She quickly punched the menu b.u.t.ton and advanced to the call log of the cellular phone she still clutched in her hand. Length of last call: 65 seconds.

He was tracing the call.

He knew where she was.

Her gaze shifted to Doug's. "We have to get out of here. Now."

As if reading her mind, he grabbed her by her uninjured arm and rushed to the elevator. "Not a good idea," he said on second thought. "The stairs."

They raced down the fourteen floors, flight after flight. Her lungs felt ready to burst, but she kept going. They had to move quickly or Gage would find them.

But why was he doing this? It didn't make sense.

At the first floor, Doug paused and turned around to face her. "Stay behind me."

They moved down to the bas.e.m.e.nt parking garage level. There was no window in the door to check out what they might find outside. The front entrance would likely be covered. All they could do was make a run for it. She nodded, scarcely able to draw a breath, much less utter a word.

Doug drew his weapon and stepped into the underground garage. An eerie silence hung in the air.

The squeal of tires split the silence.

Doug wheeled to the right, guarding her with his body.

The tap-tap-tap of gunfire echoed.

Doug went down.

A bullet grazed Scout's thigh before she could reach for him. She swung her weapon in the direction of the threat.

Too late. Gage held a bead right between her eyes.

SCOUT STRUGGLED THROUGH the blackness. She had to wake up, but it kept pushing her back down.

She forced her eyes open and fought the vertigo as the room spun wildly around her.

Her mouth was dry, and when she swallowed it didn't help.

Where was she?

The memory of the race down the stairs and the gunfire suddenly mushroomed in her mind.

Gage.

Doug had been lying on the ground, blood pooling beneath him....

She tried to move, and cried out when pain knifed through her. She'd been hit in the left thigh. Lifting her head as best she could, she tried to see how badly she was hurt. Just a flesh wound, she remembered fuzzily. Her hands and feet were tied. Blood had soaked through the hastily wrapped bandage on her thigh. Another bout of dizziness made her head swim wildly.

She ordered herself to think, to pay attention to her surroundings. The room was only dimly lit, so she couldn't make out many details. The surface she lay on was some sort of examining table ... like the one at the emergency room. A lab ...

Fear rocketed through her. They had her!

Alexon had her. That meant Gage was working for them.

She opened her mouth to scream, but swallowed the sound instead. Her screams would only bring the enemy. She needed to find a way to escape. She couldn't do that if they came.

Tears burned her eyes, but she gritted her teeth and blinked them away. Gage, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, would not win. She would find a way out of here.

Max.

She shuddered.

No, she told herself. Max was okay. He was probably looking for her now. Please, G.o.d, let him have gotten back in time to save Doug.

Okay, okay, she coached herself silently. Concentrate. Try to get loose. She struggled against her bonds, but they were so tight she could barely move. Fear and determination drove her. She would wriggle her hands until she worked free. All she needed was time.

A door on the other side of the room swung open and the sound of footsteps announced that someone had entered the room. She froze, closing her eyes and pretending to be asleep, though her heart hammered so hard she was certain whoever it was would hear it. She tried to make her breathing slow and even, but it didn't work.

"Don't play with me, Scout. I know you're awake."

Her eyes flew open.

Gage.

Fury exploded anew inside her. For the first time in her life she wanted to kill another human being. She struggled against her restraints, praying for just one minute with her hands around his throat.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d," she hissed. "Who hired you to do this?"

He laughed. "Why, your dear old uncle, of course."

Uncle Harold?

Her heart shuddered to a near stop. Gage had said Harold had killed her father and tried to sell her out. How could he do that? She'd loved him like a second father! He'd professed to love her... .

Gage smiled, a sick, sinister expression. "Oh, I know you don't want to believe it, but trust me, it's quite true. Of course, he did love you. Just as he loved your father. But when anything came between Harold Atkins and money-well, let's just say that money always came out the winner."

"I need to know if he really killed my father." She had to know the answer to that. She'd waited a long time. Whatever happened, she needed to be sure if what Gage had told her about Harold and her father was true.

"He did." Gage gave her another of those sick smiles. "I swear it on my mother's grave."

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. How could someone so inhumane even have a mother? "Did he really blackmail you into keeping quiet?" While she had his attention focused on her face and the conversation, she kept working at the restraints. She had to get her hands free.

"Oh, well now, that was a bit of a lie." Kimble held his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. "I actually would have done the job myself, but Harold beat me to it. You see, I was Harold's middleman. I still had the contacts in the Defense Department."

She stilled. Her father had died because of this lowlife piece of sc.u.m and his equally lowlife partner ... Harold Atkins. She would kill Gage Kimble. Too bad Harold was already dead. Then again, was he? Her gaze narrowed with malice.

"Where is Harold?" she demanded, enraged. "Another stretch of the truth," Gage said with a shrug. "Harold is dead and buried, just as you thought."

"What about the call?"

