by Amelia Jade
“Thank you,” she replied, meaning it.
“You’re not out of the city yet,” he replied. “Thank me then.” He gave her a curt nod, and then headed up the stairs.
Maddy glanced down at the card, reading it over.
A fishing trawler? This should be interesting…
Carefully folding the card and putting it into her pocket, she headed off to find Connor. She needed to be down at the shipyard indicated in just a few hours. In the meantime she intended to spend every moment with him, right up until she was forced out the door.
***
The limousine hired by Flint pulled up to the destination. Maddy could barely make any of it out through the heavily tinted windows. It was annoying, but she knew it was that same feature that had allowed her to move through the city unseen and yet in plain sight. She had to admit that Flint had had a good idea with that one.
“Thank you,” she said to the driver, climbing out. She pulled her pack after her and then closed the door.
Her destination was on the far side of the road, giving her the opportunity to survey it before she approached. The gate was sandwiched between two tall buildings. To her surprise, it wasn’t made of chain-link, like she might have expected. It was a tall, heavy-duty steel gate, designed to block any view from inside or out.
Odd. Must be some high-end fishing trawler to need that sort of security.
The diffuse yellow light from streetlamps showed her that it was painted gray. It also highlighted the blocky utilitarian aspect of both the gate and the buildings to either side. They were almost military cut.
Nervous, Maddy pulled out the piece of paper Flint had given her, double checking that this was the right place.
Coleforn Shipyard. 8 p.m.
The clock in the car had let her know she was a handful of minutes early, but this was the place. Right on the gate were the letters CF in big block red writing. Underneath it, in fine print, was Coleforn Shipyard and Transportation Center.
She crossed the street, glancing up at the dual four-story buildings that overlooked the metal gate and the street. They were of the same sort of construction as the gate, and as Maddy got closer, she realized they were also joined by a walkway that overlooked the entrance. The closer she got, the more she realized the gate was small. It would likely only be big enough for one truck to fit through at a time, with no more than few feet to spare.
That was weird. Most of the other shipyards she had seen had two or even four lane entryways. Why the tight security with this one? There was more that bothered her, but she couldn’t put a finger on it. Still, it was the place that Flint had written down.
She looked around for a way in, coming up empty, until she noticed a red button on the left-hand building. Walking swiftly over to it, Maddy raised her hand.
This is it. Press the button and you leave this city and Connor behind. Think very carefully.
Maddy didn’t want to leave it behind. She didn’t want to leave Connor behind. But this was bigger than her wants. She had to do what was best for everyone, not just herself. If she took the selfish way out, she might doom not only herself, but the entire Underground.
How could she justify putting everyone else in danger like that, just so she could feel like she had somewhere to fit in?
Angrily she reached out and punched the buzzer.
Almost immediately the door clicked, a latch of some sort releasing. The heavy metal panel swung open an inch.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed it open and went inside.
Chapter Thirteen
Connor
Get up.
No.
Now.
A deep vibrating sound filled the little room that he had shared with Maddy. It took Connor several seconds to figure out that the sound was coming from him.
He was growling.
She hasn’t even been gone an hour, and you’re already moping around the place like it’s the end of the world. Get up off your ass, and do something.
He hated it when he was right. There were things he needed to be doing anyway. With another—louder—angry growl, he strode from the room. His hulking appearance and pissed-off body language sent people scurrying for cover as he stalked down the hallway toward the steps that led up to Flint’s office.
The heavy stained-oak door slammed open as he barged in, throwing the door closed behind him just as heavily.
“Must you always be—”
“We have a rat,” he said firmly, cutting Flint off mid-sentence.
The other man looked up at him with a start. His eyes narrowed. “How do you know?”
Connor flung himself down heavily into the chair across the desk from Flint. “Too many coincidences. Three times in a row the Agency knew exactly where to find us, and were waiting in ambush. That’s too many to be a coincidence.”
Flint sat down, though he did so in a far more reserved manner then Connor had. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “They found the Charlie safe house in less than twelve hours. If I hadn’t drawn off their team, Maddy would have been in their custody.” He frowned. “That safe house had never been used, never mentioned after we set it up. Nothing. How many people knew that we had gone there for the night?”
The head of the Underground sat back and thought. “I did, of course. As did Andre, Milos, Auston, and Deanna.”
Connor thought about it unhappily. Those four were the senior members of the Underground. Milos and Andre were shifter grunts. They didn’t want extra responsibility; they just wanted to help. He couldn’t see either of them becoming turncoats. That was just too much effort for them. Besides, they were of the target demographic. They had to know the Agency would just use them and then end them after the Underground was dismantled.
That left Auston and Deanna. He knew them both, though not as well as he wished. Auston was Flint’s bookkeeper. He was a small man who loved his numbers and moving them around. Without Auston’s help, there was no way the Underground could have survived. He was a whiz with helping them procure supplies, buildings, vehicles, whatever, without it being traceable back to anyone within the Underground.
