Jay smiled. The same annoying smile he’d given her yesterday at the restaurant. The same annoying smile he’d given her last year. It was annoying because it made her dislike him less.
‘I could use your help,’ she said.
Jay gestured to the grenade launcher. ‘I’d like to give this a spin.’
DC pointed to the far end of the hangar. ‘There’s a shooting range over there.’
‘No, I mean on real people,’ Jay said.
‘They have at least twenty guards between us and Sophia,’ DC said, his gaze covering all of them. ‘You’ll be outnumbered seven to one.’
Damien blinked. ‘We’ve had worse odds.’
DC turned his attention to Nasira. ‘Get Sophia out of here. If you can do that, I can get you somewhere safer.’
All she cared about was rescuing Sophia. She didn’t like DC’s promises and preferred to rely on her own arrangements, but she hadn’t given much thought to where to go from here.
She spoke to Benito. ‘I know you have some training now, but you should sit this one out.’
‘I can fire a grenade,’ Benito said. ‘You might need the backup.’
Nasira chewed her lip. ‘Fine, but stay the fuck out of the way and don’t point that thing at anyone unless you have to. If I get you shot, Sophia will kill me.’
DC handed them each an empty bandolier.
Nasira started filling the twelve pouches with blank 40mm rounds from the box. When she was done, she shed her jacket and slung the bandolier over her head. She put her jacket back on and zipped it up. Aside from the bulkiness, the bandolier was concealed.
‘Vortex ring grenades are non-lethal,’ DC said. ‘Sights are on the side. If you need to kill — and I sincerely hope you don’t — then you can use the primary trigger. You can have an extra mag, but if you need that then you’re probably screwed anyway.’
Jay took an extra mag. ‘That’s our default position.’
Nasira loaded her grenade launcher. ‘Everyone put a round up the spout.’
‘That’s what she said,’ Jay said.
Nasira elbowed him in the ribs with the butt of her rifle. ‘If you say that line one more time I’ll put a round up your spout.’
Jay grunted. ‘I charge extra for that.’
This is going to be a long day, Nasira thought.
‘Check this out, this is where they’re holding her,’ DC said. He’d closed the weapons box and spread a map on top.
Nasira stepped in closer to see. DC’s finger was pressed over a square that read Reserve Command Post.
‘The Akhana use it as a holding cell,’ he said. ‘The closest thing we have to a prison.’
‘I don’t care what it takes, I’m getting her out,’ Nasira said.
‘We’re getting her out,’ DC said.
‘Dolph will have that place zipped up tight with guards, won’t he?’ Benito asked.
‘That’s the bad news,’ Nasira said.
‘And the good news?’ Jay asked.
‘The good news is there are two ways in,’ Nasira said.
‘He’ll see this coming,’ DC said.
‘And I won’t disappoint him,’ Nasira said. She turned to Damien and Jay. ‘But you will.’
* * *
Nasira entered the reserve command post, DC at her side and Benito a few steps behind. Their M4 carbines were already at eye level as they walked, iron sights in line with the guards’ heads. There were only two guards, but she knew there were more further inside.
‘Weapons down, earpieces out,’ Nasira said to the guards.
The guards, ex-Fifth Column security, reacted calmly. They placed their carbines on the polished concrete floor, along with their earpieces and attached radios.
Nasira moved forward, but DC blocked her. ‘Camera,’ he warned, pointing above their heads.
The single camera was aimed toward the command post proper, concealed behind two thick walls of glass. The guards seemed just out of its range. Or so Nasira hoped.
‘Move in that direction,’ she said, indicating the space away from the camera’s range.
One guard moved as ordered, but the other did the opposite, stepping right into the camera’s field of vision.
Nasira pinned her aim on him. ‘That direction. Now!’
He halted, right in the center of frame, and smiled confidently. ‘You won’t shoot me.’
Nasira heard boots from the tunnel behind them.
‘Drop your weapons!’ someone shouted.
She looked over her shoulder. Half a dozen security. These would be ex-Special Forces.
