by Amelia Jade
Near the mouth of the harbor he spotted a midsized military ship resting easily at anchor. He knew it looked unimposing, but the various bulges and boxes on deck spoke of weapons easily unveiled. Its position also ensured that anyone coming into the harbor would have to pass within its range, a potentially devastating move.
Yet with all that, he had been unable to find this Coleforn Shipyard. He didn’t dare use the web to look it up. Odds were if this place was the front for some sort of secretive agency, they would be tracking anyone who looked them up. Which meant he was on his own.
And without Arianna to guide him. He contemplated calling her, but he had decided not to. Leaving her behind was the right thing to do. If she were a shifter, he would still have tried to, but he wouldn’t have fought as hard. Ajax wanted to protect her, to keep her safe, and this was the best way he knew how.
After his second loop through the main harbor front district, Ajax decided to push on. The rest of the bay was occupied by coal and steel plants, as far as he knew.
“It has to be here somewhere,” he said, angry at himself for not getting a location before setting out.
Rookie mistake. Maybe if your head wasn’t focused elsewhere, you would have thought ahead.
He snarled angrily at himself, pushing that thought away. It didn’t leave though, the underlying premise tapping his brain incessantly as he pushed on past the bustle of the waterfront, and into the quieter zones of the rest of the harbor.
The pedestrian traffic dried up, both foot and vehicular. Commercial transports increased, however, with big dump trucks and cargo container-hauling big rigs going past at frequent intervals. There was still some traffic. There were even a few restaurants in the area that catered to the construction workers. Coffee and sandwich shops seemed to be the most prevalent among them, which was no surprise.
You feel something for her.
No. He didn’t. He couldn’t. That would be a bad idea, and Ajax knew he had to cut that thought off right away. Allowing himself to fall for Arianna would just result in them both getting hurt.
Your cock was hard from hugging her last night. You almost exploded when all she did was rub herself against it. Quit lying.
He wasn’t, he told himself. Wanting to have sex with someone was far, far different than an emotional attraction to them.
Even Ajax couldn’t prevent himself from rolling his eyes…at himself. That was the weakest excuse ever. While it was technically possible, all parts of him knew that wasn’t the truth in this instance. There was something about her. He had no idea what, but a part of him he had long since thought dead was showing signs of life. Like a volcano that had been extinct for thousands of years all of a sudden giving off smoke and ash. It wasn’t a full-on eruption, but it was enough to warn the locals that something had changed.
He was so caught up in his inner diatribe that Ajax almost didn’t notice the big, imposing metal gates in front of him that read CF in big bold blocky red lettering. He stopped, eyes focusing on the fine print underneath.
Coleforn Shipyard and Transportation Center.
Interesting. Most of the gates that he had walked past, and those he could see ahead of him, were chain link. Tall, sure, and topped with barbwire, yes. But they were just simple chain link in the end. This one was thick steel, solid, so that no one could see within. It was very square, blocky and utilitarian, in a military way.
Yet another sign that this might be a covert government operation. Or some sort of paramilitary outfit. Not good either way.
The gate itself was big enough to fit a transport truck, with a few feet on either side, but that was about it. Sandwiched between two four-story brick buildings, he almost hadn’t noticed it. There was a walkway between the two buildings the same color as the gate. In fact, as he looked at it more, Ajax realized it was designed to blend in so most people would think it was just one solid building. Clever.
Much to his delight, there was a coffee shop on the far side of the street and about two hundred feet down the road. Ajax slipped inside, ordering a drink and some food while he watched the place, searching for cameras and guards.
It took him all of ten minutes and a stale bologna and cheese sandwich to realize that if there were any of either, they were so well hidden he would never spot them. Alarm bells were ringing in his head, telling him to go back, to go home. To get some reinforcements before he did anything. Whatever it was he had gotten himself into, it was bigger than just him.
Wolfing down the last bite of his food and tossing some crumpled bills on the counter, he washed the tasteless bread down with some coffee that was surprisingly good, and then jogged slowly across the street.
“You’re an idiot,” he muttered to himself. “This is suicide.”
Perhaps it was, but whatever this organization was, he had yet to encounter them. They didn’t know him, or who he was, or what he did. So he could at least go and see if anyone was home. To his eye, the place looked deserted.
As he got closer, Ajax noted that the walkway had steel-reinforced flooring, and a steel covering that rose about three feet up as well. The rest was covered, with openings every five feet like clockwork across it.
That’s a bloody firing platform if I ever saw one, he realized with a start. Men could position themselves up there and fire down at anyone who was trying to storm the place, protected by what was likely military-grade steel below and three feet up, providing perfect cover for them. He counted eight spots all told, before spotting two larger openings in each building that had the same look.
“It’s a fortress.” He looked around, but there was still no one. Who were they expecting to fight off?
