Merging Darkness

by Marissa Farrar

  I shook my head. “No, but I only recently found out he was responsible. I guess we’ve been out to get each other ever since.” I realized I’d made it sound as though this was a battle between me and Hollan that I’d somehow gotten everyone else involved in. “I mean, the reason he killed my dad was to get the locations to these places. It was only when he discovered it was encrypted and that I was the only one who knew the code to unlock it that I got involved.”

  “I see,” she said, but I wasn’t sure she really understood.

  We bumped into Lorcan, checking out the weapons in the range. It was a long space that ran along the far end of the building. I figured it was a good thing the building was soundproofed. People would start asking questions if they kept hearing gunfire coming from the place.

  “Hey,” he said. “Plenty of ammo in here. If nothing else, we’ll be able to hold them off for a while.”

  “Then what?” Isaac asked.

  He shrugged. “We hope for a miracle.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Leaving them to strategize, I went downstairs and checked on the boys in the cellar. Two of them had fallen asleep, one of them with his head on ten-year-old Hudson’s lap. The older boys had a small games console, which they sat bent over, only glancing up as I entered.

  “Is it over?” one of them asked, keeping his voice down.

  I still felt bad about them being down here. I knew it was safer—I didn’t want them exposed when the shooting started—but it still felt callous.

  I shook my head. “Sorry, it’s not even started. I just wanted to see how you guys were doing.”

  Hudson shrugged. “We’re okay. Just kinda bored.”

  “You’ve got your game, right? Who’s winning?”

  “Him.” He jerked his head in the direction of the boy sitting beside him. “He always wins.”

  “No, I don’t,” the other boy protested. “And even if I do, it’s only ’cause you don’t pay attention and make stupid mistakes.”

  Sensing my presence was more likely to start a fight than anything else, and figuring they’d been perfectly happy left alone before I’d come in, I slowly backed out of the room and left them to it. I hoped they wouldn’t be forced to stay down here much longer.

  How long had it been since we’d arrived? A good hour must have passed. Chances were, Hollan and his men would be here at any moment.

  The thought put wings under my feet and set my heart racing. I propelled myself back up the stairs, almost expecting to discover Hollan had already arrived. I rushed back to the front of the building to find Isaac and Andrea watching through the windows positioned either side of the heavy main doors. Both held semi-automatic guns at their sides, ready to start shooting the moment it was needed.

  “Any sign?” I asked.

  They both looked over their shoulders at me.

  Isaac shook his head. “No, nothing yet.”

  I chewed on my lower lip, anxiety coursing through my veins. My gun was a welcome weight at my hip, but I dreaded the thought of ending up in a gunfight between us and Hollan’s men. I’d seen the video footage of them arriving at the previous location several times now, and with their full body armor and helmets, with even their faces covered with clear shields, it wasn’t going to be an easy job taking them down. They’d meant business.

  “Don’t you think they should be here by now?”

  Isaac turned to face me fully and shrugged. “Anything could have happened. We only ever estimated the journey time. If they stopped somewhere for longer, or took a different route, it could easily make them later.”

  I knew he was talking sense, but the waiting was killing me. I couldn’t just stand in one spot and wait. Besides, they still had a guy watching the satellite footage. If it looked like anyone was approaching who shouldn’t be, we’d get an early warning. It wasn’t foolproof—the moment we got any cloud cover, the satellite would be useless, same for when it got dark, which wouldn’t be far off—but for the time being, it was reassuring to have.

  Leaving Andrea and Isaac where they were, I went to pace around the rest of the building. I found Kingsley and Clay in the living area, both sitting on the floor on either side of the window, their weapons laid on the floor beside them. Both their faces lit up when they saw me.

  “Hey, sugar,” Clay said, patting the spot beside him. “You come to join us?”

  I sighed, the air chuffing out from deep inside my lungs, and went to drop down beside him. I wouldn’t be able to sit still for long. “I’m worried they’re not here yet.”

