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“Return my niece to me by midnight tonight, or I’ll take another life. A much more annoying life.”
“Let me go! Let me go!” yelled the voice.
Nate’s head immediately came up, staring at the face of Harlow. She seemed relatively unharmed, only a small bruise on her jaw.
“A life for a life. It’s as simple as that. Meet me in Bluetown, Texas. I warn you, it’s a small population, and any strangers will be seen as enemies to these people. There is a ranch at the border between Bluetown and the Mexican border on Bluetown Pump Station Road. You’ll recognize it because it has my name on it. Be there by midnight, or the girl will die. And if you think I’ll stop there, you’re wrong. I’ll kill a woman a day until you bring me my niece.”
The film ended abruptly, and Nate stood, headed toward the door.
“Rory,” called Cam. Rory and Tailor stood in front of the door, but Nate glared at the two men.
“Don’t make me do this,” he said.
“Don’t make us do this, brother. Stay calm. You can’t help that girl if you go off half-cocked by yourself. You know better. You were trained better.”
“Get out of my way,” he sneered.
“Nate,” whispered his father behind him.
“Don’t, Dad. Don’t try to stop me. I will not let that girl fall into his hands any longer than necessary!”
“Nathan!” The entire room stopped, turning to stare at the face of Trak. He never raised his voice. Never. “Sit. Down.”
Nate stared at his grandfather, then turned and took his seat once more. Trak walked down to him, standing in front of him.
“This is not the way of the warrior. We will get the girl, but we will do it without risk to ourselves and her. Follow your leaders.” Nate nodded, but he was dying a little inside.
“I have to go,” said Lyra. “I have to go and trade myself for that girl.”
“No. No fucking way,” said Abe. “We can’t let that happen. He’ll kill you.”
“He won’t kill me,” she said, staring at the room. “You’re the professionals. You saw it. He wants something from me, and it has nothing to do with Quetz any longer. He’s dead, and my uncle knew that. There is something else he wants.”
“We’ll do this our way, Lyra. We may need you to go with us, but we do it our way. You’ll be protected at all times. No one goes off on their own in rogue fashion.” She nodded, and Luke turned back to Pigsty. “What does this ranch look like?”
“This is the layout,” he said, putting a map on the screen. “You can see that the main house is facing the road, but it’s deceptive. It’s pretty far back from the main road and surrounded by fencing. There’s a large barn and what appears to be a bunkhouse. Back here, we see another entrance to an underground bunker. At least, that’s what we think it is.”
“Wait,” said Lyra. “This doesn’t make any sense at all. My uncle hated the country. He has terrible allergies and hay fever. He doesn’t like animals. We rarely had guard dogs, and when we did, he made them stay outside the house. I thought that was cruel. He wouldn’t want to be at a ranch. Why is he there?”
“I don’t know,” said Dex, “but I think we travel with the big dogs. Not you, Alec and Tailor. The real big dogs.”
“We are the real big dogs,” frowned Alec. The others just shook their heads at the banter.
“He could be hiding anything there, honey,” said Abe. “It could be a weapons stash, drugs, women, anything.”
“Technology,” she whispered.
“What did you say?” asked Hiro.
“He was trying to take the technology off that submarine and sell it to the highest bidders, or Russia, or North Korea, or whoever. Right?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe he’s hiding other technology there. It’s close to the border, close to the Gulf. He could get it moved out quickly.”
“Jesus, that’s brilliant,” smiled Hex.
“Hiro, check with the DOD and see if anything of value is missing. Specifically, ask them about technology or anything we created or sold them. We experienced this once before, and they neglected to tell us that the shipments were stolen.”
