“It’s not much of a consequence if you don’t mind missing the assignments you’re held back from,” Simmonds said. Travis’s breath rattled, and he seemed to be struggling for control. “You can, however, watch from the command center.”
Travis’s face started to turn red, his anger surfacing. “Sir, you know—”
“Agent Elton, this decision is final.” Simmonds spoke with the power and authority he seemed to reserve for moments of extreme finality.
A vein throbbed in Travis’s neck, but he didn’t dare say a word. If he did I was certain he would have erupted. Instead, he spun away from Simmonds and left the office, slamming the door so hard I was surprised it hadn’t broken.
I swallowed and faced Simmonds. “When do I leave?” I asked, my voice soft. I hated the thought of acting on this without Travis, but it was still a mission—and an important one.
“I’ll have something ready within hours,” Simmonds said. “I’m assigning Mathers, Hawthorne, and Edwards to the team. Check in with Dr. March while I brief them. You can meet up after in the mission prep rooms to go over your plan.” He met my eyes firmly. “Your mission is to get the girl, and only the girl. There will be others in that house. You have to leave them there.”
I wanted badly to argue, but instead I nodded. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he was right. “She’s the job. I got it.”
Simmonds dismissed me after that. I hurried to the door, planning on tracking down Travis before I did anything else. It turned out I didn’t have to look very far. I found him in the hall outside of Simmonds’s office.
He was pacing, his fingers laced together behind his head with his elbows jutting out. He came to a stop and dropped his arms when he saw me.
“I’m sorry—”
He cut me off with a wave of his hand, defeated. “Just get her, okay? If I can’t—I need you to come back with her.”
I looked him dead in the eyes. “You know I always complete my missions.”
His jaw set, not seeming all that comforted. “Be careful.” He enunciated each syllable, refusing to let me leave until I promised him I would.
Chapter Four
IN RUSSIA
I was in charge of prepping Nikki, Rachel, and Cody for what they might find inside a KATO house, but there was ultimately only so much I could do. I knew what a KATO training facility might look like, and that we should expect to find two handlers in the house, but these safe houses were completely unfamiliar to me. Still, if I had to guess, most of the training would take place in the basement. The facility was in the middle of nowhere, but KATO would want to limit the exposure of their agents. The best way to do that would be to keep them underground.
I rubbed my palms along my thighs. The acupuncture treatment Dr. March forced on me was only so effective this time. As glad as I was to be going after Eliza, it also meant going into a building that was operated by KATO. No amount of preparation could change that.
Nikki sat next to me on the plane with Cody and Rachel on the other side of the aisle. They seemed to be going through the file one last time. Rachel glanced up and caught me watching. Her forehead creased and she seemed to be battling her own thoughts.
“You’ll have his back?” she asked finally, gesturing to Cody. He and I were partnered on this assignment. Out of the four of us, we were the strongest fighters, which was why we were directly tasked with getting to Eliza.
“Rach—” Cody shot me an apologetic look.
“No, it’s okay.” I cut him off and turned back to Rachel, giving her my full attention. “He’s covered.”
She studied me for a long time. “He better be.” Her eyes were as hard as her voice. She held my gaze as she crossed her arms and sunk back into her seat.
I nodded once, in acknowledgement, biting my lip until she finally turned away. I didn’t blame her for questioning me, even now. No matter how understanding she had been after the last mission, I had hurt her badly when I was fighting for the other side. A part of me wished I could remember what I did to her. Though, judging from the details I had picked up here and there, maybe it was better that I didn’t. I was haunted enough by my KATO assignments as it was.
I ran a hand through my hair and opened my own mission file, putting my focus where it needed to be. This had to go flawlessly for so many reasons. And if I was honest, I really didn’t like doing this without Travis. Not just because of what this mission meant to him, but because after years of solo assignments, I had come to rely on him to have my back. Even though I trusted the others, his absence made me feel strangely off-center.
