“We’ll work around it.”
Katie nodded, holding her weapon close against her torso as the hum of the electromagnetic engines changed pitch for their final descent. Alpha Team’s introduction to the Atlanta megacity began with a muggy rush of humid air that seemed to fill all corners of the combat jet as the ramp lowered. Sweat immediately broke out on Jamie’s forehead, prickling where his helmet pressed against his skin. His tactical goggles HUD automatically polarized to shade his eyes from the bright sunlight as they double-timed it out of the combat jet.
“Remember, Alpha Team. This is a retrieval mission first and foremost. I don’t want us getting bogged down in a firefight if at all possible,” Jamie said.
“You say that and I haven’t even shot anyone yet,” Kyle grumbled as he adjusted the strap carrying his RPG launcher.
Madison chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll get your chance.”
“Now you’ve jinxed us,” Donovan said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was headquartered in several bulky, squat cement buildings on the ground rather than in a skyscraper. Located in a far outer zone of the Atlanta megacity, the CDC was a federal building whose front courtyard doubled as a landing zone. Surrounded by a security wall that had a twenty-four-hour human patrol paired with an AI overwatch meant access was highly restricted. While the CDC was a civilian run building and part of the federal government, military-grade defense capabilities weren’t available to them.
Alpha Team headed for the main entrance where security waited nervously for their arrival. Jamie could make out curious people peering down at them from windows above, but Kyle’s calm report of “No hostiles in sight,” was enough to make him breathe easy.
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Moore met them in the receiving lobby of the building. A tall, thin man with M-pattern baldness and a surprisingly firm handshake, Dr. Moore wasn’t especially excited to see them considering the circumstances.
“Are those really necessary if you have powers?” Dr. Moore asked, eyeing their weapons warily.
“Not all metahuman powers are offensive in nature and we’re military by trade,” Jamie replied.
“Very well. Follow me, please. Dr. Patel is waiting for you.”
“I need one of your people to take Viper to your security hub. We require full access to your system.”
“I don’t see why that is—”
“Now, Dr. Moore,” Jamie interrupted in a hard voice.
The CDC Director huffed out an irritated sigh before signaling one of his subordinates. “Fine. Take them where they want to go.”
“Inferno, go with her.”
“Sir,” Katie said for them both.
She and Alexei peeled away from the group, following their hastily appointed guide farther into the building, bypassing the elevator banks completely. Kyle shifted the grip on his .50 caliber weapon and tilted his head at the stairs. His tactical goggles had gone opaque, obscuring his eyes.
“I’ll take overwatch and keep an ear out for Viper’s intel,” he said.
“You’re cleared hot,” Jamie replied.
“Copy that.”
The rest of Alpha Team kept on Dr. Moore’s heels as he led them into the guts of the building and out the other side to an enclosed hallway made of glass that linked two of the buildings together. Donovan and Madison peeled off to guard the entrance to the second building, each taking a position inside and outside the sliding doors of the airlock entrance.
Jamie and Trevor were the only two who remained when Dr. Moore brought them to the heavily restricted third floor, which contained labs that handled extremely contagious diseases and were assigned a Biosafety Level 4 status. Going any farther than the outer arrival area required a positive pressure personnel suit. Entering the biocontainment zone without proper protection was ill-advised and not allowed.
“My people can help you suit up,” Dr. Moore said after they went through a second airlock.
“We don’t have time for that. Are Dr. Patel and her people ready to move?” Jamie said.
“I gave her a time to be ready by, but—”
Jamie cut him off. “Call her. Tell her to get out here. Now. We need to get her and her work contained and off the premises.”
Dr. Moore looked like he wanted to argue, but he shut his mouth and gave in to Jamie’s demand. He headed for the security desk and accessed a comms line there, speaking in a low voice to whoever was on the other side of the uplink. Jamie hoped it was Dr. Patel and that she wouldn’t insist on staying any longer than necessary. The team was running under a time limit, the only problem being they didn’t know where they were in the countdown.
