Evil Without a Face (31 page)

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said.

“What?” She turned and shifted her gaze to where he looked. “What’s so funny?”

“I had intel of Petrovin being here, but that’s Anton Bukolov himself. The guy behind Globe Harvest.”

Garrett pointed to the old Russian who had pleaded for his life. When she’d seen the old man on his knees, she wondered if he was a victim. Now her sympathies for the old guy drifted away with the smoke. Bukolov would pay for what he’d done to all the innocent lives they’d never know about.

“Before you leave, thanks for sticking with this,” Garrett told her.” We never could have pulled this off without you. The Sentinels are pleased.”

She didn’t exactly count it as a blessing to be on the radar of the Sentinels—a far-reaching global organization that had confederates in every country, allowing Garrett’s alliance to operate in secrecy—but something he’d said stuck in her mind.

“What were you talking about…I’m leaving for somewhere?”

“Your bounty hunter is about to put her foot in it. She sent up a flare. Tanya tracked her to St. Lawrence Island. When she couldn’t get ahold of you, she made sure I got the message. If you hurry, you can keep her breathing for another day.”

Jessica knew not to contact her unless it was an emer
gency. And knowing the bounty hunter, she’d be in the thick of a firefight before she’d admit she needed help. After all, she had first met Jessica in the midst of a thermite explosion.

What are you up to now, Beckett?

Once she heard about St. Lawrence Island, it only took a moment for her to connect the dots to the coordinate they’d dismissed in the Bering Sea. Somehow Jessica must have figured out the erroneous location was a hair off.
Damn it!
The island could have been part of their assault plan had they thought more out of the box and not played it safe.

With her current location outside Providenija, Russia, Alexa did a quick calculation in her head on how long it would take to fly to St. Lawrence Island, but Garrett interrupted her.

“Take your team and the AW139. I customized it so it’s got speed and enhanced range, a bird tailored for our kind of ops. Tanya will feed you the exact coordinates when you get airborne. I’ll clean up here, but stay in touch. If you need backup, call me.”

Garrett didn’t look surprised by Tanya’s message to her, or surprised that she’d been tracking Beckett. As she rushed from the room, grabbing her team and making quick arrangements for the next order of business, she yelled back to him.

“You knew, didn’t you?” She narrowed her eyes. “You could have picked any of the coordinates to assign me, but you picked here. You knew I was tracking Jessica. With us being so close to St. Lawrence, we might have a chance to help her.”

“If you persist in believing I’m all powerful and have a magic crystal ball, then go ahead.” He shrugged.

“I don’t know anything about your crystal ball, but if I had to guess, I’d say you had a pair…of brass ones.”

Despite the grim setting, some of the men chuckled. But
Garrett only shook his head and said, “Your bounty hunter—she’s an interesting woman.”

Alexa raised an eyebrow and said, “Yes, she is.”

Jealousy was an ugly affliction. Even now she’d been struck by it when Garrett gave his personal insight on Beckett. But as she raced for the helicopter, with her team following, she prayed she’d be in time to help the headstrong bounty hunter.

Jealousy be damned.

Northeast Cape
St. Lawrence Island

His men awaited his order. Petrovin shifted his gaze from face to face, thinking over his position on the breach in his security perimeter. Although he didn’t know the extent of the problem and would have handled the situation differently, he knew what Bukolov would want.

And Stas didn’t want a repeat of Chicago. He’d blown apart the evidence, but not before a handful of cops turned into a multitude that he’d narrowly escaped. And similar to that situation, there might only be a few intruders outside now, but more might come. No, he wouldn’t toy with them today.

He simply wasn’t in the mood.

“Immediate evacuation. And this time, no hostages,” he told his man. “I will handle the detonation myself. We leave in twenty minutes and I wait for no one.”

Every man in the control room stared at him.

“You know what to do,” he prompted. “Make sure they are all locked in their cells, except for the girl in the operating room. She will get my personal attention.”

He was done talking. For the sake of drama, he hit the silent alarm, a button on the console in front of him. Immediately, beacons of red rotated through the room and his men rushed to their duties, an all too familiar sight for him
these days. Before he left the security room, he would set up for the detonation of the facility, an act he would control.

