In the Requiem (Metahuman Files Book 5)

by Hailey Turner

  His ears were filled with the quiet chatter of the team as they positioned themselves for the oncoming battle. Jamie stayed where he was, Liam still holding onto him.

  “Reaper’s trackers are disabled,” Nazari finally announced. “We can’t raise him on comms. Your orders are still the same, Alpha Team.”

  Duty warred with need in a way it never had before, not in all the years he’d worn a uniform. “Sir—”

  “The nation’s capital is under attack, Apollo. You will do your duty. Are we clear?”

  Jamie opened his mouth to reply, but couldn’t immediately find the words. When they finally came, the words felt like knives shredding his throat.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Knight to base, we’re moving to our assigned position,” Liam said for him.

  Jamie let Liam handle communication for them while he tried to wrap his mind around a nightmare becoming a reality.

  Liam stepped into his line of sight, forcing Jamie to look at him. “Apollo, we need to move.”

  Jamie blinked, and blinked again, before shaking his head hard. “I need to—”

  “I know,” Liam interrupted. “But you can’t.”

  The raw sorrow in Liam’s voice came from a place Jamie recognized, though he wished he didn’t. He closed his eyes tightly, even if he couldn’t close his ears to the shouting from nearby soldiers, the distant sound of gunfire, and the screams beginning to fill the night.

  Every battlefield always sounded the same; it was only the location that changed.

  Jamie swallowed thickly, and then did what he had to do to compartmentalize the soul-deep fear he felt over losing Kyle like this to the back of his mind, locking it away tight. He locked away the screams he wanted to release as well. Succumbing to either of them wouldn’t keep him alive.

  When he opened his eyes again, the world had steadied, but not by much. It was enough for Liam to let him go and take a step back.

  “Lead the way,” Liam said in a low voice.

  Jamie took a step forward, marching with authority for the checkpoint, trying to ignore the way his hands shook and the cracks beginning to snake their way through his resolve.

  14

  Let the Bullets Fly

  Sean braked to a hard halt at a green light on Massachusetts Avenue NE near Lincoln Park as the first explosion ripped through the night sky, drowning out the sound of traffic. He couldn’t see where it was located from their spot between two residential skyscrapers, but the sound of bombs going off was unmistakable.

  “Pull over,” Alexei snapped.

  Sean ignored the horns going off behind them and yanked the wheel to the right while hitting the gas pedal. The car raced through the intersection as the light went from green to yellow. They came to a stop in a bus zone, ignoring the warning that lit up the control screen on the dash about illegal parking and a guaranteed ticket in ten seconds.

  “All teams, gear up,” the director barked over their embedded nanotech comms on an encrypted channel.

  Traffic on the street had come to a standstill for vehicles while pedestrians out for a night on the town began to run, looking for cover. Alexei was out of the car before Sean even popped the trunk. With their apartment outside the central zone of the Washington, D.C. megacity, they’d been ordered to patrol the streets on the central zone perimeter. It meant they weren’t dressed for war, but they’d brought what they could of their gear with them.

  Sean got out of the car and hurried to the rear of the vehicle, eyes on the sky above them. The night sky was edged in neon from light pollution, but the brightness couldn’t obscure the fast-moving combat jets cutting through the air. Washington, D.C. had a strict no-fly-zone policy. Sean doubted those combat jets had clearance to be here.

  “Possible airstrikes incomin’,” Annabelle said over comms.

  “Fighter jets have been scrambled,” Stirling replied. “MDF flyers, be advised skies will not be clear.”

  “Copy that,” a multitude of voices responded.

  Alexei tossed Sean’s tactical vest at him and he hurried to buckle it on. They already wore nanotech strips on their faces to hide their identities from cameras, but the second Sean employed his power, the strips would be useless. Protection was protection at this point, and they needed to get moving.

  He put on his hard helmet and tactical goggles, securing them in place. They weren’t in full tactical body armor, but with his power, it wouldn’t matter. Sean strapped on two thigh holsters and holstered two tactical pistols from a weapons-carrying case while Alexei picked up an AKR-75 assault rifle.

