“We’ve been talking,” Kai said.
Mitch winced and took a survey of the faces in the room. “That cannot be good news for me.”
“Why don’t you get Young to grab the documents in your old place?” Kai asked. “He’s already in DC, has more flexibility on when he could go in to get them. It will save us time. If he grabs them before we get there, he can look through them and see what’s what.”
Mitch hadn’t thought of that. It seemed like a good idea on the surface, yet something held him back.
“What?” Kai asked. “Do you trust him or not?”
Mitch hesitated, then shrugged. “Mostly.”
“I could flash there,” Quaid started, then glanced at Jessica. When she nodded, he continued, “and meet Young. Go in for the papers with him. Stick to him until you get there.”
Now Mitch nodded. “I’m better with that.”
“Which works great,” Teague said, “because we’ve all decided to come with you to DC anyway. So we can all meet up with Quaid and Young at the same time.”
Mitch turned a frown on his brother-in-law. “Your wife had a baby a little over a week ago, numb nuts.”
“And she deserves some peace and quiet with said baby,” Teague countered. “Getting out of here will give a crew time to repair the windows and clean up the glass without us underfoot. We’re all too wiped out to handle that. Plus, I’d like to have Alyssa and the kids somewhere . . . bunker-like . . . if you know what I mean.”
Mitch totally knew what Teague meant. His mouth kicked up into a smirk as he met his twin’s gaze and raised his brows. “What, no argument?”
She smiled and sat up, holding Brady over her shoulder and leaning into Teague. “Guess I’m getting used to your buddies’ five-star bunkers.”
More like she realized her children weren’t safe in their own home anymore. Guilt pinched Mitch’s conscience. He pulled out his phone. “Guess I need to call the pilot, tell him to gas up for the flight.”
One quick phone call was all it took. He disconnected and said, “Two hours and we’re good to go.”
Alyssa groaned and rolled her head toward Teague. “Two hours to pack up three kids and nine adults?”
He kissed her forehead. “You worry about nothing, baby. I’ve got it.”
“What’s up with Dex’s collar?” Kai asked, moving to the sofa with a laptop. “Why’d she need to get it off him?”
“Hopefully this is the beginning of the end.” Mitch strode to a desk in the corner. “Anyone got scissors, a knife . . . ?”
“There’s a butt-load of glass shards upstairs,” Kai said with a tired grin. “But try this.” He pulled a switchblade from his pocket and held it out.
Mitch took the knife and started in on the nylon threads. His mind tried to stray toward Halina. Toward all she’d said. All she hadn’t said. All it could mean. To making love to her. To the bond they’d developed between the time he’d walked into that room and the time he’d walked out. But no one in the room would let him think, everyone demanding to know what he was doing and why.
“Come on, Foster,” Kai nagged after the second round of bitching had circled through the room.
The point of the knife slipped off the tight stitching and dug into Mitch’s thumb. “Jesus eff-ing Christ,” he muttered and shoved the wound into his mouth, griping around his finger, “can’t you see I’m working here?”
After a few more rips, he worked the collar open enough to get the bulk of the blade between the heavy folds. He separated the material to uncover three micro-disks preserved in tiny ziplock pouches.
Kai sat forward. “Now, that looks promising.”
Mitch handed the chips to Kai and finished opening the collar to make sure it was empty. He explained his phone call from Owen and his confrontation with Halina.
“She believes she’s the cause of my death in the visions,” Mitch said. “And she’s devastated at the harm she’s brought here, which is my fault. She told me she shouldn’t come.”
Kai slid one of the disks into a slot on his computer and everyone gathered around to watch, including a sleepy Alyssa holding a sated Brady. Electricity seemed to crackle, anticipation seemed to hum. Mitch didn’t know if that was from all the paranormal power buzzing around him or his imagination. But nor did he care as he texted Owen, Got the footage. Where should we look?
Owen replied, You work fast. And added dates and time stamps to the text. Mitch read the first off; Kai fast-forwarded to the coordinates and hit play.
For the next half hour, they all watched in stunned silence as Halina suffered verbal and physical abuse from Schaeffer by day, then moved through the various labs, photographing files by night. Mitch’s hatred for Schaeffer had grown to mammoth proportions. His mission to grind him into dust an absolute in his soul.
“I’ve seen enough.” His voice rasped through a throat thick with sickness and guilt. He held out another disk to Kai. “Look at this one.”
Kai popped it into the computer and maneuvered to the drive. “If that was the surveillance, what’s this?”
“Not sure,” Mitch muttered, and he was more than a little apprehensive to find out. “I’m guessing documents.”
Hoping documents. Hoping this was going to be what they needed to do exactly what Owen had promised—tie a bow around Schaeffer’s neck and walk him into the AG’s office. Only Mitch’s idea of a bow would be chain and it would be tight enough to cut off air supply.
Kai pulled up the directory. “Bingo.”
Kai opened the first five files and clicked through. Mitch held his breath as he scanned the pages, but released it, frustrated when he found them filled with chemical formulas, words as long as his arm that looked more like Greek than English, and handwriting as bad as his own.
Kai whistled softly through his teeth. “This looks like a job for the brains in the room.”
“I’ll take that one,” Cash said from where he stood behind them. “I recognize a few of those formulas.”
“Hallelujah.” Kai popped the disk and handed it over his shoulder. “Pays to hang with the geniuses.”
“I’m interested in links to Schaeffer running this mess,” Mitch told Cash. “Anything we can use against him. The formulaic details can come later.”
“Got it.” Cash retreated to a recliner in the corner, propped a laptop on his thighs, and got to work.
Mitch gave the last disk to Kai and met his gaze. They exchanged a this-is-it look and Kai pushed the disk into the slot.
“More video,” Kai said, looking at the file types. “Is there more surveillance?”
“Young said she only took the tapes from four weeks before she left.”
“Those were on the other disk.”
Mitch clenched his teeth. His stomach twisted with a sickening mixture of hope and dread.
“Where do you want me to start?” Kai asked.
“Skip to the middle. The earlier surveillance snippets were weak.”
Kai clicked on the sixth of the twelve video clips in the file. Mitch sat back, crossed his arms, and fisted his hands against his body. He had no idea what to expect.
When the image first came on-screen, he was disoriented. It took him a moment to realize the video was taken from eye level. Or rather, below eye level. Maybe shoulder level. Movement displayed the inside of a scientific lab. The camera had been tilted down, toward a dark gray countertop covered in instruments, chemicals, supplies, beakers, test tubes. A notepad and pencil sat off to one side, a laptop off to the other.
Jerky movements jiggled the camera. Muffled taps and scrapes made Mitch’s heart jump.
“There’s audio,” he said, excited. “Turn up the sound.”