Chapter Thirty-Four

Was she still alive? Would she even be here, or was he chasing shadows?

Luke willed his mind to blankness. So many thoughts whirled in his head, and he needed to focus. This was the closest he had ever gotten to the Conclave, and Jenna had led him here.

As the vehicle came to a halt, he glanced out of the darkened windows. They were in a parking lot a couple of blocks down from the building. Callum slouched beside him, and on the bench opposite sat three of their best men, all veterans of either the Legion or the British SAS.

They were dressed in full combat gear, with Kevlar vests and weapons belts, carrying silenced weapons and stun grenades.

The back door opened, and Talbot, who was going to be coordinating the attack from the vehicle, jumped in. He made his way between them to the far end and punched a button, and a console swung out from the front of the space, the monitors flickering to life.

“Are you all online?” Talbot spoke softly.

Luke heard him clearly through the comm unit in his ear and nodded. One by one, the other members of the team gave the thumbs-up. Beside him, he could sense Callum’s barely leashed excitement.

For many men—Luke included—combat was in their blood. Like a drug, you got so you craved it, and some men reached the point where they couldn’t do without the rush. Luke had never gone so far but he, too, felt the stirring of the adrenaline in his veins. A dark excitement that tightened his gut, clenched his muscles, and focused his mind so everything became clearer.

Luke led the way, jumping down from the van into the shadows of the warehouse, before pausing at the edge of the wall to study their target.

The building appeared to be an ordinary office block, but from the intel it went far beneath the ground. No doubt the cells and interrogation units would be beneath them.

So close.

But if Jenna wasn’t here, he was back to nothing.

They had identified a point of entry on the third floor. A few lights were dotted on here and there, but the third floor was in darkness. He led the way along the side of the building to where the metal fire escape clung to the wall.

Stefan had hacked in and pulled off the override codes for the security system, and Luke sent up a silent prayer that they were still valid. He pressed the nine-digit code into the keypad, waited until he heard the lock click, and pushed the door open. His shoulders twitched as he waited for the alarms. Nothing happened.

They were in.

“Is there anybody on this floor?” he spoke into the comm unit.

“Not that I can see,” Talbot replied. “I’m sending a thermal imaging shot to your cell. I’ll update it every thirty seconds.”

Luke pulled his cell out of his pocket, punched it on, switching to the incoming image, and flashed through the floors. The imaging showed nobody on either the first, second, or third floors, although there were three people on the ground floor, probably manning the security station. The imaging would not reach underground. Gesturing to the others to follow, he turned and made his way along the corridor to the stairwell.

He reached the door to the ground floor and held up a hand to halt the others, then slipped open the door a few inches and peered around. Three men in security uniforms stood at the far side, faces turned away, talking among themselves. Security was slack, but he reckoned they mainly relied on secrecy to keep this place safe.

Luke slipped the night-vision goggles on. “Now,” he murmured down the comm unit, and the building went dark. Outside, through the glass walls, the power had gone off all around them; even the streetlights were out. The guards might not believe it was a power cut, but the confusion would give them a better chance.

One of the guards stepped up to the glass doors and peered out. He spoke into a radio and then came back to the reception desk, picked up the phone, and made a call.

A minute later, Talbot spoke. “I intercepted a call to the power company. They think the grid is down. You’re on.”

Luke turned to the others, held up three fingers, and made a cutting motion with his hand.

Callum remained at his side as the other three entered the reception area. They crossed the room silently, each picking a target, and the guards were dispatched, the bodies lowered to the floor and dragged behind the counter in the center of the room.

Luke turned to Callum and nodded. They had thirty minutes until the guards were due to call in, and Luke needed to be out of there and clear by that point. The hum of the backup generator came on. According to their intel, it would cover the elevators, but the cameras in the main building would be down.

Crossing the floor, he punched in the security code and followed Callum into the elevator. They drew their silenced weapons as the doors shut.

He raised his pistol as the elevator came to a halt. The doors slid open, revealing three security officers. Luke aimed at the one on the right, pulled the trigger, and moved smoothly to the next. Beside him, Callum took out the third, and they dragged the bodies inside and out of sight.

A long corridor stretched ahead of them, the walls white and the lighting a dim orange glow. Luke led the way, hugging the wall as the murmur of voices drifted toward them from up ahead. They came to a doorway and he peered around; four men sat at computer screens. He and Callum pulled gas masks on as he rolled a gas grenade into the room. It went off with a quiet pfft of gas and a few seconds later, the men slumped down over their terminals.

He turned to Callum. “Okay, you go for the hard drives and anything else you can find. I’m going to search for Jenna.”

A door a little farther on opened into a stairwell to the lower level. At the bottom, he took out another guard. Down here, the air was clean, and he removed his mask while he searched.

The first two rooms were laboratories; he passed them and continued on to a row of cells. All were empty, and he swore softly. She had to be here. The alternative was she’d never been here or they had already killed her and disposed of the body. That thought was unbearable, and he pushed on.

At the end of the corridor, he found the interrogation rooms. Jenna was in the second. He peered through the small glass pane in the steel door, and his heart stopped beating. She lay on a steel table in the center of the white-tiled room with her eyes closed, but he could make out the shallow rise and fall of her chest, and some of his tension drained away. Her wrists and ankles were fastened with steel cuffs to the corners of the table, her white T-shirt stained with darkened blood and torn to the waist, exposing her breasts.

He drew his pistol, shot out the lock mechanism on the door, and kicked it in. Her head rolled to face him as he entered the room, and her eyes fluttered open. They widened as she took him in. “Luke?”

“Are you all right?”

She blinked a couple of times. “I’m alive.”

He smiled and crossed the room. “I’m glad. We’re here to get you out.”

Doubt flashed across her face. “Why? I heard you talking to Callum. I was bait, nothing more. Well, it looks like it worked—I got you here.”

He could hear the bitterness in her voice. “They have to be stopped. Besides, while I might have started out with the intention of using you, that’s not the only reason I’m here. You matter. I don’t know why, and it’s bloody inconvenient. But you do.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Look, we’ll talk when we’re out of here. I promise, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

She studied him for a long moment. “Okay.”

Luke strode to the foot of the table, unlocked the ankle restraints, and moved to her wrists. She sat up slowly, rubbing her arms.

“How do you feel?” he asked. “Are you okay to get out of here?”