Tiger in the Hot Zone (Shifter Agents Book 4)

by Lauren Esker

Right in the middle of the field.

  "Whoa," Noah said. He looked up at the blue sky, dotted with clouds, and imagined what this looked like from the air. "Is this a helipad?"

  "You're on the right track, but you're not thinking crazy enough."

  "What, balloons or skydivers or something?" Then her earlier comment about UFOs came back to him. "No way."

  "Yes, way. My dad maintains his own UFO landing pad, just in case aliens decide to stop by the Cascades in search of a friendly landing site."

  "Does he turn those lights on every night?"

  "Yeah, he does. Well, at least when the farm is solvent and they can afford the electric bill."

  All Noah could manage was, "Why?"

  "To prove the Earth isn't a terribly unfriendly place, I guess. Of all the weird things my dad is into, at least his heart is in the right place for this one. If you believe in aliens, that is."

  She sat down, left leg cocked up with the prosthetic one stretched out in front of her. Noah settled next to her, and she leaned into him.

  "I used to come up here a lot when I was a kid. The tower was brand new then. It was so peaceful and private." She turned her head to look up at him. "Besides showing you the UFO landing pad, which is a sight you really can't miss while you're here, I needed to take you somewhere I could make sure no one would overhear us."

  "Oh really?" He stole a quick kiss from those oh-so-kissable lips, so tantalizingly close to his own. "It's not the mile-high club, but I guess it's about as close as we're likely to get ..."

  Peri delivered a playful cuff to his shoulder. "You dork, I didn't bring you up here to have sex with you. Although ... while we're here ..." She looked around as if gauging the tower's structural integrity before yanking herself back to reality. "Right. No. There's something I didn't tell you earlier. You haven't asked where I was when the safehouse burned down."

  The reminder of the fire was like a bucket of cold water dashed across his libido. "Actually, I have a pretty good idea. I found your trail and Cho's behind the house. I was snooping around as a tiger." It felt amazing to finally be able to just tell her things, rather than trying to find an everyday explanation for clues he'd discovered as a shifter. "I know you two left the house together."

  "We didn't leave together. Those international criminals you told me about ... are they called the Valeria?"

  "Yes," Noah said slowly, gazing down at her, trying to read her face.

  "I saw Agent Cho leave the safehouse and followed her. I found her in the woods, talking to one of them."

  It hit him like a blow to the gut. "How do you know he was with them?"

  "From things they said. And anyway, they admitted it after they caught me watching."

  "Did they hurt you?" Protective anger flooded him. He didn't believe Cho was working with the Valeria, but plainly she was running her own operation on the side—and she had no damn right to drag Peri into it.

  "No, not really. Agent Cho said the guy was working with her."

  "An informant?"

  "Maybe? Things happened pretty fast, and then the house blew up. Anyway, I figured you ought to know, in case she was lying and is really a spy or something."

  He put an arm around her and rested his cheek on top of her head. "Thank you for telling me. I knew that she knew about the Valeria, but I didn't realize she was actively liaising with them. I don't think she's a spy. I just think she has trouble telling other people what they need to know."

  Peri choked on a laugh. "Noah, you're a fed. It was in the brochure, dude."

  "Okay, I guess you have a point there." At least he'd managed to make her smile.

  "I used to think I was the queen of secrets. Turns out I can't hold a candle to you guys."

  "Like you said, it's what we do." He stretched out a foot and nudged the coffee can with the lid. "Not to change the subject, but I'm dying to know what's in here. Ammo? Explosives?"

  "Something a lot more boring, I'm guessing."

  It turned out to contain a pair of small binoculars and a scuffed paperback Heinlein novel.

  "Dad does love the sci-fi." Peri scrambled to her feet and clamped the binoculars to her eyes. "Well, since we're supposed to be doing lookout duty, let's do some looking."

  They passed the binoculars back and forth. There wasn't much to look at (the novelty of studying the compound at high magnification wore off quickly) but it was peaceful up here, with no sound except the wind, occasional vocalizations from the goats and cows, and the faint noises that drifted up from the compound. It really did seem as if Seattle was worlds away. Peri was right, it was hard to conceive of danger touching them here—

  "Noah," Peri said suddenly in a strange voice. She pushed the binoculars into his hand. "Do you see that car parked there? It's just visible through the trees."

