I shook my head. “No,” I assured him. “If they tracked Reed to this area, they would’ve stuck around until they figured it out. This isn’t your fault.” If Tillman knew who Case was, because of his connection to Dixon, this was going to be bad for him. But I wasn’t going to share that with the kid. “He’s alive.” I patted Daze’s shoulder. “They will keep him alive.” How long, however, was debatable.
“Are you sure you can bring him back?” His eyes were rimmed with red as tears continued streaming down his face.
“Yes,” I answered fervently, even though that emotion didn’t match how I was feeling on the inside. I smiled. “You want to know how I’m going to do it?”
“How?” His nose had begun to drip again.
“With Maisie,” I said. “She knows Case. She can pick him out of a crowd of unknowns and give me his precise location, so I can get to him without being detected.” And annihilate anyone standing in my way.
“Okay,” he said, mopping his sleeve under his nose. “When are you going to leave? Soon?”
I stood, flipping my visor up. “Yes. I’m leaving right after I drop you off with the others.” Time was critical. Each moment that passed, Case’s life would be in further jeopardy. Plus, they wouldn’t be expecting any kind of retaliation within a single day.
“You’re going to make the guys who took him pay for what they did, right?”
I grabbed his hand, leading him out of the barracks toward Luce. “Oh, yes. And I’m going to make it hurt.”
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Holly Danger: Book Five
DANGER’S
HUNT
CHAPTER ONE
“Going alone is too risky,” Bender argued. “You heard Reed when we gave him Babble. He said his militia was one hundred and seventy-six strong, and Tillman, an imminent threat in his own right, has another thirty at least.” Bender leaned against the wall, the whir of the medi-pod in the basement of the government building we stood in churned at a steady rate. Mary had been in there for at least two hours.
I stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed, facing off with my crew about the dangerous journey I was about to embark on whether they liked it or not. “I’m not backing down on this. If we don’t take them by surprise, we lose any chance of saving Case.” That wasn’t going to happen. Daze stood near me, sniffling, still blaming himself for Case’s capture. It seemed Reed, our unwilling Bureau of Truth former prisoner and informant, had been implanted with a tracking device. The militia had lost his signal when he’d entered the barracks, but had lain in wait until Case had arrived. By the time I’d gotten there they were already gone.
“This is my fault,” Daze sniffed. “I’ll go with Holly.”
I settled a hand on his shoulder. “No one’s going with me except Maisie. She’s all I need, and if I don’t leave now, Case could be dead by the time I get there.” My gaze landed firmly on Lockland, then Darby, settling on Bender. Ned sat in a chair by the medi-pod, but he wasn’t part of this discussion. “They have just over an hour head start as it stands right now. If I move soon, I can be right behind them. Maisie can help with the rest. She’ll be able to locate Case’s signature, differentiating it from the rest. This is not a war. This is me sneaking in, grabbing Case before they kill him, and getting out.”
“It’s not going to be that easy and you know it,” Lockland said. “They’re going to have that place on lockdown and they have access to tech we know nothing about. From what you told me from your view from the sky, it’s a large concrete building that very well might be impenetrable.”
“I never said this would be simple. And nothing is impenetrable, especially with the right gear,” I said. “I’m the best chance Case has and we all know it.” Lockland’s face was set. “How about this, if Maisie can’t find a way in with a greater than fifty percent success rate, I’ll head back and we come up with a new plan. You have my word.” When we’d broken into this building, we’d found that Maisie had the capacity to calculate odds when it came to mission operations. She was military after all.
“Fifty percent?” Darby balked from his position next to the medi-pod. “I was thinking more like eighty-seven. Why would you risk your life on fifty percent chance of survival?”
“I said greater than fifty,” I replied. “I have to account for the fact Maisie will underestimate my skill level. She’s a computer, after all. She’s going to give me her recommendation based on combat success rates of average soldiers in her sixty plus year old database. That’s not me.” I took a step forward, dropping my arm off Daze’s shoulder. “I’m going. We can argue about this, but it won’t change my mind. Case would do the same for me. Hell, if I’d been taken someone would already be gone. I can tell you now that the percentage of success will go down considerably if anyone joins me. This is a one-woman operation, and after I get Case,” my voice firm, “we’re heading down to rendezvous with the scientists. Once the militia and Tillman find out he’s gone, they will retaliate. We’ll ready ourselves down there, and you ready yourselves up here. If they don’t strike within a few days, we meet up.”
Bender took a step forward. “I don’t like it. I say one of us goes with you. You’re going to need backup.”
I shook my head. “The only thing working in our favor is stealth. More than one person and we lose that. Don’t forget they have access to live video feed. I’m planning on sneaking in on the sly, not announcing myself. Maisie will be able to detect tech and individuals. I can do this, but I do it alone.”
Lockland gave me a long look. Then he brought his head down once. “Fine. I can see there’s no changing your mind. But the percentage of success, according to Maisie, has to be greater than sixty percent.”
“Fifty-five,” I said.
He slowly shook his head. “Sixty.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. “I’ll just bring enough firepower with me that Maisie ups the odds—”
The medi-pod began to slow, a green light flickering from the readout. I headed over, anxious to see if Mary was all right. Lockland and Bender followed as Daze squeezed in front. Green was good. At least I hoped it was.
“What does it say?” Daze asked, his voice conveying all our concern and anxiety. “Is she going to be okay?”
“Let’s give Darby some space,” I said, taking a small step back.
“The preliminary diagnostics look encouraging,” Darby said. “It says eighty percent of the nucleotides have been repaired and are now functioning. Her liver and brain activity are almost normal.”
A sound came from inside.
“Darb, open the top,” I prodded.
Darby, flustered, fumbled with the latch and lofted the lid. This one wasn’t all glass, like some of the others, so we couldn’t see Mary’s face.
I leaned over, Daze next to me, Ned peering down from the other side…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amanda Carlson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, with a BA in both Speech and Hearing Science & Child Development. She went on to get an A.A.S in Sign Language Interpreting and worked as an interpreter until her first child was born. She’s the author of the high octane Jessica McClain urban fantasy series published by Orbit, the Sin City Collectors paranormal romance series, the contemporary fantasy Phoebe Meadows series, and the futuristic/dystopian Holly Danger series. Look for these books in stores everywhere. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three kids.
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Nothing is created without a great team.
My thanks to:
Awesome Cover design: Damonza
&n
bsp; Digital and print formatting: Author E.M.S
Copyedits/proofs: Joyce Lamb
Final proof: Marlene Engel
Danger's Cure: (Holly Danger Book 4) Page 21