How much time did they have? It felt like a net was tightening around them.
“I’m going to text Tucker and ask him to stay late, too.” He pulled out his mobile. “I want to know where she is at all times. Have we figured out why Green paid a visit to Canadian intelligence?” He quickly texted Tucker.
“I don’t like it,” Ezra admitted. “Something’s happening and I can’t see it.”
The door came open and Jax rushed in, a piece of paper in his hand. “Guys, you need to see this. I pulled some stills from the CCTV at the museum and Sasha got a couple of pictures, too. He told me he was suspicious of the woman who bumped into Becca.”
“I couldn’t see her.” Owen looked down at the picture. Jax had blown up a shot of the woman’s face. She was stunning, her beauty more obvious than Becca’s subtle loveliness. “Did you find a name?”
“Yes,” Jax said, his voice steady, but there was tension to it. “She’s here under a Chinese passport as Zhang Li Na. She lives in Quebec and surprise surprise, the condo she lives in is owned by Jean Claude Huisman.”
Ezra frowned. “That’s awfully coincidental. And Becca didn’t seem to know her?”
A nasty feeling took root in Owen’s gut. “What else, Jax? There’s something else.”
“Her real name is Zhao Mo Chou and she’s MSS, according to Adam,” Jax said.
The room erupted in discussion about the new information. Before he could start asking his own questions, a text came through from Tucker.
Will do, but something’s going on. I overheard someone talking about security shutting down some doctor’s access. I think it might be our girl. Any thoughts?
Any thoughts? It all fell into place.
“He’s going to arrest her,” Owen said, adrenaline starting to pump through his body. “Green set her up. He went to Canadian intelligence so they’ll facilitate handing her over to the US. I don’t know what’s going on with the money, but I know that Green is going to use it. He’s the one who drew her out today, and it was all to get a picture of her with a known Chinese operative.”
Ezra stood up, cursing under his breath. “He’ll have her accused of selling secrets to the Chinese, and I’m sure Levi has offered the Canadians anything they like if they’ll turn her over quietly. He can take her anywhere. He will not take her back to the States. I promise you that.”
Even though he was blindingly angry, he couldn’t let that happen. In his rational brain he told himself it was because if they lost Rebecca, they lost her knowledge and the possibility of ever finding out who the lads really were.
“We have to get her out of the building now,” Ezra ordered. “Robert, call Sasha or Dante. They need to take her into custody before Levi walks in that building. Ariel…”
“I’m calling Tucker now,” she said, stepping away from the table.
“Owen, go and pack a bag for her,” Ezra ordered. “I’ll find a place for us to hole up. We’re going to have to move and quickly, and assume Green’s got eyes on us.”
“I’ll get us a place,” Robert said.
Theo and Erin were on their feet, Erin checking her gun and looking ready for a fight.
Owen moved, following Jax. They would head to the building they lived in and grab their go-bags and River. They were on the run. Again. But this time they would take Becca with them. They would get her out before Green could get his hands on her.
Deep down he knew he couldn’t let her go. He couldn’t. He could scream at her. He could accuse her. He could punish her.
But he could never let her go. He might never be able to let her go.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Cathy asked, her purse on her shoulder as she stood in the doorway.
“No, I’m fine. I’m going to clear up some paperwork.” And make a few calls to some of the doctors she’d worked with on the McDonald project. The ones who were still alive. God, why hadn’t that hit her before now? There had been a team of docs working on Tabula Rasa, and most of them were dead. They’d been a fairly young team so the fact that three out of four of them were gone should have tipped her off that something was weird.
She’d had her head up her ass for years when it came to that summer. It was time to start figuring out what had really happened and why so many of those team members were dead.
She’d called the head of Kronberg’s research, but she’d been told there had been several changes made to their staff and she would have to wait for a call back. There had been one research assistant, Veronica Croft, a young American interning for the summer. She’d seemed close to…it was hard to think his name. She’d been close to Dr. McDonald’s assistant. She might have known something.
How would Carter know what he knew unless he’d been talking to Veronica or one of the others who’d been close to the project?
“Are you sure?” Cathy’s voice brought her back to reality. “Did something happen at lunch? You left with a smile on your face and came back…well, you weren’t smiling when you came back.”
Because her whole world had turned upside down and she wasn’t sure where she’d landed. It didn’t make sense. How did any of it fit together? She had a long night ahead of her and she still had to figure out how to talk to Owen about all of this. The last thing she needed was Cathy getting involved. “I’m fine. I’ve just got a headache. Too much caffeine. I’m trying to wrap up this report so I can take the weekend off and spend it with Owen.”
That got Cathy’s face to light up. “Well, I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. He’s a charming man. All right, you call me if there’s anything at all I can do for you.”
She gave Cathy what she hoped was a bright smile. “Have a nice night.”
Cathy waved and then turned before bumping into someone. “Oh, hello, Dr. Huisman. Did you need something?”
Becca groaned inwardly. She did not need a confrontation with Paul.
“Not at all,” Paul said, sounding more chipper than he usually did. “I was simply coming by to congratulate Dr. Walsh on the latest round of testing. I’ve heard it’s spectacular.”
Cathy grinned, her pride showing. “Oh, they’re spectacular. Expect our girl to bring in the cash next quarter. She’s going to shake up the medical world with this. Maybe we can convince her to travel a little, get out and show her face to the world. She needs to start networking if she’s going to win her first Nobel Prize before she’s thirty-five.”
“Whoa, let’s tap the breaks on that.” She didn’t need more pressure on her.
Paul looked amused as he leaned against her door. “Yes, let’s slow down. We have to get the drug and the therapies approved first. We’ve got a few hurdles before she takes over the world.”
Cathy shrugged. “She’ll do it. If you don’t need anything else, I’ll say good night.”
Paul nodded her way. “Good night.” He turned back to Becca. “I hate to do this to you, but can you stay another hour or so? Maybe two? There’s a courier bringing in some legal paperwork and they’ll only accept a signature from me or you. I would stay myself, but I need to pick up Emmanuel from school.”
“Of course.” It wasn’t like she hadn’t been planning on staying anyway. She glanced up at the clock. It was almost six. “I thought school let out earlier.”
She would have sworn there was a surprised look stamped on his handsome face, but it cleared quickly. “Emmanuel stays late to work with a tutor. He’s a brilliant child, but he struggles with focus. I’ve found having him complete his homework in a classroom environment helps.”
Sometimes she felt for poor Emmanuel Huisman. He didn’t talk much and when he did, he was awkward and seemed too focused for a child his age. Perhaps it was because his father pushed him to be far older than his years. She understood that. “No problem. Homework is important. I was staying late anyway. I have to get through all this data I want to present next week when your father is in town.”