In the Shadows (Metahuman Files Book 3)

by Hailey Turner

  When Kyle almost died stopping Everly from destroying a so-called cure that wasn’t a cure, Alexei realized lying to his family was something he could no longer do. Nearly losing his brother was the reason, but Jamie’s order at the time to call his family was the catalyst Alexei needed to confront his own fears. His family had proved their resilience yet again to the news he and Kyle were metahumans. The confession hadn’t been easy, but it had been needed.

  “We’ll see,” Sean murmured before standing up to take his own seat.

  Alexei wanted to argue, but Trevor’s appearance cut him off. Alexei quietly endured Trevor’s quick checkup, taking another dose of painkillers beneath the medic’s watchful eyes.

  “Wish I could give you some saline, but the field kit in the car didn’t have any packed,” Trevor said.

  Alexei shrugged his opinion of that. He’d lost blood, but not a dangerous amount. Getting shot wasn’t nearly as debilitating as getting hit by a neuro-jammer gun. Honestly, he’d have preferred a second bullet hole to the neuro-jammer hit. Trevor finished fussing over him before taking a seat.

  It wasn’t very long before they were in the air, heading north to New Seattle. Alexei didn’t remember most of the flight, the same way he didn’t remember most of the drive to the airport. The painkillers pitched him into a restless sleep fairly quickly, and he didn’t try to fight it. Sleeping would help reset his brain, and it was safe enough for him to do so now that he was surrounded by his team.

  Alexei jolted awake when they landed, head jerking up as the plane’s wheels touched down. He felt nauseous, and it took a few seconds for him to push back the desire to throw up. Shifting gingerly in his seat, he peered out the window to see where they were. The first thing he noticed were the hills covered in pine trees surrounding them and the mountains in the distance that loomed over everything.

  “Time is it?” he asked, rubbing carefully at his eyes, trying not to jar his head.

  “It’s 1410,” Madison replied.

  He didn’t see any of the lengthy runways needed for bigger planes, nor terminals sized for an international airport. “Where are we?”

  “Private civilian airport for hobbyists and flying tours of the Cascades. The rest of the team should be here soon,” Sean said as he crouched down next to Alexei’s seat. “I have to go. You’re not coming with me.”

  The mere thought of Sean going into the field alone with the CIA gunning for him for unknown reasons had Alexei opening his mouth to protest. “Not go alone.”

  Sean pressed his hand against Alexei’s chest, effectively keeping him pinned to his seat. Under any other circumstances, Sean wouldn’t be able to make him stay, but Alexei was very much not at the top of his game.

  “Madison and Trevor are coming with me. You and Annabelle are staying here for the pickup. You need someone with comms and so do we.”

  “Not have gear.”

  Alexei was pretty damn certain the other three hadn’t gone back upstairs at the casino to pack everything up once Sean gave the warning code phrase. Not that they’d left anything incriminating, but at the time, a good portion of their weapons had been in the suite and not on their bodies.

  Sean straightened up, pressing a kiss to Alexei’s forehead. “Don’t worry about that. We’re stopping somewhere first to load up. Trevor will stay in touch with Annabelle and headquarters for us.”

  Alexei grimaced, wishing with everything he had that he could access his power. That the ache in his bones and burn in his nerves would translate once again to the fire that had consumed his life since Geneva.

  “See you on other side,” Alexei said.

  Sean nodded, fingers brushing gently across his cheek. Alexei watched Sean leave the plane with Trevor and Madison following close behind him. Madison paused just long enough to flash a set of hand signals at Alexei that had him breathing a little easier, despite the pain in his side.

  We got his six.

  Because that’s what a team was for.

  Madison let out a long, slow whistle as the door to the self-storage container slid upward, revealing what the MDF had kept hidden under a false identity for Sean.

  “Nice,” she said with a smile on her face. “I feel better already.”

