by Andria Stone
“Yes, we can.” Ohashi steepled her half-gloved fingers together. “Every system has vulnerabilities. We assess their network and applications, then penetrate wherever we find defects.”
“Do it.” Torance left for coffee and a few moments of solitude. He longed for the comfort of his home surroundings. Secretly, he did find all the intrigue exciting. However, he didn’t know how much longer he could keep up this pace.
He wanted to take his patient home, or back to base, and see to her recovery. But he was worried. He couldn’t yet determine if Kamryn would be able to return to her unit. The physical qualifications for the armored assault unit were the most stringent in the TMD. He knew her entire medical history, including the horrific injuries she’d suffered while working undercover for the DEA. After recovering, Kamryn had resigned, then enlisted in the TMD. She worked like a fiend to qualify for the armored unit. And she passed. Maybe she could do it again. If not…well he had plenty of time before any alternative decisions had to be explored.
***
Axel’s energy level had bottomed out. He either needed to eat or sleep. The waiting room’s couch looked so inviting he couldn’t resist. He sank into the corner, sprawled out until pinging from his tablet awoke him. He grabbed it, noting almost fifteen minutes has passed since he last checked. The incoming message originated with Buchanan. “Major, this is Von Radach. Is there a problem?”
“Sergeant, I wanted to contact you privately,” she said. “There has been a development. We decided it’s your call—whether or not to tell Warren. But Eva Jackson’s brother was attacked in Brooklyn yesterday. His injuries were too severe. He died. He had a weapon. It had been discharged. So there could be a disabled cyborg roaming the streets of New York.
“How is Eva taking it?”
“She’s devastated. He was the last of her family. I know Warren and Jackson had grown close in recent weeks. Torance has been informed. He has concerns about Warren being susceptible to survivor’s guilt syndrome. His brother was killed. You, Jackson and Fleming, were gassed on Luna. His father attacked. Fleming shot. Now his family’s been removed with a communications blackout. Not a pretty picture—for anyone. Remember, he wasn’t a combat soldier, to begin with.”
“Yes, ma’am. I won’t tell him until we’re on our way back to base. No reason to burden him with this.”
“It’s up to you, Sergeant. You know him better than anyone by this point. If you change your mind—check with Torance first. Buchanan out.”
Stunned by the news, Axel sat motionless. A cold sadness enveloped him. His mind began to replay all the happy, angry, dangerous moments he’d shared with Eva, Kamryn, and Mark. They had bonded. The four of them were still alive, but for how long?
Everyone seemed to have high hopes this data chip plan would work. Coulter would be caught. That would be the end of it. Not true. The plan sucked. Since hearing it, Axel doubted Coulter would actually be the one fooled into using the chip. If recent setbacks were any indication, she’d hand it off to another unsuspecting operative with a neural implant, then send them in as a decoy. Any minute, he’d hear an attempt had been made, and the TMD had taken someone into custody. It wouldn’t be Coulter. Not her style. She’d anticipate this trick.
Axel surmised she might do the exact opposite of what they expected. She’d stay in Portland to focus on another target. Who? Not Eva, she was protected in an out-of-state underground base. Kamryn had an armored guard. Axel wasn’t a relative. He didn’t have anything Coulter wanted. So it was Mark. He had to be the one with the big red X painted on his chest. Would Coulter come after him just to get even? Hell, yes, she would. Or, maybe Mark didn’t know he had something—else—she wanted? Regardless, Axel had been given orders. Protect Capt. Mark Warren. He intended to complete his mission and try his damnedest not to die doing it.
Where was Mark? Holy shit. Axel jumped off the couch, sprinted down the hall to Kamryn’s room, burst in the door. Everybody turned around to look at him, including Mark, who happened to be unpacking large bags of delicious smelling food.
“You hungry?” Mark smiled. “I cooked.”
Kamryn sat propped up in bed, grinning from ear to ear, staring at a banana cream pie. The bed served as a table for the barbecued pork subs, baked beans, mini corn on the cobs, a pie for dessert, with a gallon of hard iced tea to wash it all down.
