Jared tried to ignore the weight in his chest that came at the thought of being separated from her. It would only be a couple of days at the most, and he was fully aware of how irrational it was for him to be upset about that. He wasn’t even upset, really, just…he would miss her. They’d barely rekindled their relationship, and the last thing he wanted was to leave her side. Especially since she was going back to the North Pacific region where, two years ago, she’d disappeared for months, lost her leg, and very well could have been killed.
Another irrational concern. These were completely different circumstances, and it wasn’t like she’d be alone this time.
He caught her looking at him as he slid a few nonlethal rifles and their electroshock projectiles into the back of the van. The smile he gave her couldn’t quite mask all the worry in his expression.
She nudged him in the side with her elbow. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I just wish I was going with you.”
“Me too. And I know the others would probably be okay on their own, but I feel a lot better with you leading them. This has to go perfectly. We can’t give our targets any chance to escape or alert others we’re there, and you and I have more experience with covert operations. It makes more sense for us to split up.”
“I know, and I’m not questioning your decision. I’m just selfish, I guess. I’d rather be with you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a baby.”
He laughed and went to get a couple more rifles. Zira didn’t follow, and she stared at him with an odd look on her face as he returned to the van. “What?” he asked as he slid the guns into place beside the others.
She grabbed his arm and pulled him close, raising herself up onto her tiptoes. He bent instinctively, and her warm breath fluttered against his lips just before they touched hers. His fingers wove into her hair as he wrapped his other arm around her waist, driven by a sudden but urgent need to just be closer to her. His lips moved with the same urgency, and she kissed him back with equal fervor. In that moment, with their bodies pressed together and their hearts racing and her eyes shining when they finally broke apart, he knew he was all that mattered to her, just as she was to him.
So it wasn’t a surprise when she said the words for the first time—the ones he hadn’t expected to ever hear from her again until recently, despite how much he’d secretly longed for them. She leaned into him and let out a contented sigh. “I love you.”
The words may not have been a surprise, but they still made Jared’s head spin and his body feel feather-light. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and cradled her head against his chest. “I love you, too.”
* * *
Hours later, Jared stood in the shadows watching the darkened house across the street, waiting for the order to move in. Josefina and Dodge crouched on either side of them, their rifles held at the ready. The fact that their weapons were nonlethal almost made Jared feel as if he were carrying a toy rather than an actual weapon. It reminded him of some of the training exercises he’d undergone as a unit E-2 recruit, executing fake missions armed with only a paintball gun or running through a virtual simulation where plastic models containing electronic sensors served as weapons.
A drone floated up from somewhere behind them and hovered there as Alma’s voice came over his earpiece. “You’re clear to proceed.”
Jared waved his team forward and they crossed the street, black silhouettes against the blacker night. When they reached the door, he took a set of picks from his pocket and began working on the lock. It would have been faster to force entry, but this was quieter, and tonight, they needed quiet.
He was out of practice, and it took him longer than it should have to get through the lock, but not much. When he finally lifted the last pin, he turned the door knob and pushed it open noiselessly, then ushered Dodge and Josefina inside. They hurried past him with weapons raised, sweeping the area as they headed for the room at the back of the house. According to Josefina’s surveillance over the past week, this was where their target slept.
Jared followed. When he got into the hallway, he turned around to watch their backs. He could barely hear the click of the bedroom door opening behind him. There were a few seconds of silence, then Josefina whispered, “He’s not—”
A gunshot cut off the sound of her voice. It echoed down the hall and reverberated in Jared’s ears as he whirled around. He ran into the room to see Dodge firing back at the man who had emerged from a closet to ambush them. Kurt Hatcher, their target.
Jared glanced at Josefina just long enough to see that she was still moving, then turned his attention back to Hatcher. Two of the electroshock projectiles Dodge had fired clung harmlessly to an old military-issue protective vest over the man’s shirt.
Hatcher was aiming at Dodge when he caught sight of Jared and shifted his position. In his distraction, the two shots he fired went wide. Jared knocked him into the wall before he could get off a third. He pinned his throat with his forearm and used his free hand to hold off the gun. Dodge appeared at his side and wrested the weapon from the man’s grasp.
Jared twisted their target around to press his body face-first into the wall and pinned his arms at the base of his spine. “Josefina, you okay?”
“Yeah. It’s not too bad.”
He went to check on her as Dodge slipped a set of restraints over Hatcher’s wrists and began reading him his rights. Josefina pushed herself up from the ground, her rifle hanging loose over her shoulder while she clutched her upper left arm with her right hand.
“Let me see,” he said.
“It’s really nothing. I’ll be fine.”
Jared ignored her and gently pulled her fingers away from the wound. A raw, red path about the width of his thumb cut across her bicep under a jagged tear in her sleeve. She’d probably need stitches, but the bullet hadn’t penetrated anything vital. “I’ll patch that up as soon as we get back to the van, and then we’ll get you to a real doctor.”
