Saving the White House, and everyone still inside, was a different problem altogether.
It launched, Annabelle said into their minds through Katie’s mental links.
Around them, some of the police and members of the National Guard were yelling, but Sean couldn’t make out words in the frantic noise. He tightened his grip on Donovan and Liam, making their safety his priority. He didn’t know what the blast radius of this particular cruise missile would be, but if it was anything like the mission in Arizona a couple weeks ago, the destruction would be devastating, especially within a heavily populated urban environment.
Sean could see the streak in the night sky that was the missile launching, the heat of its thruster brighter than the lit-up megacity surrounding them. It stayed on course for a second or two before being abruptly yanked to the side by an invisible force. It careened downward, away from the White House, and slammed into the middle of the National Mall.
Sean couldn’t feel the explosion in his phased state, but he could see it. The Washington Monument disappeared in an eruption of fire and smoke that roiled violently against an invisible telekinetic shield.
“Thank fuck,” Donovan breathed out heavily.
Sean let them both go now that the major threat had passed, though none of them were in the clear yet and wouldn’t be for a long, long while.
He ruthlessly shoved his thoughts about what had happened to Kyle to the back of his mind, ignoring his worry for Alexei and Jamie at the same time. Sean let his training to compartmentalize parts of himself settle through him as he focused on the fight they still had to win.
The wind brought the smell of fire and burnt chemicals to his nose and Sean looked back at the National Mall. Whoever had been holding up the telekinetic shield had retracted their power now that the threat was no more. Smoke billowed into the sky as the wind teased it, wafting it over the megacity.
The perimeter around the White House was guarded by a heavy presence of MDF metahumans, Strike Force, the National Guard, and the Metropolitan police. The media that had been on hand tonight to cover the arrivals for the State Dinner had been ordered to take cover with the rest of the civilians, but Sean had a feeling they were still reporting from inside.
Liam’s identity had been compromised, but seeing as how he’d chosen to fight, Sean assumed he knew the risk. Now that their powers were working, Liam could target the enemy with his electrokinesis from a distance, which saved Sean from running all over the place to disrupt what he could on his own.
That didn’t mean the rest of the fight was easy.
Pockets of Sons of Adam fighters were embedded in and around the National Mall. Certain streets were impassable to everyone but metahumans due to the detonation of Splice chemical bombs. Washington, D.C. was under a citywide shelter-in-place order, and first responders had their work cut out for them dealing with both the casualties around the National Mall and those in zones farther out caused from more bombs and debris from enemy fighter jets that had crashed to the ground after being blown out of the sky.
Slowly, in the dark hours of the morning, what was left of Alpha Team regrouped.
First it was Annabelle, dropping down from the sky and bringing a heavy military crate full of ammunition for everyone in their section to reload with.
“Heard y’all needed a refill,” she said, using her anti-gravity power to gently lower the crate to the ground.
“Sticking around?” Donovan asked as he leaned over to unlock the case.
“Skies are clear, so yeah.”
Trevor was next, arriving on the back of a National Guard troop transport truck, mouth drawn in a tight line of pain. Sean eyed Trevor worriedly as he swung down off the truck, looking for a physical wound, then realized it was all mental.
“Was that you?” Liam asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the smoking crater in the middle of the National Mall.
“Yes,” Trevor said tiredly.
“Brilliant. Thank you.”
Liam’s tone was sincere, with no humor in it. Sean wasn’t the only one nodding in agreement. Trevor just shrugged, taking up position farther down the line. Delta Team was guarding the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue NW with several Strike Force members backing them up. There’d been a heavy assault on that section of the line right after the defensive energy shield went down, and Sean knew their side had suffered casualties before beating back the attack. The shield still wasn’t back up, but Sean heard through other people’s comms that the MDF had people working on it.
Dawn was breaking on the horizon when Jamie, Katie, Madison, Annabelle, and one of the MDF’s empaths finally made it to their position, walking across the National Mall with weapons in hand. Donovan spotted them first and he called out for everyone to, “Hold fire!”
Sean wanted to run to Alexei, but he held position. He knew what had happened in the Supreme Court Building and was expecting his lover to be an absolute mess. When Alexei finally made it to the line and looked at Sean with calm gray eyes, he knew something was wrong. Someone who’d just had his world ripped away shouldn’t be that calm. Sean glanced at the empath sticking close to Katie and wondered about the mental interference going on keeping Alexei from breaking down.
To say nothing of Jamie.
His face was devoid of all emotion, blue eyes empty holes that looked through everyone. Whatever was affecting Alexei affected Jamie as well. Sean wondered how much longer Katie and the empath with her could hold them both together.
Then Sean became aware of the fact that Jamie wasn’t wearing any head protection, that his face wasn’t covered in any way. In solidarity, Katie, Alexei, and Madison seemed to have removed their nanotech strips and lifted their tactical goggles off their faces. Alexei was missing his tactical goggles completely.
Beside him, Donovan lifted his tactical goggles off his eyes, letting them rest against his hard helmet, before scraping off his nanotech strips. “All right, then. If that’s how it is, sir.”