“Apollo, I have full access to the CDC’s systems,” Katie said crisply over the comms. “Scanning for any backdoor access derived from a hack as we speak. So far nothing detected.”
“Keep me updated. We’re still waiting on the package,” Jamie replied.
Dr. Moore approached Jamie again with a curt nod. “Dr. Patel is ready. She and her team are going through the decontamination safety protocols right now.”
Jamie knew those were necessary, so didn’t argue the delay, even though his instincts were telling him to forego it all and get Dr. Patel out of there. Not for the first time did he wish one of his teammates had gained a teleportation power. As uncomfortable as that mode of transportation was, it had its uses.
It took ten long, excruciating minutes for Dr. Patel and her group of scientists to extricate themselves from the lab. Katie kept up a running security commentary over the comms, with Annabelle piping in every now and then with the readings from the jet. Kyle never said a word and neither did anyone else.
When the airlock doors leading to restricted areas of the lab finally cycled open, releasing the people inside, Jamie relayed the information.
“Package secure,” he said.
The faint echoing response from everyone was mere background noise as he stepped forward to greet the scientist whose life was now in the crosshairs of terrorists. “Dr. Sadhika Patel? I’m Apollo, captain of Alpha Team. We’re here to extract you.”
Dr. Patel was a tiny woman, no more than five feet two inches, the type of thin that meant a ridiculously fast metabolism and little to no body fat. Her jet-black hair was tied back in a thick braid pinned into a knot at the base of her skull to more easily keep it in place and out of her eyes beneath the hood of a PPPS. Her brown eyes were a shade darker than her skin, huge in her face and ringed with long lashes and a thin line of black kohl. She was young, Jamie was surprised to see. His age or a few years younger, judging by her unlined face and the youthful appearance of the hand she extended in greeting.
“I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but considering the circumstances, I’ll wait to reserve judgment on that,” Dr. Patel replied.
Jamie’s gaze flickered to the three scientists standing behind her, two women and a man, all of whom were older than Dr. Patel. All of them wore white lab coats over pants and button-up shirts, their shoes lab appropriate style boots. The only thing they carried with them out of the lab other than the clothes on their backs was the gray case gripped in Dr. Patel’s right hand.
Jamie pointed at it. “Does that contain your work?”
Dr. Patel nodded slowly. “It does, as well as active doses of the Splice chemical.”
“Give it to Bones.”
“The case is biolocked to my prints. It contains my life’s work. I don’t—”
“Dr. Patel, that wasn’t a request. Give the case to Bones. He’s our telekinetic and can keep it safer than your transport technology can. We need to get moving.”
Dr. Patel pressed her lips into a dissatisfied line, eyes narrowing, but she didn’t argue further. Maybe the fact the MDF had sent its top field team out to extract her from danger made her hold her tongue. Jamie didn’t know and didn’t care. She handed the transport case over to Bones, who took it with careful fingers.
“Shield in place,” Trevor r
eported mere seconds later.
“Alpha Team, we’re Oscar Mike,” Jamie said.
Jamie and Trevor ushered their charges into the elevator and took it down to the ground floor. As the doors slid open, Annabelle’s tense voice came over the line.
“Wide sensors pickin’ up bogeys,” she announced. “We got company.”
“Then uninvite them,” Jamie ordered, bracing his weapon against his shoulder as he stepped out of the elevator.
“I can’t get in the air until y’all get on board.”
“Reaper?”
“How many bogeys, Icarus?” Kyle asked.
“Three,” she replied.
“I can take out the pilot of one before the other two pull evasive maneuvers. That might buy us time to evacuate.”
Jamie grimaced. If Kyle took that shot, they risked an aircraft crashing into a civilian building, but it was a risk they had to take and apologize for after the fact. Dr. Patel and her work were too important to lose.
“You’re still green,” Jamie ordered.
“Copy that,” Kyle said.
