With my back pressed to the wall on the opening side of the door, Lucien stood behind the barrier and eased it open. I popped back and forth for quick looks to determine no one else was using the stairwell at the time.
Another curt nod and a hand signal to give him the go-ahead, and we were off, climbing the stairs. Our feet barely whispered over the steel-grated risers. We repeated our entering routine two floors up, him opening the door, me checking to see if the coast was clear.
We’d always made a good team, in every way.
The armory door was locked with an old-fashioned padlock. The antique operation surprised me. I’d have expected a keypad or high-tech scanner to keep unauthorized personnel out.
Lucien drew a set of picks from a zipper pouch on the pack he carried. He shot me a sexy grin. “Always be prepared.”
“Like a bloody British boy scout,” I said, sotto voce.
That earned me a muted chuckle. Lucien inserted two of the picks into the keyhole and worked them with his head down, as if to hear the tumblers give way.
The lock sprang open, and he snatched it free of the hasp then swung the door open.
I scooted in ahead of him. Breath stuttered in my lungs as I took in the magnitude of the weapons assembled. Koszlov had to be best friends with an arms dealer. Lucien followed on my heels and let out a low whistle as he caught sight of the space.
He eased the door shut behind him to ensure privacy while we raided the stockpile of rifles, grenades, and bullets. I found an ArmaLite assault rifle I immediately lusted after. The open stock and sleek design had long been a favorite carbine of mine—a fully automatic military-grade weapon with a thirty-round magazine. I liked the odds of being able to mow down enemy troops just by sweeping the room from side to side.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Lucien stow two more big chunks of C4 in the pack.
“Really?” I asked.
“Can’t ever have enough of this shit,” he replied with a grin.
He crammed four spare magazines for a FN Scar inside his wetsuit. He stroked his fingers along the barrel of the rifle as though he were touching a woman’s breast, greedily and reverently.
Couldn’t say I blamed him. The flat dark earth color and telescoping polymer stock were sexy as hell.
“Lucien, you can play with that later. Let’s go,” I hissed, but I wasn’t mad. He’d touched me in a similar fashion.
He drew me into a fast embrace, patted my bum, then just as quickly released me.
“Tamsyn check?” he whispered over the comm.
I settled myself and opened my senses, seeking Bax through the link I’d forged when I’d glamoured him. My method didn’t have the targeted accuracy that the tracker under my skin had, but it was sufficient.
“He’s on the move, heading down a level.” The control room was located at the bottom of the facility. “He should be there within a minute. Two at the most.”
He nodded, then tapped his comm link twice. The prearranged signal for Bax to let us know he was on task. Two seconds later, three responding clicks sounded in our ears. Doing good.
Touching his fingertips to his brow, Lucien made the SWAT signals for me to watch and follow him from the armory. Silently, he eased the door open, checked right, then left, and slipped from the room. He tossed me the padlock, and I relocked the room, erasing any chance our incursion to their supplies would be noticed.
Lucien was gone in a burst of speed.
I zipped after him, breathing shallowly, trying to stay on top of the nausea roiling my gut. Their double-dose of serum might have cleared up the corrosive weakness and power-drain, but I felt like I’d taken morphine on an empty stomach. Not a good combination.
I caught up to Lucien when he slackened his pace and, together, we sprinted to the first spot we’d selected to plant our explosives. The central ventilation shaft fed air to the entire underground facility.
I braced my hands on my knees and breathed through my mouth, hoping to quell the unending queasiness.
“Okay?” Lucien rubbed my back.
“Need a minute.” My gut felt hollowed out.
He continued stroking my spine, but I knew he had to be thinking we didn’t really have a minute.
I swatted his hand away and stood up, swinging my AR-15 into ready position, finger on the safety. “Don’t worry about me. Get to it.”
Lucien dropped his pack, and while I kept a look out, he packed the plastique into a narrow crevice behind the panel. I glanced over my shoulder and watched him tune the detonator to the correct frequency. Once we’d made it a safe distance from the island, we’d use the super-techy computer Drax had sent and trigger everything remotely.