‘Shit.’ She sidestepped, removing herself from their view.
DC did the same, stepping to the other side. The disobedient guard drew his pistol. DC fired first. The guard’s face turned crimson, then he slumped on his back.
‘What the fuck?’ Nasira said through gritted teeth. ‘I don’t want no one killed.’
The security reinforcements were closer. Too many boots.
‘That’s a double negative,’ DC said. ‘And I’d prefer you alive over that smug son of a bitch.’
* * *
Jay stepped through first. Four guards. More than he’d expected.
‘I’m sorry sir,’ one of the guards said. ‘This is a restricted—’ He noticed Jay’s M4.
Damien was at Jay’s side, carbine already aimed. He squeezed the secondary trigger and a hot red ring shot outward. It looked like a flaming hula hoop as it hit the guard. Jay watched as all four guards were swept clean off their feet. The glass wall behind them shattered, revealing an opaque glass room and two startled, partially deafened guards.
‘What the hell was that?’ Jay yelled.
‘Sorry,’ Damien said, ‘I was just—’
Jay fired his own grenade launcher. Another flaming hula hoop rippled through the air. The opaque room crashed to the floor along with the two guards. Inside the room: Sophia, tied to a chair in a straitjacket.
‘Wow,’ Jay said as he approached her. ‘They really didn’t want you getting off that chair.’
Sophia looked unhurt but surprised. ‘You’re here. Nasira found you.’
‘Twisted our arms into coming.’ Jay grinned. ‘Still deciding whether it’s good timing or not.’
‘Listen to me,’ Sophia said. ‘This base is compromised.’
‘It’s cool,’ Jay said. ‘I’m kinda used to that now.’
Chapter Six
‘Stand down, Nasira!’ the response team commander yelled. ‘Please.’
Nasira kept her aim on the commander. She didn’t say a word.
‘Crunch the numbers, it’s not good,’ he said. ‘Three to one.’
‘Ex-operatives are worth five, right?’ Nasira smiled. ‘We’re even.’
‘You can’t shoot us all. Not before we drop you.’
Behind Nasira, glass cracked. From the corner of her vision she saw Damien’s hand on the glass, heating it. It collapsed into pieces before him.
‘You’re right, I can’t,’ she said.
Damien stepped through, Sophia and Jay following a step behind. Sophia was carrying one of the guards’ M4 carbines.
Nasira smiled at the commander. ‘But they can.’
The commander exhaled slowly. ‘We have another response team closing in behind you.’
‘Oh, those guys?’ Jay said. ‘Yeah, they’re down.’
The commander spoke into his throat mic.
‘Dude,’ Jay said to DC, ‘these vortex guns are so freaking awesome.’
DC glared at him.
Suddenly, a vortex ring whipped past Nasira, flinging the entire response team down the tunnel like marionettes.
‘Sorry,’ Jay said. ‘Negligent discharge.’
‘That’s what he said,’ Nasira said.
Sophia and DC exchanged a nod, then she turned to Jay. ‘Did you really take down another team? Other than the ones guarding me?’
Jay shook his head. ‘Totally bluffing.’
‘I
n light of that, now would be a good time to move,’ Damien said, aiming his rifle behind them.
Nasira could hear the response team clearing the reserve command post behind them. Damien fired a vortex ring into the debris for good measure.
Sophia nodded her approval. ‘We’re definitely taking these weapons with us.’
Nasira handed over Sophia’s pistol. ‘Thought you might need this.’
‘Thanks,’ she said.
Nasira checked the tunnel they’d entered through. Midway down, the response team were climbing back to their feet. She fired a vortex ring of her own, sending them sprawling further. ‘OK, let’s go.’
DC was striding down the tunnel already. She followed him, hugging the left side. Behind her, Benito and Sophia. Damien and Jay covered them with a center peel: one by one, they dropped into a crouch, fired a short burst from their M4 carbine to keep the advancing response team pinned down, then moved to catch up with the team, leaving the other to cover. They took turns, keeping the response team in one place while they moved out of the tunnel.
