A program that assured compliance.
Nine years ago, Josie had passed without a whimper, convincing the Fras she was unbreakable, not showing a hint of weakness until she arrived at Vestavia's home hours later. The only time he'd ever seen Josie break down into tears had been afterward when she'd walked into his waiting arms.
She was strong, brilliant, and dedicated.
She would not fail him or she'd find out what the Fras had put her through would feel like a day at the spa compared to his sanction.
GABRIELLE MADE THE last step down into the basement meeting room and hesitated to go farther until Carlos stepped down right behind her. He barely touched her back with his fingers to prod her into movement. She took a breath and walked forward.
Centering the roughly twenty-foot-wide-by-thirty-foot-long room was a rectangle-shaped, black-lacquer conference table polished to a high gloss that seated ten. The two men and the woman who had arrived just minutes ago sat in plush almond-colored leather chairs. Both men were on the left side, peering at a laptop monitor.
In any other setting, the mahogany panels on the walls would give the room a warm and inviting feel.
The only female had positioned herself on the right, across from the men. At five feet eight flat-footed, she wore a pair of jeans like a runway model, her honey-brown hair cropped short and curt, much like her attitude had been upstairs.
"Have a seat there." Carlos pointed at the closest chair for Gabrielle, which was next to the female.
If he thought placing her beside this Amazon would raise her anxiety level...he was right, but not enough to force her into capitulating easily. Not yet.
She sat down and folded her hands in her lap.
Carlos introduced the other three, first names only, then sank into a chair at the head of the table on her left. "First, what's your real name, Gabrielle?"
"I told you I'm Gabrielle Parker."
"Cut the lies."
The steel edge of Carlos's words sliced her to the bone. She clutched her hands so tightly her nails were biting her soft palms. Guess the nice-guy routine was over and gone.
Gabrielle had moved to the States to insulate her family and wouldn't expose them now. And she had to protect her contacts in South America from being discovered, especially after the mistake she'd made that had exposed her identity.
"I want a lawyer." Gabrielle wished she'd said that with more force.
"We don't bother with lawyers." Rae gave that bit of scary news in a British accent and added an evil chuckle.
No lawyers. Next idea. Gabrielle did have contacts at the British embassy who could help her and might vouch for her, since she was technically a citizen of the United Kingdom-another layer placed between her and her family in France. But that would create as many problems as pointing out that she was the daughter of a government official in France. Any try for diplomatic immunity would jeopardize her father's position and place his new family at risk.
She'd have to find her own way out of this mess.
And if the media were tipped off about what she'd been doing for the past ten years, ruining her father's reputation would be the least of her problems. Durand Anguis would find her immediately and retaliate in a heinous way, maybe harm her family.
But she hadn't been raised by a woman with a steel will just to fold over at the first sign of a crisis.
"Okay, if I'm not Gabrielle Parker, then who am I?" She'd built a solid background for Gabrielle Parker. That alone should take them a while to disentangle from all the layers she'd created to protect her identity.
"Gotthard, you get everything from headquarters, including my report?" Carlos said to the wide-body chap working at the laptop.
"Yes. Downloading the preliminary documents now."
"What documents?" Gabrielle asked, her hands clammy all of a sudden.
Carlos met her gaze with an unreadable one. "From running your fingerprints for starters."
Her fingerprints? Could this bunch have a resource at Interpol? Maybe. Probably. How fast could they confirm her true identity? Gabrielle frantically tried to figure out how much she should tell them. If she didn't tell them the truth and they found out first on their own, they'd never believe anything else she said.
Gotthard shook his head. "Nothing yet from our files. Still waiting on international replies."
Did they really have access to international records or were they bluffing?
Gabrielle clenched her hands together, fearful and furious. Carlos had taken her fingerprints while she slept. What else had he done? Besides humiliating me when he ordered me to get out of his sight in the bedroom? She was no beauty queen, but no man had ever ordered her to cover her body.
She studied him with new eyes, those of a woman who had trusted too quickly again.