  Another loud explosion ripped through the air and Sean turned in the direction of the blast. The HUD on his tactical goggles brought up a map as agents back on base downloaded satellite feed in real time.

  “Fuck,” he said heatedly. “They hit the Capitol Building.”

  Alexei only grunted as he slammed the magazine home in his assault rifle. “We go.”

  “Wraith to base. We’re heading to the National Mall via East Capitol Street Northeast.”

  “The enemy has set up vehicular barricades on all major avenues leading to the National Mall. Enemy nullification power is active around the National Mall, including the White House. All field agents are to eliminate Ella Blanchett on sight,” Nazari said.

  If the Libération Nationale Français metahuman’s range was restricted to the National Mall, it meant everyone outside it was in the clear. It also meant Blanchett had to be onsite within that area. Nullification powers were rare and extremely effective, but they weren’t ones that could be used from a distance. The metahuman had to be in the field in order to deploy their power. They could, however, target their power to keep those metahumans on their side out of their power’s reach.

  “Viper, scan for Blanchett,” Jamie ordered over comms.

  “Already trying, but she isn’t the only metahuman the Sons of Adam has deployed. They’ve got a few with mental powers on the field and every person within twenty kilometers of the central zone is mentally screaming,” Katie said, sounding frustrated.

  “Blanchett takes priority. Bones, do not leave Viper’s side.”

  “Understood,” Trevor replied.

  Alexei slammed the trunk shut and signaled for Sean to follow him. Traffic around them was a mess, with some people abandoning their vehicles while others ignored the traffic lights to try to get the hell away from the expanding firefight. Sean could hear the deep sound of gunshots going off from long guns through the piercing sirens that were beginning to fill the air.

  Sean stayed on Alexei’s six, keeping the MDF lettering on the back of Alexei’s tactical vest in sight. Due to the anticipated guerilla-style urban warfare they’d be heading into, the MDF had wanted them recognizable to the Metropolitan police and other military groups being called in. The less friendly fire, the better.

  From their position near Lincoln Park, Sean and Alexei were eleven blocks from the National Mall. It might as well have been eleven hundred kilometers for the distance they had to cross on foot. Once they reached East Capitol Street NE and were staring down the long road to the burning Capitol Building in the far distance, Sean thought this was the worst of their problems.

  Then Katie proved him wrong.

  “I’ve lost mental contact with Reaper,” Katie said.

  Her voice over comms was clipped in a shocked way that made Sean reach out and grab Alexei by the arm, holding onto him.

  “What?” was Alexei’s furious, frightened response as he rocked to a halt.

  “Someone is blocking mental communication with him.”

  “Base, locate Reaper,” Jamie bit out in a voice stripped of all emotion. The tone made Sean flinch a little as he recognized the sheer flatness of Jamie’s voice as his way of trying to hold it together.

  Because this was Kyle, and of fucking course Stanislav would target their weak spots by going after Jamie’s first.

  “We need to keep moving,” Sean said to Alexei.

&nbs
p; Alexei ground his teeth, the tendons in his neck standing out from the pressure. Sean could feel the tension in Alexei’s body, but he didn’t try to force Alexei to move.

  Another explosion went off in the distance west of them, the sound rumbling through the air. Sean had no doubt the Sons of Adam were using Splice chemical bombs along with more conventional bombs to terrorize Washington, D.C.

  “Reaper’s trackers are disabled,” Nazari said moments later. “We can’t raise him on comms. Your orders are still the same, Alpha Team.”

  “Sir—” Jamie bit out.

  “The nation’s capital is under attack, Apollo. You will do your duty. Are we clear?”

  A beat of silence echoed strangely in Sean’s ears before Jamie came back over the line. “Yes, sir.”

  Alexei jerked out of Sean’s grip, stalking forward, weapon raised and ready to fire. Sean hurried after him. If Alexei ignored orders to stay in the field and go search for Kyle, Sean would go with him.

  “Inferno?” Sean said, not knowing what else to say in the wake of Kyle going MIA.

