Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Buck the System (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Sealed With A Kiss Book 2)

by Margaret Madigan

  Petrov’s chin came up and he crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to budge.

  Melinda sighed. “Buck? I could use your help persuading the good Dr. Petrov to comply.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Buck said.

  One glance at him as he stood tall, squared his shoulders, and scowled, and she saw none of the Buck she’d come to care about. In his place was a soldier who meant business. If she didn’t know him outside of work, he’d scare the shit out of her.

  From the look on Petrov’s face, he scared Petrov, too. Petrov threw his hands up in protest. “Okay, fine. I’ll do it.”

  “Damn right you will. You follow her orders as if I gave them to you. Understand?” Buck barked the words in deep, firm military tones.

  “Yes.”

  Petrov turned to Yury, who’d stood and quietly watched their entire conversation without understanding a word of it. He probably understood the emotional undertones, though.

  Petrov and Yury had a back and forth conversation which made Melinda nervous.

  “I don’t trust them,” Melinda said to Buck, keeping her voice down enough so she didn’t distract Petrov. “I’m asking Petrov to destroy all of his work. Even if the implications of the work are bad, scientists never want to end their research.”

  “You do,” he said.

  “It’s not easy for me, either. I’m lured by the purity of intellectual pursuit just like every scientist. But destroying Amaranthine is the right thing to do.”

  Yury and Petrov’s conversation turned heated. Yury shot her an irritated look before going back to his argument with Petrov.

  “That’s not promising,” Buck said.

  “When we get back to the states I’m going to want to find someone who can verify they’ve deleted all the information here, and delete everything to do with Amaranthine from everywhere,” Melinda said.

  “I’m sure the Navy has access to plenty of hotshot computer nerds who can do the job,” Buck said.

  “I hope so.”

  Yury broke off his conversation with Petrov and moved into position to work on the computer. He glanced at Buck, then at her, and said something in Russian. She didn’t need any translation to understand the angry sneer on his face.

  Petrov blushed. “Yury is not happy about your intention.”

  “But he’s okay with being held captive by Russian mafia and being complicit with the kind of research that includes torture?” Petrov and Yury had got Melinda’s hackles up. She got it that they were held prisoner and didn’t have the luxury of choosing, but what was the point of being loyal to their captors?

  Yury closed out the document he’d translated then clicked to the overall file tree. He gestured to it and said something to Petrov.

  “This is everything,” Petrov said. The whole thing was in Cyrillic, so she couldn’t read it.

  “Can he translate everything on the computer so I can be sure when we delete it, it’s all gone?” she asked.

  Petrov asked Yury, who said, “Nyet.” Melinda understood that.

  “Okay. Is all the information only on this computer?”

  “No. It’s on a server,” Petrov said.

  “Where’s the server?” She asked. His blank stare made her temper flare. “Seriously, Petrov. Is this information on a server somewhere that others can access it?”

  “Well, sure.”

  “If we delete something from here, does it delete it from the server?”

  Petrov asked Yury, who again said, “Nyet.”

  “Can he delete it from the server? And from anywhere else it’s stored?”

  Yury responded to this question from Petrov with a longer, exasperated answer.

  “He said he can delete it from the server here, but it’ll take time. But he can’t wipe it from existence if it’s been shared in multiple places.”

  Wolf poked his head into the room. “How’s everything going in here? We’re on the clock, remember.”

  “I’m more worried that the information has been spread like a root system away from the server here to other places,” Melinda said. “I want to be sure we collect it here, but then destroy it so it isn’t available to anyone else.”

  Which was mostly accurate. If the US government had sent them all the way to Siberia to retrieve the research, it seemed reasonable they didn’t want anyone else to have it. Melinda didn’t have to tell anyone her ultimate plan was to destroy it all so even the US government couldn’t get their hands on it.

  “I know a guy in the states who could help with that. He’s a computer savant,” Wolf said.

  “Can you get a hold of him from here?” Melinda asked.

