Chapter 14
SHORT OF EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE ENEMY
Alexei grabbed Sean by the arm, yanking the agent around to face him as Kyle’s voice faded in his mind. “Clear everyone in room. Now.”
Sean nodded sharply and didn’t argue. He only said, “I’ll lose comms.”
“We not separate. Not be problem.”
There was always that moment where people’s survival instincts had to choose between flight or fight.
Alexei had long since scuttled the urge in the back of his mind that demanded he run, choosing instead to fight.
While Sean ducked his head and proceeded to literally run through the crowd beginning to sink into the first throes of panic, Alexei slapped nanotech strips onto his face and shoved his way through gala guests to the stairs.
Annabelle joined him seconds later, taking position on the landing at the top of the stairwell opposite of him.
They were on the second floor; the guns going off below were loud and impossible to ignore.
The enemy, whoever they were, had come up through the underground tunnel.
There was a good possibility they would be overrun.
They didn’t have time to find a UMG agent and grab weapons or tactical vests, which put them at a disadvantage.
“I take guns, you take bodies?” Annabelle asked as the clatter of people rushing up the stairs got louder. Alexei, who could move in full gear without making a sound, mentally scoffed at their shitty efforts.
“Da.”
The second the Reborn IRA fighters made it to the landing below them, Annabelle used her anti-gravity power to wrench their guns out of their hands, sending the rifles spinning out of reach.
Alexei didn’t hesitate to use his pyrokinesis to set the group on fire, gritting his teeth against their agonized screams. The shouts below from people they couldn’t see were ones of warning as the way was blocked by burning bodies.
“I don’t think I’m gonna be eatin’ barbecue for a while,” Annabelle said.
She guided the assault rifles down within reach of them both, slinging one over her shoulder while taking the magazines out of two others. Alexei followed her example, feeling better already about their chances now that he had a gun in hand.
“We move,” Alexei said.
“I disabled five suicide bombers,” Sean said from behind him.
Alexei glanced back at him at the same exact time something arced through the air from the lower level.
Annabelle swore and used her power to push the grenade higher, but she couldn’t block the blast. Alexei redirected the fire, even as they dove for cover around the corner.
He had the surreal sensation of falling through Sean as they got clear of the shrapnel cutting into the wall and flooring of the stairwell.
Looking up at Sean with the other man’s legs sticking out of his torso was just fucking weird.
“We should go,” Sean said as he stepped out of Alexei’s body.
“You think?” Alexei snapped.
“I need to clear more people.”
You got about six more suicide bombers on your floor alone. They’re all running for the main entrance, so get a move on, Katie ordered into their minds.
“You heard Viper,” Annabelle said. “Wraith, go do your thing.”
Jamie cut over her order, his words echoing in Alexei’s mind. Alpha Team, switch to comms. Call in.
“Am with Icarus and Wraith. He’s off comms. Have disarmed five suicide bombers,” Alexei replied.
Alexei took point, half his attention on their comms, even as he ignored the people who screamed at them because of the weapons they carried.
Annabelle watched their six, but so far, no one was coming up the stairs they’d blocked with charred bodies.
They cleared the long gallery and pushed into the smaller one after it.
Art displays were a blur of color behind energy shields as they ran by, catching up to stragglers in the crowd.
Sean pulled ahead as they reached the other side of the small gallery, locked on to the crowd shoving their way into the next one.
He ducked his head and walked through someone like a ghost, making them shriek.
Since he was the only one of them not wearing nanotech strips, Alexei hoped Katie could scramble enough memories to make people forget their faces.
Seconds later, feet thundering on the stairs just ahead made Alexei and Annabelle pull up short.
Half a dozen men in evening clothes raced up the stairway to their left with assault rifles in hand.
They didn’t look like they belonged to the Reborn IRA group who’d come up through the tunnel, which meant they could’ve been trying to protect themselves if Alexei didn’t recognize the man at the head of the group.
Sean plunged back into view right about then and skidded to a halt as he caught sight of the group. Tomas snapped his head around in Sean’s direction, an ugly snarl twisting across his face. “Ye fuckin’ bastard.”
