Wesley checked the time stamp and cursed when he realized the message had been sent two damn days ago.
He pulled out his sat phone and called the number. Then cursed again when it went to an automated voice mail simply saying to leave a message. He tried it again with the same results. He shot off an e-mail to Karen asking her to get a trace on the number, then finished dealing with more correspondence that couldn’t wait. Nothing in his damn job could ever seem to wait.
“What’s that look?” Selene asked after he’d tried calling Grisha again.
“Remember the undercover agents from the Tasev case?”
Selene’s pale blue eyes widened just the slightest fraction. “Yeah.”
“I think one of them contacted me. Wants to talk about Max’s murder.”
“That’s interesting.”
He nodded. It was very interesting. The DEA and the local PD were handling the case, yet someone who’d worked with Max wanted to talk to him, an outsider.
And in his experience, that simply never happened.
Chapter 4
Legend: an agent’s alleged background and personal history, usually supported by documents and memorized details.
Karen tried to steady her breathing and gain her bearings. It was difficult when she was hooded, but she knew she was sitting in the back of a vehicle—not the original SUV, because they’d switched vehicles in a parking garage, though she’d feigned being passed out—and there were four men in the rows in front of her. She knew how many there were because of their distinctive voices. Unfortunately they were all speaking Russian. She didn’t speak it, but she understood a handful of words and phrases. Her hands were flex-cuffed in front of her, which was better than behind her but still sucked. She couldn’t stop her heart from racing out of control or her body’s elevated temperature.
She was so not prepared for something like this. Sure, she’d taken some classes—in a well-lit classroom with trained instructors—but no in-the-field training for being kidnapped. She was just an analyst. She was good with computers and thinking outside the box, but she wasn’t physically strong. Definitely not strong enough to fend off one of the men she’d seen, let alone four. And her imagination was going insane, thinking of all the things these monsters planned to do to her. Rape or torture. Probably both. Worse, she knew that most people cracked under torture.
One of the men she worked with, Ortiz, had told her just that during a conversation they’d had over morning coffee and bagels at the office. It had been in context with a case they’d been working on. He’d said that it was just a matter of time but it was simply human nature before pretty much everyone broke. If you couldn’t channel the pain, whether psychological or physical, you cracked. And if for some reason you held out, one of two things happened. Death, or they found something else to use against you. Meaning someone who mattered to you. It was conceivable that even the bravest patriot would give up secrets because of a threat to a significant other or child.
That was human nature to its core.
“Burkhart . . . ,” one of the men murmured in the midst of their conversation.
Oh hell. This was definitely about who she worked for. Which was a secret. None of her neighbors or friends knew. They all thought she was an analyst for a think tank, which wasn’t that far off the mark. But no one knew she worked for the government or had one of the highest security clearances in the country. Right about now she wished she didn’t. Or hell, if she was making wishes, she wished she’d stayed in bed this morning and skipped her run. They must want her for national secrets. She’d worked on so many cases over the years she couldn’t begin to guess which one this was about. Maybe something to do with Tasev, a man whose operation the NSA had taken apart not too long ago. She knew Grisha had worked with the man, so that was a logical connection. Anyone who worked for Tasev had to be savage.
She swallowed hard as beads of sweat rolled down her spine.
After a while the conversation in the front trickled off, but there was a tension in the vehicle. Almost a palpable one that could be cut with a blade. She wondered if there was dissension in the group. If maybe she could use it against them to escape.
Because she was going to try as soon as she could. She knew it was better to let an attacker wound you instead of letting him force you into a vehicle at gun or knifepoint. She’d certainly failed that with her freaking panic attack at the park—though with four against one, she hadn’t stood a chance. She still wasn’t giving up hope.
Statistically speaking, she had the best chance of escaping immediately upon capture and before her attackers took her to their compound. Wherever that might be. She was all about statistics, and while she might not be physically strong, she was smart and held on to that shred of hope that this wasn’t the end for her. She had to try to escape before they locked her down completely.
The vehicle slowed and turned. When it did, the road became bumpy as if they were on a dirt road or maybe gravel. They were going slow enough that they weren’t on a highway or even a main road anymore. It was hard to know the exact amount of time that had passed since they took her, but she estimated a little over an hour. Which wasn’t a help at all. She could be in D.C., Virginia, Delaware, or even Pennsylvania. Or they could have just driven around in circles so that they were still in Maryland. She didn’t think so, or it hadn’t felt like it, but she was too out of sorts to swear to anything.
“Karen, we’re almost at our destination,” the one named Grisha said without the slightest trace of an accent.
So they knew she was awake. She’d figured they had but had kept her head lolled to the side on the headrest. Now she didn’t bother with the pretense. “What do you want with me?” Her voice was raspy and probably muffled to them.
“We’re not going to hurt you. We just need to talk to you. We hooded you for your own safety. It’s better you don’t know how we got here, but I’m going to help you out of the SUV once we stop and take off your hood.”
“What about my cuffs?” she asked calmly. Because she could play nice for a little bit, pretend she bought their lies about not hurting her. Maybe if she did they’d let their guards down. And the clock was ticking. Her window of escape narrowed each second that passed.
There was a short pause and she was under the impression the men were communicating. She heard slight movement and possibly whispers.
The man sighed. “We’re going to take your cuffs off once we’re inside. There are four of us and we’re all highly trained. We don’t want to hurt you and we will not, but if you try to escape we’ll restrain you again. All we want is for you to hear us out.”
She called complete and total bullshit, but nodded. “Okay.” Oh yeah, she’d play along and act like the docile female until the time was right. Her heart pounded wildly against her chest at the anticipation of having her hood removed, of seeing where she was and gauging her escape.
The engine cut off as the vehicle suddenly stopped. Just as quickly, the hood was lifted and she found herself looking at Grisha and another man with blond hair sitting in the middle seat of the SUV. Instinctively she squinted. Even with the tinted windows, the sudden light affected her eyes.