  Noah put the binoculars to his eyes and tried to aim them in the direction she was pointing, a stretch of the gravel road behind the compound, intermittently visible through ranks of pine trees. He wouldn't have been able to see the vehicle at all if not for the sun glinting off it. Peri had a good eye.

  "Why is it there?" Peri asked, her voice urgent. "I don't see any driveways or houses. They're just parked at the side of the road."

  "Tourists?" Noah suggested, though his heart rate had sped up. "Hunters?"

  "Maybe. I wish I could see it better. Because it sure could be a dead ringer for the big SUV that's been following us, don't you think?"

  "I can't tell." It was bigger than a commuter car, definitely some sort of SUV or truck, but the trees hid the details. "Lots of people have trucks in rural places, right?"

  "Sure, but not usually that new and shiny. Noah, I don't like this."

  Her voice shook, and when Noah looked down at her, she'd gone pale. He wrapped an arm around her.

  "You said there are traps in the woods, right? And there are armed guards." Despite the comforting words, he was already struggling to make contingency plans ... and he didn't like any of the contingencies that came to mind. He was cut off from backup in a community of civilians. There were a million ways this could go wrong.

  "I know. But—I'd better call Dad." She got the walkie-talkie out of her pocket. "Hey, base, this is, uh—damn it, I can't remember the code name for the tower. Dad, this is Peri." Taking her thumb off the button, she snapped, "I don't know why he insists on stupid code names for every outpost on the property."

  "You're breaking radio protocols, Eagle's Nest," her father's voice said impatiently from the walkie-talkie.

  "Fuck radio protocols! Dad, you know how I said there was somebody after us? There's an SUV or something similar parked out on the new part of the road past our turnoff. It looks a lot like the one we ran into back in Seattle. Can you send someone to check it out?"

  After a moment's radio silence, her father said, "Eagle's Nest, do you see hostiles?"

  Noah couldn't help thinking his tone sounded like that of a survivalist who had been waiting his entire life for this to happen.

  "No, I don't see anyone. But, Dad, please check it out. I'd feel so much better."

  "Base, this is Station Draco," a different male voice said. "I'm out by the big turn at the trout pond. I could walk up the road and have a look."

  "Roger that, Draco. Do it."

  They waited in fidgety impatience. "Found it," the voice of Draco Station said after a few minutes. "Big gray GMC Yukon, right? It's all locked up. Smoked windows, hard to see in."

  Peri gave Noah a wide-eyed look. "The other one was a Yukon too," she whispered.

  "Ask him about the license plate." Noah surveyed the scenery around them, swiveling his head constantly. At least from up here, they could see anyone who approached them—but they were also targets, framed against the sky.

  "What's the license plate?" Peri asked over the radio.

  "Radio protocols, sweetheart!" her dad admonished.

  "Station Draco here ... just a sec ..."

  Some part of Noah was fully expecting Sta
tion Draco's voice to vanish in a burst of gunfire and static. It was almost a surprise when the man read off the license plate without interruption.

  "That's the same one." Peri was shaking against him. "Noah—"

  There was a sudden whoomph! from down the hill. Noah ducked instinctively, pulling Peri down with him. For the first startled moment he had no idea what had happened, though the sound of shouts and screams and barking dogs carried clearly up the hill to them. That didn't sound like a gunshot, more like some kind of explosion.

  "Stay down," he told Peri, who obeyed in frozen fear. Cautiously Noah got up on his knees and peered between the wooden slats of the railing.

  Dense black smoke was boiling up from one of the buildings in the compound. An instant later, a groaning sound rose on the air, a loud rising and falling moan. Noah had never heard anything like it.

  "What in the hell is that?" he demanded of no one in particular.

  He wasn't expecting an answer, but Peri said, "It's the emergency bell. My dad got his hands on an old tornado siren from some little Midwest town. Usually it's for fires or—is that smoke?" She sat up and clung to the railing in horror as she took in the scene. "Oh my God, Noah, the community center is on fire!"

