Daniel pulled the Guardian SUV to an unlit back entrance of Walter Reed Medical Center. “Lei Lu, are you sure this is going to work?”
She patted his shoulder on her way out of the vehicle. “The light’s out, isn’t it? I told you I’m damn good.”
“Honey, check the tracker app that Alex’s computer geek created.” Nita kept her hand on Daniel’s forearm as he pulled up the application on his phone. Sure enough, it showed her on her way toward Marine Corps Base Quantico. He didn’t care how the hell she did it, Daniel was just thankful that Lei Lu, and some guy named Brett at Alex’s office, were fucking computer geniuses. The tracker diversion program worked.
Nita bent over the console and kissed him. “Thank you for doing this for all of us. We’ll be out in just a few minutes.” She was the last one out of the vehicle.
Ten minutes later, his beautiful wife stomped to the SUV. It seemed as though all four women were talking at the same time. The doors slammed as Lei Lu, Tori, Grace, and Nita filled the seats.
Daniel couldn’t make hide nor hair of anything they were saying. Maybe they hadn’t been able to get in to see Katlin. Had her condition changed? Was his sister all right?
“Whoa. Silence. One at a time.” He held his wife’s gaze. He knew what he wanted to say but his throat tightened. Swallowing, he finally managed to croak, “Is Katlin okay?”
“She is at the moment, but she won’t be by morning,” Nita declared.
The back of Daniel’s eyes burned. Even though he and Katlin were born eight years apart, raised separately, he’d quickly gotten over his childhood resentment and truly, deeply loved his sister. He unbuckled his seatbelt. He needed to see her for himself, especially if this might be the last time.
Nita grabbed his arm. “No, honey, you’ve got it wrong. She’s not going to die. It’s much worse than that.”
Daniel’s jaw dropped as he stared at his wife. He couldn’t think of anything that would be worse than dying.
“Jack is planning to impregnate her tomorrow morning.” Nita held his gaze.
“I’ll kill that motherfucking sonofabitch.” Daniel’s fist pounded the steering wheel. “What’s he going to do? Go in there and rape her?” Daniel reached for his phone. He’d simply call Alex and make sure that the bodyguard didn’t let Jack anywhere near her.
“In vitro fertilization,” Nita explained.
“Uhm, Daniel, we need to get a move on. The hospital rent-a-cop in the truck just turned the corner,” Tori announced from the back seat. “We should have been gone from here two minutes ago.”
Daniel pulled out and headed for Quantico, Virginia. “From the beginning.”
“You already know that I tapped into the medical center’s security program and set things on a loop to cover our trail,” Lei Lu began.
“Yeah, I got that.” Daniel was thankful for the minimal traffic as he headed toward the Interstate 495 Beltway.
Nita picked up the story. “On our way in, we passed the doctors’ lounge, so I borrowed a white jacket.”
“She actually borrowed it,” Grace interjected. “She returned it on her way out.”
“Well, I’m so glad you didn’t steal it. I don’t know how you would’ve explained to Jack that you needed bail money for stealing from the Walter Reed hospital in Maryland when you were in Quantico, Virginia.”
Nita smacked his bicep. He was being a dick and deserved it. She continued, “While the others were going through identification at the nurse’s station, I grabbed Katlin’s chart. I couldn’t figure out why they were giving her pre-pregnancy drugs. Sure, in her condition she couldn’t take the pill like we all do every day. But these medications are designed to help a woman get pregnant, not prevent conception.”
Daniel was glad his wife was so damned smart. How had he ever gotten so lucky as to marry this brilliant woman? He reached over and squeezed her thigh. A thigh he had caressed, kissed, and licked three hours before, bringing his wife to a screaming orgasm. Thank goodness their children were deep sleepers and the nanny hadn’t returned yet. The look she gave him said she was remembering the same thing.
“I’m with you. Continue,” he insisted.