  “I can try. I’ll need the satellite phone.”

  While Wolf headed off to find what he needed, Melinda said to Petrov, “Please have Yury copy all the data from your server having to do with both my research and yours onto a flash drive, then delete it all from your system. While he’s doing that, you can go get me all the hard-copy data you have on the research, including your supply of the drug itself. Anything at all related to your research.”

  Petrov translated for Yury, who clearly didn’t like the edict, but went to work. Petrov went back to the cooler to collect the drug.

  A muffled popping sound interrupted the jostle of glass tubes as Petrov sorted through the contents of the cooler. Buck tilted his head toward the sound

  “What is it?” Melinda asked.

  “Gunfire,” he said.

  “I thought your people had subdued everyone,” she said.

  The rattle of more gunfire sounded, this time closer.

  “That’s inside the building,” Buck said, his voice tense. “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  He hurried out into the hallway before she could respond.

  “What’s going on?” Petrov asked.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s good.” Sour adrenaline poured into her gut as her heart rate jacked into overdrive. “We might be running out of time.”

  Loud bursts of prolonged gunfire blasted out in the hallway. Melinda yelped and ducked. Bad memories of Russians invading her workplace crowded her mind, and she had to force herself to breathe, and not puke.

  Gunfire and shouting male voices had advanced to the area outside the lab.

  Yury had stopped working, his eyes wide with fear.

  “Tell him to keep working,” Melinda said, hoping Petrov understood she meant for him to carry out the command.

  The noise outside the lab stopped and everything went silent. Petrov stood at the back of the room, cowering in a corner, literally shaking in fear. Yury hadn’t moved, other than to gulp. His fingers shook on the keyboard. Melinda could relate. Whoever ran this operation evoked a lot of unease. Melinda had a really bad feeling. But there was nowhere to hide, and what good would it do, anyway? The last time she hid when the bad guys showed up, her lab assistant Brent, along with two other colleagues, were shot and killed.

  As if simply thinking about that incident conjured him from her nightmares, Mikhail appeared in the door of the lab. Even in the middle of freezing Siberia he dressed like a rich crime lord in an expensive wool coat and a fur hat out of Russian stereotypes. When he saw Melinda, his face broke into a smug smirk.

  “Dr. Emerson. I’m so glad to see you’ve finally arrived at our facility. Perhaps later than expected, but at least you’re here,” he said as he removed his hat and gloves like he’d just come for a visit.

  But as he entered the room, about half the SEALs from both teams followed, their fingers laced behind their heads and guns pointed at them by the thugs prodding them from behind.

  “How did you even know we were here?” Melinda asked, though she knew the answer.

  “Radio transmission from one of my security personnel.”

  Melinda’s knees went weak when she saw Buck among those Mikhail had taken prisoner. At least he was alive.

  “I thought you went down with the cargo ship,” Melinda said.

&nbs
p; “We got inside the ship and sent a mayday before it went down. A Russian sub picked us up.”

  “Us?”

  “Me and my brother, Nikolai.”

  “Too bad. I’d hoped you were dead.”

  “Not yet.”

  “I’ll have to try harder this time,” she said.

  “I’m sure you will, and with the same results.” He said the words with a self-satisfied sneer that girded Melinda’s resolve. She’d never wished anyone dead before, but she’d make an exception for Mikhail.

  “Where’s Nikolai?”

  “Taking care of other business.”

  She could only imagine what nasty business Nikolai was up to, or rather, she preferred not to. At least he wasn’t here, and for that she was grateful.

  “So what now?” she asked.

  “Now that you’re here, you can be of some help. Dr. Petrov has made some good progress in enhancing your drug, but there are some inconvenient side effects. You can work on fixing those,” Mikhail said.

  She snorted. “No.”

  “I think you will, actually.” Mikhail started walking down the lineup of SEALs, stopping in front of Buck. “Because if you don’t I’ll start killing your SEAL friends here, one at a time. I’ll save your boyfriend for last.”