When they exited the tunnel, DC pointed ahead. They were on a raised platform that wrapped along the left side of a larger tunnel. Beneath them was water. The wet dock. Lights hung sparingly above, wires crisscrossing from one to the other.
Nasira caught up with DC and kept to his right as they advanced. She could make out tiny figures ahead of them, pacing alongside a dark hulking shape in the water. As soon as she saw it, she knew what DC had planned.
Three engineers in orange overalls and five security personnel in navy blue jackets zipped to the collar. They carried a variety of firearms: two M16s, two M4s and a single Remington shotgun. All were raised cautiously as DC and Nasira approached.
DC slowed his pace to a walk and lowered his carbine. Nasira did the same, spacing herself so the rest of her team had clear vision. The security personnel — two women and three men, one of them a little too young — seemed nervous. She didn’t like that. At least one woman and one man looked well trained, possibly ex-military or law enforcement. The others, she couldn’t be sure.
‘What’s going on?’ said the well-trained woman. She had gaunt cheekbones and dark eyes. ‘Why is she here?’
Sophia’s presence had definitely registered with them. Sophia said nothing. They raised their weapons a little higher.
‘We’re taking the submarine,’ DC said.
The woman shook her head slowly. ‘I’m afraid you can’t.’ She glared at Sophia. ‘She’s supposed to be detained.’
DC pressed his carbine to his cheek, aimed at her. ‘Not any more.’
Nasira snapped her carbine up. Everyone followed suit. Each covered a different target, five on five.
‘Lower your firearms,’ the woman said. ‘We don’t want to hurt anybody.’
DC didn’t budge. ‘I don’t have time. All I will say is this: you will lower your firearms because you trust me.’
‘I don’t trust you,’ she said. ‘You’re Freeman’s personal bodyguard and I respect him. But that doesn’t mean I trust you.’
‘You trust me more than you trust your elder. You trust me more than you trust your Council,’ DC said.
‘You don’t know that.’ Her fingers shifted over the trigger guard.
Nasira eyed the other security personnel. They looked edgy.
‘I’m Sophia’s bodyguard now,’ DC said. ‘And by God I will protect her.’ He breathed deeply, controlled. ‘If it means I have to put a round through your head, then I will. I won’t like it, but I will. Do you doubt that?’
She shook her head again. ‘I don’t. But I won’t let you. And I won’t let you take her anywhere.’
Sophia spoke for the first time. ‘We don’t have time to negotiate. I know you don’t believe in what I’ve done. But I know you believe in why I did it. I did it because I believed we could save humanity. Not many people around here think like that any more. You’ve already chalked this game up as a win for the psychopaths. I can see it in your eyes.’
The woman blinked. Her lips parted but she said nothing.
‘Response team,’ Jay said. ‘On our six.’
From the corner of her vision, Nasira tracked six figures in the distance, running toward them.
Sophia lowered her carbine slowly. ‘It’s not over. It doesn’t need to end here.’
The woman’s gaze flickered between Sophia and DC. She shook her head quickly. ‘Get the hell inside,’ she said. ‘You’ll find the crew to be more sympathetic than I’ll ever be.’ She lowered her weapon, glaring at DC. ‘But I guess you know that already.’
The other four security personnel said nothing and lowered their weapons.
Nasira exhaled. ‘Jay, Damien, you better make that response team dance.’
She watched DC pull Sophia across the ramp to the submarine. Sophia was firing her carbine, mostly to keep the response team’s heads down so they wouldn’t advance too quickly.
Judging by the sounds of the vortex rings, the boys weren’t hesitating to send some fire down range.
The response team thinned out as Sophia’s rounds struck around them, taking cover behind beams spaced across the tunnel. One of them sent a burst of live rounds her way.
‘That’s not good.’ Nasira pushed Benito in front of her. ‘Get inside.’
The ramp took them to the top of the submarine’s sail, where they found the hatch open. Benito stepped inside, while she crouched behind the sail and sent a burst of rounds toward the advancing response team. She didn’t want to shoot them so she shot at the metal beams instead.