He was also terrified of social interaction, and well paid. Connor supposed he could have been bribed by the Agency, but he doubted the little man could lie well enough to cover it.
That left Deanna. A fiery redhead who often butted heads with Flint, who wanted the Underground to become more proactive, and to increase its fighting arm beyond just Connor’s team. It was no secret that she hated Flint, and nobody really knew why she stayed with the Underground. She was their planner. She decided which operations to pursue, and how they should be done in an overarching sense. She arranged for their rides out of the city until it came time to execute a mission. When it became Jared’s show, Deanna was involved with it.
If anyone was the traitor, she would fit the bill the most.
“Great. So one of our senior members has sold us out,” Connor said, sitting back into the chair, his arms crossed unhappily.
“So it would seem,” Flint said. “Who should we start with?”
He wished Maddy were there. She had a knack for reading people. Connor was out of his element and he knew it. He was no spy, no interrogator. He had skills, and was among the best of the best at what he did. But this was not something he had much in the way of training for. He made a mental note to look into fixing that.
“I’m not sure. I can’t spend too long here either. I want to start hunting tonight.”
“Right. Shall we start with Deanna then?”
It seemed Flint had the same suspicions that he did. Connor nodded his agreement, even as his mind wandered. Maddy would be arriving at her destination shortly, if she hadn’t already done so. Connor had asked how she was getting out, but she had smiled and said she wasn’t spilling. It was better that way.
He smiled now as he remembered the way she had kissed him after refusing to tell him where she was going. Connor had told her he was proud
of her. She was developing a proper sense of paranoia finally.
Then he had hugged her tight, for a long, long time. There hadn’t been an opportunity to sneak away, but he had promised her that he would be the next one sent to Genesis Valley. It wouldn’t be long before he saw her again. Jared would be back in less than twenty-four hours. Justin and Josh a day or two after that.
The Agency had caught them at the worst possible time. In a few days his team leader would be back, with the full power of the four of them against any comers. When that happened, the Agency would be forced to scale back its aggressiveness. For now, however, Connor couldn’t be in two places at once. He was limited in what he could do to fight back.
His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. It swung open and closed with a smooth grace very contrary to his own entrance.
“What do you want? I’m busy.”
Connor turned in his chair. Deanna was medium height, perhaps five and a half feet tall, with shoulder-length red hair that matched her personality. Hazel eyes blazed with distaste as she surveyed the pair of men sitting in front of her. Connor eyed the loose-fitting black pants and flowing blouse, wondering how she thought that was a good choice of clothing. Was that the clothing of an Agent in disguise, perhaps?
He shrugged mentally, focusing on the angry stare, watching for any sort of change of reaction.
“Take a seat,” Flint said calmly. “We have something to discuss.”
A single eyebrow arched at the formal tone. “Cut the bullshit, Flint. What the hell do you want?”
“Sit. Down.” Flint’s voice suddenly became unyielding, the tone of authority threaded through his words.
Connor kept his face still. He hadn’t known Flint to possess that sort of ability. Where had he been keeping that, I wonder?
Deanna obviously thought the same thing, because she stiffly walked over to the chair next to Connor and sat down, looking at neither of them as she did.
This is a waste of my time. I should be out doing something. Making a difference.
Protecting Maddy.
It ate at him that he knew she was safer without him, that he would just draw attention. Part of him wondered if he could have gotten in the limousine with her and used the cover of darkness to go wherever she was going.
You don’t know if there was even an extra space available for you.
For the first time since he had come to the decision to get her out on her own, Connor wondered if he had made the wrong choice.
With a snarl he grabbed Deanna’s chair, picked it up with her in it, and slammed it against the wall. “Why?” he snarled.
The woman’s calm façade shattered the instant he had moved, displaying his awesome power for her to see.
“W-Why what?” she asked.
“The Agency. You put them on our trail, you told them where to find me and my team. You sold out our safe house to them. Why? What did they promise you?” His huge, angry, snarling face was inches away from hers. He let all of the anger and impotence he felt at being unable to protect Maddy flow through him and into his visage, making himself into a thing straight out of a nightmare.
Deanna’s eyes flew open in terrified surprise. Then they narrowed.
“Put me the fuck down, right now,” she spat. “How dare you accuse me of being a traitor?”
Connor saw the anger in her as she defended herself.
“Tell me why!” he snarled, pulling the chair back and slamming it against the wall again. Something in the chair snapped under the impact.
“I told you, you idiot, I didn’t betray anyone. I’m loyal to the damn Underground, same as you are!”
“ENOUGH LIES!” he shouted, slamming the chair back against the wall. Parts of the frame shattered, sending wooden chunks flying across the office.
“I didn’t fucking do it! What the hell do you want me to say?” she shouted, doing her best to stay angry.
But she couldn’t. Her fear was shining through as she realized that Connor wasn’t going to stop. He saw the recognition in her, and all of a sudden she crumpled.
