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She gave an unladylike snort of disgust. “If I don’t do this, you release the information, and CommTECH arrests me on suspicion of being in league with Freedom, just like my parents. If I do as you want me to do, CommTECH arrests me on suspicion of being in league with you and then finds out about my parents. Either way, the end result is the same—my parents and me in prison, waiting on death row. Like I said, I don’t win either way. So I think I’ll take my chances with not helping you.”
She folded her arms over that sexy little red dress, crossed her legs, and swung her sexy-as-hell stiletto shoe, like she didn’t have a care in the world. They were at an impasse. And to be honest, he was kind of impressed with her for putting them there.
“What makes you think they’ll find out we were there?” Striker said.
She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re planning either violence, theft, or sabotage. What else is there? Kind of hard to keep any of those a secret.”
Man, she was glorious. She had them over a barrel, and she knew it.
Until he caught Striker’s eye and a cold chill swept through him. Straightening away from the wall, he took a step toward his team leader, his best friend, the man who was like a brother to him and asked the question he dreaded hearing an answer to. “What have you done?”
Striker ran a hand over his smooth head. “We knew you wouldn’t like it—that’s why we kept you in the dark—but we already guessed where this might lead.” He looked at Keiko. “My wife is very smart, much smarter than the rest of us, and she figured there’d be a point in this negotiation where you realized it was a zero-sum game. She knew we’d have to have something else in reserve to sway your decision.” He let out a sigh. “She just didn’t know what we’d come up with, and I hope she never finds out…”
The screens flickered, and Keiko’s parents appeared in a live feed, larger than life, in front of them.
“Keiko?” her English mother called.
Her Japanese father leaned into the camera. “Are you okay?”
The elderly couple clung to each other, while behind them, two masked soldiers held guns pointed at their heads.
“No!” Keiko was on her feet, fury pouring from her. “Release my parents right now.”
Mace crossed the wide living area to stand at her back. He was furious with his team leader. “This wasn’t part of the plan. If Friday knew about this, she’d have your balls.”
Striker’s eye was hard. “And I’d explain to her the exact same thing I’m telling you—we do what is necessary to get the job done.”
Mace couldn’t believe his team had planned for this without telling him. He felt betrayed all over again. Only, instead of his government stabbing him in the back and leaving him for dead, this time the betrayers were the only family he’d ever known—his team.
“Her parents won’t be harmed if she does what we want,” Striker said. “You know that.”
Yeah, he got the message. Keiko’s parents were perfectly safe and wouldn’t be hurt—regardless of Keiko’s decision. This was all a bluff. Striker might be pushing the boundaries of their team, but he was telling him that there were still lines he wouldn’t cross. It didn’t ease Mace’s anger any. Keiko didn’t know that her parents were in no real danger. All she saw was the threat.
“Let them go,” she said. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
“No,” her father said. “Don’t put yourself in danger because of us. We never wanted our choices to affect you.” He shared a loving look with his wife. “It was one of the reasons we never told you about our allegiance.”
“Papa, I work for our government, and you’re in an organization that’s trying to tear it down. How could your choices not affect me?”
“We didn’t think anyone would find out,” her mother said. “We aren’t active. We don’t attack buildings or blow up things to get attention. We write research papers to help the Freedom leadership negotiate for a better future—for everyone.”
“It’s still a terrorist organization, Mom. You know what the penalty is for being a member of it. How could you put yourselves in danger like that?”
“You don’t understand,” her father said. “You think CommTECH is wonderful. You love the thrill of working there and being right in the center of history as it’s being made. But you don’t see the damage they cause. You only see the good
things. The things they want you to see. Having a business run a country isn’t good for the people. There’s a conflict of interest, because they will always care more about their interests than anything else. That’s why we need to go back to the old ways, to the time when people voted for their government leaders instead of letting the company with the most power lead them.”
“I don’t understand,” Keiko said. “I didn’t think you paid any attention to politics. I wasn’t even sure you knew who Freedom are.”
“My darling,” her mother said. “Just because I’m an archeologist and your father is a history professor doesn’t mean we aren’t aware of what’s going on in the present. In fact, we notice it more than most people, because we have a deeper understanding of how things used to be.”
“History can teach us many lessons,” her father added. “One of them is that countries shouldn’t be ruled by people who have their own profit in mind.”
“That’s why we got involved,” her mother said. “We saw the patterns repeating. It’s totalitarianism dressed up as capitalism, and people are getting lost in the system, used as cogs to further the cause of the machine. It’s all about profit. And that isn’t right.”
“But terrorists?” Keiko wiped away a tear that had escaped to roll down her cheek. Her parents were hurting her. Mace’s team had hurt her. Hell, he had hurt her. How much more disillusionment could one woman take before she broke?
“Freedom kills people,” she said. “They say it’s justified because they’re bringing about a better world, but they can’t describe what that world would look like. They want us to go back to a way of government that didn’t work. Democracy didn’t work. CommTECH helps people. And before you tell me I’m naive, I know they make a profit, too, but they govern well. I should know.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “How could you have lied to us all these years? Or does Hana know?”
