Chapter 46
June
June was still talking with Wilkinson when her phone rang.
It was Peter. She didn’t pick up. She didn’t want Wilkinson to walk out while she still had questions.
Her phone rang again. She looked at Wilkinson. “I’m sorry, I need to take this.” She put Peter on speaker. “What’s up?”
“Someone took Carlotta and Ellie. They want to make a trade for me and the ammo we took from the Gun Club. They said to check Telegram for the details.”
June closed her eyes. After everything that had happened to Ellie, now this? And Carlotta? They must be scared to death.
“Hold on.” She pulled the burner from the foil and opened the app.
There was a new message with a photo. The bottom dropped out of her stomach when she saw it.
“I got a picture of two women in hoods, like fucking ISIS prisoners. They want you in Auburn at five-thirty. If we call the police, Ellie and Carlotta die. If you don’t bring the armor-piercing ammunition, Ellie and Carlotta die.
If you bring anyone else with you, if they find a tracking device, if they see anyone following—”
“I get it,” Peter said. “Ellie and Carlotta die. Do they say anything about an exchange of hostages?”
“Nothing,” June said. “Just instructions for you.”
“Okay, we’ll play by their rules. Traffic’s a mess. Getting to Auburn in that time frame won’t be easy.”
Now June felt like she was going to throw up. “Peter—”
“I have to get moving, Juniper. I don’t have time to grab Manny. He’s in Greenwood, I’ll text you the address. Whoever you’re with, show them the brochure picture of Garrison Bevel and see if he’s the Messenger.”
“Peter, wait. Are you really going to do this? Put yourself in these lunatics’ hands?”
“It’s not Ellie’s or Carlotta’s fault they’re in this shit situation. It’s mine.”
“No, it’s Circuit Rider’s fault, the Messenger’s. They kidnapped two innocent people. Not you.”
“So you think I should do nothing? Abandon Ellie and Carlotta? Leave Manny to find them by himself?”
She let out the breath she’d been holding. She didn’t like it, but she knew he was right. Also, the man she loved would never abandon someone he cared about, no matter what it cost him. “Of course you should help. But maybe you shouldn’t hand over that armor-piercing ammunition.”
“Right now, Juniper, I don’t have a choice. So I’m going to do what I need to do, and have faith that you and Lewis and Manny will figure out how to save my ass and stop the bad guys. Did you learn anything useful today? Like maybe where they’re taking me?”
She told him about the confrontation with Troy Boxall and his declaration that the Dark Time was coming sooner than planned.
She told him about Sanjay Mishra, the fact that he was missing and almost certainly KT’s whistleblower, and what she’d learned from Isaac Wilkinson about the so-called Movement.
“The Messenger has a compound, we think an old summer camp somewhere about an hour from Auburn, probably in the mountains to the east. Also, the place they’re meeting you is the same place they picked up their members for the grand tour of the compound.
So I’m guessing that’s where they’ll take you, too. ”
“Unless they have another hideaway,” Peter said. “It won’t be the storefront, because I already told Durant I’ve been inside, so he won’t risk your knowing about it.”
“From the descriptions I have of the compound, it’s isolated and self-sufficient.
If they’re going to pull the trigger on the Dark Time, whatever the fuck that is, I’m pretty sure they’ll go there to weather the storm.
Problem is, we don’t actually know where it is.
Although I have some ideas about finding it.
I’ll do some digging online while Lewis drives. ”
“Sounds like a plan,” Peter said. “Will you send me a screenshot of the meet details? I don’t want to get this wrong.”
“Sending it now.” Her fingers flew across her screen. Then she got up and walked away from Wilkinson and Lewis and the two security men, turning off speaker mode for privacy. “Listen, Marine?”
He heard something in those two words. “I know. I’m sorry about this.”
“That’s not it.” She cleared her throat, thick with emotion. “I just. I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t,” he said gently. “We’ve been through worse.”
“But…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. She was afraid that if she spoke her greatest fear out loud, it might come to pass. Clearly some of his combat superstitions had rubbed off on her.
“Juniper Cassidy.” His voice was soft and low and calm. “You will figure it out. You will find me. I have faith in you. And in Lewis and Manny. There’s nobody else I’d rather have on my side. Hell, I’m feeling sorry for the Messenger’s people already.”
She pulled in a shaky breath. “Okay,” she said. “We’re on it.”
“Gotta go, June. I’ll see you soon, okay?”
And then he was gone.
—
She put the phone down and took a moment to wipe her eyes, then turned back to Lewis. “You get all that?”
He nodded. He had the Beretta in his hand again, radiating potential energy and violence. In other men, that would have terrified her. In Lewis and Peter and Manny, it made her feel safe.
Faraday, the senior security man, was staring at them. He saw it, too.
Wilkinson said, “You’re going after this entire organization on your own? With one of you as a captive, in exchange for two kidnapped women?”
“Yes.” Lewis looked at Faraday. “Could use a hand, if you’re up for it.”
Wilkinson said, “I can’t have my security detail involved in something like this.”
Faraday gave him a short nod. “Understood, sir. Tell HR to backdate my resignation by at least four months. That should give you a buffer in case the optics go bad.”
Wilkinson blinked. “You don’t have to do this. You could come to New Zealand with me and the rest of the team.”
“No, I can’t,” Faraday said. “Twenty-five years ago, I took an oath. Working for you doesn’t negate that.” He put out his hand and Wilkinson took it. “Be safe, Isaac.”
“Come see me when it’s over,” Wilkinson said. “All of you.”
Faraday nodded, then turned to the younger security man.
“Take Isaac back to the office. Tell Carl he needs to beef up the detail, at least four guys at all times. And get him in the air to New Zealand tonight. Whatever the Messenger and his people have planned, if they’re successful, things will go to hell in a hurry. ”
Lewis stood in the open doorway. The rain came down hard outside, and the cold, wet wind pulled all the warmth from the bright little café. “We need to go.”
June said to Wilkinson, “Thank you for your time.”
Then she walked out into the storm without looking back, Lewis and Faraday hard on her heels.