“Where did all this come from?”
“One of our neighbors owns Wolff’s Smokehouse BBQ. I asked him to drop off a few leftovers on his way home.”
Axel divided the pie into equal parts, plated a slice, handed it to Kamryn. He smiled watching her lick the filing off a spoon. The major, both cybers, Mark and the guard weren’t wasting any time in helping themselves to the more nutritious parts of the feast. Axel hadn’t eaten in hours. The food aromas released from the bags were overwhelming. He dove in before people started reaching for seconds. “Major, I assume you scanned it all for anything detrimental to our health.”
“Affirmative. Even the alcohol content in the tea is less than six percent so everyone can partake, except my patient. Sorry, Kamryn, nanites don’t like spirits.”
“That’s all right, doc. I’m more of a beer connoisseur, anyway.”
While they ate, Axel decided to get opinions on the data chip maneuver. “Anybody have views on the probability of this chip ploy working.”
The munching and crunching slowed to a halt.
Under her breath, Kamryn muttered, “Coulter’s not dumb enough to fall for that kind of trick.”
“My sentiments, exactly,” Petra grumbled.
“Snowball’s chance in hell,” snorted Ohashi.
“Why didn’t anybody tell me this before?” Mark asked, alarm now evident in his voice. “You all let me go through with a plan none of you thought would work? Some friends you guys are.”
“Headquarters came up with the plan,” Torance interjected. “It bought us time to remove your family, while enticing two more of Coulter’s operatives into the open. Who, by the way, are dead. Even as we continued searching for ways to locate Coulter and bring her down. You keep forgetting we’re in the military. We follow orders. In your lab at CAMRI, your research was funded by TMD. You wore a uniform, but it’s as close as you came to being military. We live and breathe it twenty-four/seven.”
“Okay, what now? Does anybody have a plan that will work?” Mark drilled everyone with a challenging look. When no one responded, he said, “Kamryn?”
“If it were me—I’d go on the offensive to target BioKlon. Working with hypotheticals here, let’s say she is German, so there’s a good chance that country is her home base. Which makes BioKlon the main source of her revenue. The facility in Houston is an alternate source. She’s in our country, so an attack or threat to this facility is bound to get her attention and draw her resources away from you, Mark. For a while, anyway.”
“Being on the offense for once sounds great,” Axel responded before anyone else. “What kind of threat?”
“Something affecting everyone in the facility. Like a communicable disease, deadly pathogen, cache of drugs, threat to national security, or a fire. You know, something all-encompassing.”
“Under the hypothetical heading, which scenario might lure her to Houston?”
“Fire. Nothing draws a moth like a flame. When a business goes up in a blaze, most authorities won’t admit it, but they immediately suspect arson, either to conceal a previous crime or for insurance fraud. The investigators will work backward from there. The bigger the disaster, the higher the odds it was deliberate—excluding lightning strikes.”
Ohashi had been following the conversation while feeding data into her tablet. “Houston is the lightning capital of Texas.”
“Well, how ‘bout that.” A shadowy grin spread across Axel’s face. He stood, motioned for Ohashi to follow him and without a word, they both left Kamryn’s room. As they walked to the stairwell, Axel cautioned Ohashi, “Do you remember, Boss Lady, the shuttle p
ilot who flew us to CAMRI? Contact her—she owes me a favor. I need an act of god to wreak havoc on BioKlon. Last year we were cleaning up a little skirmish in South America, and we needed a diversion. She sent blasts of ionic pulse down from her shuttle that looked exactly like bolts of lightning.”
“Oh, wow. That gives me time to send a RAT, a remote access Trojan, into their system. I can piggyback into Houston off a transmission from the German plant…uh-oh.” She clasped a hand over her mouth.
“You’re hacking the German BioKlon? I thought that was off limits?”
“Not hacking per se, just piggybacking off HQ.”
“Whose idea was this?”
“Can’t say.”
