by Amelia Jade
He blinked. Damn, Madison was talking to him again.
“Uh, yes?”
“I said, you’re the only one who saw them. Any ideas who they might be?”
He frowned, looking at Jared again for confirmation. The big shifter—their Alpha in codename and reality—nodded slightly, giving him the okay to reveal what they had discussed.
“I think the one who didn’t do anything might be this mysterious J we’ve heard so much about,” he said at last.
That revelation set off a buzz around the room from everyone but the Sentinels, who had discussed this very thing the night before.
“Are you positive?” Deanna asked from her seat near Madison. She was the second-in-command of the Underground, though that didn’t extend to control over the Sentinels. Her area was operations, securing supplies, vehicles, and arranging for the transportation of the shifters his team extracted from within the city itself. She was the one who ensured they got safely to Genesis Valley, a safe haven for shifters.
Justin shrugged. “None of us have ever seen him, so I can’t compare visuals of course. But he had the demeanor of someone who expected to be followed, and who also seemed to be in complete control of the situation.” He grimaced. “If he’s not J, then whoever J is, they’re going to be a hell of a lot worse than we ever expected. I’m telling you,” he said with a shake of his head, “this guy had bad news written all over him.”
He looked around the warehouse as the others conversed about this possible revelation. Next to Madison was Deanna, and alongside them were Milos and Andre, two shifters who had worked with the Underground long before the Sentinels came into the picture. They had been glad to turn the dangerous parts over to the highly trained shifters out of Genesis Valley, and in return, the Sentinels had managed to find ways to keep them involved in the operation.
The only person missing was Auston, the data-cruncher of the group. He wasn’t part of the command staff, however, so he rarely attended these meetings. In the background, working away at computer terminals, were some of the other staff that helped to keep the Underground up to speed with the activities of the Agency. Madison had expanded this group after their previous leader, Flint, had been exposed as a traitor. The Underground was moving to a more proactive stance. They couldn’t stand by as the Agency worked its tendrils deeper into King City.
They had to fight back.
“J,” Madison said at last, as the low buzz of conversation subsided.
He nodded.
“They’re escalating things,” she said, and he could see her lip pull back in a silent snarl. “We’re getting under their skin.”
“That may not be as fun as it sounds,” Jared rumbled, the Sentinel leader’s deep voice silencing the others as he sat forward in his chair. “Whoever he is, they managed to track us with a scary efficiency. Unless anyone here believes that them showing up like that was just a coincidence?”
Nobody in the room spoke.
“I thought not,” he said, sitting back, having said his piece.
“Jared brings up a good point,” Madison said from the head of the table, nodding at the big man. “Either we’ve got another spy, or they’ve found a way to track us quicker than we ever thought possible.”
An idea entered Justin’s head.
“There’s a third option,” he said, his mouth working before his brain had finished processing the thought.
Madison looked at him. “Go on,” she urged. “There are no bad ideas here, except for the bad ideas.”
He chuckled. “How do we determine when to go after a shifter, to get them out of the city?”
She looked at him as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head. “We’re tracking every online shifter message board and forum that we can, as well as monitoring known local hangouts for shifters. In addition, we watch the Agency locals we know of. Whenever someone pokes their head aboveground, revealing they’re a shifter, we send them a note, so that they’re ready in case the Agency…” Madison trailed off as she saw where he was going.
“In case the Agency finds them and goes after them,” he finished.
“Holy shit,” Madison whispered.
“So now the Agency is doing the same,” he said.
“Shit,” Connor swore from his seat. “This just got a whole hell of a lot more complicated.”
That was an understatement. If the Agency had begun to mimic the way the Underground found people, searching for them instead of reacting to their appearance, it meant that all potential missions were now likely to be, as Connor said, complicated.
Madison turned away from the table, but not before Justin caught the angry look on her face. He didn’t envy her. Having just stepped into the shoes as leader of the Underground, and this was her first challenge after getting them set up at a new facility? It had to be tough. Beside him he could see Connor straining to keep himself in his seat, even as he wanted to go comfort her.
Connor was a good mate for her, Justin thought. They made a good pair. Connor wanted to go up there and hold her, but he respected Madison’s authority, and would wait until a private moment to do so. Justin wanted that sort of relationship. He was envious of them, of that there was no doubt.
“So what do we do?” he asked aloud, forcing himself to concentrate on current events.
“They want to escalate?” Madison growled, spinning back around. “Then we’ll escalate right back.”
“What are you talking about?” Jared asked, looking around at his team.
Justin felt himself doing the same. Any escalation on the part of the Underground would involve his team.
“I’m going to call Valen and ask if he can spare a second Sentinel team here in King City,” she said calmly. “For starters. But we’re going to step up our efforts a bit. I want a full, on-the-ground scout of all three known Agency buildings. I want to know if anything breathes differently there. If they’re up to something, I want an idea of where it’s going to come from before it does.”