“Being Katlin’s brother, I doubt you know this, but about four years ago it was determined that her ovaries weren’t functioning properly.”
Daniel wasn’t sure he wanted to know this about his sister.
Nita continued, “She was told that she could never have children, but they could harvest a few eggs and maybe she could do in vitro fertilization later. She went through the procedure, but somehow her eggs disappeared.”
“You have any idea how much an egg from a blond-haired, blue-eyed, Mensa member with a bang-up body like your sister’s is worth?” Tori asked from the back seat.
“Are we talking designer babies?” Was that a real thing? He thought that was just science fiction.
“I can show you on this website that her eggs would sell for close to fifty-thousand dollars each. Possibly as high as one-hundred thousand dollars.” Lei Lu’s face glowed from her computer screen in his rearview mirror.
“Holy fuck. I had no idea,” Daniel admitted.
“Jack somehow found Katlin’s eggs…and fertilized them with his sperm.” Nita shook her head. “I saw the DNA matches. They’re her eggs.”
“Now ruined by damn Jack so Katlin will never have a chance to have a baby.” All eyes flew to Grace as she slapped her hand over her mouth. The preacher’s daughter never swore, yet she’d been so emotional about Katlin’s situation that the word slipped out.
“Katlin is scheduled for implantation at seven a.m. with prep to begin at six,” Nita announced.
“That bastard knows Katlin would never abort a baby, even if it was his,” Daniel stated, fuming deep inside. “Unconscious was the only way he’d ever get her pregnant. She’ll be tied to him for the rest of her life. Just what he wanted.”
Nita continued. “From what I could tell, someone named Dr. James Greer has ordered her pumped full of folic acids, progesterone, and steroids preparing her body for the IVF.”
“I’ve got him.” Lee Lu spoke from the middle of the backseat. “He’s a highly respected infertility expert.”
“I can only imagine what lies Jack told him,” Tori added.
“I’ll bet this is why Jack wouldn’t let us anywhere near Katlin. He knew you would look at her chart and know what he was doing.” Grace shook her head. “That man belongs in h-e-double hockey sticks.”
“That’s why we were on lockdown. That sonofabitch!” Tori said through clenched teeth.
“And why we’re getting shipped out tonight,” Grace noted.
“So, what are we going to do?” Lei Lu asked. “If we’re not in the air soon, Jack is going to know something is up.”
Nita looked at her husband. “You’re not going to let Jack do this to your sister, right?”
“Fuck no.” Daniel thought for a few minutes. “I wonder if Jack had anything to do with Alex’s last-minute trip to San Francisco.”
“Alex being out-of-town can work to our advantage, and his.” Grace met his eyes in the rearview mirror. He’d never thought of her as a tactician. “I suggest we start with calling Top Cooper. If you want, I’ll call Griffin and ask him to stay in town an extra few hours.”
“I can forward my security video program to Brett,” Lei Lu offered. “Covering your tracks is child’s play for him. You can thank him while you’re at it. He helped me with the satellite end of the tracker distraction program.”
Forty-five minutes later, a basic plan in place, Daniel kissed Nita goodbye. “I love you. Fly safe. The kids and I will video call you tomorrow night at bedtime.” He gave her another quick peck. “I’m so glad we will at least be in the same country, even though we’re not in the same time zone.”
“Me, too.” The security lights outside the dull green hangar reflected in her wet eyes. “I didn’t have hardly any time with the kids, or you.” She blinked and looked away. When her gaze returned it was filled with anger and determination. “I hate fucking Jack Ashworth. If things don’t change soon, I’m going to think twice about taking my next promotion and the additional years that go with it.”
Daniel never thought he’d hear those words from his wife. The military had always been her dream. He wondered if she’d actually leave the service. It was her decision, though.
He pulled her in for one last kiss. “Don’t think about it now. Your emotions will get in the way. You need a clear head for big decisions like that.” He gave her a quick peck on the lips.” Now, go play nice with Black Swan Team Two.” Hands on her shoulders, he turned her toward the door.
