Red Awakening (Red Zone)

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  Those words were the hardest he’d ever had to utter.

  And he still had nightmares about the silence that followed. Silence that morphed into the sound of Gray’s strained voice as he frantically tried to contact his wife and children. To say goodbye. To tell them he loved them. To hear their voices one last time. But all communications from the area had been blocked. And Gray’s teammates had to restrain him while dealing with their own grief.

  Each had coped in different ways. In the corner of the cave where they’d set up camp, Jeremiah, their ex-chaplain, sat silently praying, tears running down the big man’s face. Ignacio’s prayers were loud, calling on God in Spanish to protect his mother and rain down retribution on the government that had betrayed them. Zane hadn’t said a word but had punched the wall until his hand ran with blood. Hunter, new to the team and the youngest among them, had hugged his laptop tight to his chest.

  “Is this real?” he’d asked Striker, his eyes wide with shock.

  Striker put a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, mon ami, it’s real.”

  As he looked around his regiment, seeing some of them sitting alone, some huddled together, his eyes came to rest on Mace. He’d wrapped his sister tight in his embrace, keeping her between him and the cave wall, as though he could protect her from the blast. Their eyes met, and over the distance that separated them, Striker saw pure determination in his friend’s gaze.

  “See you on the other side, brother,” Mace promised.

  “Si le bon Dieu veut, mon ami,” Striker replied. If God is willing, my friend.

  And then the world as they’d known it ended.

  But they hadn’t died as they’d expected. After a hundred years of sleeping in a cave, being changed genetically in ways that no one could ever understand, they’d woken to a new world. One without their family and friends. One where they only had each other to rely on. Where they could only trust each other. They were family now.

  Which meant none of them were ever left behind and forgotten.

  Ever.

  “We need a way to get Mace out of there, and fast,” he said. “We can’t go in to retrieve him. Not without running the risk of Miriam getting her hands on all of us.”

  Friday tugged on her husband’s shirt. “Can we fly some drones in close to see if we can spot him? That would give us a better idea of what we can do to get him out.”

  Hunter answered for him. “The signal’s jammed for at least a block’s radius around the building. It wouldn’t work.”

  “We might have another problem,” Gray said. “You notice anyone else missing from that little show?”

  “Keiko.” Sandi groaned. “My dumbass brother must have snatched her when the shooting started. I told him to stop thinking with his dick. It’s going to get him killed.”

  Striker pinched the bridge of his nose. “We can’t know for sure he took her. She might be hiding somewhere.”

  “We know,” Gray said. “We all know he nabbed her. She’s a woman in danger, one he knows personally—no way he’d leave her to fend for herself. She’s his kryptonite.”

  “What does that mean?” Friday said, again missing the reference to a culture that happened long before she was born. She was a child of the new world. Born as a foundling, raised by the charities run by the government, and educated by CommTECH to join their stable of pet scientists. Now she was Striker’s pet scientist.

  “It means that Mace has a history with this.” He hesitated, drawing his sensitive wife close to him, knowing how she would react to Mace’s story. “His dad killed his mom when he was a kid, and his granddaddy made sure Mace thought he was evil, jus’ like his dad.”

  Friday gasped. “That’s awful.”

  “Yeah, bébé, it’s awful. It also makes him feel like he has to save every woman who comes across his path.” Something that’d gotten the team into trouble a time or two in the past.

  “Especially the ones he’s been balls deep in,” Gray added. “Makes him feel extra responsible.”

  “Not helping.” Striker frowned at his teammate. Unfortunately, it was also true. “We need to plan this operation with the assumption that Mace and Keiko are together and we have to get both of them out of there.”

  “That isn’t good news,” Hunter stated the obvious. “If he’s with Keiko, he’s screwed. Everybody will be hunting for her. Terrorists and Enforcement alike. This is one huge game of capture the flag.”

  There was silence.

  “You all get that Keiko’s the flag, right?” Hunter said, making Sandi smack him upside his head.

  “Get the building specs and have Ignacio go over them,” Striker told him. “And contact the rest of the team. We’re going to need all hands on deck if this thing goes south. Sandi, get in touch with our CommTECH contacts, find out what’s going on at that end. Gray, you check out Freedom. I want to know everything there is to know about Susan Neal. And you, bébé”—he looked down at his serious wife—“I need you to rack your brain and think of a way out for our boy. Nobody else on the team knows that building like you do. You spent years working in there. Give us every option you can think of, no matter how far-fetched. Let’s get our boy out of there.”

  Friday wrapped her hand around his arm. “What about Keiko’s friend, Abigail?”

  He shared a look with his team, knowing full well that the chances of getting three people out of the building alive were miniscule. As soon as Enforcement arrived, the building would turn into a war zone, and neither Enforcement nor Freedom would care who survived.

  “We can’t leave them,” Friday said. “We got them into this.”

  The soft pleading in her eyes broke his heart. “We’ll do our best,” he promised her.

  It was all he could do.

