Chapter 31
Sean
Jace slams his handgun onto the metal ledge in front of him, his palms landing on either side of the weapon. “Oh, shit.”
“Honey Eyes?” Lou prompts with her head tilted and nose wrinkled.
“I think he’s in Kazakhstan,” he says, with a rainbow of irises pinned on him.
“Good enough for me. Let’s go,” Louhi announces and starts for the door. I grip her bicep and tug her back into the heart of the room. Lou’s a damn dichotomy. She’s unbelievably patient, yet wildly impulsive. I never know what I’m going to get with her. It keeps things interesting.
“Baby, I think we should hear what Jace says before we grab the fucking car.”
She pouts but tucks herself into my arms anyway. Viktor eyes the two of us, analyzing our interaction, remaining silent.
“After you guys escaped the island,” Jace starts, shaking his head like he’s trying to wrap his mind around what he’s about to say.
“They brought in a unit from Kazakhstan as reinforcements. When I was in my cell, I heard a couple of them talking. I wasn’t in…
great shape, so I didn’t catch much, but there was something about siblings not surviving. What are the odds?”
“Christ,” I mutter, my voice taking on an almost scratchy quality. When I rub the back of my neck, my skin feels tacky. Jace and I make eye contact, and I ask him directly, “Are they running that base as a black site now?”
Jace huffs a breath. “That’s what it sounded like.”
Exile Island isn’t the only black site. Black sites aren’t a new concept, and there’s more than a handful of them in existence.
The CIA began establishing them worldwide in 2001, using the military to run them.
However, the argument could be made that they were operating those places far earlier than that since they’re still in use after the CIA claimed they ended those detention programs. Some of those less-than-legal sites are mobile, others permanent, all of them secret.
Lou eyes flick between me and my best friend. “Could you clue us in?”
“There’s an army base there, but it’s not official. It’s one used by the Green Berets. Specifically, the Fifth Special Forces Group.”
She nods along. “And how do you know this?”
“Jace and I were with the tenth battalion stationed in Poland before we were cherry-picked for an assignment on an island that I’m convinced is Hell.”
Jace stares at me, his eyes speaking telepathically. This is fucking crazy, man. We can’t barge in there on a hunch. Shit, we can’t barge in there at all.
I’m really not trying to die now that I just got free.
Louhi purses her lips and crosses her arms. I think she’s about to call me and Jace out for our silent mind-to-mind conversation, or our obvious hesitation, but Viktor interjects. “Did you hear anything else?”
Jace rubs a hand over his jaw. “Not really. I was pretty out of it at the time. I think they thought I was unconscious, and they weren’t far off with that assumption.”
“Are either of you friendly with anyone in the battalion that might be willing to help us?” Louhi inquires, her voice full of hope.
Jace’s heavy gaze tells me he’s not going to reach out to anyone. I’m not keen on the idea either. That’s extremely risky. No one would be willing to give us any information. There’s also the overwhelming potential that someone snitches and we get ambushed.
“Reaching out would be like dumping blood into a tank full of sharks. The army doesn’t favor defectors. There’s not anyone who would help us without turning us in.”
“We’re on our own, then,” Lou chirps. “Fine by me. Who’s up for a holiday in Kazakhstan?”
“Vacations are meant to be fun, Lou,” Jace half-groans, half-chuckles as he massages his temple as though he has a headache. You and me both, buddy. “This is… not that.”
“Fun is to be had anywhere and everywhere, Honey Eyes, especially when guns and blood are involved.” Lou smirks. “We can leave tonight. I have a safe house where we can stop on the way to sleep for a couple of hours and make a plan about how the fuck we’re getting my brother out.”
This will be dangerous, and not only because sneaking onto a military base is stupid, at best. There’s been unrest in Kazakhstan for the last year, and they’re on the brink of a civil war. It’s why the Special Forces base was there to begin with.
I blow out a heavy breath. “Louhi, we don’t know for sure he’s there. This is just a hunch.”
“It’s not like I want to go in guns blazing. We’ll obviously ensure he’s there before we start shooting.”
Jace snorts sardonically. “Obviously.” Lou aims her middle finger in his direction, and he sniggers. “Just how do you propose we do that, Lou?”
“Reconnaissance and surveillance.” She rolls her eyes like this practical conversation is boring her to tears. “This is kind of my area of expertise.”
“It sounds like you’ll be needing arms,” Viktor remarks.
My girl grins, her eyes twinkling. “I want a bazooka this time.”
Viktor’s answering smile borders on terrifying as he holds out his elbow for her to take. “It’s a good thing I just got some rocket launchers.”
She squeals, then hooks her arm with his and saunters out of the room, leaving me with the heaviest pit in my stomach.
“I wish we were going literally anywhere else,” Jace mutters, dragging a hand down his face and sagging against the wall.
We. Alright, so he really meant it when he said he was sticking around.
I grunt an affirmation, but everyone knows I won’t deny that woman anything.
Not even a mission as foolhardy, risky, and downright life-threatening.
I would crawl across continents covered in broken glass for Louhi.
She’d do the same for me, and Lou wouldn’t hesitate in helping me if we were going to save my sister.
But I’d have the same hesitation no matter the target of this mission.
The goal was to stay off the military’s radar, not position ourselves directly in their crosshairs.
While I understand her desire to rescue her brother, we might all die in the process.
Fuck, this is a terrible idea.