“What about Eli Becker? Do you work together?” she asked.
Daeng said, “Becker…poor, poor Becker…”
“Down here,” Quinn whispered to Nate.
Gloria was not satisfied in the least. She had no doubt Daeng knew more than he was sharing, but even with the drug he was able to hang on to his secrets.
“Why are your people interested in the girl?” she asked yet again.
“Already answered.”
The response he’d given—“Because we want to know”—was little more than babble.
“Is she alive?”
“No clue. Is she?”
At least he was consistent in answering that question. Which meant he and whoever this Quinn was weren’t any better off than she and her team. But who exactly were they? And why would they be interested in the girl? That’s what didn’t make sense.
She had been working under the belief there were only two interested parties — one, the group who had used the.xuki virus to expunge all information about Operation Overtake from CIA computers, and the other, McCrillis’s client.
When a CIA contact leaked to McCrillis what the virus had really done, Boyer, with the client’s approval, reactivated the long dormant job and put Gloria in charge of the investigation team. In the first months after the.xuki attack, as Gloria sifted through the history of the job, she began to think the client was simply paranoid, her concern about this girl — who was dead, by all accounts — bordering on the maniacal. But the more Gloria dug, the more things didn’t quite add up, and then, just a few days ago, Eli Becker had shown up on her radar, forcing her to seriously reconsider her opinion.
And now there were Daeng and his boss Quinn, pushing the thought of client paranoia further and further from Gloria’s mind.
The problem was, the way the prisoner had been answering questions led her to believe his group had not been responsible for the virus. That would make him and his boss a third interested party.
“Do you know where she is?” she asked.
He grunted what might have been a laugh.
“She’s alive, isn’t she?”
“Did you…hear me say that? I didn’t.”
She decided to come at it from a different direction. “What about Eli Becker? Do you work together?”
Daeng said, “Becker…poor, poor Becker. Were you the one…who killed him?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Did you work together?”
Quinn grabbed the door handle. “Ready?”
Nate nodded.
“One. Two.” On three, he threw the door open and rushed inside, his gun pointed at the woman. “One step backward,” he ordered. “Then freeze.”
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
Daeng peeked over his shoulder and smiled. “Quinn. Been waiting.”
“Sorry we couldn’t get here sooner.” Quinn glared at the woman. “Take that step back now.”
She remained where she was a moment longer, her jaw set, but then did as he ordered.
“Check him,” Quinn said to Nate.
Nate moved over to Daeng and began undoing the restraints. “You all right?”
“Been better…been worse,” Daeng said.
“We’ll get you out of here and fixed up.”
Daeng swayed a few inches to the side before righting himself. “That works for me.”
Quinn studied the woman. “Hands.”
“Go to hell.”
“Let me see them.”
Hesitantly, she brought them forward. Her right was empty, but in her left she held a syringe.
“Drop it,” he said.
“Or what? You’ll shoot me?”
“Yes.”
By the matter-of-fact way he said it, Gloria knew he would have no problem putting a bullet in her, so she let the syringe fall to the floor.
“What now?” she asked.
“Now you and I talk,” he said.
“Do I get to ask questions, or…?”
“One, and you just used it.”
This Quinn guy was a pro for sure, but why had she never heard of him?
She shoved the thought away. That was something she could worry about later. Right now she needed to concentrate on getting out of this alive.
Keeping her gaze aimed at the man, she checked the door behind him. No shadows moving around out in the hall, so did that mean it was just Quinn and his partner?
“My people were concerned when we realized your friend was following us. Naturally, we’d want to find out who he was and why he was interested. You’d have done the same.”
Quinn said nothing.
“I suggest we all back off and be on our way. How does that sound?” she said.
“Like another question,” he said. “But I’ll answer it with this — do you really think your bosses back at McCrillis will be happy you let us walk away?”
She’d guessed he already knew the name of her employer since he’d found the facility, but it still bothered her, especially since she didn’t know anything about his organization.
“I heard some of the questions you were asking my friend,” Quinn went on. “I would actually be interested in your response to a few of them. Why are your employers interested in the girl?”
She laughed. “Very good. But I’m sorry, I’m not at liberty to discuss confidential matters.”
Off to her side, Quinn’s partner helped Daeng out of the chair.
“Get him out of here,” Quinn said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
The two men left the room at a slow shuffle and turned toward the stairs.
As their footsteps faded, Quinn said, “You’re the one who killed Eli, aren’t you?”
“Becker’s dead?” she asked.
He smirked. “You’re not as good an actress as you think.”
“Really, I had no idea he was—”
Without warning, she juked to the right then dove left, ramming her forearm into his hands and sending them flying upward just as he pulled the trigger.
“And you’re not nearly as badass as you think!” she yelled as she landed a left jab to his gut and raced out the door.
Knowing she wouldn’t be able to make it all the way to the stairs before he could gun her down, she ran toward the observation room. King had most likely been taken out, but hopefully his weapon was still there.
She was a step away from the room when she heard Quinn burst into the corridor. He took another shot as she turned through the doorway. His bullet grazed her waist before she could get all the way inside.
Ignoring the burning pain, she grabbed the door and shoved it closed, and then jammed a chair under the knob.
Given that the woman seemed to be his friend’s principal interrogator, Quinn couldn’t help but ask, “You’re the one who killed Eli, aren’t you?”
All innocent and shocked, she said, “Becker’s dead?”
“You’re not as good an actress as you think.”
He should have seen it, should have known it was coming. But he had let his emotions get the better of him and found himself momentarily focused on what she’d done instead of what she might do.
“Really, I had no idea he was—”
By the time he got off a shot, her arm was already shoving the gun away. She yelled something as she slugged him but he didn’t hear it. He followed her into the hallway just as she was turning into the room where the computers were. He shot again. He thought his bullet might have nicked her but it certainly didn’t stop her.
He reached the door seconds after she’d closed it. He yanked the handle and it turned but the door wouldn’t budge.
He took a step back. He’d seen no other exit from that room when he checked it earlier, so at some point she would have to come out. But wasting even one second waiting for her while Daeng was in need of help was not an option.