#2
The quiet was eerie.
Devi walked into the cafeteria warily, eyes first on the other side and then roaming the room, trying to see where her potential attackers might hide.
They’d almost been caught once already, and she’d had to fire at the man. She thought she might have hit him. Her nerves were frayed, and she wanted nothing more than to get through all of this and see Zach again.
“We have to go through the cafeteria to get to the loading docks.”
Shannon was right behind her.
“You’re sure they’re here? It sounded like the doctor wasn’t bringing Zach in until later, and I know he wouldn’t allow him to bring his team.”
No one was in the dining area. Not a surprising thing since it wasn’t exactly dinner time, but usually there was someone getting coffee or a soda. Nothing. The lights were only half on, and one of them flickered.
If the power went out, they were in a mountain. The darkness would be endless.
“I assure you they wouldn’t be shooting only at Zach.”
She had the insanest urge to run for it, but she took a deep breath and checked the instinct. She moved around the perimeter where she could at least be sure no one was behind her. Shannon followed.
Up ahead she could see the hallway they were trying to get to. The double doors were closed, but there were two windows. The hall was still well lit, but the one behind her had gone dead.
She walked slowly, watching for any movement.
“I think Huisman has been trying to drive a wedge between Zach and the team,”
she explained quietly.
“He’s told Zach a bunch of lies. Huisman’s an arrogant prick who thinks everyone will believe him. He thinks a lot of his own intellect, and it worked for a long time because my uncle is a patient man who doesn’t move until he’s sure. Now the evil doc is going to get a full dose of my family, and he better be ready for it.”
“I’m afraid Huisman is ready for anything,”
Shannon said as she moved behind Devi.
“I don’t like a couple of things I’ve noticed about this place. There are wires that don’t go where they should, and I’m fairly certain he’s rigged this whole place to blow if he wants it to.”
Devi forced herself not to curse a blue streak. That asshole.
“Well, that would be typical Huisman. I was recently a guest at a house he owned, and he torched it the minute he realized things were going bad. I think we’re playing into his hands and that’s the real problem. I know we’re taking him blowing up his own house as some kind of win, but what if it’s a game for him and we keep playing? What if he’s rigged our lives so he wins either way? He blows up the world and gets to be the dung heap king he seems to want to be, or he keeps his enemies in a continual state of chaos so none of us can enjoy the lives we lead.”
“My darling girl, you’ve described every narcissist I’ve ever met.”
Shannon sighed.
“And there were so many of them.”
She stopped when she heard a volley of gunfire. She saw someone run by the window, but the person wore all white and had the hood up, covering her face. Her. She knew that had been a woman.
Huisman didn’t have a bunch of women running around. He had some women from the village below who did cleaning work, but they didn’t wear arctic white parkas that had a vaguely military look.
“My cousins are here.”
Hope surged hard through Devi.
“I don’t know which one, but she ran by. Likely looking for my uncle. I know they won’t all come in together. They’ll have at least two different entry points.”
And if her cousins were there, then Lou would be, too. The first thing Lou would do would be to cut into the security cams.
She looked around. She’d gotten to know where the cams were. It was a risk but one she was willing to take. She moved away from the wall and faced the camera in the corner, waving her arms. She held up the gun so Lou would know she was armed.
“I don’t think it’s on, honey.”
Shannon stayed by the wall, a grim expression on her face.
Devi stopped bouncing like she was on a deserted island trying to flag down a plane.
“Why do you say that?”
“That one moves, and it’s not moving. It was working when we first walked in, but it’s dead now.”
Shannon seemed to think, and whatever was going through her head did not lift her mood.
“Something’s happening, Devi.”
“I’m sure it’s my uncle. He likes to shut down systems. Or all the gunfire hit something important.”
Shannon’s head shook.
“No. I’ve studied a lot of military philosophy and how battle plans are mapped out. Your uncle would have a plan, and it wouldn’t consist of taking the power out. Doing that would lock us in when he needs to move quickly. Remember when Huisman brought us into his residence?”
It had been their first full day here, and Huisman had them brought to his sleek and technologically advanced apartment. He’d had one of his staff bring them tea, which she did not drink, and had told them the rules.
“I remember.”