“You don’t have to. Our doctor is one sneaky bastard. Well, good. That should make things much easier. Can you do the same thing from Germany to Houston?”
She nodded. “I’ll program it to send us a mega burst of data when the pulse…uh, lightning…strikes it. We’d have to take what we can get. It’d be more than we have now.”
“Just so you’re clear. We never had this conversation. If any of this gets out we both could be retired—to a military penitentiary. So, leave no trace, right?”
Ohashi’s amber eyes danced with mischief. “Sergeant, I’m a Cyber Ninja. It’s a good thing I wear a white hat. If I were pitching for the other team, the TMD would be in big trouble.”
“No doubt.” Axel extended his arm. Ohashi grasped it, sealing their clandestine game plan. “Let’s make this happen. One natural phenomenon coming up.”
***
Mark couldn’t help but notice Axel and Ohashi as they entered Kamryn’s room. Their body language radiated with a controlled excitement. Mark snagged Axel’s arm, guiding him into a corner. “What’s up?”
“Are you always this suspicious?”
“Have you forgotten one of my parents is a shrink? I grew up being analyzed. I know duplicitous behavior when I see it. So, what are you and Ohashi scheming on?”
Axel thumped him on the chest. “Do you want to go to jail again?”
“Not especially.”
“If we get caught, that’s where we’re headed.”
“I haven’t liked a single plan someone else has thought of so far, beginning with sending me to the moon. Why would I like this one any better?”
Axel squared his shoulders. “Because I’ve had your back since day one. So you’re just going to have to trust me.”
Funny thing. He did trust Axel—had since the day they’d met. Mark could do without the chest thumping and ass kicking, but they’d become…friends—more like family, warts and all. Maybe they piss you off sometimes, but they are bound to you, like you are to them. Good, bad, or ugly. Right, wrong, or indifferent. This was the relationship he and Eric had shared. Without Mark’s knowledge, Axel had nonetheless stepped into the gaping void left by Eric’s death. A brother. A badass brother.
“If you were me, Axel, would you let others decide what happens to you?”
“If they were qualified, yes. My background and training make me imminently qualified. Did you question me at CAMRI?”
“No.”
“Then I’ve proven I can do my job. Have a little faith.”
“I do. It’s Coulter that has me worried.”
Chapter 19
The rain inundated Houston right on time. Ionized storm cells had gathered, blanketing the entire area. If Axel could have counted on an exact natural strike of lightning to the BioKlon facility, he wouldn’t have needed assistance from Boss Lady and her shuttle. Updates from the North American Weather Bureau forecast a widespread soaking for Houston with the rain coming in two rounds—one moving in now, another later that night.
Axel checked the time. It was almost noon. They’d already been in Portland for more than thirty-eight hours. Maybe they could go back to Mark’s house, get some rest, clean up and return in plenty of time before the shuttle would be in place for the lightning assist. Axel hoped the potential damage to the plant would draw Coulter away from Portland, in time for them to return to base.
Ohashi’s piggyback maneuver on HQ’s hack into the German based BioKlon would enable a duplicate maneuver into Houston. With any luck, by tomorrow morning they might have enough proof to close down both plants. This was war. Not the conventional kind, but war all the same. The only thing that counted was winning. Headquarters’ wouldn’t care how they came by the information if it helped them tighten the noose around Beth Coulter.
All seven of them were in Kamryn’s room when their tablets pinged. Everyone checked their messages. The fabricated data chip had been used in Seattle. The female in possession of the chip had died when authorities tried to apprehend her. The dead woman had been identified as a sixty-three-year-old grandmother from Tacoma. Not Beth Coulter.
Profanity turned the air blue, with the major being the guiltiest by far. Axel had never heard Torance string so many expletives together before. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, he might have laughed.
“The bitch is murdering the elderly,” Torance shouted. People got out of his way as he began pacing back and forth, waving his hands in the air. “Both bodies downstairs are the same age. There’s a pattern here. She has to be getting her victims from the same pool.”
