by Anna Hackett
Chapter Three
The Hawk dipped low, and beneath them laid the twisting snake of a river, the sun glinting off the water. Shaw gripped the handhold overhead, staring out the side window of the copter.
They were getting close. Close to the raptors, the rexes, and Claudia.
He was going to bring her home.
“Okay, listen up,” Marcus growled.
Shaw turned his head, and glanced at the rest of his squad. Each man was armored up and holding his carbine. Shaw’s gaze lingered briefly on the man who’d temporarily filled Claudia’s spot. Tane Rahia was a tall beast of a guy who took badass to a new level. The New Zealander had dark hair pulled back in dreadlocks, some Maori heritage, and a face Shaw guessed the ladies would love—if the guy didn’t look like he could kill you in about three seconds and not break a sweat doing it. Shaw didn’t know him well, but he’d heard Tane had been a mercenary before the invasion, fighting in some of the world’s shittiest, dirtiest hot spots. Apparently he’d specialized in hostage extraction.
He was now leader of Squad Three, the crazy lot also known as the berserkers.
“We can’t risk being dropped too close to the alien site. There are just too many of them, plus a whole pack of rexes with these riders.” A muscle in Marcus’ jaw flexed. “And they have soldiers patrolling the roads leading in. They’d see us coming before we got close.”
Shaw shifted. “So what the hell are we going to do?”
Marcus’ gaze focused in on him. “Finn is going to fly in low over the river. We’re going for a swim.”
Reed grinned. “Awesome.” The former Navy SEAL loved the water.
Shaw raised his eyebrows. “Swim in? They won’t expect it?”
“Nope. They aren’t watching the river at all.” Marcus held up a handful of tiny breathers. “Everyone take one.”
The small device clamped between a swimmer’s teeth and helped him breathe underwater for a set period of time. Their armor, with its built-in exoskeleton, would also help propel them through the water.
“Squad Nine is en route to the opposite side of the bridge.” Marcus managed a tiny smile. “They are going to cause a distraction for us.”
“That means make a lot of noise and a big mess,” Cruz added with a grin.
Roth and his mostly female squad were damned trustworthy. They got the job done, and did it well. Shaw had seen men who’d underestimated the ladies—and the Squad Nine soldiers never let them forget it.
“Whatever the hell Roth has cooked up, we get in and head straight for Claudia’s location. They’re keeping her in an abandoned building, slightly apart from the main activity near the bridge,” Marcus said. “Got it?”
Everyone nodded.
Then Marcus moved closer to Shaw. “You going to hold your shit together on this mission, Baird?”
Shaw sucked in a breath and nodded. “Whatever I have to do to get her out.”
Marcus studied his face for a second, then nodded. “Good. We stick together and we’ll get her out. No going rogue and pissing me off. I don’t need to lose two soldiers.”
Shaw nodded, but he meant what he’d said. Whatever he had to do to free her. If he pissed Marcus off in the process, well, that was too bad.
“Almost at the drop off point,” Finn called back.
Shaw grabbed his breather and stuck it in his mouth. He took a quick breath, heard the small device make a noise, and tasted recycled air. He double-checked his armor, and then checked his rifle again. His long-range sniper rifle had been with him since before the invasion. Ever since he’d taken sniper training back when he’d first joined the Coalition Army, shooting had just clicked for him. Taking his time, assessing all the factors, and waiting for the right moment…it was like time slowed, and everything inside him went quiet. There, in that moment, he had a calm and control he’d never had in his life before.
He slid a hand down the well-worn side of the rifle. Yeah, his baby had been with him in the depths of hell. Now she’d help get Claudia out.
Marcus slid the door of the Hawk open, the sound of the rushing air deafening.
“Hell Squad, ready to go to hell?”
They all knew that this time, they were going to hell for one of their own.
“Hell yeah,” the squad shouted in unison. “The devil needs an ass-kicking!”
Marcus nodded. “Gabe, you’re up.”
Gabe gave a nod and without a flash of emotion on his face, stepped out of the Hawk. He arrowed straight down into the river and sliced cleanly into the water.
