by Anya Nowlan
Wonder what my gift is, then, Thor mused morosely, standing up and clutching his Jack.
No way was he going to go to sleep without a sleeping aid.
He was about to stalk out of the room and into the bedroom further back in the dingy apartment when a loud triple-knock sounded on the front door. In the blink of an eye, every member of the squad had some sort of a weapon pulled out and trained on either the front door or the windows. Thor had picked the window closest to him, flattening himself against the wall so he could have a good view and starting point if someone decided to crash through it.
“Alpha Romeo Alpha, where are you, Juliet!” Spade’s voice called from the other side of the door, the makings of wry humor tinting his words.
Thor rolled his eyes, going back to his chair and collapsing on it while putting away his knife in the thigh sheath he had pulled it out of. The werewolf twins tucked away their sidearms and Ryker, true to form, had grabbed for his assault rifle, which was never far from him to begin with.
Dice raised his hand in a gesture to calm them all down and with a series of grumblings, the rest of the squad members took their seats while Thor was already uncorking his Jack again and taking a long, burning swig. He preferred being good and drunk when he had to deal with Spade. The man reminded him far too much of himself and that was not the kind of mirror he liked to stare at when sober.
Dice unlatched the flimsy locks on the doors and disarmed the explosive devices that Rio had set up around the entrance in case anyone tried to get in without an invite. It took a good few minutes before everything was undone and Dice could open the door, ushering Spade and his entourage in.
As usual, the intelligence officer of The Firm, the premiere soldier of fortune organization in the world, looked like something out of a Matrix movie, dressed in all black, lean, tall and completely fucking terrifying in his coldness. There seemed to be an aura around him that made any sane human being and shifter alike put a few paces between them and him, or a whole continent if they had a choice.
“Ah, Spade. I thought I heard the gates of hell rattle. Must have been when they were letting you out,” Ryker commented pleasantly, giving the man the most hateful look Thor had ever seen the usually laidback lion shifter share.
There was obviously no love lost between the Tyren twins and Spade after he’d almost gotten their kids killed. Shooting them with tranquilizer arrows in the middle of the Nevada desert probably didn’t help with good relations either. Not that it mattered much, no one liked Spade to begin with, though roughly half of the squad now had very personal reasons to dislike the man.
“Save it, Tyren. We can go a few rounds later if you want,” Spade said conversationally, his two goons stopping behind him.
It seemed to be a bit of a new thing, the fact that Spade moved around with an entourage. It used to be that he was the one skulking behind the ex-Generals and other highly ranked officers of The Firm, but when dealing with Shifter Squad Nine, it seemed to be Spade alone and some nameless, shapeless shifters who shadowed him like a bad stench. Thor recognized one of them as Serge, the guy who’d gotten knocked out some months ago by a squad member, but the other one he could not name.
Regardless, Thor couldn’t see much use to them. According to Dice, Spade was more than capable of taking on the whole squad on his own – a tale which was confirmed by a few sightings over the years that Thor had heard of among the ranks of The Firm – and his entourage could at best serve as a distraction.
That’s probably what they are, Thor thought, eyeing the two of them with sullen and ever-fleeting interest.
“What is it this time?” Dice asked, choosing to remain standing with his arms crossed over his chest instead of sitting down like the rest of the squad. “It’s not often that we get graced by your presence and it never means anything good.”
“You know how I like to deliver good news on my own,” Spade said with the mildest whiff of a smile.
He was a tall man, with cold green eyes that seemed to be able to create ice wherever he looked. His nose was narrow but sort of regal in its thin, pointed way, and he had a chiseled chin that added to his somewhat aristocratic look. Combined with his athletic build and the fact that he’d screwed over almost every man and woman in The Firm over his years of reign as the foremost intelligence expert in the company, it made for a man that was as easy to hate as he was to fear.
While none of the latter emotion could be found in the room currently, the air seemed thick with the former.
“Spill it,” Rio spat. “We don’t have all day.”
“On the contrary, you do,” Spade said with a shrug, seeming to regard his surroundings with the kind of valiant disinterest that only comes with men who truly do not care about anything other than their own wellbeing. “Seeing as there’s nothing to be done at the moment. In the evening, there will be a plane waiting for you on a private airstrip outside of Hong Kong. You will be flown into Singapore, where you will receive your next mission briefing.”
“This is what you came to tell us?” Prowler asked, followed by a snort of his trademark, scary as all hell laughter. “Could have just sent a goddamn text message.”
“Well, you see, I thought some of you would be interested in hearing some details about this one,” Spade said with a rueful smile, looking directly at Thor now.
Thor’s expression clouded over and he stopped mid-sip, lowering the bottle from his lips. He could feel a growl growing in his chest and he couldn’t keep it out of his voice completely when he spoke up, remaining seated and slightly slouched over on the chair he’d slumped down on.
“What is it? What can you possibly have that could fuckin’ interest me?”
“Nia Feroulis,” Spade said, quirking a brow. “Interested now?”
Nia…
Thor swallowed dryly, feeling every pair of eyes in the room centered on him and him alone. His scowl deepened and he straightened up on his seat, putting the bottle down on the ground before his tightening grip could smash it into a million shards.
