Automatically activating the scrambler, he answered on the fourth ring. “Yeah.” Roman saw no need for niceties since the man on the other end of the line was Jonathon Mercer, Director of Labyrinth, an elite branch of the CIA.
“I’ve just canceled your vacation, D’Amato.” Mercer didn’t believe in polite conversation, either. In their business, it was a waste of time. “We have a situation.”
Roman laughed, and acid burned his throat. There were always situations. He’d been a specialist too long to believe otherwise.
“I’m unavailable, Mercer. Get someone else.” He bit out the words, not caring if it cost him his career. Hell, maybe it was time to retire, anyway.
“Damn it, there isn’t anyone else,” came the impatient reply. “Kate MacAlister walked out of Las Mesas and disappeared.”
“What do you mean she disappeared?” Dread raked his gut. Cold and razor sharp.
“Exactly that,” the director admitted irritably.
There was a short, tense pause while Roman swallowed an obscenity. At the mention of Kate’s name, his reputed control always vanished. A truth he’d never been able to escape.
“I’m listening,” Roman ground out, his voice tight. He reached for another cigarette. The Las Mesas Institute was a nuclear laboratory located in southern New Mexico. Their security measures were the most advanced in the country. Impenetrable. The way Roman had designed them to be.
“A few months ago, Dr. MacAlister made a breakthrough on her antimatter energy research,” Mercer replied gruffly. “It appears she found a way to capture the energy created when antimatter particles collide with normal matter.”
Familiar with Kate’s theory, he wasn’t surprised she’d succeeded in proving it. Besides being Las Mesas’s top physicist, the woman was a certified genius, having gotten her doctorate in both computer science and physics by the age of nineteen.
“Last night, shortly before midnight, she ran a program at the lab, destroying all her research data. Then she left.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” Roman frowned. “The antimatter research was her baby, had been for the past five years.”
“Still, her disappearance was triggered by a phone call she received at the lab.” After a pause, Mercer continued, “We’ve reason to believe it was Marcus Boyd, her associate on the project.”
Roman remembered meeting Dr. Boyd at some award banquet held in Kate’s honor. The man had reminded him of an old mouse, slight in stature with a nervous disposition. He also remembered Kate’s disapproving look when he’d casually offered the timid man some cheese from the buffet table.
Mercer interrupted Roman’s thoughts. “We suspect she’s hiding but can’t verify it without tipping off the domestics.”
Domestics meant FBI and the local police. Labyrinth tended to avoid contact with them for security purposes.
Roman swore and pressed his fingers to his eyes, where the rhythmic throbbing metamorphosed once again into a sledgehammer. The woman had more brains than she had common sense. “I’m still listening, Mercer, but so far you haven’t explained why the doc went into hiding.” Roman grabbed the aspirin bottle from the desk drawer and swallowed four tablets dry as Kate’s image flashed before him. The long, black hair, the startling gray eyes, the delicate lines of her face.
When he got hold of her, he’d wring her beautiful neck.
“Copies of Dr. MacAlister’s latest research notes have surfaced among some of the world’s leading arms dealers.” Mercer’s voice hardened. “Specific handwritten notes only someone working closely with her would have access to.”
“Boyd,” Roman supplied. The doc had been set up.
“He was the most logical suspect,” Mercer agreed, “but it’s going to be damn hard to confirm our suspicions— Boyd’s dead.” Roman smashed his cigarette between his fingers then threw the remains into a half-eaten bowl of cereal he’d left on the desk the night before. The little fool, she put herself in harm’s way the moment she destroyed her research. Even if Boyd wasn’t selling her work, someone was. It was only a matter of time before whoever killed Boyd went after her.
“What do you have that’s concrete?”
“Not much,” Mercer responded, echoing Roman’s frustration. “A short while ago she contacted Cain’s office from a pay phone in Raton, New Mexico. We assumed she couldn’t get a signal on her cell phone and took a chance on being traced.” Mercer grunted. “Which we did, of course. She hung up after Cain’s secretary told her he was out of town.”
Roman rubbed his face, barely noticing the whiskers that scraped his palm. Cain was Kate’s oldest brother, Roman’s most trusted friend and one of the Agency’s top operatives.
“He’s overseas,” Mercer confirmed. “Too deep undercover to reach. Hell, even if I could manage it somehow, I wouldn’t.”
Roman understood. If Cain found out about Kate while on an operation, the distraction might prove fatal.
Looking out the porthole, Roman squinted at the sun glaring over Chesapeake Bay. Kate was out there somewhere, alone and in danger, and he wasn’t sure he could get to her in time.
Mercer continued, unaware of the emotional turmoil Roman fought to keep in check. “She doesn’t know the good guys from the bad guys.”
“She knows me.” The words were clipped, the control back.
“Exactly.”
Would she trust him? Roman was grateful the doc didn’t like guns, because if she did, she would probably shoot him on sight. No, she wouldn’t trust him, at least not at first. He would have to gain her confidence somehow.
Mercer’s tone grew speculative. “Raton is on the Colorado-New Mexico border. We’re assuming she headed north for Denver.”
Cain’s cabin. The ever-logical doc was heading for her brother’s cabin just outside of Aspen, Colorado. A secret hideaway he had shared only with his family and his best friend.
“I’ll find her.” Roman kept his voice even, but his mind raced, already making plans to reach Kate by nightfall.
“Let’s hope so,” came the reluctant response. “It’s one reason why I need you on this. You know her as well as her family—maybe better.”
“She’s hiding, waiting for Cain.” He didn’t even consider the possibility she would sell the data to save her life.
“That’s what I figured,” the older man answered. “She doesn’t know either of you are operatives, which means she’s hoping her big brother knows someone trustworthy in the government.”
Roman silently agreed. As far as Kate was concerned, Cain owned MacAlister Security, a successful international security company. Roman preferred to keep it that way.
“What about Ian?” he asked. Ian MacAlister, Kate’s other brother, was a Navy SEAL team leader stationed in Virginia.
“I called in a favor. He’s been shipped out to the South Atlantic with his team on training maneuvers.” Roman detected grimness in Mercer’s tone. “The man is a loose cannon. I don’t want him finding out about her disappearance until it’s too late. There’s no telling what the idiot might do.”
Roman knew. Ian’s rage would be uncontrollable. Then again, so would Cain’s. But that was Mercer’s problem.
“Her parents?”
“They’re in Scotland. Left a week ago and aren’t due back for a few more. A combined business and pleasure trip.”
Roman frowned. It didn’t give him much time. Even Mercer couldn’t keep something this serious under wraps for long. It was bad