Gene opened the laptop and displayed the files. Edna scanned them, unreadable.
“This is everything?”
“Everything.”
She nodded to the guards, who stepped toward him. Gene raised a hand.
“Not until I see Leanne and Marcus alive.”
Edna considered that, then shrugged.
“Very well. Follow me.”
She led him through the building, past luxurious common areas and carefully staged treatment rooms, to an elevator. They descended.
The basement level looked nothing like the polished resort above. It was sterile, cold, more prison than clinic.
Edna unlocked a door.
Inside, Leanne and Marcus were zip-tied to chairs. Both looked roughed up, but alive. Carolina Wells sat in a third chair, unrestrained, her face wrecked with guilt.
“I’m sorry,” Carolina said to Leanne. “They have my daughter. They said if I didn’t help—”
“Shut up,” Edna snapped.
She turned back to Gene.
“As you can see, they’re fine. Now hand over the laptop.”
Gene set it on a table and stepped back. Edna took it, looked through the contents again, then handed it to one of the guards.
“Delete everything. Check his cloud accounts too.”
The guard sat down and began typing.
Brent entered the room carrying a drink.
“Gene. Glad you could join us. Saves us the trouble of hunting you down.”
“Let them go,” Gene said. “You have what you want.”
“Do we?” Brent smiled. “Here’s the problem. You’re a very persistent man. You’ve proven that. Even if we delete all this, even if we make the three of you disappear, you’ve probably left copies somewhere. Insurance policies. Dead-man switches. Smart.”
“So we need a more permanent solution,” Edna said. “Leanne stays with us. We’ll continue her treatment until she’s properly compliant. You and your friend Marcus…” She gave a small shrug. “Accidents happen in the desert.”
Gene had expected that.
“And how will you explain three missing people? The police know I came here.”
“Do they?” Brent asked. “I don’t think you called them. I think you came alone trying to be a hero.”
He took a slow sip from his glass.
“Tomorrow morning, Carolina will report that you came to the center looking for Leanne. Clearly unstable. We’ll show security footage of you attacking staff. Then you’ll have disappeared into the desert. Probably suicide. Marcus too. Poor fool. He came looking for you. Leanne will be too mentally ill to contradict any of it.”
“You’ve thought of everything,” Gene said.
“We always do,” Brent replied.
“Except one thing.”
Brent frowned. “What?”
“I didn’t come alone.”
As if on cue, the lights went out.
A beat later emergency lighting kicked on, flooding the room in red.
The guard at the laptop looked up. “Sir, someone’s broadcasting our security feeds live. It’s going out on every—”
A distant explosion rocked the building hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.
Gene smiled.
“That would be the FBI executing their warrant.”
For the first time all night, Edna’s composure cracked.
“What?”
“Detective McIntyre,” Gene said. “She’s been working with federal agents for weeks. The Spark Centers accept Medicare and Medicaid. Federal funding. That makes fraud here a federal crime. So does kidnapping across state lines—which you did when you grabbed Marcus in Arizona and brought him to Nevada.”
Brent lunged.
Gene was ready. He sidestepped and drove an elbow into Brent’s face. Brent went down hard.
The guards moved, but the door burst open before they could reach him. FBI agents in tactical gear flooded the room, weapons raised.
“FBI! Nobody move!”
Detective McIntyre came in behind them wearing a bulletproof vest.
“Gene Mullins, you’re under arrest for—” She stopped, looked at the room, then shook her head. “Actually, forget it. Somebody cut these people loose.”
Agents rushed to free Leanne and Marcus. Leanne ran to Gene the moment the zip ties came off. He caught her and held her tight.
“Ow,” she whispered, but she was crying with relief.
“When you and Marcus went to meet Carolina,” Gene said quietly, “I called McIntyre. We’d already been coordinating with the FBI. The meeting was bait to see if the Sparks would grab you. They did. That gave the feds probable cause for a full raid.”
Marcus, rubbing his wrists, looked more impressed than angry.
“You used us as bait.”