  “Anything could have happened,” he said, parroting Isaac, and I rolled my eyes.

  His eyebrows lifted. “What?”

  “That’s exactly what Isaac said.”

  “Then Isaac is probably right.”

  I sighed again, my shoulders slumping. Leaning to one side, I pressed my cheek against the bulk of his shoulder. He lifted his arm and pulled me in for a squeeze before letting me go again. I wished we could have stayed that way, with me tucked in under his arm, and maybe even have shut my eyes for a few moments, but we were supposed to be colleagues, and cuddling up with each other in front of Andrea’s men didn’t exactly look professional. The idea that the other woman might be having a similar kind of relationship jumped into my head, and I suppressed a smile, despite my inner turmoil. She was a lucky woman if she did, but I guessed this kind of setup didn’t happen on a regular basis.

  “How long do you think we should give them?” I asked.

  Kingsley leaned forward to look at me. “Until what?”

  “Until they show up? I mean, we can’t just sit here waiting indefinitely. We’re going to need to make a decision at some point.”

  Kingsley frowned. “You think they’re not coming?”

  The moment he said the words, it was as though the truth hit me in the middle of my forehead. I clamped my hand over my mouth.

  What if we were wrong all this time? What if Hollan had never intended for this to be his next location?

  The walls suddenly felt as though they were closing in. I was sitting in a shrinking box. I wanted out of there, and the certainty that we’d made a horrible mistake began to bloom in my chest, a cancer that, once it had taken hold, was going to be impossible to carve out.

  I clambered to my feet. “I need to find Isaac.”

  I left Kingsley and Clay staring after me as though I’d lost my mind, and ran back down the corridor, my shoes squeaking on the floor with every step. Isaac and Andrea were in the exact same spot, and they shot me matching baffled looks as I hurtled toward them.

  “I think we should leave,” I blurted between gasps for breath. “Just grab everyone and get the hell out of here.”

  Isaac frowned at me as though I’d gone crazy. Maybe I had. Maybe the pressure had all gotten too much and I’d finally cracked. “If we do that, we won’t be able to face Hollan, and take him out once and for all. And what about the boys he’s taken? Are you suggesting we abandon them to whatever he has in store?”

  “But he should be here by now.” I paced the floor, my fingers at my mouth, chewing my nails. In my vision, I could see a timeline, only, for once, it wasn’t my own. No, it was the timeline Hollan would have used if he’d made it to this spot in the allocated amount of time. Only now it didn’t end, but instead wrapped around my body to the right, vanishing behind me. It should have ended here, but it didn’t.

  The feeling that something wasn’t quite right wouldn’t leave.

  “What if we got it wrong?” I said. “We relied on George overhearing that they had five hundred miles to go to the next base, but what if he heard it wrong, or they were talking about something else? It would be easy enough for a small, frightened child to be mistaken.”

  “You think they went to another base?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, but the longer we’re waiting around here, the more I’m sure they’re not coming.”

  Clay and Kingsley had followed me down the corrido
r and were now standing behind me. I glanced back to find them wearing equally concerned expressions. Perhaps something I’d said had finally gotten through to them.

  “What if Hollan was aware that George was hiding?” said Kingsley, his expression serious. “What if he said that to throw us off the scent?”

  I hadn’t thought of that. “You think he set us up so we’d ask George if he heard anything, and he’d repeat what had been said? You think they went somewhere else completely?” My stomach was sinking.

  “When was the last time you were in touch with the home base?” I asked Isaac.

  He frowned. “Not long. Thirty minutes. I called Devlin to give him an update. He told us to be careful, but that we were doing the right thing.”

  “And everyone there was okay?”

  “Yeah, fine. No action happening.” His frown deepened. “You think Hollan might have gone there instead?”

  “Devlin said he wouldn’t because we’d have been prepared for him, where the other bases wouldn’t, but what if this was all a ruse so they let down their guard?”

