Aisling smiled and opened her eyes to stare up at the starry sky overhead.Clouds were moving in and, hopefully, it would be heavily overcast later during their mission.
“As well as my da and brothers,” Aisling said, wishing she could believe that was true.“Peyton told me when I return that for a while my most dangerous assignments will be knocking sense into teenage girls wantin’ to date the worst possible guys,” she joked.
At least it made Tamsin laugh.“Let’s hope so.”
Overhead, a shooting star streaked across the horizon and Aisling let out a breath.Please, Goddess.Please please please.
ChapterTwenty-One
Aisling
Aaron and Lowriwalked into the room they’d set up as the command center for the operation.“They’re ready,” Aaron said.
Peyton indicated for Aisling to go first.She took a deep breath and led the way, everyone falling silent at the sight of her.There were maybe five humans in the bunch, but they were in some way connected to a pack and had paramilitary or combat medic training.More non-shifters, but the majority were shifters.
Aisling’s nostrils flared, her senses on alert, and she made a conscious effort to calm her fight-or-flight instincts over the variety of shifter races gathered together.
At one time, many of the people in this room might have been at odds with each other, even violently so.
But not now.
Now they stood united.
She climbed onto a crate and took another breath, propping her hands on her hips so they didn’t tremble.“All right, then.Last chance—anyone wants to back out, there’s the door, an’ no shame in it.Or if ye’d rather be support ops, or man the control center, instead of bein’ on the front line making entry, raise yer hand.”
She scanned the crowd, men and women both, all of them awaiting her next comment.
“Thassit, then,” she finally said.“We’ve taken precautions, but there’s a chance this will get ugly, bloody, an’ a few of us might not come home.All cellphones powered off, smart watches, all that, and leave them here with yer other gear.Everyone will be connected by the secure radio headsets.All our people have a neck gaiter.Wear the bloody thing, right?It’s the only sure-fire way we have to identify each other in the dark.She held hers up, turning it back and forth to show the threads in it.“Everyone has smart IR goggles, and this’ll show up.Try it now.”
They’d already gone through this, but she wanted to say it one more time.
She pulled it down over her head, around her neck, then up over her nose, covering her lower face as everyone watched, receiving nods from around the room.
“Right?”She pulled it down to speak again.“It’ll be shitty enough.Let’s not make things worse with friendly fire.Also, each gaiter has a small, numbered tag inside.I’ll get to that in a moment.We don’t know what shape anyone we might find inside will be in.There is conflicting info, and we don’t know if they’ll be ambulatory, conscious, or if they’ll even be some semblance of sane.They might have brainwashed some or all of the younger ones.Treat them all as hostiles until proven otherwise.I don’t care how young or old they are.Peyton will lead the second wave as we clear the way.They will Prime and tranq everyone.
“It’s likely we will have to euthanize hostages.And let me be clear—if ye come upon someone who’s obviously being tortured and it would be a kindness to put them out of their misery?Doit.Donotrisk trying to save one poor sod we can’t help when there could be five more we can.If it’s yerself or them?Liquidate them.That’s an order.
“We will spare at least one lab worker, preferably the head cunt, so we can interrogate them.Many but not all of the lab personnel are already compromised by Prime commands.You’ve all been taught the various command words in Russian.They will sit down and not resist, and will obey direct orders you give to them if you need their assistance.While they likely will not be armed, assume they are.Any who resist and are armed and don’t comply because they aren’t compromised?”
She tapped the center of her forehead.“Liquidate.If ye have a question about who to spare, kneecap ’em, disarm ’em, an’ once Peyton an’ them come in, they can decide.”
“How can we tell for sure?”a man asked.“With the lab personnel?”
“Once entry’s made by the first wave, they will yell the commands for them to comply.Everyone who’s compromised should drop to their ass, hands on their heads.Anyone who doesn’t?Ye can order the other workers to subdue them if it’s too much, but we’ll also try to get the Primes to take them out immediately.Ideally, we’ll find out if they’re not expendable before we liquidate them.
“Once yer in the shite, donotturn your back on anyone breathing except yer buddy, an’ even then ye better be back-to-back wi’ each other.We do not know for certain the exact layout of some of the high-security areas, although the information we received from multiple personnel seems to align.There will be unexpected rooms and corridors.Be prepared for that.Where’s my ordinance experts?”
Four men and two women held up their hands.
“Who’s taking care of the comms tower?”
Only one man’s hand stayed up.
“Good.The rest, yer wi’ me in the first wave, spread out in case any of us take a hit.I want ye to penetrate as deep into the complex as possible as quickly as possible.Half of you are immediately heading down to the sublevel to the utilities floor.Stick every single damned bit ye got on ye to structural supports.When yer done, fall back and begin helping evac hostages or our injured.
“Once we’re leaving, we’ll give the command to the compromised personnel to sleep, because we’re not total barbarians despite them being a bunch of fuckin’ sadistic cunts.We will gas the place on our way out.Once I hit the detonator, the whole lot goes up.I’d rather none of ye be down there when that happens.If yer wounded and ambulatory, self-evac yer fecking arse immediately.We’ll evaluate the elevator situation when we arrive, but be prepared for eight flights of stairs.When we finish, the elevator will be sent back down with additional charges in it to demolish the shaft.If ye got a hostage but ye see one of ours dropped?Take care of ours.I don’t care if the hostage is a man, woman, or child, they donottake priority over our team.
“Not to sound cold, but the gas means they won’t feel a thing when the charges go, right?That might even be a blessin’ to some of ’em, depending on what they’ve endured.If any of ours is KIA, grab their gaiter, if ye can, an’ leave ’em.Once we blow our internal ordinance, that triggers another countdown.We will have fifteen minutes from when that blows before the munitions drop via drones.Two bunker busters.So if ye weren’t out by then, yer not coming out at all.Leastways, not in one piece.Mebbe save one bullet in case ye get trapped down there alive and the gas doesn’t take ye down.Understand?”
