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Is he being a good boy and cooperating?”
    “He’s got them jumping. He is the one that developed the search criteria for the teams.”
    “I asked, is he cooperating?” the woman’s voice asked again this time sounding annoyed.
    “I think so.”
    “You don’t sound very sure. I thought you could judge a person’s character better than that.”
    “From what I am seeing, he’s very good at hiding things, but he does slip every once in a while.”
    “What did he do?”
    “One interesting thing was that he reacted to something he saw on the video of the breakout. From what I saw, I thought he recognized one of the perpetrators, but he blew it off by saying that the man’s characteristics were consistent with European origin, probably Slavic or some bullshit like that.”
    “That may be of further use,” the woman’s voice said. “What else?”
    “Apparently he didn’t sleep last night. And he had a visitor—some woman.”
    “He has time for pleasures?”
    “Apparently so,” Smith said and added a disgruntled sound. “At first we thought someone was breaking into his house but it turns out he knows her. I had someone follow the woman but he lost her somewhere out in Suffolk.”
    “Sloppy.”
    “Yes, I agree. I’ll ensure they do better in the future.”
    “Anything else?”
    “Reese asked for the medical guy from the original op, Lieutenant Colonel Barkley.”
    “Why?”
    “Said he wanted him for his experience with the original team, but he probably wants someone he can trust. He’s putting him to work on looking for an antidote for the elixir.”
    “An antidote, why?”
    “He believes that whoever took the girls wouldn’t have gone through all of that trouble to just see them die. He thinks they had some kind of antidote that would allow them to survive the collar injecting the elixir.”
    “What do you think?”
    “Well, it actually makes sense; if that was the goal, to capture and not destroy. It could possibly lead to information about those that were involved.”
    “Then let the doctor work the issue. Offer all assistance.”
    “Of course,” Smith answered.
    “How long before we know anything about the surveillance?”
    “Could be hours—could be days, it’s hard to tell. Unless something happens that gives us an idea where they are—it’s a needle in the haystack scenario.”
    “Keep me posted.”
    Before Smith could answer, the connection was broken and all he heard was a dial tone. “Yeah. Sure thing.”
     

C HAPTER S EVEN
     
    “We are all lost,” she said and then laughed.
    Christina angrily tossed in her sleep as if she wanted to strike out at something or someone but could not. Lies. The word resonated in her mind; the world was nothing but lies and deceit as she faced the man in her dream.
    ***
    “So much anger from a beautiful woman,” Alexander said. “It does not become you.”
    “Ah,” Christina said. “Yes, I have beauty. A man told me that once as he danced between my legs. He said I was beautiful and that he needed my beauty to survive. I believed him; I was young and foolish. I thought he loved me, so I loved him in return. But he proved that he needed his wife more when he was caught with me. He testified that I was a temptress who had stolen away his love for his wife to satisfy my own selfish and evil cravings. Do you need my beauty to survive as well?”
    “I need nothing that is so full of hatred,” Alexander said calmly. “Hatred such as yours burns away at everything I seek from this world. It consumes you above all else. You wish to die, I know. But your hatred refuses to give way so easily against those that have wronged you.”
    “What do you know about my hatred? Nothing! You’re a fool!” she screamed at him.
    “Believe what you want and choose what you want,” he said, his voice calm yet probing. “That is what life is all about. But don’t look for what you do not want to find: The truth.”
    “The truth,” she said