Seek and Destroy (TREX, #5)

by Allie K. Adams

  “Well enough.” She didn’t want to tell him they’d shared just about every waking moment together the first six months of his recruitment. She’d been completely taken with him. Charming. Good looking. The way his playful blond hair always fell into his dark eyes. Everyone thought they’d be the perfect match for each other. But she saw something in him, something that moved in his eyes and disturbed her to the core.

  When Thomas had his first solo assignment, she’d kept tabs on him without his knowledge. It was protocol at TREX. The handler had to monitor the recruit for the first year. The first few assignments went off without a hitch. He’d successfully tracked down the intel needed in time to avert whatever impending disaster loomed in the information.

  The first time she noted the anomaly in his tracking, she wasn’t sure what she’d seen. He’d been right there, right at the retrieval point. And then he dropped the connection. She’d kept quiet, positive he’d simply made a rookie mistake.

  But then he made the same mistake on another data retrieval. And another. She took a gamble and mined his keystrokes. What she’d seen still turned her insides, made her sick at the memory, sick knowing she’d taught him everything he knew. Sick knowing she’d given him the power to become what he eventually became. Thomas had not only been sabotaging his data retrievals, he secretly collected the confidential data and sold it to the highest bidder.

  It had taken her less than a minute to lock out his access and have security take him into custody. She’d refused to even look at him as they dragged him out of the building. Because the data he’d sold didn’t, in itself, threaten national security, he got off with a slap on the wrist and a don’t-do-it-again lecture.

  By the time she’d been able to track him down to that shack in the mountains, he was already responsible for the destruction of four major database systems by blowing up their server rooms. The explosions collectively killed over a hundred people.

  She forced her brain back to the present and pulled up his past keystrokes on another monitor. It didn’t make any sense. Why would he be sniffing around so many different sites? None of them had any connection to him, or to each other. Railway Transportation, Inc. Rite of Passage Ceremonies. Ray’s Discount World. Riverside Consulting, LLC.

  She paused on the last name. That had to be it. He was scanning for his next target. She’d heard of Riverside. They were a technology consulting firm based out of Modesto, CA, and the only one he’d pulled down the blueprint for the building. “David, look at this.”

  “What?” He stood and leaned so close to her the warmth of his breath tickled her neck.

  Charis watched on another monitor as Surreal successfully hacked into DC’s surveillance. She added a data miner to his keystrokes to monitor his progress and went back to analyzing his past keystrokes. “He scanned the server IPs for these four buildings.” She pointed at the names on her screen. “He stopped at this one.”

  “Riverside Consulting,” David read the name aloud. “Is that where he is now?”

  She shook her head and eyed another monitor, confirming one of Surreal’s plethora of IP addresses still logged into DC’s surveillance. “I was analyzing his past keystrokes when I stumbled across the different hacks.”

  He stiffened. “How long ago were the hacks?”

  Squinting to focus, she continued tracing his steps until she found a date and time. “Looks like he hit them three days ago.”

  “Shit,” he muttered. “Find me each of their locations and the number to their head of security.”

  “You’ll only need Riverside’s,” she pointed out and jumped to another monitor to pull their information, knowing he’d ask her for it.

  “How do you know that’s his next target?”

  “It’s the only one he downloaded the blueprints on.” She pointed to the line on her monitor that backed up her comment. He pushed away from the desk. “Where are you going?”

  “I need to get their security together and start an evac as soon as you have a bead on—”

  “Got it,” she cut him off and printed out the information. “It’s in Modesto, California.”

  “Thanks,” he said and grabbed the paper. “I don’t want anyone within five hundred feet of that building until our people have done a thorough search. We’ve got an hour lead on them due to the time difference, but we need to move fast. I’ve got to get a team deployed there for retrieval of the device.” He grabbed his cell and punched in numbers.

