Savage Reborn (Team Savage Book 1)

by Michael Todd

  His companion nodded understanding as the operative pulled the door open.

  Two men stood nearby. Their sub-machine guns hung loosely from their shoulder straps, and they sipped warm cups of coffee. Both immediately looked surprised to see someone use the door. Their instincts were good, though, and they needed less than a second to process the fact that the two newcomers weren't supposed to be there. As one, they reached for their weapons.

  Unfortunately for them, a second was all the time Savage needed. While they had yet to draw the weapons, flick the safeties off, and raise them to fire, the operative was bound by no such necessities. He was already poised for the attack and simply squeezed the trigger.

  No loud crack or pop resulted, but the whoomph delivered a soft kick against his hand. One of the needles rocketed from the weapon at supersonic speed.

  He pulled it again, to be safe, and nodded when the first man dropped. The second had raised his weapon and was almost ready to fire by the time the operative turned his attention to him and pulled the trigger again to apply another double tap. The guard stumbled and squeezed the trigger on his weapon reflexively. When no gunshots resulted, it seemed obvious that the safety was still on.

  Both men were down, and blood rapidly stained the floor. He pushed closer to them and shoved aside one of the men's hands as he tried weakly to grab him. As the former Ranger lifted the man's shirt away, he smirked.

  “What do you know? The boys in the lab made something very interesting with this gun.” Savage glanced at Anderson. “It punched through their body armor and caused all kinds of internal damage from the looks of it.”

  “I’m so glad you're pleased.” His partner scowled.

  “It doesn't take a terrible person to enjoy using a new piece of tech.” He shrugged and touched the elongated barrel gently. “Then again, I am a terrible person. The worst, really.”

  “Oh, come on, do you really think I'll believe that?” Anderson asked with a chuckle.

  “Hey, you were the one who said you wanted a savage on your side,” he answered and grinned. “Come on, we don't have much time. I'd say the moment someone finds these bodies is when the jig is up. We need to work fast.”

  They took a moment to drag the corpses away from their place on the floor. There wasn’t time to clean the blood, but hopefully, it would buy them time to explore the opportunities that had been denied them on their first trip there.

  “Okay, the weapons and armor testing will be in the east and north wing,” Anja said. “The east wing is closest so you should start there.”

  “Shouldn't we split up?” Savage asked. “We could cover more ground.”

  “Well, that would make sense if you wore a fucking transmitter lens,” Anja reminded him. “I can access via the comms piggy-back like I always do, but this particular baby has special software to run the searches in real time. We need that.”

  “Right. Why the hell don't I have one then?”

  “I only had time to make the one,” the hacker protested. “Come on. You can't expect me to do everything for you. Get a Goddamn move on, would you?”

  “Roger that.” Anderson pushed forward and took point quickly, leaving his partner to follow. The two had slid into an easy flow like they’d worked together on this type of operation before. They hadn't, of course, but the many overlapping skills between them enabled them to function better as a team. It didn’t take long at all to adjust to one another, so responses and actions became more natural the more time they spent as a unit.

  They made one hell of a good team, Savage thought with a smile. Even if the man was a Marine.

  Alert for any sign of discovery, they made their way through a series of hallways and deeper into the facility. Hopefully, what they found would provide them with a clear view of what the researchers were working on there. Full suits of body armor—power armor, by the looks of it—seemed large enough to probably assume the battlefield duties of a tank. Whole cavalry divisions, Savage mused, could transform from using huge, lumbering vehicles into men traversing the battlefield using suits like these. That was the future of modern warfare.

  Some appeared to be too big, though. He knew a thing or two about the physics involved in using gear like those. The bigger you made a suit, the more power needed to be used to power it and the heavier it would be. It could ultimately turn it into a frustrating cycle of diminishing returns.

  Some of the prototypes definitely looked too large to be real.

  “Okay, after a thought, I wonder if you didn't have the right idea, Savage,” Anja said. “I detect considerable Pegasus hardware, but most of it is too big to carry around in a bag. I'll direct Anderson to pick up what he can. While he does that, you head out to find the hard drives of data storage they have in the building. I don't need to see them to know what to look for. They're all physically locked away from my access, so you'll have to pull them yourself.”

  Savage nodded and included Anderson in the agreement.

  “Five minutes, then we bug out,” the colonel said firmly.

  “Roger that. Okay, Anja, tell me where to go.”

  She guided him away and deeper into the east wing of the building. He passed a couple of weapons ranges installed to test massive assault rifles—presumably to be used by the suits he'd seen. He broke into a jog as he neared the server room. It was interesting how quickly the facility had simply emptied at the end of the workday. It made him think the people didn't like their jobs that much. Or maybe they were merely understaffed and needed to bolt at day’s end to preserve their sanity.

  He located his target and scowled when he realized he had a considerable problem.

  “Anja,” he said tentatively. “There are a lot of hard drives in here.”

  “Identify those that have a flashing red light,” she said quickly, clearly having isolated the comms between her and Savage and her and Anderson to keep them from overlapping. “They won't be attached to any of the computers, so unplug them from the power supplies and stash them in your bag. We'll have to find another way to get through them.”

