Chapter Thirteen
~ Mishka ~
My heart hammered against my ribs like it was trying to escape. I didn't blame it—the rational part of me wanted to be anywhere but here, preparing to storm a heavily fortified facility full of people who wanted to either capture or kill me.
Nicolai was in there, and that fact alone overrode every self-preservation instinct I'd developed over years on the run.
"Last equipment check," Yuri ordered, his voice a low rumble that matched his bear shifter nature. His eyes gleamed with barely contained violence as he surveyed our tactical team.
I adjusted the lightweight kevlar vest that felt simultaneously too heavy and too insubstantial. The guns made me nervous—I'd spent most of my life avoiding violence rather than initiating it. Tonight was different. Tonight, I wasn't running away from something. I was running toward someone.
"Remember," Yuri continued, his gaze lingering on me longer than the others, "this is extraction, not extermination. We get the boss, we get out."
I nodded, though we both knew it wasn't that simple. O'Rourke had crossed a line by taking Nicolai. There would be blood tonight, one way or another.
Dima checked his watch and gave a sharp nod. "Perimeter guards change in three minutes. That's our window."
The six of us moved as one unit toward the facility's fence line. Zev, Ivan, and Sergei—all Syndicate members whose loyalty to Nicolai was absolute—positioned themselves at strategic points.
I stuck close to Yuri, as instructed, my hands already tingling with the electronic energy that connected me to every circuit, every camera, every alarm system in the vicinity.
"Now," Dima whispered into his comm.
The world exploded into chaos. Flashbangs detonated along the eastern perimeter—a distraction orchestrated to draw attention away from our entry point. The sharp cracks split the night air, followed immediately by the wail of alarm systems. I winced at the sensory overload, but kept moving.
Yuri cut through the fence with specialized tools, creating an opening just large enough for us to slip through.
I felt the security systems reacting, electrons racing through circuits to alert guards of the breach.
With a deep breath, I extended my consciousness into the nearest camera, looping its feed for thirty crucial seconds.
"Clear," I whispered, the effort already making my temples throb.
We moved across the exposed ground between the fence and the building in a tight formation. Gunfire erupted from somewhere to our left—Zev's team engaging the first responders.
The sound made me flinch, but I kept going, one foot in front of the other, focusing on the electric pulses surrounding us rather than the violence.
The side entrance was exactly where the stolen blueprints indicated. A keycard reader guarded access—child's play for me. I placed my palm near the reader, not touching it, and visualized the electronic lock mechanism. The door clicked open obediently.
"Good boy," Dima murmured, patting my shoulder as he moved past me to secure the corridor beyond.
The interior of the facility pulsed with electronic life—security cameras, computer networks, communication systems. It was overwhelming, like standing in the middle of a shouting crowd where I could hear every individual voice.
I gritted my teeth and focused on filtering out the noise, concentrating only on what we needed.
"Control room is two levels down, north quadrant," I said, recalling the facility layout we'd memorized.
Yuri nodded sharply. "You and I will break off here. The others will create diversions to keep O'Rourke's forces scattered."
I followed Yuri through dimly lit corridors that smelled of antiseptic and fear. The facility was larger than I'd expected—a warren of research labs and containment cells. Each door we passed made me wonder how many others like me had been imprisoned here, their abilities exploited.
We encountered the first guards at an intersection—two men in tactical gear who barely had time to register our presence before Yuri moved.
I'd seen him fight before, but never like this.
He was brutally efficient, breaking the first guard's neck with a single practiced motion while simultaneously disarming the second.
The remaining guard reached for his radio, but I was faster, sending a surge of energy that short-circuited the device in his hand. Yuri finished him with a precise blow to the head. No gunshots, no noise. Just the soft thud of bodies hitting the floor.
I swallowed hard, reminding myself these were the same men who'd taken Nicolai, who'd hurt who knows how many others with abilities like mine.
Still, the violence left a sour taste in my mouth.
Yuri dragged the bodies into a nearby storage room while I checked our position against the mental map I'd constructed.
