The B-Team (Benson Security)

Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Okay,” Katrina said to Rodrigo. “I have an idea. Can you get Ryan down the stairs to the panic room?”

“What about the cops?” Rodrigo replied, his attention on the groaning man at his feet. “The ones up here and the ones downstairs.” There seemed to be an excess of them everywhere.

“I’ll lock the ones downstairs in the control room until you get in here.” Katrina sounded far from convinced this was a good idea. “The ones outside are talking about checking the perimeter of the building, so that will buy us a few minutes. If you can carry Ryan, you can make it down here before they get back.”

Rodrigo looked down at the man lost to the pain inside his head. He was a big-assed guy, made up of solid muscle that weighed a ton. “I can try a firefighter’s carry and hope for the best.”

“Just don’t drop him on his head,” Katrina warned. “His brain’s already damaged enough, and we don’t want him back in a coma.”

“Thanks for the pep talk,” Rodrigo said dryly. “Tell me when the outside cops are out of sight. Are the others locked in the control room now?”

“Yes, they keep hitting that fake red button, but nobody’s tried the door yet.” She paused. “Okay, the new cops are heading around to the back of the building. You could try making a run for your car, but I don’t know who else is out there. I think we need to go with my plan. Get down here. Now!”

Rodrigo was in no position to argue. He crouched beside Ryan. “Hey, buddy. Can you hear me?”

Unfocused eyes met his as Ryan groaned again.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

There was no point in explaining the plan. He doubted it would get through to Ryan in his current state. Instead, he hefted him up, slung him over his shoulder, and stood—straining every damn muscle in his body to get to his feet. Rodrigo held Ryan’s limp body in place with an arm around his thighs.

It felt like he’d just lifted an elephant, but he locked his knees and clenched his jaw. Just one flight of stairs and a short walk to the panic room.

“Get the door open,” he told Katrina through gritted teeth. “We’re on our way.”

Rodrigo said a silent prayer of thanks that they were going downstairs, not up. He wasn’t sure his legs would’ve made it up the stairs. Ryan was a deadweight, no longer making any sound, and only the steady rhythm of his breathing told Rodrigo he was still alive. Whatever happened, it’d hit fast and taken him out entirely. He wasn’t too sure a panic room was the best place to take Ryan. A hospital seemed more appropriate. But they were stuck now. And if the cops caught sight of them, Ryan would be heading to jail.

He was out of breath when he pushed open the door to the basement. Relief gave him a second wind when he saw Katrina standing in the panic room’s open doorway, the bookcase shifted to the side.

“Hurry,” she hissed.

In the far corner of the room, a thud sounded on the control room door. Then another. Someone shouted for help. The cops were getting annoyed.

Rodrigo rushed past Katrina, straight to one of the beds, and plopped Ryan down on it. As Katrina closed up the panic room, Rodrigo settled Ryan onto the narrow bed and felt for a pulse. It was steady.

On shaky legs, he walked over to grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator and sat at the table. His muscles literally vibrated from carrying Ryan.

“I need to do more fitness training,” he said before gulping down the water. “Being out of the spy life has made me lazy. For some reason, I thought Benson Security would be an easy gig, and I wouldn’t need to keep up the same level of fitness.” He glanced at Ryan. “I was wrong.”

With effort, he stood and crossed the short distance to stand behind Katrina—who clearly wasn’t listening to a word he said as she watched the computer screen in front of her.

“This is the control room computer’s screen,” she said. “I’ve mirrored it so we can see what they see.”

Rodrigo glanced up at the monitors and saw a bunch of angry cops trying to find a way out of the control room. “What are you going to do?”

“Watch.”

As she typed, a box popped up on her screen and on the one in the control room. “Surprise!” it read. “Joke’s on you, Isobel, but don’t worry. The system will reset now. Consider us even, Ryan.”

Katrina hit another button, and the lights came back on, communications were re-enabled, and the doors unlocked.

“It’s the best I could come up with at short notice,” she said. “I’m hoping the police will think they somehow triggered a prank Ryan intended for Isobel. I also hope they’ll be too embarrassed to tell anyone about it.”

Rodrigo grinned. “Genius.” He went to pat her shoulder but remembered she didn’t like being touched and stopped himself in time. “You’re an absolute genius.”

Her cheeks flushed a faint shade of pink as they stood watching the security monitors.

A group of disgruntled officers filed out of the control room.

“I can’t believe the whole thing was a joke,” one of them said. “Pretty sick sense of humor, if you ask me.”

“We must have triggered s when we were searching the building,” another said.

Katrina heaved a sigh of relief while Rodrigo grinned beside her.

“You don’t think it will happen again, do you?” another asked.

“No, I think it’s done now,” came the reply.

As they watched, one of the officer’s radios sounded. “Grayson, you there?”

On another monitor, they saw the two outside police officers making their way to the front of the building. Obviously, they’d noticed all the lights were back on.

“I’m here,” Grayson said.

“We came to check on you guys, but we can’t get in,” an outside cop said into his radio.

“False alarm,” Grayson said as he followed his colleagues up the stairs. “We triggered a prank, and we’re heading back up to reception now.”

Rodrigo turned away from the monitors to perch on the desk beside Katrina. Ryan still hadn’t moved.

