Joshua II

by T. G. Ayer

  “Ready?” asked Bryn, her tone all business now.

  The two valkyries drew on their glamors and took the corner.

  Joshua wasn’t too happy with having to do nothing while the girls did the hard work. Still, he remained in position as they kept going, sneaking a glance around the corner every few seconds.

  At the end of the hall was a steel door, where a bald-headed guard was pacing back and forth on his patrol. Joshua had to smile as he caught a quick view of Pia slamming the hilt of her sword down on the man’s head. He went down easy, Bryn grabbing him before he hit the tile floor.

  Joshua heard Pia say something about keys, and then the sound of a low knock came down the passage. Joshua’s eyes widened as he glanced over his shoulder at Karl.

  The man merely shrugged, but Joshua was distracted by the sound of the door opening.

  “They’re in,” Joshua whispered, feeling a ripple of triumph at their success, which was cut clean off when a man’s voice yelling “Hey, Mick” echoed toward him, followed by a hollow thunk and then a thud.

  Smiling, Joshua looked over at Karl, and was startled at the warrior’s cold expression. Though he wanted to question the guy—who by now deserved a power dressing-down—he decided it would keep.

  Joshua turned to check on the girls, and was edging closer to the corner when something solid hit him hard on the temple. Grunting, Joshua lost his balance, but regained it as he stepped wide and turned to face his attacker.

  Karl.

  The warrior struck first, landing a blow to Joshua’s eye, and then another that split Joshua’s lip. Fueled by fury and pain, Joshua lashed out, striking hard at the shorter man.

  Karl drew his weapon but Joshua cut the weapon from his hand before kicking hard at the warrior’s knee. The sword clattered to the floor and Karl grunted. But Joshua didn’t care about the traitorous einherjar. Karl’s attack confirmed that Bryn and Pia were in danger, and that this had all been too easy for a reason.

  It was a trap.

  Joshua spun around. He was racing for the corner when, just as he reached it, a solid metal door slammed down to the ground from the ceiling, making no sound whatsoever.

  Shit.

  Rather than banging his head on the door in frustration, he turned and raced back toward the corner where Aimee had been watching.

  When he got there, he wasn’t surprised to see her out cold, sprawled across the corridor. Joshua sank beside her, felt her pulse and gave a sigh of relief. Without a moment’s thought, Joshua scooped Aimee up in his arms and ran for the basement exit where Enja would be waiting.

  If she, too, hadn’t been knocked out.

  “Joshua.” Aimee’s voice was soft, but cool.

  Joshua slowed as he reached the door. “Yes, Aimee.”

  “You’re carrying me.” She lifted an eyebrow.

  “Well aware. Too busy to care.” Joshua set Aimee back onto her feet. “We’re compromised. Karl’s a traitor. Bryn and Pia are locked in the other side of the basement and there’s a giant metal door in the way. We need to get outside and to the other side of the building. See if we can find an entrance.”

  “Geez, all I did was take a short nap and I miss everything,” muttered Aimee and Joshua cracked the door open and peered outside.

  Enja waved them out, giving them the all clear. The pair scurried across the lawn and sank beside the valkyrie who glared at them. “Pia? Bryn?”

  Joshua sighed and gave Enja the low down. The valkyrie did not look happy, but Joshua held onto her upper arm. “Let’s keep our heads in the game, okay?”

  Enja nodded and took a breath. “Okay. Get to the other side. Find a way in. Get the girls to safety.”

  “And Brody,” Aimee grunted the words out.

  Enja paused, looking as though she was about to counter Aimee. Then she fell silent, nodded, and raced off toward the corner of the mansion.

  As they traversed the building, Joshua’s gut yelled at him, louder than ever.

  “Aimee! Enja! Stop!” Both of them obeyed, skidding to a halt and turning to him.

  Neither got the opportunity to question him.

  A loud boom thundered beneath them, the force rumbling through the ground. “Run,” screamed Enja as the trio fled toward the trees.

  They had barely made it to the safety of the wooded area at the top of the hill when the mansion exploded, blasting debris high into the air.

