Red Awakening (Red Zone)

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  Bright white spots appeared in the corner of her vision as her lungs began to scream for air. There was a giant ticking clock in her mind. Counting down the seconds until it would no longer be possible to keep herself from sucking in water, hoping to find air. Clutching at the twigs and bark, she pulled. Feeling the biting pain as it dug in deeper on the other side of her foot.

  She bent farther, sliding a hand down either side of her ankle. Her brain was throbbing now. Screaming at her to breathe. The urge to open her mouth became stronger every second. It was only a matter of time before she couldn’t fight it anymore.

  With one last effort, using all the strength she had left, she pulled at the tree limbs on either side of her foot. They moved. Slightly. It had to be enough. She jerked her leg up, feeling the agony of jagged bark and branch digging into her skin, ripping her apart.

  But with one last jerk, her shoe was yanked off, and her foot slipped free.

  Keiko launched herself upward, aiming for the light above her head. But she was weak. Bruised and bleeding. Exhausted and desperate for air. Her head was thumping. Dizziness clawed at the edge of her consciousness.

  A black shape appeared beside her, and she almost laughed deliriously. She wouldn’t drown, at least. She was to end her life as a meal for an alligator.

  But instead of sharp teeth, she felt an arm slide around her waist and strong legs help propel her the few short feet to the surface.

  Her head broke the surface of the water, and she gasped a deep, welcome breath. Her vision cleared, but her head still throbbed, and she knew her ankle was bleeding. But she was alive.

  “I’ve got you,” a familiar voice said. “Can’t let you die, or my brother will never talk to me again. At least until he finds the next poor sucker to fall for his meager charms.”

  When she managed to open her eyes, she found herself looking into Sandi’s amused face.

  “I hope you don’t expect me to thank you,” Keiko said.

  “Doesn’t matter either way, Tinker Bell. We both know who saved your life.” She grinned wide. “You owe me, and I don’t plan on ever letting you forget it.”

  Keiko groaned just as a massive blast rent the air. They ducked their heads back under the water to avoid flying debris. While, above them, the sky burned red before turning black.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Buffalo Bayou Park

  Houston, Northern Territory

  “I’m taking the chopper down,” Striker said into his comm as he watched the shuttle hit Waugh Bridge.

  The blast waves made the chopper dance around on his descent into the park. Striker fought with the controls, taking the bird into a steep descent. Aiming for the side of the bayou where he could see Mace lying on the bank, Ignacio leaning over him, checking the field dressing on his chest. A field dressing that was strangely red and looked suspiciously like lingerie.

  A dark cloud caught his attention, and his heart jerked in his chest.

  When the shuttle had crashed into the bridge, it had disturbed the bats living under it, and they’d taken to the sky in one great chaotic cloud. There was no time to lose. He had to set the chopper down before his craft was swarmed and he plummeted to the ground.

  “I’m coming in hard,” he told Hunter back at their mobile base. He wished he could tell Sandi the same, but her comms had been washed out. “We’ve got bats in the air.”

  “Damn,” was all Hunter said.

  Strider didn’t so much land the chopper as drop it out of the sky. He hit the ground with a thump and a shudder. “I’m down,” he told Hunter. “But there’s no way I can take off again. The sky is black with bats.”

  “Already on it. I’ve got Gray and Zane on their way. They’ll take you out by road.”

  “What’s the ETA on Enforcement?”

  “They’ve been delayed.” There was a grin in Hunter’s voice. “I got in contact with our hacker friend, and he’s infected the Enforcement grid with a new virus he’s written. It won’t stall them for long—five, ten minutes at most—but it’s something. It cost us, though.”

  “Whatever you had to pay, it’s worth double.” Striker powered down the chopper before climbing out. “Medical help?”

  “On standby. Gray’s got the coordinates. I’ve hacked the city’s camera network, and it’s gone black. That’ll buy you a window to get out of there. I made sure to delete all the footage I could find of the shuttle descending toward the bayou. No one will know the people on board managed to get off before it blew.”