When his tablet pinged, but no one else’s did, he stalked out of the room. A few moments later, he returned. “I’ve been ordered to bring Kamryn back to base. A shuttle will be here in twenty minutes. We’ll drop the captain off so he can secure his family’s residence, and another shuttle will transport the rest of you back with Nazarova’s troops. It’s time to go home.” He slumped into a chair beside the bed, shoulders sagging; the anger drained from his face.
Without a word, Petra began packing up her equipment, as did Ohashi. The guard commed the ER to send up a hover gurney.
Axel approached Kamryn from the far side, giving Torance plenty of space. He reached for her hand. “I’ll come check on you when we get back.”
“We were getting close—weren’t we?” Her eyes glistened.
“Yes. It’s not over, though. We can still work on our plans from the base.”
“It won’t be the same.”
He leaned over and whispered. “No, Kam. This is war. We don’t quit until all our enemies are dead.”
Mark came to stand by Axel. “I’ll bring Eva to visit. You two have a lot of catching up to do.”
At the mention of Eva’s name, Axel remembered Mark still didn’t know about her brother’s death. He should tell Mark now so he could process it before they got back. Torance ought to be there, too. No time like the present. “Major, join us for some coffee?”
They walked toward the end of the T-shaped hall where the large closet sized machine stood.
“Mark, there’s something we need to tell you about Eva.”
“I’ve got this, Sergeant,” Torance intervened. “It seems Jackson’s brother was targeted, the same as your father. They found his body not long ago. There’s evidence he fought with his attacker. The authorities found a discharged weapon near the scene, which is probably the reason he was mortally injured. He didn’t make it. However, it looks like he may have damaged his assailant.”
Mark mouthed a word that stuck in his throat. “Why wasn’t I told?”
“Because,” Axel said, “you were dealing with your father’s injuries, taking care of your family, and being prepped to hand off the data chip to Coulter’s agents. So command made the decision to delay informing you until we were scheduled to leave. Only the major and I knew, no one else. Due to your friendship with Jackson, command thought this message should be delivered by one of us.”
“I understand,” Mark said, resigned. “She’s alone now. All her family’s gone.”
“A Chaplain and grief counselors are providing support,” Torance offered. “The TMD will take care of…everything.”
“There must be something we can do.”
“Spending time with her, Mark, is the best
way to show you care.”
When they all had coffee, Torance produced a leather-encased flask. He poured some of the cognac colored liquid into his cup, then theirs.
“To Eva’s brother, Dion.” Mark lifted his cup.
“To Scarlotti.” Axel now felt the dead weighing him down twofold.
“To the grandmother, that died in Seattle today, instead of Coulter.” Torance shook his head in disgust.
They all drank.
Again, Mark lifted his cup. “To my brother, Eric Warren, and all 152 crew members of the Europa mission.”
The three men emptied their cups. The dark moment seemed to last forever.
An unusual noise invaded the silence. It caused Axel to turn around. He saw a silver ball the size of a large egg rolling along the floor toward them.
He recognized it. “Shock grenade!” Axel spun to face both men, grabbed their shoulders, forcing all of them to the floor.
A contained explosion rocked the hallway. The blast was meant to disorient—not to kill. Axel had experienced them before. Since he wasn’t wearing armor, so it wouldn’t be near as easy this time. He saw stars. His ears were ringing. He didn’t know where the shock grenade had come from. But he knew who’d sent it.
Coulter.
They were being abducted. Which meant somebody was going to be tortured. Shit. He had to move fast. In a few seconds, it would be too late.
He felt adrenalin flooding through his system. His instincts told him they were in mortal danger. He must survive at all costs.
Kill or be killed.
Axel got to his knees, reached out until he touched a shape on either side. Axel seized body parts. In a superhuman effort, he stood and began dragging his friends in the direction they were facing when the blast went off.
With repeated blinking, his vision began to clear. The instant he could focus, Axel dropped the bodies. He drew both guns, turned and aimed back down the hallway.