  The storage company was located within New Seattle’s city limits, the rows of buildings rising five stories high to maximize space. Robots glided through the buildings, accessing various sized storage containers and rooms to retrieve items requested by their owners. Access was open to those who owned storage space, but most people opted for automated retrieval and delivery.

  The MDF paid a premium price for a ground-floor storage room big enough to house a military-grade, armored SUV and boxed-up weapons and gear. This was a drop-spot accessible to MDF agents in trouble in the field. Similar ones were scattered in major cities across the nation and in just as many foreign countries.

  The three stepped inside to get out of view of the security cameras. Trevor and Madison started flipping open cases, sorting through what weapons were available, and began to load up the SUV. Sean opened a crate and pulled out a few articles of civilian clothes vacuum-packed in plastic. Changing out of his blood-stained suit into jeans and a plain T-shirt meant he would no longer stand out in a crowd. Kicking off his dress shoes, Sean laced up a pair of sturdy boots.

  They’d needed Trevor to hail an automatic cab to get them out here since his and Madison’s bioware was burned out. This airport was outside New Seattle’s dense city center, and the ride felt too long to Sean. The mental timer counting down in the back of his mind left Sean jittery in a way he hadn’t felt since enduring his probationary year with the CIA.

  Madison came around the SUV and handed him a Beretta M90 tactical pistol and holster. “Figured you wouldn’t want to meet your family with a long gun in hand.”

  Sean grimaced at the thought, but took the gun regardless, holstering it to his belt. “You’re taking some with us, right?”

  “Packed in the vehicle with a few fun ones. No explosives though, so it’s a good thing you have me.”

  “Yeah.”

  Madison gripped his shoulder, giving him a quick smile, though her brown eyes were serious. She was shorter than he was by quite a few inches and had to tilt her head back some to look him in the eye. Sean was always amazed at how much bigger Madison seemed, despite how small she was.

  Small, but vicious, and she packed one hell of a punch.

  “Let’s go get your family,” Madison said.

  Sean nodded in the face of her determination and got behind the wheel.

  New Seattle was located forty-eight kilometers east of where Seattle once stood. In the middle of the last century, the Cascadia subduction zone erupted in a devastatingly destructive 9.8 earthquake that sent a tsunami roaring across the Pacific to crash against the shores of multiple countries. In the Pacific Northwest, everything west of I-5 was inundated by that same tsunami, as well as landslides that reshaped the mountains and buried cities and towns alike.

  Mother Nature at her fiercest swallowed the region, killing tens of thousands, injuring twice that number, and leaving countless people homeless. Cities up and down the West Coast were shattered by the sea, but none were so fully lost as old Seattle. The coastline changed with that earthquake, carving out a wider bay than had been there before when Puget Sound existed as an estuary.

  Seattle had twice built over the foundations of its city throughout its history, but it couldn’t build on the sea itself. So the city’s name and its history were shifted east, to land the tsunami hadn’t reached. The government rebuilt New Seattle at the base of the Cascades, within spitting distance of the sea it felt like on some days. Humanity was nothing if not stubborn, and unwilling to break, even when the earth itself moved beneath their feet.

  Sean’s parents still lived in the four-bedroom apartment they’d bought years ago, and which he and his brothers had grown up in. Four rambunctious boys close in age, born through a surrogacy firm because his paren
ts were too busy with their respective careers to do much more than donate some sperm and an egg, decline to choose physical attributes, and let nature take its course through a machine.

  Sean and his brothers had grown up with a rotating number of nannies to help his parents out while they settled into their careers as a surgeon and a lawyer. His parents had been hands-on with them growing up, despite the help. Sean never felt ignored or lacking in love until the day he chose the CIA over his brothers’ band and his parents’ desire to see him graduate from college. It didn’t matter that he had, eventually, graduated under a cloud of lies. Considering what was happening right now, Sean couldn’t help but wonder just how badly he misjudged his decision to join the CIA all those years ago.

