“Watch our six,” Master Sergeant Kane growled, clapping Nolan on the back.
“Copy,” Nolan said. Breathing hurt fractionally less than it had a moment earlier, and at least his left hand responded to his commands once more. He actually managed to close it around the grip of his Balefire without fearing his fingers would shatter or fall off. The throbbing in his side remained a nagging nuisance, though his face no longer hurt quite as bad.
Crouching low, Nolan climbed a few steps until his head was just below the level of the topmost stair, then rose to give the hallway a quick scan. Five of the Black Crows were unmoving—two with Nolan’s bullet holes through their chests and throats, and three shredded by the frag grenade. The sixth had somehow survived the blast and the flying shrapnel, but blood gushed from deep lacerations in his leg. Nolan put the man down with a bolt to the head before he could draw his sidearm.
“Clear!” came Zahra’s shout over comms. “Moving.”
“Cerberus, hold for five, then fall back,” Master Sergeant Kane said.
“Copy,” Nolan said. He counted off the seconds and scanned the hallway one last time, searching for any of the other teams of Black Crows that could threaten them from the rear. At five, he swiveled and raced down the staircase in pursuit of his team.
He caught up with Master Sergeant Kane before the team leader hit the last step. Zahra and Bex were already leading the way around the bend and down the next staircase toward the ground floor. Darren had Agent Styver’s bound and restrained body slung over both shoulders, his drawn pistol held at the ready in his right hand.
“Go,” Master Sergeant Kane growled, waving Nolan past without taking his eyes off the second-floor hallway. “I’ve got rear.”
Nolan didn’t argue, just charged after Darren. The longer they spent in the kill zone that was the staircase, the longer the Black Crows had to surround and trap them. Exfil Route Zulu gave Warbeast Team the most direct route to the ground floor—and from there, to the subterranean tunnels that ran beneath the street to the building on the southern side of the street, outside the Black Crows’ perimeter. If they could just get there—
“Contact front!” Bex shouted, just as the sound of gunfire echoed up the stairwell.
“I got ‘em,” Zahra called. A moment later, a flashbang went off below Nolan, and the barking of automatic rifles quickly faded.
Nolan and Darren raced around the corner, in time to find Bex and Zahra finishing off the last of the stunned contractors holding the ground floor.
“Just a small welcome party,” Bex called over her shoulder. “Rear guard, most like.”
“Floor Two’s clear,” Master Sergeant Kane said. “Coming down. Phoenix, get us to the tunnels.”
“Copy, Wyvern,” Zahra said. “Bast’s got Djinn One and Two scouting the way.”
“The path is clear,” Taia said. “But I’ve hacked into the Black Crows’ comms, and it looks like they know we’re heading down this way. All of the remaining teams are converging on our location.”
“So we move double-time!” Master Sergeant Kane roared. “Let’s go, people!”
Zahra and Bex broke into a run, racing down the last floor to the below-ground level. Nolan held position just at the top of that staircase, guarding the hallway that connected their location to the rear entrance on the building’s east side. No Black Crows appeared to engage them by the time Master Sergeant Kane charged past and tapped Nolan’s shoulder—the signal to move. Breathing a sigh of relief, Nolan raced down the stairs after his team leader.
“We’ve got a clear path to the adjoining building,” Taia said. “I’ve got the skimmer-craft ready to pull out the moment the Black Crows leave the west-side parking structure.”
An idea struck Nolan. “Bast, you’ve got ears in the enemy’s comms, right?”
“Affirmative,” she replied.
“Then we’re going to use that to confuse the shit out of them!” He gave her a mental command—easier that way than wasting the words explaining.
“That’ll work beautifully.” Taia’s voice rang with a very Bex-like tone of cruel delight. “How about”—her voice changed suddenly, and he heard Agent Styver’s bland tone echoing in his ears—“They’re getting away, you idiots! Surround the eastern exit and make sure they don’t escape, or I’ll be absolutely displeased!” Her voice returned to normal. “Think that’ll fool them?”
“Worth a try,” Nolan said.