I didn’t realize my knee was bouncing until Nikki put her hand on my leg, driving my heel into the ground. “Try to relax.” Her face was open, with a tranquility that she seemed to be trying to transfer to me. “We’ve got this.”
“I know.” I pressed my fists into the seat. “It’s just—”
“KATO,” she finished for me. “Believe me, I get it.” I relaxed a fraction. “Can I ask you something?” She waited for me to nod before continuing. “Why are KATO agents always girls?”
I noticed Rachel and Cody listening from the other side of the aisle. In all my time at KATO, the answer had never been spelled out for me in any capacity, but I had overheard enough conversations to have a good idea. “From what I can tell, it was more important to them to have the men in the military,” I said. “Men got KATO off the ground, but the agents for something like this were meant to be expendable. To them, men aren’t, which is why they wanted women. I also think they wanted women because they thought we’d be easier to control.”
A long silence followed, and I looked away from all of them.
“Well,” Nikki said. “You showed them, didn’t you?”
I smiled lightly at her, though it was hard to know if I had really shown them anything.
Nikki shifted away from me, and I took advantage of the quiet. I rested my head on the back of the seat, doing my best to find some sense of peace.
• • •
We landed about ten miles from the safe house. The house itself was essentially in the middle of a forest, but the last thing we wanted was to give the handlers any reason to suspect something out of the ordinary. As anxious as I was on the plane, I found myself snapping into mission mode once we hit the ground. I let the adrenaline push my nerves aside and control my focus. The IDA had sent a two-man advance surveillance team an hour ahead of us to get a couple cars on the ground and eyes on the house. The two agents, Parker and Mills, met us when we landed.
The first thing I noticed was the cold. It threw me off even though I was prepared for it. We were dressed in layers—the last of which was a thermal hooded sweatshirt. Mine was zipped up to my chin.
“We didn’t learn anything new,” Agent Parker said. He looked like he might be a little older than Cody. “We managed to get close enough to put a tap on their security system, so Command has access to it. They’re waiting for your word to shut it down.”
“Excellent,” Cody said. As the most experienced and highest-ranking agent, he had point on this mission. Though he and everyone else deferred to me fairly regularly.
Agent Mills started her car while Parker jumped into the second one. We partnered off. Cody and I took the backseat of Mills’s, while Nikki and Rachel took Parker’s. We went in opposite directions. The plan was for each team to approach from either side of the house, which would ideally reduce our visibility.
“You guys are clear on the extraction protocol, right?” Mills asked before she dropped us off.
“We’re good to go,” I said, answering for both of us. Two cars brought us in, but only one was picking us up. Our plan was to gas the house, which would leave everyone unconscious. If things went smoothly, we would be able to locate Eliza and leave through the front door before the handlers started to wake. We had a ten-minute window to make this happen.
“We�
�ll see you on the other side,” Mills said, her ponytail swaying as she turned back to the road. She drove off quickly and quietly.
Once Cody and I settled on the perimeter of KATO’s security, Cody pushed his comm in. “Alpha team in position.”
“Copy.” It was Walter. He was running Command for this mission, which was one of the main reasons why I would be doing as little communicating with Command as possible. The two of us hadn’t gotten along that great on our last missions. He didn’t trust me, which made it difficult for me to trust him. He was supposedly the best tech, which was undoubtedly why he was assigned to a mission like this one.
“Beta team in position,” Rachel said shortly after us.
“Command, we’re waiting for your word,” Cody said to Walter.
“Stand by,” Walter said. The line went quiet for a moment. “Security system is disabled. You’re clear to move in.”
We’d each been given a pellet gun, equipped with pellets specially designed to pierce glass and release a knock-out gas. I felt good holding the gun—if I remembered correctly, my mother had developed something similar. I would bet this weapon was based on her technology.
