He turned to face Niki and folded his arms in front of his chest. "Bring it on."
She narrowed her eyes. "Bring what on?"
"You didn't want to lay into me while everyone else was here because you didn't want to seem like you were being overprotective of Vickie in front of the team. But you do want to get it out, so let's do it. You don't like me agreeing that she should head out with us, right?"
He was so serious that she couldn't help a small smile. "Okay, yes, I'm protective of her and I don't want her anywhere near the Zoo. Even as far as North Africa is a little close, but in the end, I know there isn't much in the world I could do to stop that girl from doing what she wants to do with her life. Honestly, I'm sure that's the same conclusion you came to as well. I know she will be an asset on the ground, and I know you wouldn't be able to stop her short of tying her to a chair and even then, there would be swift and dreadful reprisals."
"You're scared of her too, huh?"
"Terrified. But I like that you didn't make me show it." She moved closer, wrapped her arms around his waist, and held him close.
"We need to get going, you know. There’s packing to get done."
"In a second." She pressed against his chest and enjoyed the closeness for a few long moments before she finally released him. "Okay, I'll see you later."
Chapter Twenty-Three
She wouldn’t say Taylor's aversion to flying was in any way amusing. It wasn't like the guy had much of a choice in the matter, and phobias were phobias. He could do little more about it other than learn to keep it under control, and that was what he did.
Still, it was something to see a man who would charge into a surging line of alien monsters without a second thought tensing up with his eyes closed every time the plane encountered turbulence across the Atlantic. He didn't voice any complaints, but she could see that he begged silently for it to be over. Maybe they would manage to head back to the States by boat.
The long flight left most of the team already on edge, although Taylor seemed to be calmest once they began to unload their equipment. They moved everything from the plane and into the trucks that would transport them from the airstrip to where Jacobs and his team should already be waiting for them.
Niki took a moment to look at the city only a dozen or so miles from where they stood. That millions of people lived almost within spitting distance of the Zoo felt crazy to her. Then again, if people lived in such close proximity to crazy like that, it stopped feeling crazy after a while.
Her gaze drifted to the south, where she knew the jungle was located. For a moment, she thought she caught a hint of shadow beyond the distant dunes that filled her vision, but common sense reminded her that it was simply her mind playing tricks on her. She imagined she could see what she knew was out there, despite the distance—which honestly still didn’t feel far enough away.
"Out of sight, out of mind," Taylor said softly.
Niki looked at him as he loaded the last of the suits. "What was that?"
"All the population centers inside the Sahara and close to the Zoo have already been evacuated," he explained. "Getting them all out was one of the first things they did before they started construction on the walls. Everyone else kind of stayed. I’m not sure why, but I imagine it's because they can't see the Zoo, even from a distance. And while they can't see it, it's merely an abstract—something people talk about but don't know."
"And when it appears on the horizon one day, everyone freaks the fuck out." She finished his thought for him. "I don't know why, but it always lurks in the back of my mind. A little ball of stress that never seems to let up."
"That's because you've seen what it can do—or at least a condensed version of the same." He patted the back of the truck as the last of their equipment was safely stowed. "Let's go. We need to get a move on if we want to stay on schedule."
They climbed into the vehicles. The roads were in surprisingly good condition and they made good time despite the heavy load they carried. She assumed the sheer number of militaries with a presence in the area would have demanded that the roads be in as good condition as possible.
It wasn't long before they pulled up in front of a group of warehouses, closer to the city but not quite in it yet. A couple more trucks waited and another team was assembled as well. Niki already knew Sal Jacobs, the researcher, as well as his second in command, Madigan Kennedy. She didn't recognize the others, although all of them had the looks of people who had been in the thick of things for a while. Sunken cheeks and the way their gazes darted quickly to keep track of all movement around them told the whole story. Only one of the four seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place where she’d seen the man before.
Jacobs gestured for the group to park next to them and looked a little too gleeful for her liking.
Taylor was the first one out of the vehicles, and the young doctor moved forward to greet him with a firm handshake.
"It’s good to see you in the flesh again, McFadden,” the doctor said and slapped him heartily on the shoulder. "I can honestly say the Zoo hasn't been the same since you left."
"I can't say I've missed it," he confessed and motioned for the rest of the team to approach. "Still, it seems to have done you good. It looks like you put on…I'll guess about twenty pounds of muscle since I last saw you—Kennedy acting as a taskmistress to whip you into shape, huh?"
"You know it." The former sergeant stepped forward to shake Taylor's hand as well. "I'd say you’ve put on a couple of pounds of muscle too. Retirement has agreed with you."
"I was…never mind. It's a long story. Anyway, you guys already know Niki Banks." He motioned to her and then to the rest of the team. "This is Vickie, our technical support. She has her own suit and I trained her myself, so she'll be on the ground with us. Those two are Tim Maxwell and Trond Jansen, our DOD liaisons. This whole operation was their idea, so you guys know who to haunt if things turn sour."