He reached the bottom of the staircase and entered the underground floor that held the building’s laundry and maintenance rooms. At the end of the hallway, Bex held open a doorway that led into a dark tunnel, one that hadn’t been included on any of the building’s plans.
“Let’s go!” she shouted at Darren, Nolan, and Master Sergeant Kane.
Darren had to stoop and twist to the side to enter the tunnel, burdened as he was with Agent Styver. Master Sergeant Kane held rear guard while Nolan followed the big man into the tunnel, then, at Bex’s call, raced into the passage after them. The door swung slowly shut and gave a quiet clink as the lock engaged, cutting off the dim light of the hallway’s naked bulbs.
“Are we alone in here?” Master Sergeant Kane asked over comms.
“Affirmative,” Taia said. “Djinns One and Two are at the far end of the passage and it’s utterly empty.”
“Copy that.” The master sergeant joined Nolan, Darren, and Bex in clicking on their helmets’ exterior lights and following Zahra down the hundred-meter tunnel.
Nolan moved a few steps behind Darren, close enough that he could see Agent Styver beginning to stir and shift on the big man’s shoulders. There wasn’t a whole lot he could do with his wrists and ankles quick-tied together, and evidently Darren had stuffed that soiled cloth into the man’s mouth to shut him up.
Something else caught Nolan’s eye: a patch of red glistening on Darren’s upper back.
“Shit!” he said aloud. “Troll, you’re bleeding. A fucking lot.” Blood traced long red lines down the big man’s backplate, almost all the way down to his belt.
“Can’t be,” Darren answered. “Never got hit.”
Nolan frowned. He was about to insist—the adrenaline rush of battle had a way of numbing or masking the pain of wounds—when he realized what it was.
“Fuck!” he cursed again. “It’s not you who’s bleeding out, Troll. It’s Agent Styver!”
Chapter Twenty-One
The average human body had roughly five liters of blood, Nolan knew. Probably more like four and a half for a man of Agent Styver’s size.
At the moment, a significant amount of that blood was outside Agent Styver’s body and staining Darren’s backplate and pauldrons.
Fresh crimson dripped from the two bullet holes in Agent Styver’s gut as Darren lowered him to the dusty stone floor of the underground tunnel. Nolan waited until the big man moved aside, then knelt and fixed his gaze on the wounds.
“How bad is it, Taia?” he asked aloud. Mentally, he relayed quick details of his plan to his teammates.
“Scanning now,” Taia said.
Agent Styver had fully awoken and now glared up at Nolan with unfiltered hatred blazing in his eyes. Nolan had no doubt the man would have hurled threats and curses if not for the filthy cloth stuffed into his mouth. Yet pain mingled with his fury, and his whole body seemed to struggle to lift off the floor, to escape the thick layer of dust. Both his restraints and the weakness brought on by blood loss hindered his efforts, and he sank back to the ground weakly.
“The bullets appear to have entered his lower back,” Taia said through Nolan’s helmet speakers. “They lacerated his portal vein and tore a hole in his right kidney.”
“Damn!” Nolan growled. “Phoenix, tell me you’ve got that first aid kit handy!”
“Negative,” Zahra answered from her position by the door at the far end of the hallway.
“Fuck that!” Bex snapped. “Leave him. He’ll only slow us down. And I don’t think any of us would be too
torn up if he bleeds out down here.” A cruel edge entered her voice. “Serves the fuckstain right.”
Nolan stared down at Agent Styver, keenly aware of the man’s gaze on him. “We keep him alive, maybe we can use him—“
“No!” Bex’s voice cracked like a whip. “His bosses aren’t going to bargain, not for him. Our best bet is to dump his ass before he goes full corpse on us, and figure out our own way to get into their underground office and hack their data.”
Nolan remained silent for a long moment. Then, slowly, he began to rise. Bex’s argument certainly held logic.
Agent Styver’s eyes flew wide. He began struggling against his bonds and trying to speak around the cloth stuffed into his mouth. “Mmmphh!”
Nolan froze, never taking his gaze from Agent Styver. He let the seconds drag on for a full count of ten before kneeling once more.
He reached for the gag. “You make a fuss, I’ll put a bullet in your head myself. Got it?”
