Capture the Night

by Zahra Stone

  We drank our coffee and ate our dinner while night fell around us. It was eerie and creepy and strangely beautiful at the same time. I was used to the darkness. At Grandma's, we didn't have streetlights, and when night fell, it was dark like this. Grandma had often lit a fire out in the backyard and let us roast marshmallows over it when we were kids. A smile tugged at my mouth from the memory.

  "I'm turning in." Brax startled me. I'd been so lost in my memories. "I suggest you all do the same. We'll hit the road at sunrise."

  I didn't know what I was expecting, that he'd suggest we zip our sleeping bags together, maybe? So color me surprised when he wriggled into his bag, turned his back to the fire, and for all intents and purposes appeared to fall asleep. Slowly I followed suit, pushed down the feeling of pique that he hadn't wanted to sleep with me, and tried to get some shut-eye. Morning would come all too soon, and we still didn't know what awaited us at Section 27.

  I awoke to something tickling my neck. Opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was an arm wrapped around me. Brax was in my sleeping bag, curled lengthwise along my back, hips touching mine. The tickling was him pressing kisses onto my skin.

  “Morning.” His lips brushed my ear, and I shivered.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I would have thought that was obvious.” He chuckled, lifting his head.

  “I thought you didn’t want to sleep with me?” My emotions were all over the place, conflicting emotions, and I didn’t know how to deal with them. I felt like I’d been on a roller coaster ever since I met him, and yet all along, he’d remained steady, both feet planted firmly on the ground, my rock.

  “There has never been a time when I did not want to sleep with you,” he growled, “but if I’d crawled in here with you last night, we would have done more than sleep, and I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of your family.”

  A smile curled my lips, and I stretched. Rolling to my back, I looked up at him. “Look,” I said quickly, “I never meant for things between us to get this far. We work together. But after we’ve brought down Ridgeway, we’ll go our separate ways. You’re Secret Service. After this job, there’s no need for you to hang around Maxxan.”

  He stared at me silently for several moments. “Afraid I can’t agree to that,” he finally answered. Brax reached over and stroked my face. “I can’t just let us go our separate ways, Katie, because I am in love with you. I love you.”

  My mouth fell open, and my mind briefly blanked. Then I found my voice.

  “No, you don’t.”

  He let out a snort and dropped his hand. “You know, that is one truly annoying habit you have, telling me how I feel. I know my own mind. And heart.”

  “But you’ve only known me a short time!”

  A slight smile curled his lips. “I began to fall in love with you the moment I laid eyes on you. And each day that passes, I fall further and harder, and I know that you’re scared, so I backed off, but today? Today you need to know, before we throw ourselves headlong into danger, exactly how I feel.”

  “Brax…” My eyes were wide at his revelation. He leaned over and kissed me. A long deep kiss filled with promise and passion. I loved the way he kissed me as if he were a drowning man and I was his savior.

  “It’s okay.” His mouth slid down to nuzzle my neck. “You don’t have to say it. I know it's fear holding you back. I’m a patient man; I can wait.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The overhead sun blazed down, burning my skin, drying my eyeballs. I groaned and lifted my arm to shield my face. Something wet dripped from my hand onto my cheek, trickling over my lips. Instinctively I licked, then frowned. Blood. I tasted blood.

  I groaned, the slight sound rasping in my throat. What was wrong? What was going on here? My ears were ringing; I couldn't hear anything over the internal noise. Turning my head, I squinted. Where was I? Slowly, the horizon took shape. That's right. Section 27. We'd found what we thought was Section 27, only there had been nothing here. No buildings, no airstrip, nothing but goddamn red dirt.

  Brax and Jordan had been huddled over the map spread out on the hood of Brax's SUV, pointing and jabbing, arguing. Rae was fooling around with Bear, and I'd walked ahead, hands-on-hips, studying what was meant to be Section 27. My boot came down; there was a click. I froze. Everyone froze. That click had been so soft, yet we'd all heard it.

  "Don't move!" Brax had shouted, yet it was too late. I was in a forward momentum. I couldn't stop my body from moving, despite anchoring my boot to the ground. I toppled, I fell, and the mine exploded.

