Gage’s Goal Read online

  “So, does he look like a killer?”

  “No, but anybody who loses that kind of money has the potential to kill,” Terk noted quietly.

  “I know,” Gage nodded. “I remember her talking about the divorce.”

  “You’ve known her that long?” Damon asked.

  Gage nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been friendly for years.” He shrugged. “I knew that she was getting divorced, and that it was ugly, and I just stayed out of the way.”

  “Good thinking,” Terk noted.

  “Maybe not. Maybe, if this guy knew somebody else was in her life, he wouldn’t have gone after her.”

  “Well, her ex has been going after her in multiple ways but mostly legal,” Tasha explained. “And I don’t see that somebody who is playing this kind of a legal game would also go after her physically. This has been going on for a couple years.”

  “Unless …” Damon turned to join the conversation from the other side of the main room, looking at them. “Unless it was evident that he had no other recourse, though it still seems like a bit of a stretch.”

  “And what about the bug?” Wade asked. “Are we really thinking that bug was related to him?”

  “It’s a standard-issue government bug,” Tasha noted.

  “If there was ever a tip-off that this is likely a government operation, it would be that, wouldn’t it?” Sophia asked.

  “Yeah, but, on the other hand, these bugs aren’t that hard to get a hold of, and who knows what they were looking for from Lorelei. Maybe they were suspicious that she was working for somebody else and were using this in the hopes of finding out. I don’t know,” Tasha added. “And I’m still tracking down her log-ins.”

  “Or you can just ask Lorelei, and she can give them to you.” Gage looked at her.

  Tasha waved her hand dismissively. “Sophia tracked down the ex almost immediately and started running down his recent addresses, financials, and property ownership. Same for the sister. So, I switched to hunting through the government databases, and I’m looking to see if anybody else is checking in on her emails.”

  “If she was working part-time for the government still, even while on sick leave,” Gage noted, “there shouldn’t be anybody in there.”

  “Yeah, I hear you,” Tasha said, bending to look at her screen. “But, if that were the case, I don’t think this person would have logged in recently.”

  “What? You can tell the time when somebody has logged into your emails?” Gage asked.

  “When it comes to the government, you can always tell,” Tasha stated, “because everything is hidden or available for tracking. Somebody was in there on the day of her accident.”

  “And is there anything in her emails that’s suspicious?”

  Tasha looked over at him, and her lips twitched. “Does that mean you’re giving me permission to scan through them?”

  “Absolutely,” Gage replied. “I trust her, but, if anything’s to be found, let’s find it now. And it doesn’t mean that it’s even necessarily something that’s suspicious. It’s just got to be enough to trigger the government. And, honest to God, that sometimes doesn’t take much at all.”

  She nodded. “I’ll get back to you on what I find, if anything looks out of place.”

  He waited, but she didn’t seem to be getting anything too quickly, so Gage walked over to where Terk was sitting and asked him, “Are you sure we did the right thing?”

  “No,” Terk admitted quietly, “but our options are pretty limited, and, if her accident’s in any way related to our team’s nightmare, you and I both know Lorelei needs to be here. And, even if it’s not, we don’t have a way to protect her anywhere else.”

  “I know,” Gage agreed, “and I don’t want her alone, but, at the same time, I don’t really want her to get any more mixed up with this than she already is.”

  “Already too late for that,” Terk noted. “Way too late.”

  Gage groaned because Terk was right; it just wasn’t what Gage wanted to hear. “I need to get answers,” he murmured, then threw down the papers in disgust. “And, as much as I know we have some theories about what’s happened up until now, I’m definitely still a little shaky on some of the details.” At that, Tasha handed Gage a binder. “What the hell is this?” he asked, looking at Tasha.

  “Case notes,” she replied bluntly. “It’s the only way we’ll keep track of everything and bring each person up to speed as they come on board.”

  “This just covers the two of you, you and Sophia,” he noted in astonishment, as he quickly flipped through it.

