When the guard game back, he didn’t look amused. They all stopped yelling, and when the guard spoke in Russian, the woman responded.
The guard came alive, his face a mask of angry resolve as he spoke into his radio.
“What did you say to him?” Buck asked.
Before she could answer, two more guards hurried out of the stairwell and stood with weapons at the ready while guard number one unlocked the Plexiglas door.
He edged into the space with his gun pointed at Ice, the other two guards crowding in behind him. Suddenly the cell shrunk, which worked in the SEALs’ favor, in Buck’s opinion. These idiots didn’t understand close combat, apparently.
Dozer still worked the acting skills.
“Our friend is injured,” Ice said, pointing to Dozer.
The woman translated, but whatever she said only agitated the guards more. Buck and Ice exchanged a suspicious glance. Buck didn’t trust her, and it didn’t look like Ice did, either.
Dozer still moaned and groaned and rolled on the floor. He had the guards convinced, but Buck wished he’d cut the melodrama some before the guards caught on.
The Russians pushed forward, forcing Buck, Ice, and Wolf back. If they got backed up against a wall, it would be more difficult to fight.
One of the guards jammed the muzzle of his AK47 into Wolf’s gut.
“Now?” Wolf asked.
“Go,” Ice said.
Wolf grabbed the muzzle and shoved it toward the ceiling, then dove into a gut punch that shocked the guard and almost brought his last meal back up.
Dozer sprung from the floor and plowed his shoulder into the same guard, bulldozing him all the way to the opposite wall. Wolf followed and they went to work on the guy together.
Ice took on one of the two remaining guards, and Buck went after the last one, slamming a fist into the guy’s face. He yanked the gun from his hands and tossed it behind him, then grabbed a handful of the guy’s hair and rammed his face into the Plexiglas until his body went limp and slid to the floor.
The rest of the guys finished the two other guards just as fast and it was done in only moments.
“What did you say to him?” Buck asked as he collected the weapon he’d tossed aside and searched the guard for other weapons, ammo, and keys.
The woman shrugged like it was no big deal. “I told him you were making escape plans and they should do something about it.”
“Shit,” Dozer said.
“It worked, didn’t it?” the woman asked.
“Hmph,” Ice grunted.
“Fair enough,” Buck said.
“I’m Eun-Ji Rhee, by the way,” she said.
“Thanks for the help, Dr. Rhee,” Wolf said.
“What’s the plan, Ice?” Dozer asked.
“Release the rest of our teams, stealth our way through this place until we’ve taken out all the guards, then take back Dr. Emerson, and get out,” Ice said.
“What about the rest of us? You promised to get us out,” Dr. Rhee said.
“Once we’ve cleared the facility, we’ll come back and release you all. We don’t need civilians roaming around unaccounted for,” Ice said.
She glared at him with naked suspicion.
Buck rested a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me. We’ll come back for you. Go to all the cells and tell the others, then wait for us.”
She watched him for a long moment, then finally nodded. Armed with what they’d been able to glean from the guards, Buck, Dozer, Ice, and Wolf spilled out into the corridor. Ice and Wolf went to the stairwell while Buck and Dozer released the remainder of the two SEAL teams. They all met back at the stairwell and distributed available weapons so almost everyone was armed in some way. Buck gave up the AK-47 he’d collected from the guard in favor of a bayonet-style knife. He wanted something quiet and lethal.
“Abramovich said he’d confined the scientists and staff to quarters for now,” Ice said. “So anyone we encounter should be enemy. Treat them as such. I don’t know how many of them there are, but we’re likely outnumbered. Be careful, but we’re not here to take prisoners.”
A chorus of enthusiastic yes-sirs filled the stairwell.
Buck’s top priority was to secure Mindy, which, in his opinion, meant a bullet in Mikhail Abramovich’s head.
They still needed to complete their original mission, too.
Ice took point and headed up the stairs to the basement. Buck followed close behind, and at the landing for the basement they found two more guards.
Buck and Coyote took them out from behind. They did a quick circuit of the basement floor and found an operating room, the morgue, power generator, and another lab, but no other guards.
