Her protest was ignored. The grip on her arm tightened.
“I’m an American citizen!” she blurted out. “You can’t just detain me for no reason! I haven’t done anything wrong, damn it!”
She was still shouting out protests as the soldiers dragged her away.
Chapter 4
“What is your business here?”
Julia was grinding her teeth so hard that she was surprised the enamel hadn’t yet filed away to dust. If they asked her that question one more time, she was absolutely going to scream.
For the past hour and a half, she’d been detained in a canvas tent, sitting on an uncomfortable metal chair in the middle of the dirt floor. The chair was the only piece of furniture in the tent, which lent the space a seriously ominous feel. She wasn’t bound, she wasn’t gagged, but the two guards at the entrance and the two soldiers looming over her made it clear that she was a prisoner here.
She had no frickin’ clue what was going on, but it sure as hell wasn’t good. Those body bags out there … Oh, God, and where was Kevin? Where were the people? As she’d been dragged through the village toward the tents set up near the tree line, all she’d seen were soldiers.
Esperanza was deserted. No signs of life. None.
“Answer the question, please.”
Tightening her lips, she met the masked face of one of the soldiers, a tall man who carried himself with so much authority that she knew he must be the one in charge. The surgical masks everyone wore definitely indicated there was some sort of medical emergency in progress, but because nobody was wearing full hazmat suits, she deduced that the mysterious disease that had triggered these precautions probably wasn’t airborne.
“I already answered your question,” she said tersely. “My name is Julia Davenport. I’m a doctor and I run the clinic in Valero. I came here to check on my colleague, Dr. Kevin Carlisle.”
“At this hour of the night?” Suspicion lined the man’s tone. When he crossed his arms over his broad chest, her gaze was drawn to the four stars on the shoulders of his uniform.
She scanned her brain, trying to remember what that signified. Holy crap, he was a general.
Which spoke volumes about the importance of this interrogation.
Angrier than she’d ever been, Julia met her captor’s eyes. “How many more times do I have to answer these same questions? I told you, Dr. Carlisle radioed me. It sounded like an emergency. I was worried. I drove up here to check on him. The end.”
“Watch your tone,” the second soldier ordered.
She shifted her gaze to him, noting that he looked younger than his counterpart and wore a uniform without any insignia. “Oh, gee, was I being rude? Are your other prisoners more polite and agreeable than I am?”
“You’re not a prisoner,” the general replied, sounding annoyed.
“Oh, no?” Arching a brow, she rose from her chair.
The two soldiers guarding the door instantly snapped the barrels of their assault rifles in her direction, their body language becoming menacing.
“That’s what I thought,” she said coolly, then sank back down.
The general’s lips tightened. “Let’s not play games, Dr. Davenport. I need to—”
“Games?” she interrupted. “Are you kidding me? This isn’t a game, for Pete’s sake! Where is my colleague? Why is the village overflowing with body bags?”
As expected, she didn’t receive an answer. Just another question.
“Did you inform any of the staff at the Valero clinic that you were coming up here?”
“No.”
The lie came out smoothly, and there’d been no hesitation on her part. Somehow, she’d known that answering yes to that would be the worst possible thing she could do. As it was, she’d only officially told Lissa about her plans, but the nurse had undoubtedly filled the others in after Julia had left. Maybe it was her paranoia talking, but she had the sinking feeling that these men would send a team of soldiers to the clinic if they thought she’d said anything to her coworkers.
“You left Valero without telling anyone?” The younger soldier looked unconvinced.
“I was alone in my tent when Dr. Carlisle’s distress call came in,” she answered. “My colleagues had their hands full in the clinic with some potential malaria patients, so I just left. I planned on radioing them when I reached Esperanza.”
The men exchanged a look, and then the general gave an imperceptible nod that made Julia’s heart drop to the pit of her stomach. They knew she was lying. Crap.
She decided to distract them. “Why are you wearing masks?” she demanded.
“That is none of your concern,” the general said stiffly.
“Are you kidding me?” she said again, as amazed as she was outraged. “I’m a doctor, and you’re clearly worried that there’s been an outbreak of something. Is it a bacterium? How is it transmitted?”
“Dr. Davenport, we are the ones asking the questions here. Now please tell us, who in Valero knows you came here?”
Disbelief spiraled through her. She shook her head a couple of times, wondering how any of this could possibly be happening, but the more she tried to make sense of the situation, the more afraid she became. Her palms dampened, her body growing cold. Something really, really bad was going on here.
God, Kevin, where are you?
“Dr. Davenport,” the general snapped.
“No,” she snapped back.
He faltered. “No, what?”
“I’m not answering any more questions until I speak to a lawyer.” She scowled at him. “Or to someone who’s willing to give me some answers of my own.”
Then she shut her mouth, crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the two men hovering over her.
After a moment, the general spun on his heel and stalked toward the tent’s entrance. The younger soldier quickly trailed after him.
Both men exited the tent, as did the two guards, but she didn’t fool herself into believing that the latter had gone far. She suspected the guards were right outside those canvas flaps, ready to shoot her down if she tried to escape.
Escape.
What on earth was going on?
And why was she starting to suspect that the only way she was getting out of here would be in one of those body bags lying on the dirt?
Sebastian watched in growing alarm as more body bags were tossed into the back of the wide-load trucks parked at the entrance of the village. He’d counted thirty-five bags in the first truck, and another forty-one in the second. Had to be the villagers. Christ. More dead villagers.
The soldiers in charge of disposal efficiently carried out their task without comment or expression. Sebastian swallowed a rush of disgust, wondering how they justified it to themselves. Probably assured themselves they were good little soldiers simply following orders, and who were they to question orders?
His jaw tightened. Brought to mind all those soldiers in Nazi Germany—they hadn’t questioned much either, had they?
Battling his rising fury, Sebastian crept deeper into the forest, moving through the shadows like a nocturnal predator. Being a black ops soldier meant he possessed the power of invisibility, the ability to sneak right underneath these men’s noses, even slit their throats without anyone