Born In Death

“Oh? Is that all?” Reo’s faint Southern drawl went sweet as honey.

“I have reason to believe they’re holding a woman there against her will. A very pregnant woman whose life will be over if she delivers before we get to her. If she’s not being held there, I need authority to search the premises for proof of her whereabouts.”

“Dallas, are they killers or kidnappers?”

“One’s led to the other. Reo, this woman’s been missing since Thursday. I may already be too late. Don’t make me later.”

“I need more than ‘you have reason to believe,’ Dallas. I tap-danced my way to your mandatory DNA. I push for a second warrant on a separate matter, the lawyers for the other team are going to scream harassment.”

“I don’t have time – ” Eve cut herself off, breathed. “I’m going to put Peabody on, and she’ll give you the song. I’m putting an op together, Reo. With or without a warrant, I’m going in within the hour.”

Jabbing a finger toward the ’link, Eve strode into Roarke’s office.

“I’ve got your pattern, Lieutenant,” Roarke told her. “A maximum of ten children placed per year, at birth, for fee, a minimum of four. Over the past eight years, sixty-five placements, for a gross profit of sixty-five-million euros.”

“I’m getting a warrant for the East End house. I think they could be holding Tandy there. Baxter.”

“Got some way uptown e-toys here,” he said without looking up from the screen. “I’ve got six out of that sixty-five where the expenditures were significantly lower than the others, and in one case where the buy fee was reimbursed.”

“Jones, Emily, Middlesex and/or London, England.”

“That’s the name listed on the first and only expenditure to an individual other than the medicals on the reimbursed fee. And, Dallas? Tandy’s on here.” McNab looked over at her. “One payment to her late last May, recorded as returned in full early June.”

“Changed her mind, paid them back. But that didn’t do the trick. We’re going in.”

In her office she outlined the layout, as she knew it, of the house.

“The subject is most likely being held on the second or third floor. Third gets my vote. She may be restrained, and is undoubtedly guarded, certainly by cams. There are at least two suspects and one servant droid on the premises. Given the situation, we have to assume there is a medical as well, droid or human. Both suspects should be considered violent.”

She looked at Roarke. “Can you compromise their security by remote?”

“I can, yes.”

“Once the security is down, we go in fast. The priority is to locate and secure the safety of the subject. Peabody, you and Trueheart will head that. McNab, I need you and Roarke to take down any electronics, including droids. Baxter, that leaves the suspects to you and me. They resist, they’re restrained.”

“Any and all means?”

“I want them talking. Walking’s optional. Communicators on Cha

She turned back to the wall screen where she’d sketched the bones of the East End mansion.

When she’d finished, she went to the bedroom, strapped on her clutch piece, checked her primary weapon and her restraints. Then, because her eyes felt hot and gritty, she ran ice-cold water in the bathroom sink.

Sucking in her breath, she plunged her face into it.

She came up gasping, then her eyes met Roarke’s in the mirror over the sink. “Don’t tell me I’m burning low.”

“I don’t need to state the obvious, the other portion of that being this can’t wait until you’ve recharged.”

“You either.” Still dripping, she turned, touched his cheek. “You look pale. You hardly ever do.”

“The past couple of days remind me that you couldn’t pay me twice what I already have to be a cop.”

“It’s not about the money, it’s about the adventure.” When he laughed, she grabbed a towel, scrubbed it over her wet face. “I think about that dream I had where all this was tangled together. And son of a bitch, it was. It is. If I’d seen it before – ”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but if I had, Tandy would be at home in her own bed right now, and Bullock, Chase, and the rest of them would be in cages.” She tossed the towel aside. “Jesus, Roarke, Jesus, the way I went in there tonight, got in their face. I put the pressure on them, and if they panic because of that, or push up the schedule… She was in there. Goddamn it, Tandy was in there, Iknow it. While we sat there and that bitch poured tea.”

“And we wouldn’t know that yet if you hadn’t followed a hunch and sent Peabody and McNab back to Sloan’s to look for records. No one found the others, Eve. No one got close to finding them. Remember that.”

“I will, when and if we do find her, and she’s still breathing.” She checked the time. “I’m not waiting any longer for the warrant. Let’s line it up and knock it down.”

Sometime in the last hour it had started to snow. Thick, fat, wet flakes. Her team and the electronics Roarke and McNab had selected for the op were loaded into one of Roarke’s burly all-terrains.

As they rode, she visualized the interior of the Bullock house. Wide foyer, stairs to the left, living area to the right. Glass doors on east wall to terrace. Possible escape route.

But they wouldn’t run, she didn’t believe they’d run. They were too steeped in their own importance to run.

Chase wouldn’t be served with the mandatory until morning. She bet he and Mommy were both sleeping the sleep of the conscienceless by now. And they were about to get a nasty wake-up call.

Roarke stopped the van a half-block down and across the street from the mansion. “Let’s break out the toys, Ian.”

“Ahead of you.”

McNab sat crosslegged on his seat working the controls of a small keyboard. “Now this is frosty. I already programmed the coordinates. Ready to engage, if you’re set.”

“Baxter? Why don’t you change seats with me.” Though he made his way to the back, Roarke let McNab work the controls. “Go ahead.”

“Infrared and heat sensors engaged. Image on-screen – this bitch is fast! Okay, looks like we got two warm bodies, second level. Horizontal. Sleepy-by. Same room, same bed. I thought we were looking for mother and son.”

“We are,” Eve said as something twisted in her belly.

“Oh. Sick. Two warm bodies,” he repeated. “Second level, east, second room.”

“Only two,” Eve demanded and he sent her an apologetic look.

“That’s what I’m getting. Showing body heat, heart rate, mass and density, height and weight. This is wild-ass equipment, and it gives me the droid count – three first level, one third – but I’m not seeing any sign of a third human. And neither one of these images shows a baby on board.”

“Ian,” Roarke murmured, “have a look here.” Roarke tapped an area on the third level with a fingertip.

“Blank space where there can’t be blank space. Cold room. Jeez, I must be slipping. It’s shielded against the sensors.”

“Can you get by them?” Eve demanded.

“This’ll take a few minutes,” Roarke told her.

“I’m not waiting. We’re on go – ” She broke off when her ’link beeped. “Reo. Tell me you got it.”

“I had to sell what’s left of my soul and my hot date went cold. You better bring in the goods, Dallas. Warrant coming through now.”

“Good work, Reo.”

“Tell me about it. You find the woman, you tag me. The minute.”

“Done. One more favor.”

“You’re racking them up.”

“Contact Lieutenant Jaye Smith. She’s MPU. Fill her in on this. I didn’t want to pull her in when the warrant was still hanging.”

“Oh, well, sure, happy to be your message droid. Anything else while I’m – ”

Eve clicked off. “We’re a go.”

“I’m not clear here yet.”

“Leave it,” Eve told Roarke. “Peabody, Trueheart, you’re in behind me and Baxter, straight up to the third level. You take that room. Roarke, McNab. You sweep the main level, then work up. Take down the security,” she ordered.