Forged Risk

by Sidney Bristol

  “What?” she whispered.

  A boom resounded through the building and the walls shook. Felecia rocked into him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

  The alarm in his head went off.

  Their time was up.

  “Come on. Move fast, stay close,” he said and stood.

  To Felecia’s credit she was only a moment behind him. “Was that a bomb?”

  “Maybe. Something to pull attention and distract us. We aren’t going to be distracted. We find your brother, we get you two out of here.”

  Evan opened the door. Out in the hall a pair of men in suits sprinted by. Alarmed cries came from the work stations in the part of the building where people reported for their jobs.

  He used the flashlight mounted to his rifle to light their way. With the muzzle pointed at the floor the bright beam was more than enough to illuminate the hall. He jogged, winding his way past stunned clusters of people.

  “Get somewhere safe. Now. Move,” Felecia barked out as they passed a larger group of people.

  A few of them started, but that command was enough that two of the people began herding the others toward something. Hopefully some kind of safe room.

  They continued to move, Felecia breaking people out of their shock with a gruff order.

  And Zora said Felecia wasn’t on their side. She was thinking about others even when she knew she was the target.

  Evan should have realized where things were headed. If he’d had more sleep, if he’d been able to think objectively about the situation and not with his dick, he’d have seen this. Wouldn’t he?

  Now wasn’t the time for doubts. Jacob was the important piece now. Whoever was coming after Obran wouldn’t care about one kid.

  “Evan!” Kelsey called out as they passed the juncture of two halls. “Evan went that way.”

  He prayed that was his team, his people. Despite what had happened on this job, he knew he could trust them in the thick of things to have his back.

  The distant sounds of shooting confirmed that this was every bit the nightmare he’d feared. Whatever Zora had gotten them involved with was hitting back and they were not prepared.

  Ahead of them a small pool of light illuminated the guards at the access points leading to where Jacob, Obran and Karen were being kept. The man’s arm’s came up.

  “Stop. Hands up.”

  “Easy. Easy, it’s us,” Evan called out and held his gun away from his body, the better for the man to see him.

  The people on Evan’s heels finally caught up, falling in line next to Evan.

  “Task Force authorization, Logan Muller.” He flashed a badge.

  “What’s going on?” the guard asked, lowering his weapon.

  Evan strode forward, bringing Felecia with him. “Someone’s coming for our suspects. Where’s the boy? Where’d they put him?”

  The guard gestured at the door behind him. “Through here, take a right and across the hall. There’s a lounge. He’s supposed to be there with a case worker, but she left half an hour ago.”

  “Thank you,” Felecia said as they entered what should be a secure wing.

  Evan hadn’t missed how the guard just pushed the door open.

  No electricity meant many of the doors were now unlocked. At least Obran and Karen were in rooms that required both a key and key card to access.

  Logan kept pace with them, and behind him was the rest of their team, plus Agent Joon, the Asian American CIA paper pusher.

  “What’s happening out there?” Evan asked once they were past the door.

  Gunfire erupted. It wasn’t that far away by the sound of it.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Logan said.

  Felecia grabbed Evan’s arm. “It’s the Horsemen. It has to be.”

  “I’ll protect you,” he said as quietly as possible.

  He was conscious that they were passing the very cells where Obran and Karen were likely pacing the floor, wondering why they were in the dark. But Felecia didn’t know that.

  They crossed a hall and then into a pitch black room. He heard the boy’s whimpers before his flashlight found the boy. He’d squeezed himself into the small space under the sink.

  “Jacob?” Felecia rushed to the boy’s side.

  Evan was mildly surprised when the boy reached for her. Then again, he’d likely take any familiar comfort he could get. Evan didn’t like the absence of the case worker. Where was she? Why had she left the boy alone for so long?

  He had a bad feeling about that.

  Logan grabbed Evan’s arm. “We have to get Obran. We can’t let them take him.”