  I didn't feel pain. I blinked in blessed relief. Thank god I didn't feel pain, for I sure as hell just blew my damn leg off. I was too scared to look, but I was alive, so I could flame and heal myself, but not armed as I was. Wriggling on the ground, I began unbuckling my belt, throwing it away from me, digging in my pants for my phone, tossing that too.

  Shadows formed overhead, Brax leaning in close, cradling my face. I pushed him away in irritation. This was going to hurt soon. Real soon. I didn't have time to reassure him. I had to get anything dangerous away from me, and I had to flame. He knew from the frantic movements of my hands, but then the pain hit in a giant wave of agony. It lifted me up and body-slammed me into the ground. Through the ringing in my ears, I heard my own scream.

  "Help get her weapons off," I heard Brax shouting, then multiple hands were on me, tugging at me. "I'm sorry, this is gonna hurt." Brax hauled me upright and pulled my shirt up to get at the extra gun I had tucked in the waistband of my pants. I had weapons all over. A blade inside each boot, the gun in my waistband, not to mention the standard holster I'd already gotten undone and tossed. The world spun so fast my fingers dug into the dirt to try and hold on.

  "There, there, she's done," Brax panted, laying me down. "Flame, Katie, you're okay, just flame."

  I turned my head, saw Brax stripping out of his clothes, knew he must be injured too. He needed to flame. Just as I did. Closing my eyes, I summoned my fire, breathed in a gulping breath as it consumed me, took the pain away, and healed me before spitting me out the other side, restored and naked on the ground.

  "Here." Rae tossed me fresh clothes while she scooped up my weapons. I was wobbly but whole. I watched as Brax flamed a few feet away, awed by the magnificence of it. I'd never seen someone flame before and had to admit it was pretty cool. He looked like a phoenix rising from the ashes, all majestic and godly. And then his flame went out, and he was naked, and I still couldn't drag my eyes away. For Brax to be injured while the others weren’t meant he had to have been heading my way when the mine exploded. He’d been prepared to put himself in harm's way, for me.

  Jordan tossed him his backpack, and Brax grabbed it, pulling out fresh clothes.

  Rae snapped her fingers in front of my face, a knowing grin on her mouth. "How are you feeling?"

  "Yeah. Good." I cleared my throat and accepted the bottle of water from her. "Booby trap, eh? So, we were right. This is Section 27."

  "Assholes," Rae grumbled, taking a swig from her own water.

  "Yeah, well, now we have something to work with," Jordan said, scooping something off the ground and holding it up to study it. "We have a piece of their mine. Something that Bear can scent."

  "You think he could?" Rae asked in surprise.

  "I think it's worth a try. For them to plant mines around here means we're close. There has to be something more, something we're not seeing."

  Within minutes Brax and I were once more suited up. Only I was missing a boot. I'd packed extra clothes, not extra footwear, and what was left of my left boot was nothing but a scrap of leather.

  My problem was compounded when Jordan said, "I think it's better if we go in by foot."

  "You're right," Brax said, "they'd be expecting vehicles. We go in, single file."

  "Errr. Guys?" When they turned to look, I pointed to my foot, minus its shoe.

  Jordan shook his head. "She won't get far on that."

&nb
sp; "Not a problem," Rae piped up. "She can ride Bear. In fact, we all can. It'll be faster. And he's a hellhound; he can carry us all easily."

  Brax ran a hand around the back of his neck. "It could work. But we'd need detectors, and he'd need to take it easy. I've seen him when he's on the scent, and that hound is fast. We need to be able to detect the mines."

  "But that could work in our favor," Rae protested. "Even if he triggered a mine, he's moving so fast we'd be out of the blast zone before it went off."

  "Risky," Brax argued, not looking convinced.

  "We don't have a lot of choices here," I cut in. "I say we go for it. On the proviso that Bear can get something off that piece of shrapnel." I nodded toward the shard of metal Jordan was holding. "If he can't, then slow and easy it is."

