Chapter 6
RECON BY FIRE
“So what, exactly, is your plan?” Liam asked as he twisted around in the front passenger seat of the SUV to look at Jamie. “And your suit bloody well screams rich wanker. Excellent choice. You should give me the name of your tailor.”
“He’s in New York,” Jamie said. “And the plan is we get Jansen to bite.”
Jamie wasn’t looking at Liam but out the side window, watching the streets blur by. The London megacity was different from most others in the world, and its strict building codes hadn’t lessened over the centuries. Rather than building up, London had merely spread out.
Over the years, the border of Greater London had crept outward, swallowing surrounding towns in a sprawl of urban life twice its original size, linked by new stretches of the Tube and faster maglev trains of the National Rail.
The Thames had been walled off generations ago.
The Thames Barrier, and the more distant seawalls and canals along the tidal zone, were rebuilt larger and stronger to handle the surge of rising sea levels.
London’s many bridges still stood, a testament to British engineering in the face of climate change.
Council estate towers were scattered throughout the megacity in drab clusters, the only buildings of substantial height outside of Central London’s skyscrapers.
The wealthy flocked to London as a money sink against greedy native governments, buying luxury properties and vehicles as a financial foothold in England.
When they weren’t doing business, they were out to have a good time, but the local pub was never going to be good enough.
London’s nightlife was rivaled by few others.
It didn’t surprise Jamie that Jansen had chosen this megacity as his hunting ground.
Swanky VIP nightclubs and high-end cocktail bars lived and died on trends. Vesuvius was Jansen’s third nightclub in as many years, in as many countries. That it was the most popular so far was due to word of mouth and the power the man exerted over those he’d blackmailed into a life of crime.
“You’re as tight-lipped as ever,” Liam said when it became obvious Jamie wasn’t going to elaborate.
Jamie smiled thinly. “Trust me. We’ll get the job done.”
Preparing for the job had started hours ago with all of them getting ready for a night out on the town.
Donovan and Annabelle were their drivers for the night, both of them wearing dark business suits to blend into the background.
They’d stay with the vehicles after dropping the rest of them off and remain on standby until they were needed.
Madison and Trevor were coming into the club as their bodyguards and were dressed in similar suits as the other two, the cut just a little classier to more easily blend into the environment.
Jamie wore a dark gray suit that wasn’t flashy in the least, but its understated elegance drew the eye anyway.
He’d put on a platinum Rolex that reflected the light every time it peeked out of his suit cuff, the watch more a status symbol than anything else.
Liam was dressed the same way, the tight cut of his suit jacket making it impossible to hide a gun.
Not that he needed one when, as an electrokinetic, he could toss bolts of electricity from his hands with deadly accuracy.
Still, they were supposed to act like they were human on this mission, and the lack of a gun was making them all a little twitchy.
Especially Kyle.
Jamie glanced at where the younger man sat beside him, staring out the other window with a bored expression on his face.
Unlike himself and Liam, Kyle wasn’t wearing a suit.
Jamie had picked out the clothes he wore because a man of Jamie’s status had particular tastes and liked to show them off.
In this instance, that meant showing Kyle off.
Skinny black jeans from a designer label were tucked into a pair of leather boots with far too many straps and buckles wrapped around them to be functional.
The dark blue button-down shirt he wore was untucked and wrinkled, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the top two buttons undone.
The scorched ends of his hair had finally been trimmed before it was styled in a way that gave the impression he’d rolled out of bed.
Jamie was reminded, rather abruptly, of the first night they’d met. The way Kyle had looked on display on that barstool, a need in his eyes that still to this day went straight to Jamie’s cock.
“Almost there, boss,” Donovan said.
Jamie wrenched his gaze away from Kyle’s face, reorienting himself.
Liam gave him a long look from the front seat before raising a single eyebrow without saying a word.
Jamie did the only thing he could, which was ignore the other man in favor of the job at hand.
Donovan was right. They were almost to the club.
Vesuvius laid claim to a square building situated in the middle of what passed for a block in Camden.
