Chapter 19 #2
She recognized the layout. The blue tinge to the lighting. The color of the floor. This is where they’d drugged her father. One of these stalls with the dingy grey linoleum and the ugly beige curtains.
Regret soured her stomach. All these years, and he’d been so close. Waiting. Hoping.
Nick’s voice sounded over the comms. “I’ve got the cameras on a sixty second loop. Patient rooms are down the hallway to your right. There’s a double-door airlock. Wait there.”
Rowan swallowed against the rush of nausea, the word patient making it all too real. That he might be gone, either physically or mentally. That the rescue mission was nothing more than a retrieval.
She shoved down what she couldn’t process, followed Bodie as he headed for the airlock.
Noted the strong line of his back, the confident tilt of his head.
Borrowed some of his strength as they reached the door, a red “Biohazard Warning” light illuminated in the window above.
A keycard glowed off to the right, part of the number eight rubbed off.
Avery’s voice sounded over the comms a moment later. “I’m bypassing the lock, now. You’ve got one shot at this. When it opens, it’ll trigger a silent alarm at the nurse’s station a couple corridors over if there’s anyone there. That’s our point of no return.”
The keypad buzzed, the interior light flickering before cutting out, releasing the doors an inch, just like in the stairwell. The sign overhead blinked out, just a residual red hue coloring the glass.
Bodie showed the countdown on one hand, shouldering open the door once he reached zero.
He went right as Rowan went left, Dalton and Tierney barreling straight ahead.
They swept the immediate area, taking in everything.
Floor-to-ceiling glass rooms took up the entire west side, each containing a single bed.
A handful of chairs lined the opposite wall, arranged like some kind of sick observation room.
Movement in the last cubical on the left drew her attention.
A man in a white lab coat walked through the door, flanked by two men in similar black tactical gear, weapons slung across their backs, flash bangs and smoke grenades strapped to their vests.
The first guy approached a man in simple gray sweats, face twisted in rage, arms and legs straining against his restraints.
She inhaled. The ragged features, the mass of messy black hair against pale skin didn’t hide the familiar shape of his jaw. Rowan took a step, stumbled, all those emotions she shoved down releasing in a wave of incandescent rage.
The needle. The code black. The remark about cleaning house.
This wasn’t another experiment.
It was a termination.
She moved.
No stealth. No sticking to the shadows.
Just a single thought looping through her head.
She raced toward the room, her team flanking her as she raised her Sig, planted four shots in a diamond pattern across the glass.
The sheet cracked, chips shooting through the air before she tucked her head — hit the pane dead center with her shoulder.
The safety glass shattered, thousands of tiny squares exploding across the polished floor.
Rowan rolled with the force, gained her feet within striking distance of the asshole in white.
He recoiled, eyes wide, that syringe stabbing at her in long, smooth arcs.
Bodie and Dalton landed beside her a heartbeat later, the room erupting into a full-on brawl.
She focused on the doctor, ducked the next strike before catching him twice in the throat.
She moved with him when he reeled backwards, elbow to the jaw and a knee to the groin doubling him over.
The syringe clattered to the ground, skittering under the bed as she stepped into him, knocked him out with a solid hook.
By the time she turned, Bodie had the first asshole in a choke hold as Dalton moved between them like a wraith, smooth, silent.
Steel flashed in the harsh light, muffled thuds sounding through the room.
Rowan raised her weapon, tried to find an open shot, when the two tangos collapsed on the floor, blood pooling beneath their heads, one of their legs twitching.
The cool air closed in around them as she spun, stared at the man still writhing in the wheelchair.
Tierney crouched beside him, waited for him to settle, then sliced the restraints around his wrists and ankles.
She didn’t talk, just watched the fabric fall to the floor before moving back, breath held, body so rigid Rowan thought she’d crack.
Alister grunted, his gaze clashing with hers when she kneeled in front of him, one weathered hand clasped in hers.
She smiled, tried to keep his focus as his eyes darted left and right, massive tremors shaking through him. “Dad? It’s me, Rowan.”
He snapped his focus to her, squinted, looked as if he might say her name before he surged to his feet, falling against Bodie a moment later, body slack, eyes closed.
Dalton shouldered in beside her, clipboard in his hand, that syringe in the other.
He pointed to a few IV bags handing on the pole.
“According to his chart, they were seeing if his original serum could counter the effects of the Lethe toxin. Noted a marked improvement.” He turned the needle over in his hands.
“LETH-2. And I bet my ass this concentration’s lethal. ”
She nodded, thoughts too scattered to pin down, when the lights brightened, a loud siren sounding throughout the level.
Nick’s voice exploded in her earpiece. “We’ve got a problem. Graves’ men discovered the hole in the fence. The bastard initiated a full lockdown. I’ve got magnetic doors sealing off corridors, alarms sounding on every level, with teams sweeping your way. They’re boxing you in.”
Rowan looked at her father’s limp form, then at the door, rifle lifting to her shoulder as those doors Nick had mentioned slammed shut in the outer corridor, each hit like a gunshot echoing down the hall. Heavy boots pounded in the distance, deep shouts rising above the wailing alarm.
She braced her feet apart. She wouldn’t lose him, again. Not if there was a chance she might get a version of him back.
Bodie placed Alister in the chair, then shouldered up beside her as he tapped his comms. “We’re not dying in here, Nick. Find me an option and do it now.” He leaned down, eyes level with hers. “Ride or die, sweetheart.”