Agent Styver nodded emphatically, then groaned in pain as fresh blood poured from his wounds. The moment Nolan pulled the cloth from his mouth, words poured from his lips in a rushing torrent.
“It won’t work!” he said, his eyes darting between Nolan, Darren, and Master Sergeant Kane. “The moment my tracker signal went live, it triggered a burn protocol that began wiping every hard drive and server in this station. By now, the data’s been shunted off-planet and there’s not a scrap of intel left for you to hack.”
Nolan’s eyebrows shot up. “What?” He loomed over Agent Styver, left hand reaching for the man’s throat. “You mean—?”
“It’s gone!” Agent Styver’s head bobbed almost frantically. “There’s nothing there. No reason for you to go in.” A calculating glint sprang to life in his eyes. “But I can give you what you want. I can give you my boss. But you have to find a way to save me!” His voice bordered on sniveling, his posture groveling and desperate.
Nolan’s jaw muscles worked. He stared down at the man, analyzing every line, every microexpression, every twitch of Agent Styver’s face. Deceit was the bastard’s bread and butter, and each word out of his mouth would likely be bullshit.
Yet with his life on the line, there existed a possibility that Agent Styver might just be desperate enough to give him something real. He no longer sat in his perfectly organized and spotless office, pushing buttons and ordering men to their deaths. He was entirely out of his element now. Surrounded by armed gunmen, backed into a corner, and staining the ground with his blood. This was the moment that made or broke soldiers and warriors. In this moment, with his life on the line, Agent Styver could very well be beyond the limits of his endurance and self-assurance. The looming specter of death made men desperate—in this case, perhaps enough for Agent Styver to sell out his own agency.
Nolan intended to test that out.
“Nah.” Nolan rose with a shake of his head. “Without that data, I’ve got nothing to bargain with.”
“You’ll have me!” Agent Styver protested, his tone wheedling. “Keep me alive long enough to negotiate—“
“They can’t possibly give two shits about you,” Nolan growled, beginning to turn away. “You’re just one more handler, and they’ll get someone to replace you the moment your corpse turns up.”
“No, they won’t!” A shrill edge of desperation rang in Agent Styver’s voice. “You don’t understand. There is no one to replace me!”
That got Nolan’s attention. He returned his gaze to Agent Styver, once again scrutinizing every millimeter of the man’s face. Pain, desperation, and fear all shone bright in Agent Styver’s eyes, but Nolan saw no sign of deceit.
Still, he wasn’t convinced. Yet.
Again, he made a show of shaking his head. “Unless you’ve got solid intel I can use, you’re no good to us.”
“Swear it!” The words burst from Agent Styver’s lips. Not even a deaf man would miss the pleading tone in his voice, the utter hopelessness filling his eyes as he realized his situation. “Swear on your precious Silverguard code that you’ll save my life. Once I hear the words, I’ll give you everything I know.”
Nolan remained silent and unmoving. He offered no outward sign of his thoughts, simply stared down at the man and letting the seconds drag on. Every passing moment brought Agent Styver closer to death, and they both knew it. They were both running out of time, but Agent Styver would reach his expiration date in seconds, not days.
“Please!” Despair stained the man’s pale face, and his words came out in a cry of pure terror. “Please, for the love of God, don’t let me die down here! Not here, not like this!” He broke then, and tears streamed down his face as he slumped back to the ground. He curled up into a ball on the dust-and-blood-covered floor and rocked back and forth. “Not like this!” he moaned over and over.
Nolan let Agent Styver drown in his misery. The man certainly deserved it.
Yet, a few seconds later, Nolan said, “Tell us what you know, and I’ll save your life.”
Agent Styver’s moaning broke off in a harsh, rasping gasp, and he lifted tear-rimmed eyes up to Nolan. “Swear it!” he croaked.
“I swear, on the oaths I took as a Silverguard.” Nolan’s voice was hard, his expression impassive beneath his helmet. “Now tell me before it’s too late to stop you from bleeding out.”