  Evan stared at Felecia. This was their chance. He could get her out of here in all the confusion. He was reasonably certain that he could keep her hidden. But then she’d be living the same kind of life as before. Always hiding. Never free.

  He had to stay. He had to protect Obran, because that was the key to Felecia’s future. Without him, Zora would take it out on Felecia, and Evan couldn’t allow that.

  Evan turned his head and looked at Logan. “Someone needs to get Felecia and Jacob somewhere safe.”

  “Kelsey?” Logan didn’t look away from Evan.

  “What?” The petite Samoan woman backed toward them, never taking her eyes from the door.

  “I need you to take Felecia and Jacob somewhere safe. Get them out of here, understand?”

  “What?” Kelsey glared at Logan. Even the sound of gunfire creeping closer didn’t distract her.

  “You heard me,” Logan said.

  Kelsey grumbled something under her breath then headed for Felecia.

  The best thing for her was to stop the threat to her life, though what he wanted to do was pick up and run with her. Take her anywhere except here.

  THURSDAY. FBI HOLDING Facility. Austin, Texas.

  Felecia watched Evan turn his back on her and walk away.

  She understood why he had to do this. It was his job. He couldn’t stop being who he was just because they wanted to have boring movie nights together. She wouldn’t want him to be anything except who and what he was.

  “Hi, Jacob. My name’s Kelsey. We’re going somewhere safe, okay?”

  Felecia was glad for the other woman’s calm. She certainly didn’t feel it.

  “Come on. Get up.” She helped a trembling Jacob to his feet.

  Poor kid had no idea who their parents really were. By his age she’d had some sense for danger. She hoped this was all he ever experienced.

  “Stay close behind me,” Kelsey said looking them each in the eye. “We move fast. Do as I say. It’ll all be okay. Got it?”

  “Yeah,” Felecia replied.

  Jacob merely nodded.

  “Let’s move. Come on.” Kelsey held her flashlight and handgun in front of her, leading the way across the room to the other door.

  Wasn’t there supposed to be someone here with Jacob?

  Felecia pushed that thought aside as soon as it came to her. She didn’t have time to worry about that.

  “What about Mom?” Jacob asked in a soft voice.

  Felecia bit her tongue to stop herself from denying her mother. Now wasn’t the time for her complicated emotions. “Our other friends are going to look after her. Don’t you worry.”

  Kelsey led them down a hall, continuing through the building.

  The gunfire was closer. Felecia flinched with every blast. There were screams punctuating those shots now. People were getting hurt or killed, and all Felecia could do was run away.

  It was pathetic, but she wasn’t a hero. She wasn’t a fighter.

  “Move faster,” Kelsey said over her shoulder.

  They picked up the pace, almost jogging behind the smaller woman.

  A flashlight slashed across the darkness ahead of them from a hall crossing theirs.

  Kelsey froze.

  Felecia almost ran into the other woman. She let go of Jacob and lifted the gun Evan had given her.

  Two figures came into view, their fl
ashlights illuminating their forms.

  She knew the moment they were spotted. She saw the rifle coming up. But she was faster. She embraced the calm then squeezed the trigger. The man pitched backward, stumbling into his three companions.

  Kelsey spat a curse of some kind and shoved Jacob through a door and into a room while firing at the men, scattering them. Cold fury wrapped around Felecia. She didn’t duck out of the way, she kept firing, using their flashlights like beacons.

  Why wouldn’t this end? Couldn’t they just stop? All she wanted was to be left alone.

  The clatter of metal hitting the tiles tickled a memory.

  “Get down!” Kelsey shouted and shoved Felecia.

  She staggered through the other door across from her brother into a room.

  Felecia stared back through the door, dazed now, and saw a dropped flashlight glinting off a metal cylinder.

  Like the grenades Evan’s team had used, but different.

  Alarm bells sounded in her head.

  She kicked the door closed and scrambled on all fours across the room. She was maybe halfway to the other side when the grenade blew. The blast knocked her flat, or maybe it was her limbs giving out.