Lucien grabbed his pack and shouldered it on. “Good to go. Next one?”
“The lab itself. Then the control room.” We’d pick up Bax at that point, make our way back to the outlet, and swim away.
“Ready.”
I nodded and we raced away.
To this point, we’d been fortunate and hadn’t seen any of Viktor’s soldiers. We’d sped through the concrete halls of the subsurface city and found it mostly deserted.
Our luck didn’t hold as we rounded the next corner and ran into a squadron of Viktor’s men. They were armed to the teeth and as surprised to see us as we were to see them.
“Blast!”
I couldn’t be sure if Lucien’s epithet was a shocked response or a command.
Without conscious thought, I jammed the stock of my rifle to my shoulder, thumbed off the safety and strafed the group of six men. Three, the men at the front of the wave, were automatic kill shots. Patches of dark crimson bloomed at various locations on their green shirts. The three remaining men ducked for cover in the doorways dotting the hall.
Lucien jerked me around the corner just as our opponents opened fire on us. Concrete splintered right above where my head had just been.
“We need to stop them before they radio for help,” I cried as I popped around and squeezed off a few more rounds.
I slipped back round the corner, back pressed to the wall while Lucien took his turn. When I peeked, two more bodies littered the ground.
“One left.”
“Cover me,” Lucien barked out.
I laid down cover fire, aiming low to intimidate the enemy but avoid hitting Lucien. He sprinted past the remaining soldier, aiming the muzzle at the dude. Flashes from his barrel lit his path, and before I could leave my position to race after Lucien, the man jerked backward and slid down the wall, a petite red hole drilled dead center in his forehead and another one over his heart.
“I thought I was covering you,” I shouted to Lucien, adrenaline buzzing in my system.
“You did a fine job.”
“Whatever. We’ll need a vocabulary lesson once this mission is over.”
I bolted past him.
He fell in behind me, and I heard a sharp inhale.
“What’s wrong?” I looked over my shoulder while I continued my jog down the corridor.
His gaze was pinned to my butt. “Ah Jayne, following you is never a hardship.”
“Wanker.” But I smiled.
We flew willy-nilly through the facility until we arrived at the lab level. At that point, it was prudent to exercise caution.
The lab consisted of glass on one entire wall. There’d be no sneaking past unnoticed. And the location we’d identified to plant the explosives was on the opposite side from us.
“Now what?” Lucien’s breath came in heavy gasps.
I propped my hands on my hips and studied the empty, yet wholly exposed path. Along the ceiling, girders ran in a pattern parallel to the lab. There was movement inside the lab. I risked a look, noting only para-military types. Viktor’s hired help. I didn’t see anyone who looked like a civilian inside. That was good. Once we blew the hive, we wouldn’t be killing innocents.
I tapped my lip-mic and breathed into it. “Bax, can you report?”
We waited only a moment bef
ore we heard the four-tap signal that he couldn’t talk.
“Okay, pulling the glamour off him to cloak us would be a bad idea. I don’t want to risk lessening the force to mask us for a short time.” I drummed my fingers on the barrel of my rifle. “We go overhead.”
Lucien’s gaze followed where I’d indicated. He nodded then swung his weapon around his back and tightened the strap to keep it from dangling too low. I did the same.
Using my supernatural powers, I leaped from the floor up ten feet and latched onto the grid system. The pipes were sturdy, and I knew they’d hold my weight and Lucien’s. I engaged my core like a good gymnast would and drew my feet up, locking my ankles around the pipe. My feet, encased only in the wetsuit slippers, made very little noise, but still I paused to be sure.
Satisfied our movements hadn’t alerted anyone, I began to pull myself hand over hand along the girders. They gave a sickening lurch when Lucien leapt up to join me, but I didn’t pause. We made it to the opposite side, and Lucien dropped to the ground.
But I remained hanging off the pipes since I could see across the top of the lab from this unique vantage point. As I took in the view, a smile tugged my lips.
