The Panic Zone Part 48

No answer.

She'd go alone.

At her desk in the offices of the Blue Tortoise Kids' Hideaway, Lucy Walsh quickly read over the letter she was leaving for her employer.

"It is with the great regret that I must inform you that I am resigning from my position as chief executive a.s.sistant to Dr. Auden..."

The truth was Lucy had to leave the Bahamas because she was afraid.

When she finished with the letter, she printed a copy, signed it, put it in an envelope and slid it under Dr. Sutsoff's door. The office was always locked when the doctor was away. It was just as well Lucy did it this way; she never felt totally comfortable in the doctor's presence.

She returned to her desk and resumed packing her personal items.

Her growing fears that this company was a front for something evil had deepened. Last night she'd received stunning news from her church friend in Ireland, who had been forwarding her secret reports to an ex-cop who was working with a human rights organization.

"My contact on this case has been killed. I got word from London he may have been murdered in Morocco. It's dangerous for you. Take precautions, Lucy."

Something was horribly wrong at this place.

Lucy glanced at her computer from which she'd duplicated every file she could to a private online folder. She had also copied them to a blue memory card, no bigger than a stick of gum. Maybe she would send the information anonymously to the Irish Times? Somehow she had to alert the outside world.

As the computer beeped and lights flashed, she noticed through the gla.s.s walls that a woman was standing in the playroom staring at the children. The other staff members had not seen her.

Lucy went to her.

"May I help you?"

The woman turned, telegraphing an intense unease behind faded bruises and desperate eyes that failed to brighten as she tried to smile.

"Yes. My name is Emma Lane and I'm looking for my son."

"Lane?"

"Yes, my son is Tyler Lane."

"Lane, that name's familiar but we have about 104 children currently registered. Some are out on excursions. Follow me." Lucy led Emma to her office and sat before her computer monitor and started typing. "L-A-N-E?"

"Yes." Emma twisted the straps of her purse. "Tyler is spelled T-Y-L-E-R. He's a year old."

"When did you bring him in?"

"I didn't."

"Oh, his father brought him in?"

"His father's dead. I think my son was abducted and brought here."

All the blood drained from Lucy's face.

"Please," Emma whispered. "Please help me."

After knocking on Lancer's door in vain, Gannon called Lancer's cell-phone number.

It was futile.

Dammit. Where was he?

Walking from Blue Reef Tower D across the complex, Gannon froze. Almost hidden at the base of a grove of coconut palms, he glimpsed a shoulder flash, dark military overalls and a leather holster.

A cop. A SWAT member in tactical gear.

As Gannon's eyes adjusted, he noticed a second cop in the grove.

Then, through the courtyard in the distance, he saw a cube van, obviously a police equipment truck. Next to it, he saw an ambulance.

They were setting up for a takedown somewhere.

Was this Lancer's target? It had to be near.

Walking quickly through the vast courtyard, Gannon looked in every direction for any sign of Lancer, for any clue. Guests lounged around the pool, oblivious to what was coming. Gannon knew from his crime reporting days how police would soon seal the area with inner and outer perimeters as they prepared to move in.

Where were they going?

Gannon scanned everything until he saw the entrance of a low-roofed building almost hidden by tropical vegetation. He strained to read the wooden sign amid a garden of flowers: Blue Tortoise Kids' Hideaway.

Yes, it all fit.

Lancer's information We're going to execute warrants...Grand Blue Tortoise Resort...a child-care center.

Gannon started trotting to the building.

Lucy Walsh stared at Emma not knowing what to say.

"Please," Emma said, "I know it's crazy, sometimes I think it's all a bad dream, but it's real. Please, I'm begging for your help."

Lucy said nothing and Emma continued.

"I sense you're a good person and by your reaction, I think you know something. Please." Emma struggled as she cued up the photo of Joe and Tyler on her cell phone and showed it to Lucy, her voice soft. "My husband died beside me and my son is missing--please!"