“Tane.”
The Squad Three soldier followed Gabe.
Marcus met Shaw’s gaze. “You’re up. Reed is next, then Cruz and I will be right behind.”
Shaw tossed him a small salute, then stepped off the Hawk.
Finn had flown in low, so it wasn’t far to drop. Shaw cut into the water, felt the drop in temperature, then kicked upward. He touched the controls on his armor that adjusted his weight to keep him just beneath the surface. He spotted Tane and Gabe floating in the water nearby.
Only moments later, the rest of Hell Squad splashed in from above. Using hand signals, Marcus directed them toward their exit point.
It was quiet and calm in the dark water of the river. As Shaw kicked, propelling himself through the water, he could barely make out anything around him.
But he knew that out of the river, just meters away, it wasn’t quiet or calm.
Marcus eventually stopped and gestured upward. They all rose, stealthily, until only their eyes peeked out above the waterline.
Shaw swallowed a curse. Raptor soldiers were everywhere. Then his gaze shifted and landed on the rexes.
Holy hell. He’d forgotten just how massive those things truly were. Seeing one on the drone feed was one thing. Seeing them in real life was something else. Hell Squad had, unfortunately, had the pleasure of a few close encounters with rexes in the past. One of those encounters had involved Elle, and Marcus had almost lost his mind when the woman he loved had been caught in the claws of one of those massive beasts.
One lumbered nearby, with giant clawed feet and large jaws. As they stomped past, the water around Shaw rippled. There were four more rexes moving together, each one saddled with a raptor rider.
“We wait for Squad Nine,” Marcus murmured in Shaw’s earpiece. “See the beige building to the right? That’s our target.”
Shaw looked and spotted the building. It looked like it had been some sort of car garage and gas station that had long gone out of business.
Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the morning air.
Shaw sank a little lower in the water, and watched a giant fireball rise into the air.
Fuck. The Squad Nine soldiers did not mess around. He already knew you pissed the squad’s ladies off at your own expense. Another explosion boomed, and a blue ball of smoke and flame rose into the air. Holy hell. The center of the ball turned a brilliant red, and then a massive secondary explosion hit.
“Backfire explosive.” Shaw glanced at Reed, their explosives expert. “You show them how to use that?”
Reed grinned. “They took to it like amphibious vehicles to water.”
“Let’s go.” Marcus kicked toward the bank closest to the garage building.
As the explosions continued, the rexes panicked. They charged around, letting out enraged roars and trampling raptor soldiers. Then Shaw heard the distinctive whine of carbine laser fire and knew that Squad Nine had boots on the ground and were kicking alien butt.
Hell Squad exited the water and moved in a line, running toward their target. Shaw kept his rifle up, eye pressed to his scope. While the others would be looking for targets in close range, he always searched for targets farther out. He saw three raptors heading in their direction. His finger tightened on the trigger, but didn’t pull it as he made his lightning-fast calculations. Some of it was conscious, but most of it came from gut instinct and experience. He targeted the first raptor and fired.
>
One down. As the raptor jerked, Shaw swiveled a few degrees to the left, and pulled the trigger. Two down. As he tracked the third, the alien was already moving to avoid him. Shaw adjusted, fired.
Three down.
“Target ahead,” Marcus said through their earpieces. “Prepare to go in hot. Gabe, get that door open.”
Shaw saw the door was chained shut. He turned to watch for anyone sneaking up on them as Gabe yanked the chain off. It wasn’t just his exoskeleton that gave the soldier extra power. Gabe had superhuman strength from his time in a secret super-soldier project.
As Marcus ordered them to move inside, something caught Shaw’s eye.
There was a large, dilapidated shed ten meters away. The old roller door was sitting half way up.
Something made him hesitate. The grass around it was overgrown, the metal on the walls rusted. It hadn’t been used for a long time.
“Shaw? Move it,” Marcus said, his tone abrupt.
“Coming.”
