Free Prototype by M. D. Waters Page B

watches my escape unfold with such intensity. It is a small wonder he does not have the ability to snatch me right from the video itself.
    “What were you doing there, Emma?”
he whispers, watching every step I take. My fight, my jump off the final roof, my large lead into the densely wooded foothills. But that is where it ends. Because of the thick foliage, the satellite camera loses me the moment I disappear into the forest.
    Declan mutters a curse and runs a hand over the tightly shaven goatee he wears. The phone rings and he lifts the receiver without so much as a breath of air to announce he has done so. Whoever is on the other end begins speaking, though; I hear the hum of a man’s voice.
    “Say again?”
Declan says, retrieves a stylus, and begins writing on a tablet computer.
“That’s all he said?”
After a single nod, he hangs up.
    “What the hell are you up to, love?”
he says to the screen.
    Trepidation sweeps through me. “What did he write down?”
    Foster sucks in a deep breath before adjusting the camera’s angle to show the front of the tablet. What I read freezes my blood. Names.
    Stephen and Lily Wade.
    “He knows you’re searching for your parents,” Foster says.
    It is as if the floor drops out from under me. “If he finds them, he will use them against me.” I drag my trembling fingers through my hair. “I will have no choice but to go back.”

CHAPTER 10
    T
hank you for coming,”
Declan says to the camera crews airing the conference all over the world. He stands in the lobby of Burke Enterprises facing the outer windows. “
I know the hour is late, but I feel there’s no time to waste.
    “Questions have been raised regarding my marriage, such as where Emma was for the first eight years. In an effort to shield her from embarrassment, I have been quiet on the subject. That said, it has come to my attention that continuing to do so would be a risk to her personal health and safety.”
    The gathering explodes with questions, to which Declan only raises his hands to quiet them.
    “It was discovered shortly after we were married that Emma would not live long without intervention. The disease she has is a rare genetic mutation and was missed in all her prescreen exams at the WTC. If not for the work of Arthur Travista, she would not be with us today.”
    More questions echo in the lobby’s space, bouncing from marble floor to high ceiling. Declan waits patiently for them to quiet again.
    “Her condition is private and took all of those eight years to manage. I will not further humiliate my wife by giving you every detail. I tell you only because Arthur has expressed concern that her remission is only temporary. Without treatment, she
will
die.”
    Declan raises his hands when the voices rise into a jumble of questions.
    “The second thing I will tell you,”
he says,
“is that Emma’s own parents may be involved in her kidnapping.”
     • • • 
    I pace by the door, arms folded tight across my chest. Noah, Reid, and the office are a blur. The reality of what Declan has done clings to me like a fog I cannot escape. This move was brilliantly calculated. “I cannot possibly find them in time.”
    Noah rocks back and forth in his desk chair at a slow, even pace, rubbing a hand along his chin. He stares into the same distance that has sway over me. “You can’t think like that. They’re ex-resistance, which makes them resourceful.”
    I rake my hands through my loose hair. “Which also makes it that much harder for me to find them.”
    Reid glances between Noah and me from his perch on the edge of Noah’s desk. A grin slides across his face, showing a perfect row of white teeth. “Gotta give it to Burke. That was a stroke of genius.”
    Noah glowers at Reid. “Is that really necessary?”
    “No, he is right,” I say, though I loathe agreeing with anything Major Reid has to say. “The entire world is now looking for Stephen and Lily Wade, and all without having to offer