Leaning over her shoulder he whispered in her ear, “I love you.”
She started to walk away. Looking back, she gave him the smile that was reserved just for him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Daniel Callahan. I love you.”
Since this wasn’t his first time taking the Ladies of Black Swan to the hangar at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he knew he was not allowed to linger. As he backed out of the parking space and headed toward the front gate, he speed-dialed Top Cooper. “You think we ought to call Alex and let him know what’s going on?”
“Nope. This way he has complete plausible deniability. He’s on the West Coast. The less he knows, the better.” Top was right. Time was of the essence. A clean, tactical strike in and out, using the fewest men possible, was the best idea.
Since Daniel had visited Katlin several times, he was too recognizable to the nurses to handle the inside job himself. He was relegated to being the driver. As soon as he was sure his sister was safe and settled, he would head to work…as though he hadn’t kidnapped a federal agent at dawn.
“Don’t worry, Daniel, we’ve got this,” Top said with confidence.
“I’ll meet you at Walter Reed in a few hours.” Daniel glanced at his watch. At least he’d get a few hours’ sleep as long as one of the kids didn’t wake him up. Thank God they had a wonderful nanny.
At five-thirty, as the first streaks of dawn replaced street lights, Daniel pulled into the now-familiar hospital complex with Rick and Doug from Guardian Security in the back seat. Riding shotgun was Rafe Silva, who lived next door to Katlin in the condo off DuPont circle and also worked for Guardian. He handed Daniel a communications earbud.
“We’re not tied into the operations center.” Rafe explained, “We can talk to each other, Top Cooper, and Brett. Are there any last-minute questions?”
“No, sir,” the two in the backseat said in unison.
“Brett, we’re in place and ready to roll.” Rafe glanced around the cab one last time.
“Taking control of cameras now.” The words came through Daniel’s earbud. “You’re a go. I repeat, you have a go.”
Daniel blinked and the Guardian SUV was empty.
“Turning on cameras now.” Brett’s voice was loud and clear. “Daniel, can you tell me if you have images?”
Grabbing the specialized Guardian tablet, he nervously fumbled turning it on. Several squares filled the handheld screen with amazing color and clarity. Guardian had the best fucking toys. If Daniel was ever going to turn in his CIA agency badge, he wanted to go to work for the company owned by his sister and future brother-in-law.
“I’m seeing everything, everywhere.” Rafe was walking around outside of the emergency room entrance. The two Guardian men passed through the double doors with Operating Rooms, No Admittance written in bold letters. One square seemed more like a picture because nothing moved outside the door labeled Morgue. In another square, Daniel watched Top Cooper’s wife, Gina, test half-a-dozen monitors surrounding a hospital bed.
Once Rick and Doug were dressed in scrubs, disposable booties, and surgical hair covers, they started to leave the lounge. As if they knew exactly what they were doing, they stepped into the pre-op area, sifted through clipboards, and grabbed one.
“We lucked out. We have her transfer paperwork.” Doug waved the clipboard so it was visible to the camera.
“Taking her out of ICU just got easy,” Rick said as they headed to ICU.
From his parking place in the second row, Daniel was about to say something when an ambulance pulled up to the back door of the morgue. He glanced at the tablet and realized it was Rafe driving the borrowed emergency vehicle.
Perfect. They were ahead of schedule.
“We’re here to pick up,” Rick made a show of looking at the clipboard, “Ms. L. Hawk.”
Without looking up at the pretend orderly from the desk where she was busily writing, she held up her hand. In less than ten seconds, she’d signed the paper and pointed. Weekend shift change made everything so easy.
The two men deftly pushed a transport bed into Katlin’s glassed room and expertly lifted her onto the new gurney. Doug unhooked the bags from the polls and placed them on the bed while Rick unclipped the heart monitor leads but left the patches. They would need those.