  “You can’t be that stupid,” she said. Her stomach sloshed with fear, as if tossed on an angry ocean. “If these men don’t check in or show up at rendezvous points, you’ll bring down the wrath of the whole American military on your head. They don’t leave their men behind.” She had no idea how accurate her statement was. At this point, she’d say whatever she could to bluff. “Not to mention killing them will only piss me off. You don’t want a pissed off scientist.”

  Mikhail chuckled. “While an angry scientist doesn’t frighten me, you do have a point. Killing these men isn’t motivation enough for you to do accurate work. Perhaps injecting them one by one with Dr. Petrov’s formula would motivate you.”

  Her blood turned to ice in her veins as she imagined having to watch each of these men suffer an excruciating death while she tried desperately to save them.

  She looked at each of them, moving her gaze down the line of strong, determined, loyal men, all of whom were on this mission to dismantle this abomination of a lab while also protecting her. The tables were turned now. She had to protect them.

  Her gaze fixed on Buck. He wore a grim expression as he shook his head no, telegraphing to her that he didn’t want her to comply.

  Sorry, Buck. I’m in charge now. My turn to protect you.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll do what I can to fix the flaws in your version of the drug. But only if you give me your word you won’t inject any of them with it.”

  “How will I know you’ve kept your word? That the drug works?”

  “Test it on your own men,” she said. It made her sick to say the words, but his lackeys had signed up for a life of crime. If someone had to be the guinea pig for her work, she chose criminals to suffer the consequences of their choices.

  Mikhail’s grin made her skin crawl. “Deal.” He offered her hand to shake.

  She hesitated to take it. She didn’t trust him.

  “It isn’t a deal until we shake on it,” he said.

  She disagreed completely, but reached out and took his hand anyway. He used the opportunity to pull her close, his expression morphing into an evil grimace. “If you betray me, I’ll force you to watch as I make every one of these men suffer.”

  She’d witnessed his men beat Buck to a bloody pulp on the cargo ship, but that would probably be a walk in the park compared to what he’d do this time.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll do the dirty work your scientists couldn’t. But that promise goes both ways, Mikhail. If you betray me, I’ll be sure you’re sorry you ever met me.”

  They stared into each other’s eyes for a handful of heartbeats before he nodded. Apparently she’d made herself clear.

  “Take these men down to the holding cells,” Mikhail told his soldiers. “And Dr. Petrov, you are to help Dr. Emerson however you can.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Abramovich,” Petrov said, his voice an obsequious squeak that made Melinda ill. “What about my colleagues?”

  “The rest of the scientists will be confined to quarters for now. I’ll be back later to check on your progress.”

  8

  Buck and the rest of the SEALs were stripped of all their weapons and protective gear, left only with their fatigues. The asshole Russians even took their boots.

  In the sub-basement the Russians threw the men into some of the same holding cells where the dead-eyed medical experiment prisoners were held. Buck, Ice, Wolf, and Dozer shared a cell with one of the prisoners—a frail little Asian woman—who cowered into a corner when her new roommates showed up.

  “This is fucked,” Dozer said. He grunted as he sat on the hard cement floor, holding his shoulder where he’d been shot by Mikhail’s men when they invaded. Thank God for body armor.

  “Could be worse,” Buck said.

  Dozer shrugged, hissing at the pain. “True. It can always be worse.”

  “Buck took these guys on alone, with nothing, and sunk their damn ship with them on it,” Wolf said. “They can’t be that bad.”

  Buck didn’t need to be a hero at the moment. He had no more idea how to get the fuck out of the cage than the rest of them.

  Mindy was stuck upstairs working on the drug she hated, but unless she did something really stupid, she’d be safe for a while. That would give them a little time to figure out their situation.

  “Can she do what they’re asking her to do?” Ice asked.

  “Yes. I don’t know how long it’ll take her, though. And it’s really going to piss her off,” Buck said.

