CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Cade opened the door of the archives and strode down the hall without hesitation, doing all he could to project a sense of being right where he was supposed to be and hadn’t, in fact, just broken into one of the most secure repositories of arcane and mystical information on the face of the entire planet.

Well, maybe not that secure, he thought with a smile, then hurriedly wiped it away lest someone wonder what he was smiling at.

Cade was a strong believer in the theory that if you appeared to know where you were going and looked like you belonged, most people assumed you were in the right place and didn’t bother you. With that in mind he strode over to the door to the archives, opened it, and stepped out into the hallway as if he had every reason to be there.

Normally there were two guards manning the post in front of the archives but for whatever reason they weren’t currently there.

Maybe the Seneschal sent them away, Cade thought, as he headed down the corridor at a brisk walk.

Given that this section of the castle was off-limits to all but a select few, Cade didn’t expect to run into anyone until he reached the higher levels. Once he did, once he was back on the ground floor, he intended to hide in plain sight, milling among all the other knights going about their business in the Order’s headquarters until he could get to the garage and commandeer a vehicle which he could use to take him to the airport.

It was a simple plan, but then again, those were the best kind, Cade thought.

It might have worked, too, if they hadn’t been waiting for him around the next corner.

Four men, all of them of good size and height, no easy pushovers. They’d been lounging against the walls on either side of the corridor but pushed off and moved to the center in a staggered diamond formation when they saw him come around the bend. All of them were armed with handguns in either shoulder or belt holsters. If the gleam in their eyes was any indication they weren’t strangers to physical violence.

Behind them, smiling in satisfaction at Cade’s apparently anticipated appearance, stood Preceptor Johannson.

“I see the prodigal son has returned home at last,” the Preceptor began in his typical pretentious fashion, but Cade didn’t wait around to hear any more.

Turning around and running wasn’t an option; there wasn’t anything behind him but the Archives and that was a dead-end. The only way out was forward, which meant he was going to have to go through the group assembled in front of him.

Cade knew that if they wanted to kill him outright they would have already drawn their weapons and fired. They were so close that there was no way they could have missed. Likewise, if they were worried that he would fire on them first, they would have set their ambush further up the hall where there was a long stretch of defensible position just before the elevators. The fact that they’d braced him where they had indicated that they wanted the chance to subdue him, to take him captive, most likely in order to question him later for information about the Adversary.

Information that he didn’t have, of course.

Not that any of that mattered to Johannson. For whatever reason he was fixated on Cade and intended to make an example of him. Cade couldn’t allow that to happen, not now that he had the first good lead he’d had in more than seven years; the kind of lead that might shed some much needed illumination on everything that was going on.

He could not, would not, be delayed.

Gabrielle was counting on him.

All of this flashed through Cade’s mind as he came around the corner and saw the welcoming party waiting for him. Options presented themselves and were just as quickly discarded as he summed up the situation and then, with reflexes honed by years fighting some of the most dangerous creatures on the face of the planet, he made his decision.

Before the Preceptor could say another word Cade let out a ear-splitting yell and charged forward!

It was the last thing the foursome was expecting apparently, for Cade caught them all flat-footed and unprepared. He swung his go-bag up in front of him as he reached the lead man, slamming it into the other man’s chest and tangling up his arms for a few precious seconds. That was all Cade needed to raise one leg and viciously slam the edge of his foot into the outside of the man’s knee, hyper-extending it and sending him crashing to the ground with a leg that probably wouldn’t bear his weight again without extensive physical therapy.

Lucky for Cade, Busted Kneecap fell right into the path of the next man rushing forward from behind, taking him down in a tangle of limbs and cries of pain.

Keep moving! Cade thought and surged forward toward the next man in his path, knowing speed and surprise were his only advantage. If one of them pulled their gun and took a shot...

Thankfully gunning him down where he stood didn’t seem to be an option for whatever reason. Perhaps the Preceptor wanted him taken alive to be questioned or maybe just made a public spectacle of. Either way, the third man in Johannson’s crew, a wide-bodied bald-headed guy that reminded Cade of a short Kojack, had all the time in the world to draw a weapon and point it in Cade’s direction, but chose instead to meet Cade’s forward rush with a flurry of punches targeted at his face and body. The guy was fast, Cade had to give him that, but it was immediately obvious that he wasn’t in the same league as Cade. The former Echo Team commander used his hands and arms to block the blows directed at his head, not wanting to risk being dazed by a lucky shot, but let the ones aimed at his body intentionally slip past his defenses, giving the impression that other man was succeeding with some of his blows. He knew from experience that he could take a lot more than the guy was dishing out and letting him get a few shots in would help lull him into a sense of superiority.

Cade knew the moment it happened; the guy began swinging from the hip in an attempt to land a crushing blow that would knock Cade out of the fight. That slight change caused his defenses to open up by an equal amount and that was just the opening Cade needed. His hands shot out, and he grabbed the other man by his ears and yanked the guy forward and down even as Cade drove his knee upward.

There was a loud crack as knee met face and then Cade shoved the injured man away from him and pushed forward.

He could see the Preceptor over the shoulder of the final man standing in his way and Cade got an odd sense of satisfaction at seeing the fear rising on the man’s face as Cade plowed through three of his hand-picked men. Just one more to go...

Number four was going to be a tougher opponent, Cade could tell just by the way he was standing; loose and ready, his hands held up in front of him like a boxer but with fists open, ready to be used in a variety of ways. Getting through him was going to take both effort and time. He was ready for the former but didn’t have any of the latter to spare. If the Preceptor had sent out an alarm, reinforcements were probably already on their way. Cade needed to take this guy out quickly...

As the other man moved in, Cade stopped short, held up his hands, and said, “Okay, you win. I surrender.”

Number four hesitated, obviously confused by Cade’s actions. Cade didn’t blame him; he’d just barreled through three other men and now, with just one left standing, he suddenly wanted to surrender?

It was that very confusion that Cade was hoping for.

The other man turned slightly, as if looking back toward the Preceptor to see what he should do, and in that second of distraction Cade made his move.

He lashed out with a front snap kick, driving the ball of his foot directly into the groin of the man standing in front of him, and suddenly there was no one standing between him and his target, Preceptor Johannson.

Cade couldn’t help but smile.

He walked forward, intending to grab the Preceptor and use him as a decoy, a shield if necessary to get out of the complex.

Johannson looked from side to side, uncertain what to do, reminding Cade of a panicked bird.

Cade was less than five feet from the man when he felt two sharp little jabs in the center of his back, as if someone had just poked him with a pencil. Even as his mind was processing that, he was hit with 25,000 volts of electricity through the wires attached to the Taser darts now stuck in his back. Almost immediately his body began to twist and shake as the electrical current now coursing through him began to overpower his ability to use his arms and legs.

It was a testimony to his toughness that he managed to turn enough to look behind him and see the second of his four assailants, the one that he been knocked to the ground in the initial confrontation, staring down the barrel of his Taser, his finger jammed hard on the trigger.

Cade’s legs refused to obey him another second longer and he collapsed to the floor, jerking and twisting as the current surging through him, still looking back at the man with the gun.

Should have kicked him in the head as I went by, Cade thought in annoyance.

As Cade looked on, the other man lowered the Taser, walked over, and, as if he’d heard Cade’s own thoughts, drew back his foot and kicked Cade in the temple.

Darkness descended.