Page 16 of Hunter

For several seconds there was silence in the room. Then Emerson cleared his throat. “I will make sure that Dr. Kelley’s paperwork is expedited. But until the proper forms arrive, she will be restricted to alternate duties.” Standing, he left the room.

Kathryn sat there stunned, aware that most of the men were coldly judging her reaction again. God, what a callous bunch of bastards. It was clear they didn’t give a damn about Hunter’s welfare. They were just doing a job. Which one of them had told Swinton so much about her interaction with Hunter? Or did he have some other spy in the training department or on the security force?

“I’ve been instructed to take your things to guest cottage three,” McCourt said, breaking into her thoughts.

She wanted to tell him she wasn’t at Stratford Creek as a guest. Instead, she nodded politely.

###

Frank Decorah turned from the window of his office and walked back to his desk where he scrolled through the computer file on his screen. The head of Decorah Security was up way past office hours worrying about Kathryn Kelley. She was a psychologist being stalked by an inmate she’d helped put away. He didn’t know her, but he knew she’d wanted a job where security would be tight, and she’d ended up at a place called Stratford Creek.

A knock at the door made him sit up straighter. “Come in.”

Jonah Raider walked into the room. “You’re working late,” he said.

“You too. Why aren’t you home with Alice?”

“Because I knew you were worried about something, and I wanted to make myself available if you needed to talk.”

Frank gave his agent a hard look. “You weren’t reading my mind, were you?”

“You are on edge, aren’t you?”

When Frank didn’t respond, Jonah added, “I never pry into your mind—or anyone else’s at Decorah—unless they asked me to. But the look on your face earlier clued me in that there’s something going on.”

Frank sighed. “I got a call from a colleague about a woman named Kathryn Kelley who wanted to hide out from a stalker. Tom Albright asked my advice about recommending her to the staff at Stratford Creek. I said I didn’t know anything about the place. But the question got me doing some checking around.”

“And now you have the scoop?” Jonah gestured toward Frank’s computer screen.

“Well—I know I would have told Tom to dissuade her from going there. But it’s too late. She’s already accepted their offer.”

“Uh huh.” Without being asked, Jonah took a seat across from Frank’s desk.

“There’s something strange about the place. None of my Defense Department contacts will talk about the project Bill Emerson is running up there. Either they don’t know how he’s spending a couple of million dollars, or they won’t admit they know.”

“A lot ofourwork is secret,” Jonah pointed out. “We don’t advertise that we have a bunch of werewolves and some telepaths on the staff.”

Frank laughed, then sobered again. “Secrecy is one thing. Hiring a team of guys I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley is another.”

“What?”

He gestured toward the screen. “I’ve gotten a list of the Stratford Creek personnel. Starting with William Emerson, U.S. Army, retired. He’s a real super patriot type. I mean the kind of guy who can justify breaking laws, if he thinks he’s acting in the interests of national security. If he gets caught, he puts the evidence in the paper shredder.”

“That’s a bad combination,” Jonah murmured.

“And the rest of the staff—” He grimaced. “Either they’ve got Emerson’s attitude, or they’ve gotten in trouble on other assignments.”

Jonah’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know all this?”

“I called in a couple of favors.” He scrolled through the file. “One of the worst of the bunch is the also-retired Lieutenant Chip McCourt. Emerson rescued him from being court-martialed for assaulting a civilian worker on the base in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was allowed to leave the Army with an honorable discharge. The head of training, Jerome Beckton, has been jailed for several bar fights.”

“Jesus.”

Frank plowed on. “The doctor, Jules Kolb, got into some trouble at the VA, but maybe he’s the best of the lot. I want to get some more information on him.”

“Can you trust him?”

“I don’t know. But under the circumstances, I may have to take a chance on him.” His expression turned hard.

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