“Obviously you weren’t infected,” Black said. “But you took something out of there. What was it?”
“Look, I don’t know what it was,” Becker said. “I was just a courier, doing a favor for a friend.”
“You’re lying,” she said.
Black jammed his gun a little harder into Becker’s back.
“It’s the truth, I swear it,” Becker said.
Alex narrowed her eyes. “How do you contact them?”
“I don’t. They contact me.”
“How do you contact them?” she said.
Becker just glared back at her.
“The lady’s not gonna ask you a third time,” Black said.
Becker sighed. “I have a phone in the top drawer of my desk that’s used exclusively for contacting them.”
Alex strode over to the desk and retrieved the mobile. She held it out in front of Becker.
“Password, please.”
He typed in the digits. “You don’t know how powerful these people are. They’ll hunt you down and kill you—and do it all before breakfast.”
“We’ve heard it all before,” Alex said, “yet, here I am. So, let’s get moving.”
Black shoved Becker to his chair and bound him to it with several zip ties.
“Thanks for inviting us tonight,” Black said. “You throw a great party.”
Alex opened the door and gestured for Black to hurry up. He went ahead of her down the hallway, tucking his gun discreetly into the back of his pants as he went.
“We’ve secured the package,” Alex said over the coms.
“Nice work,” Hawk said. “Now get the hell out of there before he alerts security.”
“Oh, I doubt he’ll be doing anything of the sort for quite some time,” Black said.
Alex and Black slipped through the crowd still milling around in the great hall. Once they reached the front door, they encountered the lead valet, who requested their ticket.
“That’s okay,” Alex said as she pushed her way past him. “We’ll get it ourselves.”
“Ma’am, I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” he said. “We must get the cars for you. You don’t even know where it is.”
Alex and Black continued walking, ignoring his pleas for them to wait.
“I said stop,” the valet said, followed by the sound of him chambering a round into his gun.
Alex and Black spun around to see the valet with a weapon trained on them. They both threw their hands in the air in surrender.
“I’m just going to reach inside my purse here and get it for you,” Alex said, moving very slowly.
She retrieved with her fingertips and held it up for the valet. He walked up to her and yanked it out of her hands.
“Wait on the sidewalk like everyone else,” he said.
Alex and Black followed the command while the valet radioed one of his underlings to retrieve the car for them.
“This should only take a minute—and then you can be on your way,” the valet said.
Alex and Black remained silent as they stood still at the edge of the curb awaiting their car to appear. After a couple minutes, the car roared around the corner and then halted in front of them. The valet opened the passenger door for Alex. However, when Black walked around to get in the driver’s side, the man driving the car got out with his weapon trained on Black.
“You’re not going anywhere,” the man said. “Both of you need to follow me.”
“What the hell is going on?” Hawk squawked into their earpieces. “Are you guys all right?”
“There’s nothing quite like getting ambushed by your valet,” Alex said, doing her best to disguise her communication with Hawk.
He let out a string of expletives before begging them to remain calm and be patient. “I’m on my way.”
“Let’s pick up the pace,” the guard said. “We don’t have all night—and Dr. Becker is looking forward to having another conversation with you two.”
CHAPTER 8
ALEX STARED AT THE WALLS as she descended a series of staircases with Black and wondered just how long the castle had been here. Intricate stonework decorated the interior, equivalent to the kind of craftsmanship she'd seen in dozens of European fortresses. The only sign that she hadn't been transported back in time were the security cameras perched high along the corridor and the modern weapons slung around the necks of the guards escorting their prisoners below ground.
“I don’t know about you,” Black said, “but I’m half expecting us to see a dragon chained up down here.”
Alex smiled and shook her head. “And here I thought I was the one breathing fire when the doc tried to lie to us.”
When they reached the end of the hallway, the guards slung Black and Alex into a cell and locked the gate. The men strode away without giving their captives even a second glance.
“Well, I guess we know what’s coming next,” she said.
“Yeah, and it ain’t gonna be pretty,” Black said.
“Can you two talk?” Hawk asked, interrupting over the comlinks.
“For now,” Alex said. “I guess they didn’t see our coms.”
“We’ll just be grateful for our good fortune and go from there,” Hawk said. “As long as they’re working, I should be able to locate you and get you both the hell outta there.”
“I’d act quickly,” Alex said. “We haven’t seen Dr. Becker yet—and I still have his cell phone.”
“It’s probably how he tracked us down,” Black said. “You should’ve turned it off.”
“It’s too late now,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do about it at this point.”
“Don’t I know that all too well,” Black said. “That’s the story of my life.”
Alex sighed and slumped to the floor, resting against the back wall. Black joined her, sitting down a few feet away.
“What exactly is the story of your life?” Alex asked. “You know since we have all the time to kill.”
Black nodded. “We’ve got all the time in the world, don’t we?”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Hawk said over the coms. “Just hang in there, you two.”
“We're not going anywhere in the foreseeable future,” she said before turning toward Black. “Now where were we? Ah, yes, at the very beginning.”
Black chuckled softly. “This is the point of the story