  Within minutes we were on Bear’s back, and Rae was leaning forward with the piece of shrapnel. Bear huffed and slobbered, then took off, so fast I wrapped my fingers in his fur and hung on for dear life. Just as quickly, we stopped again, so suddenly that we bumped into each other, and Rae toppled forward over Bear’s head, landing on her ass in the dirt with a thump. We'd traveled approximately two hundred meters.

  "What the hell, Bear?" Climbing to her feet, Rae dusted off her butt and eyeballed the hellhound, who decided now would be a good time to sit. Jordan, Brax, and I slid down his back and landed in an undignified heap.

  "Yeah, well, that worked. Not." Brax reached out a hand and hauled me up.

  "No. He got the scent," Rae argued, "but he either lost it, or it ends here."

  Jordan waved his hands around, indicating the vast nothing surrounding us. "Here? But there's nothing here."

  "Pft. Have some faith," Rae scolded. Reaching up, she stroked Bear's snout. "Where is it, Bear?" she crooned, scratching behind his ears. "Where did it go?"

  Bear barked, the sound echoing and making the ground tremble before he stood and began pawing at the ground.

  "It's underground!" Of course, why hadn't I thought of it sooner? If you were trying to hide something out here with nothing but vast open spaces, you'd go underground. "There's got to be a trapdoor or something. Brax and Jordan, you've got the metal detectors. See what you can find."

  Within seconds Brax and Jordan were scouring the ground we stood on, and sure enough, the metal detector went off...right beneath my feet. Dropping to my hands and knees, I began scooping the fine red sand up in my hands and tossing it aside. The others joined me until we'd revealed a large steel door.

  Rae sat back on her haunches, face covered in sand and sweat. "How do we open it?"

  "You don't." Brax dug in the cargo pocket of his pants, pulling out a tool that looked similar to a screwdriver—only it wasn't. "I do. Move out of the way."

  It took time, but eventually, Brax picked the multi-barrel lock, and he and Jordan heaved the door open. It was huge, big enough to drive a car through, and with it standing open, we could see inside. A ramp leading beneath the earth.

  I hesitated in the opening, peering inside. Lights flickered on as soon as we opened the door, but that wasn't to say this place wasn't booby-trapped. They'd planted mines outside to keep people away, and it would be foolish not to proceed with caution.

  "Here." Brax handed me a black box, and I looked at it quizzically. "Use it to detect infrared beams. I doubt they've planted mines or bombs inside their facility, and I couldn't detect any triggers on the door itself. So, hold this out in front of you, press this button"—he pressed my finger down on the red button in the middle of the device—"and keep it pressed. Then move forward. Slowly."

  I did as instructed, holding down the button and moving forward. No infrared beams detected, so I kept going, one step after the other, bare feet silent.

  It was cool in the tunnel, and as we progressed further in, the lights would flicker on ahead of us. But something was glaringly wrong. "Why aren't there alarms? Why aren't there cameras?"

  "I think there used to be." Jordan pointed, and I followed to where he was looking where I could see the remains of an overhead camera, now just a bunch of wires dangling from the roof.

  "You think Ridgeway and her gang disabled them?" Rae was sweeping her flashlight left and right, the extra beam of light picking up broken switches on the wall and another camera.

  Brax nodded. "Makes sense. They want to use this place; they'd have to disable all the military safeguards put in place."

  "But wouldn't the military know? That they have intruders who’d dismantled their security measures?" It puzzled me. "Unless...Ridgeway has someone on the inside, someone on the military who would turn a blind eye. Maybe even gave her the information about Section 27 in the first place."

  "The ghouls could be involved," Brax said, coming up close behind me and making me jump.

  "Distinct possibility," I agreed, screwing my nose up at the thought.

  We lapsed into silence as we walked the long tunnel. It curved twice and seemed to go on forever. I wished now we'd brought our vehicles, for the tunnel was indeed big enough to accommodate them, but we'd come in on foot, and it was taking longer than I'd anticipated. We must have walked a mile already when the tunnel opened up into a large dome-shaped room. It was huge, the size of a football field. In the center was a structure similar to a dock, with a crane and a hut set upon the top. On the opposite side of the dome were two more tunnels leading off in different directions.

  "Great," I sighed, taking a swig of water. "Which way now?"