  She nodded. “And this is just about Wade and Damon,” she added, as she handed over another binder. “Terk will tell you about his own case in his own time.”

  At that, Gage stopped and turned to his friend, an eyebrow raised. Terk stared at him, but the grim cast to his face told Gage more than he wanted to know. “Dear God,” Gage said. “What the hell is going on?” In a low voice, Terk explained about the woman at Levi and Ice’s compound.

  “So you know her name is Celia, but that’s it?”

  “We don’t have a match for her fingerprints. We don’t have DNA matches. We don’t have squat,” Terk replied. “We really don’t know anything about her yet.”

  “Well, that’s pretty damn frustrating. So how do you know it’s your child?”

  Terk stared at his friend, his gaze relentless.

  “Oh, energy, I presume,” Gage noted, and Terk nodded slowly.

  “Yes,” Terk agreed. “I was out after my previous injury and for a pretty long time. We were wondering if the harvesting happened during the time I was unconscious.”

  “I hope not for your sake,” Gage stated. “That would be pretty rough.”

  “It would, indeed,” Terk agreed.

  “Regardless, I’m really sorry. It sounds terrible.” Gage frowned.

  “It is.” Terk nodded. “I’m also worried about her. I don’t know how she’s involved in any of this. I don’t know if she’s an innocent victim or what. I don’t know any of it.” He shrugged. “For now it’s a wait-and-see thing.”

  Gage was stunned. It was unbelievable to think that some woman who Terk had never met was pregnant with his child.

  “And to think that they could have done something like that while you were out cold. Talk about invasive.” He shook his head, feeling violated for his friend.

  “And unfortunately, although she’s alive and supposedly physically well, she is not awake, and she may not even know she’s pregnant,” Terk added.

  “But it hasn’t been all that long, has it?” Gage asked.

  He shook his head. “No, and Ice is giving me daily updates. But I don’t have any more of that part of the story that I can fill you in on.”

  “Okay.” Gage asked, “And the drones?”

  “Yes, we’ve been gathering a lot of information on that. We’ve got the blueprints and the supposed builder, young William Poma. He’s one of the dead. We have two separate IT guys—brothers, Randall and Rodney Godwin—who were killed in two separate homes, after they became redundant, plus several others are dead as well,” Terk added. “So there’s definitely action but just not enough intel.”

  “Not enough but it’s progress. Anything new on the drones?”

  “Actually, yes,” Tasha noted. “As soon as Sophia returns, we’ll fill you in on it.”

  With that, Gage had to be satisfied. He walked over and put on a pot of coffee, then asked, “What about food? We’re starting to get a lot of us here.”

  “Somebody will have to go on a food run,” Tasha noted. “A few sandwich fixings are in the fridge, if you want something right now though.”

  He opened up the fridge and realized that’s about all there was. “Somebody needs to go for food today. I guess we should have grabbed it while we were out.”

  “Yeah, we probably should have,” Terk admitted. Just then he got a message. He lifted his phone and read the text. “My brother wants to meet.”

  “Perfect,” Gage replied. “I’ll go with you, and we’ll grab food while we’re at it.”

  Terk nodded, standing. “Can you go now?”

  “Yeah. Let me just make a sandwich, and I’ll bring it along. Want one?”

  “No thanks. Are you doing okay? You’re probably about due for a rest.”

  “I’ll be okay, just need to put some fuel in the tank. I’ll get a break when we return.” With that, Gage pulled out some sliced cheese and meat, slapped it between two slabs of bread coated with mayonnaise and butter, then nodded. “I’m good to go.” Grabbing his jacket and his sandwich, he walked out the door.

  Once inside the truck, he turned to Terk. “Is there anything that nobody is telling me yet?”

  “Nope.” Terk shook his head. “A lot of pieces to the pie you probably aren’t up to snuff on, and you’ll have to spend some time going over those binders Tasha gave you,” Terk noted. “It’s important. We do have names and faces and dates, but, so far, nobody is left alive.”