From the outside, it was all wall, no windows, just a single door in the center manned by several bouncers whose job it was to make sure only those on the list made it inside the vaunted doors of London’s current hottest nightclub.
Their SUV and the one Annabelle drove behind them rolled to a stop at the curb right in front of the door.
Donovan stayed put while Liam and Jamie opened their doors.
Jamie could feel dozens of eyes on them as he got out.
He turned his back on the audience and the paparazzi snapping pictures while their drone cameras hovered in the air, recording their arrival.
After years of fighting in the shadows and hiding behind code names, the attention was grating.
If it irritated him, Jamie knew it had to be worse for Kyle and Alexei.
Those two came out of Strike Force. Special Operations Forces didn’t fuck around when it came to keeping the identities of their operatives a secret.
Yet here they all were, hiding in plain sight.
He only hoped it was worth it.
Alexei, wearing a less expensive suit without a tie because apparently he hated them, helped Katie out of their SUV.
Katie had donned a slinky, sparkly, gold designer cocktail dress that looked painted on and hit at mid-thigh with a cleavage-baring neckline.
She moved on her five-inch high heels like a ballet dancer, the clutch she carried for her tablet, makeup, and Beretta .
380 ACP in its specialized case to hide it from scans dotted with crystals.
Alexei guided her forward as Sean slipped out of the SUV behind them, letting Madison and Trevor close the doors.
Kyle climbed out of the SUV and stood next to him on the sidewalk. Jamie automatically wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him in close. “Ready?” he asked in a low voice.
“Show me what you got,” Kyle replied with a smirk that didn’t reach his eyes.
Jamie put a smile on his face, one as sharp as glass that cut both ways, but he knew what he looked like when he smiled like this.
He used to always smile like this.
Jamie ignored the first bouncer who tried to get in their way, moving past the man with a deft sidestep that put both him and Kyle out of reach. The second bouncer wasn’t going to be deterred, though, and cut them off, one hand reaching for Kyle since he was the closer of the two.
Jamie pulled up short and said in a deceptively mild voice, “If you touch him, I will break your fucking hand.”
The bouncer froze, his hand hovering over Kyle’s shoulder for a second longer before he snatched it back. Jamie calmly grabbed Kyle by the elbow and manhandled the shorter man in a protective manner to his other side.
“Is there a problem?” Jamie asked icily.
“There is a list, and there is a line, mate,” the bouncer said as he crossed his arms over his burly chest, the data rings on one hand glinting in the light. “If you’re not on the list, you get in the line, or you go home.”
Jamie cocked his head to the side. “Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t fucking care if you’re the queen herself. You’re not getting in unless you’re on the list.”
“Well, then, if that’s the case,” Liam said as he sidled up to them, knocking a friendly fist against Jamie’s shoulder that didn’t make him move an inch.
“I am related to the queen. So you might want to let us through. Jamie here has been stuck in meetings all day, and I promised him a piss up at the best place I knew if he didn’t murder anyone out of sheer bloody boredom. ”
“If you’re not on the list—” the bouncer snapped.
“Jamie Callahan is always on the list,” Jamie cut through coldly. “Now, get out of my fucking way.”
I haven’t missed the old you, Katie said into his mind, her telepathic voice a deep echo in between his ears. I’m moving the idiots before you walk all over them.
The bouncers never knew Katie entered their minds and altered their thoughts just enough to shift their actions from antagonistic to confused.
Liam had promised the paperwork authorizing any mental actions she would take on British soil to ensure the safety of the British people as a whole would be legal and would come through, and it had.
She was free to use her telepathy how she saw fit, so long as it helped the mission.
The men stepped back, sharing a quick, confused look.
Jamie could hear several people closest to the front of the line whispering about what was going on, passing the story along for those in the back.
He heard his name repeated a few times with the knowing tones of people who recognized who he was, even if the bouncers didn’t.
Jamie grabbed Kyle’s hand and strode forward while Liam shouted out, “Sorry, lovelies, I’m going stag tonight! Private party and all.”
Then they were all inside a black metal room where a computerized voice asked that they “Please remain still for the security scan.”