  "Let's go see what's in the building up there." Brax led the way. "I'm assuming this is some sort of loading station as it’s big enough to accommodate trucks and their cargo. There may be a map or directions."

  Jordan dropped back. "You two go. Rae and I will stay down here. Keep an eye out. The military safeguards are down, but Ridgeway wouldn't have left herself unprotected."

  Brax and I headed up the staircase. The room on the platform at the top was unlocked, and judging by the amount of dust, no one had been there for a long time. There was a single desk with a rotary phone, an office chair that leaned precariously to one side, and a shelf with cupboards beneath it running the entire length of one wall.

  "Damn," Brax muttered, standing with hands-on-hips as he surveyed the room. "There used to be a map. Look—you can see the discoloration on the wall." He was right. Someone had torn down the map.

  I peered closer. "Yeah, but look here." I traced my finger over the wall where the map had been. "Pinholes. Not just at the corners, but here. And here."

  Standing shoulder to shoulder, we compared the two pinholes to what we knew of the layout outside. "The tunnel to the right." He said it under his breath, but I heard him. Turning my head to answer, I stopped, drinking in the sight of him. Being this close to him was distracting. It made my blood sizzle and pulse pound, but I was getting used to these sensations, equating them with him.

  "You need to stop looking at me like that." He turned to face me, sliding a hand around the nape of my neck. "Because if I do what your eyes are telling me you want me to do, then you're going to get embarrassed when Jordan and Rae bust in here when the building starts shaking."

  I giggled, then slapped a hand over my mouth. I didn't giggle. Heat flamed my cheeks red, and Brax laughed. "You're so cute when you're flustered." He dropped a kiss on my lips and stepped back. "Hold that thought, Shelton. We're going to kick Ridgeway's ass, and then I'm all yours."

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We took the tunnel to the right and hit pay dirt. Eventually. It was another couple of miles of walking when the terrain changed. Small tunnels started branching off the main one, and we came into another large open area. It was a veritable city beneath the ground. Laneways ran parallel to each other, and on either side, buildings. What looked like golf carts were scattered around, but we had yet to see movement.

  "This has to be it," Rae whispered. We'd hunkered down behind an abandoned truck, its tires flat.

  "Agreed," Jordan replied.

  An unnerving feeling of pa
nic swept over me. This was it, this was my mission, I had to lead my team on this, and suddenly I was awash with doubt. What if I got them hurt? What if Ridgeway got away? I wasn't prepared for this. What was Nate thinking putting me in charge?

  "Take a breath." Brax's mouth was at my ear, and he rubbed a hand up and down my back. "You've got this. You're ready. What do you want us to do?"

  Sucking in a lungful of air and holding it, I squeezed my eyes shut tightly. Sweat prickled my skin, and I thought I might puke.

  "Katie, breathe." He nudged my shoulder, reminding me to expel the breath. I did. And with it came clarity. Nausea and doubt receded.

  "We need to split up," I whispered, "search each laneway, meet at the end." I pointed. "At the building with X8 on it. And we will systematically search each lane until we find something. Do not enter any buildings; note where it is and report back. We'll go in together."

  It took over two hours searching the laneways, but we didn't come up empty-handed. Rae discovered fresh boot prints on the stoop of one of the boarded-up buildings. We met at the end of the lane and cautiously made our way to the building in question.

  "You're right," Brax said, examining the boot prints. "Not fresh, fresh, but someone has been here." He rubbed his chin. "Probably within the last few weeks."

  "Any signs of surveillance?" I asked. I hadn't identified any cameras or motion sensors. Neither had my team, for they all shook their heads. "Right, let's go in then. Brax, can you get the door?"

  We waited while Brax picked the lock, then stepped inside, single file, weapons drawn. The room was empty except for furniture and a stack of archive boxes. I walked over to them and examined the writing scrawled on the front. Dates. Going back five years. The most recent box on the top was dated last month.

  Lifting it down from the pile, I put it on the table and tore off the lid. Inside were files and reams of data, a jumble of numbers that held no meaning to me. But the files looked promising. Lifting one out, I flicked it open and scanned the page.