“I studied the place. I’m absolutely certain his bedroom is wired to act as a safe room like the one you told me Nell’s daughter had in Liverpool. The door had a specific panel that goes beyond a simple keycard or even biometrics. I’m worried Huisman is going to lock himself in his safe room and blow up one of the bombs. Even with a vaccine, I think it will kill everyone who comes into contact with it.”
“There’s a vaccine? Did I get it as a kid?”
If there was a damn vaccine, what was everyone worried about? She still didn’t get the whole bioweapons thing, but she was going with it.
“It’s not the kind of vaccine they give to kids,”
Shannon said as they moved around the back wall, avoiding the area that led to the kitchen where they had no line of sight.
“Mostly military or medical professionals and first responders who might come into contact with it. You and I will die quickly, but with the way the winds blow, everyone in the village below will likely die as well.”
“You think he would destroy this whole place?”
Were they on borrowed time or had Zach already taken him out?
“Sweetie, you said it yourself. I believe if that man thinks he’s going down, he’ll take everyone with him.”
They needed to find Zach and get out of here. She was sure they had brought a helo and hadn’t climbed the mountain. Cooper could pilot anything that flew. He would have brought them up.
She was not panicking. She was calm and cool and steady. She was Erin and Theo Taggart’s daughter. She was Captain Zach Reed’s fiancée.
No. She stood there for a second, and something deep settled in her.
She was Devi Taggart, the sum of all those parts, but her own person. She was made from everything that happened to her and how she handled it. She was made from love, but she was her own person.
If she survived, she wasn’t going to sit and wait for some design house to notice her.
She would build her own. She would build a house for her creativity, a home for her soul, and she would let her family help her. A home for her husband and children built on her strength and her dreams.
But she had to survive first. It had only taken three damn kidnappings, but she was ready to move on with faith in herself and her family.
“Then we have to figure out how to stop him. If he blows the place up, we won’t exactly have time to get out. The team will have to split up,”
Devi said.
“So how do we stop it? If we pull the wires, would that help?”
“We need to find his system.”
Shannon’s voice was quiet but certain.
“I’m sure he has one system that controls the entire base of operations.”
Devi had paid close attention when she was allowed out of the lab.
“I think the control room is one floor down.”
Shannon’s head shook.
“He wouldn’t keep this in the control room. It’s in one of the four rooms that make up his residence. One floor up. That’s where we need to go. That’s where he’ll have it.”
“Do you think it’s possible we can shut it down remotely?”
Devi asked.
“I find it hard to believe he doesn’t have a wireless connection. He’s obsessed with technology. Being able to remotely detonate is one of the things he wants from me. I told him I couldn’t do it in the time he needed, but I could,”
Shannon admitted.
“He wants to be able to stand anywhere in the world and have power over some place far away. He’s a megalomaniac. I know he’s smart, but his downfall will be his arrogance. He views everything as a game, and he doesn’t imagine he can lose.”
“Then we need to find where he would keep the controls and let you try to shut it down,”
Devi said.
Shannon’s head shook.
“Honey, I’m excellent at a lot of things, but not computers. I use them but I don’t hack. We need a hacker.”
They were almost to the door, and Devi had the keycard out.
“Luckily, I’m pretty sure we have at least one working right now.”
She pressed the key card to the reader but got nothing. “Damn it.”
She was about to turn and tell Shannon they needed a new plan when a face appeared in the window in one of the doors.
Huisman. She gasped and stepped back because… Well, first because it was shocking that anyone was there, and also he was covered in blood, a hole in his forehead.
He grinned, a ghoulish expression, and then slowly peeled off the hole on his forehead and wiggled it in front of her.
“Ces imbeciles.”
He winked, and she worried he had a way in.
“Tell your uncle I hope everyone enjoys my countdown. Tick tock. I wish I could have changed the timer, but I still think this will work. You have less than an hour to find your way out of here, little mouse, or the whole place falls down. Enjoy the maze.”
She tried the keycard again. Locked. She saw Huisman’s shadow disappear as he made his way to whatever insane exit plan he’d put into place.
“He’s already set it in motion,”
Shannon said, her voice hollowing out.
“Zach needs to get out of here if he can.”
“He won’t. He won’t leave me.”
She knew it deep in her bones. If she died here, he would go down trying to save her.
So she had to survive.
“How do we get these doors open?”
Devi asked.
“I don’t think we do.”
Shannon studied the keycard reader.
