Chapter Ten

 

“You should talk to her,” Sasha said. “She’s still in the living room.”

“He should talk to her so she gets out of our living room,” Dante grumbled.

Robert turned and gave Dante the same stare he used to give the guys in his unit when they were assholes.

Pain flared through his brain. God, he wanted to reach out for that memory, but he let it go. It was nothing more than a thought in his head, the remnants of another life. The trouble was Emily Seeger was more than a mere thought.

Dante shrugged. “I think if he talks to her for a few moments perhaps she realizes he’s annoying and she no longer wants to be married to him.”

“We don’t know that she was married to him,” Tucker pointed out. “It could be a lie. She could be a plant.”

“You think Levi Green planted her in the Army a decade ago, made sure she met Senator McDonald so one day she could do what?” Owen asked. “Look, I’m all Team Ariert here, but I’m not sure how sending Emily in here works for the people against us.”

“That’s terrible.” Tucker sent a dismissive look Owen’s way. “Robari is the only way to go here. You don’t get to make power couple names.”

“Says the man who came up with Jiver,” Owen shot back.

“Well, Jax wouldn’t let me call them Rax,” Tucker replied. “You know I call you and Rebecca Owbecca.”

“That’s terrible, man. It sounds a bit like Chewbacca.”

“Stop, both of you.” Dante shook his head. “You’re both idiots. I’m going back to work. Robert, you should handle this situation and quickly. Everything Sasha and I have found makes me believe she’s who she says she is.”

“I find it interesting that there’s no mention of Russell Seeger and yet I can find you on her social media. There are some pictures of you buried on her Facebook. She posts something about you every year on the anniversary of your death,” Sasha explained. “I’m sure it’s something Adam’s new facial recognition would have eventually picked up, but her page is set to private. Naturally knowing what to look for means I can hack into it. I can’t guarantee they’re not manipulated, but you look happy.”

He wasn’t happy now. Emily was still waiting for him and Ariel was gone. Peter had told him she’d gone for a walk. By herself. It made him sick to think that she was out there alone.

Ari didn’t believe him. She had some bullshit thought that he would magically look at a woman he couldn’t remember and fall back in love with her.

Still, if Emily did have any information about him, he needed to know. If she was some kind of plant, he needed to know what she wanted and why she was here.

And if she was real…well, he had to deal with that, too.

“Keep looking into her. I’ll go and talk to her. Don’t forget we’re meeting with the administrative assistant this evening. This mission doesn’t stop simply because my world blew up.” He strode down the hall, not looking back. If they could find the information they needed, he would talk Ariel into going home and letting another team deal with retrieval. Once he had her at The Garden, he would prove to her that nothing at all had changed.

Except he had a wife.

His “wife” sat on the sofa, staring at the big TV screen, though nothing was on. She looked lost. Kind of the way he felt.

She blinked and seemed to realize she wasn’t alone. Her jaw tightened as she looked up at him. “Hello, Russ…Robert.”

It was obvious she wasn’t going to leave until he talked to her. And what else would a wife who’d recently found out her husband had come back from the grave do? Was he being too hard on her? Owen had been right. It was a stretch to think someone had planted her long before McDonald had actually started her experiments. There was such a thing as coincidence.

“I’m sorry I left the way I did before. I wasn’t polite and I apologize.”

“Well, your girlfriend was upset. I’m not wrong about that, right? There was a lot of emotion between the two of you. She’s good at covering it, but she was upset, and not for professional reasons.”

He hadn’t meant to hide this from her. Not from anyone. “Ariel is important to me. I’ve been in love with her for a long time. I’m sorry if that hurts you.”

She pursed her lips and seemed to think about what she wanted to say. “Well, apparently you didn’t remember me at all. I suppose it’s not surprising you would find someone else. I should point out that you were in love with me for much longer.”

He hated the fact that he was obviously hurting her. “I don’t remember. Do we have kids?”

He should have asked right away, but he was scared of the answer. How would he feel about kids he didn’t remember? He wouldn’t be able to walk away from them.

“No.” There was a wealth of sorrow in her tone. “We put it off. I didn’t want to be alone with kids while you were deployed. And then we ran out of time.”

He managed to not breathe a sigh of relief, but it was there. “You said something about me having a brother. Just one, or did I have a big family?”

She stared at him for a moment. “You really don’t remember anything, do you?”

He shook his head. “As far as I know I woke up in a medical facility a few years ago. All of my memories are from there on.”

