Page 11 of Storm Surge

He seemed shocked at her lack of knowledge. “The country and the world were taken over by a terrorist group that was made up of some powerful men within our country and others.” Will stopped. Seemed to choose his words carefully. “The person in charge of this group is your father. And his name is Martin, not Alfred.”

Part of her wanted to deny it. Tell him he was mistaken. Another part believed every single word. After all, she’d watched her father kill a man.

“Do you have any idea where your father would go?” he asked again.

As she looked into Will’s gentle expression, she believed him to be one of the good guys. “Have you checked the lodge? He stays there sometimes. He doesn’t realize I know this.”

Will’s expression stayed the same at that admission. “Yes. There’s no one there. I need to know where he is, because he and the rest of the members of Legion have to be stopped.”

Legion. The word played uneasily through her head. She recognized the name from the Bible verse.My name is Legion because there are many. Was her father a demon? One of the devil’s own?

???

“We’ve finished searching the lodge. There was another structure nearby that was used to store snowmobiles and lawn equipment. But I’m curious as to why there are no vehicles around the place,” Sheriff Callahan said.

Will struggled to pull his thoughts away from the disturbing conversation he’d had with Jamie Collins. He couldn’t think about the possibilities he saw in her and keep a level head. “Good question.” Will didn’t recall seeing a vehicle parked near the cabin. There was one leaving the property as they arrived. How did Betty and Jamie get around?

“Garrett, call Josh who’s keeping an eye on the occupants of the cabin. Have him speak to Betty. Find out where their vehicles are.”

“Copy that.” Garrett turned away to place the call.

“Crime scene has finished with the lodge. We found some interesting things.” Callahan headed toward the lodge and Will went with him.

“Such as?”

“A cell phone belonging to David Kincaid.”

Will stopped in his tracks. “You’re kidding. Kincaid was here?”

“I’m guessing, or at least his phone was. And there’s something else you need to see.” Will followed Callahan into the lodge and down the hall to a room with an enormous fireplace. “Over here.” He moved to the fireplace.

As Will approached he saw it. Dark splotches near the wall beside the fireplace. Blood spatter. “Someone was hurt here,” he said and knelt beside the stains.

“Shot,” Callahan corrected. “We dug a 38 shell from the wall behind you. Crime scene swabbed the blood. From the amount of it, I don’t believe the wound was fatal.”

“So, someone was shot and lived.” There was no bullet wounds on Edward Buckley. Collins didn’t show any sign of being injured. Far from it. That left—“If Kincaid was here, where is he now?” Will told the sheriff about the vehicle he saw fleeing the area.

He rose and glanced around the room. “We searched the entire lodge and the cabin. Have your people fan out through the woods. FBI agents are here to assist. We’ll have them help with the search and securing the property. This is a big place. Several hundred acres. If there are Legion agents here, we need to find them. And if Collins has secrets buried here, I want to know about all of them.”

“You got it.” Callahan started from the room as Garrett entered.

Will explained what they had so far. “What did Josh find out?”

“Turns out, Betty has a jeep, but she rarely uses it. Obviously it’s missing. She said there’s another vehicle that’s kept at the landing strip on the other side of the property. Collins uses it when he comes to visit.”

Will recalled seeing the airfield as they flew over the property, but there wasn’t any building where a vehicle might be housed, and he hadn’t seen anything parked nearby. “We need to get APBs out on both vehicles and see if we can engage their GPS to track them. That is, if the GPS hasn’t been disengaged already by Collins.” As a former CIA agent, Collins would know how to do that.

“I’ll speak to the sheriff and have him get that going.”

“Appreciate it, Garrett. I know we have the federal agents here, but I want to call in some of our people. We can set up a command post in the lodge. I’m going to check in with Victor and catch him up to speed.”

Garrett nodded and then left the room.

Will glanced around. What exactly had happened here? Where was Kincaid? He felt as if a ticking time bomb was sounding in his head, warning him that things were about to blow his wife’s case to smithereens. He pulled out his phone and called Victor.

“Will, what’s happening in Washington? Is there any news on Collins yet?”

Victor Douglas had been the president of the United States when Legion had begun their attempt to take over the world. They’d taken Victor hostage and planned to kill him. They would have succeeded, if members of Strike Force hadn’t rescued him and his secret service agent, Kinsley Allison.

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