There was definite suspicion in his eyes as he scanned Embray. “You and your security team will need to come down to the station to give your statements.”
Embray simply nodded. They’d expected suspicion to fall on them. The fact that a fake ambulance crew swept in before the real paramedics had arrived screamed inside job. O’Neill just hadn’t expected the police to find out Rawlings and Winters were fake quite so soon.
And he’d expected it to take longer for Nantz’s disappearance to be recognized as a kidnapping.
Long enough for Wolf’s warriors to get Nantz out of London and onboard the Citation.
Chapter forty-nine
Day 46
Shadow Mountain Base, Alaska
“I told you, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nantz said as soon as the door opened, and Wolf and Aiden entered the interrogation chamber. Their captive’s words were slurred, courtesy of his split lips and swollen mouth.
Bootsteps rang out, echoing between the stone walls and floor as Wolf and hisjavaaneeadvanced farther into the room. Beneath the bare lightbulb burning overhead, Wolf clearly saw fear flickering across their captive’s bruised face.
“Where’s Leonard? I want to see him immediately.” Nantz was trying for an authoritative tone, but fear glazed his eyes abovehis bruised and puffy cheeks. Nantz squirmed, tugging at his wrists, which were cuffed to the armrests of his chair.
“Embray isn’t who you should be worried about,” Aiden said, his voice even icier than his face.
Hisjavaaneestalked up to their captive, who recoiled into his chair. Circling him, Aiden grabbed the back of his chair and yanked it onto its back legs, then dragged it into the middle of the chamber before letting go. The chair rocked for a moment, almost tipping over before stabilizing again.
The shriek of wood against stone bounced from wall to wall. There was no reason for hisjavaaneeto manhandle their prisoner, other than proving who had power in this room—and by extension, who didn’t.
A shabby, rectangular table crouched in the middle of the chamber, surrounded by four chairs. Wolf grabbed one of the chairs, spun it around until it faced their captive, and straddled it. He braced his forearms along the top rail and silently studied their captive. Despite Nantz’s bravado, Wolf could clearly sense thewoohanta’s nerves. See the fear flickering across his puffy face. The bruises were vivid beneath the hanging light. So was the blood splattering the expensive fabric of his soiled suit.
“Do you realize what you’ve done? Who you’ve kidnapped?” Nantz stammered. His fingers were white from the death grip he had on the armrests. “I’m on a first name basis with the president. I can pick up the phone right now and get patched through—instantly—to anyone in the Pentagon.”
“No shit?” Aiden followed Wolf’s lead and dragged one of the chairs back from the table, then straddled it. “Too bad none of your Pentagon pals know where you are.” The smile he directed at Nantz was predatory.
Nantz flinched, then stiffened, his gaze skittering away.
“Your answers to our questions were...disappointing,” Wolf announced mildly. “We’ve given you time to...consider yourpredicament. Now you will tell us what we want to know. This can be done easily, or—” his gaze lingered on their prisoner’s bruised face “—not so easily.”
The three-day grace period they’d afforded their captive hadn’t been due to Wolf’s generosity, but rather Doctor Brickenhouse’s cautious nature. Brickenhouse had worried that the drugs they’d injected into Nantz in London would react negatively to the interrogation treatment. He’d recommended waiting seventy-two hours to allow the first two drugs to clear their prisoner’s system.
They’d debated waiting. Shadow knew thewoohantawasn’t talking, even with Aiden’s physical encouragement. And their captive’s knowledge was crucial to counter thewanatesaweapon. Wolf was inclined to ignore the doctor’s recommendation and use the drug anyway. At least until Brickenhouse reiterated that they were risking a stroke, or even death, if the drugs reacted adversely. Which would prevent Nantz from ever answering their questions.
A three-day delay was better than permanent silence.
Particularly with the inaccessibility of Nantz’s hard drive. Wolf had recalled Capland early when Tomas couldn’t break into Nantz’s files. Hopefully, their captive’s hard drive wouldn’t prove as difficult for Cap, who’d returned to Talkeetna on Embray’s Citation the day before. Wolf had sent the bell to pick him up.
“You can relax. I won’t try to knock the answers lose this time,” Aiden taunted. “We got a nifty little drug we can use on you now that you’re past the three-day window. Fifteen minutes from now you’ll be singing like a canary.”
Nantz sat up straighter, his shoulders rigid. “I already told you. I had nothing to do with what happened in Karaveht.” His swollen face turned toward Aiden. “Or to your SEAL team. I swear. You have the wrong guy.”
The door creaked open, this time admitting Brickenhouse, who had a stethoscope hanging around his neck. The wheels of the cart he pushed into the room rattled with each rotation while the glass vials in the top tray clinked. Brickenhouse rolled the cart up to Nantz’s chair and stooped to remove a blood pressure cuff from the cart’s middle tray.
As the doctor wrapped the blood pressure cuff around Nantz’s bicep, Wolf’s cell phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket. Capland blazed across the screen.
He punched the green talk button. “Cap?”
Capland didn’t bother with a greeting. Just started talking in a tight voice. “You need to get down here. Now.”
Wolf’s eyebrows lifted. While Capland was often intense, he was never demanding. Never wired. Both of which were in his voice now. His gaze wandered to their captive. Brickenhouse was removing the blood pressure cuff.
“I cannot leave. Our captive is about to tell us everything,” Wolf said mildly.