  “Good job.” Striker ran for his teammates and crouched beside them. “How’s he doing?” he asked Ignacio.

  “Still breathing. Heartbeat is weak. He’s losing blood, internally as well as through that.” He pointed to the metal tube poking out of Mace’s chest.

  Striker waved a hand to ward off some stray bats that were spiraling around them. “Sandi? Keiko?”

  Ignacio nodded toward the bridge, where the two women were climbing out of the bayou. Sandi had an arm around Keiko, who looked weak and was clearly struggling to stand on her own. Her eyes shot straight to Mace, and her strength seemed to return. She rushed forward, limping on a foot that’d lost its shoe. There was blood on her ankle and hands, bruises everywhere else. Her hair was wet and matted, her clothes torn, but she was alive. And very much focused on Mace.

  Stumbling over the rocky ground, she fell to her knees beside Mace. “Is he alive?” she asked Ignacio, her voice trembling. With hesitation, as though afraid of what she’d find, she reached for Mace.

  “He’s alive,” Ignacio said. “He’s too stubborn to die.”

  Leaning over, she placed her ear to Mace’s chest, right above his heart.

  “No trust,” Ignacio grumbled as Keiko’s whole body seemed to sag with relief.

  Two bats swooped, dancing around their heads, and Keiko’s eyes went wide. With a start, she jerked away from Mace and looked up at the cloud of swarming bats above her head. Before anyone could say anything, she was on her feet, her focus on the cloud.

  “Bat,” she shouted. “Bat!”

  “Calm down.” Striker stood and placed a hand on each of her arms.

  She shook him off. “Baaaat!”

  “She’s losing it,” he told Ignacio. “We need to get out of here before she goes into shock.”

  “I’m not losing anything. I’m trying to find Mace’s bat. It has to be with them. Right? I mean, instinct would tell it to find the other bats.” She took a deep breath and screeched. “Bat!”

  “What the hell?” Striker gaped at his teammates. “She knows about his animal?”

  “Yeah.” Ignacio shrugged out of his waterlogged shirt and wrung it out. “We need to take her with us and sort this out.”

  Keiko turned a fiery glare on Ignacio, which would have been funny under any other circumstances. She was tiny, battered, and clearly exhausted. She was a woman who was at the very end of her resources, and she was facing off against a man with twice her bulk and a whole lot more muscle. Striker could see why his friend was enamored by her.

  Worthy mate, his snake said in agreement.

  “You’re taking me with you anyway,” she angrily told Ignacio. “I go where he goes.” She pointed at Mace before turning her face back to the sky. “Baaaat!”

  Striker ran a hand over his bald head. “That isn’t going to work. His animal doesn’t listen to anyone but him.”

  “Not even him, half the time.” Sandi brushed the hair from her brother’s forehead.

  Keiko didn’t listen. “Bat, get down here. I know you’re up there!”

  Striker didn’t see how she could know any such thing. It was just wishful thinking.

  He caught Ignacio’s eye. “You think it’s still trapped in the research facility?”

  “Who knows? I haven’t seen it, but it’s got to be alive.”

  Yeah, because Mace was still alive, and even though they’d never tested their premise that if one half of their weird little duo died, it would mea
n the end of the other, they all believed that was exactly what would happen.

  “Bat!” Keiko screeched. “Get down here now. Stop messing around with your friends.”

  Striker let out a sigh as two tanklike vehicles came screeching to a halt on the rise above them. Gray bolted out of the first vehicle, closely followed by several more members of his team.

  “You need to stop screaming for the bat,” Striker told Keiko. “You aren’t helping anyone.”

  “We need to find the bat. If we don’t, they won’t survive.” She glared at him. “Do you have a better idea? No? Well then, butt out. Baaaaaaat!”

  Gray came up beside them. “Should she be screaming like that?”

  “Unless you’ve got a gag on you, I’m not sure how we can stop it.” Striker nodded to Mace. “Get him loaded in. I’ll bring her in the second vehicle. We only have a small window to get out of here before the cameras are back online and Enforcement find out exactly what happened.”