  The apartment complex took up an entire block in a trendy residential neighborhood. High-rises weren’t as common in New Seattle, but clusters of apartments surrounding an interior courtyard were. The subterranean garage still had his scanprint on file, so even without bioware and his RealIdent chip, Sean was able to get them past the security gate. A row of parking spots for guests was located on the second level; several spots were open and Sean took the first one he came across.

  They scrambled out of the SUV, with Sean not bothering to lock the doors. The MDF had eyes on the apartment building, according to Trevor, and so far no sign of the enemy. Considering they were trying to beat ex-Special Forces soldiers, Sean was a little uneasy about their odds. They hurried to the elevators and Sean scanned them into it, relieved to see his parents still had him on the approved visitor’s list.

  “Base confirms your parents and brothers are in the apartment,” Trevor said, head tilted fractionally as he listened to his comms. “No one else is present, as far as they can tell through the backdoor in the security system.”

  Sean nodded. “That’s good, right?”

  “Maybe. If Declan is going to send his people after your family on orders from the CIA, then we shouldn’t waste time moving them.”

  “Keep your shield up, Bones. If they’re armed with neuro-jammer guns, I don’t want to get hit,” Madison said.

  “Don’t worry, I got us covered.”

  The elevator slowed to a halt and the doors slid open. Sean led them down a brightly lit hallway painted in a warm beige and ivory color. His parents’ apartment was on the fourteenth level, one of the larger layouts at the time when they bought it. Taking a deep breath, Sean pressed his hand to the scanner, waiting impatiently for the door to unlock and slide open. When it did, he wasted no time walking inside.

  The apartment still felt like home, even after all these years. The rugs over the hardwood floor were different, some of the furniture had been swapped out for a newer design, but the holopic displays and his mother’s prints of landscapes that no longer existed still hung on the walls. The television was on, currently projecting a baseball game into the living room, the three-dimensional holographics making it seem like a viewer was right in the field. His father and brothers were all watching the game, but they turned their heads to look at Sean and his teammates as they arrived.

  “Sean?” Zach said in disbelief.

  Zach was a year older than Sean, and they used to be close when they were younger, but now Sean was lucky if he even heard from his brothers around the holidays. Zach played drums in the band and had been the driving force behind creating Atomic Grace years ago when they were all teenagers. Parker was the youngest at twenty-nine, the baby of the family and the band’s lead singer. Caleb was thirty, forever a middle brother like Sean, who played bass. They’d had to bring in Zach’s best friend to play guitar for them once Sean left the band, days before a show at a local music club.

  His brothers had never really forgiven him for choosing to walk away. Sean had wondered over the years if the brittle relationship he had with his family would change for the better if they knew what he really did for a living. Somehow, breaking the truth to them had never sounded so terrible in his dreams.

  Reality was always worse, it seemed.

  Zach’s eyes snapped from Sean to the other two, then back again. “What are you doing here? Who are they?”

  “Believe me, I wish it was under better circumstances,” Sean said to his older brother as he moved farther into the living room. “Where’s Mom? We need to get all of you out here.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Parker demanded from where he was sprawled on an armchair, staring at Sean in surprise. His youngest brother’s brown eyes suddenly went wide and he jabbed a finger at Sean. “Is that a gun?”

  “What?” his father exclaimed, pushing himself to his feet. “You’re carrying a what, Sean?”

  Sean ignored them in favor of yelling out, “Mom! We need to go!”

  Trevor moved past him and strode over to the windows that overlooked the inner courtyard below. It only took him seconds to find the control panel and shade the plas-glass to its darkest setting. Sean breathed a little easier knowing Trevor had probably also raised a telekinetic shield between his family and whatever threat might be outside.

  “What is all the shouting about?” Naomi said as she came down the hall.

  His mother was in her early fifties and aging gracefully, despite the stress of her job as an emergency room trauma surgeon. Her graying light brown hair was pulled back in a loose chignon, and she wore a pair of casual slacks and a white silk blouse with a pair of loafers, looking as put-together as always.