  “Move! We need to get out of the debris landing zone,” yelled Joshua as he grabbed Aimee and helped her to her feet. They ran, crashing through the trees, falling tiles and pipes and stones littering their wake.

  When they reached their vehicles, the three remaining members of the Asgard team drew to a halt and stared back at the thick black smoke rising into the night.

  “Think they made it out?” asked Enja, her tone again businesslike.

  “Definitely. They wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble to capture Bryn just to blow her to bits.”

  “Yes. But that’s Bryn,” replied Enja, an eyebrow curving. She didn’t need to completely clarify.

  What about Pia?

  Chapter 20

  Joshua was pacing in front of their four-wheel drive. Or at least, he was trying to pace, but he kept having to weave around fallen debris.

  He’d almost tripped over a chrome showerhead, and had crushed a ceramic wall clock in the shape of a horse’s head.

  Erik’s team was currently sweeping the property to ensure that there were no longer any live explosives left. The New York team had arrived within less than twenty minutes while Aimee, Enja, and Joshua had hung around the car, supremely tempted to go back and check things out.

  But Joshua had insisted that nobody go back down there until Erik’s team gave them the all clear. Which meant Joshua couldn’t go down there either, no matter how much he wanted to sift through the rubble in case Bryn was lying there in need of help.

  Stupid thinking though, because he knew she wasn’t there.

  “Karl sure messed up,” muttered Enja as she glared at the tablet that the warrior had dropped near the bushes.

  External cameras had been set up along the perimeter of the property, with a high-security wifi link to the recording system within the house.

  Joshua and Enja had first assumed that the camera-feed recordings would have been destroyed when the mansion blew up, but Joshua recalled Karl had been showing off and had confirmed that he’d tapped the feeds. A tap that was still live even without Karl in the vicinity to access it.

  So, thanks to Karl, the double-agent, the team had full coverage of the grounds around the property up to and including the explosion.

  “Yeah. You’d think he’d have been a little more careful, considering he was a freaking mole. Aren’t spies and double agents supposed to be brilliant con-artists?” asked Aimee, rubbing her fist up and down the outer side of her thigh.

  “Karl was trying to impress us. Guess he got a little too overzealous there.” Joshua grinned as he peeked over Enja’s shoulder. Frowning, Joshua pointed at the right-hand side of the screen. “Back that up.”

  Enja complied and rewound the video which showed a panel van leaving the carport two minutes before the mansion blew.

  “Dark blue, late seventies model.”

  “Well would you look at that,” Joshua said, emitting a low whistle.

  “What?” asked Aimee as she hurried over.

  “We have plates,” said Joshua as he watched the recording of a blue panel van exiting the property at a speed so great they’d taken out the potted plants that guarded the driveway on the side of the road.

  “Seriously?” Aimee’s eyebrows waggled. “Nice stroke of luck.”

  “You mean our luck that Karl was careless.”

  “Yeah that.”

  Erik closed in on them, frowning. “I’ve got a few people searching into Karl’s history with NYHQ, and his deeper Midgard background.”

  Joshua quirked an eyebrow. “You won’t find anything. Whoe
ver these people are, they are too smart. Whatever you find will likely be an alias as opposed to leading us to something solid regarding his identity.”

  Erik put a hand to Joshua’s shoulder. “I know. I agree with you. I’m just combing through every possibility right now. I don’t want to miss anything.”

  Joshua nodded, already distracted.

  The tablet in Enja’s hand beeped and a message popped up. “Van’s registered as owned by RigNav Holdings, a subsidiary of the same company that owns the blown-up mansion and this property. We have an address in Rushmore Estate, six miles from here.”

  Joshua felt a surge of hope. “Right. It’s the only lead we have. Maybe that address can lead us to wherever they’ve taken Bryn. Can we get a team together and move out immediately?” asked Joshua, staring around him at the devastation but seeing none of it.

  All he could think about was Bryn and whatever danger she—and Pia too—was currently in and the fact that he couldn’t help them without finding out where they were. The team had been blown apart just as the mansion had been.

