#

IN DARK SO DEEP it felt like floating, Tam touched her eyes to see if they were open. The gun in her other hand shook from her trembling, making her feel as useless as she was scared.

She'd killed a man.

He'd been alive one second and dead the next, and it didn't seem to matter that he'd tried to kill her. She'd pulled the trigger. The recoil had knocked her against the wall and hurt her wrist, but even so she'd shot him in the head. A fluke, an accident. One that had saved her life.

She curled her arm around her body, but it did nothing against the frigid January air. She'd left her coat. Her cell phone had been destroyed, along with her other clothes, her pictures, her journals. Everything she had was now gone except the clothes she wore and the device around her neck.

It was small, just a couple of inches long on a thin chain, but her flash drive was the only thing that mattered. The last five years of her life were stored in it, and she could go to any computer, plug it in the USB port, and there it would be. Formulas, notes, test results. Failures.

The last two weeks had been a new kind of hell for her. Nothing she'd experienced before, whether in school or at work, had prepared her for a failure of this magnitude. What in hell had made her think she could have saved the day? She was a biochemist. A good one. But she'd fallen so short of the mark on this one--

A sound, the crack of a branch? A backfire in the distance? She had no frame of reference and it somehow distorted her hearing as well as her sight. She lifted the gun again, still shaking as badly as when she'd first planted herself in the corner.

They'd found her. Omicron had found her, and she had no idea how. They were tricky bastards, but she'd been so careful. She never made phone calls, except with the clean cell phones Nate gave her. She hid in the basement lab, having her groceries and supplies brought to her rather than risk a trip to the market.

Nothing in her life, ever since she'd gotten back to the States, had been normal. Even her internet connection, which she used only when absolutely necessary, had been routed through so many blind alleys and foreign ports that it would take a genius months, if ever, to pinpoint her location.

So what had gone wrong? Had they found Nate? Followed him?

The thought filled her with a whole new level of terror. If Nate had been captured, if he was dead, then she might as well give it up. There would be no winning if Nate was out of the picture. Since day one, he'd been the leader.

The first time she'd met him she'd been in Serbia, in a tiny little lab, working on a very specific chemical compound. While outsiders couldn't imagine that level of precision and focus, it was exactly the kind of thing research chemists slathered over.

The job itself had seemed like a dream when it had come to her out of the blue. She'd just finished her final doctoral thesis and had scored a plum job working for her chemistry professor, Dr. Brennan. But Brennan had introduced her to a man who claimed to be working on a secret government project. He'd offered her two hundred thousand dollars for two years of work, if she was willing to go to Kosovo. She wasn't told what the project was, only her part.

While she'd known several of the other scientists who'd been approached, mostly chemists like herself, she'd had to sign a non-fraternization contract, as well as a non-disclosure agreement. One slip of the tongue, and there would be no payoff. She'd gotten a weekly per diem which took care of her necessities, and they'd provided housing, but the big money was all due upon completion. She used to spend hours at night, planning how she'd spend her two-hundred grand.

How jumping on that incredible opportunity had led her to being hunted down by a rogue CIA unit was still beyond her comprehension. The men tonight had destroyed the lab, trashed her personal belongings and tried to kidnap, if not kill her. Her. Tammy Chen. Who'd been a science nerd since grammar school. Who'd gone out on her first date at eighteen. Who used to look forward to music night with her mom and dad. Who'd never been in love, and didn’t expect to have another chance.

She froze as another crack sounded. This time it wasn't far away, and this time it was followed by another, footsteps coming closer, walking through the condemned building toward the condemned woman.

Somehow she got to her feet then pointed the gun in front of her. She had no idea if she was aiming at a wall or a torn up couch, but she had to do something. She didn't want to die, not at twenty-eight, not here, not for real. It was the most scared she'd ever been, and in the last few years, she'd been scared a lot.

She'd wondered about this moment, what it would be like. It sucked.

#

NATE MOVED MORE carefully, uncomfortably aware that if Omicron was watching, they'd be using infra-red, which guile couldn't conceal. The only way to get where he needed to go was to use the buildings themselves as cover.

One room at a time, one wall at a time, he made his careful way a block, then another. He was getting closer, and his heart beat hard and heavy in his chest, dreading what he would find.

He reached the building, the one they'd chosen as a fail safe. She was behind that wall or she wasn't, and he'd have to deal. That's all. He could do this.

A step, then another. The darkness here was total and there was no choice but to reach into his back pocket and pull out his pen light. He looked away, turned on the thing, then followed the light around the corner.

It was Tam. Bloody, shaking so hard her weapon was all over the map, and filthy, but it was Tam and she was alive.

"Stop or I'll shoot," she said, her voice quavering like her gun, her eyes shut tight against the light.

"It's me," he said, and he had to repeat it because his voice broke. "Tam, it's me."

She stilled for a moment, then opened her eyes. "Nate?"

She sounded like a child. A scared, desperate child.

He holstered his gun and crossed the distance between them. Gently pushing aside her weapon, he took her in his arms. "It's okay," he said, his words muffled on her hair. "I'm here."

She dropped her gun on the floor and clutched his back. He felt her sob before he heard it, her whole chest heaving against him.

"Shh," he said, rocking her. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head.

"Can you walk?"

A nod.

"Okay, baby, let's take it slowly. I want to make sure there's no one out there."

She sniffed, then pulled her head back. "I killed him," she said.

"That was good. You did great."

"He pointed his gun at me, but I shot first. There was no time."

"You did the right thing," he said. She was freaked, and he got that. Regular people freaked about death. About killing. They weren't trained for anything else. "He was a bad guy, so don't sweat it. Right now, we have to get out of here. They could come back."

She hung on to him as he bent for her gun. He could feel her body tremble as he led her on a circuitous route through what was left of the building. It took a lot longer to get back to his truck than it had to get to her. They kept the light out for most of the journey, and toward the end she had slowed to a crawl, but finally they were in the truck and on their way.

He'd decided where to take her as they'd walked through buildings, so he knew to get on the freeway toward the Valley. She sat close, leaning her head on his shoulder.

He would have put his arm around her if he hadn't been so worried about the rest of the team. Although it hurt him to bother her, he had her shift so he could get his cell, a new one that couldn't be traced, and dialed Kate and Vince.

"Hello?"

He recognized Kate's voice immediately, even though it was filled with sleep. He had no idea what time it was, just that it was late. "Tam's been compromised," he said.

There was silence on the phone and when Kate said, "Where do you want us?" She didn't sound in the least sleepy now.

"Meet up with Seth and Boone. We'll follow."

Kate hung up, but Nate knew two things. One, that she and Vince were alive, and two, that they would be out of their rented house in an hour, on their way to Nevada.

He dialed Cade's phone, and he knew the drill, too. Only he'd have to pack Nate's stuff as well as his own, and since Nate had the truck, he'd have to find other transport.

As Nate switched to the 101 Freeway, he dialed his sister's cell. As he'd expected, Boone and Seth were out on recon, but Christie assured him that no one had been snooping around. She promised to be vigilant and discuss the situation with the guys as soon as they returned.

The three of them were staying in a ratty motel in a tiny town just outside of Nellis Air Force Base. They'd wired the place like Ft. Knox, so if anyone had been asking about them, they'd most likely know it. If there they had the least bit of doubt, they'd pack and leave.

He got onto Ventura Boulevard then looked down at Tamara. She was sleeping against him, her lips slightly parted, her face smudged with dirt. Probably blood, too, but it was dark, so he didn't have to think about that. Somehow, she still managed to look innocent.