"Thanks for that," Jansen retorted. "Dr. Jacobs, it's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, and the same to you, Sergeant Kennedy."
"Former sergeant. I'm retired."
"I can see that." He turned his attention to the rest of the team. "Jacobs sent me a report on the Heavy Metal team. Matt Davis and Francesca Martin?"
"Davis—dammit," Taylor pushed past Jacobs and Kennedy to grasp the man’s hand and greet him with real pleasure. “What the hell are you doing here? Last I heard, you had turned desk jockey.”
Kennedy grinned and shook her head. "Of course we brought Davis. The guy would have been bummed if we said we couldn't bring him along for this mission."
Taylor stared at the man in bewilderment and tried to find a tactful way to have his questions answered. "I…I'm glad to hear you’re back on your feet,” he said cautiously, and Davis chuckled and gestured to his missing leg.
“Technically if not physically,” the man explained. “It’s all up to the suit, to be honest.”
“Okay…it’s good that you’re mobile and all, but how did you guys manage that?"
"A little ingenuity along with the guy refusing to quit," Jacobs interjected. "We managed to design alterations to a suit to make up for the missing foot. The tweaks have proved very effective—so much so that we all felt comfortable having him with us for the operation."
"Yeah, his experience will be valuable," Taylor conceded. "And it's fucking great to see the warrior back in action."
He turned his attention to the woman beside Davis, who made no effort to hide her careful scrutiny as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "Francesca Martin, ex-French Legion. But Martin will do. It’s easier."
“And if you try Fran, she’ll kill you,” Davis quipped and earned a withering glare.
Jansen narrowed his eyes but rolled with it. "Right. Anyway, the pilots you brought in—"
"Gregor Solodkov," Jacobs introduced the man closest to the trucks. "He was formerly part of the Russian contingent in the Zoo but has worked with our team for a while now. On his rec
ommendation, we brought a comrade of his Miesh…Mi… I still can't—how do you say his name again?"
"Mieczyslaw Markin," the man answered. "I am also former Russian military. I used to fly helicopters in Afghanistan, so this mission is kusok piroga…how you say, piece of cake."
"Your credentials are impressive," Jansen admitted. "I'm merely making sure you all know this is a black operation. Every government in the world will vow up and down that they know absolutely nothing about what we're doing here. Do you understand?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. It was more or less what they had come to expect from working in and around the Zoo as long as they had.
"All right." Jacobs clapped briskly to bring an end to the silence that had fallen over them. "We did a little research on the location in question, and our technical support managed to track where they've sourced their supplies from. Apparently, the idea has always been for the facility to be self-sufficient, but they still have supplies shipped to them on an almost daily basis until all that is set up properly.
“Anyway, while you were dawdling and taking your sweet time getting here, we managed to intercept their transports. Anja, our IT specialist, was able to insert a couple of new loads into the registry that will look like the crates we all have our suits in."
"Good thinking," Taylor conceded. "I’m still not sure how that will get the rest of us through their sights without raising red flags."
"Well, I have been told that you guys have managed to have someone inside one of those crates while wearing the suit." Sal looked around until Vickie nodded confirmation. "We should be able to smuggle ourselves in that way with little trouble."
"Okay." Taylor looked at the team. "Getting the pilots in should be easy, but we won’t be able to convince any security at the location that they are driving the trucks and flying the helicopters. We need to have separate drivers who get into their suits while the chopper is loaded."
"Amen to that. Anyway, do we have any volunteers for the driver position? The cabins of the trucks would allow you to pretend to be inside and climb into your suits without drawing attention when we're there."
Vickie raised her hand immediately. "My suit is fairly easy to get into and I would be able to close myself inside the crate too."
Niki sighed and waved her hand as well. "My suit is similar to hers, which makes it easier to climb into. I think it's the same make and model as the one Elisa used in her transatlantic trip, so it should be fairly easy to work with. Besides, I'm fairly sure that having two women working the transit would result in less attention—or suspicion, at the very least."
Jacobs nodded. "There will be questions but answer them with aggressive retorts about how sexist they are for asking those questions and we should be fine."
She nodded. It was reassuring that they were putting a good plan in place for getting to the island, given that they didn't have much of one for when they arrived. They had mission parameters but they knew very little about what they would find.
"Well, we know what we'll do," Jansen noted and nodded at the team. "Let's get to it."
There was no disagreement from the others. Waiting was no one's favorite thing to do, and now that they had a plan to get them to the island and whatever fight they would encounter, they were anxious to be on their way.
Niki stood beside Taylor as he climbed into his suit and began to seal it from the inside.
"Be careful," he admonished simply and offered no other sign of concern for her.
She nodded and patted his helmet. "No shit, Sherlock."
He grinned, pulled the cover on, and made sure it was properly sealed from the inside before he locked it.
With a smile, she patted the crate again before she turned to where Vickie, Gregor, and the other pilot with the unpronounceable name were already climbing into the delivery vehicle.
"Do you guys really think this will work?" her cousin asked as Niki started the vehicle and pulled it out of the warehouse.