I beamed down at Lucien before I dropped my legs, released my grip, and landed lightly next to him. “Gas main runs right above here.” I diagrammed a visual on my forearm. “Comes in and then branches out two other directions. They must have hired the least inspired engineer in the world.”
“So you’re thinking…”
“I propose we shimmy across to the T-intersection of the mains and rig the charge there. We could blow the entire facility from that one point.”
“But to be sure, we should plant a final set of charges at the control center.”
“Well, duh.” I tipped my head like a cocky teen, shooting my weight to one hip.
A wince was his only reply. He bent to retrieve a smallish chunk of C4 and the detonator.
That would never do.
“Don’t be stingy, Lucien.” I pointed to his bag where he’d stowed the extra explosive putty he’d swiped from the armory. “I like to blow shit up as much as you do.”
“Fine.” He toed the bag my direction and fiddled with tuning the detonator to correspond to the signal we’d send remotely.
Chuffed about his compliance, I grabbed another brick of the taupe-colored putty. My wetsuit zipper clicked noisily as I yanked it down. I stowed both blocks inside my top. Didn’t want to drop those. Lucien handed me the tuned blasting cap, and I traded it for my pack and rifle. I tucked the cap into my waistband next to my Walther. I slipped a roll of duct tape over my wrist and shoved it up my forearm.
Lucien hugged the wall, the muzzle of his Scar pointed knee-level. He squatted, offering his bent knee as a step up.
Ready, I leaped back to up to the girders, hooked my ankles, and began the arduous crawl over the lab. I went slowly to be sure my movement wasn’t detected. The steel runs bit into my palms, but I ignored the sting. Like a monkey, I swung from one side of iron rails over to the next and the next until I reached the sewage pipe that ran alongside the gas main.
I flipped over on top of the thick pipe and slipped along until I reached the branch-point.
When I straddled the expanse, the fluid sloshing along caused a rumble between my thighs. Leaving the silvery tape on my arm, I ran off a length. Dropping a fang through my gums, I bit through one edge, then ripped the rest of the way. I strapped one of the bricks to the main branch, and then breaking the second chunk in half, I repeated the procedure on the remaining two pipes. I taped the pre-programmed remote device at the center of the branch and ran the wiring to all three bombs.
A soft laugh escaped as I secured the explosives with even more tape. I could only hope Viktor was somewhere in proximity to a gas outlet when the whole shebang blew. I was a tad sorry I wouldn’t be present to witness it.
Lucien’s voice sounded in my ear. “Jayne, hurry up, won’t you? I think we’re about to get company.”
It was just then I caught sight of a blinking red light atop a security camera aimed at the access corridor in front of the lab space. We’d avoided the cameras by crawling across the ceiling framework, but once we’d lowered ourselves, we must have activated a motion sensor.
“On my way. Duet, check in.” I was surprised to discover I harbored genuine concern for him. The glamour held, but it was a strain. I didn’t want it slipping at an inconvenient time.
Over the comm link feeding directly into my ear, I heard Baxter’s barely audible click signal. Good, at least that meant he was safe.
Pivoting on the conduit proved an awkward maneuver, but once I stabilized, I scooted back to where Lucien was waiting.
“Coming down,” I muttered just before dropping lightly beside him.
He steadied me with a hand at my waist, aiming his rifle down the long corridor.
Looking defiantly at the wide-angle lens, I lifted two fingers, palm inward, in the ultimate British obscene gesture and mouthed up yours to whoever was monitoring the camera view. I wished I had the power to make eyeballs bleed over a psychic link, like that Alice chick from the Resident Evil franchise.
A nearby claxon blared out a loud wail. Steel shutters rolled down over the lab windows, trapping the workers inside. We’d definitely tripped their security.
“We need an exit.” Lucien’s voice was tight with tension.
“Working on it.” I slammed my eyelids shut and conjured the schematic, my mind tracing a route from our location to Bax’s. “Bloody hell. How do you feel about heights?”
He snorted. “Not a fan.”
