of ever finding out who the lads really were.