  Chapter Nine

  CommTECH headquarters

  New York City, Northern Territory

  Miriam Shepherd wanted to pick up the handblown glass paperweight on her desk and throw it at the screens covering the opposite wall. But she didn’t. She hadn’t made it to the top of the most powerful company on the planet by letting her emotions loose when things went wrong. No, she calculated, planned, and retaliated. Most of all, she was always, always, well-informed, which was why she was particularly upset to receive news of the attack on the research facility from the public information network instead of from her new joint-heads of security.

  “Why am I hearing about Houston in this way?” She motioned to the images of the Freedom fighter making her inane demands.

  The two men standing beside her didn’t move a muscle. Their identical features were equally contained. Miriam had chosen the Mercer twins for exactly these qualities. They were deadly, unemotional, and quite possibly psychotic. Perfect attributes for the heads of her personal security.

  “The on-site security team deployed as soon as the attack started,” one of the twins said.

  Miriam had long ago stopped trying to tell them apart; now she just called them both Mercer. Seeing as they worked as a unit, it was a perfect solution to the naming problem.

  “The on-site security team didn’t contact base until the situation was well underway,” the other twin continued. “By then it was too late to advise or send in backup. The security team was eliminated, and communications jammed.” He looked at the time on the far screen. “That was seven minutes ago. We sent you a communiqué and came straight here as soon as we knew there was nothing else that could be done from this distance.”

  “You should have told me while you were dealing with the situation.” Her previous head of security would have known to do that. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alive to meet her demands, and it would take some time to break in his replacements.

  The twins didn’t reply, as no response was required, but she knew that next time a security situation occurred, she would be informed immediately.

  “The Houston team was foolish.” Miriam sank back into her state-of-the-art desk chair. “They should have isolated the sixty-sixth floor, left it
to Freedom, and secured the rest of the building. Instead, they managed to get themselves killed and give control of the entire facility to the terrorists.” She tapped one pearly fingernail on her glass desk. “What’s your plan?”

  “We need you to negotiate with Freedom, buy us some time while we go to Houston and take over the operation,” the first twin said.

  Miriam nodded. It was exactly as she expected. “How much time do you need?”

  The Freedom woman had given her an hour to get back to her. An hour? Honestly, even if she were considering giving in to their demands, she wouldn’t be able to assemble the board and vote on governance changes in that time. The CommTECH board was difficult to assemble at the best of times. They were a hands-off board. More interested in the profit margin than in the day-to-day running of the company. Which was exactly the way she liked them.

  “I’ll contact Freedom a few minutes before deadline.” Let them think she was scrambling to meet their demands. She brushed a piece of lint from her pristine white silk suit. “The hostages are not the priority.”

  “Of course.”

  “Secure the database at all costs.” Even though it was locked up tight, several levels beneath the building, it still wouldn’t be safe from an irrational group of terrorists armed with bombs.

  “And Keiko Sato?”

  Miriam waved a dismissive hand. “Collateral damage.”

  The men nodded, and the fate of CommTECH’s press secretary was sealed. There would be no rescue for the woman. If she made it out alive, it would be a bonus, but her survival wasn’t the object of their mission.

  As the twins left to clean up the physical mess in Houston, Miriam turned her attention back to dealing with the fallout to CommTECH’s image. It would not do to have the ruling company seen as vulnerable to attack—their stock would plummet. And although she trusted that the Mercer twins would ensure everyone in Houston got the message not to mess with CommTECH, there was still public perception to finesse.

  Right about now, a press secretary would have come in useful.

  Pity CommTECH’s was as good as dead.

  Chapter Ten

  When the shit hit the fan, Mace snatched Keiko and ran. There was nothing else he could have done. She was the holy grail of kidnap victims. If the terrorists got their hands on her, it was game over—for Keiko. And he couldn’t allow that to happen. He owed her after getting her into this mess in the first place.

  “Stop fighting,” he snapped as he took the steps to the next floor two at a time.

  Of course, she ignored him. “You set this up. You used my parents to get the violent arm of Freedom into the building. You’ve been with them all along. You’re a terrorist and your group is killing people.”

  “What? No! I’m not with Freedom. I’m saving you from the terrorists. I’m not one of them.”

  “Yeah, right. And it’s just a coincidence that they’re here, too.”

  “Well, yeah.”

  She let out a strangled growl. Infuriating woman. There was no time to deal with her conspiracy theories.

  “We need to find somewhere safe to lay low, buy us some time to figure out our next move.”

  The comm unit in his ear had gone silent, and he hoped like hell that meant Freedom was using a jammer and not that something had happened to his team. Whatever the reason, he was without backup. In a building overrun by terrorists. A building that CommTECH owned and Enforcement was bound to storm at some point.

  It was the Armageddon of undercover operations.

  “Put me down.” Keiko struggled in his hold. “I can walk.”

  “Not in those shoes.” He was faster carrying her.

  “Put me down right now. I’ve had enough of you and your team.” She paused, going still in his hold, and he could almost hear her big brain thinking. “There never was a threat to my parents, was there? You’re all in Freedom together, and you’d never hurt your own. It was all just one big bluff, wasn’t it?”

  “Listen carefully, princess. I. Am. Not. With. Freedom.”

  “Why should I believe that? Everything else that comes out of your mouth is a lie.”

