Shattered Duty

by Katie Reus

  After she gave him the location and he rattled it off to someone else he came back on the line. “You think Tasev is in Shah’s neighborhood?”

  “Yeah . . . Hold on and don’t hang up.” As Ortiz had been driving, she’d been scanning the neighborhood’s wireless Internet and security systems. It was all pretty standard, with some on the high end of security, but the house she suspected as Tasev’s had layers and layers of encryption. She could easily break into the others and the fact that the firewalls on this residence were so dense told her a whole lot about the owner. “I think this is it.”

  “Should I park here?” Ortiz asked.

  “No, go down a couple of houses. I should still have a wide enough range.” Because the system wasn’t set up for long-range infiltration, she’d have to be within a specific scope to work her magic.

  Ortiz grunted something that could pass for a response as he continued driving.

  “We’ve got the house up on satellite. And, shit, there are a dozen bodies moving around on the grounds,” Wesley said.

  “Guards.” Ortiz murmured what they were all thinking.

  “What kind of security system does the place have?” Wesley asked before giving orders to someone in the background to gear up.

  “I’m not sure, but it’s not run-of-the-mill crap. Is Karen there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you have her patch in to my computer?” Selene asked as she chipped away at the encryption. The security at the house was set up on a wireless system, which made her job a hell of a lot easier.

  “She’s shadowing you now. We see what you see.”

  “Good, just give me one sec.” Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she sliced through a vulnerability in the security, giving her access to the actual security system.

  As a multitude of video screens showing various angles of the exterior and interior of the home popped up she grinned to herself. She recognized the main foyer and the hallway that led to where the doctor was being kept hostage. Immediately she fired up another program and began recording everything. If they were going to break in she’d have to put the camera system on a loop so whoever was watching wouldn’t see them breaking in. It wouldn’t work for long, but it would do for a last-minute job. “This is it, Wesley.”

  “You’re positive?”

  “Not that he’s in there now, but yeah, this is the place Levi and I were in.” Saying Levi’s name sent a pang of regret through her.

  “Stay on the line.” He muted it and she knew he’d be giving orders to his team.

  “Karen, when you ran the address did you get the blueprints?”

  “Yeah. Sending now.”

  “Thanks.” The security system was intense, and showed the layout of where each security marker was on a very rough blueprint. It must have been what the security guys used to monitor the house wherever there wasn’t a camera.

  Selene compared what she had to what Karen sent her, quickly reviewing the blueprints side by side. They matched. She allowed herself a small breath of relief. Her plan was definitely doable. “I can’t disable the whole thing at once. I mean, I could, but if anyone in there is half trained, they’ll be able to boot it back up within a couple of minutes and it will put them on alert. I can, however . . .” She trailed off as Tasev stepped out of his office.

  “Shit,” Ortiz muttered beside her. “That’s really him.”

  Tasev paused in the hallway, then turned toward the metal door where an armed man stood guard. He said something to the man, who nodded, then walked away and fell in step behind Tasev.

  “We need someone in there now,” she said as Wesley came back on the line.

  “I’ve got an assault team on the way. Can’t believe Tasev is there,” he muttered more to himself than them. “Ortiz, you’re going to take point on—”

  “Wesley,” Selene interrupted. “We need to go in now. The only reason I’m in the system undetected is because it’s doing an automatic backup. In roughly ten minutes they’ll know an intruder’s piggybacked onto their system. If you want to do a hard infiltration it won’t matter and I’ll disconnect now, but . . .” She trailed off, not needing to finish. If they could get in covertly there’d be a much smaller chance of the doctor getting killed or blood being spilled. Once they got the doctor and/or the antitoxin, their team could go in hard. Getting that antitoxin was all that mattered.

  “Can you guide Ortiz?” he asked, not shooting her down immediately.

  “Yes, but I should go with him. I’ve been inside. Karen can guide both of us. She’s locked in to my computer.” Something Wesley very well knew.

  “What happens if you lose connection to the system?” he asked.