Agent Styver’s moaning stopped, and he rolled onto his back. He stared up at Nolan as if trying to read his expression through the helmet. Finally, he seemed to reach some sort of decision—perhaps to believe Nolan’s words—and began to speak quickly.
“The Protection Bureau has always cast a large shadow by design, but in reality, there are only a few dozen actual agents around the entire Empire, all spread out and operating independently of each other. We have remained invisible all these years by doing precisely what we’ve done with you: using contractors and freelancers to carry out the work that our technology and unlimited resources cannot.”
Nolan’s eyebrows climbed steadily higher with every word out of Agent Styver’s mouth.
“You, Cerberus, have been our primary operator in New Avalon and on much of Exodus VI, but not the only one.” Pain twisted Agent Styver’s expression and a groan cut off his words for a few seconds. When he finally recovered, he gasped out, “But I am the Protection Bureau’s only agent active on-world, set to oversee our affairs and handle all the operatives on our books.”
Nolan could only blink in surprise. It seemed impossible—as Agent Styver said, the Protection Bureau cast one hell of a large shadow, and to find out it was nothing more than a smokescreen came as a shock to the system.
“If you let me die,” Agent Styver pressed on, “you will relinquish a negotiating advantage far larger than you could possibly realize. Keep me alive and offer my return in good faith to my superiors, and they will be motivated to let you walk away as you want.”
“And the fact that we just gunned down a couple dozen Black Crows won’t be a problem?” Darren rumbled.
Agent Styver actually snorted. “They are assets, nothing more. Guarded carefully and expended with caution, yet only valuable in the service they can provide.” His face twisted—not with pain, but disgust. “As you’ve proven, they are clearly worth less than anticipated.”
Those words snapped Nolan out of his momentary surprise. That sounded exactly like the Agent Styver he’d known. The man had always treated Nolan the same way he now spoke of the Black Crows: an asset, prized for his skillset yet ultimately expendable.
“But the true measure of the Protection Bureau’s power has nothing to do with its strength of arms.” Agent Styver actually shot Nolan a scornful look, doubtless a reflexive expression that slipped out despite his dire situation. “It’s the resources we command, the technology at our disposal, and the influence wielded to achieve our ends.”
“And what are those?” Nolan asked. An ancient military strategist had said, “Know thy enemy.” The Protection Bureau’s goals had never mattered to him—as lon
g as they’d kept paying him and given him access to Jared, he’d accepted their missions. Now that he was going up against them, however, he needed to know what they wanted. That would give him leverage in the negotiations; he’d either threaten their plans or facilitate their attempts to reach their objective, whatever the hell it might be.
“To do as its name suggests,” Agent Styver said. “To protect the Empire from all threats within and without.”
Nolan rolled his eyes. “Grade-A bullshit.”
“No!” Agent Styver shook his head, and a fresh wave of pain washed across his face. “It is our purpose. We are the keel that turns the Empire and steers the tides of power. We control for the sake of protecting the society we’ve built, to provide stability for the populace at large. Even at the expense of a few.”
Nolan didn’t buy it, not for a moment. “Or, you’re all about accumulating power under the guise of ‘stability,’ using your technology and resources to do whatever the fuck you want.”
Agent Styver actually looked insulted and opened his mouth to retort.
Nolan cut him off with a slash of his hand. “Enough!” Clearly Agent Styver wasn’t going to give him a straight answer about the Protection Bureau. Without access to the servers, he couldn’t use the Protection Bureau’s data as a bargaining chip. That left just Agent Styver himself, and Nolan wouldn’t let his leverage bleed out onto the floor of this tunnel. “Tell me who your bosses are. Who’s running the show? Who do I need to call with my demands for your safe return?”
Agent Styver’s expression went flat, hard. “I don’t have a name.” He went on quickly, as if afraid that Nolan was going to walk away and leave him to die. “They don’t give us names! Just call signs and a comms channel for contact. I can give you both!”
“Damned right you will!” Nolan snapped.
“But first, stop the bleeding!” Agent Styver’s eyes darted to the wounds in his belly, and his face went a bit paler. “You want it, I’ll tell you after you save me.”
Rampant Destruction (CERBERUS Book 10) Page 17