Before she could argue, he turned around and motioned for them to follow him out of the house. The drone was still hovering just outside the front door, and he flashed it a thumbs-up as they walked past. “Target Kurt Hatcher is in custody. We’re on our way home.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
It took the rest of the night and most of the following day for all four SIO groups to return to headquarters with the PRM members they’d captured, but the mission had been a success. All teams had taken their targets efficiently and discreetly without any casualties or major injuries. Alma arranged for specialists to come in and help with some of the interrogations the next day.
To Jared’s surprise, Seth ended up being one of those specialists. He walked in with the others first thing in the morning in a button up shirt and slacks that gave him a too-polished appearance compared to everyone else. Even though he had an office on one of the lower floors, Jared had never actually seen him in the building before. His work overseeing the international policing and investigations branch of the National Security Department often took him out of the country.
“Did you know he was coming?” Jared asked Zira and Tripp as they watched the man exchange a greeting with Alma.
They both shook their heads. “No,” Zira said. “But I guess it makes sense.”
Jared nodded. Unit E-1 had trained all of their officers for interrogation, and Seth had always had a hunger for hunting down the truth.
When he spotted them from across the room, he walked over. He extended a hand to Tripp and Zira first, and then, with only minimal hesitation, to Jared. “It’s good to see you all. It’s been a long time.”
“You too,” Tripp said. “We didn’t realize you’d be part of this.”
“Neither did I until yesterday. But when Alma called and asked if I’d be willing to help, I took the first flight back here. It looks like I’ll be talking to one of yours, actually—a man named Kurt Hatcher?”
“He was ours,” Jared confirmed.
“Let’s
hope he gives us something useful, then.”
“He’d better,” Zira said. “Even if you have to drag it out of him. He shot one our team members.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope they weren’t seriously injured.”
“She’s fine, but it would be nice to know she didn’t get shot for nothing.”
“I’ll do my best.” An awkward silence fell for a few moments, but Seth didn’t let it linger for long. “I should probably start looking through all the information Alma just gave me. I’ll see you all later.”
He walked away to join the other interrogators who were gathering near the elevator. Zira shook her head at him as he walked away.
“What?” Jared asked her.
“He just seems different. More diplomatic, I guess. I can’t decide if that makes him more tolerable or more obnoxious.”
“I doubt he’ll be around long enough for you to figure it out.”
Zira raised an eyebrow. “Probably better that way.”
The captured PRM members had all been placed in separate offices on the empty top floor, and within a few minutes, everyone who’d come to question them and those who had been assigned to observe headed upstairs to begin their work. This included Alma and Josefina, both of whom had received special training in questioning suspects during their time as police officers. The others had little to do but wait.
For a while, they tried to put their time to good use by following other leads. What was Mallory’s true identity? Had anyone reported suspicious activity prior to the True PRM’s attack at various polling stations? Was there anything in the video message Ryku had sent out that gave a clue about his location? They didn’t have any clear answers, though, and nothing to connect the pieces. They were all too anxious about the information they might gain from questioning the captives upstairs to focus on much else. By lunchtime, any real attempt at work had dissolved into idle conversation to pass the time while they waited for answers.
Tripp began regaling Dodge, Salim, and Nova with the story of how he and Zira had met, complete with dramatic facial expressions and impressions of Zira that were remarkably accurate. Zira herself laughed with the others at Tripp’s description of her initial rage at being held captive by radicals. She inched a little closer to Jared’s shoulder so that her arm was touching his shoulder, and even though the moment was such an unremarkable one, he could think of very few times in his life when he’d been more content than he was now.
The idea almost made him laugh. At face value, it was ridiculous. The tracker around his ankle marked him a prisoner of the radicals he’d been taught to hate and hunt his entire life. His former mentor had become his greatest enemy and had likely already made plans to kill him—perhaps not now, but definitely someday, if they didn’t find him first. And all the long years he’d spent working to prove himself and cement his place as the next chairman of unit E-2 had been rendered utterly meaningless now that the Republic governed the nation.
Yet despite all of that, he was happy. He was part of a team who respected and valued him as much as he respected and valued each of them. He had a leader in Alma who he could look up to as he had Ryku, but without the same fear or intimidation. And beyond anything he’d dared allow himself to hope for, the woman he loved had given him a second chance. It was all so much more than anything he’d ever had in the Project, and it didn’t matter that his entire life’s ambition and all he’d ever worked for had been taken from him. He had new ambitions now.
Yes, the tracker around his ankle marked him a prisoner, but he felt more free now than ever before.
He returned his focus to the conversation between the others. Tripp had moved on to tell the story of the first time he met Jared. Or rather saw Jared, in the alleyway behind the apartment building where Jared had first realized he and Zira were working together.