  “We go to Apollo,” Alexei ground out.

  Sean reached out and grabbed for the strap on Alexei’s tactical vest again. He shoved his worry about Kyle to the back of his mind. Sean couldn’t get distracted right now. He needed to make sure Alexei didn’t do anything crazy.

  Like burn down every building in the vicinity, the White House included, to find his brother.

  He didn’t know the number of enemy between them and their captain, but he knew it wouldn’t matter. Alexei would cut through every last person to get to the other side without hesitation if it meant backing up Jamie in order to find Kyle.

  Cars had stopped on the wide street they were running down, with some drivers sitting slumped behind the wheels of crashed vehicles, bullet-ridden and shattered windshields evidence of how they’d died. The reason almost everyone had bailed was two blocks up ahead: the Cougar XE MRAP sitting smack in the middle of the intersection, the remote gunner laying down heavy fire on the cross street. Sean couldn’t hear any retaliatory gunfire, which meant the enemy’s target was either dead or alive but incapable of responding.

  Sean stayed on Alexei’s six as they phased through the abandoned vehicles, keeping one hand curled around a strap on his tactical vest. Alexei kept moving, AKR-75 aimed at the MRAP, for all the good his bullets would do against the military vehicle’s armored siding. While their bullets couldn’t pierce that armor, Sean’s power could get through anything.

  “I get us in, you set it on fire?” Sean asked.

  “Da,” Alexei growled.

  “Then keep running.”

  They were five cars away from it when the remote gunner swung around in their direction, the .50 caliber machine gun spitting out bullets that tore into the vehicles around them and passed harmlessly through their bodies. They kept running in a straight line, passing through cars left haphazardly in the street.

  The MRAP’s engine changed pitch as it started to back up, maybe looking for an escape, but Alexei was on the warpath and Sean was merely along for the ride. The people manning the MRAP had no chance.

  They phased through the armored vehicle, getting heads and shoulders into the open interior. Sean caught sight of three men handling the wheel, the remote gunner station, and communications. They weren’t ex-special operations forces loyal to Declan judging by their attire. He assumed they were Sons of Adam members ready to die for their beliefs, like every terrorist around the world.

  And die they did.

  Alexei thrust his free hand over his head, fire crackling around his fingers. He made a fist and fire exploded into the small space. It burned straight through Sean’s phased state, eating away at his vision. He closed his eyes to spare his sight as Alexei’s pyrokinesis burned the screaming men to death.

  Sean pulled a grenade off Alexei’s tactical vest, lobbing it toward the driver’s seat and the burned body slumped over the wheel. He dragged Alexei with him out of the MRAP, but they didn’t get clear before the explosion. Sean was certain the military would want their missing armored tactical vehicle back, but he’d rather it not fall into enemy hands again during the fight.

  Blowing it up seemed the way to go.

  Fire and smoke rolled through their phased bodies as they got clear, heading toward a line of police cars down the intersecting street, half of them with their lights shot out. Shouts off to their left caught Sean’s attention right before bullets peppered the air around them. Alexei skidded to a stop and Sean had to follow suit to keep them phased.

  Alexei released his AKR-75, letting the weapon hang from his tactical vest by the strap. It freed up both his hands as they faced off against another contingent of Sons of Adams fighters. Sean tightened his grip on Alexei and didn’t flinch at the numerous bullets cutting through their phased bodies.

  Sparks turned into fire at Alexei’s fingertips, winding up his arms as he planted his feet wide and braced himself. Sean looked away from the enemy to watch as Alexei raised his arms and thrust his hands forward in a pushing motion.

  The fire gathered around his arms ripped away from him in a wave of heat and flame, roaring through the air with a crackling burn that lit up the night around them. Sean squinted through the brightness and watched as Alexei’s pyrokinesis slammed into the men and women who’d taken up positions behind the doors of two armored SUVs and set them on fire.

  The loud pop pop pop of bullets exploding in the midst of fire reached Sean’s ears, as did people’s screams. Death like this was still difficult to get used to—he’d been a spy, not a soldier—and while he’d killed people before joining Alpha Team, he’d never done it to the degree everyone else seemed used to.

