Page 40 of Dan

“Jesus,” muttered Nine. “So, Yancy Baker Xavier is behind all of this? She kidnapped her own daughter.”

“She’s done worse than that, believe me. That poor girl was tortured because of her mother. She paid that shrink to do shock treatments on her, fill her with truth serum to get formulations out of her head, everything. Half the shit that company has done in the last fifteen years came out of a little girl’s mind. They kidnapped her, hoping to get the designs for her flood wall system to mount the defense system.

“They filled her so full of drugs, it would take that poor kid weeks to get back to normal. Even through all that, I think she knew. Surprising thing is, I think the girl was smart enough to avoid giving anything important.”

“Surprising? Surprising that she fucking survived!” yelled Dan. “You allowed them to continue their torture of that woman. My woman!”

“Look, the whole family is screwed up. The only normal ones were the grandfather and the girl. That’s it. Yancy is determined to bring down anyone who ever worked for some group called REAPER. Except no one can seem to find them. Rumor has it they’re related in some way to G.R.I.P. That’s why we wanted to do business with you.”

“Well, guess what?” said Nine, pulling a long strip of duct tape from the roll. “Rumor was right.”

“Sorry, Malina, but you’re going on an unmanned flight,” said Doug, watching as Nine secured the duct tape to her mouth, hands, and feet. Ryan tossed her over his shoulder, carrying her up the steps and dumping her into the pilot’s seat. Using the duct tape, he secured her to the jet, then nodded at Rhodes to secure the hatch.

With ease, he maneuvered the jet out to the test runway, Ramirez banging her head against the side of the cockpit. He punched in a few numbers and watched as the aircraft took off headed toward Mount Hood.

“It’s headed straight toward the mountain,” said Rhodes. “Can we please go get my brother now?”

“Let’s go, man. How many men do you think she has at the house?” asked Dan.

“Probably three or four,” he said, shrugging. Dan handed him a pistol.

“You remember how to use that?” he smiled.

“Damn right, I do.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

With Hudson’s little brother safe, the team made the decision to meet with MQAE the next morning. East Rhodes wanted nothing more than to serve like his older brother. Unfortunately, diagnosed with Type I Diabetes as a child, the military wouldn’t accept him. He’d resigned himself to becoming an aeronautical engineer, which was where Malina Ramirez found him at the University of Washington.

“Hudson and East,” smirked Doug.

“Our folks were from New York,” said Hudson. “They always wanted their sons to remember that. I can’t thank you guys enough for this. I turned down the job with FormJet, then Malina calls and says she has an offer I can’t refuse. The minute I walked into the office, she turned the video camera on, and there was East.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about it now, brother. Just get things right for you and East. If you’re ever looking for a job, come find us,” said Nine. Hudson’s eyes went wide, staring from Dan to Nine.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” said the entire room, laughing.

“Hud, I don’t feel so good,” said East.

“Shit,” muttered his brother. “Did they not give you your insulin?”

“On and off, but they wouldn’t listen when I said I needed food or insulin. I think I’m just really off.”

“I’ve got a med kit,” said Eric, kneeling in front of the young man. “Do you have a meter?”

“On my arm,” he nodded. “It goes to my phone, but they took my phone and smashed it. I don’t know what my readings are.”

“Hold on,” said Ryan. Taking his own phone, he held it up to the meter, tapping into the app and looking at the numbers. “You’re dangerously high. Three-ten.”

“Shit,” muttered Hudson. “I need to give him his insulin.”

“Here,” said Eric. “We keep everything in the kits. This should help for now until you can get him his usual dosage. Drink this.” He handed East two bottles of water and watched as he downed the first one, then began sipping on the second. Ryan kept his phone monitoring the numbers, relieved that they were slowly going down.

“I think he’s going to be okay,” said Ryan. “He’s already down to two-eighty. Still high, but it’s going in the right direction.”

“Go, Hud,” said Dan, nodding at the man. “We’ll stay in touch. Just take care of yourselves.”

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