"Who are your contacts?" Carlos asked with chilling quiet.
"If I am who you accuse me of being, do you really think I would put a resource in danger when you have yet to tell me who you work for?" she answered with a frigid reserve her mother would have been proud of.
Carlos crossed his arms. "Not like you have a lot of choices right now, is it?"
Her stomach churned. Acting compliant hadn't worked, so what could she lose by going on the offensive?
This was the United States after all. Individual rights had to be respected. Everyone answered to someone. She just had to figure out who that someone was for this bunch of operatives.
"You think not?" Her choices were admittedly dwindling, but agreeing out loud would only feed the arrogance permeating the room. "I can assure you my resources will bring the hammer down on any division of U.S. intelligence when they find out you've kidnapped me," Gabrielle charged, hoping she sounded as threatening as the Amazon next to her.
Carlos didn't so much as blink. "Go ahead. I don't care if you get the CIA in hot water. We're not the CIA, FBI, or any other acronym you might know."
Her indignant glower faltered, but she held on to enough anger to counter his attitude. "If you are an intelligence agency, I'll tell you whatever I can, but I'm in no mood to play semantics after last night. Whoever you are, I'll have your head on a pike for kidnapping me."
Carlos gave her a wry smile. "No, you won't. You may not even leave here a free person, and you sure as hell aren't getting near a phone you can operate anytime soon."
Okay, that severely limited her options. They acted like some form of intelligence or security operation, but they didn't use legal tactics. Of course, she doubted the CIA or MI6 would either. She hadn't been shoved into a chair and had a spotlight shone in her eyes, but that was so over-the-top American Hollywood she wouldn't have expected it either.
But neither had anyone pulled out a badge to prove they had the right to hold her. She'd point out that lack of protocol if she didn't believe they would laugh her out of the room.
"Then who are you people? Who do you work for?" she asked.
"I told you, we protect national security, but this organization doesn't exist as far as the United States government or any other government is concerned." Rich black lashes brushed Carlos's cheek with each slow, patient blink. "And, if that isn't enough to convince you that cooperating is in your best interest, no one knows we have you and we have the power to hand you over to any country that produces documents proving they have reason to prosecute you. Plus, we have the ability to provide any documentation to assist them."
Uh-oh. She'd run across some bizarre groups while entering different agency mainframes, but hadn't planned on a rogue bunch. Whom were they aligned with...or against?
Were they truly part of the American defense mechanism?
Dreadful as this was, it could be worse. She could be facing Durand Anguis, who wouldn't ask questions in so civilized a manner. Continuing to deny her identity for much longer was too risky since the fingerprints would turn up her last name as Saxe if they did indeed have access to international databases. Admitting that much might stop them from searching further an
d drawing her father into this.
"I'm Gabrielle Saxe," she finally admitted.
Silence invaded the room.
She waited for some acknowledgment. None.
An interrogation tactic? Most likely. Her skin chilled at facing an uncertain future.
She glanced at Carlos, and for a brief moment she could swear worry slipped into his gaze. Was it a sincere emotion or just part of his professional routine?
Whom was she kidding? He didn't care. This was his job.
"That's correct," Gotthard finally confirmed. "Just got the results of the search."
She let out a breath, glad she'd jumped ahead of the report coming back. That was too close.
"What exactly do you do all day?" Rae interjected.
"I use my computer skills to keep an eye on groups that threaten world peace," Gabrielle said. That had a positive spin, not too much and nothing they could call a lie.
"Who do you work for?" Rae asked.
"No one. I'm financially secure."
"Wait a minute." Korbin tapped a finger on the shiny obsidian surface of the table, then stared at her, eyes squinted. "Gabrielle Saxe, as in the Gabrielle Saxe that married Roberto Delacourte years back? The actor who knocks down about twenty-five million a movie?"
"Yes. We were married...for six months."
"That explains the financially secure part," Rae quipped.
