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“Don’t move,” whispered Luc. “If you move, they see that as aggression. You know what will happen next.”
“P-please,” he begged in a whisper.
“You lied to me,” said Angel, walking toward the table. “I told you that if you were helping your son, hiding him, that I would find out and come back for you. Who could have guessed that you came right to me.”
His face was beet red now, sweat pouring down his forehead and cheeks. His body was shaking with fear, and no matter how hard Riley tried, she couldn’t feel any sympathy for him at all.
“Where is your son?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I swear!” It was Trak that came next. Standing over the man with a mason jar full of fire ants. He began to unscrew the lid. “I beg of you.”
“Beg of me? You tortured children. Children. Because you weren’t man enough to attempt this with full-grown men who would have killed you.” Trak bent down, getting close to his perspiring face. “Do you know what I fear?”
Shaw shook his head, still staring at the jar of ants.
“I fear nothing except that good men will stand by and do nothing while evil men attempt to rule the earth. My fear barely exists any longer because I know a hundred men who will always do something. You will be stopped.”
“No! No, I will be known throughout history. Everyone will know my name!”
“Where is your son?” asked Riley again.
“I’m not sure. Either at our home on the other side of the lake or a rental property that we own on Lake Borgne.”
“Why were you doing this? You know that you can’t print the study and the findings. No one would allow it. Why?”
“We were paid to do it.”
“By whom?” asked Riley.
“The North Koreans. General Jung Tse Cao. They want to create soldiers who are afraid of nothing. Soldiers that will persist and persevere no matter the circumstances.”
“Except it will fail,” growled Ghost.
“No! No, we’ve proven it will succeed.”
“It will fail, you fool. You might make them less afraid, but a superior soldier feels fear. If he doesn’t, he loses himself and his humanity. You and your psychotic son are creating robotic murderers. Or, I should say, you were creating them.”
“We will succeed!”
Trak unscrewed the cap completely, dumping the waiting ants onto the sweet slice of pie. They swarmed between the pie and Shaw’s hands as the man screamed in agony. The fiery pests biting to take their grip. As they released their venom, the poison of a thousand ants flushed through the man’s body.
Riley stood from the table, staring at him as the signs of anaphylaxis began. His eyes pleaded for help.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m allowed to choose whom I treat. I choose not to treat you.”
She kissed her husband’s cheek, taking Leif’s hand as they walked out the back of the café and toward the clinic. Doc waited to examine the man, once they were sure he was dead. They would call an ambulance and let them know that he appeared to have fallen into a fire ant bed.
Thirty minutes later, the coroner removed the body of Dr. Bob Shaw, Sr. By the time the incident was done, Code had located Dr. Bob Shaw, Jr.
“He’s at the lake house. Alone.”
“Make sure he stays,” said Gaspar. “Use the new gunfire drone and blow out his tires. He won’t go anywhere.” Gaspar grinned at his teammates, and Nine nodded.
“This is gonna be fun.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
He tried for a third time to call his father, the phone going straight to voicemail. That little shit grad student bailed on him, running off as soon as they’d hit shore.