But as the rest of his squad moved inside, Shaw spotted a red glow from inside the shed.
He frowned, and saw that red glow move.
It was a hellion. More than one hellion. The alien hunting dogs were similar to the canids but even more vicious, and filled with a toxic poison that made their bellies glow red.
Shaw’s muscles tensed. The damn things were there for a reason, and not racing out to attack Hell Squad.
They were protecting something.
The rest of his team had slipped inside. Shaw touched his ear. “Marcus, hellions are protecting something in a shed out back. I think that’s where she is.”
“Stick to the plan…shit.”
Carbine fire and growls erupted inside.
“Take them down,” Marcus roared. “There aren’t many.”
Shaw took a step to enter and help his team…and then stopped. He could hear they had the situation under control.
And out near the shed, he saw the hellions had disappeared. To warn someone? Dammit. Following his gut, he changed directions and headed for the shed.
As he stepped into the gloom, he couldn’t see the hellions anywhere. He saw the shed was divided into bays, each with a roller door down. The floor was dirty but large boots had recently left footprints in the dust.
Then he heard a growl.
It didn’t matter how many times he’d heard it, the sound still lifted the hairs on his arms. He swung his rifle around.
A hellion slunk out of the gloom.
Then another.
And another.
As Shaw watched, the rabid hellions advanced, all staring at him with glowing red eyes, drool dripping from their sharp fangs.
***
Claudia heard the hellions growling and snarling outside.
Someone was coming.
She moved and pain shot through her. She stifled a groan.
“They’re coming,” Selena whispered. Desperation and fear coated her words.
As usual, the two of them were chained up back to back. At least they’d been allowed to sit, even if their arms were still chained up above their heads. Claudia was just thankful she could stretch her injured leg out.
Selena started to cry quietly. “I…I cannot survive much more of this.”
“Yes, you can.” Claudia made her voice as tough as she could. Hell, she understood. She was ashamed to admit that there was a part of her that felt nothing but despair. If she let it loose, she’d curl up in a ball and give up. Fuck that. “My squad is coming.”
That was Claudia’s mantra. Hell Squad is coming. Hell Squad is coming.
“Claudia…” Selena voice held sympathy.
“They. Are. Coming.” The woman didn’t know them like she did. They would never give up. Ever.
Shaw wouldn’t give up. Ever.
Claudia moved again, and the pain that shot through her leg rolled over her like a black wave, outrageous in its strength. It caused the can of beans she’d eaten earlier, all the aliens had provided her with in two days, to feel like it was going to come back up.
Dammit. The pain was the worst it had been yet, and she felt like her head wasn’t right. She was drifting a bit, fuzzy…and that would get her killed, if the Huntsman came back for more entertainment.
She squeezed her eyes closed, and imagined she was hanging with her squad at one of the Friday night gatherings at the base. Drinking homebrewed beer, listening to Cruz make love to his guitar. She’d be trading barbs with Shaw. Shaw. She could picture his face so easily. Green eyes, the small lines at the corners of them, tanned skin and tawny hair that glinted gold in the sun. His smile. He had a damn good smile.
Outside the door, she heard a scuffle. Probably the hellions fighting each other again. They did that on a regular basis.
Then the noise stopped. Claudia felt Selena go stiff.
The sound of the roller door rising with a loud, rusty rumble echoed in the small space, and Claudia tasted bile in her mouth. She was facing away from the door—not that it mattered, because one of her eyes was swollen shut and the other was swollen enough that she could barely see, anyway.
The sound of footsteps, slow and deliberate, made her stomach clench. The Huntsman walked like that, but these steps didn’t sound heavy enough.
They stopped in front of Claudia and she forced her good eye open.
She froze. Okay, now she was hallucinating with her eyes open. Shaw was crouched in front of her, staring at her, struggling with the heavy emotions crossing his face. She blinked. But he didn’t disappear like every other time she’d conjured his image to get through this hell. He was wearing his armor and it was splattered with blood.
He reached out and touched the side of her face. “You took a wrong fucking turn and got yourself lost, Frost.”