They hurried through the building to the airlock exit at a fast pace. Donovan was right where they’d left him, already tapping in the request to the control panel for the airlock to cycle open. They made their way through as quickly as the decontamination protocols allowed. Madison was waiting for them on the other side, weapon braced against her shoulder.
“Nova, make a hole,” Jamie said.
“Gladly, sir,” Madison replied.
She sprinted several meters ahead while Jamie kept their small group by the entrance. Trevor raised a telekinetic shield between their position and the sudden gaping hole Madison ripped through the glass wall and ceiling of the tunnel with her energy power. Glass shrapnel flew through the air, though Madison didn’t seem bothered by it in the least as she barreled outside, weapon held against her body with one hand while the other held a snarl of bright white energy in her fist.
“Move out!” Jamie snapped.
Madison stayed on point while the other three kept Dr. Patel and her scientists between them in a protective cluster. They could have double-timed it, but the civilians weren’t used to running at that quick of a pace judging by their ragged breathing. They were academics and exercise probably wasn’t something they did all that often.
“Got incomin’,” Annabelle said sharply over the comms.
“In my sight,” Kyle replied coolly.
Jamie heard the roar of jet engines ripping through the air, his attention dragged to the sky above. As he watched, one of the three jets—military grade, but not fighter jets, and not up to US standards—took a direct hit from Kyle’s RPG launcher. The jet exploded and careened into the parking garage at a high rate of speed. The impact tore through the garage, bringing down several levels in a burning heap. Black smoke rose away from the fireball, the toxic smell of jet fuel floating on the breeze. The two remaining jets banked hard and circled back. Whether to strafe the CDC or deploy ground fighters, Jamie didn’t know, and they didn’t have time to find out.
A siren started up, the warning klaxon a wordless order for everyone in the vicinity to shelter in place. Considering what Alpha Team was attempting to ferry to their transport out of here, it was only prudent someone had tripped the alarm.
“Viper, status on CDC shields?” he asked as they kept running.
“Shields need to remain down if we’re to escape. I don’t trust the people here not to let us through. I put a delay-release worm in the OS. It’ll raise the perimeter shield on my command once we’re clear. I’m on my way out,” she reported.
“Icarus, keep your shield up for now. We’ll come to you.”
“Copy that,” Annabelle said.
“Their jets are landing,” Kyle announced. “I’m resetting.”
Terrorists in mismatched body armor spilled out of the two hastily landed jets, weapons up and firing at Alpha Team as soon as they had visual. Bullets ricocheted off Trevor’s telekinetic shield as they kept moving, but none of them immediately returned fire. Their mission goal was extraction of the package. Getting bogged down in a firefight wasn’t part of their exfil plans, but plans had a tendency to get tossed out the window once they met real world uncertainty in the field.
“Can you hold the shield?” Jamie asked.
“I’ll make you a firing hole,” Trevor replied.
Jamie grunted and braced his weapon, shoving it forward until he felt the telekinetic shield give around the muzzle. The moment it went through, he laid down a streak of suppressive fire that cut into the terrorists. Donovan added his own bullets to the attack, the two of them cutting down the enemy to a more manageable number. Some of the terrorists dove for the ground and survived. Others weren’t so lucky and took bullets to parts of their body not covered by body armor and collapsed, permanently removed from the fight.
Two more the terrorists went down in quick succession from head shots taken at a higher angle right before five of them exploded in flame. Agonized screams filled the air even as the smell of cooked meat drifted their way on a stiff, muggy breeze. Jamie wrinkled his nose at the smell as Madison signaled for Trevor to let her through his telekinetic shield.
Alexei was already targeting more terrorists from his position at the corner of the building. Madison ducked down behind a recycling compactor for cover and began lobbing energy bombs at the enemy jets rather than the boots on the ground. She managed a solid hit on the closest one, the resulting explosion blowing out windows all around them and sending a plume of acrid smelling smoke into the air.
The sudden crawling sensation on the far edge of Jamie’s thoughts was foreign and heavy, nothing at all like Katie’s careful mental fingers.
