Page 50 of A Touch of Treachery (Section 47 #3)

Despite their many sins, Henrika and Feliciano had looked very much in love, although their story had been cut short. A few weeks after the Mexico mission, some Section cleaners had finally caught up to Feliciano and eliminated him.

How had Henrika felt about her lover’s death? Had that started the feud between Henrika and the General? And how did my father factor into whatever had happened between Henrika and Percy?

More questions crowded into my mind, but I only needed to solve one puzzle right now: Where was Desmond?

General Percy had said Henrika hadn’t left anything behind, but I thought he was wrong about that. Either way, the two photos were the only clues I had, so I tucked them into my pocket and left the ransacked library.

I rode the elevator down to the lobby. Dozens of guests and hotel workers were milling around, talking on their phones or chattering to each other. Even Section 47 couldn’t cover up squads of armed agents storming the resort grounds, but damned if they weren’t trying.

The same agent who’d soothed the crowd at the Vault building was on the scene. The charmer held her hands up and starting speaking, projecting her calm, placating voice across the lobby.

“. . . misunderstanding . . . false alarm . . . seems to be a juvenile prank . . . set off some firecrackers . . . no danger to anyone . . . the weekend’s activities can proceed as planned . . .”

Her words drifted over to me, along with the warm glow of her charisma. The woman was using her paramortal abilities to their fullest effect, and everyone started nodding their heads in agreement.

Gia was standing in the corner, talking to one of the strike team leaders.

I went over to them. The strike team leader gave me a disgusted look, as did several of her colleagues.

Word had already spread about just how wrong the mission had gone and that Desmond was missing, but the other agents’ disdain was nothing compared to my own anger for letting Henrika play me for a fool.

A flicker of movement caught my eye. Gabriel was standing at a display rack in front of the gift shop, trying on a pair of sunglasses.

His back was to me, but his eyes met mine in the mirror on the rack.

I shook my head the tiniest bit, warning him away.

Gabriel returned the sunglasses to the rack, headed into the shop, and disappeared.

Gia finished her conversation with the strike team leader, then strode down a corridor. She didn’t look at or speak to me, but I followed her anyway.

I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Gia stepped into the same library where Desmond and I had talked after the poker game. My heart gave a painful squeeze. Had that only been last night? It seemed like a lifetime ago. I stood just outside the door and watched the other agents.

The room had been turned into a mobile command center, and several techs were sitting at the reading tables, pounding away on laptops, and reviewing all the footage that had been recorded during the strike team raid, both from the agents’ body cameras and from the hotel’s security feeds.

To my surprise, Evelyn was here. I didn’t know when she had arrived or how she had gotten to the resort so quickly from D.C., but she was standing behind Diego, along with Joan, and scribbling down notes on a legal pad, still playing the part of the unassuming assistant.

“Any updates?” General Percy demanded, pacing in front of the fireplace.

Gia shook her head. “No. Henrika’s pilot didn’t file a flight plan, so we haven’t been able to track the helicopter yet, but I have people working on it.”

A couple of the techs typed even faster on their laptops, as if they could make the helicopter location appear just by stabbing the keys quickly enough.

“What about Niles Perran and Oriana Luzzo?” Percy asked.

Gia shook her head again. “There’s no sign of them. We’ve sent agents into the woods, but so far we haven’t picked up their trail. We did capture several of Henrika’s guards, but so far, none of them knows anything useful.”

Percy pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, keep looking. I want Niles Perran and Oriana Luzzo found, although right now the priority is Henrika Hyde and Bryce Finkley. Desmond will be wherever they are.”

“Oh, no,” Diego said.

His voice was barely above a whisper, but his fingers stuttered to a stop on his laptop, and the sudden silence was deafening.

General Percy zeroed in on him like a hawk diving for a mouse. “What’s wrong?”

Diego swallowed. “We’ve just received an email and a video message from Henrika.”

General Percy blinked at Diego for several seconds, as though he wasn’t sure whether he’d heard the tech guru correctly. Then he stabbed his finger at a large monitor that had been set up in the corner. “Put it up there,” he barked. “Now!”

Diego started typing again, and Henrika’s face appeared on the monitor. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at it, and an expectant silence filled the library. Diego hit another key, and the video started playing.