  “What are you going to do first?” she asked, her heart in her throat, not sure whether she liked having this kind of excitement in her life. She didn’t feel excited. She felt anxious, cautious. Scared.

  He held the phone to his ear. “His MO is a building a week. We still have four days. I’m calling for transport. I want this son of a bitch. I want to be there and pick him up personally.” His attention went back to the phone. “Secure the line.” He paused, nodded. “TREX. Bravo-Delta-Three-Two-Three. We have a situation.”

  SIXTEEN

  He caressed the keys, his thumb resting on the space bar. Why wouldn’t they hurry up? The two men inside the server room had been there all morning. No one took that long to install a server. Fucking idiots. With the instructions he sent along with the replacement server, a monkey could install the damn thing.

  “Come on, come on,” he taunted, tension coursing through his veins. Waiting around for two of the goddamn stupidest human beings to ever walk upright hadn’t been part of the plan. Of course, he still had another four days before he blew the room, but come on. At this rate, they’d still be installing the damn thing next week.

  Even that wouldn’t be long enough, not with these two dickstains. Charis waited for him. Every step in his plan ended with her rewarding him by making love to him, showing him her gratitude. This plan went into play two days ago when he blew out their old server. He’d made love to her after that. He intercepted the call for the new server order that afternoon and promised a new one onsite the next day. When it arrived, she’d been so excited at how well the plan progressed, so impressed with how smoothly he carried out his plans, all for her. She rewarded him exactly as he’d expected her to.

  He’d planned two hours for the install. They were going on four. Charis wouldn’t be pleased with the delay. He’d be damned if these two morons were going to get in the way of him and her joining together in the bonds of love.

  Wait. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the present. Charis was here, right? He heard her voice, felt her with him. Or, was it her memory he felt? He found it harder and harder deciphering reality from fantasy. At this point he really didn’t give a shit. His fantasy world welcomed him, and it meant so much more to him than anything in reality. In his world Charis loved him, made love to him. The horny little minx couldn’t get enough of his cock. And he loved to fuck her. His dick twitched, anxiously awaiting its chance to bury deep inside her tight body, to come hard, exploding his life in her. He thought about what their kids would look like and smiled.

  He brought his attention to the monitors. If those idiots didn’t hurry up, he’d ignore his conscience, his plan and timeline, and blow them to hell where they belonged.

  The door buzzed open and a security guard entered the server room. He seemed agitated. Odd. Leaning in, Surreal tried to read the man’s lips. Why the fuck didn’t they have audio on their surveillance feeds? This would be the last time he chose a building without it. Two of the other targets had audio. He would not take that for granted again.

  The guard motioned for them to follow him out. They both shook their heads, pointing at the server. The guard seemed adamant. He even marched up to one of the men and pulled him out of the chair.

  What the hell was going on?

  Now. He read the guard’s lips. His hands made an upward motion, his fingers expanding out. Surreal tensed. That sure looked like him mimicking a bomb blowing up.

  Oh shit. Could they be on to him? Nah. They weren’t that smart. Two more se
curity guards came in. They seemed to be searching for something.

  And then chaos erupted. The goddamn fire alarm went off. His system picked it up and sent an alert to Surreal’s monitor. “Fuck. No. No! NO! Not now. Why now?” He scrambled to hack into the security system to see where it had been set off.

  Screw his secure ID. TREX hadn’t been able to track him before. They wouldn’t be able to pick him up now. He ignored his usual paranoia for covering his tracks and jumped into their system with his base IP. Jackpot. The fire alarm had been set off from the lower southeast corner.

  Right outside the server room.

  No! No way would he allow these ridiculous excuses for IT experts to ruin his plan. Thank God the idiots stayed put for another three minutes as they continued to work on the install. One more step and they’d secure his connection to their server, and to the bomb that would blow them into another zip code.

  “Come on,” he urged the monitor. “Just one more step.” The installer executed the step he’d been waiting for, securing the IP. Without that he couldn’t connect to the server and detonate the device. Good. Now to see what in the hell set off the alarm.