“You did great,” he said. “Now we need to figure out what’s happening with him. Should we call a doctor?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Dimitri told me about this. Ever since Ryan got shot, he’s had blinding migraines that often knock him out. They come on fast and are unpredictable. He said they’re getting less frequent, but there’s nothing Ryan can do except live with them.”

“Damn.” Rodrigo considered the other man. “That’s a migraine?”

“It is for Ryan.” Her voice was filled with sympathy.

“What do we do for him? Should we give him some meds or something?”

“Only if he’s in pain, but he’s out of it now, so we’ll just let him sleep it off. If he wakes up, there should be a syringe full of migraine meds in the first aid kit under the sink. Dimitri said the team’s put them everywhere and in everybody’s houses, just in case.”

“Poor guy,” Rodrigo said.

“He’s alive, and he’s making something of his life,” Katrina said. “I’d call that a win.”

“Yeah.” Rodrigo wasn’t so sure.

“So,” she said. “Please tell me you have the code.”

He dug in his pocket, pulled out the piece of paper, and handed it over. “Right where Isobel said it would be.”

Katrina placed it on the desk in front of her and smoothed it flat. On it, there was a long series of numbers, letters, and symbols.

She looked up at him. “This could mean the end of Benson Security,” she said solemnly.

“What other option do we have?”

They sat in silence, the thought weighing heavily on both of them.

“Do we call the team now or wait for Ryan to wake up?” she asked.

Rodrigo glanced at the clock. It was barely four thirty. “Is the hacker still on the server?”

Katrina typed on her keyboard until she found the information she needed. “No. Guess they’re only allowed into the server farm at set hours.”

“In that case, I’ll text the team back at Julia’s house and update them. We should probably get the lawyer to talk to Lake before we wipe out his business, and that won’t happen before eight. In the meantime, we take turns watching Ryan and getting some sleep. What do you reckon?”

She nodded. “I reckon it’s a good plan.”

“Great. You got any aspirin? I’m pretty sure I tore a muscle hauling his big ass around.”

With a smile, Katrina went to fetch the first aid kit.

Ryan woke with a groan and a sense of disorientation. His head ached, but it wasn’t so bad, and there was a sore spot on his thigh. It took him a second to remember what had happened, and he’d just put two and two together when his eyes met Katrina’s.

“I’m in the panic room,” he said.

“How are you feeling?” Her face was filled with compassion.

“Sore, but okay.” He rubbed his leg. “You gave me an injection?”

Katrina looked anxious. “You were whining in your sleep, and I was worried. It feels like I assaulted you, and I’m so sorry, but there was a syringe in the first aid kit labeled with your name and instructions for administering it. Did I do the wrong thing?”

“Hell no.” He smiled at her, still feeling a little foggy and a whole lot exhausted. “You did good. Thanks. How long have I been out?”

“Almost four hours. Rodrigo’s just about to call the lawyers and ask them to talk to Lake about wiping the server. Then we’ll check in with everyone else. We think it would be best to get all the partners’ agreement before going ahead with the plan.”

“That’s smart,” Ryan said before grinning at Rodrigo. “Do I want to know how we ended up in the panic room?”

He pointed at the security monitors. “We have it all on tape. You can watch it at your leisure.”

“Great.” Ryan groaned, but he was still smiling. “Yet another thing I’ll never live down.”

“It’ll make a good Saturday night movie.” Rodrigo was really enjoying himself now. “Grab some popcorn and turn up the volume. The scene where the cops argue about doing the hokey-pokey is my favorite.”

Ryan put his head in his hands. “Please tell me it’s not on our server. It would be really bad if the commander’s hacker got hold of it.”

“Nope. Local copy only.” Rodrigo beamed at him. “But in case you get any ideas, there’s more than one copy.”

“Seriously though,” Ryan said to both of them. “Thanks for looking out for me.”

“Anytime, bro,” Rodrigo said.

“We’re family.” Katrina’s eyes danced. “Isn’t that what you told Callum?”

“Speaking of.” Rodrigo took his feet off the table and sat up straight. “Time to call the lawyer. Hopefully, she’ll get input from Lake and Callum as fast as possible. There are no unauthorized people on our server right now, but the team should be back at the server farm soon, and the hunt will start again.”

“While you’re doing that, I’ll call Rachel,” Ryan said. “She’s a partner too. Again . Are the cops still in the building?”

Katrina motioned to the monitors. “There’s four of them at the moment.”

“And no fallout from last night’s adventures?”

“Weirdly, no,” she said.

“Last two questions, and then I’ll call the Queen of the Damned,” Ryan said. “Did someone tell Sarah what happened?”

“Yep,” Katrina said. “She’s fine and says she’ll see you when you get out of here.”

“Thanks. Last question—do we have any food?” As if on cue, his stomach rumbled.

Katrina gestured to the pocket-sized kitchen. “We’re fully stocked, so help yourself.”

“Great.” Ryan got to his feet, glad that he wasn’t too shaky when he did so. “I’ll eat, then call Rachel. Talking to her is best done on a full stomach.”

“You think everything’s best done on a full stomach,” Katrina said.

She wasn’t wrong.