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“There are circumstances you cannot understand.”
“That’s because you refuse to tell me.” I lifted my head, trying to keep my anger in check. “What are they?” When he didn’t say anything, I took long strides toward him. “I have top security clearance. I would think given that as well as what I was forced to endure, I would be allowed to learn the particulars.” I hadn’t realized the door to the main hallway had been opened, my father and two other men walking in, neither of whom I recognized.
“I thought it was time to interrupt,” my father said.
“Only if you’re going to provide answers. Is Cobra alive? Do you know where he and his team are?”
There was a look that passed between all four men that pissed me off. “The entity who planned your abduction has been eradicated, those aiding their attempts at destroying national security in custody.”
One of the men answered the question. I glared at him. “Who are you?”
He seemed uncomfortable.
“You can tell her,” my father said, his eyes never leaving me.
I could tell the man was pissed at being given orders.
“My name is Charles Broderick. I’m in charge of the division Jagger Stone works for. Rest assured, Ms. Adams, that all measures were taken to bring the soldiers home.”
“Who did this? Who set me up? Who killed innocent people in their efforts to get their hands on the formula? Yeah, I know. Russians. That tells me almost nothing.” I’d barely been able to work on the project, assured the new team had been thoroughly checked. At least Dane had told me the formula and every scrap of documentation had been protected, nothing leaking into enemy hands. Had that given me a level of comfort? Marginally. I’d been forced to place my trust in the hands of an entirely different set of scientists. Their reputations were stellar but I was still terrified this would happen again.
Mr. Broderick cleared his throat. “As you might imagine, secrecy is a key to keeping this technology from getting in the wrong hands. I will tell you that there’s been a plan in motion for several years, escalated by your father’s rise in power.”
Just as Cobra had predicted. “Tell me something I don’t already know.”
The four of them appeared as if I’d punched them in the gut.
“Anyone aiding the Russians is facing life in prison. Some of them could get the death penalty,” Dane offered.
“Excellent.”
“They will never see the light of day again,” Broderick stated.
“I believe it’s time for me to take it from here, gentlemen,” my father said.
“Yes, sir. We need to go over protocol for the upcoming election,” Dane told him. It would seem Dane had been pulled back into the good graces of my father’s regime. How special. I rolled my eyes.
“Later today,” my father insisted.
While Dane smiled as he looked at me once again, it was painfully obvious no one wanted to tell me the obvious.
Cobra was dead.
The ache inside increased, the terror of not knowing making me sick. Between finalizing the formula and worrying about Cobra, I’d been unable to eat or sleep. Nothing mattered to me any longer.
“One last question, gentlemen. Why did a decorated veteran like Jeremy betray his country?”
Dane was the only one with the balls to answer. “It’s called greed, Isabella.”
“I don’t buy that. He believed his country turned their backs on him. Even when he was pointing a gun at my head, I believed he felt betrayed himself. You should spend time developing a better system to allow the men and women who served this country, putting their lives on the line every day, to have a better reception after coming home. No matter the circumstances. Both he and Cobra were heroes, yet you chose to ignore everything they endured. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
My words wouldn’t matter but I felt I needed to say them. I turned away, unable to tolerate looking at their faces any longer.
When I heard the door close, I took a deep breath.
“You were a little hard on them,” my father said quietly.
“I wasn’t hard enough. I don’t know what happened or why Cobra wasn’t brought back home sooner, but what I do know is that both those men were tortured, whether by enemy hands or the terror they experienced. That’s unacceptable.”