“Is that what you do, Spade? You hold defenseless women as hostages so people will do your bidding?” Dice asked, answering his own question before Spade could. “Oh, wait. Yes, that’s exactly what you fucking do. Spit it out, what it is about Nia? We don’t have time for your little games.”
Spade turned to face Dice so quickly that Thor’s eyes could barely follow the motion, though he’d regained his vision perfectly by then. They were almost nose to nose and Spade’s canines were bared in a snarl, a wealth of emotion that the man had rarely shown.
“You’ve got nothing but time, and I own all of it, just like I own every last one of your sorry asses. You going to let me continue or do we need to make this unpleasant for everyone involved? I’ve been meaning to get my workout for the day in,” Spade said, flexing his hands by his side without rolling them into fists quite yet.
Dice’s eyes narrowed and the rest of the squad was up on their feet, their hands on their weapons while Spade’s goons had pulled out automatic machine guns of their own. Thor was the only man in the room left seated, though his heart was probably pounding ten times as hard as everyone else’s combined.
“Let him talk, Dice. Fuck it, it’s nothin’ he hasn’t done before,” Thor said.
“Don’t give him the satisfaction,” Rio added, though by the tremble in his arm, Thor could tell that Rio was completely unopposed to kicking Spade’s ass or at least attempting to, no matter what kind of collective injuries or violent instances of death it brought to the squad.
After another tense moment, Dice took a step back, his eyes still narrowed. Somewhere in the back of his head, Thor realized that Dice’s outrage was probably as much because he was angry at Spade using his dirty tricks against a squad member of his as it was because of his own dislike for the man. At another time, and if Thor had been a different kind of man, he might have even thought the worry to be somewhat endearing.
Spade turned to face the gr
oup once more, that same look of utter serenity plastered about his features once more, as if he hadn’t growled threats at every one of the trained mercenaries sharing the room with him just a second ago.
“As I was saying. Nia Feroulis, the prominent researcher and scientist known for her work on Borneo native remedies and plant life, has been abducted three days ago. Usually, this would not be something that would interest The Firm, but it seems that it interests me and as I understand, you as well,” Spade said, glancing at Thor for a moment.
Thor’s stomach twisted up in knots and for a moment, he thought he might throw up.
She’s in danger.
The thought pounded through his head like a freight train running off its tracks.
“Approximately two hours ago, the city of Singapore came under attack. They don’t know it yet but about forty percent of the people living there have come in contact with contaminated water through their taps before the damage could be contained. It seems that our friends from The Arctics unleashed a chemical agent in the city’s water supply that acts slowly over time to take over the host’s body. Our best guess is that it turns the subject into a host for the bacteria hidden in the chemicals. What happens then, we don’t quite know but as you can imagine, the people who own Singapore don’t quite like this turn of events.”
“Wait. The people that own Singapore? Isn’t it like, a country?” Prowler asked, cocking his brow and looking around somewhat confusedly.
“It is,” Spade said with a nod and a slight smirk. “But most places in this world are no longer owned by the people, but by private interests. Singapore is one of those cities and one of the more valuable assets. My friends would like to keep it as it is, unchanged.”
“Where does Nia come in?” Thor asked, cutting in, though he kept his gaze centered on the floor.
If he didn’t, he wasn’t sure if he could keep himself from lunging at Spade when the man put on one of his damn smiles.
“We believe she might be the only one who could stop it. Our own labs are working on it but the chemical agents and compounds used came from the jungles of Borneo and she’s the one who knows them best. If there’s anyone out there who can reverse this, it would be her. The Arctics know this, clearly, and have been hunting her for almost half a year now. That was the reason why you were there as well last time. We did not yet know they wanted her or what they were planning with Singapore, but it was clear that something was afoot.”
“Why can’t we go now?” Dice asked, frowning.
“It will take some time to figure out where Miss Feroulis is being held, but my people are working on it. When you land in Singapore, you will have coordinates and a target. Any questions?”
Silence fell over the room and Thor could feel everyone’s eyes on him. He cleared his voice and remained quiet for another moment before looking up. His eyes met the greens of Spade.
“What if we don’t do it?” he asked, his panther roaring at the thought of leaving Nia out there, scared and entrapped.
If I get closer to her, she’ll just end up in more shit.
“Then she might die. The choice is yours, Thor,” Spade said, his expression devoid of emotion as he turned around and motioned for his men to follow him.
The three black ghosts left the apartment and Dice went to lock the doors behind them and rearm the safety measures, though each and every man in the room knew that the greatest danger had just left them willingly in the form of Spade. Whatever else the world could throw at them, they could take.
“So what are we going to do?”
It was Ryker who finally made the query and once more, all eyes were on Thor, who was uncorking his Jack Daniels and taking a long swig.
“Guess we’re going to be playing his game,” Thor said with a shrug, before handing the bottle off to Rio. “Take it, I’m done with it.”