He didn’t like it at all, but the one thing he lacked was information. Coming to the front of the gate, he saw a man-sized door on the far building. There was a red buzzer in front of it. Ajax lifted a finger to press it before something caught his eye.
“What the—” he muttered, leaning closer to the door. Everything so far had been perfect, in a square and blocky way. All the corners were squared off, everything perfectly level. There was no half-assed workmanship at all.
And yet, for all that, the door was clearly at an angle to the rest of the building. Frowning, Ajax reached forward with his fingertips and gently pushed on it.
To his surprise, it swung open easily.
“Interesting,” he muttered, glancing around the street to ensure no one was watching him before he slipped inside.
The inside of the building was almost exactly like the outside. Drab, simple, and utterly utilitarian. Gray paint covered every surface that wasn’t already gray concrete. White lights, a stark contrast from the yellowish sunlight, brightly lit the hallway in front of him.
Ahead and to his left was what looked like a welcome booth. There was no one at it. All of Ajax’s senses were screaming at him that it was a trap. That somehow, they knew he was coming, and had prepared all this for him to lure him inside.
Fighting back the urge to run, he moved forward down the hallway. Windows lined the right-hand side, looking across the open road to the building on the other side. Again, he saw steel in the wall and open windows every five feet. Looking across the packed gravel, he saw the same.
It was a modern-day medieval castle murder hole taken to another level. The entire place was designed to withstand a brutal assault, inflicting mass casualties on anyone that tried to storm it.
Ajax couldn’t help but wonder just what sort of enemies the organization had.
Or is making.
He crept farther along, still seeing no signs of life, or even cameras. The hallway ended in a staircase. He made his way up, pausing at a window that overlooked the rest of the facility.
Once one got past the entryway, it looked like any normal shipyard. There were two slips for big cargo boats, along with sliding cranes that could take cargo from the ships and put it on the trucks. There was even a big rig parked near a crane now, though it was empty of both a container on i
ts trailer and a driver.
A noise sounded from somewhere down the hallway on the second level that led closer to the crane and waterfront. Ajax crouched and moved softly along the steel floor, doing his best not to make any noise.
He heard the scrape of footsteps against the floor, and prepared himself. Calling his bear to him, he used its senses to test the air and see what he was up against.
The instant the pheromones hit his nose, Ajax jerked upright in surprise.
No. It couldn’t be!
Chapter Eight
Arianna
“Hmm,” she said softly to herself, careful to keep the noise down.
Her fingers flew across the keypad, trying to unlock the system, to see if she could figure anything out and search for more details. Anything would really be a head start. It would give her something to go on. Something that she could go to Ajax with and be like, “See!” to show him why he should have kept her on the case.
Arianna had been furious that morning at the blatant dismissal from Ajax. Oh, she understood what he was getting at just fine, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. If she chose to put herself in harm’s way, then so be it. After a long time of living with the threat of being shot just because of where she lived, of people breaking down the door in the middle of the night, she wasn’t afraid of some government organization that thought it was above the law.
“You have got to be kidding me.” She bashed her fist gently off the terminal as yet another attempt was rejected.
“You know, if you wanted to remain undetected, you really should stay quieter.”
Arianna spun at the voice, her heart jumping into her throat as she fought down the urge to yelp at the unexpected noise.
“Took you long enough,” she snapped as Ajax walked into the room.
His jaw dropped. “What?”
“I’ve been here for half an hour trying to work this out. Where the hell have you been?”
The big shifter stared at her, astonished.
“I...” he stopped, looking back from the way he had come, to her, and then back and forth again. “Are you serious? What the hell, Ari? I asked you to stay away from this,” he hissed.
“You what?” she snarled back, still keeping her voice quiet. “You did not ask anything. You ordered me around as if I were subordinate to you or something. Don’t twist the truth on me, mister!”
He threw his hands up. “Bad choice of words, sorry. But still, you shouldn’t be here. You need to go, now! Before someone catches you.”
She turned away, fiddling with the terminal some more. “And what are you going to do?” she asked. “Stay here until someone finds you?”
He frowned. “No, I’m going to look for information.”
The terminal beeped, showing up red lettering that read Password Incorrect yet again.
“Well good luck,” she said angrily. “This place may be deserted, but it’s certainly locked down.”
She stood aside as Ajax stepped up to the computer terminal, looking the room over once again.
Three terminals sat side by side down the length of the room, all facing away from the door, aimed at a bank of four screens that occupied the far wall. For the moment, they were all off, as were two of the computers.
“I spent half an hour snooping around inside of here, and this was the only room in this building with any equipment in it,” she said as Ajax’s first attempt was also rejected. Like her, he was just guessing random words.
“What about the other building?” he asked, trying another word.
“Didn’t get there yet,” she replied.
“And the door?” he prompted. “That was you as well, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I learned how to break non-electronic locks a long time ago,” she admitted.
A look of approval quickly flashed across Ajax’s face before he hid it behind the stony mask he had been wearing ever since he entered the room.