Maybe it was fate, maybe it was the timing, but Lucy did not have to search Emma's eyes long before she found a reason to follow her convictions.

She got up, glanced around to be sure they were alone, then locked her door and returned to her computer.

"Where are you from, Emma?"

"Wyoming."

Lucy entered her database of secret files she'd been copying.

"Emma, are you from Big Cloud?"

"Yes!"

Lucy caught her bottom lip between her teeth, then continued checking files. Her concentration sharpened as she pulled up more information.

"You have to swear that you'll never tell anyone you got this from me."

"Yes, yes! Please, do you have something?"

Lucy jotted information on a slip of paper.

"Your son is here."

Emma's hands flew to her face. Her body started shaking.

"Here? Oh, G.o.d! Where? Do you have him?"

"No, he's not here at the center."

"Where? Who has him? Tell me!"

"Listen carefully. Two people, their names are Valmir and Elena Leeka, are traveling on Albanian pa.s.sports or U.S pa.s.sports. Tyler is identified as their son Alek on an Albanian pa.s.sport. They will say that they adopted him through an international agency and are staying here on vacation."

"How do you know all this? What's going on?"

"Just listen. I've just learned that they're supposed to leave for New York City today, at any moment. They are registered here, at the resort in Main Sail Tower A, Room 1658." Lucy thrust the paper with the information into Emma's hand. "You have to swear not to say how you found out."

"Yes. Room 1658, Main Sail Tower A."

"Go before it's too late."

"Thank you."

"It could be dangerous. Don't go alone."

"G.o.d bless you, thank you!"

"Wait! Wait, there's something else!" Lucy s.n.a.t.c.hed the tiny blue memory card from her desk and handed it to Emma. "Don't lose this."

"What is it?"

"Information. Don't say where you got it, just look at it later. It'll help explain everything."

Emma stared at the memory card, then jammed it into her bag.

"One more thing."

Emma waited.

"I had no part in this."

"Thank you for helping me."

Emma hurried from the center. Once outside, she began running across the courtyard when she spotted Gannon heading in her direction.

"Jack!" Emma held up the slip of paper like it was a winning lottery ticket. "He's here. Tyler's here!"

"What? How did you find out?"

Emma updated him as they hurried through the complex, following the direction signs to Main Sail Tower A. They found a private corner in the busy lobby to come up with a strategy. To confirm if the Leekas and Tyler were in the room and to gauge what they might be facing, Gannon would knock on the door alone in case the couple had Emma's picture. If they were there, then Gannon and Emma would summon police.

"What do we do if they're not there?" Emma asked as they stepped into the elevator.

"I've got a plan," Gannon said.

On the sixteenth floor, Emma stayed down the hall out of sight while Gannon knocked at room 1658. He tried for thirty seconds. He placed his ear to the door but heard nothing, then signaled to Emma.

"Follow my lead on this," he said as they walked down the hall and around a corner until they found a chambermaid's cart parked outside a room.

"Excuse us," Gannon said.

An older slender Bahamian woman emerged from the bathroom wearing rubber gloves.

"I am so sorry to trouble you but we just stepped out of our room and realized we left our room keys and camera inside."

The woman eyed them both.

"We're running a little late--we don't have time to go to the desk in the main lobby. Is there a chance you could let us in?" Gannon reached for his wallet and produced an American twenty-dollar bill.

The woman sighed and waved off the money.

"This happens all the time, which room?"

"Thank you. This way." Emma pointed and started ahead of them, smiling at Gannon, then checking the woman's tag, "Oh, thank you, Matilda."

"No need to thank me. All the time people are forgettin' this and forgettin' that."

Matilda inserted her plastic keycard in the key slot, a small light winked green, the locks clicked and she cracked the door a few inches for Gannon.

"Please, Matilda, we insist." He pushed the twenty in her hand.

"Well, with all my grandchildren I have to get a birthday present every other week. Thank you." She smiled and returned to her work humming.

Gannon allowed her to get a safe distance away before they entered.

Nothing prepared them for what was waiting.

Blood.