  He switched views. People scattered in all directions. In the halls. In the stairwells. Starting to gather outside.

  Goddamn it! They were going to ruin everything.

  “Go back inside!” Screaming at his monitor, he doubled-up his hands into fists and punched his desk. “Go! Back! Inside!” He emphasized his words by slamming his fists against the metal surface.

  Hands aching, he brought them to the keyboard and switched the view back to the server room. The IT idiots stood. One grabbed his coat. But they weren’t done.

  Goddamn it. They were leaving. He couldn’t blow them up if they weren’t there. If he didn’t kill them, blow out their server room, Charis wouldn’t be pleased and would refuse to service him. He’d have to force himself on her and, although deep down he knew she’d want him to do just that, she’d still be unhappy it came to that.

  “Don’t fuck with me,” he growled as he pressed the space bar. The first explosion took out the two idiots who couldn’t install a suppository up their ass, and the three security guards who had the unfortunate luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  That familiar surge of adrenaline and excitement pulsed through him. It felt good to deviate from the plan. Sometimes. The way his body responded to the sudden change of events didn’t bother him. Not in the least.

  He unfastened his pants to allow room for his growing erection. Her picture smiled back at him, granting him permission for the entire operation. Her smile was her seal of approval.

  “Did you like that, my sweet?” He jerked on his semi-hard penis. He ignored the ache in his hands from slamming them into the desk to tend to another ache. “Do you want me to do it again?”

  Closing his eyes, he relaxed and allowed the image of Charis to take him into her mouth, his hand as her lips. “Just like that, lover.” He stroked harder, making sure it hurt. He needed pain, needed to be punished for deviating from the plan. She would want him punished.

  “Do you want to punish me?” he moaned at her picture. She wanted him to hurt, to know that he’d disappointed her. He slapped his rock hard flesh and winced. She was pissed. Squeezing hard, he rocked his hips against her hand. “Punish me, Charis. Make me hurt. Make me pay.”

  He spanked his cock again. The sting made him harder, closer. “Yes, like that.” He smacked it hard, faster and faster. He was so close to coming. He squeezed it until his knuckles turned white. “Oh, my sweet. I’m going to come inside you.”

  He came and shuddered as he milked his penis, his hand as the walls of her pussy, sucking in every last drop. He smiled. She was so naughty with him today. He loved it when she got rough with him.

  “I love you,” he whispered. Opening his eyes, he grabbed a nearby rag and cleaned himself. With a sigh he pulled her picture to him and laid it against his chest. “I don’t know what I’d do without your love, Charis. Just let me finish up and you can have me again.”

  With that, he depressed the space bar, sending Riverside Consulting into absolute chaos.

  * * * *

  “Sweep the server room. The device will have a heart split in half. And I need immediate transport to that location.” David had a bad feeling. Three days ago? That gave Surreal all the time in the world to plant the bomb and get the hell out before he detonated. His neck hairs were at attention, which indicated the ball was about to drop.

  Still, if Surreal kept with his MO he wouldn’t blow the building for another four days. That gave them ample time to find the device and disarm it before the bastard even knew they’d caught up to him.

  “Order full evac and secure the perimeter,” he continued, knowing he’d already ordered that from the Riverside guards. With TREX rushing in on orders of a full evacuation, no way would there be a soul left within five hundred feet of the building. “Have the fire department on standby.”

  “Yes, sir. Anything else?”

  He thought about what else he could do. How could he get people out of the building sooner? He’d already had them pull the fire alarm. TREX’s bomb division had been dispatched. He’d done everything to ensure their safety.

  And yet, he still felt like he missed something. Maybe if he had TREX call the head of security back. Maybe, just maybe, they might get them to evacuate quicker.

  They had nothing to lose. “Call them back.”

  “Yes, sir. Please hold. Uh....”

