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King hung over the man’s shoulder. Melanie and Julian stood by, eyes downcast, shutting down external signals, hoping not to be noticed. He swung around upon Melanie. “Have they said anything?”
Melanie’s hands lifted to the ear-buds in her ears. “Nothing new. No conversation. The McCloud who got wounded is just groaning.”
“Good.” King was glad the son of a bitch had taken a bullet. Let him ache and throb and bleed until he died. King wished him a nasty strain of antibiotic-resistant staph to gnaw at his suppurating wound for a few agonizing days before that happy event.
“I have it!” Hobart’s voice was tight with excitement. “They’re in a self-storage facility, outside Newark!”
King peered down at the screen, at the satellite shot of the McCloud brothers’ vehicle. As he watched, the door opened, and a man in a black knit cap got out. He went to the back of the SUV, opened it. Then opened the door of the unit. He returned to the car, seized a long, limp bundle. It did not move. “Is she alive?” he demanded.
“Vitals all strong,” Hobart said.
The man dragged Zoe into the unit, and came back out, locking it. He got back into the vehicle. Melanie’s hands flashed to the ear-buds.
“Put the sound on the external speakers!” King snapped.
Hobart pushed buttons. Sound blared out, fuzzy and distorted.
“…to the emergency room before I bleed to death, goddamnit!”
“Yeah, we’ll go, OK? We had to stash her first. She’d be hard to explain parked outside the Urgent Care if she started to squeak. And I want a crack at her before we deliver her to the cops, so you can—”
“What the fuck do I care? I want to plug this hole!”
“Calm down. I’ll take you to the Urgent Care, and then I’ll come back and have a chat with monster chick. We’re gonna get friendly.”
“Tell me about it after,” the wounded McCloud snarled. “I’m hemorrhaging!”
“That’s not hemorrhaging. It was a richochet, OK? Stop being such a pussy. I’ve gone out clubbing after worse than that.”
“Yeah, and I want stitches and an IV antibiotic, so drive the fucking car…now.”
No talk after that, just grumbling, and the sound of the engine revving. The vehicle began to move. The screen showing the RF frequency bleeping from the chip embedded in Zoe’s clavicle remained stationary, in the storage unit. The one in Zoe’s cell phone and the one in Rosa Ranieri’s cell, which her adopted nephew had conveniently taken, began to move. King watched the vehicle until it pulled into the covered area attached to the administrative office of the storage facility, and was lost to sight. He calculated the timing. Came to a decision.
“Hobart, Julian,” he said. “Go retrieve her.”
Hobart’s eyes widened. “But I thought—“
“Plans change. Her com device is with them. She’s immobilized, probably unconscious, so she wouldn’t be able to fulfill a level Ten command even if I could deliver one. And I don’t want her interrogated.”
Melanie piped up, her voice anxious. “Sir, I could go with Hobart. I have more experience than Julian. He hasn’t even completed his final training, and if the McCloud comes back before we—”
“Your combat skills are not up to a McCloud. Julian’s are superior to yours. Do not presume to question me again.”
Melanie’s face turned crimson. All three operatives were frozen, inert. “For God’s sake!” he roared. “Move!”
Hobart and Julian scuttled out of the room. In the silence that followed, King heard choked sobs.
His teeth clenched. His hands fisted. He carefully did not look at Melanie, so as not to lose control completely.
How had a specimen so defective, so inferior, managed to get through his culls? He was tempted to initiate the sniveling cunt’s mortal command sequences then and there. He forced himself to stop. He was down to a bare minimum of three functioning agents, one of who was not even fully trained. He’d called back others from outside assignments, but it would be a days before they came home.
He could get rid of Melanie when his ranks of attendants swelled to an acceptable number. Until then, distasteful though it was, he needed her. Which meant he had to hold his nose, and manage her.
He softened his voice. “Melanie. Forgive my sharp tone. It’s an act, for Hobart and Julian’s benefit. Would you really want to leave me all alone here, with no one to back me up? As you so intelligently pointed out, Julian hasn’t even completed his training program. Call me selfish, but if I’m going to have the support of only one sole operative, it has to be the best one.” He gave her a conspiratorial smile. “And you can imagine why I can’t say that in front of the others. Can’t you?”
Melanie blinked away her tears. Her face illuminated. She stood up straighter, with a tremulous smile. “Of course, sir.”
“Come here, Melanie,” he said, keeping his voice soft.