Sean looked down the line on either side of him where Annabelle and Trevor were doing the same thing. His own nanotech strips were already dead from his power, but Sean peeled them off anyway after removing his tactical goggles.
Voices murmured around him as people recognized Jamie, but the team ignored the chatter.
“Viper, tell Echo to teleport to our location,” Jamie ordered as they crossed the defensive line.
Moments later, Tessa teleported in with a crack of displaced air, snapping off a tired salute. “Apollo.”
“Take Inferno back to base.”
When Alexei didn’t argue, didn’t protest about finishing up on the field first as he normally would, Sean realized why Alexei wanted to return to base.
For Kyle.
Sean looked at Alexei, worried about how the other man would react once he was out of Katie’s telepathic reach and the empath’s touch. Sean wanted to go with him, to be there for him during the aftermath, but Sean knew he wouldn’t be allowed to leave the field, not when the threat wasn’t fully contained.
Tessa walked over to Alexei and took his hand in hers. Neither said goodbye as she teleported them out. Jamie took a deep, soundless breath, his thousand-yard-stare eerie to witness.
“Where is mobile command?” Jamie asked. “I need a sitrep.”
“White House proper. I can take you there,” Liam replied.
“Remain at your posts,” Katie ordered the team.
Jamie, Liam, Katie, and the empath who hadn’t introduced herself made their way to the White House. The rest of the team stayed put, watching the sun rise over the battered megacity. In daylight, the gaping crater where the Washington Monument once stood was a black scar that was hard to ignore in the middle of the national park.
Smoke drifted into the sky from fires still burning in areas of the cities. Sirens drifted through the air; Sean could pick out which were police, fire department, or ambulance by tone alone. The fighting seemed to be dying down, with th
e Sons of Adam who remained either surrendering or dying.
The rest of Alpha Team stayed guarding the White House until the director ordered them off the field. Beta Team came to relieve them, with Miriam arriving first.
“Go,” she told them. “I can shield if anything happens, but it’s starting to calm down out there now.”
“Thanks,” Trevor said.
Sean and the others broke ranks, trudging up to the White House as a group. They bypassed the empty luxury pavilion on the South Lawn and headed for the rear entrance. Secret Service special agents, National Guard soldiers, and police had created a second line of defense around the building itself during the fighting. No one standing guard stopped them from entering.
Inside was a madhouse, with many of the guests for the State Dinner still hiding inside, being watched over by harried-looking Secret Service special agents. No one seemed hurt as far as Sean could tell, just tired and scared.
“East Wing,” Madison said, head tilted slightly to the side as she listened to her comms. “They’re in the PEOC.”
The president and designated protectees had been relegated to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center during the attack rather than the Situation Room. The PEOC was located in a bunker below the West Wing and had been expanded through various renovations in the past few centuries. Rather than a small group of people, it could safely and comfortably house up to fifty. Dug deep enough to withstand a bombing attack and equipped with a restricted environmental system, the bunker was heavily guarded to protect the head of the country’s government.
President Michael Rodriguez was on a video conference call with Nazari and CIA Director Ryan Sutton that didn’t sound like it was going well for Sutton. Liam sat at the long conference table with his parents, the three of them in deep discussion with what looked like the Queen of England on a separate uplink.
Jamie stood in a corner with his parents and sister, Katie, and the empath. Without a word, the team went to stand with their captain, providing what physical support they could.
“—footage of you stopping that fire engine is all over the news, Jamie. We won’t make a statement until we clear it with Director Nazari,” Richard said.
Jamie stared at his father as if he didn’t even hear him. “I don’t care.”
“Jamie…” Charlotte said, her voice trailing off. She reached for him, but then thought better of it, balling up her hand into a fist. “What happened out there?”
“You asked before if there was someone in my life,” Jamie said, staring through them as his voice cracked. “We were engaged. I loved him. And I…”
He trailed off, the words not coming, that thousand-yard-stare still firmly entrenched. Sean watched as Charlotte covered her mouth with her hand, blinking rapidly. Richard seemed shocked, but it was Leah who rushed forward to wrap her arms around Jamie.
“Oh, no. Jamie, no,” Leah said, choking on her words. “Please tell me Kyle is alive.”
No one on the team reacted to her use of Kyle’s name. Sean figured there was no hiding their relationship anymore, not after what happened, not after the state Jamie was currently in. As badly off as Jamie was, all Sean could think about was Alexei.
When Jamie let the silence grow, Leah started quietly crying. She clung to her brother, but Jamie didn’t move to hold her. Jamie’s lack of reaction wasn’t normal, and it worried Sean. He was used to Jamie expressing himself in the field in some way, but here it seemed as if Katie, with the empath’s help, had cut off Jamie’s ability to feel anything.
Charlotte stepped forward and guided her daughter into her arms, but her attention remained on Jamie. The worry in her eyes spoke volumes.
“Captain Callahan.”
At the sound of the president addressing Jamie, everyone on Alpha Team turned to focus on their commander-in-chief. The uplink with the CIA director had been closed, but the one with Nazari was still live.
“Sir,” Jamie replied woodenly after a long pause.