“On my mark,” Cody said. I took aim and waited for his signal before firing off my pellet. I had the upstairs, Rachel had the downstairs, and Nikki and Cody had the basement. “All right, we’re on the count.” We had to wait fifteen seconds for the gas to disperse, do its job, and dissipate. When the time had passed, Cody signaled us in. “We have ten minutes to get in, get the girl, and get out.” If we were inside longer than that, the handlers were likely to wake up and catch us. “Let’s move.”
I took the lead, darting around the back of the house with Cody close behind me. Rachel and Nikki took the front. I kicked the door in. We quickly cleared the lower level of the house before meeting in the center. From there, Cody and I headed for the basement—where I was sure Eliza was most likely to be—while Rachel and Nikki searched the upper floors, looking for the handlers to make sure they stayed down.
It was decided that I would lead the way downstairs. Cody and I both had our guns out. He put his hand on the doorknob and met my eyes. I nodded once and he opened the door without hesitating. I gave a quick scan of the stairs and found them empty. We hurried down the stairs as quietly as we could.
“We’ve got eyes on both handlers,” Nikki said in our ears.
The basement looked almost how I thought it would. It was big—as big as the house itself. But I knew right away something was wrong. At headquarters our space was almost completely empty. However, this room was littered with buckets, rags, plastic bags, needles, and metal tools with purposes I was sure I didn’t want to imagine.
Despite the difference, I found memories surfacing. They slammed into me before I could prepare myself.
I was eleven, battling with another agent—a North Korean native code-named Centipede. The space was solid concrete with the occasional metal pole lying around the edge for handlers to use as punishment. I had challenged Chin Ho the day before. He’d given me a bruised jaw and cut my Gerex in half—it was enough for me to work out, but I was still shaking and struggling to keep up. Centipede landed a debilitating punch to my stomach and I doubled over. Had I not been experiencing some level of withdrawal I would have recovered. Centipede was my biggest competitor inside KATO and she took advantage. She swept my legs out from under me, knocking me to the ground, then grabbed my arm and forced me onto my stomach. Her knee was on my back and my arm twisted within centimeters of breaking.
Then the whistle blew. We were under strict orders regarding how far we should go with each other for each fight. Sometimes, it’s kill or injure, but today it was only disable. Centipede held her position until another hand replaced hers on my wrist. My heart sped up. It was my handler. His knee pressed into my back hard—harder than Centipede was capable of. I could just barely get a breath in. I tried to turn to face him, but his free hand slammed my cheek into the floor. I was amazed it hadn’t shattered.
“How could you bring me so much shame!” His breath was hot in my ear and it was taking everything I had to stay quiet. Any sign of pain or weakness would make this worse. He turned my arm just a little bit farther and a whimper snuck out of me. It was all he needed. He gave my arm a hard final twist.
The crack reverberated around the hollow room.
“Raven!” Cody’s sharp voice pulled me back. I focused on him, swallowing the bile that had scorched my throat. I couldn’t do this now. Not on a mission—especially one as important as this. “You good?” He looked mildly alarmed.
“Something’s not right here,” I said, taking in the room again. The tools, the clutter—it shouldn’t be like this.
Cody’s eyebrows knitted together. “How do you mean?”
“The training facilities at KATO are empty. Almost—hollow.” The crack of my arm echoed in my mind. “I wouldn’t expect it to be exactly the same. But it should be similar. There’s more going on here.”
His eyes hardened, but he didn’t comment. “Let’s find the girl and get out.”
I bit my lip and nodded, all of this suddenly feeling even more urgent. I scanned the room, looking for a door. I was sure KATO had to be keeping the girls down here. Even though they were in the middle of nowhere, they wouldn’t risk anyone seeing and potentially questioning what was really happening in this house. Then I saw the small doorknob coming out of the wall in the corner. I approached it slowly. “You have another pellet?” I asked.
Cody switched guns. “I do.”
