Page 48 of Falling Fast

“I think so.” She leaned over the laptop, scanning whatever was on there for a minute or so, then frowned. “It’s stopped.”

That wasn’t good. “Nothing else coming through?”

She shook her head, eyes still on the screen. “What the hell is…” She trailed off, muttering to herself in a way he’d become accustomed to over the last few days. It was kind of adorable. The woman was sure dedicated to her job. “I can’t even read it. It’s in some kind of code.” Her expression was pure irritation as she pulled out her phone and called someone.

Suddenly Easton straightened and looked down at his phone. “Shit.”

Logan snapped his head around to stare at him. “What?”

“Fuck. Rodriguez just activated the emergency beacon.” He shoved the phone at Logan with one hand as he started the ignition with the other. “Call Hamilton and alert the taskforce.”

He dialed their team leader’s number, his heart beating faster, and explained as fast as he could when Hamilton answered.

“Where are you now?” the man demanded, voice tense.

“On our way to the backup rendezvous point.” He grabbed the edge of the dashboard to steady himself as Easton whipped the vehicle around in a tight U-turn, tires spraying gravel as they turned off the shoulder and raced north down the quiet road toward the secondary RV point.

“Rodriguez is still at the house?”

Logan checked the tracker on the app. The red dot was blinking at Baker’s address. He touched the screen, zoomed in so that the house took up the entire screen. It showed the red dot somewhere on the second floor, then rapidly moving toward the east end of the house. “Affirmative.”

“How long do they have before you move to the next location?”

The place they would use as a last resort to recover Charlie and Rodriguez before launching a rescue op with police and feds. “Twenty minutes.”

“I’ll alert the taskforce and locals to be on standby.”

If they had to move to a tactical situation, shit was going to get critical. “Roger that.” Logan ended the call and watched the beacon on the app. On screen, the dot moved a few yards east, then stopped. And when it started moving again a minute later, it wasn’t toward an exit at all. “Looks like he’s going down to the basement.” Where Baker’s office was located.

“Shit, is he going after Charlie?” Easton said as he sped down the road.

“Don’t know.” But Logan had a sick feeling that neither Jamie nor Charlie were going to show up at the secondary rendezvous point.

****

You’re not dead yet. Don’t give up. It’s not the end. You have to think of something.

It couldn’t be the end.

The words kept racing through Charlie’s brain on an endless, terrified loop as the two men whisked her down to the lower level, away from any guest and prying eyes.

One of the men carrying her still had a hand clamped over her nose and mouth, presumably to keep her quiet and not draw any unwanted attention to what was happening. Squashed between the two behemoths with her arms wrenched behind her back, she was too exhausted to fight anymore, her muscles trembling and weak yet her body stiff.

She had to be smart, play this right. Baker might be suspicious of her actions but he didn’t know who she worked for and likely still thought she was a helpless, clueless civilian. If she was going to mount a final, desperate attempt at escape, she had to conserve her energy. Maybe fool her two captors into thinking she was cowed.

All contingency plans were used up now. If Jamie had truly been captured as well, then they were in deep shit. He was supposed to have alerted the team via a signal from his watch if an emergency situation arose.

The team would move to the alternate rendezvous point, wait twenty minutes. If they didn’t show, a tactical assault would be launched to try and rescue them.

She was starting to fear she wouldn’t live long enough for it to happen.

It was dark down here, the hallway lit only by dim sconces on the walls. The men carried her through a heavy door at the far end. It swung closed behind them with an ominous clang that echoed off the concrete walls and floor. Her heart smashed so hard against her ribs she feared it might burst.

Without a word they took her to what looked like a steel door and set her down. Her bare feet met the ice-cold floor and she sucked in her first big gulp of air when the heavy hand over her mouth and nose released her. She gasped and wobbled on her feet, didn’t have time to draw a breath to scream before one of them pounded a fist on the door.

It opened a few inches, enough to reveal the face of another man, his features harsh and blunt. “What’d he say?” he asked the goons.

“Told her to fess up so you’d go easier on her,” one of them said.

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