Stolen. Part 29

Evan made a move for the gun Sean had under his jacket, and Sean put him to the ground, a fist in his face. As Sean reached for his gun, Skye said, "I'll shoot him, Sean."

Sean glanced at her and saw Colton was in her direct line of fire. She had a silencer on the end of her barrel. Evan jumped up and tried to hit Sean, but Sean ducked and Evan lost his balance.

Sean turned to Skye. "Put the gun away! What are you doing?"

"It's now or later," she said, and shot Colton twice in the chest.

Colton fell to the ground and Sean ran toward Skye, not thinking about being shot. She wasn't expecting him to attack and looked startled.

A bolt of electricity hit him in the back. He fell to the ground even as he tried to fight the charge. He'd been Tasered before; he'd forgotten how painful it was.

He looked up at the sky, but his vision was blurred. Skye came into rough focus. She was still holding the gun. He tried to speak, but nothing came out.

"I told you Evan would do anything I said," she said. "You were just naive enough to believe he was in charge."

"Who's there?" a guard called.

"Go!" Skye ordered.

"Ne-ne-nev-"

"Save it, Sean." Skye kissed him. He wanted to spit in her face, but his body refused to respond to his commands. "You'll do exactly what I want once you see who's waiting for you."

Evan pulled Sean up and half-dragged him down the slope toward the rear of PBM. The opposite direction from where Carol waited with the van. Sean could hear Carol's frantic voice over the radio.

"Shut up," Skye said, tossing her phone and earpiece to the ground. Evan did the same. Skye stripped Sean of all his equipment and dropped everything at Colton's feet.

"Stop!" the guard called. He was on his radio but didn't pursue. Sean knew both guards in the building carried guns.

Two sets of arms picked him up-Evan and another man, someone who came out of the woods at the edge of the property.

Sean's hands twitched, and he was getting his bearings even though he felt like he was going to puke.

"I need. A minute." He needed to buy time. Noah should be here by now, if he'd gotten Sean's message. But Noah wouldn't know where they were. Had he cracked the radio code? Did he know what happened?

Sean reached into his pocket for his handheld computer. He could send a message by feel. But the Taser might have damaged it.

Skye grabbed his wrist and squeezed, pulling it out of his pocket. His small computer fell to the ground. She grabbed it and was about to pocket it when Evan said, "I don't trust him-destroy it."

"But-"

"No buts, Skye. He's a sneaky b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Fine." She put the device on the ground and stepped on it. The screen cracked.

Evan swore and shot it.

"I think it's dead now," Sean said sarcastically. "That was a prototype, b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Evan hit Sean with the b.u.t.t of the gun. He fell to his knees.

"We need him alive and coherent," Skye said.

"He's a p.r.i.c.k."

She smiled down at Sean and said into her phone, "We need help with the baggage."

"I'm not going anywhere," Sean said.

"You don't have a choice."

When Sean wouldn't cooperate, she motioned into the dark. A man Sean didn't recognize showed himself and, with Evan, they half-carried, half-dragged him toward the road. They must have another car. There was only one way to get in and out of PBM. If Noah was here, he'd stop them.

Sean had no idea what their plans were, or why Skye had shot Colton and not him, or what Skye meant by needing Sean.

He had to find out what Evan had stolen from the lab. Sean feared the worst: the bio-toxin.

Could he stall? Delay until Noah arrived? Something bigger was going on, far more deadly than Colton exposing company secrets. Even bigger than Jonathan Paxton killing Joyce Bonner's abusive husband.

The feeling was coming back into Sean's limbs. His shoulder, where Evan had Tasered him, was sore and he had minimal use of his left arm, but he had to work with what he had. There were lights and activity at the lab. All Sean had to do was delay.

Into her radio, Skye said, "Get ready, two minutes to takeoff."

Takeoff? What the h.e.l.l?

"You don't know how to fly."

"You do."

"I'm not flying you anywhere."

She laughed. "I brought my own pilot."

Sean made himself a deadweight. As the men stopped and s.h.i.+fted to pick him up, he elbowed the one on the right-Evan-in his groin. Evan dropped Sean. Sean slammed his fist into the second man's face. He made contact but didn't have enough momentum to force his captor to drop him. Sean pushed him to the ground and they grappled. Sean tried to get his gun, but the man had decent training. Cop? Military? Sean fought back but was losing ground.

Skye said, "We don't have time for this bulls.h.i.+t!"

A crack of a gun and instantaneous pain in his a.s.s.

She shot me. She shot me.

