Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“This is about research?” Josh couldn’t quite put things together in his head.
“Hope McDonald developed a drug that makes it possible to experience time in a different way,” Ezra explained. “It’s miles ahead of anything anyone else has. One of the side effects of later iterations of the drug was memory loss and the subject becoming very susceptible to suggestion in the early days. The men she experimented on were typically soldiers and they retained muscle memory, could fight and do things like put together a complex rifle with no trouble. But they had no memory of their pasts and were eager to please.”
“Super soldiers,” Josh said. “That’s how Kay explained it. They would be like ducklings, desperate to imprint on anyone who could make the world make sense. Ducklings who came out of the shell knowing how to kill.”
“Kayla is close to them. She can walk in and any one of those men would walk out with her, never understanding she’s leading them to slaughter,” Shane said. “They love her. She’s been in charge of them since Big Tag shipped them to London.”
Bishop nodded. “Yes, I believe that’s what they’re counting on. Once she’s got them on the outside, she can either say she lost them and try to stay on, or Damon Knight will believe she turned. What other explanation would there be? No one else knows Jiang Kun’s alive. She’ll take her sister’s place and McKay-Taggart won’t go after Green for vengeance because it’ll be Kay’s fault, not his.”
“You said he won’t kill her right away.” Josh had been a pawn, a means to an end. It had always been Kayla they were after.
“It would be easier if they had the protocols to get into The Garden,” Ezra explained. “But if she won’t give them up, they could still have some uses for her. They could use her to draw Damon Knight out. He wouldn’t understand that he wasn’t getting the right agent back. They would show him the real Kayla being tortured, offer her up for a certain amount of cash, then switch her out for her sister at the last minute. Jiang Kun would be welcomed back into the arms of her ‘family’ and then she would go to work. Any memory lapses could be attributed to PTSD. And then she would get one of the Lost Boys. Hell, maybe more than one.” He looked at Bishop, his eyes narrowed. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you’re not playing some angle.”
Bishop stared at the CIA agent. “I am here because I want to be a man of honor. I left the Agency because I’d lost mine. I came back because I can’t let them get away with this. Because it’s the right thing to do and that is all the skin I have in this game. I will save Kayla and then I will go home and try to rebuild my life there if the Agency will let me. If the world will let me.”
Slowly Ezra shook his head. “All right. I believe you.”
Bishop stood up. “Shane, you got a car here?”
“Yes, I’m driving Hunt and Kayla back to the city in the morning,” Shane replied.
“Not now. Now you’re taking Agent Fain to a hospital,” Bishop explained. “Get Hunt out of here, too.”
“I’m not leaving without Kayla.” He wasn’t a fucking agent, but he wasn’t some wimp either. He could do things. He could take a bullet if he needed to, if it meant her getting out alive. All he knew was he wasn’t getting in a car and leaving her behind.
There was a knock on the door and Bishop went still.
“Take Ezra out the back,” Bishop ordered, his voice a mere whisper. “Hunt, looks like you get your wish. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Stall her as long as possible. If she takes you to wherever Kayla is, tell them all this.”
He leaned over and whispered in Josh’s ear. Josh nodded. It was a good bit of dialogue. If Bishop ever wanted to give up the vegan-bread-selling game, Josh would let the man work on some of his scripts.
Shane had Ezra, hauling him out as silently as possible. Bishop nodded and then disappeared, too.
Fuck. It was just a role. Another part to play. He went to open the door. Don’t be her. Don’t be her. Don’t be her. Don’t be her.
The gun. He had the gun in his pocket. Would she check him there?
“Josh?”
He leaned down and shoved the small gun into his dress sock. He was wearing traditional black dress socks and the tuxedo pants were straight cut. It was possible they wouldn’t check. It was also possible he was going to shoot off his own foot, but he needed to give them the best chance he possibly could.
He was back on his feet when the door flew open.