"I have my own money." Gabrielle rarely discussed her finances, never in fact, but Rae had made it sound as though she'd been a gold-digging groupie. She'd been taken by Roberto's sexy smile and charm, but she'd never wanted anything but to be loved by him. In the end, she'd realized she'd rushed into marriage out of loneliness. He'd lied to her from day one, playing her like the naive fool she'd been back then.
She'd been faithful every miserable day of those six months, too. Every painful day.
Murmuring erupted in the room.
Carlos raised his hand. The room quieted immediately. "We're not interested in your tabloid love life, Gabrielle. You've established that you can afford to sit around all day playing on the computer."
Tabloid love life? Playing on the computer? She clamped her teeth so hard they clicked.
"But you have yet to explain how you know about the Anguis," Carlos continued. "Your blanket 'I want to help world peace' statement isn't going to fly. You've broken enough laws in enough places to end up in prison somewhere. If you don't have anything significant to share at this point, we might let you choose which country you'd prefer to be prosecuted in."
Could he really do that? Gabrielle knew a great deal about international law, having studied that on her own, and had felt relatively certain she'd covered her tracks well enough to never get caught. But this group had found her and possessed electronic evidence to prove what she'd done.
She had no training to deal with situations like this. Or yesterday. Understatement.
"Fine, I admit I'm Mirage." She leaned around, speaking to all of them. "Since I'm the one who shared information to begin with, I think it only fair you tell me what happened to Mandy." All of this had happened because she'd tried to help a young woman in trouble. "If you found me, then you have to know what happened to her. Was she rescued?"
Carlos wanted to shake some sense into Gabrielle. Hadn't she figured out her game was up and she had no more moves left? "We ask questions and you answer them. Understand?"
Gabrielle had been taking deep breaths and speaking calmly as if buying time to gather her thoughts and guarding her tone. But she answered through clenched teeth this time.
"I'm trying to cooperate, but if you want any answers from me, you'll at least tell me if Mandy is safe. She's the reason I took a risk that landed me here." Gabrielle held her posture as rigid as a school principal in a room filled with faces lacking compassion, but Carlos could see her hands clasped in her lap. White-knuckled.
She maintained that same regal calm in the face of the threat he'd lobbed at her about handing her over to a country that would prosecute her.
Damn if he didn't admire her spirit and backbone.
Her intense violet-blue eyes searched his for something. A degree of help or support?
Not now.
That silent reply must have come across loud and clear when disappointment dulled her bright gaze. She changed body language faster than most women switched shoes. Rattled earlier, then hurt, she now seemed determined to shield her emotions from everyone, or specifically him. To hide that she was terrified of her precarious future. She was wasting her time. She couldn't cloak the vulnerability he'd already witnessed that was eating at his insides.
He didn't want to feel anything for her, but those gorgeous eyes meeting his televised both compassion and fear for Mandy. The mistake would be allowing himself to see Gabrielle as anything other than what she was-a player in a deadly game.
One who should be answering questions to save her own butt.
Instead, she was worried about Mandy. So was he.
"Gotthard," Carlos said. "Got an update on Mandy?"
The air sobered with apprehension for the young girl.
"Mandy went into a coma from blood loss-" Gotthard read further, then finished with "Bottom line, she's still alive."
A collective release of sighs filled the room.
"A coma?" Gabrielle gasped. "What went wrong? Who screwed up the rescue?" She'd winged that at the whole room.
Anger visibly bristled in response to the criticism.
She blew all her sympathy points with that outburst.
"Look, Gabrielle." Carlos was not reining in his temper one inch. She'd leaped over a line into the proverbial fire. "We went wheels up twenty minutes after receiving your last message and made a HAHO jump into the French Alps at night during a damn blizzard to save Mandy." He'd leaned forward, stabbing his index finger against the desk on each point. "If we'd gotten the information sooner, we might have reached her before she broke a glass to cut her wrists. You're in no position to question anything my team did and had better start giving answers if you hope to ever see daylight again."