  “Rescuing you has painted a huge target on my back with Freedom. Why would I do that if we were part of the same group?”

  “How should I know? Maybe this is all part of some elaborate plan.”

  “Yeah. I blackmailed you to get me, and only me, onto the press list. But somehow, miraculously, in some other way, I managed to get the rest of my terrorist buddies onto the same list—without using you to do it.” He snorted. “You aren’t thinking straight. This is coincidence. Freedom obviously thought the same thing we did: that they had to take advantage of the press conference being held here instead of at a hotel. It was an easy way to get into the research facility, and who knew when the opportunity would come up again.”

  She let out a mirthless laugh. “Do you even know how to tell the truth?”

  “Can we argue about this later? We need to find a way out of this building before it turns into a war zone.”

  “There’s no we.” She still dangled under his arm, but it didn’t stop her from arguing with him. “This whole thing between us has been one huge mistake. Why don’t you just put me down? That way you can get yourself out of the building before Enforcement arrives and arrests you along with the rest of your terrorist friends. I won’t even tell anyone you were here. How about that?”

  “No can do. Without me, you won’t make it out of this building alive. Whether you like it or not, I’m going to keep you safe. It’s a promise.”

  “Like I’m supposed to believe your word.”

  “I don’t break my promises.”

  “Right, I forgot, you have high moral standards. That’s why you seduced me in order to blackmail me with the lives of my parents.”

  He slammed through one of the office doors into a suite of rooms, decked out in luxury, with floor-to-ceiling views of the city. He strode across the thick carpet to a door on the opposite wall. It revealed a private bathroom, complete with marble shower. Mace dumped Keiko onto the closed toilet seat and then locked the door behind them.

  “I didn’t seduce you. You seduced me. I was just trying to get you alone.”

  “To blackmail me,” she added.

  Arguing with her was pointless. One look at her face told him she wasn’t listening to a word he said, anyway. In fact, he’d bet she was busy trying to figure out how to escape him and go it alone. Good luck with that. He was the only thing standing between her and Freedom’s guns.

  He reached for the comm panel on the wall. It was functioning, but it wasn’t transmitting. Signals were jammed for sure. He brought up the building map and studied it. What he found wasn’t reassuring. They were sixty-seven floors up, with gun-happy terrorists between them and the exits.

  The two floors above them held one of the residences that the company CEO used when she was in town. It was empty right now and offered some hope, mainly due to the private elevator in the apartment that went straight to the lobby and parking area in the basement. Although, both locations were probably well guarded by Freedom.

  “Okay,” Keiko said. “I believe you aren’t with Freedom.”

  “I can’t express my relief.”

  “Don’t you want to know why I’ve decided you aren’t with the terrorists?”

  “Nope. Don’t care.”

  He tapped the screen, scrolling through maps, looking for the security hub. It wouldn’t be marked—only an amateur team would point the way to their security base. If it was on the map at all, it would show as a dead space, central and easily accessible. If he made it to the hub, he’d have access to the building’s surveillance and would be able to see where Freedom was positioned. He’d also, hopefully, have access to weapons.

  “I’ve decided you aren’t with Freedom because there’s no way my parents were in on any of this.”

  “Again. The relief overwhelms me.”

  Her eyes narrowed at him.
“Do you need to be so sarcastic?”

  “No. It’s just an added bonus. You get it free with the rescue.”

  “You’re rescuing me? I don’t think so. You’re just protecting your interests. It will be a helluva lot easier to get out of this building without Enforcement shooting at you if you have the company’s press secretary at your side.”

  “Whatever.” Great, now he sounded like a teenager. She brought out all of his best qualities.

  Of course, she called him on it. “Mature. I don’t need you protecting me, and I don’t want to have anything more to do with you. Just go. Save yourself.”

  He’d had enough. He spun away from the panel and leaned into her. “You do not want me to go, princess. You wouldn’t last five minutes without me.”

  Her dark eyes blazed as she stood to face off against him. “I can look after myself.” She paused, her eyes fluttering away from him in a sure tell that she was about to lie. “I know kung fu.”

  “Sure you do.”

  A look of rage swept over her face, and, in a furious move, she swung her leg hard to kick him. Only her dress was too tight, and the momentum swept her other leg out from under her. She landed on her back, on the floor, with a thud.

  Mace looked down at her. “Yeah. You’re right. You can totally look after yourself.”

  She blinked up at him for a few seconds. “I can’t think of anything to say that will make this seem less humiliating.”

  He let out a sigh. “Neither can I.” He reached down and helped her to her feet. “Anything broken?”

  “My pride.”

  “Then we’re good to go. Unless you want to try some more kung fu moves on me.”

  “Turns out, you can’t do kung fu in a dress. Who knew?”

  At least she’d stopped arguing with him. Must have been because she’d hit her head on the floor.

  He turned back to the panel. “Do you know where the security hub is in this building?”

  He resumed flicking through the maps. There was a landing pad on the roof. That could come in handy, if he managed to get a message out to his team telling them he needed a pickup, and if Freedom or Enforcement didn’t shoot them out of the sky while they did it.