  “You guys have had to kill them all?” he asked, turning to look at his friend.

  “No. Not us. Whoever is doing this isn’t leaving any witnesses behind.”

  Gage nodded at that. “Not the first time we’ve seen the bad guys killing off their own,” he muttered.

  “Nope, absolutely not,” Terk agreed.

  As they drove, Gage asked, “Where are we meeting Merk?”

  “Outside, at a park.”

  “Interesting,” Gage muttered. “Is that safe?”

  “Nothing is safe. Would you rather be picked off outside or pinned in a corner inside?” Terk murmured. “As for me, I’ll go with Merk’s gut on this one.”

  By the time they made it there, the sandwich had worked its way into Gage’s stomach, and at least he felt like he wouldn’t die of starvation anymore. But they definitely needed to pick up a huge load of groceries from somewhere. As he hopped out, he enjoyed seeing the twin brothers greet each other. They looked so damn much alike that it was uncanny. He walked over and smiled at Merk. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise.” The two men shook hands.

  “Looks like life has improved a bit in your corner over the last few days,” Merk said to Gage. “You’re awake and on your feet at least.”

  “That’s true. Today’s been crazy. We picked up a friend of mine who works for the government and was recently run down by a car. We think it’s potentially related.”

  Merk’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, we’re just not sure yet. We’re tracking down everything to do with her world right now. Her leg is pretty banged up, and we’ve got her back at the compound, with the rest of us.”

  At that, Merk shook his head, then looked over at his brother. “Do you want to get some more security over there?” he asked. “I can bring over a couple more men for sure.”

  Terk frowned, thought about it. “I don’t know, Merk.” Terk paused. “I feel like we’re better off if we stay small, but, as you know, we’ve had circumstances recently where it would have been helpful to have a few more people.”

  “You mean, more than me, huh?”

  “Is that why we’re meeting? Do you have to go back?”

  “They’re asking if I’m going back,” Merk clarified, “but I’m gauging whether I need to go back or if I’m needed here more.” Terk hesitated, and Merk nodded. “Good enough. I’m staying.”

  “I didn’t even say anything,” Terk protested.

  “And you wouldn’t have hesitated if you were sure what to say. Therefore, you need somebody, so it’s a done deal. I figure on staying here for another week or so anyway.”

  “If you could, that would be good,” Terk agreed. “I don’t have full-time work, but we need people.”

  “This isn’t about full-time work,” Merk stated. “This is about my brother needing help.”

  Just as they stood here, smiling at each other, Gage picked up a glint on the hillside. “Duck.” Instinctively he grabbed Terk and pulled him to the side. The shot missed all of them, but the three men bolted for safety to a group of trees off to the side. Not a sound was heard from up the hill.

  Merk looked up at it, frowned, and whispered, “I’ll go around and see if I can get him. We need to catch this asshole.”

  “You do that.” Terk looked over at Gage. “You stay here. I’ll go in the other direction.” With that, the two brothers split up and headed in opposite directions.

  Gage was left standing by the trees, cursing, wondering what the hell had just happened. He checked his surroundings, using his own energy probes and his spidey sense. He confirmed the intruder’s presence up above, but he had no idea who it was. It wasn’t any energy signature that Gage recognized. He immediately sent out a message to Wade, asking if he recognized the signature of the shooter. Wade’s voice was thin, but, whether that was due to his transmission or Gage’s, Gage didn’t know.

  No came the answer. It’s a new entity.

  Great. Gage shut down that energy connection, as he headed toward the parking lot. He stayed close to the vehicles, keeping watch on the three other vehicles here, though one was a little farther away. That truck had the bed lifted and looked to be for somebody about nineteen years old, given the graffiti on the side. But Gage had seen vehicles like that used before because everybody would try a variety of ways to camouflage their true activities.