She turned to Jared. “Make it happen. You know the buildings. I’ll trust your judgment on how and whom to deploy, but get it done as soon as you can. We need more information before we start doing anything else.”
Justin whistled silently. Another Sentinel team? That would double their current numbers, making them a force to be reckoned with. He wondered if Valen, leader of Lionshead Mining Consortium in Genesis Valley, the company that trained the Sentinels, would agree to that request. It seemed unlikely, but stranger things had happened. He knew that Valen had three Sentinel teams at his disposal. With Jared’s team here in King City, he would need the other two in Genesis Valley just in case the Agency struck there.
The world was not as safe for shifters as it may have been just a few short years ago. Genesis Valley was the only safe haven he knew of. It had to be protected at all costs.
“Let’s go,” Jared said, the meeting at an end. He stood up and left, the rest of the team filing out behind him.
As he left the room, an image played itself through Justin’s head. It was of him, lying flat on his back, looking up at the sky as a beautiful face with greenish-blue eyes peered down at him with concern.
Shay.
He needed to see her again. Soon.
***
“I can’t stop thinking about her,” he said into the silence.
“About whom?” Connor asked, munching on some food or another loudly enough to be audible over their mics.
“Her,” he said forcefully, his eyes watching the house from his vantage point in the park across the street.
“Oh, that her,” Connor said. He was watching the rear of the house.
The single row of three-story homes in his section of downtown King City didn’t have much going for them. They were old, and while not in disrepair, the upkeep on them was certainly lacking as well. It was the little details that gave it away as an Agency stronghold. A new door, painted the color of the old one, but clearly made of high-strength steel, opene
d and closed much slower than a normal door. Or the window shutters. Again, painted to look old, but also made of military-grade materials. Justin suspected the windows themselves were bulletproof, but there was no way to test that theory without revealing himself.
There were more oddities, like the fact that so far two cars had entered a garage that could only fit one. Or that no one had emerged from the garage, even though it wasn’t visibly attached to any other building. Perhaps it was the shrubs out front that were positioned exactly four feet apart, which just so happened to be the necessary distance between auto-rising pillars, that would prevent any cars from ramming the place. There was no doubt about it; this was an Agency stronghold.
“Yeah, her,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“So go see her,” Connor said, the words partially garbled as he spoke with a full mouth.
“I’m kind of busy right now,” he explained, then his expression soured. “Though there doesn’t seem to be any excess activity going on here, does there?”
Connor responded with an agreement, just a noise at first as he finished chewing. “No, just the normal stuff. If they’ve got a big boss man here. Their extra security is far better than anything we could detect.”
Justin was forced to agree with him.
“Okay, let’s go downtown then,” he said, getting up from his prone position on the park bench, where he had been pretending to have a nap. His clothing was ragged and torn, making him look like a homeless person instead of the shifter he was. The only thing giving him away was his size, but he had affected a hunched-over limp that helped to disguise that fact, especially from a distance.
He kept up the act until he was out of sight of the Agency building. Then he doffed his disguise and fired up his spare bike. The first one was going to be out of commission for a while, so he had to take gentle care of this one, or else go back to using a truck.
Not an option. Two wheels or none!
“How did you know that she was the one for you?” he asked, speaking loudly to ensure he was heard over the roar of his bike as he cautiously threaded his way through traffic, ensuring he didn’t do anything to draw attention to himself.
They were headed downtown now, to the core, where the Agency’s headquarters building was. It would be much easier for them to watch it in concealment, but at the same time, they were venturing onto enemy turf. They had to be cautious, doing nothing to reveal their abilities where an Agent might be watching.
“Are you serious?” Connor asked from the relative quiet of his truck’s cab. “You’ve met this girl once. Don’t you think you might be rushing it?”
“Answer the question, Bravo,” he said, using Connor’s call-sign, as they were out in public.
There was a long pause. “It was her eyes, Charlie,” he said at last, using Justin’s own call-sign, letting him know he wasn’t happy about being forced into answering.
Her eyes. Once more he was looking up into those greenish-blue eyes.
A horn sounded and he shook himself. The traffic light was green and he was holding people up. Cursing himself, he sped ahead, waving an apology behind him. He was in the heart of the lair now, less than a block from the building.
“I’m at the target,” he said as it came into view.
It was a squat building, no more than seven or eight floors, painted a dull off-white, almost cement-like color. It looked as brooding as those who inhabited it.
“I have two visible guards on either side of the entry ramp. But there are two SUVs parked on the road as well. They look loaded. Probably a quick-response team of some sort.”
The building was on the corner of two major streets. One side, the one Justin was slowly cruising by, had the vehicle entry ramp. The other one, that Connor would be going by shortly, had the personnel entry.
“I have heavy activity,” Connor said, his voice quiet in Justin’s ear.
“Are you whispering?” he asked incredulously.
“Fuck you, I counted almost two dozen men in the lobby of the place, not to mention the half dozen or more loitering around outside, doing their best to seem inconspicuous. What the hell is going on?” Connor hissed back at him.