The GPS turned on automatically and displayed the road she should take. She shrugged and schooled her face into a calm expression. "It doesn't matter. Our people are prepared for a fight in there already, so if anything goes wrong, they'll tear out and secure the area. The only difference is that there will be less of a warning for the guys waiting for us if we manage to sneak through."
The hacker nodded, retrieved her laptop, and began to type furiously. Or maybe she sent messages out to make sure her friends knew she loved them before she headed into what could be her last mission. Neither would have surprised Niki.
They moved around the city, and columns of smoke rose from deeper inside the buildings. The news had mentioned that the population was in revolt against an incredibly corrupt government and there was talk in congress about the possibility that the same government had been taking money and weapons from the US. Niki was nowhere near the paygrade necessary to know if that was true or not but she did wonder, especially since she’d also heard that the US officially supported the rebels. It seemed the perfect win-win scenario for duplicitous power brokers, although it might extend to people within the government itself.
All she knew was that it probably meant their American accents would be enough to draw attention, although she assumed it wasn't that uncommon given the sheer number of American military personnel in the area.
The drop-off location was surrounded by an electric fence as well as warnings in four languages—one of which was English—about how trespassers would be shot. She didn't want to think about the possibilities and grasped the wheel of the truck a little tighter as the two men in the guardhouse saw her and gestured for her to drive closer to the heavy gates. One of them moved to one of the defense locations, toting an assault rifle, while the other approached to inspect the vehicle.
The guys in the back would be able to fight their way through two guards, but that wouldn’t be in time to save her, Vickie, and their two pilots.
The man returned after he ran a mirror under the truck and tapped her window, which she rolled down quickly.
"You are the replacements, yes?" the man asked and his gaze studied a tablet he held in his hands. "And the replacement pilots?"
Niki nodded slowly.
"Okay," Jacobs muttered through the earpiece connected her to the comms. "Anja said the regulars would be caught up in the protests in the city. She told me not to ask her how she knew that."
"The regulars were caught up in the protests in the city," she repeated. "I have no idea what's going on there, but we got the call at the last minute for the delivery and pickup afterward. Better them than me, right?"
"With the money these people pay, I don't blame you," the man answered, his attention still on his tablet. His English sounded like it was from southern England, which indicated that he was probably a dual citizen who had grown up there since he had almost no local accent. "These last-minute changes throw our whole system out of sync ever since they started upgrading the security systems last week. You're clear to go in. Our people will put the supplies onto the helicopter. Unfortunately, you will not be allowed to exit the vehicle for the duration of your stay."
"Hey, I got up at four in the morning to be here for this," she replied and put the truck into gear. "As long as you guys don't have a problem with us taking a nap while we wait for these assholes to get back."
The man laughed and shook his head. "No objections here." He motioned for the gate to open and it responded incredibly slowly. Niki forced herself to not show any sign that she was anything other than bored while doing a job that required little to no effort on her part. She accelerated sedately as soon as the gate was open wide enough for them to pass through.
The truck came to a halt where a handful of men waited to load everything into the helicopter while their two pilots crossed to the aircraft to start with the flight checks. Once the doors were shut and the windows rolled up, the two women scrambled through the door behind them, which gave them access to the trailer behind.
They worked frantically to suit up and hide in the crates. Niki’s heart thumped uncomfortably as the door to the trailer opened and the men unloaded the crates one at a time.
After what seemed like an eternity, they reached her and she bit her lip against the instinctive protest as they hauled her crate out roughly and carried it to the helicopter. Minutes ticked past and she wondered how soundproof the suits were as more crates were added. Finally, they were cleared to leave. The rotors spun audibly above them and a sensation of nausea seeped in as the chopper began to move.
Maybe this was how Taylor felt, she thought idly. Flying was far more pleasant—or tolerable, anyway—when she had the option to see where she was going. It didn't need to be constant, but being able to look out a window and see movement was enough to settle her inner ear.
This was simply unpleasant. She didn't wait long before she shifted uncomfortably in her suit and grimaced when it pressed against the restraints inside the crate.
"Are we in the clear?" she asked over the comms once she felt enough time had passed.
"We're in the air," Gregor answered, his voice a little muffled. "That would be a qualified yes. The GPS tells me we should arrive at the location in thirty minutes, assuming the current winds hold. If we have pressure to the south, we might take as long as forty-five minutes.”
That sounded unpleasant, but if Taylor could put himself through it, she could too. Niki grasped the controls of her suit to give her some kind of power over the world around her, or at least the illusion of it, which would do for now.
"I wouldn't start on that case of carpal tunnel syndrome yet," Vickie stated over the comm line.
"What?" Gregor asked.
"From patting ourselves on the back. It looks like the guy Niki spoke to inspected the cabin after we left and discovered our little deception. He's radioed the island on a private channel to alert them that there might be trouble heading their way."
“Couldn’t you block it?” Niki demanded. The frustration of confinement pushed into her waspish tone.
Monster In Me (Cryptid Assassin Book 8) Page 20