  That didn’t mean he would balk at pulling the trigger. The Sons of Adam were United States citizens waging war against a government they didn’t believe in but which everyone else did. Sean was all for proving the error of their ways with a bullet if it meant saving an innocent life.

  Alexei was of the same mind and his fire wasn’t one a person could put out by rolling on the ground. People on fire ran, but didn’t get very far before collapsing, the flames eating through their bodies. When their screams faded away to nothing, only then did Alexei put his fire out, leaving behind blackened corpses and destroyed vehicles.

  “We’re gonna need some backup,” Sean said.

  Alexei didn’t respond. Sean chewed on his bottom lip before making the decision for them. He tugged at the strap on Alexei’s tactical vest, getting his attention. Sean jerked his head in the direction of where the police were hunkered down behind their armored squad cars.

  “Come on. If any of them are able, let’s bring them with us,” Sean told him.

  “Civilians get in way,” Alexei retorted, ignoring the fact they were police officers.

  “We need them.”

  Because Sean knew, given the first chance, Alexei would leave to go after Kyle with Jamie’s blessing, and Sean would go with him. They needed someone to cover their position if no other MDF personnel were available.

  Alexei spat out something in Russian that Sean couldn’t understand, but he followed where Sean led, and that was all that mattered.

  “We’re MDF!” Sean shouted as they headed toward the police line. “Intersection is clear but we still got a ways to go down the street. We need any able-bodied officers to act as backup.”

  “We got officers down and are waiting on ambulances,” someone yelled back, sounding a more than a little frantic.

  Officers slowly came out from behind cover, guns pointed their way, but no one fired. Sean phased himself and Alexei through a couple bullet-ridden squad cars that had taken the brunt of fire from the MRAP and arrived in an open section of the street between several more vehicles.

  Officers were lying on the ground in pools of blood, with several crouched over the ones still alive speaking into their comms. Still others were braced in firing positions, keeping watch, though more than one set of han
ds were shaking from adrenaline.

  “Leave them,” Alexei ordered everyone at large. “We move. Now.”

  “We can’t just leave them!” a woman yelled, rising to her feet. On the ground lay a fellow officer, a pool of blood spreading beneath what was left of his right hip. “We have to wait for backup!”

  Alexei wasn’t moved at all by the grief Sean could hear in the officer’s voice. Alexei pointed a finger at the dying man on the ground. “Not survive hit from fifty-caliber without medevac. Bleed out before then. Enemy have street and maybe air. Fight now. Mourn later.”

  It was harshly said, sounding harsher due to his Russian accent, but it was a truth Sean couldn’t argue with, even if the officer tried.

  “He’s my partner,” she snarled at them, stepping closer.

  Under the streetlight, Sean was able to get a good look at her face and the electronic ID on her Kevlar vest, and he blinked in surprise. “Officer Reed.”

  The policewoman who had arrested them a while back jerked at the sound of her name. She stared at them, reddened eyes darting from one to the other. “I can’t leave him.”

  Alexei ignored her, intent on getting anyone still alive back into the fight. He started barking out orders that half the officers immediately jumped to obey. Alexei took a few steps forward, forcing Sean to follow after him. He looked back over his shoulder at Officer Reed, with her partner’s blood on her hands, a confused expression on her face.

  “I’m sorry for your loss, but we still have a fight to win. Are you coming or not?” Sean asked.

  He could see the moment she made her choice, the wrenching grief crossing her face before she locked it up like she was trained to do. First responders had a job to do, and that job didn’t include standing vigil over the dead when the bullets were still flying.

  Sean watched Officer Reed kneel down and touch her partner’s face, closing his eyes, and bowing her head in silent prayer for a moment. Then she got to her feet and went to join her fellow officers, those still alive and able to walk and shoot. Two officers chose to stay behind to coordinate any EMS arrivals and to keep watch at the intersection. Sean didn’t think EMS would have anyone to save over here. Even ricochet wounds from a large caliber gun could be deadly.