They headed back to the stairwell.
“Most of them are going to be on the main floor,” Ice said. “Consider it a full incursion.”
He led them up to the main floor. Two men guarded the entry to the stairwell. Coyote took one, Buck took the other. He covered the guy’s mouth with one hand, and dragged the knife through his neck with the other, applying enough pressure to feel the friction of cartilage and tendons against the smooth surface of the blade.
After they pulled the bodies into the stairwell, Buck squatted on his haunches and scanned the hall in both directions. He couldn’t see very far because of curve of the building, but the lab Mindy and Petrov were in would be heavily guarded.
He stood and melted back into the stairwell.
“It’s clear as far as I can see, which isn’t far given how the hall curves. They’ll be guarding Mindy’s lab. As soon as there’s any gunfire, the rest of them will show up,” he said.
“Roger that,” Wolf said.
“Let’s go,” Ice said. “Wolf, take your team right, we’ll go left.”
“Got it,” Wolf said.
They spilled out into the hall on silent feet. Buck and his guys had made it only a few yards when the first gunfire erupted from Wolf’s team, then all hell broke loose as Russians poured from rooms on either side of the hall, and from upstairs.
Buck lost track of the rest of his team as he focused on avoiding Russian guns, and sinking his blade into Russian flesh. He snagged a handgun from the first one he killed and turned to use it on one of the guy’s comrades.
He pushed ahead, eager to get to Mindy. Ice and the rest of the guys could take care of the other guards. Buck’s worry was that when Mikhail heard the gunfire, he’d go for Mindy first.
He took down three more men as he rounded the corner to Mindy’s lab. No guards stood outside, which made his heart freeze. Shouldn’t there be guys there? Maybe she wasn’t there anymore. Maybe they’d taken her out of the facility completely. If they’d done that while Buck was locked up, he’d never find her.
He took off at a sprint, crazy to get there and find her. But when Mikhail stepped out into the hallway, dragging Mindy by a fistful of her hair, Buck skidded to a stop a few yards away.
“I really should have killed you on the ship,” Mikhail said, sounding weary.
Buck held up his hands, the gun in one, the knife in the other. “Just let her go, Mikhail. Walk away.”
“I’m not stupid,” Mikhail said. Buck disagreed, but kept it to himself for now. “Drop your weapons and call off your men, or I’ll inject the good doctor.”
Mikhail held up a syringe full of clear fluid. Whether Mikhail would really shoot her up, he had no idea, but he couldn’t take the chance.
“Okay, fine.” He placed his weapons on the floor.
“Buck, don’t,” Mindy said, her voice shaking.
“Shut up,” Mikhail side, jerking her hair so she shrieked. Buck would enjoy slitting Mikhail’s throat. “Kick them this way.”
Buck kicked the weapons away at the same time Ice rounded the corner, and Wolf showed up behind Mikhail.
“You’re surrounded,” Ice said. “Give up.”
Mikhail shifted his position so Wolf stood on his left and Buck and Ice on his right. He slid the needle of the syringe into
the big artery in Mindy’s neck. She gasped and her eyes flew wide and Buck’s heart dropped to his gut.
“I don’t think so,” Mikhail said. “All of you give up if you want to save Dr. Emerson.”
“Goddammit,” Ice hissed.
“Don’t do it, Buck,” Mindy said.
“I have a better idea,” Mikhail said. “Come here, Buck.”
Buck had a bad feeling, but whatever Mikhail’s idea was, he’d go for it in an instant if it saved Mindy. He stepped forward.
Far faster than Buck thought him capable of, Mikhail withdrew the needle from Mindy’s neck and plunged it into Buck’s biceps, jamming the plunger down and squeezing that shitty drug into Buck’s system.
Fuck. I’m literally dead.
The drug slithered through his body like the warm comfort of a good buzz until a cool calm settled over him. Suddenly, nothing mattered. The tension, the fear, the anger all washed away, a kind of numb serenity taking their place.
9
“Oh God, no. No, no, no,” Melinda wailed, yanking out of Mikhail’s grasp and throwing herself at Buck.
