"What?" Rae squinted in thought, tapping her pen against a notebook she'd been writing in. "I'm A. Ghost?" She paused, thinking, then nodded. "Bloody well is since you know she wouldn't use a real name."
"The puzzle queen's got you there, Hunter." Humor lifted one eyebrow and the corner of Gotthard's stern mouth.
Carlos smothered a chuckle. That son of a gun Gotthard had been poking at Hunter after all. The pompous agent's smile dissolved into a flat line. Getting one up on the never-wrong Hunter was a favorite pastime among the team.
"Gabrielle will now tell us how she knows Mandy and how she found out so much about the kidnapping." Not ready to play hardball just yet, Carlos coaxed, "This will go much easier if you cooperate."
The spark of anger she'd fired up earlier had dissipated, leaving a graceful statue, breathing so softly the material clinging to her breasts hardly moved.
He knew without a doubt she wore no bra. Don't look there.
His sigh came out tired. Anyone capable of hacking past firewalls should be bright enough to realize when she was getting a break. He hadn't threatened her...yet. "Gabrielle-"
"From a postale card."
Carlos gave her a dubious look. "I sent a scan of that postcard to headquarters this morning." He cut his eyes at Gotthard, then Hunter. "Anything back from decoding?"
The look of surprise that rolled into disappointment Gabrielle gave him shouldn't have cut, but he felt it just the same. Had she thought just because of what happened yesterday and last night he wouldn't search every possession she had?
"I got a text the postcard is indecipherable," Hunter interjected. "If that's all she has to offer, I say we call security and be done with her."
That got Gabrielle's attention. "I can explain the message on the card."
"Then explain," Carlos ordered.
"It's in code," Gabrielle said, glancing at everyone. Not a face around the table registered belief.
Gotthard rubbed a finger across one eye and read further. "I'm online with the decoding department right now. Nothing from the Monster." He looked at Gabrielle and simply said, "Our supercomputer."
Carlos stepped around Korbin and opened the low cabinet. He withdrew the postcard and a stack of copies he'd made of it for the meeting, then passed the copies to the BAD agents.
Gabrielle cringed when she realized one major downside she hadn't considered. The postage stamp indicated the card had been mailed a couple weeks ago.
Carlos raised a gaze flooded with suspicion. "Who sent this?"
Stalling wasn't helping her. Gabrielle accepted that she had to give him something for any hope of getting a break with this group. "A girl I knew in school a long time ago. She disappeared before I graduated. That card was the first time I've heard from her in eleven years."
Carlos tapped a finger on the table in a silent rhythm.
Sound bizarre? Welcome to her world for the past forty-eight hours.
"I'm in no mood to ask twenty questions to get one answer," Carlos warned quietly. Distant and foreboding. Nothing like the seductive vibration she'd experienced from his sleep-roughened voice this morning.
He sat forward, close enough for her to smell his fresh shower and resent him for shoving her thoughts off track. "If you continue to lie, you won't like how this ends."
The whispered threat should have sent a shock of fear scurrying along her spine, and on some level it did, but she'd survived the unimaginable yesterday. That she sat here alive gave her strength and resolve to fight her way out of this, too.
Besides, showing emotions would be perceived as a weakness these operatives would exploit any way they could.
"I am not lying," she told Carlos in a tone intended to allow no room for dispute.
"Really? So you what?" Carlos sighed. He lifted his hand, palm up, as he turned to her. "Got a postcard from a long-lost girlfriend who figured you were the one and only person who could help an American diplomat's daughter being kidnapped?"
Sure, that sounded ridiculous, but he wanted the truth. "You ask me questions, then refuse to believe what I tell you. If you don't like my answers, don't ask questions."
Smooth eyebrows lowered over the two narrowed black slits with thick lashes. Carlos stood and paced away, fingers absently massaging his neck. He dropped his hand. Anger rippled off him so thick the air should have clogged the vent system.
Her heartbeat jumped in the silence.