  The operative nodded and checked his watch before he set to work. He had three minutes before he needed to return to his teammate. The man would probably have to leave sooner, even before he did, but that simply meant he could show up and save the ex-colonel's bacon if someone tried to prevent his escape. He grinned as he accepted what seemed to be inevitable.

  The burdens of being good at your job, he thought with a smirk.

  He had retrieved fifteen hard drives before his watch beeped to signal that his time was up. He’d barely stashed the last one in his bag when klaxons blared across the facility.

  “I think we've officially worn our welcome out around here,” Savage said. “I don't think we'll be able to leave the same way we came in, though.”

  “You would be right,” Anja replied. “The origin of the alarm indicates that someone has discovered your dead friends.”

  “Fun times. Anderson, do you copy?”

  “I heard. I'm already on my way to you. Anja says she has a way out we can use.”

  “Look at me, saving your bacon again,” the hacker said and sounded like she sported a broad grin. “If you ever come to the Zoo, you'll have to buy me a drink.”

  “Well, if I buy you one for each time you've saved my life, I think I'll end up buying you drinks all night.”

  “Don't inflate her ego,” Anderson warned a few seconds before the man sprinted around the corner. Thankfully, it didn't seem like there was anyone immediately behind him. He assumed that intruders were to be shot on sight anyway, so no pursuit at this point was likely a good thing.

  He still kept his weapon raised and aimed at the corner to ensure that nobody followed until the ex-colonel, winded again, patted him on the shoulder.

  “Where are we headed?” Savage asked brusquely.

  “One hundred yards down the hallway, you'll find an emergency exit,” the hacker directed. “They don't have any way to open them o
n the outside, though, so once you're out, you won't be able to get back in, understood?”

  “Understood!” It emerged louder than he’d intended. “Let's move.”

  Then again, with the alarms that now blared across the whole building, he had a hard time hearing himself think. Shouting was the only option at that point.

  They jogged purposefully through the still deserted corridors. Although it was tempting to proceed in a sprint, they didn't want to careen into another security squad that might have circled from the opposite direction and so restrained themselves. Thankfully, they encountered no efforts to slow their progress.

  That changed when they reached the emergency exit door, though. Loud shouts and heavy boots pounded the floors as they reached it.

  “Bogeys on our six,” Savage snapped and spun to meet them.

  It was interesting to bring a new weapon onto the field of battle. He waited with real anticipation until the men spilled into view in pursuit of the two intruders. They saw the operative raise a weapon and the call to take cover went up, but a good third of the men were slow to respond. Two fell without a sound, sporting wounds from needles that had penetrated their body armor with ease.

  He even tagged a third in the leg before the remaining guards flung themselves into the nearby labs for cover.

  “Anytime you like, Colonel,” he shouted. For the first time since he'd met the man, Anderson didn't object to being called by the title he used to hold and pushed the door open quickly. Savage kept his gaze on the men behind as his partner gripped his shoulder and guided him back through the door. Gunfire erupted from the outside, both suppressed and unsuppressed, and the other man immediately returned fire. The operative slammed the door shut and spun to assess the situation.

  Five men to their left struggled to find any cover at all in the open ground between the facility building and fences. Half a dozen huddled on the right, with bodies and blood visible on both sides. For all his time away from the field, the ex-Marine was still a crack shot, even with a suppressor on his Beretta.

  Savage raised his weapon, but when bullets whined over his head, he launched himself from his position atop a small flight of stairs and onto the dusty ground below. He landed on his shoulder and winced when a flare of pain surged through his collarbone, but he continued to roll until he was fully prone. Ignoring his injury, he aimed at the men who attacked from the right and pulled the trigger as quickly as he could. It was such a nice change to not have to worry about ammo and mags, he decided. He still had over two-thirds of the strip of needles in his weapon and could realistically shoot all day.

  Not literally, of course, but it made a comforting thought.

  Anderson stayed on his feet and took advantage of the men who backed away when they realized they now faced weapons that would turn their vests of ceramic armor into swiss cheese. He sprinted towards the fence and heaved his bag to the other side before he clambered quickly to the top. His partner found his feet and paused to watch the man use his body armor to negotiate over the barbed wire on the top. The suit protected him from any significant damage while he remained where he was, sprawled on top of the wire as he fired at the security teams that now seemed a little bolder.

  Instinct and training clicked together. Too much time had been spent running this little drill on the training ground—and even on the battlefield—for him to forget how it was done. The maneuver was purely reflex by now and required no thought at all before he spurred himself into action.

  He vaulted high and shinnied up the remaining stretch of the fifteen-foot-tall fence. Anderson's arm hung down, waiting for him, and he gripped the man’s hand tightly. He was hauled up the rest of the way by the colonel's strength. One of the barbs caught on his right arm and gouged a wound when he couldn't stop himself from being dragged down the other side.