  His heart stopped. “What?”

  “Their lines are down,” the operator replied.

  “What?” David almost choked. Jesus, God. “Check again.”

  After a pause, the operator came back on the line. “Sorry, sir. No response. Their system is offline.”

  No. It did not just happen this way. No way.

  “Sir? I’ve been requested to patch you through to HQ.”

  “No, I—” Too late. The line went still. His pulse slammed in his ears. There would be only one reason to break the connection and patch him through to HQ.

  They were too late.

  Again.

  “Damn it.”

  “David...” Charis spoke slowly, her voice shaking. Her tone made what little control of his heartbeat stop. He looked down at her and then followed the trail of her gaze to one of the monitors. There, on the screen, displayed a gruesome site. The grainy black and white surveillance kept cutting out, but what he saw couldn’t be mistaken.

  Shit. Son of a fucking bitch. They were too late.

  The monitor showed the inside of a building. She hit keys on her keyboard to switch between cameras. Two of them were offline, another three showed shadows of people running around, screaming and crying, their emotions pouring out from their expressions. Goddamn Surreal. He beat them again.

  He couldn’t hear the victims, but knew from the shapes of their faces, the horror in their eyes, they were shrieking in fear. The dust from the explosion was too thick to see anything else. The footage she held on her monitor showed the inside hall of a building or what was left of it.

  The wall on one side of the hall had been blown out completely. The other side had a huge gaping hole. Lights flickered as they hung by wires. Rebar imbedded in the cement walls was twisted and sticking out in all directions. Debris covered the floor.

  Debris? Jesus. Not just debris. People. Innocent fucking people. Two lay face down in the rubble. They didn’t survive that blast, not at that range. The rage boiled inside him. He wanted to kill the bastard with his bare hands. David clenched his hands and gritted his teeth to control his labored breathing.

  Dust settled and he truly saw the devastation. More people lay motionless further down the hall, covered in heavy cement chunks. Jesus Christ. His heart lurched. None of them moved. Not a goddamn one.

  “Oh, my God,” Charis gasped and let out a raw sob. “David, all those people.” She brought a hand to her mouth.

  Ye
ah. All those people. More souls on his ever-heavy conscience. “Shit!” He threw his phone. “He’s early. The fucking psychopath was early.”

  “Any chance we were late?” she asked, her voice weak.

  He shook his head. No way. Surreal broke out of his MO. Why? David stood in shocked silence, staring at the monitor, watching in horror as Charis switched views over and over. Every view showed their greatest fear. He held his breath to control his emotions.

  People. Everywhere. More and more people covered in dust and rubble. Some screamed and cried hysterically. Some ran toward emergency exits. Others weren’t running. It was too late for them.

  Overturned desks scattered the floor. People were trapped. Those able to help tried to lift debris off their coworkers, grabbing them, desperately pulling them toward the exits. A woman fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands over a man who had a file cabinet on his chest. His eyes were glassy and lifeless as they stared up. A man ran by, grabbed the woman and dragged her to an exit. She kicked and screamed, trying to go back to the man crushed to death by the huge piece of furniture.

  David swallowed over and over, but it didn’t stop his eyes from stinging from the horror surfacing. Charis simply sobbed. God how he wished he were strong enough to mourn for them openly.

  Time slowed as they stared at the sight, neither able to comprehend the destruction, least of all the reason behind it. An eerie silence settled in the room. When his cell buzzed he reached for it off the floor. “Snyder,” he stated evenly, no emotion, numb from the horrific site.

  “What the fuck happened?” It was Weber, and he didn’t sound happy. Join the club. David snapped out of his emotional turmoil and fell back into the role of the SAC. Unemotional. Unattached. Uncaring.

  “We didn’t make it in time.” That fact made his gut ache. Shit. How many died this time because he’d been too damn preoccupied with Charis and staying within the folds of her warmth? He should have seen this sooner. Goddamn it.