  “On it,” Gray said, striding toward Mace.

  “We need to go,” Striker told Keiko. “We need to get Mace and you to a doctor.”

  “Not without his bat,” the stubborn woman replied.

  “I don’t think you’re in a position to negotiate,” he said.

  “Baaaatt!” was the only answer he got.

  Striker opened his mouth to tell Keiko that her time was up. If she wanted to go with Mace, then she needed to leave now. Only the words didn’t come out, because a tiny bat, one that was smaller and lighter in color than the rest, spiraled down from the mass above them—heading straight for her.

  “Bat,” she laughed, cried, called. Reaching her hands high toward it.

  And damned if the flying rat didn’t flutter right into those hands. Striker’s jaw dropped as her shaky grasp brought the tiny creature to her chest and held it close.

  “You’re a really bad bat,” she scolded. “You knew you had to come back to Mace, and you went off to play instead. I’m not happy with you.” Her hands trembled as she walked the creature over to its other half. She looked equal parts scared of it and relieved that she held it. Dropping to her knees beside Mace, she placed the bat on his chest. “Go on, get back where you belong.”

  The tiny, fluffy bat butted her hand, as though it wanted more petting. She let out a stunned laugh. “Later, okay.” And then she shooed it up Mace’s chest to his shoulder. “Do your joining thing. I’ll pet you later.”

  And to everyone’s astonishment, it did exactly what it was told to do. One second, it was walking across Mace; the next, it was a tattoo on his shoulder. Keiko ran her fingers over the bat drawing.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. “Now keep him safe until we can fix him.”

  What she thought a two-inch flying rat could accomplish, Striker didn’t know. Standing up on wobbly legs, Keiko turned to him with the same look a queen would use on her subjects.

  “We need to get him to a hospital. Come on, hurry up.”

  Ignacio started laughing, and Striker shot him a look that shut him up fast. Then, together, they ran with Mace to the waiting vehicles.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  CommTECH headquarters

  New York City, Northern Territory

  Along with the rest of the world, Miriam Shepherd had watched her press secretary jump off the sixty-sixth floor of the research building in a misguided attempt to save a reporter, only to be scooped up by a waiting shuttle. A Freedom shuttle. One that was now in flames in Buffalo Bayou.

  “Survivors?” The cameras in the area had been cut just before the shuttle hit the bridge. Miriam was watching the blazing aftermath on the screens in her office.

  “None.” Daniel Mercer stood in the middle of Miriam’s office, a clear hologram from the crash site. His arm was bandaged, but he was as calm and in control as usual.

  She knew she was talking to Daniel, because Charles was in the hospital. Someone had managed to get in a lucky shot, one that hit his femoral artery. Charles was temporarily out of action. Unlike Keiko Sato.

  “Are we sure she was in the shuttle when it blew up?”

  “There’s no way to tell for certain.”

  “Is it possible they escaped the shuttle, maybe jumped from it before impact?”

  “No. There are no signs of anyone having escaped. And definitely no signs of a rescue vehicle in the area waiting for them.” He stared straight into Miriam’s eyes. “Keiko Sato, the reporter, and the Freedom pilot are all dead. There is no evidence to the contrary.”

  Miriam had complete confidence in her heads of security. If Daniel Mercer said there were no survivors, then there were no survivors.

  “Is there any evidence that Keiko and the reporter were working with Freedom?”

  “Negative. So far, our investigation hasn’t uncovered any links between Ms. Sato or the reporter and Freedom.” An Enforcement officer tried to get Mercer’s attention, but he waved him away, judging rightly that talking with Miriam took precedence. “We did, however, find out that the shuttle was heading to the terrace in an attempt to pick up the Freedom leader.”

  Miriam smiled her usual icy smile. That nasty little Freedom woman was no longer a problem. “So, you think that it was purely coincidental that the shuttle was in place when Ms. Sato tried to save the reporter’s life?” Which was exactly how she would spin it to the press. Keiko Sato would go down as a hero. And her heroics would reflect nicely on CommTECH. Miriam would make sure that they did.

