Free Hot Zone (Major Crimes Unit Book 2) by Iain Rob Wright Page B

both carrying a grudge
towards their country, there was no telling what they might do.
    Howard had an idea. “Jessica, don’t focus your efforts on
Sarah’s father, focus it on Sarah herself. If we can work out what happened to
her — how she disappeared — we might be able to figure out how and why she
ended up with her father.”
    “But we already searched high and low for her,” said
Jessica. “We couldn’t find anything. You, yourself, followed every lead you
could find.”
    “We assumed then that a remnant of Hesbani’s crew was
involved with her disappearance. Now we know different. Look at known associates
of Major Stone, particularly the men who deserted with him. If we can find
anything on them we might be able to link it to Sarah and find out where she
is.”
    “Okay, Howard. I’m on it. You stay safe, okay?”
    “I’ll do my best. Just get back to me as soon as you have
something. I want to put a stop to this before Sarah ends up doing something
she’ll regret.”
    “Sarah never struck me as a woman who regretted anything.”
    “Then you don’t know Sarah at all. The woman I knew was
nothing but a list of regrets. Let’s not give her any chance to add to it.”

11
    T hat
had been Howard, she was sure of it. He’d been standing there only
twenty-metres away from Sarah, watching while she helped kidnap a man. A man
he, too, had been after. What did the MCU want with Krenshaw? Was she impeding
a government operation by intervening and getting to the doctor first? Did she
even care?
    Sarah sat up front with her father in the first of the two
black vans, staring at the back streets as they slunk away from the main roads.
    “Did you get a look at that man in the car park,” her father
asked. “He saw your face. You should never got out of the van without a mask.
What the Hell were you doing?”
    “I didn’t think. I was just trying to help. Your men were
making a scene, and excuse me if my wits aren’t that sharp. I’ve been locked up
with nothing to do for four months.”
    “There are no excuses for mistakes. You’ve compromised this
entire unit. That man looked like a police officer.”
    “He’s MCU,” Sarah said. “I know him. He knows me.”
    Her father punched the top of the steering wheel. “Damn it,
Sarah. My unit can only exist if it fades in and out of the shadows. If you’ve
been recognised then your MCU boyfriend has something to work with. It’s not
like it would be hard to get a positive ID on a face like yours, even if he
hadn’t known you already.”
    Sarah looked away, out of her window, anything to avoid the
burning glare of her father. “He isn’t my boyfriend. I worked with him for a
couple of weeks at most.”
    Her father glanced at her for a moment, then stopped the van
at the edge of a side street. Before he spoke he let out a disappointed grunt.
“If you’ve been ID’d then we need to get this mission done quickly and
disappear. There’s no going back for you now, Sarah. You can’t change your mind
because you know too much now about me and my men. If I let you leave, they can
use you to get to me.”
    Sarah frowned. “Who exactly would be trying to get to you?
What have you done?”
    “My duty,” he said. “A grievous crime in this day and age.
I’m serious, Sarah. You’re in this now. This is your life. The choice has been
taken away from you. Do you understand? You can’t go back to your old life.”
    Sarah grunted. “I don’t have an old life to go back to. This
isn’t about my choice being made for me, though, is it? It’s about your choice
being made. You’re stuck with me now. You can’t get rid of me, even if you want
to.”
    Major Stone glared at her so hard that she shrank in her
seat. “Sarah, there’s always a way to get rid of someone, even a daughter.
Don’t forget that.”
    Sarah opened her mouth to speak but dared not. She felt like
she was sitting beside a great venomous lizard ready to strike at the slightest
movement.