  Fear flicked across Isaac’s handsome face, and he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll call again, let them know our suspicions. Even if we’re wrong, it won’t hurt for them to be a little more vigilant.”

  I thought back to the team of people we’d left at the base—the skeleton crew of surveillance and security. Then there were all the youngsters we’d left, together with Aunt Sarah. I remembered the suggestion I’d made to Devlin right before I’d left, about how I thought Sarah should go home. I didn’t know what I wanted right now—for her to have left and be safe at home, or for her to be there protecting those kids. Fear dried the saliva in my mouth, coating my tongue with a thick, copper taste, like old pennies. We were too far away, and we’d left the base almost defenseless. We’d taken the vast amount of weapons and ammo, assuming that we were the ones who were going to need it.

  “What do we do?” asked Andrea, perhaps sensing our indecision.

  Isaac already had the phone pressed to his ear. He lifted his hand in a motion to tell her to wait. “Shit.” He hung up. “Devlin isn’t answering.”

  Pricks of tears plucked at the backs of my eyes. “There must be others we can try?”

  Already, he’d pulled out his laptop. “I’ll try to connect with them remotely. Send a message to their server and try to put out an alarm.”

  I put out my hand. “Give me your phone. I’ll call my aunt.”

  “She’s just got a regular phone. She’ll never get a signal if she’s in the base.”

  “No, but there’s a chance she might not be there.”

  He frowned at me. “Then what can she do?”

  “Go back and warn them.” I realized I might be sending my aunt into a war zone.

  He pressed his lips together. “If Devlin isn’t answering, it might be too late.”

  The acid in my stomach curdled. I couldn’t stand the thought that we’d just been sitting here, waiting, while Hollan was destroying everyone we loved back home.

  Kingsley stepped in. “Even if Hollan has gone there, he might not even be able to get in,” he pointed out. “It’s not like these other buildings that are more obvious. You have to know what you’re looking for.”

  Isaac nodded. “Maybe, but Hollan’s a smart man. He knows how we work. There’s a good chance he’ll figure it out.”

  “But then won’t someone need to let him in from the inside?” Clay said, shoving both hands into his jeans pockets.

  Isaac’s gaze flicked across us. “Maybe he has someone on the inside.”

  I stared at him. “You don’t mean that?”

  He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’m just trying to think of all the possibilities.” He turned his attention back to his laptop and hit a number of keys. “Dammit. I can’t make a connection with anyone online either. Something is definitely going down.”

  “What about the satellite feed?” Kingsley asked. “Maybe that will give us an idea of what’s going on down there.”

  But Isaac shook his head. “I already tried it. They’ve got cloud cover. It’s not thick, and it’ll probably pass, but for the moment I can’t see a damned thing.”

  I stared between them in alarm. “We need to go back. Now.”

  Isaac looked to Andrea. “I know this isn’t easy, but there are still three bases that are unaware of our current situation. If we give you the remaining coordinates, are you able to send people to them and warn them?”

  She nodded. “Yes, of course. What about the rest of us, and the boys? Should we stay here?”

  “No, the location has been compromised. You need to put some distance between yourselves and this place. You got anywhere you can go?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “Good.”

  “You have all my contact details now, and I have yours, so stay in touch, and let me know what’s happening. Make sure the other bases understand that they can’t stay there. Even if we manage to stop Hollan, we have to assume the locations have been revealed to too many people to try to contain.” He shook his head. “The whole point of our operation is that it’s covert, even among ourselves. That’s all fallen apart now.”

  Something in my chest tightened. I hated to hear the dejection in his tone. This wasn’t the strong, determined Isaac I knew. It almost sounded as though he’d already given up.

  Chapter Twelve

  With the decision made, the base erupted into movement.

