Wolf frowned. “The interrogation was recorded. We’ll go over the camera footage. See if we can decipher what he was saying before he crashed.”
Aiden simply nodded. Interpreting Nantz’s garbled words was their only hope of finding the location of those labs soon enough to make a difference. If they waited for Capland to lock down the IP addresses of those lab cameras on Nantz’s hard drive, it would probably be too late.
Chapter fifty-one
Day 47
Shadow Mountain Base, Alaska
O’Neill paused, his eyebrows rising at the sight of the utility cart idling in front of the hangar door.
“You waiting for me?” he asked Wolf.
He must have been. While O’Neill hadn’t been the only warrior returning to base on the Citation, the other passenger—Simcosky—had immediately caught the bell and headed down to The Neighborhood.
“Get in,” Wolf said in that annoyingly blasé voice he did so well.
O’Neill shrugged and walked around the vehicle. Would you look at that, personal chauffeur service from commander of Shadow Mountain himself.
“Have you got an ETA on when Embray will return?” O’Neill asked, as he slid into the passenger seat.
Embray’s jet had flown them to Seattle, where the Shadow Mountain Citation had been waiting. But the Global Dynamic billionaire had remained in Seattle—claiming business. Which was annoying as hell. Embray had pulled strings to get them out of London before they were cleared on Nantz’s disappearance. He was supposed to return to Shadow Mountain’s labs. Only to remain in Seattle? What could be more important than neutralizing the apocalypse?
“He will return soon.” Wolf pressed the accelerator and the vehicle moved forward. “The Citation flies to Anchorage this evening to pick him up.”
O’Neill relaxed at the news. The sitrep Wolf had offered once the Citation was close enough for O’Neill to connect to theNeealahohad made it obvious the base needed all hands on-deck. And that included Embray.
Fuck, the dude might just be pivotal in winning this war.
“Why the personalized service,” O’Neill asked.
Had something gone wrong? More wrong than Nantz’s posse of infected and runaway bots, or the billionaire’s recent collapse? Christ, this was not the clusterfuck he wanted to return home to.
The thought hit him like a fist upside his head.Home? When did Shadow Mountain become his home?
“I wish to speak with you.” Wolf cast him one quick glance before returning his eyes to the road.
“Okay...” O’Neill waited.
“About your spirit gift,” Wolf continued, with a hesitancy O’Neill had never heard before.
“Okay...” O’Neill waited some more.
“I ask that you use your gift on Nantz.” Wolf shot him another quick look.
“I can try,” O’Neill said quietly. “But don’t get your hopes up. I tried to connect to an unconscious person before. Complete failure.” The mind he’d tried to link with had been dying. He’d been desperate to retrieve the information they needed. Critical information locked inside that fading consciousness. Afterwards, he wasn’t sure if his failure to connect was his fault or the circumstances, so he’d asked Benioko. “TheTaounahatold me that in order to connect to another person’s consciousness, both minds must be alert...aware.”
Wolf shrugged. “But it will not hurt to try?”
“Never hurts to try.” He frowned. Wolf must be desperate to get more information from their target. “Did Capland’s plan to clean up Nantz’s interrogation footage work?
Wolf picked up the tablet sitting on the console between them. “See for yourself. The footage is loaded.” He lifted his chin toward a pair of headphones sitting on the dash. “Use the headphones. The words will be easier to hear.”
Leaning forward, O’Neill grabbed the headphones, plugged them into the tablet, and stroked his finger down the screen to wake it up. Crystal clear images immediately scrolled across the screen, along with the accompanying audio.
At first, Nantz’s words were slurred, but discernable. But the clarity disintegrated with each second the footage advanced. By the end of the tape, when the bastard was talking about the lab’s location, his voice was so garbled his words made no sense.
T...bst...m..twer...crs.This must be the section Cap wanted to clean.