His eyes had a glazed indifference to them. A distance that suggested Buck wasn’t really there anymore.
More of Mikhail’s men showed up, armed to the teeth, boxing both SEAL teams in and preventing any escape.
“You’ll all want to put your weapons down and raise your hands,” Mikhail said to the SEALs. “You just killed a lot of their comrades, so I imagine my men are eager for revenge.”
Ice shot Mikhail a steely-eyed look that rivaled the temperatures outside. But if he thought he’d have a shot at killing Mikhail, he’d have to stand in a long line, with Melinda at the front.
“Buck?” Melinda tried to get his attention. His gaze remained on Mikhail, but after a moment shifted to look her in the eyes.
“Hi Mindy,” he said.
She stared hard into his eyes, searching for some sign of his strength and defiance, and everything that made Buck, Buck. There might have been a spark trapped deep in there, but mostly she saw nothing familiar. He’d been turned into a useful zombie.
She took his hand in hers and held it to her heart, squeezing it hard. “I’ll save you, Buck. Just hang in there and wait for me. I promise.” She brought his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles. It felt like saying goodbye. Jesus. She only had twelve hours, at the very least. She had to get to work. “I love you, Buck. Don’t give up.”
“Okay,” he said, though she doubted he knew what he’d agreed to.
Tears of terror and rage filled her eyes as she turned on Mikhail. “I will kill you for this,” she said. Her whole body vibrated with the determination to do it.
Mikhail hardly glanced at her. “Dr. Petrov,” he said. Petrov hovered just inside the doorway, a nervous mouse watching the proceedings. “Draw up three more syringes of Amaranthine and bring them to me.”
“Yes, sir,” Petrov said, scurrying into the lab to obey.
“Dr. Emerson. Which other three of these fine men will you choose?” Mikhail asked, ignoring her threat. He was enjoying himself. Melinda thought she might throw up.
Petrov returned with the three syringes and offered them to Mikhail.
“To be injected?” she asked, incredulous he’d think she’d go along with that request.
“Yes.”
“I won’t choose any of them. You’re crazy if you think I will.”
Mikhail reached inside his jacket and pulled out a gun. He pointed it at Ice. “If you don’t choose, I’ll start killing them.”
She swallowed hard against the trapped feeling clogging her throat. By asking her to choose, he put all these lives in her hands. If she didn’t choose, he’d start killing them. If she did choose, she sentenced three of these good men to suffer. But, suffering was still better than death, and by God she’d find the antidote if it killed her. She would never, never allow Buck, or any of the rest of them, to die any of the awful deaths she’d seen in Petrov’s research.
“I’ll do it,” Ice said, staring Mikhail down without an iota of fear.
“I’ll do it, too,” Wolf said, stepping up.
Dozer chimed in, “Me, too.”
“Gentlemen,” Mikhail said. “Allow the lady to make her choices.”
Melinda had no time to play Mikhail’s stupid game. “You’re an ass,” she said. “I choose Ice, Wolf, and Dozer, the three men who just volunteered. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. Thanks to your childish game, it’s become a lot more urgent.”
She lifted her chin and sniffed, giving him the best side eye she could muster, then turned for the lab.
“Not so fast, Doctor,” Mikhail said. He held the syringes out in front of him. “You get to do the honors.”
She looked forward to wiping that smug smile off his face. The worse he behaved, the more she anticipated it. In fact, the fierceness of her desire to see him die startled her. She’d never entertained such violent thoughts. She abhorred violence. But then, nobody had flat out threatened someone she loved. Her protective instincts surprised her.
She grabbed the syringes from him. “I’ll do this, but you have to promise you’ll take all the men down to the holding cells. These four you’ll keep separate from the rest, and they’ll all remain safe and unharmed while I work.”
Mikhail didn’t respond for a long moment, but finally nodded.
She turned to Ice. He rolled up his sleeve to bare his forearm. When she looked up into his eyes, she didn’t expect the warmth she found there. It about broke her. “I’m so sorry,” she said, sinking the needle into his arm.
“It’s okay. I trust you’ll find the antidote in time,” he said.
