Page 69 of Avenging Angel

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Owen asks me once he barges through the front door. “You might not like what you hear.”

Angel relieved my brother half an hour ago because Owen is the only one on our team authorized to question Kenneth with the full weight of the FBI behind him. Vinny will also be in the room as a representative of the CIA.

When we told Bennett that we wouldn’t wait for his arrival, he was less than pleased. He wanted to be the one to talk to Kenneth first, but since it’s going to take him a minimum of 20 hours to drive here, he was left with little choice but to concede. That’s time we don’t have to waste. He’d fly, but the risk of blood clots is too great.

“He said Eva was taken, and he needs our help to find her. She’s already been through enough, and I refuse to let her go through it again. I pray she’s still alive so we can find her.”

Owen embraces me, resting his chin on my head while I accept the comfort. “Then let’s go see what he knows.”

Kenneth looks up when we enter, but his eyes never leave mine. “Eva said I could trust you, then you shoot me?”

Owen steps in front of me in a protective gesture that’s unnecessary. “To be fair, it wasn’t Daisy who shot you, and it wasn’t life-threatening. The bullet wound in your arm came from someone else, which we have taken the liberty of cleaning and stitching for you. You’re right as rain now and free to leave any time you want.”

“What are you…?” I start to ask in a whisper when Owen reaches back to grab my arm. I take the hint that this is his show right now.

Vinny pushes off the wall, leaving Roger to play the disinterested party by typing something on his phone. “My friend is right; you can leave whenever you want. Just say the word. However, if you leave, you forfeit any help we can give you. But if you still want it, then we need to know everything you know. There’s no detail too small.”

I step out from behind my brother and circle around Kenneth. Bending down, I unlock his restraints. “Sorry about these. We didn’t know what kind of mood you would be in when you woke up. Since trust goes both ways, I’ll start with a show of faith by letting you go.”

Kenneth looks at me with a gaze that bores deep down into my soul, and I can see the pain of a father who has already lost so much. “There’s nowhere left for me to go. My last chance to find Dominion, to find my daughter, was Eva. She was the first, you know.”

“The first what? The first girl abducted?” Owen asks.

“The first success,” Kenneth replies. “I searched for my daughter, Brit, for three years before Eva found me sitting alone in a diner, contemplating if life was still worth living. And what she told me both destroyed me from the inside out while also giving me hope. Dominion Atrix Group takes girls from all over the world, drugs them, and then spends years brainwashing them into believing that the family they thought loved them never wanted them, that no one was searching for them.”

“And how does that give you hope?” Vinny asks.

“Because that means my daughter is still alive. I need to prove to Brit that she is still beloved and cherished. At first, all I wanted to do was find Brit. Now, I want to tear down Dominion until they’re nothing but a pile of rubble. Eva seemed to believe you could help her do that. They just take, and take, and take.”

I sit on the bunk bed next to Kenneth’s chair, grab his hand, and squeeze. “We’re on the same team; I promise you that. Our team is made up of former federal agents, mostly FBI and DEA. We have a former Army Ranger, Marine, police officer, and Air Force Pararescue, all of whom are trained in asset retrieval.”

“And the CIA,” Kenneth says. “I wasn’t entirely sure until I saw your friend, Officer Gray.”

Vinny admits that he and Angel are also CIA, though he’s about to retire and Angel has turned in his resignation. “We are assisting our friends in the disappearances of girls from national parks but aren’t here in an official capacity. As you know, the CIA cannot operate on U.S. soil unless it specifically involves counterterrorism operations and is working in tandem with other federal agencies.”

Owen nods. “Officer Gray has shared what he’s been allowed to. I find it interesting that he believes you work with a man by the name of Brad Callahan.”

“Officer Gray approached me five years ago when I was searching for Brit in the Saguaro National Park area, and I told him who I was, that I was Brit Larson’s father. That’s when he told me to go home, that I’d only get in the way.”

“But you didn’t,” I say.

“If your child went missing, would you?” Kenneth huffs and continues to explain. “A year later, he saw me at Mesa Verde National Park after Leilani Clark disappeared and accused me of kidnapping my daughter and being part of a human trafficking ring. He took me in for questioning, showed me a picture of some guy who worked for the park system, and said it couldn’t be a coincidence that I kept showing up within a week of that guy leaving. I assume that’s who you’re asking about, but I’d never heard of the man or seen him before in my life. Officer Gray didn’t like that answer, so I was held for a week in a dark room without food, given very little water, and questioned about what I knew of Dominion Atrix Group, which was absolutely nothing.”

“It’s no wonder you weren’t forthcoming with me when I asked you questions at the diner,” I say. “My tone was nearly as accusatory for the same reasons as Officer Gray’s because I’d seen you at Saguaro and Carlsbad Caverns. And while I was at Mesa Verde, my path didn’t cross with yours. Were you at Yellowstone two years ago, or North Cascades last October?”

“I was, but I had to hide my face. It’s hard to track someone when you know the CIA is watching you and waiting to pin another abduction on an innocent person. Eva found me sitting at a diner, head in my hands and all hope lost.”

Owen continues his line of questioning. “Did Eva Vidal tell you she is also Maarika Kivemäe, a woman who is wanted by the CIA for the murder of Estonian diplomat Andrus Saarenõlv?”

Kenneth nods once. “She did, but Eva didn’t do what the CIA is accusing her of.”

Owen snorts. “So she didn’t kill Andrus Saarenõlv? It was only her prints and DNA that were found at the crime scene.”

“Dominion framed her because she refused to kill him. Do you know what Dominion does to those girls? What they’re doing to my daughter while we sit here and play games?”

Roger looks up from his phone, which has been recording this entire conversation. “Why don’t you tell us?”

Kenneth looks at me. “According to Eva, Dominion spends years filling their victims with propaganda, photoshopped pictures of their families laughing and carrying on with life only days after they were abducted, and so many lies that they can no longer discern the truth. They’re isolated from human interaction, spoken to through speakers, and pumped with psychotomimetic drugs so they’ll be more receptive to those suggestions. Those like Eva, who believed in God, were told that the Lord abandoned them. If they were under the influence of the drugs, that voice would tell them that they’re not worthy. They were lab rats, Daisy. It took nearly three and a half years before Eva broke.”