  "I'm going to get the rifle," Noah told her.

  "We have to help!"

  "No, you are a target. You're safer here than anywhere else."

  "What about them?" Peri demanded, grabbing his arm. "What about Ramona? What about Wendy? Noah, my family is down there. I can't just hide up here while they're in danger."

  A new plan came to him. She wasn't going to like it, but it was the best way he could think of to get her out of harm's way. "Okay. Let's go. Like before, remember? Stay behind me."

  Leaping off the bottom rung of the ladder, he scooped up the rifle Peri's dad had left behind. He slung it over his shoulder so he could press his car keys and phone into Peri's hands as soon as she came off the ladder.

  "What's this for? What are you planning?"

  "I'm going to take you down to my car. I want you to get in it, lock the doors, and drive like a bat out of hell until you either get a cell signal or reach town and can use a pay phone to call the SCB. All the numbers you need are programmed into my phone. The unlock code is 2332."

  "I'm not going to leave—"

  "Peri, listen." He took her by the shoulders. "Here's the thing about working with partners instead of working alone: teamwork means sometimes you get stuck with shit jobs, but they're necessary shit jobs so your partners can do what they need to do. If the Valeria are here, we need backup, but there's no point in both of us going to get it when I can stay here and help your family. I'll escort you to the car so you can call in the cavalry." He gave her arm a tug. "C'mon."

  As they ran down the hill, the pall of smoke grew thicker. The eerie wail of the tornado siren cut out suddenly. Noah prayed silently that no one had died, that no one would die. These people were just living their lives. They hadn't asked to get involved.

  Why the fuck did we ever think the Valeria wouldn't follow us here?

  "Ramona—" Peri panted, coughing in the smoke. "Wendy and the other kids—I can take them with me—"

  "We can't afford the delays. There are other vehicles for getting the kids out. Your job is to call the SCB. Focus on that."

  "This teamwork thing sucks."

  "Yeah, it does," Noah conceded. "The only thing that's worse is not having a team at all."

  He vaulted the pasture fence while Peri wriggled through. Waves of smoke rolled across them as the wind changed, now revealing, now concealing the hub of activity around the community center. There were more people in the compound than he'd realized; even at dinner last night, some of them must not have been there, because there were a couple dozen adults and teenagers fighting the fire with hoses and buckets, while others stood guard around the firefighters with rifles.

  "Hey!" the nearest of the guards bellowed, swinging his weapon to point at them. Noah broke stride, stumbling to a stop with Peri beside him.

  "What's his name, what's his name—Eddie!" Peri cried. "Eddie, it's me, Peri! Hank's daughter!"

  "Yeah, you and that boyfriend of yours." Eddie was coming toward them now, with another armed guard—this one, Noah remembered, was Liam—bringing up the rear. "Drop the gun and stay right where you are."

  Moving slowly, telegraphing every motion, Noah unslung the rifle's strap from his shoulder and laid it on the ground. "We're on your side, man."

  "Yeah? Then why the hell are you running away?"

  Peri looked wild-eyed and desperate. "Eddie, Liam—I'm the one who warned everyone. What's the matter with you?"

  "Answer him," Liam said. His hands on his gun were shaking slightly. "Where are you two going?"

  "I'm sending Peri to get help. Then I was going to come and help you." Noah kept his hands in sight, trying to hunch his shoulders and appear nonthreatening. His heart pounded. He was all too aware how quickly a situation like this could degenerate into violence.

  "Come with us," Eddie ordered, gesturing with his weapon, a large-gauge shotgun. "Both of you."

  "We want to help," Peri protested. "Get my dad. He'll sort this out."

  Their protests were ignored and they were herded at gunpoint into Ramona's house. The first thing Noah heard as they came in was a wailing baby. He thought for a moment the baby had been left alone—he'd seen Ramona among the people fighting the fire—but when their guards herded them into the living room, he found that Wendy had been left in the care of a little girl who looked about six or seven. She was on the couch with the wailing baby in her arms.