Damien and Jay were moving for the ramp. The response team crawled closer. Jay fired off another vortex ring but it didn’t catch anyone. Damien was on the ramp, running toward her. The security personnel guarding the submarine had pulled away. They didn’t fire at anyone and certainly didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire. How they would explain their behavior, Nasira wasn’t sure. But she appreciated it all the same.
Damien was almost on her so she switched her M4 to safe, slung it over her shoulder and ducked through the hatch and darted for the vertical ladder. She held the M4 upright so it wouldn’t get snagged in the hatch as she slid down. With both arms and legs on the outside of the ladder, she controlled her descent through the submarine’s sail, dropping past a row of external stowage lockers until her feet hit the ground. She looked up to see sonar computers surrounding her on one side, combat systems on the other. She’d dropped right into the command and control center.
Sophia, Benito and DC were already there, talking with the command crew. They were busy working the computers and preparing to depart. It looked like DC already had them on side.
Damien landed right behind Nasira.
‘Where’s Jay?’ she asked.
Damien pointed up. She moved closer to the ladder and saw Jay closing and locking the hatch.
‘We’re clear!’ he yelled.
The crew heard him and one of them, the captain Nasira supposed, said, ‘We’re dropping under the surface now. We’ll be out of this tunnel soon enough.’
Jay landed beside Nasira. ‘When you convinced us to come down here, this wasn’t what you had in mind, was it?’
‘No.’
Sophia turned to DC. ‘Where are we going?’
‘The nearest Shadow Akhana base we can trust. I’m taking you to Freeman.’
Jay raised a hand. ‘Does this submarine have a masseuse? I have a real knot in my shoulder.’ He collapsed to his knees.
Nasira noticed blood running down his back. She kneeled beside him, holding him. ‘Medic!’ she yelled.
It appeared to be a clean shot, in the back and out the front. She used both hands to apply pressure to the wounds. Jay yelled in protest, gritted his teeth, then collapsed against the wall.
Chapter Seven
Jay opened his eyes to find Nasira sitting next to him. He was lying on a hospital bed in a room the size of a toilet cubicle.
‘Where am I?’
‘The infirmary,’ Nasira said. ‘You took a round through your trapezius.’
‘My what?’ Jay sat upright. His neck burned. ‘Yeah, OK, never mind. Got any morphine?’
‘Hospital corpsman already gave you a dose. You’ll have to wait awhile.’ She blinked at his stomach. ‘If you lie flat no one’ll know you been smashing the bolognese.’
Jay tried to inspect the dressing wrapped around his neck. It was rubbing against the fresh stubble under his chin so he tried to readjust it. ‘How long have I been out? A day?’
‘Half an hour,’ Nasira said. ‘Here.’ She leaned in and folded the edge of the dressing under his neck.
Jay smelled a mix of her scented shampoo and his sweat. It wasn’t the best combination. She was too close for him to look at her, so he stared across the infirmary. It was barely large enough for one bed and a chair.
When she was done, she leaned back slightly. ‘I know you don’t want to be here.’
Jay shrugged. It hurt, and he grunted in pain. ‘I wasn’t exactly planning an underwater adventure.’
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. ‘But you do like adventure. Or I never could’ve convinced you.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Played me like a fool.’
She stood suddenly. ‘No. Just a soldier of fortune.’
‘What made you join Sophia?’ he said. ‘I mean, from the beginning and all.’
She paused in the doorway. ‘And why would you want to know something like that?’
‘I just need to know.’
‘My whole life, I’ve been lied to. Sophia was the first person who dared show me the truth.’
* * *
Sophia entered the command room. Half a dozen crew were monitoring sonar and weapons, including the man who commanded the submarine.
‘Captain.’ She nodded at him.
He had a broad face with pale weathered eyes, silvering eyebrows and a wide lower lip that pulled into a smile.
‘Just call me skipper,’ he said. His southern accent was deep and slow, with a twang from under the Mason-Dixon Line. ‘You’re a sight for sore eyes.’
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