“This still doesn’t make any sense,” he said, waving his hand around the room in frustration as the computer still refused any password. “You didn’t see anyone, right?”
“Right,” she confirmed.
“What about surveillance cameras?”
Arianna shook her head. “No, nothing. The place literally looks deserted. If it weren’t so clean and rather new, I wouldn’t believe that it had ever been used.”
Ajax nodded. “Exactly. So why is it here then?”
Before she could reply, the screens on the wall flashed to life. Behind them, a thick steel panel slid quickly into place in front of the door. Ajax rushed over, trying to find purchase to force it back open. She watched worriedly as he failed, the steel sliding from inside the wall on one side into the wall on the other. It was completely smooth.
“Not good,” he said, looking around for any sort of exit. “Ventilation grates! Find them!”
She didn’t argue with him this time, but a quick search showed that the vents were perhaps six inches across. Far too small for either of them to ever escape through.
The screens showed a panoramic view of the outside of the building. They could see the empty big rig, which now rumbled to life. The vague outline of someone sitting in the driver’s seat was visible to them.
“What the fuck,” Ajax cursed, banging on the door.
A speaker in the ceiling, unnoticed before then, crackled to life.
“Hello.” The voice was crisp and clear, obviously modulated by a program to prevent them from recognizing it in the future. “Welcome to Coleforn Shipyard. Thank you for coming, and we appreciate your stay.”
“It’s been pleasant,” Ajax snapped sarcastically. “However, we seem to have left our food at home. If you don’t mind, we’ll just be going now. I’m kind of hungry.”
The voice chuckled deeply. “Don’t worry, we’ll feed you once we arrive at our destination.”
“What?” she asked, looking around. “Where do you think we’re going? We’re in a building, in case you didn’t notice.”
“Are you?” the voice asked calmly.
On the screens, the sliding crane began to move along its rails closer to the building. The view abruptly switched to one from the other building. They watched as the crane descended. Two men appeared on the roof, and they grabbed the big hooks descending from the crane boom, and attached them to something on the roof of the building that was out of sight of the pair.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Ajax muttered.
One of the men on the roof signaled to the crane operator, and the wire retracted until the hooks went tight. She looked up at the roof. They had heard and felt the boom as the room shook slightly.
“Not good,” she echoed. “Not good at all.”
Then, as they watched in horror, the entire section of the building they were in lifted away. She reached out instinctively for Ajax as the room spun freely. He steadied himself against her, his thick legs keeping them planted to the spot.
“This room is a trap,” she breathed. “It’s a fucking disguised cargo container,” she said, disgusted with herself for falling for it so easily.
“Try your cell,” Ajax said quickly.
“I left it at home, like I did everything else.” She couldn’t help but laugh. “In case something very much like this happened.”
Ajax smiled ruefully. “Well, seems like we both pulled a smart-dumb move then,” he replied. Apparently he had done the same thing. “I guess we’re stuck for now.”
She shrugged, then jumped as the speaker crackled to life once more.
“Very good,” the voice said as the container settled smoothly onto the big rig. “Now, please enjoy the ride.”
The speaker went dead at the same moment the screens and lighting all shut off, sending the room into darkness.
“A ride he calls it,” she muttered, nervously edging herself toward the last place Ajax had been before the light was extinguished.
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” he replied from
much closer than she had expected.
“What do we do?” she asked, her outstretched hand making contact with his stomach.
“I’m not sure yet,” he replied gently, his warm hand wrapping around hers.
There was a brief moment of hesitation, before he tugged gently on her arm, pulling her in close to him. Ari didn’t fight it, letting herself go along with the motion. His other arm draped itself around her back, holding her firmly to him. She trembled at the burst of warmth that reached out from his skin to encompass her, surrounding her in a glow so vibrant she would have sworn it should be visible.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into the pitch-black air.
“For what?”
His voice was so deep, she could feel the basso vibrate against her skin.
“Dragging you along with me into this,” she replied.
Ajax’s body began to shake, startling her into taking a step backward. It wasn’t until the first snort escaped that she realized he was laughing.
“What the hell is so funny?” she demanded.
Finally Ajax broke down into loud laughter that filled the room. Ari felt herself smiling, though she didn’t have the first clue why.
“I was going to tell you the exact same thing,” he finally managed to get out. “But apparently I’m the liability, not you. Damn you’re strong, woman,” he finished, his breathing suddenly returning to normal. She felt him stand back up as his hands ran up her shoulder, finding her jaw. “Come here,” he all but commanded.
“Okay,” she managed to force out, falling into his arms. Ari couldn’t see what was going on, but she knew a “moment” when it happened. Tilting her head to the side, she kissed him. Or was kissed by him. Frankly, she couldn’t have cared less on who was doing the kissing, because the moment his lips met hers fire exploded across her body, starting from her mouth and rippling out through the rest of her body like a wave of rushing lava.