  “Yes.” The Mercer twin waited for further instruction.

  “Clean up the mess,” Miriam told him. “Then get yourself and your brother back to New York.”

  The hologram blinked out, and she knew her order would be obeyed.

  Now it was time to find a replacement press secretary and tell the world that Keiko Sato died a hero.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Shuttle crash site

  Buffalo Bayou Park

  Houston, Northern Territory

  Daniel Mercer turned to the head of Houston Enforcement, who’d been trying to get his attention during his communication with CommTECH’s CEO.

  “Yes?”

  The man swallowed and took a step back. It was a reaction Daniel was used to. “There are fresh tire tracks from two vehicles on a path leading down to the water and evidence that at least two people made it out of the bayou alive. What are your instructions?”

  Daniel took a step toward the man. “My instructions are to ignore those findings. That evidence has already been assessed and eliminated. It has nothing to do with this investigation. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir.” He swallowed hard and turned to flee.

  “And officer?” Daniel’s soft voice stopped him. “Make sure that there is no mention of these findings in any report.” The threat was clear in his tone.

  “Yes, sir.” With that, the man turned and ran off.

  Daniel reached into his back pocket and pulled out his personal datapad. The one with the research into Keiko’s background. Her parents were Freedom sympathizers, but he doubted she knew anything about their involvement. Keiko Sato had always struck him as the type of person who never asked questions about the world around her. Although, she’d always been kind to the people she dealt with. He remembered well the day she’d come to their office, carrying a cake to celebrate their promotion to heads of security. That was the day she’d put herself firmly on his brother’s radar, something he’d been hoping to avoid. Still, he’d been strangely touched by her gesture. That was why he’d planned to kill her fast rather than letting Charles get his hands on her. Because his brother did love to torture his victims before he killed them.

  With a swipe of his thumb, all research on Keiko and her family disappeared. Later, when he was alone, he’d make sure that no one else in CommTECH could dig up her connection to Freedom. He looked up the bank to the route her saviors had taken when they’d rescued her. One thing was for certain—Mace Armstrong was no reporter. Reporters didn’t have
a backup team ready to whisk them to safety, and they sure as hell didn’t fight the way the man had fought him. No, Mace Armstrong was something far more dangerous. Daniel just wasn’t sure what that was.

  Yet.

  He remembered the look on the man’s face when he realized he was dying. He’d searched for Keiko, found her through the carnage, and his eyes had filled with warmth. He’d spoken aloud, although Daniel didn’t think he’d been aware he was doing it. But in those last seconds, he’d told Keiko Sato just how much he loved her, and his words had made Daniel ache because they were a stark reminder of all the things he couldn’t have. Things he’d never have, because he was born to be his brother’s keeper.

  He let out a sigh. There was no time for regrets or for wishing his life were different. It was what it was. But, if he could have just one wish, it would be that Keiko’s freak shot had killed his brother rather than just wounding him.

  The world would have been a better place if it had.

  Chapter Fifty

  Secure medical facility

  Austin, Northern Territory

  Two weeks later

  Keiko Sato was dead.

  And the only people who knew otherwise were the strange team who called themselves the Red Zone Warriors and her family—who knew how to keep a secret. They’d been keeping some pretty big ones from her for years. Her funeral had been broadcast live on prime-time news, and Keiko had watched, along with the rest of the world, as Miriam Shepherd eulogized over an empty casket.

  According to the CommTECH CEO, she’d thrown herself off the building to save the reporter who’d helped her escape the siege. But it had been a futile sacrifice because the shuttle Keiko had aimed for belonged to Freedom, and as soon as they knew who was on board, they’d deliberately crashed it into the bridge in order to kill her. Keiko was now a martyr for the CommTECH cause—and she despised Miriam for it.

  “You need to stop watching that crap,” Sandi said as she strolled into the medical center common room. “It isn’t going to change, and it just depresses you. Plus, I hate to see you sad. It’s like Tinker Bell when she believes no one will clap for her.”