Chapter Thirty-Three

Luke checked Haughton’s pulse as the truck parked in the underground garage of an office block in Canary Wharf not far from their main headquarters. Luke owned the building through a number of untraceable intermediary companies. While most of the floors were rented out to other businesses, the ground floor contained a private clinic and an apartment, and the lower levels holding cells and a secondary control center. Callum waited by the elevator but hurried over as Talbot turned off the engine.

“How is he?”

“Alive but unconscious,” Luke answered. “And I need him conscious sooner rather than later.”

“The doctor’s waiting for him.”

Two men wheeled up a trolley, and Luke stepped out of the way, watched as they pulled Haughton from the vehicle and laid him on it. His head rolled to the side and his eyes fluttered open. “My wife? Can I see her?”

Luke stared down at him but felt no pity for the person responsible for the death of hundreds and involved in a plan that would potentially kill thousands. Maybe millions. He had given up the right to be pitied. “Once you’ve told me what I need to know.”

Haughton didn’t speak again as they disappeared into the elevator.

Luke ran a hand through his hair and pressed his fingers to his eyeballs.

“You look like shit,” Callum said.

“Thanks. I could do with coffee and some food before we start the interrogation.”

“You think he’ll talk?”

Luke led them into the second elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor apartment. “Hell, yes. He knows he’s got no options left. They tried to take him out back there. All he can hope for is to make some sort of deal with us.”

“And will you deal?”

“Yes.” To get Jenna back he would make a deal with the devil. “How’s the wife?”

Callum shrugged. “She’s good. I didn’t even have to touch her. Just threatened to hurt the kid if she didn’t scream nice and loud.”

“Where are they?”

“Down in the basement cells. They’re fine. You can bet your life they’re a damn sight more comfortable than your lady friend right now.”

The doors slid open, and he led the way into the kitchen. Luke didn’t want to think of where Jenna might be or what she might be going through. His job was to concentrate on getting her back and stopping Descartes. At least now they had a chance. While Haughton wasn’t top level, Luke was pretty sure they would get something useful from him that would lead them to Jenna. Hopefully in time.

He’d seen minds totally torn apart by the drugs the Conclave used, and once they decided she knew nothing else, they would kill her and dispose of the body, and he would find no trace of Jenna Young.

By the time the doctor called up to tell him Haughton was stable and they could talk to him, he was on his second coffee.

He stepped into the clinic. Callum followed him and leaned against the door just inside the room. Haughton lay on a trolley with his arm hooked up to an IV; a doctor stood at his side. “My wife?”

Luke shrugged. “She’s fine. Frightened but unhurt. So far. When I see my friend, you’ll see your wife.”

“I told you—I don’t know anything about your friend.”

“Well you’d better start thinking of a way to find out.” He needed to discover where Jenna was being held. Even if Haughton knew nothing about her, there must be a way he could obtain that information. “How do you contact the Conclave?” he asked.

“I don’t. They contact me.”

Luke wiped all expression from his face, leaned down close to the other man, and whispered in his ear. “You’ll get your wife back in pieces if you don’t cooperate. I know how that feels. Believe me, you do not want it to happen.”

He stepped away, shoving his hands in his pockets as he waited for Haughton to decide. “You’ll let us go if I talk?”

Luke shrugged. “If you tell me anything useful.”

Haughton took a deep breath. “I have a contact. If anything goes wrong, I have a number I can call.”

“What is it?”

He reeled off the number.

“Got it,” Callum said from behind him. “I’ll go get working on a trace.”

“You ever called it?” Luke asked.

“Once.”

“Why?”

“I thought someone was investigating the company. Poking their noses where they didn’t belong.”

“What happened?”

“I rang the number, and the problem went away.”

Luke paced the room. The number wouldn’t help, but he was sure a man of Haughton’s position and intelligence wouldn’t blindly follow an organization without at least attempting to discover who was in control.

“And you’ve never tried to find out more about the Conclave? You’ve never been curious? Come on, Haughton, you know the number’s not going to give us anything.”

For a second, some of the old arrogance flashed across his face. “Do you know who and what you’re dealing with? How many people are involved in the Conclave? And you expect me to find one woman?”

“If you want to live, you will. Yes, the organization is huge, but I’m guessing there has to be somewhere central, somewhere they do their dirty work, where the low-level soldiers hang out.”

Haughton licked his lips “Was she taken in London?”

“Yes.”

His gaze darted to the doorway and back to Luke. “Maybe…there might be one place.”

“Go on.”

“After I phoned in that problem, I had him tailed.”

“And?”

“The problem was killed. The men I hired followed the killers.”

“What happened to them?”

“I received a phone call.” He swallowed nervously. “From my contact at the Conclave. He said my men had been taken care of. They sent me a picture. They’d been tortured, mutilated. They said they would pass on it this time, that it was human nature to be curious, but if I ever got ‘curious’ again they’d do the same thing to me and my family.”

“So, I’m guessing these men passed on some information before they were taken.”

Haughton nodded. “They were wearing tracking devices, which they destroyed just before they were captured.”

“So the Conclave are unaware you know this location?”

“As far as I know.”

“You’ve never been tempted to make a visit?”

“No.”

“The address?”

Luke tried to subdue the excitement rising inside him. He didn’t know this was where they were keeping Jenna—it could be a complete waste of time—but his gut instinct told him he’d found her.

He left Haughton and made his way down to the control center, where he found Callum.

“The number’s a dead end,” Callum said. “It was cancelled an hour ago.”

“That makes sense if they know we have Haughton. But he’s given us an address. I think it might be a lead.” He sat down and tapped in the address. “I want to know everything about this place. I want satellite images, building specs…”

“Do you want me to send someone over there?”

“No. I want nothing that might tip them off. Keep it low key, but get me the information.” He glanced at his watch. It was late afternoon; they had only a few hours to prepare this. “We’re going in there tonight.”

Surprise flared briefly in the other man’s face, but he nodded. “I’m on it.”

“I’ll go back and see what other information we can get out of Haughton. Call me when we have what we need.”