  She inwardly cursed. She was hooked in wirelessly and if something went wrong—as it always did in an op—she’d have to be the one to reconnect. Not to mention she was better with security systems than Karen. It would be a tricky game of disconnecting certain doors or windows for Ortiz’s infiltration. “I’ll stay.”

  “Ortiz, if you get caught, just stay alive long enough for the team to get there,” Wesley said, his tone serious.

  “I can do that, but I don’t plan on getting caught. Where am I going in?” he asked Selene.

  “As long as Karen helps you avoid the patrols, I can get you in here.” She turned the screen toward him and pointed out the best point of entry. “I was only inside once, but according to the blueprints this extra kitchen has two doors, one on the side of the house and one that leads to the back. It’s the closest point of entry to where you need to go.”

  “Extra kitchen?”

  “The place is thirty thousand square feet. Now, I can disable a door but you’ll have less than twenty seconds to pick the lock and get in. It needs to appear like a blip in their system. Right now I’m recording a loop for each camera and as soon as you’re ready to infiltrate, I’ll take over their system and run a shadow program. You’re going to need to go from here”—she used her finger to trace a path to where Tasev was keeping Schmidt—“to here. Once you reach the door it’ll get tricky. He’s got a biometric scanner—dual retinal and handprint—and there’s no time to bypass it, but I can crash it so you can get in using a code on the keypad.” Selene had recognized the brand and in case of a malfunction there was a backup keypad installed along with the scanners.

  Ortiz just nodded, his expression neutral, and she knew he was in straight battle mode. He might look like a pretty boy but he was trained and lethal. There weren’t many people Wesley would send in alone on a last-minute op like this. Even though she hated that Ortiz wouldn’t have any physical backup, she knew if anyone could free the doctor and his daughter, he was one of the few.

  “Before you get the doctor out there’s more writing on the back of his dry-erase board I didn’t get to see while we were in the lab. I’m not sure if they’ve got a jammer in the room or not but if you can take pictures and send them to Wesley before you get out, do it.” Because if he didn’t get out alive or couldn’t get Schmidt out alive, they still needed the doctor’s work.

  Ortiz nodded again and after he and Wesley spoke for another few seconds, he slipped from the vehicle. Selene slid into the middle seat and reached back for where the weapons were. She had an anti-reflective screen on her computer so any outsiders wouldn’t be able to see the glow but she liked to be prepared for any scenario. If she was attacked, she’d be ready.

  Focusing on the screen, she saved the recordings from the cameras and listened as Karen guided Ortiz onto the property. Soon it would be Selene’s turn to make sure Ortiz got inside undetected and stayed alive. She’d done last-minute ops before but nothing like this. They’d done no prep-work and that scared the hell out of her. She knew it was why they all trained so hard, but it didn’t alleviate her fear that not only was Ortiz’s life in her hands, but the doctor’s and his daughter’s as well. She couldn’t screw this up.

  • • •

  Vibrating with anger, Levi started to get in
the shower but twisted the knob off, his hand clenching around it as he just stood there.

  He wanted to be angry at Selene, but he wasn’t so much angry at her as he was the whole fucking situation. She’d never been part of his calculations for this mission and she was screwing everything up.

  Right now he didn’t want to shower because he didn’t want the smell of her off him. He knew how messed up that was, but he didn’t care. “Fuck,” he muttered to himself before he turned and headed back to the bedroom. He couldn’t leave things like this with her. And he wasn’t sticking around for one of Wesley’s teams to pick him up. Though deep down, Levi knew Selene wouldn’t sell him out like that. If he truly thought she would, he’d have already escaped out a window and disappeared into the night.

  They needed to talk.

  And damn it, she was right. He might not get to torture the shit out of Tasev like he wanted, but if he could bring the man down and stop his operation, that would be even better revenge—because it would have been what Meghan wanted.

  As he stepped into the bedroom, he froze.

  Jack Stone leaned against the doorframe of the open door, his arms crossed over his chest, casual as fuck as he stood there watching him. As if the man had every right to be there.