“Telepath on the field!” Jamie snapped over the comms.
He felt Katie slide into his mind, into all their minds through the psionic link she initiated, and raise strong mental shields between them and the insidious mental attack. Dr. Patel and the other scientists stumbled a bit, eyes going blank, before they collapsed mid-stride. Jamie, Donovan, and Trevor skidded to a stop and hauled the unconscious scientists onto their shoulders in firemen’s carries. Jamie let go of his weapon in order to carry Dr. Patel in his arms, his strength enabling him to easily evacuate two of their charges.
“Viper?” he snarled.
“I have those four shielded,” she replied, voice sounding strained. “I couldn’t be gentle, sorry. I can’t go on the offensive at the moment.”
All her formidable power was focused on keeping Alpha Team and the scientists under their care out of the mental reach and control of the enemy telepath, whoever that person might be in the field. Jamie could only hope their heavy hitters or overwatch would take that metahuman out, and soon.
Despite being loaded down with extra weight, the three pushed themselves to double-time it around the corner of the main building. The attacks on them doubled, Trevor’s telekinetic shield rippling in the harsh sunlight. They caught up with Alexei, Madison taking over the rearguard position, both of them shielded by Trevor. Alexei wielded his pyrokinesis, taking control of the fire in the jet Madison had blown up. A column of flame jumped from the destroyed second jet onto the third with devastating results. Jamie didn’t see it explode, too focused on their own transport that was now in sight, but he heard it. He felt the blowback heat of the explosion even through Trevor’s shield and grunted, carefully shifting the weight of the unconscious people he carried as he kept running.
“They got a vehicle on the ground heading straight for the main entrance, though it might hit our jet first. Looks big enough to carry a bomb,” Kyle barked over the comms.
“Take it out,” Jamie ordered.
“It’s too close to sheltering civilians for me to use the RPG, and the driver seems to be a telekinetic. I have him in my sights but my bullets keep bouncing off the goddamn windshield.”
Kyle seemed viciously annoyed at that fact. Jamie signaled Madison and Alexei, passing over h
is two civilians to them. “Get them to safety.”
“Yes, sir,” Madison said, adjusting where Dr. Patel was slung over her shoulders with a little jump to redistribute the weight.
“Icarus, drop your shields. We have to get the package inside.”
“Copy that,” Anabelle said.
The faint shimmer of the Hermes combat jet’s shield disappeared, clearing the way for them. Jamie, freed of his burden, sprinted across the courtyard, attempting to intercept the delivery truck. He caught a brief glimpse of a familiar figure racing out of the front entrance, but Jamie didn’t have time to ask what Katie was doing. He put himself between the Hermes combat jet and the oncoming truck with seconds to spare, bracing himself for the inevitable impact.
When the truck hit his outstretched hands, Jamie felt it in every bone of his body, muscles straining heavily against it. The force sent him skidding backward from the impact even as he leaned his considerable strength into the truck to stop its forward momentum. Metal bent and broke around Jamie’s body as the delivery truck heaved against him. The wheels kept spinning despite the crumpled axle, ensuring the truck went nowhere fast, the smell of biofuel filling the air from a ruptured tank. Jamie snarled wordlessly before prying his hands out of the destroyed front bumper, fingers aching. Behind him, he heard Katie’s satisfied shout.
“Got the bastard!” she said. “Telepath is down and I have the telekinetic’s power neutralized. Reaper, take the shot.”
The telekinetic fighter behind the wheel of the truck panicked for a single second when he realized he no longer had mental protection before a bullet hole appeared in the middle of his face, taking most of his features with it. The body slumped against the seat, no longer a problem. Jamie looked over his shoulder at Katie, who still had one hand pressed to the side of her helmet.
“Status?” he asked.
“Clear, sir,” she replied.
“Then move out. Reaper?”
In the Wreckage: (M/M Sci-Fi Military Romance) (Metahuman Files Book 1) Page 20