I’d known he didn’t care for high altitude adventures. The first time we’d ever jumped from a plane together, he’d clutched my hand the whole way down. Guilt crept over me for leaving him with just Baxter for company on their earlier jump. After already facing his fears once today, he really wasn’t going to like the route I’d planned on the fly.
The sound of running troops reached us, lots of boots on the ground heading our way. At the far end of the passageway, heavy bulkhead doors slammed down.
Time was running out. “Well, you’ll have to make do. The fastest route out of here to the rally point with Duet is via the elevator. With security breached, most likely the lift will be shut down. We’ll be climbing the shaft.”
“Fuck me.”
“Thanks for the invite, but do you really think we have the time?” I quipped, doing my best to defuse his anxiety over heights. “Perhaps later we can chat about the Mile High Club.”
With a groan, Lucien dragged me around a corner, pulling me along the concrete and steel hall toward the elevator.
While he manhandled open the sliding doors, I crouched and took aim at the end of the corridor. The thunder of a squad of men tromping our way boomed off the stark walls. A steel bulkhead to the left us clanged down with scary finality.
The forward phalanx of soldiers rounded the corner.
“Lucien!” I shouted as I fired into their midst.
“Got it.”
He crammed his knife into the crevice, forcing the elevator to remain open. The bulkhead in front of me dropped at a precarious speed. Two armed guards slid under just as the door crashed down. The man directly behind them screamed, not clearing the crushing weight.
One of the soldiers continued to advance, his weapon pointed at my head. Another soldier skulked directly behind him I sighted along the barrel and squeezed my trigger.
Nothing.
“Damn—I’m jammed!” I shouted.
Two fast bursts of gunfire rang in my ears, deafening me. The front man dropped to the ground and then his chaser spun with the force of the bullet slamming into his shoulder, then collapsed against the closed security door.
I dug my finger into my ear, hoping to ease the intense ringing. Shaking my head, I cleared the jam, ejected my magazine, then quickly reloaded.
“Time to go, Jayne.”
I leaped to my feet and then
flung myself into the lift shaft. At the last second, I seized the ladder. Lucien grabbed his knife and scrambled after me. He shoved the blade between his teeth, pirate style. I started clambering upward toward the control room, located four levels above. The elevator doors banged closed, muting the annoying alarms. Lights strobed in the cavernous shaft, simulating a freak lightning storm.
My limbs screamed with each step, and the nausea came back twice as strong. I clenched my jaw and forced myself to keep moving up.
My foot slipped. My shoulder wrenched as I dangled off the ladder. Lucien quickened his pace and had me caged in his arms before I could lose my grip.
“I’ve got you. Hold on, love,” he said as he shoved a thigh under mine, stabilizing me.
Firming my grip, I got my feet back on the rungs and hastened upward.
“Solo, I’m done,” came Bax’s quiet voice over the comm link. “On my way to the rendezvous.”
So far, our plan was a thing of beauty. “On our way as well. Let me know when you’re secure. This glamour is draining me fast.” I wouldn’t have lost my grip on the ladder otherwise.
“Just need another minute,” he replied.
I tapped off my mic. “Better pedal faster, Bax,” I muttered.
Lucien laughed. “I heard that.”
I paused and glared down at him. “Hey, you aren’t doing double-duty. It’s hard work kicking ass while shielding the mortal from discovery.”
He leered at me. “Yes, dear.”
“And stop staring at my bum.”
His laugh echoed off the concrete walls.
My earbud crackled with Baxter’s voice. “In position. You can drop the disguise.”
I shed the glamour the way a snake sheds its skin. The supernatural hiding spell melted away, leaving behind a faint residue from the effort of holding it in place for so long. But I experienced a surge of power to my limbs, allowing me to resume a faster climb.
We arrived at the desired floor, and I clung to one side of the ladder, giving Lucien room to force the doors open. Again, he propped open the doors with his knife, leaped out, and then turned back to give me a hand out.
Licensed To Thrill Page 22