If I had to guess, the room the trainees were kept in was built like a bomb shelter. There weren’t any windows or any signs of life outside the room. It was the middle of the night, so it was a safe bet the girls were asleep, but we needed to be sure they stayed that way. I got closer to the door and found a small keyhole under the knob. I pushed my comm in. “Echo, Onyx,” I said to Nikki and Rachel, “do you guys see any keys around?”
“Yeah,” Nikki said. “One of the handlers has a set. I’ll meet you at the stairs.”
I rushed to the basement steps and Nikki tossed them down to me. I caught the keys and hurried back to Cody, who still had his pellet gun out. I caught his eye briefly, preparing him. I unlocked the door and yanked it open in one fluid motion. Cody shot the pellet inside, and I shut the door even more sharply than I had opened it. I kept my hands on it, holding the door in place for the fifteen seconds we needed. When time was up I pulled it back open, and Cody and I both went inside without any hesitation. I searched the room.
There were about twelve girls lying on the floor, asleep. My stomach turned knowing all too well that right now, knocked out, they were probably in the deepest sleep they’d had since they started KATO’s training program. I scanned each face quickly, trying not to think about the girls we were leaving behind. I found Eliza. She was the farthest from the door. Her long dark hair was spread out around her. I caught a glimpse of her burn scar on her neck.
“There,” I said to Cody, gesturing to her. He nodded, and scooped her off the floor. She looked thin—too thin. KATO may be the prime example of irresponsibility but they didn’t use starvation as a tactic. It was counterproductive. They needed their agents strong and able to fight. If they wanted to deprive them of anything, it was the Gerex.
The basement door banged open and Cody and I both froze. Before I could check in with Rachel and Nikki, one of the handlers came thundering downstairs. Cody and I both reacted, instinctively moving to the hollow space under the stairs. I put myself in front of Cody and Eliza, leaning protectively back into them, and speaking so softly I was sure even the alert KATO operative wouldn’t hear. “I’ll deal with him, you get her out of here.”
Cody gave a single sharp nod, not questioning or challenging. I picked my moment carefully, waiting until the handler was fully down the stairs. He had his gun out and his back to us. I charged at him,
taking him completely by surprise. We didn’t want a gunfight—the goal was to get Eliza out. I rammed the handler into the wall before he could react, his gun clattering to the floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cody on the move. He called quickly for an extraction as I sideswiped the KATO handler’s knees. He didn’t get the chance to brace himself before his head crashed into the side of the bottom stair, knocking him out.
I hurried up the steps, glancing back just long enough to confirm that he stayed on the ground.
“Echo, Onyx, I thought the handlers were down,” I said into the comm. I was already running toward them. It couldn’t be good if one had gotten away from them.
“They are,” Nikki said as I hit the first floor of the house. “We’re staring right at them.” A feeling of dread spread through me as I tore up the rest of the stairs. I found Nikki and Rachel in the biggest room, which seemed to be the main office.
They did, in fact, have two bodies in front of them. Bodies that were starting to stir. The first face meant nothing to me, but the second one made my heart stop. I searched for his right hand, my eyes resting on the ugly burn scar on the webbing. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
They both looked at me with questions written all over their faces, but they didn’t need to be told twice. The three of us headed out the front door. KATO would know someone had been here, but hopefully it would take some time before they knew it was the IDA.
We hurried down the path to our getaway car. Cody and Eliza were in the front with Agent Parker, which left Rachel, Nikki, and me the backseat. Rachel jumped in first with me right behind her, leaving Nikki to bring up the rear.
“How is she doing?” I asked Cody as we started to drive.
I looked at Eliza, who was still unconscious but propped up against him. “She seems okay,” he said, scanning her face. I sank into my seat. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and everything we found inside that house began to settle in my mind. I put all of my effort into fighting off the craving I knew would be coming. I rested my head against the back of the seat, and forced myself to take long, controlled breaths. Next to me, Nikki had covered my fist with her hand. She knew what was going on with me, and it helped knowing she was there.
Enemy Exposure Page 4