  "Eve, honey, take the baby into the bedroom," Eddie told her. "You two, sit down."

  Eve clutched the baby to her chest—strange to see a child that age carrying a baby as big as Wendy; the infant's chubby legs dangled almost to her knees—and scurried into Ramona's bedroom. Peri obstinately remained standing, but Noah took a seat as instructed. He figured it was better to play this low-key until he, and more importantly Peri, were no longer looking down the wrong end of a gun.

  "Look," he said, keep his voice calm and his hands open on the arms of the chair. The palms were starting to sweat. He was fast, but not faster than a bullet. "I'm not a threat. You need all the hands you can get out there. And Peri is going to take my car and go for help."

  "Who's she gonna bring? No fire service way out here. Cops? We don't want them sniffing around anyway." He jerked his chin at Liam. "Show her what we found in her room."

  Reluctantly, Liam shifted the gun to a one-handed grip and took something out of his pocket, a small microphone with a tangle of wires attached. Noah had never seen it before, but Peri gave a strangled gasp.

  "That's for hunting ghosts, you idiots!"

  "Yeah, or maybe for spying on us." Liam tossed it onto the coffee table.

  "How paranoid are you people?"

  "Empty your pockets, both of you," Eddie ordered.

  Peri clenched her hands into fists and didn't move. "Peri," Noah murmured, reaching very slowly for the pocket of his jeans and twitching his wallet out with two fingers. "When people with guns tell you to do things, you cooperate."

  Or, at least, it was best to save the non-cooperation for the moment when it really counted.

  And that moment might be on its way, as soon as they saw his badge. Which was currently in his jacket pocket.

  He knew he could take one of them. Noah's shifter heritage made him stronger and faster than an equivalent-sized human. But there were two of them, both armed, and several civilians in the same house, including a baby. Stray bullets could go through walls.

  Play it cool. Wait for your chance.

  Peri unloaded her pockets onto the table. His keys, her wallet, and both their phones came first. After a visible hesitation, she added her collapsible baton to the pile, and after another hesitation that prompted an impatient throat-clearing noise from Eddie, an odd-looking black rectangle slightly smaller than a deck of
cards with a headphone jack plug on it.

  Liam stepped back, and Eddie demanded, "What's that?"

  "It's an infrared camera attachment for my phone. Also for ghost hunting."

  "Looks like spy gear."

  "Yeah. For spying on ghosts."

  "Take off your jacket," Eddie ordered. "Give it here." As Noah tossed his wallet on top of Peri's pile of stuff, Eddie added, "You too."

  "This is ridiculous." Peri shook her jacket to demonstrate there was nothing in it before handing it to Liam, who had switched the shotgun into the crook of his arm to take it. Noah watched closely; if he could get an opportunity when one of them was distracted, he might be able to take both of them at once without anyone getting shot. He didn't dare risk it with Peri so close to those guns, though.

  Liam turned Peri's jacket upside down and shook it, dislodging spare change and a wadded-up plastic grocery bag. Then he turned to Noah.

  There was no way Noah could think of to explain his badge except the truth. At least nothing that wasn't so outlandish they'd never believe it. "There's something in one of my pockets you're going to have questions about," he said as he passed the jacket to Liam. "I can tell you now or let you see it first. I just want you to know so you're not surprised, and I want to emphasize, we need to talk about it. It's not what it looks like at first."

  Peri gave Noah a quick glance and moved closer to him, bumping her knee against his. Inwardly he groaned; he appreciated her loyalty, but having her so close was the last thing he wanted. He needed to be able to move fast if he had to.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Eddie demanded. Liam had frozen with the jacket held at arm's length as if it contained a bomb.

  Noah held both hands in front of him, palms up, and tensed his body. His reflexes were fast, and Liam was standing unwisely close. If it looked like Eddie was going to shoot him, it was possible that he could grab Liam and use him for a human shield.

  The other possibility was to throw Peri to the floor and try to cover her with his body. It all depended on what Eddie did when Noah said the words he'd been dreading.

  "I'm a federal agent."

  Chapter Twelve