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Wednesday. Aegis Group Headquarters, Seattle, Washington.
Finley crouched low to the ground to avoid the worst of the smoke leaking from the servers. The flicker of flames licked the outside of several towers. And here he’d been wondering how they’d successfully destroy the intel without power and the guarantee of wiping it. Clearly Merida’s people had planned for that. There seemed to be a plan for just about everything, the problem was that Merida was the one making it happen.
He’d never said it, but deep down Finley had always thought that the stories about the Aegis Group guys were inflated. Sure, they were capable and had the means to do some pretty big jobs, but he’d always thought some of it had to be a tall tale. Now he wasn’t so sure.
Where was she?
He leaned to the right and caught sight of Merida’s leg then the brilliant flash of the charges.
How many more were there?
The leg folded and suddenly she was on her knees and braced with one hand, the other arm thrown over her face.
The smoke had to be getting to her.
Finley crouched low and crossed the room to her.
“Are you done?” he asked.
She jerked her head around to face him. She had the knit cap sitting on the back of her head. Bits of hair escaped the eye and mouth holes.
“Are you done?” he asked again.
She coughed, but managed to get out a single, “Yes.”
He scooped her up and sprinted for the glass door, kicking it shut behind them to block out as much of the smoke as he could. He kept going, heading for the stairs. The area around the servers wasn’t safe, now because of the fires and melting plastics or later because of who wanted them.
He ducked into a room just off the stairs and set Merida down in a desk chair. Before they rushed headlong out there, he had to be sure she was well enough to keep going. Her hand rest on his shoulder and she’d stopped coughing but her lungs wheezed with every breath. He kneeled there looking up at her powerless to do anything except wait out this spell and listen for the intruders.
Merida pointed, eyes closed, at the bottom drawer of the desk next to him.
He yanked it open.
Three bottles of water sat there, unopened.
He grabbed out one for her and took one for himself. The other he stashed in a pocket.
They both drank deeply. He never once stopped watching her.
It hadn’t escaped his notice that Elias didn’t understand the security concern, but she did. She knew what these people were after, which meant she was valuable to them if they understood she knew the things they wanted. From here on out protecting her had to come first now that the servers were taken care of. She was the key.
She sat there, eyes closed and head bowed. Tears trickled down her cheeks. He didn’t know if it was from the smoke or what they were doing. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. It wasn’t like he could fix things.
Finley cocked his head to the side.
The drilling had stopped. Why? For how long?
Merida wiped her face and put the cap back on the bottle before opening her eyes and looking at him.
“You’re doing great,” he said.
“I’m doing the right thing. I don’t know about great.” She leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees.
“We can still get Elias and get out of here.” It was what Finley wanted to do.
“No.” She shook her head and looked at him. “I can’t. I want to tell you, but I can’t.”
“It’s bad.”
“Stuff of nightmares bad. Next generation bad. I shouldn’t even say that much bad.”
Finley nodded.
Just what the hell was Aegis Group into?
He knew Merida had served as an assistant to a very high ranked admiral for many years before retiring. She’d seen things, known things most wouldn’t because of the nature of her job. If she said this was bad, it had to be bad.
“Hey?” He reached out and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. “We’re going to make it through this, okay?”
She squeezed his hand back and gave him a weak smile.
He’d had no idea how this woman was going to change his life when she moved in next door. How much he’d grow to love her. Need her. Rely on her sense of humor. She was the bright spot in his life. And if he wanted to make the most of this opportunity with her, they had to survive this hell they’d been dumped into.
Finley stared into Merida’s eyes and saw his future. He’d wanted more with her, but tonight made him see that they could be together, work together, love together for the rest of their lives.
She licked her lips and his gaze dipped to her mouth.
Funny how tonight had started with a kiss. One explosive, life-changing kiss...
If he was going to make her understand what he wanted, she needed to know how important she was to him. He was shit with words, something he needed to change.
Her breathing still wheezed. They couldn’t move yet, not until she’d had another moment or so.
“Did I ever tell you why I got out?” He shifted his rifle and laid a hand on her knee.
“No.”
“You do the job long enough and it changes you. I don’t care what people say, it does. I... I started to like it too much.” He stared at her.
Merida nodded slowly.
Finley hated admitting that, but there it was.
“There were some missions toward the end that made me question my humanity, what we were doing. I remember seeing my niece for the first time and feeling like I couldn’t touch her because there was too much blood on my hands. That’s when I knew I had to get out.”
She covered his hand with hers, but she had no idea what he was really saying. Not yet.
“Thing is, that first year and a half was a blur. I went through the motions of living without really living. And then one day I met this sassy woman who told me I didn’t know what I was talking about when it came to changing oil on a car. She... She turned on the lights. Because of her I started remembering what it was like to be human again.” Finley stared into Merida’s dark eyes made darker by the shadows clinging to the room. “I’ve never told her how important she is to me. That was a mistake.”
Merida had hauled his ass out of the fog. She’d shown him what life could be like. While he’d figured it out, she’d been a friend. A lifeline. And he’d grown to love her. Because of what they had, he’d relearned how to connect with his brothers, sisters, parents and everyone else. Because of her.