He didn’t tell her about the feelings he had, the vague shadows of the past that sometimes played along his brain. Or the ones that kept him awake at night.

“You were born in Wyoming. You lived on your grandad’s ranch. Your father walked out on your mom after your brother was born. You were the oldest.” She spoke as though going through a report for school. There was no emotion in her voice. She was trying to get through it. “Your brother’s name was Timothy. I’m so sorry to tell you he died in a car accident after you died. He was drinking and he lost control of the car.”

“And my mother?”

She shook her head. “Cancer. A couple of years ago.”

So he didn’t have a family. That must have made it easier to erase him from existence. “I need names and dates.”

“Of course. I’ll help out in any way you need me to.” She turned to him. “I’ll answer all your questions, but you have to talk to me, too. I know you don’t remember me, but I’ve spent years thinking about you. My life ended the day you died. If you’re back, I want a chance with you.”

That wasn’t going to happen. He felt bad for her, but she was missing the point. “I’m not the man you married. He really did die. He might not have gone the way the military told you he did, but he’s not here anymore.”

“What happened? Your whole squad was lost in a bombing,” she said, the words seemingly tortured. “There were ten of you who they couldn’t even find enough body parts to bury.”

“Ten of us?” He’d always imagined he’d been alone.

She nodded. “I went to ten funerals. You loved those men. I made sure I went to all of their ceremonies even though I was aching inside. I needed to honor you by being there. We still talk. I’m still close to some of the wives.”

“Emily, it’s important that I have those names.” Had they been placed in McDonald’s program, too? Were they some of the men who’d died under her tender care? Were their secrets contained in those files they’d found?

“Of course. I’ll give them to you but you should be able to look it up. I can’t imagine the reports aren’t available to the public.”

“I assure you they are not.”

“Why wouldn’t they be?”

He wasn’t ready to trust her with the answer to that question. “Did you get my insurance and the death gratuity?”

She nodded. “Yes. The military sent me everything they owed me. Insurance paid out quickly. Russ…Rob, I didn’t have any reason to think you were alive. You were a soldier and you died in combat. Why would they lie to me? This is what I don’t understand. Do they know you survived? Did anyone else survive?”

The enormity of what had been done slammed into him. McDonald had taken a whole team. He’d handed them all over to his daughter to play around with, like they were toys and it didn’t matter if they broke. He would simply find her new ones.

“I don’t know.” He had to tell her something. It honestly didn’t matter. If she was bad, she already knew it anyway. “There wasn’t an explosion. I was part of a medical experiment. The experiments involved memories and behavioral control in an attempt to create super soldiers.”

Her eyes had gone wide. “They experimented on you? The Army did that?”

He shook his head. “No, though I’m sure there are some factions in the military who know exactly what happened. There have to be. It’s why we wanted to talk to you.”

She gasped. “Because I worked with the McDonalds. Oh, god. It was her. She did this to you and I introduced you. I made you come to that party with me. I did this.”

He hadn’t expected her to take it that way. Not that he should expect anything at all. He definitely didn’t expect to feel a tug of compassion for her. She looked genuinely upset. If she was real, he couldn’t be angry with her.

Why wouldn’t she be real?

“It wasn’t your fault.” His voice softened. He was angry that her appearance had upset what he had going with Ariel, but he shouldn’t take that out on her. “Dr. McDonald decided I would be a good candidate. She would have found a way to take me no matter what you would have done.”

It was what she’d done with Theo. If Hope McDonald had worked the same way she had when she’d taken Theo, she’d likely taken him to the primary site and moved the other men in his team to the secondary. He needed pictures of them to see if Tucker or the others remembered their faces. They still talked about the other members of their team, the ones who had died that final day.

“I can’t believe this is happening.” Emily started to sob and she leaned into him.

He didn’t want to touch her, but he put an arm around her shoulders.

She shuddered as though relieved and wrapped herself around him as she cried.

How would he feel if he’d lost Ariel and found her years later? He would have mourned. He didn’t think he would have moved on. She was in his soul. He would be devastated.

“Please let me stay for a couple of days,” Emily begged. “I understand that you have a life, but I need some closure. You need answers. I can help you with that. Your group called me in for a reason.”

He wanted to tell her to go. He wished she’d never shown up. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t like being near her. It didn’t feel right to even hold her while she cried.

He was a bastard.

But he was a bastard who needed information. “I’ll see if Peter can find you a room. We do need to talk about what we do from here.”

She looked up at him, tears in her blue eyes. “I just want a little time.”

That would be all he had to give her.