  Debris flew over her head. Something hit her in the back, but the Kevlar seemed to protect her. She fell to the floor, things hitting her and flying over her head. She covered her head with her arms and curled into a ball all while sucking down air. Dust coated her mouth and throat.

  The silence after was almost as shocking.

  Jacob.

  Kelsey.

  What about them?

  Felecia had to move.

  Clumsily she sat up, blinking at the demolished room around her, walls blown to pieces.

  Have to find them...

  She pushed to her feet, her knees wobbling. The gun was half hidden under a fallen ceiling tile. She snatched it up, holding it out.

  With ceiling tiles gone light filtered down from the roof, partially damaged either in that blast or others.

  “Felecia?” she heard Kelsey shout.

  Felecia scrambled toward the door, glad Kelsey had thought to get her shoes with little leather straps otherwise she’d have lost them already.

  Where the door had been the wall was now a twisted warren of debris. Portions of the ceiling had collapsed, blocking the door to the office where Kelsey and Jacob had taken refuge.

  Felecia couldn’t get them out of there. She was going to need help. Help that wouldn’t come because of the other threats.

  Other threats.

  The hair on the back of her neck rose.

  She turned, staring across the room as a shadow stepped into the room.

  Felecia fired and fired again.

  A second person kneeled in the door, but never got a shot off.

  She stopped firing.

  Silence.

  Her ears still rang from the blast.

  Four people.

  She’d killed four people.

  “Felecia!” Kelsey practically screamed.

  Felecia scrambled over the rubble. “Kelsey? Kelsey, I’m fine. Are you okay?”

  Not far away, a roar of gunfire erupted. She hunched her shoulders and crouched next to the debris, as if that could protect her.

  Evan.

  They were going for Evan.

  Felecia couldn’t help Jacob or Kelsey. They were trapped. But maybe she could help. They were in this because of her. Maybe she could do something right at last.

  “I’m going for help,” Felecia said.

  At least that was what she told herself.

  She scrambled across the room she’d taken refuge in to the bodies. They had flashlights, grenades, more guns. She forced herself to not think of them as people. They weren’t anymore. They were dead.

  Because of her.

  No. Can’t think about that.

  Armed with what she could carry, Felecia edged into the other hall. It should be the hall Evan and the others had gone into. If she just retraced their steps back a few dozen yards she’d find them, and danger.

  It was clear. For now. Footsteps pounded the tile. People were coming, and they might not be friendly.

  She jogged, one hand holding her gun, the other cradling her other finds to her chest. Her eyes were accustomed to the darkness now.

  “Stop,” someone snapped from the darkness.

  Felecia froze. “It’s me, Felecia.”

  “Where are Kelsey and the boy?” A light clicked on, blinding her.

  “They’re trapped in a room back there.” She squinted. It was the agent. The Asian man that hadn’t been introduced to her.

  “Close that door,” Logan ordered.

  “Get inside,” the man told her.

  Felecia didn’t have to be told twice. She jogged past him and into the room, only for more flashlights to blind her. She held up a hand and slowed her pace.

  A hand grasped her. “Felecia? What are you doing here?”

  Evan.

  “Positions,” Logan barked out.

  Evan hauled Felecia to the edges of the room. They had arranged their flashlights to point at the doors, blinding and illuminating whoever came through there.

  “Stay behind me,” Evan ordered, his tone hard.

  “Why are we here? Why don’t we go somewhere?” She kept her voice down.

  He glanced over her shoulder. “Because they’re coming for your dad. He’s through that door.”

  A laugh bubbled up out of her throat. She clapped a hand over her face to silence the sound.

  She’d spent her life trying to get free, now she’d risk her life to keep her father locked up. It was a twisted sense of irony.

  24.

  Thursday. FBI Holding Facility. Austin, Texas.