“Your actions on behalf of your country during the fight are commendable,” the president said, choosing his words carefully. “Director Nazari has requested Alpha Team be pulled from the field. I’m sending you back to base.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you for your service.” That dark gaze swept over all of them, and Sean found himself straightening his shoulders beneath that weighty regard despite his exhaustion. “All of you.”
No one said a word, merely saluted at the praise none of them wanted. The team didn’t move until Jamie did, and they followed him out of the bunker. They were heading for the stairwell at the end of the brightly lit corridor when Liam called out to them.
“Wait.”
Sean pressed himself against the wall, as did the others, to give Liam room. He didn’t hesitate to pull Jamie into a hard hug, not bothered by the fact that Jamie didn’t reciprocate.
“You aren’t alone,” Liam said fiercely. “Remember that.”
Jamie didn’t respond, and Sean could see Katie’s mouth drawn in pain. Whatever she was doing to hold Jamie together, he had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to keep it up much longer. Liam let Jamie go and retreated back to the bunker. The rest of them made it back upstairs out of the restricted area and out of the White House.
Burwell, the Secret Service special agent assigned to Jamie’s security detail, was waiting for them up above.
“We have vehicles ready for all of you,” he said.
“Thank you,” Katie said.
The SUVs in question were parked at the North Portico, guarded by the Secret Service. The team split up, and Sean found himself riding in the SUV with Jamie and Katie, Donovan behind the wheel.
“Good luck,” the empath said as she shut the door after Katie climbed inside.
Donovan started the engine and drove forward. Sean looked over his shoulder at where Katie and Jamie sat in the middle bench seat.
“Any news?” Sean asked quietly.
Katie closed her eyes, pain lining her face. “The FBI is at the CIA headquarters in Langley to arrest Bennett and those aiding and abetting him.”
“He won’t be there, and that’s not what I was asking about.”
“I know. Put a call through to base and have them get Alexei on an uplink.”
Sean did as he was told, accessing the control panel on the vehicle’s dash while Donovan slowly navigated them through the security lines and checkpoints laid down by multiple agencies and the military.
It took close to ten minutes for someone back at base to track down Alexei and get him on an uplink. No video, because Alexei didn’t accept that option, and Sean’s heart sank.
“Lyosha?” Sean said, not knowing what more to say.
Alexei’s answer didn’t come in words, but in a painful-sounding sob.
Sean clenched his hands into fists, feeling tears prick his eyes, wanting so badly to be where Alexei was in order to hold him.
In the rearview mirror, Sean watched as Jamie hunched over and covered his face with his hands, shoulders shaking as he cried. Katie reached for him, dragging Jamie close in order to hold him, her own tears falling silently down her cheeks.
Donovan kept a white-knuckled grip on the wheel that never loosened on the long, long drive back to base and the heartache waiting for them there.
They parked outside the emergency room doors of Medical, where a group of doctors and nurses in scrubs were waiting for them. They didn’t immediately approach the vehicles, giving them some last bit of privacy before they were all seen to.
Sean looked over his shoulder at where Katie was still holding Jamie, catching sight of her reddened eyes. “I need to go.”
She nodded, and Sean slipped out of the SUV, hurrying toward the entrance. He waved off the first doctor who came forward, ready to assist, and stepped through the sliding doors. He approached the nearest elevator, glad to see it was empty.
“Where is Staff Sergeant Dvorkin?” he asked Ceres, the MDF’s smart-building AI as h
e entered the elevator.
“Level 5. Waiting room G,” Ceres told him.
Sean grimaced, his stomach churning. Alexei’s incoherent response over the uplink hadn’t been a good indicator of the situation in the least. He knew what had happened in the courtroom; they’d all been mentally present at the end thanks to Katie. But knowing what had happened and dealing with the aftermath required a strength Sean wasn’t sure he had after a long night of fighting.
But for Alexei, he would do and be anything.
Sean found Alexei sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, knees bent and arms curled around his head, quietly crying. Sean’s throat got tight, and swallowing became difficult as he approached.
Alexei didn’t seem to know he was there, not right away. He violently shrugged Sean’s hand off when he settled it on Alexei’s shoulder. Kneeling down, Sean reached for him again.
“Lyosha,” Sean said, his voice breaking on the name.
Alexei’s head jerked up, gray eyes reddened and swollen from tears, his lip bitten through, as if he’d tried to keep himself from screaming. “Senya, I…”
No words either in Russian or English came out of his mouth. Sean moved closer, nudging Alexei into straightening out his legs so Sean could sit on his lap. Strong arms wrapped around his torso with a punishing grip, holding on tight as Alexei buried his face against Sean’s chest.
“I’m sorry,” Sean whispered hoarsely, pressing his cheek to the top of Alexei’s head as the white walls around them blurred from his tears. “I’m so sorry, Lyosha.”
Sean held Alexei as he cried, wishing he could do more, could take away the hurt ripping apart his lover’s life. All he could do was be there for Alexei, even though he knew it wasn’t enough. As he held Alexei, Sean was almost shamefully grateful that Alexei was alive and in his arms.
He knew Jamie wouldn’t get that opportunity with Kyle today.
19
A Final Salute
In the Requiem (Metahuman Files Book 5) Page 29