Chapter Forty-Seven

Buffalo Bayou Park

Houston, Northern Territory

“I’m taking the chopper down,” Striker said into his comm as he watched the shuttle hit Waugh Bridge.

The blast waves made the chopper dance around on his descent into the park. Striker fought with the controls, taking the bird into a steep descent. Aiming for the side of the bayou where he could see Mace lying on the bank, Ignacio leaning over him, checking the field dressing on his chest. A field dressing that was strangely red and looked suspiciously like lingerie.

A dark cloud caught his attention, and his heart jerked in his chest.

When the shuttle had crashed into the bridge, it had disturbed the bats living under it, and they’d taken to the sky in one great chaotic cloud. There was no time to lose. He had to set the chopper down before his craft was swarmed and he plummeted to the ground.

“I’m coming in hard,” he told Hunter back at their mobile base. He wished he could tell Sandi the same, but her comms had been washed out. “We’ve got bats in the air.”

“Damn,” was all Hunter said.

Strider didn’t so much land the chopper as drop it out of the sky. He hit the ground with a thump and a shudder. “I’m down,” he told Hunter. “But there’s no way I can take off again. The sky is black with bats.”

“Already on it. I’ve got Gray and Zane on their way. They’ll take you out by road.”

“What’s the ETA on Enforcement?”

“They’ve been delayed.” There was a grin in Hunter’s voice. “I got in contact with our hacker friend, and he’s infected the Enforcement grid with a new virus he’s written. It won’t stall them for long—five, ten minutes at most—but it’s something. It cost us, though.”

“Whatever you had to pay, it’s worth double.” Striker powered down the chopper before climbing out. “Medical help?”

“On standby. Gray’s got the coordinates. I’ve hacked the city’s camera network, and it’s gone black. That’ll buy you a window to get out of there. I made sure to delete all the footage I could find of the shuttle descending toward the bayou. No one will know the people on board managed to get off before it blew.”

“Good job.” Striker ran for his teammates and crouched beside them. “How’s he doing?” he asked Ignacio.

“Still breathing. Heartbeat is weak. He’s losing blood, internally as well as through that.” He pointed to the metal tube poking out of Mace’s chest.

Striker waved a hand to ward off some stray bats that were spiraling around them. “Sandi? Keiko?”

Ignacio nodded toward the bridge, where the two women were climbing out of the bayou. Sandi had an arm around Keiko, who looked weak and was clearly struggling to stand on her own. Her eyes shot straight to Mace, and her strength seemed to return. She rushed forward, limping on a foot that’d lost its shoe. There was blood on her ankle and hands, bruises everywhere else. Her hair was wet and matted, her clothes torn, but she was alive. And very much focused on Mace.

Stumbling over the rocky ground, she fell to her knees beside Mace. “Is he alive?” she asked Ignacio, her voice trembling. With hesitation, as though afraid of what she’d find, she reached for Mace.

“He’s alive,” Ignacio said. “He’s too stubborn to die.”

Leaning over, she placed her ear to Mace’s chest, right above his heart.

“No trust,” Ignacio grumbled as Keiko’s whole body seemed to sag with relief.

Two bats swooped, dancing around their heads, and Keiko’s eyes went wide. With a start, she jerked away from Mace and looked up at the cloud of swarming bats above her head. Before anyone could say anything, she was on her feet, her focus on the cloud.

“Bat,” she shouted. “Bat!”

“Calm down.” Striker stood and placed a hand on each of her arms.

She shook him off. “Baaaat!”

“She’s losing it,” he told Ignacio. “We need to get out of here before she goes into shock.”

“I’m not losing anything. I’m trying to find Mace’s bat. It has to be with them. Right? I mean, instinct would tell it to find the other bats.” She took a deep breath and screeched. “Bat!”

“What the hell?” Striker gaped at his teammates. “She knows about his animal?”

“Yeah.” Ignacio shrugged out of his waterlogged shirt and wrung it out. “We need to take her with us and sort this out.”

Keiko turned a fiery glare on Ignacio, which would have been funny under any other circumstances. She was tiny, battered, and clearly exhausted. She was a woman who was at the very end of her resources, and she was facing off against a man with twice her bulk and a whole lot more muscle. Striker could see why his friend was enamored by her.

Worthy mate, his snake said in agreement.

“You’re taking me with you anyway,” she angrily told Ignacio. “I go where he goes.” She pointed at Mace before turning her face back to the sky. “Baaaat!”

Striker ran a hand over his bald head. “That isn’t going to work. His animal doesn’t listen to anyone but him.”

“Not even him, half the time.” Sandi brushed the hair from her brother’s forehead.

Keiko didn’t listen. “Bat, get down here. I know you’re up there!”

Striker didn’t see how she could know any such thing. It was just wishful thinking.

He caught Ignacio’s eye. “You think it’s still trapped in the research facility?”

“Who knows? I haven’t seen it, but it’s got to be alive.”

Yeah, because Mace was still alive, and even though they’d never tested their premise that if one half of their weird little duo died, it would mean the end of the other, they all believed that was exactly what would happen.

“Bat!” Keiko screeched. “Get down here now. Stop messing around with your friends.”

Striker let out a sigh as two tanklike vehicles came screeching to a halt on the rise above them. Gray bolted out of the first vehicle, closely followed by several more members of his team.

“You need to stop screaming for the bat,” Striker told Keiko. “You aren’t helping anyone.”

“We need to find the bat. If we don’t, they won’t survive.” She glared at him. “Do you have a better idea? No? Well then, butt out. Baaaaaaat!”

Gray came up beside them. “Should she be screaming like that?”

“Unless you’ve got a gag on you, I’m not sure how we can stop it.” Striker nodded to Mace. “Get him loaded in. I’ll bring her in the second vehicle. We only have a small window to get out of here before the cameras are back online and Enforcement find out exactly what happened.”

“On it,” Gray said, striding toward Mace.

“We need to go,” Striker told Keiko. “We need to get Mace and you to a doctor.”

“Not without his bat,” the stubborn woman replied.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to negotiate,” he said.

“Baaaatt!” was the only answer he got.

Striker opened his mouth to tell Keiko that her time was up. If she wanted to go with Mace, then she needed to leave now. Only the words didn’t come out, because a tiny bat, one that was smaller and lighter in color than the rest, spiraled down from the mass above them—heading straight for her.

“Bat,” she laughed, cried, called. Reaching her hands high toward it.

And damned if the flying rat didn’t flutter right into those hands. Striker’s jaw dropped as her shaky grasp brought the tiny creature to her chest and held it close.

“You’re a really bad bat,” she scolded. “You knew you had to come back to Mace, and you went off to play instead. I’m not happy with you.” Her hands trembled as she walked the creature over to its other half. She looked equal parts scared of it and relieved that she held it. Dropping to her knees beside Mace, she placed the bat on his chest. “Go on, get back where you belong.”

The tiny, fluffy bat butted her hand, as though it wanted more petting. She let out a stunned laugh. “Later, okay.” And then she shooed it up Mace’s chest to his shoulder. “Do your joining thing. I’ll pet you later.”

And to everyone’s astonishment, it did exactly what it was told to do. One second, it was walking across Mace; the next, it was a tattoo on his shoulder. Keiko ran her fingers over the bat drawing.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “Now keep him safe until we can fix him.”

What she thought a two-inch flying rat could accomplish, Striker didn’t know. Standing up on wobbly legs, Keiko turned to him with the same look a queen would use on her subjects.

“We need to get him to a hospital. Come on, hurry up.”

Ignacio started laughing, and Striker shot him a look that shut him up fast. Then, together, they ran with Mace to the waiting vehicles.