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“You are not cleared to go to Mumbai, Danes! You hear me? You’re staying where I put you and that’s final! Dammit! I knew I should have sent youhome.”
“Excuse me?” Sent her home? What the hell had she done to this guy to make him treat her with such blatant disrespect? “Why are you doing this, Director? I’ve worked my ass off on thiscase!”
“No, Danes. And that’sfin—”
“If you want the recognition for the capture you can have it sir, but you can’t take a chance like this and let thatgirl—”
“Do not—!” She cringed when she heard his growl, followed by another long string of inaudible curses. “Listen to me carefully, Danes. This isn’t the only intel we have coming in. You don’t know everything we’re dealing withhere.”
“And whose fault is that, sir? Youwon’t—”
“Rebecca.”
Her steps faltered, her frantic pacing back and forth in front of the van snapping to a screeching halt. He’d never called her Rebecca. She didn’t think he even knew her first name. As strange as it was to hear him say it, it was the sudden change in his voice, the silky command in his tone that had the fine hairs at the base of her skull prickling against her neck.What the hell?A funny sort of tumble tickled her insides at the sound of her name being spoken with such intensity. They had exchanged more words in the last five minutes than they had the entire time she’d worked for him, and still, the familiarity in his voice felt… astonishinglyintimate.
“Rebecca?”
Holy hell, he did it again.This time she could hear a hint of laughter in his tone. A superior sort of chuckle that said he knew exactly what he was doing to her. She leaned against the front of the van, ignoring the flush of embarrassment that colored her face. “Uh, yes sir. I’mhere.”
“I need you to trust me.” His whispered plea pulled at something buried deep inside her and shredded her will to argue, obliterating every cold, indifferent image she’d ever had of him.Trust him?It made no sense, but she wanted to believehim.
“What aboutthe—?”
“Rebecca, I don’t…I will not beg you. Get back in the van and stay there. Am I clear?” To her frustration, her mouth snapped shut, another warm wave lapping at her frayed nerves, simultaneously calming and annoying the hell out ofher.
“Yes, sir.” The line went silent before her reluctant capitulation had been ground out, her jaw aching with the effort it took not to scream the words at him.Trust him?She stomped to the side of the van, Larry’s cellphone clutched in her hand.Rebecca.Even through a haze of dissatisfaction with his request, she could still hear her name in that rich, commanding tone. How could one man,thatman, forever change the sound of hername?
“We havemovement.”
Rebecca crashed into the bucket seat next to Larry. He seemed to have survived Daniel’s wrath with his head still intact, but she could sense a tangible animosity rolling off him in waves. Believing it would be better for everyone if she ignored it for now, she slipped on a spare headset and plugged into the server, adjusting the mic as Larry pointed at something on thescreen.
“There! Movement on the rooftop of the building next to the secondarylocation.”
Rebecca tapped the screen and zoomed it in on the dark figure crouched at the edge of the five story building. “That’s Grant Kendal. Diver, do you have a live link tohim?”
“I have a primary connection to a mobile he picked off one of Jauhar’s men, but I can’t run a direct patch to you and keep the secure link. You’re going to have to talk through me if you have intel, but I can’t guarantee he’ll respond. He’s not in a real chattymood.”
“We need to see what’s going on in that building.” There were no lights visible from any of the closed windows. Their intel said it was an apartment building, but she saw no sign of movement, inside or out. “Diver, has Jauhar’s signal moved since you ran thetrace?”
“No, but…give me a second and I might be able to make all your wishes come true.” Unless he had Jauhar in cuffs and a cure for stupidity, she highly doubted it. A series of beeps sounded in the background. Without warning, a blood curdling scream exploded from the speakers, followed by a cocktail of evil male laughter. “I’ve got it! I’m inside the building.” Her head snapped up to see Daniel, his face void of blood as he crumbled to hisknees.
“Jesus, what the hell are they doing to her?” Daniel covered his ears, his face twisting in agonizing rage at the horrific sounds they had suddenly been patched into. Larry’s hands flew to the keyboard, his fingers frantically typing out a message to who she hoped was Director Keller. They had to go in.Now!
Rebecca reached up and flipped off the external speakers, the van going quiet except for the echo of more screams bleeding through the headsets. “We don’t know if that’sher.”
Turning away, she focused on the monitors. She couldn’t let the sheer terror on Daniel’s face distract her. “Diver, I need a visual!” She had to be able to see what the hell they were going into. Orders or no orders, there was no way in hell she was going to stand by and donothing.
“I’m trying!” By the frenzied tone in Diver’s voice, he was pushed to his limits. She would push him over the cliff if that’s what it took. “They’re using a femtocell to boost their signals. I’ve hacked into the booster to get audio from one of the cellphones inside, but I have to find the exact code to patch into the phone’s video application. Even then, it’s only for one cellphone. I’m only getting this because someone is accessing the signal. As soon as they hang up I’ll lose the feed until someone else dials out. It’s like playing cellphoneroulette.”
“I don’t care how you do it. Get me inside that building!” Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement on one of the monitors. “Diver, tell Grant to stand down until we have avisual.”
Diver laughed, followed by a series of strained coughs. “Sorry, not happening. You haven’t worked with him long, haveyou?”
“I’ve got twenty more minutes with her!” The growled objection rumbled through the headsets and everyone inside the van froze.Who is that?She mouthed to Larry as if they could somehow hear her if she spokealoud.
“You’re time is up, my friend. The American is here.” The blood in Rebecca’s veins ran cold as Jauhar’s voice echoed in her ears. “Wake up, pet. You havecompany.”
“What’s going on?” Daniel pushed his way between her and Larry and held his ear next to hers as they listened for more. She held up one finger and shook her head. One look at the man and she could see he was on the verge of a completemeltdown.