Thor rose up and stalked out of the room, a heavy cloud of darkness hanging over him as he left. He couldn’t deal with the thought of leaving Nia in danger, but at the same time he was far too well-aware that the best thing he could hope for when he found her was that she wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him.
Spade wouldn’t let her die. Not if he needs her…
But Spade was the last person Thor was willing to entrust her safety with.
When he shut off the lights in the bedroom, curled up under a thin sheet that was supposed to be a blanket and with the whir of the air conditioner screaming in his ears, all he could think about was that night in the cave and the way she made him feel.
I owe her that much…
Twelve
Thor
Thor felt almost out of place without the heavy weight of his sniper rifle on his back, armed with only his knives, a sidearm and an assault rifle. He was behind Rio and Ryker in the fire line, moving in slowly one after another. Dice, Prowler and Price had taken the north entrance while they’d gotten the south one, their target being a pristine paper factory in the technology center near the airport in Singapore.
Everything was so clean, Thor could hardly stand it. As far as their intel could tell them, the factory was currently abandoned, but one couldn’t tell by anything inside or out of it, because there wasn’t a speck of dust out of place or a spot of paint that hadn’t been refreshed. Like the rest of Singapore, it was perfectly kept and cared for, each line of the building drawn pristinely and each color used on the façade coordinated with the ones around it.
Singapore was everything Thor wasn’t – centered and with a purpose for every bit of it.
“Lynx One, we’re in,” Dice’s voice called over the comms and Ryker answered to confirm that they’d made their way in as well, keeping his voice low.
The three of them snuck in slowly, every step calculated. It was an odd location to keep someone as valuable as Nia apparently was in, but Thor had long ago given up on trying to understand the logic of The Arctics. They seemed to hover between high tech and being so backwards at times that ancient tribes could share war strategies with them, but if there was one thing they always managed to be, it was deadly and unpredictable. Both of these were not in Thor’s or Nia’s favor that evening.
The building lacked any decent vantage points for a sniper’s nest so Thor had chosen to accompany the rest of the team in. The plan was to go in, scour the place and see if they could find Nia. Thermal imaging had shown seven people in the factory altogether, with one of them remaining mostly stationary in the cellar while the rest of them moved around. Their best guess was that the person staying put was Nia and the rest of them were werewolf fuckers who needed to be taken out post-haste.
“Come on,” Ryker said, motioning for Rio and Thor to split to either side of a large, slate-gray door that wouldn’t budge to being pushed open.
They’d already blown the locks off of the door they’d entered through and this one seemed to be another candidate for it. Rio worked quickly and when he held three fingers up, Thor knew to look away and cover his ears and shut his eyes until the low whine of the tiny explosion marked that the charge had gone off.
Ryker kicked the door open and brought up his rifle, scanning the room quickly with the red dot of his laser sight. It was empty and they moved in, finding themselves in the production area of the factory, large pieces of machinery like paper presses and cutters cluttering the room, though of course they were still kept in pristine rows that never seemed to be without order.
The three of them parted, each taking one-third of the room, moving through it quickly while keeping their ears and eyes peeled. Thor’s body seemed to resonate with excitement and adrenaline, something that he rarely felt those days. That kind of uncertainty and giddiness for battle had been beaten out of him on his first missions but now with Nia in danger, it seemed to be back tenfold.
Suddenly, he heard the telltale creak of a door somewhere above him. Ducking behind one of the presses, he looked up and quickly determined the location of a duo of guards, ready to take separate walkwa
ys over the production areas.
Gotcha.
Thor brought his rifle up and breathed out as he took aim, before hitting the trigger once, twice, and downing both of the men with minimum fuss.
“Lynx Four, got two,” he said into the comms, but a split-second later he could hear the familiar sounds of gunfire coming from somewhere deeper, lower in the factory.
“Lynx One, target on the move with two guards, two more downed in the basement. Seems like they’re heading up. Intercept in the main stairwell.”
“Shit,” Thor growled, reloading his rifle and turning around at the same time, running toward the closest exit.
Each of them had been given the blueprints for the factory on the flight from Hong Kong to Singapore earlier that evening and Thor had learned it by heart. He knew he had to be the closest one to the stairs. He slammed into the door with his shoulder and cringed, backing away as it was locked. A single shot from his high-powered rifle blew the lock off the door and he shoved the door open with his foot.
The stairwell was in his sights and Thor could see the flash of boots heading up it, certain to be The Arctics’.
“Lynx Four, visual made,” he snarled into the comms, practically diving for the narrow, unlit stairwell.
He fumbled up the stairs, hearing Nia’s voice arguing incoherently with her capturers. Just the sound of her sweet voice made his panther rip violently against the restraints Thor had set for it, locking the beast within him instead of letting it do what it wanted. It was a common argument between shifter warriors and their animals, the process of figuring out who could be of greater use during a situation like the one at hand.
Thor remained steadfast in his resolve that guns were a better idea than claws at the moment. He couldn’t get a clear shot though as the agents and Nia were a few flights ahead of him. Growling under his breath, he charged up the stairs, hearing more steps, shouts and shots below him. The fact that none of his squadmates were coming after him told him enough – they must have found the other agents.