“I think we need to worry more about the power going out completely and us being truly locked in. Once he gets out, I suspect that’s what will happen. He might have the bomb on a timer, but he’ll also have some remote way to control the rest of the building.”
“Devi!”
She turned and her body seemed to lift. Zach was there. His face was in the window, their bodies separated by these fucking doors, and there might not be anything they could do about it. She pocketed the key card and put a hand to the window, wanting so badly to be able to touch him.
“You have to get out of here.”
She could see her uncle trying to use the key card from the other side.
“I’m not leaving you.”
Zach’s beautiful face was stark in the sputtering lights.
“Huisman ran that way. He has some kind of plan, and he’s going to blow the whole mountain. You have to get the team out of here.”
She would beg and plead. Anything to save his life. Their lives. She would give hers up so her family could live.
“Tell my parents and my brother I love them.”
“I’m not leaving you,”
Zach reiterated.
Her uncle stepped away, his fingers at the comm in his ear.
“I love you, Zach.”
“Move back.”
His jaw went tight.
Her uncle stopped him.
“Lou is working on the system, but she’s got another problem.”
Devi nodded.
“He’s got a way to blow the whole compound, and that will send the anthrax out into the world. But he told us it’s on a timer.”
“Lou, is there a timer?”
her uncle asked, touching his ear again. Then he cursed.
“The comms go in and out, and I’m pretty sure Huisman had protocols to fuck with the key cards. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t.”
“Chaos,”
Shannon said.
“It’s what he bases his world view on. I suspect he’s the only person in the facility with a master card that works all the time. He’s likely set up a rotating system that shuts down security levels. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t.”
“So we try again in a few minutes?”
Devi asked.
“No. I get this fucking door down.”
Zach’s eyes suddenly went wide.
“Devi, behind you.”
She turned and gasped because Ray White was walking through the doors they’d opened. He was covered in blood and looked like a damn zombie.
Unfortunately, he didn’t move like one, and he’d found more than a working keycard. He seemed to have found another gun along the way.
“Bitch,”
he cursed and raised the gun.
Devi leapt, throwing her body to the right and behind the first of the long tables that dotted the cafeteria. It wasn’t a large room. Just enough for roughly forty people to take a break if they needed one. She would have to move and fast.
“Ray,”
she heard Shannon say.
“Don’t hurt Zach this way. Don’t hurt our boy.”
She couldn’t see Ray. She gripped the gun, thankful she managed to not drop it. Devi crawled along the side of the table to the end. Tilting her head down, she could see Ray’s boots and Shannon’s sensible shoes. They were too close. Why wasn’t Shannon hiding?
She heard something heavy hit the doors. Zach. He would try to get in.
“Our boy? The one you took from me?”
Ray asked, his voice low and gravelly.
“He’s still your son.”
Shannon’s voice was soft but steady.
How many times had she been put in a position where she had to placate this man so no one got hurt? Zach’s mom was a study in tragedy. She’d made the mistake of falling in love with the wrong man, and there had been no going back.
Another bang and pop and she realized Zach and her uncle were shooting at the door, trying to get it to give.
It wouldn’t. It was too well built.
“I think him watching me kill his bitch will be a fitting punishment for betraying his father,”
Ray said, but she watched his leg twitch.
He wasn’t all there. What she’d done earlier with the hammer to his head was probably still going to kill him, but it would be too late.
“Of course, maybe it’s time I took care of you, too,”
he said in a growl.
“Look at you, Shannon. A gun to your head and you stand there. Ain’t no fight in you at all.”
But this was how Shannon fought. She’d gone on the run to protect her family, given up the life she could have spent with them so this man didn’t infect them all. Sometimes bravery was simply standing tall and not giving in.
And sometimes it was standing up and taking the fucking shot no matter what.
Devi got to her feet. The man was clearly not thinking straight because he didn’t even turn and look for her. His eyes were on the woman whose life he’d ruined.
“I always was your god,”
he said, blood caking his face.
“You always thought you were so smart, but I was your god and I’ll be the one who kills you.”
“Not if I kill you first, fucker.”
She needed him to look her way.
He turned slightly and Devi fired. Once. Twice. She saw Shannon move away, stumbling back. Ray shot, too, but it went wide and at least one of Devi’s hit. His chest. Though he wore a dark shirt, she could see the blood, see the way his hand went there, and he dropped the gun as his body started to fall.