Carlos straightened away from her and crossed his arms to wrestle his calm back in place. He'd wonder for the rest of his life where he could have shaved minutes that might have put the team on-site faster. He would not, however, allow another person, particularly a civilian-a suspected felon-to criticize his team.
Gabrielle opened her mouth to speak, but he didn't give her a chance.
"Back to our questions," he snapped. "How did you know Mandy was being kidnapped or who the kidnappers were?"
Her rosy cheeks lost color, but he would not be swayed this time. Carlos questioned if Gabrielle was as vulnerable as he'd first thought or just a damn impressive actress.
"Guest arriving," announced from a hidden speaker in the room.
Who the hell was coming now? Had Joe traveled that fast?
Carlos turned to Gabrielle, whose face had washed out to the color of sand on a beach. If she didn't give them something soon, she'd be facing Joe. Or worse. Tee.
TEN
CARLOS NODDED at Korbin, who reached over to lift a remote sitting on a low, black-lacquer cabinet along the wall. He punched keys to activate the flat screen, generating an image from the camera covering the driveway.
A red Ducati Monster S4R motorcycle slashed through the gate.
"Why is he here?" Carlos asked the room in general.
"Don't know." Korbin clicked off the screen image and dropped the remote on the cabinet. "Joe said we had one more coming, so Hunter must be it."
The door upstairs opened and closed with quiet civility that fit one particular agent. Bootheels thumped down the steps.
Carlos turned to Hunter Wesley Thornton-Payne III, who always managed to piss Carlos off without even opening his aristocratic mouth. Carlos detested aristocrats, anyone who believed bloodline granted you unearned respect.
Hunter angled his chin in that I'm-so-much-better-than-you-miscreants way that made Carlos
want to test the arrogant agent in the barrio after midnight where attitude wouldn't save his ass. They'd use Hunter's blond hair to scrub the brick walls.
Ex-CIA or not.
"Morning, Rae, Korbin, Gotthard." Hunter lifted his chin to each, who nodded in return. Then he took in Gabrielle and shifted his gaze to Carlos. "I take it this is Mirage."
Carlos nodded.
"What have I missed?" Hunter eyed Gabrielle once more before he stepped past her to sit on the other side of Rae.
Carlos nodded at Gotthard, giving him the floor.
Gotthard leaned back from hunching over the laptop and faced Hunter. "Mandy is alive, but in a coma, and fingerprints confirm this is Gabrielle Saxe of Versailles, France."
"What have you got, Hunter?" Carlos crossed his arms, sending his best silent message of "Just give me the facts without the attitude."
"If she is our informant, she's no amateur," Hunter began. "She bounced that post through at least two different compromised servers. She might have hacked them herself or just bought them from one of the big hacker groups on an IRC network like Freenode or EFnet. I almost didn't find the address." A hint of respect and irritation entered his arrogance. "We had a forty-eight-hour window of authorization to monitor network traffic going to or from the compromised computer at a waste-disposal plant in Russia. The minute she replied to my post about the babe being in danger, we had her."
"I should have known that was a trap," she muttered.
Gotthard raised his wide head to face Hunter, deep furrows of concentration carving the bridge of his nose. "Was there any evidence on that Russian server, maybe something that might indicate who she's working with?"
Not much for the techno side of this business, Carlos enjoyed anytime someone who was an electronic wizard tweaked Hunter. And Carlos doubted that had even been Gotthard's intention.
"I'm not working with anyone," Gabrielle interjected.
No one so much as blinked her way in acknowledgment.
Carlos might have suffered a weak moment for her last night, but he knew better than to believe anything she offered now. She could have told him her real name was Saxe last night.
"Let's just say I was thorough." Hunter angled his head slowly at Gotthard and pursed his lips with just enough vigor to let everyone present know he felt imposed upon to answer. "The origination point was a private IP that belonged to I. M. Agoste." He pronounced the last name with a heavy accent on the hard e. A smile of triumph glimmered on his too perfect lips.