No one concerned themselves with the process, to Daniel’s relief. As they passed the nurse’s desk, Rick paused and lied smoothly. “The anesthesiologist asked me to grab her file. He wants to double-check the allergies.”
As soon as the ICU doors closed behind them, one of the men announced, “We have the package.”
The two carefully maneuvered the bed down the hallway to the elevators, got off on the second floor, and went down another hallway to a different set of elevators to the morgue. Rick grabbed a white sheet and Doug snagged a toe tag from the empty morgue. Once tagged, they tucked her into the sheet and headed to the back door.
With the engine running, Rafe opened the ambulance doors. They quickly loaded Katlin, taking special care by holding her head so as not to jar it. Rick hopped into the back with her. Without sirens or lights, the ambulance pulled away from the hospital.
Still dressed appropriately for the operating room, Doug headed back into the hospital. He went directly to the surgical techs who prepared all the equipment and trays for each operation. “Hey, do you have the trays ready for the IVF in OR eight?”
The tech, who didn’t look old enough to drink, smiled broadly at him. “I just finished.” She handed Doug a large stainless-steel tray. “The fertilized eggs are over there next to their shipping cooler. They started the thawing process last night.” She giggled and pointed. “Those timers are counting down the viability of the embryos. The sex is on the label.”
When he turned his back on the young tech, he spoke quietly into his comm. “I was supposed to take the tray and put all the items away as though they’d been used. What the hell am I supposed to do with the embryos?”
“Bring them,” Daniel and Top Cooper said at the same time.
An hour later at the Tysons Corner safe house, Daniel backed the white van into the extra-long garage. Transferring Katlin at the large acute care facility had been ingenious. Rafe had pulled the ambulance to the doors on the north side where patients were usually received. The Rick had ditched the toe tag and pulled down the sheet off Katlin’s face.
Leaving the ambulance running, they’d wheeled her down the hall, turning toward the east entrance where Daniel had been waiting. The covert transfer took forty-two seconds.
Somebody would eventually notify the private ambulance company and some poor clerk would search for hours looking for the work order so she could bill the insurance company.
Rafe, Rick, and Daniel carefully extracted the gurney and carried her into the house, not allowing her head to jiggle. Top Cooper opened the door and they wove their way through the kitchen and dining room, down the hall to the master bedroom they’d transformed into a private hospital room.
Gina held Katlin’s head while the four men moved her onto the new hospital bed. Then she took over as the charge nurse she’d been for over twenty years.
Daniel glanced at his watch. “Time for me to go.” He would show up at work at the usual time as though nothing had happened. The CIA had taught him to lie easily, so if Jack Ashworth questioned him, a circumstance he’d love, Katlin would be protected. Even if tortured, he would never reveal her whereabouts.
Once again surrounded by beeping machines, bags on poles sending life-sustaining liquid into her body, Daniel stepped to his sister’s bed and took her hand. “How’s she doing, Gina?”
“Very well, all things considered.” The woman pushing fifty with silver strands sprinkled through short-cropped dark brown hair gave him a reassuring smile. “We’ll know a lot more after Dr. Tobias gets here. Isn’t that right, Katlin?” Gina patted the unmoving body as though she were awake.
Daniel bent down and gave his sister a kiss on the forehead. “I love you, sis. I’ll see you soon.” He smiled as he heard the beeping increase. She knew he was there.
He felt bad that he couldn’t return to this place. Jack was sure to place a tale on Daniel knowing how close he and Katlin had become. He’d already arranged with Top Cooper for daily updates via disposable cell phones. Jack wouldn’t hesitate to tap their phones if he thought it could lead them to Katlin.
He headed out of the room but couldn't resist looking one more time. Gina jabbered to Katlin as she checked all the IV lines and equipment.
They’d done the right thing.
Katlin was safe.
Jack couldn’t get to her there.