Chapter 16 Riverside Motel—North Carolina
RIVERSIDE MOTEL—NORTH CAROLINA
The taste of blood in Lark's mouth was metallic and sharp, mixing with the throbbing pain that radiated from her swollen eye down through her jaw.
Every breath sent spikes of agony through her ribs where Wes had gotten enthusiastic with his fists after she'd called him a fucking traitor. But none of that mattered now.
Kawan was here.
She could see him behind the bed, rifle trained on Wes, his face a mask of controlled fury that she'd only seen a handful of times in all the years she'd known him. Jupiter had taken position near the hole they'd blown in the wall, his weapon covering Mina.
But Mina had the advantage, and they all knew it. The cold barrel of her pistol pressed against the base of Lark's skull like a promise of death.
"I said, drop your weapons," Mina repeated, her accented voice deadly calm. "Or I paint the wall with her brains."
"Easy." Kawan kept his tone steady despite the rage burning in his eyes. "Nobody needs to die here."
"Don't they?" Wes asked, shifting his position to get a better angle on Jupiter. "See, that's where you're wrong. You’re all definitely going to die."
Lark tested the zip ties around her wrists. They were tight, professional—no give at all. But the chair she was tied to was cheap motel furniture, held together more by habit than engineering. If she could create enough of a distraction...
"You know, Wes, I always knew you were an asshole. But I never figured you for a coward." The words came out thick and slurred from her swollen lip.
The barrel pressed harder against her skull. "Shut up," Mina said.
"No, really," Lark continued, ignoring the warning. "Shooting unarmed women? That's not patriotism. That's just being a pussy."
Wes's face flushed red. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"I know you sold your soul to the devil for what—money? I know you've been feeding intel to our enemies for God knows how long. And I know that when this is over, history's going to remember you as exactly what you are—a fucking traitor."
"History's written by the winners," Wes snarled. "And right now, we're winning."
"Are you?" Jupiter asked conversationally. "Because from where I'm sitting, you're holed up in a shitty motel with two hostages and six very pissed-off special operators who want to discuss your career choices."
"Thor, this is Kawan," he said, speaking loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear. "We're going to need the rest of the team to show themselves. Slowly. No weapons."
Wes laughed. "Nice try. But we're not that stupid."
"No?" Thor's voice came from just outside the front door. "Then maybe you should look out the window."
Wes moved carefully to the window and peered through a gap in the curtains. His face went pale. "Shit. They brought the whole team."
"How many?" Mina demanded. “Counting these two assholes and Thor, there should be six in total.”
"I can see two by the access road, one on the roof across the street." Wes stepped back from the window. "Armstrong's entire SEAL team."
"That all?" Mina asked.
"Far as I can tell. Standard deployment,” Wes said.
Lark felt a flicker of something that might have been hope. If Wes could only see Thor's team, that meant Brick and his men remained hidden. The element of surprise was still intact.
"Alright," Mina said after a moment. "Here's what's going to happen. Your SEAL friends outside are going to back off. Way off. Then you two are going to put down your weapons and slide them across the floor."
"And then what?" Kawan asked.
"Then we all take a little drive together. Nice and civilized,” Mina said.
"To where?" Jupiter asked.
"Somewhere we can have a longer conversation about where that AI technology ended up." Wes inched closer to Specs.
Lark's blood ran cold. They still thought she and Specs knew where Bradford and Alvarez were hiding. Which meant this wasn't over—it was just beginning.
"Problem with that plan," Jupiter said. "We don't actually know where it is."
"Bullshit," Wes said. "You've been in contact with Bradford and Alvarez. We know that much."
"Knowing they're alive and knowing where they are two different things," Kawan said.
"Then you'd better hope they value your lives enough to make contact," Mina replied. "Because if they don't..." She let the threat hang in the air.
Specs had been unusually quiet throughout the entire exchange. "The laptop," Specs said. "In my bag. It has a tracking protocol. We can use it to locate them."
Lark stared at her friend. What the hell was she doing? "Specs—" she started.
"It's okay," Specs said, meeting her eyes with a look that said trust me. “I’m not going to die sitting in this hellhole.”
Wes looked interested. "What kind of tracking protocol?"
"GPS beacon embedded in all our communication devices," Specs said. "If they're still using the equipment I gave them, I can find them."
"Show me," Mina ordered.
"I can't do it tied up like this," Specs pointed out.
