Ash wasn’t sure what to say. It made sense, of course. How else would Matt have known so early about the Project’s existence and the need to stop them? What bothered Ash wasn’t that Matt had been a member of Project Eden, but the fact he’d hidden it from everyone.
“What about you?” Chloe asked. “Were you part of the Project, too?”
“No. Never. I didn’t even know what it was until…well, until Matt came back from the dead. That’s when I gave up my old life and promised I’d help him. And that’s all I’ve done since then.”
No one in the car said a word as they absorbed what Rachel had told them.
Ash finally broke the silence. “How’s Matt planning on getting into the facility?”
“I don’t know specifically. C8 will get him in.”
“C8?”
“That’s his inside contact.”
“Does C8 have a real name?”
“I’m sure he does, but I don’t know what it is,” Rachel said testily.
“I should have phrased that better,” Ash said. “I apologize.”
Rachel made no reply.
“All right,” Ash said. “So he’s going in alone with this C8 guy, and will try to take out the principal director. Have I got that right?”
“Yes,” she said. “But, Ash, you’ve got to stop him.”
“I’m not sure I want to stop him. If he really can accomplish what he told us he’s planning on doing, I don’t think that’s an opportunity we can pass up.”
“He can’t do this alone. You’ve got to keep him from going. We can find another way.”
“We could find him and convince him, forcibly if necessary, to take Chloe and me with him.”
“I guess you could,” Rachel admitted. “Not a great answer, though.”
“We still have our original problem,” Chloe said. “How are we going to find him?”
Ash thought for a moment, then said, “He’ll have to leave the others somewhere.” He turned to Sorrento. “Hand me that New Mexico map.” The driver gave it to him and Ash opened it up. “Where exactly is this base?”
“A few miles north of Las Cruces,” Rachel said.
“Off the interstate?”
“Not far from it.”
“Seems likely that Matt’s won’t want to chance putting the others right next to the base. So he’ll probably keep them in a town where they can blend in and hide if necessary. Las Cruces itself is an option.” He studied the map. “If he’s coming in from the north, maybe he’ll park everyone in Truth or Consequences, and if from the east, um, Alamogordo. So we have three choices.”
“What if they’re not in any of them?”
“One step at a time,” Ash said. “Rachel, we need to get moving here. We’ll contact you again as soon as we find them.”
“Please do.”
After the phone was stowed away, Chloe said, “So where do we start?”
“Truth or Consequences,” Ash said, pointing at the small town on the map. “We’re already heading that way. If they’re not there, we’ll backtrack north a bit and cut over to Alamogordo.” He showed both routes to Sorrento.
“Got it,” Sorrento said.
Chloe looked like she wanted to say something but was hesitating.
“What is it?” Ash asked.
She nodded discreetly toward the children.
“Right,” Ash said.
“Right, what?” Brandon asked. Apparently the nod had not gone unnoticed.
“I think we can find something here in Albuquerque to keep you all occupied.”
“Dad, no,” Brandon said.
“Uh-uh,” Josie agreed. “We’re staying with you.”
“Not this time,” Ash said.
“We’re not kids anymore,” Brandon said.
“Maybe not, but you’re still my kids. And this time, you’re staying here.”
Rachel had felt the others staring at her as she talked to Ash. Maybe she should have cleared the room again, but by the time the idea came to her, it was too late. It was probably better this way anyhow. It was time people knew the truth. Besides, it shouldn’t change anything.
At least, she hoped not.
After the call disconnected, she looked around at the disbelieving faces.
“Yes,” she said. “Matt was in the Project. I’m sorry you weren’t told before, but there it is. You can ask all the questions you want later. Right now, there’s still work to be done.”
28
Ben’s jeep whipped around another abandoned car without slowing.
She’s going to get herself killed, Martina thought for the millionth time.
In the three hours she had been following her boyfriend’s car, the brown-haired woman had kept the Jeep’s accelerator pressed to the floor. Only once had Martina been able to get close to the vehicle. That had been near the beginning of the chase. When the woman noticed her, she jerked the vehicle into Martina’s path, missing the front tire of the motorcycle by only a few feet. After that, Martina decided the better tactic was to stay several car lengths back and wait for the woman to eventually stop.
South they went, through Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, and Santa Barbara. As they sped down the stretch of the 101 squeezed between the mountains and the ocean, north of Ventura, Martina began to wonder if she would end up chasing the woman all the way to Los Angeles.
The answer turned out be no. A few miles farther on, as they came around a bend, she heard a loud pop and saw the Jeep jerk left and right before slowing. The culprit was a piece of metal in the road that had ripped open one of the vehicle’s front tires. Martina would have hit it, too, if she hadn’t already clamped down on the brakes.
Before the Jeep came to a complete stop, the woman jumped out and ran down the middle of the road. Martina weaved her bike around the Jeep and caught up to the woman in seconds.
“Stop!” Martina yelled.
The woman looked at her, wild-eyed. “Leave me alone!”
“Stop, dammit. I only want to talk to you!”
The woman yelled something incomprehensible, then sprinted forward in a burst of energy.
Groaning in frustration, Martina brought her bike to a halt, pushed down the kickstand, and hopped off. The woman may have had a few seconds’ lead, but Martina was an active college athlete. Twenty steps down the road, she clamped a hand on the woman’s shoulder and forced her to stop.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Martina asked. “Why wouldn’t you stop?”
The woman struggled to get away, but Martina held on tight.
“Let go of me! Let go!”
“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you!”
“Let go! I’m not going back. I swear to God I’m not!”
“Going back? Listen, lady, I’m not taking you anywhere. I just want to know how you got Ben’s Jeep and where he is.”
The woman stopped twisting around and looked at Martina, surprised. “Ben?”
“Yes! Ben. That’s his Jeep. How did you get it? Did he give it to you?”
“You know Ben?”
“I’m his girlfriend.”
“His girlfriend?”
“How did you get his Jeep?” Martina asked again, her patience all but gone.
“He, um, he didn’t need it anymore.”
There was sudden defiance in the woman’s voice, and Martina knew in that instant Ben hadn’t given it to her.
She gave the woman’s arm a jerk. “What do you mean, he didn’t need it anymore?”
“He’s dead,” the woman said, sticking out her chin. “He didn’t need it anymore because he’s dead.”