But first he placed a call to the operating room. One matter remained unsettled.

“We have no time for precision, Doctor,” he said. “Harvest what you can from the girl now, and leave the rest. I will be there shortly.”

Calmly, he walked out of the security station toward the operating room. In controlled chaos, his men scrambled down the halls, securing prisoners and making their way to freedom—an escape tunnel where the helicopters would be fueled and ready.

He would soon join them for their final farewell of this hellhole, but not before he had the girl’s heart and other sundry parts in a box. This would be one delivery he’d make personally.

Northeast Cape
St. Lawrence Island

Tanya Spencer had provided Alexa the coordinates where she believed Jessica Beckett had last signaled. The woman hadn’t tracked her cell phone this time, but used the beacon signal off the necklace Alexa had given her for emergency use only. A more reliable means.

While they were en route, Tanya had also given Alexa a quick yet thorough summary of what to expect once she got to the island. But once she arrived, Alexa had a hard time believing her eyes. What would Jessica be doing on this remote island? And why would the bounty hunter send up a high-tech distress signal here?

Searchlights from the helicopter strafed the ground around the old Air Force radar site, giving her perspective on the scene. Bright white swept the ground and the rubble below, washing everything out. The place was a pit, looking more like a war-torn village. From what she could tell, this part of the island didn’t have much of a population. Yet according to Tanya, this was the place.

Eventually, Alexa saw something to clue her in that she’d arrived at the correct coordinates. Several red flares burned on the ground near a collapsed cyclone fence. And a man in
a trooper uniform came out of a dilapidated building and was waving his arms to flag them down.

Speaking into her headset, she gave an order to her pilot, “Set down near that gate.” And to the man next to her, she said, “We’re going in to lend assistance to the local law and get a quick assessment of the situation, but once we hit the ground, I want you to head out again and do a perimeter search.”

“Anything in particular you’re looking for, Marlowe?”

“Yeah, a stash of helicopters on the ground or a locale to hide them.” She briefly explained what had happened in Chicago and how the Russian got away. “I want a tracking device on any aircraft you find. I don’t want any of these bastards getting away from me a second time.”

“You got it.”

Before they landed and talked to the trooper, she made another judgment call. She wasn’t in the mood for flack.

“Now that we’re back in the good old USA, break out your FBI credentials. And I’ll do all the talking. I’m not in the mood for a delay from the locals.”

Alexa switched colors with the ease of a chameleon, and without flinching, so did her men.

As he walked down the corridor, Petrovin steeled himself for what he would see when he entered the operating room. Although organ harvesting was a means to an end for his superior Bukolov, he himself did not care for the whole distasteful mess. And despite the fact that he resented the privileged life of this blond American girl—his own life had not been so agreeable—she still stood out in his mind as someone with backbone. And he had to admit to having an inkling of respect for her.

But duty meant everything to him. Without it, he had nothing.

When he shoved open the operating room door, he looked for the carcass of the girl and expected to be repulsed by it.
He hoped that seeing her dead might end the peculiar admiration he had for her. The defiant girl would fade from his recollections, replaced by images of the dead one. And corpses had always been easily dismissed from his mind, more a matter of convenience.

But instead of seeing the girl, he found the room in complete disarray and one of his men unconscious on the floor with blood pooling near his head. The girl was nowhere to be found. When he looked up, the doctor rushed to him, his face red with agitation.

“When the alarms went off, one of your guards left to save his own skin. And this one allowed the girl to get away.” The doctor pointed to the guard on the floor and went on, “She punched him in the gut with her elbow, and when he bent over, she shoved him into the wall. I think he may be dead.”

The man was speaking faster now, out of breath. Spittal came from his mouth.

“She looked like she’d taken martial arts. I couldn’t do a thing against her. Where do you think she learned that?”

“Focus, Doctor. Where did she go?”

The man pointed to his right. “She took off toward the elevator. She’s got the guard’s gun, and I think she took his keys too.”

Stas clenched his jaw, working hard to contain his anger. He had to think clearly. But no matter how hard he planned for every contingency, whenever he involved others to carry out his orders, things got fucked up. And today had been no different. In the end there was only one person he could trust. And he had to remember that.