  “If you wanted a peek at my dick I would have sent pictures,” Levi growled, stalking to the bed, where he grabbed his discarded pants. “What the hell are you doing here?” He glanced over Jack’s shoulder, wondering where Selene was, needing to see her like he needed his next breath. He knew what he felt for her was real and already heading into territory that started with a capital L. He wasn’t there yet, but he was falling fast. Or hell, maybe he was already there and didn’t want to admit it.

  Jack just snorted and let his arms drop. It was subtle, but his stance was defensive, as if he was prepared to brawl.

  Levi wasn’t afraid of anyone, including Jack, but he respected the man’s abilities. If there was anyone he had to go up against in hand-to-hand combat, Jack would be his last choice because he wasn’t sure who would win. Not to mention, he loved Jack like a brother. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t talked in almost a year and that Jack most likely hated who Levi had become, Levi still cared about his old friend.

  And he hated that he did. Jack reminded him of his former life, of what he’d lost. Of who he wished he still was.

  “Selene send you in here?” he asked as he looked for his T-shirt, then remembered she’d been wearing it.

  “Selene’s gone.”

  Levi’s head snapped up. Those two words pierced through his chest, making it hard to breathe. He’d been in the bathroom for only two minutes. He’d thought she’d make the call to Wesley or . . . fuck, he didn’t know what he’d been thinking. He clearly hadn’t been thinking, that was the problem. “Why?”

  Jack shrugged, the casual action pissing Levi off when his heart was racing out of control. She couldn’t have left. If he’d thought that she’d run he would have . . . hell, he’d have tied her to the bed. Good thing he’d placed a tracker on all the burner phones. He hadn’t been willing to risk that she might leave him. And not because of his mission. He didn’t want to lose her. He wanted . . . everything from her. Something real. A commitment. He knew it was impossible for them to have a real future but he didn’t care. He’d take whatever he could get from her and he didn’t care how weak that made him. After everything he’d lost he should have known better.

  “Why are you here?” He thought about going for one of his weapons, but didn’t bother. He’d never use a pistol or blade on Jack. Probably why that bastard Wesley had sent Jack in the first place. Levi’s hands clenched into tight fists.

  “Wesley wanted to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

  Too fucking late. “I thought you retired. You back in the game?”

  He shrugged again, probably because he knew it pissed Levi off.

  Levi couldn’t rein in his temper any longer. “Give me a fucking answer, Jack. You think you can bring me in? Really want to risk sending your corpse back to that pretty wife of yours?”

  Jack’s pale eyes glinted dangerously as he took a step forward.

  He held a hand up and took one step back as a sign. He’d never kill Jack to avoid being taken in. And damn it, Wesley knew it. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I’m . . . I shouldn’t have said that. I’d never . . .” Levi scrubbed a hand over his face.

  Jack’s jaw tightened as he eyed Levi with a distrust that hadn’t been there moments before and it was his own damn fault. “Don’t mention her again.” The former operative’s voice was low, deadly. Jack rarely shouted or raised his voice. And he didn’t bother with threats—he just did what he needed to do.

  Levi recognized that he was treading a very thin line with the legendary operative. “So what’s the deal? Why are you here?” If Wesley had wanted him dead or to bring him in he would have sent an assault team, not Levi’s former best friend.

  “Like I said, to stop you from doing anything stupid. Wesley’s got a team going after Tasev and he doesn’t want you getting in the way.”

  Levi took an angry step forward but paused as reality set in. “Is Selene on that team?”

  Jack nodded and once again that knife pierced his chest. He knew she was more than capable, but he didn’t want her going after Tasev with anyone but him. Hell, Levi didn’t want her involved at all. She brought out all his protective instincts in a way that rattled him to his core. It didn’t matter how skilled she was. There was no way in hell he was letting her go after Tasev without him.

  Because no one would protect her like he would. He’d already lost one woman he loved to that monster. He wouldn’t lose another.