Emotion slammed into her, making her throat go tight and her nose tingle. “You took your time.” Her voice was a husky whisper.
Now he cupped both her cheeks with a gentleness she rarely saw from him. “I’ve never stopped searching for you. Hell Squad never leaves anyone behind. I’d never leave you behind.”
Hell, tears welled, and she wanted to cry. She never cried. She’d given it up a long time ago.
Sounds of movement came from outside and Shaw swiveled, his rifle coming up in a blink.
“A simple order, Baird.” Marcus stomped into view. “Don’t go fucking rogue, and stick together.” Then his tough face gentled slightly and he touched Claudia’s shoulder. “Nice to see you, Claudia.”
“I am damned glad you’re here,” Claudia managed through her tight throat. “Can you unchain me? And help Selena too.” Claudia could hear her fellow prisoner’s fast breaths. “She’s been a prisoner with me all this time.”
“Hello, querida.” Cruz appeared and tapped Claudia’s nose. In his other hand, he was holding a set of laser cutters. Shaw slipped an arm around her, and nodded at Cruz.
Reed appeared and winked at Claudia. “I’ll help your friend.” He circled around them.
Cruz made short work of the chains, and when Claudia’s arms dropped down, the pain was astounding. “Ow, ow, ow.”
“Pins and needles. Sore joints.” Shaw started rubbing her arms and shoulders. “It’ll start to feel a bit better in a minute, and when we get you somewhere safe, a dose of nanomeds will take care of the rest.”
She nodded and pressed into his touch. She hadn’t realized just how starved she’d been to feel someone who cared beside her.
“Uh, guys…?” Reed said.
Claudia frowned. Reed never sounded so…flustered.
Shaw shifted and helped Claudia turn a little. For the first time since their captivity, Claudia got a look at Selena.
Claudia gasped, her mouth opening and closing as she looked at her friend. “You…aren’t human.”
Chapter Four
Shaw kept his arms around Claudia and studied the other woman.
Selena had her arms wrapped around her middle. She looked up, blinking. She was hum
anoid and wasn’t hugely different to them, but her skin was as pale as the moon and it glowed a little. Her body was extremely slender and her green eyes were larger than the average human’s. Her hair was the same silver-white shade as her skin.
Another alien. Shaw tightened his hold on Claudia. The solid strength of her settled the awful raging that had been pounding at him all week.
“I… No, I am not of your world,” Selena said quietly.
“But you speak perfect English,” Claudia said.
Selena waved a slim hand at her head. “I have technology, it allows me to pick up a new language after hearing a sample of it.”
“Jesus,” Shaw uttered.
Selena straightened and swallowed. “I am an enemy of the Gizzida. Please…don’t leave me here.”
“No one is leaving you here,” Claudia said firmly.
Shaw glanced at Marcus, who was staring at the alien woman. At that moment, a massive explosion outside rocked the building, causing a shower of dust to fall down around them. The men all cursed.
“We need to go,” Marcus said. “Selena, we’ll have questions for you. Later.”
The woman nodded. “Of course.”
“Let’s go, Frost.” Shaw helped her up. He reluctantly let go of her and she nearly toppled over.
He grabbed her again and she winced. “My left leg’s broken.”
Shaw felt a savage rage pour through him. He gritted his teeth. Damn, he hated seeing what the bastard raptors had done to her.
“They have broken her leg, healed it, then broken it again. Repeatedly,” Selena added.
Shaw cursed. Then did it again, really wanting to hit something. When he looked back at Claudia, she was grinning.
“How can you be smiling?” he snapped.
“Hearing your creative cursing…it’s so normal.” Her smile slipped. “Wasn’t sure I’d get the chance to hear it again.”
He just stared at her, pulling in every detail. She was alive. That was all that mattered for now. He dipped and scooped her into his arms.
“Shaw!”
“I know, I know. You don’t like being carried. But since you’ve been held captive, have a broken leg, can barely see out of your swollen face, and have no exoskeleton armor on, can we please skip the argument?”
