“You’ll see.” His gaze went to Melissa. “She’s looking better. Her color’s coming back. Is she on drugs?”
“ No.”
“Sick?”
“No.” Her grasp tightened around Melissa’s shoulders. “She’s going to be fine.”
Melissa woke up as they were getting her out of the helicopter.
“Jessica . . .” She looked around dazedly. “What the devil . . . ?”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. Nothing’s been right all night. Broken. All broken . . .”
“Can you walk?”
“I’ll try . . . but slow. I’m groggy . . . and my knees are like rubber.”
“Slow isn’t possible.” Galen picked her up and started at a run for the small private jet. “Just hold on and we’ll get there.”
Melissa frowned up at him. “Who are you?”
“Sean Galen.”
“It’s okay, Mellie.” Jessica was running beside him. “I’ll explain later.”
“You’ll have to.” Her eyes closed. “I’m too tired to think now. Where’s Travis?”
“With Cassie.”
“Good.”
Her eyes suddenly flicked open and she stared up at Galen. “No. Don’t do it.”
He looked down at her.
“Don’t . . .” Her eyes closed again. “Don’t let him, Jessica. . . .”
She was asleep.
Galen ran up the stairs to the jet and deposited Melissa on a leather couch. He nodded at the privacy curtain that divided the plane into two compartments. “Travis is up front with the kid. Sit down and fasten your seat belts.” He headed for the cockpit. “We’re out of here.”
“ Wait.”
He looked back at Jessica.
“I’m calling Andreas.”
He stopped short. “You’d better talk to Travis about that.”
“I don’t care what Travis says. I’m calling Andreas and telling him Cassie’s safe.” She added dryly, “Don’t worry, I won’t blow the whistle.”
“He won’t believe you, but I suppose it can’t hurt. Make it less than two minutes. I’ll tell Travis.” He disappeared behind the curtain.
She drew a deep breath and then dialed Andreas.
“You bitch.”
“I can understand how you would think that.”
“How much money were you paid to take my daughter?”
“It wasn’t money. I had no choice. I was afraid for Cassie and I didn’t see any other way out.”
“You said she was getting better.”
“She was getting better, but it was only temporary and—”
Travis was standing in the curtained doorway, and he made a motion to cut the call short.
“I have to go. I just want to tell you that none of us intends to harm your daughter.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“I want to talk to Travis. Put that bastard on.”
“He wants me to hang up.”
“Tell him if he so much as touches her, we’ll catch him and crucify him. And that goes for you too.”
“I’d probably feel the same way. You have to do what you have to do. But Cassie’s safe and we’ll try to keep her safe.” She hung up and looked at Travis. “I had to do it. I couldn’t let him go through that hell.”
“I’m not arguing. My only priority was to get you off the line before the call could be traced.” He turned back. “ Fasten your seat belt.”
Tokyo
Andreas whirled on Keller. “Did you get the location?”
The Secret Service man shook his head. “She hung up too soon. If we’d just had thirty seconds more . . .”
Andreas’s hand clenched until the knuckles turned white. “What the hell is all this Star Wars technology for if you can’t do a simple trace? If you can’t find a child who—” He had to stop and wait until he could speak again. “You promised me she’d be safe at Juniper. Now, you find my Cassie, damn you.”
“Yes, sir, I’ve already notified Danley.”
“Have they picked up Travis’s contact in Amsterdam?”
He shook his head. “They were in van der Beck’s flat five minutes after we knew what Travis had done. He’d already slipped away.”
“Then tell Danley to locate him.”
“Danley’s boarding a plane in D.C. in twenty minutes. Should we notify the media about the kidnapping?”
“God, no. If the whole world knows Cassie’s out there and vulnerable, she could be targeted by other groups. And how the hell do we know Travis won’t call back with a demand? I only talked to that bitch of a shrink. We’re not sure of anything, and until we are, you make damn sure no one knows Cassie’s missing. You find her.”