"Why didn't you just contact the FBI or CIA?" Hunter asked.
She swiveled, pushing her gaze past Rae to take in the cocky new arrival. His burgundy turtleneck sweater created a beautiful base for a living bust of perfection she had no doubt women adored. He sat in profile, elbow on the table, head propped on his palm. Elegant golden hair styled just the right length to be daring, yet civilized.
She knew his kind all too well and was not impressed.
"That would have put Mandy at greater risk," Gabrielle answered, shifting back to address the whole room. "The FBI and CIA would have thought it was a hoax or just locked me up until they figured out if I was mentally imbalanced, which might have cost Mandy her life. Those agencies tend to act quicker if they believe they gained the information from a credible source. I think it's fair to say Mirage is known as a credible resource." Sure that had been snippy, but she'd earned that right.
"Who sent the card?" Korbin asked.
A fair question, but one Gabrielle really did not want to answer. "I told you, a girl at my school."
"What did you say yesterday?" Carlos asked her. "Don't be obtuse. We want the girl's full name."
ELEVEN
GABRIELLE STOOD AT the crossroads to her future and a chance of saving Linette. Tell Carlos Linette's name or not?
Would she put her friend in greater jeopardy by sharing her identity? Could these people possibly find Linette? Her friend was already in danger or at the very least being held against her will. Maybe this was a chance to save her.
If these operatives, and that had to be what they were, rescued Mandy, they had to be what they contended. Right? The anger behind Carlos's words when he'd said they'd made a jump in a blizzard had felt genuine.
"Gabrielle?" Carlos said pointedly.
"I'm not ignoring you." She addressed all of them with that before returning to Carlos. "I'm trying to answer your questions without compromising my friend's safety." She nibbled on her lower lip then had a thought. "Can you tell me what happened to the kidnappers after you rescued Mandy?"
"No!" echoed around the room.
Her shoulders drooped. "I see."
"What would be the threat to your friend?" Rae asked.
Gabrielle weighed her selection of replies and finally realized they would remain at an impasse forever if she didn't offer more. "A fratelli."
Tension snapped through the room at that admission.
"What do you mean by 'a fratelli'?" Carlos asked in a voice that doubled-stacked the chill bumps on her arm. If he sounded threatening yesterday, today he was downright lethal.
"I don't know," Gabrielle admitted. "It was referenced on the card."
"The card again," Hunter scoffed, then everyone jumped in.
"How was it referenced?" Rae wanted to know.
"Oh, please. The card is bullshit," Hunter countered before Gabrielle could speak.
"What if it's not?" Rae argued right back with plenty of heat. "Mandy was kidnapped. We did find her in a chateau in St. Gervais. The Anguis were the kidnappers."
Gabrielle noted everything Rae said, deciding this group couldn't know all of those details if they had not indeed saved the young girl.
Korbin jumped in with "Rae's got a point."
"Our people said the best they got out of the card text was gibberish," Hunter tossed right back. "The Monster didn't break it."
"I can-" Gabrielle started to say she could prove the text was not gibberish, but got cut off.
"What if...our people are wrong?" Carlos asked Hunter. "What if the card is in code? We can
't pass up a chance for any lead on the Fratelli."
Gabrielle tried to ignore how her heart jumped at the possibility that Carlos was finally supporting her position. That he might actually believe her. While the debate raged, she began to realize she had something to trade-decoding the card.
If she convinced them the card was in code, they had to believe she was not a criminal. That was logical.
Additionally, she now had a measure of belief-or call it an internal feeling she relied upon-that these people were not part of that fratelli. Logic implored that they would have feigned knowledge of the fratelli or any group they shielded, not argue over the credibility of her card that might be a lead.
The significance of how important it was that they locate this fratelli was not lost on her either. Finding the group could mean finding, and saving, Linette.
Gabrielle's instincts had kept her alive so far. She had to rely on them now more than ever.
"If you're not afraid of the truth, then let me prove it's in code," Gabrielle challenged Hunter, ready to take on all of them.