“Bigwigs in town,” Justin said. “We have to be right. They wouldn’t have this much security out front and visible. They must have all their teams on alert, or else these guys brought a lot of reinforcements with them when they arrived.”
There was silence for a bit as they contemplated the implications of that.
“So when are you going to see her again?” Connor asked as they circled around. They switched sides this time, so that each side of the building had two separate sets of eyes upon it.
Later, at night, Jared and Josh would do the same thing, to see what changed after dark at each of the three known Agency strongholds.
Justin felt the same sort of tension well up within him as he cruised by the lobby. The sight of so many Agents, many of whom he knew had to be aided by the Extremis serum, was definitely nerve-racking.
He began to fervently hope that Valen would release that second Sentinel team. There were a lot more men than expected.
“I’ve seen enough here,” he muttered. “Let’s go try the shipyard, shall we?”
“If we must,” Connor said, though Justin was sure he was already heading that way.
The Coleforn Shipyard, an Agency front, was quickly developing a reputation amongst the Underground. Several times now it had played a critical role in their actions against the Agency. Justin hoped that one day they would get around to just wiping it off the map.
“So, no plans to see her?” Connor pressed as they quickly made their way toward the harbor front, leaving the crowding of downtown behind.
Justin frowned. “She didn’t give me a number,” he admitted. “Said she didn’t have one, so she gave me her hotel room instead.”
Connor chuckled. “Sounds like you’re in, buddy.”
He snarled. “It’s not like that. I mean, it’s not-not like that, I hope. She’s stunning, and her hips…” he trailed off, catching himself. “But I don’t want to assume that. So I need to go over in the morning, I guess. Which means I have to wait until tomorrow. But I have to go early.”
“Why?” Connor asked, not teasing him at all for once.
Perhaps it’s because of his recent experience in this sort of situation.
“She’s here looking for her dad. I guess he disappeared? I’m sure she’s out during the days. I can’t go at night, because that’s just rude and presumptive,” he said.
“Ah,” was the only response he received.
Sometimes he just wanted to punch Connor. For a friend, he wasn’t being all that helpful.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he snarled.
Connor snorted loud enough for it to be audible.
With an angry growl he poured on some speed, losing himself in the whistle of the wind as it whipped by, tugging at his jacket and rattling the visor in his helmet. Inside, his bear thrashed and roared, angry at his friend’s attitude toward this mysterious woman. It knew that there was something special about her.
“How does it feel about her?” Connor’s voice said after several minutes.
Justin arched an eyebrow inside his helmet. His friend’s tone sounded almost…apologetic. He considered his answer, not needing clarification as to what Connor meant when he said “it.”
“Alive,” he said at last. “Anytime she enters my mind, it’s there, making its presence known.”
“It likes her.” It wasn’t a question from Connor, but a statement.
“What it knows of her, yes,” he admitted, revealing that his bear was interested in knowing more about Shay. Unfortunately, it was hard to distinguish between his bear’s primal desires. It could just want him to mount her, and he would never know the difference. The “communication” between his bear and his human side was primitive, to put it bluntly. He could differentiate between hungry and horny, but after that, thin
gs got a little blurry. Horny could mean something as simple as needing a partner for the night. But it could also mean that it had found a mate for life that would always make him horny.
He didn’t trust its opinion on Shay just yet.
Justin slowed as he approached the harbor front industrial area. The public and fishing docks to the west were far busier, but it was here where the Agency had established themselves. The flow of transport trucks grew thicker, a constant press of big rigs shipping freshly offloaded goods across the country to their final destinations.
“How are we supposed to see anything here?” Connor complained.
Justin didn’t object. Connor had had a bad experience with Maddy at the docks. He couldn’t blame him for not wanting to be nearby. He also had a point. The fence that surrounded the Agency facility here was solid steel, instead of chain link. There was nothing to be seen from street level. In addition, the entrance was heavily fortified. The single-lane entrance had high towers overlooking each side of it, along with a walkway that went across the entrance, providing an easily defensible location for the Agency.
Assaulting the shipyard, if it ever came to that, would be a costly process. He shuddered at the thought as it loomed up over him on his left. Despite his unease being near it, he had to agree with Connor.
“We’re not going to see shit here,” he said. “Maybe a vehicle or two going in or out, but that’ll be about it. I think it was pretty obvious that the action was all downtown.”
He was frustrated. The past few hours had felt like a waste of his time. He was glad to have been able to talk to Connor a bit, as much as they were likely to, at this point. Not that deep conversations on emotions were a common occurrence between shifters, but if it were to happen, it was going to be over the course of several bottles of beer.
“Thanks,” he said aloud.
Connor grunted. It was all that needed to be said between them.
“Let’s find a place to stakeout and watch the place for an hour. Then we’ll call it a day.”
“Sounds good,” he acknowledged. “You take first watch, and I’ll go get us some food.”