His unknown captor pushed Sean off and jumped up. "b.a.s.t.a.r.d," he spat at Sean and kicked him in the stomach.

Sean reached over and found something sticking out of his a.s.s. He pulled it out and tried to inspect it, but his hand became numb and he dropped it.

"Pick him up," Skye said. "We're about to have company."

Sean's vision blurred, then turned black. The last thing he remembered was the sound of an idling plane.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.

By the time Noah pulled into the parking lot of Pham-Bonner Medical the security lights had flooded the main building and he heard on the police band that an emergency alarm had been tripped. "Be alert," Noah told Suzanne.

It was just the two of them; SWAT was still a good fifteen minutes out. Rick was going to have his a.s.s if anything happened, but Noah would deal with that in due time. He warned Suzanne that he didn't have authority to go in ahead of SWAT, but he'd take the hit for disobeying orders.

She dismissed him and was out the door first.

With their guns drawn, Kevlar vests protecting their chests, badges hanging around their necks, and FBI in big white letters on the back, no one would mistake them for the bad guys. Still, one of the guards came out of the building with his gun drawn.

Noah shouted, "FBI! Lower your weapon!"

The guard put his hands up.

"Status?" Noah ordered.

"We don't know what happened, but there was a fight outside at twenty-three thirty. My partner heard it when he was doing his rounds. He put on the floodlights and went outside to inspect. I told him to secure the door, but he went out. I tripped the alarm."

"No one broke in?"

"No, of course not. This is a secure facility. This happened outside."

Noah looked at his watch. It was 11:45. He knew that the team had planned to be in and out in twenty-five minutes. They could easily have completed the mission, then had a fight outside. For all of Sean's flaws, breaking into this building wasn't a problem for him.

Noah called the SWAT team leader, "ETA?"

"Fourteen minutes."

He said to the guard, "Wait for SWAT. Do not confront any hostiles. Go inside and secure the building. I need all security tapes ASAP."

The guard looked confused but agreed.

Noah motioned for Suzanne to flank him and they ran toward the back of PBM, staying to the shadows as best they could.

They approached the rear entrance. Pine and maple trees liberally dotted the uneven landscape. In a group of trees just outside the entrance, Noah saw a body, all in black, facedown.

Suzanne sucked in her breath.

Noah circled the area. No one was here. What was he going to tell Lucy? He'd promised Sean that he would watch his back.

Training took over and Noah pushed emotion aside. Though he shouldn't touch the body before ERT arrived, he had to confirm the man was dead. And confirm the ident.i.ty.

Noah turned the body.

Colton Thayer.

Noah's relief that it wasn't Sean lasted only a moment.

"He's alive," Noah said. "Two bullets to the chest. Call an ambulance."

There were obvious signs of a fight in the area around Colton's body. Equipment had been tossed around-burner phones, earpieces, pieces of electronics. The fight had been loud enough to attract the attention of the guard. But where were the others? Where was Sean?

Noah pulled his knife out of its sheath and cut through Colton's jacket and s.h.i.+rt. One bullet was in his upper right shoulder, the other below it, to the right of his sternum. There was a lot of blood. Noah said to Suzanne, "Go back and get the emergency kit from the trunk. I have to stop the bleeding."

"I'm not leaving you when-"

"He could die! He's the only one who knows what happened here. Dammit, Suzanne, it's an order!"

Noah pushed his hands on the wounds. Colton gasped as he regained consciousness. He tried to talk.

"Hold still," Noah said.

"Sh-sh-sh-"

"Don't talk, Colton."

Was he trying to say "Sean"? Sean could be nearby. He could need medical attention. He could be dead.

"Skye," Colton whispered. "Sh-sh-"

"Where's Sean?"

Colton shook his head back and forth. His mouth moved, but no sound came out.

A scream cut through the trees. "Colton!"

Suzanne's voice: "FBI! Stop or I will shoot you!"

The woman stumbled and fell to her knees. Suzanne ran over and cuffed her.

"Carol," Colton mumbled.

"Suzanne, I need the bag," Noah said.

Suzanne walked the sobbing, cuffed woman over to them and dropped the bag next to Noah.

"OhmyG.o.d ohmyG.o.d ohmyG.o.d-"

"Shut up or I will put you in the car," Suzanne said. To Noah, "Ambulance is on its way. It was dispatched at the same time as the police call went out. ETA two minutes."

As Noah pulled out gauze and replaced his hands with the mesh, he heard a plane overhead. It sounded like a twin prop, not far away.

"Is there an airstrip nearby?" Suzanne asked.