 

* * * *

 

The Marienplatz was filled with people enjoying the early evening. The city center was a vibrant combination of shopping, cafés, and gothic architecture. Ariel would far rather be exploring St. Michael’s Church or the Rathaus-Glockenspiel than sitting here with Rebecca and her friend Louisa. Instead of enjoying the end of the day, she was gently herding someone into telling her information that could endanger her life.

There was a reason she’d gotten out of MI6. She hated all the lies.

They sat in a small café across from St. Michael’s. Somewhere near the church, Robert and Sasha were watching them. Tucker was “shopping” at the H&M next door. Peter sat on one of the benches, reading a magazine. Any one of them could be there in a few seconds if something went wrong. Not that they expected Louisa to attack them. She seemed more than willing to talk.

Dante had offered to stay behind and watch the new girl. She assumed he would really be diving into the shipment of beer Peter had recently had delivered. She did feel better not leaving Emily alone in their safe house. She’d placed her computer in the safe, and there were security cameras to catch her if Emily snuck around the club.

She hadn’t needed security cameras to catch the tender moment between Robert and his wife. She’d decided to check on the woman when she’d returned from her meeting with Kim.

He’d been there. He’d had his arms around her even though it was obvious he was uncomfortable with touching her. Would he feel the same way in a few months? That was why she had to keep her distance. His memories could come raging back, and she couldn’t be the reason he stayed away from a wife he loved.

“I’m trying to understand what happened to Steven and Veronica.” Rebecca’s words cut through her misery, reminding her she still had a job to do.

“I don’t know why you would care,” Louisa replied. Her English was excellent and she spoke it with a light German accent. Ariel would bet she’d spent a lot of time in other countries. She was a bit younger than Rebecca. She was the assistant to the VP of research for Kronberg Pharmaceutical, and if Rebecca was right, also slept with her married boss. “Steven was an ass. Veronica wasn’t as sweet as she seemed to be.”

“How do you mean?” Rebecca was getting good at interrogation. She had a friendly style that brought people in. “She was always nice to me.”

“I don’t trust anyone that nice. Veronica seemed like a scared little mouse, but then I would get security reports about her being in sections she wasn’t supposed to be in,” Louisa replied. “I have no idea why she liked to prowl around the lab at night. And I don’t need to tell you Steven was terrible. You were the only one worth anything and Dr. McDonald knew it. Is Steven the reason you dragged your therapist all the way to Germany?”

It was their cover. Ariel was helping Rebecca confront what had happened to her here in Munich. “She doesn’t completely understand what went on and why Dr. Reasor attacked her that day. It’s helpful to hear from people who were there. There were events going on around the same time and she needs to know if they’re connected. It would help her put the episode behind her.”

A cunning smile crept across Louisa’s face. “But no one is exactly sure what happened. You’re right. There was a lot of drama surrounding your departure.”

“I figured if anyone knew, it would be you,” Rebecca said. “You know everything about the company. Everyone talks to you.”

Louisa took a drink of her beer and sat back, looking satisfied with the compliments. “It’s because they know to get to my boss, they have to get to me. All right. I’m interested in helping you. You weren’t obnoxious. I don’t know the whole story. There are things the boss doesn’t tell even me.”

And that bothered her. Louisa thought she should be in the middle of everything. Being shut out would upset her. It always helped to know what motivated a person. Louisa needed to feel like she was the center of attention. It was an easy thing to offer. “That doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do. You’re a team. I’ve always found the support team for a boss is usually smarter than the boss.”

“He’s practically a senile old man,” Louisa said with a dismissive wave of her hand. She was on her third beer and they hadn’t been here very long. Louisa took the term “happy hour” seriously. “I run that office, but old men need to keep their secrets. What do you want to know?”

Rebecca leaned forward. “The last time I saw Steven, he told me I didn’t understand the scope of Dr. McDonald’s research. She’d asked me if I wanted to go to Buenos Aires with her. Steven didn’t want me to go and that was when he…well, I won’t go into the details, but he was why I left. He scared me.”

“He must have since you never looked back.” Louisa glanced around. “Look, I don’t know everything about it, but I know she was doing something the big bosses didn’t want the press to find out about. I assumed it was something about her testing. She wouldn’t be the first to ignore protocol in search of a breakthrough. She was likely using testing methods the world wouldn’t approve of and that’s why they were so careful with her. My boss personally looked at her daily reports.”

“We were working on a cure for several degenerative brain diseases,” Rebecca said. “I was in that lab every single day. I was responsible for a lot of those protocols. I never saw anything that would worry me.”