The arguing stopped as though someone had hit the pause button. When Hunter's gaze leveled with hers, he made no effort to hide the disparaging assessment in his eyes. Weapons and blood shook her to her toes, but she'd been raised around his kind-the arrogant and the affluent-and neither fazed her.
"Go ahead, decode it," Hunter said without a bit of concern in his voice. "And if you can't, you're of no value to us."
She didn't deserve his attitude or being held this way. Not after all she'd done to help Mandy and what she'd faced yesterday after they'd tricked her into exposing herself. "I helped you and you're all treating me like I'm the enemy."
Gotthard paused from typing on his laptop. "Until you give us a reason to think differently, you are."
She needed one ally in this room and Carlos was her best hope. "I can show you how the code works."
His gaze trapped hers and shifted from tense with impatience to an openness that surprised her. Carlos leaned against the wall. "Okay, start with explaining the address the card was sent to."
Licking her dry lips, Gabrielle dove in. "It was sent to my father, Louis Saxe IV, who lives in Versailles and is president of the National Assembly in France."
Gotthard interjected, "Correct. A powerful position in their government and he is well respected."
Gabrielle hoped that would be enough to stop them from searching further into her background.
"How much does he know about all of this?" Rae asked.
"Nothing." Gabrielle needed them to believe her on this point. "No one in the Saxe family knows about the Mirage or anything I've done."
"Miss Sex, huh? Fits you." The darkly handsome Korbin grinned at his play on her French pronunciation of Saxe. Like Carlos, he was of Latin decent and similar in size, but Korbin's facial structure made her think he was a mix of Mexican and Anglo, whereas Carlos had sharper angles...more South American.
Korbin gave her such a smoldering look she stiffened.
"Cut it out," Carlos snapped.
When Korbin smiled at him with a bit of taunt in his expression, Carlos sent back a warning glare that was deadly.
What was that all about?
"Besides, you haven't reached the R's yet," Rae said to Korbin with a tongue so sharp she could draw blood.
Gabrielle tried to keep up with all the pointed comments and narrowed glances flying.
"I'll let you know as soon as I do," Korbin said, the full power of his charm directed at Rae now. He broke out a rascal's smile that had to stop women in their tracks.
"What are the R's?" Gabrielle asked.
"Back to the postcard." Carlos ignored her question and pinned Gabrielle with a no-nonsense stare. "Why did it take you so long to send the first message?"
What had made her think his eyes had ever been a warm brown earlier? Mr. Nice had evaporated. The black look Carlos gave her boiled with the fury of a midnight storm on the sea.
Things had been going good. What had riled him?
"I received the card two days ago, or maybe it's three by now...I have no idea what time it is." Gabrielle swiped loose hair off her face. "Anyhow, my friend had no way to find me other than sending the card to my father's home in Versailles. He has my mail forwarded to my address in London that then sends it to a mail center in Peachtree City. That's why it took so long to get to me. My friend was careful, addressing it only to Gabrielle with no last name. That way if the card was intercepted with the 'gibberish,' as you put it, most people would assume Gabrielle was someone on my father's staff. My friend did not include a return address so I have no idea where to find her."
Gotthard asked, "Why didn't you tell us about the Anguis trying to kidnap Mandy when you sent the first message? If we'd known sooner, we probably could have caught them before they reached France."
"I didn't know the Anguis were the kidnappers when I sent the first message," Gabrielle answered carefully. She couldn't share her South American contacts on the Anguis family with any of these people, no matter what they threatened. Innocent Venezuelans only trying to help her rid the world of the Anguis murderers would be in jeopardy.
"You didn't answer his question," Carlos pressed.
"Because all I knew from the card was that Mandy would be kidnapped in South America." Gabrielle chose her words carefully. "I didn't find out that Anguis was behind the kidnapping until I did some research with resources in South America. And please don't ask who because I don't have their names, we contact each other electronically through an elaborate system." Fairly close to the truth.