  Caleb’s team was closing in on the location. He still wished he knew who it was passing information out of the facility to help them. There were so many things Kurt hadn’t shared. It made assuming leadership all that much more difficult.

  At least the men and women with him knew their jobs well enough and weren’t hesitating at following orders. He feared what would happen once this was over and it became widely known Kurt was dead and not injured.

  “Sir?” One of the forward foot soldiers waved him to where they’d taken up a defensive position using doors as shields.

  Caleb moved through the shadows and took a knee next to the man. “Have you seen inside?”

  The man turned the screen toward Caleb. Using the sensor, they could detect body heat signatures in the next room. There was, however, an obvious barrier beyond those seven people waiting for them.

  “How do we proceed?” the man asked.

  Caleb continued to study the screen.

  He’d like to toss a grenade in there and clear the room of the living, but without knowing that the cell walls were reinforced he couldn’t in good conscience do that. If they lost the target, he wasn’t sure what Skilton would do to them. It also meant they couldn’t fire at these people so long as they had the target at their back.

  What would Kurt have done?

  Caleb barely resisted the urge to snort.

  Kurt would have sauntered into the room, told those people they were outnumbered and talked their way into getting what they wanted.

  Was it possible Caleb could do the same thing? Kurt always had said he had a way with people.

  “I’ll handle this. Find out where Ramon and Bodhi are. Get an update about the cops, too.” Caleb straightened, squaring his shoulders and did his best to pretend he was as confident as Kurt had been. Caleb held his gun out in one hand, leading with the weapon.

  “Don’t shoot,” he called out as he neared the door. “I just want to talk.”

  No one fired.

  He eased his way into the doorframe, though he couldn’t see beyond the lights shining in his eyes.

  “There, see? I’m not shooting. You’re not shooting. Isn’t that better?” He tried to put some of that Kurt swagger in his voice, but it sounded
strange.

  “Which Horseman are you?” a rough, male voice asked.

  Caleb’s skin prickled.

  The only people who called them the Horsemen were those from this new chapter. No one on this side of the ocean should know about that.

  “Horsemen?” Caleb grinned. “That’s a fancy title. I’m no one. Just a guy coming to see about a friend.”

  “Pack your people up and go,” the same man said again. He was to Caleb’s left, probably close to the cell door.

  “Now, I can’t do that,” Caleb drawled.

  On the inside his mind was racing. If these people knew, if they’d figured out who Caleb and the others were, maybe they should cover their asses and kill them all. It wouldn’t matter if Skilton was pissed at them if they also had the full weight of the American government hunting them. And they would come after the three of them if it was known they were still alive.

  Caleb began to sweat.

  “I’m warning you,” the man called out again.

  What should he do? What would Kurt do? Why wasn’t someone else in charge?

  THURSDAY. FBI HOLDING Facility. Austin, Texas.

  Evan didn’t like this. He knew this guy had to be one of the four Zora had wanted them to find, but which one? And why was he wasting time talking to them? What were they up to?

  He glanced over his shoulder at Felecia and wished he could hide her away.

  Then again...

  The cells were supposed to be reinforced with metal plates and the concrete wider here to ensure more safety.

  He knew without asking that she wasn’t about to lock herself in a room with either her mother or father. There were only the two cells.

  A commotion arose in the hall. Too bad it didn’t involve more shooting.

  “Hold that thought,” the Horseman said and ducked out of view.

  “I don’t like this,” Evan growled.

  “Someone check the other hall. See if we have any way to exit,” Logan said, keeping his voice low.

  Agent Joon and Tucker moved to look first, each going to a different door.

  Felecia grasped Evan’s arm. Was that a tremble?

  “We can’t just stand here,” she whispered.

  He was of a mind to agree, but where could they go?

  The way she’d come was blocked. The other way out was full of enemies. The way they’d come was more than likely chaos and full of paper pushers and desk workers. They couldn’t flee that way without risking more lives. Besides, they had no idea where the other Horsemen were or how many people they had with them.