Shannon picked it up and scrambled to her feet. She stood over him and put a bullet in his brain. The room went quiet, the only sound Zach still trying to get in. Shannon looked her way.
“We should have done that last time. You okay?”
“Devi!”
Zach was screaming her name.
He couldn’t see her. He didn’t realize she was unhurt. She nodded Shannon’s way and rushed to the doors.
“I’m fine, babe. He didn’t hit me.”
Zach put a hand on his chest like he needed to restart his heart.
Her uncle gave her a thumbs-up.
“Good shot. Your parents are going to be proud.”
She sniffled, tears beginning because they were still in an impossible situation.
“You have to run. Zach, we have no idea how we’re going to get out. We’ll try.”
But they would have to navigate a maze with a hundred doors that might or might not work. They wouldn’t know they were stuck until they hit the end and were trapped. Zach could go back the way he came. He could get to the landing bays.
Zach’s head shook.
“I stay with you.”
He put his hand to the window.
She put hers there too, against his, save for the cold of the slightly now cracked glass. Huisman had thought of everything. Bulletproof glass. Doors that could withstand anything. A chaotic system they would never be able to navigate.
A buzzing sound hit her ears and the light on the pad next to the door went green.
Devi’s eyes widened and her hand shot to the door, opening it in an instant.
And then she was in his arms.
“Yeah, it’s open, Lou. We’ve got them,”
her uncle was saying. He held the door open for Shannon.
“You got a handle now?”
He nodded.
“No. We can’t risk a helo battle at this height, and we need to get our people safe.”
He frowned.
“What? Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, we’re coming in.”
Zach hugged her so hard she could barely breathe.
Huisman had planned for everything.
Everything except Louisa Ward.
Devi was still shaking as she held on to the man she loved.
“All right, people. Let’s head to the landing bays. Lou’s set up there now since she’s managed to take over the entire system, with one exception.”
Big Tag’s head shook.
“The kids are going to kill me.”
Zach’s head came down and he kissed her softly before dropping his forehead to hers.
“Never again, Dev. I can’t handle it. You are out of the kidnapping business.”
She was. Although he could kidnap her whenever he liked.
Ten minutes later she stared at the screen Lou had managed to pull up.
The whole group was around it. Cooper had landed the helo moments after they made it to the bays. Kala had walked up like holding a bioweapon in her lap until her teammate could defuse it all while flying at a high altitude in an experimental stolen chopper was an everyday occurrence.
“Tris nearly had a heart attack,”
Kala said, joining them.
“What the hell is that? Seriously? What is my sister doing? Ewww. Lou. Make the nanites put her clothes back on.”
Zach snorted and then averted his eyes because Kenzie really was all naked.
“Wow. That’s cool.”
Tim from Canada was with them. He looked to Lou.
“You programmed those?”
“Hey, there’s a gorgeous, naked woman on screen and you’re looking at my girl like you could eat her up?”
TJ complained.
“Tell me when it’s over.”
Her uncle stood way out of the line of sight of those monitors.
“Shouldn’t we be running?”
Devi asked.
Lou waved the thought off.
“I’ve rewritten everything. I’ve got the CCTV’s up and running, and I’ve locked all the doors. I made two keycards that will work on everything except that door. Yeah. I’m talking about the one Kenzie and Ben are in. It’s like the Liverpool safe room. It’s on a timer. Now from what I can tell they actually could open it from the inside if they looked around enough, but they’re preoccupied.”
“What’s that thing on the side?”
Cooper asked.
Tim looked up, perfectly chipper.
“Oh, that’s the bomb that was supposed to blow up the whole place. So here’s what happened. Ben made his way to Huisman’s rooms, but when he got there, Huisman was dead on the floor.”
“We just got the cams up in there, so we thought he’d pulled a Hitler in his bunker move,”
Lou admitted.
“But then after Ben and Kenz hit the safe room button and got locked in, that asshole got up and ran. In their defense it looked really good on camera.”
“He should have put an extra bullet in him.”
Zach had an arm around her and his mother’s hand in his.
“Like you did, Mom. Thank you.”
Shannon leaned against her son, and Devi felt her reach around him so she touched her as well.
“Your girl did so good.”
“Yes, she did.”
Zach kissed her hair.
“I’m surprised he didn’t.”
Big Tag paced, his eyes moving, checking all the entrances.