  “Alert the rest of the team,” Andrea told one of the armed men who always seemed to be shadowing her. “We’re going to need supplies and weapons, and pack the basic necessities. We don’t know when we’re going to be coming back.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the man replied. “How long until we leave?”

  “ASAP. Ten minutes at the most.”

  He nodded and took off down the corridor at a jog, passing the instructions over to anyone he came across.

  “Where are Alex and Lorcan?” I asked, looking between Isaac, Kingsley, and Clay.

  “They’re at the rear of the building,” Kingsley said. “I’ll go and find them, let them know what’s going on.”

  I watched Kingsley’s back as he ran off in the same direction as the other man. My stomach twisted uneasily. I didn’t like watching him leave, but we all needed to separate in order to bring us back together again.

  Isaac spoke to Andrea, his fingers lightly touching her elbow. “I wish I could be sure about Hollan’s whereabouts. We’re assuming he’s gone back to D.C., but there’s a chance he hasn’t. Make sure you stay alert, and be careful approaching the other bases, just in case.”

  Her expression was tense. “I will.” I couldn’t imagine what was going through the other woman’s head right now. Though she appeared cool and calm on the outside, she’d effectively had her world blown apart in the last hour. I knew they were trained for this kind of thing, but this was all still one hell of an upheaval.

  “Do you have enough transport to get everyone out of here?” Clay asked.

  Andrea nodded. “Yes, we do.”

  Isaac glanced toward the front door, and then frowned as though he’d thought of something. “I’m going to need a favor.”

  She looked to him. “Name it.”

  “We have the boy from the other base still out in the helicopter with the pilot. Can we leave him with you? We don’t know what we’re going to be going back to, and I don’t want to put him in the middle of another mess.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “His name is George.”

  “We’ll take care of him,” she said. “He’ll be fine.”

  A restrained smile flashed across Isaac’s face. “Thank you.”

  I hoped I was right about Hollan not turning up here, and we weren’t about to get a surprise while we were trying to get everyone on the move. We’d be exposed while we were moving between the buildings and the transport, and that would make us vuln
erable. Everything felt like a trap right now, and I still half expected Hollan to spring out from somewhere.

  “You need to give me the coordinates of the other three bases,” Andrea reminded Isaac.

  He nodded. “I’ll send them to you now.”

  “We’ll divide into two teams, but assuming the other locations are miles away, we’re probably going to end up driving through the night. I’ll send one of my men to a different place with the boys, so at least we’ll know they’re all safe.”

  Isaac ducked his head. “Thank you.”

  She gave him the same kind of smile he’d given her a moment ago—one filled with both commiserations and hope. “I hope you can get the trainees from the Atlanta base back safely from this man, too.”

  “Yeah, so do we,” he said. “And stay in touch. This whole idea of us being independent from each other might have worked when no one had access to the locations, but the moment it fell into the wrong hands, it was all over.”

  She pressed her lips together and nodded. “This part may be over, but we’ll reform and start anew.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  He put out his hand, and the two shook. I wondered if we’d ever see Andrea and the other boys again, and that feeling of not being able to breathe hit me once more. I wished we had an ability to transport ourselves through the ether and be back at our base, but frustratingly we still had several hours of travel ahead of us before we’d be back there. What would we find when we arrived? Would my hunch have been incorrect, and Hollan had stayed one step ahead of us yet again? Or would we return to find everyone in the base slaughtered, and Hollan grinning triumphantly. I’d always felt as though this thing was personal between me and Hollan, even though I’d known it was far bigger than a grudge.

  Despite what Isaac had said, I tried my aunt’s cell phone. As he’d predicted, it went straight to voicemail. I left a message anyway. There might be a chance she’d pick it up.

  “Aunt Sarah, it’s me. I need you to listen. We think Hollan might be on his way to our base, if he isn’t there already. You need to tell Devlin, and get everyone out. The boys included. Especially the boys. Take them back to the house in the city, and you go with them as well. You’ll be safe there. We’re on our way.”