  As he watched, a couple came down the park trail, laughing and joking. He wanted to tell them to hurry up and to get out of the way, but, of course, the pair didn’t know anything was going on. They got into one of the cars and took off. That was good, for it left only two more, including the weird one.

  Almost immediately somebody came from the opposite direction, walking their dogs. Gage leaned against Terk’s truck and smiled, as they got into the other vehicle and left. That just left the graffiti one. Gage frowned as he studied it, wondering. There was no reason for the shooter to even be here.

  When Gage heard a weird whispering in his head, he focused. Terk was trying to talk to him. “What’s up?” Gage asked in a low voice.

  The trouble with Terk was sometimes his transmissions came through clear, and sometimes they weren’t. But the one word Gage did get was trouble. As in, somebody was in trouble. He straightened and looked in the direction Terk had gone. Gage didn’t know what the hell the message was, but, if somebody was in trouble, he was on it.

  He did a quick search around and then bolted for the woods in the direction Terk had disappeared. Almost immediately he saw two men up ahead. He slid into the shadows and approached through the woods. As he got close enough, he heard voices.

  “I saw him, I tell you. I don’t know where the hell he’s gone, but he was right here.”

  “Look. I saw one of the guys on the far side,” the other one said.

  “Don’t give me that shit. I didn’t see anybody there at all. I’m telling you, the one guy I was trailing,” he noted, “was here. I’m not an idiot, and I don’t make up shit.”

  “I’m not saying you did,” the other guy replied, using a pacifying tone, which just pissed off the other guy.

  “He was here,” he repeated.

  “Well, he’s not here now, so what the hell do you want me to do?” he asked. “If he was here, you lost him. If he wasn’t here, you didn’t, so whatever.” The other guy shrugged. “We’ll do a full search of the place, so it’s not like they can leave. And somebody was standing by their vehicle, so keep an eye on that one.”

  “Hell, a lot of people have left already,” he said, “and that guy was still hanging around there at the vehicles.”

  “Well, I don’t know who he is, but something should already be happening.”

  “I don’t know about that,” he replied, “but I’ll take off on this side and see what’s there.”

  “Good enough. You do that.”

  And, with that, the one guy took off toward where Terk had been waiting.

  Gage wondered if he should split off and take down that one, but instead he waited to see what the other guy would do.

  Immediately the guy turned, pulled out his phone, and said, “This idiot you sent me lost him.”

  There was obvious outrage on the other end of the phone. Gage quietly snorted.

  “Yeah, I’ll take care of him,” he replied.

  With that, Gage swore and headed back down to the parking lot. They really needed somebody alive they could question, but if these guys kept killing their own people, there wouldn’t be any chance of that. As Gage raced back toward their vehicle, he heard Terk in the back of his head, calling out again. Gage sent Terk a message, hoping he would get it, letting him know just what the hell was going on.

  By the time Gage could see their vehicle, he found no sign of the other guy. He stopped in the nearby trees and turned and quietly looked around. There. Gage saw the guy on the far side, standing close against another copse of trees. Nearly hidden, just not quite good enough to do the job.

  As Gage turned to look around one more time, he heard a single shot fired, and the guy crumpled to the ground. Swearing, Gage raced in the direction of the shooter and, by the time he got there, saw no sign of anyone around.

  Feeling like he’d done nothing but run around and chase idiots, exhausting himself in the process, Gage waited until he heard Terk’s message, telling him to stay where he was. Gage froze, knowing that Terk had abilities that most people didn’t know about.

  Meanwhile, as soon as Terk presented himself alongside the shooter, the guy wasn’t even watching for enemies. When Terk made a warning sound, the shooter turned the rifle in his hand, trying to bring it to bear, but Terk hit him hard with his right fist to the jaw. The guy dropped.

  At that, Gage stepped out, smiled at his friend. “Damn good thing you got him. He just killed the other guy.”

  “I was afraid that’s what he was up to,” Terk replied grimly. “They took a couple shots at Merk too.”