  “Fuck!” Savage shouted in the second before he landed hard. The impact knocked the air out of him, and he struggled to regain his feet. He slapped the pistol from his right hand into his left to continue desultory fire at their would-be pursuers as the duo pushed into the desert. They had no idea if they actually headed in the direction where they'd left their car, of course. The priority was to escape the facility with their stolen loot intact. That achieved successfully, they would circle to locate their vehicle.

  Besides, night was already falling, and it would be a lot more pleasant to walk through the desert without the heat of a thousand suns beating down on them.

  The two ran on even as the lights from the research facility behind faded. They continued while the shouting tapered off, remained low, and stayed in motion as they zagged and zigged through the thick underbrush. Their steady pace and seemingly erratic maneuvers made sure that following them in this darkness would be impossible.

  Finally, after what felt like hours but could only have been about fifteen minutes, they dragged to a halt. Savage actually felt lightheaded and he scowled at the blood that still trickled from his arm.

  “Are you...all right there, grunt?” Anderson asked. He could see the bleeding, even if it looked black in the dim moon and starlight.

  The operative felt winded himself but he ignored the discomfort and quickly applied pressure to the wound. It hadn't been the best escape he'd ever been a part of but not the worst either.

  “Yeah... I think I'll be okay. I need to have this stitched when we get back to the hotel, though.”

  “We should use the back entrance,” Anderson replied as both men dropped to catch their breath. “I have to imagine that a man walking around with a blood-covered arm through a hotel lobby would draw the attention of some of the patrons and employees. It might even warrant a call to the police.”

  “You have a point there.” His voice slurred a little as he pressed a clean rag to the wound. The pressure triggered a stab of pain and he hissed through his teeth but maintained his effort to staunch the blood. “Did we get what we came for? If we only got away with some really expensive paperweights, I'll be pissed right the fuck off.”

  “Well, I can't speak for the hard drives you took, Savage, not until I can see what's on them, at least.” Anja had sensibly held her silence while the two men made their escape. “But Anderson collected items that should do the trick rather nicely. I only hope nothing broke when you pitched the bag over the fence.”

  “Break some specimens or get shot,” Anderson retorted. “You let me know which you'd prefer.”

  “You really don't know me that well, do you, Colonel?” Anja asked.

  Savage smirked. “Shut up, both of you. Okay, we need to find our car before the people in the facility start scouring the area.”

  “They don't have jurisdiction over any land outside the facility itself,” she said. “They won't pursue you themselves.”

  “And you know this how?”

  “Because they've already called the state police,” she replied brightly.

  “Fantastic.” He muttered an expletive and pushed to his feet. “So we should probably get to our car before the police find it.”

  “That would be a good idea, yes.”

  “We need to get all this to Houston,” Anderson said as they set off at a brisk walk.

  “What's in Houston?” Savage asked and peered at his arm to confirm that the bleeding had stopped.

  “Our closest research facility. They'll know what to do with whatever it was we stole. And there are connections there we can plug the hard drives into so that Anja can take a peek.”

  The operative nodded. “That sounds like a plan. For tomorrow, though.”

  “Definitely tomorrow.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “This looks like a new building,” Savage commented as he scrutinized the area they entered. Although securely fenced off and sealed like the other facility, it had a new-building sheen to it that stood out. These days, when buildings didn’t have to look like modern art masterpieces, they could be erected rather quickly and cheaply, while still being resistant to most environmen
tal issues. On the downside, those buildings that did come out that way ended up looking like off-brand Lego blocks a bored child had discarded.

  They could always be dressed up to look nicer, but that was like putting make-up on a pig. If you wanted a nicer-looking building, you shouldn’t have built it with prefab material.

  “It is a new building,” Anderson replied and eased out of the passenger side of the car when it finally stopped. There was no need to pretend at this point, so the operative didn’t have to look like a menacing, mute bodyguard. His boss had still insisted that he at least dress the part, though. “Pegasus has moved all its research into new locations so we don’t have to worry about any of Carlson’s influence reflecting back on us. Courtney already filled me in on a couple of locations that have had problems we caught in time—illegalities that had been put in place to screw anyone who took over for him. The guy was a serious big-picture thinker.”

  “You almost sound like you admire him for it.” Savage slid his sunglasses on and didn’t mind the look for practical reasons. There honestly was way too much sunlight around there. Too much open space too, he thought caustically. If Mixon were there, he could tell him he was being paranoid—something about a sniper needing a few days to prepare to be in position to take a shot from this distance—and they’d only decided to fly out there the day before.

  “Far from it,” his boss replied as they strode toward the doors of the building, both boldly emblazoned with the bright blue winged horse that was the company’s logo. “The guy was—is—a fucking psychopath, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that he knew a thing or two about how to prepare for what I can only think was his inevitable deposing. He was smart. It doesn’t mean I liked him or approved of his methods. If that were true, we wouldn’t be doing any of this.”

  “Fair enough.” He shrugged and turned his attention to the building ahead. “We won’t be thrown out of this one, right?”

  “Considering that it’s officially tagged to a company I am the acting CEO for, I should think not,” the other man replied with a grin as a couple of security guards asked them to stop at the entrance. “Not if they want to keep their jobs, anyway.”