"That was easy enough to engineer. I had the tape from your answering machine and several taped calls of my own. I must say that stealing the M.E.'s file certainly added to the credibility of my ruse."

Her answering machine? Confusion furrowed her brow. Her brain seemed to fixate on that one part of his confession. "You broke into my house?"

He nodded, feigning contrition. "That was me. I had your line tapped and your friend had called. I couldn't let you get those messages. The last thing I needed was Maxwell involved. Good thing I did, too. That tape came in handy."

"That doesn't make sense. Alexon hired Max."

Kimble flashed another knowing smile. "Ah, but Alexon did not hire me. You see, Alexon has been telling the truth. They tried to protect you from us ... but we're much smarter."

This was too much to handle. Her mind spun with conflicting scenarios. "But Harold worked for Alexon," she argued.

"He was a spy for us."

"Us?"

"Biogenisis. That's my employer. Usually I stay in the background, but our people got so sloppy-" he glanced at her bandaged arm "-I had to step in and take care of the matter personally. Otherwise you might never have known I was involved. I wanted you to trust me. I was certain after I blew up Harold's house that you'd trust me instead of Maxwell. After all, you thought I'd gotten a call to come just as you did. Not that it matters." He looked at his wrist.w.a.tch then. "Any minute they'll be here for you." He patted her stomach. "And this little gold mine."

A combination of fear and fury rolled through her, sending adrenaline surging. She would not let them hurt her child.

Gage shook his head and sighed. "If you just hadn't been immune to K-141 this would never have happened. Harold really did hate to do this to you, but money is money, after all. When he discovered that you and Maxwell were immune and that you had conceived while in isolation, he knew the resulting fetus would be worth a fortune. Too bad he didn't live to see his plan to fruition."

A phone rang. "Excuse me," Gage said politely as he pulled the cellular phone from his jacket pocket. "Kimble."

Her left hand was almost free. But Scout needed a weapon. While he was distracted by the call, she looked around the room as best she could. There had to be something ...

A tray sat on a table next to her. A hypodermic needle lay on it, along with a couple of other medical instruments. She frowned, trying to figure out why the needle would be there. Then she knew. Gage had drugged her to keep her quiet as he ushered her to his vehicle. She remembered that by the time they'd reached his SUV she could scarcely stand. Then she'd blacked out. When the other Biogenisis people arrived they would likely drug her again to facilitate transferring her to wherever the h.e.l.l they intended to take her.

Please, she prayed, let Max find me in time.

But how could he? He had no idea where Gage had taken her. It was up to her.

As luck would have it, two things happened at once in the next second: her left hand came free from the bindings and Gage ended his phone conversation.

Scout reached out, grabbing the hypodermic needle.

"What the h.e.l.l are-" Gage reached across her.

She swung her left shoulder upward, putting all her strength into the blow as she stabbed the hypodermic into his chest. Instinctively she pushed the plunger downward, expelling the drug into his system.

Screaming curses, he knocked her hand away.

Her right hand came loose then. She sat up.

He pulled the needle free and threw it across the room.

"You b.i.t.c.h!"

She tried to stop him, but somehow his hands wrapped around her throat. She struggled, but he was stronger. He forced her back down onto the table. She pulled his hair and he swore. The pressure on her throat didn't let up. She couldn't breathe. Flailing desperately, she poked him in the eyes with her fingers. He released her and shielded his face with his hands.

Gasping for breath, Scout reached for the bonds holding her feet. Gage staggered toward her again, tending his eyes with one hand and reaching for his gun with the other.

Fear paralyzed her.

He would kill her now.

The weapon leveled on her chest.

She told herself to move.

She couldn't.

The explosion of a gunshot echoed around her.

Scout's breath caught. She stared down at her chest, expecting to see blood cover her T-shirt.

Gage crumpled to the floor.

"Scout! Are you all right?"

Max.

Thank G.o.d.

It was Max.

Suddenly he was holding her in his arms. Someone was untying her feet. She couldn't make sense of all that was going on around her, but she was too happy to see Max to care.

He lifted her in his arms and carried her out of the hideous room, down a long corridor and finally into the night air.

Thank G.o.d. Thank G.o.d.

She and the baby were safe.

When he paused at his SUV to open the door, she remembered Doug Cooper. "Doug? Is he-"

"He's gonna be okay. We got to him only minutes after the shooting. He was already dragging himself toward his vehicle and trying to use his cellphone."

Scout smiled through her tears. "Can't keep you Colby guys down," she said, her voice quavering.

Max kissed her forehead. "I'm just glad you're okay. I've never been so afraid in my life."

Scout drew back to look into his eyes, determined to say the words burgeoning in her heart. But pain knifed through her belly, cutting off any possibility of speech. She stiffened, then grabbed her middle. The next stab of pain had her crying out in agony.

"What's wrong?"

"Get me to a hospital, Max." Another jolt of agony rendered her mute once more.

The baby.