  Then Joshua stiffened.

  “What?” asked Aimee, taking a step toward him.

  “Where the hell is Aidan?” Joshua asked, even though he suspected nobody would be able to answer that. “This better not be another abduction.”

  Erik nodded, his expression enigmatic. “We have something else which you’re going to both like, and hate.”

  Aimee squinted at Erik. “Cryptic?”

  The man smiled. “The Asgard team roll call had three warriors missing, Aidan being one of them. I had my team check on the call he received and, contrary to what I’d suspected, he actually did get a call.”

  “That’s a mark in his favor,” said Enja dryly.

  “One would assume. But on further investigation…Aidan took the call in mini meeting room M2. The rooms all have video surveillance for security reasons but I believe Karl disabled them for the room, both audio and video.”

  “So we have no proof of him taking the call?” asked Aimee.

  “Other than the call log and duration?” offered Joshua, suspecting already where Erik was headed. “And origin, of course.”

  Erik nodded, his bald head gleaming. “Exactly. We traced the call to an address that belongs to a subsidiary company of…” He waved a hand at the team who muttered ‘RigNav Holdings’ in unison. “Right in one.”

  “And the address is?” asked Aimee, smirking as she tilted her head toward Joshua.

  “7265 Shepstone Avenue, Rushmore Estates.”

  Joshua gritted his teeth. “Bastard.”

  Erik lifted a hand. “You need to see this. Just…before you hand out judgment, you might want to see what happened when Aidan left the building.”

  Erik pulled his smartphone from his pocket and brought up a video which he shared with Enja’s tablet. She shifted the device so Aimee and Joshua could also see the recording as it played.

  Joshua watched as Aidan exited the building and crossed the road to where a blue panel van waited. He spoke to the driver, shaking his head repeatedly.

  “They having an argument?”

  “Seems so,” Joshua muttered.

  Just then, Aidan turned on his heel and started to cross the road. But he never made it. A silver Lexus pulled up, the passenger door opening as the vehicle slid to a stop. The driver of the panel van jumped out of his seat, grabbed Aidan and shoved him inside the car, then slammed the door shut behind him.

  The Lexus barely even drew to a full stop before it took off again, tires screaming as it took the first corner.

  “Was Aidan just abducted?”

  “Looks like it,” muttered Joshua. He’d been partially hoping that Aidan had run off and deserted Bryn and the team.

  “Still, he didn’t look to me like he was keen on joining whoever these guys were,” said Enja, giving Aidan the benefit of the doubt.

  Joshua couldn’t disagree.

  “So let’s make that three team members that need saving.”

  Chapter 21

  7265 Shepstone Avenue, Rushmore Estates turned out to be an abandoned mental hospital, exterior redbrick walls stained and overgrown with grass, weeds, and an abundance of ivy and some other creeping plant Joshua couldn’t identify.

  “Are we sure the place is not abandoned?” asked Aimee.

  “It’s not abandoned. There’re security sensors at exits, and swiped card access on all doors, all live.”

  “Well spotted, einherjar,” said Erik. “In addition, our energy sensor confirm a significant amount of power consumption on the property.”

  “Safe to say it’s not going to be as easy as ringing the bell and yelling out ‘Avon calling,’ right?” asked Aimee dryly.

  The group chuckled at that, then grew serious and faced the facility. “Ready the teams?” Joshua said, leaving the suggestion open for Erik to take over.

  “I have Vex and Dyson who are both lethal in a fight. And Caris will lead them.”

  Joshua nodded and shifted on his feet, eager to get moving. Minutes later, Erik waved them forward and the team scaled the broken chain-link fence and approached the exit door.

  Another solid metal door with a keypad lock greeted them, this time alarmed and ready to notify the occupants. Erik waved over one of his warriors, Dyson—a long-haired blond who looked more suited to riding the waves on a sunny beach somewhere, than using breaking software in order to break into a secret facility.

  The warrior set to cracking the code, plugging in wires and an external keyboard. Moments later Dyson grunted and got to his feet. Two moments later the keypad beeped and the door clicked, shifting open a few inches.

