“Yes,” Chad nodded. “Victoria.”
“How do you know?” Peter looked up at him. “Did she introduce herself?”
“No. But it sounded like she’s in charge, and you were right, she’s probably got military or police background. She was the only female there, and she said those guys with the guns were the officers.”
Peter looked at Luke.
“It’s her,” Luke said. “And we still got nothing on her. Not even a face.”
“What happened next?”
Chad shrugged, slipping his hands in his pockets. “The guard returned, and I had to knock him out before he could alert the others. I used his phone to take the pictures, and then Patrick came looking for me. We left, got on the bus, and back to where they had picked us up.”
Peter glanced at Luke again, finding the most peculiar expression on his face. When no one said anything, Peter waved his hand. “Left how? No one noticed you’d kidnapped a man?”
Chad’s eyes darted to Patrick for a second, before focusing on his feet. “Well, it was dark and crowded there.”
“And?”
“And Patrick covered me.”
“And?” Peter pressed.
Chad sighed. “And we pretended like he was walking between us, using a shield.”
“What?” Peter turned to Luke, because clearly, neither Chad nor Patrick wanted to explain what they had done.
“They sandwiched the man,” Luke said, folding his arms on his chest. “They propped him up with a shield, and the Commandos didn’t even notice the walking dead.”
“Oh Lord…” Peter’s hand flew up to his chin. “And it worked? Why did I never think of this?”
“Because we use more secure methods when we need to break someone out of somewhere?”
Peter nodded. “True.” He heard Chad sigh again. “If it worked, it worked. At least now we have someone worth interrogating. Leave this stuff here and take him to the basement. Mark, you’re free to go.”
The young man took off without another word, probably dying to show everything they had found to Rooney, so they could spend hours raking their brains and computers for ideas.
Chad looked at him, but Peter waved him off, together with the other two men and the unconscious Commando. Luke didn’t need to be told to stay. The moment the door closed behind the others, he locked gazes with Peter.
“They’re not military, and it’s not their real base,” Peter said.
Luke nodded. “I think Mark’s the only one who’s figured it out. But at least Rob’s squad has managed to follow the bus. We know where the base is now.”
Peter sat in his chair, and Luke took a seat at the table.
“There’s probably nothing aside from what you guys have seen. Otherwise, it would’ve been stupid to take all those civilians there. And a control room, left open without a guard? Military or no, this Victoria is good at putting up a façade,” Peter said. “But that’s it.”
“Oh, she’s military, all right. You should’ve heard her speak. And before you start defending him—it was exactly like I said. You don’t send untested rookies on high-risk operations.”
Peter shook his head. “Don’t be too hard on him. We’ve tried playing it safe with the Commandos, and look where it got us. This base is the first real lead, aside from that jeep they found, which yielded zilch, by the way. No number plate, no prints, nada. And now we’ll at least know the base layout, thanks to Chad’s pictures. The mission wasn’t compromised, so just let it go.”
“Screw the mission,” Luke hissed. “The boy doesn’t know when to stop, Peter. There are rules, and they’re made exactly for people like him, like Pain, and Marco! Because others don’t even need the rules to know that enough is enough. And Chad is reckless, so you have to keep him on a tight leash, or he will get killed.”
“I tried keeping Pain on a tight leash.” Peter kept his voice down with an effort. “You were there, how did that work out? He’s just like her, Luke. They do what they want anyway, and always will. The only thing I can do is trust them, and earn their trust, so they at least don’t keep things from me. And Chad… He’s his father’s son.”
“His father?” Luke laughed without a hint of humor. “His father, who erased his mark to make sure his boy would live, who gave up raising his only son to keep him safe from Eugene, from this? There was so much more to Michael than brains and courage, and Chad will need decades to grow into it, to gain the same perspective on things. But if you keep putting him in danger like this—”
Peter’s self-control snapped.
“What do you want me to do?” he bellowed, bolting to his feet. “It’s my job, putting them in danger, and then getting them out of it! I’m doing all I can to find the men those bastards have taken, my men, Luke, who have been missing for months. So forgive me if I use everything Chad and the others can offer, if their advantage is the only one we have at the moment.”
“It’s not an advantage! It’s a weakness, his hidden mark, because you’re exploiting it, knowing he won’t say no.”
Peter breathed out, slowly, with control, pushing down the rage that was burning him from the inside.
“His father,” he ground out through clenched teeth, “erased his mark to protect him from Eugene, and Eugene is dead. By this untested rookie’s hand. That was the sole purpose of Chad’s hidden mark. It wasn’t done to put him on the bench forever, to turn him into a coward, or to allow him to avoid responsibility. And it’s not the advantage I was talking about. His