“Why bother with her?” the doctor said, trying to downplay the incident and justify his own cowardice. “We should be going. Besides, she’ll die in the explosion anyway.”

“You make a good point, Doctor. Very sound reasoning from an educated man, such as yourself.” He waggled a finger at him. “The men are waiting at the helicopters. Perhaps
you should go. I will follow shortly. Since I’m a man of duty, it falls to me.”

He turned to go, but stopped short at the door.

“You know, Doctor. In many ways, we are men cut from the same cloth.” He could tell the good doctor believed he’d been insulted, but the medical man forced a grin. When he did, Petrovin added, “That’s how I know.”

“Know what?”

“That you have no heart.” He smiled and ventured a laugh until the man relaxed. “Because if you did, I would cut it from your chest and take it with me.”

The doctor looked up, but before his eyes registered full recognition, Petrovin raised his weapon and pumped a round into the man’s heart and throat. He caught him just right, freezing the moment when the man’s expression switched from pompous to startled. Stas didn’t wait for the body to fall.

He turned and walked away, muttering, “A bullet is a sure cure for stupidity.”

He left the operating room, but once he got to the corridor, considered his options. He stood outside the room, awash in the red lights of the alarm system, and gazed down the hallway where the doctor told him the blond girl had run. Down the other way, his men waited at the helicopters. It didn’t take long for him to make up his mind.

Above all else, he trusted his instincts and made his choice accordingly. A man of duty always weighed the consequences.

“What was that? Did you hear that? Sounded like gunfire.” Gun in hand, Payton ran into the dark with his flashlight sweeping through the dusty haze. The crunch of dirt under his boots echoed down the gutted corridor. The air felt thick and muggy, making it hard for Jess to breathe.

“I think it came from over here,” he cried out to her, not caring who else overheard.

She raced after him, gripping her weapon and casting her flashlight in front of them both. She heard the shot and knew exactly what it was. But as she looked ahead, the corridor came to an abrupt end. Stone and rubble blocked the way. It didn’t look like there was a way around it. And her heart sank.

She could have sworn the sound came from this direction. Hell, it wasn’t like they had a minivan full of options.

But as she slowed, Payton picked up his pace, maybe seeing something she hadn’t. When he got to the end of the corridor, he reached to the floor and grabbed a handful of dirt. He tossed the dirt into the air, letting his flashlight pick up the particles as they drifted. To her surprise, the finer particles of dust drifted forward and got sucked through a section of the collapsed wall. Payton had found an opening large enough for them to squeeze through.

As sure as she was that the gunshot came from behind the rubble, she was game to try whatever he came up with—his Hail Mary pass at fourth and long.

“How did you see that? I would have missed it. Damn, you’re good.” She grinned.

“I used to watch
MacGyver
reruns in the off season.”

Before she could reply, Payton grabbed her hand and tried to rush her through the small opening, but she stopped him.

“We better mark this spot for anyone to follow.”

“The troopers?” he said. “Good idea.”

“Yeah, right—Frank and Gary.” She would take any help she could get, but she was hoping Alexa might still find them.

Payton fumbled through his pockets, fishing out fifty-dollar bills and a clean white handkerchief. The hankie caught her eye and she considered using it, but she had something more noticeable in mind.

“At the risk of sounding prudish, turn your back.” When he did, she fished her arms under her shirt and pulled a Houdini. “Okay, we can use this.”

With only a smile, she held up her lucky red bra and raised an eyebrow. This time she hoped for a different kind of good fortune.

“That would get
my
attention.” He winked.

Jess wedged the lacy garment into the debris near the opening and followed Payton through the wreckage. When they got to the other side, it didn’t take long to find an elevator. Locating a working elevator in this dump had seemed like winning the lotto until they got inside and looked at the button panel. Now they had way too many options to choose and no time to do it.

Before Payton started to do the “man thing,” and hit all the buttons in a typical testosterone-driven shotgun approach, she reached out her arm and stopped him.

“Don’t touch it. Hold on.” She bent over and flashed her light onto the elevator panel. When she found what she was looking for, she smiled and said, “You may have
MacGyver,
but I’ve got my rebellious youth in the foster care system and my felonious friends to fall back on. Check this out. Only one button has layers of fingerprint smudges. I’m thinkin’ that’s the place to be.”

