CHAPTER ONE #4
Fine. Was it a flashbang?
‘Yeah.’ Kade’s sense of balance goes briefly sideways but after he takes a few slow breaths, thumb pressing into his left wrist, it levels out.
Luca pats him on the back.
He was so sure they had him.
Kade can’t hear himself speak, but he, being a godless man, mutters, ‘Pride goeth,’ like it’s both prayer and apology.
Then he looks up and casts around the room.
‘Gage?’ Luca shakes his head. ‘Fuck. OK, listen up. I want everyone who’s able with me in pursuit.
Headshots only, this fucker is wearing something.
We unloaded on him, and he got up like it was paintball.
Bravo Team bring up the rear. Alpha Team take the lead.
Luca, tell Echo and Foxtrot to hold the lower floors in case this is a Breacher. ’
Luca signs, Heard.
Still unable to hear himself talk, Kade goes on. ‘This one’s done his homework, and he’s ex-military. Boss is locked down but we are not letting him get near, so let’s go.’
In methodical formation, they pursue the trail, what little there is to follow, all the way up to the fourth floor when it ends abruptly.
Kade keeps everyone tight behind him, wary of a fallback trick, but it doesn’t seem that way. Luca taps his shoulder and signs, Unless he levitated, he didn’t go up the main stairs.
‘Oh shit,’ Kade utters, looking to the right.
The service stairwell.
‘Luca, Rike, Mara, with me. Everyone else go up the main way.’
Kade leads the way up the dark service stairwell, tight and narrow, not made for heavy traffic.
Along the way, tiny fragments of vague sound begin filtering into his consciousness, but he mostly ignores them.
Gun aimed ahead, he makes it all the way up in record time and then emerges carefully, focus on the massive steel doors that lead to the Watch.
The blackout is still ongoing.
Kade calculates less than a minute before it’s back on, barring delays.
‘Where is he?’ he mutters to himself, barely hears even the tone of it. He’s clocking corners, dark places. There’s no way the fucker is inside already. It’s impossible. They beat the other teams up here, but they can’t be far behind. ‘Where are y—?’
Kade is grabbed from behind, a thick arm clenching around his throat.
He slams his elbow into the seemingly unprotected solar plexus of the intruder, who doesn’t even flinch, then pulls out his blade and drives it deep into the intruder’s thigh before yanking it out again to ensure heavy bleed but gets no reaction whatsoever.
It’s a solid grip, pure python.
Kade’s not getting out of it and has maybe thirty seconds before he’s unconscious. He can’t hear what the guy is saying but knows by the setup that he’s using Kade as a hostage to enter the Watch.
Kade looks to Luca who is yelling, gun trained on the man behind him. ‘Shoot him,’ he tells Luca clearly. ‘Take him down!’ Luca makes a face, visibly torn. He’s not firing, none of them are.
The other teams arrive, pooling into the space before the Watch.
The intruder checks his watch.
Kade’s stomach drops.
The backup power.
No, there’s no way.
There is no fucking way—
The lights come on.
The area is flooded with light.
And then the wall of steel the intruder was leaning up against opens and he drags Kade backwards through the newly opened doors, the staggered entrance mirroring Kade’s hasty exit six minutes ago.
The return surge dropped the magnetic locks a fraction too long.
Kade is getting dizzy from lack of air but he’s well aware of everything going down including the closure of all three doors behind them as the locks reinitialise.
They’re in the Watch.
He’s failed Riley. Failed Iron Star, his family.
Kade’s hearing is coming back, muffled and distorted.
‘…your fucking knees… ask twice!’ the intruder barks at Cole and Finn. American accent, rough and controlled. Kade is counting the seconds until he passes out, knows it’s now or never. He waits until the guy starts talking. ‘Now open … doors to … hiding like a fucking coward—’
Kade drags himself down and forces a spin kick that drops the intruder hard.
He steals one of his handguns from the thigh holster but is rewarded with a hard punch, the gun kicked away.
Kade bounces back and throws all his power into a hammerfist that lands beautifully, sending a spray of blood and spit into the air like a grim rainbow, but the intruder recovers too fast.
The way he moves, Kade knows they’d have one hell of a fight hand to hand, but he’s not taking the risk of him getting anywhere near the boss, so he grabs a gun and swings it at the intruder who spins around and then…
The man freezes.
Got you, Kade thinks.
Only it doesn’t seem like the reason the guy froze is because of the gun.
He barely seems to notice it in fact.
No, he’s staring at Kade.
Eyes wide, face pale.
He is the epitome of astonishment.
Panting harshly, the intruder pays no mind to Kade’s team streaming inside. He only frowns and gasps the word ‘Jules?’ right before Kade empties the entire clip into his face.