Niko put on a mask of worry that would pass muster with everyone else except them. “I hope none of you were caught out in the shootout that happened last night.”
“We left for a different club and luckily missed getting caught in the terror attack,” Katie answered. “The news is saying it’s another Reborn IRA attack. Does London see them often?”
“I wouldn’t know. I travel so much, the issue never comes up. You must have seen a lot of the world as Marines. What was it like for you?”
Katie let him steer the conversation away from talk of the Reborn IRA and gamely chatted about her postings through the years. Alexei kept half his attention on the conversation in case Niko tried to include him. The rest of his attention he reserved for the arrival of several new lunch groups while a couple of people at the bar paid their bill and left.
Their food soon arrived and Alexei zeroed in on the steak with garlic mashed potatoes. The green beans he didn’t touch, since Kyle wasn’t here to tell him to eat them. Katie’s chicken tikka smelled amazing and Sean had gone with classic fish and chips. Niko had some dish consisting of meat wrapped in baked pastry dough that took second place to Alexei’s steak.
Conversation was the same, with Niko steering it back to their time in the military over and over. Alexei doubted it was because he was actually interested in the aspects of military life. Katie easily rebuffed his efforts to find out their capabilities, letting Niko lead her, rather blatantly, to the real question.
“Did you ever encounter any metahumans during any of your deployments?” Niko asked when he was three-quarters done with his lunch.
Alexei hid his eyeroll by leaning his head back and finishing what remained of the beer in his glass. The man wasn’t subtle at all.
Katie, for her part, merely shrugged at the question. “No, but we were stationed in contested areas a few times. The brass issued everyone in our platoon a neural net before deployment.”
Niko laughed, the sound more than a little condescending. “Those don’t work.”
Katie delicately tore off a piece of garlic naan to dip it into the sauce smeared over the bottom of her shallow bowl. “The DOD doesn’t mess around when it comes to R&D and doling out weapons. The equipment worked for us when we were in the field, when we needed it to, at least when used against any mental interference. And guns still kill metahumans.”
Neural nodes and neural nets weren’t really effective against mental powers. Neural nodes, a cheaper option than neural nets, would monitor a person’s brainwaves to discover if any mental interference had happened, but that was about it. Neural nets were marketed to a richer clientele, requiring actual surgery to program nanobots into lining the brain with delicate bioware. The technology was all passive, but the idea of a military upgrade was a sound story. Alexei could grudgingly agree that Sean’s idea seemed to be working.
“I see,” Niko said slowly, staring at her. “How interesting.”
Katie smiled winningly at him. “As interesting as who we will be working with, I’m sure. You never did say.”
“I didn’t.”
Katie waited him out with the intense focus that had served her well on the battlefield. Niko didn’t exactly wilt under it, but he did shift in his seat, and Alexei knew Katie would count that as a win.
“My employer prefers discretion, you must understand that. There’s no guarantee of a meet, but I have been authorized to extend to you and your group an invitation to the fundraising gala set for Friday night at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The offer is contingent on you completing the project I gave you today, of course.”
Katie took a sip of her wine and openly played up her reaction to the offer. She frowned, blonde brows furrowed just a bit as she thought it over. “Of course. I’m sure it won’t be a problem. We’re all very good at our jobs.”
Niko smiled thinly. “I’m sure.”
Sean set his napkin on the table and stood up, offering everyone a genial smile. “If you’ll excuse me. I’m going to find the men’s room.”
Alexei caught Trevor’s eye from across the room as he got to his feet, head tipping toward Katie, indicating he should keep watch. “I’m go with.”
Sean gave him an exasperated look. “Seriously?”
Niko chuckled at them, reserving his words for Alexei, as if they existed on the same level, when they didn’t. “I see Jamie employs people with a similar mindset to his own. Don’t worry about keeping us waiting. We’ll order dessert without you.”
It took Alexei a few seconds to figure out just what the hell Niko was implying. Sean grabbed him by the arm before he could open his mouth and lay into Niko once he understood.
Just go with it, Sean said through the thin mental link Katie had woven between their minds.
Niko’s laughter followed them away from the table. Alexei shook off Sean’s grip with an easy motion before following the other man out of the dining room proper. The toilets were down the short hall right outside the hostess kiosk.
“You’re supposed to act like we’re friendly colleagues,” Sean hissed under his breath as they passed a woman coming out of the ladies’ room.
“Niko thinks we more,” Alexei retorted.
Sean rolled his eyes. “I can’t imagine what gave him that impression last night.”
Alexei scowled at Sean’s back as the other man opened the men’s room door. Between one second and the next, Alexei went from annoyed to very fucking pissed as Sean was grabbed by someone hidden behind the door and yanked into the bathroom. A fist crashed into the side of Sean’s face before he could yell out a warning.
Sean went down.
Alexei moved in.