Mina considered for a moment. "Cut her loose. But watch her."
Pulling out a tactical knife, Wes moved behind Specs' chair. "One wrong move, and your friend gets a bullet," he warned, sawing through the zip ties.
Specs rubbed her wrists after the plastic fell away, then reached for her laptop bag on the floor beside her chair. Lark stayed quiet, trying to figure out what her friend was planning.
"Thor," Kawan thundered. "We're going to need some room to work. Can you pull everyone back a bit?”
"Copy that," came the reply from outside.
Specs had her laptop open now, fingers flying across the keyboard with the kind of focused intensity Lark had seen a hundred times before. Whatever she was really doing, it wasn't what she was telling Wes and Mina.
"The system's coming online," she said. "But I need to access the base communication array to boost the signal."
"Can you do that from here?" Mina asked.
"If I can piggyback off the local cell towers, maybe." Specs continued typing. "There—I'm in."
The screen filled with what looked like a map overlay, several blinking dots scattered across it. But Lark could see the reflection in Specs' glasses—she was actually accessing something else entirely—some kind of communication protocol.
"Those are all our active devices," Specs explained. "The red ones are offline—those would be..." She paused, her voice catching slightly. "Those are Bretton and Torin. We assume they're dead. Radio silence since South America.”
"What about the others?" Wes demanded.
"Green dots are active. That big cluster there is us, here in this room. But see this one?" She pointed to a dot about twenty miles away. "That's moving. Bradford and Alvarez."
But as she pointed, Lark saw her hit a key sequence that looked nothing like tracking software. It looked like an emergency beacon.
Mina leaned in closer to look at the screen. It was exactly what Lark had been hoping for.
The moment Mina's attention shifted to the laptop, Lark threw her weight backward as hard as she could. The cheap chair couldn't handle the sudden stress—one of the rear legs snapped, sending her tumbling backward and throwing off Mina's aim.
"Now!" Lark yelled.
Jupiter rolled left, firing as he moved. His shots forced Wes to dive for cover behind the dresser.
Kawan vaulted over the bed, charging straight at Mina as she tried to reacquire her target.
Before he could reach her, the front window of the motel room exploded inward in a shower of glass and wood.
Three figures came through opening like avenging angels—Brick leading, followed by Pipe and Tonka, all moving with the fluid precision of men who'd done this a thousand times before.
"What the fuck—" Wes started, but Tonka was already on him, massive hands closing around his throat.
Mina spun toward the new threat, but Kawan tackled her to the ground before she could get a shot off. They rolled across the floor, fighting for control of her weapon.
Pipe moved to Lark, producing a tactical knife to cut through her zip ties. "You okay?"
"Better now," she gasped, flexing her freed hands.
The fight between Kawan and Mina was vicious but brief. She was skilled, but he overpowered her—every move brutal and efficient. He managed to knock the pistol from her hands, sending it skittering across the floor.
Mina immediately went for a backup weapon at her ankle, rolling away from him as her fingers closed around the grip of a small pistol.
Specs, who had been watching the chaos unfold, suddenly dove for Mina's fallen primary weapon. Her fingers closed around it just as Mina came up with her backup piece, swinging it toward Kawan, who was still on the ground.
"Stop!" Specs shouted, the pistol steady in her hands despite the tremor in her voice.
Mina froze, her weapon halfway to target. For a moment, the room went still except for the sound of heavy breathing and the distant wail of sirens.
"You don't have it in you," Mina said, but there a hint of was uncertainty in her voice.
"Maybe not," Specs admitted. "But he's my family. And you're not taking any more of my family away from me."
Mina's eyes flicked between Specs and Kawan, calculating odds. Her weapon was still pointed in Kawan's general direction.
"Put it down," Brick commanded from where he stood over Wes's unconscious form. "It's over."
"Is it?" Mina asked. Then she smiled—cold, calculating. "You have no idea how deep this goes. Killing me won't stop anything."
She started to swing her weapon toward Specs.
Two shots rang out simultaneously—Specs firing to protect herself and Kawan taking a precision shot from across the room.
Mina dropped without another word.
For a moment, the room was silent except for the approaching sirens and the sound of Specs carefully setting her weapon on the floor.
"First time?" Pipe asked gently.
Specs hands’ shook now that the adrenaline was wearing off.
"It gets easier," he said. "The shaking, I mean. The rest of it... that, you carry with you. But that's what keeps you human."