Alexei didn’t hesitate and got a shot off, but not before Tomas managed to get his own off.
Alexei’s bullet went through Tomas’ unprotected skull.
Tomas’ bullet passed harmlessly through Sean, slamming into someone behind him, judging by the pained scream.
Annabelle ripped the weapons out of their hands with her anti-gravity power, sending them floating out of reach like the last batch.
One or two gaped at Sean in disbelief while the others desperately tried to get out of the line of fire as Alexei switched his assault rifle over to burst mode and took them out to keep Sean’s cover intact.
Sean didn’t seem all that affected by the carnage Alexei and Annabelle were leaving behind them, more worried about the job at hand. He gestured at the crowd of people practically trampling each other in their search for safety behind him.
“Viper can guide me to the targets, but I need to get moving. Take the stairs and get down to the first floor. Someone’s got to get control of the tunnel entrance.”
Alexei waved him off as he and Annabelle stepped over dead bodies. “Go.”
Sean disappeared. Alexei didn’t like leaving him behind, but since the agent could phase, he’d be safe from pretty much every attack the enemy could throw at him. Alexei knew they were running out of time. Katie could only stretch her telepathy so much, and at some point, something had to give.
He and Annabelle were halfway down the stairs, keeping their backs to the wall as they covered each other’s six with their weapons, when they heard the teeth-shivering sirens wail a warning into the night.
The pair shared a grim look before pushing forward, into the fray.
* * *
Jamie reflexively ducked at the sound of the bomb going off behind him. They were far enough away from the blast, with layers of bodies between them, that neither he nor Tariq and Samaira were affected in any way.
The same could not be said of the people surrounding the entrance.
The suicide bomber who detonated the Splice chemical bomb, subsequently blowing themselves up, did so at the entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The explosion of Splice and blood and ravaged bits of human flesh tore through the surrounding bodies with deadly force.
Those in the initial blast zone were ripped apart by the explosive aspect of the bomb, losing limbs and life in the process.
The rest might be considered lucky if Splice hadn’t rained down on them like a plague.
When people realized what had happened, nothing on earth could stop the screaming.
“Viper!” Jamie called out over comms.
Jansen is still unconscious, Katie reported, her mental voice wavering loud and soft through his mind. Whoever detonated made the decision to do so on their own. Whatever the Pavluhkins have on them must’ve been too terrible to risk it getting out.
“How many are left?”
At least fifteen. Wraith is handling the last two up here. The rest are on the first level or outside.
“Shut them down, Viper,” Liam said harshly over the comms. “Any which way you can.”
I can do a hard strike and hit them all at once, but they might not survive it. They’re all human. The other option is I deal with them one by one, and they live to see prosecution.
“We don’t have time to deal with them one at a time. Go for the hard strike.”
This was them playing judge, jury, and executioner, and while it might not be fair, nothing in war ever was.
Movement out the corner of his eye had Jamie shifting position and opening fire on the cluster of Reborn IRA fighters who scrambled for cover across the way in the adjacent gallery.
Jamie knew he was running low on ammo and would need to reload soon.
Tariq touched his shoulder and jerked his head in the enemy’s direction.
“I’ll handle them,” Tariq said.
Jamie swapped positions with him and shifted around to face the decimated crowd in the grand entrance.
Bodies lay on the floor around the pair of doors leading outside while those lucky enough to be alive wandered in a daze, a good amount of them splattered with Splice.
Jamie knew the chemical could no longer harm him or his team, but he still felt a minor surge of panic at knowing it was present in the people around them.
People who would soon be dying.
Jamie caught sight of a familiar figure running down the side hallway, not bothering to gain cover every few feet. Trevor didn’t really need to when he could wrap himself in a telekinetic shield.
“Don’t bother with the wounded,” Jamie told him.
Trevor grimaced at that order but nodded his assurances.
It was a harsh order to give, but considering almost everyone in the grand entrance and some of those outside were contaminated with Splice, saving them wouldn’t matter.
If their wounds didn’t kill them, the chemical would.
This was a fight, but it wasn’t technically a war zone.
Jamie doubted a mercy killing would be appreciated by the public, even if that’s exactly what it would be.
A mercy.