The door tried to shut on his face, so he kicked it inward without a second thought, moving with the swift deadliness that had been trained into him. He didn’t think, just struck first, grabbing the man standing over Sean by the hair and shirt collar and slamming him face-first into the sink. Blood spattered over the white marble as the guy slithered to the floor, clearly stunned.
Alexei recognized them—the two from the bar who’d left earlier—even as his focus narrowed to the fight. Alexei spun in the tight space of the bathroom, foot lashing out to catch the man waiting behind the door and coming after him in the knee before he snapped his leg up and caught the man in the face, right in the mouth.
The man stumbled backward, swearing around a mouthful of blood and broken teeth, half-hunched over but already gearing up for another attack.
Alexei moved forward, fully intending on—
Don’t kill him! Katie snapped harshly into his mind
—brutally maiming the piece of shit, when a hand grabbed his ankle. Before he could kick free, Alexei was pulled up short by the first man he’d rammed face-first into the sink falling through his body. He didn’t even feel it beyond the odd sensation of air blowing across his body when there was no breeze present, and Alexei took a reflexive step back out of sheer shock. He glanced down, seeing that it was Sean who had a firm grip on his ankle.
“Donnelly twins. Cillian’s go-to assassins. They have cyanide needles in their fingertips,” Sean got out before withdrawing his phase power and letting Alexei go, spitting blood on the floor.
Need to scramble their memories. Can’t let them know we’re metahumans, Sean added over the mental links.
I’ll handle it, Katie replied.
Alexei ignored their mental byplay in favor of slamming his foot down on the first man’s hand and ramming his knee into the guy’s face. What teeth hadn’t broken during their first go-round absolutely shattered this time. Alexei dodged the swipe of his other hand, seeing the glint of metal at the tips of his fingers, the bioware a dark pattern beneath the skin. Alexei kicked the breath out of him before picking him up by the hair and shoulder and tossing him through the nearest stall door. The guy went headfirst into the wall, sliding down to sprawl over the toilet.
He didn’t move after that.
The second man got to his feet, hands
raised, the snarl on his face marred by the jagged edges of broken teeth and a nose bent decisively off-center. Alexei let him close in, watching his hands and not his face, waiting for the minute motions that would telegraph his next move. He was more brawler than anything else; probably liked to get up close and personal with their targets to inject the poison, which was fine with Alexei.
The man lunged forward a couple of times, hands swiping out with poison-tipped fingers. Alexei dodged each attack and lured the man in close before letting loose. He grabbed the hand punching his way and snapped the wrist with a twist of his arm. The man howled, and Alexei cut him off by ramming his forearm into the guy’s throat. He collapsed to the floor with a raspy groan, gasping for air. Alexei gave him a hard kick in the head to keep him down.
At that point, shouts from security outside the bathroom door reached his ears and Alexei raised his voice. “Need help in here!”
He turned and extended a hand to Sean as the bathroom door opened behind them and got stuck on a body, hauling the agent to his feet. Sean wiped at his mouth, smearing blood from his split lip over his cheek. Alexei grabbed one of the white rolled-up towels in a basket between the two sinks and waved it under the faucet until it was saturated with cold water.
Security finally pushed their way inside as Alexei gripped Sean’s chin with gentle fingers to clean the blood off his face and gently press the cloth against his split lip.
“Should duck next time,” he said.
Sean shot him a withering look before knocking his hand aside to deal with the mess Alexei had made.
9
Tell the Truth to Shame the Devil
Kyle stalked through the front door of the house and headed straight for Alexei, who was watching Trevor line Sean’s face with quick-heal patches and dab skin-sealant on his swollen lip. The two were sitting on the couch with Alexei standing nearby, so it was easy for Kyle walk up and smack Alexei with a fist on his shoulder
“<
Alexei shrugged. “<
“<>”
“<
“<
“<
Kyle scowled, grabbing Alexei by the back of his shirt and hauling him around. Alexei went willingly enough and suffered through Kyle’s visual examination without argument before reaching out to flick his finger against Kyle’s ear.
“<
“<
“<
“<
“Clearly it wasn’t as exciting,” Jamie replied. “Give me a sitrep.”
Kyle, assured that Alexei was fine, drifted back over to Jamie in order to join the impromptu debrief going on in the foyer. He didn’t like what he heard, especially since it seemed the men who’d started the fight had already been present in The Cavalier before their arrival.
“I don’t know if Jansen set us up or not. I didn’t want to risk reading his mind since he would know it was happening,” Katie said when she finished.
“Have you taken a look at the solid state drive he gave you?” Liam asked.
“Encrypted like a damn maze. It’ll take me a day or so to hack it. I’m thinking the encryption is part of the test. He hinted we could maybe meet his employer if we managed to perform this job.”
“We already know his employer has to be the Pavluhkins,” Madison said as she balanced on one foot to pull off her shoes.
“He doesn’t know we know,” Liam reminded her.
“I find it a little disconcerting that the Reborn IRA knew you would be there. We didn’t run into any trouble during our lunch and Donovan saw no signs of a tail on the way back,” Jamie said, grimacing.