A bang followed by shattering glass broke the moment. Merida gasped and Finley moved to cover her, turning his attention to the door.
The clock had begun.
Any moment now those men would learn they weren’t alone in here and the hunt would be on.
Finley grabbed Merida’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “We have to go.”
He crossed to the door and peered down the hall.
They’d taken out one and restrained three.
How many more were there?
A long hall stretched the length of the building. Several figures swathed in black and shadow moved down the hall.
Finley needed a split second for them to make it around the corner and down the stairs. That was it.
Merida pressed close to him. Despite the Kevlar it was almost intimate, if they weren’t both watching for the chance to escape.
Someone yelled something in a language Finley didn’t understand. The others rushed into the central room and probably toward the servers—and out of sight.
“Come on,” he muttered and darted around the corner.
How many had he counted? Four? Five? More?
“Finley.” Merida’s voice vibrated with fear.
And then he heard it.
The sharp sound of voices getting closer.
He hit the door and took one long step toward the stairs.
Merida couldn’t hope to keep up.
They wouldn’t make it far.
Whoever was following would catch up while they were trying to get to the fourth floor and the munitions.
“Go.” He pushed her to the stairs and backed up a step, his focus going to the door slowly swinging shut.
“What? No.” She gaped at him.
“Merida—”
The door yanked open.
Finley shoved Merida behind him and up against the wall farthest from the door. He brought his gun up. His eyes were used to the dim light, so he saw the muzzle of the gun.
Going to a knee he focused everything in him on that door and prayed there was only one or two of them. That much he could handle and keep Merida safe.
A leg edged into his view.
The body armor protected knees, but not shins or thighs.
The man edged just a bit more into view.
Finley fired, aiming at the fleshy part of the man’s leg.
The sound of the gun was intensified with all the concrete, but he was ready for it this time.
The man went down, legs and arms flailing as he screamed.
A second shot rang out from above him.
Merida.
Another body slumped forward wedging the door open.
“Come on.” She grabbed him, yanking him to his feet. “There’s only two. Come on.”
He wanted to be careful, to check, but he also needed to trust her.
Finley let Merida haul him to his feet and up the stairs. While their first shootout had gone unnoticed by anyone except their people, they wouldn’t be so lucky this time.
Merida jammed her key into the lock on the fourth floor and yanked the door open. Finley shoved her in and threw his shoulder against the door, securing it shut. Five seconds later it shuddered under the weight of someone ramming it from the other side.
Two restrained down stairs.
One dead on their assent.
Two dead while pursuing.
How many were still out there?
Arms wrapped around him from behind.
He turned and held onto Merida with his left arm while taking in what he could see of the fourth floor.
“Tell me it gets better.” Merida’s voice was odd, a little distant, but that was due to his ears still ringing.
“What?” He peered down at her face mostly in shadow.
“The sick feeling in my stomach.”
Killing.
She meant killing someone.
He opened and closed his mouth.
She wanted to hear yes, that it got easier. But the truth was it didn’t get easy for a long time. At least, it shouldn’t. And if it got easy fast, then that was another problem. The kind that had sent him into civilian life. He hoped for her she never had to do this again, that it never got easy.
He bent his head and kissed her brow.
“You did what you had to do. Never forget that,” he said softly.
The door shuddered again.
Merida let go of him. “We should move. Now.”
“Where’s Elias?”
“The munitions locker.” She turned and began walking away from him.
“You have a munitions locker here with explosives?” He kept pace with her along the wide hall. He hadn’t really thought through that when they’d brought it up earlier.
Merida glanced up at him. “Yes. It’s one of the reasons we always keep someone on-site. Honestly, most of the time there’s several people, but with the holidays we opted to be more flexible. I’m not sure if I’m glad or if I wish we had all those people here now. This way.”
She opened a door into a narrow standing area. A window was barred by a metal gate secured to the desk at this hour. Merida bypassed that through a door wedged open. A flashlight sat on a table by the door waiting for them.
Finley stopped inside and whistled as he stared at the munitions closet.
His closet at home was maybe three feet deep and six wide. This was more like one of those fancy-pants closets off some home improvement show.
There were shelves with gun cases, each sporting a color-coded tag. There were lockers. And on the far side of the room was a partitioned off portion of the room. The gate stood open and another locker was left ajar.
Merida went straight there and began selecting pieces. She put them into a canvas bag as if she did this all the damn time.
“Where is Elias?” Finley turned around.
“He left a note.” Merida opened the locker door a bit more to show off a dry erase board on the inside. “Headed to north and east corners. Setting timers for :45. See you outside.”
“Timer.” Finley nodded.
He hadn’t even thought about how they’d trigger the detonators. Any type of remote trigger was out due to the jammer. A timer was about as perfect a solution as they could get. It also put them on a timeline they couldn’t deviate from. If anything went wrong and they weren’t out of the building, they’d be going down right along with everyone else.