  “Mom,” Sean said, raising his hands a little in a placating gesture. “I know this is completely out of the ordinary, but you need to listen to me, okay?”

  “Sean? What are you doing here? You said you couldn’t make your father’s birthday because of work?” Her sharp-eyed gaze latched on to the sidearm holstered to his hip and her eyebrows crept toward her hairline. “You have a gun.”

  “They’re all carrying guns,” Caleb said, staring at Madison with an uneasy look on his face.

  “Mom, I need you to trust me,” Sean said as he took a step toward her. “You guys are in danger and we’re here to get you to safety. So can you please not argue with me right now and just come with us?”

  “We wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Madison piped up from her position by the door.

  “Who are you?” Greg demanded.

  Sean inwardly winced, recognizing that tone of voice. It was his father’s judge voice, an upgrade from the lawyer voice he’d had when they were kids. Madison didn’t seem at all affected by it, which wasn’t a surprise. She’d been a Recon Marine before being an MDF field agent after all.

  “A friend,” Madison said calmly.

  “None of my friends carry guns,” Caleb pointed out.

  “Your friends sound boring.”

  “Not the time,” Trevor said warningly, still keeping watch on the sightlines into the apartment.

  “What is going on?” Naomi demanded in a calm, even voice that came from over twenty years of manning an emergency room operating theater in high-pressure situations.

  “You know how you think I work as a bank auditor and that I’ve been wasting my life since dropping out of college? I don’t work for a bank and I never dropped out. I lied, and I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry about trying to keep you safe,” Sean said.

  “What exactly are you saying?” his father asked, coming around to stand next to his mother. They made a formidable team, always had.

  “I was CIA, okay, Dad? I worked for the CIA, and right now, some people are coming here to hurt you because of me. And I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but I can’t stop and explain. We need to go.”

  “Bullshit,” Zach scoffed as he stood up. “No way do you work for the CIA.”

  “Not anymore he doesn’t,” Trevor answered before anyone else could start protesting.

  His mom opened her mouth, but Sean never learned what she would have said. The television abruptly switched off, the projections disappearing as the screen went dark. The silence only lasted a second or two before an uplink embedded itself
in the smart screen. Sean looked over his shoulder and found Elena Flores blinking out at them from the depths of the war room back at the MDF. Sean’s stomach sank, because he knew the MDF accessing the backdoor he’d had built into his family’s home security system years ago wasn’t a good thing.

  “Wraith, you have hostiles inbound. You need to get everyone out of there now,” Elena warned.

  “You couldn’t give us a longer lead time?” Sean snapped.

  “They’re in civilian clothing and we still don’t have the entire employee list from North Star International to do a facial recognition scan. We finally got them on the apartment complex’s security. Sorry we couldn’t warn you sooner.”

  “If they’re surrounding the building, then we need to take a shortcut and the elevator won’t cut it. Can you phase all of us if we link up, Sean?” Madison asked as she stalked toward his brothers.

  “Yeah,” Sean said. He’d endure a headache for his efforts later, but that was worth the price of getting his family out of harm’s way. “But we’ll lose comms.”

  “SUV will still have them, so long as you don’t phase the vehicle,” Trevor warned.

  “Rest of your team is inbound and have been updated on the ground situation,” Elena said.

  Madison’s sheer presence was enough to get his brothers scrambling backward through the living room as she herded them toward the windows. Sean stepped forward and grabbed his mother’s hand.

  “I need you to trust me. Please, Mom,” he said apologetically. “I’ll explain everything later, but we need to get out of here. Grab Dad’s hand, and whatever you do, don’t let go.”

  She was an emergency trauma surgeon used to working under pressure. Sean trusted her to keep hold better than anyone else in his family. He tugged her forward gently, grateful when she didn’t fight him. She was looking at him as if she’d never seen him before and that hurt in a way Sean couldn’t deal with at the moment.