“The UMG hasn’t seen any sign of foreign surveillance on your house,” Liam added.
“Which means they must have been following Jansen,” Kyle said.
“Cillian was never one to take an insult lying down. What happened to Tomas last night probably pissed him off. Jansen was an easier target to follow, so to speak,” Sean said from his seat on the couch.
Jamie moved farther into the house, causing everyone else to drift apart now that the meat of the debrief was over. Trevor finished molding a cold pack to Sean’s jaw above a quick-heal patch, the sticky side keeping it in place, before putting his individual first-aid kit back in order. Kyle could see that aside from his split and swollen lip, Sean had bruises forming, purple and puffy, under his left eye. The quick-heal patches would take care of that in a couple of hours, but it had to hurt.
“Are you all right?” Jamie asked.
“I didn’t lose any teeth, so I’m calling it a win,” Sean replied a little dryly. “I hate the regen regime that regrows teeth.”
“You phased Alexei. Why didn’t you phase yourself at the beginning of the fight?”
Sean shrugged. “We’re supposed to be human. That’s what the mission calls for. Getting punched in the face is a lot different than taking a dose of cyanide in the back.”
“If you knew they had cyanide embedded in their bioware, then you should have phased.”
“Let’s back up there for a second,” Sean said mildly, never taking his eyes off Jamie. “I didn’t know the Donnelly twins would be there. I didn’t see them in the restaurant, so maybe that’s on me. But the thing about a cover? You have to live it, down to the tiniest detail, otherwise it’s not believable. If I phased in response to every perceived threat, I’d never get the job done. I did it this time because I knew Katie could change their memories of what happened and I didn’t think Kyle would appreciate me letting his brother get stabbed in the back with a deadly poison.”
“Yeah, no,” Kyle said mildly as he threw himself into the nearest armchair.
Kyle thought Sean had a spine after all for arguing with Jamie over the details of the mission. Most other people outside Alpha Team deferred to Jamie’s decisions, usually because he knew what the hell he was doing.
Jamie crossed his arms over his chest and frowned down at Sean. “The fact that they went after you and not Jansen isn’t sitting well with me. I can understand them coming after us last night out of revenge for the humiliating position Alexei put them in, but coming after you specifically is worrisome.”
“You don’t leave the Reborn IRA unless you’re dead. You don’t break a business agreement with them without starting a gang war, even with an ocean between countries to separate you. I’m assuming Tomas let everyone know I was back, and since I didn’t leave on good terms last time, they put a hit out on me. Cillian was never all that stable to begin with, and he took minor insults badly. Reneging on a drug deal is a little higher on the insult scale than I accidentally spilled synthcaf on you during my rush to work,” Sean said calmly.
“If you think he’s targeting you, then you don’t go anywhere without one of us from here on out, understand?”
“You should stick Alexei with him. Jansen thinks they’re screwing, so it would be in keeping with their cover,” Katie said as she wandered off to the kitchen.
Alexei looked betrayed and Kyle nudged him with his foot. “<
Alexei smacked him upside the head. “<
“I need to replace their comms. That’s going to take a little while, and I need to set up a sterile zone. The parlor room is going to be unavailable for the next hour or so,” Trevor said to Jamie.
“Do what you have to do, just don’t get bloodstains on
the rugs. My mother will kill me if you do. Katie?” Jamie called out.
“I’m taking over the office after I make some tea to get started on what Jansen gave me,” she yelled back.
“Here.”
Jamie threw two items at her, one after the other, across the wide open floor. She caught each one easily and grinned once she realized what they were. “Thanks for the jam.”
Kyle caught Jamie’s eye when he turned around. “I’m going to run some recon around the neighborhood.”
“My people have the house under watch,” Liam reminded him.
“That’s nice. I’m still going.”
When Jamie didn’t order him to stand down, Kyle climbed the stairs to the second level and grabbed his jacket out of the room he was supposedly sharing with Trevor. He tucked away two guns on his body and slipped a switchblade into his jeans pocket to be on the safe side.
Running back downstairs, he grabbed the sunglasses Katie handed him that had cameras embedded in the frames and put them on. Whatever he saw would be sent back to the system they had set up in the house. Someone yelled goodbye and he waved over his shoulder before heading outside.
London on a Sunday afternoon was crowded, even in the residential neighborhoods. Kyle played tourist in a circular spiral search pattern that spun away from the home, walking for miles and getting faces on record for their computers to scan. The UMG had people monitoring the home and the surrounding streets, but their protection could only be contained to a limited area.
Kyle knew how far a bullet could fly. He wasn’t going to risk his team because they thought their perimeter was secure enough.
So he walked, casually taking in the stately homes, the rowhouses that had all been converted generations ago to luxury condos. Space in London was worth a small fortune, as it was in any megacity, but the houses in Kensington were owned by the wealthy. Most of them were single-family dwellings, which meant there should have been less people about than you’d find in a council estate.
In the Ruins (Metahuman Files Book 2) Page 19