Merida glanced up again. “Reload. Get bullets and some flash grenades. Look for any case with a black tag. There are keys under the counter that should open those.”
“What are the color tags?” He grabbed a few black tagged cases off the shelves.
“Color tags are personal firearms. It would take too long to find the right keys.” She stood and hauled her bulging bag of explosives to the long table in the middle of the main room. “Black tags all have the same key. Those are company issue guns.”
Finley was never going to think the Aegis Group guys were a bunch of puffed up blowhards again. He hadn’t given them enough credit for how serious an operation this was. And a lot of that went to Merida. Without someone like her behind the scenes making things work smoothly the guys going out in the field wouldn’t have such an easy time of it.
They made quick work of trading out their stolen weapons for more reliable guns and enough ammunition to go up against a small army. Then there were the flash grenades.
He still couldn’t believe they were actually going to blow up a building. He’d done it a few times on missions in the Marines, but as a civilian? He just didn’t do stuff like this anymore.
“Okay, how do we get to the basement?” Merida braced a hand against the table and looked at him. “They’ve got to be on the south stair trying to get in.”
He nodded his head. “Yeah. What are our other options? And what’s on the basement level?”
“The cafeteria, heating, maintenance.” She ticked off the three on her fingers. “Plus some general storage.”
Merida gripped his arm and stared at him.
“What?”
“There isn’t a north stair on this floor.”
“Okay,” he said slowly.
“I mean, the elevator lobby is completely cut off on this floor.”
Finley had a bad feeling about where this was going...
“We can climb down the elevator shaft,” she said. “They’ll never know where we went.”
Yeah, he hated this plan, but there wasn’t time to discuss another one. A steady, loud bang had picked back up again.
“You’re sure there’s no way into the lobby?” he asked.
She grinned at him and hefted the bag of explosives over her shoulder. “None.”
It was about time they caught a break.
Finley took the lead out of the so-called closet. He peered back toward the south stair. Even in the shadows he could see the door shaking as someone pounded against it.
“Come on,” he said over his shoulder.
Together they jogged toward the north end of the building.
“How do you think Elias got down?” he asked.
“Not sure. South stair maybe? He knew we cleared it.” There was a note of worry in her voice.
Finley reached over and squeezed her hand. “I’m sure that’s what he did.”
She held onto him for the last ten or so yards it took them to get to the standard door leading to the fourth floor elevator lobby. There was no window here, nothing to let them look out.
Finley dropped the bags and lowered himself to the floor. He peered under the door, not that he saw much, but no movement was good in his book.
How were they going to do this?
He sat back on his heels and looked at Merida.
“I want you to pull back. I’m going to sweep the lobby—”
She frowned. “Fin—”
“I’m not budging on this. Pull back. Wait for me to tell you it’s clear.”
A particularly loud bang sounded from the other side of the floor.
Merida jerked her head in a nod, scooped up his bag of spare gear and retreated into the first room and out of sight.
He blew out a breath, glad they weren’t going to fight over this, got to his feet and took a calming breath.
There was no telling what was on the other side of that door. He could be risking or saving Merida’s life right now. But that was where they were at.
Finley emptied his mind, gripped the door handle and stared down his gun.
This was for Merida.
He yanked the door open and stepped through.
Emptiness met him. Well, except for a set of three Christmas trees. Someone in the building took their holiday decorating very seriously.
Now why did he think Merida had something to do with that?
He circled left then right, unwilling to leave even one corner alone.
Just like Merida had said, the elevator lobby was empty.
And now he had to let her climb down to a basement and hope no one realized where they were.
Great.
Just great.
Once more he considered just running out of there with her. Would that be so bad?
The suite door opened and Merida stuck her head out.
“Clear?” she asked.
“You were supposed to wait.” He let his rifle hang from his shoulder and crossed to the elevator.
“It sounds like they’re about to get in.” For the first time since the security office she actually sounded nervous.
“Then let’s not be here. Help me get the doors open?”
It took both of them to pry the silver doors open and then the elevator doors open. By some dumb luck they’d picked the shaft with the elevator on the fourth floor. Or maybe it was lucky?
Finley shoved the ceiling tile aside in the elevator and boosted Merida up. Once they had all their equipment with her and the tile back down, they’d covered their trail as effectively as they could given the circumstances.
Now they had to climb. And he wasn’t looking forward to that.
He wanted to go first, but he knew their present danger could come from above.
Merida didn’t suffer from the same hesitation. She offered him the heavier of the two bags then reached out and grabbed the service ladder. He grit his teeth and watched her transfer her weight to the rungs and shift her gun to a better position for climbing.
“This is gross,” she muttered. Louder she said, “Here we go.”
He watched his heart begin to lower down the shaft.
Voices drifted toward them, louder now.
The intruders had to be in the suite.
Finley shouldered his rifle and looped the strap across his body then followed Merida. It wouldn’t take long to clear the suite and see they weren’t there. They had to be as far away as they could.
She moved surprisingly fast given how exhausted she’d been earlier. Adrenaline did that. He just hoped it kept her going a little while longer.