Carlos tapped fingers against his upper arm. No expression as if he contemplated how to squeeze more out of her.
Gabrielle ran her fingers into her hair, knocking her twisted bob loose. The plastic clamp bounced on the floor. Long strands tumbled across her shoulders when she squatted down to pick up the clasp and shove it into her pants pocket.
"I'm not some kind of trained personnel like the rest of you," Gabrielle muttered, trying to figure out what would get through to this stubborn lot. "If you want me to admit I'm intimidated by all of you, fine, I admit it. I don't know who you are or what you want, but you're obviously the ones who helped Mandy, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say I believe you're working with the right side of the law. In exchange, I wish you'd show me the same courtesy. If I prove to you the text on the card is in code, will you believe I'm trying to be honest with you and I'm not a threat to the United States?"
She kept her gaze on the table, refusing to meet eyes watching her like silent predators ready for the kill.
The postcard from Linette slid onto the table surface into her view guided by Carlos's fingers.
A tiny victory. Gabrielle was not ready to sing hallelujah, but this was a start. Her chest muscles relaxed with the quick shot of relief.
Gabrielle explained, "My friend and I wrote the code first in ancient Latin. We then reversed the sequential alignment, deleting the first letter of the first word, the second letter of the second word, and so on through five words when there were an appropriate number of letters. We changed the code halfway through to Italian. Numbers corresponded to days of the week and colors-"
"Are you serious?" Gotthard stared at her in either disbelief or amazement.
Gabrielle prayed it wasn't lack of belief or she'd never get out of this place. "Yes, I am serious. I'll read off the code and interpret each word so you can follow the translation."
A noise came out of Hunter that was a cross between a snort of derision and a chuckle that said This should be good.
Gabrielle's burst of confidence pushed her to lean forward so she could look around Rae and speak to Hunter. She smiled first. "If you can't keep up, take notes."
Hunter mirrored her smile with a confident one of his own and said in a gentleman's voice, "If you fail to prove it's a bona fide code, you'll be headed for a cell buried so deep in our containment facility you'll never see daylight again." r />
Gabrielle swallowed her cockiness at that.
She hadn't used the complicated code in a long time. Carlos and his team-had to be a team-clearly had access to extensive equipment. Anyone capable of deciphering a code would not accept her version if she made one mistake in the convoluted steps she and Linette had created just for the purpose of making it impossible to break.
She leaned back in her seat, studied the words, then went for it, reading slowly, stopping to answer questions from Gotthard, Rae, and Korbin, then moving along. She hit a rhythm on the second line, feeling comfortable.
At least she was fine until she caught Carlos staring at her with a warm appraising gaze. Gabrielle lost her place.
Everyone glanced up at her verbal stumble.
"Pardon me," she said. "I'll start the last sentence over." She gritted her teeth over the flush of heat that rushed through her, then didn't pause until she'd finished.
"Assessment?" Carlos issued that order to the room.
"It's a code," Rae answered.
"I'm sold." Korbin winked at Gabrielle, the scoundrel.
"One hell of a code," Gotthard muttered, admiration flooding his words.
Everyone turned to Hunter, who arched a beautiful male eyebrow and said, "I stand corrected. Impressive."
Gabrielle released a pent-up breath, ready to relax until Carlos asked her, "What did your friend mean by 'I am bound by the fratelli'?"
"I don't know," she replied quickly.
Gotthard stopped typing and became stone still, along with the rest of the room.
"Fratelli is Italian for 'brotherhood,' but that's not a code, for heaven's sake," Gabrielle added.
"You're sure you don't know anything more?" A lock of black hair fingered Carlos's smooth brow now drawn tight with lines of question.
He still didn't believe she was telling the truth.
"Really, that's it." Gabrielle wondered at the grim faces. What exactly was this fratelli?
"How are the Anguis tied to all of this?" Korbin asked.
"What do you mean?" Gabrielle wanted a more specific question before she said much about them. She glanced at Carlos, who seemed to have pulled back inside himself.