When he finished the account, Dodge shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “Y’all have a messed-up friendship. You know that, right? Everybody constantly trying to kill everybody else.”
“It wasn’t constantly,” Zira argued.
“Once is enough,” Dodge said, turning to Nova and Salim. “Right, guys?”
Salim suppressed a grin and nodded. “Definitely.”
“I’d like to point out that I never tried to kill anyone,” said Tripp.
Dodge moved a finger between the three of them. “This isn’t normal, that’s all I’m saying. People don’t meet their closest friends in situations where one person’s trying to kill the other person.”
“I’m not sure you’re the best person to be giving opinions about what’s normal,” Salim quipped.
Dodge looked at him with mock indignation. “Come on, man, I thought you were on my side.”
He hadn’t joked around this much since Cedric’s murder and Celeste’s disappearance. It was good to see his normal boisterous nature returning.
Jared spotted Josefina heading towards them in his peripherals. “I see you’re all very busy down here,” she said as she approached.
“Any luck up there?” Zira asked.
“It looks like Seth might be getting close with Hatcher. Apparently, he wants to talk to ‘the big man’ who arrested him.” She looked at Jared and shrugged.
“Why me?”
“I don’t know. I was just told to come get you.”
He stood to follow her back to the elevator. Zira gave his hand a quick squeeze as he passed. “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Once they reached the top floor, Josefina led him to the closed-in office where Seth was interrogating Hatcher. On the way, they passed by the room where he’d discovered Cedric’s body just three weeks before, and a faint shiver spread across his skin.
They had to get answers this time. They had to find Ryku and Mallory and Celeste and everyone else who had been responsible for taking innocent lives in this fight.
Seth was waiting for them outside the door. “Thanks for coming,” he said in a hushed voice. “He asked for you specifically, but he wouldn’t say why.”
“Anything I should know before I go in there?”
“It seems like he might be willing to give us some answers, finally. I’ve been reminding him that the True PRM is willing to do anything to reach their goals, even if it means hurting people. He wasn’t very responsive at first, but that changed when I told him about my history in the Project and why I joined the rebellion. Then he started asking for you. Just keep him talking. Anything he’s willing to tell us could be useful.”
Jared knocked on the door twice before twisting the handle and stepping inside. Another SIO operative stood in the room keeping watch over their captive. Kurt Hatcher sat in a chair near the center of the room with his hands still in in restraints. His hair hung in disarray over his ears and forehead, and his back was hunched as he bowed forward with his elbows on his knees. A spark kindled in his eyes when he looked up and saw Jared in the doorway.
He tilted his head to one side and studied Jared’s face for a few moments, then nodded slowly. “It is you. It took me a while to figure out why you looked so familiar, but I can see it now. You’re Jared, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Kurt Hatcher, but you already knew that.” He jerked his head in the direction of the other SIO operative. “You mind sending the guard away? I’d rather talk one-on-one, man to man.”
His first instinct was to be suspicious of the request, but Hatcher didn’t pose any real threat in his current position. He’d been searched before they even got on the airplane to return to Liberation, his hands were restrained, and even without accounting for the Project’s training, Jared probably had at least six inches and almost a hundred pounds on the man. He nodded to the other operative, who walked out, leaving the two of them alone in the office.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“You were Ryku’s right-hand man, right? The way I hear it, you were supposed to be the next chairman.”
“Something like that.”
“So how do you go from there to here, working for the traitors who took over this country and put your boss in prison?”
Jared crossed his arms. He didn’t feel like delving into the details of his personal life story with a stranger. “Is there a point to your question?”
“What, I don’t get to ask questions just because I’m the one sitting here with my hands locked together? You guys want all the information I can give you, but you’re not willing to give me anything.”
“Thousands of innocent people died because of what your friends did on Election Day. They’ve threatened to kill more. We’re giving you a chance to make that right. I don’t owe you anything else.”
The man’s cool expression faltered for an instant, and Jared thought he saw remorse underneath the mask. “I just want to understand,” he said. “I want to be sure I’m making the right decision.”
“You already know what the right decision is. You tell us what you know so we can stop Ryku from hurting anyone else.”
Hatcher sighed. “Just talk to me. Please. Like I’m a human being and not some monster in handcuffs. What’s it going to hurt you?”
It was a fair point, and arguing with Hatcher didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere. “Fine. Yes, I was Ryku’s right-hand man. I worked hard to get to that position, and I didn’t care about much else besides doing my job and doing it well. Even once I started to see how far Ryku was willing to go to achieve his goals, I told myself he was only doing what was necessary. I refused to believe anything else.”
“So how did you go from that to turning against the Project?”
“Things got worse. He killed the other chairmen. He started executing prisoners by the masses. He made everyone afraid and suspicious of their own neighbors. And I had friends who started making me see things differently. I couldn’t pretend what Ryku was doing was okay anymore.”
Survivors of PEACE Page 29