"Two more corridors, then the service stairwell," I whispered. "The control room will be on our right after we descend."
Yuri gripped my arm, his eyes locking with mine. "Get in, disable security, locate Nicolai—no heroics. Understood?"
I nodded, though my mind was already racing with contingencies he hadn't considered. What if Nicolai was injured? What if O'Rourke had implemented countermeasures specifically designed to neutralize electronic manipulation? What if we were already too late?
No. I couldn't think that way. Nicolai was alive. I'd know if he wasn't—I'd feel it in the hollow space beneath my ribs that had somehow become filled with thoughts of him.
We continued through the corridors, encountering surprisingly little resistance. Either our diversion was working better than expected, or we were walking into a trap. The lack of guards made my skin prickle with unease.
"This is too easy," I murmured.
Yuri grunted in agreement, his posture tensing as we approached the stairwell. He pushed the door open cautiously, checking for threats before gesturing me forward.
As we descended the stairs, I felt my abilities growing stronger, more focused. It always happened this way when my emotions ran high—fear, anger, and determination amplifying my connection to the electronic world around me.
I could feel the security cameras tracking movement throughout the facility, the electronic locks engaging and disengaging as personnel rushed to respond to the breach.
And beneath it all, a familiar electronic signature—the specialized restraints I'd disabled when I had escaped O’Rourke the day I met Nicolai.
They were still active somewhere in the building.
The realization sent a chill down my spine.
O'Rourke was ready for us, had prepared for the possibility of recapturing not just me, but Nicolai as well.
We reached the lower level, the corridor stretching before us illuminated by harsh fluorescent lighting. The control room door was visible at the end, guarded by two men with weapons drawn.
"I can disable their comms," I whispered, my fingertips already glowing faintly with blue energy. "Give you about thirty seconds before anyone realizes something's wrong."
Yuri nodded, unholstering his weapon. "Do it."
I closed my eyes, reaching out with my ability, feeling for the radio frequencies used by the guards. Finding them was like plucking specific threads from a tapestry of signals. With a gentle mental tug, I severed their connection to the rest of the security team.
"Now," I whispered.
Yuri moved with deadly precision, crossing the distance to the guards before they could react. I followed close behind, averting my eyes from the violence, but unable to block out the sounds of conflict—brief and decisive as it was.
When I looked up again, Yuri was dragging the unconscious guards aside, their weapons added to his own arsenal.
"Control room's clear," he said after a quick check. "Get in there and work your magic, kid."
I approached the door, my heartbeat thundering in my ears. I knew that once I entered that room, once I connected with the facility's main systems, there would be no going back. I would either save Nicolai or burn trying.
My eyes began to glow with electronic energy as I placed my hand on the door handle. For Nicolai, I would risk everything. And when this was over, when he was safe again, I'd finally tell him what he meant to me—a home, when I'd never allowed myself to have one before.
The control room was a tech junkie's wet dream—wall-to-wall monitors, multiple workstations, and enough processing power to run a small country.
Under different circumstances, I might have taken a moment to appreciate the setup.
Right now, all I could think about was how I was going to bend every circuit and processor to my will until they gave up Nicolai's location.
"Clear," Yuri announced after sweeping the space, his gun still at the ready. "Do your thing."
I approached the main console, fingers hovering over the keyboard as I assessed what I was dealing with. The screens displayed security feeds from throughout the facility, status reports, and a complex building schematic that made my heart sink.
"This is military-grade encryption," I whispered, more to myself than to Yuri. The system was far more advanced than I'd anticipated—multiple security layers, biometric authentication requirements, isolated network architecture.
For a brief moment, doubt crept in. What if I couldn't break through fast enough? What if Nicolai was suffering while I fumbled with firewalls and access codes?
I pushed the thought away. If O'Rourke could build it, I could break it. That was the one constant in my life—electronic systems bent to my will, not the other way around.
"Good thing I'm better than military-grade," I muttered, cracking my knuckles as I settled into the operator's chair.
My hands moved to the keyboard, but I knew that was just for show. The real connection would happen directly between my mind and the machine.