“I didn’t do anything,” she whispered. “Please, you have to believe me. I may hate him,” she jerked her head at Flint, “but I’m no traitor. I would never sell anyone out.”
Connor stared at her for a moment longer. Then he lowered the chair to the ground. Deanna slipped out from under his arm before the legs even touched down. In hindsight, it was a smart move, because the instant Connor let go, the chair tipped over, unusable.
“I don’t have time for this,” he snarled at Flint. “She didn’t do it. Find the damn rat, Flint. That’s your job. I’m going to do mine. I’m taking Andre and Milos.”
“Very well,” Flint said curtly, pointing to the door.
Connor stormed from the room, taking the steps three at a time.
“You two, with me,” he said angrily as he passed by the room where Andre and Milos were lounging.
Connor was angry at himself. He had let his own rage become a tool, and he had probably scarred Deanna for a long time with his rash actions. He realized now that she didn’t deserve that. She had—to the best of his knowledge—been telling the truth.
He needed to get Maddy off his mind. Thoughts of her were pleasing, but just then, they were a distraction. Bursting through the back door, he stalked over to one of the big trucks that would comfortably seat four. The keys were where they always were, tucked up on a small hook above the front right wheel well. He grabbed them and hopped in, firing the engine to life, trying to lose himself in the throaty roar.
Instead, all he could think of was Maddy and her big brown eyes. He longed to stare into them just then.
“Where the fuck are they?” he asked aloud. Andre and Milos should have been right behind him, but he looked around the parking lot. They were nowhere to be seen.
Finally, after several minutes of waiting, the door opened and they appeared. The pair of them looked a little skittish.
“What the hell took you so long?” he snarled as they both hopped in the back seat. He frowned. That was slightly unusual, but perhaps they just didn’t want to deal with his anger just then.
“Flint stopped us,” Milos said. “Told us where we were going, and to be safe.”
Connor nodded, filing that information away. If either of them were the traitor, the Agency would now be forewarned of his coming, and would be out looking for him. Great.
“Well, wasn’t that just kind of Flint,” he snapped, throwing the truck into gear as he peeled out of the parking lot.
He thought of Maddy, trying to use his memories of her to soothe the raging anger of his bear as it battered against the cage inside of him, trying to be set free. It wanted to go after her, to find her. It wanted to proclaim to all the world that she was his.
For once, Connor and his bear were in complete agreement with their desires.
***
Connor had made a mistake.
He should have gone with Maddy. How the hell had he decided that sending her out into the clusterfuck of a city was a good idea? He raged internally, needing to know that she was safe or not.
An idea hit him as the truck sat idling in a parking lot near the Agency headquarters building. Connor had no intentions of attacking the building, but being four blocks away, he knew it would be mighty easy for him to coax an Extremis Agent into the open. For the moment, he was just waiting to make his move.
But there was something he could be doing in the meantime. He grabbed his cell and dialed a number.
“Lionshead Mining Consortium.”
“Valen please,” he said.
“I’m sorry, he’s not accepting any calls right now,” the secretary said.
“Caia, it’s Connor, S-2. This is urgent.” He gave her his designation. S-2 meant he was a Sentinel, and the second-in-command.
The line went silent.
“This is Valen.” The smooth voice that came across the phone belied the power and intelligence that its ho
st possessed.
“Valen, Connor. I need to know if you’ve heard from tonight’s evacuation team yet.”
“No. I wasn’t aware there was one.”
Connor swore. “It was last minute. They’ll be calling soon then, I hope.”
Every evacuation team was given a number that bounced around before being redirected to Valen Kedyn’s office. He and his twin brother Marcus owned and operated Lionshead Mining Consortium, the company that effectively owned Genesis Valley. It was also the company that was providing the funds, and personnel like Connor, to assist Flint’s Underground.
When an evac team was clear of the city, they were supposed to phone it in. Connor had made sure there was a phone number written on Maddy’s information card. She hadn’t told him what it was, but she had confirmed there was one.
“Okay. I will let you know the moment I hear from them,” Valen said.
“Thank you,” he said with a sigh.
“This one is important to you?” Valen asked after a moment.
Connor hesitated, but only briefly. Valen had lived a long time. He was only asking because it was polite. “To both of us,” he replied.
“How so?” Valen asked, sounding genuinely confused.
“She’s important to me. What she’s carrying is important to all our kind.”
“What is she carrying?” Valen asked, very, very carefully.
Connor frowned. “The serum samples. The ones Flint told you about, including the new ones, the unknown, and the one that stops a shifter from healing.”
“Connor. Be very, very specific here. What new serums? What serum can stop a shifter from healing?”
He froze. “Did Flint call you?”
“No,” Valen replied. “Connor, what is going on?”
Headlights appeared in front of the truck a split second before they appeared behind it. Connor glanced in his rearview mirror, seeing the tense, nervous expression on Milos’s and Andre’s faces.
“I have to go, Valen,” he said slowly, and hung up.
“So, what did Flint tell you?” he asked calmly.