  “We’re all set. Keep the comms channel clear. Caris will be keeping us updated as to occupants within the building. Action only on my mark, or Joshua’s.” Erik scanned the team, then headed inside without another word.

  The interior of the building was a warren of corridors and rooms, mostly bare of everything right down to the flooring, paint, and fittings.

  But, the further they went the more the place appeared to improve in condition.

  Joshua paused as they reached an intersection of corridors and was about to head after the team when a sound filtered through to him. “Hold up, guys,” he whispered, listening for the sound again.

  Erik drew closer. “I hear it. Morse Code.”

  “What’s it say?” asked Aimee, fear shifting in her gaze.

  “Pia. West 303.”

  Without a word the team took the left hallway that led them through a pair of double doors to the West Wing. Immediately on their right was a stairwell and they filed inside, hurrying up the two floors.

  On the landing, they faced a security door that guarded access to the third floor. “If anything confirms something nefarious is going on, this does,” said Enja, merely filling in the dead air as Dyson did his magic and opened the door.

  The team slid through the doorway and studied the darkened hall. “303 is this way,” said Dex, waving a hand left.

  The team hurried forward as Caris updated them. “This floor is unoccupied. I have movement on the fourth floor, half a dozen heat signatures.”

  “I’ll hack the feeds,” Dyson said, pulling out a keyboard and a tablet. He worked as he walked, as if the whole thing was an old hat to him.

  “Why can’t I learn how to do that?” Aimee asked dryly.

  “Cos saving lives is much cooler than hacking systems,” Joshua whispered as they reached the corner. He peered around into the hall that led to room 303 then sprang back.

  Over his shoulder he glared at Caris, mouthing the word, “guard.”

  Caris’s lips narrowed and she stared at the screen of her tablet. Then she nodded, swiped her golden-brown hair from her eyes and mouthed back ‘jotunn’ with an expression Joshua could only describe as disgust.

  With a nod, Joshua glanced at Erik who lifted a finger then slammed a fist into the wall behind him. The team pressed their backs against the wall as
footsteps drew closer.

  Just as the jotunn turned the corner, Erik lunged, landing a fist to the guard’s throat.

  The jotunn dropped to the ground and Erik promptly relieved the guard of his weapons and comm equipment. Dex dragged the guy off and Joshua focused on the corner. A quick check, as well as Caris, confirmed the place all clear, although Joshua knew better now than to be too complacent.

  Their team ran for the hospital room where the door stood open to reveal a bruised and battered Pia chained to bolts fixed into the concrete wall, dark brown feathers scattered along the floor. The valkyries head hung forward, but she snapped to attention as soon as Joshua entered.

  “Oh, thank Odin,” whispered Pia as Dex and Dyson hurried to her to help her down.

  “I’m sorry Pia. If you’re not hurt, we need to keep moving,” Joshua said, guilt overwhelming him at the valkyrie’s swollen face.

  The valkyrie merely gave a curt nod, fury flashing in her eyes. “Let’s get those assholes. You might have to hold me back,” she said as she limped past him and out into the hall. Aimee curled an arm around Pia’s waist, as the valkyrie updated them on what she knew.

  Which turned out to be very little and not much help. “There’s an office space upstairs just before you get to their secure area. Just be a little careful as you pass them, as I think a few people come and go.”

  After that piece of information Pia fell silent, and Joshua found himself wincing as he watched her limp her way to the stairwell and up the flight to the fourth floor.

  Still, he refused to insult the valkyrie by giving her an excuse to leave. If she was anything like Bryn or Aimee, he’d have to brave her fury.

  Perhaps some other time.

  Chapter 22

  Before they entered the fourth floor, Joshua glanced over at Caris and then Dyson. “We got video surveillance on this floor?” he asked, hoping against hope that they’d at least have some eyes on the place before they barged in.

  Caris nodded. “We weren’t close enough until now to hack it. It’s a closed feed system with high security. Military specs, from what I can tell.”