“And I’m with you. Punch it.” He nodded.

When she hit the button and the elevator started its descent to God knew where, Jess reminded herself that what had drawn them here was the sound of a gunshot. She clutched her Glock and took a deep breath, nudging Payton to do the same. When the elevator door opened, no telling who would be on the other side.

Nikki heard the gunshot but didn’t stop. She knew instinctively to run faster. She had no idea where she was going, relying only on her sense of direction and what she had
memorized of the layout. For the first time since her abduction, she was alone. She had to take advantage of it.

The rotating beams of red—even though they flashed without sirens—made her anxious, but at least they enabled her to see in the darkened corridors. She’d taken the guard’s keys and had his gun but had no idea how to use it. If it took more than pulling the trigger, she’d be toast.

As she ran, her lungs burned, making it hard to swallow. Her throat was parched. And whenever she heard footsteps running toward her, she ducked around a corner or squeezed behind fallen debris. But she knew her luck wouldn’t hold.

Gripping the keys in her hand, she realized why she’d taken them. She might not have known the other girls’ names, but she wouldn’t leave them behind—not if she had a chance to make a difference. She wasn’t able to help Britney, but for the sake of the others, she had to try.

This has got to be it.
She finally found the hall she’d walked down only a short time ago, where she saw the other girls locked in their cells. She rushed to the first door and slipped a key into the lock, but it didn’t budge. Her fingers trembled and she kept looking over her shoulder. Her eyes played tricks on her. Shadows moved and undulated in the red flashing light.

“Please…get me out.” A small voice came from the other side of the door. Nikki felt tears welling in her eyes—tears of frustration and fear.

“Shhh. I’m trying,” she whispered back, shoving another key into the lock.

This time the key worked. When she opened the door, a little girl reached for her, clutching her in an embrace, her body shaking. She couldn’t have been more than eleven years old, a scrawny little thing with blond hair, big brown eyes, and freckles across the bridge of her nose. All Nikki wanted to do was hold her. She needed someone to do that for her too, but neither of them had time.

“We’ve gotta go—get the others.” Before she left the room, she had to ask. “What’s your name?”

“Shelby.”

“I’m getting you out of here, Shelby. No matter what happens, you stick with me.” She took the girl’s hand and squeezed it. Her fingers felt so small and fragile.

Nikki had used the words that Jessica Beckett had said to her, a memory from a lifetime ago in Chicago. And Jessica had also taught her a move or two that had helped her take out the guard in the operating room. She wasn’t sure she’d ever see the woman again, but remembering her now had given her strength.

The key to Shelby’s lock worked on the other cell doors. She found six girls in all. And now she had to find a way out, back to the elevator, but had no idea where to turn. She huddled the girls together and squatted near the floor around a corner. They stared at her, waiting for words of wisdom she didn’t think she had. Hell, she was just a kid herself. But for their sakes, she had to be more.

“It’s important we stay quiet,” she whispered. “No matter what you see or hear, no one cries or makes a sound.” Forcing a smile, she reached out and stroked the cheek of Shelby, the youngest, until the girl grinned back. “We stick together, no matter what. And hold each other’s hands. Does anyone remember where the elevator is?”

“I think it’s down this way.” An older girl, named Bethany, pointed down the hall behind them. “At the end of that hall, we make a right…I think.”

Nikki didn’t like that Bethany wasn’t sure, but some of the others nodded. Once they had a plan, they had to move. She felt the weight of the gun in her hand but hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.

“Okay, that’s it, then. When I say so, we’ll move out. And stay behind me.” She forced another smile, then crept to the corner and looked both ways. “Let’s go.”

The alarm was still flashing, but she hadn’t heard footsteps in a while. She prayed the men had gone, but didn’t feel luck was on her side. Holding onto Shelby’s hand, she crept down the hallway, her gaze shifting in front and behind them as they walked single file. But when she got to the end of the corridor, nearly to the corner where they needed to turn, she heard a noise that echoed off the walls. With the sound repeating, she had no idea how many were coming.