The weight of his trust settled onto her shoulders as she depressed the plunger. “I will,” she said.
She repeated the procedure with Dozer, then approached Wolf.
“I promised Caroline I’d bring you home safe,” she said looking up into his face. Tears burned her eyes as she stuck the needle in his arm and injected him.
“You will.” His smile showed more confidence than she felt.
That these men would step up and offer themselves on the altar of trust, made her heart heavy with fear. Could she really do it? Dear Lord, she had to. Failure was not an option. She held these four precious lives in her grasp.
Mikhail rubbed his hands together. “How about a little test?”
“What kind of test?” Melinda asked, not sure that was the best question.
“Of the drug’s efficacy,” Mikhail said. He said something in Russian and one of his men joined Mikhail, handing him a nasty-looking military-style knife. Mikhail handed it to Buck. “Kill Dr. Petrov.”
“What?” Melinda said, the word more a shriek than anything.
Buck took the knife without any hesitation and sunk it deep into the side of Petrov’s neck, calm as you please, then pulled it out, wiped it on his pants leg, and handed it back to Mikhail.
Petrov’s eyes bugged out as blood spurted from his carotid. He crumpled to the ground, and Melinda followed him down, holding his hand as his life drained away. He tried to speak, but it only came out as a gurgle of bloody bubbles.
“Why in the fucking hell would you do that?” she asked. “I needed his help.”
Mikhail shrugged. “You’ll just have to work harder now.”
She ground her teeth. Time was her enemy, now. She needed to get to work. “You’re trying to handicap me, which is stupid because you want the antidote as much as I do. If I figure out how to get rid of the side effects, the drug will have more value to you. So here’s the way it’s going to go. Put my men safely in the holding cells. If any of them is damaged even a little bit, I’ll take it out of your hide before I kill you. Until then, I get full access to this entire facility. Whatever and whoever I need to help me.”
“I have to say, I like the new bloodthirsty Dr. Emerson,” Mikhail said.
“I don’t care what you like,” she snapped.
“I’ll
give you everything you ask for. Except these four men are on loan to me now. I have a problem that needs to be dealt with in Moscow, and I’m taking them with me,” Mikhail said.
Goddamn him.
Petrov had breathed his last, but she didn’t have time to grieve him or worry about Mikhail’s plans for Buck, Ice, Wolf, and Dozer. She had work to do, and the only way to get it done was to put it all out of her head and sink into the purity of science.
She stood and went to Buck, taking his face in her hands forcing him to focus on her. “Fight it as hard as you can,” she said. “And stay alive until I can save you.”
***
Buck struggled to clear his brain. Clarity and self-control were frustratingly out of his grasp, and yet anything felt possible. His senses took in the surroundings, his brain processed them, and he acknowledged them, but his ability to respond freely didn’t exist. It felt like being fucked-up drunk but stone-cold sober at the same time—sort of like being imprisoned in his own head while he had the answers to all the questions in the universe, but somebody else operated his body.
He’d watched himself kill Petrov with a detached fascination. When Mikhail suggested it, suddenly the idea seemed so good. He’d taken the knife and enjoyed the feel of it sliding into Petrov’s neck and back out again, while somewhere in his mind he knew he shouldn’t have even done it. He didn’t care about that part, though.
Mikhail didn’t seem like such a bad guy, after all. He was just running a business. He had to protect their concerns. It made perfect sense to have a personal army for those purposes, and now Buck was happy he and some of the guys could help out. Mikhail’s goons had been so easy to kill. Mikhail clearly needed better resources. Maybe they could teach his guys.
When Mindy said she loved him, his gut had flip-flopped. The fog had cleared for just an instant. He’d wanted to grab her and hold her tight and tell her how much he loved her, too. But the actions and words just didn’t happen. They were beyond his control.
Then Mindy turned her back and went back into the lab and Mikhail said, “All right, gentlemen, we have a new mission in Moscow. First, let’s put the rest of these men back into lockup. You can pick up your weapons, then please escort your comrades downstairs.”
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Buck the System (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Sealed With A Kiss Book 2) Page 8