Henrika grinned at the camera. “Hello, Jethro,” she purred in a low, silky, satisfied voice. “Are you also experiencing a sense of déjà vu, or is it just me?”

A muscle twitched in the General’s jaw, and his hands curled around the back of a chair like he wanted to rip the wood to pieces.

Henrika’s grin faded away, and she leaned closer, her green eyes staring straight into the camera. “My demands are simple. In return for your son, I want a full Section pardon and immunity for all my crimes.”

Gia was already shaking her head no-no-no , while Diego was chewing on a fingernail.

Evelyn’s face remained smooth, but Joan glanced in my direction, anger flaring in her pale eyes, although I wasn’t sure whether the emotion was directed at me or Henrika or the whole messy situation. General Percy remained stone-faced.

Henrika leaned back and shrugged a shoulder. “I think my offer is more than generous. I’ll give you a few hours to think it over. You’ll receive further instructions then.”

She stared at the camera again, a cold look on her face. “Any attempt to locate me in the meantime will result in Desmond’s immediate execution.”

Lie , my synesthesia whispered.

I tilted my head to the side and stretched out with my magic, but my inner voice remained steady and certain.

Henrika wasn’t going to kill Desmond. Not until she unlocked the secret of his galvanism.

How much she might hurt him in the meantime .

. . well, I didn’t want to think about that.

I couldn’t think about it, or I wouldn’t be able to function.

“I do hope we understand each other, Jethro. Next time, your agents won’t be so lucky when they storm one of my properties, and I’ll blow up more than just a dock and part of a mountain.

And I will make sure that dear Desmond suffers the worst of all,” Henrika continued. “And none of us wants that, do we?”

She smirked at the camera a moment longer, then slashed her hand across her throat. The video cut off.

General Percy stared at the dark screen. His hands dug into the back of the chair again, and the wood creaked in protest. After several long, tense seconds, the General released his grip and stabbed his finger at Diego.

“Find out where that video came from,” he barked. “Now!”

Diego hunched over his laptop, his fingers flying across the keys. Joan took a seat next to him, cracked open her own laptop, and got to work. Gia and Evelyn glanced at each other, then Gia stepped forward.

“I shouldn’t have to say this, but I will anyway,” she said. “Section 47 policy is not to negotiate with anyone, no matter the hostages taken or the circumstances.”

“We are not negotiating ,” Percy growled. “We’re going to find Henrika, eliminate her, and rescue my son. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Gia replied in a reluctant voice. She might be the head of the cleaners, but Percy still outranked her.

Gia also sat down at the table, dragged over a laptop, and got to work. Evelyn took a seat beside Gia, still clutching a pad. Evelyn glanced toward me, her face blank, then started taking notes again.

My heart sank. Even though Desmond was missing, Evelyn was sticking to her assistant role instead of revealing her true identity and authority as Maestro.

For a moment, I considered outing Evelyn and forcing her to confront General Percy, but making an enemy out of her wouldn’t do me—or, more importantly, Desmond—any good.

“We’re wasting time here,” Percy growled again. “Have one of the strike teams keep searching the woods for Niles Perran and Oriana Luzzo, but I want everyone else packed up and on their way back to Section headquarters in ten minutes.”

Everyone bobbed their heads in agreement. General Percy spun around, and he finally noticed me hovering outside the library. That muscle twitched in his jaw again, and he strode forward. He stopped and looked at me for a moment, then slammed the door right in my face.

The sharp bang made me flinch.

I resisted the urge to pound my fist on the wood.

General Percy had made his decision, and he was repeating the same mistakes he’d made on the Mexico mission all those years ago.

Back then, Percy had ignored Grandma Jane’s attempts to rescue her son, just like he was ignoring my help now.

Well, I would be damned if I let Desmond suffer the same awful fate as my father.

I might be on the outside looking in, but that was nothing new at Section 47. For years, my supervisors and coworkers had overlooked and underestimated me, but I was the one who’d discovered Henrika’s moles, and I knew that I could track her down now.

I spun around and strode away from the closed door. Jethro Percy could suspend me, fire me, and threaten me all he wanted. But one way or another, I was going to find Desmond.