Maverick (Elite Ops 2)
She laughed at that. A strangely hollow sound that sliced across his senses, it was so filled with pain.
“Liar,” she whispered. “You want both of them, Micah Sloane. Because I know what you don’t want anyone to know. You’re in love with the mark. That doctor raped your woman. Everyone in the community knows that Orion’s main employer worked with Jansen Clay and that he was there the night Clay had his daughter and the other girls kidnapped. He raped her, and you won’t rest until he’s dead.”
“Wrong.” It was the truth. Both of them would die before this finished; Micah would make certain of it. “You, Ms. Serborne, will be picked up by two of your fellow agents come morning. Your director will have you locked up for your own protection until this is over.”
He rose to his feet.
“No!” She tried to come out of the chair. Rage tore through her voice, flushed her face, and caused her to nearly topple to the floor as she fought the ropes. “You can’t do that. Don’t you dare. Let me help. I can help you.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“You need me,” she cried out roughly. “I know what you don’t know.”
Micah paused. He knew her voice; he knew when she lied, when she told the truth. He had known her since she was a child, and he knew she wasn’t playing games this time.
“What do you know?”
“An exchange,” she bargained, her breathing rough as she turned her head to his voice. “Let me in on this.”
Micah shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ms. Serborne. The family of Abijah has lost enough of its children. I’d just as soon see you live. You don’t know his identity, or you’d have already struck.”
“He wears a wig.” She spoke quickly, desperately. “I know this. I know how to tell. I’ve seen him twice. I know how he walks; I know his voice. Don’t you cheat me out of this!” she screamed.
“I can find him without your information,” he told her. “Give your director my regards when you see him, Ms. Serborne, and if you want to save your career, you’ll make certain you follow his orders while you’re with him. Because I can and I will have you taken out of that agency, are we understood?”
“I’ll kill you.” She jerked, fought her bonds, and forced John to catch her chair. He received another harsh head butt for his efforts.
“Hell!” John cursed, letting her go. The chair bounced, rocked, and tipped to the floor as she screamed out in rage.
“Gag her,” Micah ordered. “Take her to her friends. And make damned sure they know the consequences of allowing her out of their sight.”
He turned away from her, and turning away tore at him. If she ever learned who he was, she would never forgive him. David Abijah would indeed be dead, because Bailey Serborne just might end up killing him.
CHAPTER 21
HE WAS BALD.
Bailey knew his voice.
She knew his walk.
She knew how he moved. Bailey was the only person to have come against Orion and lived to tell the tale.
“She could be helping him,” John stated, keeping his voice low as they met in the living room of the apartment.
Jordan was silent, as was the rest of the team. Micah stood by the heavily covered windows, his arms crossed over his chest as he considered the suggestion.
He didn’t have the proof to veto it.
“She knows something about the doctor,” he said quietly. “She was too evasive. She kept attention focused on Orion. Whatever she’s hiding, though, we’ll not be able to extract short of drugs, and she’s trained to resist those.”
“How far could she resist them?” Jordan asked, and Micah knew what he was considering.
Micah breathed out roughly as he shook his head. “She was weak in that area. Garren Abijah oversaw a lot of her training. She tested in Mossad laboratories in that area, and we broke her within an hour.”
He watched John wince. They knew the training Mossad went through to resist drugs and their effects. It wasn’t pretty and testing was never easy. The fact that she had broken so easily wasn’t a sign of weakness, but it was a sign that she could be broken. The CIA had known that. They had kept her on assignments with the least amount of risk in that area. There were a lot of CIA agents who broke easily under Mossad testing, though. It was rigorous, and at times it had been deadly.