“Lou, can’t you tell my daughter she’s making a sex tape? Did she even try to defuse the bomb?”
Lou nodded.
“Oh, yeah. She did, and so did Ben, but then they figured out they couldn’t fix it and now they’re having end-of-the-world sex. Wow, he is very flexible.”
“Lou,”
her boyfriend barked.
Lou shrugged.
“You know she’ll want me to tape this and keep it for her.”
She turned to Ian.
“They think they’re about to die. I can’t get comms in there. Believe me we’ve tried. I thought they could use some music. I know she’s always thought they would do it the first time while listening to her girl power ballad playlist.”
“So what is the timer at now?”
Kala asked with a resolute sigh.
“Oh, they’re down to like five minutes.”
Lou held out the key card like she knew what Kala would ask for next.
“You should head that way if you’re bringing her back here. I think they’re almost… Yep, they’re done. When the light goes green you can use the key card to get in. Oh, and I stopped the bomb, but the timer itself was surprisingly intricate. I decided to let it go since getting the doors open through the complex was more important.”
Kala frowned at her bestie.
“Also, it adds a mega shit ton of drama to their first time. Awesome. And they say Brianna is the writer. Tim, come on. This is where you leave us.”
Tim stood but looked around like maybe he would get a reprieve, and then he got a good look at Kala. His whole attention had been on the screen and then Lou. He stared for a moment. “Uhm…”
He looked back at the screen.
“I have questions.”
Kala put a hand on his slender shoulder.
“Twins, Tim. We’re twins, and I’m the evil one. So we’re going to go get your boy and you two can freak out together and he can tell you all about his afternoon love countdown.”
Tim started walking with her.
“I mean, I could do that in the helo. I was hoping to catch a ride. Mountain climbing kind of sucks.”
Cooper snorted and followed them.
“We’ll be back.”
The door had closed behind them when she heard the sound of a chopper in the distance.
Devi tensed.
“It’s okay,”
Zach assured her. He leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“They’re going to take my mom, but it’s okay.”
Her uncle put a hand on Shannon’s shoulder.
“Ms. Reed, you’re about to meet Drake and Taylor Radcliffe and a couple of soldiers who are going to escort you to a site where they think you’ll be safe. They’ll explain everything in the helo.”
Shannon shook her head, fear on her face.
“Please, Mr. Taggart. I would rather die than have to work for anyone. I won’t make another one. Not even for the Agency.”
The chopper landed in the bay, and Devi started to move.
Zach stopped her. He pulled her close and whispered in her ear.
“It’s all for show. They’re going to take her to a black ops site and then when the coast is clear, they’re going to move her to Bliss. She’s going to stay there from now on, and we’ll put the word out that she’s working for us. We’re doing it here because Huisman will see it. He’s still watching us. So cry a little for me.”
She was the one who was going to sell it. The rest would be in on it. She pulled back and shook her head.
“You can’t.”
She played the scene out, putting all her adrenaline and fear into it. By the time they took Shannon away, she was weeping in Zach’s arms.
He carried her to their helo. He sat down, cradling her on his lap.
“You were perfect.”
She sniffled.
“You were excellent, niece.”
Her uncle took the copilot seat.
“There’s a place for you if you decide to give up the whole clothes thing.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not.”
Zach’s arms wound around her.
“Oh, hey, maybe not on the missions’ part, but I definitely need her on the design front.”
Lou looked cheerful now that they were out of range of the security cams.
“I think the field test went well.”
“I think Kenzie might have thought about her mission more if she’d been wearing a chastity belt,”
her uncle complained.
The pilot door opened, and Coop hopped in.
“Is Shannon off okay?”
“She’s good. Drake’s explaining it to her before they go to the first site,”
Zach explained.
“And he’s smoothed things over with the base we stole this sucker from.”
“Excellent. Jail was not how I wanted to end the day.”
He started his precheck.
Kala stepped into the back, followed by a glowing Kenzie.
Kala looked at Devi and made a gagging sound before taking her seat.
Kenzie sat down beside her.
A laugh went through Devi because she felt safe and warm.
“Just tell us.”
“She doesn’t have to. We saw it,”
TJ complained.
Kenzie ignored them and told her tale.
Devi sat back, utterly happy with where she was.
Zach still had things he would need to do. Huisman was still out there. Her cousins were in danger.
But as long as they were together, they would win.