  One corner of Ice’s mouth turned up into a smirk. “Good.”

  “As long as she doesn’t do anything stupid, it’s good,” Buck said.

  “She doesn’t strike me as stupid,” Ice said. “Passionate, yes. Stupid, no.”

  “That’s Mindy.”

  “These are the same men from the cargo ship incident?”

  “Yes. Back like a bad penny,” Buck said.

  “Do they have any weaknesses?”

  “There was one guy who took a liking to Mindy, but I haven’t seen him among these men. He probably died when the ship went down. Otherwise, they’re big into the whole macho violence thing.”

  “We need a diversion to get a feel for these guys,” Wolf said. “You think Melinda will buy us enough time?”

  “Yes. She’ll drag her feet, but she’ll draw the line at anything that means having us injected with that stuff. She won’t risk our lives,” Buck said.

  “All right,” Ice said. “We need to move quickly. Do we have anyone seriously injured? Someone who needs medical attention?”

  “Not in here,” Wolf said. “I don’t know about the other cells. We didn’t lose anyone.”

  “They did,” Dozer said, grinning. He held up a fist and Buck bumped it.

  “We’ll have to make due with Dozer’s shoulder,” Ice said. “Can you play wounded?”

  “You bet,” Dozer said, toppling over onto the floor, grabbing his shoulder, and moaning.

  Ice went to the Plexiglas at the front of the cell and started pounding and yelling to get the guards’ attention.

  “Hey, we have an injured man in here. We need help.”

  Buck and Wolf joined in, making a ruckus nobody could ignore.

  A Russian guard rounded the corner and pounded the butt of his AK47 on the Plexiglas, yelling something at them in Russian. He hawked and spat a huge loogie on the glass, then laughed and walked away.

  “They don’t speak English.” The thin waif-like voice from the corner of the cell surprised them all into silence. Even Dozer quit his injured act and looked at her like he’d just realized she existed.

  “Do you speak Russian?” Ice asked.

  “There’s no point in trying to escape,” the woman said
. “We’re all dead, anyway.”

  “We’re American Navy special forces, ma’am,” Ice said. “We don’t give up that easily.”

  Her eyes sparkled with something like humor, or maybe scorn. She unfolded from where she sat huddled in the corner of the room and climbed up onto the cement shelf that served as a bed.

  “Not that I think you have a chance in hell of succeeding,” she said, her words thick with an Asian accent, “But if I help you, will you promise to get all of us out, too?”

  Ice hesitated. He had to be considering logistics and the chances of actually being able to accomplish it. Buck didn’t give a shit. He’d do it himself if necessary.

  “Yes,” Buck said.

  Ice shot him a warning glare, but Buck disregarded it.

  “If you help us, we’ll do everything we can to get you out,” Buck said.

  “We’re just scientists,” she said. “From all over the world. We don’t have weapons or special military training like you do, but we have other weapons, like our minds. Unfortunately, Dr. Petrov has given in to his fever to perfect this drug he’s working on.”

  “Wait, you’re scientists? Why would they experiment on you?” Buck asked.

  “We’re not all scientists. Some are engineers, mechanics, economists. They snatch people from everywhere, but when we finish our projects, or outlive our usefulness, we become subjects. From the Russians’ point of view, it’s efficient. Gets rid of the evidence, but also serves a purpose,” she said.

  Buck’s gut roiled as his determination to burn this whole shithole down rose. Ice’s steely gaze confirmed his agreement.

  “We’ll do everything we can, ma’am,” Ice said.

  A curt nod of her head sealed the deal. She stood and smoothed her gray scrubs. She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall, but her ramrod straight spine transformed her from cowering prisoner to determined scientist. “All right, then. We’ll try the same plan again, but I’ll yell at them in Russian.

  “Do it,” Ice said.

  They all went back to the previous plan—Dozer rolling on the floor bellyaching, and the other guys pounding and yelling. The woman joined them.