  Chapter 19

  CS gas: a chemical used to temporarily incapacitate by dispersing via an aerosol method. Often used by law enforcement for riot control in the form of grenades or aerosol cans, the tear gas irritates the eyes and/or respiratory system, causing tearing, sneezing, coughing, and vomiting.

  “Five, eight, four, six, zero,” Selene said into her earpiece, watching Ortiz on the monitor. “You’ve got less than ten seconds.”

  Weapon in his left hand, Ortiz punched the numbers into the keypad with his right, moving with a lethal efficiency that highlighted his training. He’d infiltrated the house like a machine, doing exactly what she and Karen instructed. He’d had to kill two guards and stash the bodies as best he could. So far no one had noticed their disappearance but Selene knew that wouldn’t last long. She didn’t have audio over the video feeds but she could hear the soft click of the door opening through her earpiece as Ortiz opened the door and stepped through.

  From this point on they wouldn’t communicate, but she could hear him moving, the sound of his shoes stepping over the metal gangplank to the stairs. She didn’t have eyes in the room and she’d bet her retirement account the lab was bugged.

  When a soft clicking sound came over her earpiece and she could no longer hear Ortiz, she frowned. “Karen, you hear that?”

  “Yeah. I think we lost Ortiz. There’s gotta be a jammer in there.”

  Since he couldn’t respond they wouldn’t know for sure but she couldn’t hear any movement anymore. She had to operate as if he was okay though. He hadn’t alerted them to anything when he’d entered the room and if something had been off, he’d have known immediately.

  On her screen a guard rounded the corner and eyed the hallway, then headed in another direction. It was as if he was looking for someone. Probably one of the missing guards. Selene’s heart rate kicked up but she kept her breathing steady. Ortiz knew how much time he had to get in and get out. She glanced at her watch. Sixty seconds to go.

  If he couldn’t get Schmidt and the daughter out of the house, there were a lot of places to hide before the backup team arrived. She knew Ortiz would make the right decision. If it was her, she’d stash them in the wine cellar or just hole up in the lab, but that was his call and he had operational latitude.

  Though
she tried not to stare at her watch, it was hard knowing that her teammate was in there and she couldn’t give him immediate backup. She scanned the recorded videos she’d made, then pulled up the real-time feed only she could see. Tasev was still in sight, talking on his phone outside next to the waterfall that sloped into the massive pool. As he spoke, the man who’d been in the hallway strode up to him and interrupted him.

  That couldn’t be good.

  Thirty seconds to go and Ortiz needed to be out of there. “How far out are the teams?” she asked.

  “Twenty-five minutes,” Wesley said, even though he wasn’t with Karen. He’d opted to ride with the teams coming to raid the place. That was one of the things she loved about him. Even if he wouldn’t be going in on the op, he was on the ground as much as possible, a solid support to his people.

  Too long. “We might have a problem. You see the guy talking to Tasev?”

  “Yeah, we see it,” Wesley muttered. “Hold off,” he ordered, meaning don’t say anything while Ortiz was in the lab.

  He had twenty seconds now. Enough time to get the prisoners out and on the way to safety. Her heart raced out of control, the adrenaline pumping through her unstoppable. Tasev put his phone down and turned to talk to the man, his body language tense.

  Come on, Ortiz, she silently ordered him.

  She jumped as a loud thump slammed into the front passenger-side window. Grabbing her weapon she ducked down as another thump hit the bullet-resistant glass.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  A tidal wave of adrenaline shot through her. “I’m under attack. Likely a fifty cal. The glass is spidering out. Another hit or two and they’re in.” She grabbed her laptop from the floorboards and started typing furiously, doing the one last thing she could to destroy Tasev’s upper hand. “I’m uploading a virus to his security. You’re going to lose visibility but so will he.” She didn’t dare move from the floorboards to see how many assailants were waiting. She wasn’t making herself a target even if the windows were bullet-resistant. Too bad true bulletproof windows didn’t actually exist.