“When you didn’t come back, none of us could sleep,” Joselyne whispered. “And after the storm came, we saw a light in the jungle. Those men. They were filming someone else. We didn’t know who, but later…that’s when I heard what they said.”
“If this is too hard, you don’t have to…”
“No, please.” Joselyne grabbed her arm and squeezed it, pleading with her eyes. “They laughed, Sister Kate. Those men laughed at what he said when he died. They made fun of how he begged for his life…and talked about his son. And they stole his wallet…and other things. Why? Why did they do that?”
Kate not only saw the distress on the child’s face, she saw her relief in being able to talk about it. The girl had seen things she did not understand. Kate didn’t comprehend these brutal men any more than the child did. Being captive, none of them were allowed to say much to each other. Misery and fear got bottled inside. Kate knew what it meant to speak freely. She felt the same, especially if talking allowed her to console Joselyne.
“I’m sorry…for all of this.” She kissed the girl’s hand. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“None of us should be here.” A tear rolled down Joselyne’s cheek. “I miss my father.”
“I know you do, honey.” Kate opened her arms, and the girl collapsed onto her chest. “Your father loves you very much. And if I have anything to do with it, you will see him again. I promise you.”
Kate knew she had no business making promises she couldn’t keep, but when she had stared into Joselyne’s eyes before, she had seen a child with a broken spirit. And she wanted to make things better, even if it required a goodly amount of wishful thinking for both of them.
“While it’s quiet, and it’s just the two of us, I want to…” Kate felt the sudden urge to tell Joselyne things that would die with her if they were never rescued.
Her stomach twisted with the knowledge that George had felt the same when he talked about his son. The man knew he was going to die and had come to accept it. Kate didn’t want to delve into her own motivation too deeply. Talking to Joselyne felt like the right thing to do, but she had to find a way to talk to the girl so she wouldn’t be scared.
“…I want to tell you about the dreams I’ve always had for you,” she began. The little girl rose and cocked her head, looking confused, but she listened and didn’t interrupt. “If I had a daughter, she would have been just like you.”
The child finally smiled and nestled back into the nun’s arms, laying her head on her shoulder. Kate talked about the future, the dreams she had imagined for Joselyne and the other children under her care. She wanted the girl to know that she could have choices in her life if she wanted them.
And woven into the story were her own hopes, her ambition to make a difference. Images of the young woman she had been flashed through her mind. Her family. The first boy who had ever kissed her. And her devotion to God when she knew what she wanted to do with her life. Kate had so much more to accomplish, but she had a sickening feeling that she’d run out of time.
“It’s important to have dreams, Joselyne.” She stroked the child’s hair. “Do you have dreams, honey?” When the girl nodded, she said, “Tell me about them. I want to know everything. I want to hear your sweet voice…for as long as I can.”
In the muggy heat of the tent, she listened to the child in the dark, ignoring the pain in her body. She imagined them both safe and far away from their ordeal, but on the edge of her mind she wondered why Joselyne had been allowed to see her. She closed her eyes and held her, stroking her hair and whispering reassurances in her ear until a chilling realization hit her.
One man had made the decision for her to see Joselyne. And she had learned his name after he’d beaten her the other night.
On the surface, permitting her to see the girl might have appeared an act of kindness on his part. She knew better. In the brutal world of Abdul Kabir Sayed, the terrorist leader, everything had strings attached and a price to be paid.
In her quiet way she had resisted him, and that made him more enraged. She saw it in his eyes every time she stood before him. He expected her to bend to his will and accept his control over her fate. Kate wasn’t sure why her submission mattered to him, but it did.
And because the children meant a great deal to her, they would become unwilling pawns in Sayed’s mind game. Reuniting her with Joselyne had only been a first step in a battle of wills that she wasn’t sure she had the strength to fight anymore.
New York City
Sentinels Headquarters
Without wasting any time, Jess had called Tanya Spencer, who directed her to take Seth to Garrett’s office. Tanya had met them on the way. Behind his closed office doors, Garrett hit a button that opened a safe room near his private elevator. Inside that reinforced chamber, he had a bank of high-tech computers with a control panel, a futuristic-looking conference table, and a weapons room. She also saw food and water reserves, oxygen tanks, gas masks, first-aid and other miscellaneous supplies—a small self-contained command center.
“You’re full of surprises.” Jess stepped into the chamber, sliding her fingers across the conference table.
“Honey, you have no idea,” Tanya said as she keyed data into a computer. “I’m putting in the coordinates Seth gave us for that video uplink.”
A low hum echoed in the room—sounding like
“Oh, no way.” Seth grinned and stepped closer to the table. He swiped a hand into the light and imitated Darth Vader. “Luke, I am your father.”
Tanya ignored him. “Now I’m pulling in an overlay of a topographic map of southeast Cuba.”
Holographic lights undulated and layered into the mountainous terrain of Cuba in a computer-generated mass. Jess joined Harper at the table, her mouth open like a kid on Christmas morning. A bright yellow dot of light glowed from a 3-D canyon to mark a specific location.
“Is that the bad guys?” Harper asked. He pointed to the glowing dot, pretending to crush them between his fingers.
“Yeah…your coordinates,” Tanya replied without looking up.
Jess was impressed by the technology. When she glanced at Garrett, he had his jaw clenched, and he looked anxious to assess the situation. The light show was only a tool for him to make decisions. Real lives were at stake.
“When I located the high-density bandwidth in Haiti and tracked that signal to Cuba, I noticed other cell phones in the area,” Seth told him. “That wouldn’t have surprised me in Chicago, but in a remote area in the mountains of Cuba, all the cell traffic seemed out of place.”
“That part of Cuba is host to a number of terrorist camps. And these groups have connections to their handlers in other parts of the world.” Garrett narrowed his eyes. “Alexa is behind enemy lines and operating in a global fishbowl of piranhas. She’s got to watch her ass and play it smart.”
While Tanya worked the keyboard, Garrett continued, “We haven’t been able to contact her. The hurricane has disrupted communications. The storm shifted north before it hit land; otherwise, things would have been much worse.”
“Yeah, but she’s got a tracking beacon with her. Let’s try that,” Tanya pointed out. “I loaded her signal ID. It should be coming up…now.”
A pinpoint of red light shone from the top of a mountain. It blinked in regular intervals, a live signal. That seemed to please Garrett. If he couldn’t talk to Alexa, at least he could track her position. It was more than he had.
“Try her SAT phone,” Garrett told Tanya. “If her tracking-beacon signal is strong, maybe her phone will come in now.”
“Yeah, you got it.” Tanya picked up a safe-room phone and gave an order to one of her people. “Contact Marlowe ASAP and patch the call into Garrett’s safe room when you get the SAT connection.”
But a faint light flickered in a valley below the summit. Jess was the first to notice it. “What’s that? There’s
