Page 128 of Gone Before Goodbye

Kabir Abargil, the so-called “poor man,” had no chance—and still he survived another twenty-one days. But they were awful days. And after that, Maggie wanted no part in any of this. Her mom had taken a turn for the worse. She headed home.

“I’ve heard rumors about that,” Steve says.

She looks at him.

“I started working here a year ago,” he continues. “WorldCures wasn’t the only one down here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, there were other, shall we say, secretive medical research facilities? All in separate offices in this building.”

“So where are they now?”

“They vanished. Overnight. Packed up and moved.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

“Where to?”

His phone buzzes. Steve checks the screen and frowns at what he sees. “I have no idea, but after what happened, they felt like this location was compromised.”

“What happened?”

He glances up from his phone’s screen and meets her eye. “You really don’t know?”

“Why would I?”

The phone buzzes again. “Shit.”

“What?”

Steve gives her a baleful eye and leaves the room. “Damn it, I should have known.”

Maggie quickly follows. “Steve?”

“Oh my God.” He stops, turns to Maggie, and now she can see the fear in his eyes. “Did Trace Packer send you?”

“What? No. Wait, do you know where Trace is?”

He turns and starts back down the corridor. “Jesus, how could I have been so stupid?”

She hears the ding of the elevator. The doors open. Two beefy men in blue blazers step out. Between them is Nadia. One man is holding her left arm, the other her right. Her wrists are held together by what looks like a plastic zip tie.

What the…?

Both men, Maggie can see, have weapons strapped to their waists. The beefier one also has Nadia’s passport and some other kind of ID inhis hand. Keeping a grip on Nadia’s elbow, he gives them both to Steve. Steve studies the ID and then starts paging through the passport.

“Let go of her,” Maggie snaps. “And cut that tie off her wrists. Now.”

When they don’t, Maggie storms over and pulls at Less Beefy’s arm. The arm doesn’t move, but Less Beefy does look over at Steve.

“I got this,” Steve tells the two guards.

Both men reluctantly let Nadia go, though she remains zip-tied.

“She broke into your computer,” More Beefy says.