Fury whipped though Joe. “You betrayed your own people, Maddox.”
Maddox shrugged. “Everybody has to retire sometime. I always believed in cashing out when stocks are the highest.”
Joe shook his head. “I hate to offer a cliché, Maddox, but the truth is you’re not going to get away with it.”
The sick smile that Maddox was known for slid across his face. “I already have, Hennessey, or hadn’t you noticed?”
Maddox inclined his head and Ginger took a bead on Joe, dead center of his chest.
“You can’t do that here!”
Joe’s gaze moved be yond Maddox.
Now the puzzle was complete.
Director Kurt Allen.
What do ya know? The third party was an in side man.
He’d known Allen was a bastard but he’d thought that was just his personality.
“We have to stick with the plan,” Allen snapped. “No mistakes, Maddox.” Allen glanced at Joe but quickly averted his gaze.
Maddox didn’t like being chastised in front of a former colleague. “This is my op,” he snarled. “These are my people. They follow my commands.”
“A whole army of one, huh, Maddox?” Joe couldn’t resist the dig. The only player on Maddox’s team he’d seen so far was the woman. Allen didn’t count as a soldier. Joe hoped the dig would get him what he needed to know—where the others were and what they were up to, but asking wouldn’t likely work out. He’d have to goad it out of the two traitors.
Maddox’s furious gaze landed on Joe. “You don’t have any idea who I’ve got working for me, Hennessey, so don’t even try.”
“Where’s your boy Fahey?”
“He’s baby sitting your sweetie pie,” Ginger sneered.
A rush of fear shook Joe but the rage that followed hot on its heels obliterated any hint of the more vulnerable emotion. He fixed his gaze on Maddox. “If any thing happens to her you’re going to be in need of a second resurrection.”
Allen scoffed. “Why would we let any thing happen to her? She’s what all of this has been about.”
Confusion momentarily gained a little ground over his fury. “What the hell are you talking about? This bastard—” he indicated Maddox “—has been killing off our people.”
It was Maddox’s turn to laugh now, sending Joe’s rage right back to the boiling point. That scum bag was a dead man.
“We have no interest,” Allen explained with enormous ego, “in killing off recycled agents. What we want is Dr. Cameron.”
“We already have a number of excellent surgeons,” Maddox added, “but not one of her caliber. Our wealthier clients deserve only the best. She is the best.”
In his line of work Joe had come across the slave trade in most every imaginable walk of life, but this was definitely a first.
“You intend to make her work for you,” he restated. “Giving rich criminals new faces.”
“And finger prints,” Allen said smugly.
Joe had heard reports on start-up activities like this. Clinics in obscure places attempting to create the ultimate in escapism. New faces, new finger prints, even new DNA.
It was a damned shame the Agency’s own people were working against them.
“It’s amazing all right,” Joe allowed. “Too bad neither of you lowlifes is going to see it become a reality.”
Ginger took aim once more. “Do you want me to get this over with now?”
Joe’s fingers itched to go for his own weapon but that would only get him killed. He needed a distraction.
“You know she’ll refuse,” Joe tossed out there just to buy some time. But he was right. No way would Elizabeth willingly do this.
Maddox shrugged. “She’ll come around, Hennessey. You know the techniques.”
The thought of Elizabeth being tortured physically or mentally ripped him apart in side.
“She really thought you loved her,” he said to Maddox in hopes of stirring some sentimental feelings.
Ginger laughed. “He doesn’t love any body.”
Maddox turned his face to ward her, smiled approvingly.
“Then I guess it won’t matter to either of you that she’s carrying your child.”
The lie did the trick.
Ginger’s fire-ready stance wavered for a fraction of a second.
Just long enough for Joe to react.
He whipped out his 9 mm and fired twice. Ginger dropped. Maddox and Allen dove for the floor.
Maddox was the first to return fire.
Joe rolled to the left. Pulled off another round, capped Allen in the forehead before he’d gotten a grip on his own weapon.
Maddox started firing. Didn’t let up.
Joe rolled, curled and twisted to avoid being hit. With no cover it was the only choice he had.
Maddox disappeared through the door on the far end of the room.
Joe scrambled to his feet and lunged in that direction.
He burst through the door just in time to see Maddox going out the window. Fire escape.
Damn.
At the window a spray of bullets kept Joe from following the route Maddox had taken.
With the last shot still echoing in the air he risked a look out the window. Maddox was half way down.
Joe muttered a curse and propelled him self out onto the uppermost landing.