Louisa tipped her beer Rebecca’s way. “Well, I think you were brought in for different reasons than Steven. You had some incredible instincts and she was working on a problem. You were working on the same problem in your own research. Dr. McDonald always could find bright minds to steal from.”

“I thought Dr. Reasor was quite smart.” According to Rebecca he’d had a brilliant mind. It was the only thing she could believe Tucker and Reasor had in common.

“Oh, Steven was smart, but that wasn’t why she hired him. Maybe it was in the beginning, but he was more like her defender, if that makes sense. What’s the term I’m looking for? Second in command? He made sure she got what she needed. He scared all of the employees. He kept copious records and investigated everyone who came in contact with him. If he found dirt, he would use it as leverage to do her will. I thought when you left that he’d found something on you.”

Rebecca shook her head. “No, he made me run for different reasons.”

From what Ariel had learned, she believed Steven Reasor had used the time dilation drug to torture Rebecca. He hadn’t physically harmed her, but the drug had made it seem like he had. She would have been extremely open to suggestion. She’d been so frightened by the experience that she’d left the country and her job behind. She’d buried the memory deep and it had only come out when she’d seen him again in Toronto.

It hadn’t been long after Rebecca had fled that Steven Reasor himself had disappeared. Not that they had proof he’d ever really existed.

“What do you know about how he died?” Rebecca asked.

“I know the rumors and I know what I think is true.” Louisa sat back and looked completely serious for once. “The rumor is he went away with Veronica Croft for a weekend before he left for Argentina. Some people say he blackmailed her into it. He was obviously into her. If you were in a room with the two of them, his eyes were on her. She might have been attracted to him, but his behavior put her off. At least that was what she said. I wouldn’t put it past him to blackmail her into his bed. He didn’t come back to the office after that. I assumed he flew directly from Paris to Argentina. That was where her other lab was.”

“And that was the same time McDonald cleared out her lab here?” Ariel asked.

Louisa nodded. “Well, she cleared out far more than that. You can’t tell anyone I told you this, but shortly after Steven and Veronica took their trip to Paris, it was like the world exploded. My boss got called in and everyone was here. There were some people I didn’t even know were associated with the company. Wealthy, influential people. I wasn’t in the meeting, but no one was happy when they came out.”

Rebecca’s gaze was steady on Louisa. “What do you think happened?”

“Well, the project was shut down immediately,” Louisa explained. “I was never told exactly what it was about. I was only the secretary. But it wasn’t hard to figure it out. Someone found out what McDonald had been doing. Whoever it was confronted her and she ran. Or she caught wind of what was happening and she ran. She took everything. The night that she left the country, the Kronberg executives worked overtime to cover their asses, as you Americans say. They cleaned it all up and we’re stronger than ever. And if anyone comes after us, well, my boss taught me how to handle that. He’s a bit like Steven in that way.”

So he did keep a file. Somewhere in that building was the information Kim needed to jump into the game and free the men. This was exactly what they needed.

“He kept some leverage?” Rebecca asked.

“Always, but I think this was serious leverage. Let’s just say there’s a safe in his office that not even I know the code to.” Louisa looked up and a waitress was approaching with their food. “Rebecca, I hope this brings you some peace. You need to know that even if Dr. McDonald was doing something she shouldn’t, it won’t ever get out. My boss will make sure of it. You’re safe. As for Steven Reasor, well, you’re safe from him, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company had a hand in that. Like I said, there were many people in and out of the offices after she left, and I would bet some of them were connected to powerful agencies. You’re safe, my friend.”

The waitress set down the tray and started passing around the food.

Ariel glanced at Rebecca, who was smiling at Louisa.

“That is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much,” Rebecca said before looking down at her plate. “Schnitzel. Oh, how I have missed you. Why don’t we talk about happier things? Tell me all the gossip.”

Ariel looked down at her own plate. She wasn’t hungry at all. She looked back, hoping to get a glimpse of Robert. He’d been standing outside the church with a camera around his neck, looking every inch the curious tourist.

He wasn’t there now. Where had he gone? She started to pull out her phone to text him. If something had happened…

The door to the church came open and he slipped back outside. His shoulders were straight, and even from here she could see the way his jaw was tense. He took up his place again, but he wasn’t pretending to be a tourist. He simply stood there.

She could feel him staring at her.

She took a sip of her wine and tried to force herself to listen to the conversation.

All the while she wondered why he’d gone into that church.